Friendship Time - Friendship Time (Reissue) (1974/2007)

Friendship Time were a dual guitar, bass, drums and vocals progressive rock quintet who were in existence from 1970-1976. They worked for a number of years and never released anything, although due to a connection that their manager had, they actually were slated for a release on Virgin Records circa 1975/76! After that fell apart for no fault of their making, the band continued on for a while, but that's a pretty huge blow for any band to absorb, and they called it quits. Which is where the story ends until the drummer of Trettioåriga Kriget handed over a huge cache of 30 year old tapes to the folks at Mellotronen, which is where the story of the discovery of this album begins and the eventual piecing together of this release, along with a typically thorough Mellotronen package with lots of photos and the story of the band. I hear a lot of Yes influence, especially in the rhythm section, although with no keyboards and with a singer who doesn't sound anything like Jon Anderson, it's more a generalized resemblance. Is this the greatest lost treasure ever? No, it isn't, but it's generally very good and completely unknown until now and a really interesting lost story.
"This band recorded what should have been a release for Virgin Records in the year of 1975. Only a handful of acetates came out and the master reels disappeard and the band broke up. Here you might think that the story ends... but not! Dag Lundqvist from Trettioåriga Kriget phoned me 4 years ago about some strange tapes he had located in his attic. I borrowed them and almost died of happiness!!! The music totaly blew me away. What a mindblowing album!!! A band from 1975 sounding as a mix of Cathedral - Stained Glass Stories / Yes - Fragile / England - Garden Shed but most of all like Peter Bank´s Flash. I played the cassette that I copied from the reels for almost every visitor who came to the shop during this time period and everyone agreed that this must be the ultimate symphonic shock of the century. It took me 2 more years to locate the members and what can say more than I am very proud to present the complete album incl. 2 bonustracks from 1976. The CD is housed in a nice digi-pak with interesting stories about the band and the lost tapes. Around 30 pictures of the members from 1975 are included as well...Remember, they were only 18 years old when they recorded this album and it is exciting to hear a young band so maximal developed and with a mindblowing technical abillity that can make any musician give up their career. They live up to the great expectations I have given you.