Out There is a ‘space opera’ or a ‘musical with cojones,’ and its premise follows someone named John, grieving from the loss of his one love, Serafina, who along with two friends buys an old space freighter, The Golden Hind. Together they go ‘space hopping,’ eventually making an unwelcome landing on Boondocks3, where the residents aren’t exactly overjoyed to see them and impound their ship.
Russell Hoban (1925–2011), a prolific writer of sci-fi and fantasy novels, met up with Andy Bown in the mid-nineties. Bown‘s a well-seasoned musician who’s been on the scene some considerable while, playing in The Herd in 1968, Judas Jump in 1970, with Peter Frampton in the early ’70s and also appearing on albums by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters. But for the past fifty years, he’s also been keyboard man in the mighty Status Quo. Together he and Hoban recorded a number of demo tracks in 1997, which morphed into a ‘mind bending, operatic, deep space love story.’ After failing to get funding for their project, both reverted to their day jobs. However, the demos were discovered in 2025, were given a polish by their original producer, and here they are.
It’s easy to imagine, had Russell Hoban met sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock or Hawkwind‘s space guru Robert Calvert, there would have been something much heavier on offer. But as this stands, it’s a very interesting collaboration between two individuals from different fields of expertise producing a kind of — dare I say it — ‘concept album.’ If you only know Andy Bown from Status Quo, you may be surprised at how wide-ranging he’s cast his imagination on this record.
The album contains a mix of styles, from acoustic to the occasional upbeat. There’s also more than a touch of quirkiness on tracks like ‘Frogs And Owls’ and the jolly little space jive ‘Flicker Freako’, with vocals by Caroline Attard. There’s a definite aura of Pink Floyd on opener ‘Out There’, with hints of Wish You Were Here, and similarly on the superb ‘Boondocks3’. The achingly beautiful ‘City Of Love’ is a sublime piece, with gorgeous vocals provided by Judy Tzuke, who really makes the lyrics count. The maudlin ‘Black Hole Called Regret’ is effective too, though I’d have much preferred Judy to have sung this one as well — she’d have wrung every drop of emotion out of those lyrics. The album closes with ‘Deep Space Freighter’, an emotive piece of space dreaming… “was he live or was he dead?”
If I have one reservation about this album, it’s the quality of the vocals. There’s little doubt Andy Bown can write music, and he can play, though vocals aren’t his strong suit. But certainly all the basic themes for a good ‘space opera’ are present, and it’d be cool to see Out There turned into one.
