The Bakesys release 11 tracks of their earliest recordings

It’s taken me a little while to review this one, having been released in January this year to mark 35 years of The Bakesys – apologies to the guys for that!

Anyway, grovelling over, what you have here are 11 tracks of the very earliest recordings from Newbury’s finest Ska export, The Bakesys.

All the tracks were recorded between 1990 and 1992, some of which will be instantly recognisable to fans of the band and a few which are a little rarer.

Kicking off with ‘Grass is Greener’, which appeared on their very first album (and one of my favourite albums from back in the 90’s), the album then throws up a track I’ve never heard before, and I feel I’ve missed out for all these years, ‘Yesterday Man’ is a great track of 90’s ska upbeat loveliness! It was however, included on their 2020 album ‘Studio Selections 1991-1995’.

Next up is ‘Looking for Love’, another track included on their very first album, but this is a very different version and it’s interesting to hear how the song developed from a demo to the final released version. Personally, I like them both!

‘Pickle My Brain’ serves up a live snippet of early Bakesys and another that’s new to me, followed by demos of ‘Life so Dub’, ‘Days Gone By’ and ‘Open All Hours’ – which again all featured on the very first Bakesys release, with ‘Days Gone By’ being one of my favourites on the album ‘back in the day’! (christ, I’m feeling old! 😄). It’s great to hear how it started off compared to the final version.

Another live track follows and another I’ve not heard previously – ‘Have You Seen The KGB?’ which sounds as though it would be a great live track to skank to!

‘Trouble & Strife’, yet another first listen for me and another that was on their 2020 ‘Studio Selections 1991-1995’ 2020 album follows, then the demo version of ‘Life so Tuff’.

The band finish off the album with a last live version, ‘Marina’, a great upbeat tune that merges into ‘The Lick’ from their first album and the bands take on Harry J. Allstars ‘Liquidator’.

This is a great release for any Bakesys fan, and even if you’ve never listened to them before, it wouldn’t be a bad starting point to have a binge listen to them, you wont regret it and it would be a perfect time to get acquainted as they have a brand new album out in just a few days time!

Available on all the usual streaming site, give it a listen now!