When the Legendary Pink Dots came into existence back in 1980, the compact disc had not been invented. It was a particularly tense period for the World with the Soviet Union and the United States of America hurling abuse at each other in what was laughingly referred to as "The Cold War". People played cassettes in their car stereos. New bands would make cassettes at home and send them to a record company executive who would record his favourite music on the better quality brands to listen to in his car while the rest were sadly disposed of. Computers were big, slow and creepy. Vinyl records were not trendy, they were common but, as it was already the 80s, the covers were usually ugly. The Pink Dots made cassettes at home because studio time was expensive. These early salvos were peculiar, enthusiastic and extremely psychedelic. It was a music that was not trendy at all.
Roll on 28 years and the Pink Dots are still there, downloadable both legally and illegally from the internet; up for grabs on CD, vinyl and DVD and even on cassette if you have the money.
America and Russia still hurl insults at each as they feebly attempt to solve the dilemma of "Global Warming". The Pink Dots add to this ecological problem by touring in both territories.
People plug iPods into their car stereos and listen to music they sit in endless traffic jams. Chances are the Pink Dots' van is also stuck in one of those traffic jams...right behind you.
Few bands polarise listeners quite like the Dots and they are secretly delighted about this. Love 'em or hate 'em, ignoring them or remaining indifferent is just not an option. Critics will accuse them of being a bunch of terminal hippies spouting nonsense and nothing to do with rock 'n' roll at all, and perhaps they have a point. Even so, singer Edward Ka-Spel's lyrics do seem to have an uncanny knack of forseeing future events in vivid and sometimes uncomfortable combinations of images. The music moves in tandem, peculiar, enthusiastic and extremely psychedelic.
And as for rock 'n' roll… what is it by now anyway? You may dance to the Pink Dots if you choose. The melodies will stick in your head and there are moments when their sound is as "industrial" as raining tanks on Detroit, as gentle as whispering leaves on Venus....
The following is young and old, male and female and borderless in a World seemingly obsessed with frontiers. The Pink Dots are coming to liberate you with colour. No escapism, no religion. They come as they are, and so should you.
Members:
THE SILVERMAN: Synthesisers, gadgets, technology. A roomful of old korgs, radios, cables. He was there at the beginning.
NIELS VAN HOORN: Aptly named player of saxophones, flutes, clarinets, gadgets that need to be blown. Loud suits, light beam she has been there since 1988.
MARTIJN DE KLEER: Guitars, gadgets, string driven things. Plucked, bowed, processed. Pure, psychedelic and rustic. He joined the Dots in 1991 and still loves Hank Williams.
RAYMOND STEEG: Sound, vibrations,gadgets. More gadgets. A perfect sound because anything less pisses him off. He's right. He joined the Dots in 1992.
EDWARD KA-SPEL: Voice. His own gadgets. Keyboards. Interference. The BBC World service. Very English despite living for half of his life in the Netherlands.
