In the grey post-punk landscape of the early eighties in England, the seeds were sown of the forthcoming Psychedelic Restoration. Bands such as Mood Six, The Times, Le Mat, Doctor and The Medics and The Barracudas began to interject colour and fun again into the current music scene. A compilation album - 'A Splash of Colour' was recorded and released in 1981, containing many of the aforementioned bands, and all the bands began releasing their first slabs of psychedelic vinyl. The place to hear these gems was at clubs such as The Groovy Cellar and The Clinic, where, combined with assorted Nuggets and Pebbles, these sounds were now influencing a whole new generation.

Widening the spectrum, bands such as The Prisoners, Milkshakes and Stingrays began to evolve their own trash aesthetic, regularly laying waste to any venues they played and slowly building ardent followings. In America, the first mutterings could be heard from bands whom would come to represent the so-called 'Paisley Underground', such as the excellent Rain Parade, and the more traditional Long Ryders.

The Psychedelic tendrils were now starting to spread far and wide, with each place developing their own unique take on the Psychedelic aesthetic. From Australia there were The Lime Spiders, The Screaming Tribesmen and The New Christs, from France came Plasticland, from Scandinavia came The Nomads and The Stems, and from America, mine and many other peoples favourite, The Fuzztones.

By 1983, people around the UK were desperate to find places to hear these bands, and thus from 1983 - 1988, an explosion of Psychedelic clubs emerged, primarily located in and around London and The South-East. Clubs such as the legendary Alice in Wonderland, The Taste Experience and The Crypt, and The Pigeon Toed Orange Peel, The Sugar Lump and The Coal Hole. These clubs provided a central focus to the scene, and provided bases from which the psychedelic tendrils would spread even further

One could get really cool threads from The Regal and Sweet Charity and latterly Planet Alice, as well as the ever reliable Kensington and Camden Markets and The Portobello Road. Kensington Market provided a great place to exchange ideas and hang out, and to get hold of new sounds, Plastic Passion Zippo's Music and Vinyl Experience in London and The Plastic Factory in Birmingham were the places to go.

The 'Big Three' of Alice's, The Taste and The Crypt would all regularly promote external events, and invariably their key DJ's would often work and help each other out at different happenings. So Wizz from The Crypt, who was involved in the excellent Scene and Heard Lightshow, would provide the lights at The Taste Experience at Maximus, The Dream Maker from The Taste Experience would DJ at various Alice in Wonderland Magical Mystery Trips and sometimes at The Crypt, and Alice's crew - led by Christian Paris and The Doctor, would take it to the world.

The Alice in Wonderland regularly featured live bands, captured on the LP 'A Pretty Smart Way to Catch a Lobster', and started a series of superb All Night Film Festivals at the Scala cinema, as well as promoting the aforementioned Magical Mystery Trips. The best of these for many were the third, in 1985, held in a disused holiday camp at Clacton, and the fourth, in 1986, held in Lowestoft and featuring Doctor and The Medics and Zodiac Mindwarp.

Around this time, many bands were now embracing aspects of this cool scene, including The Damned (and their alter egos Naz Nomad and The Nightmares), The Lords of The New Church, both playing blistering Rock and Roll and yielding future classics such as Grimly Fiendish and Russian Roulette respectively.Julian Cope re-emerged and began his journey along life's psychedelic highway and oddly XTC, in the guise of The Dukes of Stratosphear, produced an excellent album '25 '0 Clock'. The Gothic scene had always had a certain Psychedelic influence, and this could be heard in bands as diverse as The Sisters of Mercy and The Cult. The latter of whom produced the awesome 'Love' album, tracks from which would regularly grace the turntables of any club worth it's salt.

From 1982 - 1985, Doctor and The Medics were the county's best kept secret, but this would all change when their cover of Spirit in the Sky went to No1 in the charts in 1985. From now on they would be on the cover of Sounds etc., and made glorious appearances at The Mystery Trips of 1985 and at The Reading Festival of 1986, which seemed to largely consist of bands emanating from this scene. Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction, again favourites from the Mystery Trips would also break big, regularly appearing in the charts and would take their rabid rock'n'roll to anywhere that would have them.

The more hippy/70's style bands would also regularly find new, rabid audiences embracing their farout music, with Hawkwind in particular being notably re-energised at this time and cranking out excellent new albums and playing many transcendental shows, as would true psychedelic lunatic Nik Turner with his excellent Inner City Unit. The Treatment, Voodoo Child, Magic Mushroom Band, Ozric Tentacles and Another Green World would explore other ethereal tableaus of sound, creating mesmerising live shows, with their fusion of sound and light.

Fanzines such as Dig This, Go Go, Summer Fun, Shadows and Reflections, Freakbeat and the legendary Bucketful of Brains, as well as Spiral Scratch, Zigzag and the national music paper weeklies would all cover the burgeoning scene as things began to explode. Bam Caruso, founded by Phil Smee, would pump out several seminal releases, as would Big Beat and various other labels. From The Taste Experience in Southend and London, Alice's and The Crypt etc, through to the Slut Club in Brighton and The Hangout in Liverpool, the scene truly was everywhere in the UK, and indeed worldwide as bands mentioned earlier such as The Fuzztones proved.

Somewhere, 1984 - 1986 really represented the scenes peak, although after the Media coverage started to die down, the hardcore continued to expand, playing Garage, UK Freakbeat, Rock, Glam, Goth and Punk and everything in between for several more years, Alice's, The Taste and The Crypt included. The Gothic influence also permeated, influenced and counter influenced the scene - The Sisters were favourites everywhere, and again echoes of the new psychedelia could be heard in All About Eve, Ghost Dance, Rose of Avalanche, The Mission etc.

By the end of the decade, with clubs such as The Taste Experience and The Crypt reaching their peaks in 1988/1989, the scene slowly began to change. Alice's carried on until the early 90's but by then most people had moved on. The very best things in life are not supposed to last forever, and this scene was no exception. However, for a glorious decade, London and the UK really was Swinging again - From the Clubs, Bands, Film Festivals, Boat Trips, Mystery Trips, all night gigs etc, to the awesome artwork, fashion and life affirming spirit of the scene, the effects and reverberations can still be felt today, the aftershock being one of prolonged exuberance, for sustained intensity truly does produce ecstasy = The Psychedelic Restoration.