Thotch - The Honeycomb Is Over (1976)

Thotch were a UK progressive rock band of the mid 70's, comprising Brian Pern on lead vocals, Pat Quid on guitar, Tony Pebblé (actually Pebble, but he added the accent himself) on keyboards, "John" on bass, Michael Philips on drums, and original member Bennet St. John, who left before their first recording session. They broke onto the scene with their song 'Black Christmas' in 1975, and followed this with their debut album, which was a live recording from the Rainbow Theatre, London. 'Onion Divorce' was their first studio album, following which Pern left the band in 1977, forcing them to hire American Lindsey Simon, who did so much cocaine that his nose fell off. When Simon left, the band recorded one more album, 'And Then There Were Four', before Quid renamed what was left of the group as Pat & The Patios, and they had a surprise hit single with 'Christmas In Me Car'. Quid released a solo album under his own name, with 'I Quid', and Pebblé recorded the concept album 'Periodic Tablé: A Symphony', while Pern decided to perform his unreleased rock opera 'The Day Of The Triffids', based on the book of the same name, at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. A warm-up show at Wembley Arena was scheduled for Friday 6 June 2014, with former James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore as the narrator, but unfortunately Moore was stuck in New Zealand filming, and so had to fulfil his role from his hotel room via Skype. Pern passed away in 2017 as the result of a "segway mistake", and as their albums are now impossible to find, here is a tribute to these neglected UK prog-rock pioneers, with a collection of some of their best work, both from Thotch and from Pern's solo career, including his 1985 duet with Carly Swan on 'Keep Trying'.  

Track listing 

01 The Honeycomb Is Over
02 Worm Equinox
03 Pound Land Polly
04 Eggless Planet
05 March Of The Triffids (demo)
06 Onion Divorce
07 Rock The Nation
08 The Honeycomb Is Over #2
09 Love Is Modern
10 Thotch
11 Keep Trying (with Carly Swan)
12 Maraca Man
13 Heaven Calling
14 The Honeycomb Is Over (Reprise)