Neil - Neil's Heavy Concept Album (1984 comedy spoof Psych LP feat. 'Neil' from "The Young Ones") GOOD FUN, GOOD SONGS!

Review:

Nigel Planer (vocals) revives "Neil" from the short-lived yet highly influential BBC-TV program The Young Ones on Neil's Heavy Concept Album (1984). Although the show was set in the 1980s, Neil's lifestyle centers around the mid-to late-'60s hippie culture, an exceedingly antiquated notion directly contrasting his ultra-mod housemates. This explains the inclusion of the fairly wide selection of psychedelic and progressive nuggets amidst the spoken links and occasional originals. The idea for the long-player stemmed from his version of Traffic's early side "Hole in My Shoe" --which came out as a single. When Planer appeared in character to promote it on BBC 2's Top of the Pops, he lost his footing, resulting in the backdrop falling apart and causing general mayhem on live television. The tune is given a lighthearted romp with notable session musician Rick Biddulph (guitar) working in phrases of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" during the waning moments. Other fun covers are Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle," Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd on "The Gnome," Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," and "The Amoeba Song," aka the Incredible String Band's "A Very Cellular Song." Caravan's "Golf Girl" is worth additional mention, as it features a cameo voice-over from Dawn French --half of the comedy team French & Saunders --as (of all things) a policewoman. Instrumentally, Planer is supported by an all-star cast that includes Dave Stewart (keyboards/ bass/drum/guitar), Barbara Gaskin (backing vocals), Pip Pyle (drums),akko M. Jakszyk (guitars), and jazz heavy Annie Whitehead (trombone), as well as Jimmy Hastings, who at one time was a primary contributor to the aforementioned prog rock outfit Caravan. "Lentil Nightmare" is a tremendously amusing Planer-penned composition that, among other things, quotes "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson amidst the proto-heavy progressive metal madness. The connecting bits of dialogue provide an outlet for Planer's quirky and earthy humor. Also of note is "Neil the Barbarian," a parody of a movie advert where Neil --a strict vegan --eats a hamburger, which transforms him into this superhero-type character. All said, Neil's Heavy Concept Album is thoroughly entertaining and recommended for inclined parties.

Tracklist:

"Hello Vegetables" –:26
"Hole In My Shoe" –3:40
"Heavy Potato Encounter" –:42
"My White Bicycle" –3:31
"Neil the Barbarian" –1:12 (narrated by Nigel Planer's brother Roger Planer)
"Lentil Nightmare" –5:47
"Computer Alarm" –:36
"Wayne" –1:36
"The Gnome" –2:29
"Cosmic Jam" –2:26
"Golf Girl" –4:40 (featuring Dawn French as a not-so-nice fairy godmother)
"Bad Karma in the UK" –2:17
"Our Tune" –1:13
"Ken" –:41
"The End of the World Cabaret" –1:09
"No Future (God Save the Queen)" –2:12
"Floating" –1:39
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" –3:46
"Paranoid Remix" –1:59
"The Amoeba Song (From 'A Very Cellular Song')" –1:19
BONUS TRACK :
"Hurdy Gurdy Mushroom Man" (B-side of "Hole in my Shoe" single)(audio extracted from video. Please comment if any problems)

album

HuRdY gUrDy MuShRoOm MaN

Great Psych Anthology below!

Click this link for great SKIP BIFFERTY 2-CD ANTHOLOGY!!

( SEE ITEM #3 !)

The Farm Band - The Farm Band US 1972 Hippie West Coast Psych Rock

Kind of a given here, don't you think? The Farm Band (also operatingas Stephen & The Farm Band and the TennesseeFarm Band) was the houseband at The Farm, flagship of all hippie communes. I strongly recommend anyone with an interest in the rural revolution to check out this amazing place more; the book "Voices From The Farm" (Rupert Fike, ed.) is a good start. This massive 2LP set was the Farm Band's first release and also by some miles their finest moment (later LPs are pretty good too, though, and I wouldn't want to let go of any of them). A nine-piece outfit, the standard rock setting is augmented by flute, electric fiddle, and French horn(!); mixed vocals and long, jam-oriented material give this an undeniable late-stage West Coast feel (not much of a surprise, really, as most of the Farm residents originated from San Francisco). The mood is one of joy and spontaneity, where you easily can imagine a few hundred longhaired freaks out in the fields groovin' all night long into the morning sun, as the last jam slowly fades away. This spontaneity also resultsin performances that are perhaps a tad "loose", shall we say, or even sloppy, with vocal harmonies going all over the place. Songwriting never was the Farm Band's forte either. What they do succeed in is creatinga sort of tribal Earth Rock, where the leadguitar of Walter Rabideau cuts through time and spaceleading the band further and further away into holy man jam land; the rhythmguitarist steps on his wah-wah, the violinist comes sweeping in from the cornfield ready to push things into even higher grounds, and eventually it's a wall of sound-effect that soarshigh above the watertower, leavingSummertown, TN, as nothing but a tiny dot on the map that stretches out far below. Get the picture? When the jams here really gel it's an amazing power at work, a psychedelic testimony with a groove that appears to be endless. This being a very communal effort it feels contradictory to single out any specific player, but I can't let the opportunity passto praise Walter Rabideau's guitarplaying. One of rock's unsungguitarheroes, his solos have a rich tone, an amazing flow & if you like me have an inclination towards air guitar-moves, Walter's all you need for a night of good fun. Ok, the last statement may not really be serving his reputation much good, but he really is fantastic, and an Acid Rock Legend in this household. On this album he also benefits from having some hot rhythmguitar to play against, by someone named Joseph (last name unknown to me), who wasn't on any of the subsequent LPs. In all, this is a document of a time where possibilities seemed endless (the heading on the Farm Band's touring busread "Out To Save The World"), the music beingonly a fracture of what it was all about. The Farm is still there though, with some 300 members, but the Farm Band called it quits in the late 70sor so. Like any other Farm product the packaging here is awesome; a thick gatefold cover, huge poster and printed inners. A piece of art, a statement and an essential piece of underground head sounds.
(by http:// www.beautifullies.se)

Tracklisting:

01.Om -Farm Band,
02.Loving You
03.Lord's Work -Farm Band, Dotzler, Thomas
04.Keep your Head Up High
05.Being Here With you -Farm Band, Dotzler, Thomas
06.Let It Ride
07.Prayer
08.I Believe It

The Farm Band
Read more about The Farm community: *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Farm_(Tennessee) *http://thefarmcommunity.com/ history/

***Virginia Astley - Hope in a Darkened Heart (UK 1986) - GORGEOUS RARE CHILDLIKE DREAMPOP!***

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Astley (born 26 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter most active during the 1980s and 1990s. From the start of her song-writing career in 1980, Astley took her inspiration from many sources. Her classical training influenced her as did a desire to be experimental with her music. Although more popular in the Far East, most notably Japan, she remains a cult artist in her native England.

When its realised that Virginia's debut album was instrumental and "Promise Nothing" was made for export,this is actually her first vocal album.And as far as this country in concerned it was her last. "Some Small Hope",a duet with David Sylvian,was issued as a single the year after and couple with a rerun of "A Summer Long Since Past",one of the 2 items reworked here. At the time Virginia was expecting and had been abandoned by the father so understandably she wanted to call off the sessions. But Warner Brothers,who'd signed her because of their connection with the aborted Why Fi,persuaded long time fan and producer Riuchi Sakamoto to talk her out of it. So this was the result,again a 9 tracker,but the song missed off went to Japan,this being "A day a night",included on their vinyl and CD. "A winter's tale" became a single. Virginia actually adapted 3 previous songs as a barb against the man who walked out on her and these were "Charm" (also a Japanese single) "A father" and "So like Dorian".Not that anyone would notice as she is too poetic to be vitriolic,and her sweet fragile voice could never convey anger. In "I'm sorry" its never been clear who she was apologising to but after giving an interview to the NME Virginia had nothing to say to anyone and retired from the music business to raise the daughter born in Westminster Hospital.Her only signs of activity since then were to contribute a song to the soundtrack of "Lily Was Here" ("Second chance")and the Japanese artiste Hideaki Matsuoka called "Winter White Rain",the Japanese name for snow. "Tree Top Club",which opens up side 2 on the vinyl,is a song inspired by childhood memories in Stanmore,even mentioning the "ruined church",which is still there as there are 2 churches in the same churchyard! Another earlier single "Darkness has reached its end" was also included: the idea behind the lyrics came via a Russian poet and has beautiful words full of pastoral images.

Tracklist:

1 Some Small Hope (with David Sylvian)
2 A Father
3 So Like Dorian
4 I'm Sorry
5 Tree Top Club
6 Charm
7 Love's a Lonely Place To Be
8 A Summer Long Since Passed
9 Darkness Has Reached Its End

dreamdreamdream

***The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Volume One (US 1966) - Great & Legendary Psych band!***

Psychelatte says: One of my top fave Psych bands ever! They did a good half dozen wacky, melodic, funny and wigged out albums. I adore them!
"Volume One", not to be confused with the other album "Part One". This is their first album release, "Part One" was actually their second. Anyways this is a pretty interesting album. There are quite a few covers on this album. And they are pretty good ones at that.

01 -Something you got
02 -Work song
03 -Louie, louie
04 -Don't break my ballonn
05 -You really got me
06 -Don't let anything!!! Stand in your way
07 -I won't hurt you
08 -If you want this love
09 -Insanity
10 -It's all over now, baby blue
11 -She belongs to me
12 -She surely must know (previously unreleased)
13 -Sassafras
14 -She may call you up tonight
15 -One day (previously unissued)
16 -Funny how love can be (previously unissued)
17 -Obviously bad
18 -Endless night (previously unissued)
19 -Tell me what you want to know (previously unissued)
20 -Just you & me (previously unissued)
21 -Chimes of freedom (previously unissued)
22 -Scuse me miss rose (previously unissued instrumental)

VOL ONE

J.P Sunshine - J.P Sunshine (UK 67-68 West Coast Psych/Folk-Rock)

To say that J.P. Sunshine was flower-power-era England's least-famous band would be an overstatement. During the group's lifetime, its lo-fi bedroom recordings never actually made it out of the bedroom and it was only decades after London had stopped swinging that J.P. Sunshine's homemade pop-psychedelia was released. Formed in London in late 1967, J.P. Sunshine was the brainchild of poet George Duffell, also known as Jorgy Porgy (the J.P. in J.P. Sunshine). Duffell was keen to set his poems to music, and an opportunity to do so arose when he met Rod Goodway, a former member of the English pop group the Pack, who had a hit with the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" Goodway penned simple arrangements for acoustic guitar and a band coalesced around the duo. Duffell (bongos/xylophone) and Goodway (vocals/guitar) were joined by Adrian Shaw (guitar), Pete Biles (bongos), and Duffell's girlfriend, Pat Morphin (percussion). In early 1968, J.P. Sunshine went electric as Goodway recruited former Pack guitarist Andy Rickell (aka Android Funnel) and Shaw moved to bass.

In keeping with the spirit of the times, J.P. Sunshine was as much a scene as it was a band; its members congregated in Duffell and Morphin's apartment to listen to the latest American imports (Love, Jefferson Airplane, Captain Beefheart, the Grateful Dead, among others) and to ingest chemicals. Then, under the influence of both, they would write and play music, recording on a primitive two-track machine. J.P. Sunshine's informal, proto-lo-fi identity especially suited Goodway and Rickell since it served as a recreational project away from their work as professional musicians. Concurrently with J.P. Sunshine, they were members of the psychedelic rock outfit White Rabbit. During this time, Goodway also sang with the Artwoods, who had briefly renamed themselves the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The demise of J.P. Sunshine was accelerated by the claustrophobic, chemically enhanced environment the band had created around itself in Duffell's apartment. Rickell became involved with Duffell's girlfriend and the increasingly morose Duffell wrote lyrics about that situation, which the band then used, only making a weird scene weirder. In late 1968, the band committed final versions of its tracks to tape and made a stab at success. Pink Floyd's management responded favorably, but suggested the material be re-recorded with a drum kit. The final nail in the coffin came in December when, following a protracted stakeout, the drugs squad put an end to the J.P. Sunshine scene. Shaw, Rickell, and Goodway went on to various bands, including the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Magic Muscle, Hawkwind, and the Bevis Frond.

The long-lost J.P. Sunshine album eventually appeared on cassette in 1985 and on vinyl in 1996. ~ Wilson Neate, All Music Guide

Lyrics: J.P. Sunshine J P Sunshine is mine and thine, J P Sunshine on me and thee…. From light are we spun Down there, on earth, sunshine gave birth…. To youthI am true, And you… Are…. TruthColours of day, you say, But they…. do not know,they are so grey J P Sunshine is mine and thine J P Sunshine on me and thee From light are we spun…. Spun….spun….spun….spun…spuuuuuuunnnn

Tracks:

J.P. Sunshine
Hey Girl
Love Scene
This Side Up
Octopus
Watch Out
Eyes Are Raining
Dark Star
Swan Song
Rising Free
Hand In Hand
Dirt Blues
hey, maan