Affinity

English jazz-rock outfit Affinity put out just a solitary album and a lone single across their short span, yet the material stands as a key snapshot of the psychedelic rock and progressive fusion that the group and similar acts pursued in the early 1970s. Collectors drawn to deeply hidden psychedelic relics still prize the band, and although the self-titled 1970 LP represented their sole output during their active years, later archivists assembled several compilations drawn from surviving tapes. Cherry Red Records issued a four-disc remastered and expanded edition in 2021 that gathered live recordings alongside assorted rarities.

The ensemble coalesced in the late 1960s from a jazz trio of science undergraduates at the University of Sussex—Lynton Naiff on keyboards, Nick Nicholas on upright bass, and Grant Serpell on drums. Mo Foster soon stepped in for Nicholas, after which guitarist Mike Jupp and vocalist Linda Hoyle completed the lineup. Hoyle’s blues-tinged delivery supplied distinctive character to the ensemble’s fusion of jazz virtuosity with psychedelic experimentation. Affinity secured a Vertigo contract that yielded the self-titled 1970 album, whose track list featured bold reinterpretations of material by Bob Dylan and the Everly Brothers plus one selection whose brass arrangement was penned by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Critics responded favorably, the band maintained a busy live schedule, yet the unit dissolved soon after the record appeared and its members pursued separate musical paths. In subsequent decades Affinity joined the ranks of lesser-known progressive groups whose LPs became collector targets. Unreleased material from the group’s archives surfaced gradually, resulting in multiple releases that compiled instrumentals, concert performances, and further curiosities.