Saturday Sounds - 1960s British Psychedelic Rcok

This week's musical treat is a double feature with a video documentary and a BBC compilation album of British psychedelic rock from the 1960s. 

These days many people tend to think of the San Francisco scene when they think of pyschedelic rock but there was a thriving pyschedelic scene in Britain too that influenced major acts like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

First, here's a BBC documentary called Psychedelic Britannia. 

Documentary exploring the rise and fall of the most visionary period in British music history: five kaleidoscopic years between 1965 and 1970 when a handful of dreamers reimagined pop music.

When a generation of British R&B bands discovered LSD, conventions were questioned. From out of the bohemian underground and into the pop mainstream, the psychedelic era produced some of the most ground-breaking music ever made, pioneered by young improvising bands like Soft Machine and Pink Floyd, then quickly taken to the charts by the likes of the Beatles, Procol Harum, the Small Faces and the Moody Blues, even while being reimagined in the country by bucolic, folk-based artists like the Incredible String Band and Vashti Bunyan.

The film is narrated by Nigel Planer with contributions and freshly-shot performances from artists who lived and breathed the psych revolution - Paul McCartney, Ginger Baker, Robert Wyatt, Roy Wood, the Zombies, Mike Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Joe Boyd, Gary Brooker, Arthur Brown, Kenney Jones, Barry Miles, the Pretty Things and the Moody Blues.

 

Following that, here's an album of music from BBC radio broadcasts called British Psychedelic Rock at the BBC 1967-1969, Part 2 featuring Herd, Episode Six, The Glass Menagerie, The Pretty Things, and more. I remember listening to a few of these groups when I was in university but most are new to me. If there is a Part 1, I haven't been able to track it down. If anyone has a link, I'd really appreciate it if you would post in the comments.