The Green Telescope | X+Y=13 | (Andy Kershaw session) 1986

“X+Y=13” taken from the 10″ ‘Andy Kershaw session 23/01/86’ (Precious PRE 048) December 2024

The Green Telescope | X+Y=13 | (Andy Kershaw session) 1986 | It was Alan Duffy who secured us an invitation to record a session for Radio 1’s Andy Kershaw. We were unsure whether to do it at first as our drummer had recently left; just as our debut EP, ‘Two By Two’, was being readied as the maiden voyage on Duffy’s newly created Imaginary label.

All of the drummers we knew in Edinburgh were unavailable, so we decided to go ahead and do it with me playing drums — while the Green Telescope‘s lead vocalist and guitarist, I’d already been bashing away with the Rubber Dolfinarium (soon to become the Beeville Hive V) and the Junkyard Things who became the Offhooks.

On the evening of Friday, January 10, 1986 we —myself, my brother Martin (our main roadie since the start back in 1981), organist Bruce Lyall, bassist Alan McLean and friend/driver Graham (Glasgow) — hopped in a van and made our way down over the Pennines to Sheffield.

We crashed at a friend’s place for a few hours then headed over to Stockport’s Yellow 2 studio. The boffins there were less than welcoming. They ridiculed our battered old sixties gear and snorted at our request to sound as unmodern as possible.

Not much is remembered about the recording itself, but I recall we were somewhat under-rehearsed. A most enduring memory of the trip came during a break when went out to find food and beverages, and also happened upon an antique furniture/junk shop-type emporium.

The Green Telescope | X+Y=13 | (Andy Kershaw session) 1986

Somewhere within its dark recesses a box of singles was spotted and, among all the dross, I found a great Hallowe’en style garage winner, ‘Don’t Fool With Fu Manchu’ b/w ‘Tears Melt The Stones’ by US sixties group the Rockin’ Ramrods.

It was the British Polydor label issue from 1966 — who knew? — and only cost 50p or a quid to buy. I’m delighted to say I’m still the proud owner of this terrific New England gem.

As regards getting home, apparently we travelled back that same night, breaking down just a few miles outside Edinburgh; the collective Green Telescope mind is hazy here, but Alan may have cadged a lift home from a passing motorist, returning with his own car to ferry us weary passengers and van driver home.

Or did driver Graham persuade a garage owner to open up so we could buy petrol? I do know that on Tuesday, January 14, I went down to the BBC’s studios in Manchester for the mixing session, then caught a bus to the city’s southernmost outreaches, to begin hitchhiking my way to London.

When we heard the session being broadcast, the funniest thing was Kershaw telling listeners that we were “a kind of Lancastrian ? & the Mysterians”.

I can only guess they didn’t know we were Scottish! That summer the Green Telescope briefly morphed into the Thanes Of Cawdor, before the name was truncated to the more beat-friendly the Thanes. We’re still active on the gigging and recording scene nearly 40 years later. (Lenny Helsing)

Line-up:

Lenny Helsing (vocals / guitar / percussion)
Alan McLean (bass / backing vocals)
Bruce Lyall (organ / backing vocals)
Martin Montgomery (backing vocals / percussion)

Other details

Produced for the BBC by Clive Gregson
Recorded 11/01/86 at Yellow 2 Studios, Stockport
First broadcast 23/01/86
Released on Precious Recordings of London

*** original recording of “X+Y=13” by The Caretakers Of Deception (Sanctus) 1967 ***