– Caravan in Concert – September 8, 1973 – BBC Radio 1 – In Concert Series
Caravan to get your Thursday rolling and your August started in an orderly direction.
Caravan were, along with Soft Machine and several others, key elements in what became known as the Canterbury Sound and a forerunner to the Progressive Rock movement that began in the late 1960s. They were hugely influential to so many other bands throughout the world, with their blending of Jazz, Rock, Classical, Folk and Experimental and have been cited as a prime inspiration to many groups even forming today.
Caravan had started to build a live following by mid-1970, including an appearance at the Kralingen Pop Festival in the Netherlands to an audience of 250,000 and the 10th Plumpton Festival. In autumn 1970, Caravan began working on one of their most critically acclaimed albums, In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971). The balance of songwriting changed from the previous two albums, with Richard Sinclair taking a more prominent role. His song, “Golf Girl” was originally written about his then girlfriend (and future wife), but the lyrics were rewritten in the final version. Caravan decided to follow up “For Richard” with a suite of short sections of songs written by David Sinclair, that the rest of the band worked on and linked together to form a side-long track, “Nine Feet Underground”. Although, the track was recorded in five separate stages and spliced together, the band performed the suite live as it was finally presented on the album, and it remained a popular track in their live set. The album was released in April 1971, and though it did not chart, it has remained in print ever since, and has been remastered for CD several times, notably a digital remaster in 2011 by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson. “Nine Feet Underground” in particular was a regular fixture on late-night FM radio during the early 1970s.
So as a reminder, here is a concert Caravan recorded for the BBC Radio 1 In Concert Series on September 8, 1973.
