"It's curious how last year they were terrifically hip and now suddenly not so hip at all, really. I think it was the Reading Festival, they somehow got it wrong at the Reading Festival: I was standing on stage watching them, they weren't terribly good but there was more to it than that somehow." [1]
The Telescopes are an English noise, space rock, dream pop and psychedelic band, formed in Burton Upon Trent in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie, and drawing influence from artists such as Suicide, The Velvet Underground and The 13th Floor Elevators. They have a total of ten released albums including their debut, Taste, released in 1989.
After an 8-year gap the group returned in 2002 as an 11 piece featuring core members Stephen Lawrie & Jo Doran with a new album "Third Wave" on NYC label Double Agent. The band are still recording and released Exploding Head Syndrome in 2019. AllMusic said, "the long-running group explored many realms of guitar-driven sounds (noise rock, shoegaze, dream pop, experimental noise) over an always interesting, risk-taking career."
Links to Peel
The Telescopes recorded two sessions and gained a Festive Fifty entry in 1989.The band's Third Wave LP excited Peel, who said he was both "amazed and glad they were still practising their mysterious art": consequently, he championed it and listed it in September 2002 (Peel's Record Box).
Festive Fifty Entries
- 1989 Festive Fifty: 'The Perfect Needle' #30
Sessions
- Two sessions. #1 available on CD reissue of Taste (Rev-Ola).
1. Recorded: 1989-05-16. Producer: Dale Griffin. First broadcast: 13 June 1989. Repeated: 29 August 1989
- Sadness Pale / There Is No Floor [1] / Suffocation / Silent Water
2. Recorded: 1991-08-06. First broadcast: 15 September 1991. Repeated: 08 December 1991.
- Please Tell Mother / Splashdown / Pressence Of Your Grace [2] / To The Shore
Other Shows Played
- 06 March 1989: Kick The Wall (7") Cheree
- 06 April 1989 / The Peel Tapes Vol.9: 7th# Disaster (12") Cheree
- 11 April 1989 (Radio Bremen): 7th# Disaster (12") Cheree
- 27 April 1989 / HO John Peel 11 1989 / RF Sessions 7: This Planet (7" - 7th Disaster) Cheree
- 28 April 1989 (BFBS) / Peel 103 (BFBS): '7th# Disaster (12")' (Cheree)
- 14 August 1989: The Perfect Needle (12") What Goes On
- 15 August 1989 / HO John Peel 15 1989: Sadness Pale (12" - The Perfect Needle) What Goes On
- 19 August 1989 (BFBS) / Peel 113 (BFBS): 'The Perfect Needle (12")' (What Goes On)
- 23 August 1989: The Perfect Needle (12") What Goes On
- 31 August 1989 / HO John Peel 14 1989: The Perfect Needle (12") What Goes On
- 06 September 1989 / Peel Mainly September 1989: Sadness Pale (12" EP - The Perfect Needle) What Goes On
- 25 September 1989: Violence (album - Taste) What Goes On
- 26 September 1989: Threadbare (LP - Taste) What Goes On
- 06 October 1989 (BBC World Service): I Fall, She Screams (album - Taste) What Goes On
- 07 October 1989 (BFBS) / Peel 118 (BFBS): 'Violence (LP-Taste)' (What Goes On)
- 14 October 1989 (BFBS) / Peel 119 (BFBS): 'I Fall, She Screams (LP-Taste)' (What Goes On) (JP: 'I think they sometimes let their Lionel Richie influences show through too strongly.')
- 26 October 1989: Threadbare (album - Taste) Cheree
- 02 November 1989: Violence (LP - Taste) What Goes On
- 26 December 1989: 'The Perfect Needle (12")' (What Goes On) 1989 Festive Fifty #30
- 1990
- 18 January 1990: To Kill A Slow Girl Walking (12") What Goes On
- 22 January 1990: To Kill A Slow Girl Walking (12") What Goes On
- 23 January 1990: Treasure (12" EP - To Kill A Slow Girl Walking) What Goes On
- 08 February 1990: To Kill A Slow Girl Walking (7") What Goes On
- 21 October 1990: Everso (7") Creation
- 1991
- 10 February 1991: Celeste () Creation Records
- 23 February 1991 (BFBS) / Peel 171 (BFBS): 'Celeste (12")' (Creation)
- 16 June 1991: Soulful Of Tears
- 22 June 1991 / The Peel Tapes Vol.14: Flying (12") Creation
- 28 June 1991 (BFBS) / Peel 188 (BFBS): Flying (12") Creation
- Peel 084 (BFBS): 'Flying (12")' (Creation) (JP: 'Am I hallucinating, or do I keep hearing a banjo in the course of that? 'Cos you're always rather fearful of saying things like that in front of musical people, 'cos they say, "No no no no no, that's the Yamaha H2SO4, mate."')
- 01 July 1991 (Ö3): 'Flying (12")' (Creation)
- 19 July 1991 (BFBS): The Sleepwalk (7" - Flying) Creation
- 26 July 1991 (BFBS): High On Fire (12" - Flying) Creation
- 2002
- 31 July 2002: 'A Cabin In The Sky (Lp - Third Wave)' (Double Agent)
- 04 September 2002: 'Tesla Death Ray (LP-Third Wave)' (Double Agent)
- 2003
- 02 December 2003: All A Dreams (Various LP - Feedback To The Future) Mobile
- 2004
- January 2004 (FSK): There Is No Floor (CD - As Approved By The Committee) The Committee To Keep Music Evil
- 20 January 2004: There Is No Floor (Album: As Approved By The Commitee) BOMP!
- 28 July 2004: 'Sadness Pale (LP-Altered Perception)' (Space Age)
- 06 August 2004 (BBC World Service): Sadness Pale (album - Trade Mark of Quality) Fierce Recordings
- 12 August 2004: 16T#3 (Compilation LP - Altered Perception) Space Age
- 20 August 2004 (BBC World Service): 16T#3 (Compilation LP - Altered Perception) Space Age
- 25 August 2004: From The Inner Void I Fear (Compilation LP - Altered Perception) Space Age
External Links
- Footnotes
- ↑ During the repeat, Peel calls this track There Is No 13th Floor, which is not listed as such in Ken Garner's books. This could either be a mistake or a knowing reference to one of their influences.
- ↑ As spelled on the BBC's Keeping It Peel site. Garner has 'Prescence'.
