Gagalactyca "Gagalactyca" 1971 Holyground Records Uk in 425 copies.
Gagalactyca is a sister album to Astral Navigations. Lightyears Away has pretty much the same line-up, though with less from Brian Wilson and Brian Calvert who had both left the country. Four songs were destined for Astral Navigations when it was to be called Windows Of Limited Time : Save The Big Jam Roll, The People Show and Woman In My Life. Aren't You Glad You Stayed? was intended to open the album, which is why it is heard at the end of A - Austr.
1970 and 1971 were prolific times for Holyground - a lot of their very best work was from this period. ASTRAL NAVIGATIONS had been released and yet there were tracks un-issued : such as Chris Coombs' THAT IS WHAT WE NEED, and several THUNDERMOTHER tracks. At one time or another several of these tracks were destined for Astral, but were left off for others. The solution was obvious: Astral Part Two!
Although planned, the album was not actually released until the early 1990's when a vinyl version was released with the help of Hugo Chavez' 'Magic Mixture' label. Only 450 of these were made, most signed by Dave Wood and Mike Levon.
....................................................................
LIGHTYEARS AWAY
Originally there was no group name on ASTRAL NAVIGATIONS for the songs on side one of the vinyl LP. The two sides of the record were however given titles : "Light Years Away" and "Heavyside Layer". Gradually the mix of musicians and composers on side one became known as LIGHTYEARS AWAY, so this name was used for the group on GAGALACTYCA.
MAIN LINE WOMAN BLUES
traditional
'Doug' guitar, vocal Dave Millen lead guitar
Doug, or 'Duke', as he was better known had found Holyground in June 1968 when they were recording the early tracks for A TO AUSTR. Amongst the first recordings Mike made of anyone from Preston were acoustic blues with David John, (Miffy), and with Ginner. Duke and Ginner are heard here - no other tapes have survived; some were stolen during a break-in later on.
Recording Gagalactyca
Like 'Astral Navigations' Gagalactyca was recorded in mono on one track of a two track Ferrograph tape machine. This was then copied to the other track adding more instruments or vocals, and back again adding more. It was usual to do this three, and occasionally up to five times. Mike used a mixer built by drummer Ted Hepworth, and had a grand total of six microphones. He also had a hand built compressor and a spring echo unit. The studio was twelve foot square, covered in polystyrene ceiling tiles, and the control room was a small landing outside, only seven foot by five.