The Perfection Of Prog- 9.30 Fly The Best Album EverTo Come From England Or Anywhere

Well, I can no longer say "Hi All, I'm 35 Years Old" as I have now for a little over the past month been 36 and as I should have known it is no fun at all. My entire life has fallen apart with seemingly no center, no gravity, no nothing. I have to be careful of the music I listen to because I get easily depressed, but at the same time I'm preferring a lot of very moody music to listen to- very dark. If you read my last post it was a rave about a band called Hokus Poke whom I truly did at the time think were awesome. Still, there is some kind of curse around anything to do with my 36th birthday as when an old friend (Ashley Johnson- record dealer extraordinaire and now undergoing throat cancer treatment so wish him well) and I hooked up together again the records he sent me way eclipsed anything on my birthday and led to the selling of Hokus Poke for the princely sum of $700!
       I am trying to get away from the painful memories that have been haunting me since I turned 36. Since my life has been shite for the past 7 years I shouldn't have been surprised that 36 would get off to a horrible start. Something had to give and something I did receive as a very special surprise  has made my darkest moments something I have not caved into and my life more bearable. Wouldn't you just guess it would be a record or two or 20? I'm addicted, that I admit. I make no bones about my compulsive addiction to collecting, but I only keep the best and that's what 9.30 Fly's one album release from 1972 is.
                                                     -9.30 Fly-
     You may wonder what kind of a band would come up with a moniker as strange and mysterious as 9.30 Fly which doesn't make any sense or have any real meaning except a name you remember once you've heard it. Released in 1972 on the small Ember label and recorded at Rockfield Studios Monmouth Wales which gave us the previous year's moody progressive nifty job Spring the front cover of 9.30 Fly is very striking indeed. The textured brown cover has a vibe like something from a long lost past come back to life with a picture of an ornate clock at 9.30 and a fly all of this in gold backed by a golden spider's web approaching the clock. You open it up and the band (4 guys and a girl) are in some of the worst clothes ever worn by a rock band. Their fashion sense was nonsense and unfortunately a lot of stupid reviewers have said the same thing about their music. Having heard this album around 8 times by now it is shocking how wrong and how vicious the self-loving music-scorning critics' attacks are on this band. For a band who can lay claim to recording the most exciting and original album ever made in the history of music we have to hope that someone finds these stupid people and socks them in the jaw.
    9.30 Fly unlike some other bands who made obscure and highly valuable records of their era were a band where their lack of success could be attributed to their revolutionary music. There is no other album like this from anywhere on earth and it would only be England that could produce something so richly steeped in medieval, arcane, and haunting imagery that conveys both a lushness like The Moody Blues and a kind of plaintive darkness that centers around influences from late 60s folkrock such as Fairport Convention and strangely late 60s American West Coast psychedelia. You can't categorize 9.30 Fly's music. I'm putting them and the nearly as amazing brilliant debut Livestock by Australian band Fraternity who featured the late, much missed and cherished Bon Scott as their vocalist before he joined AC/DC under progressive, but really it is much more than that. Progressive is a word that should mean exactly the root word it comes from- progress. Most progressive music is a bit of a double edged sword with bands like Cressida or Beggar's Opera more overblown and rotting than anything that's going to revolutionize music. Gracious!, Spring, Czar, Still Life, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Northwind, The Parlour Band now these bands are among the better and among the best. Indeed Genesis and Yes spawned from the same free association and theatricality that would give us both King Crimson and David Bowie, but if you can picture a more musically together and cohesive Genesis with a singer who sounds both distant and menacing more like Bowie then you are beginning to comprehend what goes on on 9.30 Fly's 7 song sole release.
    Led by a husband and wife duo of lead vocalist/songwriter (he wrote all the tracks) Michael Wainright and vocalist/keyboard player Barbara Wainright and featuring a brilliant rhythm section on par with your Crimson or Genesis their music is very unusual, dark, haunting, rainy, and very moody. Like Spring they convey a strong atmosphere, but instead of rapping themselves up in dreamy mellotron arrangements the dreamy, moody passages are just part of their long, highly complex songs. The opening track "Life And Times" begins like Fairport if they dispensed with all traditional English/Celtic folk leanings and went psychedelic complete with Lyn Oakey's scathing ferocious guitar passages, but the song then mixes up that psychedelic folkrock influence with full blown Yes/Crimson level complex progressive rock. There is, like all songs on the album, a nod to American psych of the highest level namely Kak, Wizards From Kansas, and the best of them all combined together Gandalf.  You don't know where you are by the time the song is in the middle section. You think you've wandered into some other world. It's inviting, even if the implications in the voice are menacing. The lyrics tend towards the philosophical, often full of questions in a less naive way yet similar to The Moody Blues. Mike Wainright has a strong if somewhat mysterious, cosmic voice that recalls both David Bowie and Justin Hayward- a very odd pairing indeed! The second track "Summerdays" is one of the most outstanding tracks ever laid down. It bashes your senses in. It splits your mind up and then reassembles it. From its soft, quiet, pastoral beginnings to shouted powerful vocal sections and heavy guitar/keyboard interplay this is about the best ever track made by a band at this time or any time entering into the genre we call prog/psych. At first you may be shocked to hear the onslaught of the screams of "SUMMER DAYS!!!" by Mike and Barbara Wainright with Mike wailing soulfully on top, but no sooner have you gotten used to it than the entire song shifts back into the slow dreamy pastoral world of its opening only to attack you with a venemous brew again later on. "September" is a lovely pastoral folkrock pop song with a polar opposite atmosphere to "Summerdays." It is one of only two short songs on the album, and a song that could have given this band a huge hit had they just had better luck. From a folksy beginning to very sweet somewhat rural leaning melodic rock with lovable vocals from Mike it's a nice one to be sure- a catchy, bright, tuneful track with good lyrics and a cheerful feel. "Unhinged" then pulls the carpet or whatever you are standing on out from under you and is one of the darkest, most haunting songs on the whole album. The mournful female voices and Mike's freaky slow delivery of the main vocal lines combine with a musical structure very much like that of "Epitaph" or "Cirkus" by King Crimson combined with the kind of lonely longing sad psychedelia of Gandalf and the darker moments on Kak (I'm thinking chiefly of "Golgotha" at the beginning of "Truelogy"). You feel a bit scared at times even by this track, but you come into the world it inhabits which is shadowy and strange to by the end feel more a friend than an outsider. I don't know exactly how 9.30 Fly came up with these revolutionary songs that are unlike so much boring drivel that we hear today as "progressive music" (Don't even get me started on "Neo Prog" I hate all of it and would do better with a heavy dose of Portishead thank you) both from recent years and the 70s. The whole idea behind progressive rock is supposed to mean that it's new and fresh so why do we have to wade through a roomful of rotting vegetation to get to something this good!? The reason is a sad one. Most people don't have it in them to be truly creative and so they will come up with barely a semblance even of a structure and then once they've moaned their tonsils out like Iron Butterfly or Jefferson Airplane we got "Progressive Rock Radio" in the 60s. This damned the word "Progressive" at the time it was born. Notice how the truly creative bands ranging anywhere from Fairport Convention to Matthews Southern Comfort to Danny Kirwan era Fleetwood Mac to King Crimson didn't get much notice at all on these phony stations. The Doors got there and before they ruined their music with pretensions and Jim Morrison lost his creative brilliance it looked like progressive rock really was progressive. Then you had Cream. Then you had a lot of other really good bands laying the bedrock upon which a band like 9.30 Fly is built, but Iron Butterfly and Vanilla Fudge wrecked everything. Soon we'd get David Clayton Thomas which would invariably lead to horrible singers like Beggars Opera's histrionic idiot Martin Griffiths- all of them floundering around like an overstuffed walrus. And people have the nerve to say 9.30 Fly can't sing or play or write!!!!! Drugs may be the answer, but if it ain't that there is no excuse at all and it all is just plain stupidity. "Unhinged" in the right world would have been a song you could turn on late at night on the radio and just get yourself lost in the arcane dark framework it creates- almost like "The End" by The Doors without the murdering aspects of the lyrics. While I'm on The Doors I consider Jim Morrison to be the master of crystalline beauty and knife-edge terror at the same time when he was at his best which were the first two Doors albums and Mike Wainright is very close sometimes to a poet who writes songs- an English magical Jim Morrison. Like Morrison or King Crimson's music there is both beauty and a netherworld of shadowy creepy Gothic majesty in 9.30 Fly,  but they do it better even than the very best who made it.
      Side Two is almost even more impressive than Side One and "Mr. 509" goes between the folk/psych sounds of the West Coast and the undeniable fact that when need be 9.30 Fly can rock. Mike is particularly strong here in the rocking sections- never too dramatic yet singing with a lot of grit and force. His female counterpart Barbara Wainright is not only one of the only keyboard players who could get magic out of an electric piano, but a loving counterpart to Mike Wainright's voice. "Mr 509" deals with the plight of an office worker everyday Englishman in a way that very readily recalls Ray Davis and the Kinks in "Shangri La" without any of the bittersweet humourous irony. This is straight and raw stuff- yet not overbearing. The song is really all about the evils of big business and how it swallows up the lives of everyday workers who see nothing from their toil for big companies. There is definitely a sense of being "Lost" in 9.30 Fly's music. In most of the songs Mike Wainright has trouble relating to the outside world and seems very much an intellectual introverted person. "Brooklyn Thoughts" is a somewhat more sentimental way to look at everything not really making sense and life seeming empty with the line "Maybe Thoughts Of Suicide/Can Keep Me Back In Line" or it may be "Maybe Thoughts Of Suicide Can Keep Me Living Life" something like that and something as dark as that. Nothing is more cowardly than suicide and I would hope that Mike Wainright never succumbed to it. He thankfully seems to be merely musing about disillusionment. "Brooklyn Thoughts" features the only use of a mellotron on the album and is together with "September" the only short track. Clocking in at over 8 minutes the albums' most epic track is the closing brilliance of "Time Of War." This song is very complex, very tricky, and also the darkest lyric on the album. A confused soldier deserts during a heavy battle hoping to escape to peace only to be persecuted and nearly killed. The paranoid episodes of scathing atonal fuzz guitars and menacing bass patterns are combined with slow then somewhat faster vocal passages to offset peace and war. The lyrics get more and more about alienation as they go on and you are caught up in the soldier's trying to flee to safety. I'm reminded a bit of some of Genesis at their most exciting here, but the main influences are definitely King Crimson and The Moody Blues. Like all the songs on the album there's that Fairport vibe lurking around in the background with the psychedelia somewhere, a distant happy memory of warm summery loving hours. "Time Of War" goes from the first part for the first half into wordless wailing vocals into a beautiful melodic vocal where the soldier from what I can gather is saved by another soldier after his long and exhausting attempt to get away from the war. For an anti war song there is something very refreshing here- no blood and no violence. The whole thing is all about a subtle poem that a real soldier could have written and is very sympathetic. The ending of the track is medieval folk meets martial drumming- a cross between Fairport and Spring. What we end with is evocative and beautiful and that is the best way to sum up this wonderful album. It's up there with the greats- up there with Oddesey And Oracle by The Zombies, up there with Asgard, up there with Crimson's first and 3rd, up there with Northwind and The Parlour Band yet heavier, darker than anything I've mentioned bar Asgard. It's a dark and haunting record, but it has soul and it has a lot of feeling in it and boy is it beautiful.

NIGEL's Ocean Of DROSS Destroyed By SPYS Expert Espionage- Music That Sucks And Music That's Real

I recently, say a few weeks ago, went back to visit the best record store we have left on the East Coast Double Decker records in Allentown. This store is situated in one of the most depressing towns/cities I can think of where you can feel the poverty almost breathing down your neck. Once you are in the store, however, you forget all that. It's a really nice place run by Jamie and Ray- who aren't a dying breed of kind and outgoing record dealers, but rather one of THE FEW EXCEPTIONS where a record dealer is kind, outgoing, and generous. I had gone last year and walked off with a lot of really good music and this time I didn't do quite as well- largely because I rushed everything and couldn't think.
                  -Really Bad Music And Nigel From Philadelphia's Role In DIY Disaster Land-
    Ah well, that's besides the point. Some people relish my put downs and think they are better than when I praise something even. I can get a good laugh and get thought of as "clever." Honestly, I don't like to focus on bad music or bad anything because it takes away from the great/good music and good things. I'm not one who likes to moan, but for all of those of you who want a good laugh here is a brief little thing about an awful guy from Philadelphia who called himself Nigel and made one very bad excuse for a DIY psych album in the mid 80s as so many of these DIY records (that means Do it Yourself chi'dren) are. I mean, does it get more miserable than Marcus House Of Trax and Stone Harbour? Why do these guys get it into their thick skull that they have to make a record!!!! I could mention Kenneth Higney's Attic Demonstration as a sort of pinnacle of bad DIY ineptitude. Thing here is, Higney is really something entertaining and you do get a few good laughs out of him. Nigel is worth picking up if you see it for something so wrong it's hard to contemplate how he'd manage to record this record at all except to purposefully force his Politically Incorrectly Politically Correct rhetoric down your throat and turn a bad record that could have just been boring into a laugh-riot for one spin. (that was all I could handle of this one and I pretty much threw it away- well selling anything to the Princeton Record Exchange is throwing it away as you probably know)
                                                    -Nigel-
    Nigel was having a bad hair day when me made this record. His over-sensitive face is matched by a  kind of Prince meets phony Goth/Metal look and he looks like a nobody trying to pawn himself off as a really important dude. That's just what he does, but he's a protest singer. His intents about anti-war philosophies and animal rights are all very right, but he gets mental with them and twists them to an unbearable level of extremism. If you've ever wondered about the words "anal" or "uptight" he's beyond constipated and beyond wound so tight he'll turn into a human screw in a bad renovation of 60s politico/social commentary for the 80s.
    I can laugh at Nigel for all his discrepencies and the major mistake as with so much bad music is that he takes himself way too seriously. He has to start with the nerve to compose, arrange, produce, and perform everything with a kind of cockiness that turns his boring music and nasal, irritating voice already into something cringe-worthy. He then bashes you over the head with his beliefs and at the same time he has a musical identity crisis. He doesn't know what decade he is in so he apes every bad singer songwriter from Leonard Cohen or a more appropriate comparison would be a nightmare of Donovan to the 80s bubblegum self-serious musings of Richard Marx or Barry Manilow trying to make a big statement and even worse trying to be "hip." He claims to be non-violent and then writes a lyric like:
   "He chokes on his blood he can feel his own death/The only time I feel hate is when I smell that dead cow on your breath"
Or:
"Little plastic guns and itty bitty camouflage clothes/Are teaching our children war is really OK when it isn't"
This is only a sample. He says in his "animal rights" song "Innocent One," and I'm VERY Animal rights myself (but to Nigel I wouldn't count because I eat meat- oh how horrible of me! not), not only that we are the scum of the earth and he'll hurt us if we eat meat, but also that people who wear wool and leather should be shot for it. He is so serious and so humorless that he can do this all with a more than straight face, probably with a sneer. He goes on a tear about leather and wool in the winter which is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Clearly Nigel has some serious issues and that is why nobody would work with him.
     What this ends up as is an album that is but a mere curiosity, but it serves to enforce my opinions on the next act, Spys, even more. The 1980s were a time of great invention musically and for some bands technology could actually be a good and not a bad thing. It could play right into their hands when they got creative and the arsenal of new equipment could be used as a tool not a toy. So now I'm talking about Spys. Let's hear what they had to say.....
              -Spys Timelessly Great Music From A Captivating Era In Espionage-
     If Spys is not a familiar name to you, but Foreigner is you are among the vast majority. If both bands strike a chord with your love of music on very different grounds you are me and anyone else with taste. What Spys were was a spin-off group from the original Foreigner, a band who hoped to achieve the same kind of huge success as their former background role in that band had done, yet would be totally different and strike out on its own.
     Once upon a time there was Foreigner. They made a lot of money, a lot of great music, they were a true super group with a lot of hits.  However, all was not well with the first recording line up (Lou Gramm had stepped in reluctantly for Ian Lloyd and now was laughing all the way to the bank in surprise) when keyboards player Al Greenwood and bass player Ed Gagliardi wanted more creative freedom. In fact, when they pressed their desire for the band to be more of a democracy and less about Mick Jones and Lou Gramm they ended up out of the band. Foreigner wouldn't be hurt very much by their departure and at first it seemed neither would they, but time would unfortunately prove that Spys would never quite hit the huge success of the band they came out of and that Foreigner would way outlive their promising career.
    The reason for Spys only having one hit in "Don't Run My Life" is pretty easy to see from a die hard Foreigner fan's perspective. Gagliardi on bass and vocals, Greenwood on keyboards and vocals joined forces with 3 New York State friends to form Spys- a band very unlike Foreigner. Joining them were guitarist/vocalist John Di Gaudio, drummer/vocalist Billy Milne, and lead vocalist John Blanco. This fivesome sprung up with an awesome debut album in 1982 that owed nothing to their past and was a shockingly different sound from Foreigner's. John Blanco's sometimes Russell Mael of Sparks meets Dave Davies showy yet not obtrusive voice is as far from Lou Gramm as you can get. Heavy progressive leanings with lots of complex keyboards and intellectually challenging lyrics make Spys even more different. Then there is the heavy Beatles influence in the harmonies and a lot of those there are. Clearly a band who would take advantage of getting clever in a recording studio future Shy producer Neil Kernon helped realize their hopes of a brand new start on their debut self-titled album. The production is clean and clear without being too much so. You get the feeling that a lot of passion is being put into their music, and Spys have found a comfortable medium between Pomp Rock and full on progressive leanings. If Marrillion are considered progressive that's an insult to early Genesis and all prog rock. That Spys truly are progressive way more so than their competition would be proven even more on their 2nd and final release Behind Enemy Lines. Here we get the insidiously catchy irresistible hit "Don't Run My Life" and thinking man's mini epics like the apocalyptic, amazing "Ice Age." Spys balance their two sides together well and occasionally they meet as in the album's second track "She Can't Wait." This song about hatred for an overbearing female is echoed throughout the album with many open references to a disgust for the opposite sex. I've found this common in AOR/Pomp. Whether it's the European take of Skagarack, the British firey hatred of Shy or Tobruk, or Spys a lot of melodic metal/AOR/pomp/progressive rock isn't too pleased with personal relations between males and females. "Danger" is a song about an invitation to disaster by provoking someone who is very insecure into a relationship whilst "Into The Night" is a truly creepy, malevolent ode to Jack The Ripper. In both songs Blanco is very believable, even sounding very at home with his split personalities. Perhaps the harmonies of Spys are their most enduring aspect. Rich multilayered vocals and a hugely sympathetic lead voice make for some really nice listening. Spys take on a lot here- it's not got the unsure vibe of a first album and rather sounds like a technologically advanced work of seasoned veterans. Sure, there's a clumsy line here or wrong note there, but funnily enough that's the only similarity with Foreigner. Fans must have been shocked, maybe even some found this new progressive direction impossible when compared to the no-nonsense melodic rock of the band Ed Gagliardi and Al Greenwood had helped to form.
     Instead of playing it safe Spys did the exact opposite. For Behind Enemy Lines they took over production chores between Ed and Al with the resulting album so progressive, so arty, so symphonically splendid that Foreigner was obviously a thing of the distant past in this new band. Tricks of all kinds are tried. There are more art rock lyrical concerns, rock opera with Russian language chanting in the title track, the bizarre Sparks meets a modern art Deep Purple of "Sheep Don't Talk Back," and the grandiose balladry of "Younger Days." John Blanco's voice is again a really good one that is somewhat high pitched,  but not screaming out like Tony Mills of Shy or Steve Perry influenced like Skagarack mainman Torben Schmidt. The emphasis is again put on harmonies and every new keyboard sound Al Greenwood could get at. This could have been a fatal error. However, Greenwood knew how to play his keyboards tastefully and he also knew exactly how to paint pictures not make dumb little noises with his synthesizers. The playing, writing, vocals, and production are stunningly professional.
    I wish these guys had been given a chance. I wish they could have been left to stand on their own as an entirely new and different band, but sales were not encouraging and when the second record didn't match up to the minor commercial success of the first soon they were no longer with us. It must have been a terrible blow. They must have been really depressed by their lack of huge sales when Foreigner were selling millions. What can be said about both Foreigner and Spys is that they have weathered time well. Both bands made great music and both should be seen as not a continuation of each other, but rather two opposites with one underlying thread to connect them- brilliant music with a lot of emotion and no compromises. Listen to Spys and don't even bother with Nigel. Unless you want to hear just how polarized the 80s were between amazing and total dreck.

                 

HOLY MACKEREL NOT QUITE BACK TO THE ROOTS MORE REACHING FOR THE HEAVENS

In the early 1970s music was more polarized between quality and complete lack thereof than any time in the previous decade since the psychedelic era and the beat boom. England wasn't hit as hard as America, but there were regrettable, horrendous songs in the charts like "The Night Chicago Died" by the despicable Paper Lace and the like. I am not saying that all pop was bad, though, most was good, but the British could really laugh at us as we were going down the tubes with our charts and more bands everywhere felt the need to go "underground." Also, there was the retreat to the country, the need for open air. It had started in the 1960s as part of the counterculture and was fast becoming a trend in the 70s. A lot of bands just needed time to hone their skills as nothing is worse than going into the studio in a rush or with only the intent of selling a lot of copies of the record. It didn't work out so well for Paladin who apart from the occasional good track were very boring or the myriad of more folk than folkrock bands who signed to independent labels or who were snapped up when they jumped on the progressive bandwagon (see Barclay James Harvest, Magna Carta, The Strawbs). It was a thrilling time, but it could be sickening too. For instance I would believe that the worst record ever made Deep Feeling dragged in Roger Easterby and Des Champ to produce it and that you should just forget that sick blood bath and focus on what the production team really did well- high quality British pop and rock. Among their noble releases is Holy Mackerel, and among their best and most successful would be the highly underrated pop group Vanity Fare- a band who managed to be the best British pop in the world and score hits nearly worldwide. Now onto the main subject at hand. Holy Mackerel are a band who seem to be forgotten or ignored until now. Read on my mates and comrades read on...
                                             -Holy Mackerel-
Not to be confused with the Paul Williams led American popsike/country rock band of the same name the British band Holy Mackerel evolved out of the spotty 1960s psychedelic outfit Jason Crest. This band had recorded some very uninteresting material and some very interesting material culminating in the excellent final single Black Mass/A Place In The Sun- a single that showed a move from their earlier pop ambitions towards heavier psych with A side a freaky slice of Arthur Brown meets Proto Metal.
Lead vocalist Terry Clarke, lead guitarist Derek Smallcombe (after a stint in the horrible German only hard/blues inept band Samuel Prody), and drummer Roger Siggery from the original Jason Crest put Holy Mackerel together in 1971 and they added second lead guitarist Chris Ware and bass player Tony Wood to fill out the lineup. Where Jason Crest had been hit and miss with their material this hard rocking new band called Holy Mackerel got it down to a science right away. After spending quite a bit of time in the Lancashire countryside honing their rural/melodic/hard rock sound they started to play live getting a reputation as an excellent live act. CBS signed the group and in 1972 they released their brilliant self titled album. This would be followed by a test press/acetate only second album Closer To Heaven which although the liner notes tell you otherwise is nowhere near as good.
   Holy Mackerel play with passion on their 1972 only official release. The harmonies are top class and Terry Clarke sounds like he's finally mastered his "heavy" vocals. Instead of going ape for much of the album he just sounds powerful and confident. The interplay between Ware and Smallcombe is amazing especially on the 3 long tracks "Spanish Attraction," "Oh!" and "The Boy And The Mekon." Two cover versions are included in the rocking harmonica and harmony lead opening track "Going To The Country" by Steve Miller/Ben Sidran and Cowboy's "Rock A Bye" both are excellent. Country rock is not a term that suits Holy Mackerel and the liner notes express this. Rural heavy hard rock with power, melody, and a clear sound are what they are. Like the Welsh Band Quicksand, Dog That Bit People, Northwind, Renia, Fable there are obvious leanings towards the laidback pastoral early 70s magic vibe, but Holy Mackerel are more of a hard rock band. A perfect example of this is the brilliant "Spanish Attraction" with very interesting well-written lyrics and strong vocals from its writer Terry Clarke. The guitars smoke, the Spanish vibe is great, and a crystal clear production job just makes it perfect. This track is amazing.
      There is not a weak moment on here. Whether it be the highly melodic Hollies esque "Virginia Water" or the screaming heavy metal onslaught of "Oh!" this is one of the best British albums and still a record you can find for a reasonable price. Holy Mackerel sound a lot more mature than Jason Crest and there is no more copying of other artists or trying too hard to follow trends- this band were about setting trends and rocking hard. Whether your taste be melodic power pop or hard rock this overlooked gem in a great band shot cover is essential. While many British albums from this era will cost you a huge amount of money for whatever reason (and no good one) this one is overlooked despite it's rarity. The going price in the UK is 25 to 30 pounds maximum, usually less. I got my copy for only around $33- a real bargain. This is an album I would recommend strongly to hard rock, psychedelic, power pop, and even glam rock enthusiasts as a brilliant achievement. They rock hard and they have great harmonies and great melodies. Nothing else is needed for perfection.
    

MOONKYTE AND HOKUS POKE- THE TWO TOP GEMS FROM ENGLAND

After a horrendous nightmare of what seemed to be a perfect Birthday at the end of April I freaked and went stupid. I lost a lot of the best records from my collection and headed in a spiral towards self-destruction. Now I am pulling out of that spiral, but the Birthday wasn't all bad because the records that were in good condition mostly turned out to be great and this masterpiece from Hokus Poke must certainly be the best progressive/late psychedelic/melodic hard rock crossover ever to come out of anywhere- especially England. Also, Moonkyte are in here as their album makes it to the same heights as what I would call the best Great Britain produced- Northwind, The Parlour Band, Asgard, Renia, Fable, Moonkyte, and Hokus Poke the two in question here. All these bands came out at around the same time between 1971-1973 and it was a topsy turvy time for music, but also the best, most creative period.
                                                    -Moonkyte- a long time love-
There just aren't any other records quite like Bradford's Moonkyte. Privately released in England in 1971 and licensed to Metronome in Germany (I have the German copy and it sounds GREAT) they were unlike any other band yet there are traces of the kind of brilliance that flows through everything from The Kinks to UK Kaleidoscope around Faintly Blowing to Asgard to the softer side of British pastoral psychedelia where the main things to set Moonkyte apart from all the rest are several. In Dave Foster and Dave Stansfield they had two superb songwriters who knew their history back to front. The lyrics dare I say are practically a rock equivalent of Shakespeare's musings! The instrumentation is completely unique: two harmoniums, tin whistles, glockenspiel, sitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass and drums. The music they created is perhaps best described as a kind of late 60s influenced laidback psychedelic folk rock with elements of progressive rock, but the rich tapestries they create and the amazing stories they tell are unlike anything else around.
    For instance the first track "Search" is haunting, melodic, beautiful, and completely has your mind tuned into all the different things going on. The vocal is rich and smooth and very inviting. It's like Dave Stansfield is saying "Come On In- Have a Bit of Tea and Listen To Our Music With Us." You can't help but accept the invitation. "It's The Same Thing" is the other side of Moonkyte's songwriting coin. Dave Foster supplies the more carefree and jovial songs like a jester to Stansfield's wise man. This is a blissful track. Serene, delicate, but solid. Then we are plunged into the strange, darker side of Moonkyte which keeps the rich layerings of instruments and warm sounding voices in "Way Out Hermit," and "Girl Who Came Out Of My Head." These songs have a resignation to them. They are saying that he is way out there and could care less, he is playing with you and saying "Don't you wish you had an imagination too?" Some of us do and we are the ones who love Moonkyte. Harmoniums and sitars together with eccentric vocals create a kind of madcap psychedelia somewhere between Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd days and the 1967/1968 period Kinks. The lyrics to all songs on this album are highly literate without being pretentious. They are too good spirited to be considered pretentious as they are not looking down at you. "Tapestry Girl" is one of the most amazing songs ever written where all sorts of weird and devilish things happen which seem out of the creations of a mad genius/poetic wizard and have me going "How did he come up with this?" wishing I came up with it!
  The story line of the song is that during a rainy afternoon a girl in a tapestry comes to life and then Victorian soldiers come to life and rape her of her virginity! A bit of Asgard spiciness in here, but unlike anything else!
    Most of Moonkyte's music is reflective yet upbeat, riveting lyrically and gentle musically: a kind of fragile psychedelic pop that avoids the twee and goes for something deeper, something more about the history of England and the eccentric behaviors of people. One song sounds almost country rock "Lead This Sinner On," but the ghostly harmonies deliver it from standard country rock to more of a gut feeling summed up by rusty old rotting-railroad tracks music. If you get what I mean. "Where Will The Grass Grow," well I could expound on every track here. The music and words are magical and it is a shame that Moonkyte were overlooked at the time because they were unable to get any kind of backing in the industry. They aren't folk. I would have to disagree with that genre pigeonholing except for the fact that this is folklore- ancient English folklore like in the grim, bloody "Blues For Boadicea" which is about before England really even was England- during the time of the Roman invasions. Moonkyte give you a creepy feeling for this one. A folkrock Oddesey And Oracle would describe the kind of passion and fervor in Moonkyte's music, but damn the term folkrock this is psychedelic as you can get. Everything gets jolly after "Boadicea" with "Happy Minstrel" and "Jelly Man" which closes the album on a loopy drugged out psyched note where the feeling of shaky jelly is echoed in shaky gelatinous vocals.
    Moonkyte's stay was all too brief. The fact they managed to record such a staggering masterpiece and not get noticed at the time is unbelievable. For everyone who loves music that defies description and categorization and can be only described as its very own unique hybrid of strange and wonderful inventions Moonkyte is an essential listen. This one will never leave my collection ever.
 
                -Hokus Poke The Band That Rocks The Band That Soars Into The Stratosphere-

     London Area Hokus Poke came out on Vertigo Swirl right around the time the label was about to change over to more standard releases in 1972 and the complete absence of copies when I looked for 18 years for it coupled with the fact that I got it for $400 which compared to the going price of a really clean copy (which mine is...) of $800 to $1500 makes this THE RAREST VERTIGO SWIRL. Never reissued except on CD ages ago by Repertoire and never properly described (online sources and the stupid Tapestry Of Delights are bollocks) here is Hokus Poke the way Hokus Poke really is!
    I'd sampled a few tracks off here and been blown away by them prior to hearing the whole album, but what an album! A twin guitar led psychedelic rock into melodic progressive rock band centered around the talents of lead singer/guitarist Clive Blenkhorn, guitarist/steel guitarist Roger Clarke, bass player Smith Campbell, and drummer Johnnie Miles their album emphasizes the soaring guitar work of Blenkhorne and Clarke and unpredictable soft/hard contrasts where songs that begin relaxed such as their epic "Sunrise Sunset" turn into molten raving heavy guitar mind blowers where the savage axe work takes the songs into the sky and the whole soaring sound of their harmonies, guitars, and the rock solid rhythm section make for a great album with the added bonus of intelligent lyrics. "H P Boogie" begins the record with crystal clear guitar lines and driving rhythms and the call and response vocals in the chorus bring to mind The Small Faces and The Open Mind. Blenkhorne's jamming with Clarke and his appealing somewhat high and raspy voice are the other main features along with some unexpected changes and progressive inclinations.
      Hokus Poke most definitely are progressive, but without any of the pretensions. I can detect the influences of early Genesis, Yes, and Wishbone Ash together with their solid hard rock and psych credentials, but you never can predict any song on this album and where it's going to end up taking you. You'll be on quite a journey. I would put Hokus Poke in with the likes of Northwind and The Parlour Band when they are in a relaxed mood, but then there is the storming blasting guitars and bashing drums and bass which make them much heavier musically and leaning further towards hard rock, but you can't pigeonhole them. "Sunrise Sunset (The Sunset)" is a long track that begins with dreamy laidback beautiful shimmering guitars and very nice carefree vocals before going into a soaring chorus and then reflective again. You think that the song is just going to be a drifting lazy day by the sea when all of a sudden the guitar solo builds and builds then erupts. Blenkhorne and Clarke's passionate wailing guitars and the volcano of crazed rhythms build up into a veritable heavy psych storm with much classy use of wah-wah and fuzztone. I'd go right out there and say this is even more exciting than anything on the previously mentioned The Open Mind's album. "Big World Small Girl" is a gentle, happy, deceptively free easy number where all is calm and peace after "Sunrise Sunset" masking a put down lyric of a fame and fortune seeking ex girlfriend who he could care less about.
 Of course she learns her lesson the hard way and he says "Big world Small Girl." The vocals on this track are very intriguing- multilayered with a bit of a Pre Queen vibe like if Queen had started off a softer kind of a band. Maybe Queen unplugged is a good way to describe the harmonies which sound like they spent a lot of time on them. "Down In The Street" takes the laidback vibe of some of the album and mixes it with a clean rock groove complete with sassy vocals and crunchy guitar riffs.
     If ever there was a huge level band that missed out on huge level success it was these guys! The songs are so infectious! The energy level is so inspired! Unfortunately, Vertigo wouldn't do anything for this band and they really never even made it big on the club circuit although a club gig was what got them signed. Perhaps the adventuresome nature and changing times which should be said the band were very much abreast of just didn't gel for Hokus Poke, but as any underground band would have it they stayed close to their dream of making music and as long as they were recording the album nothing was going to fuck their dream up. "Hag Rag" (Side Two's first track) is I must admit a stupid title, but it's a song all about demons, human sacrifice, and "Then As The Air Turns Foul And Red The Goat Of Hell Is Seen." Very ominous, but also a bit tongue in cheek. It's the heaviest song on the album and really sounds like a precursor to Queen and it would be interesting if they ever shared the stage when one band was about to make it big and the other was about to head for obscurity. I love Queen. I love Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon. I firmly consider them a band who got the respect they deserved, but dare I say Hokus Poke are as good!? I would say that. You can't be any better than Queen or The Kinks so these guys are as good as the big ones. They are the big one. The most fun and creative adventurous rock and roll band there ever was or is likely to ever record an album. "Hag Rag" is really heavy with big harmonies, menacing lead vocals, and brilliant guitar work. It's the one number penned by drummer Johnnie Miles and I wonder what his trip was to write something this dark. "Living In Harmony" follows "Hag Rag" and couldn't be more opposite. It's the easiest most laidback track on the album with very pleasant vocals, a cool mellow bluesy feel, lyrics all about feeling good, and a certain really kind of nice quality about it that makes you just want to relax as much as they are. The album's two closers "Time And Space" and "The Poke" take all the differing influences, elements, and approaches of Hokus Poke and meld them together- very melodic, very driving, as good as you can get. I wish these guys would get more respect. They aren't a blues rock band and don't sound like Cream and that's all you get when you try to look them up online. While I may be a bit late to bring them to the light of the buying public I'm glad I could bring them to the light at all- they are an amazing band and these two stay in my collection forever no question.
     My final advice to myself? Don't make your life worse and don't freak out and go crazy because a few little things went wrong. I hope I won't have to be paying back for this decline much longer and these two masterpieces lift me out of any depression I'm in. Find them and cherish them as much as I do.

FROM IS A FRIEND? TO THE KNIFE THE PARLOUR BAND AND O BAND IN FULL

I already whetted your whistle with a juicy little aperitif about a crazy experience that opened up my musical obsessions and now I'm sure you'd like to know just what is so special about these two bands: The Parlour Band and their later incarnation A Band Called O/O/The O Band.
                                               -The Parlour Band-
  The Parlour Band formed in the early 1970s in Jersey in the Channel Islands when keyboards man/lead singer Peter Filleul (pronounced FILL YOU) was looking for an outlet for some songs he was writing. Most of these songs were in a gentle melodic folkrock pop style with progressive leanings which makes it an interesting thing that for these songs the band was formed when he joined forces with a local hard rock band. The line up settled around Filleul, "Wah-Wah" Guitarist/vocalist Pix, guitarist/vocalist Craig Anders, Bass playing brother of Craig Mark who also on this one album sang harmony vocals, and drummer Jerry Robbins. They started adapting their different musical approaches and were very much a progressive band minus the pretentiousness that was making for a lot of dire music in Mainland England at that time. To further set them apart Pete's compositions had strong late 60s pop psych influences and the band's driving instrumental sound based on layers and layers of richness led to a brilliant unique music that may have been hard to produce live, but sure was impressive when they made their sole long player IS A FRIEND?.
    A complete polar opposite practically to The O Band The Parlour Band had one very bad thing in common- a rather strange and none-too-fitting-of-the-music name. The O Band actually sounds good even if it was meant to give the band no name at all but the letter O and a zero, but The Parlour Band was a name wrong enough to seal the fate of the group. Still some dealers use the word "folk" with this album and I can't help but think that's the fault of their name. Certainly lazy Canterbury legends Caravan who were at an artistic peak in 1972 must have wondered about this strange little band who were opening for them...
     Deram, label of Caravan, Honeybus, World Of Oz, Mellow Candle, and some other legends, signed The Parlour Band and during Christmas of 1971 the group went into the studio and commenced work on what would turn out to be perhaps the highest level progressive pop psych record ever. Peter Filleul made tasteful use of a Fender Rhodes and added to that organ, acoustic piano, and at the end of the album a mellotron. The songs definitely sound like jamming and experimenting with fresh new ideas was at a high and you shouldn't believe all you hear about this record- it ain't as soft as a lot of dealers say it is. In fact, the opening track "Forgotten Dreams" is an all out rocker with heavy bashing organ and just as heavy guitars forming a complex monolithic backdrop for some very appealing smooth melodic vocals. The next two tracks "Pretty Haired Girl" and "Spring's Sweet Comfort" are full of beautiful melodies, soaring vocals, and a softer sound that manages to not be quite introspective or quite out front. These songs let you relax and turn on to a melodic band with a rich tapestry of sounds coming from multilayered dreamy guitars, vocals, and keyboards. Camel might be a good point of reference or Fantasy of Paint A Picture and Beyond The Beyond fame, but there's something unique about The Parlour Band. Instead of completely drifting off to it your attention is always on how the songs have a moving flow to them occasionally interrupted by some quiet intensity that would make Danny Kirwan period Fleetwood Mac the closest comparison. "Early Morning Eyes" has always reminded me of a very strange paring indeed- Uriah Heep meets Fairport Convention! You probably won't even see where I'm coming from or will you? Again the vocals soar and are fresh, translucent, and very good with Filleul's crystal clear lead topped by amazing harmonies. Pix plays a consistently heavy guitar throughout the bouncy number not letting it drift at an easy pace too often- instead that easy pace is split wide open by unexpected moments of intensity.
     The Parlour Band for a band together almost less than a year play like seasoned professionals. They would be just as tight and disciplined when they became The O Band and it seems a pity that they didn't get to be like a British Toto as star players on sessions later on. They really could have spiced up any number of bands and artists who needed spicing up.
    "Follow Me" is the track that ends Side One and it's probably one of the mellowest tracks here- leaning towards a kind of pop psych/folkrock sound that is very 1960s British sounding with American Westcoast influences. Despite the very British nature of much of the material on offer this band were always big on the vibrations coming from across the Atlantic. The most shocking moment on the album is saved for the first track on Side Two the unrepresentatively menacing "Evening." Pix takes his first ever recorded lead vocal and steals the song. When playing this to everyone back in high school and since the majestic Freddie Mercury is who comes to mind with everyone as a comparison. Not bad for a first ever recorded lead vocal! We'd see later on how superb a voice Pix has, but this is his one moment for his crystal larynx to shine on The Parlour Band. The lyrics are dark, abstract, full of imagery that is in stark contrast to other images in the song, and military percussion drives along the storming guitar/organ passages. This song is though very different from the rest of the album a song that fits perfectly as the contrasting styles of music between hard and soft rock are at a creative peak on "Evening." The hardest song on the album is followed by the softest- the lovely floating ballad "Don't Be Sad." Sweet but not icky sweet vocals, dreamy Fender Rhodes, and flowing gentle guitars dominate this very nice track which like much of the album should have been a single, but to my knowledge no singles were tapped from the record!
    "Little Goldie" is a song built around jazz chords and a vibe similar to the American band Love- an influence that shines through on much of this album, but an influence probably in the subconcious.  The obvious influences though are American bands and British bands of the 60s with early 70s progressive inclinations. "Little Goldie" is again a soft track that brings to mind Todd Rundgren's most melodic early masterpieces as well as Carole King during her Tapestry period- again more American comparisons. The song is full of expert playing and the Anders brothers are superb on this track along with through the whole album. Craig Anders was the virtuoso musician in both bands and this would lead to an increasing rivalry between him and Pix. Pix should not be overlooked as he is a dynamic brilliant guitar player and as with their later recordings the two of them may not have gotten along, but they needed each other. "To Happiness" lets everyone in the band sound great. Pix is raw and punchy, Craig is understated and majestic, Mark Anders plays a great bass line, and the vocals are first
class.     
     With a perfect album there has to be a perfect closing track.  The over 7 minute suite "Home" is it. A song about Northern Ireland and a soldier's departure to the war and then his ebullient return home is the subject matter, but it could be an anthem for a soldier and his loved one in any war. The lyrics are very opaque, understated, and tasteful. They are at complete odds with the pious, pretentious, boring lyrics of worthless bands like Dear Mr. Time and the worst band ever Deep Feeling. While the former wrote a whole album of grim songs about death and the latter made that worse by throwing the blood and guts in this is as far from that as you can get. Sometimes I forget that prog rock can have a soul as much as I love it. "Home" is perfect prog, There's more Queen vibes coming into play, much excellent playing from the group in more of a rhythmical sense, and Peter Filleul's beautiful voice is particularly attractive here. For sophisticated and perfect, brilliant progressive pop psych look no further than IS A FRIEND? as this is the great masterpiece of them all. It's a splendid piece of work- somewhere between Honeybus and Northwind in some ways yet with very much its own sound.
    Unfortunately, Deram and parent label Decca showed no interest at all in The Parlour Band. No promotion was undertaken by their label, the tour didn't go so well for either them or Caravan, and no sooner had they made their masterpiece than differences of what direction the band should go in began to show. Filleul had always been at odds with the other members wanting to go for a harder rock sound, but he stayed on and the only replacement made was Derek Ballard taking over from Jerry Robbins on drums. Soon the band really began to have issues with their label and in late 1973 they signed with CBS and with a name change to A Band Called O.
                                       -A Band Called O-
         Filleul was pushed into the background whilst Pix took over the band. His more rock oriented vocal approach would serve as a blueprint for the later AOR movement in the States, but far from being a superb debut by this band with a different name the first A Band Called O record was not too impressive overall. The image had changed to tough guys in blue on the front cover and the sound had changed to melodic somewhat harder rock, but the songs just weren't the kind of greatness they'd follow this album up with. It doesn't help to start off with Steve Marriott's low-point in the low Humble Pie done in a horrid version of "Red Light Momma Red Hot." Pix tries too hard to sound sexy, the horn charts are not needed, and the song just like the boring original goes nowhere. There are some good moments on the self-titled first A Band Called O record, but Filleul couldn't adapt to the changes and the rest of the band were still struggling to perfect their new identity. Don't be taken aback by this mediocre record- much, much, much better was to come!
      Pete would stay on for one more album and what an album! Despite a horrible, tasteless, and Spinal Tap level trashy laugh riot cover OASIS their second record with the changeover is as classy, professional, rocking, fun, and amazing as the cover is not. Now Pete was hardly writing at all, but he used the synthesizer and his other keyboard arsenal to great effect while Pix and Craig Anders showed they could jam, rock, and weave around each other like nobody's business. The songs are all fantastic. "Amovin'" gets things off to a great start with Pix sounding like a better vocalist than anybody else around. Really, it was Pix's strong, confident, melodic voice that would shape this new band with a new sound along with the expert level playing of all involved. A Band Called O didn't have any more problems with songwriting or performances, but unfortunately for them they were pretty far ahead of their time in a way that would be more shocking than record selling. In fact, they can't be blamed for their poor album sales it's the various labels that should be held accountable. From Deram to CBS to United Artists complete lack of label support would be one key factor to the unraveling that took place. CBS/Epic did nothing to promote an album of what should have been one hit single after another. Remember this was 1975 and as close as "Fine White Wine" sounds to Steve Perry Journey had barely even begun let alone found Steve Perry. The influences are the same- Sam Cooke and a whole lot of melodic voiced soul singers taken into easy, comfortable, melodic solid strong rock. The major differences between Pix and Perry would be that Pix is a bit less strident and his approach also a bit more "Get Down and Get Dirty" if you know what I mean- raunchier perhaps. This album is stunning. Songs like "Sleeping" show a more progressive, spacier, more epic side to the band while much of the rest is made up of rocking tracks that give all of the band members a chance to prove their point. OASIS is an album that belongs in every collection- a milestone.
                                              -O/The O Band-
     Just when it should have been looking up for A Band Called O things got even worse for them. Filleul decided to leave the band and CBS dropped them from their roster. Not about to let either problem deter or discontinue them former Alan Bown Set and session player Jeff Bannister was brought in on keyboards and Jeff's funky approach actually fit in much better than the uncomfortable position that Pete had been placed in. Now changing their moniker to just the letter "O" and signing with United Artists it looked like the band were set to break through in a big way with 1976's near perfect WITHIN REACH. Only one song shouldn't have been on the album- the somewhat distracted and lazy sounding "Lucia Loser" which did get the band into a bit of press trouble with its overtly sexual lyrics, but the rest showed the band on top of their game. The opening track "A Smile Is Diamond" Pix and I immediately clicked on as the peak of their career. This haunting, driving, miraculous, exotic sounding, seductive song is a real diamond itself- a gem of mid 70s melodic progressive rock that features the kind of contrasting and quality of The Parlour Band with Pix fitting into his Steve Perry meets Steve Marriott vocal perfection at the highest level he'd ever reach. I love Journey, I love Steve Perry, but he never could sing Tough. Pix can sing like one Tough guy. Now the image was much darker and a complete change from the friendly Parlour Band. The O Band now were playing melodic strong rock and roll with seamlessly winding around each other jamming guitars, Mark Anders laying down a killer bass, and Derek Ballard a rock solid drummer. Jeff Bannister's two contributions "Long Long Way" and "Paradise Blue" are amazing songs and he fit in perfectly to the group. The liveliness of this record makes you want to get up and dance to it. You feel like partying and having a good time. Finally, The O Band had some real artistic freedom. They even got a tasteful album cover out of it! Their popularity as a knock-you-cold live act was blossoming and it's unbelievable that the end and their final destruction were near in sight. WITHIN REACH is how the band would like to sound. They had found a perfect balance between OASIS and what would come on their last long player THE KNIFE, but again the record label just didn't give a fuck about them.
        Drugs and alcohol abuse had always been a problem for Pix especially, but the whole band began to get high all the time when things continued to get worse and worse. They were a professional rock band who should have been huge, but the continuing frustration of apathetic record executives, changing musical times, and Pix going completely off the rails with substance abuse were about to all add up to something that began as a joke and ended up being one of the final nails in their creative coffin. THE KNIFE showed the band to have no control over a very disturbing looking album cover, but Pix had too much control over the title track. He said he was a nonviolent person and he didn't appreciate the way people turned him into some sort of a demon over "The Knife" which would sort of be a centerpiece of the album, but his idea of a joke was most people's idea of an outrage. Pix had tried all kinds of drugs, he was hooked on everything. When I knew him he was still always hitting the alcohol and over half the times we talked he was drunk. Even when drunk, he was a really good person and I know that Pix wasn't as malevolent as the image that "The Knife" would paint of him. When we broke up I was so heartbroken I cried. It was his closed minded power mad wife that ended our friendship for good, but for Pix he'd go off to Spain and wish to forget some of the past, mainly this record. I have to differ from him about THE KNIFE. It just may be their best record of all after the changeover and the whole atmosphere of the record is that The O Band had a lot of fight left in them. They would have enough fuel in their fire to produce an excellent hard edged rock album. They would also record for the first and last time in their career two superb cover versions in Randy California's "Look To The Left Look To The Right," but especially their Hollies/Badfinger take on John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night" is mindblowing. It may look like a band is running out of musical ammunition when they begin an album with two covers, but nothing could be more untrue. As all the original material here proves a kind of grittiness and get down raunchy rock sound mixed with very progressive leanings would make their last album among the best releases of the mid 70s. "I'm Gonna Leave You" is again in that Steve Perry but tougher mode with excellent vocals from Pix, great harmonies, and fine ensemble playing. "Strange Lovin'" is celebratory, let-it-all-hang-out rock with great Gospel inflected backing vocals, and Side One's closer "Back Alley Lightning" may sound a good deal like their favourite band Little Feat, but this is much better.
    Side Two is a whole different thing altogether. Now times were rapidly becoming bad for a rock band with punk becoming more popular and to trash all the rubbish that was coming out Pix had written a rather naughty, risque lyric for the album's title track and the rest of the band pounced on it with intentions of turning the whole thing into a concept side. This was not what Pix had intended, and I also don't think he had a clue just how far he had gone when he wrote the lyrics to "The Knife." Side Two begins and ends with two Craig Anders masterpieces the moody "Time Seems To Fly" and the heavily progressive King Crimson influenced "Venus Avenue" which features astonishing use of strings. Pix sings his heart out, but under very difficult circumstances. His mother had just died and obnoxiously he had been dragged into the studio by the rest of the band and the co Producer (this brilliant Del Newman) to do the vocals with no time for him to get over his painful loss. Maybe that's why his voice on these two tracks is plaintive and mournful. It's anything but that on "The Knife."
    "The Knife" in graphic detail is an over 8 minute account of a wild street boy named Jimmy who has a spoiled rich girlfriend named Nicky and who has just made two very bad mistakes- he's bought a knife and taken Methedrine- otherwise known as Speed. Pix fills you in that Jimmy is sometimes a bit on the tense and "tight kind of brittle" side to make a direct quote and that he has told Nicky that he wants to fuck her. When she takes him home Jimmy is so wasted that he can't get an erection. The music becomes ominous while Pix digs into his best Lou Reed impersonation and does a shocking voice over:
        "Well now Jimmy slowly turned his head his mouth was dry his eyes were red/And dreams he never dreamt he'd dream come slithering sniggering obscene/He watched her....."
The music slows and slows down and then settles into a menacing pace while the backing vocals again are Nicky mocking Jimmy right at the wrong moment with "Jimmy Jimmy what's in your head/You told me you wanted it that's what you said yeah yeah/Jimmy Jimmy I thought you were hot what's the matter sweetheart some kind of mental block?" Not wise words.
 Then it all explodes with the second and final spoken part from Pix:
        "Well she ran her finger down his back until she reached the part he lacked/Hey the King is dead long live the King she said and tried a little head quite useless/And then she sighed in sweet surprise as something hard but cold and sharp now occupied the space between her thighs"
 Then comes the heavy breathing and slow build up. Then Pix ominously shouts "Here's Something For You Off The Wrist He Said And Gave The Blade A Twist!" Then the chorus is repeated and all Hell breaks loose again. Jeff Bannister merely makes Pix's concept song stick out like a signpost stating "We Really Want To Get A Lot Of Negative Attention" on "Got To Run" where the violent lyrics continue. "I've Got To Run I've Got To Run/I'll Find A Gun" to "I Take My Hat Off To That Phony Bitch/Her Blood Ran Silver And It's Made Me Rich."
   I'm not making any of these lines up. The song "The Knife" does make me laugh it's so over the top and tasteless, but a joke about a guy who goes crazy and rapes his girlfriend with a knife combined with the scary looking cover- it can only spell one thing- it's the end. The crowd's reaction to the song the first time they played it was enough to make Pix miserable, but the ending of The O Band was a dragged out year of misery where everything fell apart and tempers flared about who was to blame for the band's demise. Pix had a horrible time accepting that Punk had killed his dreams. The whole band should have gone on, but they'd in some ways dug their own grave with their last album. It's a great record, an amazing record, but whether you find his joke funny is a whole other matter. I do because I know he's not being completely serious and because it's so stupid, but you have to really just think of things in a different perspective like I do when I play it. It certainly isn't as scary as the album looks. Punk was a lot scarier and it was the death of The O Band. Ironically, their new Heavy Metal image just given a little bit more time would have saved them, but they broke up early in 1978 a near decade's worth of dreams of stardom unfulfilled. Do not ever forgive the record companies for what they did to one of the greatest bands ever to come out during the sometimes exciting sometimes sickening 70s. This band is all that rock and roll should be.
      It's sad that it ended on such a hard note for The O Band, but the music never dies and so all I have to do is put their brilliant music as The Parlour Band, A Band Called O, O, and The O Band on to celebrate it and relive some of the happiest times of my life. To the musicians involved in both bands and especially for the brilliance of The Parlour Band many, many, thanks and rock on!

DREAMS, REALITIES, AND DISCOVERY THE O BAND/PARLOUR BAND SAGA IN FULL

This is going to be a crazy, intense, emotional, powerful, completely unbelievable story, but every word of it is true!
     This really should have been one of my first blogs. In here and in great detail you will discover the band that opened every door for me and led to my obsession of record collecting. That band would be one of the few bands ever to come out of The Channel Islands (namely Guernsey/Jersey) A Band Called O- Known to me as The O Band- the name they finally settled on for their final opus 1977's THE KNIFE.
      The tale begins with a dream and then moves into a deja vu experience in January of 1990 which changed my life forever. Fast backwards to 1988/1989 or even before that. My first experience with The O Band that led to the dream I had in 1988 is the haziest part of my story here. I think they were referred to in a stupid anti-Drug Anti-Rock And Roll film from the 70s a cop showed to us when we were in school and I was really young or that I saw THE KNIFE years and years ago in a record store in a local shopping mall when I was about 5. Since I can't verify which beginning is true, but that something had to lead to the riveting I had when I was 13 I'll skip ahead to the facts.
                      Prelude To Mania- A School from Hell and A Trip To Hell
  When I was 12 years old I had already gone through a half year of torture at the middle school and had been thrown into one of the most evil places in the world which at that time was located in Wayne New Jersey- a school for kids with "special learning needs" called Center School. I still have nightmares about the evil abuse that went on towards me and other kids then, but one of the very most memorable experiences was one of their zillion psychological torture experiments on us. This one was one of the scariest. I was unpopular. I was pint sized. I was sensitive, but I claimed to be a heavy metal headbanger. I had struck up a friendship with a few other kids and I can remember me and Tom, another intelligent boy at that time, feeling a lot of fear as the bus roamed ominously from Wayne on a dark and cold day in Fall to a grim and terrifying "Drug Rehabilitation Center." Now, was this trip about educating a bunch of young kids about the perils of drug abuse? No way in Hell. It was done to ABUSE US. The outside of the huge building looked like a gigantic Gothic mausoleum and the inside was dirty, cold, miserable, and still springs to mind when I listen to David Bowie's "All The Madmen." This wasn't a place people went to get cured. It was a place people went to die and/or lose their sanity completely. Tom and I were speechless for awhile after we left, but we both gave killing glances at the demonic Mrs. Carlson, the most evil teacher I ever had in all my years at school. Soon Tom and I were talking on the bus. We knew exactly what she/them had pulled over on us.
                        A Night Of Revelation- The Prophetic Dream-
    I went to bed not so easy that night after the day of our horrific experience at the drug and destruction center. That night I had a recurring dream, but it was the first time I'd have it and the really life-changing important time I'd have it. The dream centered around a band that were infamous and dangerous called Opium first, then The Occult Band, and then when they really did their act of damage The 'O' Band (that's right, now read more!). All incarnations of the band were fronted by a Scottish eccentric named Frankenson Oswald who after a witch hunt against his band had first retired to the English countryside and then had run a large record album warehouse business. I was a little older in this dream than 12, but maybe just a few years. I was walking down a road somewhere out in the middle of a very desolate, unpopulated place and there hadn't been a sign of anything but the road for a good 2 miles. Soon a building appeared in the distance and a big black car. The building was modern and unattractive, and the car made its way down to where I was. The car pulled up to the side of the road and a man with long reddish hair, a big grin, and all black clothes including a decorated robe smiled and asked "Need a ride, boy? Hey, come talk to me, come inside, name's Frankenson. Frankenson Oswald. I'm from Scotland or you may say North England." He looked a bit sinister, but a seductively warm glow filtered through his face and his friendly manner. I got inside and asked him what he did for a living. "I own that building up the road and a few others They're record warehouses where I store old used records, but all in very good condition. I used to be a really hard rocker, but those days are long gone. My kind of music isn't too popular anymore. I'm a 70s man! Grew up on soul, though, my fave's James Brown." He started to talk to me about his past and invited me for dinner. As Opium the band were named after his drug of choice and were a strange group to be sure. A band with two of everything except a lead singer- the former soul and R&B singer Frankenson had a powerful voice that could already with just one of him equal about 5 frontmen! He kept mentioning the deaths of some of the band members he played with and an album in the warehouse called THE KNIFE that destroyed him, but that was later on. Opium were a heavy progressive/psychedelic band who built their reputation around long compositions and a loud, powerful, all-encompassing sound with anti Christian lyrics. Frankenson had a distaste for Christianity that came from a very stern upbringing that made him revolt against organized religion from an early age. Their lyrics were crazed flights of fancy and so were their compositions and a manic stage show. They made two albums- the self-titled first catered to more of a club/soul psychedelic freakout sound whilst their magnum opus was a double album called COLLISEUM (their spelling not mine). This record had an ominous enough cover, but nothing was close to the music. The band were out there, there was no denying that. Frankenson was a very control oriented guy, but once the group made an album of jazzy influenced psychedelia under the name The Occult Band he lost control. We made it to the building by now and I was soon inside. I was thumbing through record after nonexistent in real life record. Then I chanced upon the forbidden record. The one that he had warned me about. The front cover showed a dark black background with manic swerves of a car and a lunatic across it and a huge foreboding white mansion with a younger Frankenson all contorted and in a black robe holding a sharp dagger. At the top of the cover in Gothic lettering was written in white THE 'O' BAND. At the bottom it said in the same Gothic type THE KNIFE. I was already feeling a bit concerned about what this album might contain. Then I turned the cover over. On the back was a flight of stairs with the knife covered in blood on them and in blood coloured lettering were the song titles and a quote that said "He Didn't Tell Her He Was High/She Forgot To Tell Him Not To Come/He Tried And Tried And Tried/He Blew It." The title track seemed to be just the centerpiece of a truly evil album, an album that after it's release saw Oswald vanish after two of the band members died. I was curious though, and he took me to a beautiful house that was one of two he had in the States. He refused to let me listen to the album alone. We dined on a brilliant Indian food feast together and then made our way to his tastefully furnished living room where he took out an old record player, plugged it in, and put the record on. Right from the beginning this was scary shit. It had a dark menacing organ sound, slashing fuzz guitars, all manner of crazed effects, and Frankenson Oswald yowling like a mad dog at the moon. The quiet parts were even scarier, full of real dread and depression evoking parallels with an off-the-deep-end Doors. The title track came on at the start of Side Two. All Hell broke loose. I was screaming for him to turn it off it was so terrifying and I collapsed on the floor. He took the record off and tended to me. "Why did I have to do that!? I still regret ever having a hand in anything that horrifying! How could I have lost it that much!? Don't worry, I'm better now, I learned my lesson, but I learned it the hardest way there could be. At the cost of two friends and bandmates to violent drug induced deaths. We did some really stupid things back then. Shall we go back to a happier subject and have dessert? I'll even let you have some very good sweet wine" this gentleman rocker said. He took the record and smashed it. I sat down at the table again with him and I asked him why he was so nice to me. "You're a young kid. You're a good kid. You've had it rough I can tell. A real load of bad luck has befallen you, but fear not I'll stand up for you. I'll look after you. I'll be your friend and a better friend you can't find."After a brief flashback to all the records he made especially THE KNIFE and his coming to terms with a dark past the dream ended. I woke up in the morning feeling rather strange. Rather high and didn't want to go to school even more than the day before.
                           -Falling Out with Metal 1989- The Deja Vu January 1990-
   Heavy metal interest ended for me in the fall of 1989. That was with current "metal" and I would still for awhile love the older music which was what I cherished the most, but my hatred of all current metal can be summed up in two simple instances both involving two bastards who are still friends with each other and still active- Axl Rose and Sebastian Bach. In 1988 I loved Guns And Roses. I never owned the record, but Appetite For Destruction was undeniably quite a record. They were edgy and he had a strange voice that could irritate easily, but everyone loved them. We considered anyone who didn't an ignoramus. Then Axl had to blow it. When the second album LIES came out that's exactly what it was. After reading of the line "Immigrants and faggots/They make no sense to me/" in a song called "One In A Million" it was all over for me with egomaniac idiotic bigot Axl Rose. Skid Row would be the final nail in current metal's coffin. Sebastian Bach had and has an even more irritating voice than Axl, but before the incident that made me want to kill him I thought he had a great voice and maybe he does. I was huge into Skid Row without buying the album. I loved those songs. Then Sebastian came out wearing a T shirt with the "Raid" insect killer logo on it saying"AIDS Kills Fags Dead." Go fuck yourself, I thought and I was only 13. Then a month later he was convicted of manslaughter and barely got off after a brawl broke out during a concert and he killed or nearly killed a fan. I can remember my disgust. These guys are the real wimps and cowards I thought and still think. Angel and Stories and Aerosmith. Atomic Rooster, Procol Harum, and Emerson Lake & Palmer- those were my bands. I'd changed over completely and hated the then popular new bands.
     I found myself in a record store that was a joke called Orpheus the same day I purchased my long time copy of Stories' 2nd record ABOUT US the laminated cover 1st press with no "Brother Louie" hit at a much better store on a rainy dark day in Washington D.C. I then went to Orpheus. I laughed at their prices on everything and then went to a box that was unmarked as far as I remember or else it was just a box of cheaper records. Then the Deja Vu- the opening of Pandora's Box, the Original Sin hit me. I pulled out a record that said at the top "THE O BAND THE KNIFE." The cover was close enough to the one in the dream to send terror and shock through my entire young body. It was a dark black background with a huge evil looking house and a man where you couldn't see his face grabbing a huge knife on the front. On the back was a drawing of the knife on the house's front stairs covered in blood and an eerily similar quote: "He Didn't Tell Her He Was High/She Took Him Home/He Tried And Tried/He Blew It." I was shaking in a fit of terror that would spill over into a breakdown later that day and the next. "This is it. This is the one!" I said aloud and then after holding the record for a few minutes flung it back in the box. I'd never be the same person again.... Soon I'd turn from a bad experience in a manner of a few years to a record freak.
                          -Discovering The Music And Uncovering The Music-
      How could this really be reality? It all was so strange. After a period of being a blithering idiot, hearing "The Knife" by Genesis on Genesis Live and having a fever afterwards and turning into an introverted paranoid nutcase everything changed in 1992. Before even then Bill "Pennies" Pacquin (say Pak-Keen) saw to it that I would be educated in music and Bill knew what no one else at The Princeton Record Exchange knew. He filled me all in on The O Band and their previous incarnation The Parlour Band which I at first thought he said was "The Poe Band." He taped The Parlour Band and I completely couldn't understand it. This wasn't metal at all- it was unlike anything I'd heard except Camel and Queen. Then The O Band I had a little early taste of that year of '91 before in 1992 becoming a huge fan.  No, as it turned out The O Band weren't 70s metal at all. They were a rock and roll band, a melodic rock and roll band, and they also played a kind of bridging between spacey progressive rock, Americanized California rock, and Pub rock. When Bill in 1992 traded me the band's last two albums WITHIN REACH and THE KNIFE I had gone full into psychedelic and good old 60s/early 70s rock 'n roll, but hearing WITHIN REACH (an Israeli Press!) I finally was ready for this band. This was really good stuff. Someone in Journey, namely Steve Perry, I still believe heard Pix and ripped him off. The Journey similarities on all 4 of The O Band's records, but especially OASIS, WITHIN REACH, and THE KNIFE are more vocal than musical, but the tight, commercially friendly, hard edged, muscular melodic rock really impressed me. However, when I got THE KNIFE I read the lyrics on the innersleeve and had to have Stuart (dad) play it first. Unlike the Satanic driven drug induced murder in the dream version this was all drug induced and about a guy named Jimmy who takes Methedrine (Speed), tells his girlfriend he wants to fuck her, can't get a hard on, is taunted by her, and rapes her with the knife. He said it must have been part of their stage act when he heard it and when I heard it that was obvious. Yes it was part of their stage show, but when Pix called me up on my 24th birthday to talk to me about the band he said he intended it as a joke, but ended up destroying his career with it. This was years and eons after I'd first discovered and uncovered all of The O Band and their previous band The Parlour Band's now 500 pound album IS A FRIEND? had become one of my all-time favourite records ever made. I had suspected that if Pix (Lead vocals/lead and rhythm guitar) and bandmates Mark Anders (bass) Craig Anders (Guitars/steel guitars/vocals) Geoff Bannister (keyboards, synthesizers, vocals) Derek Ballard (Drums, percussion) weren't intentionally doing a piss take that was what it had turned into and it turned out that Pix in a fury of anger at changing musical trends wrote the song as a joke. Now, a song that graphically details a drug addict, a spoiled brat girl who doesn't know when to shut her mouth, and a knife shoved "between her thighs" may sound like anything but funny or just ludicrously violent, but it just so turns out it is so stupid that it's hard not to laugh at Pix's sick joke. The song itself is not bad, but certainly not the highlight on a very strong last album. After 6 years of struggle, record company apathy, drug and alcohol abuse on Pix's part, a huge changeover in sound and leadership from original lead vocalist/keyboard player Peter Filleul to Pix The O Band were killed off by the oncoming punk scene at the end of 1977. Pix was furious about what had transpired back then. He and the band had worked really hard, had made some of the best music ever especially on IS A FRIEND?, OASIS, and WITHIN REACH, they had been billed as a band that were going to make it really big, and then in a tumultuous misery everything went horribly wrong and it all was over. Pix and I were best friends for a year and a half and this Guernsey/Jersey native's extravagant rock and roll manner made him a very lovable guy until I lied to him unintentionally and things got worse from then. We tried to end as friends, but I still wish that Spain bound Pix and I could have remained friends and really patched it up.  Later on I'd go back to all of his/their music and here is where I will end my story. The Parlour Band were the beginning. They opened everything up for me and laidback progressive pop psych with heavy psychedelic guitars is still my favourite music. I called up a record dealer who never had anything good one day in 2006 and he said he'd bought an amazing import collection where the sleeves were a bit damaged but the records were unplayed. At that time I had a cheesy reissue that sounded shite of The Parlour Band and he said he had it. I was shocked, as shocked as the day I'd discovered the real O Band. I told him I'd pay him $125 for it and he went for it! My dad couldn't believe it was true, but when we got to his store sure enough the cover was about VG and the record completely new never played and STEREO- my previous 2 were MONO! I bought it. The guy went for it at that price and now that copy could be worth $700 to $800!!!!! And you won't find a better record, but mind you it really has to be heard in stereo for the best effect. You also won't find a story with a more joyful end.  I will go into more detail later about that album, but remember if something may at first look strange and uninviting if a gut force tells you to investigate it by all means do so. Much love to The Parlour Band and The O Band and enough said for now.



    

THE MOVE THE KINKS THE WHO THE YARDBIRDS AND A LITTLE CREAM- THE BIG BANDS WHO MADE THE BIGGEST IMPACT POST-BEATLES

As Monty Python would say "And Now For Something Completely Different!"
Well, you who have read these pages before may see some similarities, but And Now For Something A  Lot More Cheerful.
After the big beat-boom in 1964 of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five and other less revolutionary bands England was teeming with thousands of young hopeful groups. A lot of these bands were sticking to the safest most mundane side of Merseybeat, but from London and later Birmingham rose 3 bands to whom we can thank for everything from hard rock to heavy metal to psychedelia to new wave to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and just about everything else. These bands would be the former Hi Numbers now called The Who spearheaded by guitar and songwriting genius Pete Townsend and The Kinks from Muswell Hill- a small place for the revolutionary sounds of the two Davis brothers Ray and Dave.
  When the Kinks exploded in 1964 with "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night" a knife inserted into an amplifier by Dave Davies and Ray's snarling vocals created heavy metal ages before anyone would catch up, but it would be true to say that here was the beginning of hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal and punk. With more maturity The Kinks became an unstoppable force always driven by the two polar opposite brothers who hated each other with a passion, but made up for it with amazing music. The songs that grace the first real album releases when Ray found himself like Face To Face, Something Else, The Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur these are not just songs they are epics they are stories they are the literature of the future coming years for grown up British rock. Ray Davis knew how to be sympathetic as well as cynical. His vision of The British Empire and "Preserving The Old Ways Protecting The New Ones" was far removed from the primal sexuality of the early hits and Dave was fast becoming a creative writer in his own right- also with a unique voice readily identifiable as the high falsetto in the harmonies. Songs like "David Watts," "Harry Rag," "Phenomenal Cat," "Big Sky," "Victoria," "Brainwashed," and "Shangri-La" all came from classic albums and all inspired every worthy group in England to rock hard yet move forward- add in a few new spices to the recipe. The more subtle ones like "Phenomenal Cat" would heavily influence the Toytown pop psych sound of the best British bands of that era playing softer material yet they always had that crunch and punch- that same crunch and punch that came from all the way back in "You Really Got Me." The Kinks would not die come the 70s either. Like The Move and like best work of The Who they would forge ahead with new ideas and create new sounds. The Who's fallout from their glory days was fast. They had been THE MOD BAND PAR EXCELLANCE of the 60s, but the further they moved into the 70s the less inspirational they became. It all would tank after the hard hitting classiness of Live At Leeds and Who's Next, but as a live act they would remain unstoppable. The Kinks too would pioneer the kind of antics The Move and The Nice later indulged in during their unpredictable stage shows where anything could happen. And the Americans were listening too.
  Demand for British bands to come over here to the States and tour was huge, so huge that bands like The Kinks and The Zombies were seen as a threat and they tried to ban them from touring here. They could try all they wanted, but nothing was going to stop the music from breaking through and the early excitement of those classic hit singles led to American bands emulating the British. Many would try to disguise this with a uniquely American slant such as Paul Revere & The Raiders and Tommy James & The Shondells, but their influences were obviously The Kinks and The Who. Then a big change started happening in the States around 1966- American bands became part of the countercultural revolution playing music like no one before had ever dared. The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Byrds, Love, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Left Banke (probably our Greatest Band- our Kinks) all these very diverse and different bands if they didn't sound English sounded American and were loved back in the country that gave birth to the ability for most of them to exist- England.
    The Kinks had 3 classic hard rocking hits in 1964/1965 "You Really Got Me," "All Day And All Of The Night," and "Till The End Of The Day." Ray would follow up with "A Well Respected Man," "Tired Of Waiting For You," and "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion-" pioneering brilliant songs. There was just one problem: the albums didn't live up to the singles. Not only that there were dreadful, clueless songs on the albums and no cohesion to their early releases. This same lack of consistency bit away at The Zombies on their first long player and until the second and final album Oddesey And Oracle much of their output was erratic. Remember these were the days of "The Singles Bands." However, by 1966 Ray Davis discovered the ability to write an entire album's worth of amazing songs and Face To Face was Ray's discovery of himself. He put together his intellectual brilliance and matched it with new ideas and punchy melodies helped along by the even punchier guitar work of Dave. Mick Avory and Pete Quaife (who died recently) were the ample rhythm section.
  As Ray would invent new wave decadence long before there was even a word of Roxy Music and Dave would inspire guitar heroes later on to crank the volume to eleven new things were happening in British Rock. The Who came on the scene in 1965 with the classic youth anthem to end all youth anthems "My Generation." These at that time young fresh faced Mods from Shepherd's Bush area London were all about chaos. John Entwhistle's dynamic, flowing, forceful bass and Keith Moon's frantic drumming laid the foundation for Pete Townsend's amazing feedback power chord assault. Roger Daltrey, blond and with an interesting face and a great voice, proved to be the perfect frontman and Pete Townsend right away saw to it that the albums did not disappoint. Unlike The Kinks The Who would rise fast and die fast. From early classics like "Substitute," "I Can't Explain," "Love Is Like A Heatwave" (A Motown cover), "I'm A Boy," and "Picture's Of Lily" to the world's first taste of a rock oratorio in "A Quick One" this was a band you couldn't do anything but have your mind blown in awe for. Their destructive stage act with smashing guitars, drums flying all over the place, screaming onslaughts of pure noise, and Daltrey frantically thrashing around would be the foundation upon which all future Heavy Metal was laid. However, when The Pretty Things released S.F Sorrow Townsend was a changed man. He had a vision of a rock opera to make The Who more musically mature, but how much more mature could you get than THE WHO SELL OUT? The shocking thing about Tommy was the music of which most was brilliant and the huge change over in sound. All of a sudden The Who were now part of progressive rock. They had added in brilliant new ideas, finely crafted instrumental musings, and Roger Daltrey's voice was getting much heavier sounding. The Who were now at the number one position in rock. They could fill any stadium. They were now poised to be giants of the 1970s along with the equally groundbreaking Led Zeppelin. To think this all started as far back as 1966- it's amazing. Every band from Britain in the 60s owed so much to The Kinks and The Who and the band you are about to hear about- my personal favourite The Move.
   The Move were named after the move away from Mike Sheridan's Lot and Carl Wayne and The Vikings- two Brumbeat bands and in case you don't know what that means it means Birmingham bands. Roy Wood was born Ulysses Adrian Wood and if he had kept his amazing birth name even that wouldn't have stopped him from surpassing anything and everything. In the beginning, in 1966 Roy was fast becoming a prolific songwriter who could dip into classical music influences, early heavy metal, British whimsy, and pure solid Mod pop and in 1967 The Move set about conquering England.     
   With good looking Carl Wayne on lead vocals, strange looking Ace Kefford on Rhythm guitar, Trevor Burton playing the heaviest bass ever laid down, and powerful drummer Bev Bevan laying down the backdrop for Roy's virtuosity they burst onto the psychedelic/pop scene with the freakiest single hit of 1967 "Night Of Fear." Based around the 1812 overture it was a heavy, hard, punch-you-in-the-jaw scary single that freaked me when I first heard it having only heard the later Move material, but what a hit it was. Now British pop had it's newest most hopeful young group and the single shot up high in the charts. Even creepier than "Night Of Fear" was the flipside "Disturbance" about a mental collapse and violent breakdown. It was originally intended as the choice song, but it was later to be the flip on a rather strange breakthrough hit for the young band. Roy was now constantly questioned about if LSD had inspired the single, but this really pissed him off as Roy wouldn't touch drugs. The single was a good start, but was surpassed by everything that came after it. "I Can Hear The Grass Grow," "Fire Brigade," "Flowers In The Rain" these were the most perfect slices of heavenly heavy British power pop psychedelia and The Move were ranking up the huge hits with all their singles releases.          
    Throughout 1967 their crazed stage act which came after The Who and Wood's genius level writing made them a sort of even heavier Who or a very uniquely British take on a huge amount of influences that Roy and friends had stored up. While The Who never really embraced psychedelic rock and only dipped into it a scant few times The Move not only had a psychedelic edge they were sharp enough to be described as "Progressive Pop." Roy Wood is a guitar virtuoso and when he opened his mouth to sing a golden voice poured out. A blueprint for Ozzy Osbourne the heavily Brum accented Wood had an impish yet paradoxically tuneful delivery and with "Fire Brigade" and "Flowers In The Rain" hitting the charts like a hammer he would soon be pushing aside Carl Wayne who wanted to be a cabaret singer! With Ace Kefford singing his only lead vocal on their first self-titled LP opening track "Yellow Rainbow" and the rest of the vocals mainly shared between Wood and Wayne their first record is one of the great ones of 1968. It included many of their 1967 hits and new very exciting album tracks made the Move much loved in England, Europe, and America, but it was England they really took by storm. Roy Wood ran into a few complaints about his humourous treatment of mental illness, but I believe that he was sympathetic to people who weren't all there and wasn't putting them down. He also would continue to receive annoying questions about what inspired him to write. Roy would just write songs- he didn't need drugs or any other unnatural stimulants. He would lock himself up in his room and write for hours on end perfecting gem after gem. The Move wanted to go forward and make a more experimental second record and did so with SHAZAM. This album was my introduction to The Move and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Side Two showed them moving through 3 cover versions covering everything from grandiose psychedelia in the Ars Nova penned "Fields Of People" to Led Zeppelin before Led Zeppelin heavy metal in "Don't Make My Baby Blue" to the uproarious cabaret/folkrock of "The Last Thing On My Mind" by Tom Paxton. It was these amazing performances that helped me to turn even sworn enemies in my horrid private school into friends, but it was tracks like Wood's "Hello Suzie" the album opener which had me floored. Roy Wood was becoming a hero, a really cherished secret, and by the time I got into the first album and early tracks after hating them around November/December 1992 I became a Move fan for life. Roy's unique voice, his masterful skills as a musician who could play any instrument ever created, his ability to do all the vocals, and his songwriting genius would never run dry.
    When Roy Wood disappeared from music he did simply that- just retired on a high note. This was 1979 and if you wanted quality from The Who by now forget it. The Move had long since folded and so had Roy's glam rock stardom in Wizzard, but when I saw him give a rare performance in 2002 in Manhattan I witnessed what a true music lover this man is. He had passed out onstage the previous night and was suffering a really bad flu. He came onstage with an all younger than him girl backing band and was cavorting around like nothing was wrong. He made many wry comments about his bad health that night and the night before, but he wasn't about to cancel the show. He went on and rocked hard for the whole time. He played a million instruments. He sang brilliantly, and we were all cheering him on- me shouting "ROY!!! ROY!!! ROY!!!" He nodded at me. I felt blessed.
    Back to The Move now. During their 4 album and many more singles run many line up changes influenced the direction that Roy would take, but not one track during their career was a throwaway. He also kept busy producing for other bands and the most notable of these was the tragically unsuccessful Idle Race. The Idle Race were fronted by a very talented young songwriter named Jeff Lynne and Lynne's funny, whimsical, and loving warm hearted songs were somewhat like a lighter more Beatles inspired Move. After two flawless classic albums THE BIRTHDAY PARTY and their self titled second Roy made the second of two offers he'd make Jeff to join The Move. Before Jeff Lynne had refused, but with The Idle Race going nowhere in commercial terms and depression setting in he joined. Now The Move had two multi-instrumentalists and geniuses and it's amazing that they didn't fall into some kind of confused mania with both Wood and Lynne on board. Instead they made as their next venture after SHAZAM the brilliant LOOKING ON. LOOKING ON picked up where the heaviest previous material left off and saw The Move playing a perfect hybrid of early heavy metal/heavy psych and Beatles inspired psychedelic numbers with Jeff Lynne beginning his Lennon fixations which would lead him to the top of the charts with Electric Light Orchestra. Another series of classic singles followed and "Brontosaurus" lifted from the album became an instant favourite. The much covered "Do Ya," "Tonight," and funny "Chinatown" came around this time, but none of these appeared on the band's last album MESSAGE FROM THE COUNTRY. This was a continuation of everything The Move had done before and more. Not since the 1st album with Trevor Burton singing the rock and roll 50s pastiche "Weekend" had The Move revisited the early days of Elvis, but here Roy Wood began his 1950s obsession in earnest with the uproarious "Don't Mess Me Up." Bev Bevan also sang a track- the even more hysterical Johnny Cash tribute/send up "Ben Crawley Steel Company," but much of the rest of the album sounded like The Beatles if they could have stayed together maintaining their integrity along the way. The Move continued to be ahead of their time and to inspire many musicians to form exciting bands. Songs like "Message From The Country" by Jeff and "It Wasn't My Idea To Dance" by Roy helped lift this album to the list of Greatest Ever- a list in which everything The Move did has a very high position. They would never fail you and they wouldn't bring you down into self-indulgent boredom either. The Move are one of the best rock and roll bands ever formed.
   So here are the 3 bands Post Beatles who made the biggest dent and the most exciting music, but I must also bring to your attention two other revolutionary bands- Cream and The Yardbirds. While I don't have time to go into full detail they are two bands you will be familiar with as pioneers of heavy metal and I don't think that either one need an introduction as along with The Move, The Kinks, and The Who bands that will live forever and more as the most exciting music of the 1960s. Cream came out of The Yardbirds and both bands came out of the blues- something I haven't touched on till now. While The Move would take some classical bents and some blues influences and turn them psychedelic Cream and The Yardbirds would blow the blues into fragments and then reassemble them. I was listening to UFO the other night and realized how huge an impact Cream had on them. The song was "Pack It Up (And Go)" and the album was OBSESSION- listen to this song and you can hear "Swablr" off DISRAELI GEARS in hyperspeed. For UFO, for Black Sabbath and all the other great hard rockers it all goes back to the 1960s- a time of youthful optimism and wide-eyed wonder. There are simply too many great bands for me to go into detail about and not be here all night, but what I can end with is the music will play on and play on LOUD! You will find all the inspiration for all the coming bands of the 70s and the best of the 80s too in The Kinks, The Move, The Who, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, Cream- the British Invasion wouldn't die down despite some awful throwaway shlock bands it would lead to American bands playing the most exciting music of all time in that decade of genius along with The British and soon a worldwide explosion of talent. It was a time I wish I had been around for, but can always revisit in the music. Let the music play and let the music ROCK YOU HARD!