Colosseum were a prog band formed by former members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Graham Bond Organisation. This was their only single.

In my school days I remember some of the older boys spoke in awed tones bands with names like Mountain, Iron Butterfly and Colosseum. I don’t remember ever actually hearing any of them; they all seemed the antithesis of my Glam idols and archetypal “albums bands” who sneered at the notion of releasing a single – let alone having a hit.

Nevertheless, in their early days Colosseum did release a solitary single – and this is it. It’s a pretty decent example of those bands from the British blues boom of the early ’60s who began to embrace the emergent noodlings of prog.

Walking In The Park is mercifully noodle-free, being built on a driving R&B rhythm written by Graham Bond, from whose legendary blues band Colosseum emerged in 1968, but still has room to showcase the organ playing of Dave Greenslade and guitar playing of singer James Litherland.

Colosseum were formed by drummer Jon Hiseman – who I recently saw described as the best drummer of all time – who had replaced Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Organisation, with GBO sax man Dick Heckstall-Smith.

Both had gone on to play in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and now they joined forces with childhood friend Greenslade on organ and bass player Tony Reeves, another teenage mate from South East London.

The lineup was completed by Litherland on guitar and vocals and Jim Roche on lead guitar – though Roche would only record one track, a superb cover of Leadbelly’s Backwater Blues, before moving on.

That, and this, both appear on Colosseum’s debut album Those Who Are About To Die Salute you, subtitled in Latin (Morituri Te Salutant) just to emphasise its prog credentials – though it is pretty prog-free apart from the central 17-minute triptych The Valentyne Suite.

Released in 1969, it was followed later that year by a second album, Valentyne Suite – the first release on the new Vertigo label – before Litherland and Reeve left and Chris Farlowe came in as vocalist, alongside guitarist Clem Clempson and new bassist Mark Clarke – the lineup that recorded their successful 1971 album Colosseum Live.

By 1975 they had evolved into Colosseum II and adopted more of a jazz-fusion sound, with Gary Moore on guitar, while their past members went on to play in a who’s who of bands from Atomic Rooster, Greenslade and Deep Purple to Mountain, Humble Pie and Uriah Heep.