First-Ever, All-Acoustic Pretty Things Album and Last with Founding Member Phil May!

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On December 13th, 2018, following a sold-out show at London's O2 Indigo, The Pretty Things retired from live, electric performances, after 55 years of touring and recording, due to the ill-health of lead singer, Phil May. This was not something that the band, or their fans, wanted, but it was unavoidable. At the time, there was already a new, electric album well underway, but this was shelved as it was clear that the band would never be able to perform any of these recordings in a live setting. At the time of the retirement, some sort of return in a stripped-down acoustic format was not entirely discounted, but - due to May's health issues and Dick Taylor's lack of appetite for acoustic performance as a sole representation for the band's work - nor was it expected.

However, during 2019 there was a significant sea change in attitude within the band and, early in the year, the band, together with manager and producer, Mark St. John, returned to the studio and took the first, tentative steps toward the making of a new album, this time in an entirely acoustic format. The album - now completed and entitled Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood - is a genuine first for a band that has been knocking down the walls with their aggressive and memorable, electric live performances for more than 55 years.

This record has little in common with The Pretty Things past work, save for the fact that it is wholly unique and an absolute first. Arguably, this record is as ground-breaking as the band's seminal psychedelic masterpiece S.F. Sorrow, which is acknowledged as the first rock opera. In some ways, due to the stripped-down nature of the album, the levels of inspiration, imagination, originality, and musicality on display are at an equivalent high. For the band's two principal members this was an arduous and unfamiliar task, relying solely on their fundamental talents and undertaken without the comfort and benefit of the thundering band approach that had underpinned The Pretty Things' work for so many years.

This is work stripped bare and reflects the frailties and insecurities of gathering age, ill health, painful failure, and memorable success. It is a reflection on two long, long lives in art and music that have always been at the cutting edge. Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood is the work of two old men who are acting their age, maybe for the first time ever. If their health and energy is depleted, their skill, insight and experience is not, with the result that they have made a remarkable, exciting, unexpected and thought-provoking record, that is, against all the odds, another singular "first" for an already ground-breaking band. Colored 180g vinyl LP presented in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes by Mark St. John.