T2

With a sonic blend encompassing baroque pop's elaborate melodies, hard rock's forceful guitars, progressive rock's elaborate arrangements, and psychedelia's atmospheric haze, T2 existed only briefly during the early 1970s and produced solely one record. Showcasing guitarist Keith Cross's intense style across tracks that influenced subsequent prog acts, It'll All Work Out in Boomland stands as a defining release from that period.

Members of the fleeting psychedelic outfit Bulldog Breed—who put out their lone LP, Made in England, in January 1970—established the group. Seeking a heavier and more forward-looking direction, guitarist Keith Cross and bassist Bernard Jinks recruited drummer Peter Dunton, whose prior credits included stints in Gun and an earlier collaboration with Jinks in Please, to create Morning. After a week of preparation the trio secured immediate live engagements, beginning with a residency at a London café whose audiences responded enthusiastically and helped generate wider attention.

Decca Records inked a deal with them in March 1970, after which the musicians prepared their debut. Although the band advocated releasing a concert recording as their entry into the fragmented 1970 scene, the label favored a conventional studio approach; work commenced in April under producer Peter Johnson, resulting in a compromise that captured most tracks live on the studio floor. The material merged baroque pop elements with weightier textures and extended improvisations that highlighted Cross's emerging virtuosity. Shortly before issuance, the discovery of an existing American act named Morning prompted adoption of the moniker T2. It'll All Work Out in Boomland appeared in late July 1970, prompting an intensive touring schedule that encompassed a residency at the Marquee Club.

T2 managed to lay down demos for a follow-up before Cross exited to launch Sunburst and subsequently partner with Hookfoot's Peter Ross in the duo Cross & Ross. Roadie David Hughes assumed guitar duties, later succeeded briefly by Will Killeen; this configuration dissolved quickly, leading Jinks to depart in early 1971. Dunton assembled fresh personnel—guitarist Andrew Brown and bassist John Weir—and tracked further demos after Decca severed ties, yet no label agreement materialized and the band dissolved by the end of 1972.

It'll All Work Out in Boomland later attained cult status for encapsulating the brief convergence of psychedelia, hard rock, and prog. During the 1990s select DJs incorporated samples from the album, prompting Dunton to revive T2 with Jinks returning on bass; the reconstituted lineup issued Second Bite (1992), Waiting for the Band (1993), and On the Frontline (1994) via the German imprint World Wide, which had also re-released Boomland. Although activity again waned, renewed curiosity ensured both demo collections eventually emerged: the 1971 Cross-era recordings as T.2. in 1997 and the subsequent non-Cross material as 1971-1972 in 2012. Sustained interest culminated in Esoteric Recordings' 2021 remastered edition of the album, augmented by all surviving demos.