We Had To Let You Have It is the only recorded output from Britain’s first all-black rock band Noir, a band which broke up before the album was released.
We Had To Let You Have It a low-key release with above average guitar work. A melt of soul, R&B, rock, blues rock
formula, with minor incursions into jazz and hints of protoprog. In their short career Noir had gigs opening up for the Rolling Stones and Cream. It’s an unpolished version of the Chambers Brothers and Rare Earth due to the drums and fuzz.
In 1970 the band had spent ages recording this undisputable miracle for the label ‘Dawn’ (that was the label of Mungo Jerry also). How did they get there, and where from, is still a mystery. The band split before completing the album, and vanished from the studio - all attempts to discover their whereabouts failed. The music was too good to be left on a shelf and the label released it anyway, hence the album title We Had To Let You Have It.
The tracks are sometimes funky, sometimes smoky and inspirited, sometimes a tribal percussive thing pops up, all the cuts have a deep soulful feeling and the guitar playing is above reproach.
