Tony Ogden, RIP

World Of Twist are one of the great lost rock bands - try finding their music on i Tunes, on Acquisition even, it's nigh on impossible, it's as if they've fallen through the cracks into some kind of British 'Nuggets' world. At the time they were around, the early 90s, post Roses and Mondays, they were touted as the next big thing from the North, which is pretty amazing considering how out there they were - one glace at their debut single cover proved that pretty successfully (if you never saw it, it was simply a set of 60s silverware against a red background, a kettle, a jug, no text, no information about the band). Their singer, Tony Ogden, was as cool and as weird as you could get - permanently clad in a black leather shirt and skinny white jeans, he looked like a 50s movie star fronting a Jetsons version of a pop band. Actually, permanently clad like that unless stark bollock naked in a forest or dressed like he's been taken off a Quality Street chocolates box (as seen in two of their deranged press shots). On top of all this, the music was pretty good too.

Anyways, news reached Socialism towers last week that Tony had passed away. The band only ever released one album then retired from the public eye. Rumours of new bands and of new WOT records abounded, but nothing ever came to fruition. It's a damn shame really that he'll now be remembered as some Mancunian Syd Barrett, someone who promised so much but then disappeared and robbed the world of his skewed genius. He'll be missed by those who remember... and the one's who don't don't know what they are missing.

Click here to read John Robb's piece in yesterday's Independent

or

here for a bunch of MP3s from the World Of Twist