Empire (feat. Peter Banks) - Mark I (One Way Records) 1974

Biography : Recorded in 1974, this has a few fillers, and it occasionally falls into the prog habit of going six minutes when four would do, but it's still mystifying that this perfectly solid collection would go missing for so long. Empire's sound bridges the West Coast funk of Cold Blood and the jazzy guitar of early Yes, and it works surprisingly well. The charging "Out of Our Hands" has some clever guitar effects thrown in, and a startling moment where Foxx's vocals rise up like a kettle on the boil. Magnusson's keyboards lend a velvety smoothness to the lovelorn "More Than Words," and the country twang of "Hear My Voice On the Radio" is so appropriately radio-friendly that it's shocking that it wasn't released as a single. Review by Paul Collins

Tracklist:
01.Out Of Our Hands
02.More Than Words
03.Someone Who Cares
04.For A Lifetime
05.Hear My Voice On The Radio
06.Shooting Star
- Part 1 - From The Top
- Part 2 - Common Ground
- Part 3 - Iceland On The Rocks
- Part 4 - Shooting Star
07. Sky At Night

Line-up:
Peter Banks - guitar, vocals, keyboards
Sydney Foxx - vocals
Jakob Magnusson - keyboards, vocals
John Giblin - bass, vocals
Preson Ross-Heyman - drums
and:
Phil Collins - drums, backing vocals
Sam Gopal - sitar