World Of Twist - Flared Up

ID - No 82 - July 1990

"I was born in the thinnest house in England." "All his brothers had to leave when they got too fat." Now that's the kind of opening I like to a convesation - twisted. Tony Ogden, thin man, manic laugh, and Gordon, shy, retiring gutarist, are the brains behind a madcap scheme. It's called World Of Twist; it's distorted pop music as we know it, concocted from sticky black plastic, kitsch melodrama, kinky rhythms and, erm, rotating psychedelic heads.

Somebody once said that what the World of Twist don't know about technology can be written on the back of a microchip. "That was a really nice thing to say that," laughs Tony, "but complete bollocks. Our gear's dead old and we haven't even got a sampler. But with the crap gear we've got we've managed to get a really good sound." Actually, World Of Twist would like to talk about anything other than music, they're not too comfortable selling themselves to complete strangers. Everyone ignored them for years, until they stumbled on 'The Storm', three minutes of pure pop magic.

Swamped by bold, brilliant ideas and blessed with a fluorescent maverick streak, World Of Twist are streets ahead of your average dullard band. But just don't mention the '60s. "No way, I never said that, not me," squawks Tony. "That's nothing to do with us, no way - we don't sound '60s at all." The thought never crossed my mind, excepty that if 'The Storm' had been released 25 years ago, it would have been the ideal soundtrack for 'The Avengers'. But back to more important matters.

"I've got flares," pipes up Gordon from behind his fringe. "I've got all the range of trousers. Ice skating ones, the lot. Jeans are a bit tatty. People should get into nice Terylene ones. It's not about being tacky, it's about being smart." World Of Twist - sad trousers, no confidence, tongue firmlly in chic. Smart band.

Mandi James

The Face - February 1991

More commercial than their last trippy single "Storm", World Of Twist's "Sons Of The Stage" is another indie dance track aspiring to Hawkwind. Could it become a "Silver Machine" for the Nineties?

The Face - June 1991
(From "Material Gains" by Amy Rapheal about the booming T-shirt business for bands)

World Of Twist are another bunch of indie merchants who are shifting piles of shirts via some unlikely images: their cigerette pack designs sold 1000 at their first nine gigs, although guitarist Gordon King says he wouldn't be seen dead in them. But he concedes that he gets off on seeing people walking around wearing fag packets: "It's like the opposite of Wham's Choose Life thing...We might go into beer next."

http://www.poptones.co.uk/index.php?/news/more/rip_tony_ogden/

http://www.djhistory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17509

http://www.whydidigowrong.co.uk/?p=300

http://www.worldoftwist.com/discography.html

http://www.24hourpartypeople.com/worldoftwist.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?