Dec 14

The Pink Fairies

THE PINK FAIRIES
 
 
Pink Fairies  are an English rock band initially active in the London (Ladbroke Grove) underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s.  They promoted free music, drug taking and anarchy and often performed impromptu gigs and other agitprop stunts, such as playing for free outside the gates at the Bath and Isle of Wight pop festivals in 1970, as well as appearing at Phun City, the first Glastonbury, and many other free festivals, including Windsor and Trentishoe.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
While in my 20’s (in the late 1970’s), I got to know three brothers in Raleigh; and the youngest of them was really into music.  Unlike the last time, when I was still in high school, I was a little more grown up; I still didn’t really take notes, but I would often buy records by some of these bands.  The bands that he introduced me to include the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind, still two of my all-time favorite groups; Styx; Be-Bop Deluxe; and Kraftwerk.
 
(March 2010)
 
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Mick Farren – a founder of two of my all-time favorite bands, the Deviants and the Pink Fairies – wrote the liner notes to The Sound of San Francisco, which are entitled “Remember You Heard it Here First”.  (I’ve talked about him a lot in these posts, so you should see a photo of him; this is from one of his early solo albums, Vampires Stole My Lunch Money). 
 
Mick Farren writes a lot of stuff; he has several science fiction novels to his credit, including a trilogy called The DNA Cowboys.  Along with Greg Shaw’s ex-wife and business partner Suzy Shaw, Mick Farren co-wrote the 2007 book that cements Shaw’s legacy in the rock and roll universe, Bomp! / Saving the World One Record at a Time.  I have seen numerous articles by Farren in the Village Voice and elsewhere.  But I can only recall one other time when Mick Farren wrote liner notes; that was for the comeback album for his old band the Pink Fairies, specifically their 1987 release Kill ’Em and Eat ’Em. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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Twink is also renowned as a founding member of the hard psych band the Pink Fairies, along with the Deviants’ Mick Farren and Steve Peregrin Took, who was Marc Bolan’s partner in the original Tyrannosaurus Rex band.

Besides Twink, the other bandmembers in Tomorrow – originally called the Four Plus One – included guitarist Steve Howe, which was later in Yes; Junior Wood; and Keith West, who was evidently the best known member of the band when their album came out.  Of note is the fact that Tomorrow was featured on the very first of the Peel Sessions by DJ John Peel on BBC Radio 1, on September 21, 1967. 

 

(July 2013)

 

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The plan was always to move directly from the Mick Farren tribute to a description of the Fairies as the Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month; Twink was in that band in 1964-1965.  That would be three different likely homosexual references among the band names that I have mentioned, including the Deviants and the Pink Fairies.  None of the bandmembers in any of these groups is gay as far as I know – Mick Farren certainly wasn’t – and none of their music could be described as wimpy or lightweight either, so I guess this is guerilla theatre mostly. 

 

(March 2014/2)
 
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My recollection is that I first encountered Kim Fowley when I found the above album, Living in the Streets.  The cover is a pastiche of photos and text that are taken from an interview published in 1977 in Sounds magazine.  The interview continues onto the back cover; a pull quote that is given there proclaims:  “I am the Dorian Gray of rock ’n’ roll.  If you saw me physically, you wouldn’t believe I was as old as I am, and I’ve never aged.” 

 

As if that were not enough to catch my attention, the list of dozens of bands and musicians mentioned in the interview that is also given on the cover includes one of my very favorite bands, the Pink Fairies.   

 

(January 2015/1)

 

Last edited: April 3, 2021