Five-A-Side
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Album Summary
Five-A-Side arrived in 1974 on Anchor Records, introducing the world to a tight-knit quintet out of the UK pub rock scene who called themselves Ace. The band — built around the warm, honey-dipped keyboards and vocals of Paul Carrack alongside Fran Byrne on drums, Alan King and Jon Woodhead on guitars, Tex on bass, and Phil Harris rounding out the sound — brought a loose, lived-in feel to their debut that no amount of studio polish could manufacture. Recorded with an unpretentious, band-in-a-room sensibility that was very much the spirit of pub rock at the time, the album found its way to US audiences through the Anchor label, carrying ten tracks of soulful, groove-oriented rock that felt like a Friday night at your favorite neighborhood spot.
Reception
- The album broke through largely on the strength of 'How Long,' which became a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic and gave Ace a commercial foothold that few of their pub rock contemporaries ever managed to find.
- Critics who caught onto the album recognized it as a warm and unpretentious debut, with Carrack's soulful vocal delivery frequently singled out as a cut above the competition.
- While the album as a whole did not chart with the same muscle as its lead single, 'How Long' gave Five-A-Side a lasting commercial identity and kept the record in circulation well beyond its initial release.
Significance
- Five-A-Side stands as one of the more beloved artifacts of the British pub rock movement, a genre that prized honest musicianship and soulful feeling over glam spectacle, and Ace delivered that ethos about as purely as anyone.
- Paul Carrack's performance on this record announced him as one of the genuinely distinctive blue-eyed soul voices of his generation, a reputation that would follow him through decades of acclaimed work well beyond this debut.
- 'How Long,' nestled at the heart of this album's Side A, became one of the defining tracks of the mid-seventies soft rock landscape, demonstrating that the pub rock scene could produce music with real mainstream emotional resonance.
Samples
- "How Long" — one of the most recognized tracks from the pub rock era to find a second life in sample-based music, drawn upon by producers for its warm keyboard groove and soulful melodic hook.
Tracklist
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A1 Sniffin' About 149
4:44
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A2 Rock & Roll Runaway 172
3:06
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A3 How Long 123
3:21
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A4 The Real Feeling 120
2:23
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A5 24 Hours 101
4:00
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B1 Why? —
3:43
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B2 Time Ain't Long 132
3:53
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B3 Know How It Feels 133
3:27
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B4 Satellite 176
3:28
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B5 So Sorry Baby 155
3:54
Artist Details
Ace burst onto the mid-seventies rock scene with a smooth blend of melodic pop sensibility and polished guitar work that made their 1974 debut a quiet gem of the era. The British band, led by the silky songwriting touch of Phil Harris, gave the world the irresistibly breezy classic How Long, a track so effortlessly cool it practically had its own heartbeat. Though they never quite captured that commercial lightning twice, Ace left behind a groove that true music lovers still reach for when the night calls for something real and unhurried.
