OFF: Ozric Tentacles/ Pink Fairies

[Jon Jarrett]

On Fri, 18 May 2001, Rich Warren wrote:

> I'm off to see OT in Glagow next Friday yippeee. I haven't seen them since
> 93.
>
> Anyone seen them this year yet, are they on form?

        Okay, it may have taken me more than a month to find the relevant
review and a mail session at the same time, but YES. As by now hopefully
you know. For the others though I take the liberty of subjoining a review
of their Cambridge gig...

"Subject: Ozric Tentacles, Cambridge Junction, 09/05/01

        Set-list: Astro Cortex/ Vita Voom/ Pixel Dream/ Pyramidion/
Saucers/ Stretchy/ ?/ Cat DNA/ Xingu Xingu/ Sunscape/ Eternal Wheel/
Sploosh!/ Vibuthi// White Rhino Tea/ Throbbe

        It was a top gig. It really was. I'd forgotten the reaction the
Ozrics live produce in me, they are a happy-making band. I feel
wonderfully cheerful within ten seconds of them starting up (although
undeniably I needed this gig). They have lots of fun, too, but there were
a number of things that were impressive about this gig. Firstly they
seemed bloody well drilled. There were long slides between the songs which
could have been jammed except that John, flautist and whirling dervish,
knew where the pauses were going to be and other such indications that it
was rehearsed. Secondly, though John and Zia (bass) were perfectly
competent (John even playing actual tunes into the mike), the others were
on brilliant form, including the new drummer, who goes by the moniker of
Schoo (causing John to observe to the section of the crowd that were
shouting for him, "It's no use mate, Schoo's out of his box."), the others
being Seaweed (electronics), who was playing some quite unusual noises and
who is always so pleased with himself when a routine comes off, and
especially Ed (guitar, synths). He was on smashing form, I've never seen
him play so well. Thirdly, generally more performance effort. Ed and John
both used more than one instrument, usually they don't change in the
course of a set. Ed changed guitars twice in the course of one of the
songs.

        Despite this, they were having a laugh. The new single
(`Pyramidion') is a massively intense dance-festi crossover piece with a
bpm that wouldn't disgrace a slightly out-of-date dancefloor, lots of
exciting squelch and not one but several catchy little tunes in it. If I'd
recorded it I'd release it as a single too. (It's their second
ever... ) and the set definitely improved once they'd successfully played
it, which John gave us to understand was a risky venture. Schoo,
lastly. He's a lot better than Rad, not necessarily technically, but for
the band. Rad was a rock drummer, and has left the band due to unspecified
personal problems which I think must be to do with spending seven years in
the army and then six in the Ozrics without a break. But Schoo has been a
fan forever, apparently, and he clearly remembers the old days when the
Ozrics were more, well, tribal. And now he drums that way and they are
again, the whole thing being a lot more breathlessly intense despite (or
perhaps even because of) being so well-prepared. If you have a chance to
see them this tour (there's still some left) do it. They're really good
now. Best of the bunch. Really. 20/20."

        Then, further down the same message:0

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rich Warren" <rich.warren at BTINTERNET.COM>
> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 6:02 PM
> Subject: Re: HW: Isle of Wight
> >
> > I must of heard the wrong Pink Fairies albums ;-)

        That's unfortunately easy to do: only on of the original three has
a CD release (the excellent _Kings of Oblivion_) although there are now a
crop of indistinguishable compilations which also have the live material
that gives it all context; yes, they were a kick-ass band at writing
genuine four-minute rock and roll (and much sillier things too) but until
you've heard the Glastonbury Fayre vrsion of `Uncle Harry's Last Freakout'
your mental picture of psychedelic freakout music (tm pat pending) is
incomplete IMO. But basically the picture is this, with which a few people
will no doubt disagree if only because they have the first two albums
whereas I've only got bits of them:

1970: Band lineup features Paul Rudolph & Twink, Paul and the other two
being freshly ex-Deviants; the first single is `The Snake'/`Do It' and the
album it comes from is _Never Never Land_ (isn't it?); these are excellent
though Twink's material is a little sub-par in terms of power and
impact; or, you can see as shade to the light; the Glastonbury Fayre
material and a few other bits are from this and show how the two drummer
thing should work... (compilations you can trust (r, pat pending) are _Do
It! The Golden years 1969 - 1971_ which has Twink solo stuff on it too and
_Mandies and Mescalines round at Uncle Harry's_ which has BBC sessions on
as well from the next phase...

        Later in the year Twink leaves due (according to drummer Russell
Hunter) to being unable to make Hunter leave instead and the three-piece
produces _What A Bunch of Sweeties_; this is similarly good, maybe better
even, and live they sometimes have Trevor Burden from The Move with them
which is in some ways a pity as Paul Rudolph doesn't barnstorm as much but
certainly gives them even more pace; the BBC sessions on _Mandies_ sows
this nicely.

1971 Paul Rudolph quits and the other to grab a guitarist called James
Wayne for one single (`Well Well Well') which is excellent if a bit more
blues than before, before finding Larry Wallis and drafting him in instead
they produce _Kings of Oblivion_,. which shockingly has more drawn-out
guitar pieces on it and sounds faintly like early Motorhead :-) but is
still great, just not quite as R'n'R. There's also some `lost' tracks from
a notional next album that appeared on a mini-LP later on (_Previously
Unreleased_, compiled onto CD with the _Live at the Roundhouse_ LP from
1975) which I think are from this period. But the band finally goes
foom! in early 1972 and they never appear as recordings from a functional
band. They're OK but not great.

1975 Everyone except Wayne is gathered back for a reunion, and this
generates the _Live at the Roundhouse_ LP which is under-rehearsed and has
two VU/Lou Reed covers on it but still smokes more than a bit; sadly it
is not the slightly earlier gig of the same year featuring Lemmy and
Nik. The band implodes again soon after however (the Roundhouse gig seems
to show that Wallis and Rudolph have trouble letting each other
front?). Wallis goes solo and then joins Motorhead (or the other way
round?), the rythym section rejoin the Deviants and Rudolph joins
Hawkwind and sessions for Eno.

1977 Twink and Rudolph and I believe some others release an EP as Twink
and the Fairies, starting a long series of releases whereby Twink
attempts to fly himself using the Fairies name. It's got one rework
(the title track, `Do It `77', which Twink now claims is is own work) and
two originals, is OK and is compiled on the same CD as _Live at the
Roundhouse_ and _Previously Unreleased_.

1987 Another reformation featuring Wallis, Sanderson (bass), Twink &
Hunter and ex-Deviants Andy Colquhun who was never in the Pink Fairies
before. The album produced is called _Kill 'Em and Eat 'em_ and is OK 80s
rock with sadly _Xenon Codex_-like production values, but it's not really
what one expects from the PF moniker. The band rapidly disintegrates
again.

1995 (I'm still not sure about this bit but I've seen the album listed on
the web so I use the information I have even if it is from _The Great Rock
Discography_) Rudolph and Twink gather a fresh band in Canada and issue an
album called _Out of the Blue and Into the Pink_; I have no idea what it
sounds like. However:

1996 (back on firm ground here) this time without the rest of the band
they issue a follow-up called _Pleasure Island_ which is mostly lousy
except for the long title track which is multi-layered and builds up quite
well (or so says Jill);

1997 a third album called _No Picture_ which has no redeeming merits at
all being flaccid, badly played and containing no worthwhile material and
has an `offensive lyrics' sticker on it to garner more sales from the
existence of the heavily distorted use of a sampled f-word in one track
two or three times. I should say that Andy Garibaldi completely disagrees
with me over the quality of this album but I can only assume that whatever
they're putting in his water is better than what they're putting in
mine; I think it's awful.

        It must have been at about this point that Larry Wallis sued Twink
(and I can see why) and Twink is now only allowed to bill whatever band
he's using as Twink's LA Pink Fairies or something. Larry has a solo album
in the works which will probably be quite Fairies-like for some values of
that term but no idea when it'll be finished. Twink's credits meanwhile
include subtle references like `The Fairy' on Bevis & Twink's _Magic Eye_
(excellent album) and _You Need a Fairy Godfather_ with Plasticland (also
excellent or so says Doug P. So there you have it.

        Throughout this mail I've been listening to Scorched Earth's _Fed
to Your Head_ and so should you be. Yours,
                                           Jon



--
       Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
   =====================================================================
  "There is a certain pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know"