30 years later, legendary United Empire Loyalists release a CD

Thursday, May 7, 1998

30 years later, legendary United Empire Loyalists release a CD They're 30 years late but Notes From the Underground form a welcome chapter in the growing recorded history of Vancouver rock and roll.

Notes From the Underground is the first album from the legendary United Empire Loyalists, an independent release of 1,000 copies undertaken by two of the group's original members, Jeff Ridley, who funded it, and Rick Enns, who helped Ridley round up the four different source tapes dating from 1968, 1970 and a CBC-filmed reunion concert in 1990.

The "legendary" tag comes from the mystique that has grown up around the group. Although it seemed to be omnipresent in the late 1960s, doing everything from opening for the Grateful Dead at the Pender Ballroom to appearing at teen-run coffeehouses, it was represented by a sole 45 rpm single of No No No (You Don't Love Me).

"If someone would have offered us a contract we would have been thrilled and jumped it," says Ridley. "Back then I think it was more that the record companies thought we had no commercial potential."

In listening to the tapes, the band members discovered that their musical skills and ability to improvise transcended the shortcomings of the recordings. Although part of the record's appeal is its period charm, it is also contemporary with such current jamming bands as Phish or Moe.