the first instalment of a week-long tribute to Tony Ogden, yet another severed link to the glory days of UK oddpop.... my review of “Sons of the Stage”, Melody Maker, March 23rd 1991

SINGLE OF THE WEEK
WORLD OF TWIST
"Sons of the Stage"
(Circa)

Camp is all about a belittling delight in the quaint artificiality and over-stylisation of bygone pop culture; an aesthetic response wherein affection is mingled with contempt. Camp in pop has meant--Pet Shop Boys, Transvision Vamp, all that sorry school of shite.

But now here come World Twist, with an astonishing single that reconciles these opposites and offers the dizzying possibility of a “camp sublime”.

“Sons of the Stage” is a bugger to describe, which is always a good sign. Imagine a sound somewhere between Can and Vic Reeves, oceanic rock and a lava lamp. It’s camp and it’s cosmic. Kitsch-adelia is the best term I can find to evoke the flatulent fanfares of symphonic Moog, the spirograph curlicues of acid rock guitar, the monstrous, stomping beat. Yet underneath the arched eyebrows and laconic Northern irony, World of Twist are obviously fired up by an ardour for the imposing idiocy of pop, its vacant menace and preposterous splendour, as manifested by bubblegum barbarians like Glitter, the Sweet, David Essex. The lyrics set up a fantastical scenario of communal freak-out, joining the dots that run from acid rock through Northern Soul to Hawkwind and “Teenage Rampage” right up to rave culture. After this camp bacchanalia, the final coda--a fake orchestral fantasia of phased guitars and babbling Moogs--is a plastic apocalypse worthy of Prince, at once tacky and sacramental.

Awesome.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AND

the lyrics to "Sons of the Stage"--the best evocation ever of what it feels like to be on a ravefloor in the thick of an Ecstasy-ravaged crowd

The beat breaks down so we pick it up
The floor shakes down but it's not enough
The beam is up and the kids are high
I've seen them move and it blows my eyes
The floor's an ocean and this wave is breaking
Your head is gone and your body's shaking
There is nothing you can do because there is no solution
You gotta get down to the noise and confusion

The sound goes round and we start to climb
The lips curl up and it kills my line
The beat is steal and the scene is sown
I see her eyes and her eyes are blown
The floor's an ocean and this wave is breaking
Your head is gone and your body's shaking
There is nothing you can do because there is no solution
You gotta get down to the noise and confusion

Out of our minds on the stage

[repeat first verse]

from the World of Twist site