Exclusive Box Set Premiere: I'm A Freak, Baby: A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych & Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72

When the fine folks at Cherry Red Records approached us about an exclusive premiere of their latest box set, we just about fell out of our chairs! Dig this summary:

Across three discs and four hours of music, I’m A Freak, Baby: A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych And Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72 investigates that largely under-documented period, incorporating everything from some of the biggest names in the burgeoning hard rock/proto-metal firmament (Deep Purple, Uriah Heep) all the way down to a significant number of provincial semi-pro bands who gigged extensively but were unable to land a recording contract during their lifetime. The set features some of British rock’s pioneering acts (The Yardbirds, The Move), a handful of bands who travelled far beyond their blues boom roots (Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, The Groundhogs), the infamous Ladbroke Grove scene (The Deviants, The Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, The Edgar Broughton Band), a smattering of inspired, where-the-hell-did-that-come-from one-shots like The Velvet Frogs and the mighty Egor, and a clutch of previously-unreleased recordings (The Kult, Hellmet, The Phoenix) that have even eluded the specialist reissue companies and bootlegger.

Holy Heaviness, Batman! To sweeten the deal (as if that was needed), Cherry Red invited us to pick four tracks to preview for you today. Just four tracks! That was hard. We could have easily picked any others and been quite as satisfied (or dissatisfied, as the case may be). Still, we hope you enjoy our picks — it’s just a small sample of what this awesome collection has to offer! Oh, and CR tossed in a bonus: “Cherry Red” by The Groundhogs — the song for which the label was named. Gotta love it!

Compiled and annotated by David Wells (author of the 2005 book Record Collector’s 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records), whose annotations follow, I’m A Freak, Baby comes out July 29 on Cherry Red/Grapefruit.

HAWKWIND ZOO — “Sweet Mistress Of Pain”
Not originally issued, recorded late 1969
Initially known as Group X, the band that would become Hawkwind started life in July 1969 when jamming a twenty-minute version of “Eight Miles High” at All Saints Hall in Notting Hill. They were led by guitarist/vocalist Dave Brock, a former busker who had toured the country with “Rosie” hitmaker Don Partridge. “Out of that came a buskers’ album”, he recalled, “and I decided to form a group which then became Hawkwind. Don Paul, who worked for Essex Music, told me that if I got a band together, I could do some tapes. So off we went to EMI’s Abbey Road studios…” It was at Abbey Road in late 1969 that Hawkwind Zoo (as they were known at the time) recorded “Sweet Mistress Of Pain” (sometimes known as “Kiss Of The Velvet Whip”) as well as an early version of “Hurry On Sundown”, a song that would appear on their August 1970 debut album.

THE DEVIANTS — “I’m Coming Home”
Original release: LP, Ptooff! (Underground Impresarios IMP 1, 6/68)
Led by British underground Zelig figure Mick Farren, The Social Deviants (as they were initially known) were, in Farren’s own words, “a bunch of guys who’d really come out of the North London art school R&B band scene… we were trying to push it in simultaneously a more demented and more intelligent direction”. After a meeting with teenage millionaire Nigel Samuel, they recorded their debut album Ptooff! – issued in the summer of 1968 on the Samuel-financed Underground Impresarios label before gaining a mainstream release the following year through Decca. The album included the frenzied “I’m Coming Home”, which Farren would later describe as the most representative Deviants recording of the band’s live act around that time. “The big thing we did really like was the big kind of ‘Sister Ray’-style endless, monotonous guitar thrash thing.”

THE MOVE — “Brontosaurus”
Original release: 7”, Regal Zonophone RZ 3026, 3/70
In July 1969, The Move followed up the chart-topping “Blackberry Way” with “Curly”, a glutinous slice of bubblegum pop with a twee singalong chorus. Though another hit (albeit a relatively minor one), the song wasn’t held in particularly high regard by certain band members, and after a brief but disastrous move into cabaret that ended with Roy Wood fighting with a drunken audience member, changes were made. Increasingly marginalised lead singer Carl Wayne left, former Idle Race leader Jeff Lynne came in, and Wood took over lead vocals. Issued in March 1970, the band’s first single with the new line-up signalled a change in direction. A ponderous, heavyweight chunk of hard rock, the seemingly uncommercial “Brontosaurus” perversely restored The Move to the UK Top Ten.

THE GROUNDHOGS — “Cherry Red”
Original release: LP, Split (Liberty LBS 83401, 3/71)
With their grunge-anticipating twist on the hard rock sound, sullen lead vocals and gloomy, alienated lyrics, The Groundhogs — led by guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Tony “T.S.” McPhee — were arguably a couple of decades ahead of the game. But they were pretty big at the time as well, scoring three successive UK Top Ten albums with Thank Christ For The Bomb, Split and Who Will Save The World. Their March 1971 offering Split was the biggest of the three, reaching the Top Five and spending more than six months in the charts. Indeed, it was so popular that the band were even invited to perform the album’s standout track, “Cherry Red”, on BBC TV’s Top of the Pops.

VELVETT FOGG — “Yellow Cave Woman”
Original release: LP, Velvett Fogg (Pye NSPL 18272, 1/69)
Coalescing in Birmingham, Velvett Fogg briefly included Tony Iommi in their ranks, but the guitarist left in mid-1968 to form the band that would become Black Sabbath. With the Velvetts having just signed a deal with Pye, Iommi organised his own permanent replacement in Paul Eastment (“I got a phone call from Tony, who’s my fourth cousin, to say that he’d left Velvett Fogg, and would I be interested in taking his place”). Eastment joined just in time to feature on the band’s sole album. Housed in a garish front sleeve that featured two topless young ladies, the LP kicked off with “Yellow Cave Woman”, a seven-minute epic that sleevenote writer John Peel compared to early Velvet Underground. Sadly such effusive praise failed to do the trick, and the band broke up a few months after the album’s release. Eastment formed The Ghost, while keyboardist Frank Wilson pitched up in Nick Simper‘s post-Deep Purple band, Warhorse.