Blair 1523

Biography

Blair 1523 only released an EP (Blair1523) in its lifetime on a small English label Wilde Club Records; thankfully Spacemen 3/Spectrum mainman Sonic Boom heard it and was able to arrange for the release of the Beautiful Debris lp some time later. Compiling both the EP and unreleased tracks, it makes a solid case for Blair 1523 as underrated modern psych gods, mixing a fun kick-up-your-heels rave-up sense — "Swell" is particularly great on this level — with some drone feedback zone-outs to good e...

Blair 1523 only released an EP (Blair1523) in its lifetime on a small English label Wilde Club Records; thankfully Spacemen 3/Spectrum mainman Sonic Boom heard it and was able to arrange for the release of the Beautiful Debris lp some time later. Compiling both the EP and unreleased tracks, it makes a solid case for Blair 1523 as underrated modern psych gods, mixing a fun kick-up-your-heels rave-up sense — "Swell" is particularly great on this level — with some drone feedback zone-outs to good effect. Lead singer Alan Duke has a fairly understated voice, but no more so than, say, Ian Brown and Tim Burgess, and unlike those others, Duke avoids whine in favor of pleasant wistfulness. The other key member of the sextet was Andrew Jenkins, whose organ work fills out the songs perfectly, and on songs like "On the Rise," which tackles Madchester neo-psych and beats most of its more well-known practitioners at its own game.

Members included

Alan Duke - Vocals / Guitar / Words
Simon Floyd Harris - Guitar
Scott Moyle - Bass
George Harris - Vocals/ Tambourine / Harmonica / Movement / Words
Andrew Jenkins - Organ / Keyboards
Tim Huxley - Drums

with help from Eric Anholm - Guitar (from the Vulgarians)
Make it Mine, In the Gardens, etc

Original tracks on Beautiful Debris engineered by Head (tracks from EP)
and Robin Wood at EMS (demo tracks)

Management -
SKOOOOT

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