BY DARREN ALLISON
Due for release on 27th September 2019: 3 CD (5 original albums) The Electric Banana (1967), More
Electric Banana (1968), Even More Electric Banana (1969), Hot Licks (1973) and
The Return Of The Electric Banana (1978).
Fans of Film and TV Library music should be
gleaming all over with this upcoming release. Initially coming together during
a Fontana-era lull in The Pretty Things’ prodigious career, the band’s
now-legendary body of work for music library de Wolfe as The Electric Banana
saw their alter-egos become parallel universe superstars, their work utilised
by film and TV producers in everything from soft-porn skin-flicks, a Norman
Wisdom vehicle and horror classic Dawn of the Dead to small-screen ratings
winners like Dr. Who (1973 season), The Sweeney (1975) and Minder (1984).
But there is so much more just begging to be re-discovered
within these shiny silver time capsules. Cult TV shows such as Timeslip (1970) and
Doomwatch (1972). Ultra-rare music from sexploitation gems such as Confessions
of a Male Groupie: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and love The Electric Banana
(1971) and some great Tony Tenser productions including Monique (1970) and the
Norman Wisdom film (which has since gathered a cult reputation amongst British
psychedelic music buffs), What’s Good for the Goose (1968). And not forgetting Michael
Armstrong’s The Haunted House of Horror (1969) – all feature something,
somewhere from The Electric Banana. This generous and hugely enjoyable
collection is peppered with many surprising treats.
In the Sixties, the Banana recordings
mirrored British pop’s gradual evolution into rock, courtesy of brass-led
Swinging London ravers (‘Walking down the Street’, ‘Danger Signs’), primal
garage punk (‘Street Girl’, ‘Love Dance And Sing’) and maximum psychedelia
(‘Eagle’s Son’, ‘Alexander’). They switched gears again in the Seventies;
confidently mixing swaggering bar-band hard rockers (‘The Loser’, ‘Sweet Orphan
Lady’), putative terrace anthems (‘Whiskey Song’), metal-based rock (‘Maze
Song’, the Hendrix tribute ‘James Marshall’) and jangly, Byrds-inflected power
pop (‘Do My Stuff’).
Taken from the original master-tapes, the
3-CD set The Complete De Wolfe Sessions represents a number of firsts: the
first-ever legitimate CD issue of these recordings (authorised by both The
Pretty Things and de Wolfe), the first time that the Banana’s Sixties and
Seventies work has been made available under one roof, and the first time that
the karaoke-anticipating backing tracks have been made commercially available.
Housed in a clamshell box that includes a
lavish illustrated booklet, The Complete De Wolfe Sessions incorporates the
original albums artwork, an extended essay on the band, quotes from pivotal
members Phil May, Dick Taylor and Wally Waller, and some priceless photos from
back in the day.
More than forty years after The Pretty Things
last donned the Electric Banana mantle, this long-overdue complete package is
the final, definitive word on these seminal and much-loved recordings – and certainly
proves to be a rich voyage of discovery.
Keep a regular check at https://www.cherryred.co.uk/ for more
upcoming information