When you meet ya all time heroes 'tis a special moment.

And when they turn out to be great people too, well then that is pretty darned spectacular.

Which is how it was at the Canterbury Fayre when Dave and meself were to be seen hanging out with those legendary psych merchants the ELECTRIC PRUNES (no less!). What a stroke of luck playing on the same bill as them... I never ever dreamed we'd be fortunate enough to see 'em play let alone swap dubious on the road stories with 'em backstage. AND pretty much all night in the hotel bar afterwards (with Loves Arthur Lee also, amazingly)

For those of you out there that havn't heard this wonderful band theres a wonderful 23 track 'best of' available on Birdman records called 'LOST DREAMS' which I can enthusiastically recommend as the Prunes have been on my top 5 playlist now ever since I first heard 'The Great Banana Hoax', a single that I played so loud and so often at school that I got the bloody cane for it.

That record, along with Syd Barretts 'See Emily Play' changed my life forever. I understood the immense power that music could have (in the right hands of course...)

So here's a couple of snaps from that day... one of me and James Lowe who still has the ultimate 'garage punk' voice and the other of me and Louisa on the end of yet ANOTHER of bassist Mark Tulins amazing 60's anecdotes. Was it the one about when Jimi Hendrix invited them over for a jam when they were over in London in '67 or the one about how pop musics 1st ever backwards guitar intro came about - on 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night' (they were recording on side 2 of the tape and a Ken Williams fuzz guitar fade from a previous session was the 1st thing they heard on playback).

For me its Hendrix, The Ramones and the Electric Prunes as the most influential and innovative musicians ever. All 3 still sound fresh today which means they must've been WELL ahead of the game when they started, blah blah.

We are staying in touch with James and Mark and the rest of the Prunes and hope to work with them again sometime... oh, and their new CD 'ARTIFACT' is bloody good too, brimming over with great ideas and fabulous guitar tones.

Gawd bless the Electric Prunes!
Their official web site is www.electricprunes.net
Cap

...and Captain was really happy to learn that James of the Prunes loved GRAVE DISORDER so much he sent in his thoughts on the album...

“Your Grave Disorder CD is a Fireball! What an interesting album. I thought certainly the energy of the live show we saw at Canterbury couldn't possibly carry across to the CD release.......WRONG. Twists and turns, great arrangements, great sounds, great playing from everyone. I have been so bored with CD's lately, what a refreshing treat this Disorder was. I am not quite sure if we bought this CD or you gave it to us. If we bought it..... we got our money's worth and more. If you gave it to us...... thank you, it is a fine gift. "She knows we got nothing more to lose, she knows we're dancing in a dead man's shoes." Sexy photos, angel boys and girl. Guitars that grab you by the throat and wind you around that power vocal. Just friggin' INTERESTING. When musicians say we influenced them in any way I usually can't hear it, in this case if I do I hope it ain't just wishful thinking. You guys ROCK!

(this review prepared for you by): James Lowe Electric Prunes

ps: Some of the guitar stuff is just plain amazing......great tone selection.”

Wot a nice bloke - Cap