The Sorrows Pink Purple Yellow And Red - The Complete Sorrows (4-CD Box)

(Grapefruit Records) 94 tracks

The 4CD set Pink Purple Yellow And Red, housed in a clamshell box and featuring a lavish booklet with many rare photos and a detailed essay on the band's activities, is an essential purchase for anyone with more than a passing interest in sixties British pop.

Coventry band The Sorrows are best known for their 1965 hit, the brooding garage-pop masterpiece 'Take A Heart'. Before frontman Don Fardon left the band in 1966, they recorded a series of similarly vital 45s and the album "Take A Heart".

While Fardon embarked on a solo career, The Sorrows regrouped and relocated to Italy, where they had a few minor hit singles and released the psych-rock album "Old Songs, New Songs" before disbanding at the end of the decade.

While these two distinct phases of the band have been released individually before, Pink Purple Yellow And Red is the first time they have been brought together under one roof, providing the definitive document of The Sorrows' fascinating career.

In addition to the pivotal mid-'60s singles, the package includes the entire "Take A Heart" album in mono and stereo, the "Old Songs, New Songs" LP and an early acetate-based demo album that was scrapped after two band members quit.

The set also includes their collaboration with soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone, their theme song to the Italian spy film Ypotron, a great acetate single from 1968, spin-off singles from The Eggy and Renegade, a live show by the reformed band from 1980 and - in an exciting new archive find - four previously unreleased recordings from 1964 with legendary producer Joe Meek.