- Label: 'Think Like A Key Music'
- Genre: 'Seventies'
- Release Date: '27.2.26.'- Catalogue No: 'TLAK1232'
Our Rating:
This is the 55th Anniversary re-issue of Patto's landmark album Hold Your Fire originally recorded for Vertigo Records and an album John Peel continued to play songs from on his shows for the rest of his life, while going on about how amazing Olly Halsall's guitar playing was, he was playing alongside Mike Patto, Clive Griffiths and John Halsey. The album was recorded at Island Studios produced by Muff Winwood and engineered by Brian Humphries and Richard Digby Smith it has been re-mastered by Prof. Stoned. This version comes with 6 bonus songs. This album reminds me just how happy I was to get to see Olly Halsall playing live a few times, mainly with John Cale.
The album opens with the title song Hold Your Fire and with some very tasty guitar from Olly Halsall, while Mike Patto's vocals plead with you not to shoot them, they want to be fed and find a way to live peacefully, while sounding like Little Feat chasing the American Dream that was shattering in the early 70's to the backdrop of Vietnam, they complain of being stopped and searched for no good reason, making this song seem like it could have been written about 2026, please don't shoot them. They explain the Hippy dream of Krishna and making beads and friendship bracelets to get by.
You, You Point Your Finger is bitter thoughts for the father of his girlfriend, who calls Mike a Junkie and long-haired no-good hippy, without looking at themselves, all the horror you were involved in as a soldier, this is thought provoking, with choral backing vocals and a slow restrained backing. making sure to get all your points across, that the dirty no good hippy is probably a more moral and honest person than the pillar of the establishment figure looking down his nose at you, when the bass and guitar joust it is remarkably fluid and precise.
How's Your Father is an apology to the maid for the mess his night of passion has left behind, he feels out of his league in this gilded cage, with the aftermath of over indulgence causing problems while the guitar solos away to soothe his embarrassment at being told to wait outside, feeling like he didn't belong in scenarios that are the other way round to Pulps Common People.
See You At The Dance Tonight is a perfect line to throw at a girl you fancy, this has a laid-back Faces style feel to the swaggering rock & roll they are playing and with Olly going to town on his mesmeric solo. If you say no, he will just mosey on down the road again, so don't walk all over him or before you know it The Quireboys will want to re-write this into a hit.
Give It All Away is the hippy/John Lennon dictum that a life without possessions is where it's at, while they are making clear that you don't need possessions in the middle of a war zone, no matter what philosophy you espouse war is always wrong, Olly unleashes a devastating solo of remarkable intensity.
Air Raid Shelter features some fluid jazz guitar with the slow thoughtful vocals making clear what went down in that Air Raid Shelter, the sort of tale my nan would endlessly go on about. Then John Halsey’s drum solo is almost Elvin Jones like in its fluidity.
Tell Me Where You Been that oft heard accusation when your partner comes home far too late, what have you been up too, did you get arrested, with sinuous jazz folk backing and Mike's nicely throaty vocals, throwing endless barbs at the object of his ire, he just wants you out of his life.
The original album closed with Magic Door that opens with a long cymbal intro to Olly Halsall's Vibraphone accenting this tale of what happens through that Magic Door, he is dizzy and high, his heart thumping and he's come up on some wicked drugs, he doesn't know if your real or another hallucination.
The first of the bonus songs is Beat The Drum (Outtake) a Jazz rock fusion song built around some Hamptonesque Vibes playing with free jazz drumming allowing Mike to extemporise about why he won't take the kings shilling when they beat the drum, in a far softer way than The Clash told the youth not to hear the call, this is still a crucial message to not join the military or to fight in pointless wars.
Bad News keeps the fusion jazz rock feel, for just how twisted up they feel at hearing too much Bad News, that is always a drag and makes them sad, something we can all relate too in the 2020's, the good news however is Olly takes a majestic solo to raise your spirits.
Air Raid Shelter (Alt take) is slower than the album version with Olly seeming to try to marry Gabor Szabo with Jose Feliciano with an intense drum flight from John Halsey. Hold Your Fire (Alt Version) is two minutes shorter than the album version, being a Muff Winwood production I wonder just how many takes it took to get right, the message of how screwy the American dream had become in the era of Vietnam becomes clear, while Olly does his stuff to jaw dropping effect, it is shocking how current most of the lyrics to this song sound in 2026.
Tell Me Where You Been (Alt Version) is stripped back almost like a guide version that allows the bitter twisted recriminations seem all the angrier, while the laid-back acrobatics of Olly's guitar and the super minimal drumming seem to be trying to soothe his battered ego.
See You At The Dance Tonight (alt Take) has a full on Small Faces Swagger to it, with all the charm and bonhomie of the louchest Rolling Stones songs fused with some proper Psychedelic guitar magnificence.
Find out more at https://www.thinklikeakey.com/release/567938-patto-hold-your-fire-2026-remaster https://thinklikeakey.bandcamp.com/album/hold-your-fire-2026-remaster
