Medicine Head: Fiddlers Anthology

Even if you don’t remember the name Medicine Head, older music fans will know their big hit from 1973, the arithmetically challenged “One and One is One”. It was written by the band’s John Fiddler, hence the first part of the title of the album.
The album was recorded before a selected audience in a film studio in west London in the summer of 2003, the band being Fiddler on acoustic guitar (I assume) and vocals and his mate Darrell Bath (electric guitar). Fiddler playing tracks written by him, and played by Medicine Head, British Lions (remnants of Mott the Hoople, toured with Status Quo and AC/DC) and Box of Frogs (previously the Yardbirds, Rory Gallagher, Steve Hackett, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all chipped in) – hence “anthology”.
It is a very good album. Fiddler – who was born in Stafford and is 75 – still has a good singing voice, though he sounds older when he talks (and laughs, there’s a fair number of laughs between songs).
It’s just a couple of guys on guitar but Fiddler has been doing this 58 years and has played with the best, so it’s a full and strong sound. If I was playing a live album by an old dude strumming along to obscure 70s tracks, I’d probably get bored and certainly not stick it on repeat. It possibly helps that the songs were written for a band first rather than an acoustic duo. It also brings back happy memories of the days when bands like Supertramp or McGuinness Flint were cool.
Fun facts: John Lennon persuaded John Peel to sign Medicine Head to his Dandelion Records; Medicine Head’s third album was “Dark Side of the Moon”, but it sold so few copies that Pink Floyd were able to ditch their Plan B of calling their next album “Eclipse” and revert to the first choice.
This is out on Singsong Music, and the first review from them I’ve actually listened to, so expect more golden oldies; they seem to help bands without any deal to get their music out, and this was apparently first released on Cherry Red.
See medicinehead.rocks/store
JMC