By the early seventies, London band Stray had probably played every college gig and small venue in the UK. They were also one of the mainstays in what was then termed as "Underground" (which later turned into "Progressive"), with their hard riffing rock.
Time again the college gig posters declared it was either Stray, or Hawkwind, or The Pink Fairies, or Wishbone Ash, or Skin Alley etc, doing the Saturday night gig. They were the groups that trudged the motorways in transit vans for the best part of 10 years from the late 1960's.
Stray released several albums, their best known being their debut 'Stray', but they never sold enough for that recognised commercial success. It happened that way for many. The band packed it up in 1977, probably defeated by the sight of Punk and the changing audience that came with it.
There were resurrections with different members over the decades, then along come Sanctuary Records in 2006 and bought the 8 releases from the 1970's. Followed then by Universal Music Group buying the entire back catalogue up to the 2000's.
So guess what. They're back on the road again with the one remaining original member Del Bromham.
That's right you got to go out there and sell it all over again. Not this time in the back of a transit van one hopes.
So that's Stray, a piece of 20th Century UK rock culture and still gigging today. And just like the picture shows above, they were right in the heart of the 1970's college.
Here is "All In The Mind" from their 1970 debut release. (Iron Maiden fans... enjoy the original)
Sadly no live film of the band from this period but some nice psychedelic patterns by the YouTube uploader 2010joe54.
The track starts quietly and takes a minute to build so it won't be your volume.
