Worlds Of Yesterday - A Moonshot Retrospective 1971-1992 by Tim Bowness

My 2017 release Lost In The Ghost Light was a homage to the classic Rock album era. The album revolved around my interpretation of the contemporary musings of Moonshot leader Jeff Harrison and the events in the songs took place between 1967 and 2017. During this period, Rock music had changed from a revolutionary force that defined the zeitgeist into a nostalgic reminder of 'a better time'. Jeff’s career was of interest to me because he came from my home town and was born on the same date as me in exactly the same place (Victoria Park Maternity Home in Warrington as I’m sure you’re eager to know). It was 16 years earlier, but how could I not be curious?

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were no local musicians of note from the area and Jeff was something of a home town legend regularly played by DJs such as The Longford Lover.

On a personal level, I was interested in how Jeff and Moonshot had been passionately principled for its first 10 years, but seemed exhausted and compromised from that point on. Where did the inspiration go? How was all credibility lost? Why did Jeff make the career choices he did?

Although critics still rate the band’s early albums, it’s fair to say that Moonshot’s reputation has been sullied by years of playing ‘golden oldies’ to diminishing, ageing audiences. Jeff’s 1980s penchant for wearing leopard skin outfits and his dismissive remarks about contemporary music (post Punk) also had an impact on his critical standing. In recent years, Jeff’s vocal aversion to streaming came across as bitter rather than insightful (he made good points, but there was no moderation in the way he expressed his views).

There isn’t a lot of information available regarding Jeff / Moonshot, so I’ve pulled together some of the main facts about the band’s history (all views my own).

A History Of Sorts

Moonshot formed in 1967 out of the ashes of Warringtonian skiffle band Scouse Mouse and released a couple of non-charting Psychedelic singles that year with more than a hint of The Beatles and The Moody Blues about them. The band’s debut album, released in 1968, was less Psychedelic and a little more Jazz influenced. Some reviewers have retrospectively referred to the band as 'the Grandaddies of Fusion' due to its debut and even Jazzier follow up The Second Moonshot.

Between 1970-1973 the band morphed into a Pink Floyd and Caravan inspired, trippy ‘conceptual’ outfit and had their solitary UK hit in 1973 with the surprisingly romantic Before That Before taken from the pastoral Rosewater album (possibly my favourite along with its polar opposite, 1975’s fearlessly experimental The Ruthless Captain Of Industry).

During 1974 the band released a popular live album (Live At The Rainbow, naturally), which featured studio overdubs aplenty and some smooth Rupert Hine post-production. Following arguments revolving around ‘musical differences’, Jeff sacked the band's long-term manager Gabby Hayes and jettisoned several members including co-writer /co-leader Saxophonist/Flautist Peter Christian. Under Jeff’s control Moonshot headed off in a more peculiar art-rock direction clearly influenced by Gabriel's Genesis, David Bowie and Eno-era Roxy. While making The Party At The End Of The World, it was rumoured that Harrison suffered a nervous breakdown and a debilitating semolina addiction.

As the gloomy mid-late 1970s evolved (?) into the shiny 1980s, Moonshot settled on a melodic MOR style and became a figurehead of the Progressive Pop movement along with BJH and The Alan Parsons Project. The band were 'big in Germany' and had several #1 singles in Europe around this time. A mid-1980s Band Aid related co-headline date in Dusseldorf with David Hasselhoff was both a career highpoint (playing to an audience of 250,000 plus) and an artistic low (in my opinion).

From 1990-2010 the band’s recorded output was minimal and Moonshot produced just two studio albums (both were something of an attempt to recapture some of the band’s early fire). During this time, the band - now with Jeff Harrison as its sole remaining original member - still toured regularly (mainly in Germany, Russia, Hungary and the Netherlands) and De Boerderij in Zoetermeer practically became a second home to the band as devoted Moonshotters from all over the world would travel to see the band play its annual Progenanny at the venue.

In early 2017, Jeff Harrison posted a screenshot on Instagram of a cover for a forthcoming album called The Digital Beyond. “A return to the conceptual heyday of 1970-1975,” as Jeff put it. Theo Travis was drafted in to play a Peter Christian style role and the album was regarded as the band’s most ambitious statement since 1978’s God Loves A Cheerful Loser.

Following a year long tour for The Digital Beyond, in December 2018 Jeff was hospitalised and on January 4 2019 died of complications related to excessive rice pudding consumption. It was Jeff's dying wish that Moonshot carry on with John Wilkinson as singer, so that the band’s music could continue to be introduced to ‘innocent ears’. Knowing of my interest in his work and having heard (and 'hated with a passion') Lost In The Ghost Light, he also sent word via current bass player David K Jones that he’d like me to compile a personal 'best of Moonshot'.

What you hold in your hands - the band's first official compilation since Shot Hits in 1979 - is my curated selection of what I feel to be the band’s strongest work from 1971-1992.

From the Crimson-esque grandeur of The Sweetest Bitter Pill to the straightforward beauty of Before That Before, via the warped creativity of Lost In The Ghost Light and the engaging Pop of Stupid Things That Mean The World, there’s a lot to like here.

Though the band may not have reached the commercial and creative peaks of celebrated Progressive peers such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes and King Crimson, they were arguably one of the best of the chasing pack and fully deserve to be named alongside the likes of Gentle Giant, Camel, Greenslade, The Yorkshire Parkin Experiment, BJH, Gryphon, PFM, Prawn, Ange and others.

Worlds Of Yesterday is a fine testament to a fine band.

Tim Bowness, August 2019

Discography

The First Moonshot (1968)
The Second Moonshot (1970)
Third Moonshot (1971)
Sunshine And Storms (1972)
Rosewater (1973)
Live At The Rainbow (1974)
The Ruthless Captain Of Industry (1975)
The Party At The End Of The World (1977)
God Loves A Cheerful Loser (1978)
Shot Hits (1979) - A compilation of the band’s shorter material. Enormous in Eastern Europe and advertised on UK TV by Norman Wisdom.
Live Shots (1980)
Later Than You Think (1981)
The Thought Of You (1983)
Future Fear (1986)
Another World In Another Time (1992)
Shot Live (1993)
Shot Hits Live (1996)
Soft Alibis (1998)
Shot Hits Live Again (2002)
The Digital Beyond (2017)
Worlds Of Yesterday - A Moonshot Retrospective 1971-1992 (2019)