Twink (born John Charles Edward Alder; 29 November 1944) is an English drummer, singer and songwriter who was a central figure in the English psychedelic movement, and an actor. Recently, while still recording as Twink, Alder has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammed Abdullah. (More from Wikipedia)
The musicians on Mona – The Carnivorous Circus include compadres that Mick Farren worked with over the years, including Steve Peregrin Took (previously in Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan, who found great fame after shortening the band name a few years later to T. Rex) and Twink (real name: John Alder), who is best known as the drummer for the Pretty Things when they made one of their most renowned albums, S.F. Sorrow.
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The murky beginnings of the Pink Fairies – a more guitar-driven psychedelic rock band that eschewed the political stances of the Deviants – are hard to untangle; stories vary, and I don’t have any of the books that have been written on and by the bandmembers. According to the liner notes on an early retrospective album by the band, Pink Fairies, the original Pink Fairies were Mick Farren (vocals), Steve Peregrin Took (guitar) and Twink (drums). Together with Twink’s girlfriend Sally “Silver Darling” Meltzer (keyboards), Wikipedia reports that they “hooked up in October 1969 for one shambolic gig at Manchester University, billed as the Pink Fairies”. The three men later worked together on Mona – The Carnivorous Circus.
Mick Farren left the fold shortly afterward, and Twink and Steve Peregrin Took formed a band called Shagrat with Larry Wallis (guitar) – who later appeared in several incarnations of the Pink Fairies – and Tim Taylor (bass). The band name is taken from a character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Took is credited on the Mona – The Carnivorous Circus album as “Shagrat the Vagrant”. Twink left the band after a short while, and Steve Peregrine Took became the bandleader with the other two plus Phil Lenoir (drums), and later Dave Bidwell (percussion). The band is often called Steve Took’s Shagrat and was the springboard for Took’s solo career.
I picked up a 2001 CD by Shagrat called Pink Jackets Required, and it is a delight. This music was evidently made by the earliest lineup of the band. In the review of the album for Allmusic, Dean McFarlane gives it four stars and reports: “This album was recorded in 1969 just before Tyrannosaurus Rex embarked on their first U.S. tour and was completed on [Steve Peregrin] Took’s return. Although it is in effect a collection of demos, and some of the tracks will be known to fans of Think Pink – primitive takes of ‘The Coming of the Other One’ and ‘The Sparrow Is a Sign’ will be familiar – in fact, Pink Jackets Required is one of the most astonishing albums either of the pair recorded, and in popular opinion and rock-evidence surpasses the Twink Think Pink album. The name Shagrat was bounced around for an incarnation of one of Twink’s other groups with members of the Pink Fairies, but that unit was entirely different from the genius brilliance of the project with Steven Peregrin Took. Simply, this should be tracked down and given serious attention by those who love A Beard of Stars [by Tyrannosaurus Rex], Deviants, Pretty Things, and early T. Rex.”
However, the Wikipedia article on Shagrat states the following: “Shagrat was a British supergroup formed by Steve Peregrin Took and Mick Farren in February 1970 after they split with Twink, their partner in the prototype Pink Fairies supergroup of late 1969.” Thus, the tracks on Pink Jackets Required might not be by Shagrat, strictly speaking. According to the liner notes: “The Think Pink tracks [“The Coming of the Other One”, “The Sparrow Is a Sign” and “Three Little Piggies”] were recorded at Recorded Sound Studios, London 1969 with various members of ‘The Pink Fairies Motorcycle Club All Star Rock and Roll Band’. The ‘Demo Versions 1 & 2’ [all other songs] were recorded at Denmark St. Studios, 1969 & 1970”. Individual musicians credited are Steve Peregrin Took, Twink and Paul Rudolph.
Whatever else might be said of the Pink Fairies, the name and the “pinkness” clearly come from Twink; besides suggesting the name, he had been a member of a hard-rocking R&B band called the Fairies that formed in 1964. I first encountered this band on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP – evidently the only LP in the entire Pebbles series to feature British music – that was subtitled “The Roots of Mod”. Three of the tracks on the LP and also the later CD, English Freakbeat, Volume 6 were by the Fairies; this was the first time in the series that a band got that many songs on an album. One of these songs, “Get Yourself Home” was later included in the second box set in the Nuggets series, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969.
Mick Farren, Steve Peregrin Took and Twink had actually teamed up a few months before their October 1969 gig as the Pink Fairies, during the July 1969 recording sessions for Twink’s first solo album, Think Pink, which was released in 1970. Farren produced the album, Took was on guitar and vocals, and Twink was on drums and vocals. Paul Rudolph, previously in the Deviants and later in the Pink Fairies, played guitar and bass and also provided vocals.
Also present at the Think Pink sessions was John (Junior) Wood on bass; Wood had been a member of one of the earliest British psychedelic bands, Tomorrow, along with Twink, future Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and Keith West, who appeared in the early rock opera masterminded by Mark Wirtz called A Teenage Opera. West’s single “Excerpt from A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)” was an instant hit when it was released in July 1967 and became part of the soundtrack of the Summer of Love.
Standout songs on Think Pink include “Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box”, “The Coming of the Other One” and “The Sparrow Is a Sign”. Dean McFarlane in his Allmusic review also gives Think Pink four stars and writes: “Think Pink is an incredibly varied album with no two songs resembling each other, but then one assumes an acid masterpiece like ‘Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box’ will stay on high rotation for at least a week on the stereos of most psychedelia fans, so overall album flow may not be such an issue. This is pure psychedelic acid rock of the highest order. If one can imagine a fusion of the Incredible String Band, Deviants, early Pink Floyd, and a fair dose of Twink’s heredity as a member of Tomorrow and the Pretty Things, you get an idea of what he was up to. Not known for doing things in halves, he shows little restraint in the assembly of a group designed to tear the roof off the psychedelic scene.”
The Pink Fairies proper began to take shape when Twink connected with the three remaining members of the Deviants after Mick Farren was sacked: Russell Hunter, Duncan Sanderson and Paul Rudolph. This line-up produced the debut album, Never Never Land (1971). The album features classic Fairies tracks like “Do It”, “War Girl”, and “Uncle Harry’s Last Freak-Out”, but not the early single that is probably their best known song, “The Snake” (yes, that is a penis reference).
After Twink left the band, the remaining trio in the Pink Fairies recorded What a Bunch of Sweeties which includes another song on my All-Time Top Ten, “Marilyn”. This album was at the top of my Want List for decades before I finally mail-ordered a copy – just in time for Hurricane Katrina. The album also includes covers of two familiar 1960’s tracks: the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There” and the instrumental “Walk, Don’t Run” (originally by the Ventures). As described by Wikipedia: “The sleeve came in a gatefold cover by Edward Barker, the front showing a box full of goodies mostly taken from roadie David “Boss” Goodman's personal collection of underground badges etc.” The album is mostly a sonic assault that also includes the playful song “Pigs of Uranus” – but even that song ends with a fabulous electric guitar solo.
