This relatively obscure band does not even make it to Wikipedia. Even Discogs only reference their one single. According to the guy responsible for posting the YouTube video of their only single playing(!), The Acid Gallery began life in the mid 1960s as The Epics, but changed their name in 1967, better reflecting the psychedelic scene of the time. However, their sound is more British Invasion pop than psychedelic space out. As their brief biography at AllMusic points out, they never met the expectations set-up by their daring name. If only the band evoked some sort of organized display of LSD freak-outs! Alas they do freak-out, but ever so gingerly, on their one and only extant song, "Dance Around the Maypole." There's some evidence of at least a b-side ("Right Toe Blues"), but nothing else makes it to the streaming music catalogs of the 21st century. It also gets another rock history footnote for having been written and produced by Roy Wood, from The Move and co-founder of both ELO and Wizzard; both he and Jeff Lynne contributed backing vocals to "Dance Around the Maypole." People might recall the song from Nuggets (actually it's on Nuggets II: Original Artifacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969); even buried on disc 4 and clocking in at less than 3 minutes, it distinguishes itself. (Or maybe I've just heard it more than other songs on the collection because it made my Summer Playlist.) It's a delightful number that, after just a single listen, can easily lodge the cheery chorus into my mind for a full day.
Monday, August 7, 2017
The Acid Gallery
This relatively obscure band does not even make it to Wikipedia. Even Discogs only reference their one single. According to the guy responsible for posting the YouTube video of their only single playing(!), The Acid Gallery began life in the mid 1960s as The Epics, but changed their name in 1967, better reflecting the psychedelic scene of the time. However, their sound is more British Invasion pop than psychedelic space out. As their brief biography at AllMusic points out, they never met the expectations set-up by their daring name. If only the band evoked some sort of organized display of LSD freak-outs! Alas they do freak-out, but ever so gingerly, on their one and only extant song, "Dance Around the Maypole." There's some evidence of at least a b-side ("Right Toe Blues"), but nothing else makes it to the streaming music catalogs of the 21st century. It also gets another rock history footnote for having been written and produced by Roy Wood, from The Move and co-founder of both ELO and Wizzard; both he and Jeff Lynne contributed backing vocals to "Dance Around the Maypole." People might recall the song from Nuggets (actually it's on Nuggets II: Original Artifacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969); even buried on disc 4 and clocking in at less than 3 minutes, it distinguishes itself. (Or maybe I've just heard it more than other songs on the collection because it made my Summer Playlist.) It's a delightful number that, after just a single listen, can easily lodge the cheery chorus into my mind for a full day.
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Dance around it!
ReplyDeleteQuite a Sgt. Pepper's influence here, but almost everything released in England from '67-68 does.