81: KALEIDOSCOPE
Flight From Ashiya/ Holidaymaker (Fontana, 1967)

I USED to spend an inordinate amount of time wishing that the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd had recorded more music. I still indulge that little fantasy from time to time, truth be told.

However, when I first heard Kaleidoscope it was as if that particular prayer had been elliptically answered. Here was a fresh seam of psychedelic pop which pushed most of the same buttons as Arnold and Emily in combining fey Englishness with invigorating weirdness and cunning songcraft.

It's a bit of a mystery to this day how naggingly catchy Kaleidoscope singles such as Jenny Artichoke, A Dream For Julie and Do It Again For Jeffrey failed to chart. Lack of a decent promotional budget is often blamed, although Fontana's initial enthusiasm for the band is undeniable - and Jenny Artichoke in particular didn't exactly want for airplay.

However, posterity's loss is the pop archeologist's gain, and a generous measure of great music is yours for the digging beneath the Kaleidoscope/Fairfield Parlour banner - starting with their 1967 debut single Flight From Ashiya.

A vividly impressionistic, tragicomic tale of a crashing plane as recounted by one of its passengers, Flight From Ashiya may on reflection have been rather strong meat for the top 10, even in that banner year. And was that pilot on drugs?

Cigarettes burning faster and faster,
Everyone's talking about the everafter,
And Captain Simpson seems to be in a daze -
one minute high, the next minute low...
Nobody knows where we are...'

It's an irresistible and vastly persuasive performance, rooted by a mesmerisingly primitive folk-meets-Velvets one-beat-in-the-bar rhythm section yet glitteringly dressed with modish psychedelic finery - speeded-up, heavily reverbed voices, treated piano, the works.

Vocalist Peter Daltrey keeps the flame burning for Kaleidoscope to this day: why not drop by and say hello at www.myspace.com/peterdaltrey