Even in his 80s, Auger still has the energy to light up a chunk of LA which has been his home since the late 1970s, which is when this run of Oblivion Express albums essentially takes us to. All six studio albums are captured, the eponymous debut, A Better Land, Second Wind, Closer To It, Straight Ahead and Reinforcements. The two volumes of live material are not on board.

In marking a break from the Trinity’s huge success (much based on Julie Driscoll’s earnest vox and ultra-hip image), Oblivion’s debut plugged into the emergent jazz rock scene with Jim Mullen rocking out as a quasi-McLaughlin. Which may surprise contemporary fans of Jim! Auger takes vocals, but he’d be the first to concede he never cut it as a singer, even when the band veered to a pastoral psychedelia on A Better Land. Mullen’s old mucker Alex Ligertwood brought more vocal clout to Second Wind. When that incarnation fell apart, Ligertwood splitting to Paris because apparently his wife preferred living there (what, better than Brian’s beloved Shepherd’s Bush?), Auger picked up more on the soul grooves of Marvin Gaye. With Jack Mills being more of a rhythm man than Mullen, the move made sense and caught the ears of an American audience, especially with a richer percussion vibe from the likes of Lennox Laington.

By the time of Straight Ahead the Express were opening for Herbie’s Headhunters and climbing up both the US jazz and R&B charts. Ligertwood was back for Reinforcements (dig those crazy tank tops on the cover!) with Moogs and string machines to the fore. And that kind of sealed the Oblivion Express experience; a further dalliance with Driscoll was to come - and it’s a trifle rum for the sleeve notes to consign Driscoll to ‘obscurity’ from 1969. Her long association with (not the least) Keith Tippett belies such misinformation. As for Augur, the fires didn’t die, but having settled Stateside with a young family, it would be the late 1980s before his light shone again. But that, indeed, is another story.