Beat Instrumental summed it up in 1971: 'In a few short months Curved
Air have emerged from the unknown depths to become one of the most
talked-about bands around. By a combination of record company promotion
(ranging from ads to that pretty patterned album) and a word-of-mouth
reputation gained from their gigs, the group became a name before they
had really done that much. Such a situation can be worrying for a band
but Curved Air have the confidence to carry on unaffected.' Propelled
into stardom at an exhilarating speed, due to clever marketing and
virtuosity in their musicianship, particularly violinist Darryl Way, the
story of Curved Air in the 1970s is of a band that burned brightly
before collapsing well ahead of their time. Fronted by the exotic Sonja
Kristina, they supported Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Johnny Winter, Edgar
Winter and B.B. King in huge stadiums, and several famous names passed
through their ranks. These included Stewart Copeland who went on to form
the Police with Sting. Every line up of Curved Air presented a stellar
range of talent across a musically fascinating contribution throughout
the decade. This book documents it all - from the groundbreaking albums
like Air Conditioning and Phantasmagoria to the line up changes and
traumas which caused the band to disband for the first time in 1976.
