Twenty five years ago my friend David Vallade and I traveled to Brixton to see The Orb, being poor students we ended up buying last minute tickets from a tout outside. When it came to entering the venue David got in and I didn’t as my ticket wasn’t deemed valid. Gutted, I returned home and David was left to do the all-nighter on his own. Above is the flyer, found online earlier this year, a fly poster version of which I had on my wall for years with its early typography by The Designers Republic that was later changed for the album artwork.
As I’ve just been reminded it’s the 30th anniversary today I dug through my bag of flyers as I thought I had a copy of this and yes, there she is, almost pristine after all these years 🙂 can’t seem to add an image here though…
So I guess around 24 years ago I was an unemployed and aimless, unhappy college dropout with limited musical experience beyond goth, ‘challenging’ industrial ordeals like NON, and my dad’s collection of Geoff Love war themes. I’m sleeping over in a cold flat but not able to sleep, up at 3am feeling bitter and sorry for myself as usual.
Deciding I’m not scheduled to get any rest that night, I grab a pair of headphones and look through the tapes stacked near the stereo. Lots of the usual stuff, but in among them what must be a friend-of-a-friend’s copy of UFOrb.
I’ve no idea why I decide to put it on, but I sit through the VLS intro and then the Towers of Dub bass kicks in. The next day I’m down at the record shop blowing my giro on my own copy, along with Evil 93 and Ultraworld, in its jumbo cassette case. A month later I’ve borrowed all the electronic and dub tapes our library has to offer, I’ve branched out into Fripp and Eno, I’ve listened to Selected Ambient Works about fifty times and I’m a far, far happier person. Back in the now, I can’t think of a record more important in my life than UFOrb, and I know I’ll never feel bad listening to it.