The Greatest Show in the Universe
Musicians
fronted by the resurgent Mr Tickle have
formed a progressive rock collective which they claim are already “the
biggest act in the universe”.
Scientists recently made the discovery of the solar pipe organ's acoustic
waves after they were found to act like a space-based pipe organ due to the
“coronal loops” created naturally by the
magnetic field of the sun.
The solar organ has proved to be a massive hit with Mr Tickle, who has been
experimenting in the pioneering new sounds
it can generate. The idea was originally suggested to him by the scientists
who made the discovery due to the fact that he was probably the only living
being on Earth with arms long enough to play the space instrument
effectively.
Mr Tickle, part of the counter cultural avant-garde movement which
eventually led to the development of the trail blazing
Mr Men TV series of the mid
seventies, has not come out of the wilderness until this project. “It felt
like the time was right,” Tickle said today at a press event for the band at
HMV’s flagship London store, where they performed live and signed Mr Men
DVDs which stoned students queued up to hand him.
The high profile career of Mr Tickle nosedived after a series of lawsuits
were filed against him by young girls who complained that he was
caressing them with his long arms the
minute their backs were turned. Various townsfolk were also victims of
Tickle’s eccentricities, chronicled in Mr Tickle, the book released in the
seventies by CPS chief prosecutor Roger Hargreaves.
Nothing like it
Describing
the new direction the band was taking, Mr Tickle and band mate, drummer
Little Miss Splendid [also Tickle’s wife],
emphasised the impact the solar pipe organ had had on their sound. “It’s all
very epic in scope,” he said. “It’s all, like, whoa man, far out.” Splendid
agrees with her husband, and is similarly excited about the band. “The organ
is 300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface”, she said, adding that “it’s
pretty hard to keep up on drums, especially because it takes
9 minutes for the organ’s sound waves to
reach us here on Earth”.
A full length world tour is currently in
the pipeline, with an album due out towards the end of the year. The sound
of the organ is believed to be akin to that of an electrocution noise, a
theme prevalent throughout the band’s output on songs such as Charge My
Soul, Magnetic Coils Rotate Faster and rumoured single
Mr Happy [Gonna Electrocute You Now].
“We’re redefining space rock, man!” Mr Tickle remarked as he made off in
search of biscuits and sandwiches to swipe.