The Classic Rock Archive
> Browse > Latest IssueSearch the Archive
Enter your search below and click "Search".
(e.g. 'hendrix' or 'guitar solo')
Your Account
You're not logged in! Logging into the archive will allow you to flag and retrieve articles you're especially interested in.
> Login to your account > RegisterNirvana
From page 89 of Classic Rock Magazine Christmas 2003
Cover of Christmas 2003 issue.
Reissues
(Universal) Patrick Campbell Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos really should be legends.
Instead, three and a half decades after their brief, late-60s heyday they remain tagged with the ‘other Nirvana’ label.
Remastering their three albums won’t reverse this injustice, but connoisseurs of psych pop who haven’t already got at least two of these in their collection should take notice.
Concept album ‘The Story Of Simon Simopath’ (★★★★★) kicks off proceedings in both mono and stereo, and while more ‘Teenage Opera’ than ‘Tommy’, contains a classic in ‘Pentecost Hotel’. ‘All Of Us’ (★★★★★ ), their second long-player of 1967, offers two stand-outs in ‘Tiny Goddess’ and ‘Rainbow Chaser’, the latter the heavily phased track most people associate the duo with. But by the time of 1970’s ‘To Markos III’ (★★★★★ ) the pair had all but gone their separate ways.
They were never destined to change the world as their namesakes did two decades later, but at their best Nirvana – Nirvana UK, as they are now called, if you must – captured the heady spirit of their time like few others.
Michael Heatley
