Dutch band Alquin were originally influenced by early British prog, but most of the material here is straight hard rock with prog and glam moves not far removed from the vastly more popular Golden Earring.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Alquin
ALBUM: Nobody Can Wait Forever
LABEL: Polydor
SERIAL: 2925 030
YEAR: 1975
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Netherlands
LINEUP: Ferdinand Bakker – guitar, piano, vocals * Ronald Ottenboff – alto sax, flute * Michel Van Dijk- lead vocals * Dick Franssen – organ, electric piano, moog synthisizer * Hein Mars – bass * Paul Weststrate – drums, percussion * Job Tarveskeen – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 New Guinea Sunrise, a) Sunrise b) Wake Me Up * 02 Mr Widow * 03 Stranger a) Stranger b) You Might As Well Fall * 04 Darling Superstar * 05 Farewell Miss Barcelona * 06 Wheelchair Groupie * 07 Revolution’s Eve a) Revolution’s Theme b) Nobody Can Wait Forever
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Alquin were a moderately successful Dutch band that never really seemed to click off their native soil, yet on their first two highly regarded albums ‘Marks’ and ‘The Mountain Queen’ they were strongly influenced by the British/Canterbury sounds of Soft Machine and Caravan.
Big tours followed in the UK with fellow countrymen Golden Earring and pop rockers Blue, not to mention a huge French tour with The Who but the hits were not coming on either side of the channel and like so many prog bands caught in the flux of the mid-1970’s, a change was needed.
Enter ex- Brainbox and Ekseption vocalist Michel Van Dijk and a more rocked-up sound recorded at Dave Edmunds‘s Rockfield Studios in rural Wales where Hawkwind, Budgie and Queen had previously plied their trade.
The Songs
‘Nobody Can Wait Forever’ is their third album, and it did a reasonable amount of business. This was clearly an attempt to break the band in a big way.and was even picked up in the U.S. by the monolithic RCA label. Lilting organ with bits of mid-tempo guitar weaving between languid sax on the opening couple minutes of two-part ‘New Guinea Sunrise’ could draw comparisons to Roxy Music as does the album sleeve.
But most of the material here is just straight hard rock with prog and glam moves not far removed from the vastly more popular (and talented) Golden Earring. The songs while pleasant enough just don’t have that snap, crackle and pop typical of so much Dutch rock from this era although the T Rex-ish ‘Darling Superstar’ and the minor hit ‘Wheelchair Groupie’ push a couple of this reviewers buttons.
In Summary
A fourth album ‘Best Kept Secret’ released a year later was of little interest with even weaker songs. While the band have occasionally reformed, toured and even put out a small brace of studio albums as well as several unnecessary ‘best of’ packages in the years since, I’ve never been excited enough to give them a go.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
