Skip Bifferty - BBC Sessions (1967-1969)

I recently posted an album of stray tracks by the British psychedelic band Skip Bifferty. That now clears the way for me to post this, an album of the band's BBC sessions.

Skip Bifferty (which, by the way, is not the name of anyone in the band) only released one album in 1968, also called "Skip Bifferty," before breaking up in 1969. But it turns out they had lots of additional quality songs. I posted an entire stray tracks album of them, as mentioned above. However, that didn't include any songs from their BBC studio sessions, and they played many original songs for the BBC that it seems they never recorded in the studio.

These are all the songs that appear to be exclusive to this BBC album: "I Don’t Understand It," "In the Morning," "Once," "The Hobbit," "Aged Aged Man," "Higher than the Clouds," "The Lion and the Unicorn," and "Disappointing Day." On top of that, in 1969, after changing a couple of band members, the band was renamed "Griffin" and did two more songs only at the BBC: "Shine" and "What a Day It's Been." That's ten songs! And that doesn't even include a version of the Animals hit "Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood" which only has bonus track status here due to lesser sound quality.

Speaking of sound quality, all but one of the Griffin songs here were released on the archival compilation album "The Story of Skip Bifferty." However, many of these had subpar sound. Luckily, four of the worst sounding ones were later released on an obscure various artists compilation of rare BBC material called "Shapes and Sounds, Volume 3." So I used those versions. Also, an unreleased version of the one Griffin BBC performance sounded much better than the version on the "Story" compilation, so I used that. 

In addition to all that, I edited most of the songs (the ones with "[Edit]" in their titles). In some of those cases, the problem was BBC DJs talking over the music. I fixed that with the audio editing program X-Minus, wiping out the talking while keeping the underlying music. But in other cases, the lead vocals were mixed too low. X-Minus took care of that too. Some songs had both of those problems.

Between the alternate versions I used for many of these songs, and the edits I made, I believe these songs sound much better than they did on the "Story" compilation.

I've read that in late 1968, the band worked on songs for their second studio album, which was going to be called "Skiptomania." But their record company was disappointed with the sales of their first album and decided not to extend their contract. Furthermore, the band members had clashes with their assigned producer. This is why, in 1969, they broke up and tried to start over with a new name. It also explains why they had so many songs that never made it to album, but only these BBC sessions.

I don't know what songs were supposed to go on "Skiptomania." But between the unique songs here and the stray tracks album I already posted, there would have been enough for a solid double album!

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 On Love [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
02 Yours for at Least 24 (Skip Bifferty)
03 Money Man [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
04 I Don't Understand It [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
05 When She Comes to Stay [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
06 In the Morning [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
07 Follow the Path of the Stars [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
08 Once [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
09 Man in Black [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
11 The Hobbit [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)
12 Aged Aged Man (Skip Bifferty)
13 Higher than the Clouds (Skip Bifferty)
14 The Lion and the Unicorn (Skip Bifferty)
15 Disappointing Day (Skip Bifferty)
16 Shine [Edit] (Skip Bifferty [Griffin])
17 What a Day It's Been (Skip Bifferty [Griffin])

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood [Edit] (Skip Bifferty)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700333/SKIPBFFRTY1967-1969_BBSessons_atse.zip.html

As I mentioned in my comments to the stray tracks album I posted, I couldn't find a single color photo of the band! However, I did find a couple of decent black and white ones. I colorized one of them for that other album. The one above was too troublesome to colorize, so I tinted it blue instead.

Skip Bifferty - I Am the Noise in Your Head - Non-Album Tracks (1967-1969)

In the late 1960s, there are many cases of musical artists releasing one poorly selling and supposedly classic album, and then breaking up and drifting back into total obscurity. That's especially true for psychedelic bands. Skip Bifferty is one such band. In most cases, these albums have a lot of hype but end up being underwhelming. But Skip Bifferty's one album, released in 1968 and also called "Skip Bifferty," is one I like. (It also gets a very good average review rating on rateyourmusic,com, resulting in the bolded status reserved for only the best rated albums.)

Although Skip Bifferty didn't last longer than one album, they had enough other material for this album of stray tracks. On top of that, because they were a British band, they performed for the BBC at times, and there's enough material for a BBC album that I'll post later. That has a few more unique songs on it that didn't make it to their sole album or to this collection.

Here's the Wikipedia entry if you want to know more about the band:

Skip Bifferty - Wikipedia 

Their story isn't particularly dramatic. They put out a few singles, and one album, but nothing they did caught fire and sold in large numbers, so they faded away and broke up. Near the end, they released one single under the name "Heavy Jelly," probably due to growing problems with their record company. With a slight personnel change, they released another single as "Griffin," and then broke up for good.

By the way, nobody in the band was actually named "Skip Bifferty." I don't know why they chose that name. If anyone does, please let us know.

Although this is a stray tracks album, I think if this had been released as an album back in the day, it's one that most bands in the genre would have envied. It has five A-sides on it, so it's not like this contains leftovers. Everything here has been officially released, and all of it was compiled on the official archival album "The Story of Skip Bifferty." So the sound quality is excellent. 

If you've never heard this band's music before, I would suggest starting with their 1968 album "Skip Bifferty." But this is similar and almost as good.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 On Love (Skip Bifferty)
02 Cover Girl (Skip Bifferty)
03 Happy Land (Skip Bifferty)
04 Reason to Live (Skip Bifferty)
05 Man in Black (Skip Bifferty)
06 Round and Round (Skip Bifferty)
07 This We Shall Explore (Skip Bifferty)
08 Schizoid Revolution (Skip Bifferty)
09 I Keep Singing the Same Old Song (Skip Bifferty [Heavy Jelly])
10 Blue (Skip Bifferty [Heavy Jelly])
11 I Am the Noise in Your Head (Skip Bifferty [Griffin])
12 Don't You Know (Skip Bifferty [Griffin])

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700492/SKIPBFFRTY1967-1969_IAmNiseYurHead_atse.zip.html

Skip Bifferty is such an obscure band that I couldn't even find a single color photo of them. But I found a decent black and white one, and then I colorized it. I took the lettering of the band's name, complete with red stripe running through it, from the cover of one of their singles.