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Rock 'n' Roll Prophecy presents an End to War

by: Spacegoats

Publication date: 2008-03-20

Usage: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Topics: Spacegoats, space goats, Pok, Pokstar, protest, psychedelic, psychedelia, protest songs, eco-bardic, eco bardic, eco-bardism, eco bardism

First album by Pok's electric incarnation of the Spacegoats (2001) - songs which emerged from 90's UK protest culture.

Notes

The songs from Rock and Roll Prophesy were conceived and written from 1998 onwards and recorded in early to mid 2001 by Pok.

Rock 'n' Roll Prophecy album cover

[Notes by Pok:] The acoustic and original Spacegoats had split in April 1999 but elements carried forward, namely Clive Ray singing and playing drum or percussion and Klover who sang and in who's mum's house several of the key songs were written.

Ruth played Flute and often sang. We would fortnightly go over to London and back in her truck from Glastonbury to go to The Warp.

Hills joined, fresh from the jib of a digger trying to excavate Crystal Palace site. He is an amazing guy! He played drums and sang and played guitar and brought some of his own songs to the Goats.

Jim Invisible of the Indivisible Co-Operanet played the keyboards, piano and synthesiser and could sing with more clarity than me. He is an old friend. Without him the album would have none of the playful and harmonised singing experiments, like the 'la la la la la la' on "Freaks". This softer and inventive aspect, like Ruth's flute and Klover's voice, is something I think the album needed to make it not just the roar of electric guitars. It was amazing to watch him doing the parts. Jim just really let go into it in a way that I feel somewhat unable, because my voice is not so free as his. Check out his synth sounds in the pulsing central narrative section and listen for his ultimate wailing mantra during "Born of Stars".

We played odd places, like in a flapping geodesic up a hill back from a cliff in view of St. Michael's Mount for the 1999 eclipse and under the arches of London Bridge Station in a cavernous carpark hosting nine fortnightly 24 hour parties leading up to the 2000 Millenium. (Frazer Clarke's 'The Warp' in The Drome, now "SE1") At both of these events we had our own space to create in.

Elmer Thud who had played as drummer from Loop Guru played kit drums for us.

Later Sinclair took this role.

All of these people and probably some I have forgotten appear on the album Rock and Roll Prophesy presents an End to War in the capacities already mentioned.

I played the guitars including bass and sang and wrote the songs.

The late great Dave Goodman co-produced it with me, which was a generous statement of his, because Dave was a real producer.

I mixed a few tracks. "Riddle" was mixed(?) and re-drummed by Sinclair. I fought a bit with Dave to remix his mix of 'Voices of a Future'. This track was featured among other contributions on the first 'Peace not War' album.

Artwork was done by Johnny Chunders from original '77 punk band Splodgenessabounds, in lieu of studio fees for their album also at Dave's studios (Mandala).

The album presented a much changed sound and style, and co-incided with the September 11 Two Towers incident in New York the first day I had an album to give to anyone.

In fact I had taken it down to a large, musical and theatrical and colourful (mostly pink) nonviolent protest and demonstration against the bi-annual DSEI arms fair at the Excel gallery in the docklands.

Pok's blog