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By Beppe "Josef" Badino English version by Ilario Camurati |
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THE DREAM BEGINS «For the Beatles, the way they kept on should have been correctly named "The Long and Winding Road", but for all of us, the Pink Fairies Family, those paths were more exactly "The Endurance Tour"». That’s the way Boss "Goodman", Fairies roadie and supreme manager, starts the introduction to his notes to the Roundhouse concert, the climax of 1975 reunion. That trip had begun long before for drummer Russell Hunter and bass player Duncan "Sandy" Sanderson. It was along those transgressive acid ways of ‘67 that a magic gathering of musical talents led to the birth of Mick Farren’s Social Deviants followed by those phantasmagoric concerts at the UFO and the releasing of the "PTOOFF!" album (1967) by The Underground Impresarios Label. The Social Deviants have then been re-christened Deviants by a mere shortening of the band’s name, and two further LPs were promptly released with unpredictable rapidity: "Disposable" on Stable (1968) and "Deviants 3" on Transatlantic (1969)... Far from the willing of reconstructing here the complete history of the Deviants (nor of Shagrat and Entire Sioux Nation) of whom we promise to tell about in the future, we cannot avoid to put in evidence how much these two groups lived closely crossed existences on their early days. After the release of their third album, the Deviants, at that time consisting of Farren, Hunter, Sanderson and Canadian guitarist Paul Rudolph, crossed the Atlantic for a U.S. and Canada tour but, after a few venues, some inner troubles arised within the group members and Farren decided to quit and get back home in London so that the band had to carry on the rest of the tour dates as an instrumental trio. At around the same time in London, the mythical "PINK FAIRIES DRINKING CLUB" was founded (by Deviant’s manager). It soon became a very popular meeting point among underground musicians like the Pretty Things, Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Deviants etc. And it was just after such a kind of ocasional dealings that the idea of the Pink Fairies project blossomed. An early nucleus was spontaneously born right after the recording of Mick Farren’s solo album "Mona, The Carnivorous Circus", released by Transatlantic in 1970, on which a wide collaboration was supplied by his friend Steve Took, ex Bolan’s partner on the first three Tyrannosaurus Rex LPs ("My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair", "Prophets Seers And Sages" and "Unicorn") and John "Twink" Alder, pretty cooled by the recent profitable experience with Tomorrow. The three ran a fleeting tour under the Pink Fairies banner 'though that very first experience was unanimously regarded as a very elusive one. Back from the States, where they’ve been enraptured by "colourful essences" at Chet Helm’s Family Dog hippies community in San Francisco, the three surviving Deviants decided to join Twink and set a firm and organized group that could be able to enlight new perspectives officially adopting the name PINK FAIRIES. Farren and Took, instead, also because of contingent "intellectual/allucinogenic" health diseases, resolved to wait and stand still for a little while and eventually got involved together with axeman Larry Wallis in the Shagrat adventure. The first true Pink Fairies concert, introducing the use of dual drum kits, took place at London’s Roundhouse in Spring 1970. That gig was the kick-off for several benefit and free concerts, structured in the form of meetings of miscellaneous alternative culture joining together against the Middle Class privileges and working as a collective manifestation in contrasts with the ruinous moral values of family and religion. Within such framework, the Pink Fairies had won a wide folloving of fans for the most part consisting of creative hippies, often drug addicted, and queer freaks just wishing identifying themselves with the band. Polydor released the legendary single "The Snake/Do It", promptly followed by the LP "Never Never Land". ENDLESS LANDS Carried out in 1971 with the production equally divided between the band and Neil Slaven, "Never Never Land" was awarded by excellent reception within the alternative circuits and topped for a long time the charts of hippies favorites. The characters in the record: John "Twink" Alder, Russell Hunter, Paul Rudolph and Duncan Sanderson, could manage to display a fascinating rock’n’roll intuition developed, by plane and precise inspiration, through "hard-psych”" themes subdivided into different matters and calibrated by alternating vivid and relaxing acts. Among the introducing tracks in the LP we could find the powerful "Do It" (formerly used as b-side to debut single "The Snake") in which the crossed drums works brought to the sonic body some carrying away attractive force in. A few grooves on, besides slow and atmospheric songs closely related to the British ballad tradition of that time (among these we must cite "Heavenly Man" and "War Girl") featured, already in evidence, some of the band’s classics where the rhythmic energy of the bass-drums section and the electric explosion of guitars perfectly blended. In such a direction, the outstanding and more emotional numbers to the listener undoubtedly were the splendent "Track One Side Two" and "Say You Love Me", the title track "Never Never Land", the deviant and libertarian "Uncle Harry’s Last Freak Out" and, in a different way, the peculiar hard-rock theme ot "Teenage Rebel", anti-establishment anthem as well as the cerebral "The Dream Is Just Be-ginning" placed at the end. At last, we cannot not to mention the pacifist touch of the sleeve illustration. Entrusting with the cover artwork the fantasy and colors of Pennie Smith - the future star of punk photography who later achieved fame and fortune at the end of the Seventies in the court of New Musical Express - it represents in fact the four Pinkies in the guise of four pretty gnomes sitting on a planet watching at a spacial sunset amidst Moon smiles, brightening stars and winged starships... The dream was (actually) just beginning... Capitalizing on those positive achievements, the band kept cashing in honours and their live work become something of a wide pink spot spreading on to plenty of festivals from Glastonbury to Phun City (with mythic Shagrat, American MC5, Third Ear Band...) in addition to tons of gigs played under the synthetic Pinkwind flag. Boss Goodman again: «Pinkwind was started at the alternative festival we had staged in Bath. Hawkwind - a true hippy band! - eventually had an acknowledgement on our name after having seen us in action. The following year a deal was set between the two bands in order that Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies will have played together wherever they will have been requested to». At about the same time, around mid ‘72, Twink decided to quit the band to pursue another of his countless adventures (he will join Jack Monk and Syd Barrett and play in bands out of Cambridge like ROCKS OFF and THE STARS); but this didn’t worried the others because things were going jolly well and the shows always went "sold out". The second album was already at an advanced stage and nothing might have led to presume the impending revolution about to come... DELIGHTS AND MEMORABILIA - WHAT A BUNCH OF SWEETIES Talking about Pink Fairies records, 1972 was the year of "What A Bunch Of Sweeties", among their albums the closest to a representation of the more outward and manifest hippy culture. On the front cover is displayed a heterogeneous lot of knick-knacks and various memorabilia of the time among which outstand - amidst pills and badges - the inflessible "I am experienced" besides the anarchic motto "I am an enemy of the state". By far more interesting, however, seems to be the inner portion of the gate-fold sleeve once again out of Pennie Smith’s inspiration: a naturalistic-musical tale told by delightful comics stripes where our friends are transformed into animal-musicians. Musically the album consists of eight tracks even including a R&B version of Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing there". Among the numbers at first most appealing, layed down with an immediate style and balanced by the guitars plectrums and often rude vocals, my preference is for the fabulous Portobello Shuffle", one very close to the spirit of bands like Free - the illustrious foursome of Kossof and Rodgers - turning out to be as splendid as "Marilyn" in which the instruments quit the hard-rock usual paths and explore a formidable variety of forms opened up to different influences (we would mention the Steppenwolf of "The Pusher") with annexed drums solo. The record introduces a reduced line up of the band, now become a three-piece, with Russell Hunter more and more angaged and alone on percussions (here and there still features Twink), Paul Rudolph being the one and only owner of the wide spaces cut by his sharp guitar and Duncan Sanderson, the skilful throbs builder. At last, as a four component in the album, with the duties of correlating the rhythmical threads (bass and guitar), the guest Trevor Burton who most of you will remember having been a founder-member of The Move... The closing track on side one shows one of the rare examples of country-rock built up by the band and its title "Pigs Of Uranus" leds to think of a hypotetical farm lost in Cosmos. But the record’s most provocative appointments belong to side two: from "Walk, Don’t Run" to "X-Ray", Pink Fairies stage such a rock & psych first class show as seldom has happened to listen to even on the highest proofs given by Zepps and Free. "Walk, Don’t Run" stand as one of the band’s masterpieces ever and exposes this second LP besides the best works released in 1972. The sounds out of Rudolph’s guitar run on the canvas drawing visions for the mind while the voice takes the audience by the hand through electric paradises with needless of multicoloured pills. It’s a true triumphant of a moment for the entire rock’n’roll! The Beatles' classic "I Saw Her Standing There" is here revisited with perfect rough-rock touches even if the musicians just wanted to offer it much more as a tribute due to their devotion to Lennon-McCartney than because of an actual aim of performing an odd rendition of the song for itself. After the release of "What A Bunch Of Sweeties" right while the band was through its most favorable moment since its establishment, Paul Rudolph decided to quit (we will find him later with Robert Calvert in 1974 and with Hawkwind in 1976). The usual classic "Farewell tours" were done to hail their fans good-bye, then the group got into crisis. The splitting having been avoided with close shave, Russell and Duncan tried and string the tear together. Guitarist Mick Wayne replaced Rudolph for a while. Wayne had previously worked with David Bowie by the time of "Man Of Words/Space Oddity" and held the leadership in psychedelic combo Junior’s Eyes (an album in 1969, the excellent "Battersea Power Station" for Regal Zonophone). But the Fairies couldn’t manage to re-create, in concert, that feeling which once so closely gathered the spirit of the band and the expectations of its wonderful freak audience up; what they missed now was the magic side as well as the fusion climax so that their tours began being failed to be turned up by their aficionados. In order to overcome the troubles, a second guitarist was then recruited and the choice, a real lucky one, fell on Larry Wallis (ex Shagrat), one of the most in demand and eccentric minds to be located in the whole Britain. Around the end of 1972, following only two live appearances staged just to test the innovations, Mick Wayne announced he didn't want to go on with his membership in the group any longer; however, this happened not before the recording of the not certainly firing with enthusiasm rare single "Well Well Well/Hold On" (Polydor 1972). WINGED PIGS WITH GLASSES Meanwhile, through rises and falls, waiting for a firmer condition, Russell and Duncan had tryed for a flirt with Steve Too (the tapes recorded by the three have never surfaced) but he, due to causes strictly related to his drugs-addiction, had been forced to restrict his activity (Took sadly died in late Seventies). The two persisting Pink Fairies eventually divert their final choose on Larry Wallis also considering his excellent recent reference to bands like Entire Sioux Nation and Shagrat (the latter experience having been shared with Steve Took, himself, David Bidwell, formerly drummer with Chicken Shack, Tim Taylor, Phil Lenoir and occasionally Paul Buckmaster, well known celloist of Third Ear Band and the Chitinous Ensemble): Larry Wallis also contributed, for a short time in 1972, to the second edition of Phil Mogg’s UFO... In addition, Larry Wallis was unanimously credited as being an excellent lyricist and this helped and improved the look of the band’s compositions. The new glazed style promptly led to the recording of the third album, the one "Kings Of Oblivion", released late '73, that many rate up to stand besides Raw Power classics like the first two Stooges/MC5 albums and the first Alice Cooper's. The second coming of the Pink Fairies was undoubtedly characterized by the presence of Wallis. He brought in his far more polished vocal style by that guttural timbre: precocious but not developed in full and by that kind of not mature taint. In addition, he had such a special way of performing on his instrument...getting in line with the band’s tradition, that’s for sure, but with a very fast and trenchant soloism interpolated by hendrixian lessons and elaborated by mean of a wider meditation and psych approach than ever displayed in the work out of Paul Rudolph. "Kings Of Oblivion" kicks it off in a perfect way, by that exciting seduction spreading out of "City Kids", a bright performance rich with guitars and vocals built up on quick cadences by a really magical taste, certainly contributing warning signs which will be developed in the future. "I Wish I Was A Girl" is entrusted with the second amphetamine attack; it’s an hypnotic song which carries away, from the first note to the last, through wonderful multicolored lands set between the walls built up by the electric reverberations emanated by the guitar. The primeval gnomes have turned, on the album cover, into three pink piggies, flying like Dumbo the Elephant, sporting sunglasses to protect themselves from the bright light in the blue infinite sky... The music in the record blends typical hard-rock elements with more alluring cerebral light’n’shades which bring a touch of experimental kind to the well tested sound scales. Larry Wallis, perfectly fitting in with the torrential background provided by Hunter and Sanderson, so displays his inventive aptitudes making a name for himself as the most intellectual among all the guitarists who got in the mashes of Pink Fairies, and "Kings Of Oblivion" scores, getting upwards, the highest momentum in the whole History of this London Band, out from Ladbroke Grove. But the album describes more of unforgettable episodes, like "Chromium Plating", "Chambermaid", "Streeturchin" and the vivid gem "When’s The Fun Begin?" penned by Wallis and Mick Farren and, presumably, a gift out of the Shagrat's store, and arranges the Pink Fairies in the company of the utmost exponents of underground rock, within that border zone laying between mixes of hard-rock and psychedelia which in some similar way generated the raw material to the unsurpassed models of Experience and Led Zeppelin. In addition we mustn’t forget that the Pink Fairies were one of the last post-68 bands to conceive rock as an alternative expression, feeling themselves as a group of individuals willing to perform at free concerts, to support political fights, to strongly blow their disapproval right in the face of the system. That music of theirs, so vital and special as it was, still highly regarded and loved today, represents one of the most visionary romantic documents out from those years. FAREWELL FAREWELL Although Russell, Larry and Duncan had worked the best way possible, dark clouds suddenly appeared at their horizon. The continuous succession of reiterated situations concerning the live work and maybe the complicity of a certain stress in close relationship with the night-libations, instill in the group a progressive sense of prostration and a more and more increasing state of inactivity. This period is strewn with announced split-ups and re-unions and a never-ending string of "Farewell Gigs". Always playing the same places for the same people, the Pink Fairies eventually came to the final act, the last tour faced by a four piece line-up - Russell, Sandy and Larry augmented with guitarist Martin Stone (formerly with Chilly Willy, Mighty Baby and Savoy Brown) - and the subsequent recording of the excellent single "Between The Lines/Spoling For A Fight" for Stiff Records (1976). More chapters from the Pink Fairies' story deserving a note were the re-union of 1975, with a full line-up (Twink's and Russel's drums, the guitars of Wallis and Rudolph and Sanderson's bass), and the two posthumous records, released well in the Eighties in the wake of Punk ebb waves. The first "Live At The Roundhouse 1975" offers five gems out of one of the band’s best shows, recorded by the just above mentioned musicians; the Pink Fairies rouse here once again the souls of their fans by some classics from their old stuff, brilliantly revarnished, like "City Kids" and "Uncle Harry’s Freak Out" put aside celebrated themes as Lou Reed's "I’m Waiting For My Man" or "Lucille", out of the rock’n’roll repertoire of Little Richard. A splendid straight-taken record only released in 1982 by Big Beat. At least, two years later, the same label released a mini-album "Pink Fairies - Previously Unreleased", a record consisting of tracks probably from the "What A Bunch Of Sweeties" sessions having all the songs been credited to Wallis-Sanderson-Hunter and the sound having those typical modulations of the three-piece formula. This last album, even if worth interest because of the offering of still unknown stuff, doesn’t display any news on the stylistic side. A couple of songs, "Waiting For The Lightning To Strike" and "No Second Chance", look outstanding but the record remains an item limited to hard-core fans and completist collectors. CLASS OF '87/LIVE AT "ACID DAZE" It’s not my aim to get into considerations about the reasons which may lead some musicians, separated by years of different activities, to re-unite and try for a new start. Often, the prominent motivation is the hope of an easy way of making some money, but this doesn’t seem to be the most reliable answer in the case of Pink Fairies. After having seen them live at the mytical "Acid Daze" psychedelic mega-concert of Finsbury Park, London at the end of August 1987 (also featuring Ozric Tentacles, Voodoo Child, Full Moon, Gaye Bakers On Acid, Pop Wiill Eat Itself, Doctor & The Medics and Hawkwind) we can with no doubts state that the main reason behind that re-union wanted by Larry Wallis, was just the joy in trying to have a good time again, with not that much of intellectual nor existential and financial involvements. Just musicians who were back and play together hard and mighty rock; Larry Wallis with the old fellas: the two drummers Twink and Russ Hunter, bassist Duncan Sanderson and - as the one and only new entry - flamboyant guitarist Andy Colqhoun, former Tanz Der Youth, co-leader (with Wallis himself) of Love Pirates Of Doom and member of Lightning Raiders (a kind of a Deviant’s reissue)... Among the numbers offered within the Acid Daze show, besides ancient gems, the bystanders did enjoy a cover of Box Top’s "The Letter", Mick Farren’s "Broken Statue", the first glorious single "The Snake", the anthems "Police Car" and "Taking LSD" and, dedicated to Paul Rudolph (who had returned to Vancouver) "Walk Don’t Run" followed by the closing "Do It" (from the first single as well) with solo vocals by Twink...What a bunch of sweeties! THE LAST AND THE LEAST In the wake of the acclaim received at the 1987 Acid Daze Festival, Demon Records offered the Pink Faires a deal for the releasing of a new LP. The record, titled "Kll 'Em & Eat 'Em" was out at the end of the same year and tied up ten songs consisting of well tested live hits ("Taking LSD" and "Broken Statue") and previously unreleased stuff mostly penned by Andy Colqhoun with Larry Wallis or with the - returned to life - Mick Farren ("White Girls On Amphetamine", "I Might Be Lying", "Undercover Of Confusion") or by the only Wallis ("Seeing Double", "Fool About You", "Fear Of Love"). All in all an interesting episode, in tune with the Group’s unique hard rock vein, which however stands miles away from the Seventies heydays and made it easy to forecast a new long state of lethargy... As a last addition, worth a note to the most completist supporters those albums, wanted by Twink and released by his Twink Records, which accompanied the short-lived heterogeneous Pink Fairies reconstitutions along the second half of the Nineties: the tenacious and consequential "Pleasure Island" (1996) and the ‘cyberdelic’ "No Picture"(1997). Sympathetic but indifferent works. |
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Taken from Vincebus Eruptum 2000 magazine n°4 > > Write for info about the mag... |
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