Hardly a week goes by it seems without some new group emerging from a garage, cellar or attic to launch themselves on an unsuspecting and largely uncaring world. Since last issue we have discovered a few new bands in and around the local area and one of the best was a band who played Level 3 in Swindon on Wednesday 19th June, 1985
They played to a small, dedicated following of fans, plus a larger amount of disinterested folk who were only there because they'd be invited to whoever's 21st birthday party it was.
The band is based in Oxford and is a five piece, Ian Warblin takes vocals and rhythm guitar, Richard Turnbill handles the bass and harmony vocals, Tina Paul plays Farfisa keyboards, Tim Hewett plays drums and Zak Zodiac is their manic lead guitarist.
A quick look at the cover versions in their set gives a good idea of their influences and aspirations: "Pushing Too Hard" the old Seeds standard opens up the set and is followed by Love's "My Little Red Book"; "Reverberation" and "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the 13th Floor Elevators, although the latter owes more to The Spades version. They also cover obscure garage gems by the likes of Thee Midnighters, The Silent Few, The Also and The Crimson Shadow.
Their own material is in the same vein and are excellent pastiches of the genre they love. Warblin and Turnbill are the songwriters who have created such classics as "My Brain Collapsed", "I Dream In Black And White", "My Auntie Lives In Russia" and "Stop the World I Wanna get Off".
Their sound goes from hard garage with snarling vocals, cheesy organ and fuzz guitars on overdrive (with such songs as "Cavegirl" and "Teenage Trauma" to swirling psychedelic epics with tremelo guitars, eastern keyboards and modal tunings on songs like "Your Eyes Are In My Skies" and "The Wind Knows Your Name".
A swift phone call from Jim in Oxford telling me that The Tryp were playing at the Penny Farthing had me tearing along the A34 praying that I'd get there in time to see what turned out to be the first gig from Oxford's paisley clad psych-lords in months.
Talking to Ian Warblin and Richard Turnbill afterwards, they claim that working on their soon-to-be-released album has taken all their time and energy leaving little of either for gigging.
However after tonight's spirited 40 minute set and the storming reception it received from the people there, they assured me that they intend to start looking for gigs in the Swindon/Oxford/Newbury area soon.
I arrived just in time to catch the last two songs of the support band, the intriguingly named Dewey & The Perspirations. Two out of tune guitars and a bass player who seemed intent on verbally abusing the poor unfortunate on the mixing desk, made their interpretation of The Box Tops "Soul Deep" less forceful than it should have been
The last time I saw The Tryp play was at The Arts Centre in Swindon. Since then the drummer, Tim Hewitt has left to be replaced by Paula Price who operates the tapes, drum machines and percussion instruments.They also have a new lead guitarist in the shape of Will Mazely. He's the shape of Will Mazely because he is Will Mazely. Some of the old songs are still there though, with, at times, radically different treatments to even the recent versions that appeared on the recent "Jingle Jangle" compilation put out by Paul Ricketts.
Tonight's set consisted of "The Lizard Sheds Its Skin", a psychedelic and slightly spoken piece over de-tuned guitars, "My Brain Collapsed" a fuzzed up, wigged out punker with manic screaming from Ian Warblin over three fuzz guitars and fuzz bass! "My Auntie Lives In Russia" boasted vocals by Paula Price, the keyboard player. All these songs will appear on their forthcoming album, titled "Psychedelic Emanations". Songs they played which apparently won't appear on the album included "I Tripped But Didn't Fall", "Desert Sands" and "Mushroom Men From Mars". Their encore was a 20 minute version of The Seeds classic "Farmer Farmer". Great stuff!
I've heard The Tryp criticised in the past for being too esoteric; for deliberately setting out to produce unlistenable music and even for wearing flared trousers, but going on tonight's performance these guys are on course to reach a much wider audience than the thirty enlightened souls they played to on this occasion.
While Steve Lines and Rod Goodway were working on writing material for their new project together; The Doctor's Pond, they came across the music of The Tryp through a bootleg version of their "Psychedelic Emanations album" and were excited to discover a like-minded band. They were keen to start recording themselves,but as they didn't have enough self-written material they thought it would be a great idea to record an album of some of the Tryp's more obscure material for possible release on Alan Duffy's Acid Tapes cassette label. The Tryp thought this was a great idea and gave the project their blessing.
So Rod and Steve added Paul Ricketts to the line up and began work on "My Brain Collapsed" in August 1985 at Rod's country home, Freeth Cottage. Rod's partner Christine Cotter also helped out and Simon House (ex Hawkwind, David Bowie etc.) guested on bass guitar.
Recording sessions for the album were completed in December '85 and "My Brain Collapsed" by The Tryp was released by Acid Tapes in January 1986.
The Tryp were believed by many to be a hoax, then they were thought to actually exist. Then they did exist, except it wasn't really them And then they were believed not to exist again. And now . . ? Who knows.
It's been twenty years since the psychedelic sounds of The Tryp came pulsating out of the clubs and pubs in and around Oxford. They were never anything less than enigmatic - They avoided publicity (and some say, the light of day): They gave no interviews: They were rarely photographed and they played most of their gigs heavily disguised.
Matters were further complicated when a bunch of musicians from Calne, seemingly with the bands consent, recorded an album of their material which was released on Acid Tapes in early 1986.
However, I am here to tell you that the band did exist and remain arguably one of Oxford's most obscure bands.
The Tryp was formed in 1984 when Ian Warblin and Richard Turnbill met at a Plastic Flowers gig and discovered a mutual passion for obscure 60's garage punk and acid psychedelia. Warblin (vocals/gtr) and Turnbill (bs) began writing songs straight away and soon turned their thoughts to playing live gigs. For this they obviously needed more members so Tina Paul (kybds) , Tim Hewett (drms) and the enigmatic (not to say slightly demented) Zak Zodiac (lead gtr) were drafted in.
After months of rehearsal and prolific songwriting the band was ready to play and they did their first, very low key gig in an unnamed pub in Aylesbury supporting John Otway. Playing to a horde of drunk Otway fans wasn't what the band had in mind and they returned to their Subterranean Studios in Abingdon and began recording again. What, if anything, they produced, shall have to remain a mystery however, for the band went through a drastic line up change and Ian and Richard wiped all the tapes, claiming they were 'sub standard. They did manage to release a very rare 45 on Tab Records "Hear The Flowers Scream" b/w "Bamboo Kite". Lead guitarist Zak Zodiac left to form his own band The Psychotic Neurotics taking drummer Tim Hewett with him. They were replaced by Paula Price (who operated a drum machine) and Will Mazely.
This line up gigged sporadically, but spent most of their time recording. Their unreleased album ""Psychedelic Emanations" remains an undiscovered masterpiece.
The Tryp finally called it a day in June 1990 though it's rumoured that Richard and Ian are writing songs together as we speak, so look out for The Tryp reunion, coming to your town soon!
They played to a small, dedicated following of fans, plus a larger amount of disinterested folk who were only there because they'd be invited to whoever's 21st birthday party it was.
