Vince Twizz & The Twizzmen

Vince Twizz & The Twizzmen
'Dance With Me, Madam' c/w 'Yellow Influence'
Released 1st May 1967. Special Records SPR 6795
Vince Twizz (vcls, marracas), Norbert Stem (guitar, dancing), Rustrum Hornblower (electric harpsichette), Jim 'Jimmy' James (bass), Rupert Burdett-Coots (drums), Darwin Pardew (zitherotron, whispy stick)

It was in Abbey Road Studios in the winter of 1966 that Vince Twizz & The Twizzmen changed the face of popular music and re-invented psychedelia.

"Vince had written this great song about asking a bird to dance and then when she said 'Yes', just walking away", says Harpsichette player Rustrum Hornblower. "We decided to record it in the most adventurous way possible. For a start, every single instrument was backwards. We turned the tape over and it sounded great. The whole song was obviously in reverse as well, but that didn't deter Twizzy".

Vince Twizz proceeded to improvise a whole new melody against the now nonsensical backing track.

When it came to the mixing, Vince insisted that every instrument and vocal track be on the left side of the stereo picture. This was to be their first stereo single and Vince wanted to impress.

"It was an experiment in sound", says Rustrum. "Unfortunately, EMI thought it sounded beyond terrible and refused to release it".

But help was at hand. Sir Spike Tetherington-Lewis, the alcoholic chairman of EMI, listened to the song and was impressed by the way that the empty right channel allowed him space to think of other things. 'Dance With Me, Madam' was finally released on the first of January 1967 and sank without trace. "

Terry Quick's Baroque & Roll

Terry Quick's Baroque & Roll
'Memories of Gauguin' c/w 'Drop A Love Bomb On My Head'. Released 8th July 1967. DETONATE DT111

Terry Quick (vocals, harpsichord), Barnaby Fagin (harpsichord), Steve Maguire (harpsichord), Steve Newland (clavichord), Jimmy Pilgrim (virginal & maracas)

When it came to unusual line-ups, Terry Quick & Baroque & Roll certainly took the lysergic biscuit.

With three (count 'em) harpsichordists, a clavichord player and another member who doubled on marracas and virginal, their sound was once described by Anthony Hepburn of The Tinkerbells as "ten thousand escaped lunatics attacking the inside of a piano with sledgehammers", and it would be hard to disagree.

Add to this bizarre musical cocktail the high-pitched, manic vocals of Terry Quick and you have a unique, exciting sound that, nevertheless, managed to avoid troubling the charts.

'Memories Of Gauguin' has the singer giving advice to the French post-impressionist as he lies dying in his gaily-painted hammock in Hawaii. This advice, to 'Get up, get a girl and start painting again', would probably not have been heeded by the artist, but the resultant sonic cacophony would certainly had made him spin in his grave, had he been dead at the time.

Quick and his cohorts were much in demand as session musicians, given the then vogue for harpsichords, but after several tragic episodes involving the group (see Susan McDaniels, Brigitte Stamp, Art Fry and Lucille), the music industry started to back away from them in fear and they split in the autumn of 1967.