Biography
In 1968 Boeing Duveen & the Beautiful Soup released their lone single, coupling “Jabberwock” with “Which Dreamed It.” Among British psychedelic rarities the A-side ranked among the most striking and singular, presenting an eccentric and unsettling musical treatment of the Lewis Carroll story. Its melody mixed buoyant drive with an undercurrent of menace, the vocal suggested a deranged narrator, and the production incorporated unsettling bursts of laughter and screams. The flip, by contrast, amounted to a fairly conventional specimen of era-specific raga-rock. “Jabberwock” has resurfaced on multiple collector compilations devoted to psychedelic music, while the B-side has appeared on such anthologies less often.
The circumstances surrounding the identity behind the Boeing Duveen name proved still more curious. The pseudonym masked Sam Hutt, a figure already familiar to the British counterculture of the 1960s as a “rock & roll doctor” who treated rock musicians, dispensed homeopathic and holistic remedies, and attended to drug-related emergencies at festivals. Although Hutt continued his medical work, he sustained a musical career for decades, eventually shifting to country & western material under the alias Hank Wangford.
The circumstances surrounding the identity behind the Boeing Duveen name proved still more curious. The pseudonym masked Sam Hutt, a figure already familiar to the British counterculture of the 1960s as a “rock & roll doctor” who treated rock musicians, dispensed homeopathic and holistic remedies, and attended to drug-related emergencies at festivals. Although Hutt continued his medical work, he sustained a musical career for decades, eventually shifting to country & western material under the alias Hank Wangford.