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The first post
that appeared on The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit (on 08-08-08)
mentioned Duggie Fields in its second sentence (see that post here: Iggy).
For years he was a privileged witness in the world of Sydiots.
In 1963 Duggie went to the Regent Street Polytechnic, where some of the
Pink Floyd boys were studying at well.
I met Roger Waters in the same group. On Friday afternoon dances, I was
Juliette’s [Gale] dancing partner.
Later he was one of the many people living at 101 Cromwell Road where he
witnessed how the Cambridge gang were ‘real acid proselytisers’. Mick
Rock:
Apart from Duggie’s room, the rest of the place was full of acid
burn-outs.
Syd Barrett used to break into Duggie’s room to read the Dr Strange
comic books Fields had imported from the States. Fields was a fan of
comics creator Stan
Lee. His bedroom wall was covered with Marvel comics. Unfortunately,
people used to borrow those and never bring them back.
Duggie and Jules, 1969.
Around Christmas 1968 Duggie, Syd and a third tenant called Jules moved
to Wetherby Mansions. Jules quickly disappeared. After the sessions for
the Barrett album were completed in July 1970 Syd began to spend
less time at Wetherby Mansions and by 1971 he was living full time in
Cambridge. Duggie would live in the same apartment for the rest of his
life, turning it into a colourful bric-a-brac museum of his art.
Duggie was about the most reliable witness about Iggy, who was known as
the Eskimo girl, and the one who recognised Syd’s car, a Pontiac
Parisienne, in the movie Entertaining Mr Sloane.
The car too has its own mythology. (...) I first saw it at Alice Pollock
and Ossie Clark’s New Year’s Eve party at the Albert Hall – a memorable
event itself where both Amanda Lear and Yes (separately) took to the
stage for the first time. (Taken from: Duggie
Fields)
Julian Palacios interviewed Duggie in 1996 for his Syd Barrett biography.
He was so cool. Reserved and wary at first, then about halfway through
he became super raconteur. (email to FA, 10 February 2010).
Duggie and Iggy, 2011.
For the Mortal Remains exhibition, Duggie painted Syd Barrett leaning
against a pink convertible. It’s a gripping image, loosely based upon
one of Mick Rock’s photographs of the madcap. It shows a headless Syd
who seems to be humming a tune, hence the musical note appearing behind
him.
Duggie Fields' Pink Pontiac with Syd.
Although Fields had a great career of his own, painting in a post-modern
pop-art comic-strip style, he was forever Syd Barrett’s room-mate which
must have been tiring from time to time.
The legend goes that Duggie Fields used to play his records loud. One
day he played some Motown and Iggy, in the other room, started to dance,
much to the amusement of Syd. They’re all reunited now…
He was truly one on the last real English gentlemen and it was an honour
to have known him.
We were also informed of the death of John Davies, one of the hip boys
in Cambridge in the early sixties. As a friend of Syd, he used to trade
guitar licks and hangout in El Patio. See also: The
John Davies Collection
The Church wishes to thank: Antonio Jesús Reyes, Eleonora Siatoni,
Julian Palacios, Rich Hall. ♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥
Sources (others than the links above): Blake, Mark: Pigs Might Fly,
Aurum Press Limited, London, 2013, p. 81, 82. Chapman, Rob: A Very
Irregular Head, Faber and Faber, London, 2010, p. 79. Palacios,
Julian: Darker Globe: Uncut and Unedited, private publication,
2021, p. 133, 484.
I may have written this before but when my stack of Pink Floyd tribute
CDs threatened to become bigger than actual Pink Floyd albums I gave up
buying those. Most of the time these albums are quite rubbish anyway and
consist of artists who only sell records to their grandmother. I mean,
who has ever heard of Stinking
Lizaveta and their Matilda
Mother cover on the Like Black Holes In The Sky album? Actually that
track is quite good, you can have a listen by clicking on the image
below.
It was Göran Nystrom from Men
On The Border who reminded me of Love
You, a (mostly Italian) Syd Barrett tribute album that was going to
appear on the 6th of January 2021. I immediately pre-ordered it, in the
heat of the moment, so to speak.
I wanted to have a look at the artists and bands involved and the fact
that I couldn’t find them anywhere made me fear for the worst. It is
never a good sign if even the record company keeps the actual performers
a secret.
I could only hope this wasn’t going to be another Hoshizora No Drive.
That is a 2008 Syd Barrett tribute album from Japan that I once received
from the head guru of Birdie Hop. Most songs on it sound like Godzilla
with a toothache.
Mojo had a Madcap Laughs Again CD in 2010. It only scored 53% on the Late
Night forum, based on 18 votes. I gave it a 4
myself but the passing of time has somewhat sweetened my opinion,
based upon the three or four tracks that aren’t totally shite.
Stand out tracks are Mark Almond’s version of Late
Night and Field Music’s Terrapin,
although Eternal Isolation, the administrator of the Late Night forum,
found that it sounded like a shampoo commercial. But that was 2010,
we’re a decade later now.
Our project is to collect, for the first time, all the songs Syd Barrett
recorded after his experience with Pink Floyd. To realize it we invited
many artists from various parts of the world – Italy, Mexico, France,
Ireland, UK, USA, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands – and
asked them to choose one song and re-arrange it in their own way.
Well, let’s be honest, that’s just standard promotional chitchat.
The sixth of January 2021 passed by without a trace and it took until
mid-March for the album to finally arrive, proving once again that the
terms Italian and Efficacy will never match.
Update 2021.04.01: according to Luca Ferrari the delay was due to
problems at Gonzo Multimedia, an English company, BTW.
So enough dilly-dallying let’s play the CDs and publish one of those
Holy Church reviews in telegram style.
CD1.
TERRAPIN - ANDREA ACHILLI (Italy) 2'59" I like the
chill-out arrangement but the singing is below par. 5.6/10.
NO GOOD TRYING - LUNA PARK (France) 3'15" Nice try, but
again, the singing could be much better. 5.4/10.
LOVE YOU - EUGENE (Italy) 2'24" Turning Love You into a
novelty tune à la Devo. 5.9/10 for
the effort.
NO MAN'S LAND - HUMUS (Mexico) 2'27" Power version but
(again, sigh) average singing. 4.8/10.
HERE I GO - MAX ZARUCCHI (Italy) 4'52" 0/10.
A track Italians invented the word vaffanculo for.
Love You CD1. Art: Matteo Regattin.
OCTOPUS - SHERPA (Italy) 4'02" Very close to the
original. With some extra effort, this could’ve been an excellent cover. 6.4/10.
GOLDEN HAIR - IN THE LABYRINTH (Sweden) 7'41" It starts
close to the original, then it glides into a surprisingly nice Indian
raga prog-fantasy. Unfortunately, it loses its momentum after a few
minutes. This could’ve been saved by adding some uplifting beats. 7.3/10.
LONG GONE – BARYOGENESIS (Italy) 3'27" Close to the
original, it has potential but gimmicks can’t save it. 5.3/10
SHE TOOK A LONG COLD LOOK - ALANJEMAAL (Italy) 5'55" This
starts promising with an intro that puts you on the wrong leg, which –
in my opinion – is always a good way to tackle a cover. The singing is –
again – awful and what is left is a good old space rocker… 6.9/10.
FEEL - HIS MAJESTY THE BABY (Italy) 3'37" This is the
Luca Ferrari who gave us the quirky Fish Out Of The Water in a
previous century. Beautifully written (in Italian), but badly translated
into English (not by him, I might say). Unfortunately, his track on Love
You is an experiment gone bad. 3.0/10.
IF IT'S IN YOU - HENRIETTA AND THE FIVES (Italy) 3'45" Despite
the quite traditional rendition (with raga influences) I’m going to give
this a 6.8/10. At least it is a track
that tries to achieve something.
LATE NIGHT - DUNCAN MAITLAND (Ireland) 3'39" A nice cover
from this ex-Pugwash musician. It stays close to the original but
manages to bring the message over. 7.0/10.
OPEL - GALERIE 65 (USA) 5'43" It starts by slowing down
the song to a very intimate level. There is a nice instrumental bridge
before the song ends with a less convincing epilogue. 6.0/10.
DOLLY ROCKER - THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (Italy) 3'16" 5.6/10
for the effort. The original is not really great either.
WORD SONG - QUARTO STATO DELLA MATERIA (Italy) 4'37" I
was looking forward to this. The original has got virtually no tune and
we all know that the lyrics are an experimental mess. The band QSDM
turns it into a REM-like tune. 7.2/10.
SWAN LEE - HIBUSHIBIRE (Japan) 4'07" This is Hoshizora No
Drive all over. The freakbeat outro can't salvage the intro,
unfortunately. 3.0/10.
LET'S SPLIT - MICHELE GENTILE (Italy) 2'54" This one took
me by surprise. This could well turn into my personal summer hit. I’ll
play it on my radio show one day. 6.9/10.
Love You CD2. Art: Matteo Regattin.
TWO OF A KIND - DAVE HARRIS & ZEUS B HELD (UK) 2'29" From
Rick Wright’s teammate in Zee, here is Two Of A Kind that might well be
a Rick Wright tune anyway. It’s a fun tune and that is how I look at it. 6.3/10.
ASTRONOMY DOMINE - BORIS SAVOLDELLI & UMBERTO PETRIN (Italy)
4'01" Turning Astronomy into a lounge jazz fantasy. The intro is
quite brilliant, but I sense that this tune could’ve been much better.
It lacks some salt and pepper, so to speak. 6.0/10.
End of CD1 with an average of 5.5 points
out of 10.
CD2
BABY LEMONADE - ST 37 (USA) 6'08" The musicians try
imitating the Baby Lemonade intro and fail at it. Then they try
imitating Syd’s vocals. They fail. Then they try to imitate Hawkwind but
Hawkwind does it better. 4.8/10.
LOVE SONG - LA FORMA DELLE NUVOLE (Italy) 3'31" Close to
the original, quite folky with a few unexpected surprises which made me
add some points. 6.1/10.
DOMINOES - SULA BASSANA (Germany) 5'46" Tries to give
Dominoes an experimental – slightly Floydian – feel but the result is
not immediately satisfactory. This is one of those songs that has
potential and is asking for better treatment. 6.8/10.
IT IS OBVIOUS - STEREOKIMONO (Italy) 3'30" Making
pub-rock out of Barrett, although the song explores many musical
territories. Nice try. 6.6/10.
RATS - PHOSPHENE (UK) 2'14" Phosphene is John Cavanagh,
whom we all revere for his Floydian knowledge. He has tried to turn
Barrett into a minimalistic industrial electronic outfit à la Front 242
but doesn’t quite succeed. 4.0/10.
MAISIE – THEEUNFORESEEN (Belgium) 4'04" Maisie is a
somewhat underrated track by Barrett and with this cover version, it
will certainly not grow in popularity. 4.7/10.
GIGOLO AUNT - THE AIRWAVES (Sweden) 5'10" It's OK but
could've been a bit more daring and original. With over 5 minutes it
takes much too long. 5.8/10.
WAVING MY ARMS IN THE AIR / I NEVER LIED TO YOU - LUCA RAIO
(Italy) 5'28" Song #1 is a folky carbon copy of the original,
not bad, but not really inventive. The surprise lies in the bridge
between the two parts. Part #2 tries to bring a more emotive version of
I Never Lied To You, which has always been one of the more poignant and
powerful moments of Barrett, but it fails miserably. 6.1/10.
WINED AND DINED - KABLE (USA) 4'04" Close to the
original. No frills, no thrills. 6.4/10.
WOLFPACK - KEEPER OF ATLANTIS (USA) 5'37" Yep, it’s again
one of those. 3.3/10.
Turtle by Ian Barrett.
EFFERVESCING ELEPHANT - BOTTI & PAVONI from GREENWALL (Italy)
3'02" At least a track where some fantasy has been used. It
might even have been sillier for me. 6.5/10.
BIRDIE HOP - TRESPASSERS W (The Netherlands) 3'14" Yep,
it’s again one of those. 3.5/10.
LANKY PART 1 - ALFREDO LONGO feat. SEBA PAVIA 4'31" A jam
imitating a jam. 5.0/10 for the effort.
MILKY WAY - MEN ON THE BORDER (Sweden) 5'10" A
(shortened) track from their Blackbird album. See our review here: Blackbird:
Fly Into The Light. One of the very rare occasions on this
compilation where you can hear there is a tight band behind the song,
rather than a hobby project. 7.2/10.
BOB DYLAN BLUES - JOSS COPE (UK) 4'17" A man and his
guitar in a great version of this tune. 8.0/10.
RHAMADAN - MORNING SCALES THE MOUNTAIN (USA) 9'43" The
story of how Syd and Jerry Garcia met, in syncopated pandemonium. 6.7/10.
VEGETABLE MAN - NICK BENSEN (USA) 3'59" It’s OK, I guess,
but it’s not spectacular. 6.0/10.
End of CD2 with an average of 5.7points out of 10.
Conclusion: 5.6 points out of 10.
What I feared about this tribute album came true. It's a mixed bag with
about the same amount of nays and yeas. A single CD, with half the songs
weeded out, would’ve sufficed. (And weirdly enough the average score
would then have been 6.66 points out of
10.) What is even more perplexing is the fact that a great part of the
human race seems to have lost the ability to sing but that this doesn’t
stop them from doing so.
But at least all of the artists can now proudly say to their grand-mum:
"Look bonny, I’ve got a record out."
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