Two-Piers brings you their latest killer compilation in the shape of Richard Norris Presents ‘Weird Scenes from the Hangout (Psychedelic & Freakbeat Dancefloor Anthems 1967-1982). An album curated by Richard Norris (The Grid, Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve, The Time and Space Machine, and more) and centred around Richard’s Liverpool Club Night ’The Hangout’ in the 1980’s.

Richard Norris on how The Hangout came about after being inspired to go to University in Liverpool…..
For a place with a distinctly psychedelic tinge, Liverpool was missing one thing in the mid-eighties. A full-on psychedelic club night. I’d been schooled in all things psychedelic, a result of working at Bam Caruso, a label steeped in psych who lovingly reissued many lysergic greats. It was a fantastic education. I was determined to bring some technicolour sonics to Liverpool.
I found a suitable venue, called Krackers, at the bottom of Mount Pleasant. It was a big basement club, with a stage, video projector, lights, bar, and long tables. In front of the stage, there was ample space for a dance floor. There’s something about clubs in basements. They just work. I chatted to the owner, Bill, who suggested trying out Thursdays for the new night. Inspired by Bam Caruso, and the Soho club Alice in Wonderland, I agreed to take Thursdays on. 50p to get in. The night was named The Hangout.

The Hangout was born in autumn 1984. The place was perfect. Clips of op art psychedelic films copied to VHS tape were projected on to the large screen that covered the stage. There was a smoke machine, a bubble machine, many moving lights. The place opened to a packed dancefloor and stayed that way into 1985 and beyond. There were guest bands, including Zodiac Mindwarp, Mr.Suit featuring Larry from Wimple Winch, Freight Train and the Cardiacs, among others. There were giveaways of sweets, flowers, balloons, and jelly. Tons of jelly.

Musically, the Hangout’s take on psychedelia and freakbeat had one aim - to make you dance. We weren’t trainspotters – it didn’t matter if a record was rare, so long as it grooved and worked on the dancefloor. We’d give equal time to the more bandwagon end of sixties exploitation as to hipper acts. I’d pick up tracks on shopping trips in London with Phil Smee from Bam Caruso, or at Probe in Liverpool, where there was a class selection of psychedelia. Bob and Mick from Probe, and their mate Bernie Connor, became Hangout DJ’s, and brought even further mind-bending madness to the Hangout dancefloor. Standout tunes got played again and again, every week, until tracks like The Left Banke’s ‘I’ve Got Something on My Mind’, the Turtles ‘Buzzsaw’, Can’s ‘Outside Your Door’ and all the other tunes you now hold in your hands, became bona fide Hangout club anthems. The Hangout came and went in a flash, but its legacy of bringing psychedelic foot stompers to the dancefloor carries on. The Hangout left me with a personal love of all things beat and freak. I’ve been pursuing various musical shapes that all have their roots on the Hangout’s psychedelic dancefloor ever since.
I hope you enjoy this compilation. Every track is a tried and tested Hangout anthem. - Richard Norris, Lewes, August 2024.

TRACK LISTING

VINYL TRACKLIST:
A1) The Nazz - Open My Eyes
A2) The Easybeats - Good Times
A3) Sir Douglas Quintet - She’s About A Mover
A4) Can - Outside Your Door
A5) The Music Machine - People In Me
A6) Wynder K.Frog - I’m A Man
A7) Sharon Tandy - Hold On

B1) The Hombres - Let It All Hang Out
B2) The Left Banke - I’ve Got Something On My Mind
B3) The Seeds - The Wind Blows Your Hair
B4) The Apple - Buffalo Billycan
B5) Dantalion’s Chariot - ‘Madman Rising Through The Fields’
B6) The End - Shades Of Orange
B7) Warm Sounds - Night Is A Comin’

C1) The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion
C2) The Modern Lovers - She Cracked
C3) Kim Fowley - Bubblegum
C4) The Balloon Farm - A Question Of Temperature
C5) Fleur De Lys - Circles **
C6) The Starlets - You Don’t Love Me

D1) The Turtles - Buzz Saw
D2) Lothar And The Hand - People Machines
D3) The Open Mind - Magic Potion
D4) The Swinging Medallions - Double Shot Of My Baby’s Love
D5) Simon Dupree And The Big Sound - I See The Light
D6) The Action - I’ll Keep On Holding On **
D7) The Creation - How Does It Feel To Feel
D8) The Third Eye - Pass Myself
** Exclusive Tracks To Vinyl Format

CD TRACKLIST:
1) The Nazz - Open My Eyes
2) The Easybeats - Good Times
3) Sir Douglas Quintet - She’s About A Mover
4) Can - Outside Your Door
5) The Music Machine - People In Me
6) Wynder K.Frog - I’m A Man
7) Sharon Tandy - Hold On
8) The Hombres - Let It All Hang Out
9) The Left Banke - I’ve Got Something On My Mind
10) The Seeds - The Wind Blows Your Hair
11) The Apple - Buffalo Billycan
12) Dantalion’s Chariot - ‘Madman Rising Through The Fields’
13) The End - Shades Of Orange
14) Warm Sounds - Night Is A Comin’
15) The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion
16) The Modern Lovers - She Cracked
17) Kim Fowley - Bubblegum
18) The Balloon Farm - A Question Of Temperature
19) The Starlets - You Don’t Love Me
20) The Turtles - Buzz Saw
21) Lothar And The Hand - People Machines
22) The Open Mind - Magic Potion
23) The Swinging Medallions - Double Shot Of My Baby’s Love
24) Simon Dupree And The Big Sound - I See The Light
25) The Creation - How Does It Feel To Feel
26) The Third Eye - Pass Myself

A memoir by one of the most influential and ubiquitous underground British musicians of the past thirty

Leafy St Albans is an unlikely starting point for one of the great psychedelic/acid house musicians of his generation, but, like so many others who brought radical change to the counterculture, Richard Norris' story starts in the suburbs.

Strange Things Are Happening documents his journey from punk through the emerging DIY indie culture to producing the UK's first acid house album, Jack the Tab; being one of the only unsigned artists to grace the cover of NME, to being one of the first faces on the scene at Shoom and Spectrum during the 1988 Summer of Love; finding international fame with The Grid in the early 90s, to working with Joe Strummer and a cast of thousands as a remixer, writer and producer. Embracing a psychedelic lifestyle along the way, Strange Things Are Happening is a funny, improbable and frequently wild journey down the rabbit hole.

Richard Norris has been involved in almost every aspect of music and its business for many decades. This is an insider's tale of inspiration and collaboration, working with some of the most iconic artists in music and beyond. We travel to basement acid parties in London to ten thousand strong raves in Ibiza. From Amsterdam with Timothy Leary, to Tijuana with Shaun Ryder and Joe Strummer, on a bumpy ride in Joe's beat up 1955 Cadillac, to the customs hall at Heathrow with Sun Ra, Top Of The Pops, LA film sets, around the world and back again. Strange Things Are Happening is a celebration of creativity and passion, of chance meetings turning into lifelong friendships, and of what is possible with an independent spirit, with an open mind and heart. Not quite Do It Yourself, more Do It Yourselves - a testimony to how small groups of people can affect and change the cultural landscape; a story about doing what you love and being eternally curious; about the inevitable occupational dead ends and wrong turns that happen when you jump in headfirst, and what is learnt along the way.

The second ultra limited installment of Richard Norris' journeys into the outer reaches of dub has landed.

Mixing influences from roots reggae to On U Sound to Basic Channel and beyond, these six tracks offer warm and lush sonic landscapes to sink into.

Praise for Volume One - "Richard Norris is making the music of his life right now. All of Oracle Sound is smooth, completely enveloping and utterly hypnotic, with sounds and textures you want to reach out and touch." (Joe Muggs, Bandcamp Electronic Music of the Month)

TRACK LISTING

1. Regal Dub
2. Pagan Dub
3. Mystery Dub
4. Glory Version
5. Rockers Sci Fi
6. Stronger Together 

Golden Lion Sounds enlist the talents of no other than Richard Norris for their latest 7". The Grid and Psychic TV star gifts us a driving, Balearic-rock classic - with an almost War On Drugs-like sensibility. Moving, evocative vocals (by Findlay Brown), swirling keyboards, gentle guitar strums and a motoric beat coalescing to form an understated but highly engrossing four minutes of song writing prowess.

Rude Audio is the alias of Mark Ratcliff and collaborators (sometimes including Dan Wainwright with whom he constructed the "Psychedelic Science" release with), and they take care of B-side duties with a galloping analogue synth workout. Slightly wonky and jarring, the concentric arpeggio rotates off-center, making for a slightly discombobulating listen eschewing the smooth and silky for something a bit more raggedy and gritty. It's brilliantly constructed; with just a few simple elements working in tandem to create a dazzling, wide-screen synth scape.

As usual - top draw music from the Yorkshire underground. Limited copies in purple and black vinyl. Check!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Richard Norris and Rude Audio are the latest converts to the church of the The Golden Lion, with the Todmorden based hub casting its net far and wide to deliver the best from the independent underground.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Richard Norris - This Song's For You (feat Findlay Brown) 

Side B
1. Rude Audio - The Grinning

Triple CD set collecting rare cuts and cult favourites from the worlds of psychedelic, pastoral and funky folk, 1968-1975.

Focusing on the outpouring of psychedelic folk flavours that emerged swiftly after the first psychedelic era.

Featuring some wonderful selections from long collectable acts such as Sunforest, Mellow Candle, Trees, Heron, Trader Horne, Christine Harwood and many more. 

Compiled by Richard Norris (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve/The Grid) , the compilation is themed around UK and Irish music from that hallowed period, and comes with a 7000 word essay and sleeve notes from the musician/producer.

Celebrating the collision of traditional folk with new psychedelic studio techniques, new and exotic textures, and a developing groove. It's a wide and broad range of styles, drawing from folk, its oral storytelling tradition, and also from jazz, beat, rhythm and blues, and the more mind opening sounds of psychedelia.

Housed in a 3 CD digipack, designed in a striking wraparound collage by Lyndon Pike .

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
1. FAT MATTRESS Leafy Lane
2. KNOCKER JUNGLE Not Even A Letter
3. DUFFY POWER I Need You
4. MIKE HURST Face From The Past
5. RAY FENWICK I Wanna Stay Here
6. HARDIN AND YORK Natural Gas
7. OPEN ROAD Mother Earth
8. PAUL BRETT Motherless Child On A Merry-Go-Round
9. THE WOODS BAND Noisey Johnny
10. MEIC STEVENS Yorric
11. MARC ELLINGTON You Just Can’t Believe What You See
12. ALAN JAMES EASTWOOD Crystal Blue
13. ARRIVAL La Virra
14. DANDO SHAFT Cold Wind
15. LINDA HOYLE Hymn To Valerie Solanas
16. NIRVANA Nova Sketch
17. BRIAN DAVISON’S EVERY WHICH WAY Castle Sand
18. JADE WARRIOR Yellow Eyes
19. WRITING ON THE WALL Buffalo

DISC TWO
1. CHRIS HARWOOD Wooden Ships
2. BRIDGET ST. JOHN Fly High
3. DANDO SHAFT Rain
4. HERON Lord And Master
5. MELLOW CANDLE Silversong
6. TREES Murdoch
7. KEITH CHRISTMAS Foothills
8. TRADER HORNE Morning Way
9. MILLER ANDERSON Shadows ‘Cross My Wall
10. THE GHOST Time Is My Enemy
11. KEVIN COYNE Flowering Cherry
12. SECOND HAND Hangin’ On An Eyelid
13. FUCHSIA Shoes And Ships
14. MIKE HURST Place In The Country
15. AMBER Swan In The Evening
16. GLOBAL VILLAGE TRUCKING COMPANY The Inevitable Fate Of Ms Danya Sox
17. MIGHTY BABY Jug Of Love

DISC THREE
1. SUNFOREST Magician In The Mountain
2. CHRIS HARWOOD Crying To Be Heard
3. WIZZ JONES City Of The Angels
4. JADE WARRIOR Lady Of The Lake
5. KNOCKER JUNGLE Oh To Be Free
6. BRIDGET ST. JOHN Silver Coin
7. FRIENDS In The Morning
8. ALAN JAMES EASTWOOD Lotus Child
9. THE DEVIANTS Bun
10. JADE Amongst Anemones
11. PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE The Death Of Don Quixote
12. YVONNE ELLIMAN Hawaii
13. THE OCCASIONAL WORD The Evil Venus Tree
14. IAN A. ANDERSON Goblets And Elms
15. BILL NELSON Rejoice
16. ZIOR Time Is The Reason
17. CURTIS KNIGHT WITH ZEUS New Horizon
18. LINDA LEWIS Reach For The Truth

Music For Healing is a series of long form tracks to aid stress and anxiety relief in these challenging times.

Now available on vinyl for the first time this edition collects The Longform Series 5-8.

The series totals four hours of listening time. Use them as background ambience, as immersive deep listening, in combination with meditation or any other practice. Music For Healing tracks are crafted and recorded in real time with no Artificial Intelligence involved.

Music For Healing is a series of long form tracks to aid stress and anxiety relief in these challenging times.

Now available on vinyl for the first time this edition collects The Longform Series 1-4.

The series totals four hours of listening time. Use them as background ambience, as immersive deep listening, in combination with meditation or any other practice. Music For Healing tracks are crafted and recorded in real time with no Artificial Intelligence involved.

After a host of well received ambient releases, Richard Norris is back with the motorik, trance inducing electronic groove of 'Hypnotic Response'.

Influenced by German 70's music, psychedelia, hypnotic repetition and an old Korg 55 drum machine, these tracks veer from the expansive eleven minute workout 'Arca' to the mesmeric sequences of 'In Flight', from the propulsive Kosmishe rhythm of 'Free Ride' to the electronic lullaby 'La Lune'.

A widescreen and mesmerising set, with accompanying retina altering artwork and vinyl. Dive in deep.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Aaah, Richard Norris. I am a huge fan of his 'Elements' release from last year, so it's a huge joy to have his latest collection of snappy cosmic beats and spine-tingling arpeggios to wrap the ears around. It seems like there's no stopping Norris at the moment, with all of his monthly 'Music For Healing' releases providing vital relaxation during lockdown only adding to the excellence of his physical output. 'Hypnotic Response' is a triumph in every way.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. In Flight
2. Arca
3. Free Ride

Side B
4. Gamma & Delta
5. Reflections Of Kyoto
6. La Lune

Music For Soundtracks is an album of ten ambient, atmospheric pieces Richard Norris has recently created for film and TV.

They feature in BAFTA winning director Kieran Evans’ recent Sky Arts documentary ‘Cold War Steve Meets The Outside World’, as well as Marc Issacs’ latest film ‘The Filmmaker’s House’. The tracks range from widescreen electronic dance to immersive deep listening cuts, all with a marked sense of space and landscape. Dive in…