Come My Fanatics

A Journey into the World of Electric Wizard

By: Dan Franklin

Narrated by: Dan Franklin

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1993, in the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England, the heaviest band in the world was born: Electric Wizard. Led by guitarist and singer Jus Oborn, the band inhaled the iniquity of their lives and vomited it out in colossal waves of doom metal, synthesising the forbidding local landscape, biker culture, video-nasties, black magic rituals and titanic doses of psychedelics.

Come My Fanatics is the story of the rise and fall and triumphant return of the band, of their revolutionary and mind-expanding output, their legendary and calamitous tours, and of their legacy. It is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the subculture the band has absorbed and, in turn, created. From seventies exploitation cinema, through the writers of Weird Tales magazine and a panoply of the marginal and downright sinister, to the band's own live ceremonial happenings - this is Electric Wizard's world. We're just dying in it.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Dan Franklin (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited

Epic and weird tales

Hail the blood soaked teeth of the wizard. A collection of thrilling insights and a fanatical breakdown of the discography. Epic.

A serious study of their art

I loved this! It’s maybe the most intelligent, literate book about a band that I’ve ever read. Don’t expect a bunch of wacky stories about the band’s antics; this is a deep and fascinating exploration of the music itself, what they were trying to achieve, what inspired them, etc. Of course there are some fun biographical elements woven in throughout, but always in service of illuminating the art.

While I deeply love their albums, I’ve only been lucky enough to make it to one Electric Wizard show in my life. The powerful music and projected images were outstanding, but they were expected. What surprised me was the remarkable diversity of the crowd. Maybe a third of it looked like the standard metal crowd, but every part of society was represented in the other two thirds, young and old, every race, many styles of dress you would never expect at any rock show (from accountant to punk). It was more the crowd you might expect to see at the opening of a really cool art show. And maybe that’s exactly what it was. Electric Wizard is very far from being a “standard rock band,” and this book gives their aesthetic, their mythos, and their fans the respect and depth they deserve. I plan to read it a second time.