Missy Lorelei reviews the 'fascinating' documentary that was recently screened during the Glasgow Film Festival.
Bathed in primary colours and hunched over an oscillator, Simeon Coxe III resembles Peter Cushing in a laboratory in a Hammer horror film- funny then, that this most unlikely looking figure has influenced everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Radiohead; Spacemen 3 to dubstep.
Silver Apples, formed by Simeon in 1967, were utterly unique pioneers- and remain so. Jamie Holman’s fascinating documentary with exclusive performances and interviews with Simeon (he is known by his first name) throughout, reveals a bittersweet history of an often-overlooked but massively important band who discovered their sound almost by accident.
When Simeon, a down-to-earth, sweetly gracious man quite at odds with Apples’ otherworldly experimentation) found a 1940s oscillator and incorporated its sound into psychedelic rock, he managed to alienate other members- only powerhouse drummer Danny Taylor stuck around, in spite of an offer to tour with none other than Jimi Hendrix.
Indeed, truth as we all know is an often stranger beast than fiction and Simeon, who initially began playing without any formal musical training, laughs, “We used telegraph keys…anything we could find…we had no money, you see…I couldn’t play notes, so we used colured stickers on the keys. I’d play in the key of yellow a lot!”
As if all of these factors were not bizarre enough, Silver Apples also found themselves in the unlikely situation of being sued by the airline Pan Am.
When ‘Contact’, the duo’s second album came out in 1969, the album cover showing Coxe and Taylor in the cockpit of an aeroplane with drug paraphernalia around them failed to impress and Pan Am filed against Kapp, the band’s record label.
It was one controversy they could have done well without- many promoters did not want to touch them after that. “Credit comes from promotion,” Simeon says, ruefully.
They split soon after, with Simeon pursuing a successful second career in painting.
There is an added poignancy too to Holman’s documentary- sadly, Silver Apples lost Danny Taylor to cancer in 2005- just as the band’s music found a whole new audience, thanks to bootlegs circulating in the 90s.
Simeon however, due to renewed interest reformed Apples as a solo project and many acclaimed shows and festivals followed- notably with Portishead at ATP- the songs may be stripped down, but they still sound phenomenal.
And he carries on…
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