Dukes of Stratosphere
Bandname
Dukes of Stratosphere
Country
UK/
Members
Sir John Johns - voc, g
The Red Curtain - b
Lord Cornelius Plum - mell, pi, org
E.I.E.I. Owen - dr
(that are all fake names,
as everybody knows the Dukes are XTC)
Psonic Psunspot
Label
Virgin
Released
1987
Tracks
10
Time
34
Format
LP / CD ?
25 o?clock
Label
Virgin
Released
1985
Tracks
6
Time
27
Format
LP / CD ?

If you get the chance just buy anything by the Dukes, Partridge & co from XTC at peak. Lots of this stuff was rejected from the quite psychedelic Skylarking LP. Fantastic stuff.

These are real fun albums doing a good impression of psychadelia in rocky/poppy late 1980īs sort of way. It is actually XTC behind this. I had both on tape when they came out because I was a huge XTC fan. It was actually a really nice surprise because it is very different from XTCīs normal output at the time - which was good too.

If you are a fan of psychedelic rock then this album is a must have. Though never released on CD and a very rare find on record, it is worth every second of your time to obtain a copy. I picked up this album sifting through a stack of LPīs in an auto bodyshop. Having never heard of the Dukes of Stratosphere and feeling skeptical of the 1985 release date, I finally decided that it was worth the 50 cents to buy out of pure intrigue. (Not to mention the fantastic album art.) So I took it home and gave it a spin. After 30 seconds I was blown away. Opening with the title track,"25 O'Clock", the album blasts off immediately and takes you back to 1967. "Love Explosion" and "Mole from the Ministry" are two more of the six far-out tracks on this oddity of an album. Influenced strongly by late Beatles and very early Pink Floyd, XTC wrote the best music of their careers under the top secret alias, Dukes of Stratosphere. If only more musicians droped acid instead of blowing all of that coke in the 80īs; then maybe we wouldnīt have all of these Yuppies running about today.