Electric Banana: ‘The Complete De Wolfe Sessions’

❉ The first-ever legitimate CD release of The Pretty Things’ De Wolfe recordings under one roof!

Initially coming together during a Fontana-era lull in The Pretty Things’ prodigious career, the band’s now-legendary body of work for music library de Wolfe as The Electric Banana saw their alter-egos become parallel universe superstars, their work utilised by film and TV producers in everything from soft-porn skin-flicks, a Norman Wisdom vehicle and horror classic Dawn Of The Dead to small-screen ratings winners like Dr. Who, The Sweeney and Minder.

Back in September 2016, at the birth of We Are Cult, our writer Martin Ruddock (Shindig! Magazine),  ‘unpeeled’ the Electric Banana story, in this indepth look at the Pretties’ moonlighting activities. CLICK HERE TO READ.

Taken from the original master-tapes, the 3-CD set The Complete De Wolfe Sessions represents a number of firsts: the first-ever legitimate CD issue of these recordings (authorised by bothThe Pretty Things and de Wolfe), the first time that the Banana’s Sixties and Seventies work has been made available under one roof, and the first time that the karaoke-anticipating backing tracks have been made commercially available.

Housed in a clamshell box that includes a lavish illustrated booklet, The Complete De Wolfe Sessions incorporates the original albums artwork, an extended essay on the band, quotes from pivotal members Phil May, Dick Taylor and Wally Waller, and some priceless photos of theclassic “Even More Electric Banana” line-up, taken from the summer-of-’68 Swinging Southport film What’s Good For The Goose.

More than forty years after The Pretty Things last donned the Electric Banana mantle, this long-overdue complete package is the final, definitive word on these seminal and much-loved recordings!


Electric Banana: ‘The Complete De Wolfe Sessions’ (3CD) released by Grapefruit Records, a division of Cherry Red Records, 27 September 2019. RRP £17.99. Cat. No. CRSEGBOX058.

❉ News source: Matt Ingham at Cherry Red Records

❉ We Are Cult is not responsible for the content of this news release.

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