How Can I Live: Complete Recordings (Uk)

Complete anthology of Noel Redding's post-Jimi Hendrix Experience band. Comprises their three albums (one unreleased at the time), non-album single tracks, out- takes, radio and TV sessions as well as the first-ever reissue of the alternative US-only mix of their debut LP. Primarily a songwriting vehicle for former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding, Fat Mattress were launched in a blaze of publicity in the summer of 1969. With Redding (now reverting to his preferred instrument of guitar) joined by former Flower Pot Men singer Neil Landon and ex-Engelbert Humperdinck touring band members Jim Leverton and Eric Dillon, Fat Mattress recorded a fine debut album (actually cut in December 1968) that charted in America. Unfortunately, Redding quit the band midway through a volatile US tour, the rump of the band going on to release a second album without him before he returned to the line-up for a third Fat Mattress LP. But a disagreement with manager Chas Chandler meant that the third album failed to gain a release at the time, and Fat Mattress split again, this time permanently. The final word on a talented but star-crossed band, How Can I Live? assembles everything that they recorded during their brief existence, including BBC radio and German TV sessions as well as the first-ever reissue in any format of the American mix of that impressive debut album.