{"id":30933,"date":"2026-04-14T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30933"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:42:36","slug":"album-review-the-iveys-miniskirts-and-rainbows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/14\/album-review-the-iveys-miniskirts-and-rainbows\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Iveys \u2013 Miniskirts and Rainbows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"During their initial run, the classic lineup of Badfinger released a total of six albums. Considering the long run of misfortunes that befell the British\/Welsh foursome, the latter three of those largely went unheard. So for most listeners, the group’s heyday came and went in a brief period, 1970-71. The tragic deaths of primary songwriters Pete Ham and Tom Evans would eventually scupper any thoughts \u2013 however remote \u2013 of the band returning to its former glories. Today, none of the band members who played on Badfinger\u2019s Apple Records-era releases remain alive.<\/p>\n

But the music that Badfinger left behind is \u2013 if you\u2019ll pardon an adjective that draws from the title of one of their best deep cuts \u2013 timeless. Songs like \u201cDay After Day,\u201d \u201cBaby Blue\u201d and \u201cNo Matter What\u201d maintain their power and melodic appeal a half-century after their release. And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the music of Badfinger remains ripe for discovery (or rediscovery) by modern-day listeners.<\/p>\n

What is a surprise, however, is the staggering amount of unreleased material that the members of the group left behind. As Badfinger and in their earlier guise as the Iveys, the core band produced seeming innumerable demos. Even more astounding is the near-uniform quality of the songs; Ham, Evans and Gibbins (and early band mates Dai Jenkins and Ron Griffiths) clearly had more solid musical ideas than outlets to use them.<\/p>\n

And that fact explains why a fifth \u2013 yes, fifth(!) \u2013 volume in The Iveys\u2019 Anthology<\/i> series has recently appeared. Miniskirts and Rainbows<\/i> (1966-1969) collects 19 previously unreleased tracks that remind listeners yet again that this band was drawing upon a seemingly inexhaustible well of creativity, even years before they were \u201cdiscovered\u201d by Apple Records.<\/p>\n

The lion\u2019s share of the songs on Miniskirts and Rainbows<\/i> are Pete Ham tunes, with several from Evans, a handful from Mike Gibbins and even a few composed by band manager Bill Collins. Though they\u2019re demo recordings, the recording quality and fidelity are of a reasonable, listenable quality. Sometimes the songs are cleverer than their titles suggest: \u201cI Love You\u201d is one such example; it\u2019s a peppy pop rocker reminiscent of Rubber Soul<\/i>-era Beatles.<\/p>\n

Longtime Badfinger fans will recognize some of the song titles on this collection from their better-known official versions. The jaunty singalong of \u201cBlodwyn,\u201d the sweet \u201cAngelique\u201d and the beautiful \u201cI Miss You\u201d are all heard here in embryonic versions that show the band had many of its arrangement ideas in place years before making the official recordings.<\/p>\n

Some twee backing vocals and questionable arrangement choices aside (Kazoos? Really?), the songs clearly point the direction toward how these tunes would have been realized in a professional recording studio. The fact is that in most cases, that never happened. So we are left with these demos and a hint of what could have been. A stylistic outlier that\u2019s interesting in its own way, Collins\u2019 \u201cAll the Fun of the Fair\u201d features a Pete Ham vocal; its retro feel may remind some listeners of Paul McCartney\u2019s forays in a similar vein (see \u201cYour Mother Should Know,\u201d \u201cWhen I\u2019m 64,\u201d \u201cHoney Pie,\u201d etc.). The freakbeat-y deliciousness of \u201cGirl Next Door in the Miniskirt\u201d richly rewards listeners who make it to the very end of the disc; Ron Griffiths\u2019 bass work alone is worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

The close-up, unadorned quality of the performances on Miniskirts and Rainbows<\/i> strikes just the right note for a collection by this fresh-faced group, one whose promise \u2013 however unrealized \u2013 lay just ahead. Fans of Badfinger, the Iveys and\/or the best pop-rock of the late sixties will find much to love upon encountering the modest and unassuming yet wonderful Miniskirts and Rainbows<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During their initial run, the classic lineup of Badfinger released a total of six albums. Considering the long run of misfortunes that befell the British\/Welsh foursome, the latter three of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,51,62,65],"tags":[256,4914],"class_list":["post-30933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-badfinger","tag-iveys","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31352,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30933\/revisions\/31352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}