Rainbow Ffolly - Spectromorphic Iridescence: The Complete Ffolly (2019)

Pretty much every record released during the psychedelic era by EMI’s various satellite labels was honed and buffed to opaque perfection by the studio technocrats who were working for the company.

That wasn’t the case, though, with Sallies Fforth, which appeared on the Parlophone label at the beginning of May 1968. Recorded by a quartet of ex-art students from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Sallies Fforth was a collection of quirky demo recordings that, without the band’s knowledge, found its way to the self-styled “greatest recording organisation in the world”. Fortunately the album transcended its unfinished, unvarnished nature by dint of a winning sense of humour, some charming harmonies and, most of all, a bunch of excellent, highly diverse songs.

More than half-a-century later, Sallies Fforth is now one of the most valuable artefacts of the British psychedelic era, original copies having sold on several occasions for in excess of a thousand pounds.

Although there have been previous reissues of the album, Spectromorphic Iridescence represents the Ffolly motherlode. Mono and stereo versions of the original album (once described by Record Collector magazine as “a psychedelic miasma of English pop whimsy, Beatles-inspired diversity and cracking good tunes”) are joined by a scarce non-LP B-side, a swathe of previously unheard late Sixties home and studio demos, local radio station jingles and recordings as well as a revamped, extended version of the band’s hitherto vinyl-only 2016 reunion album Ffollow Up.

Housed in a clamshell box this lavish 3-CD package is the final word on the activities of a quartet of English eccentrics who viewed psychedelia through a mocking, slightly surrealist art school prism rather than as unblinking zealots.

Tracklist
Disc 1 (52:10)
1. She's Alright (03:43)
2. I'm So Happy (02:34)
3. Montgolfier '67 (02:37)
4. Drive My Car (02:15)
5. Goodbye (03:42)
6. Hey You (02:20)
7. Sun Sing (04:00)
8. Sun And Sand (03:33)
9. Labour Exchange (02:26)
10. They'm (01:55)
11. No (03:11)
12. Sighing Game (02:49)
13. Come On Go (03:03)
14. Drive My Car (Single Mix) (02:18)
15. Go Girl (B-Side) (02:39)
16. Sun Sing (Early Demo) (03:31)
17. Come On Go (Early Demo) (02:09)
18. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (03:25)

Disc 2 (01:15:07)
1. She's Alright (03:44)
2. I'm So Happy (02:34)
3. Montgolfier '67 (02:38)
4. Drive My Car (02:16)
5. Goodbye (03:44)
6. Hey You (02:22)
7. Sun Sing (04:05)
8. Sun And Sand (03:33)
9. Labour Exchange (02:26)
10. They'm (01:56)
11. No (03:13)
12. Sighing Game (02:51)
13. Come On Go (03:05)
14. Hospital Radio Jingle #1 (00:17)
15. Sunshine Of Your Love (04:01)
16. Hospital Radio Jingle #2 (00:14)
17. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (03:11)
18. Hospital Radio Jingle #3 (00:07)
19. Gimme Little Sign (02:41)
20. Hospital Radio Jingle #4 (00:09)
21. I Can't Let Maggie Go (03:00)
22. Hospital Radio Jingle #5 (00:06)
23. Sabrosa (02:06)
24. Hospital Radio Jingle #6 (00:08)
25. The Bells Of Rhymney (03:28)
26. Hospital Radio Jingle #7 (00:16)
27. Bonita (03:14)
28. Hospital Radio Jingle #8 (00:15)
29. I Can Hear The Grass Grow (02:59)
30. Hospital Radio Jingle #9 (00:07)
31. Something Else (01:56)
32. Hospital Radio Jingle #10 (00:30)
33. Hold Me Tight (02:47)
34. Hospital Radio Jingle #11 (00:10)
35. I'm So Happy [Part] (01:07)
36. Hospital Radio Jingle #12 (00:17)
37. She's Alright (02:39)
38. Hospital Radio Jingle #13 (00:55)

Disc 3 (58:25)
1. Single Cell Amoeba (00:52)
2. Postcard (03:10)
3. My Love Has Gone (05:15)
4. White Swan (03:27)
5. Cars (03:35)
6. Sky Angels (06:46)
7. Noah (04:13)
8. Slow Down Zone (03:50)
9. Countdown (03:17)
10. Shoes (03:14)
11. Is It Over (04:25)
12. Wot Do They Know? (02:36)
13. Crazy Woman (01:24)
14. All We Have Left (04:14)
15. Parcel Of Pigs (01:04)
16. Nonesuch Sweetness (03:39)
17. Tour De Fforce (02:41)
18. Bathers Of The Lost Ark (00:43)