MUSIC historians have released a third album of songs recorded by Keighley and Bradford acts over four decades.

The Missing Music 3 and 4 is a double CD of ‘lost’ tracks from bands and solo performers in a range of styles including heavy rock, folk and Goth.

Many of the songs have not been heard for years, but have been rescued from the collections of former band members and fans of yesteryear.

Among Keighley bands featured are Dawnwatcher – the town’s biggest band of the late 70s – thrash outfit Mannix and hard rockers Rattlesnake Shake.

They rub shoulders with better-known acts like Joolz, with War Of Attrition, and top Bradford band Smokie, whose collaboration with Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, Living Next Door To Alice, is also included.

Liz Narey, who occasionally performs at Keighley acoustic nights, has contributed her 1982 recording Ships Out Of Sligo.

The album has been compiled by Gary Cavanagh and Matt Webster, who are halfway through writing a four-volume history of the district’s music scene.

Gary released the first volume of Bradford’s Noise Of The Valleys several years ago, chronicling the golden years of Bradford’s music scene up to the late 1980s.

He last year released a second volume with Matt Webster, covering the 10 years from 1988, and like the first book it included notable events and performers from the Keighley area.

Each volume was accompanied by a CD box set featuring dozens of tracks by many of the bands covered by the books.

Between the two books Gary and Matt released The Missing Music 1 and 2, featuring many of the tracks they could not find before publication.

And now – as the pair continue writing a third Noise Of The Valleys covering the years up to 2009 – they have released a second double album of newly-recovered tracks.

As part his ongoing research, the pair are appealing to Keighley News readers for information on The Pipers and The Undecided who for several years were both major players on the Keighley music scene.

E-mail matt@bradfordnoise.com if you are able to help.

The Noise Of The Valleys books and CDs are on sale at Keighley Musicians Centre in Russell Street.

.