I'm A Freak Baby is a 48-track journey through the 'British Heavy Psych & Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72' and how better for the triple set of the sensational to get underway than with one MK's own?
Del Bromham's Stray have been tasked to start the four-hours long set, which includes music from pioneering acts like The Yardbirds and The Move, together with bands who travelled far beyond their blues boom roots, like Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack.
Far from being a cheap exercise in money-making, I'm A Freak Baby is a little gem that will stand-out in your collection musically, and for its clambox delivery, which boasts a lavishly illustrated 36 page booklet. It's a bit nice!
It's the most comprehensive and wide-ranging anthology to date of the music 'that acted as a signpost to the subsequent emergence of British punk and heavy metal,' promise those nice folks at Cherry Red records, who are responsible for putting this release your way.
Of course, while Bromham has long-since made Milton Keynes his home, he started Stray as a kid in Shepherd's Bush.
The youngsters were, he recalls in that accompanying booklet 'little fifteen-year-old mods who idolised The Small Faces.'
Stray belonged to the 'critically acclaimed, criminally underrated' bracket at the time.
“It was frustrating,” Del admits, “We just had to sit around and watch as all these bands we'd been playing with on an equal footing – Deep Purple, Free, Yes – went on to become stars.”
All in Your Mind was later covered by Iron Maiden, who recorded the track as the B-side to their No.3 single Holy Smoke.
> I'm A Freak Baby was released on Friday, July 29 through Cherry Red Records division Grapefruit Records www.cherryred.co.uk
