| Five Bridges | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album /Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 17 October 1969 atFairfield Halls,Croydon, London (except "Country Pie", live atFillmore East,New York City on 20 December 1969 and "One of Those People", a 1969 studio recording) | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 45:20 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | The Nice[1] | |||
| The Nice chronology | ||||
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Five Bridges is a live and studio album and fourth overall by Englishprogressive rock bandThe Nice, released in June 1970 byCharisma Records. Most of the album was recorded live in concert atFairfield Halls inCroydon, London, in October 1969. The final track, "One of Those People", is a studio recording. The album's centrepiece is "The Five Bridges Suite", a five-part composition aboutNewcastle upon Tyne that features the group performing with theSinfonia of London session orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger.
The album was a commercial success in the UK, peaking at number two on theUK Albums Chart.[2] In theQ &Mojo Classic Special EditionPink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".[3]
The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969 (the recorded version is from 17 October inCroydon'sFairfield Halls). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning theRiver Tyne (two more have since been built over the river, including theGateshead Millennium Bridge), and the album cover, byHipgnosis, features an image of theTyne Bridge.
The fivemovements are:
Emerson usedWalter Piston's well-known textbook on orchestration for the work.[4] Emerson creditsFriedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form.
Also included on theFive Bridges album werelive performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of theSibeliusIntermezzo and a movement fromTchaikovsky'sPathetiqueSymphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitledHere Come The Nice.
TheFive Bridges album also included a blending ofBob Dylan's "Country Pie" withBach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (with a quote ofColeman Hawkins' jazz line "Rifftide" as well) and a studio recording of the original "One of Those People".
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| TopTenReviews |  [6] |
Paul Stump's 1997History of Progressive Rock called the album "ill-conceived", commenting that the orchestrated pieces are poorly meshed, with the rock band and orchestra playing either separately (as on the first few movements of "The Five Bridges Suite") or such that "The textures of neither genre are properly utilized; it is like listening to two transistor radios simultaneously playing ..." However, he cited the final two tracks as among the Nice's best works, elaborating that "['One of Those People'] perhaps illustrates the Nice's real gift: to reduce pop forms to their constituent parts, alter their horizontal profile by cutting down paragraphs and overturning expected progression of chords and rhythm, which gives Emerson just as much of a chance to display his considerable technique without recourse to braggadocio."[7] Mike DeGagne's retrospective review forAllMusic, in contrast, argued that "Intermezzo" and "Pathetique" "are marvelous examples of classical and rock commingling" and that throughout the album, "Each example of genre merging is pristine and fluid, making the actual overlapping of multiple styles completely transparent."[5]
The 1990 CD reissue has 5 bonus tracks taken from 1972 compilationAutumn '67 – Spring '68. These are:
The original album is tracks 1 to 8. The bonus tracks are tracks 9 to 13. The "Five Bridges Suite" track numbers bear no relation to the music, and the sleeve notes bear no relation to the CD tracks.
Sleeve Notes
CD Tracks
Actual Music
with:
| Chart (1970–1971) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[8] | 28 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[9] | 25 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[10] | 2 |
| USBillboard 200[11] | 197 |
