| XTC Reel by Real: The Dukes of Stratosphear: Psonic Psunspot | |
| Last update: 9 October 2018 |
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Andy: “The Dukes were the band we all wanted to be in when we were at school. Purple, giggling, fuzztone, liquid and arriving. If you want to know where those cheap charlatans ‘The Beatles’, ‘Pink Floyd’, ‘The Byrds’, ‘The Hollies’ and ‘The Beach Boys’ stole their ideas from, well just listen to this and weep.”
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It was nineteen years ago today. Hell, I mean, time passes. It goes its own way. No dude ever tried to direct time and ended up with film in the can.
There was just me and Chico then, and Nine and that crazy chick from Istanbul she hung out with sometimes. The one with the old Super 8 that made all those really black & white movies about flowers and streams of consciousness. She was the most. I forget her name.
Where was I? The Dukes. Yeah, The Dukes of Stratosphear, right now they were the guys. They'd turn up at a gig and just like play their instruments — which to me was just the weirdest concept.
The Dukes had this song — from the album ‘Psonic Psunspot’ — thus tune called ‘Have You Seen Jackie?’ It just gave all the questions without even asking the answers what they thought. “Collideascope’ I guess, was an upbeat concept track about colour, texture and protest within a rock format. It was effective, just like ‘Vanishing Girl’, which was so complete, so whole. Nine used to laugh and say it was just ‘all there’.
I saw The Dukes play one — at this gig in. . . a music club somewhere. They did this melody about a ‘Shiny Cage’. I just sat there on my prayer mat and let my ears find the music and say ‘hello’. When it finished we just sort of clapped our hands — all except Chico, who said he'd really like to, but couldn't — because his hands had gone to Marrakesh with a friend.
People change though. They lose their sense of space and form, they buy a suit and they get into money. But not The Dukes. No way. They were just The Guys Who Knew Where It All Was.
JACK BIVOUAC (Vibe Magazine)
[Ad copy from Melody Maker, August 1987, thanks to Adrian Warren]
Lyrics, Charts and More
2009 APE House reissues also include bonus tracks:
Recording Information
Recorded at Sawmills Studios, Fowey, Cornwall, in June 1987.
Produced by John Leckie and ‘The Dukes’.
Engineered by John Leckie and John Cornfield.
Originally released in August 1987 as an LP in the U.K.
Sir John Johns - singing, guitar, brain buds.
The Red Curtain - electric bass, song stuff.
Lord Cornelius Plum - mellotron, piano, organ, fuzz-tone guitar.
E.I.E.I. Owen - drum set.
Lily and Lila Fraser - voices
Working titles for this album include Songs From The Knobstick Knebula, Nebular Knobsticks and Psonic Psunspot Pstockade.
Singles
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Art
The Dukes of Stratosphear: Psonic Psunspot LP cover |
cover of the Psonic Psunspot UK cassette |
cover of the US Psonic Psunspot cassette |
Geffen US cassette of The Dukes Of Stratosphear: Psonic Psunspot |
Psonic Psunspot reissue promotional cover |
The Dukes of Stratosphear: Vanishing Girl promo single |
The Dukes of Stratosphear: Vanishing Girl promotional 12-incher cover |
The Dukes of Stratosphear |
The Dukes of Stratosphear |
The Dukes of Stratosphear promo photo |
The Dukes of Stratosphear promotional photograph circa 1987 |
masquerading as psychedelic minstrels The Dukes Of Stratosphear, Q, April 1989 |
Psonic Psunspot promo poster |
Psonic Psunspot advertisement from Melody Maker, 8 August 1987 |
The Dukes' logo from Psonic Psunspot (monochrome) |
The Dukes' logo from Psonic Psunspot (grays) |
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