#thee telepaths

The Groove Consortium & Mighty Fuzz’s Sonic Saturday discussed (gig photos by Gregory Muldoon).

After several years of being a crowd-side pundit, I finally managed to help put a Thee Telepaths gig on.

It's something I'd been keen on orchestrating for some time, but daddy-shackles and other life hindrances always persisted that I be left in the punter position rather than being able to hold my head up and say "I had something to do with the fact that all you audience people are left grinning and partially deaf".

Being a big romantic of gig aesthetics, I ended up spreading myself too thin on the night. I’d planned in my head that it would be great to see them do their show locally for the first time in ages; as well as cover the DJ duties and come out of 6-string retirement to assist the support act… Birmingham’s ever-excellent A Noble Ghost. It made total sense to book Mat Storer’s amplified guitar set alongside Thee Telepaths’ sonic cocktail, so I make no regrets. Mat was also accompanied by a cracking rhythm section in the form of The Anteloids’ Ben and Tom Jennings (who also book and decorate an unfathomable number of local rock shows). The Brothers-in-Anteloid, along with the Thee Telepaths' projections, helped to convert Rugby's West Indian Association into The UFO Club circa 1967.

This blog has regularly held testament to the fact that I’ve loved all of their releases; but the last two Thee Telepaths records have expertly represented their live show… and they ARE one of the most incendiary live acts in the UK.

And what a show they put on that night…

Thanks to their infinite set of filth knobs, Tom and Tim Telepath created a corrosive set of guitar sounds held equal to when Swell Maps locked themselves in their folks' Solihull garage for years-on-end in preparation to unleash their noise-craft.

Vocalist, Dean, was hitting either high-octave new-wave screams, or transmitting Mark E Smiths' socialist gig-poetry during the thumping ‘Apocalypse Blues’; perfectly assisted by Vinnie’s ‘Bill Ward’ tempo changes, or four-to-the-floor Yardbirds-izm during ‘White Thighs’.

The crowd were most entertained… be they out of town fan or local CV21 muso (with the potential to walk out if sonic mustard was not cut). Everyone stayed put and all were rightly slayed by the joyousness of the cosmic rock mayhem.

After a few months of dormancy, The GC hosts another evening of social ear-throbbery.

The Groove Consortium gets back in the rock show saddle for the first time in 2017.

Sat 20th May brings two incendiary rock outfits to Rugby's West Indian Club.

Top billing is held by Kettering’s Thee Telepaths, who display the stage chops held by all great UK ‘alternative society’ acts; from early Sabbath, through Hawkwind and right up to The Bunnymen and Julian Cope. Explorers of heavy nuggets, their shows are a mixture of originality and fond familiarity merged into a melodically brutal technicolour punch. Their third EP is a stonker and at points it’s so sonically unhinged that it left the producer thinking they might all be fruit-cases! Buy it soon on CD or 12” coloured vinyl.

Thee Telepaths’ work has been praised on high via this blog before, but things have gone from great-to-greater-to-greater still during the last couple of years. The new EP and accompanying live show are just killer. Too fun to be ‘prog’; too smart to be just ‘rock’... Thee Telepaths latest stuff belongs alongside the works of Vertigo Records for its gusto and intelligence.

Riding shotgun is Birmingham’s ‘A Noble Ghost’. Band main man, Mat Storer often hops between acoustic and plugged-in album output, but tonight’s show will be rocking out all the way. Head-bobbing riffs will keep the casual audience happy, but the trademark NG smart lyricism and dulcet melodies are there for anyone looking past the filth. So, expect a noise not dissimilar to the 80’s-90’s golden-era of Creation Records, where the catchiest of tunes can be picked out behind reams of fuzz and feedback. The Noble Ghost rock outfit includes members of Rugby’s The Anteloids, which will help CV21 natives understand the live pedigree of this support act; raucous and tight and loose at the same time. Combine this rhythm section with Mat’s existential lyricism and Nikki Sudden/Jeffrey Lee Pierce hero-worship, and it’s sure to be a rock n’ roll grenade that’s sure to go off!

Merchandise for both acts will be available at the event in vinyl, CD and t-shirt form.

All vibrations will be accompanied by a light show and film projections. Records will be spun by The Groove Consortium’s Paulo’s Hoodoo Jukebox. Funk, jazz, rock, psych, soul and garage sides will be rotated on the fairest of the formats… worth interrupting your fag break for?!?

The poster is a fully functioning 3D brain-scape from The Groove Consortium’s twisted, pop-art mind. Dig out those old red n’ cyan peepers that you keep in your copy of ‘Off The Bone’ and get the full effect of this multilayered head twister of a flyer!