Telescopes, The
Hidden Fields
Founded in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie. The Telescopes have been mining a unique anti-myopian seam of highly influential experimental, drone, noise, dream & psych for over 20 years. Their first record was a split flex-disc with Loop on Cheree Records. After a further two critically acclaimed singles for the label, they moved to What Goes On Records, where they released another two EPs and their debut album "Taste". All of which found their way to the top of the UK independent charts, gathering single of the week / album of the month status in all of the British music papers of the time. Tours followed with Spacemen 3, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain. And it wasnt long before The Telescopes were headliners themselves. Bark Psychosis, Whipping Boy, Slowdive, Bleach, The Cranes and Ride all played some of their earlier shows supporting them. In 1990 the group appeared at one of the UKs biggest festivals of the time, The Reading Festival. They were one of the few bands that werent bottled off the stage at the event. However, the increasing violent interactions with audiences at their shows saw the group step away from their noise origins and head towards a more introspective psychedelic sound. It was around this time that What Goes On folded and Alan McGee stepped in to release the group's material from the hands of official receivership.