Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

In the late '70s and early '80s guitarist Norman Barratt brought his undoubted guitar hero skills to Christian music as part of the Alwyn Wall Band and with his own outfit The Barratt Band. At the time I can remember much talk about his mainstream band Gravy Train who had been signed to the Vertigo and Dawn labels. As their albums weren't easily found back then, this CD re-release is the first time I've tracked down his earlier music. At first glance, you might think that 'Strength Of A Dream: The Gravy Train Anthology' would be a best of collection spanning all their releases when in fact it is their third and fourth albums with assorted singles and b sides. What you get is the 'Second Birth' and 'Staircase To The Day' LPs and an interesting journey seeing how the band developed between those two releases from 1973 and 1974. Gravy Train were always an attractive live draw on the flourishing rock scene of the '70s and their style of prog rock still sounds interesting today. 'Second Birth' drew many comparisons to Jethro Tull mainly because of the flute of JD Hughes which is very prominent. It is interesting approaching this album the wrong way round having heard his later music first because I can identify that a song like "Second Birth" has the seeds of what would become "Voice In The Night". In fact the second disc contains a couple of Barratt band classics in their earlier Gravy Train demo form. Bonus cuts like "Nowhere To Run" and their final single "Climb Aboard The Gravy Train" also show the band going in a slightly funkier direction. Musically undoubtedly this is a band of extreme talent that simply failed to break through commercially, not an unusual story in the '70s when the UK was awash with accomplished rock bands. Interestingly Barratt's faith surfaces here and there lyrically and yet never seems to have been an issue. In the extensive sleevenotes he comments that it often led to interesting post gig conversations. Fans of '70s rock and particularly prog rock should definitely investigate. As for me, I'm off in search of their other albums.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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