photo by Steve Gullick

Mugstar are like a favourite armchair, a trusted confidante, a font of eternal comfort – one which can sprout wings, when flights fancy dictate, the one who always has your back.

For me, Mugstar are the latter day saints of a tradition conceived by Fairport Convention. Updating the electric folk ethic, reanimating it with their unique brand of “Psychedelic / Space / kraut Rock”. Not only do I sense the vibrations of this ubiquitous association, I am humbled by a connection to that hallowed ground, of the band who recorded the last ever Peel Session, in 2004.

Four sides of transportive vinyl, courtesy of Rock Action Records await…

Day 1 of Fuzz Club Festival had set the bar impossibly high. There had been 6 outstanding performances on Friday, the promise of 8 more on Saturday was a dizzying prospect.

The dizziness is quickly reigned in, with the inevitable news that Wall Of Death, understandably, would no longer be joining us. The sickening reality of the slaughter in Paris inescapable. “Terror” will not prevail, the show must and will go on…

By my reckoning, this is something like my 23rd post in connection with Fuzz Club Records.

For those of you familiar with this blog, this will come as no surprise. To those fledgling acolytes, I would urge you to seek out that which will make you whole again – just as Fuzz Club did for me, back in 2013.

Fuzz Club Records have become synonymous with what it means to be a champion of, “independent, experimental rock n roll, influenced by psychedelia, shoegaze, noise, garage, blues, folk and experimentation”.

That this, “record label, record store and production company”, can muster 14 prime movers within the current “scene”, over two magickal nights in London tells you all you need to know about their pedigree.

Only 10 more sleeps to go, only 10 more sleeps to go, only 10 more sleeps to go…

My 3rd and final teaser for the historic, mould-breaking Fuzz Club Festival at London Fields Brewhouse on the 13th & 14th of November, featuring THE KVB, CAMERA, THE TELESCOPES, 10,000 RUSSOS, NEW CANDYS, THROW DOWN BONES, THE MYRRORS , LOLA COLT , SONIC JESUS, MUGSTAR, THE CULT OF DOM KELLER, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON, THE JANITORS, THE ORANGE REVIVAL, DEAD RABBITS, I hereby present the remaining five bands on this most illustrious of billings.

Of this concluding brood of acts, I have been humbled by the sensory overloading delectation, of all in the flesh bar The Orange Revival, whose recent ‘Futurecent‘ LP had me flapping at the prospect of beholding their live performance. ( In fairness to both The Cult Of Dom Keller and Dead Rabbits, my exposure to their delights were all too fleetingly brief at Eindhoven Psych Lab, and will be remedied in London).

Sadly I can’t make it to Liverpool Psych Fest this weekend, if any kind soul wants to pick me up a copy of this, I will be forever in their debt…

From the Piccadilly Records webpage;

Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia are thrilled to announce the release of PZYK Vol.1 – a deluxe triple vinyl compilation celebrating the current neo-psychedelic underground.

Featuring a mix of exclusive tracks, re-mixes, rarities and album cuts, the compilation spans and charts the global PZYK diaspora, with artists from around the world contributing to an international selection comprising 30 of the current movement’s key noisemakers.