Hello Everyone: Popsike Sparks From Denmark Street (CD)

UK collection. Between 1968 and 1970, some of the finest, most obscure British psychedelic pop singles of the era escaped on the Spark label, the newly-inaugurated recording arm of long-established publishers Southern Music. Recorded in the basement studio of the company's Denmark Street premises, these tracks often featured the same cabal of musicians and songwriters, leading to a homogenous in-house style that perfectly encapsulates the late 1960s British pop-psych studio sound. The best of Spark's impressive roster is now presented here on CD with Hello Everyone: Popsike Sparks from Denmark Street 1968-70, which assembles highly-prized, highly-priced 45s from pre-Rare Bird band Fruit Machine, Gene Latter, post-Sorrows outfit the Eggy, the New Generation (subsequently to become the Sutherland Brothers), the Dennis Wheatley-inspired Icarus and both sides of the magnificent and astonishingly rare single by Sir Ching I (only one stock copy known to exist). Also included are exquisite Brit popsike singles from Timothy Blue, Just William, both sides of the superb John Carter/Russ Alquist collaboration 'The Laughing Man'/'Midsummer Dreaming' and two sensational offerings from Eartha Kitt during her brief and unlikely immersion in late Sixties hippy chick chic. Crammed with vintage three-minute pop tunes, and with a lavish 16-page booklet that features rare photos, quotes and the full story behind the label, Hello Everyone is simply an essential purchase for admirers of the British psychedelic pop genre.