When this collection of
startling songs was released in 1976,
“The Doctors’” record company took out
a full page advert in the hugely popular
British music paper “Sounds”, which had
a picture of “The Doctors” lead singer
and only songwriter at the microphone,
with bright blue hair and eyes like reflector
laser’s staring straight back at you.
Underneath were the words “Already a lot
of people think the “Doctors of Madness”
are the most tasteless band ever”. What
a good start, but pretty extreme even
for the mid seventies!
The Doctors of Madness were the musical
vehicle for the aforementioned Richard
“Kid” Strange (who later turned up as
Neville parodying himself in the British
sit-com comedy “Men Behaving Badly”),
joining him in “The Doctors” were blonde
bombshell of a drummer Peter de Lemmer
(who made no secret of his admiration
for the Who’s Keith Moon), the Bassist
known only as Stoner (who used to come
on stage in full Frankenstein make up),
and the wonderfully monikered Urban Blitz
(who switched between lead guitar and
electric violin).
Starting out about a year before Punk
Rock really took off, they really got
lost between two stools, certainly not
part of the so called old wave, but too
musical to be part of the new wave. Nevertheless,
the music was nothing if not original
and interesting.
Cutting a swathe through the daze of the
mid seventies and virtually stumbling
onto the welcoming red carpet of Punk
Rock, “The Doctors” pursued an unremitting
musical path to the front door of Richard
Strange’s tortured musical soul.
Heavy on period mellotron, and fired by
some delicious violin and electric guitar
- courtesy of the ubiquitous Urban Blitz,
“The Doctors” album opens with a trio
of introspective Strange ramblings, of
which the doomy “After Glow” sets a standard
for some unrelenting soul searching.
The opener segues almost unnoticed into
“Mitzis Cure”, which is basically more
of same, only deeper and darker.
Interestingly, in between Kid’s rants
there are moments when the band's collective
instrumental virtuosity is allowed to
breath.
During final song “Mainlines”, clocking
in at over 12 minutes, all features of
“The Doctors” music is spotlighted. Strange’s
hard hitting lyrics, the brutal rhythm
work of the drummer and bassist respectively,
and Urban’s demonic violin comes close
to the same controlled aggressive frisson
that fired much of Daryl Way’s work with
Curved Air in the early seventies. A wonderful
slab of mid seventies mayhem.
That said, the good Mr. Strange doesn’t
make things easy. At times “The Doctors”
resemble an early Marc Almond dabbling
in angst ridden songs from the bed sit.
And just as you think you’re getting your
head round this, a piece such as “Noises
Of The Evening” leads us back into a musical
cul-de-sac. “Noises” is a perplexing piece,
archetypical of the band’s inverted sense
of dynamics. Where a song would normally
build up and open into a booming chorus
or expansive solo with a big outro, Kid,
as normal, does things the opposite way
round.
A flighty, funky bass line and some spacey,
almost psychedelic violin lines eventually
implode into Richard’s claustrophobic
dark paranoia. What started as a period
piece light rocker, quickly descends into
the realms of B. movies vampiredom.
“The Doctors” were always too diverse
to make it big time, but they left behind
a great legacy.
And to think they were originally managed
by Twiggy.... Now that is strange.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
