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Bad News by Bad News © 2004 Parlophone Records Ltd.
Dead Orchid
By Andrew Burns Origin: Neither my partner nor I are what you might call "gardeners". Even house plants are, frankly, in mortal peril in our care. We have an orchid. It's dead. Nuff said. Dead Orchid formed in the summer of 1987 when David Fowler, Norman Shaker and Pete Davis (then playing together as Spoof Elephant) met vocalist Lisa Denton. Her ethereal, other worldly, haunting voice was the perfect match for Fowler’s enigmatic lyrical poetry and when this was layered over Davis’ shimmering, unpredictable, heavily distorted guitars, magic happened. The studio was Fowler’s real instrument and on “British Values”, their first album, he gave full reign to his perfectionism to produce an era-defining sonic revelation. The reliance on what could be achieved in the studio meant they were never more than a competent live act. Visually always something less than dynamic, the need for immense concentration to reproduce their complex signature sound on stage led to them being dubbed shoegazers along with the likes of My Bloody Valentine, in whose wake Dead Orchid definitely sailed. Work began on the second album towards the end of 1989 and, despite the rumours (in the NMM in particular) that Fowler’s iron grip on the day to day was crippling the production as well as relationships in the band, “Middling Medicine” arrived in October 1990, riding the wave of shoegazing’s peak. Middling Medicine comfortably outsold it’s predecessor at the time but it has been viewed unkindly in hindsight. The previously described enigmatic lyrics had drifted dangerously close to nonsense, making Van Dyke Parks sound like Richard Dawkins by comparison. The signature heavy distortion was beginning to sound like white noise. The third album that was going to reestablish Dead Orchid’s reputation has never materialised, though it was rumoured to be in the can in 1996. Davis and Shaker have both moved onto other projects (Death Pete Davis and Noble Cabbage respectively) while Fowler and Denton remain singularly associated with Dead Orchid. Dead Orchid’s loyalists are still hopeful that the unheard album will appear ahead of a triumphant return.
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AuthorAndrew Burns really should know better and has so many more important things to be doing than writing this drivel. Please offer him no encouragement either via social media or through the contact page Archives
September 2017
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