I loved EP’s - extended plays - from an early age. Remember albums were quite expensive and out of the reach of kids like me, at least until I got a Littlewood Pools/Spot The Ball round and earned a 12.5% commission.
Which made the EP an attractive compromise between album and single. About 15-20 minutes if you were lucky, it was like a quarter of an album for significantly less cash. Even aged 5 or 6 we had the Beatles EP’s not including the double Magical Mystery Tour EP. Still the only double EP I’ve heard of and as I got older, even as they stopped a special EP chart and started to call them maxi singles, I still loved them. Partly this may have been because, unlike most singles in the UK, they came in picture sleeves.
And there were some absolute classics. Remember ‘Life’s A Long Song’ by Jethro Tull? That was accompanied by four other tracks, Up The Pool, Doctor Bogenbroom, From Later and Nursie. Brilliant and got to #11 in 1971. That might be my favourite. Ring Out Solstice Bells. Too of course. Then again, remember Rainbow On Stage? They pulled an EP from that, which I would gaze at the five photos on the front, thinking a life in rock must be brilliant. That had Kill The King and Man On A Silver Mountain on one side and Mistreated on the other.
And of course, there were three volumes of New, Live and Rare by Deep Purple which felt very exotic and offered music not yet easily available. Man released a 15-minute live version of Bananas which I played all summer long in 1977, though it came out in 1976.
If you could only stand a blast Motorhead, there was the Golden Years EP. In 1978, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers released a superb 12” single of She’s Gonna Listen To Her Heart and a live side. Did you have Rory Gallagher’s Shadow Play, Brute Force and Ignorance on a 10” taken from Photo Finish? Or his clear vinyl 7 inch of Philby, Hellcat, Country Mile?
How about Genesis’ Spot the Pigeon 7”. Plenty had the 12” but far less the 3-track 7 inch of Match Of The Day, Pigeons and Inside And Out.
If you couldn’t afford any of Steve Hillage’s brilliant 70’s albums, in 1977 you could get a 7” played at 331/3 with 6 tracks, they didn’t call it an EP, calling it six-track, six-pack but it was an EP. Similarly Be Bop Deluxe’s Hot Valves EP was a great introduction to the band.
These releases were special and inculcated you into the band. As odd as it seems, I think they were better than the ‘everything all the time’ mode of today. Yes you can hear anything instantly but it feels like only eating dessert, you need variation and contrast otherwise you just feel sick.
