Nice Records Reissues Early Humble Pie Albums

In the late summer of 2025 the specialty-record label Nice Records – on fairly short notice – delivered two very special reissues for fans of late-‘60s/early ‘70s guitar rock. (Have you heard of this U.K.-based label yet? They just might be one to watch!) These were remastered editions of the glorious first two albums by the original line-up of the pioneering British blues and hard-rock quartet, Humble Pie.

Through mid-to-late-1969 the band – which included legendary guitarists/vocalists Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton, drummer Jerry Shirley, and bassist Greg Ridley – had released their first two albums in short succession before year’s end. Pie’s soulful and hard-rocking debut, As Safe As Yesterday Is, had come out in August of that year on the Immediate Records label, co-owned by the former Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Tony Calder. And then, a mere three months later, the label rushed out the band’s somewhat more rootsy and acoustic-flavored second album, Town and Country. But those endearing traces of Stones-y grit, prog-minded flavor and psychedelic ornamentation remained.

The band – with nearly all of their then-still-young members already chart-tested in successful British pop-rock bands – were freshly out of the nest and finding their wings on tour in the U.S., warming up for more household music names just as that second album had come out. (After a few buzz-making live shows on home soil, they had even christened themselves with that self-effacing name hopefully to defuse all of the British music-press hype that they were another heavenly-appointed supergroup in the year of splashy debuts by Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills & Nash.)

So there they were: A band full of charismatic songwriters and performers hatched from previous British bands like The Small Faces (Marriot), Spooky Tooth (Ridley) and The Herd (Frampton), with two back-to-back albums under their belt, and suddenly opening for The Kinks, among others. Their future seemed most sunny and clear, suitable for high flying. Double-plus good, right? 

Not at all, as it turned out. Much to their dismay, HP had returned home in fine spirits from their fall stint in the States around the New Year’s holiday at the rollover into 1970, only to face the unhappy news from Oldham that Immediate would be shutting down. Immediately!

To say the least, much turbulence ensued. But, within only a few months, Pie found themselves nicely re-homed with Los Angeles-based A&M Records, their home base for several albums through 1975, when the first Pie era ended. Their first mainstream album of all-new songs on A&M – simply titled Humble Pie – came out in July 1970. That was some fast footwork, in any case, and the opening of a whole ‘nother chapter.

Truly, all of that which came after this first scary pass for the plucky Pie members is a story for the rock history books and box set liner notes, but these first two HP albums are so often left out of the story or only mentioned in passing. (In 1972-73, A&M did pair up the two LPs up in the double-disc package, Lost and Found, so some effort had been made at bringing audiences up to date. Fyi, it does still seem to exist out in the online world, but, trust us, there’s really no need to look for it now.).

Now, thanks to the efforts of Kenney Jones – veteran rock drummer from The Small Faces/Faces and The Who, and now founder of the archival-minded Nice Records – and surviving former Pie members Shirley and Frampton, these albums have not only been re-released but also remastered to an audio quality previously unheard. And, luckily, in the case of the deluxe CD versions, both albums have also been generously expanded with previously unknown bonus tracks. So, as it seems to us here at Grateful Web, these two collections – to paraphrase the lyrics of Pie’s first hit single – have “got it where you’ll find it. . .if you know what we mean.”

We recently had the privilege of getting some first-hand insight from longtime Pie drummer and co-keeper of the HP flame, Jerry Shirley, about the band’s struggles in that early transitional stage. And, as he explained, the successful restorations of the albums that Jones undertook hinged upon locating the real master tapes, not the slower- speed, more noisy second- or third-generation dubs from which all versions of the first album had come. And this is where both he and co-founding Pie guitarist Frampton came into the picture with Jones and his label on this project. (Sadly, their fellow former Pie bandmates Marriott and Ridley are both now deceased.)

“Peter and I simply oversaw the whole process by listening to the remastering and giving our input where it was needed,” Shirley said in a recent email exchange with Grateful Web. “However, the high quality of the work that the Nice Records’ engineers did was always spot-on. We also got involved in the packaging in general, and contributed wherever we could. I think that when the original artist is involved, it always gives the project a sense of legitimacy.”

It’s helpful to look back at the dissolution of Immediate Records more closely to understand why these new packages – which include regular and limited-edition collectible vinyl versions, as well as the expanded CD versions with copious amounts of historical notes and images – are no ordinary reissues. 

In fact, Nice Records – which Kenney Jones had launched in 2021 – had gone into hibernation for a while after a few years of operation. But Jones re-launched the label this past summer with a special focus on archival recordings from two particular Immediate artists – his old band Small Faces and label mates Humble Pie – to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Immediate’s founding in 1965. So these two Pie albums have gotten the full spotlight.

In the case of the HP guys, the relaunch is especially beneficial. First, because Pie didn’t have the advantage of a proper first rollout of these two albums, many American rock music fans didn’t get the chance to be properly introduced to the band’s earliest work back in the day. HP’s first breakthrough in the U.S. hadn’t really come until FM rock stations had begun to air tracks from their mid-1970 A&M debut, Humble Pie. And soon after that – in 1971 – their next two albums, Rock On, and the legendary live double LP later in the year, Performance – Rockin’ the Fillmore, earned them their hard-rock stripes among worldwide rock fans, though not always a full, warm welcome from music critics. 

And, second, because an interim production master had been used for the pressing of the original Yesterday album instead of the highest-quality final master, the audio quality of the album was actually not up to industry standards. (Think flatter, hissier and murkier.) This is an error that has plagued all previous releases of the debut album. Indeed, it’s an error that Nice Records has fixed beautifully, however, helping to reveal all of the album’s hidden depth for posterity.

As Safe As Yesterday Is had already suffered from a delay of several months from its recording in early 1969, no thanks to legal issues related to certain Pie members’ previous label contracts. And the vinyl Town and Country had never even been distributed in the U.S. officially. This was due to it having been released so close to the end of Immediate’s existence, and only in the U.K. at that. (Some scattered U.K. imports of T&C had somehow made it to some independent music stores in the U.S., but that was seemingly as good as the label could manage. This writer can verify that, because he scored a sealed copy at an “underground” music store in Cincinnati back in the day, toward the end of 1971.) 

With the increasingly gritty rock sounds of Pie’s A&M albums – especially after Frampton’s solo departure in 1971, these more dynamic and melodic first two albums had seemingly fallen through the cracks. And yet, per Shirley, the two LPs would surface time and again in short-term reissues and various unlicensed reprints. (Of course, there was that now-out-of-print A&M double-LP version, but always beware of such stickers as “Made in Germany” on any “imports”, Shirley cautioned.)

“The timeline of who owned the rights ever since Immediate folded is long and varied,” Shirley pointed out. “It went from EMI to several other non-paying, rip-off people before they were found to be available by Kenney years ago. [So he] employed a top ‘legal eagle’ who finally got the rights to the Small Faces’ [Marriott’s former band, also on Immediate] and HP catalogues, and that’s when we all started to get paid.”

And, next up, Jones formed Nice Records, Shirley added, and that opened the next door for them. “Years went by until Kenney again found that, through his financial advisors, he [could buy] the rights to both catalogues and, hence, [we have] the start of Nice. We owe Kenney a debt of gratitude for his diligence in this long process.”

Shirley also cleared up some confusion that has been reported about the sourcing for the two HP albums. In spite of some reporting, he said the audio quality issue was limited to the debut album, Yesterday. In addition, he explained that the original problem had also been discovered quite accidentally.

“We didn’t spot it until it was released in the States as we were busy working on the live show,” said the founding Pie member, noting how fast things had been moving for the band in later 1969. “As far as we knew, the sound quality of the original master copies of the first album was great. However, when Andrew [Oldham] went to NYC with the original 15-ips [inches per second] master stereo tapes to cut them to vinyl [for pressing in the U.S.], they were somehow lost in transit.” 

Shirley then pointed out that Oldham had called Frampton to ask for another copy, but his copy was a 7.5-ips-speed dub made for home listening only. The fact that it had reportedly been overplayed and worn didn’t help matters, either.

“This was sent to Andrew,” Shirley explained. “And, apparently, it was used to make the vinyl disc. Peter didn’t know that is what the 7.5-ips copy was being used for. This was only true about the first album. Town and Country was fine.” 

The first Pie song that most people would have likely heard at the time – the Chuck Berry-inspired shuffle, “Natural Born Bugie” – had also been recorded in the Andy Johns-led sessions for Town and Country. That came after the Yesterday  sessions, which producer Johns had also overseen earlier that year at a different studio, but that song had been released as a single just before the August 1969 release of Yesterday.

So, for the eventual pressing of the U.S. version of Yesterday, pulling the song “Growing Closer” – penned by the late, great Small Faces/Faces’ keyboardist Ian McLagan – made room for “Bugie”, which had reached #4 in the U.K. charts even before Yesterday could be released. (ASAYI itself reached #16 in the U.K. album charts soon after that, even without the hit track on it.) And “Bugie” was also retitled “Natural Born Woman” on the U.S. release, reflecting the actual lyric of the song’s refrain.

“‘Bugie’ was a one-off session that was done at Morgan Studios, the same studio [in London] where we recorded Town and Country,” Shirley said, explaining the sequence of events in that topsy-turvy time. “As soon as Andrew heard it, he said, ‘That’s the single!’ We weren’t looking to make a single – It just happened that way. ‘Wrist Job’[the flip-side to the single, and included on the expanded CD version of Yesterday] was also recorded that day. It became the B-side – it was my favourite track. The first album was recorded at Olympic Studios. So that might also have something to do with the difference between the two albums sound-wise.”

What the two albums reflect – being heard anew at this vantage point, nearly 60 years after their production and release – is that this was a young, innovative and energetic band, charging into their future with great confidence. And even by email these days, Shirley clearly seems to be beaming when he talks about it.

“We wanted Town and Country to be released as soon as possible because we loved what we had done,” Shirley said fondly of his band’s accomplishment of weaving together ballads, rustic Americana roots, a Buddy Holly cover and more driving original guitar songs into a highly listenable whole. “They were all recorded in chronological order. Yesterday  came first, then T&C with the session for what became the single done while we were recording T&C.”

As I can personally recall from my own experience of hearing Yesterday as a teenager in early 1970, I fell in love on first spin with the band’s stirring and dynamic sound – full of passion, humor, pain and electricity. It was rock ’n’ roll but with a strongly experimental and progressive attitude, shared lead vocals and bright harmonies, and interwoven guitars and keyboards, soaring Who-like open jams, plus bright flashes of Revolver-era Beatles psychedelia. And aside from bassist Greg Ridley’s time in Spooky Tooth, I had almost no awareness of the band members’ previous work at the time. So my ears and mind were impressionable, and I was hearing them fresh, with no judgmental filters. And I thought they were magnificent!

For example, the title track “As Safe As Yesterday Is” – which ends Side 1 – is a masterful, three-part, Frampton-flavored, art-folk-rock story song. It pulls you right in with its crashing drum intro, and keeps you there with its cascading piano and organ parts, thrilling dual-lead vocals and harmonies, finger-style guitar minstrel interlude with a dash of tablas and sitar, and ripping guitar-duel finale. It was easily my first favorite song on the album. In fact, it still is!

Before I took on this project of writing about these new Pie reissues, I was most lucky to have located a copy of the freshly-restored LP version of ASAYI at a local independent record store near my home in Cincinnati. (The owner congratulated me on getting it and said I was lucky, because “it might be a while” before he’d get more in stock. Mostly, the reissues are available by order from the Nice Records – website: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk.)

Soon, I had this LP on my turntable and turned it up loud (the best way to hear it!). When the full band exploded over the top of the burbling Hammond organ chords of the opening track – a still-stunning cover of Steppenwolf’s “Desperation” – time melted away and I was 16 all over again! 

From there the album formatting – which at least for the U.S. version includes “Natural Born Bugie” – flowed along exactly in the same order as that first U.S. version, through a wide variety of emotional and electrical states and harmonic modes. And it all sounded so crisp and soul-stirring and inspiring. Even better than the first time, all those years ago, if my memory serves me well!

I also know from first-hand experience exactly what Jerry Shirley meant about the “rip-offs”, because in the mid-CD era of the late ‘90s I had acquired copies of both Yesterday and Town and Country as so-called import CDs. (“Imports”, you say? Maybe so, maybe not.) 

Obviously, in hindsight, I can see and hear from this new reissue of Yesterday that the old “import” CD version suffered from being an inferior transfer. The older import CD of Town and Country, also in my collection, had sounded better overall than the old Yesterday CD. Yet, there were moments of distortion and clipping in the peaks on songs like the dramatic, bass-propelled, multi-section album closer, “Home and Away,” on that T&C version that were all too obvious on headphones. 

Happily, I can report that while I have not heard the reissue version of T&C yet, my first listen to the new Yesterday was on audiophile headphones, and it was everything that Shirley has promised. So we can presume that the reissued version of T&C sounds equally stunning, minus those nagging distorted bits.

In conclusion, Shirley notes that with Nice Records plus Frampton and him all working together, they could ensure that everything in the reissues would be top quality. And that means everything – the restored audio quality, the completeness of the expanded CD versions, and all the liner notes and archival photos. And, he proudly added, especially for this reason of striving to keep it 100% authentic, none of the performances was altered in any way.

“No parts or vocals were corrected,” Shirley confirmed, noting that the original performances were preserved intact, minus any state-of-the-art – ahem – ‘improvements’. “All blemishes that were fixable were fixed. It was only the EQ balance and clarity that was worked on. [But] at no time was AI used on the project. We wouldn’t have condoned it!”

If your interest in Steve Marriott should extend backward in time to his Small Faces-era with his then-bandmates Kenney Jones, Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan, then you’ll definitely want to explore the Nice Records’ website more in your spare time. Part of Jones’ Immediate Records 60th celebration also includes a special archival reissue from that band – a three-LP box set titled The Autumn Stone, thanks to his locating of those long-missing master tapes. 

In addition, you’ll also find several other collections from Jones’ old band with Marriott that you can order there, including a pre-order of the band’s classic but long-overlooked 1968 psychedelic album, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake, set for March 2026 release in multiple formats.

Exploring the offerings and signing up for the newsletter on the Nice Records’ site is a good way to learn about another golden era of British pop music and to better trace Steve Marriott’s evolution from a U.K. pop phenomenon into Humble Pie’s own nuclear reactor.

 *************

For more information or to purchase any of the Humble Pie reissues from Nice Records, please see the following:

Humble Pie Official website: https://humblepieofficial.com

Nice Records website: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk