Nuggets II: Flight from Ashiya by Kaleidoscope

Credits

4/25. FLIGHT FROM ASHIYA – Kaleidoscope
(Peter Daltrey/Eddie Pumer)

PERSONNEL/PETER DALTREY: vocals * EDDIE PUMER: guitar * STEVE CLARK: bass * DAN BRIDGEMAN: drums
Produced by DICK LEAHY
Recorded in London, England
Fontana single #TF-863 (1967)

Kaleidoscope

Peter Daltrey and Eddie Pumer met while working for ABC Television. I’ll let Daltrey explain (taken from bigtakeover.com):

In late ’64, I started work at ABC Television in Hanover Square in London, just a hop, skip, and a flip from Oxford Circus. I worked in the post room. One day a new boy joined our merry crew: Eddie Pumer, tall, thin, blonde, little nose, cheeky grin, and no sense of fashion whatsoever, resplendent in an old bloke’s suedette driving coat with the required fake wool collar.

We used to run in and out of Soho, ferrying cans of film back and fore to the distributors. We had lunch at a grotty dive in this back water called Carnaby Street. There was one boutique in the street at that time: a dodgy place selling silk underpants to guys with eyes only for guys.

Out of the blue Ed suddenly asks me if I’d like to join his band. His band!? I didn’t even know he had a band! Like an idiot I said yes. What was I getting into? I couldn’t sing — for that was the position he was offering me. I agreed to come along to the band’s next practise session. It was my eighteenth birthday. I rode up on my trusty Lambretta to a grubby school hall in the back streets of Acton Town just west of London.

The band were originally named The Sidekicks. As they transitioned from playing covers to originals, they renamed themselves The Key. They renamed themselves Kaleidoscope when they signed a record deal with Fontana Records.

Flight from Ashiya

Kaleidoscope’s debut single was ‘Flight from Ashiya’. The song was named for a 1964 movie starring Yul Brynner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHTE8U3vrEI

With a 3/4 time signature, acoustic strum, and lilting melody, it’s reminiscent of a sea shanty. The psychedelic production touches make ‘Flight from Ashiya’ a unique record, even if the storyline is a little incoherent. Echo and the Bunnymen’s ‘The Yo Yo Man’ covers similar territory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoaSnOimd5s

“Flight From Ashiya,” Kaleidoscope’s first single, from September 1967, is a fabulous example of pop-psych storytelling, in a similar tradition to the Bee Gees’ “New York Mining Disaster 1941.”

However, unlike the Gibb brothers’ opus, it’s difficult to discern exactly what is happening in this story, which concerns an ill-fated airplane trip and a stoned pilot. A deliberate sense of confusion reigns throughout. Is the flight doomed? Or is it a case of mass paranoia brought on by the smoke? “Cigarettes burning faster and faster/Everyone talking about the ever-after/And Captain Simpson seems to be in a daze/One minute high/The next minute low.”

Mike Stax, Nuggets II liner notes

Subsequent career

Despite enjoying critical praise and underground radio play, Kaleidoscope never broke through to mass sales. Creatively, they rebranded as Fairfield Parlour in 1970. They recorded two albums of progressive rock. The second, White Faced Lady, wasn’t released until 1991 – confusingly it came out under the Kaleidoscope name.

Read More

• Nuggets Song by Song
• 1960s Album Reviews