Staff of Basingstoke Hospital - Close Encounters of The Medical Kind (EP)

Label: Rushton Records

Year of Release: Who knows?

Followers of my Twitter feed will know this record has been driving me up the wall for weeks now - not due to its musical content, but purely because I'm sure I read about its existence or heard about it on a podcast at some point in the last couple of years; however, I can find no evidence anywhere, either in my house, on my hard drive or online. 

Given that it's too late in this blog's history to regret not keeping a better notepad, I'll press ahead based on what I think I know - which as it happens, isn't a lot. It would be tempting to write "Close Encounters Of The Medical Kind" off as a strange spoof, perhaps a cheapo prog-lite project Matt Berry attempted shortly after "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" completed its series on Channel 4, but so far as I can ascertain this is the real deal; a revue troop of doctors and hospital staff in Basingstoke recording the best of a self-penned science fiction musical they performed. 

The central theme of the musical isn't easy to ascertain from this EP, but it would appear to involve evil forces attempting to destroy a vital moon in the universe who must be stopped by a member of Basingstoke Hospital staff known only as Luke "Superdoc", who we can only hope is on a hero's wage.

Musically, this record has a spindly, muddy, low-budget production underpinning music which sounds live and occasionally veers towards prog, pop, twee psychedelia and the Rocky Horror Show. Neither the vocal or instrumental performances are exactly professional, with very occasional weaknesses coming forth in the mix, but surprisingly, nor are they howlingly bad; somebody, somewhere put a lot of thought into this record (who ever would have thought medical staff had the time? They certainly wouldn't now) and clearly wanted to leave audiences with a suitable audio keepsake of a jolly and not entirely serious stage revue. 

If anyone knows more about this project and record, please do drop me a line. It's a thoroughly strange slab of vinyl which has no real reason to exist, and as you can probably tell, those are often my favourites. 

The full EP is available to download here, but you can enjoy previews of "Save The Moon At Altona" and "Universal Love" below.