'HELTER SKELTER' - released on Cherry Red Records U.K. November 28, 2025

HELTER SKELTER

I was contacted by Cherry Red back in May 2025 when they were researching the songs for their next collection of 'The Beatles' covers. They found 'ZEBRA's' 1969 cover of 'Helter Skelter' on the 'SYMPHONIC SLAM' website. I was asked to contact Timo Laine (ZEBRA guitarist) to find out about licensing the recording. Timo responded telling me there wasn't anyway to license it. The record producer and owner of Miramar Records died during the recording of the album. Miramar ceased to exist with his death. Timo agreed with me that Cherry Red should just go ahead and release it.

When I responded back, 'Russell' at Cherry Red, also suggested just releasing it and if anyone contacts them they'd negotiate licensing then. At the time I was in the middle of selling my house in Nova Scotia (Canada) and moving to London, Ontario. I failed to follow up with 'Russell' and I never heard back from him, so it slipped from memory. In July 2026 I found the emails that had been sent back and forth and I wondered if they had ever released it. I found on their website that they had released it November 2025. Russell had promised if it was released that he would send Timo and me a copy of the box set for our efforts. I contacted him July 2026 and asked if he would honour his promise and he apologetically replied that he would do so immediately. And sure enough, he did. I decided to include some info about the Cherry Red Records release on the 'SYMPHONIC SLAM' website in the 'ZEBRA' section.

I also remembered finding out about the (unauthorized) release of the 'B' side of 'ZEBRA's' 45 titled 'Wasted'. More info about this below the Cherry Red release.

With a little help from my friends album credits

CD2 liner notes

CLICK HERE TO BUY ON CHERRY RED RECORDS

During the creation of this part of the website I got the idea to see what 'Google AI' had to say about 'ZEBRA'. This is what I found...

BROWN ACID
'WASTED' & 'HELTER SKELTER' releases by Riding Easy Records

A while back I was contacted by Timo Laine telling me that Bruce Borden (singer for ZEBRA), had contacted him about some company called 'Brown Acid' releasing their recording 'Wasted'. Timo and Bruce were the song writers and Bruce asked Timo if he had licensed/authorized it, as Bruce hadn't. Timo had never been contacted and didn't know about it's release. I checked out 'Brown Acid' and found out that Riding Easy Records had 20 or so releases called the 'Brown Acid series'.

They claim, over and over again, that all their releases were licensed and approved (and paid) by each artist. I discovered that they had not only released 'Wasted', but 'Helter Skelter' also, on several different 'series'. So neither song was ever licensed or approved. 'Wasted' was released on 'Brown Acid – The First Trip' August 25th 2015, and 'Helter Skelter' on 'Brown Acid – The Fifth Trip' October 31st 2017. They were also released on some compilation box-sets.