sound of the suburbs

Glastonbury is the traditional high point of the UK festival season, perversely enough the festival is situated on the final week end of June and as so is one of the first events each year. I must confess that being someone who would not enjoy spending a week end knee deep in mud to having never attended myself, my own festival experiences began and ended with Reading 1978. Indeed I had many friend that went every year and I seem to remember them coming back ill as a dog afterwards but they always swore they hed a great time . I must admit the thought of going has often seemed tempting, classic event, good line up, money going to a worthy cause. So maybe the nearest I have ever got to Glastonbury is being the owner of the NME produced 'In A Field Of Their Own', a 2cd record of the 1992 festival. 1992 must have been a particularly good year as the cd makes for an excellent listening experience when compared to that of your average compilation. So the first of two tracks for today comes from the Breeders with 'Iris'. The Breeders were at the time the side project for Kim Deal (Pixies) and Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses), formed in 1990 their first album 'Pod', successfully mixed the sound of their other bands and meet with much critical acclaim. I'm not quite sure if Donelly was still with the band when they played Glastonbury as it was around this time she left to form Belly, and of course the following year was to see the re birth of the Breeders as fully blown pop stars thanks to 'Cannonball'. I know a lot of people who saw the Breeders post 'Cannonball' all of whom have said they were terrible live, well on the proof of this recording that was not always the case.

Second up is the wonderfully named Dr Phibes & the House of Wax Equations with 'Hazy Lazy Hologram'. Dr Phibes were from Liverpool in the early 90's, a psychedelic rock band led by Howard King jnr. Their drug influenced feed back laden effect heavy songs performed freeform style were very much tailor made for festival goers. The band split in 1995 and there is little chance they will get back together again as King was sentenced to a custodial term for the murder of his mother in 1997. They released two albums 1991's 'Whirlpool' and 1993's 'Hynotwister' both of which are highly recommended though you have to search them on gemm or some where similar.