Artist: Various Artist Title: Harvest Festival Year Of Release: 1999 Label: EMI, Harvest Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Hard Rock, Folk Rock Quality: Flac (tracks+complete artwork) Total Time: 05:06:34

Tracklist: CD 1: 01. Edgar Broughton Band - Evil 02. Michael Chapman - It Didn't Work Out 03. Deep Purple - Wring That Neck 04. Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments - Morning Call 05. Roy Harper - Tom Tiddler's Ground 06. Third Ear Band - Stone Circle 07. Greatest Show On Earth - Real Cool World 08. Syd Barrett - Octopus 09. Panama Limited Jug Band - Round And Round 10. Barclay James Harvest - Mother Dear 11. Tea & Symphony - Maybe My Mind (With Egg) 12. Michael Chapman - Postcards Of Scarborough 13. Forest - A Glade Somewhere 14. Edgar Broughton Band - Out Demon's Out 15. Pete Brown & Piblokto - Living Life Backwards 16. Quatermass - Black Sheep Of The Family 17. Bakerloo - Big Bear Folly 18. The Pretty Things - The Good Mr Square 19. Kevin Ayers - The Lady Rachel 20. Shirley & Dolly Collins - A Foresaking-Our Captain Cried

CD 2: 01. Deep Purple - Speed King 02. Pete Brown And Piblokto - Things May Come And Things May Go But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever 03. Edgar Broughton Band - Apache Drop Out (Apache Intro Dropout Boogie) 04. Climax Chicago Blues Band - Everyday 05. Kevin Ayers - Butterfly Dance 06. Barclay James Harvest - Mocking Bird 07. Michael Chapman - Kodak Ghosts 08. The Move - The Words Of Aaron 09. Deep Purple - Fireball 10. Electric Light Orchestra - 10538 Overdrive 11. Ron Geesin & Roger Waters - Breathe 12. Barclay James Harvest - Medicine Man 13. Kevin Ayers And The Whole World - Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes 14. Michael Chapman - Fennario 15. Roy Harper - The Same Old Rock 16. Edgar Broughton Band - Hotel Room 17. Syd Barrett - Evervescing Elephant 18. Kevin Ayers - Song From The Bottom Of A Well

CD 3: 01. Pink Floyd - Money 02. Roy Harper - South Africa 03. Kevin Ayers - Interview/International Anthem 04. Babe Ruth - The Mexican 05. The Move - Do Ya 06. Southern Comfort - Something Said 07. Be-Bop Deluxe - Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape 08. Roy Wood - Dear Elaine 09. Kevin Ayers - Take Me To Tahiti 10. Edgar Broughton Band - Things On My Mind 11. Babe Ruth - Hombre De La Guitarre 12. Roy Harper - Another Day (Live) 13. Electric Light Orchestra - Roll Over Beethoven 14. Be-Bop Deluxe - Maid In Heaven 15. Climax Chicago - You Make Me Sick 16. Wizzard - Ball Park Incident 17. Electric Light Orchestra - Showdown 18. Roy Harper - I'll See You Again

CD 4: 01. The Albion Band - Poor Old House 02. Martin Carthy - Old Hog Or None 03. The Albion Dance Band - Hopping Down In Kent 04. The Albion Dance Band - Postmans Knock 05. Gryphon - Spring Song 06. Unicorn - Have You Ever Seen The Rain 07. Be-Bop Deluxe - Fair Exchange 08. Kevin Ayers - Ballad Of A Salesman Who Sold Himself 09. Be-Bop Deluxe - Electrical Language 10. David Gilmour - Short And Sweet 11. Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease 12. The Saints - Erotic Neurotic 13. Wire - Reuters 14. The Saints - (This) Perfect Day 15. The Shirts - Lonely Android 16. The Banned - Little Girl 17. Wire - I Am The Fly 18. The Saints - Swing For The Crime 19. Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Revolt Into Style 20. Wire - A Touching Display

CD 5: 01. Deep Purple - Black Night 02. Pete Brown & Piblokto - Flying Hero Sandwich 03. The Move - California Man 04. Greatest Show On Earth - Magic Woman Touch 05. Kevin Ayers - Caribbean Moon 06. Trinidad Oil Company - The Calendar Song 07. Matumbi - Rock (Part 1) 08. Wire - I Should Have Known Better 09. Ivor Cutler - Life In A Scotch Sitting Room Vol 2 (Excerpt) 10. Vivian Stanshall And Kilgarron - The Young Ones 11. Spontaneous Combustion - Sabre Dance 12. Be-Bop Deluxe - Ships In The Night 13. Bombadil - Breathless 14. Marshall Hain - Dancing In The City 15. Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Radar In My Heart 16. Strapps - Child Of The City 17. Deep Purple - Hallelujah 18. Babe Ruth - Wells Fargo 19. Professor Longhair - Mess Around 20. Syd Barrett - Golden Hair 21. Edgar Broughton Band - Up Yours

Harvest Festival is a genuinely comprehensive and thorough look at the one British major label venture into psychedelia and progressive rock that actually worked, commercially and artistically; it's a panoramic journey though a major part of British rock as it developed over a period of just under a decade. Over the five CDs and 119 songs, more than two dozen acts are featured, ranging from purely English phenomena like Michael Chapman, Quatermass, and Pete Brown to mega-arena acts like Pink Floyd, and the set comes complete with a built-in 120-page book that would be worth 35 dollars by itself. Beginning with the Edgar Broughton Band's Jimi Hendrix meets the Crazy World of Arthur Brown track "Evil," the programming goes a long way to explaining why Harvest worked while other attempts at forming psychedelic and progressive labels in England failed -- in contrast to the slick, commercial psychedelic ventures at rival Deram Records, Harvest always gave its artists the freedom to be louder (or softer) than the norm, and to be bold in their expressions. Moreover, the diversity of form was astonishing, from the acoustic instrumental chamber music rock of the Third Ear Band, to the lively acoustic psychedelia of Syd Barrett and Kevin Ayers, to the high-energy attack of Deep Purple, Quatermass, and Bakerloo -- it all sounds amazingly strong, well crafted, and exciting. Harvest had room for jugband music, traditional acoustic folk, progressive folk-rock, spoken word, and, full-circle commercially from Harvest's late-60's origins, psychedelic Beatles-influenced commercial rock by way of ELO. Harvest also grew to embrace sounds that would have been inconceivable for EMI to have signed when they started, including Be-Bop Deluxe (versions 1 and 2), Bill Nelson's Red Noise, the reggae outfit Matumbi, the Shirts with Annie Golden, and the punk band Wire. It's all fascinating stuff, told in great detail in the accompanying book, but ultimately, a set like this stands or falls on the music. The archivists have dug deeply enough to find material that makes Barrett's output look tame and conventional, specifically Tea & Symphony, whose "Maybe My Mind (With Egg)" is a truly dissonant and strange journey into thought processes bent by the prism of drugs and meditation. Not everything on this set will be to everyone's liking, but anyone inclined to enjoy Pink Floyd or Syd Barrett's solo stuff will be entranced by most of the content. The sound has been treated first-class, with new state-of-the-art 1999 remasterings. The other measure of success of this box is that there's a huge amount of material here that leaves the listener wanting more from a lot of the acts featured. (AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder)

Anyone looking to explore the early years of progressive music need look no farther then this fine 5CD box set. Representing the years 1969-1976 this set is one of the most well put together sets attempted by a major label to put into perspective it's own history, and it's evolving influence on future music, popular and otherwise