WooHoo! All the Pink Fairies Polydor-era albums are available again, in expanded CD editions. Gorgeous booklets and bonus tracks tempt you to purchase. Once again, Mark Powell (now of Esoteric Records) has coordinated these releases. My favourite from the proto-punks is "Never Never Land" from the days when "Just Do It" was referring to something rather more exciting than sportswear.
The album features the classics "Do It" and "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout". I first heard a take of the latter on the "Glastonbury Fayre" album donkeys years ago. On this CD, you get 4 bonus tracks: a longer, first version of "Freakout", a divine, longer "War Girl" and early single mixes of "The Snake" and "Do It".
The band followed an anarchic career path, staples of free festivals and alternative happenings. At times you could almost believe they were Hawkwind. The songs haven't dated, just the odd unfortunate boogie-ish moment indicates the '70s vintage rock here. I never got to see them live (I guess I was too young) and despite one or two attempts at relaunch the band are now gone forever. There are some entertaining videos on YouTube but for various reasons, I'm not linking to them here. The band lives on through releases such as this and the semi-official live album "Finland Freakout". My advice would be to snap up copies of the albums now as I can't see them being around forever.
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