Magic Moments At Twilight Time So where to begin? Ah, let's play catch up with the song that tells it all...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time

"Magic Moments At Twilight Time" - The Story So Far;
When you're sitting comfortably, I shall begin. As the song says; "The story started years ago, when came down from the skies, a craft of gleaming silver white, not seen by Earthmen's eyes, aboard an ageing scientist from some far distant world..."
Magic Moments At Twilight Time That was our little green friend, Albert, the one who changed everything. I was happily churning out mediocre ballads and iffy comedy songs until his now legendary piece of interference and the resulting W20 Session. In fact, the title of the album comes from February 1987 and my fumbling attempt to collate my body of work to date into one collection. Solely intended for me, all of the packaging being hand made (though undoubtedly brightened by the face of the delightful Miss Shona Moments), but this is the very first place the word "Creavolution" appeared, being a simple fusion of "creation" and "evolution", how I viewed the early MMATT sound as coming together.

Magic Moments At Twilight Time As the song concludes; "In Zoen Nostalgia, meditate, the time had come to part, but memories can never die, the new state of the art, and ever on..."
Magic Moments At Twilight Time With "Zoen Nostalgia" being made up from old MMATT backing tracks used backwards, then "White Hawk Atomic" being purely live takes of old songs, we were starting to get the reputation of being a 'green band'. You know, "Hey, they even recycle their songs!" :) Through 1993, whispers abound that a new MMATT album called "The Spirit Of Darkness" is in the planning stages, but Music & Elsewhere was taking up all my time then (willingly, I hasten to add, the needs of the many and all that), it was a slow process. Finally, in 1994, we got in the studio and it all started. This is track no. 1, "The Starship Psychotron", vocal by Leonie Jackson, dubbed Lulu The Space Bimbo by Sean Worrall at The Organ, much to her dismay! ;)

Magic Moments At Twilight Time It had actually been a bit touch and go getting Leonie to record anything for the album. Things had got a bit fragmented after "White Hawk Atomic", nothing much happened for a while. Then I got a rather fateful phone call from a local musician / songwriter called Adrian Cox (I think)...
Magic Moments At Twilight Time He was interested in having a track of his on the Radio Cracker charity tape we were planning at M&E and asked if I could find a female vocalist he could borrow. I said I'd be quite happy to lend him mine, so long as he gave her back. This is the only time I've heard Leonie sing with anybody else. This appeared on The Radio Cracker compilation album in December 1992 under the name of Obsessive Fascination, and MMATT it ain't! This is called "It's Your Love My Heart Needs"...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time The trouble was, he didn't give her back exactly. The two of them got involved in a relationship (not complaining about that, obviously), but I gather she must have been singing with him a fair bit more as well, as her time for MMATT seemed to diminish continually. In fact, her and I only recorded one song together in 1992 and 1993, after which she announced she would be quitting the band entirely. As it turned out, the song we did record set us on the road to "Creavolution". Captain Garry Lee had asked us to do a theme tune for his pirate radio station, Freedom Overflow", and this is what we came up with, Leonie on vocals, and I seem to recall we recorded the vocals at Adrian's house (he had a much better set up than us, what you can do with money, eh?)...
This is "Freedom Overflow", also coincidentally released on The Radio Cracker Tape...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time And here's Captain Garry Lee at the helm of Freedom Overflow. You had to hide your identity in those days if you were a pirate, aarrr!

Garry Lee Wotto Mr.Muse-Man! I call Mick that, as when he came to stay at the Starship Overflow all those years ago, we converted him to our own recipe of muesli, which was kept in the jar marked 'Muse Man!' Basically we threw a handful of most available products from 'Weigh & Save' in a pot and gave it a damn good shake. Mick's theme tune for our (at the time) pirate station, was run at the opening & close of every FM broadcast we did for around 5 years or so. We still dig it out on momentous occasions, such as our 30th birthday recently, where once again it helped to open proceedings. White Hawk Atomic was probably my favourite of the tapes. Then there was my favourite song about dropping 10 tabs of LSD... ; which I still remember fondly (and the song). Also another artist Mick turned me on to was Philip Hutchinson AKA 'Christ' (the band not the messiah). Whilst doing a guest show on the station Mick played a hilarious song about Satan's cup cakes by Christ, which ended up being another favourite back in the day. So a lot of years have passed & a lot of stomachs have grown. But still the Starship Overflow & the Starship Psychotron fly side by side, putting on a better show than the bloody red arrows ever could. Not only that, we have green smoke! PEACE OUT ;)

Related Link: An Online Chat With Philip Hutchinson

Magic Moments At Twilight Time The song, was, of course, entirely reworked for "Creavolution", first into "Storm" (which you may have heard if you were around for the chat with Inga earlier), then into "The Starship Psychotron", as it appeared on the finished album.

Related Link: An Online Chat With Inga Leru
Magic Moments At Twilight Time As "Storm", the track was intended to go in the middle of the album somewhere, "The Starship Psychotron", however, could only go at the start or the end, and we already had "Rock & Roll Lifestyle" as a closer...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time Hence why 'The Opening Tale' comes AFTER the first track...

Magic Moments At Twilight Time On the original release (and