Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix – The New Worlds Fair
(United Artists Records 1975 UAG29732)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing
Sleeve & Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from a few light crackles at the very end of side 1 and a few crackles for the first couple of revolutions of side 2)
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction “New Wave” in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His publication of Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad as a serial novel was notorious; in Parliament some British MPs condemned the Arts Council for funding the magazine. He is also a successful recording musician, contributing to the band Hawkwind, and his own project.
In 2008, The Times newspaper named Moorcock in its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.
Moorcock collaborated with the British rock band Hawkwind on many occasions: the Hawkwind track “The Black Corridor”, for example, included verbatim quotes from Moorcock’s novel of the same name, and he worked with the band on their album Warrior on the Edge of Time. Moorcock also wrote the lyrics to “Sonic Attack”, a Sci-Fi satire of the public information broadcast, that was part of Hawkwind’s Space Ritual set. Hawkwind’s album The Chronicle of the Black Sword was largely based on the Elric novels. Moorcock appeared on stage with the band occasionally during the Black Sword tour. His contributions were removed from the original release of the Live Chronicles album, recorded on this tour, for legal reasons, but have subsequently appeared on some double CD versions. He can also be seen performing on the DVD version of Chronicle of the Black Sword.
Moorcock also collaborated with former Hawkwind frontman and resident poet, Robert Calvert (who gave the chilling declamation of “Sonic Attack”), on Calvert’s albums Lucky Leif and the Longships and Hype.
Moorcock has his own music project, which records under the name Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix. The first single from the band was “Starcrusier/Dodgem Dude”. The first album New Worlds Fair was released in 1975. The album included a number of Hawkwind regulars in the credits. A second version of the album Roller Coaster Holiday was issued in 2004. In 2008, The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions was released. These were sessions for planned albums based on two of his novels: Gloriana, or The Unfulfill’d Queen, and The Entropy Tango. The albums were never completed. (The Deep Fix was the title story of an obscure collection of short stories by James Colvin published in the 1960s. The Deep Fix was also the fictional band fronted by Moorcock’s character Jerry Cornelius.) Working with Martin Stone he has recently been recording an album in Paris, Live From the Terminal Cafe.
Moorcock wrote the lyrics to three album tracks by the American band Blue Öyster Cult: “Black Blade”, referring to the sword Stormbringer in the Elric books, “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”, showing us Elric’s emotions at a critical point of his story (this song may also refer to the “Warriors at the Edge of Time”, which figure heavily in Moorcock’s novels about John Daker; at one point his novel The Dragon in the Sword they call themselves the “veterans of a thousand psychic wars”), and “The Great Sun Jester”, about his friend, the poet Bill Butler, who died of a drug overdose. Moorcock has performed live with BÖC (in 1987 at the Atlanta, GA Dragon Con Convention) and Hawkwind.
Moorcock appeared on five tracks on the Spirits Burning CD Alien Injection, released in 2008. He is credited with singing lead vocals and playing guitar and mandolin. The performances used on the CD were from the The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions.
The first of an audiobook series of unabridged Elric novels, with new work read by Moorcock, have recently begun appearing from AudioRealms. The second audiobook in the series – The Sailor on the Seas of Fate – was published in 2007.
New Worlds Fair is a 1975 concept album by UK rock group Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix.
Moorcock was an established science fiction author who has contributed lyrics and occasionally performed with Hawkwind. In 1974 he was offered a record deal by Andrew Lauder, Hawkwind’s A&R man for United Artists Records, although Moorcock insisted that his compatriots Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock should have significant input into the album.
The single “Dodgem Dude”/”Starcruiser” had been recorded just prior to the album, but United Artists passed on the idea of releasing it. Some time later as Moorcock was visiting his former manager Douglas Smith, with whom he was in dispute, he discovered the tapes for the single lying around the office. Without Smith’s knowledge he took them, passing them onto Frenchy Gloder, who gave the single a belated release on his Flicknife Records label (FLS200, December 1980).
The album has received two re-releases featuring various bonus tracks, in 1995 on Griffin (USA) and Dojo (UK), and in 2008 on Esoteric (UK). In 2004, Voiceprint Records released an alternate version of the album as Roller Coaster Holiday.
Track list
Side One
- “Candy Floss Cowboy” (Michael Moorcock)
- “Fair Dealer” (Moorcock)
- “Octopus” (Steve Gilmore)
- “Sixteen Year Old Doom” (Moorcock)
- “You’re A Hero” (Graham Charnock)
- “Song For Marlene” (Sam Shepard/Gilmore)
Side Two
- “Come To The Fair” (Charnock)
- “In The Name Of Rock And Roll” (Charnock)
- “Ferris Wheel” (Gilmore)
- “Last Merry Go Round” (Moorcock)
- “Dude’s Dream (Rolling In The Ruins)” (Moorcock)
Personnel
- Michael Moorcock – Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
- Graham Charnock – Guitar, Vocals
- Steve Gilmore – Guitar, Vocals
- Kuma Harada – Bass
- Peter Pavli – Cello
- with
- Snowy White – Guitar
- Herbert North – Guitar
- Nik Turner – Saxophone
- Dave Brock – Guitar
- Simon House – Violin, Keyboards
- Simon King – Drums
- Alan Powell – Drums
- Shirley Roden – Vocals
- Debi Ross – Vocals
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