Notes

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Size: 141 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

New Worlds Fair is a 1975 concept album by UK rock group Michael Moorcock & Deep Fix.

Moorcock was an established science fiction author who had contributed lyrics and occasionally performed with Hawkwind. In 1974 he was offered a record deal byAndrew Lauder, Hawkwind's A&R man for United Artists Records, although Moorcock insisted that his compatriots Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock should have significant input into the album.

The single "Dodgem Dude"/"Starcruiser" had been recorded just prior to the album, but United Artists passed on the idea of releasing it. Some time later as Moorcock was visiting his former manager Douglas Smith, with whom he was in dispute, he discovered the tapes for the single lying around the office. Without Smith's knowledge he took them, passing them onto Frenchy Gloder who gave the single a belated release on his Flicknife Records label (FLS200, December 1980).

The album has received two re-releases featuring various bonus tracks, in 1995 on Griffin (USA) and Dojo (UK), and in 2008 on Esoteric (UK). In 2004, Voiceprint Records released an alternate version of the album as Roller Coaster Holiday.

The brainchild of science-fiction author Michael Moorcock, bassist Steve Gilmore, and guitarist Graham Charnock, Fair featured a host of guest players, among them members of Hawkwind and guitar hero Snowy White. It was a concept album, of course, a trek through a dystopian fun fair, a metaphor for society itself. It's a set that promised much, but delivers surprisingly little, with the lyrics and themes nowhere near as profound as Moorcock's reputation would dictate or fans' memories might suggest. Sure the "Fair Dealer" peddles dreams and illusions, drugs and rides, the "Candy Floss Cowboy" swaggers across the fairground, a precedent setter for President Bush, a hollow idol headed for the Valhalla of the ironic "You're a Hero." The teen-aged temptresses that haunt the fair are also headed for disaster on "Sixteen Year Old Doom," a rather heavy-handed retort to every rocker that ever celebrated a young girl's charms in song. Even more derivative is "In the Name of Rock and Roll," which lifted its downbeat theme from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Finally the fairground begins careening towards destruction on "The Last Merry Go Round," reaching its demise on "Dude's Dream (Rolling in the Ruins)." However, the musicianship far surpasses the lyrical content, the album's saving grace. Musically, it's a heady concoction that stirs in a bit of glam, a few swirls of folk, a good dousing of R&B, and a dollop of metal. It's nowhere near as musically adventurous as one would expect from the cast, but surprisingly accessible and easily digestible. More of a fun fair then, than a rock your world exhibition. Esoteric sweetens the pot with seven bonus tracks, including a pair of previously unreleased demos. "Dodgem Dude"'s demo also appears here for the first time, the song, while intended for the Fair, finally hit the shops as a 1980 limited-edition 45. That too is included, alongside "Starcruiser" and "The Brothel in Rossenstrasse," which inspired Moorcock's book of the same title.

01. Candy Floss Cowboy 1:20
02. Fair Dealer 5:05
03. Octopus 2:15
04. Sixteen Year Old Doom 4:15
05. You're A Hero 3:10
06. Song For Marlene 5:11
07. Come To The Fair 1:20
08. In The Name Of Rock And Roll 4:15
09. Ferris Wheel 5:40
10. Last Merry Go Round 2:11
11. Dude's Dream 4:40
12. Dodgem Dude 2:47
13. The Brothel In Rossenstrasse 3:44
14. Starcruiser 3:17
15. Candy Floss Cowboy (Demo) 4:27
16. Kings Of Speed (Previously Unreleased) 2:52
17. You're A Hero (Previously Unreleased Demo) 4:09
18. Dodgem Dude (Previously Unreleased First Demo) 2:59