Hardin & York's career began at London's famous Marquee club back in August 1969 and despite a heavy touring schedule they still issued three studio albums between late 1969 and early 1973. Though Hardin & York - organist Eddie Hardin, and drummer Pete York (one or rock’s only true duos) - never really managed to climb out of the college circuit in Britain, over in Europe it was a different story, and the group achieved phenomenal success thanks to their powerful and virtuoso live act - particularly in Germany, where they quickly reached the large stadiums and sold truck loads of albums.

“A cross between Procul Harum and Traffic” is how one reviewer summed them up, but as both members of Hardin & York had played in the Spencer Davis Group (as had the members of Traffic), perhaps this isn’t too surprising. What is surprising is that the original Hardin & York albums - ‘Tomorrow Today’, ‘The Worlds Smallest Big Band’, and ‘For The World’ - have never been properly compiled until now. This new release, assembled with help from Eddie Hardin, gets to the heart of their music and popularity, bringing together over a dozen tracks from the three LPs, plus a couple of rare non-album sessions. The selection focuses on the band's progressive rock energy: power driving rhythms, lengthy solos and instrumentally centred classics - all set off against Eddie’s often Winwood-esque vocals, music which remains as strong today as it did in the early seventies. The pair have had remarkably diverse careers since those days. After the success of Hardin & York they teamed up with Spencer Davis to reform the legendary Spencer Davis Group.

Since then Pete York has played in numerous bands, as well as fronting three very successful series of ‘Superdrumming’ for German TV, touring a special jazz swing band, and regularly guesting on albums by the likes of Deep Purple’s Jon Lord. Eddie Hardin went on to help develop Roger Glovers ‘Butterfly Ball’ album and concert, cut the collectable ‘Wizard’s Convention’ session album, and played at the 1999 Deep Purple Royal Albert Hall show. The original duo also cut a reunion album (‘Still A Few Pages Left’) in 1995.

The Best Of Hardin & York can be ordered from the dpas online store.

purple records catalogue