OFF: Pink Fairies (was: Re: HW97)

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 3 Feb 1999 19:07:27 +0000, Carl Edlund Anderson
<cea20 at CUS.CAM.AC.UK> wrote:
>On ons 3 feb 1999 18.33 +0000 "J Strobridge" <eset08 at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK>
>wrote:
>> IMO - I have to agree that I would only recommend Pink Fairies for
>> the serious kollector rather than for their high quality of music
>> except for the Paradise Island CD which was released a year or so ago.
>
>     Disagreement!  The _Mandies and Mescaline 'Round Uncle Harry's_
>(or something like that) live CD (BBC? John Peel?) is brilliant :)

I must agree with Carl here, but also point out that two different things
are being talked about.  The original 3 Pink Fairies albums ('Never Never
Land', 'What A Bunch of Sweeties' & 'Kings of Oblivion') are ESSENTIAL hard
rock/psych albums with great scorching guitar by Paul Rudolph (pre-Eno,
Calvert, Hawkwind) or (later) Larry Wallis (pre-Motörhead, who continued
playing his songs live for a couple years after he left, e.g. "City Kids",
"On Parole").  The album Carl is referring to (which is available in 3
different configurations in 3 different countries!) consists entirely of
excellent recordings from this era, and the US version of Cleopatra ('The
Golden Years' or something like that) also includes their 2 tracks from the
'Glastonbury Fayre' comp ("Do It" totally rocks, and the 18-minute version
of "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" is definitely one of the great guitar
freakouts).

On the other hand, the various later incarnations of the Pink Fairies have
all been fairly spotty, especially since there are two camps claiming the
name (shades of HW!).  The 80s full-band reunion ('Kill 'em and Eat 'em')
had its moments (Mick Farren's "Waiting For The Ice Cream to Melt" is a
great 80s-psych anthem), but the playing is sorta weak and the production
sorta thin & 80s-cheesy IMHO.  Pretty much everything since then released
under the PF name is Twink-related (after he fell out with the rest of the
band for the umpteenth time), which (unfortunately) seems to result in a
severe lack of quality control, although I've heard great things about the
lengthy track on 'Pleasure Island' (recorded by Twink & Paul Rudolph) that
Jill refers to.  I'd definitely say that the Pinkwind album (Nik, Twink,
Trev Thoms & a couple of no-names) falls under that category.  But the
early 70s stuff is great!  Buy it!

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com