Never Never Land - Pink Fairies
1971 - Polydor(UK)(Germany) LP
2002 - Polydor(UK) CD: bonus tracks*, remastered
- Paul Rudolph / guitars, vocals
- Duncan Sanderson / bass, vocals
- "Twink" (John Adler) / drums, vocals
- Russel Hunter / drums
1. Do It
2. Heavenly Man
3. Say You Love Me
4. War Girl
5. Never Never Land
6. Thor
7. Teenage Rebel
8. Uncle Harry's Last Freak-Out
9. The Snake*
10. Do It (Single Version)*
11. War Girl (Alternate Extended Mix)*
12. Uncle Harry's Last Freak-Out (First Version)*
On one side of the Atlantic there was The Fugs and thier freak folk/proto-punk poetry protests, thus followed by the MC5 and The Stooges scratching, spitting and fighting thier way out the "Motor City" and on the other side of the pond, The Deviants who molted into the Pink Fairies and Thirld War World slithering out from the underground sewers of London with thier libertarian left wing anarchy to shake the establishment. 1970, the free festivals were flourishing with the hippy haze and biker battalions indulging in the ingestion of hallucinogens and marijauna and the Pink Fairies were the "house band".
Guitarist/vocalist Paul Rudolph, bassist Derk Sanderson and drummer Russel Hunter had left the proto-stoner/freak folk hippy funsters The Deviants in 1970 and hooked with drummer "Twink" who had played on the psychedelic rock opera masterpiece, 'S.F. Sorrow' from The Pretty Things in 1968 and released a solo album with help of the some of The Deviants titled, 'Think Pink' in early 1970. Though there was already Hunter on drums, "Twink" joined the band and laid down some tracks taking the lead vocals and the drums with Rudolph completing the rest of the tracks with his vocals on the Fairies 1971 debut, 'Never Never Land'.
The album opens up with "Twinks" "Do It" which would become thier anthem: "It's rock and roll man and the message is, DO IT!" Raw, ravishing revolution rock. A punch in the gut, a kick in the azz and a 2X4 to the head. His other tracks, "Heavenly Man" is some what a Floydian floating psych trip. "War Girl" is a rather laid back number with Rudolph's reverbing guitar right out of this world and "The Dream Is Just Beginning" is a short acoustic song, just over a minute long.
Rudolph's brusque vocals with his raw, sloppy slammering guitar chops out boot stomping proto-punk on "Say You Love Me" and "Teenage Rebel". "Uncle Harry's Last Freak-Out" proto-typifies what the Fairies are all about; LSD induced interstellar illusions, good times, hectic heavy metal and revolting rock 'n' roll. This is Rudolph's all out guitar assault. Over the wall wah wahs, entrenching echoes, deaf defying distortion and far too loud. Out of control. Fantastic.
The title tracks on that space/psych sound similar to early '70's Floyd as does the opening two minutes of 'Track One, Side Two" and then kicks into proto-metal pyro-technics and is followed by the Hawkwind-ish space/psych exploration instrumental, "Thor".
"The Snake" originally released as the A-side to "Do It" is contained as a bonus tracks on some reissues and is arguably with "Do It", the Fairies MO, has to be one of the unrefined, blistering proto-punk songs in history.
Paul Rudolph would leave the Fairies after second album, 'What A Bunch Of Sweeties', fed up with Sanderson's and Hunter's LSD use and would join up with Hawkwind and former UFO guitarist, Larry Wallis would step in for 'Kings Of Oblivion'. Die hard fans of the Stooges and the MC5 are recommended to check this album out as are the loyal anarchists of punk's hey day and proto-metalheads.