Also, most have not the typing skills and...

of the old-breed hasbeens, they are burned-out druggites. (Contrary to common belief, the old prog scene was more drug-addled and has more drug-reference songs than "psych" ever had.)


...

Now watching "Fear And Loathing In LA" , thinking, "Nothing strange here. Fox! I was doing laboratory-grade ETHER when I was just outta school, goddamn!"

Hi Wallace Record Collector did a long running series of the A-Z of UK psych many years ago,it mostly covered singles but albums did get a mention too,i used to photocopy them,and i happily have the lot to look over and read,Nigel Lees was heavily involved in this series,there was a rumour at the time that a book of this series which ran for a long time was possibly getting put together.....but nothing i'm afraid!!!

Wallace my lair is my lair and for my eyes only(if i knew how to take a photo and show on RZ,i probably still wouldn't),i do have a collection of mainly US and UK reissues but i have ventured into other continents to get my fix of psych and some folk,prog and plain old pop.Wallace you must have some collection yourself,i remember trading with you about 10 years ago............!!!!!

Many thanks Paul for the opportunity to browse among the many varying aspects of SWA.....viewed a few in the past,but now as you say long gone.
Cheers,

niallox@gmail.com

What about One Shed Phil's shed?

It should be possible to access Sweet Floral Albion via the Internet Archive here.

Unfortunately quite a lot of those pages aren't working.

Could be a browser issue, but these pages get redirected, so if you wait 30 secs or so, they do appear. At least here...

Works here.
no probs.

Oh, I just noticed that, there seems to be different issues available depending on different capture dates. These pages seem to work though issues 1-34, 35, 36, and 37.

Thanks Paul. I too saved all the SFA's as web archives but unfortunately, I don't think I've seen the Laura's Garden issue. I remember always looking forward to each new issue. I discovered so much new music from the SFA Discography sections. Why has no one put together an mp3 comp of all the songs from all of those SFA Discography articles? That would be amazing! Those song descriptions were always so colorful and well written and there are still a bunch of those songs that I have yet to hear. Does anyone want to tackle that project? Maybe an RZ collaborative effort? I would be willing to help if possible!

Speaking of collaborating, Paul, I would be interested in helping to start a new SFA-like e-zine. It would be great if we could get some other RZ'ers involved. After all, it would be quite a big project and it was the collaboration between so many great writers and contributors and their differing views and opinions that made SFA so great. If we are able to get something going, I do have a couple of requests though. The new e-zine would need to have a section similar to the SFA Discography. Like I said, that was one of my favorite parts and it would be great to turn people on to obscure artists and songs that may not be very well known. Also, it would be great to include a bit of prog in there too. You know, some RZ/SFA friendly prog - the kind with great songwriting, melody and even pop hooks. Wallace and I can't be the only two who would appreciate a bit of prog coverage, can we? SFA used to branch out into the proto-prog, prog and proto-glam genres among others and I loved it.

Let me know! Thanks.

Hi Richard, Yes, it would be great to try and start an e-zine along SFA / RZ lines of interest. At least one other poster has emailed an interest as well. I suppose anyone who might want to get involved could email me initially and we can see how we get on. Someone with reasonable I.T / Mac type skills would be useful just for knocking up a masthead (once we decide on a title)and some typefacing, bordering of inserted images etc that breaks up and strap lines articles effectively; simple but eye-catching sort of thing that would not be a time vampire for the person doing it.

Therefore, if anyone has an idea for writing - remember this would be a fanzine in essence - enthusiasm is more important than how eruditely you write - let me know and I'll list them up and post the results back here. We could then decide on what to do next.

Stylistically, we can use SFA as a guide, but it doesn't have to 'be' SFA. So you may have short 'think pieces' which put forward points of view, ideas or just rhetorical questions on a relevant subject you want to flag up for wider opinion. You may know someone you can interview or put an email q & a to. Personally, I like the localised stuff, night clubs, musicians, venues, promotors etc. from local towns and cities.

As Richard notes, it would be great to continue the obscure record assessments that SFA used to carry and the 'left Out In The Cold' type of pieces, even 10 years on from the last issue of SFA, there's still loads of un-reissued albums and un compiled 45s out there as threads on this site often point up. You guys at the Happening45 website, or indeed any other 60s/70s record vendors / collectors if you're reading this, please make some suggestions, you get a great range of relevant wax in!

I think, it would be a cool way to gather and entertainingly disseminate a lot of knowledge and experience etc of the RZ community in one source. Think how many threads and posts from RZ's past there have been and how often many of those topics get revisited by others who didn't see the original posts but raise the same subjct etc. I think even in an age where everyone seems to have their own blog or website - still not something that was that widespread in 2005 when SFA #37 was issued, there is still room for a collaborative venture like this.

So initially then, contact me if you would like to maybe write something - and I don't want anyone to be shy about this, it's not a competition, we should be interested in ideas and information and opinons, from all or any RZers, or if you have any practical suggestions for themes, topics, that might be included in such a venture.

I'm not self-appointing myself as any kind of editorial voice here, I'm just offering to be a single point of contact to initiate the project in an effort to get it going. Who does what can be agreed when or if we see what we end up with initially.

Richard, I can send you the lone issue of Laura's Garden if you email me.

Cheers
PM

I have been dying to get these back issues again. Lost them all to a hard drive crash.

Yes!!!! SFA Reborn!!!!! A gift for the ages!!!!

A huge thank you, to you Paul. It's a huge pleasure to re-read all these back issues.

You're welcome Kevin, glad you can enjoy them again. There's always something in them to rediscover I find.

Thanks also to the few people that have volunteered so far to help with a post-SFA eZine. Anyone who wants to write something, please email with sugegstions.

PM

Hello, all,

'It's all so long ago
and I just didn't know that everything would go so fast'

Yes, the e-versions of SFA have faded into the ethereal twiglet. And our email accounts gave up the ghost years back.
Somewhere in a cardboard watch in the attic of my mind, under a pile of pictures of wedding dresses and close-ups of Marlon Brando, I still have a full set, set, set.

As some of you will remember, the first couple of issues were 'proper', printed zines (A4 sized, a la 117). But these were pirated almost soon as they appeared (very annoying!); so this, plus the time/financial cost of printing/mailing meant that Dave decided in his lovely way to simple produce the mag and give it away.

Laura's Garden managed one (illustrated) issue; a second - pretty much finished - lurked on the pc machine for a while before falling off the mountain of madness.

'There are sparrows and fountains and roses in my head.
Sometimes I don't have enough time to think of loving you.
That is very wrong.'

PC (ex-Ed. SFA)

Hello Mister Cross,great to hear from you,i hope alls well with you and life is treating you good,yeh i cant believe the time that has passed either,is it really 10 years since the last SFA?Bloody hell i was thin then ,had hair and good eyesight.....its all just gone to the dogs!!!!.....oh and i had a girlfriend too......now i dont have any of them.....lol.........!!!
Paul im still listening to the psych but mainly US stuff these days,but i do remind myself now and then of how good and different from the US model UK psych is.Anyway Paul,nice to see your name on here,thanks for the effort yourself and Dave put in to SFA,it was indeed a barrel of fun,i have them all stored away in a folder or 2,all printed off and in order(must say thanks to the work,for the printing and paper),Good times!!!!!!

Just wanted to second what Stuart said Paul. Do keep in touch and if you ever get the urge to have another go at something SFA inspired, let us know.

Paul M