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Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Professor and the Madman feat. members of The Damned, Adolescents, D.I. have a new album in November

Professor and the Madman, a musical group featuring veterans from both the U.S. and UK rock scenes, will release a new album, Séance, on Nov. 13.

It will be available on yellow vinyl, CD, and digital download via Fullertone Records.

Band members are vocalist/guitarist Alfie Agnew (Adolescents, D.I.), vocalist/guitarist Sean Elliott (D.I., Mind Over Four), bassist Paul Gray (The Damned, Eddie & the Hot Rods, U.F.O.), and drummer Rat Scabies (formerly of The Damned).

Co-produced by Elliott and Agnew, Séance's dozen tracks are linked by thematic threads in a manner similar to the classic rock “concept albums” of the 1960s and 1970s. Elliott explains, “The overarching story concerns a group of friends who hold a séance in order to say one final farewell to friends who have passed. While in the supernatural fog they visit purgatory and hell. Ultimately, the nature of their reality gets a sobering check with a twist ending. Additional characters make appearances. All is not as it seems…"

“The new material is definitely eclectic,” says Agnew. “It’s less punk-influenced than our previous three studio albums. The 1960s and ‘70s musical influences are more pronounced. We’re big fans of The Kinks, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Brian Wilson, Led Zeppelin, and, of course, The Damned. Sean and I also had musical productions like Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Paradise, Tommy and Hair in mind when writing this album.”

The rhythm section of Gray and Scabies are certainly no strangers to ambitious song cycles, having previously shared songwriting and instrumental credits on The Damned’s The Black Album (1980), and Scabies being an integral contributor to that same group’s gothic rock epic Phantasmagoria (1985). “Alfie and Sean are talented songwriters,” says Scabies. “We’ve recorded four albums via file sharing and I’m always impressed by the high quality of the tunes they bring to me.” Gray concurs: “Those guys make absolutely honest music, the most exciting I’ve heard in eons, and chock-full of melodies. When I first heard them, my thoughts were ‘Damned meets Cheap Trick via The Kinks’—that’s a pretty heady mixture!”

Sessions for Séance began in spring 2019 at Hollydale Studios in Fullerton, California, with Agnew and Elliott completing recording in March 2020. Scabies’ drums were captured in Somerset UK and Gray’s basslines in Cardiff UK. The album’s bold cover caricature was drawn by Cliff Mott, a New York City-based artist who has designed book and album covers as well as poster art for the city’s long-running “Loser’s Lounge” series of tribute concerts. www.cliffmott.com


Tracklist:

1. All the Lonely Souls (Voice: Elliott)
2. Séance (Vocal: Elliott)
3. So Long (Vocal: Agnew)
4. Real Me (Vocal: Elliott)
5. A Child’s Eyes (Vocal: Agnew) 
6. Time Machine (Vocal: Agnew)
7. Man With Nothing to Lose (Vocal: Elliott)
8. Two Tickets to the Afterlife (Vocal: Elliott)
9. The Council of Purgatory (Vocal: Agnew)
10. All the Lonely Souls (Reprise)
11. Greetings From the Other Side (Vocal: Elliott)
12. New World (Vocal: Elliott)

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