Humble Pie ‘As Safe As Yesterday’ & ‘Town and Country’ (2025 Vinyl & CD Reissues)
There are few bands whose legacy feels so rooted in the very DNA of British rock as Humble Pie. Formed in early 1969 by Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley, and Jerry Shirley, the band bridged that fascinating crossroads between late-60s soul-infused blues rock and the harder, heavier sounds that would soon take over the world.
Over the years, many reissues have attempted to do the early Humble Pie catalogue justice — but two crucial albums often stood outside the spotlight: As Safe As Yesterday (1969) and Town and Country (1969).
Both were missing from the otherwise excellent Humble Pie Years box set, and both represent a band discovering its identity in real time.
Now, thanks to Nice Records and the involvement of Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley, both albums have finally been restored, remastered and reissued across a fantastic range of formats — black vinyl, limited-edition coloured vinyl, and beautifully assembled CD editions.
This is exactly the kind of project Now Spinning Magazine loves.
A Little Background: Humble Pie’s First Steps (1969)
Humble Pie debuted at a time when the members were astonishingly young. Jerry Shirley was 16 when he found himself forming a band with Steve Marriott — already a mod icon from The Small Faces — and the hugely talented teenage guitar prodigy Peter Frampton.
The first two Pie albums arrived within 12 weeks of each other in 1969:
As Safe As Yesterday
A proto-hard rock, blues-rock statement with a raw, soulful edge.
Tracks like Stick Shift, Buttermilk Boy, and the title track show the band pushing towards heavier territory.
Steve Marriott’s vocals are already volcanic.
The overall spirit is bold, confident, and way ahead of its time.
Town and Country
A more acoustic, pastoral, and reflective album — the calm after the storm.
More Frampton-led moments, gentler textures, and a wider range of songwriting ideas.
It sounds like an entirely different band, despite arriving only 12 weeks later.
Yet it’s beautifully recorded, richly melodic, and reveals a different side of the Pie.
Within a year, Immediate Records would collapse, and the band would move into the harder blues-rock direction captured so brilliantly on albums like Rock On and Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore.
But these two early albums show Humble Pie in chrysalis form — their DNA exposed, raw and thrilling.
THE REISSUES — Vinyl & CD
Both albums have been restored and remastered with the input of Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley, and it shows. The sound quality is genuinely jaw-dropping: clean, powerful, and startlingly fresh for recordings from 1969.
Nice Records have done a beautiful job across all formats:
Vinyl Editions
⭐ Black Vinyl Editions
Classic look, heavyweight pressing
Original Immediate Records pink labels replicated
Lyric inner sleeves
Fold-out insert with a historical essay by Rob Caiger
Excellent pressing quality — these sound like brand-new recordings
⭐ Coloured Vinyl Editions
For the collectors:
Town and Country – white vinyl (limited to 500 copies – mine is 451!)
As Safe As Yesterday – gold vinyl (limited to 1,000 copies)
Beautiful, but I’ll be honest: white vinyl looks great on the wall, but if you’re like me and hop between tracks, it can be harder to see where the needle is landing. Black vinyl remains my preferred daily-driver.
CD Editions
These are superbly done — among my favourite CD packages of the year.
Mini-LP style sleeves with proper spines
Inner vinyl-replica sleeves for the CDs
Booklets printed on rustic, textured card
Full lyrics
Detailed essays and period photos
Bonus tracks included (unlike the vinyl)
The CD versions give you everything the vinyl offers plus extra songs — a significant advantage for Pie collectors.
SOUND QUALITY — A Revelation
I can’t emphasise this enough: These albums have never sounded this good.
Listening to these reissues, I genuinely had moments where I thought,
“Was this really recorded in 1969?”
Even Martin Popoff, in his writings on early heavy rock, gives both albums remarkably high marks — not purely for heaviness, but for spirit, attitude, and sheer musicality. These reissues finally reveal why.
This is how reissues should be done.
Artist involvement, care for detail, respectful packaging, great mastering, and an obvious love for the music. Nice Records have knocked it out of the park.
For Steve Marriott fans, Peter Frampton fans, Humble Pie fans, vinyl aficionados, and CD collectors alike — these reissues are highly recommended.
If you’re new to early Humble Pie, this is the perfect place to start.
If you already love them, you’re about to fall in love all over again.
Music is the healer and the doctor — take care everyone, and I’ll see you very soon.
Now Spinning Magazine Exclusive Code giving you 20% off.
Enter the code NICESPIN1969
https://www.nicerecords.co.uk/
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
