WICKED LADY

The Wicked Lady story is one of amphetamines, motorcycles, violence, despair and a wah-wah pedal. Formed in 1968 by Hell's Angels members, Martin Weaver and "Mad" Dick Smith, Wicked Lady cut their crooked teeth playing their brand of heavy psych in smoke-filled biker clubhouses and greasy English pubs. Rumor has it that Martin Weaver was approached by an A&R guy from EMI about signing Wicked Lady, Weaver's response was to beat said A&R guy to a bloody pulp. The Wicked Lady wasn't fucking around. The band's gigs were equally violent, and it was not uncommon for sets to end with "Mad" Dick hurling his drum kit into the audience. But for all this spectacle and barbaric rage, was the music any good? Nope. It was spirited, lo-fi, caveman proto-doom-metal slop, but undeniably anguished and so very fucking real. In a way, Wicked Lady were the Saint Vitus of their time, a brutally real flesh and bone dirtbag band that might have been better if forces like addiction and jail time hadn't impeded their path. Wicked Lady's material is a downer. The lyrics are about war, mental illness, being a rebel, and THE wicked lady, who will apparently "take your soul away." Dark stuff that, like Sabbath, was a far cry from the hippy love insipidness that prevailed at the time. They seem barely able to play their instruments. You can tell that Weaver and company were drunk when they finally got around in 1972 to recording this collection of songs on a stolen 2-track machine. The results are primitive, depressing, and dark, and I think you will agree, absolutely amazing.

http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/2008/04/wicked-lady.html

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Wicked Lady was a Wild late 60s Tuff Psych Rock trio with blasting fuzzed out wah-wah guitars and Blazing Riffz. The band's liberal use of feedback -- and large biker following -- kept them relegated to clubs, even during the twilight hours of the psychedelic era. Awash in drink and drugs, Wicked Lady split up in 1970.
Wicked Lady's erratic ways proved too difficult for club owners, who eventually refused to let them play. (At one gig, the band reportedly played the same song over and over until an irritated management pulled the plug on them.)

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Wicked Lady exemplifies the "record collector" bands that gain new life through reissues: in this case, Kissing Spell's albums The Axeman Cometh and Psychotic Overkill. Their appearance marked some belated recognition for the power trio, which Northampton singer-guitarist Martin Weaver formed in 1968 with drummer "Mad" Dick Smith and bassist Bob Jeffries. However, Wicked Lady never came within a whisper of the stratospheric status attained by Cream, or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The band's liberal use of feedback -- and large biker following -- kept them relegated to clubs, even during the twilight hours of the psychedelic era. Awash in drink and drugs, Wicked Lady split up in 1970, but Smith and Weaver soon regrouped with new bassist, Del "German Head" Morley. The new lineup duly set about documenting its existence, as captured on Psychotic Overkill -- whose feel is looser than Axeman Cometh. The effect is a shotgun marriage of Black Sabbath-style rifferama, supported by a less risk-taking rhythm section. Weaver's vocal style lacks charisma, but his wah-wah and fuzz-driven guitar style carries the day. The highlights include a bluesy cover of Hendrix's "Voodoo Child," the sex 'n' drugs snapshot of "Sin City," and the howling, 21-minute epic, "Ship Of Ghosts." But Wicked Lady's erratic ways proved too difficult for clubowners, who eventually refused to let them play. (At one gig, the band reportedly played the same song over and over until an irritated management pulled the plug on them.) Wicked Lady imploded in 1972, but Weaver rebounded that same year by joining the Dark, a more psychedelic- and progressive-outfit. Their Round The Edges album became a Holy Grail for collectors -- because only a handful of copies were made for band members and their associates. (Kissing Spell reissued the album in 1991.) Weaver next teamed with classically-trained keyboardist Dave "Doc" Wadley -- who'd worked with a pre-Sabbath Tony Iommi -- in the Mind Doctors. Kissing Spell also reissued On The Threshold Of Reality, an album of laidback instrumental "head" music.Weaver most recently surfaced on the re-formed Dark's Anonymous Days (1996), which featured material written in the 1970s and 1990s. ~ Ralph Heibutzki, All Music Guide

http://greenfuz.blogspot.com/2007/02/wicked-lady-axeman-cometh-1968-72-heavy.html

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