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String Driven Thing - The Machine That Cried Q Review - January 1997 *** Fondly remembered, if only by a select few, String Driven Thing were Scottish progressive rockers whose appeal rested largely on the scrapings of their classically trained violinist, Grahame Smith. Nothing jaunty or celtic, mind, his style was almost Mogadon morose. With leader Chris Adams supplying the suitably dark and troubled musings, their crowning moment came in 1973 with "The Machine that Cried". Charisma, their label at the time, considered it a little too grim for public consumption and forced a few key changes. This, though, is the band's own restored version and a fine, creepy period piece it is too, never more so than on Heartfeeder and the epic, if flawed, River of Sleep, which was cut to ribbons first time around. TheGuardian EVERY ROCK REVIEWER has a clutch of bands that he likes a little and he waits and waits until the day they might just produce something very good from their increasing professionalism and the bleak suffering that comes from being a barely successful rock band. It is all the more pleasing when a band one has almost written off as permanently second-rate, suddenly issues an album that is a classic. Where String Driven Thing has nurtured this brilliance, I know not. But it must be acknowledged that "The Machine That Cried" is a staggering achievement. For the first time, Grahame Smith's electric violin does not seem affected, but strokes and coaxes rhythms .... more information |
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String Driven Thing - Suicide (Live in Berlin) |
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String Driven Thing - In the Studio '72. Plus Live in Switzerland '73 and London '95 - more information The 17 tracks on this album [which include a recent return to the boards by the irrepressible Chris Adams on track 17] feature a welcome transfer to cd of the band's ground breaking 1972 album. Additionally there are also five fiery live cuts from Bern, Switzerland in 1973 and the welcome inclusion of the splendid but underrated single "Eddie" There's a contemporary American blues guitarist who uses the moniker "Mr Intensity", his notes are wholesome, his use of sustain is exquisite and his paying is delightful but his passion barely touches the lyrical and performing intensity of SDT's lyricist/vocalist and bandleader Chris Adams. From the opening driving rhythm track and spiralling violin of Grahame Smith on "Circus" to the burning double vocal lines of Chris and wife Pauline Adams on the closing coda of the Swiss set, you are left in no doubt as to the burning commitment of SDT's enduring man of words. This whole set is neatly closed by a live cut recorded 23 years on from the bands original leap to prominence. On "Pride" Chris offers evocative lyrics in an historical context, born of his sense of Scottish ancestry. He lightens the mood by parallelling the march of Bonnie Prince Charlie with the abject failure of Scotland's 1978 World Cup Campaign !! more information |
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String Driven Thing - The Early Years String Driven Thing was initially formed in Glasgow in 1967 by Chris Adams, his wife Pauline Adams, and old mate Jonathan Mannion. The following year, after a number of label suitors let them down, the band's debut album emerged, on the newly launched, and soon permanently grounded, Concord label. With promotion behind it, the self-titled album swiftly sank from sight, but SDT continued gigging, demo-ing, and expanding their lineup over the next few years, until 1972 when they finally inked a new deal, this time with Charisma. Their subsequent career has been disinterred in recent years, but the unearthing of SDT's previous recordings has preceded at a snail's pace until now. Across 26 tracks, Early Years (Mark Two) delves deep into the band's more distant past, and through their own tape collection, to bring fans this seminal set. The compilation kicks off with selections from the String Driven Thing album, following that up with demos recorded even earlier in 1967. From there on out, the album is an archival delight, trawling through demos recorded both in the studio and in the rehearsal room. Strawbs' fans are in for a thrill with the inclusion of a quartet Dave Cousins oversaw in 1969. Intriguingly, the last for the four, "Lie Back and Let It Happen," is immediately followed by a drastically different version of the song recorded the next year, and featuring the band's newest member, guitar picker Colin Wilson, who turns the number into a swampy R&B-laced masterpiece. Amazingly, the quality of the home demos are equal to, and at times surpass, their studio counterparts, as songs like 1972's exquisitely moody "Argyle Street" and the introspective, almost ethereal .... more information |
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Chris Adams - The Damage II "The Damage" is full of emotion, actually it's bursting with it and the sorrow and sadness soon takes a firm grip on you. This man has got a voice, one of those that creep under your skin, and despite the album preferring the mid-tempo or the slow songs and employing the fiddle and mandolin as well as the electric and acoustic guitars it is a Rock record. Because it's not a complex record, theres's no complicated textures, no frilly arrangements, it's as simple as it can be, as direct as possible, as Adams avoids shallowness, avoids false pathos, he's ernest and sincere. He is a believer. Believing in the power of Rock music, universal Rock music, free from fashions and designs, Rock music that can overcome the failures of love. He's healing himself as much as he can heal us. But don't expect the new drug, the prophet, the guru. Contrary, he is as vulnerable as we are. But he has got a hold ... it has got six strings and a couple of vocal chords. And he has got hope, not like the lost traveller in the desert has hope to find a waterhole. It is hope spiritual, something that has to do with vibrations, something that the so-called primitive cultures are still experiencing, something we, stupified by civilisation, numbed by the media, crippled by politics, have long lost. Chris Adams lyrics are easy to get, they've got to. He is singing about the basics of existence. About love. "The Damage" is telling us about the destructive power of love and negative emotions, of marks of weakness and marks of woe. It's also telling us about the strength of love and its ability to overcome. .... more information |
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Grahame Smith - Touch of Magic Now available Ozit CD121 - Grahame Smith - "A Touch of Magic" String Driven Thing, Van Der Graaf and Hamill, violinist Grahame Smith jumped ship from classical music to rock joining Charisma Records with String Driven Thing initially in the early 1970's. He trained with Sir John Barbirolli and played with the Halle Orchestra and the Scottish National Orchestra before janming with Chris Adams in a flat in Glasgow and joining SDT. After amazing stints with SDT on tour with Genesis and a move to Charisma stablemates Van der Graaf and Hamill, Grahame went off to Iceland to make three albums, this one "A Touch of Magic" is the first release of the three we are going to bring you, a must for all Van der Graaf, Hamill and String Driven Thing completists and fans of violin in rock music. Comes with full colour CD booklet with many pictures of Grahame Smith at his rock and roll best. Available now price £12 plus £1 postage inside the UK. Outside UK £3 postage. Item is in stock. .... more information |
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Grahame Smith - Arrival of Spring Now available Ozit CD123 - Grahame Smith - "Arrival of Spring" String Driven Thing, Van Der Graaf and Hamill, violinist Grahame Smith jumped ship from classical music to rock joining Charisma Records with String Driven Thing initially in the early 1970's. He trained with Sir John Barbirolli and played with the Halle Orchestra and the Scottish National Orchestra before janming with Chris Adams in a flat in Glasgow and joining SDT. After amazing stints with SDT on tour with Genesis and a move to Charisma stablemates Van der Graaf and Hamill, Grahame went off to Iceland to make three albums, this one "Arrival of Spring" is the second release of the three we are going to bring you, a must for all Van der Graaf, Hamill and String Driven Thing completists and fans of violin in rock music. Comes with full colour CD booklet with many pictures of Grahame Smith at his rock and roll best. Available now price £12 plus £1 postage inside the UK. Outside UK £3 postage. Item is in stock. .... more information more information |
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String Driven Thing - (Grahame Smith's Personal Tapes) |
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String Driven Thing - Please Mind Your Head (Grahame Smith's Personal Tapes) |
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String Driven Thing - Grahame Smith - KALINKA |
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