Traffic - First Exit (2018)

Recorded in Sweden at Radiohuset, Stockholm on Sept. 12th, 1967. The live recordings that comprise this album were made for radio broadcast in Sweden at Radiohuset, Stockholm, on Sept. 12th, 1967. Back in the '60s, trying to capture any kind of concert performance was difficult. Most live recordings were fairly primitive because mobile recording equipment wasn't capable of capturing each individual performer. When The Beatles were recorded at the Hollywood Bowl, all that was available was a three track tape recorder, and there were four Beatles! It took over fifty years of technological developments before Giles Martin was able to make the recordings even remotely listenable. Sveriges Radio didn't have multi-track recording equipment either. However, its balance engineers did an excellent job recording Traffic, who performed with both amplified (electric guitar and organ) and acoustic (sitar and drums) instruments.

Traffic weren't helped by the lack of onstage monitors that would allow them to listen to one another. But musicians were used to these crude stage set-ups and they nevertheless turned in a strong performance that would have shamed many a contemporary band. Indeed, for a band that had only been performing together for five short months, it's a remarkably confident set. Besides featuring their recent hit Hole In My Shoe and material that would eventually grace their debut album, the band also perform a soulful version of Anthony Newley's and Leslie Bricusse's Feelin' Good, a live version of which would eventually surface on their 1969 album Last Exit. This, however, is their First Exit, a rare and remarkable glimpse of a band at the start of its career. The photographs were taken at Landskrona, Sweden, in 1967 and are from the Landskrona Museum Collection.

Tracklist
1. Giving to You 05:25
2. Smiling Phases 03:05
3. Coloured Rain 04:23
4. Hole in My Shoe 05:58
5. Feelin' Good 09:30
6. Paper Sun 04:53
7. Dear Mr Fantasy 07:14