“Spirit In The Sky” / “Laughing At The Pieces” (I.R.S. IRM 113) April 1986
Doctor & the Medics – “Spirit In The Sky” | Spirited and vibrant in mood and appearance – just the Medics really – this colourful animated sound gives you all you could possibly want or expect from a single (plus a free full-colour fold-out picture bag no less!)
Soulful, haunting backing vocals quiver in joyous unison as the Norman Greenbaum classic is covered with sheer complimentary aplomb by the good doctor. To be taken twice daily – at least.
Smash Hits article, May 1986
Way back in the mists of time, a new group called Doctor & The Medics created their first ever single called “The Druids Are Coming”, with “The Goats Are Trying To Kill Me” on the B-side. These song titles just about sum them up: they’re not very “normal”.
Their music is a spooky, psychedelic, manic, ’60s-inspired riot, they look rather strange, their singer (The Doctor) is a 6′ 5″ lunatic and they’ve just had their first ever hit single with a cover version of Norman Greenbaum‘s ancient “Spirit In The Sky”.
And they don’t take interviews very seriously . . . Doctor: “I was created in Liverpool and recent surveys have found that I’ve got almost as many chromosomes as a pig. Apparently, I’m the missing link between the slug and the human being.
Richard (bass player): “I was found in a basket by the River Thames.
Steve (guitarist): “I was born in Greenwich. My parents came down from Glasgow so I could be born as close to the Meridian as possible, for religious reasons.
And we found Vom (the drummer) lying in a gutter in Southend when we went there for a day trip. We’d just sacked our last drummer for being a hairdresser with Vidal Sassoon and we needed a new one. We just got off the train, heard a noise, looked down —and there was Vom!”
Doctor & the Medics – “Spirit In The Sky”
Doctor: “And — this is true —Richard made him be on his knees to be in the band! For five minutes! People think Vom’s short but it’s just because we haven’t let him get up yet, ha ha!
And The Anadin Brothers (Collette and Wendy) . . . well we don’t know where they came from —they just materialise before each concert and then disappear again. There always seems to be a phone box around though. They say ‘We’re just going to make a phone call’ and they both go in the box and don’t come out again. Very strange.
Then they materialise again when there’s food around. Or money. Rumour has it they may not be men, but that’s all we know. Haw haw.
Doctor: We’re all incredibly unfashionable — always have been. Mind you, the people I feel sorry for are Medics fans. Being a Medics fan is almost as unpopular as being Samantha Fox. We keep seeing these big red signs everywhere with a picture of a Medics fan with two bottles of cider in each hand and a big black cross through it with ‘No Medics Fans Allowed’ and ‘Please Leave Your Medics Fan Outside’.
Our fans tend to be an across-the-board range of freaks, basically. We’ve always sided with the freaks because that’s who we feel sorry for — people like myself. I mean, I’m still growing you know!
Spot the dog
There was a time when I was going to have my spine pinned together to stop me growing. I’ve always been incredibly tall and this brought me a huge amount of ridicule when I was young — and that’s what turned me into the complete socially outcast devout manic psychopath that I am these days.
Getting my hair to stick up like this is a very complicated process involving The Anadin Brothers, a small dog called Spot, 18 feet of elastic bands and three cans of Extra Hold For Difficult To Control Hair hairspray.
Hairspray
I don’t actually spray my hair, all I do is put the three cans on my head and wrap my hair round it, hee hee. I haven’t had a haircut for three years and I’m never having one. But who cares? We only formed this group (four years ago) so we could record ‘Spirit In The Sky’. So now we’ve done that we can split up. In fact, just watch — we’ll split up now.”
Steve: “I’m leaving.”
Richard: “I’ve left.”
Doctor: “Right . . . When we used to be in this group called Doctor & The Medics we always wanted to do ‘Spirit In The Sky’ to give Norman Greenbaum some exposure because he’s brilliant and not just some old hippie who only ever sang one song.
So it’s quite nice that we’ve had a hit for him. Let’s face it, though, a band that’s been on the go for four years before it has a hit record must be pretty dreadful. And we played all over the world —Sheffield, Bradford.
We got arrested in Italy for eating a bag of crisps! We were just walking down the street eating our crisps and the Polizi came cruising up in their car, got out and pointed their machine guns at us saying Pssprts’.
Doctor & the Medics – “Spirit In The Sky”
Then they said Ah Inglayzeez! In ze car!’ And they took us off to the station and I was the one they interviewed in front of a massive desk with a bloke standing beside it with a truncheon.
They thought Richard was a little boy and kept on saying ‘Who eez zees leetle boy?’ and ‘Why are you in Eeetalee?’ They weren’t very pleased when we said we were in a group. They had to let us off though, saying ‘Next time you play in Eetalee you get work permeets’!
Stiletto knife
Can’t blame them, though, as we are the band that’s taken the sex appeal out of rock ‘n’ roll. We look like a cross between Valerie Singleton and a slug. Do you realise, by the way, that I was turned away from every single medical school in the country when I applied?
I’m getting my own back on them — my aim in life is to disgrace the medical world, that’s why this band is called what it is. Mind you, if you had a heart attack right now or Richard was to accidentally stab you in the throat 18 times with a stiletto knife — I could help you out! I’m a fully qualified St. John’s Ambulance First Aider — and that’s TRUE!”
Many more garage and psychedelic revival records reviewed on the Monocled Alchemist
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