Vipers Skiffle Group 10,000 Years Ago CD - Import

Commercially, the Vipers never did truly compete with the giants of skiffle. They might have been EMI's biggest-selling band in that area, but compared to Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt, they were small potatoes indeed. Musically, however, the sound of this band would come to epitomize British pop in the years leading up to (and even including) the first days of the Beatles, a hard melodic punch backed up by a musical edge and harmonic elasticity that completely belie the band's chosen niche in the skiffle movement. With a little more electricity, they would have pipped Cliff Richard to the rock & roll starter's flag, and with a little less reliance upon American role models, they could have single-handedly invented Brit-pop. All of that (and more) screams out of almost every cut in this box set, a typically grandiose Bear Family gesture that not only wraps up every cut the Vipers ever released, but also a swath of unreleased material (including a souvenir of the short-lived lineup built around Hank Marvin and Jet Harris). Listeners also get the pseudonymous LP recorded for American consumption by the so-called Original Soho Skiffle Group, a clutch of Wally Whyton solo singles, and four final tracks recorded by the band following a brief reunion in 1960. Spread over three CDs, these 64 songs constitute the Vipers' legacy, but the sheer ferocity of the band in full flight is worth any number of cuts by the group's contemporaries; if you want to apply modern terminology to the subject, this is skiffle on the edge, a new wave of musical interpretation that is so far ahead of its time that you cannot help but be reminded of another band that signed for Parlophone, recorded at Abbey Road, and enjoyed George Martin as its producer. And no, that doesn't mean Gerry & the Pacemakers. In keeping with Bear Family tradition, 10,000 YEARS AGO arrives in an LP-sized box with a booklet to match and, therein, a host of rare photographs and cuttings, plus a lengthy interview with head Viper Whyton. It all adds up to one of the sharpest and most essential demonstrations of early British rock you're ever going to hear.

3 CD's & book from the premier British performers of the skiffle era, the standard to which would-be-Skifflers aspired; this set includes every record commercially issued on Parlophone + never before released Parlophone masters & a rare single feat. Shar