Ozric Tentacles Tickets

Ozric Tentacles: 30 Years of Trippy Space Rock

Over 30 years ago, Ed Wynne, his brother Roly, and Nick Van Gelder were playing at the Stonehenge free festival in a group known as Bolshem People. Later that night, they met keyboardist Joie Hinton, started a jam session, and Ozric Tentacles was born. Though members have come and gone, the band's signature high-energy, psychedelic space rock continues to chuff fans to bits. The Ozrics, with their blend of ethereal synthesisers, wispy keyboards and frantic percussions can be found at intimate gatherings this fall across the U.K.

Schedule

The band started their fall tour in the Netherlands this year. The tour will see them moving soon through Scotland and England with special guests MantisMash for most shows, and Infernal Machines for the special event at the Tooting Tram and Social in London. Other U.K. stops on their tour include Swansea, Newcastle, Chester and Birmingham before the band hops over to Scotland.

Trivia

Though their music is sometimes called space or psychedelic rock, Ed Wynne and Joie Hinton were influenced by Arabic, Indian and Eastern music. Wynne spent time in Thailand and Hinton travelled to India. Wynne was also influenced by Steve Hillage, who was the lead guitarist of Gong in the '70s. Though the music is often flavoured with ethnic percussions, it is essentially rooted in the jazz-rock style of the '60s and '70s. Steve Hillage was a guest guitarist of the band in 2004, and Ed Wynne said that Hillage changed his outlook on the guitar (The Vermont Review, 1999).

In 2012, Ed and Brandi had a home and studio in Colorado that was destroyed by one of the most destructive fires in its history. The band continued their tour, despite this setback, having been evacuated by police with only their most precious belongings.

Band

The original members of the band were Ed and Roly Wynne, Joie Hinton and Nick Van Gelder. The years saw Roly Wynne, Hinton, and Van Gelder leave, return and leave again. The current members include Ed Wynne, as the only remaining original member, wife Brandi (synthesiser, bass), Silas Wynne (keyboards), Balázs Szende (drums) and Paul Hankin (percussions).

Breakthrough

The band released its first single, Sploosh, in 1991, which hit No. 1 on the indie charts. Dance music had just hit the U.K. and ravers became enthusiastic about the Ozric sound. This took the band to the next level and by 1992, the band had made a name for itself, despite having no backing by a major label.

Hit Albums

The band started its own label, Dovetail Records, in 1989. In 1993, Jurassic Shift was released and reached the top 20 in the U.K. Albums Charts. The album reached No. 1 in the UK Indie charts, where it spent a total of three months. Ozric Tentacles also released Live at the Pongmasters Ball, which is a DVD recorded in 2002 during the Ozrics's sold-out U.K. tour.

The Ozrics aren't focused on success defined by the charts, but prefer to focus on the music for its own sake. Their philosophy is to continue to take their music to the next level, to stretch themselves artistically and to wrest exotic new sounds from whatever instrument they happen to be playing.

Show Experience

The band tours often, putting on a highly visual live show, orchestrated by an integrated lighting and projections crew. With a psychedelic backdrop of wild, morphing shapes and colours, strobe-like lighting effects and the amazing music of the band, fans with Ozric Tentacles tickets can expect this show to be mind-blowing.