Label: Molecular Scream Records
Country: UK
Back in 1978 TV Smth from the Adverts and Richard Strange from the Doctors of Madness wrote some Songs together. That never got released. In 2011 Richard Strange sold a CD-R with those Songs but they had their first real Release in 2021 as an Red Vinyl Limited Edition for the Record Store Day. They are completly Sold Out. Theres another Song "Don't Panic England" that got rerecorded and digitaly released
Tracklist:
The Big Break
Kings Of The Wreckage
Making Machines
The Last Human Being In The World
Summer Fun
Some Kind Of War
Torpedo
Dance Of Death
[2021] TV Smith & Richard Strange - 1978 - 12"
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FredNoTimeToBe2021
- Posts: 175
- Joined: 1. Nov 2021, 22:23
- Location: Nottingham (via Paisley)
Re: [2021] TV Smith & Richard Strange - 1978 - 12"
Richard Strange: A Revox Doesn't Answer Back
Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 2 February 1980
A Doctor Of Madness goes it alone.
STRANGE IS back. He wants to know how you can tell what clan a Scotsman's in. I don't know Richard, how can you tell what clan a Scotsman's in? "Well," says Strange, "you stick your hand up his kilt... and if you feel two quarter pounders he's a McDonald."
Richard Strange is Kid Strange no more. The once blue hair is an acceptable honey shade these days and the large gentleman underneath is in beiges and browns, an elegant combination which, topped off with a particular nifty titfer, gives the man a sleeklessly chic aura of the Thirties colliding head-on with the Eighties. Ah, style, so few of us have it.
Richard Strange has a '45, 'International Language', on Cherry Red. It's a good sound, easily the most commercial item the man's ever released, and reception has been good. 'International Language' is part of a wider design, a self-supporting slice from an impending long-player, The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange. There's a book, too, and more. 'International Language' and the bulk of the LP were written in hospital, says Strange, giving "sickness" as the only clue to the reason he was between sheets.
"I was in there quite a long time. After The Doctors had finished — that was October, we did the last few dates in November. And January and February of last year I went in. I went in with sickness and I came out with a novel, an album and the equivalent of a new pair of eyes.
"Everything that The Doctors had done was suddenly a long, long way back and meant nothing to me at all. But I conceived the album, I had a typewriter brought in and wrote about half the book... and it was really sort of cathartic." Strange handles this last word with the appropriate care.
"I realised that the whole thing that The Doctors were doing, I didn't need at all, anymore. I didn't need to hang on to it. I didn't need to try and extend it or develop it at all. I realised that, having brought it to a close, I really was free to make a completely fresh start."
1979 was a phenomenal year for Strange's creative juices; he wrote some fifty songs, "which was the equivalent to what I'd written in about the previous ten years." The reasons were a mixture of having time on his hands and the post-Doctors break-up new frame of mind.
"But I think the real reason was that I was able to focus on it. I was able to say, this is the starting point from which I originally did it, and now that I'm back here I think I can let it go again. And that's what happened. And it staggered me that I was so prolific and that the quality of what I was doing was streets ahead of anything that I'd done when I thought that I was writing for a band format; I thought I was writing for Doctors Of Madness and I had an image of what that band was in my mind, but as soon as all that was stripped away the really quality stuff started coming out. And it was a very odd feeling, 'cause it just came on and on and on. I'd finish one song and something else would start."
The result was the album already mentioned, another LP of songs co-authored with former Advert Tim Smith, a further six songs that he'll include in his upcoming concert tour and enough material for another LP.
"It was staggering to have that much output. It was as if for the first time probably ever, I'd got the right balance input, i.e. inspiration, work, and output — seeing it through and taking care of that stage of it. And it paid massive dividends. If nothing happens from now onwards, last year was the best year I've ever had as an artist. And the vindication of that would seem to be that the response to the single has been better than the response to anything that I've done before. So I feel very up and about everything."
THIS DAM-breaking splurge of inspiration was a direct result of being free of the pressures of being in a band, Strange concludes. And not just being a musician either; towards the end of The Doctors, Strange was single-handedly acting as the band's booking agent, manager and accountant. Not easy, especially considering the minimal rewards involved — a round of applause here, a bad review there...
In about a month Richard Strange takes to the boards again, but his 'band' will consist of nothing more than himself plus a series of pre-recorded backing tapes. "Being a member of a group is something I'd never entertain again," says Strange. "A Revox doesn't answer back."
He anticipates playing with other musicians again "because that's something I actually enjoy", planning a tour with a band around early summer, probably to tie in with the release of The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange album, but the band will be assembled for the tour and disbanded afterwards.
"They'll be people that I enjoy playing with and they will be good. But it won't be a group and all that that entails. There won't be the 'family' and all the responsibility, because I don't want that."
The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange is handed over in cassette/demo form, a political fantasy set at the end of the century. Does the thought of another concept album send you running off in the direction most opposite? Normally, I'd be right behind you. But Strange has something special on his barrow. Rise has some excellent songs, for starters, and it can, as the singer — not to mention 'International Language' — explains, be taken in individual segments without loss of quality or coherence. What's really significant, however, is that this often misunderstood and frequently underrated individual has produced what's easily the most articulate and pertinent collection of songs ever attempted under the 'concept' heading.
Check him out. He's got my vote all sewn up.
© Giovanni Dadomo, 1980
Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 2 February 1980
A Doctor Of Madness goes it alone.
STRANGE IS back. He wants to know how you can tell what clan a Scotsman's in. I don't know Richard, how can you tell what clan a Scotsman's in? "Well," says Strange, "you stick your hand up his kilt... and if you feel two quarter pounders he's a McDonald."
Richard Strange is Kid Strange no more. The once blue hair is an acceptable honey shade these days and the large gentleman underneath is in beiges and browns, an elegant combination which, topped off with a particular nifty titfer, gives the man a sleeklessly chic aura of the Thirties colliding head-on with the Eighties. Ah, style, so few of us have it.
Richard Strange has a '45, 'International Language', on Cherry Red. It's a good sound, easily the most commercial item the man's ever released, and reception has been good. 'International Language' is part of a wider design, a self-supporting slice from an impending long-player, The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange. There's a book, too, and more. 'International Language' and the bulk of the LP were written in hospital, says Strange, giving "sickness" as the only clue to the reason he was between sheets.
"I was in there quite a long time. After The Doctors had finished — that was October, we did the last few dates in November. And January and February of last year I went in. I went in with sickness and I came out with a novel, an album and the equivalent of a new pair of eyes.
"Everything that The Doctors had done was suddenly a long, long way back and meant nothing to me at all. But I conceived the album, I had a typewriter brought in and wrote about half the book... and it was really sort of cathartic." Strange handles this last word with the appropriate care.
"I realised that the whole thing that The Doctors were doing, I didn't need at all, anymore. I didn't need to hang on to it. I didn't need to try and extend it or develop it at all. I realised that, having brought it to a close, I really was free to make a completely fresh start."
1979 was a phenomenal year for Strange's creative juices; he wrote some fifty songs, "which was the equivalent to what I'd written in about the previous ten years." The reasons were a mixture of having time on his hands and the post-Doctors break-up new frame of mind.
"But I think the real reason was that I was able to focus on it. I was able to say, this is the starting point from which I originally did it, and now that I'm back here I think I can let it go again. And that's what happened. And it staggered me that I was so prolific and that the quality of what I was doing was streets ahead of anything that I'd done when I thought that I was writing for a band format; I thought I was writing for Doctors Of Madness and I had an image of what that band was in my mind, but as soon as all that was stripped away the really quality stuff started coming out. And it was a very odd feeling, 'cause it just came on and on and on. I'd finish one song and something else would start."
The result was the album already mentioned, another LP of songs co-authored with former Advert Tim Smith, a further six songs that he'll include in his upcoming concert tour and enough material for another LP.
"It was staggering to have that much output. It was as if for the first time probably ever, I'd got the right balance input, i.e. inspiration, work, and output — seeing it through and taking care of that stage of it. And it paid massive dividends. If nothing happens from now onwards, last year was the best year I've ever had as an artist. And the vindication of that would seem to be that the response to the single has been better than the response to anything that I've done before. So I feel very up and about everything."
THIS DAM-breaking splurge of inspiration was a direct result of being free of the pressures of being in a band, Strange concludes. And not just being a musician either; towards the end of The Doctors, Strange was single-handedly acting as the band's booking agent, manager and accountant. Not easy, especially considering the minimal rewards involved — a round of applause here, a bad review there...
In about a month Richard Strange takes to the boards again, but his 'band' will consist of nothing more than himself plus a series of pre-recorded backing tapes. "Being a member of a group is something I'd never entertain again," says Strange. "A Revox doesn't answer back."
He anticipates playing with other musicians again "because that's something I actually enjoy", planning a tour with a band around early summer, probably to tie in with the release of The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange album, but the band will be assembled for the tour and disbanded afterwards.
"They'll be people that I enjoy playing with and they will be good. But it won't be a group and all that that entails. There won't be the 'family' and all the responsibility, because I don't want that."
The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange is handed over in cassette/demo form, a political fantasy set at the end of the century. Does the thought of another concept album send you running off in the direction most opposite? Normally, I'd be right behind you. But Strange has something special on his barrow. Rise has some excellent songs, for starters, and it can, as the singer — not to mention 'International Language' — explains, be taken in individual segments without loss of quality or coherence. What's really significant, however, is that this often misunderstood and frequently underrated individual has produced what's easily the most articulate and pertinent collection of songs ever attempted under the 'concept' heading.
Check him out. He's got my vote all sewn up.
© Giovanni Dadomo, 1980