The Psychedelics

The Psychedelics were a band formed in February 1964 and disbanded in October 1974, not long after the release of the final album. They have released 14 albums, one in 1964, one in 1965, two in 1966, two in 1967, two in 1968, one in 1969, one in 1970, two in 1971, one in 1972, and one in 1974. They rose to fame in 1966 after the release of their 1st 1966 album "Eruption of Course," using a psychedelic theme and boosting the band to fame. They were most popular from 1966 to 1974, more specifically, from 1966 to 1969 and 1971 to 1974. Some consider them to be one of the best bands in Sheaman as they are one of the few popular bands to only have one orange album and because of their powerful fans that were always enticed to hear their newest album.
== History: 1964 - 1974 ==
=== Formation: 1962 - 1964 ===
The Psychedelics was formed by band members: Arron Lester, Harris Stafford, and Thomas Woodward in February 1964. Lester was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Stafford played the electric, bass, and acoustic guitar, making him the lead guitarist, and Woodward played drums and occasionally played backing vocals. Woodward was originally part of Fate of the Folks between 1962 and 1963 as the drummer for the band and Lester was originally the lead guitarist for Fate of the Folks from 1962 to 1963. Both Woodward and Lester were unhappy with the fact that they were cancelled out of songwriting and that they had little influence in the band, leading to the two agreeing to make their own band in October 1963, leaving Fate of the Folks. In February 1964 they found Harris Stafford, an upcoming guitarist who they deemed a “incredibly fluent guitarist.”
=== Early Years: 1964 - 1966 ===
The band began writing their first songs in February 1964, making sure that each band member had influence in the writing process of each songs, not leaving one band member out. Stafford said that “This process made it so that it was incredibly equal, neither one of us could say that we were the main man because we were the main men instead, all of us.” Their began seriously writing around early Summer and showed demos of a semi-completed album to ABR in August 1964. ABR was generally happy with the demos but said to the band that they didn’t see much potential in them at the time. ABR eventually agreed to sign the band and in September 1964, the band released their first album titled “The Psychedelics.” The album was played quite heavily around the local area and was surprisingly successful. It did not chart on Sheaman Charts but it did receive some outside attention, making ABR interested in making a new album. The Psychedelics began touring their city in October, mainly in bars, restaurants, and underground venues.
Development of the band’s second studio album began sometime in March 1965 and this time, the band worked on making the quality of the album more pristine, reducing the number of songs on the album from 11 to 8. They spent half a year on the album, believing that it would bring a better quality to the album. ABR agreed to lower the songs in the album as long as the band produced a charting album. This gave the band a lot of pressure and so Stafford proposed that they should scrap any songs that were deemed “too experimental” in an effort to create a similar sound to their last album. The album was released in October 1965 and was called “Flowers of Growth.” To the band’s surprise, it managed to chart at number 96 on Sheaman Charts but was criticized for sounding to similar to their previous album. The band took the criticism into account and looked towards producing an album that sounded different from their last.
The band began producing their third studio album in January 1966 and intended to make a change to their sound. ABR was reluctant to let their change their sound due to the fact that Flowers of Growth had managed to chart on Sheaman Charts but eventually they came around, allowing them to experiment around a bit. The band decided to spend time at Woodward’s house, smoking marijuana, taking heroin, and taking LSD. Lester and Stafford mainly took the drugs, whilst Woodward mostly smoked nicotine cigarettes and occasionally smoking marijuana cigarettes. Woodward often discouraged Lester and Stafford’s use of heroin and LSD but when Lester and Stafford began taking hallucinogens, he banned them from stepping foot in his house. He took time off of the band during late spring and summer to focus on quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Lester and Stafford continued using drugs, slowing down their writing and being arrested multiple times for assaulting people whilst under the influence. Lester and Stafford employed a temporary replacement drummer whilst they recorded their new album when they started realizing that they had a deadline to produce two albums that year as set by ABR. They finished recording their first album in June 1966 and because of their uses of psychedelic inducing drugs, they seemed to have delved into some psychedelic folk sort-of genre. ABR was intrigued by the new album which they decided to call “Eruption Course”, deciding to promote it heavily and released it early, in July 1966. The album was a major success, reaching number one on Sheaman Charts, reaching number 74 in the UK. Their unexpected success led to them setting up a tour, dated for October 1966 to March 1967, titled “The Psychedelics Tour.” They continued to recording songs and to meet their two-album deadline, they decided to produce a 7-song album and when Woodward returned to the band in September 1966, they began heavily recording, finishing in late October. ABR released the album titled “Nation of Pain” on the 26th of November 1966, during the second month of The Psychedelics Tours. Nation of Pain charted at number 5 on Sheaman Charts and 86 on the UK charts. It received generally positive reviews but most critics still favoured their previous album to Nation of Pain.
=== Height of Fame: 1966 - 1974 ===
==== First Wave of Fame: 1966 - 1969 ====
Their tour was a major success due to two albums in the space of 4 months and the new psychedelic sound that the band had been using, especially in Nation of Pain. The new psychedelic sound and rising popularity in hippie/counterculture made the band an anthem of psychedelia, drug use, and hippie culture. Lester and Stafford embraced this face but Woodward, who had stopped smoking and become much healthier, hated the band’s alignment to psychedelia, drug use, and hippie culture. He decided that the success of the band was too great and that leaving it would be a mistake for his career and so he remained in the band after the tour had ended.
The band continued to see major success after the release of Eruption Course and Nation of Pain and because of the success of the album, ABR wanted to release another two albums in 1967. The pressure to finish these albums was less this time as they began recording their 5th studio album after they finished their tour in March 1967. Drug use during this period increased and the band decided that they needed a bassist in the band, so they went through a hiring process in late March and early April, deciding on Archie Bailey to become their new bassist. Bailey was a heavy drug user and may have been the reason why Lester and Stafford liked him. Lester described Bailey as a “relaxed figure, a man with a stern sound and a beautiful array of clothing, made from heaven.” Lester was drunk whilst he said that, but it is generally considered true to what he might’ve said if he wasn’t drunk. Woodward disagreed with the hiring of Bailey, believing him to be a bad influence on Lester and Stafford but his complaints were not taken seriously by the rest of the band which upset Woodward. They finished writing and recording their 5th studio album in May 1967 and sent it to ABR. ABR were incredibly impressed by the band’s new album and decided to make it their top album for promoting. They spend millions on promoting the album, making it known throughout the entire country, most of the pacific, and parts of the UK and United States. They released their album titled “Weird Trees” on the 12th of June 1967 and it very quickly reached number one on Sheaman Charts, number 12 on the UK charts, and 89 on the US Billboard, making it an international success. Their success made them the most popular band in Dissau the other Shean countries at the time, leading to Woodward, Stafford, and Lester, meeting Prime Minister of Dissau, Astryd Rigby. Rigby became a fan of the band after the release of their 3rd studio album, Eruption Course, and because of their international success in summer 1967, she became eager to meet the band in person. They met on the 22nd of July 1967 in her summer home in Talasca. She expressed herself as a fan of the band which came as a surprise to the band. Woodward was especially interested in Rigby, citing her bubbly personality and even saying “She didn’t even seem like a politician, just another fan who loved our work. It was quite amazing.” Woodward and Rigby later became good friends and according to Rigby, in 2015, they are still friends.
The began immediately began recording their 6th studio album in July 1967, already agreeing on naming the album “Mirror of Misfortunes.” They spent every night writing, rewriting, pondering, recording, and rerecording the album. They worked tirelessly to create a masterpiece, leading to an even larger increase in drug intake but Woodward managed to get through to Stafford, who agreed to decrease him drug intake and try to eventually go clean. The band finished recording the album in August and sent it off to ABR who were completely astounded by the album. ABR believed that this could become the band’s best album, and possible the best album every created. ABR sent this to many radio stations and got the band to agree to release “Noise Room” as a single to create popularity for the album. Noise Room was released a single on the 27th of August 1967 and began playing on radios the same day. It was a massive success, leading to major news publications citing the band as geniuses. The single reached number one on Sheaman Charts, number one the UK charts, and even number one on the US Billboard. It was a massive international success and lead to the band organizing a new tour called “The Psychedelics - Wonderful Magical Tour.” They went on to release their full album called “Mirror of Misfortunes” on the 20th of October 1967 and it reached number one Sheaman Charts, the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and more countries. The success of the album led to a massive wave of fans to the band and a massive demand for a world tour. The band decided to backtrack on a pacific tour and instead push for a world tour. The world tour went by the same name and begun on the 4th of November 1967 and ended on the 21st of March 1968. It was a massive success, making the band millions and giving them further international fame. The band toured in countries such as: Dissau, Sheaman, Australia, New Zealand, India, Italy, Spain, Portugal, West Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States of America. Their tour was a massive success and led to ABR requesting that they undertake another world tour in 1968 which the band accepted, as long as everything was paid for an the toured 10 countries at maximum.
The band began writing their next album during the middle of their tour in January 1968. They wanted to experiment a little more, leading to Woodward suggesting that they focus on a progressive rock sound. Woodward’s idea was taken into consideration and they began recording new songs in February until April. The band continued taking drugs and it got to a point where Lester was hospitalized on the 6th of April because of a drug overdose. Woodward became tired of all of the drug use in the band and confronted Lester, Stafford, and Bailey about the drug use, saying that he would leave the band if they continued using drugs. Stafford, who had promised to come clean, had managed to cut back on some drugs such as LSD, heroin, and hallucinogens was mostly not targeted by Woodward, but nevertheless, he was still part of the conversation. Lester and Bailey said that Woodward was crazy and that he should mind his own business, so Woodward left the band there and then. ABR managed to convince Woodward to stay in the band after a lengthy discussion but Woodward was still incredibly dissatisfied with the situation. The band their album titled “Little Birdie” in late April and it was another really successful album. It reached number one on Sheaman Charts, UK charts, and US Billboard. The band were then convinced to pursue their second world tour, titled “The Psychedelia World Tour.” They toured Dissau, Sheaman, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, and Canada. The tour lasted between the 17th of June to the 18th of August 1968 and was a major success. The band began writing songs whilst on tour and when they finished the tour, they recorded the songs in later August. ABR seemed quite unhappy with the new album and asked that The Psychedelics completely redo the album, which they declined to do. The Psychedelics warned that they would switch to another record label if they continued demanding redoing the album. ABR promised the band a one-album-a-year contract if they redid their album but that was the last straw for The Psychedelics, who, after much convincing from Woodward, cut ties with ABR and formed their own record label called Woozy Records (WZY). The band decided to only record an album a year and released their new album called “Sweet Bag of Flowers” on the 15th of November 1968. It received large criticism as it was nowhere near as popular as their previous albums, but it was still considered a good album, nonetheless, reaching number one on Sheaman Charts, number one on the UK charts, and number 4 on the US Billboard.
The band decided announced that because of stress and exhaustion, they would not be going on a world tour that year, and possible for some time. To not upset fans, The Psychedelics went on a pacific tour. They decided to tour Hong Kong, Malaysia, Beatrice, Athudul, Dissau, Shantahein, Union of Theo & Baranova, Sheaman, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Many fans from non-English speaking countries in the pacific were very happy that the band had toured their countries and The Psychedelics considered their pacific tour “their best.”
The band began writing their next album between February and May 1969 and a one-off song after Woodstock later in the year called “Woodstock” which was recording in September. Because of Woodstock, the band decided to call the album Woodstock, seeing it as a fitting name for the album. During this time, Lester and Bailey continued using drugs and got to point where they could hardly even speak. This upset Woodward as well as Stafford, who had managed to stop using most drugs and mostly only drank alcohol and smoked nicotine cigarettes at this point. Woodward told the rest of the band that he intended to leave the band after they finished recording their album. The band was mostly civil about it, with Lester and Stafford being mostly upset by his leaving. The band finished recording their album called “Woodstock” in September 1969 and released it on the 7th of October 1969. The album was a massive success, nearly as successful as Mirror of Misfortunes. The album reached number one on Sheaman Charts, the UK charts, and the US Billboard. It also reached number one in many other countries, including many non-English speaking countries. After the release of the album, Woodward left the band on the 14th of October 1969, announcing his leaving of the band on DBC.
==== Woodward Leaving, Bailey Kicked & Struggles: 1969 - 1971 ====
After Woodward left, the band decided to get itself together and a month later in November, Stafford and Lester agreed to kick Bailey from the band. Lester and Stafford both contemplated ending the band due to the fact that they lost one of the co-founders of the band and that they had go rid of their bassist who had also become quite popular with fans. They decided to continue on and in January 1970, they announced that they were hiring a drummer and a bassist for the band. This led to a massive wave of bassists and drummer attempting to join the band, leading to an overwhelming pressure on the band to employ a new drummer and bassist. Whilst looking for individuals to join the band, they were also writing songs at the same time, and even recording demo versions of the songs without drums or a bass. Finally, in April 1970, the band picked Robyn Gibbs to become their new drummer and Allan Prince as their new bassist. Both had never taken any hard drugs and mostly only smoked and occasionally had alcoholic drinks. They became good role models for Lester, helping him stop using hard drugs and eventually helping him stop using most drugs.
The band finished writing and began recording their 10th studio album in June 1970 which they called “Vietnam Never.” The album introduced new genres such as orchestral rock and garage rock, straying further from their original psychedelic music, yet still keeping it. They finished recording in late June and released their newest album on the 14th of July 1970. The album was praised for introducing new genres and sounds to their album, as well as their political rhetoric surrounding Vietnam, but overall, it was considered a good but not great album. “Master of Worlds” was the band’s most popular song of the album, peaking interests over the orchestral sound of the song. The album managed to reach number 1 on Sheaman Charts, number 7 on UK charts, and number 32 on the US Billboard, with many critics believing that this was the downfall of the band.
The Psychedelics wanted to make a better album that the last, so they decided to only tour Dissau and Sheaman in 1970, going on a tour of both countries in August to September 1970. After returning home, they decided to begin writing and recording their next album. They decided to scrap a lot of what they were originally doing when they found old recordings and old song lyrics in a file from 1967. They decided to rewrite/rerecord these songs and release them on their newest album. They finished recording in January 1971 and released their newest album titled “Oh, For They Change” on the 19th of February 1971. The album criticized heavily for being “boring,” “uninteresting,” and “already done.” The album was named their “worst album” by Sheaman Music, who also criticized the album for “trying to go back to what they used to be.” Oh, For They Change became the band’s only orange record. The album reached number 2 on Sheaman Charts, making it one of their few albums to not reach number 1 on Sheaman Charts. Oh, For They Change reached number 34 on UK charts and 156 on the US Billboard. The Psychedelics contemplated breaking up due to failing to make something remarkable since 1969’s Woodstock. They eventually encouraged each other to continue, attempting to march into new territories of music.
==== Second Wave of Popularity: 1971 - 1974 ====
The Psychedelics began writing and recording new songs by April 1971, hoping to release something impressive and career reviving. They continued experimenting with garage rock and decided to also implement some more harder psychedelic songs. During this time, all the band members became clean (with the exception of nicotine cigarettes and alcohol) and the relationship between all of the band members strengthened. Gibbs said in a 1976 interview that during 1971 and until the demise of the band they had a “powerful and beautiful relationship” with each other and that they became “inseparable,” valuing their friendship over touring. The band finished recording their 12th studio album which they called “Make Me a Martyr” in July 1971 and released it on the 25th of August 1971. The album was praised for it’s creativeness and exploration of genres, with Sheaman Music praising their garage and harder psychedelic sound. The album reached number 1 on Sheaman Charts, number 3 on UK charts, and number 16 on the US Billboard. The band responded to the positive reviews by announcing that they were planning a final world tour.
They began continued experimenting with their sound throughout the rest of 1971 and early 1972, only beginning to write songs in May 1972. They introduced a hard rock sound to their music, inspired by Led Zeppelin, which they added to their music. They began majorly tuning down their psychedelic tune which was majorly due to the fact that psychedelic rock was no longer popular and that the band no longer took hard drugs. They finished recording their album in August 1972 and for a couple months they tweaked it to find the perfect arrangement. They released the album titled “White Woken Eyes” on the 23rd of October 1972 and it received even better reviews than Make Me a Martyr. The album was compared to the popularity of Weird Trees when it was released. The album charted at number 1 on Sheaman Charts, number 1 on UK Charts, and number 1 on the US Billboard. It received number 1 in many or European countries such as Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Sheaman Charts currently rates the album the band’s 5th best album out of their 14-album discography.
The band had a world tour from February to July 1973 in Sheaman, Dissau, Beatrice, Athudul, Shantahein, Theo & Barnova, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Greece, Switzerland, Italy, West Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. The world tour was their largest world tour they had ever done, making the band millions.
They began recording their 14th studio album around November 1973. This time, they experimented immensely, meeting with popular bands at the time and getting ideas for what they were going to experiment with. Eventually, they began recording songs that adhered to progressive rock, art rock, and hard rock themes. They began properly recording songs in March 1973 but went back to change many of them due to Lester’s disagreement with some of sounds of the album. They finished their album in April and released the album titled “Seek What Must Be Sought” on the 11th of June 1974. It was an even bigger success than their previous album, something they did not expect in the slightest. It was massively praised for its experimentation and was considered to use genres such as prog rock, art rock, and hard rock. The album reached number 1 on Sheaman Charts, UK charts, US Billboard, and countless other countries.
=== Lester and Stafford's Death & Breakup: 1974 ===
Main Article: Death of Arron Lester, Suicide of Harris Stafford
A month after the release of Seek What Must Be Sought, on the 16th of July 1974, Lester died. Days after the release of their newest album, Lester’s mother died. Lester was incredibly close to his mother, taking up recording time to visit her and so her death really hurt Lester. He became incredibly addicted to drugs, even more addicted to than what he was the late 60s. He began getting really ill and taking more and more drugs. His band mates tried to get him to stop and every time they tried, he would get better for a day or two and then get on drugs again. During a concert which started at 10:00 on the 15th of July 1974, Lester took a massive amount of heroin, so much that he was hardly coping to sing. Lester continued singing but he began getting worse and at 00:13, the show was stopped by the band as they were concerned about Lester’s health. At 00:26, the band put Lester in a car and drove him home. They arrived home at 00:48, gave Lester some water and then put him to bed. He dosed off to sleep around 01:04 and the band went downstairs and made some food. During Lester’s time asleep, his respiratory system began shutting down and sometime around 1:04 to 1:46, he died after he stopped breathing. The band went to check on Lester around 1:46 and when they went into his room, they found him dead, not breathing. They immediately called an ambulance even though they believed he was dead. When the ambulance arrived, they believed that he might still be able to be brought back to life, so they rushed him to the hospital but at 1:59 on the 16th of July 1974, Arron Lester was pronounced dead.
After the death of Lester, the band did not sleep for the rest of the night, instead focusing on Lester’s death. Stafford left the discussion to grab a coffee downstairs, but instead of doing so, he wrote a suicide note, explaining that the death of Lester, his best friend, and the guilt he felt for not helping enough, led to his decision to kill himself. He shot himself at 3:34 on the 16th of July 1974. After the gunshot was heard, Gibbs and Prince went downstairs to find Stafford dead on the floor with a gun and note beside him.
=== Aftermath ===
The death of both Lester and Stafford highlighted the de facto end of the band. Gibbs and Prince had an interview a week after Lester and Stafford’s death, with Gibbs “Stafford killed himself to join in arms with his brother. He felt like he killed him, so he had to kill himself. We’re (the band members) all to blame in this mess. We didn’t do enough to stop Lester’s death, after 1969 we were some of the happiest musicians out there, but Lester had to much love for his mother, too much love that he couldn’t live without. I’m ashamed of how things went.” Woodward also commented on the death of Lester and Stafford, saying “I loved them to bits. Sure, when I was in the band they had problems and our relationship was amazing but me and Lester were childhood friends, we worked together, played together, and lived together. Stafford was an amazing friend and always knew how to be there for somebody. Whenever I had a problem, he was there.” Archie Bailey refused to comment on the death of Lester and Stafford but weeks after the two’s death, he disappeared and was never found again. Most assume that he went mad over the two’s deaths and he felt guilt over it.
Both Gibbs and Prince went on to form their own band called “The Resurrectors” in 1975, with the name of the band referencing Gibbs and Prince wanting to bring back, resurrect Lester and Stafford.
The band reunited for many concerts in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. They mostly included Woodward as drummer, Gibbs on electric guitar and vocals, and Prince on bass. The held a concert in 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2005, and haven’t held a concert since.
== Legacy ==
== Discography ==
Main Article: The Psychedelics Discography
* The Psychedelics – September 1964
* Flowers of Growth – October 1965
* Eruption of Course – July 1966
*  Nation of Pain – November 1966
* Weird Trees – June 1967
* Mirror of Misfortunes – October 1967
* Peace & Love – April 1968
* Sweet Bag of Flowers – November 1968
* Woodstock – October 1969
* Vietnam Never – July 1970
* Anti-Religion – February 1971
* Marijuana Smokers – August 1971
* White Woken Eyes – October 1972
* Seek What Must Be Sought – June 1974
== Band Members ==
Main Article: The Psychedelics Band Members
* Arron Lester - Lead singer, rhythm guitarist (1964 - 1974)
* Harris Stafford - Electric/acoustic guitarist (1964 - 1974)
* Thomas Woodward - Drummer/percussion (1964 - 1966/1966 - 1969)
* George McClellan (temporary) - Drummer (1966) 
* Archie Bailey - Bass guitarist (1967 - 1969)
* Robyn Gibbs - Drummer (1969 - 1974)
* Allan Prince - Bass guitarist (1969 - 1974)