Over recent years Icarus Peel and his work with The Honey Pot and Crystal Jacqueline has been helping to keep all shades of UK psychedelia thriving. Through the recent release of his new album ‘The Window On The Side Of Your Head’ by power trio Icarus Peel’s Acid Reign and his involvement on three tracks on the forthcoming Fruits de Mer triple LP ‘The Three Seasons’, it’s clear the best things come in threes.
Jason Barnard sits down with Icarus and brews a trinity of triangle tea bags, hoping he doesn’t need to ask too many questions in triumvirate.
Thanks for the cuppa. Let’s start off with three questions! Can you tell me about the three tracks you’ve recorded for Three Seasons, why did you chose them and how did you approach remaking them?
I first heard of the project when Keith approached me to ask if I would attempt Beck’s Bolero and think of something that The Honey Pot might do. I was a little nervous of approaching anything by Mr Beck who I would consider the pinnacle of living guitarists. However Keith appealed to the hubris in me by saying that he really wanted the track and I was the obvious choice to do it. I had recently formed a trio and this seemed the obvious place for them to start. As always it is a fine line between keeping the song as was and changing it. I loved the idea of the explosion to start it and I think we even did a version with an explosion at the end too!! I have been fairly faithful to the main melody of the tune and let go a bit on the rest. I would say our version is possibly bigger. I dearly love the original and am still a little undecided on whether we were worthy…
So I decided Kites would be a great tune for The Honey Pot to do as it had lots of melody and an interesting rythym with lovely words. When I suggested it Keith told me he had the song pencilled in for someone to attempt so that was settled. I thought perhaps to construct something with extra sections to allow different members to “fly their Kites”. It was recorded in stages with just Wayne and I laying down the framework. Having worked hard on the guitars I presented it to Mr Wyatt for keyboards and he proceeded to tell me I had the chords wrong on the verse. So I had to re-do them after John had supplied his wonderful Moody Blues/War Of The Worlds keyboard part. Crystal added a wonderful vocal, I think the bit in the middle where she brings in extra choruses builds the song up nicely. It was Jacqueline’s first attempt at playing the theremin and she nailed it. The spoken words were provided by the same girl who was Alice on our double EP and she speaks in her native Slovakian. I think we have respectful technicolour approach to a song that is a beautifully visual thing anyway.
Andy Budge asked me to put some guitar and maybe vocals on a thing he was working on….Having sent me 20 odd individual tracks he then declared he was finding it hard to get a mix as he had been working on it too long and would I mind mixing it too? So We Love You came about. I moved a few things and pushed up the drums. Added a little guitar and the vocals. But really the majority of the work was done before it came to me. Victoria’s piano work is wonderful and the whole thing has a very deep groove. I think Andy’s approach was to create something wide-screen and perhaps my major contribution was turning Curvey’s drums up and putting more woodwind at the beginning. It was always one of my favourite Stones tracks and I think this version is in the same spirit of narcistic joy and euphoric release.
More generally, what are your favourite artists from this era, and single and album releases? And why?
I have always said that The Honey Pot was an attempt to re-create those glorious days when the likes of Traffic, Pink Floyd et al would release the most wonderful cameos in the form of melodic and definitively groovy singles. this period did creep over into the early 70’s so excuse me if I get some discs wrong time-wise.
I am a huge Stones fan from this era and particularly like Between The Buttons, which seems to encapsulate the swinging debauched London style, even the cover photos are soooo bleary, taken after a night/morning out. The songs are all perfect little diamonds from the Stonesian world which have been improved a huge amount by the re-mastering/mixing carried out this century. Beggars Banquet is also an absolute favourite of mine, full of sneering menace and deep, atmospheric grooves. This is Jagger at his sublime best, as, I would submit, is Keith with the possible exception of his work on Let It Bleed. Ogdens Nut Gone Flake, anything by The Who, Butterfly by The Hollies, On The Threshold Of A Dream, A Saucerful of Secrets….all albums I love for their boundless, energetic searching and discovering.
There is a compilation called Psychedelia from Abbey Road which has so much that I love, including Kites, My White Bicycle, and excerpt From A Teenage Opera. But really if you go and check the charts from say,’66 onwards there are so many wonderful songs from bands as diverse as Dave, Dee, Dozy etc to Jimi Hendrix, The Seekers to Dusty Springfield, The Kinks to The Troggs, The Temptations to The Yardbirds. And then there were The Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Electric Prunes, The Byrds, Spirit etc in America.
It seems that anything was possible, lyrically or melodically or instrumentally. The imagination and craft involved in creating this music has maybe been lost now in the rush to get an ear friendly sound. The wail of a guitar which obscures the band with it’s loud intro is now compressed to a perfectly polite whistle. ALL the drums sound exactly the same. The idea of lengthy explorations on a theme has now become the realm of the dreary endless noodling of the hum-drum. There are obviously notable exceptions ( Thank God for Jack Ellister, Anton Barbeau, Octopus Syng ) but, as in all the arts, mediocrity has risen to the surface as technology allows them a voice. In much the same way as a row of bricks is now fine art and the discipline and craft of the honed line is frowned upon, melody, tuneful soulful singing and a chorus that hits the spot has been replaced by endless repetition on a simple theme, lack lustre, vaguely out of tune mumblings and gadgets that make an ear friendly sound. And perhaps all the best songs have been written!! There are only so many notes and a finite amount of ways they can be manipulated. All Right Now has already gone, so we can’t do that again…..
Can you tell me how and when you got involved in playing music – key bands, releases you’ve been involved with along the way.
I played my first gig aged 16 at The Castle pub in Tooting, South London, famous only for being Jimmy White’s local at the time. I was in such legends as Guy-Zur-Yuhl ( famous for an electric shock outbreak that led to a fight in the band which spread to a barny with the audience which developed into a full scale riot in Chizelhurst Caves where we were supporting Chicken Shack ), The Tattoed Love Gods (casually pursued by a couple of record companies until the lead guitarist managed to kill himself with tainted heroin) and South Of The River (a Feelgoodesque rabble famous for blowing up The Ruts PA when supporting them in a local pub). Nice boys The Ruts…After that I drifted from the “real” music scene, making a living by playing covers in variously a Classic Rock, Jazz Lounge and Country style. Back in Blighty a friend introduced me to Bruce Woolley of The Buggles fame, he co-wrote Video Killed etc. He needed something to listen to in the car on the way home and asked me for something original. I gave him some pop psyche stuff I was working on and he was so encouraging and persistent that it eventually became the first of 3 self released CDs. These were later collated into a wooden box set for Mega Dodo records.
I didn’t know about your link with Bruce Wooley…What records/tracks from this would you highlight?
Meanwhile I thought perhaps Crystal Jacqueline could go psyche as well. Our first significant vinyl release was “Cousin Jane” on Fruits de Mer Records. Keith asked us to try this old Troggs song and it remains, quite possibly, stylistically our most successful cover version. The juxtaposition of female vocals over the male lyric gives it a strange twist and the sparse arrangement adds to the spookiness. FdM members voted it their third favourite track of the year. Crystal’s first album appeared soon after on Mega Dodo and was the first album on the label to make a profit.
We did more for FdM but the next really significant release may be Inside The Whale, an album by The Honey Pot for Mega Dodo. This was very well received in both reviewland and on sale. It was a move on from the first album bringing in what is now considered the trade-mark West Coast influences. The band was helped by a rather good live show at The Half Moon Putney for the new Games For May festival.
The Honey Pot have also released Ascending Scales a double vinyl, triple CD set for Fruits de Mer wh ch included as many guests as possible playing oldies of ours, cover versions and songs written specifically for the project. James Lowe from The Electric Prunes, Pretty Thing Dick Taylor, Judy Dyble, Tony Durant of Fuschia fame, Nick Salomon and our old friend Bruce Woolley all contributed to the vinyl version, whilst Tir Na Nog, Astralasia and Tractor were amongst those who joined in with the extras on CD.
Bruce Woolley was being fashionably tardy with his contribution to Ascending Scales, so I called him and said a deadline is looming (spoke to his wife as well, ALWAYS the best bet!!) and he replied he would have it ready in three weeks. Why three said I? Next couple of weeks I am in New York playing Theremin for Grace Jones, said he. I guess she is the priority here…
Another significant release was Forget Me Not Under Pussy Willow, a concept album by myself released on vinyl by MegaDodo. A return to the old English whimsy and pastoral psyche it is a collection of songs about an undertaker and some baddies up from the smoke. It got very nice reviews comparing it to with The Kinks and the Canterbury movement and a surprising amount of people come up and say how much they enjoy it.
Crystal Jacqueline had a double vinyl album released on Mega Dodo last year which got 5 stars in Shindig and 4 and a half in Record Collector. I was very proud of that as we had spent so long over the songwriting and performances, trying to create something of lasting worth and individual grace. Altogether the “collective” have released 8 albums and 7 singles so far on the two Record labels along with a few special CDs.
What projects are you currently working on?
Coming up is a rather wonderful project that is Crystal Jacqueline Live. This was recorded at the Solstice Festival in Birmingham last year and is being released on Vinyl and also a hard backed 9″ square book with photos and words and the complete show on CD and 4 songs professionally filmed on DVD. The launch will probably take place with a live show at The King Arthur in Glastonbury in November. The Honey Pot will be releasing their fourth album next Spring with a collection of originals called Bewildered Jane. There will also probably be a new all original Crystal Jacqueline album in the Autumn.
Was the Acid Reign concept inspired by Cream? Who’s in the band?
There were two good reasons for starting yet another combo. For a while people had said there was not enough guitar showing in The Honey Pot adventure and we need more. Then I thought of the name (have since discovered some buggers had it in America as well. Mega Dodo said they would release an album purely on the strength of the name!!) WE had also noticed a complete lack of powerful trios on the circuit, a’la Cream, The Groundhogs, The Experience, Taste etc., a hole that needed filling. So there were three good reasons etc….
I recruited Andy Budge on Bass as he shares a deep obsession with Hendrix and is the deepest groove I know AND he has a black Rickenbacker. My old mate Brian Rushbrooke was the obvious choice on drums as he has such a big full sound when needed but is also incredibly musical when appropriate. The first album was written using some old songs of mine, some new ones some collaborations with Andy and a wonderful composition of Andy’s which is mainly acoustic and allows the record a little breathing space. Once again the idea was exclusively songs with guitar added. The analogy with Cream is very apt if you only consider their masterful short creations like Tales Of Brave Ulysses, White Room etc. We DEFINITELY do not do long 12 bar blues. We do do long though but it is when twisting the beat and chords of a song into new shape. It has been received very well indeed and there have been some very flattering comparisons, most often with Hendrix. Soul food indeed.
https://soundcloud.com/mega-dodo/sets/icarus-peels-acid-reign
Live, the Reign come across as more Hendrixian than Creamy if you like. We keep it loose and there is a lot of jamming and tangent jumping. We operate on eye contact and an ever developing telepathy. It is so exciting to leap off the edge of a song into an unknown ending. The skill of the rythym section allows this flexibility and the space to be found in the trio set up is a luxury that is becoming addictive. AS a couple of covers are always de rigure, even for Hendrix and Cream, we do a lesser known Hendrix jam, Who Knows? and the beautiful Signed DC by Love. The Acid Reign is a joy to be a part of and a true collaboration of friends.
Great to have a brew Icarus, thank you. To close, how do people find out more?
The best place for people to contact us is on Facebook using the Icarus Peel page. Records and discs can be bought from Mega Dodo Records or Fruits de Mer Records.
