'You
get booed before you play a note. we are one of the few bands
that can get that strength of reaction off people..' Stoner, 1975
Even
25 years after the fact, Doctors of Madness are a difficult
band to categorise. Kid Strange's blue hair, Stoner's Frankenstein
make up, the unearthly tones of Urban Blitzes violin, their
songs of alienation and late night hedonism gone bad, for the
conservative pre-punk audiences of 1975 all of this was pretty
hard to digest. Arriving at a time when the Doctors overall
weirdness was too much for the reactionary climate of the music
scene, neither did the Docs fit the bill when Punk, a movement
the band had been in many ways a precursor, precluded any tolerance
for songs over 3 minutes, Blitz's violins, or Strange's lyrical
articulacy.
"I
think I had William Burroughs's medical maniac Dr. Benway in
mind. I like that strange contradiction between the notion of
the trusted Doctor and the reality of the psychopath. As a piece
of typography THE DOCTORS OF MADNESS is too long to make an
impact on a poster or in a headline, and to lazy sub-editors
and photographers who want a 'theme' or costume picture, our
name was a gift; 'Mad, these new Doctors of Rock', you know
the sort of thing. Within a couple of years we had lost count
of how many photographic stylists had arrived at a photo session
weighed down with armfuls of white coats, stethoscopes and hypodermic
syringes, saying 'I've had this great idea for the shoot'; Fortunately
we soon learned quickly how to tell these lame-brains 'no thanks'
".
The
Doctors arose from the wreckage of Kid's previous band, 'Great
White Idiot' in 1973. That band had dissolved in a near riot
at their Hundred Club gig where the stage had been rushed by
a hostile audience, but Strange did not let go of his ambitions;
inspired equally by the Velvet Underground and the writing of
William Burroughs, and buoyed by a degree of self belief that
led him to rate himself alongside Lennon and Dylan as a songwriter,
Kid believed himself a star from an early age. Retaining Great
White Idiot's drummer Pete Di Lemma, Strange set out to find
new musicians to help him realise his aims, a process which
took a couple of years, before the Doctors of Madness lineup
solidified with bassist Stoner and classically trained violinist
Urban Blitz.
"One
Saturday evening in May 1975 we did a show of frightening intensity
and fire, a show which transcended all of our technical and
musical shortcomings, and which culminated in a spontaneous
audience invasion of the stage as feedback howled and the drum
kit was demolished. It sometimes happens that a rock band makes
a virtue of all the frustration and aggravation that having
neither manager nor agent, neither record company nor budget
brings. The set we played that night was a seething rant against
our own inadequacies, and the audience has said, 'yes, we like
this' ".
At
this gig in twickenham in 1975, Kid threw a chair into the audience,
which landed on the already injured foot of Brian Morrison,
partner of a high profile management duo with Justin de Villeneuve.
The Doctors were exactly what they had been looking for. The
pair had been alerted by a friend to the talents of Strange
& co, and were impressed with the Doctors' conviction -
"one of the first things that attracted us' said de Villeneuve,
'was a question of attitude. It was a real 'fuck you' to the
audience'. A deal with polydor was secured and the Doctors were
put through their paces in intensive rehearsals prior to the
recording of their debut album 'Late Night Movies, All Night
Brainstorms'. when launched into the public eye the Doctors
were taken by many as a bit of an affront; 'Late Night Movies'
airbrushed cover captures well their unnatural, alien qualities.
The Doctors are observing their own mirror image which stares
vacantly back from the screen of some fleapit cinema. Kid's
languid figure dominates, a haughty, 6'4 blue haired oddity.
Releasing the album at the end of 1975 at the height of uk rock's
denim-waistcoated conservatism, the Doctors elicited a good
deal of hostility; supporting Status Quo that new year's eve
at the Olympia, the band were pelted with mince pies by the
dandruff-riddled hordes. 'they have no sense of parody' commented
Blitz.
And
yet some people out there were ready for the Doctors. An undercurrent
of British music fans were ready for something to alleviate
the stagnation, and the Doctors' Hammer horror appearance and
sentiments of urban alienation attracted a sizeable following.
for those who history would show to have been 'waiting for punk
to happen', the docs at this point were one of the bands to
see; as sounds scribe Jon Ingham would testify years later,
'the only new group that i liked was the Doctors of Madness.
They had a guitarist (sic) called Urban Blitz, and Richard Strange
had a good sense of what was going on'. touring with support
from the likes of Be Bop Deluxe and the Heavy Metal Kids, a
growing number of fans would congregate. 'It didn't surprise
me that people were absolutely fanatical about us' proclaimed
Kid with typical modesty in 1976.
Although
'Late Night Movies' failed to shift huge volumes in the UK,
it did well in Europe and import copies were snapped up stateside,
particularly in California. Encouraged, the band began work
on their second record, 'Figments of Emancipation', in Abbey
Road Studios, with John Leckie at the controls. Preceded by
their 'Midsummer Madness' UK tour, the record was released in
early autumn 1976.
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