3 CD Coming together at the end of the Sixties, Essex band Dear Mr. Time were a five-piece progressive rock outfit influenced by the likes of King Crimson and The Moody Blues. • Having built up their act while touring in France and Germany, Dear Mr. Time returned to England, signing a deal with the independent Square label. Square released the band’s seven-ages-of-man concept album “Grandfather” in early 1971, but although it attracted good reviews, the LP failed to reach many shops and duly sank without trace. • With Vertigo’s interest in signing Dear Mr. Time scuppered by the fact that Square had signed them to an exclusive three-year deal, the band decided to split before a second album could be recorded. • By the early Nineties, original copies of “Grandfather” were selling for large sums of money, and the album was counterfeited several times before finally being legally reissued in 2010. • Buoyed by the reception that the official reissue received, the core members of Dear Mr. Time reconvened, recording two further albums – “Brontosaurs And Bling” and “Time” – as well as recording tracks for a proposed fourth album. • Our new anthology of the band’s work assembles all three Dear Mr. Time albums and adds that proposed fourth album. • We also add some fascinating early Seventies home demos from guitarist and chief songwriter Chris Baker, performing a batch of songs that would have formed the basis of that aborted follow-up to “Grandfather”. • With a booklet that illustrates the band’s story with rare photos and new quotes, our expanded 3-CD release of “Grandfather” – which includes around two dozen previously unissued tracks – is the final word on a progressive rock band who, although they made a limited impression at the time, have now attracted collector interest for more than three decades.
