The Green Telescope - The Green Telescope Complete? (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.6)

The brilliant early '80s garage/psychedelic band from Edinburgh, Scotland. I mean, fuck yes! The Scots have produced so many amazing bands in so many genres and styles over the years, from garage punk and neo-psychedelia to C86, jangle pop, shoegaze and noise pop. I guess there must be something in the water.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lenny many years ago at a Thanes gig in Athens, Greece. Most of the conversation was between John Alexopoulos of The Sound Explosion and Lenny. I was just sitting there, watching in awe at how well-informed he was. Back then, I was more into the Velvet Underground-inspired bands than the Velvets themselves. But Mr. Helsing put an end to that.

Anyway, the band's original line-up consisted of Lenny Helsing on guitar and vocals, Bruce Lyall on organ, and Colin Blakey on bass. Before any records were made, Colin Blakey left and was replaced by Alan McLeann and the group then added a drummer, Gavin Henderson, soon after. Steve Fraser temporarily took over from Alan, playing bass on the three tracks the group recorded for the Psycho label compilation, 'The Waking Dream'. He also played on the recording of Pink Floyd's "Scream Thy Last Scream", which featured on the Syd Barrett tribute LP 'Beyond the Wildwood', released on Alan Duffy's Imaginary label a few years later, in 1988. The four-piece line-up of Helsing, Lyall, McLean and Henderson recorded the 'Two by Two' EP for Imaginary, after which a final single, "Face in a Crowd' b/w 'Thoughts of a Madman", was issued in 1986 with a new drummer, Mal Kergan. After this they would change their name to The Thanes Of Cawdor then shorten that to The Thanes. For some (really) strange reason, this outfit lacks a proper reissue treatment of their records or a complete works compilation, so I had to create one myself to secure new fans for them and their legacy.

Dig!