Hard Meat - The Unreleased Album (2022)

In the late 1960s with the first flowering of the progressive rock and heavy rock movements, bands of both disciplines – and many straddling the two – began sprouting like mushrooms, some flourishing for decades and others a mere fleeting presence in rock’s back pages. One of the latter examples were the excellent Hard Meat, a progressive rock trio who recorded an unissued album intended for release on Island Records in 1969 and released two albums in 1970 for Warner Brothers.

Featuring brothers Mick Dolan (guitars, vocals), Steve Dolan (bass, vocals) and Mick Carless (drums), Hard Meat came together in late 1968 and came to the attention of producer Sandy Roberton who in turn brought the band to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. The band issued a single ‘Rain’ (an excellent cover of The Beatles’ classic song) b/w ‘Burning Up Years’ on the label and subsequently recorded an album intended for release on Island. However, for various reasons, the band were dropped from Island’s roster and the excellent recordings failed to gain a release. In 1970 Hard Meat signed with the UK division of Warner Brothers and released their self-titled debut album soon after.
The album and the band’s live performances in the UK and the USA (where they opened for acts such as The Flying Burrito Brothers) attracted enough critical praise and attention for a follow up album, the excellent ‘Through A Window’ to be released by Warner at the end of 1970.
However, by the beginning of 1971 the band broke up leaving a legacy of two fine, but sadly commercially unsuccessful albums which would later surface on CD many years later as poor- quality bootlegs as the band’s music was gradually rediscovered.

Tracklist
01 - Hard Meat - Rain (2022 Remaster) (3:50)
02 - Hard Meat - Most Likely You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine (1969 Version) (5:40)
03 - Hard Meat - Liquid Boats (3:04)
04 - Hard Meat - Walking Down Up Street (3:12)
05 - Hard Meat - Erection (6:06)
06 - Hard Meat - Strange Fruit (2:59)
07 - Hard Meat - Run Shaker Life (1969 Version) (4:34)
08 - Hard Meat - Burning Up Years (2022 Remaster) (6:20)
09 - Hard Meat - Don't Chase Your Tail (3:56)