here - Shindig! Magazine

HAPPENING NO.5 • APRIL 2011 • FREE
NEWS+reviews
PAUL MESSIS
steve cradock

melting moments
Kinks legend Ray Davies is curating this
year’s Meltdown festival at the South
Bank in London (10-19th June). The lineup
is incredibly good: two shows from
Ray himself (one with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra), plus Arthur
Brown, Roger McGough, The Fugs, Geno
Washington, Terry Jones & Michael Palin
in conversation, Alan Price, Madness, The
Sonics, and Peter Asher.
Saturday 11th June sees a re-creation of
1960s British TV pop show Ready Steady
Go!, a pioneering music programme that
featured legendary performances from The
Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix,
Otis Redding, Dusty Springfield as well as
many appearances by The Kinks. This special
Meltdown edition includes original stars from
the era alongside contemporary artists
specially chosen by the show’s director,
legendary TV producer and Dusty’s
manager Vicki Wickham. The line up for Ready
Record Store Day 7” specials
Steady Go! will be announced shortly and
tickets for this event will go on sale in April.
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Shindig! featured the Sonics in issue No.2 – online edition
available from yudu.com
The Sonics
get set
This year’s Record Store Day takes place on
Saturday April 16th and again the day will
be marked with special instore
performances and a host of incredible
releases, two of which come from the
recently resurrected International Artists
label.
‘Wait For My Love’ is The 13th Floor
Elevators ‘lost’ sixth single, which was
originally planned as a single in 1968 but
never released. The 7” will be pressed on
green vinyl with ‘May The Circle Remain
Unbroken’ on the b-side.
There is also a Red Krayola exclusive 7”,
with a remix of ‘Hurricane Fighter Plane’,
while the b-side is taken from forthcoming
2CD deluxe edition of the Parable Of Arable
Land album.
Both singles are limited to 2000 copies
worldwide and will be packaged in
International Artists’ house bags.
For details on stores participating in
Record Store Day and other exclusives that
will be available go to www.recordstore.com.
Neo-psych band The Chemistry Set finally
return to the UK live arena after a gap of
twenty years on June 18th with a London
show at The Garage on Highbury Corner.
Promoting upcoming single ‘Impossible
Love’ (on Fruits de Mer) the band core of
Dave McLean and Paul Lake has
progressed onto adding krautrock and
electronica into their sunshine mix. In an
era where Screamadelica is celebrated
with huge gigs and Amorphous
Androgynous are mixing beats with classic
psychedelia The Chemistry Set have
chosen the right time to bring their spellbinding
live show to these shores.

EXPLOITATION NOVELS • RANDY HOLDEN
FAIRFIELD PARLOUR • HEDGEHOPPERS ANONYMOUS
NEU! • JOSEFUS • PSYCHEDELIC VIDEO GAMES
Psych, garage, prog, powerpop, soul, folk… for people who want more!
TOO MUCH TO DREAM: California’s Psychedelic Warlords
Q65
Wild Sounds From The Netherlands
STRAWBERRY STUDIOS
Behind The Scenes At 10CC’s Recording Mecca
THE MAJORITY
The Brit Harmony Pop Heroes’ Cautionary Tale
THEE HYPNOTICS
Soul, Glitter & Sin: The Rise And Fall of our last great rock band
THE INSOMNIAC’S CAFE
Where the beatniks and the surfers made history
SHINDIG! QUARTERLY NO.1 — £7.49
MARK TULIN 1948-2011
The current issue of Shindig! features the first part of our coverage of The Electric Prunes.
Sadly, since we went to print, bass player Mark Tulin has died. In the next issue of Shindig!
we will feature an extended appreciation of Mark by those who new him.
Below we present a tribute from James Lowe and The Electric Prunes:
Mark Tulin, bass player for The Electric Prunes was always my first choice in the studio. He
could always think of something cool to play. I think this was because he listened. A lost art.
Mark gave his time to charity, was always there to help if you needed him. He was the guy
you could call from LAX at midnight and tell him you needed a ride. He always came to the
rescue. Mark was an avid reader and an old soul. His soft demeanor and wry smile hinted he
had been here before. We had known each other so long and wrote so many songs together
it was like we were brothers.
“You can't go home again” is a popular saying that refers to the ability to be able to turn
the clock back. In 1996 Mark Tulin came back to do what he loved, music. A resurgence in
interest in the music of the ’60s allowed us to reform The Electric Prunes and set some
things right. It had been said we couldn't play live, we went out and proved we could. It was
also said our records were a product of other people’s genius and that we couldn’t write
viable songs, we recorded three albums of our own material that scotched that rumour. What
we had done in the past was not good enough, we wanted to show we could still create and
play music in the present and thankfully, people allowed us to do just that. Mark was part of
the heart and soul of our band and he died doing what he loved, surrounded by friends; that
is about all one can really ask. He has now gone home for the last time. We will miss him as
we try to dream on. Good by my friend.
SHINDIG! pad
Some of us like to hold the lovely chunky
print version of Shindig!, but some prefer to
read it in other ways. To add to the different
formats in which the magazine is published
comes the new iPad version. Download
either the eBookShop or eBookStore app
and you can have the latest issue of
Shindig! to peruse on you pad.
There’s also available an online Flash
version at www.yudu.com.
The print version is available from our
website – www.shindig-magazine.com. It’s
also on Amazon, in your local record store
and bookshop, if you can’t see it in the
shop, please order it.
!
BROIL IN THE
BURGH
2011 sees Edinburgh’s first International
garage beat and rock’n’roll four day
festival, held over the last weekend of
July. This first Big Stramash* aims to
champion the very finest of today’s
garage rock’n’roll artists and reintroduce
at least one seminal musical force from
the past. The festival is organised by three
established club nights based in
Edinburgh The Go-Go, The Green Door
and Land Of 1000 Dances.
Headliners The Poets play for first time
since 1969, performing only material
from their mid-60s act which gave them
almost legendary status amongst
freakbeat aficionados. They are joined by
European Garage Festival regulars The
Masonics, The Wildebeests, and The
Higher State along with King Salami &
The Cumberland 3 who play their first ever
gig north of the border. Also of note are
’90s cult, all girl band Sally Skull, who
have reformed specially for the Big
Stramash. Wigan’s The Shook-Ups,
Liverpool’s Dr. Combover, London’s The
Strip Chords along with Edinburgh’s own
The Fnords and 13th Floor Elevators
tribute band The Wrong Elevators
complete the line up.
The main events happen on two floors
of Studio 24 on Edinburgh’s Calton Road
while the opening party will be at Henry’s
Cellar Bar on Morrison Street and the
closing do at The Voodoo Rooms on West
Register Street with a Saturday afternoon
event at Elvis Shakespeare’s Record and
Bookshop on Leith Walk.
http://thebigstramash.org
*Stramash – from the
Scots: n. An uproar,
commotion, hubbub,
disturbance, a broil,
squabble, row.
4

RING THE CHANGES
Guitarist, songwriter and mod extraordinaire
with Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller,
STEVE CRADOCK recent forays
under his own steam have
opened up a new world of
possibilities. PHIL ISTINE
peeks into his box of
magic tricks.

Being Steve Cradock must be pretty sweet. Playing on and
writing a string of hit singles and albums over the past
two decades have brought him wealth and fame. The
approachable, honest and plain-talking 41 year-old
however does find himself in these mid-career years
yearning for more. He walks a tightrope not uncommon
amongst people in his position. He has to please the OCS
and Weller fans that have got him where he is today, whilst
at the same time fulfilling his desires to break out of his
comfort zone and indulge musical passions he has kept
relatively hidden.
That’s what a solo career is all about. After 2009’s The
Kundalini Target (a solo album so solo there’s almost no
one else playing on the record) received a lukewarm
reception from the critics and public Cradock had to
change tack. Who are the beneficiaries of the shift
displayed on new album Peace City West? Us Shindig!
readers of course. Leaving aside the opening don’t-scarethe-horses
lead single ‘Last Days Of The Old World’,
which is still praise-worthy for it’s Kinks-ish riffs and
melody, this is an album with a cornucopia of
psychedelic and pastoral influences. Mellotron, flutes,
sitars, sound collages, and eastern prayer chanting... it
will be a revelation to some people. These are not
extra sounds bolted on either, but very complimentary
to the feel of the songwriting, which has a recurring
“George Harrison getting along with Ronnie Lane
playing with Steve Winwood” vibe.
Recorded over a fortnight at Deep Litter Studios in
his new home county of Devon, this time Cradock
was aided by a revolving cast of musicians
including drummer Tony Coote, multiinstrumentalist
Fred Ansell, and actor James
Buckley (The Inbetweeners) on guitar. His day jobs
forced him to write some of it during recording
sessions. As he explains: “We recorded it in a barn
on a farm! It was the place I just stored my gear. I
wasn’t sure if it was gonna be sonically good
enough. But the album turned out quite demo-ish,
which I think suits the songs anyway.” It was the
intervention of his fellow Weller bandmate Andy
Crofts (also the songwriting force of The Moons) that
proved a key inspiration. “I wrote four songs with
Andy. I had the songs or melodies, and Andy
finished the words off for me. I sent them to
Andy and within a couple of days he’s
demoed them and sent me them back. It
was just a nice way of working with
someone I hadn’t worked with
before. There were a couple of tracks done in hotel rooms,
one from a Melbourne hotel, another section of a song was
recorded in a dressing room in Los Angeles. I decide to
keep them because the vibe was right with them.”
Once he had “moved things on since the first solo album”
a world of options opened up, embracing the latest
working methods to producing a moment of classic
Eastern-inspired psychedelia. The making of the Simon
Dine-produced Weller album 22 Dreams clearly inspired
him. Three musical interludes crop up on Peace City West.
“I had a few of them on my computer as I was travelling
around the world on that last Weller tour. I thought it
would be good to use them. I met this guy in Egypt who
sang a prayer over one. It was just a good fun thing really.
Making music outside the seriousness of trying to record
tracks. Ocean Colour Scene wouldn’t do that sort of thing I
wouldn’t think.” You’re not wrong Steve. The 14 songs
cross-fade as well, so it works as one piece of continuous
music. Not revolutionary, but a nice touch for a man who
doesn’t need to make such an effort. The working methods
sound a hoot. Freed from record company demands it was
a case of “piling in and recording it. It didn’t matter who
was around to do it. Anyone who was there could have a
crack.” Those “having a crack” include Weller himself on
bass and vocals for ‘Last Days’, and he contributed a
poem that Cradock put music too (‘Lay Down Your Weary
Burden’). Wife and manager Sally, whose Mellotron is
audible on most songs, shares lead vocals with him on the
funky, Dusty Springfield-esque cut ‘Steppin’ Aside’. Selfreleasing
the album Cradock feels “stops it getting to as
many people maybe, but I like the idea of building up your
own label and having your own albums on it. And having
the freedom to do whatever you want to.” This new freedom
thing is clearly paying dividends for him, as any listener to
the album will attest.
Supporting Beady Eye, the new Oasis outfit, this month will
certainly get him out there, ready to turn on the masses to
his other sounds. Maybe they’ll listen to the lyrics of ‘Kites
Rise Up’, with talk of “gravity collapsing in... imaginary
ships... clouds like magic mushrooms form”. “I think it’ll be
interesting” he deadpans, “People will be having it no
doubt.” Festivals will follow and then another album is
already in the pipeline. When the spirit is willing there is
evidently no time for rest. As an old mod once said,
Onwards and Upwards.
Peace City West is out on April 24th on Kundalini Records.
He tours with a full band on his own and with Beady Eye
from April 12th (see www.stevecradock.com for dates).
3

THE METHOD
AND THE
MADNESS
Cardiff has been
continually supplying
us with top-notch
bands in recent years
and THE METHOD may
be the best one yet.
PHIL ISTINE packs his
dancing shoes and sets
off for planet
Subversive Pop to meet
singer Richie Hayes.
Some genres: punk, soul, ska, dub,
soundtracks. Some bands: The Specials, The
Bees, The Teardrop Explodes. None of these
or other prompts could adequately prepare
you for the onslaught of listening to
Dissidents And Dancers, the debut album by
five-piece Cardiff based Welsh wonders The
Method. There’s an innate confidence to a
band that can swallow up all these elements,
make you think of certain records but at the
same time leave you floundering to find
accurate adjectives to do the songs justice.
The band was put together by reggae and
soul-loving Dublin-born
singer/organist/songwriter Rich Hayes
through sheer force of personality. “I started
playing around various bands and basically
stole members as I went along” he explains.
His bond with the city is strong. “It’s a really
nice place to live, really friendly,” he
continues. “It’s a much slower pace of life
that Dublin. On the upside of that all the
musicians know each other, all the labels
know each other and for the most part work
together.” That bond is cemented through the
See Monkey Do Monkey stable of bands that
include Colorama, The Keys and Houdini Dax,
all of whom should be in the collections of
Shindig! readers. Taking the best of the old
(in The Method’s case that includes Dennis
Brown, Horace Andy, Jackie Mittoo, Miles
Davies) with the best of the new (The Coral,
The Bees, Arctic Monkeys) they create their
own world. Sometimes out of necessity it
seems, as Hayes explains the band “weren’t
accepted into any scene here in Cardiff, so
we thought ‘Fuck it, we’ll start our own.’ ”
Such camaraderie has blossomed, and a
long-player of intense sounds like The
Method’s can only come from many hours
playing together, especially at gigs. The
riotous live shows are par for the course
according to Hayes – “If someone’s gonna
pay a few quid to come see you then you
need to put something into it. To mean it.
Way too many bands you go see are looking
at their shoes or they’ve got their haircuts
and they just stand around looking all indie
and aloof. I think that’s just a bit shit really.
We’re the antidote to that.” The dosage is
high, blistering recordings recorded live to
distill as much of the energy of the group as
possible. Put together in stages throughout
last year, Dissidents And Dancers was
recorded by one-time 60 Ft. Doll Carl Bevan,
but self-produced. When I told Hayes how
noisy the record sounded he happily
illuminates on the theme. “It’s that ’60s
sound, isn’t it? When you listen to old
records they run everything into the red.
When I listen to any old Motown or Stax
records I think ‘How loud is this band in that
room?’ Like the tambourine is so loud on
those Motown records. It’s just amazing and
it makes you wanna dance.”
The myriad influences “are all from the
same root really” so we’re told, and you
can see his point once you hear the tracks
a few times. Layers of sound abound, but
always over a simple riff or melody. As for
the Dissident part of the title, Happening
finds itself having a nice state-of-thenation
discussion with Hayes. From playing
live in small towns and cities (“There are a
lot of bands here in Cardiff and nowhere to
play. But the music isn’t any less important
to people”) to the coalition government
(“The tune ‘Clusterfuck’ is what I feel when
I see Clegg…It is about how he’s made a
balls of it”) to the paucity of intelligent lyric
writing in contemporary bands (“There’s a
lot of songs about sunshine and skipping
through the meadows. It’s light and fluffy
and not real in any way shape or form”).
It’s probably best to leave the last word to
their intelligent, determined lead man. It
couldn’t be a more glorious manifesto:
“Our sole purpose is to get people to
dance. At the end of the day you can’t
really change the world with music, can’t
change people’s ways of thinking, however
much we’d like to do that as musicians. It
ain’t gonna happen. Its entertainment: we
just want people to enjoy themselves and
dance.”
Dissidents And Dancers is out April 18th on See Monkey Do
Monkey Records. Single ‘We Don’t Know’ is available now to
download. Visit www.themethod.eu
8

you’re a no-one, in this love
forsaken world, your heart is
filled with selfishness and
your mind’s so curled,
you’re not a real
person”. GENIUS!!!
Today’s newest hitmakers
pick their favourite artifacts
from yesterday. This issue
our south coast Englishman
PAUL MESSIS picks his top
10 cool moody garage cuts.
6 The Try-Angle –
Writing on The Wall
(Orlyn)
A perfect song!! It’s
not full of unnecessary
screaming and fuzztone
guitar, a song which is
more punk than the
normal standard, a
complete an utter loser-fest.
1. The Dovers – What am I going to Do?
(Miramar)
A perfect 12-string jangler from genius West
Coast teenagers, a totally great love song
full of question and yearning... A perfect
Pop Song I myself have covered!
2. The Pagans – Baba Yaga (Studio City)
Immense Moodiness committed to vinyl... a
perfect example of the Minnesota garage
sound.
3 The Cobras – Goodbye (Milky Way)
A total savage, miserable teen attack, this
was recorded by a group of 12 year old’s
from Illinois.
4 The Journeymen – She’s Sorry (Boss)
I love the vocal styling on this track, not to
mention the chord progression. This track is
very comforting when you have those
lonesome nights in with that certain girl on
your mind.
5 Jason Merrick & The Finders – I’m Not
What You Are! (Big Sound)
Possibly the best “girl” put down song ever,
this is beyond moodiness, total teen-angst,
total frustration, total paranoia. “To me
7 The Intruders – Now That You
Know (IT)
A fabulous folk-punker, I wish that I had
written this song.
8 George Washington & The Cherry
Stompers – Back Shelf Of Your Mind
(See Ell)
Frantic guitars, brilliant drumming,
awesome bass and ear piecing organ,
accompanied my loser-ville lyrics.
9 The Rogues – The Next Guy (Waverly)
You really cannot get any more
miserable and inept than this slab
of plastic. The vocal melody and
lyrics sends shivers down my
spine on every listen.
10 The Facts of Life – I’ve
Seen Darker Nights
(Frana)
A neat piece of
Pennsylvanian garage
punk, and one of the
greatest moments in
garage in my opinion.
Paul Messis has released
three 7” singles so far, with LP
The Problem With Me coming in
the summer on 13 O’ Clock
Records.
9

Edited by
Richard S Jones
ARBOURETUM
The Gathering
Thrill Jockey
www.thrilljockey.com
Like many of the new
breed of beardy,
checked shirted
Americans, you
wouldn’t really call
Arboretum a laugh a
minute. But then why
would you want to? Fourth album The
Gathering draws on the theories of Carl
Jung’s The Red Book: it’s heavy, folky and the
lyrics really mean something. Main man
Dave Heumann has a deeper brogue, yet he
mirrors early ’70s folk-rock in a manner not
unlike UK heavy folk stalwarts Wolf People.
The Gathering has beautiful vocals and on
‘When Delivery Comes’ you can’t but help
expect to hear a duet with Sandy Denny in
the final verse. Heumann is also a very
effective guitarist with fuzz laden, short
effective leads that do just enough to add
texture to the sludgy rhythm section.
Neither trying to reinvent the wheel or
sound like their favourite artists of old,
Arbouretum
Arbouretum offer a dark, ancient vision of
folk, and on songs like ‘The Highwayman’
steal the music of centuries past.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
BEAULIEU PORCH
The Colour 55 EP
The Peppermint Hill 7”
www.thesmilesandfrowns.com
This is the sort of
thing we live for here
at Shindig! Towers: a
marble-effect
coloured 45 of
modern-day
psychedelia that
comes with download codes for a bonus
three tracks. Simon Berry and friends, based
in Salisbury, have upped the ante when it
comes to quality home recordings. This is
slow-burning acid music for the
dispossessed of heart. Let’s focus on the
vinyl twosome here. ‘The Colour 55’ is the
sort of soft-focus dream pop that
immediately reminds me of latter-day
Mercury Rev, with baroque elements of The
Left Banke, Zombies and Nirvana, plus
Lennon’s most out-there moments. The
heavily treated vocals also bring to mind
Ride and MBV. It’s an enjoyable romp over
five oscillating, wall-of-sound minutes. B-side
‘Navy Blue’ invokes the loner folk vibe of a
million men sat in cold bedrooms, pining
over a broken heart. Self-indulgent you think,
then those space cadet vocals enter and
another dimension in sound opens up.
Phil Istine
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER
From Country Hai East Cotton
Blackmaps
www.blackmaps.org
Not just a style that’s
tough to lay down,
but one near
impossible to do so
with the sort of
originality of those
that have gone
before, Hiss Golden Messenger’s opening
gambit at the freewheelin’ gospel folk of
America’s dusty highways makes for hopeful
listening. Opening with ‘Isobel’, MC Taylor
turns in an effortless paean, with his feet
hardly ever touching the ground. Yet
frustratingly, this track like most on this short
mini-album is only made ‘a little special’
thanks to the musical manner in which it is
delivered as Taylor’s loose lyrics never truly
dig beyond the topsoil. Despite his massive
reverence for the pages of the traditional
American songbook, at times he seemingly
skims by when compared to more traditional
revisitors of similarly “old styles” like Pete
Molinari or Eli Paperboy Reed. Leaving the
potential for his experimental and mystically
modernised handlings to either turn you
convert or turncoat in a heartbeat.
Richard S Jones
HOLLY GOLIGHTLY & THE
BROKEOFFS
No Help Coming
Transdreamer
www.transdreamer.com
Anybody who
followed this Shindig!
scribe’s
recommendation to
go listen to Holly
Golightly & Lawyer
Dave’s third fulllength
album, Medicine County, not even a
year ago is in for another treat from the,
“Hansel & Gretel of retrospective countryblues”.
Delivered straight from the couple’s
10

Georgia farm, No Help Coming is a fresh
batch of 12 songs stamped with The
Brokeoffs’ inimitable ramshackle sound of
loose, tremulous guitar, country junkyard
percussion, fiddle and banjo. High-lonesome
tales abound as Holly and the Lawyer duet
and trade lead vocals on originals like ‘Burn
Oh Junk Pile Burn’ about a wonky-eyed crazy
lady and ‘The Rest Of Your Life’, an
outwardly plaintive country love song that
turns on a dime into a scary stalker ballad,
while making covers of Bill Anderson’s ‘The
Lord Knows We’re Drinking’ and Mr.
Undertaker’s spooky R&B flip-side curio
from 1955, ‘Here Lies My Love’ their own.
Alan Brown
MOON DUO
Mazes
Souterrain Transmissions
www.souterraintransmissions.com
The latest offering
from Ripley Johnson
of Wooden Shjips
and Sanae Yamada –
together-known as
Moon Duo – Mazes
picks up where last
year’s Escape left off, packing plenty by way
of hypnotic grooves, neo-Kraut minimalism
and sonically inspired invention. Heavy organ
fuzz, antiquated drum machines and
psychedelic guitars are boasted with the full
accompaniment of Johnson’s Alan Vegaesque
vocalisations. For the most part the
album’s taut and stripped down in
comparison to the often-sprawling Wooden
Shjips firebrand of neo-Krautrock, but you
wouldn’t quite call Mazes an album packed
with pop songs. With its primitive rock ‘n’ roll
viewed through the looking glass, you could
almost imagine Mazes playing soundtrack to
a lost Kenneth Anger film. Fans of Suicide,
Spacemen 3 and Silver Apples will do well to
listen up to attention.
Andy Davidson
PHAEDRA
The Sea
Rune Grammofon
www.runegrammofon.com
This hauntingly
gorgeous debut from
Norwegian siren
Ingvild Langgård will
draw obvious
comparisons to label
mate Susanna
Wallumrød, but Phaedra’s music is darker –
consider her Nico to Susanna’s Kate Bush.
This is not your typically upbeat
Scandinavian pop music, but gloomy, rainy
day reflections with an unhealthy obsession
with death both literal (‘Death Will Come’,
‘The First To Die’) and suggestive (‘Black
Dog’, ‘The Darkest Hour’).
Nevertheless, there’s no denying the
warm, emotive inflections in Phaedra’s
vocals, which flitter above the listener like a
ghostly apparition, particularly on the
double-tracked ‘Oserian’, with its spooky
harmonium and loopy electronic effects.
Elsewhere, zithers, vibraphones, glockenspiel,
keyboards, and strings add delicate strains
of folk, psychedelia and even liturgical auras
to the tracks. And with this the first in a
proposed trilogy of releases exploring
mythology, spiritual metamorphosis, death,
and the soul, Volume 2 cannot come quick
enough.
Jeff Penczak
SYD ARTHUR
Moving World EP
Dawn Chorus CD
www.dawnchorusrecordco.com
This Canterbury
quartet, well-known
to UK festival goers,
finally put music out
after countless
highly-praised live
shows. The five tracks
here give a good representation of their
abilities with instrument and melody. Opener
‘Morning’s Calling’ is emotive, with that lighttouch
dreaminess/anxious crunchiness/back
to light-touch repetition that calls to mind
Jeff Buckley. ‘Pulse’ opens with a jazzy guitar
flourish that may have you running for the
sunlit hills, its funky insistency a bit too
Sting-ish for my liking. The Canterbury Sound
here has moved onto World Music. It needn’t
have. ‘Exit Domino’ quickly brings us back
into the prog-folk sound our fledgling heroes
have mastered with confidence, its breezy
rhythms (with added classic rock guitar)
perfect summertime fare to go get high to.
The final duo ‘Planet Of Love / Hermethio’ is
a mix of the aforementioned sounds – this is
a band unafraid to pile on the jiggery layers.
Prog-jazz-folk: it’s the Marmite conundrum,
no?
Phil Istine
ALEXANDER TUCKER
Dorwytch
Thrill Jockey
www.thrilljockey.com
British experimentalist Alexander Tucker gets
close to the early
’70s on at least
some of his latest
album Dorwytch.
Indeed ‘Red String’
could have quite
easily been taken
from some mid-70s private press record
inspired by Jethro Tull. It’s a sad, laconic mix,
washed in strings and quasi medieval
passages. Elsewhere bubbling synths take
over, as does blues music, ethno nuances
and drone-based mood scapes. Brian Eno
and Japan often spring to mind too, but
beating slowly at its forlorn heart is the
influence of folk music. Melancholic, bucolic
and rather impressive.
Tucker will be playing at Flashback
Records, Essex Rd, London N1 on Record
Shop Day (April 16th). He’s well worth
seeing for “free” if you’re in the smoke.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
THE UV RACE
Homo
In The Red
www.intheredrecords.com
Following on from the
release of singles
through the Terminal
Escape and Sweet
Rot labels,
Melbourne’s The UV
Race are far from shy
when it comes to flaunting their heritage,
tastes and fancies like homemade one-inch
pin badges.
As a garage band they are judiciously
splashed in both the glam-orous trash
attitude of Richard Hell and more
interestingly, in chorus, the belligerent
expatriate proto-punk fuzz of forgotten
fellow Melbournians Primitive Calculators.
As best heard on Homo in the spiky guitar
swaps of ‘Low’ and ‘Inner North’. The latter
of which – at a snots wipe under fiveminutes
long – also draws on that
conversational Jon King/Andy Gill vocal
trick, where everything from romance to
culture-revulsion and dirty laundry is aired
in glorious stereo banter.
With the added dynamic of recently
departed vocalist Emily Jackson, whose
finest moment here sees her taming the
rest of the band’s general fidgetiness into
something nearing maturity on ‘Always
Late’, The UV Race are smarter than your
average band of down and undergrouded
misfits.
Richard S Jones
11

Photo: AP Childs
PUSSYCAT & THE DIRTY
JOHNSONS
Notting Hill Arts Club, London
2 March 2011
Basingstoke is unlikely to throw a more oddyet-enticing
proposition than what’s served
up by these four cats. They take blues,
garage, punk and rockabilly and turn it into a
rawk experience where you can’t see the
joins. This show, ably supported by new
garage sensations The Cinders and surf
riders Dr. Vampire, was to launch their debut
album Exercise Your Demons. Pussycat, for
that is her name, dresses like a ’50s comic
has come alive in front of your eyes: headto-toe
in leopard skin, red leather boots and
gloves, and hair so intricate and impressive
it deserves its own dressing room.
The 10 songs they played simply flew by
in a whirlwind of galloping guitars and
prowling lead singers. Playful banter,
audience participation, mass pogoing were
all the order of the day, from ‘Vampire Sugar’
right through to ‘Wolfman Sideburns’. If
you’ve ever heard The Cramps or Jon
Spencer Blues Explosion live you’ll have an
idea of what went down. And if hell for
leather rock ’n’ roll gets you going then go
seek out ‘Trouble With The Devil’, my own
Photo: Tanya Falconer
highlight of the evening, for it will leave you
feline nvigorated.
Phil Istine
WOLF PEOPLE
Cargo, London
16 February 2011
The love affair continues. And why shouldn’t
it, especially now as others (including
Stewart Lee I noted) are discovering the
groovy folk/rock blues of London’s finest.
With word spreading the dreaded trendy East
Londoners were in attendance, yapping all
the way through. This didn’t spoil the show
though – in fact the atmosphere felt
incredibly intimate, as if they were playing for
a few mates and a few beers. Opening with
the crug-rocker ‘Morning Born’ they proceed
to play their last, riffing single ‘Silbury Sands’
to huge cheers. Most Steeple LP tracks were
heard tonight, alongside early, more
psychedelic tunes – namely fan favourite
‘Cotton Stands’ and B-side ‘Black Water’.
Live the songs codas are extended into
jams, showcasing the great musicianship.
The guitar interplay, for example, is nothing
short of excellent, each complimenting the
other in tone and shape – where one begins
and the other ends is never quite clear.
Richard Thompson et al would have been
mightily impressed. ‘One By One From
Dorney Reach’ was a beautifully heavy
climax. “Thanks for watching us mess around
at the end there,” Jack dryly states after new
instrumental track ‘Runter’ makes an
appearance in the short encore. No worries
sir, the pleasure was all ours.
Phil Istine
12

THE NEW YORK DOLLS
THE SHOESTRUNG
The Old Vic Tunnels, London
March 30th 2011
In the Coney Island of my mind, The New
York Dolls would be the bar band at the end
of the pier for all eternity: playful, tacky, a
grand faded beauty battered by the tides of
a life fully lived.
In the great Top Trumps of mankind in
which one Tony Adams is worth a thousand
John Terries, so one David Johansen is worth
50of… well, most whoever you got, to be
honest. Part low-rent Jagger, part Gaz
Coombes, part Superchimp: the original
American werewolf in London. The sheer fact
that two members of the original Dolls still
walk among us is miraculous. They endure
and, despite being reduced to little more
than a Bon Jovi force-fed cheap neon pink
candy floss and even cheaper street
amphetamines, they still manage to embody
everything you ever first fell in love with
about America: bubblegum, The Shangri-Las,
The Banana Splits, burgers as big as your
face, idiot joy, sunglasses after dark, lipstick
and leopard skin. Watching them own the
stage in this astounding dungeon of a venue
warms the heart in the same way that seeing
an old Hollywood queen drag out the pearls
and furs for one more stroll down the red
carpet does. You’re left grinning like a child
and wondering what the hell kind of
shambolic fun must have been on tap back
in 1971.
Support act The Shoestrung no doubt
believe that they’re The Libertines of the
Stones. They’re not. They’re the Razorlight of
The Waterboys, and currently still struggle to
come up with riffs or choruses to lift them
beyond. Nice barnets, mind.
Hugh Dellar
Photo: Tanya Falconer
sounded exactly the same as their younger
selves.
Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending, a
film by The Incredible String Band was
shown at early doors and set the tone for
the evening. Comus’s blend of earthy folk
guitar and frenzied violin sits well alongside
the String band.
The Borderline was sold out and it did feel
like a one off. The serious cult fan base
demonstrated a rare hypnotised enthusiasm
that you don’t usually see at normal gigs.
Being born of a particular time and place
First Utterance is a piece of art impossible to
recreate or copy and it is unsurprising that
Comus played it in its entirety. Even the other
three new songs played were in a similar vein.
“Bright the sunlight summer day Comus
wakes he starts to play,” was sung both by
crowd and Roger Wooton alike as the gig
began. The echoing “play play play play” as
unsettling as ever was delivered with an
intensity that could only be matched by
Wooton’s own manic attempts at re-stringing
his beaten guitar mid-song. All three new
songs were warmly received and the very
aptly named ‘Out Of The Coma’ signified the
re-awakening of a band with unfinished
business. Another new song, ‘The Sacrifice’
more explicitly lends itself towards a Pagan
aura which many associate with the band
and this will only serve to enhance the
Comus myth.
The band left the stage with the promise
of a new EP and given the strength of the
new material, hopefully it could be a Second
Utterance.
Graeme Brown
COMUS
The Borderline, London
April 2nd 2011
There is a mystique surrounding Comus’s
First Utterance. For 40 years in obscurity, it
has lay dormant, but the Comus has risen
from its stupor and "bitten" once again. This
much anticipated gig did not disappoint.
Sometimes pastoral and sometimes twisted;
the unusual atmosphere that only they can
conjure was as potent as ever. Comus really
were ahead of their time and now with the
emergence of an acid-folk revival, time has
finally caught up with them. Time however
has not effected the singing voices of Roger
Wooton and Bobby Watson. Singing with
conviction in their own inimitable style they
Photo: Oran Tarjan
13

april
SATURDAY 2
LONDON
Happening
With ToeHammer, The Method and One
Fathom Down live. Psychedelia, garage,
beat, rock’n’roll. The Drop below The
Three Crowns, 175 Stoke Newington High
Street N16 0LH. 8pm-4am, £6 entry
FRIDAY 8
LONDON
Diddy Wah
The Haggerston, 438 Kingsland Rd,
Dalston E84AA - 9-3 -
www.diddywah.blogspot.com
LONDON
Double Shot O’ Soul
With The Universal and The Deccas live.
Tamla Motown, Stax, Atlantic, northern
and club soul. The Drop below The Three
Crowns, 175 Stoke Newington High
Street N16 0LH. 9pm-4am, £5 entry
SATURDAY 9
LONDON
The Primevals + The Lysergics
229 The Venue, Great Portland Street
W1W 5PN. 7pm-1am, £6/8
SUNDAY 10
BRIGHTON
The Primevals
The Hydrant 75 London Road BN1 4JF.
Doors 7.30pm, free entry
WEDNESDAY 20
LONDON
Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey
Birds. The 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street,
London W1D 1LL. 7.30pm – Midnight.
£12.50
THURSDAY 21
LONDON
Deviation Street
Garage fest with Wild Evel & The
Trashbones, Sabatta, The Spark Shyver,
The New Truth. Alley Cat, 4 Denmark
Street WC2H 8LP. 7.30pm-3am, £6/8
FRI 22 - SUN 24
LONDON
Le Beat Bespoke - 10 live bands
including The Flamin Groovies, Eli
Paperboy Reed, The Dragtones, King
Khan & The Shrines & more +
International DJ Line-Up,Guest Clubs, Go
Go Girls, Cult Flicks, Eye Candy Visuals,
Rare Vinyl Record Fair, Retro Market
www.newuntouchables.com
SUNDAY 24
LONDON
The Wyld Things Alldayer
King Salami & The Cumberland 3, Thee
Vicars, Wild Evel & The Trashbones, The
Priscillas, Bubblegum Screw, Brand New
Hate, Vomit Tongues, The Stabilisers. The
Drop below The Three Crowns, 175 Stoke
Newington High Street N16 0LH.£5/7.50
FRIDAY 29
STOKE ON TRENT
Off With The Octopus 3rd Birthday
The Wicked Whispers, The Black Apples,
The Velvet Texas Cannonball, The Higher
State, El Toro! Fat Cat Cafe Bar, Stoke on
Trent. 9pm-4am. £3 free CD.
MAY
SATURDAY 7
LONDON
Happening
The November Five, Sheetah Et Les
Weissmuller and Thee Savage Kicks live.
Psychedelia, garage, beat, rock’n’roll.
The Drop below The Three Crowns, 175
Stoke Newington High Street N16 0LH
8pm-4am, £6 entry
LONDON
The Cave Club presents July + Connan
Mockasin, The Lexington, London N1.
8pm-4am. £8
THURSDAY 19
LONDON
Deviation Street
Garage fest with Lot Lizards, The Sideliners,
Suicide Party, Clockwork Era. Alley Cat, 4
Denmark Street WC2H 8LP 8pm-3am, £4/6
FRIDAY 20
LEICESTER
The Junipers
The Guildhall - Two sets & an
intermission. 8pm. Tickets approx £6.00
LONDON
The London debut of Beat Seeking
Missiles (Mick Quinn, Sir Bald Diddley,
Bash Brand), support from Armitage
Shanks and London Dirthole Company.
1950s & ’60s rock’n’roll, beat, British R&B,
garage & surf. Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes
basement of Tavistock Hotel, Bedford Way
WC1H 9EU 7.30pm-3am. £5/7
TUES 17 - TUES 24
LIVERPOOL
International Pop Overthrow
IPO Liverpool will feature 140 of the best
pop and rock bands from all over the
world. The Cavern Club and Cavern Pub.
FRI 27 - MON 30
LONDON
International Pop Overthrow
IPO London will feature 50 of the best
pop and rock bands from London and
beyond. There will be a Shindig!
Magazine showcase on Sunday 29. Bands
confirmed for the showcase include The
Hall Of Mirrors, The Higher State, The
Silver Factory, Ben Jones, Ulysses, and
Dave Rave. The Bull and Gate.
www.internationalpopoverthrow.com
LONDON
The Zombies 50th anniversary show
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Bush Green
W12 8TT. 7pm, £28.50
SATURDAY 28
LONDON
Dirty Water Records Alldayer
The Parkinsons, The Wildebeests, The
Thanes, Brandy Row, Thee Exciters, Thee
Gravemen, The Revellions, The Kits. DJ
Wheelie Bag. The Boston Arms Music
Room N19 5QQ. 1pm-4am, £18/20
june
SATURDAY 4
LONDON
Happening
State Records special with Groovy Uncle,
The Lykes of Yew, and Sleeping Bear live.
Psychedelia, garage, beat, rock’n’roll.
The Drop below The Three Crowns, 175
Stoke Newington High Street N16 0LH
8pm-4am, £5 entry
FRI 10 - SUN 12
DUNBLANE
Doune the Rabbit Hole Music Festival
The Vaselines, Arthur Brown, Mike Heron,
The Trembling Bells, The Hidden
Masters, Broadcast 2000, Colorama,
James Yorkston, Houdini Dax, Alasdair
Roberts, The Method, Remember
Remember + Eyes Wide Open
www.dounetherabbithole.co.uk
FRIDAY 17
LONDON
The Moons launch party. The Borderline,
16 Manette Street W1D 4AR. 7pm, £10
SATURDAY 18
LONDON
The Chemistry Set first UK show in 20
years by neo-psych legends. The Garage,
Highbury Corner N5 1RD. £12/15
LONDON
A Little Mixed Up Alldayer
Organised by Mod fanzine Double
Breasted. Modus, The Laynes, Aunt Nelly,
The Mynd Set, RT3 and The Nite Tones
Fiddlers Elbow, Camden.
july
THUR 28-SUN 31
EDINBURGH
The Big Stramash
The Poets, The Higher State, The
Wildebeests, The Masonics.
www.thebigstramash.org
september
FRI 16 - SUN 18
NOTTINGHAM
The Blast Off! Festival
www.blastoff-festival.co.uk
october
FRI 7 - SUN 9
GLASGOW
Double Sight Festival
Hidden Masters, Les Bof
facebook.com/doublesightweekender
Send your listings to
happening@shindig-magazine.com
Shindig! Happening! is published monthly by Volcano Publishing.
Editorial team: Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills, Phil Istine, Richard S Jones, Slim Smith.
Contributors: Alan Brown, Graeme Brown, AP Childs, Andy Davidson, Hugh Dellar,
Tanya Falconer, Jeff Penczak, Oran Tarjan.
Design: Slim Smith.
Subscribe at www.happening-magazine.com
Subscribe to Shindig! at www.shindig-magazine.com
Subscriptions queries: subs@volcanopublishing.co.uk
14

INTRODUCING THE NEW
THE ELECTRIC PRUNES
A ’60s garage group whose musical energy would
vibrate into the ether, manifesting itself as an
echo that reverberates throughout time, continuing
to infl uence countless other bands and defi ning
psychedelic heavyocity for generations to come.
STRAWBERRY STUDIOS: THE EARLY DAYS OF 10CC
Shindig! talks to Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart
and Kevin Godley about the hits, football songs,
bubblegum, bad curry and good hash.
THE INSOMNIAC CAFÉ
Surf-dwellers found a plethora of coffeehouses,
galleries and nightclubs to frequent after the sun went
down. Nowhere was the link between beatnik and
surfer spelled out more clearly than at The Insomniac
Café from 1958-65.
P s y c h, g a r a g e , pro g, p o w e rpo p, soul, f o lk… f o r p eople who w a nt m o r e !
Q65
TOO MUCH TO DREAM: California’s Psychedelic Warlords
Wild Sounds From The Netherlands
STRAWBERRY STUDIOS
Behind The Scenes At 10CC’s Recording Mecca
THE MAJORITY
The Brit Harmony Pop Heroes’ Cautionary Tale
THEE HYPNOTICS
Soul, Glitter & Sin: The Rise And Fall of our last great rock band
THE INSOMNIAC’S CAFE
Where the beatniks and the surfers made history
EXPLOITATION NOVELS • RANDY HOLDEN
FAIRFIELD PARLOUR • HEDGEHOPPERS ANONYMOUS
NEU! • JOSEFUS • PSYCHEDELIC VIDEO GAMES
SQ1-cover2.indd 1 04/02/2011 16:45
SHINDIG! QUARTERLY NO.1 — £7.49
Q65
They were an unlikely, often volatile gang of outcasts
and misfits, but with their raw, unconventional music
and rowdy, unkempt image they quickly built up a
large and fiercely loyal following.
THE MAJORITY
‘Get Back Home’ may now be regarded as a
freakbeat/psych classic, but the harmony-pop
group that originated from Hull had a lengthy career
that saw a trail of singles released on Decca and
an incredible European-only 1971 album.
THEE HYPNOTICS
More MC5 than garage and far louder and dynamic
than the drone bands of the era; the high energy
quartet were truly out there on their own, trailblazing a
path that would later see grunge take to the charts.
CLARK HUTCHINSON
Proto-punk, psych-jazz, angry prog, guttural blues
from the long haired early ’70s.
SHORT FEATURES
Jens Linberg (The Maharajas), exciting new folk
(John Stammers), the coolest reissue label (Light
In The Attic), Josefus, the psychedelic side of Tin
Tin, Oscar & The Majestics, Psychedelic Video
Games, Randy Holden, Fairfield Parlour, Neu!
REVIEWS
The Edgar Broughton Band, The Lovin’ Spoonful,
Tim Buckley, Michael Chapman, The Vagrants,
Jimmy Campbell, Phil Spector, The Cowsills, The
Saints, , The New York Dolls, The Fuzztones, The
See See, Blood Ceremony, The Who, Q65, The
Downliners Sect and more.
RRP £7.49
ISBN 9780956736925
SHINDIG! QUARTERLY NO.1
From www.shindig-magazine.com
+ record stores, bookshops, Amazon
Digital edition from www.yudu.com

new from ace
SHATTERED DREAMS
FUNKY BLUES 1967-78
CDBGPD 229
Rare, collectable and funky blues from big
names such as Little Milton, Lowell Fulson
and Albert King to cult heroes Finis Tasby and
Smokey Wilson.
HEY, BABY! THE NINO TEMPO & APRIL
STEVENS ANTHOLOGY
CDCHD 1301
Superbly crafted pop from the Grammy-winning
brother and sister duo – together and solo.
THE BIG BEAT – THE DAVE
BARTHOLOMEW SONGBOOK
CDCHD 1303
Two dozen of the best-known songs of this
legendary New Orleans bandleader-producerperformer
– a mini history of rockin’ rhythm &
blues in themselves.
CONTOURS
DANCE WITH THE CONTOURS
CDTOP 350
Fabled 1964 unreleased album by Motown’s
pre-eminent purveyors of the dancing groove,
plus 15 other previously unissued tracks from
the same time-frame. Can YOU do it?
NORTHERN SOUL’S GUILTY SECRETS
CDKEND 349
24 records that were hugely popular at a time
when the Northern Soul scene was young,
naive and anything with the right beat went.
THE LONDON AMERICAN LABEL
YEAR BY YEAR 1963
CDCHD 1302
1963 as documented by the releases of the UK’s
most famous source for US rock’n’roll, pop and R&B.
SALSA MUNDO – COLOMBIA: MUSIC
BORN OF CONFLICT
CDBGPD 230
The fi rst of a new series looking at Salsa around
the world. This volume looks at Colombia’s
legendary Fuentes label.
Following titles returning to the catalogue this month:
DJ ANDY SMITH’S JAM UP TWIST
CDBGPD 231/ BGP2 231 (2LP)
Andy Smith returns to BGP with the
soundtrack to his countrywide club night the
Jam Up Twist. 60s soul, rockabilly, ska and
R&B meet in perfect harmony.
MARV JOHNSON
I’LL PICK A ROSE FOR MY ROSE THE
COMPLETE MOTOWN RECORDINGS
1964-1971
CDTOP 351
The complete “I’ll Pick A Rose For My Rose” album,
with 15 bonus tracks, including fi ve great unissued
masters from the Motown vaults.
O.C.TOLBERT
BLACK DIAMOND
CDKEND 352
Tough, growling deep vocals from one of
Detroit’s very best singers.
BEAU BRUMMELS
AUTUMN OF THEIR YEARS
CDWIKD 127
A welcome return to catalogue for this 26-track
compilation of rare and unissued Autumn era
material by the masters of baroque folk pop.
MILKSHAKES
19TH NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
CDWIKD 939
The Milkshakes bash their way through a
selection of the best of their immense output
on this debut CD outing.
THE CRAMPS
SMELL OF FEMALE
NED 6 (LP)
The Cramps live from the Legendary
Peppermint Lounge, showing the band in fi ne
fettle, full fl ight and fantastic.
B.B. KING
LIVE AT THE REGAL
CH 86 (LP)
The greatest live blues LP ever recorded, by the
man who has played more live shows than any
other performer in his 50 years on the boards.
THE EARLS
REMEMBER THEN - THE BEST OF
CDCHD 366
In the mid 1960s the British invasion swept
aside the bequiffed 50s, but not before the last
doo wop hit, the anthemic ‘Remember Then’.
DELMORE BROTHERS
FREIGHT TRAIN BOOGIE
CDCHD 455
Compilation of the 40s-50s work of brothers
Alton & Rabon, with their unique close
harmony boogie and blues.
SLIM HARPO
I’M A KING BEE
CDCHD 510
The earliest recordings by the King Bee
bluesman are documented on this 24-track CD
with notes from harmonica ace Paul Jones.
THE HIP WALK
CDBGPD 143
New York’s sharpest musical threads – jazz
undercurrents in 60s NY.
DENISE LA SALLE
TRAPPED BY A THING CALLED LOVE
/ ON THE LOOSE
CDSEWD 018
Two albums by this enduring southern soul
legend from her period with Westbound.
Featuring the great ‘Trapped By A Thing
Called Love’ single.
2011 ACE CATALOGUE
ACECAT2011
The essential guide to Ace Records. This
year breaking the 250 page barrier for the
very fi rst time. FREE to UK addresses.
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