Back to August 2008 QMH

Fresh - Out of Borstal

The LP "Out of Borstal" by Fresh was released in 1970, with very gay lyrics, produced by the very gay
Simon Napier-Bell , who managed such bands as The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Boney M, Wham and a
number of other groups. He also managed Peter Sarstedt, who wrote "And the Boys Lazed on the Verandah."

The album was one of the first to be released on a major label, in this case RCA, to have songs dealing
lyrically with homosexuality. Borstal is the name the English give to their juvenile prisons, so perhaps
that lent itself to the subject matter.

above, the song wasn't on YouTube, so I did a video slide show and put it there

and, (Dec 2018) someone uploaded the entire album on YouTube

Fresh was Roger Chantler, Kevin Francis and Robert Gorman
Produced by Simon Napier-Bell and Ray Singer

Below, recent article from Mojo, by Martin Aston

And The Boys Lazed on the Verandah

Trivia: the song was also recorded by, of all people, Lou Christie probably around 1971...but it did not see
the light of day until it was included on the Buddah label retrospective out of the UK on him in 1992.

And I found another artist recorded the song, practically an unknown one named Steve Douglas,
on his album "Reflections" on a Florida label from (I'm guessing) around 1977
Hear the Track