The ARTWOODS – Art Wood, Derek Griffiths, Malcolm Pool, Keef Hartley and future Deep Purple organist Jon Lord – recorded for Decca, Parlophone and Fontana from 1964 to 1967 and their Decca back catalogue in particular has been well documented by retrospective re-issues and compilations. The thirteen canvasses in ‘Art’s Gallery’ however are sourced completely from three live radio sessions that the ARTWOODS recorded for the BBC during 1965 and early 1966 and were not known to still exist. The British Broadcasting Corporation saved a number of tracks the group played for the Beeb and these have since appeared on the Cherry Red ‘Steady Getting It’ set, the rest of the ARTWOODS’ radiophonic output however was not kept by the BBC with the tapes being erased or junked. Thanks to diligent home taping by a particularly keen fan at the time, the ARTWOODS’ music for radio on ‘Art’s Gallery’ can again be heard in public for the first time in over fifty years. And besides welcome live takes of familiar favourites such as ‘Oh My Love’, ‘She Knows What To Do’ and ‘Don’t Cry No More’, there’s a spoil of cool numbers that the band never committed to disc. There’s the upbeat jazz of ‘That Healin’ Feelin’ and ‘Smack Dab In The Middle’, the slow burning blues of ‘How Long, How Long Blues’ and ‘Black Mountain Blues’, the soulful grooves of ‘Out Of Sight’ and ‘I Got A Woman’ and the pure mod suave of ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ (and more!).
