psych rewind
Not Forgotten: Gong – Camembert Electrique
Released in 1971 on French label BYG Actuel, Gong’s second album resurfaced on Virgin Records in 1974 at the special price of 59p, by which time the teapot was in full flight with the Radio Gnome trilogy. Even back then, Daevid Allen’s mythology was close to fully formed. The photo on the back sleeve shows …
Classic Album: Considering the status of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50 years later.
50 years ago popular music reached its absolute apex when Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the most perfect musical statement in the history of the eardrum was released. It instantly made every album released prior to May 1967 sound utterly juvenile, and every album released after it has been a shockingly poor attempt to …
Not Forgotten: Leaf Hound – Growers of Mushroom
Ah, 1971, a time when rock music was rapidly evolving and youth culture as a whole was still suffering from the hangover caused by the end of the hippy dream. The giants of the new decade had begun to emerge in the late 60s, with The Beatles split having handily cleared the decks for a …
Album Review: Various Artists – Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980-1985
For regulars at Alice in Wonderland and the Bat Cave some of Londons more obscure 80`s nightclubs the Psychedelic scene in the mids 80`s was thriving, many bands featured on the Cherry Red box Another Splash Of Colour Psychedelia in Britian 1980-1985 frequented and played at these clubs, as were other small clubs all over …
Not Forgotten: Wild Butter – Wild Butter
Every now and then, while perusing the racks at Record Collector, I’ll happen across an album that will demand to be purchased based on its artwork alone. Wild Butter’s eponymous debut of 1970, resplendent in its artwork featuring a giant stick of butter flying through the sky, is one of those albums. Upon initial listen, …
Not Forgotten: Super Furry Animals – Rings Around the World
Rings Around the World was released to no little fanfare and received widespread acclaim back in 2001. Fifteen years after its release, it remains one of the key releases in the Super Furry Animals discography. Having signed to Sony / Epic following the collapse of Creation Records, SFA took full advantage of much-increased production and …
Not Forgotten: Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
Along with Soft Machine, Caravan are perhaps the definitive Canterbury Scene progressive rock act. Less jazzy than their more famous neighbours, Caravan weren’t as heavy handed as their more critically lauded peers, but what they did have was a much firmer grasp of pop dynamics and nowhere was this more obvious than their 1971 album, …
Feature: The UK Free Festival Scene, 1986 – 1992
These days there is a plethora of festivals, from huge expensive ones (Glastonbury) to smaller more affordable ones (Green Man, Wicker Man), but I don’t know of many (if any) free festivals. The term itself conjures up images of halcyon days back in the sixties, of hippies sat in circles, nudity and free love. But …
Not Forgotten: Aphrodite’s Child – 666
Every now and again I encounter an album which seems to exist in its own bubble. Aphrodite’s Child are a band I had certainly heard of, but I couldn’t name you any of their songs, although realising that following their split, half of them would individually achieve international mega-fame as Vangelis and Demis Roussos is …
A beginners’ guide to Pink Floyd
With The Beatles having called it a day, Bob Dylan walking in the opposite direction of the psychedleic counter-culture and The Rolling Stones having reached a critical mass they would never exceed, throughout 1970s there was only one band that even vaguely threatened Led Zeppelin’s positiion as the biggest act on the planet. That band …