When this album came up for a relisten, I had forgotten about the personal history I had with former associates of the band. At the bottom of this post, I'll include some of their comments.
As for the music, it's instrumental progressive rock spread across 5 lengthy tracks. Not much more to say really, as the melodies are well written, and the musicianship is nice. Flute and guitar are the primary instruments with keyboards, bass, and drums rounding out the group. There's some sparse saxophone as well.
The downside here is the recording quality - or at least what the general public is subjugated to. I've heard two versions of the album to date, but never the original (who has?). It's pretty rough sounding, and there's quite a bit of loss. It sounds more like a one mic cassette tape demo than a finished product. Hard to know if the Deroy version is truly that bad. Obviously the masters have never turned up.
Ownership: LP: 2006 Shadoks (Germany). Single sleeve purchased new online upon release. Replaced the Ammonite CD-R. A complete brick of a reissue. A made-up cover (essentially a blowup of one section of a Bosch painting) with absolutely no data. And I spoke of the sound quality above. But it's miles better than the CD-R on Ammonite, which is unlistenable and should have never been sold to the general public (sucker here bought it new when it came out). But hey, the vinyl weighs a ton - that's all that matters right? There were some shady Shadoks albums released during this period of the label, some declared outright bootlegs on Discogs. I'm not sure anyone in the band cared about this one anyway (they probably didn't see a dime for it on the original either). I'm keeping it due to the personal connection, but otherwise I'd probably move it along. Reissued on CD by Seelie Court in 2021.
I first heard from bassist David Shackley in 2005 who had promised me a a digitized version from his copy. He was also in the process of moving out of England, and it never happened unfortunately. He did, however, provide a brief history of the band: "We were all still at school when we did this ! The line up was Ian Wilson Flute & vocals, (who subsequently went on to manage the Alarm), Quentin Bryer Sax (working for Reuters in Holland) Mike Avery keys (MD of Hamburg opera) John Grimaldi (who went on to join Flux, Argent & his own bands Casual Atheletes & Cheapflights he sadly died of MS in 1983) Mark Pasterfied Drums (a graphic designer in Cornwall) and me on bass who went onto Flux with John & then umpteen cabaret & show bands. I still play as a semi pro in a pub band Deaf Shepherd !"
Then in 2013, the CDRWL heard from Cheapflights manager Peter Cloclough: "We managed John Grimaldi, and Cheap Flights in the 70s. I have started a archive of Johns music, as it doesn't deserve to get lost to future generations... he was a true innovator. It can be found here. These are free to listen/download... its all for posterity. There are around 60 tracks in all, and as you will see it shows the eclectic nature of John and his music, as it covers all the popular genres of the 70s. Pics are there too. Most of this has come via tape, and from various sources, and we are slowly trying to clean up what we have (the technology exists). Thought you may be interested. I have downloaded some MP3 versions of Motiffe, and am going to try a simple clean up to see what happens. However, if you have a good version, and would consider donating, it would be absolutely amazing (I kid you not). For your information, as you know John sadly died in 1983 of MS. What I think you don't know is Mark Pasterfield, who played drums in Motiffe, also joined him in Cheap Flights in 1977 (recordings on soundcloud), but also really devastatingly died of a thrombosis in 1978/9. "
This was followed shortly thereafter by "For 30 years we thought Mark Pasterfield was dead....shocking news...he isn't !!!! Oops." Rumors of his demise were - apparently - greatly exaggerated. lol.
I did validate that the link is still up and running. There is a lot of music there to check out if interested.
And that was it. Still never heard a clean copy of the original.
Originally reviewed for the CDRWL: Apr 11, 2010 (and rewritten on a recent listen, with anecdotes included)
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