Marco Rossi continues the list of his 100 favourite singles of all time

AMONG the most vivid and cherished memories from the Top Of The Pops episodes of my childhood is the sight of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown performing Fire in July 1968.

Not for Arthur the subtle, understated, power of suggestion' approach: The song was called Fire, so Arthur appeared with his head on fire, duh. The remainder of the band wore monkish cowls, voodoo face paint was liberally slopped around and the BBC used up its entire smoke budget for 1968 in less than three minutes.

They looked great, properly scary and the complete antithesis of anyone I'd ever seen in the high street on shopping trips with my mum, and Fire itself burned with an appropriately elemental fury.

They just couldn't fail, really, as they were happening on so many fronts. The pumping Hammond of Vincent Crane, stoked by the bravura drumming of Drachen Theaker, formed a suitably tumultuous backdrop to the moonstruck writhing, gibbering and screaming of Brown himself.

An inspired cross between Baron Samedi, Wagner and James Brown, Arthur hit the scene like a rocket from the tombs and just has to be among the top five frontmen of all time - he still bears the scalp burns from a hatful of boiling oil to prove it.

The Crazy World, sadly, imploded within weeks of Fire's success. Money which should have been rolling in wasn't, Theaker left in a snit and Crane was sectioned, and all momentum was lost.

In 1969, Brown turned up in Puddletown, of all places, with a Mk II version of The Crazy World who recorded an album, Strangelands, in Puddletown's Jabberwocky Studios. If anyone has any recollections of Brown from around this time - perhaps you spotted him wandering through Puddletown Forest dressed as a traffic light? - I'd dearly love to hear them...

7:51am Friday 21st March 2008

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