The Rubble Collection 20 CD

Genialna, brytyjska seria Rubble ukazywała się w latach 1984-1991 na 19 winylowych płytach firmy Bam Caruso i zawierała rzadkie, bądź niemal całkiem zapomniane nagrania z lat 1965-1969 - pochodzące z archiwów EMI, Decca, Philipsa, Fontany, Pye itd. - obejmujące brytyjski, późny, ciężki beat (określony właśnie wtedy terminem: freakbeat) ale przede wszystkim (pop) psychodelię + kilka nagrań z kręgu psych-prog. Jeden dysk (Nr. 9) został poświęcony holenderskiej psychodelii; poza tym kilkanaście nagrań pochodziło spoza Imperium Brytyjskiego (Belgia, Izrael, Kanada). Wtedy też po raz pierwszy publika mogła sobie przypomnieć nie wydawane od blisko 20 lat a obłędne kawałki takich grup jak Kaleidoscope, Jason Frest, Fleur De Lys, Eyes, Attack, Syn, Koobas, Turquoise, Open Mind, Rupert's People, Wimple Winch, Misunderstrood oraz dziesiątków innych, czasem wręcz genialnych a tylko z 1 singlem na koncie (m.in. Tintern Abbey, Accent, Caleb). Wówczas też ruszyła trwająca do dziś fala reedycji. Tak czy inaczej seria Rubble należy do absolutnego, rockowego kanonu - przydatna tym bardziej, że niektóre, zawarte tam single w oryginalnych wersjach warte są dziś nawet 1000 euro (Open Mind, Tintern Abbey, Wimple Winch). W 2003 roku firma Past & Present wznowiła wszystkie 19 albumów (dodatkowa część 20 ukazała się po raz pierwszy) w formie winyli oraz solidnych 2 pudełek zawierających kompaktowe repliki (typu card sleeve) wszystkich 20 edycji winylowych oraz dodatkowo dwie, ponad 100-stronicowe książki ze zdjęciami, krótkimi biografiami i skróconymi dyskografiami wszystkich wykonawców. Jest to absolutna Biblia dla każdego fana muzyki z drugiej połowy lat 60-tych i zarazem wydawnictwo które poważnie może zmienić postrzeganie genialnych lat 60-tych - niestety z winy niedouczonych dziennikarzy u nas tragicznie niedocenianych i zapomnianych! (megadisc.pl)

Founded in 1983 and based in St.Albans, Bam Caruso evolved as an extension of Waldo's Records, the most thriving indie label to emerge from the 1977's coiterie, and fondly recalled for Clive Pig's magnificent Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen. By comparison, this second outlet was established, primarily, to re-issue long lost 60's gems, although it was soon actively recording new acts as well. A suitably electric catalogue later boasted albums by The Ghost, July, Hearts & Flowers, SRC, The Steppes, Nick Haeffner, The Seeds and more, but its colourful reputation rests on the "Rubble" series, a continuing set of various artists compilations which together create a definative overview of Freakbeat and pop-psyche styles. --- Brian Hogg for Music Collector, Spring, 1990

Rubble is a 20-volume collection of compilation albums of mostly late-1960s British psychedelic rock compiled by Bam-Caruso Records, St Albans, Herts, England by Phil Lloyd-Smee.

The first volume was created in 1984, and the series was completed in 2002 (and later, the New Rubble series has begun). Rubble is one of the first series of compilation albums of psychedelic rock, freakbeat, rhythm and blues, garage rock and beat music of the mid to late 1960s in the United Kingdom. It predated similar compilation series, such as the English Freakbeat series, which AIP Records started in 1988.

The name "Rubble" is influenced by the title of the seminal Nuggets double LP, and resembles the titles of several similar compilation series, such as the Pebbles series, Boulders series and Rough Diamonds series. Most of the bands on these albums were not commercially successful, such as the Glass Menagerie, The Onyx, Wonderland and Wild Silk. However, the albums also include a few better-known bands, such as Tomorrow, The Poets, The Pretty Things, The Spencer Davis Group and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

The Rubble series came out originally on the Bam Caruso label in the 1980s and were highly regarded. Although not the first source for Freakbeat/Psych reissues (that honour goes to Chocolate Soup) they are regarded as the definitive collection, as compared to others released at the time or later such as the Great British Psychedelic Trip (See For Miles). The original 12-15 LPs were arranged by label so that if you got a good label like EMI, you had a lot of good tracks but if you had a bad label (Pye Volume 7 & 10), the results were much more mixed. The later volumes were regarded as being less essential and in fact the final two were not released at the time. There is also a "lost" volume, which covered Morgan Blue Town, which was released by a re-activated Morgan Blue Town label instead. Also worth noting is that the volumes did not come out in sequence - volumes 8 & 9 coming out long after volume 12 & 14 for example.

Bam Caruso had a lot of distribution problems and was eventually taken over by Demon (Edsel etc), who basically deleted all the back catalogue except the Rubble series, but that soon followed. At the time of closure, BamCaruso were preparing to reissue the Kaleidoscope - White Faced Lady 2LP.

In the 90s the set was reissued peicemeal on CD, but the tracks were shifted around to get more on each CD. Again the CDs were hard to obtain and were quickly deleted. Another set called The Best Of Rubble took many of the tracks and reissued those, but in fact it contained the more obscure tracks at the expense of the better known ones. Finally Lost & Found reissued the set on vinyl and subsequently as the box sets.

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