Babble on an' ting: Alex Paterson's Incredible Journey Beyond the Ultraworld with The Orb

by Kris Needs

Always steered by Alex Paterson, The Orb were the mischief-making pioneers of the late 80s acid house revolution. Inventing “ambient house”, they took it to the top of the charts, before continuing its idiosyncratic flight path through subsequent decades, battling meteor storms en route. Babble On An' Ting, the first full account of Paterson's life, written by long-time friend Kris Needs in close collaboration with Alex, reveals a frequently astonishing journey from traumatic childhood through punk, Killing Joke and KLF to starting The Orb in 1988, then the five decade roller coaster that followed. Moving, shocking, hilarious and inspiring, at the heart of this story lies a true survivor doggedly following their musical passion.First-hand interviews include those with Youth, Andrew Weatherall, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, Jimmy Cauty and a parade of friends, collaborators and starship mechanics.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2021

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a big Orb fan so I preordered this as I was keen to read Alex Paterson's insights. Unfortunately, this is book had too little Alex and far too much Kris Needs, who never fails to mention himself and what he was doing in the Orb's orbit rather than the actual band itself. The actual input of Alex and his contributors is minimal and unenlightening, and after only two chapters I was praying Needs would remove himself from the equation and was ready to put the thing down. So frustrating were his constant "I happened to be.." mentions and his awful attempts at pun and jokes. Paragraphs of wiki style descriptions of unimportant and unrelated facts fill out pages of brief Alex rememberances, I began to wonder if this wasn't Needs' story instead.

As you'd expect the whole things speed's up towards the end, and this more low profile era of the band gets a comparatively cursory skim. Add to this the fact that a fair chunk of the book is further padded with wholly unnecessary discography. We have the Internet, now y'know.

Awful. Waste of time and money.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge Orb fan, but I found this book tedious to read. You could easily skip the first 75 pages about Alex’s childhood. There are some interesting stories in there, but also a lot of rattling off concert stops or track listings with no extra color. I was hoping for more detail on some of the collaborations, most especially Andy Hughes, but most of them are glossed over. And I agree there is too much about Kris Needs in there that wasn’t related to The Orb.

[Gary Fowles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I drifted away from The Orb in the late ‘90s and thought reading this would fill in the blanks a little. As previous reviews have stated this isn’t a very good book, personally I think Alex Paterson deserves better.
Kris Needs’ urge to insert himself at every opportunity grates from the off. Then there are the potted histories of various players and album reviews that just come across as padding. A few more actual interviews with key members (Thrash for instance) would have been nice. Worse than that though are his awful descriptions of Orb music, which usually revolve around sex organs and animals.
There is some good stuff here, Alex’s early years for instance, but once The Orb lift off the prose falls into the rut of album/tour/album/tour, with little mention of Alex’s life.
The fact that the past 20 years are glossed over in as many pages is annoying. Which coupled with the myriad mistakes that litter this book, KLF instead of The KLF and Adventures Beyond the Underworld being the two that irked most.
Hopefully someday someone will write a definitive Orb book. Until then we’ll have to make do with this.

[Conrad · Rating 2 out of 5]

One for the completists really. Needs' flowery but sometimes rather accurate style of music journalese relies on metaphors about... er... testicles. Much of it reads as a compilation of (99% positive) record and gig reviews. It's also quite impersonal, which is ironic considering Paterson and Needs are colleagues and friends.

[Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read for any Orb fan. This book starts out as a biography of Alex's childhood, teenage, and young adult years, then progresses on to tell the story of the Orb. I have seen the odd person complain about this, but the subtitle does state this is as much a biography of Alex as it is the Orb, and surely any great Orb fan has an interest in Alex and his back story. The Orb would not exist or have lasted so long without his persistence, and I am eternally grateful for the music he has given us.

It is a little difficult to follow in places, and often feels like it has been written verbatim as the memories roll out over a smoke. But once you get used to this format you realise it is densely packed with musical trivia from everyone who has crossed paths with Alex and the Orb. Anyone with an obsessive interest in the music scene will be very happy with the amount of content on offer.

For a fifth star, it could have been edited a little better. But my feeling is that if it was, it would lose half of its content in the process, and that would be a real shame. As it is, it is a rewarding read.

[Jason Joachim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable and informative book. I’ve been a fan since Ultraworld and have been chilling out ever since. It took me awhile to get through it but listening to the playlist someone created on Spotify made it enjoyable. Listening to most of the influences and songs mentioned gave me a bigger appreciation for it.

[Anthony D. Roach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard work to get through this. Goes through all the albums quite thoroughly.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but the author, urgh. Some times it felt like the book was about him more than Alex.

It's very sycophantic.