777 was the brainchild of Dave Meecham (aka Maahes), and although I’m on dodgy ground here, I shall attempt to explain it.

It is, I think it’s fair to say, a concept piece, drawing on various conspiracy theories and smatterings of evidence and intrigue. As I understand it, there is a vastly superior race of beings who know all about planet Earth, having been here for several millennia and represented in folk-lore and religious tracts from many faiths. They have been used to explain something as familiar from childhood as ‘giants’ or the biblical ‘Nephilim’, and even have posh Latin archaeological names such as ‘Meganthropus palaeojavanicus’. Stick that in a search engine and see what you get! Quite a lot of ‘proof’ for Noah’s flood, as it goes. I’ve only dipped into it, and I’ve been well confused!

If they do still exist, these creatures are considered as possibly responsible for UFOs, disappearances, and many other disruptive occurrences. They are apparently destined to take over the planet...basically whenever they feel like it. They have humanoid features but are incredibly tall (anything from 8 to 20 feet has been quoted) and sport sharp canine or feline teeth. Egyptian mythology refers to them and indeed Maahes is an Egyptian god with the body of a man and the head of a big cat.

The 777 lyrics detail the fall of man and our futile attempts to control and understand our destiny, and the rise of these warrior superiors.

The song that sticks out a bit is the first, SEEN NOTHING LIKE IT*#, which simply appears to be about life on the road with a band. The lyrics at least tie in nicely with the futility theme!

SITTING PRETTY deals with the human complacency in the face of imminent destruction and the refusal of science to accept the discoveries of these giants’ ancient remains in places such as Java and most famously in the La Brea Tar Pits in California.

GREEN OBLIVION*# is a call to return to the kind of life that the Meganthropus perhaps would have led in the Los Angeles Basin area.

A sense of foreboding and imminent attack is felt in the instrumental WARRIOR MACHINE…

THE DUST POURED IN feels to me like a description of an archaeologist coming across some more evidence of the temporary nature of our stay on the planet!

A revisited Panorama In Black (Ipswich band featuring DM & JP) song, DON’T HIDE# is musically fairly standard post-punk fare but lyrically describes (I think) a wandering lone Nephilim in the modern day, perhaps calling for his brothers...

TAWNEY JIHAD - This instrumental is a nod to The Ramones, one of Dave’s favourite bands; but what a Tawney Jihad is, I have no idea. Well I know what a jihad is, just not a tawney (sp?) one. I suppose it really would be the mother of all battles if these enormous creatures ever decided to stake their claim.

Hence the call for evacuation in TOWER OF FLAME. There have been many modern thinkers that have propounded the entirely logical and provable view that humankind’s destiny can only be space migration. At some point, whether because of inter-stellar war, an impending comet-strike, the calamitous return of our alien founders (Van Daniken’s gods?), or the final leeching of the earth’s resources by an over-populated and greedy human race, these sages insist that we will need to extend our boundaries somewhat. And what else can space exploration be for? It’s a bit expensive to be purely a rich nation’s charabanc ride or a breast-beating show of power.

I hope we don’t have to leave purely to avoid Meganthropus palaeojavanicus or someone like him, but it would appear to be a possibility, at least in the world of 777.

James Partridge