July - (Stereo)-1968 uk,Psychedelic Rock

July - (Stereo)-1968 uk,Psychedelic Rock

features the 12-track album in stereo. This mix is a bit of an anomaly as it was originally only available in the U.S. on the Epic label. Epic had re-EQ'd the mono mix to build a faux-stereo version that to this day sparks controversy among fans. It's been enhanced for this set to a much better result. The songs are often heavier than most psych-pop that made it to the charts, Indian-inspired, and full of reverb and tape trickery that would make more well-known bands jealous.

As Tom Newman remembers in the liner notes, "We used two four-track machines and bounced tracks from one to another, the same way that Sgt. Pepper was made. I was already making tape loops by then fifty-foot long going right 'round the room, so I got very interested in multi-track facilities. Tommy and the engineer [Mike Ross] were also into making their own Sgt. Pepper with freaky recordings techniques." Alan James recalled one such incident during the recording of "You Missed It All": "Mike Ross was...trying to show us how to get white noise by hanging a microphone out of the window. It was fairly early in the morning on a Sunday, and so the back streets were fairly quiet. Suddenly, though, someone got out of his car and slammed the door very loudly. Mike told us we'd have to take it out, but we just said, "No, leave it in." It's this sense of adventure - not to mention the quality of the songwriting - that makes it an enduring album that's worthy of all the accolades it's received in the decades since.

Many sets would stop there with the first album but, typical of the label, Grapefruit has gone several steps further to present proves there's more to the story than their eponymous effort.


July formed from the ashes of The Dreamers, one of many smaller groups that emerged during the British Invasion. After another British band, Freddie and The Dreamers, made it big, they rechristened themselves The Tomcats. The original Tomcats featured vocalist-guitarist Tom Newman, lead guitarist Peter Cook, bassist Alan James, and drummer Chris Jackson. A lineup change found them joining forces with members of another rock group, Second Thoughts. That group featured Jon Field on flute, keyboards, and percussion, Tony Duhig on guitar, Patrick Cambell-Lyons on vocals, and others. When Second Thoughts split, Duhig and Field joined up with Newman, James, and Jackson to form a new iteration of The Tomcats. This would later become the first lineup of July.

The Tomcats enjoyed some success in Spain with a blend of R&B and rock, but Newman and Cook eventually made their way back to London and wrote new material that embraced the psych-rock sound. They recorded demos and found a new label in Major-Minor and a new manager in Spencer Davis. July was recorded with the label's staff producer Tommy Scott and engineer Mike Ross overseeing. The 12-song effort was released in 1968 and the rest, as they say, was history.

July 1968 (Ste