A Suitable Case For Treatment Cult late ’60s label Morgan Blue Town undergoes a comprehensive reissue campaign via Secret Records this year. Based at London’s famed Morgan Studios, it was responsible for an impressive number of releases in its short lifespan, including much sought-after titles from The Smoke, The Orange Bicycle, Motherlight, Fickle Pickle and more. The sampler Truly This Must Be Heaven, an expanded edition of the Red Dirt album and a double set of Pussy and Fortes Mentum recordings – many previously unreleased – are in the shops now with Wil Malone’s self-titled £2,000+ acid-folk holy grail to follow. www.morganbluetown.com


SONIC FRONTIER CELEBRATES COSMIC PIONEER


An impressive gathering of top talent has pulled weight via the Sonic Cathedral label to record a compilation in active tribute to the inimitable Roky Erickson. Psychedelic sounds abound, RICHARD S JONES reports


New compilation The Psychedelic Sounds Of Sonic Cathedral should instantly etch in your mind a mark of appreciation to the perpetual influence of Austin, Texas’ most wayward son Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators. “A celebration of all things ‘Roky’, the initial idea was a split single featuring The


Black Angels and Darker My Love,” explains Sonic Cathedral’s Nathaniel Cramp. “But that then grew into an EP, and in turn, that grew to a 13-track album. By the end I had so many people clamouring to be on it, it could’ve been a box set!” The evident eagerness of contemporary acts lining up to pay their respect and


dues to the great three-eyed man should come as little surprise given the inspiration Roky Erickson has stirred across the mainstream over the past five decades. Not just through his music but through tales of a life lived in everything from total darkness to blinding light. As you will hear from the choices and reinterpretations of those who successfully


managed to smash through the doors of Sonic Cathedral to feature on the project, the results are pretty startling. A Place To Bury The Strangers’ storming version of ‘Tried To Hide’ stands out, along with Sarabeth Tucek’s energetic take on ‘Splash 1 (Now I’m Home)’. The compilation also sees some interesting collaborations from Kevin Shields, who guests on Le Volume Courbe’s ‘I Love The Living You’ and even Erickson himself features, playing alongside fellow Texans The Black Angels, who have always been quick to do justice to their muse’s back catalogue. Available on limited edition yellow vinyl, CD and download, all proceeds go to


The Roky Erickson Trust, and Shindig! can confirm that it’s worth every penny, minute and ounce of admiration you can muster. The Psychedelic Sounds Of Sonic Cathedral is available through Sonic Cathedral at www.soniccathedral.co.uk. To find out more about The Roky Erickson Trust visit www.rokyerickson.net/trust/


B-There With B-Music The mighty Llama Fest (www.llama.org.uk) returns to Devon from 11th–12th June this year and although the full line-up is undisclosed at time of writing, one event definitely confirmed and marked in our calendar is B-Music’s all day gathering on the 12th at The Bath Hotel, Lynmouth. DJ sets from Andy Votel, Doug Shipton and a host of others promise to spin the usual array of first degree turns (how do you like your Turk- Jerk with a smidgin’ of Welsh Rare-Beat?), and a headline set from Voice Of The Seven Thunders seals a deal that’s just too good to put into actual words. www.myspace.com/ bmusiccollective


Are You Going To Midsummer Fayre? Over two days in June (12th–13th) Campbell Park, Milton Keynes will play host to the spectacularly extravagant congregation that is The Midsummer Fayre. With Wilko Johnson, Eddie & The Hot Rods, DC Fontana, The Silver Brazilians, Pearl Handle Revolver, not to mention a special headline set from The Counterfeit Stones, musically, it’s going to revel in a carnival/circus atmosphere of pure bred rock ’n’ roll. There’s even a traditional funfair on site, a wall of death, real ales and Punch & Judy. Exactly – Roll up and rock on indeed. www.summerfayres.co.uk


THE DANCE OF THE HIP DEATH GODDESS


A celebration of the psychedelic and surreal through live performance, film and projection will take place at the end of May. Hip Death Goddess features live music sets from contemporary


bands Wolf People and The Lucid Dream, plus a selection of avant-garde films by Kenneth Anger and a screening of the unreleased 1968 documentary Dope by Sheldon Rochlin and Diane Rochlin (Flame Schon). There will also be an invocation of the Hip Death Goddess – with dances performed by Ultra Violet Violence conjuring manifestations of the subconscious mind. The event is hosted within the Bedford’s circular ‘Globe


Theatre’, lit by the Bardo Light Show’s hand-manipulated oils and chemical slides, and accompanied by an ongoing psychedelic soundtrack from the last 50 years. Sunday 30th May, 3pm – 11pm, Globe Theatre at The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, Balham SW12 9HD. Train/tube: Balham. £8 Entry. For further information about this event email: info@hipdeathgoddess.org


LABELLED: SCREAMING APPLE RECORDS


Anyone who needs a regular fix of feverish, adrenaline and hook- laden guitar-driven pop or rock ’n’ roll (and that’s you of course, right?) should be familiar with Germany’s Screaming Apple label. “I am a huge fan of The Pretty Things,” says label maestro, known to all as Ritchie Apple. “Once I saw an English movie called What’s Good For The Goose, where the Pretties performed a couple of songs in a club called The Screaming Apple. That’s the story behind the name.” For the best part of 20 years, the label has been pumping out a pan-European gumbo of powerpop, garage, and now, 1964-era R&B with Austria’s The Attention! All thanks to Ritchie’s first baptism of garage rock fire. “In the early ’80s I got addicted to garage music when I heard


the first Prisoners album. It was like an earthquake. It changed everything for me. I started looking for more bands who were playing that kinda stuff and found a nearly inexhaustible repertoire of incredible sounds from both the ’60s and the ’80s.” Releasing records by international acts from Japan, Australia


and the USA, as Ritchie makes clear, “It doesn’t really matter if it’s pop or rock ’n’ roll, just as long as the songs are great and the bands are able to write a song which reflects the musical roots and philosophy of all those bands I love.” With upcoming releases by Miss Chain & The Broken Heels from


Italy and The Twistaroos (the garage/soul side project of The Yum Yums), and plenty of activity bubbling under, it looks like Screaming Apple will be keeping themselves busy for a long time to come. Paul Martin www.screaming-apple-records.de


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