Blog: Thanks to magic of iTunes, the Bubble rises once more

And that's exactly what has happened with the charming, quintessentially English folk-rock of the 1970s Shrewsbury band, Paper Bubble.

Okay. Just humour me here. Let me take you back almost 40 years. Picture, dear reader, the scene . . .

Harold Wilson is busy inside Number 10 Downing Street fretting about what will turn out to be the last months of his second period as Prime Minister. Meanwhile we youngsters wonder who will be on Top Of The Pops this week. Will it be Mud, 10cc, the Bay City Rollers or (heaven forbid!) Windsor Davies and Don Estelle with their unforgettable rendition of Whispering Grass?

Yes, this is 1975, and my mates, in their flared jeans and hideous round-collared shirts, are up at the bar getting in the pints of lager and lime as we prepare for an evening of live music. As a sort of modest excitement builds in the hall, faded Regency grandeur is all about us at this most exquisite venue: The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, an 18th century coaching inn at the heart of Shropshire's gorgeous county town.

Paper Bubble take to the stage – cheery local lads with acoustic guitars – and the sound they make is heart-stoppingly lovely.

Now, because Brian Crane (lead singer-songwriter of Paper Bubble) and myself share a great love for our home town of Shrewsbury, and because, as I discover later, we grew up on the very same street in the Victorian suburb of Castlefields (and our dads knew each other very well), I quickly develop a feeling of connection to this man with the angelic voice. Here's a guy who (just like me) grew up in North Street, within the shadow of All Saints Church. And yet he sings and plays guitar and writes songs. Wow!

It was (and, as a matter of fact, still is) exciting to think this creative force, this recording artist, grew up in the very same street as me.

For a moment or two in pop history Brian's band were labelmates of the mighty Moody Blues. Paper Bubble's debut album was produced by two of The Strawbs. And they worked alongside the likes of Thin Lizzie, Ralph McTell and Pentangle.

So whatever happened to Paper Bubble?

Well, the ins and outs of all that are rather too complicated to go into here, but – like a thousand other bands – they eventually split and – like a thousand other bands – were largely forgotten.

But not by me.

And not by a small but perfectly formed group of admirers.

And, for the likes of us, it really is very good news indeed that the Bubble is rising again.

In a nutshell, Paper Bubble's music is now available not only on CD but also, as of just a few weeks ago, as a download from iTunes and Amazon.

After long negotiations, the group's enchanting debut album, Scenery, was finally released on CD in 2008. Then Scenery – which sometimes reminds you of lesser known Hollies tracks and sometimes makes you picture an English version of Simon & Garfunkel – was released on Apple iTunes and Amazon download. This was followed last year by the release of Brian's solo long-player, Old Town, on CD.

Brian says: "Then, early this year I was approached by the download publisher Transistor Music who has released Scenery (they're a subsidiary of Cherry Red Music who released the CDs) with a view to releasing Old Town and also Coming Home, Some Things Seem So Right, and Nothing Comes Easy – all on Apple and Amazon.

"This was agreed and Old Town came out in March. They are still having great difficulty with the master tapes of Paper Bubble's LP, Prisoners Victims Strangers Friends because money is having to be spent on their remastering."

But, frankly, it is something of a little miracle that any of the work of Paper Bubble is once again seeing the light of day, and perhaps even finding a whole new audience. Because – with the greatest of respect to Brian and his old mates, Paper Bubble were never a supergroup, never the kind of band to have a chapter to themselves in the history of popular music.

They were, however, one of those groups a select few of us took to our hearts. And I think it's fantastic that at least some of their output is available once more.