Charles Ford Band, The - Charles Ford Band

Advantages: Perfectly competent punk.
Disadvantages: Rather patchy.

...Fans of latter-day Lemonheads will probably get a shock when listening to this for the first time. Recorded in the late-80s when the band were a four-piece (of whom Evan Dando is now the only remaining original member), it is mostly comprised of short, sharp punk/hardcore thrashes, as well as a Charles manson cover (You're Home Is Where You're Happy), a Kiss cover (Plaster Caster), and a live set and humerous interview on German radio. However, there are a few acoustic moments like Postcard which point the way to what the band eventually became. It's not a great album but neither is it totally hopeless. Worth checking out, if only out of curiousity.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Quite simply a beautiful album with a very relaxing feel
Disadvantages: The pace may not suit some

...After creating a bit of a name for himself and gaining a real hardcore fan base in a band called Easyworld, David Ford decided to go it alone. He split up the band in 2004 and seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. There were rumours of solo projects but no one was really sure if anything would come of it. Then in 2005, without any real fanfare or publicity he returned with a first solo album, releasing it on the quiet and relying on word of mouth for news of the album to spread. Slowly the fan base from Easyworld, myself included started to find out about the album and gradually Ford's popularity bean to grow. He comes from Eastbourne and his previous band were once dubbed the best thing to have come out of the sleepy seaside town. Well when the main competition for the title is Toploader I can't imagine that's too hard a title... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: The awful `Falling apart at the Seams` (present) era not covered
Disadvantages: No `Our House is Rockin` (last intermediate era) covered.

...People think of Marmalade and they think of a commercial, crap pop band that never made it. The assumption is flawed. These three C.D.`s cover all recordings made by the group from when they changed their unfortunately chosen, (no offence, it`s just they are so not gay), name from Dean Ford and the Gaylords to The Marmalade in 1966 to 1972. Unfortunately it just misses their best recording period, with Dean Ford at the helm, with a few singles and the excellent album `Our House is Rockin`, (1973), after which Dean left and Graham Knight, a first class bass, marmalised the good work by turning the group into a Rubettes like outfit. However, it requires picking through a few cheesy commercial tracks that made the band famous to find some real gems of phsycodelia, rock and ballad that lay in these CD`s. There is little doubt that some... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful