BLUE GOOSE – Blue Goose
Blue Goose were the alias of a collection of musicians who backed Cutis Knight under the name of Zeus in the 70’s. After recording two albums with Knight, of which the second was only granted a European release, they were joined by guitarist Allan Carran and formed Blue Goose. Demos resulted in the band gaining a recording contract with Anchor Records and they set about recording an album. What makes Blue Goose more memorable than a hundred other hopefuls of the period was the fact that during rehearsals they were joined by ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, later of Motorhead and Fastway. The collaboration was stormy, and he was sacked and then reinstated, but only actually played on one track here, the instrumental ‘Over The Top’. The rest of the album is good British hard rock, with Callan providing some fine guitar-work, and the only real let-down being the slightly strained vocals. ‘Loretta’ has a stinging guitar solo, while ‘Call On Me’ is a good ballad, and both of these songs were coupled on the band’s sole single. ‘Snowman’ slows the pace slightly, and lets Callan give a bluesy feel to his solo, before the song picks up for the second half and the hard rock makes a triumphant return. ‘Over The Top’ is the shortest track here, and although the guitar-work is excellent throughout I would hesitate in recommending that you purchase the album just for this track, no matter how big a Clarke fan you are. ‘Let Me Know’ is another up-tempo hard rocker, and the album ends with the nine minute ‘Inside Yourself’, once again taken at a slower pace to allow Callan to deliver his best solo of the album. ‘Blue Goose’ is an album that has become sought-after for all the wrong reasons. The Eddie Clarke connection has been vastly over-stated, contributing to only one twentieth of the record’s playing time, while the fact that the band were a good British hard rock act has been overlooked. Give it a shot on its own merits and you might be surprised.