Ballroom Dance at the Edge of Time - Review

Nick Turner’s All Stars at the Lost Vagueness Casino.

Nick Turner is a man with a long and colourful history with Glastonbury Festival having been a founder member of the mighty Hawkwind back in 1969. These days he staggers around the stage with a lurching reverence. The ‘All Stars’ band, which he actually announced as the ‘Cosmo Octagons’, is a world away from the lofty paranoia and drill of Hawkwind.

They gave us a cheeky and fun show full of life and with a wisp of true punk boiling under their skin. Turner’s tenor sax screamed through a frenzy of grotesque distortions as he drew us closer into his bizarre cosmic order. At times he wailed into a wild stratosphere of sound that reminded me of the rare bite of Albert Ayler’s free jazz records of the 60’s. Turner’s sax, on the other hand, manages to swing and chuckle as we found ourselves amid the most unlikely ballroom dance.

The highlight of my day, perhaps, was watching this band attempt a rendition of the theme from "Starsky & Hutch" complete with titillating feather dusting courtesy of their resplendent dancer. Oh yes, she came back later guised as a nurse during "The Bones of Elvis", a shambled mockery of Elvis Presley’s "Love Me Tender", and proceeded to treat the band with her lethal injections.

Chris Cundy

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