Blodwyn Pig came about when Mick Abrahams, frustrated at Ian Anderson‘s belief Jethro Tull were exclusively his band, plus Anderson’s decision to move away from the blues of debut album This Was, left Tull to form his own band. The Pig played a form of vintage British bluesy rock, with the sax playing of Jack Lancaster adding a touch of jazz to the mix, and for a brief period the Pig were a popular live draw on what was then referred to as the ‘underground’ circuit. However, internal dissension led to Abrahams leaving his own band in autumn 1970, being replaced by Peter Banks (ex-Yes) but they split soon after. Regrouping in 1974 they stayed together long enough to record sessions for John Peel and a BBC In Concert before finally splitting.
The Recordings 1969-74 is a worthwhile collection for anyone interested in the blues boom of the period, featuring remastered Pig studio albums, Ahead Rings Out and Getting To This, both with bonus tracks, plus a couple of rare singles and tracks from a 1974 In Concert performance. The two studio albums include lots of exciting music, and are fine examples of the musical diversity many bands of the time were attempting to incorporate into their music. Jack Lancaster could play clarinet and sax simultaneously, giving the band a wider sonic edge, while Andy Pyle and Ron Berg were an extremely tight rhythm section.
Ahead Rings Out (ironically released on the same day as Jethro Tull‘s Stand Up) features a mix of styles, with proto hard rock in the form of ‘Ain’t Ya Comin’ Home Babe’, rocking blues like opener ‘It’s Only Love’, slower bluesy numbers like ‘Up And Coming’ and the gorgeous slide guitar blues of ‘Dear Jill’. Lancaster shows his jazzy credentials on ‘The Modern Alchemist’, which features fine playing from all in the band, and there’s a Pig classic in pulsating rocker ‘Sing Me A Song That I Know’. The bonus tracks include a couple of alternate versions of ‘Change Song’ and ‘It’s Only Love’, plus the curiosity that is ‘McGregor Muckabou’.
Getting To This is another eclectic mix of styles, though slightly more all over the place than the previous album, further demonstrating Blodwyn Pig were far more than Jethro Tull clones. Jack Lancaster‘s ‘San Francisco Sketches’ shows a little known arty side of the Pig, while ‘Drive Me’ is a jazzy funky number. ‘Toys’ and ‘Long Bomb Blues’ are solo Mick Abrahams pieces, after which he gets to stretch out on ‘The Squirreling Must Go On’, a sort of follow up to ‘Cat’s Squirrel’. There are also Pig classics with the rocky pair of ‘Send Your Sons To Die’ and ‘See My Way’. Bonus tracks include the single ‘Same Old Story’, which was backed with a rocked up version of Larry Williams‘ 1958 classic, ‘Slow Down’.
There’s a third disc of songs taken from BBC Radio 1’s Sounds of the Seventies and In Concert between 1969 and 1974. The band had reformed again in 1974 though without Abrahams, his place taken by Peter Banks (ex-Yes) and Barry Jenkins, who’d played in Jack Lancaster‘s previous band. They perform several tracks from their two studio albums, including ‘The Modern Alchemist’, ‘Ain’t Ya Comin’ Home Babe’ and ‘See My Way’, plus several pieces the band didn’t release on album, including a credible version of Dave Dudley‘s country classic ‘Six Days On The Road’, plus Abrahams’ account of being a trucker in ‘Dunstable Truck Driving Man’, with the guitar in ‘Cosmografication’ showing Abrahams can do more than just play the blues. However, without him, the Pig gradually lost direction, which shows on tracks like ‘Baby Girl’, ‘I Know’ and ‘Leaving Song’, all of which are decent tunes but lacking the spark Abrahams brought to the band.
In their heyday, Blodwyn Pig were very likely one of the most underrated bands of the time. It was their misfortune to be around when bands like Steamhammer, Groundhogs, Chicken Shack (featuring a very young Christine McVie) and others were also active, and while few bands had a front line of guitar and sax, this occasionally gave them a jazzy edge which negated their appeal to blues fans. But nonetheless, there’s some extremely fine music on this set and it’s a timely reminder of just how good Blodwyn Pig were.
(NB: Sadly, Mick Abrahams died in December 2025 before the release of this set.)
