![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210129060512im_/http://bp2.blogger.com/_z9OnSxr2OHU/SD8kqsxPuBI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/vC-ciKJJuxw/s320/cover.jpg)
From the "If you like Pigbag" department, here is the only album by Vital Excursions,
Give! (1982). Vital Excursions was led by saxophonist/flautist
Tony Wrafter, and had a Pigbag-style lineup of:
- Voice: Angela Stewart
- Kit: Dan Sheals
- Bass: Moen Parera
- Viola: Sara Sarahandi
- Bass Violin (isn't that a cello?): Pete Brandt
- Piano: Fiona Fleck
- Congas: Steve Lewis
- Trombone: John Fairbrother
- Percussion: Paul (Nellie) Hooper
There is a real, albeit circuitous, relationship to Pigbag as well: Wrafter had been a member of Maximum Joy, which included former members of The Pop Group (John Waddington and Dan Catsis), while Pigbag also included a former Pop Group member (Simon Underwood). Wrafter and Catsis were also both members of the Glaxo Babies, as was fellow Maximum Joy member Charlie Llewellin. Clear as mud.
Give! is sometimes listed as a mini-LP because it contains just six songs. It's actually a full-length album, though, because the track that takes up all of side two, "Going to the Give", is over eighteen minutes long. It combines rock and Eastern musical styles, prefiguring Eric Random's
Ishmael LP which came out three years later. The five songs on side one sound like Pigbag for the most part, with the exception of the mellow jazz "In the Swim." So if you like Pigbag, get the Vital Excursions vinyl rip
here or
here.