Witchcake Records Sampler vol 1 |
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Having just completed a world tour with David Bowie, Strypy Tyger were at their peak when they recorded this, an unreleased demo from the their 1976 “Saturday Night Tyger” album. Brian Eno attended many of these sessions, and it is rumoured to feature his bass playing (as Terry “the lad” Johnson was on the toilet at the time).
This is one of the last recordings to have been released from Dusseldorf’s KlangKling studios, where the legendary electronic band Needellwerk made such seminal albums such as Boing Ping Maschin, Cyber Coffee, and GartenWelt (featuring their only UK No 1 single “Strimmer Love”). This recording comes from the abandoned Elektrik Jesus project, which was an ambitious concept album which portrayed a universal creator as an enormous multidimensional step time sequencer.
Despite the lack of new material, the group claim to have been working on new material in KlangKling every day since 1986 (aside from a brief spell when Rolf Hooeters fell off his bike and grazed his elbow).
Snoopy was a big star in the early 1990s when a stream of dog related singles (Bone Dogg, Dirty Bitch etc.) hit the charts. Whilst in prison for a drive by shooting, Snoopy actually came to believe that he actually was a real dog, and upon release was found a home with a retired couple in Redhill. A best of (Tha Bite Is Worse than The Bark Bitch) was released last year to critical indifference.
Rick J is probably best known for writing the Warren G B-Side “East Side Baby”. He was quickly signed, then dropped by the Def Row label within the space of a fortnight, shortly after he was seen singing along to a song by Tiny Elephantiny from the rival Naughty Boy Records label. During his brief career, he recorded this classic single, reported to be a favourite of Paul McCartney’s.
Dante’s Inferno (essentially the brainchild of Noel Wildish) quickly outgrew their indie guitar rock roots, and embraced Noel Coward, Scott Walker and Michael Nyman to create a blend of the old and familiar in a 1990s pop context. Comfortably Old Fashioned comes from the acclaimed album “Lubrication”.
Gavin May is widely acknowledged to be Truro’s premier soul singer, and the music world was rocked upon his untimely death in 1982 when he was shot by his cat.
When the rock star Viscount C Victorious fell out with his record company, he declared that the artist previously known as Viscount C Victorious was now dead, and that he himself had been reborn as Moth Ra, king of all things Moth. His record company then decided to change its name to an unprintable squiggle, making it impossible to bring the case to court, under US law, so Moth Ra’s new musical output (widely believed to be over six new albums worth of music recorded each day) was released on his old record label, but with really terrible cover art chosen deliberately to annoy Moth Ra’s mother. His following rapidly dwindled (his “rebirth” single “My Name Is Moth Ra, and I am Mothy” failed to reach the UK Top 40, the BillBoard 100, or even the Fortune 500), and by the time he came to record “Lifeform” he didn’t really care about anything else aside from sex, and moths.
Ray Bangs was originally the bass player in the Birmingham rock band Splodge, but after a falling out with Geoff Jefferson (who went on to bigger things with the Fluorescent Philharmonia Group), he formed his own band Saucerer. Ray wanted to bring the vision of Phil Spector into the 1970s, and assembled over 60 rock musicians (including eight saxophonists) into Abbey Road’s Studio 1, and recorded them all into a single microphone. Over the following 10 month period, he meticulously overdubbed every part himself onto a state of the art 24 track machine, and released 70s party as a Christmas single. The single was not a commercial success, but this did not stop Ray from reissuing it the following Christmas. When it was again not successful, he recorded another version with a children’s choir and bells, which was released for Christmas 1976). This sold very badly indeed, aside from Japan, where it has become a Karaoke favourite. Anyway, each year has seen a new version of this glam classic fail to scrape the outer reached of the charts. This recording is probably from around 1983.
The Arachnids short lived career was launched when Kevin Morrison was working in the mobile transmissions unit of the BBC. The unit was shooting David Attenboroughs “Secret Life Of Spiders” series, when Morrison decided that the series needed a theme. The next day he brought in a demo of “If I were a spider” which he proceeded to dub over everything. Needless to say, he was sacked soon after. Ironically, one second of Morrisson’s song remained intact in the final broadcast (Attenborough mistakenly believed that it was the sound of a Redback spider’s mating call), and the BBC was forced to cave in to public demand, and release If I Were A Spider as a single. Morrison quickly assembled a group of unknowns to mime to the song on Top Of The Pops, in full spider costume. Whilst the line up of The Arachnids has changed many times over the years, Morrison is still performing regularly with them on the cabaret circuit, and in Japan.
Legend has it that Kylie Minogue came back late from the pub one night, and recorded this sinister tale in just under twenty minutes through a pitch shifting device. Whilst most of the work of Kylie’s experimental phase remains unreleased, this much bootlegged track has earned many fans including Lou Reed and Dana.
Shortly before his retirement, the late children’s entertainer Percy Hall recorded an album of traditional songs, including this charming piece of whimsy.
The legendary Hal Veranda’s back catalog is now available in its entirety on Witchcake Records, having been recently acquired in a car boot sale in Worthing. Hal himself has come out of retirement, and taken part in a successful college tour. He is currently recording a new album with Nellee Hooper.
After leaving The Mantas in 1972, Keith Cornwell’s recording career was put on hold for two years whilst he camped out in his back garden refusing to come in doors. When in autumn 1974 he came back into the studio, his entire worldview had undergone a radical shift, and he had come to believe that all the problems in the world could be solved if we were only to listen to woodland creatures and what they had to say. He put some of these ideas to music in the 1975 triple album “All The Problems In The World Could Be Solved If We Were Only To Listen To Woodland Creatures And What They Have To Say”, an album which divided the public and critics alike. Whilst radio friendly single “The Badger” was a success, fans were alienated by the 24 minute concept piece “The Philosophy Of Weasels”.
Jean-Philip’s singing career started at the age of 10, when he sang on advertisements for Michelin tyres (though in the advert, they would appear to be sung by the animated son of the Michelin Man). He is best known for this song of gallic patriotism “In France”. He later went on to achieve some success (after surgery) representing Sweden in the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest with “A Little Peace”.
This novelty number was an offshoot from the popular TV series “Spitting Image”, and features the vocal talents of Professor Stephen Hawking (credited at the time as Dr X, as his contract to the University Of Cambridge did not allow him to take part in popular music).
Oh Heidi was originally a hit for Peter Stromberger in his native Austria in the early seventies. The track was rediscovered in 1989 when it was remixed by the house DJ Jaktronik and became a worldwide club hit. Peter Stromberger is now a successful Austrian EuroBarrister, and was surprised to see his old song turned into a dance anthem. In 1994 he brought legal action against JakTronik for using parts of his song without permission, adding a lame drum track, and "bringing Austria into disrepute". He lost, except in Japan.