THE PROG INTERVIEW
ED WYNNE
Every month, we get inside the minds of some of the biggest names in music. This issue, it’s Ozric Tentacles co-founder Ed Wynne. Inspired to pick up the guitar by family friend and Beatles member George Harrison, the young musician’s trippy soundscapes ended up playing a key role in the 80s psychedelic revival. With Ozrics, he’s since released 15 studio albums, the most recent being Space For The Earth, and he was also part of offshoot project Nodens Ictus. He’s collaborated with Amon Düül UK and Eat Static and, last year, issued his first ever solo record, Shimmer Into Nature. Prog catches up with Wynne to reminisce about playing at Stonehenge, opening for Gong and why he decided it was time to make another Ozrics album.
Words: Chris McGarel
Formed in 1983 and taking their name from an imaginary breakfast cereal, Ozric Tentacles improbably carried their psychedelic jams from a makeshift campsite at Stonehenge to the UK’s Top 20. Devotees can thank their lucky charms in 2020 for what’s proving to be a bumper year in Erpland. After 2019’s exploratory excursion into a solo career with Shimmer Into Nature and live shows under his own moniker, Ed Wynne has resurrected the legendary band with Space For The Earth, the first new Ozrics material in half a decade.
A selection of their starred catalogue has been remastered by the man himself for Kscope and, with another side-project waiting in the wings, Prog spoke to the founder and only remaining original member to see what makes him snap, crackle and pop.
Can you remember the first Ozric Tentacles gig?
The first Ozric gig was at Stonehenge Free Festival many, many years ago in 1983. I had just left school. I bumped into a load of people and they said, “We’re going to this festival. We’re gonna hire a generator. Bring your amp and guitar and we’ll see what happens.” So we went down there and set our camp up, made a little fire, got the generator on and chugging away. After half an hour I looked up and there were 100 people there. Half an hour later there were 500. I suddenly thought, “Blimey, we’ve got a gig going on here.” Someone came up to me and said, “What’s the name of the band?” And I just said, “Well, Ozric Tentacles is what it’s called today. I don’t know what it’s gonna be called tomorrow.”
New album, Space For The Earth.
Were these freeform jams?
We didn’t really have any tunes at that point; we were very used to jamming. It’s kind of where the whole thing came from: freeform, just for the enjoyment of the moment.
I remember Joie [Hinton] set up his keyboards and said, “What do you want me to do?” I just tex tures we were said, “Make some swishing noises.” So off he went and it was brilliant. All those synthesised hearing in our minds were suddenly right there.