PSYCHEDELIC

Simon Barnard enters the ‘crazy world’ of Arthur Brown, with his ‘other’ band Kingdom Come and the lefty guitar style of Andy Dalby.

Simon Barnard meets the unique talents of Aurthur Brown and his band Kingdom Come.

Arthur Brown is best known for his 1968 song, Fire, from the album The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, the only LP the band released before members began leaving to join new projects. This line-up didn’t include a guitarist but featured organ, drums and bass, plus Brown’s vocals.

Some would regard Arthur Brown as a pioneer. Onstage he wore makeup long before the likes of Alice Cooper and Kiss, and was a flamboyant performer. One of his renowned incidents occurred in 1967 at the Windsor Festival, where he wore a methanol-soaked colander on his head, intended to be a fiery centrepiece for the performance. However, the flames went up rather more than expected! However, a vigilant member of the audience jumped to Brown’s rescue, helping to put out the inferno. Ever since that eventful gig, Brown has continued to wear a flameridden headpiece, which has become something of a trademark.

It wasn’t until Brown started the band Kingdom Come that the guitar began to be featured. In fact, Kingdom Come’s first album, Gallactic Zoo Dosier, still lacked guitar and it wasn’t until the next release, when Andy Dalby joined, that the new sound emerged.

This month’s article pays homage to Kingdom Come’s 1972 self-titled second album, with Dalby helping to create a truly remarkable record, which fuses psychedelic themes, complex time signatures and chromatic and atonal riffs, alongside more traditional blues and rock influences. Plus of course Brown’s eccentric lyrics and vocals.

But it was their third album, Journey, that was regarded as pushing the boundaries of music by using a Bentley Rhythm Ace drum machine for timekeeping duties. It also featured the prominent use of a Mellotron among other keyboards. Sadly, although Brown and his band were seen by many as being genuinely groundbreaking, he never replicated the success of 1968’s Fire; a song that is still performed live today and a staple of the early psychedelic genre.

I got in touch with Andy Dalby to ask him about the equipment he used during this period. Andy explained that with Kingdom

Come he used a Les Paul Junior, strung upside down to accommodate him playing left-handed. They also had a deal with Marshall, and were supplied with heads and cabs. When that partnership ended, Dalby used an old Vox AC30 and had a short-lived dalliance with a Leslie cabinet, plus a Schaller volume pedal for violin-esque volume swells.

The following piece illustrates a mix of consonance and dissonance, fusing the traditional and the atonal to demonstrate some of the musical stylings of Arthur Brown, Andy Dalby and the band Kingdom Come.

NEXT MONTH Look out next month as Simon begins a brand new series on 90s Brit rock!

THIS MONTH’S ARTICLE PAYS HOMAGE TO KINGDOM COME’S SELF-TITLED SECOND ALBUM, WITH ANDY DALBY ON GUITAR

Arthur Brown wearing a dustbin performing with Kingdom Come at the Rainbow Theatre, 1971. LR: Andy Dalby, Arthur Brown & Phil Curtis

Since Andy Dalby used Gibson and Marshall while in Kingdom Come, the humbucking or P90 sound is an obvious choice. If you don’t have a Gibson style guitar use the bridge pickup on a single-coil instrument and notch the treble back, either from the guitar or amp (Brit style if possible). Use light to medium overdrive, either from the amp itself or using a pedal.

Brought to you by…