A lot of folks thought that original Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams was a bit daft when he left that band after its 1968 debut album This Was to form a new band. Dissatisfied by the musical direction that Tull was veering towards, Abrahams joined up with multi-instrumentalist Jack Lancaster (sax, flute, violin), bassist Andy Pyle, and drummer Ron Berg (later replaced by former Tull bandmate Clive Bunker) to form the British blues-rock outfit Blodwyn Pig.
The band's lifespan was short indeed, comprised of a pair of original albums over two years, two tours of the U.S., and several festival appearances opening for artists like the Who, Procol Harum, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd and others. The band's critically-acclaimed 1969 album Ahead Rings Out was a forward-thinking mix of blues and rock with jazz-fusion undertones while the following year's Getting To This adhered to a similar musical blueprint. Blodwyn Pig went through several fits and starts throughout the 1970s before breaking up, with Abrahams putting together an all new band for 1993's Lies album. The band has recorded sporadically ever since, sometimes under the guise of Abrahams' solo albums, to the point that it's hard to tell the difference between Blodwyn Pig and Mick Abrahams these days. The band may have become a mere footnote in rock 'n' roll history, a proverbial cult band of interest only to blues-rock fanatics and Anglophiles if not for the Internet, where obscurity often finds the respect it originally deserved.
The last couple of years have seen a steady flow of Abrahams and Blodwyn Pig archival releases, everything from studio outtakes to live shows, often of dubious provenance. With the recent release of Pigthology – a collection of rare unreleased tracks produced by Abrahams and Lancaster – fans finally have a band-curated archival album, made available by the good folks at Gonzo Multimedia.
Pigthology features twelve tracks, including rare studio versions of such longtime fan favorites as "Dear Jill," "See My Way," and "Drive Me." Pigthology also includes tracks from the band's 1970 appearance on John Peel's BBC show ("Baby Girl," "Same Old Story") and live performances from the Marquee Club in Soho in 1969 ("The Change Song") and the Luton Town Hall in 1973 ("Cosmogrification"), among other tracks.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
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