READ EXTRACTS FROM 'FUZ' MAGAZINE... PINK FAIRIES - THE WALLIS INVOLVEMENT
READ EXTRACTS FROM 'FUZ' MAGAZINE... PINK FAIRIES - THE WALLIS INVOLVEMENT
 | KINGS OF OBLIBION (Polydor 2383 212) JUNE 1973 & On CD Raceway RWY001) line up: Larry Wallis (guitar/vocal), Russell Hunter (drums), Duncan Sanderson (bass) |
 | Flashback (Jul 75) (compilation) |
 | At the Roundhouse (Jun 82) (live) |
 | KILL'EM & EAT'EM (Demon FIEND105) OCTOBER 1986 (Demon VEXCD16) Studio * album of all the tune new records. line up included: Larry Wallis (guitar/vocal), Andy Colquhoun (guitar/vocal), Russell Hunter (drums), Duncan Sanderson (bass) |
 | At the Roundhouse / Previously unreleased (1991) (live + studio) |
 | Between the lines / Spoiling for a fight (Stiff BUY2) September 1976 Line up: Larry Wallis (guitar/vocal), Russell Hunter (drums), Duncan Sanderson (bass), Martin Stone (guitar) |
 | PINK FAIRIES Compilation |
| Glastonbury Faire (1972) (2LP live) (The Pink Fairies) |
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE CLICK HERE
LARRY WALLIS: About three days [after leaving UFO] I got this phonecall from Mick Farren --the mentor of the Pink Fairies. So Mick Farren and Russell Hunter and their girlfriends came over. "We want you to join the Pink Fairies."
I told them, "I've agreed to be in a band with this guy Mack. I've got to give that a whirl." They Sat in my mum's living room 'til the early hours of the morning trying to get me to join the band. Then they went away. But they needed a second guitarist. Mick Wayne was there and they had that single "Well Well Well', but they needed a second guitarist.
About three days later they came to see me again with drugs and drink in my mum's living room. Mum and Dad were in bed. It was all candlelight and incense, the same deal again. This time I agreed. So I go and have a blow with them -- it's quite good. About three days later we're, doing the St. Alban's Civic. Here I am, I've been in UFO and all that, but this means much more to me 'cause these guys are my fucking heroes. I like their music, like their lifestyle and they take drugs. Wow.
So I go onstage with them and we do things like "Going Down'. Mick Wayne's out front and he's singing stuff like: "Oh I'd walk ten miles for my big legged woman/I'd walk ten miles for my big legged woman/I'd walk ten miles/I'd walk ten miles/I'd walk ten miles/I'd walk ten miles/I'd walk ten miles for my big legged woman/Oh she's good to me my big legged woman..."
In the dressing room after the show, Russell Hunter says, "Either he [Wick Wayne] goes and Larry Wallis takes over as lead fuckin' singin' guitarist or I go." I'm standing there going, "Uh, uh…". Sandy says, "I'm with him Mick, you're fired. Larry, you're front man." I go, 'But fellas, I've never sung in a band and I've never written a song." "Well, you will now." About two weeks later we enter Chipping Norton doing KINGS OF OBLIVION. Mick Wayne never did another gig with the Pink Fairies. We were all these razor-sharpo, loonie, velvet-clad monsters into "KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHERFUCKERI" and Mick Wayne wanted his big legged woman.
NIGEL CROSS: Was there a lot of resentment from the audience when you first joined the Fairies?
LARRY WALLIS: No, I was right for the gig. The Pink Fairies would leave the stage for literally fifteen minutes and I'd stand there all on my own with my wah-wah pedal, fuzzbox and echo chamber playing completely unaccompanied. I was a good replacement but his attitude was better than mine 'cause he was more steeped in the underground.
NIGEL CROSS: So, were you immediately thrust into the KINGS OF OBLIVION album?
LARRY WALLIS: Straight into the deep end. Sandy, Russell and Boss Goodman said, 'Larry, you're gonna do the singing and you better write some songs." I was so scared I couldn't believe it. Not only was I in a recording studio for a fortnight with a real band, but it was, "OK Larry, what are we recording next?' I'd be at the dinner table writing songs. I wrote all the songs. I only co-wrote two: "City Kids' with Sandy and "When's the Fun Begin" with Mick Farren.
NIGEL CROSS: Had you and Mick had any Contact since the Shagrat days?
LARRY WALLIS: Well, I'd go to IT [an underground mag that Farren edited] and Mickey never made any bones about:
"Hello! It's that geezer again who has long hair, wears velvet and says he plays guitar." But it wasn't until I was in UFO that he started thinking -- "Maybe he doesn't just say he plays guitar.' 'Cause he always thought I was a poseur. He thought I'd just go down to IT dressed like a rock'n'roll star. But it was him who came over and said, "I've been keeping me eye on you -- you're alright.' I got the seal of approval from the British Underground from Mick Farren. I still value his friendship to this day.
NIGEL CROSS: Where did you get the name for KINGS 0F OBLIVION?
LARRY WALLIS: We were coming back from a gig one night and we'd recorded the album and Sandy said, "If it's alright with everyone I think I've got a title for the album.' 'Yeah, what's that?"
"KINGS OF OBLIVION, from that song by David Bowie on HUNK DORY." "What's that? Sandy's said something quite intelligent. "And you know he mentions the Bewley Brothers in it? I' think we should say special thanks to them on the back of the album." "What! Sandy's just said two things that work!"
NIGEL CROSS: It seemed like you brought a sort of booze consciousness with you when you joined the Fairies. Whereas with Blackie [Paul Rudolph] it had all been very acid-drenched.
LARRY WALLIS: I never knew I was putting out a booze vibe that long ago.
NIGEL CROSS: Well, we all looked at the pics that came in KINGS OF OBLIVION and just figured you'd all become booze-hounds.
LARRY WALLIS: I must take issue here! If you remember that foldout.. .they'd said, 'Alright, you're the Kings of Oblivion, what is your oblivion?" Russell said, "I want it to be me in a dentist chair with a bottle of Benedictine being dripped into my arm -- 'cause he drank Benedictine all the time -- and I want to be green." Sandy said, "I like to drink, so I'd like my oblivion to be on this bar with all this booze around me. " For mine, we rented the Victoria Sporting Club and I wanted to be on a table with chips and cards all around me with my replica .357 Magnum in my mouth. When we got there, the hostesses said. "Uh oh. The two things we don't wish to associate with gambling are drink and guns" So I couldn't use my gun. It was just me on a roulette table with all these Chips around me. I was the only one who didn't have booze in the photograph! But I was tarred with the sane brush!
NIGEL CROSS: It was just the whole Kings of Oblivion thing...
LARRY WALLIS: Do you think it's a good album?
NIGEL CROSS: I think it's fucking wonderful.
LARRY WALLIS: You know ? Polydor's never given me a baked bean for it. Not one fucking thing.. .We were in Chipping Norton and I wrote a song called "Raceway". Polydor said, "OK, we got you a gig up in Scotland over the weekend. We'll fly you up there." "Wow. What about the record?" "Finish it when you get back." So we flew up to Scotland, did a gig and got back. We went back into the studio. "Oh, we mastered the album over the weekend." "You can't have mastered it 'cause one of the songs doesn't have a vocal on it. it's called 'Raceway'." "It's been mastered. It sounds good as an instrumental. It's going to be coming out In a few weeks time. "Oh yeah? Well, you haven't signed me to contract yet, so I'm not going to let you put it out."
The guy in the room said, "If you want. we'll shelve it and it will never come out. Do you want to do that to your friends? Or should we put it out while we work out the contract?" They never worked out the contract. They never signed me and their argument now is that I was never in the Pink Fairies. Polydor maintains that I was just a session man who never got paid. They want to give me a couple hundred quid for my "sessions" on KINGS OF OBLIVION. They've never even given me a fucking farthing.
NIGEL CROSS: And they just put out "Raceway"?
LARRY WALLIS: Yeah. It was a fucking backing track and John Peel picked it as the best cut when it came out: "In this day and age, for somebody to put out an instrumental is adventurous and exciting." I've got all the lyrics for it. "I'm on a raceway/And I can't find my way out".
NIGEL CROSS: I've always been intrigued by the "I Wish I Was A Girl" track.
LARRY WALLIS: Well, everybody thought I was saying, "I'm a homosexual. I'm a girl trapped in this man's body." Well I wasn't. I was just saying, "I wish I was a girl 'cause they get it so easy. Any girl can go home with a chap seven nights a week if she wants. That's why I wished I was a girl.
NIGEL CROSS: I also really like, "When's The Fun Begin.
LARRY WALLIS: I'd had that chord sequence since UFO, then Mick Farren gave me a set of lyrics and it just worked. Mick's lyrics are so fucking evocative. "Working out on Mercury/ Acetone and vitamins" I didn't even know what acetone was 'til I met Mick Farren.
NIGEL CROSS: What is it?
LARRY WALLIS: It's the stuff you get in nail polish remover. This was in the pre-glue-sniffing period and if you sniff enough acetone you get high as a fucking kite. The only question we got about it from the publisher was, "Is the word 'When's' good English?"
NIGEL CROSS: Whose idea was the Jean Cocteau quote on the album's sleeve?
LARRY WALLIS: It must have been a Russell Hunter idea. He was the erudite, well-read one of the time. Sandy was as mad as the March Hare and mostly drunk.
NIGEL CROSS: When did the Fairies grind to a halt?
LARRY WALLIS: The first, second, third or fourth time?
NIGEL CROSS: First.
LARRY WALLIS: Don't know. Sometimes we'd just have a row and then we'd drift off and not see each other. An awful lot of times, Russell Hunter ' said, "Fuck this. I'm never going to do it again." Then he'd go home, put his drums in the hall, then change his mind. He did that quite a lot. Russell is one of my closest friends and he was the sole reason I joined the Pink Fairies, but what a bastard. We'd be on stage and we'd finish a song and it'd be, "Thank you very much. Now we're going to do a song called 'Blah Blah'." And there's nobody sitting behind the drums! Russell decides he wants a glass of water and none of the roadies have had the foresight to read his mind. He has gone walking off backstage looking for a tap. About fifteen minutes later me and Sandy have run out of all our jokes, all our fucking around...
The shortest gig we ever did was Harlow Great Park. It was fantastic. We were top of the bill, it Was a lovely Saturday afternoon and there's twenty billion people. It was gonna be fantastic. There we go. All the gear's set up and we're strutting around backstage. "It's them. it's the Pink Fairies." "It's fucking wonderful. "OK. HERE THEY ARE, THE BAND YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR -- THE PINK FAIRIES ! ! !" The crowd goes mad. So I get up on stage.
"Hello. They say Harlow's a town! Well I say it ain't! I say it's a city! And you're all.. .CITY KIDS!" It went 1-2-3-4, I look around and Russell Hunter's flat on his fucking back behind the drums. The old Peter's out and Russell's unconscious. He's taken two Mandrax during the afternoon, drunk himself stupid on Jack Daniels and passed totally out. I never even got to sing one word. That was the end of the gig. Shortest one we ever did --about six bars of "City Kids".
NIGEL CROSS: So, when did that version of the band really end?
LARRY WALLIS: I really can't say. Don't forget, the Pink Fairies did something like ten farewell tours. We'd all just go watch the telly for a year, then we'd be back.