Tempest - Under The Blossom: The Anthology (2005)

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Tempest - Under The Blossom: The Anthology (2005)

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Though short-lived, Tempest left an interesting legacy of blues-rock that was tinged with psychedelic influences and a bit of foreshadowing the emergence of glam in the U.K. This two-disc set takes the full recordings of Tempest's lone two releases and puts them on one disc. Hard-rocking as any of their peers, Tempest also brought a jazzier side to their sound, no doubt in part to Allan Holdsworth's involvement. The second disc contains two previously unreleased tunes and the much in-demand BBC sessions that have been traded with great frequency (and of much lower quality) by collectors.

~ cduniverse

This is a most welcome release, not so much for the two studio recordings previous issued both as separates and paired as twoforone CDs (which have been covered here before), but rather that which has gained semi-legendary status, the BBC Radio One In Concert live recording. 'Legendary' from the fact of the dodgy nth generation cassette copies of the recording passed around containing a fuzz of sound, built up some almighty reputation for the gig. Through the fuzz you could make out both Allan Holdsworth (in the same year he had recorded a second album as part of Ian Carr's 'Belladonna') and the late Ollie Hassell (formerly of Timebox, Patto and subsequently part of the Rutles OST sessions).
The story goes: unannounced Hassell dropped in on the rehearsals for Tempest's BBC recording, and was invited to sit in - 36 hours later he had hd come to know the band's repertoise so well, he was being recorded with the rest of Tempest. (But alas not so long later, Allan Holdsworth departed - with hindsight not that surprising). Now we have good audio clarity of that session, so we hear the long work outs of material from the first studio album. For example the live version of 'Brothers' is a long guitar duel, and an extreme rarity for Holdsworth, this duo is recorded in real time. Check elsewhere and Holdsworth overdubs any duos (e.g. 'Truth In Shredding' with Frank Gambale), or normally doesn't do them. But here Hassell and Holdsworth are on fire - the modernday Holdsworth needs to be reminded that when he is forced to take risks within seconds, complimenting the playing of a fellow musician, it work superbly well!

And other rarity elsewhere on this double set, Holdsworth plays violin, and you'll have to wait to a 1979 recording with Gordon Beck before this was to happen again.

~ Dick Heath, Progarchives

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Tempest - Under The Blossom: The Anthology (2005)

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Tempest Biography

After the split of Colosseum in October 1971 Jon Hiseman formed Tempest in the summer of 1972. Tempest lasted for two years until June 1974.

Tempest Mark 1 (June 1972 to June 1973) consisted of

Jon Hiseman: drums
Mark Clarke: bass
Paul Williams: vocals
Allan Holdsworth: guitar
Hiseman and Clarke had, of course, played together in Colosseum.

Paul Williams had played bass with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band (on two Columbia - that's EMI's Columbia - LPs It Should've Been Me and Zoot! Live At Klooks Kleek) and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (on parts of the live A Diary Of A Band and the single Suspicions). He came more to the attention of the record buying public as the singer of Juicy Lucy on their second LP Lie Back And Enjoy It (Vertigo) and the next two Get A Whiff Of This and Pieces.

Allan Holdsworth played on Nucleus' album Belladonna before his time with Tempest, but other than that I have no more information; maybe later…

The band made one album Tempest (Bronze ILPS 9220). It was recorded at Air London Recording Studios in November 1972 and produced by Jon Hiseman. The album was released in January 1973.

I enjoy the first Tempest album quite a lot. The music continues where Colosseum ended and has a lot of similarities with Jack Bruce's work especially on Dark House. This is, I believe, thanks to Hiseman's composing. The music is a bit more rock oriented than Colosseum was. The rhythm section Clarke & Hiseman provides a solid ground for the soloists to work on.

Paul Williams left in June 1973, and his later adventures includes playing the music of blues legend Robert Johnson. He was followed a month later by Holdsworth, who joined Soft Machine, and later Gong, UK, Jean-Luc Pontyand also played with drummer John Stevens among other things.

Tempest Mark 2 (June 1973 to June 1974) consisted of

Jon Hiseman: drums
Mark Clarke: bass
Ollie Halsall: guitar, keyboards, vocals
Ollie Halsall had joined on guitar, keyboards and vocals. Halsall had worked with Timebox which developed into Patto, and also recorded with Scaffold and Brian Eno.

The band's music has been claimed to be more jazz influenced on the second album Living In Fear (Bronze ILPS 9267). For me at least the music is not so different from Tempest, though it has clearly moved a step away from Colosseum. Like the first it was recorded at Air London in October and November 1973.

The second album is dominated by Halsall's vocals and guitar. The rhythm section continues as on the first album to build complex rhythms for Halsall to use as a trampolene for his improvisations. Another fine album.

The band was popular on the continent and toured there a lot. I think they came to Finland as well, but in those days I lived too far from the concert venues of Helsinki. After the split Hiseman organised a new Colosseum II in 1975, Clarke went to play with Natural Gas, Uriah Heep, Mountain and Rainbow. Halsall went on to play with Kevin Ayers, Boxer and John Otway.

There is at least one BBC concert recording of the band, which hopefully is some day released on CD. PLEASE? It exists on bootleg.

~ Tempest official website

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Tempest - Under The Blossom: The Anthology (2005)

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