Sweet dreams are made of this: One of the greatest albums of the 20th century has finally gotten a long-overdue archival overhaul. Forged Prescriptions (Space Age, www.spaceagerecordings.com) is a two-CD, through-the-looking glass recasting of druggy U.K. drone-psych maestros Spacemen 3’s The Perfect Prescription, originally issued in 1987.

Sharp-minded MAGNET readers will immediately cast their thoughts back to issue #26 (Dec/Jan 1997) and to our exhaustive Spacemen 3 cover story in which we talked to founding members Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember (now of Spectrum/Experimental Audio Research) and Jason Pierce (Spiritualized), along with other S3 musicians and intimates of the band. In discussing Perfect Rx, we described the conceptual effort as an aural approximation of a drug trip’s highs, lows and heavenly blows—“an unqualified masterpiece of shimmering, beatific melodies, rhythmic/dynamic tension and stylistic contrasts,” we gushed. (You can read the entire text of our S3 article on this site’s archives page.) Despite the ultimate, acrimonious ending of the band in 1990, Kember and Pierce agreed that they remain deeply proud of the record.

At the time of its original release, however, the album went cruelly unheralded save from the underground world of psych aficionados and fanzine writers. Consulting the liner notes of a 1989 CD edition of Perfect Rx, we learn that the album was “an arcane, apocryphal document ... telegraphing a message of unconcerned hope in a world hypnotised by guilt-ridden social work rock ... the unassuming soundtrack of a country breaking down.” The liner notes also predicted the ultimate destiny of this “untrumpeted classic” would be footnote status or, worse, omission from the rock history books altogether.

But time, opinion and musical artifacts have a funny way of eventually aligning—not that one needs to be reminded of the Velvet Underground effect. Perfect Rx has now not only been accorded after-the-fact “classic” status, in 2003 a two-disc “alternate look” at the album also makes perfectly good sense.

But Forged Prescriptions almost didn’t happen; for years it’s been one of those semi-legendary “will it ever be released?” artifacts. As long ago as our MAGNET S3 feature, word was that the project was in the pipeline, that once a few contractual matters were sorted out, Forged Prescriptions would hit the stores. (At the time, Kember had already penned the set’s liner notes—they can be viewed online at www.adasam.co.uk/spaceage/ORBIT006CD.htm—in anticipation of its imminent release.) Six years later, all those stores are finally getting their orders filled and, as you shall read below, Kember is not only relieved the record is in hand, he’s damn proud of it—at least as proud as he is of its older sibling.

Via a series of e-mail exchanges, I dropped in to see what condition Sonic Boom’s prescription was in. He was on the eve of a trip to the U.S., but graciously provided the poop, and then some, on assorted Spacemen 3 matters.

First of all, I should point out that when we put Spacemen 3—your picture, actually—on the cover of issue 26, the issue wound up selling out. Lots of S3 fans out there, one imagines. We subsequently put the entire article onto our Web site archive due to popular demand. Also, I recall being part of a small-but-vocal group of fans and fanzine journalists back in the late ‘80s who felt compelled to spread the gospel about S3.
Yes, I remember. It was quite a thrill for us farmhands from Rugby to see that. I think it helped us in our darker hours, to see someone, somewhere cared.

More recently, in revisiting Perfect Prescription via Forged Prescriptions, I’ve found myself exposing my two-year-old son to some of the Perfect Rx tunes, and he seems to dig the melodies and cool rhythms, just a nice, cheery vibe throughout.
Children and seniles really dig it, haha. Must be some Adult/Child thing. “Call The Doctor”? Cheery ? Haha ...

What are you up to right now as far as current projects—Spectrum or Experimental Audio Research—go?
I’m recording a new Spectrum LP right now, going back to more “highs, lows and heavenly blows,” “Soul Kiss” and more Spacemen-like songs with mostly guitar, bass, drums and organ-type instrumentation. I also continue to do more soundscape and experimental pieces with E.A.R., although I’ll probably wind that down a little to concentrate on my song-based oeuvre. There’s no proposed title for the Spectrum LP now, still too early—it won’t be released until late this/early next year. I’m working with a really cool guitar player called Randall Nieman. He has a band called Füxa, who are really cool. He really seems to get what I’m trying to do, which is not easy. Not that it’s complicated , but perhaps because it isn’t. It takes a real sort of discipline and understanding of moods and texture in sound. Hence a guitar can lull you or incite you according to how it’s manipulated.

Did you enjoy your 2001 Spectrum U.S. tour [in which he performed mostly Spacemen 3 material]? Not counting, of course, your brief detention and the confiscation of your pot in North Carolina.
Golly—begad, they took all my weed plus $120 for bail. I think they would still like to speak to me about it. I’m sure they must have better things to do, however. I’ll never forget the stalagmite of saliva that adorned the area outside the police-station door, where, it seemed, 90 percent of the cops jettisoned their ‘baccy spittle before going inside. Nice. But yes, I’m totally happy to play Spacemen tunes I wrote or even cover “Jason”’s songs occasionally. Doing all my older stuff too [as well as] new material: I don’t feel they are in any way exclusive. I like touring on the whole. It is grueling in the States with the distances being so great, so often. But it is always great to see old friends and meet new ones. I’ve met some real nice people in other bands who have been helpful and cool. I find the U.S. a bit of a dichotomy. I love so much about it, but it scares me equally. As much as I like studio work, performance is really what it’s about. It’s a very special thing to musically bond with people, audiences, but particularly other musicians. I always feel lucky to have eked out some sort of living in music. I find it exceeds any enlightenment I ever got from organized religion.

I wanted to find out why there was such a long delay in getting Forged Prescriptions out. When we conversed in late ‘96 for the MAGNET feature, there were already indications that Bomp! was preparing this material for release, but then I believe SpaceAge/Gerald Palmer got involved and this put the brakes on the Bomp! release. So this raises the question of why Bomp! is no longer in the picture for a U.S. release.
It’s complicated and involves all the sides of the industry I’m not comfortable with. In essence, the U.K. label—SpaceAge—doesn’t like licensing stuff. In this shrunken globe it’s almost as easy to service U.S. demand from the U.K. Import prices are no longer applicable unless stores are unscrupulous. And there are also contractual problems that held it up—all yawn material. I have unending respect and admiration for Greg Shaw. He’s one of the good guys who actually are passionate about music before money. Without Greg and Bomp!, any U.S. profile would’ve been very small. I think Greg actually came up with the title Forged Prescriptions.

I understand that SpaceAge—now part of Adasam Ltd., I believe—is arranging a distribution deal with Navarre here in the U.S. [According to SpaceAge’s Steve Kalidoski, Navarre will be distributing selected titles from Adasam’s various imprints, but that all finished product design and manufacturing will continue to be done in the UK.; Forged Prescriptions is slated to hit U.S. shores in that fashion on July 22.] What’s your relationship to SpaceAge, and did you have any hand in the Navarre deal?
No, I only A&R for SpaceAge. I have no interest in it as a label outside of royalties from my own releases. Adasam is the parent company of SpaceAge—owned/run by Steve Kalidoski and Gerald Palmer. SpaceAge did that deal.

Will Taang! continue to distribute S3 back catalog in the U.S.? They’ve been the most consistent source, through most of the ‘90s and to the present, of the band’s recordings.
I think their license runs out soon. I won’t be sad. They messed around with stuff with edits and weird sleeves, all without the correct approval. I even supplied extra material for them and went to Boston to help, but ultimately they threw [releases] together without any real finesse.

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