Eric Bell on Astral Weeks (No. 1/100)

"It’s just a brilliant album, one of those albums that was always meant to be. I played with Van briefly for about three months when I was a guitar player in a short-lived version of Them. But this was completely different when it came out - songs like ‘Cyprus Avenue’ are just brilliant.

"What I really like about it was the fact that it has all-acoustic instruments - there’s nothing electric on it. Some of the songs, like ‘Madam George’ and ‘Beside You’ had been done a few years earlier in a kind of a Bob Dylan style with swirling organs and electric guitars. On Astral Weeks he uses the Modern Jazz Quartet as his band and the songs come across much better.

"It’s timeless. I still play it from time to time and it still sound brilliant."