Comments:

It was a difficult task to follow up on such a special number as "Friday on my Mind", and Vanda / Young did not have the right song ready soon enough. "Good Times" would have been the perfect number to establish the group, which would thus have been able to follow up further on the success with more of the potential hits that Harry Vanda and George Young at an impressive pace wrote and recorded with the Easybeats. This could have been songs like "Bring a Little Lovin '", "Lay Me Down and Die" and "The Shame Just Drained".

Their first "European album" "Good Friday" from 1967 was quite solid, but a bit uneven. The same can unfortunately be said about "Vigil". Before this album was released in June 1968, the group had actually already recorded a sequel to "Good Friday". The album with a working title "Good Times", was dropped for various reasons, and new recordings were started in late 1967 and early 1968. George Young and Harry Vanda were incredibly productive and ambitious at the same time, and "Vigil" does contain many of the group's finest recordings. But there are also too many numbers that should not have been selected. Some are too silly and the three cover songs "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You", "Hit the Road Jack" and "I Can't Stand it" are both unnecessary and not at all as strong as the original Vanda/Young songs that were left out.

From the abandoned "Good Times" album, fortunately two really great songs are included; the almost "classic" "Good Times" and the fine melodic "Land of Make Believe" - both songs actually came out as singles, but in terms of sales they disappointed despite great potential. There were other tracks on "Good Times" that could have adorned "Vigil"; for example "We'll Make It Together", "Mr. Riley of Higginbottom & Clive" and "Station on the Third Avenue". A large part of "Good Times" was later released on the album "The Shame Just Drained", which is probably the most solid album released in the Easybets’ name; unfortunately this was not until 1977, when the group had long since disbanded.

"Vigil" has some really nice and grand ballads like "Hello How Are You", "Come in, You'll Get Pneumonia" and "Falling Off the Edge of the World". In terms of genre, these numbers are quite far from "Friday on my Mind", which has probably contributed to people finding it difficult to define the group. "Hello How Are You", however, became a minor hit for them. Also on single was the whimsical and slightly cabaret-like "The Music Goes Round My Head". This is also a fine number, but not really single material. Another faster and better version is available as a bonus number and this version would have had far better chances of doing well. "Fancy Seeing You Here" and "What in the World" are both also really nice songs in recognizable Easybeats style.

"Sha la la" is a slightly silly song with Caribbean beats and sounds and the song belongs together with "See Saw" and "We All Live Happily Together" in the unpretentious section. I would, along with the three cover tracks, have replaced one or two of these tracks and replaced them with some of the much stronger tracks the group had ready for release. Then "Vigil" would have become a real classic; as it ended it is "just" a good album.