Christmas.

Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 19:43:51 GMT
Newsgroups: it.arti.musica.rock.progressive
Size: 1,756 bytes

Christmas was formed in 1969 in Oshawa Ontario, Canada, out of the ashes of
the cult underground psychedelic band Reign Ghost. In July 1970, Christmas
released an independent self titled debut that brought some media attention
to the band and a contract with the Daffodil Records label. In December 1970
, less than six months after the release of the debut, Christmas released
their debut Daffodil Records album entitled "Heritage".
Christmas was comprised of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Bob Bryden,
bass Tyler Raizenne, drummer Rich Richter and Robert Bulger on guitars all
of whom were still in their teens. The album gathered good reviews and was
well received by critics but it was not commercially viable because the long
songs and hard rock sound . It became an instant favorite in the underground
music scene just about everywhere but in Canada.
Despite the international response to the album, Heritage proved to be the
last release by the band under the name Christmas due to management problems
and difficulty with the direction of the next album.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Consequently Christmas broke up in late 1971 only to resurface the following
year, line up intact , under the name "The Spirit Of Christmas".
In the late 80's and 90's the original Heritage album became a highly sought
after collector's item especially in the USA and Europe because of the
band's unorthodox style and progressive influences. While the original
"Heritage" album contained 10 songs in the heavy rock progressive style of
music, this reissue features an extra four bonus tracks. This reissue by
Unidisc has been digitally mastered and the original artwork has been kept.
By Keith Pettipas.