THE ONCE & FUTURE WHAT?!?!?!?!?

WAS GOD AN ARGONAUT?

Prior to becoming a famous author, Alan Clayson was the chief show-off in a travelling asylum called CLAYSON AND THE ARGONAUTS. There are still people around today who'll tell you that this was the greatest group ever formed. Certainly, the stage act defied succinct description and, crucially, Clayson was being spoken of and written about in the same sentences as the likes of Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson, John Otway and Elvis Costello.

To launch a double-album retrospective by Damaged Goods (Cat. No.: DAMGOOD 257 CD), 
(IF THE SLEEVE NOTES ON THE CD ARE MAKING YOU GO BLIND, YOU CAN READ A BIGGER VERSION HERE) 
CLAYSON AND THE ARGONAUTS undertook a one-off headlining  concert at the Metro, Oxford Street, central London.

Twenty years after what was thought to be a final public performance, this will be the proverbial something-to-tell-your-grandchildren-about - and, for the faithful will be akin to not so much Pink Floyd at Live 8 as Moses re-appearing before the Israelites from the clouded summit of Mount Sinai: as heroic and as impossible as that. Furthermore, the show and the associated rehearsals et al were filmed for a television documentary.

CLAYSON AND THE ARGONAUTS left the runway in 1976 shortly after a promoter in Reading found their recital so disturbing that he hustled them from his  premises at gunpoint. Too hot for Berkshire to hold, the consequent sweep of events embraced a BBC Radio One In Concert and headlining at venues like the Marquee, the 100 Club, the Roundhouse, Amsterdam's Melkveg and any number of university hops - such as that at Queen's in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, where an ecstatic audience were still demanding more aftersix encores.

En route, the outfit experienced the wreckage by an over-excited crowd of a Luton auditorium; a near-lynching at Barbarella's in Birmingham; a punch-up and correlated car chase from Canning Town; a season in a red-light district sur le continent (the "Hamburg" period); some woman jumping onstage to tear off all her clothes at Islington's celebrated Hope-and-Anchor, and a bloke doing the same at the Granary in Bristol.

A debut single was a "turntable hit" (e.g. Number Three in Time Out), and its UK B-side was a Top Twenty entry in Belgium. A valedictory album, What A Difference A Decade Made, was a critical cause celebre, earning rave reviews in Folk Roots (!) and The Observer. Two tracks and further Clayson compositions were "covered" by the likes of Dave Berry, Stairway and, this very year, the winner of the Indonesian version of Pop Idol.

Since completing their original mission in 1985, the legend of CLAYSON AND THE ARGONAUTS have endured to the degree that mere word-of-mouth about the forthcoming "farewell performance" has provoked a - surprising - number of approaches about doing it again just one more time. There's even been an offer made for a full-scale tour. The group are, nevertheless, unlikely to turn into a permanent tribute band to themselves, not matter how great the incentive. Well, maybe...

 PRESS COMMENTS: all the quotes below were made in between 1975 and 1985, and come from Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Sounds, London Evening Standard, New York Village Voice, The Observer, Daily Express, The Stage, Sounds, Folk Roots – and Wokingham Times. 

 "Clayson is in a premier position on rock's lunatic fringe"

 “January might be a bit early, but Clayson and the Argonauts might well be the showbusiness sensation of the year" 

"I can honestly say I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN MY LIFE!!!"

 “An odd group on any level. They left me wondering what it was all about"

 "Lively and vivid imagination at work here"

 "The greatest Sixties album of the Eighties...captures the wonderful foolishness in which teen narcissism was dressed up"

 "What A Difference A Decade Made is likely to delight the legions of fans who have followed Alan Clayson and the Argonauts over the past ten years"

 “There will never be a time or a situation - or a musical entity like it"

 "Tight, complex, full of interplay between the lead instruments of guitar, sax and keyboards. They sound quite unlike anything else. Each number bristles with ideas, and a lot of work has gone into getting things right."

 “Alan Clayson's original songs are utterly delightful in their individuality"

 "Definitely more than a band - an experience!"