MARSEILLE: Red, White & Slightly Blue LP 1978 +inner sleeve (vinyl mint). Hard Rock / NWOBHM. Check whole album. None of their albums was ever released on stand alone CDs.  

Description

Don’t like posting an entire album, but this is one of our all time YPERANO favorites. One reason are the funny lyrics often of a saucy nature. Musically I don’t think anyone else sounds like this. They manage to create entire storylines in every song. Not bad for a few minutes. Yeah, lyrically I can’t say I’ve heard better. Don’t get me wrong, many bands write better from a poetic standpoint, but not this amusing and well thought out for what they try to convey.
Musically it’s rather dry production wise with songs that are definitely easy to remember. Marseille did become quite different and dare I say more sophisticated as they rolled on. Subsequent releases were in retrospect much better than most music fans gave them credit for. None of their albums was ever released on stand alone CDs.  

Marseille formed in Liverpool in early 1976, and released their début album, Red, White and Slightly Blue on the Mountain Records label in 1978. Original members were Paul Dale (vocals), Neil Buchanan (guitar), Andy Charters (guitar), Keith Knowles (drums) and Steve Dinwoodie (bass). Marseille were the first band to win “UK Battle of the Bands” with the finals judged by Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen at Wembley Arena on October 31, 1977. Marseille gathered a small fan base while promoting their first album as support for other groups such as Judas Priest – Nazareth – Whitesnake and UFO. Their début album had very raunchy lyrics but suffered somewhat from lack in promotion and limitation of release. For the single, Kiss Like Rock ‘n’ Roll the band were produced by Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton.

Marseille Red, White & Slightly Blue
Label: Mountain Records TOPC 5012
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1978
Genre: Hard Rock
Tracklist:
1. No Time to Lose 03:15
2. Can Can 02:44
3. She Gives Me Hell 02:44
4. I Felt No Pain 04:56
5. Dear Doctor 03:04
6. The French Way 03:16
7. No Tonight Josephine 03:23
8. Mens Lib 04:25
9. Motherly Love 02:39
10. Percival 05:33
11. Lolita 03:49
39:48

Bass Steve Dinwoodie
Drums Keith Knowles
Engineer Tony Taverner
Guitar Andy Charters, Neil Buchanan
Producer Bob Mitchell
Vocals Paul Dale

Their music had all of the standard ingredients for a New Wave of British Heavy Metal band. They were known for the volume at which they played, a brash and glitzy onstage look, and offensively sexual lyrics. These characteristics turned some listeners off, while exciting others. Before long, Marseille had a small but loyal cadre of fans. They promoted their album by playing as support the likes of UFO.
This exposure also helped build their fan base even further. They never became a huge heavy metal band in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal for several reasons. The first reason is that Marseilles music needed better promotion to reach more people. In that same vein, Marseilles albums had a limited release, so not that many people had the opportunity to hear them play. And third, the lyrics to their songs were very raunchy, even for NWOBHM standards, and turned some people off.
————————————————————–
Marseille, ce nest vraiment pas connu (le groupe et non la ville) cest un peu Post-Punk, cest un peu N.W.O B.H.M et ce nest pas forcément très bien joué des disques et des groupes comme il y en a des tonnes.
Et bien, ce groupe dont un des titres de gloire est davoir porté en son sein le futur présentateur de la version anglaise de lémission pour enfant art Attack !!!, je laime beaucoup. Tout simplement parce quun jour de 1979 jai acheté ce disque par hasard Comme quoi la culture ça tient à pas grand-chose.
————————————————————–
I like this a lot more than the second one. Great Sensational Alex Harvey Band style romp both musically and lyrically, overall its more constant and honest than ‘Marseille’ and certainly not ‘Punk Dross’!!!
————————————————————–
The greatest LP for rhyming lyrics. Even if they don’t make much sense, they help structure the songs. Very catchy material, and a thoroughly enjoyable album. The French Way rules, and Percival is a truly terrific laugh/song. A lost album, though not everyone agrees.

Os presentó a los Marseille, una banda de la nwobhm, una de las mayores joyas escóndidas del nwobhm underground, que pocos conocen, una pena porque es una grandísima banda, mucho mejor que otros primeras espadas cómo los saxon. Son de Liverpool, empezaron en esto en 1976, llamándose ACDC, por problemas legales, obviamente, cambiaron de nombre a Marseille. Siguen activos en nuestros días, lo cúal tiene un mérito enorme. Editaron este extraño trabajo en el 1978, el album homónimo al año siguiente, con un estilo más definido hacia la nwobhm, y se despidieron en el 84 con un album que no tuvo ninguna repercusión, porque la nwobhm, estaba por aquel año de completa capacaída, una pena, y después todos se inspirarian en los héroes caídos.
Volverían en el 2010 a sacar un album de estudio. Los Marseille es una banda muy curiosa, nos encontramos con un puñado de temas, que para nada podemos definir cómo heavy metal, nisiquiera cómo rock…. es su primer album, eran jóvenes, tenían cientos de influencias, y las plasmaron una a una en este plástico.
Suenan frescos y originales, en el primer tema, nos encontramos con riffs similares a los Ramones o a lo Sex Pistols, son de Liverpool, supongo que era imposible escaparse a la influencia del pujante punk inglés, además la voz de Paul Dale invita a ello.
Pero no son una banda de punk, aunque haya algunos riffs que nos hagan pensar en eso, y la actitud tan coñera, nada agresiva que tiene la banda. Hay otros fragmentos del album, que nos hacen pensar desde los primeros Thin Lizzy, a los Black Sabbath experimentales, pero para nada los Marseille, son una banda exploradora del sónido, ni os imagineis temas progresivos, ellos suelen ir al grano, pero si que hay elementos de ese rock setentero, con excelente y variado guitarreo.
Tenemos canciones con riffs muy coñeros, que se acercan a la opera rock de Alice Cooper, o baladitas cómo I felt no pain, que nos recuerdan a los Beatles. En resumen, es un trabajo alegre, positivo, muy variado, de numerosas influencias. Dónde definirian definitivamente su estilo, pasándose sin tibieza al nwobhm, similar a lo que hacían lo Samson. Marseille es una banda de culto dentro del underground, y más concretamente del nwobhm.