Comments on: Androids Of Mu – Blood Robots LP – Fuck Off Records 1980

By: AL Puppy

AL Puppy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:15:52 +0000

It is all about context, vinylbypost. I am just listening to the recently remastered version of Close to the Edge by Yes. I have just been reading a history of prog rock and it rated Close to the Edge as the very acme of perfection of the genre, that you just can’t get a piece of rock music which is better played, better composed etc. …although I’d rate And You and I (on the B side of the original album) one notch higher, right up there at 11. I bought the album (for its Roger Dean cover art) in 1972 and have loved it ever since.

But I did not see Yes play at a Smoky Bears picnic in Hyde Park in the summer of 1980, acting out ‘Bored Housewife’ on stage using vacuum cleaners, standard lamps and a giant spliff (or did I hallucinate that?) – which is where I saw the Androids and why I bought their album when I saw it in Small Wonder. And snipped the album review from Sounds. The cover illustration by Monica Sjoo is as evocative as the music – Monica and her paintings were part of an eco-feminist scene which mixed Greenham Common in with Silbury Hill, anti-nuclear protests and Stonehenge Free Festival…and which then (along a gendered spectrum) moved seamlessly into the Mob playing in an empty (adventure) playground the next summer…and Meanwhile Gardens a couple years on. Of photo of the first of which I have just seen posted up on Facebook.

Was it ever about ‘being impressed by the music’? I remember someone pointing out at the time that Mark Wilson was not a very good singer (he sounds flat was the phrase)… but technical proficiency was never the point was it? The music was an expression of the ‘tribe’ -not strictly punk any more, but not exactly hippy either. What ever it was, participation was the key principle. With Yes, you could only ever be a spectator, the sheer brilliance of the music set it apart from the grubby ears of Yes’s audience.

But with the music of the Androids, of Zounds, the Mob, Hagar the Womb, and a list which I had better not start since I will forget too many of the groups…. the boundaries and distinctions between performers and audience, between creators and consumers, spectacle and spectators were blurred and diffused if not actually erased. It was quite revolutionary.

But when isolated and abstracted, listened to cold thirty years later – yeah, maybe the Androids’ music don’t seem so impressive . But it never was. The music was just the soundtrack, the movie we made was what mattered.

By: vinylbypost

vinylbypost — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:32:02 +0000

I have this LP and to be honest was not all that impressed with the music when i listened to it recently. i had no idea it was such a cult classic and have unwisely listed it on eBay (5 hours left its on £15). i think i’ll now record it to mp3 before it disappears into a post office sack and see if i can find any hint of the raw talent spoken of above

great name for a record label!

By: edson

edson — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:44:31 +0000

Does anyone remember Androids playing at Trinity in Bristol? Let us know. I’m doing a history of the bands and events held there since the 70s. Cheers.

By: No Class

No Class — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:24:33 +0000

Deborah,

Can you contact me about the Androids via http://www.myspace.com/noclassfanzine?

By: bobby wotnot

bobby wotnot — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:41:34 +0000

Gosh, I haven’t thought about the Androids for a long time. I will have to dig out my copy of ‘Blood Robots’ and give it another listen. I remember seeing the a few times maybe it was at the Idiot Ballroom at the Clarendon Hotel or Westborne Park.
I am glad they are remembered.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:02:46 +0000

I was in the 2nd incarnation of the Androids around 1981. I played lead guitar.
Anyone know of any photos of that era ? I would love to see them.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:56:17 +0000

I put on a gig by the Androids of Mu and The 012 in 1980, in Leicester, and they were great. I gave Kif Kif some cassettes and he agreed to tape the whole gig (including supports) via the mixing desk. Unfortunately I left at the end forgetting to ask for the tapes back-when I got round to writing to KK a few weeks later to ask for them he said he didn’t know what happened to them! So somewhere there’s an Androids of Mu live in Leicester tape floating about, if it’s survived.

By: MURPHY

MURPHY — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:08:56 +0000

Hi there just found the demo tape you sent me all them years ago, for a gig, or to the record company, titles – housewifes.pretty nun.atomic exploision.
Hope you are all well. I Have given you a brief mention in a book I have written BRIDGE HOUSE CANNING TOWN…Keep well,

By: Tony Puppy

Tony Puppy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:02:59 +0000

Thanks Nic, getting petting by the cassette as we speak.

This really reminds me of round the kitchen table at Westbere Rd.

By: Mr.mick

Mr.mick — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:05:32 +0000

Ta for Androids of Mu info.I found my copy in a suitcase a number of years ago and no one i asked knew who they were ,or where they came from,so thanks for clearing that up.Oh,yeah it’s a great chunk of vinyl too.