N.S.U.

Turn On, Or Turn Me Down


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Album first released 1969.

William Hugh Alexander Brown (Billie) Drummer.

Ernest Rea (The Big Fella) Lead Guitarist.

John Graham Pettigrew (Pettsie) Lead Vocalist.

Peter Grant Nagle (Big Nagsie) Bass Guitar and Harp.

An air of mystery surrounds this album, and indeed, even the label on which it was originally released. DJ and percussionist Count Simon de la Bedoyere (aka Simon Stable) set up the Stable label in 1968, only to fold it a year later, but during that brief spell it released a handful of great albums.

One of those was "Turn On, Or Turn Me Down", the only album made by psychedelic blues rock band N.S.U.. Hailing from Glasgow, and setting out their stall by taking their name from the first track on the first Cream album, they recorded the album over 3 days in February 1969 at De Lane Lea in Holborn, London, a cutting edge studio where Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd had also recorded.

In their 2017 "Buried Treasure" feature on the album, Classic Rock magazine highlighted guitarist Ernest Rea's "glorious flashes of acid-fuzz soloing". The band was assisted on backing vocals by the legendary Sue and Sunny, ubiquitous at about that time, singing back-up on Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends", "20th Century Boy" for T. Rex and for the likes of Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, Elton John and even Frank Zappa.

The album features eight original band compositions together with their 8 minute version of the old blues song "On The Road Again", popularised by Canned Heat.

Having performed at the Royal Albert Hall to accompany the release of the album in July 1969, the band (and label) slipped back into obscurity

Tracklist

Turn On, Or Turn Me Down
His Town
You Can't Take It From My Heart
Love Talk
All Aboard
The Game
Stoned
Pettsie's Blues
On The Road

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