Patto's Hold Your Fire Gets Expanded CD Reissue with Four Bonus Tracks

What’s on this edition

• Original album plus six bonus tracks
• 20-page booklet with new, extensive liner notes
• Collectable obi-strip
• Uses the lesser-known North American cover art

Hold Your Fire, the acclaimed second album from British progressive rock band Patto, arrives as an expanded CD reissue on February 27th. Originally issued by Vertigo in December 1971, the record has long been regarded as the band’s finest hour. Drummer John Halsey put it bluntly: “Everybody has their Sgt. Pepper. As far as Patto goes, Hold Your Fire was ours.”

The album showcased guitarist Ollie Halsall’s fluid, jazz‑inflected playing—often likened to saxophone phrasing—and its reputation spread quickly among musicians. It’s been said that there are two albums anyone who thinks they can play guitar should hear: Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and Patto's Hold Your Fire. On a 1972 European tour supporting Ten Years After, Alvin Lee reportedly chose to travel with Patto, allegedly trailing them with a tape recorder to capture Halsall’s blistering solos.

Fronted by Mike Patto—equally at home belting rock anthems or fronting Keith Tippett’s fifty‑piece jazz orchestra Centipede—the band built a reputation for incendiary live shows that mixed heavy rock with Pythonesque humour and music hall detours. Fans included Robert Fripp, Chris Spedding and Eddie Van Halen, who Halsall suggested had studied his playing closely.

Recorded at Island Studios with producer Muff Winwood, Hold Your Fire features many standout moments including the propulsive title cut, the emotionally charged “You, You Point Your Finger,” and the free‑form “Air Raid Shelter.” Halsey singled out “Give It All Away” for some of Halsall’s most breathtaking guitar work: “The guitar solo was just played live as we recorded the track. The solo itself is just awesome.”

This reissue adds six bonuses: studio out‑takes “Bad News” and “Beat The Drum”; an alternate take of “Air Raid Shelter”; early alternate mixes of “Hold Your Fire” and “Tell Me Where You’ve Been” (with completely different lead vocals); and an alternate version of “See You At The Dance Tonight,” making its first official CD appearance. The booklet includes new liner notes on the album’s creation and the band’s legacy.

Despite critical acclaim, Patto never broke through commercially. The band dissolved in 1973; Halsall joined Jon Hiseman’s Tempest before a long association with Kevin Ayers that lasted until his death in 1992. Mike Patto later joined Spooky Tooth and Boxer (with Halsall briefly in the ring) before passing away in 1979 at 36.