The world of Arthur Brown is indeed a crazy one. In 1968 he and his band, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, terrorised the charts with the incendiary psychedelic stylings of ‘Fire’, a song for which a burning cake tin balanced precariously on the head became an onstage necessity.Although the group only released one self-titled [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowThe Crazy World of Arthur Brown - N
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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Nightmare
The Idle Race - I Like my Toys
In need of cheering up? I certainly am. Following a week of unbearable heat and now thunderstorms, lightning and perpetual rain (not so bad, in my opinion), a dose of the absurd might be in order. What better than the Idle Race?Birmingham’s very own kaleidoscopic curios blossomed out of beat group The Nightriders, who at [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowThe Idle Race - I Like my Toys
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Procol Harum - Home (2009 Reissue)
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“Gary Brooker and Keith Reid of Procol Harum are the only people we could ever compare ourselves to!” - Elton John and Bernie TaupinProcol Harum’s fourth album, Home , was released in June 1970 and was a much darker offering than what had gone before. This is depite the band perhaps being at their most [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowProcol Harum - Home (2009 Reissue)
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Who are: the Edgar Broughton Band
The HFoS ‘Who is/are:’ series provides handy bite-sized blasts of info for those who live their lives on the move.If at some point during the late ’60s or the early ’70s you had inadvertently set foot in the Notting Hill Gate area of London known as Ladbroke Grove, you may well have been lured further [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowWho are: the Edgar Broughton Band
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HFoS in Shindig! Magazine
The latest issue of Shindig! magazine (August – September 2009) hit the doormat yesterday and lo and behold, within its pages there’s an article written by yours truly. Not that you’d know it though, as they’ve neglected to mention this website. Ah well…Anyway, beg, borrow or steal a copy if you’re interested and thumb through [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowHFoS in Shindig! Magazine
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The Edgar Broughton Band - Wasa Wasa
The Edgar Broughton Bands’ debut album, Wasa Wasa, laid down the blueprint of progressive-anarcho-agit-freakrock for which this criminally underrated band would become known.The then trio of Rob ‘Edgar’ Broughton, Steve Broughton and Arthur Grant - who had built up a following in their hometown of Warwick (just down the road from the HFoS hub) with [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowThe Edgar
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Clear Light album review
Clear Light’s one and only album, a self-titled spurt of fast-paced US psychedelic rock, takes few chances, electing to play safe along the well-trodden path lined by jangly guitars, flowery melodies and folkish harmonies. As a result it provides a pleasing, if unremarkable, window onto one of the many L.A. psych bands that sprang up [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowClear Light album review
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Procol Harum - A Salty Dog
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“When will Salty Dog have its day?” So asked Alan White of Berwick-Upon-Tweed in the July 26th 1969 issue of Melody Maker. The letter is reproduced within the lush packaging of Fly Records and Salvo’s latest Procol Harum reissue, the masterful A Salty Dog.When, indeed?If ever a band were a victim of their own good [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowProcol Harum - A Salty Dog
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The Complex musical Soundsape of Mahikari
Once again dipping a tentative toe into the shark-infested waters that are “modern music”, HFoS came across this self-titled album by San Francisco prog-psych-noise foursome, Mahikari.Taking their name from a Japanese religious movement meaning ‘new light’, Mahikari deliver a four song album that stakes its claim firmly in the progressive rock camp, chucking in plenty [...]Post from: Head
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Who is: Roy Wood
The HFoS ‘Who is/are:’ series provides handy bite-sized blasts of info for those who live their lives on the move.To kick off what will be an occasional series (basically when I haven’t the time to write anything more substantial), who better than Birmingham’s own musical magi, unfairly remembered by most for the perennial Christmas fave [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowWho is: Roy Wood
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Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers
Ah, Jefferson Airplane, those fair-weather freedom-fighters who set the American folk-rock/psychedelic scene ablaze between 1967 and 1970, before falling from the perch and metamorphosing into Jefferson Starship. Granted, there were albums released either side of this three year catchment zone, but none that would have the influence or raw power of Surrealistic Pillow, After Bathing [...]Post f...
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Jethro Tull Tear Gassed in Denver
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“… Well, the embarrassment of stopping is far worse than the mild pain of having a bit of tear gas down your lungs. That’s just uncomfortable for a few minutes. If you suddenly stopped or something, that would be something you’d have to live with for weeks afterwards — the embarrassment of it …” – [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowJethro Tull Tear Gassed in Denver
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Spaghetti Western Article at LateMag.com
You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig. - The Man With No Name (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly)No, I’ve not given leave to my senses. This is just a spot of shameless self-promotion for an article I’ve had [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowSpaghetti Western Article at LateMag.com
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Pink Floyd - Jugband Blues
There are dark places within the human psyche some are fortunate enough never to visit. Then there are others that can never escape. Syd Barrett was one such casualty of the human mind’s vociferous self-destructive capability. It can’t be said when first Barrett took his initial tentative steps into the darkness of this windowless room [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowPink Floyd - Jugband Blue
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Shindig! Magazine on the Radio
Yes indeed. This Sunday (May 31st 2009) sees the two main men from Shindig! magazine invading the studios of BBC 6 Music. Editors Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills and Andy Morten join Stuart Maconie on his weekly Freakzone show, where the weird, the obscure, the underground and the unnaturally freakish collide head-on in a cloud of phased [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowShindig! Magazine on the Radio
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Howlin Rain Album Review
A Head Full of Mescaline and a Gut Full of JackHowlin Rain, the 2006 debut album by the San Franciscan band of the same name, is like the return to civilisation of an old friend who has spent a week wandering California’s Death Valley, with nothing for company other than a guitar, a quart of [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowHowlin Rain Album Review
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intodown - Blues-Fuelled Psychedelic Rocketeers
“… like Pink Floyd and Miles Davis jamming at a 13th Floor Elevator’s party …”Mixing a variety of styles including the blues and elements of psychedelia into one progressive rock melting pot, intodown paint musical soundscapes that bring to mind early Pink Floyd, post-Dark Side of the Moon Floyd and the 13th Floor Elevators in [...]Post from: Head Full of Snowintodown - Blues-Fuelled P
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The Rolling Stones - C*cksucker Blues
The story behind the rather radio-unfriendly Rolling Stones song, ‘Cocksucker Blues’ - sometimes referred to as ‘Schoolboy Blues’ - is slightly more interesting than the purposely offensive curio itself.In 1970, between the releases of Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones, looking to go it alone and handle their own business affairs, finished [...]Post from: Head Full of Sno
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Procol Harum - Shine on Brightly (Reissue)
In its original form, Procol Harum’s second album, Shine on Brightly, is – to coin a football pundit’s favourite phrase – a game of two halves.Virtually scythed down the middle, the first side consists of five tracks of a more conventional (for the time) psychedelic/prog rock standard, which wouldn’t seem out of place on their [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowProcol Harum - Shine on Brig
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Procol Harum Debut Album (Reissue)
The master class in how to reissue an album continues with Fly Records’ and Salvo’s Procol Harum releases. Yes, the label and distributor behind the recent Move reissues have come up trumps again, putting to shame the first round of Universal’s Rolling Stones ‘71-onwards remasters.First one out the trap, the group’s debut from 1967 (though [...]Post from: Head Full of SnowProcol Harum De
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