Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Zorch (2nd nomination)

Zorch

AfDs for this article:

• Articles for deletion/Zorch
• Articles for deletion/Zorch (2nd nomination)

[Hide this box] New to Articles for deletion (AfD)? Read these primers!

• How to contribute
• Introduction to deletion process
• Guide to deletion (glossary)
• Help, my article got nominated for deletion!

Zorch (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

seems to fail gng by... a lot. according to a previous afd, they might be notable, but the complete lack of sources, inappropriate external links (why myspace?), and the fact that results have become an unusable mush of miscellaneous companies, cryptobro jargon, pizzerias, and chex quest jokes lead me to believe that a tnt is due, and there's only a chance that it will get recreated consarn _{(formerly cogsan)} 18:00, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

• Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Bands and musicians and England. consarn _{(formerly cogsan)} 18:00, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

• Delete Clearly fails all criteria on NMusician. No evidence of passing GNG either, I can't find any evidence of the existence of the band in major English or Ameican press.

Noah ^💬 23:19, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: This article has already been brought to AFD in the past so it is not eligible for a Soft Deletion.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:48, 30 December 2024 (UTC)

• Keep (first choice) or redirect to Stonehenge Free Festival#Bands (second choice). The band was formed in 1972 and split up in 1975. I found a Picador book, Gillett 2023, that provides two pages of coverage about the band. That a book spent two pages covering a band that had disbanded 48 years ago strongly indicates the band is notable. The other sources I found were largely passing mentions. I am supporting retention on the basis of the extensive coverage in the book.

  If the consensus is against a standalone article for the band, I support a redirect to Stonehenge Free Festival#Bands (where the band is mentioned) per Wikipedia:Deletion policy#Alternative to deletion. A redirect with the history preserved under the redirect will allow editors to selectively merge any content that can be reliably sourced to the target article. A redirect with the history preserved under the redirect will allow the redirect to be undone if significant coverage in reliable sources is found in the future.

  Sources

  1. Gillett, Ed (2023). Party Lines: Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain. London: Picador. ISBN 978-1-5290-7062-0. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Google Books.

     The band receives nearly two pages of coverage in the book. The book notes: "One early outlier in the gradual process of sonic expansion visible over the course of the 1980s was the first 'proper' Stonehenge festival in 1974, at which the only music on offer was electronic, performed by a group called Zorch. Billed as England's first all-synthesizer band, they played burbling arpeggios and meditative drones on a set of three EMS Synthi AKS synths deep into Saturday night, followed by a solo set from band member Basil Brookes on Sunday, ‘during which he completely freaked out a guy in the audience who thought he was conjuring up Dark Forces', according to one anonymous account of proceedings. Zorch's only LP, recorded in 1975, offers a loose and incomplete approximation of these live performances: on the 24-minute 'Return of the Elohim' triangle-wave pulses and discordant tones sweep across the stereo field, growing slowly in intensity, building to an almighty climax, then dissolving into ambient washes of soft pad sounds, submarine pings and muffled voices. What limited other evidence remains from Zorch's brief three-year existence between 1972 and 1975 suggests sonic connections between the earlier synth experiments of US groups like Tonto's Exploding Head Band and British synth-rock pioneers Gong, contemporary European synth auteurs like Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre, and the dreamier elements of UK rave sounds to follow—from later electronic-Traveller crossover bands like Eat Static or Ozric Tentacles to more prominent names in the UK house and techno pantheon. Much like Hawkwind, while Zorch's wigged-out repetition and the fantastical allusions of their song titles suggest the terminally unhip hinterlands of prog rock, a surprising amount of the sonic character of this free festival proto-rave has survived into later UK dance music. The unlicensed nature of events at Stonehenge is critical to this: with no legal curfew to adhere to and no one to tell them what to do, Zorch's synth meditations could run as long as six hours, accompanied by a mind-meltingly complex light and laser show dubbed the Acidica. Far closer in form and function to an all-night DJ set than a rock show, these performances arguably represent the very first illegal electronic music events in the UK, ..."

  2. Less significant coverage:
     1. Byrne, Eugene (2024-06-20). "Solstice at Stonehenge - the full story behind the hippies, Wallies and free festival 50 years ago". SomersetLive. Archived from the original on 2025-01-05. Retrieved 2025-01-05.

        The article notes: "Over the coming days, a few hundred people arrived – many of them had walked from London - and a small festival took place some distance from the stones, the only music being provided by the pioneering UK electronic music band Zorch over a terrible PA system."

     2. Berger, George (2009). The Story of Crass. La Vergne: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-8571-2012-0. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Google Books.

        The book notes: "Basil Brooks, Zorch: "There was a little police Cortina parked in the road - that was the police presence! Innocent days." Not many people turned up for the first festival. Rimbaud describes it as a 'few hundred' whereas Andy Worthington (in his book Stonehenge: Celebration And Subversion) counts “about 500 people at the most". Musical entertainment came from a band Worthington describes as 'early synth pioneers' called Zorch that was in fact a synth duo the UK's first, allegedly—who were purported to have a mind blowing lightshow as well as a psychedelic-synth sound."

     3. Lynner, Doug (March–April 1977). "Steve Hillage & Friends". Synapse: The Electronic Music Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 6. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Internet Archive.

        The magazine quotes from Zorch member Basil Brooks. The magazine notes: "Basil Brooks: I started out in school as Steve just said, with “psychedelic” music. That kindled my interest I suppose, in the first instance. I also have an Uncle who's a composer that's got a little electronic music studio, He got one of the first EMS machines. He showed me this machine and I was. stantly amazed by it and wanted to get to know more about it, Finally I took an evening course in synthesizers. About then the money came to buy an AKS and I went from there with two other guys who played EMS equipment, and formed a group. The synthesizer band I was in was called. "ZORCH" and was first formed in London in late 1973. We moved to the country in 1974 and were joined by two light synthesists who quickly became an equally important part of our live performance with their combinations of various projected images; something that I feel has yet to be explored to the fullest extent. We made three reco during our existence. The first was done live in the open air, the second using Revoxes and the third using the EMS Synthi 100 and multi-track facilities. Part of this last recording was used as the sound track for a film called “Mother Earth” which was made using “Spectre” the EMS video synthesizer ZORCH folded due to lack of funds and total commitment. However, the chances are it will reform sometime, probably for a free festival, these having been the high points of our performing history."

     4. Roberts, Andy (2008). Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. London: Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 978-981-4328-97-5. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Internet Archive.

        The book notes: "So chaotic in fact that free festival synthesiser band, Zorch were unable to play because one of their musicians, Basil Brooks, was “incapacitated by LSD”."

     5. Pearson, Mike Parker (2023). Stonehenge: A Brief History. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-3501-9224-9. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Google Books.

        The book notes: "The first Free Festival at Stonehenge for certain was organized at the solstice in 1974 by a counter-culture figure who used the pseudonym Wally Hope. Fewer than 200 people came to listen to Zorch (no, I'd not heard of them either) and other bands."

     6. Worthington, Andy (2004). Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion. Loughborough: Alternative Albion. pp. 38–39. ISBN 1-872883-76-1. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Internet Archive.

        The book notes: "The first Stonehenge Free Festival duly took place at the summer solstice in 1974, alongside a by-way just a few hundred yards to the west of the stones. Despite a leafleting campaign and promotion by Radio Caroline, it was a small gathering, numbering about 500 people at the most. The only music was provided by early synth pioneers Zorch, who set up stage facing the stones, and who had to compete with a wonky PA system. (Shark 2003d)"

     7. Darvill, Timothy (2006). Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape - Page 274. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. The History Press. p. 274. ISBN 0-7524-3641-4. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Google Books.

        The book notes: "Recollections of the event vary, but early pioneers of synthesizer-driven prog-rock Zorch played from a small stage facing the stones. After the solstice around 30 people decided not to leave straightaway and set up a camp to continue the festival beside ..."

     8. Dines, Mike (2023). "Learning on the road: Stonehenge, skool bus, and the development of alternative pedagogies in the new age traveller movement of the 1980s". Punk Pedagogies in Practice: Disruptions and Connections. Bristol: Intellect Books. doi:10.1386/9781789387063_10. ISBN 978-1-78938-706-3. Retrieved 2025-01-05.

        The book notes: "The only music was provided by early synth pioneers Zorch, who set up a stage facing the stones, and who had to compete with a wonky PA system. (2004: 38–9)"

  Cunard (talk) 08:36, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

• Comment: Pinging Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Zorch participants: Dracolych (talk · contribs), Pishcal (talk · contribs), Rpclod (talk · contribs), Andy Dingley (talk · contribs), and Richard3120 (talk · contribs). Cunard (talk) 08:36, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: to provide further time for evaluation of the above sources
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Beeblebrox ^Beebletalks 22:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

• Keep, found some sources here[1][2][3]. With deeper search, I believe more sources will be found. Mekomo (talk) 14:35, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
• Keep as per the multiple reliable sources coverage identified by Cunard during this discussion particularly the two page book source, imv Atlantic306 (talk) 19:47, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
• note: should mention that i still think deleting would be a better option, to create a draft that uses those sources. unless someone's in the mood to do that now, i do think the current iteration needs to stop being there consarn _{(speak evil) (see evil)} 20:35, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
• Weak Delete: To the admin performing the delete, I suggest you go through the article yourself. The article is weak. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cameremote (talk • contribs) 21:49, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Cameremote, that's not how AFDs work. That's called a "super vote" and a closer can be brought to WP:AN for doing that. Closer assess the discussion, not the article. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:43, 11 January 2025 (UTC)