The 1970 debut album from Canterbury band Egg is to be reissued through Esoteric Records on October 25.
Egg has been remasterd and cut at Abbey Road studios and the new reissues fully restores the original album artwork. Not only that, but it also restores the track Symphony No. 2 – Third Movement, which was withdrawn from the original release due to the piece borrowing from themes by composer Igor Stravinsky.
Egg grew out to the band Uriel, but when guitarist and vocalist Steve Hillage quit that band, the remaining three musicians Mont Campbell (bass, vocals), Dave Stewart (organ, piano, tone generator), and Clive Brookes (drums), chose to continue as Egg.
The band’s self-titled debut was originally released through Decca’s Deram Nova label in January 1970. The band followed it with The Polite Force in 1971 and The Civil Surface in 1974, two years after the band had disbanded.
Dave Stewart went on to join Hatfield & The North and later formed National Health and recorded with Bill Bruford, before setting out on a solo career that yielded a No. 1 single with Barabra Gaskin, a cover of It’s My Party, in 1981. He continues to record and perform with Gaskin.
Campbell would work with Henry Cow, Hatfield & The North, Slapp Happy and National Health before moving into world music as Dirk Campbell in the late 70s while Brooks would join The Groundhogs and later became a drum tech for Pink Floyd. He died in 2017.
Egg: Egg
Side One
1. Bulb
2. While Growing My Hair
3. I Will Be Absorbed
4. Fugue in D Minor
5. They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano
6. The Song of McGuillicudie the Pusillanamous (or Don’t Worry James, Your Socks Are Hanging in the Coal Cellar with Thomas)
7. Boilk
Side Two
1. Symphony No. 2 – First Movement
2. Symphony No. 2 – Second Movement
3. Blane
4. Symphony No. 2 – Third Movement
5. Symphony No. 2 – Fourth Movement