The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 23/04/11
Ace - "How Long" (1974)
I remember this coming out of the speaker of my three-band Philips tranny from Radio Luxembourg at the end of 1974.
Ace were a band from Sheffield assembled from the remnants of other local outfits, and whose début LP Five-A-Side featured this track. Often thought to be about the break-up of a love affair, the song (written by lead singer Paul Carrack, who went on to greater fame as one of the voices of Mike + The Mechanics) was actually written about when Carrack found out that the band's bass player Terry 'Tex' Comer had been moonlighting with other bands. Comer 'fessed up' and returned to the fold in time to play on this track. Indeed, it's his bass which leads off a piece of perfect 'blue-eyed soul' which sounds as good today as it did thirty-six (sheesh!) years ago.
The video clip isn't that interesting or relevant, but it does give the guy who uploaded it the chance to show us that he has a really spiffy turntable:
