RECORD MIRROR : Felius Andromeda recorded their "Meditations" debut single (Decca) in a North London church - the arrangement of this excellent number called for a proper church organ. For the moment most of the boys are staying out of sight, as you can see from the picture. They say, and I quote "The fate of our record was at a seance soon after we recorded the number. The message, from a spirit signing himself the Devil read : 'Felius Andromeda - HIT'." And the boys added "Since working on this record we've been surrounded by a strange atmosphere, which has affected the group deeply". All very strange, weird, moody. For the way things work out watch the charts.

Lone single : Meditations / Cheadle Heath's Delusions (Decca F 12694) 1967

Alan Morgan looks back at his days when he dressed up in a monks robe and made possibly the first pop video with Felius Andromeda

The Beginning

AM : "Mick Richardson and myself went to school together and initially formed a blues band called Morgans Roots with Pete Parks (see picture, right). We played all the blues venues in and around London my favourite being the Witches Cauldron at Belzise Park and Eal Pie Island Twickenham. We also got to play the universities occasionally. Mick had previously been involved with a band called The Syn who later became Yes (with Pete Banks). Denis Couldry and Bill Haine were not original members of the band but were musicians on Vic Keary's books and added by him. We recorded Meditations at Maximum Sound Studios on the Old Kent Road. Vic Keary produced it and his girl friend Pam Barry wrote the lyrics. The 'B' side was written and sung by Denis Couldry. The organ was recorded at a church near Willesden in London. On reflection now I feel that perhaps the 'B' side should have been the 'A' side, it was such a good song melodically and lyrically and I feel it would have faired much better commercially. Mick recently told me I was ruthless in the way I ran the band and I think I probably forced Meditations on the 'A' because I had a hand in writing it. Although maybe Vic the producer and his girlfriend lyric writer Pam wanted Meditations as the A side as well. I hope so!

Dressing up in Monks Robes

AM : I do recall that I wanted to create a "who are they" image for the band at the time and had the idea to dress us up in Monks robes. We made a short film in Bath. The idea being that if a TV show wanted to play the record they would show the film instead of us. Later to be called a pop video! We were definitely the first! We were so confident that the record would be a success, Johnnie Walker made it his pick of the hour on Radio London

Decca & Deram Records

AM : One other thing I remember was Dick James at  Decca asking me if we wanted to put the record on a new label he was intending to promote called Deram and I foolishly said no we wanted to be on an established label. He then put out 'Nights in White Satin' by the Moody Blues instead and spent a fortune promoting it and Deram!

I can also remember Terry Doran from Apple being interested. (We were also involved with Adrian Gurvitz and Pete Banks on seperate occasions shortly after but nothing materialised) 

The Split

AM : When nothing much happened, disillusionment took over and we eventually drifted apart all going on to different bands.  I later started writing with Bill Haine and we recorded some numbers at Radio Luxemburg's studios in Mayfair for Lougvigny Music and I later wrote songs for Apple with Steve Webber and again later with Paul Greedus. 'The Funeral Of us All' was going to be the next Felius single but was recorded by another of Vic's groups, Second Hand on their 'Death May Be Your Santa Claus' album. I think it was a better song than 'Meditations' and was a reasonable commercial record but it disappeared completely. Several records were released under different names later but only one I really liked, recorded with Paul Greedus called 'After the Storm' released on the Cactus label with the shortened name of Andromeda. I have recently been in touch with Mick the drummer after 20 plus years, who said he was still jamming with Pete and had been told that the record was on a compilation LP.

Compilations

	Meditations Meditations has been compiled on the following compilations Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, Vol. 3 Psychedalia - Rare Blooms From The English Summer Of Love The Psychedelic Scene Rubble, Vol. 11 - Adventures In The Mist Rubble, Vol.6 (CD)
	Cheadle Heath Delusions Cheadle Heath Delusions has been compiled on the following compilations : Rubble, Vol. 11 - Adventures In The Mist Rubble, Vol. 6 (CD)

A BIG thank-you goes to Alan Morgan for his time helping get this page up. Also thanks goes to Nigel Lees for the pictures, all much appreciated, cheers