Various Artists, The Changing Of The Guard: The Sixties London Pop Explosion

Label: El

Few Sixties scenemakers were as well positioned to survey swinging London as Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, so there was a certain aptness in using his Immediate label’s roster to illustrate the seismic changes then assailing British pop.

The Changing Of The Guard is effectively a label sampler given documentary trappings by the interspersing, between tracks, of brief interviews with luminaries such as Mick Jagger andDavid Hockney.

But it’s the music that really captures the mood, with heavy hitters like the Small Faces’ acid and speed anthem “Itchycoo Park” and “Here Comes The Nice” and Amen Corner's “If Paradise Is Half As Nice” accompanied by such lesser (but evocative) lights as Vashti Bunyan and Marquess Of Kensington.

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