Crocheted Doughnut Ring - Maxine's Parlour/ Get Out Your Rock And Roll Shoes

 

Southend freaks give the Teds something to think about

Label: Deram
Year of Release: 1968

The Crocheted Doughnut Ring were not quite as freakish as their absurd moniker made them sound. While the group arguably had their roots in the London psychedelic underground - several of their members originated from The Fingers, a group who once heckled Pink Floyd for "selling out" - in reality they were about as far from AMM as you could get. Music business producer Peter Eden managed them and gave them their name (after a Peter Blake collage) and most of their singles are sugary McCartney-esque pop with the lightest of feathery touches on the cosmic trigger.

Their career is notable for having accidentally birthed a genuinely freaky classic, though. "Two Little Ladies (Azalea And Rhododendron)" emerged on Polydor in 1967 and was a gentle piece of whimsical popsike, but was backed by a piece of Eden-led mania in "Nice" which was essentially the A-side remixed and retooled to become an ambient masterpiece. The Orb and The KLF might have "invented" the Ambient House genre, but all "Nice" lacks is a series of car engines and train horns before it becomes the future of the chill out room. A number of forward-thinking Pirate Radio DJs opted to play it over the more conventional A-side.

The group might have used that opportunity to fly their psychedelic banner higher, but in reality their other singles on Deram are much more conventional, with 1967's "Havana Anna" sounding like a bubblegum track being shoved rudely and ignobly on to a bouncy castle and 1968's "Dance Around Julie" being yet more clappy paisley party tweeness.

Nestling between those two singles was this one, however, which restores the balance somewhat. The A-side "Maxine's Parlour" was written by the legendary Bill Fay and is muscled up into a towering epic; mellotrons meeting a huge moody (blue) chorus and Eleanor Rigby styled loneliness. It's not really commercial enough to be a hit single, and indeed it wasn't - but it's a fine reminder of other potential avenues the band might have explored. The track is available for download on iTunes and elsewhere.

The flip, however, has fallen out of circulation and is the brittle underside to the disc, being a full-blown rock rave-up referencing Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and the whole damn quiffed up gang. While there's no doubt it was largely formulated by a studio jam, it's still a blistering and forceful listen, showing that the rock and roll spirit was alive and well even in such long-haired bodies.
The group consisted of Richard Mills on guitar and vocals, Bert Pulham on lead guitar, John Chapel on keyboards, George Bird on bass and David Skates on drums. Bird went on to do session work for Bill Fay, but the others seem to have disappeared from view following the failure of the Doughnut Ring's last 45.

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