Poisoned Electrick Head
Encyclopedia
Poisoned Electrick Head (PEH) is an English psychedelic
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

/punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band formed in 1986 in St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The band is best known for the 1994 independent chart hit "Out of Order" and for its fantasy-costumed stage act. Poisoned Electrick Head split up in 1998 and formally reformed in 2009. The band's name is taken from the final words sung by Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...

 in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band are a band created by a group of British art-school denizens of the 1960s...

 track, "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe".

Musical style

The Poisoned Electrick Head sound could be described as a combination of space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...

 and angular post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

, with heavy, distorted guitars and analog synthesizer
Analog synthesizer
An analog or analogue synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog computer techniques to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s such as the Trautonium were built with a variety of vacuum-tube and electro-mechanical technologies...

s providing an idiosyncratic backing to the two lead vocalists' unconventional scattergun delivery. An early review in the popular music magazine NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 described them as sounding like "UK Subs
UK Subs
The U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the first street punk bands.-Career:The U.K...

 playing early Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...

". and the band drew frequent comparisons to Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

, Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

 and Cardiacs
Cardiacs
Cardiacs are an English alternative rock/psychedelic pop band formed in 1977 and led by Tim Smith. Noted for their complex, varied and intense compositional style and for their eccentric, theatrical stage shows, they have been hailed as an influence by bands as diverse as Blur, Faith No More and...

. Many Poisoned Electrick Head tracks also experimented with ambient electronic passages, dropped-in samples and dub techniques.

History

Poisoned Electrick Head formed when seven musicians in the St Helens area opted to join forces. From the start, the band displayed a theatrical flair, with each member operating under a pseudonym - singers Peter "Emerald Greenshade" Atherton and Andy "Katmandu" Ford, rhythm guitarist Billy "Jefferson Jesu(s) Devil" Jones, lead guitarist Phil "Philippe ZaPeep" Nicol, keyboard player Brian "Professor Bubblekeys" Carney, bass guitarist Paul "Tjunca B Low" Bunyan and drummer Bill "Victor Davros Vibeskin" Jennion.

The band members had previously played together in different permutations since the late 1970s. Atherton, Jennion and Nicol had been in a punk band called Subversion in 1979, and both Jennion and Atherton had been part of The Aristocrats (along with Jones and Ford) in 1982. Carney and Bunyan - along with another pseudonymous musician, "Flimb" (drums) and Doug Eglin (vocal/guitar) - had worked together as the Academy Of Unrest (who released the Sheol Hex/Rise of Doubt/Hope 12" EP in 1986 and the track 'Sensitive' on compilation album 'Elegance, Charm and Deadly Danger'). By 1985, Jones, Atherton and Jennion were in a band called Moon, to which they recruited Bunyan, initially as keyboard player - he would subsequently move to bass guitar on the arrival of Carney. Nicol was the next addition to the band, in early 1986: later in the same year Ford was recruited (initially as a proposed replacement for Greenshade, but subsequently as his singing partner). An unofficial eighth member, Brian Carney's brother Alan (also known as "Burt Sliders"), served as sound man and sound designer.

The band's first release was the 1986 cassette-only mini-album Drink Me
Drink Me (Poisoned Electrick Head album)
Drink Me is the debut release by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.Drink Me was released as a cassette-only mini-album on the band's own Dead Fly label...

, followed three years later by the "Trickeroo/Cap of Flies" single. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Poisoned Electrick Head built up a fiercely devoted live following in their hometown and in other parts of the UK. By the start of the 1990s, the band had taken their onstage theatricality a step further, with the singers dressing in boiler-suits and wearing latex "death masks" and other bizarre stage costumes while the remaining band members wore ornate H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger
Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien.-Early life:...

-esque "alien domeheads" and robes. The band's album sleeves were adorned with similarly Giger-esque artwork, designed (as were the costumes) by Phil Nicol.

Behind the scenes, Poisoned Electrick Head continued to be self-producing and self-releasing, putting out many of their releases on their own Dead Fly label while licensing others to various independent labels. The band played numerous tours, concerts, festivals and underground gatherings
Free party
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one...

 including the Stonehenge Free Festival
Stonehenge Free Festival
The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1972 to 1984 held at Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating on the summer solstice on June 21. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures...

, Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...

 and the legendary Castlemorton Common Festival
Castlemorton Common Festival
The Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England in 1992....

 of 1992. Poisoned Electrick Head also played with numerous underground bands and artists of the time including Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

, Cardiacs
Cardiacs
Cardiacs are an English alternative rock/psychedelic pop band formed in 1977 and led by Tim Smith. Noted for their complex, varied and intense compositional style and for their eccentric, theatrical stage shows, they have been hailed as an influence by bands as diverse as Blur, Faith No More and...

, Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...

, Senser
Senser
Senser, a politically-charged UK band, originally formed in South West London from a group of friends in the late 1980s, Nick Michaelson , Heitham Al-Sayed , Kerstin Haigh , John Morgan , James Barrett and Alan "Hagos/Haggis" Haggarty and in 1992 they were joined by Spiral Tribe D.J, Andy Clinton...

, Back to the Planet
Back To The Planet
Back To The Planet are an anarcho-punk band from London, England.-History:Back To The Planet formed while squatting together in Peckham, London in 1989, and attracted a following throughout the early 1990s. They played four consecutive Glastonbury Festivals and played many free festivals,...

 and Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...

. In 1991, the band contributed a song (their popular live favourite Snob
Snob
A snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, taste, beauty, nationality, et cetera. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the snob's personal attributes...

s
) to the Delerium Records
Delerium Records
Delerium Records was a UK record label, that specialised in psychedelic music which ran from 1991 to 2003, and was notable in promoting the careers of bands including Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, Kava Kava, Mandragora, Sons of Selina and Moom and for starting the Freak Emporium and Molten...

 compilation album A Psychedelic Psauna (In Four Parts)
A Psychedelic Psauna
A Psychedelic Psauna is the name of a compilation album released by record label Delerium in 1991.The album was intended to celebrate the birth of the label and to promote the first artists who were signed, mainly psychedelic bands...

.

In 1992, the band licensed their first full-length album, Poisoned Electrick Head
Poisoned Electrick Head (album)
Poisoned Electrick Head is the debut full-length album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.The album features several long tracks and a more directly psychedelic instrumental sound than subsequent albums...

to the independent label Probe Plus Records. This was followed later in the same year by another cassette album, Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout
Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout
Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout is the second album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.This album was a limited-edition cassette-only release sold via the band's fan club. Album tracks included the band's future No...

, released on Dead Fly. Two years after that, the band licensed and released a second full-release album The Big Eye Am
The Big Eye Am
The Big Eye Am is the third album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick HeadThe album features the band's No. 1 independent chart hit "Out of Order"...

on another independent label, Abstract Sounds. The tracks on the record included "Out of Order" which was released as a single: this became an independent chart hit, accompanied by a video made by the band themselves.

By 1997 the band had around 800 gigs to their credit, but eleven years of hard underground gigging had taken its toll and the band was beginning to fracture. Ford had left the band during the 1996 recording sessions for their third album, The Hanged Man, leaving Atherton as sole lead vocalist (with occasional backup from Brian Carney). Around this time the band also dispensed with their stage costumes, as it was considered that these were holding the band back. The Hanged Man was released on the Blueprint label (a subdivision of Voiceprint) but during the promotional tour Bunyan also departed. The band continued to play live, using taped basslines, and subsequently went through a period with greater vocal input from Carney, a harder and more metallic sound and the inclusion of rapping
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

. In 1998, Carney also left the band and Poisoned Electrick Head was put on hold for a decade.

In the mid-2000s, the remaining four members - Jones, Atherton, Nicol and Jennion - regrouped with Alan Carney under the "PEH" name to record new music. Although the band was briefly referred to as "Purified Electrick Heart", they reverted back to their original name when they played at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

 in the summer of 2009, a concert which also saw the band returning to wearing stage costumes (although different ones from those worn in the 1990s). The band played at the same event in 2010 with a lineup of Jones, Atherton and Jennion (assisted by Alan Carney), joined by a previously unmentioned member called "Bigshed George" and two guest performers - Nik Turner
Nik Turner
Nik Turner is a British musician, best known as a founding member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner plays saxophones, flute, sings and is a composer...

 (of Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

) and Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown (musician)
Arthur Brown is an English rock and roll musician best known for his flamboyant, theatrical style and significant influence on Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Marilyn Manson, George Clinton, Kiss, King Diamond, and Bruce Dickinson, among others, and for his number one hit in the UK Singles Chart and...

 as event narrator. By this point, Nicol had left the band.

In 2011, Poisoned Electrick Head played the Rebellion Festival again, unveiling a new album called Where the Power Is (which apparently featured guest contributions from Arthur Brown and Brian Carney) and subsequently joined the Wreck'n'Roll Circus tour. A forum posting from Poisoned Electrick Head on the Ozric Tentacles discussion forum on March 6, 2011 listed the current band as Atherton, Jones and Jennion (under their usual pseudonyms) with new recruits "Captain O’Ship" (keyboards, backing vocals, samples) and "Moose Mother" (bass guitar).

Various former band members are now active with other projects. Brian Carney is now based in Belgium and performs as a solo act called Briandroid: in 2010, he published an autobiography called "Take Your Protein Pills: The Poisoned Electrick Head Story" which detailed his life with the band. Andy Ford is working with a new band called Green Forest. Paul Bunyan now teaches music technology but also occasionally plays bass and has a project called Bunfly. Phil Nicol now works as a tattooist in Wallasey
Wallasey
Wallasey is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England, on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula...

.

Current members

  • Emerald Greenshade (Peter Atherton, a.k.a. "Pee") - lead vocals (1986-present), guitar & keyboards (2009-present)
  • Jefferson Jesus Devil (Billy Jones) - guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals (1986-present)
  • Captain O’Ship (Mike Parker) - keyboards, backing vocals, samples (2011 onwards)
  • Moose Mother (Helen Holmes, a.k.a "RansidKnee") - bass guitar (2011 onwards)
  • Victor Davros Vibeskin (Bill Jennion, a.k.a. "James") - drums (1986-present)
  • Burt Sliders (Al Carney) - sound design and sonic manipulation (1986-present)

Former members

  • Katmandu (Andy Ford) - lead vocals (1986-1997)
  • Tjunca B Low (Paul Bunyan, a.k.a. "Bun") - bass guitar (1986-1997)
  • Professor Bubblekeys (Brian Carney) - keyboards, vocals (1986-1998)
  • Philippe ZaPeep (Phil Nicol) - lead guitar, programming, costume design & artwork (1986-circa 2010)
  • Bigshed George (real name unknown)- bass guitar (?-2011)

Albums

  • Drink Me
    Drink Me (Poisoned Electrick Head album)
    Drink Me is the debut release by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.Drink Me was released as a cassette-only mini-album on the band's own Dead Fly label...

    (Dead Fly Records 1986) (cassette only)
  • Poisoned Electrick Head
    Poisoned Electrick Head (album)
    Poisoned Electrick Head is the debut full-length album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.The album features several long tracks and a more directly psychedelic instrumental sound than subsequent albums...

    (Probe Plus
    Probe plus
    Probe Plus is a record label based in Liverpool, England. It was founded by Geoff Davies, an enthusiastic promoter of small, unsigned bands, who describes the label as "Music to drive you to drink"....

     1992)
  • Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout
    Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout
    Unmistakeably Rainbow Trout is the second album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick Head.This album was a limited-edition cassette-only release sold via the band's fan club. Album tracks included the band's future No...

    (Dead Fly Records 1992) (cassette only)
  • The Big Eye Am
    The Big Eye Am
    The Big Eye Am is the third album by the English psychedelic rock band Poisoned Electrick HeadThe album features the band's No. 1 independent chart hit "Out of Order"...

    (Abstract Sounds 1994)
  • The Hanged Man (Voiceprint Records
    Voiceprint Records
    Voiceprint Records is a company and record label based in England, founded in 1990 by Rob Ayling. They specialise in re-releasing old material, especially progressive rock, but also have new releases, all under the Voiceprint and other imprints....

     1996)
  • Where the Power Is (self-released 2011)

Singles

  • Trickeroo/Cap Of Flies (7" Dead Fly Records 1989) (Limited to 1000 copies)
  • Out of Order (7", 12" and CD Abstract Sounds 1994)

Compilation appearances

  • Various Artists, A Psychedelic Psauna (In Four Parts)
    A Psychedelic Psauna
    A Psychedelic Psauna is the name of a compilation album released by record label Delerium in 1991.The album was intended to celebrate the birth of the label and to promote the first artists who were signed, mainly psychedelic bands...

    (Delerium Records
    Delerium Records
    Delerium Records was a UK record label, that specialised in psychedelic music which ran from 1991 to 2003, and was notable in promoting the careers of bands including Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, Kava Kava, Mandragora, Sons of Selina and Moom and for starting the Freak Emporium and Molten...

    , 1991) - includes "Snobs
    Snob
    A snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, taste, beauty, nationality, et cetera. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the snob's personal attributes...

    ".

Other

Several dozen bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 live performances also remain in circulation.

External links

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