Always on the case, Steve Sutherland tracks down the psychedelic revival. | published in Melody Maker, 23rd January 1982
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow | AFTER rockabilly, mod and the Bowie Ballet soul boys, after boots, crops and braces, and the glam rock revival, the crushing inevitability of a psychedelic rediscovery found us armed, primed and ready.
Then we blinked . . . then we missed it. The press pulled their traditional sulkily sensationalist stunt, sent a couple of image-hungry hacks out to instigate the big build-up and then, sarcastically and swiftly, dumped on the lot.
The record companies remembered Secret Affair and the cash crazily lavished on the struggling Stray Cats and weren’t about to get burned again.
The high-street stores snored on in oblivion, happily touting last spring’s New Romanticism as a tried-and-true bet for this winter’s trend . . . It came in through the bathroom window . . . and fell, face-first, straight down the pan . . .
“You’re joking!” screams Freecloud Ivory pushing back his headband, wide-eyed with shock. “You gotta be joking —it’s only just begun!”
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow
Freecloud (possible real name Jason?), keyboards assassin with the literally mind-blowing Miles Over Matter, is huddled in an office with eight other people.
They’ve gathered here at my request to explain, if possible, why a scene that I’d considered dead and buried before I even knew it breathed, should suddenly spawn an album of such diverse and tantalising talents as the new nouveau-psychedelic compilation “A Splash Of Colour”.
“That’s easy,” says MOM bassist and principal songsmith Steve Counsel, glowering through his perfect Peter Tork fringe. “The press are to blame. They picked up on the clothes and all that, considered it press-worthy, set it up, then knocked it down. They’d already written the story before they bothered to talk to anyone. They were so anxious to build up their own reputations, they plunged in too quickly.”
Mood Six
“I hate this instant dismissive attitude of people in the music press, y’know,” explains Mood Six‘s elegantly coiffeured Paul Shurey (ex-VIPs) as he adjusts the lapel of his purple crushed velvet, split-tailed Regency jacket. “As soon as something is categorised, they sweep it under the carpet. It’s the job of the music press to report what young people are doing and the fact is, you have a group of young people here who’ve gone out and done something for themselves and it’s only fair that it should be accurately reported . . .
“I mean, because of the press, people are gonna expect every band on this album to be parading in paisley and beads. Well, look around, I can’t see any paisley here at all.”
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow
MOOD Six, a poppier, more wholesome aggregation than the auto-destructive MOM (the new Beatles to MOM’s new Stones?) are equally as anxious that the scene shouldn’t be seen to be dying. Basically because it never existed.
“The fact is, there never was a scene — just a group of very creative people. A group of friends.”
These friends initially converged on the Regal clothes stall in Kensington Market (now boasting a second branch in Newburgh Street, W1) graduated to founding clubs with names like the “Groovy Cellar” and “The Clinic” (after its outrageous deejay, The Doctor) forming bands, alliances and romances around their basic love of mid-to-late Sixties pop.
“We’re revivalists,” somebody says, “but not just revivalists.”
“We consider ourselves Eighties, not Sixties,” enthuses Jade, the glamorous, mini-skirted manager of MOM, flashing her Slaughter And The Dogs and Rich Kids badges just to prove it.
What none of them consider themselves to be, though, is . . . psychedelic. The name, they claim, was foisted on them by a press too tied-up in visual flamboyance to bother listening to their sounds.
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow
No one has ever really pinned psychedelia down to what it means,” offers High Tide‘s Jon Helmer, shifting uneasily in his patched leather coat, accidentally unbuttoned shirt and filthy jeans.
“I suppose, in that sense, it’s a good label because, without a definition, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
Freecloud violently disagrees. “They call us New Psychedelics,” he agonises, “then they say ‘hey, you’re not psychedelic enough’. I mean, it’s not as if I ever said I was!”
“The impetus for this is exactly the same as the New Romantics or Futurists or whatever you want to call them,” claims Paul, calming things down.
“People could have accused Visage or Spandau of being equally revivalist because they took Bowie, Kraftwerk and early Roxy as their influences, created clubs around those artists, wore clothes that were very derivative of what those people were wearing. This scene happened in the same way.”
“And in the same way,” says Jade passionately, “there’s a lot of different ways of interpreting our so-called scene; lots of totally different styles, different kinds of music and different attitudes to things like drugs.”
Psychedelic scene
The other groups visibly tut and tense at the broken taboo . . . “Um, I don’t think there’s such a widespread use of drugs in this scene as there was, maybe, in the psychedelic scene in the Sixties. It’s a more personal thing now. To be in this scene, you don’t have to take acid . . . or smoke . . . y’know .”
Paul and the Mood Six faction back-peddle furiously. “The use of these clothes and the use of light wheels, etc, is an attempt to create an illusion of being on an acid trip without being on it . . .”
High Tide’s Jon adds timely support: “There’s nothing clever about being on acid. It’s nothing to show off about —that’s the mistake a lot of people make about drugs.”
Jade isn’t so easily soft-soaped: “I agree that it’s a personal thing, but I think it’s a good idea and I think it can open a lot of people’s minds up.”
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow
Clive Solomon, Mood Six’s manager, Groovy Cellar club-runner and sort of self-elected adviser to the new psycho-bands, looks at me despairingly: “I don’t think we should say that to people. I don’t think we should preach it.”
“Right!” . . . Steve seems to have finally picked up on his contemporaries’ paranoia . . . then . . . “But it shouldn’t be condemned — that’s what I say. I think if you’re a narrow-minded person, drugs can help to open your mind.”
“Yeah . . . and they’re fun as well!” bellows Freecloud, turning into an elephant.
Even Martin O’Neill, High Tide’s shy young Keith Relf lookalike, is moved to speak for the first time this evening. “In the Sixties,” he reflects, “a lot of the music they were playing had very contrived lyrics and they were taking acid and it was all . . . wow! Today, people are taking acid and just going to clubs rather than staying in and getting into the deeper side of everything. Now they’re just getting smashed and going out!”
“But it’s inspirational,” cries Freecloud, exasperated. “I mean, I don’t think Jimi Hendrix would have ever written ‘Are You Experienced’ if he hadn’t taken LSD . . .”
“He probably wouldn’t be dead either,” someone says.
AND so they argue on; conscious of their differences in emphasis and opinion, well aware of the harm “A Splash Of Colour” could do to each band individually with it’s exploitative connotations of a pre-packaged “scene”, yet also thankful for the opportunity to present something on vinyl to bolster the corporate image, entice the general public and tempt the big companies into taking a risk.
New Psychedelia | Reversing Into Tomorrow
They all backed into psychedelia through a strange reverse process courtesy of the Jam, the Cure and other post-punk pro-Sixties protagonists; and all — despite reservations — are proud of the album.
Paul says he thinks it’s “the first compilation album —well, certainly for years — on which every single person knows everyone else on first-name terms”.
Steve says he reckons it could cause the scene to explode into a movement of “brightness” and “open-mindedness” in opposition to dole-queue depression.
Jon claims it heralds an honest return to self-expression rather than the pointless preaching and prattling of punk — “it was the TV in Debenham’s window that started the riots, not the Clash”.
Freecloud sees it as a musical rebellion against conformity, “against greyness”, and figures it matches the Sixties pioneering spirit because “playing an E chord for the first time is making a discovery”.
All concede any major movement which may blossom from “A Splash Of Colour” is destined to go the way of all others, but Jade captures the essential optimism perfectly when she confesses: “I don’t care if it lasts or not . . . we sure had fun!”
Letter to Melody Maker
STEVE Sutherland must have had the best intentions in writing his article “Reversing Into Tomorrow” (January 23) about what some of the people actually involved in the psychedelic scene today had to say about their own attitudes and aims as part of this revival.
Miles Over Matter seem to lave difficulty matching what they tell the press with how they act themselves. Within days of making those statements about the “movement of ‘brightness’ and ‘open-mindedness— they acted selfishly and hurtfully when four of them decided that they no longer wanted their vocalist.
As a great admirer of MOM, I was deeply shocked to hear of this violent change. The vocalist, Babel Wallace, is a very talented performer who has given much to the band since joining them last year, and has actively helped to give them the name and following they have built up during the past months.
I hope Babel has the time and patience to start again and to build up a new band, as there must be many MOM fans who would be keen to see him perform again.
One can only respect the fact that he did not sacrifice his own values and personal integrity by giving into the demands from the bassist for performing each song exactly his (the bassist’s) way, which would have rendered him little more than a puppet up front.
It’s difficult to understand and it looks as though the others have got caught up in the whirl of the rock world they’re moving in with their obsessive visions of big money and recognition.
They can’t see past their own egos, and therefore get rid of anything or anyone standing in the way of what they think they want.
I hope that Miles Over Matter can go forwards now, keeping up with 1982 — their success at the Golf Club last Friday seems to suggest that this is possible — but I hope also that they become more aware of other people’s efforts and respect what they’re doing and refrain from such egotistical, underhand ways.
Steve Sutherland summed up his article with MOM’s manager’s remark about the psychedelic scene: “I don’t care if it lasts or not . . . we sure had fun.”
Of what value is their fun if they act ruthlessly and without thought to get it! — LEE GRANT, Croftdown Road, London.
*What with Sutherland singing their praises everyday in the office, I shouldn’t at all be surprised if he’s auditioning for the vacant slot even as we speak, Lee.
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