Colosseum

condition (record/cover): NM / E

Gatefold sleeve.

The Valentyne Suite takes up the whole of side two: almost seventeen minutes in three movements, January's Search, February's Valentyne and The Grass Is Always Greener, written by organist Dave Greenslade, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and drummer Jon Hiseman. It was Colosseum's second album, and in November 1969 it became the first LP released by Vertigo, the Philips imprint for the new British progressive bands.

Hiseman and Heckstall-Smith had both passed through the Graham Bond Organisation and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, so this jazz-rock still has a blues singer at the front: James Litherland handles guitar and lead vocals, and Tony Reeves plays bass and co-produced with Gerry Bron. Neil Ardley conducts on Butty's Blues and arranged the strings on Elegy, and Barbara Thompson adds flute to The Machine Demands A Sacrifice.