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BEDLAM and it’s earlier incarnations (Ideal Milk, Big Bertha, etc.) was an hotbed for launching the career of superstar drummer Cozy Powell (RIP), who later played with such major Hard Rock acts as Whitesnake, Rainbow and Black Sabbath. In this earlier stage, we can hear the fantastic guitar playing of Dave Ball very influenced by Cream/Clapton, his brother Denny on bass and Cozy on drums. In fact this early incarnation of Bedlam called Ideal Milk was almost a tribute to Cream. Moving on later, singer Ace Kefford enters the picture for a short stint with the band where they change the band name to Ace Kefford Stand. Ace was the ex-bass player of the Move. The B side of the record has the Big Bertha demos which had different singers including Denny Ball which also sang on Ideal Milk. The style is still similar to Cream/Jeff Beck Group, sometimes with an heavier edge predicting what was going to come after 2 years (meanwile Cozy was with The Jeff Beck Group and Dave Ball joined Procol Harum).
Some of the standout tracks here are “Ring of Fire” with Frank Aiello singing, the same that sang on the only album in the BEDLAM history recorded in 1973, “Funky Woman” which was an amazing track on a B side of a Big Bertha single that gained some momentum in Germany, “For your Love”, a brilliant cover of the Yardbirds classic with Ace Kefford singing and the hard edged “Munich City”, recorded in Germany in a tape recorder before one of the shows of the Big Bertha German Tour in 1970.
Reissue limited to 400 copies with insert that includes detailed song liner notes written by Denny Ball and rare pics. Remastered from the master tapes for best sound quality possible.
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