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R&B, soul, olde worlde, jazz and bossa nova were

woven together to make up one of England's most

original bands. From the moment the awesome "Nothing

You Do" powers up it's obvious this is something

worth paying attention to. Then the medieval "Raid"

and "Right on Their Side" set the scene nicely for

the albums killer track.

"Priestess" is Howard Werth's masterpiece; scary as hell it

is the "Blair Witch" of Audience tracks. The lyric unfurls

in a swirl of weird woodwind and sucks the listener into

a terror tale of child sacrifice and Satanism. Howard's

voice was never more powerful and this performance

would surely have interested the remaining Doors.

Doom laden bass and acoustic guitar fight it out with

Keith Gemmill's searing sax before a gentle

woodwind refrain lull's the listener into a false security

just prior to the sax driven insanity of the finale.

Audience's best ever track. (See top ten's.)

For their second album on Charisma they drafted in

Gus Dudgeon for the production duties a smart move on

their part as it resulted in their best ever album "House

on the Hill". This loose concept album based around

a strange screenplay by Hipgnosis and Howard Werth

opens with the excellent "Jackdaw", which once

more endorses the amazing talent of Keith Gemmill

who surely was one of England's most underrated

musicians. Other stand out tracks include "I Had a

Dream", the classical instrumental "Raviole", the

Jay Hawkins classic "I Put a Spell On You" and the

title track. The album never sold by the bucket load but

it provided the band with a decent platform to show off

what they could do. Performances on "The Old Grey

Whistle Test" and "Top of the Pops" added to their

reputation along with minor singles success with "Eye

to Eye" and their excellent non album single

"Indian Summer" which became a cult favorite on

Radio Luxembourg and sold well in the U.S. (cont'd)