Philamore North And South

 

The lone album by Philamore Lincoln (1970) is a lost treasure. No, really. He wrote the songs (Temma Harbour was a breezy hit for Mary Hopkin), Jimmy Page played guitar, it was engineered by Glyn and Andy Johns, and given a beautiful psych-pop-rock production by one James Wilder, who apparently never produced anything else, adding to the mystery.

Lincoln (real name Robert Cromwell Anson, AKA Julian Covey) left the music business in the early seventies, leaving us this. A win-win situation.

The loaddown replaces a totally inappropriate Graham Bond filler instrumental with a rare single. Thirty blissful minutes for that sunny afternoon in the park, while we still have thirty minutes.

Cover notes: Designed by heavyweight John Kosh, the evocative photograph is by Sanders Nicholson, who also shot the cover for Shawn Phillips' sublime Second Contribution - interestingly, another image that doesn't reveal the artist's face. Hard to find a scan that does it justice of the internet - most reduce the figure to solid black. Chris Dreja shot the back cover portrait [left - Ed.], showing the Carnaby Street dandy. Me, I'd have buttoned my shirt. For shame.