I’ve got to admit I’m a pushover for all things British. Back in the ‘60s, songs like “Winchester Cathedral” and “A Well Respected Man” were a huge influence on the pop music world. Of course most Americans got over their Anglo-phobia when the Beatles hit U.S. shores for the first time in 1964. That ultra British music hall sound so big in the ‘60s is in fine fettle on the 2009 reissue of I Never Go Out In The Rain by U.K. art-poppers High Society. Group members Richard Hudson and John Ford were great in the early ‘70s lineup of The Strawbs and for those following the lineage of Strawbs-related groups and lineups, Hudson and Ford joined with singer-clarinetist Terry Cassidy in 1980. Cassidy first joined in with the pair for an album with the first Monks lineup but the sound for High Society was somewhere else than rock, sounding very tongue in cheek, sort of like Penguin Cafe Orchestra meets Rudy Vallee! Angel Air have both The Monks and High Society albums, reissued out on CD in March of 2009. Like the Monks CD—entitled Suspended Animation—High Society’s CD on Angel Air features a bounty of studio tracks from the 1980 High Society lineup with the inclusion of several tracks from the current High Society lineup. As always with Angel Air, the packaging, graphics and notations are excellent. www.AngelAir.co.uk

Attention Artists and Record Companies: Have your CD reviewed by mwe3.com. Send to: MWE3.com CD Reviews Editor Robert Silverstein, P.O. Box 630249, Little Neck, N.Y. 11363-0249 E-mail: breakthru87@mwe3.com