THe bevis FRoNd

We’re your Friends, Man 7/10

Feel like I’m fixin’ to die: psychedelic auteur’s rock of ageing

Failing an audition to replace Robin Trower in Procol Harum because he didn’t have his own guitar was Nick Saloman’s closest brush with stardom, but the Hampstead Hendrix rallied to carve out his own nerdy niche, unleashing a torrent of homemade acid-rock albums from the 1980s onwards. His blazing guitar leads contrast with the sombre tone of the 20-track We’re Your Friends, Man, the fragile-voiced Saloman haunted by third-age problems: ill health (“Little Orchestras”), musical obsolescence (“Enjoy”) and a loved one succumbing to dementia (“Mad Love”). It’s bleak, but one can only hope that there is no Frond farewell just yet.