“For all its flights of fancy it’s not ironic; it finds him rooting for hard-grafting, often veteran grapplers”: The prog credentials of Luke Haines’ 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling

Luke Haines – 9 1⁄2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s and Early 80s.

Formerly with 90s indie act The Auteurs, then art-pop trio Black Box Recorder, Luke Haines has long enjoyed journeying off-piste. A misanthropic provocateur whose 2009 memoir Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part In Its Downfall ruffled feathers, he’s written songs about English motorways, 70s pop act The Rubettes, and a badger named Nick Lowe. But his sixth solo album was outré even by his standards.

The trippy, tragicomic 9 1⁄2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s and Early 80s is a concept LP celebrating the tough, marginalised lives of such famed British grapplers as Kendo Nagasaki, Giant Haystacks and Catweazle.