Harmony pop bordering on popsike. For fans of Tinkerbell's Fairydust, possibly.
Label: Epic (or CBS in the UK)
Year of Release: 1970
Design were a harmony pop outfit who issued a number of singles in the seventies to fairly limited success. The corridors and dressing rooms of light entertainment were filled to the brim with smiling boys and girls teaching the world to sing in those days, so the music business's perseverance was understandable, but it does have to be admitted that their later releases can only be described as 'well performed but typical of that fare'.
Their debut single "Willow Stream" has just enough popsike in its sound to appeal to collectors, though. If you're one of those people who looked at a rare copy of Tinkerbell's Fairydust's LP and actually considered buying it, you'll probably be happy to pick this up for the spare change in your pocket as well. It has a seventies pop bounce which definitely dates it stylistically outside the sixties, but the lyrics and harmonies still have one foot in the previous era. The B-side isn't bad either.
For unknown reasons, copies of this seem slightly easier to obtain in their US demo pressing, which clearly indicates some heavy optimism on behalf of Epic. Oddly, they later went on to promote "Coloured Mile" to the A-side of their next release, but that didn't perform any better.
