10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box: The Return of A Living Legend & Think Pink III

Deep within the credits of The Pretty Things' 1968 head busting classic from the early British psychedelic era, S.F. Sorrow, you will find a line listing the drummer as "Twink" and nothing more. Delving further into this mononymous percussionist, there exists a web of interconnected legendary UK musical involvement, curious disappearance, and overlooked brilliance.

Named for gifts of perm lotion received related to his long curly hair by fans of his early 60s British blues band, John Alder adopted the "Twink" brand name as his own moniker. His career began in Colchester, England performing with a mod-blues band called The Fairies. After relocating to London in the mid-1960s, Alder recorded on what would become a staple of UK psychedelic rock, Tomorrow's self-titled release.

Throughout the 60s, Twink shared stages with Jimi Hendrix, recorded with Ron Wood (The Rolling Stones), Kim Gardner (The Creation), and Jon Lord (Deep Purple) and ultimately ended up with a seat behind the drumset for The Pretty Things, who he would play with on their finest work, S.F. Sorrow. 

At the end of the decade, Twink returned to the studio accompanied by members of The Pretty Things, The Deviants, and T-Rex to record his solo debut, Think Pink. The record was incredibly varied and blended psychedelic rock, blues rock, and UK folk into an instant occult masterpiece. After Think Pink, Twink moved to Marrakesh, Morocco and converted to Islam and largely disappeared from the public eye. During the 70s, Twink occasionally performed with Hawkwind and Syd Barrett, but generally stayed a less influential piece of music culture than he'd been in the previous decade. 

Five decades after the 1970 solo debut, Twink released Think Pink II on Sunbeam Records recorded with Italian neo-psych outfit, The Technicolour Dream. The record never saw widespread promotion and has remained essentially dormant since its 2015 conception. Now, in February 2018, Twink has readied a third response for psychedelic folk fans with the release of Think Pink III, a stripped back and highly intimate reflection of the original Think Pink recordings from the pioneer songwriter. Think Pink III is hauntingly evocative of the boundless  authoring from Twink's career transmitted like a synoptic sonic timeline of the history of psychedelic music.