Andrew Hickey

speaker

2,253 appearances 4 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 3 Sep

Andrew Hickey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs · Song 185: “Peaches En Regalia” by Frank Zappa · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

Well, it wasn't that good.

Frank isn't much of a bargain.

But I had thought for years, even finishing it on album covers, that I was Francis Vincent Zappa Jr.

How could I be such a fool?

This version of the story doesn't actually make chronological sense.

Zappa released the MGM version of Lumpy Gravy months after his first trip abroad.

but Zappa did later update the cover to read Frank Vincent Zappa instead of Francis.

That first European tour was undertaken right after Zappa and Gail got married, using a ballpoint pen as a substitute for a wedding ring.

The Zapper's first child was born two weeks after the start of the tour, with Zapper telling his wife, if it's a girl, name her Moon Unit, if it's a boy, name him Motorhead.

The girl was indeed named Moon Unit, with the unit part of her name apparently meant to signify that they were now a family unit.

That tour is most famous for their performance at the Royal Albert Hall, where Don Preston climbed the hall's gigantic organ and played Louie Louie on it, commemorated on one of their next albums.

I say one of their next albums, because when they got back to the US, the Mothers started work on two albums at the same time, and once again it was with a slightly different band lineup.

Billy Mundy had left to join a supergroup, Rhinoceros, that had been put together in part by Frasier Mohawk, Ezra Mohawk's husband, and featured members of Iron Butterfly, The Daily Flash, and The Electric Flag.

Rhinoceros were not a success, though their track Apricot Brandy was used for a while as a theme tune on Radio 1.

Mundi was replaced by Art Tripp, a classically trained percussionist who had given solo performances of works by Cage and Stockhausen.

Along with Tripp, Ray Collins returned to the band, in part because the next album to come out, one of the two they were working on at the same time, was far more to Collins' taste.

Cruising with Reuben and the Jets is an album of doo-wop pastiches recorded in the persona of the band Reuben and the Jets, though, contrary to some myths about the album, they weren't exactly subtle about letting people know who it really was.

Kal Schenkel's cover for the album, a drawing depicting the band members as anthropomorphic animals in 50s clothing and hairstyles, inspired by the Donald Duck comics of Karl Barks,

has another speech bubble, this one saying, Is this the mothers of invention recording under a different name in a last-ditch attempt to get their cruddy music on the radio?

So despite the various stories, including a pervasive myth that DJs played the album until they realised who it actually was, they were definitely given more than a hint.

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