Shipping class: Single Issue

Shindig! No.39

THE END
The top tier of British Psychedelic albums contains one splendidly incongruous entry, Introspection by THE END. Made under the patronage of Bill Wyman, the legal difficulties that swirled around The Rolling Stones at the end of the ’60s ensured the release of The End’s album was delayed. By the time it crept out in November 1969 it was already the end of the ’60s, the end of psychedelia and the end of The End itself. Thankfully, the band continued with different personnel as TUCKY BUZZARD and many are still active on the music scene today.
AUSTIN MATTHEWS ventures under the rainbow with the surviving members

THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY
As one of LA’s foremost psychedelic folk-rock acts, THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY hold a unique place amongst proponents of flower-powered pop, combining the hip, jet-age sound of The Byrds with one of the finest vocal mixes this side of The Mamas & The Papas, centred around the crystal tones of lead singer Barbara Robison.
But, despite the “assistance” of industry heavyweights like Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher, the group’s phenomenal success as a live act wasn’t translated into record sales and they soon went the way of so many of their contemporaries, crushed by commercial concerns.
GRAY NEWELL hears founder members Alan Brackett and John Merrill spread the word.
Apology: An editing error has caused a section of text from this feature to be omitted. Please click here to read the missing words.

BONNIE DOBSON
BONNIE DOBSON will forever be associated with ‘Morning Dew’, the song she wrote in the early ’60s that spawned a thousand cover versions. Fifty years on she reflects on her socialist upbringing, the Greenwich Village folk scene and a surprise comeback album that finds her in stunningly fine voice.
CHRIS TWOMEY is smitten

THE SOUNDCARRIERS
In little over five years, Nottingham retro-futurists THE SOUNDCARRIERS have carved themselves a niche among admirers of ’60s film jazz, krautrock grooves, acid-folk fragility and analogue authenticity.
With a new long-player, Entropicalia, already cementing their reputation as one of Shindig!’s most treasured modern-day acts, CHRISTOPER BUDD meets the band.
Portrait by ADAM WOODFIELD

CHRIS FARLOWE
CHRIS FARLOWE emerged from the skiffle craze and flirted with rock ’n’ roll before immersing himself in R&B, cutting the UK’s first ska record, enjoying the patronage of The Beatles, Stones and Small Faces, topping the charts as England won the World Cup and eventually venturing into prog and jazz-rock pastures.
PHIL ISTINE meets the former John Henry Deighton in his native Islington to discuss shopping with Steve Marriott, being banned by the Beeb and knocking around with Otis Redding.
“I’ve never taken drugs, believe it or not”

EXPLODING GALAXY
A shimmering density of quaquaversal life; the importance of scrudge; a journey into THE EXPLODING GALAXY.
HUGH DELLAR heads back to the beating heart of London’s late ’60s counter-culture

Included in this issue: REVERBERATE MAGAZINE
featuring the latest sights and sounds from the ever-expanding new wave psych scene.

Shindig! No.36

COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH
In a city celebrated for its revolutionaries and innovators, San Francisco Bay area’s COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH were easily its most outspoken, taboo-busting, mind-bending gang of dubious reprobates of the ’60s. Okay, so maybe they didn’t – as many devotees claim – actually stop The Vietnam War, but they sure showed middle America how to spell FUCK, transformed creaky old jazz standards into raging anti-war protests and had their sweaty brows mopped by Janis Joplin. Along the way they played some of the most devastatingly brain cell-melting acid-rock ever etched onto vinyl. So now, children, if you’re sitting comfortably, JOHNNY BLACK will give you an F…

PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE
PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE began life as a multi-media performance collective fired by folk, psychedelia, dance, poetry and lights. They were still kicking against the mainstream when they called it a day in the mid-70s.
RICHARD NASH finds a seat next to the band

BIG JIM SULLIVAN
From the rock ’n’ roll era of the late ’50s through to the glam years of the early ’70s, BIG JIM SULLIVAN spent most of his time criss-crossing the studios of London as the pre-eminent session guitarist of his generation. By his own estimation, he played on around 900 hit records, including 55 British #1 singles.
(Unfortunately in the editing process a small piece of text was omitted from this article – click here to see the missing text online or here to download a PDF.)

THE ARTWOODS
THE ARTWOODS were very much the nearly men of Britain’s mid-60s R&B boom. Their innovative take on African-American blues, uncompromising gig schedule and relentless work ethic ensured that while they were eclipsed by fellow R&B contemporaries like The Animals and The Yardbirds, they became revered by fans, musicians and critics alike.
MATTHEW LIAM FOGG gets the lowdown from guitarist and founder member, DEREK GRIFFITHS.

PETER DALTREY
As lead singer and songwriter of perhaps the genre defining UK pop-psych group Kaleidoscope, PETER DALTREY helmed two classic albums before furthering their eloquent template with Fairfield Parlour and an ongoing solo career. Forty-odd years on, Peter is once again performing as Kaleidoscope.
JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS talks muses, clobber and the countryside with the godfather

THE ORGONE BOX
THE ORGONE BOX created one of the high watermarks of ’90s psychedelic pop. So why has its creator RICK CORCORAN decided now is the time to revisit it?
ANDY MORTEN finds out

THE PURPLE BARRIER
In the often hectic world of ’60s record production a single by a group could easily be in the shops within a few weeks of being recorded. For London psychsters THE PURPLE BARRIER, however, there was something of a delay with their debut 45… about 46 years to be precise.
NIGEL LEES enlarges upon the dawn finally breaking through

NEW BANDS
Kooky cat with a dead dog. JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS ponders what makes new maverick genius DIANE COFFEE so special.
Although they’ve never set foot in England, the authentic late ’60s Muswell Hill vibe of Canada’s SHADOW FOLK has entranced ASHLEY NORRIS.
Happy kids TRIPTIDES live the post-student dorm dream and create affecting, warped sunshine rock. PHIL ISTINE heads to the basement for more on the scoop.

Shindig! No.35

Beatleisms
When The Beatles split in 1970 it marked the end of pop music’s first and brightest golden era. But, not content with having been the most widely-imitated and influential act on the planet for much of the previous decade, The Fabs continued to inform the development of pop, rock, singer-songwriters and even prog, well into the next. The Fabs’ ’70s offspring left us with a legacy of brilliant, diverse and often-overlooked albums that ran the gamut from slavish recreation to nostalgic songcraft to experimental adventurism, each acknowledging its debt to the unsurpassed work of the masters.
Allow Shindig! to guide you around some of our favourites

Paul McCartney
The dawning of the ’70s was a troubling time for PAUL McCARTNEY.
The last member of The Most Famous Band Ever to leave, he infuriated The Other Three by then being the first to publicly announce his departure, while the release of his curious, misunderstood solo debut forced The Beatles’ decidedly un-Fab swansong Let It Be to be rescheduled.
In the meantime, the dejected McCartney gathered his new family and beat a hasty retreat to his remote Scottish farm where he virtually abandoned the notion of making music and struggled with depression and alcoholism amidst fanatical rumours of death and insanity.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, The Beatles were plunged deep into a roller coaster of complex and destructive litigation that brought years of seething personal resentment and deep-rooted psychodrama to the surface.
Somehow, in the middle of this mire, Paul regrouped, quietly put together a little band and fashioned what many regard as a high watermark of his career, Ram.
In this extract from his new book on McCartney’s adventures in the ’70s, TOM DOYLE paints a fascinating picture of creative highs and personal lows.
“It’s a bit like after an operation, where you want to rest but you’ve got to push it.”

Nilsson
Having released two baroque pop albums that didn’t register with the critics or record buying public, it took a Fred Neil cover belatedly lifted from Aerial Ballet to become a million-selling movie theme and bring NILSSON to the masses.
JON ‘MOJO’ MILLS follows the friend of The Beatles and in-demand writer through a madcap feature film about an LSD-fuelled prison break and the final albums and animated feature that led him into a new era

Klaatu
?It took three unassuming young Canadian musicians schooled in Toronto garage bands to accidentally start rumours of a Beatles reformation in 1977 via their otherworldly brand of progressive pop.
PAT CURRAN goes interplanetary with the once secretive KLAATU

The Rutles
?Conceived as a throwaway spoof on a late night UK TV comedy show,
THE RUTLES soon outgrew such humble origins to spawn one of the first and best “mockumentary” movies, two highly regarded albums, several law suits and a dedicated hardcore of disciples around the world, including members of the very band they sought to pastiche.
CHRIS TWOMEY enjoys a spot of cheese and (glass) onions with lead Rutle and keeper of the flame, NEIL INNES.
“I never set out to become a parodist…”

Stackridge
STACKRIDGE were in a field of their own; quite literally, being West Country boys from Yeovil, Bristol and Bath. In the ’70s, they stamped their individuality on half a dozen albums and countless live shows, gaining a devoted following but never quite achieving that elusive commercial breakthrough.
RICHARD NASH hears from band mainstay ANDY DAVIS about sleeping on floors, recording with George Martin and finding doing it all again more fun than ever

Hammersmith Gorillas • The Hollywood Stars • Simones • The Deviants and more…