Think Pink V is the brand new studio album from psychedelic rock icon Twink, best known as a member of Tomorrow, The Pink Fairies and The Pretty Things.

His seminal 1970 solo album ‘Think Pink’ is held in high regard as one of the founding albums of the psychedelic genre and now Twink returns with ‘Think Pink 5’, the next installment of this epic journey, recorded in 2022 and mixed in early 2023.

Twink (real name John Alder, though I believe he converted to Islam around sixteen years ago and is also known as Mohammed Abdullah) has played integral parts in two of my favorite bands, The Pretty Things and The Pink Fairies. I’ll get to them both at some point, I’m sure, but it’s as a solo artist he’s celebrated here.

John Alder, as he was simply known as at that time, started drumming for local Colchester R&B band Dane Stephens & The Deep Beats in 1963. On signing a deal with Decca, they changed their name to The Fairies and cut three singles, each of which are now well sought after.

Following the band split, John joined The Santa Barbara Machine for a while, before drumming for the third line-up of The In Crowd who would soon morph into Tomorrow.

It was with Tomorrow, one of UK’s foremost psychedelic bands of the era, that John (having by now adopted the nom de stage of ‘Twink,’) began to make a name for himself. (This was the band that featured future Yes guitarist Steve Howe and Keith West – he of he legendary ‘Excerpt From a Teenage Opera’ which reached #2 in the UK singles chart in August 1967).

Sadly, for all their Swinging Sixties ‘cred,’ Tomorrow didn’t last out the psychedelic era and disbanded in April 1968. Twink the formed Aquarian Age a psychedelic band featuring Nicky Hopkins who would go on to play piano with so many bands, most notably perhaps The Rolling Stones. They released just one single in the UK, ‘10,000 Words in a Cardboard Box,’ a reworking of which appeared on Twink’s solo album ‘Think Pink’ and is showcased below.

As seemed to be the pattern, Twink’s involvement with a band didn’t last very long and when Aquarian Age folded, he was on the move again. By chance, and by being conveniently available at just the right time, he was asked to join The Pretty Things for a gig in Germany; he remained with the band for about eighteen months!

During that spell with The Pretty Things, Twink was approached by Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records, with a view to recording a solo album. And so it was in 1970, using some experimental demos and an unpublished Aquarian Age track – ‘Tiptoe On The Highest Hill’ – the wonderful ‘Think Pink‘ album was born, with the help of Mick Farren (The Deviants) and close pal, Steve Peregrine Took (ex-Tyrannosaurus Rex.)

In fact, those three were the early incarnation of The Pink Fairies, though after a disastrous start to their gigging career, Twink dispensed with his two friends’ services and hired the remaining Deviants players: Paul Rudolph (guitar); Russell Hunter (drums) and Duncan Sanderson (bass).

And the rest, as they say, is history.

1. Sun Is A Star
2. Love Is A Killer
3. Silver White Horses
4. Fool Moon
5. All I Need Is You
6. Rainbow Warriors
7. My Rose
8. Neptune’s Tune
9. Lost And Found
10. Revolution Now

With Twink’s recordings always being an amazing mix of psychedelia, poetry and tales of fairies and, in the past, Gandalf, here on Think Pink V the musical experimentation continues onward from the off, with the spoken word, latterly Eastern-hued Sun Is A Star, the smooth funk of Love Is A Killer, and then come the veritably shimmering Silver White Horses, the lushly orchestrated Fool Moon and the beautiful ballad All I Need Is You.

Up next is the guitar rocker Rainbow Warriors which is in turn backed by the rousing My Rose, the fervent foot tapper Neptune’s Tune, the album rounding out on the languishing Lost And Found, closing on the Eastern-imbibed Revolution Now.

Twink was playing tour dates around the world, even in countries such as China, before lockdown and he’s now looking forward to returning to the live scene armed with this album of new material.

Twink says of the release: “The time of Five has arrived. I am wondering what you will make of it? That’s the same question I had when the original Think Pink was finished in 1969 and released in the US in 1970 & in the UK in 1971. It has been fabulous working with Ed Sykes & Dionne Corona again. We did have fun putting it together.”

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