01/12/2023

‘This utterly engrossing feast focuses on the ‘golden period’ of British jazz, when boundary-breaking and experimentation first broke through. Featuring large sleeve reproductions (both front and back), period reviews, historical overviews and vintage music press adverts, Labyrinth finally puts this music on the pedestal it rightly deserves’ – Jon Newey (editor, Jazzwise)

LIMITED EDITION BOOK NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

BEAUTIFUL, EXCLUSIVE MICHAEL GARRICK COLD MOUNTAIN POSTER (REPRODUCING A LONG-LOST 1972 DESIGN) WITH THE FIRST 100 ORDERS!

Labyrinth is a massive hardback book, 375pp in length, printed on high-quality art paper, with an embossed cover and cloth quarter-binding, written by Richard Morton Jack (Galactic Ramble, Psychedelia, Nick Drake: The Life).

It celebrates over three hundred albums, offering detailed background info about each, alongside excerpts from original reviews and masses of high-quality images that reproduce their fabulous artwork and labels at near-full size. It also features a fascinating introduction by Tony Reeves (Mike Taylor Quartet, New Jazz Orchestra, Colosseum etc).

Covering abstract jazz, avant-garde jazz, serial jazz, free jazz, Indo-jazz, jazz-rock and more, it tells a story Britain should be proud of: open-minded and creative musicians pushing the boundaries of their art in the face of penury and indifference, and » Continue Reading.

BLURB:

Following their 25-year CD anthology The Weather at World’s End: 1997–2022 (Talking Elephant, 2023), Colin Harper’s Legends of Tomorrow release a new single, ‘The King is Dead (He Told Me Himself)’ (written by Colin) – ahead of the Northern Ireland studio supergroup’s first ever concerts, in December.

‘The King is Dead’ features a galaxy of Northern Irish music and media personalities: Mickey Rafferty (The Minnows) on vocals; Dave McLarnon (Shock Treatment) on backing vocals; Colin Harper on acoustic guitar; Linley Hamilton (Irish jazz colossus and broadcaster) on trumpet; Brian Houston (solo artist) on lead guitar; Cormac O’Kane (ex-New Brontës / award-winning recording engineer) on piano; Ali Mackenzie (solo artist/sideman of many) on bass; and Feargal O’Kane (ex-New Brontës / award-winning BBC NI arts TV producer) on drums.

All have recorded as Legends of Tomorrow many times before, and most will be involved in the December concerts, to be filmed by director Barry Devlin for an independent documentary for BBC NI.

About the song:

Colin Harper: ‘Brian Houston is one of my oldest friends in the music » Continue Reading.

As mentioned elsewhere on the AW, my unusual ‘studio ensemble’ the Legends of Tomorrow (the name a throwaway bit of tongue-in-cheekery in 1996) released The Weather at World’s End: 1997–2022 earlier this year. Fifty musicians/singers were featured on the album, almost all from Northern Ireland.

Well, Barry Devlin has decided he needed to make a documentary about the Legends/me, so in short, around 25 of us are staging our first ever, and likely only, concert on 7 December, in Belfast – to be filmed for excerpting in the doc and, of course, a live album. My long-time collaborator Cormac O’Kane will be on lights/camera directing and his trusty sidekick Richard Brown will be on sound.

The concert will feature 25 fabulous musicians – albeit not onstage at the one time – including singers Lyndsay Crothers (Wookalily), Barry Devlin (Horslips), Anna Grindle (also on alto sax), Janet Henry, Bruce McClements (ex-Strawman), Helen McGurk, Dave McLarnon (Shock Treatment), Tíona McSherry (ex-Tamalin), Alison O’Donnell (ex-Mellow Candle), Mickey Rafferty (The Minnows) and Peter Wilson (Duke Special) (also on » Continue Reading.

16/10/2023

BLURB:

Terri Hooley about to celebrate his 75th birthday. He’s the record shop champion and the guy that gave critical help to the Undertones, RUDI, the Outcasts and many others. He’s the subject of Good Vibrations, a popular film and a stage musical. To mark his milestone birthday, Terri talks about radical times, conflict, lucky escapes, messy behaviour and the alternative soul of Belfast.

75 Revolutions is a 144 page book with over 100 photos, many of them unseen or rare. Book dimensions are 261 mm square. Featuring fresh, revelatory interviews with Terri and his friends, and a foreword from the Hooleygan himself.

Stuart Bailie is a music journalist, former Assistant Editor of NME and a long-time Terri associate. He has reached into his archive of interviews and Hooley adventures to find reason in a turbulent life. No other story spins out like 75 Revolutions.

Part 3 in an implausible yet mesmerising and delightfully entertaining series.

PUBLISHER BLURB: This series of books comprises a major social and cultural history of Britain, reflected through the prism of music — mostly folk music. It amounts to a hidden history of both Britain and music, and is part oral history and part incisive criticism, with a fair amount of humour thrown in.

The ten part series is based on the life of 90-year-old Bill Leader, the prolific sound engineer and producer, who was the first to record Bert Jansch, the Watersons, Anne Briggs, Nic Jones and Connollys Billy and Riognach, and among the last to record Jeannie Robertson, Fred Jordan and Walter Pardon. Bill straddled the golden age of traditional singing and the folk revival. He agreed to the biographical treatment if due prominence be given to colleagues who may have since slipped from the world’s eyes.

Through the series, a parade of the great and good come and go. These include Paul Simon, Brendan Behan, Pink Floyd and Christy Moore, all recorded by Bill at one time or another. Secrets, surprises and heresies are rife and something jaw dropping happens at least every four » Continue Reading.

Back cover blurb: One of Britain’s pioneering rock’n’rollers, Duffy Power emerged from the Larry Parnes stable to become a revered purveyor of blistering R&B, folk-blues and soul in the 60s, creating a now legendary body of work. His only ‘album proper’ was made at the end of his 1959-73 tenure as a pro musician – a self-titled LP produced by Adrian Miller and a clutch of rare singles mixes and unreleased tracks. This work is collected here in full for the first time, with splendid new mastering from Cormac O’Kane.

Colin H extra info: I was delighted to write a 6,000-word essay for this release – a fabulous new presentation of the late Duffy Power’s self-titled 1973 album for the obscure GSF label, superbly mastered on CD from the master tapes for the first time (by that Wizard of Sound Cormac O’Kane, on top form) plus rare/unissued single mixes, three survivors from a projected second LP (two newly mixed from multi-tracks) and one wholly unreleased song/recording, ‘Jumpin’ Jesus’ (also newly mixed from multis)… plus two period demos by songwriter Harvey Shield, of songs recorded by Duffy in these sessions. The 62-minute collection is released by the always excellent prog » Continue Reading.

Jerry Goodman – violin sensation with the Flock and then the Mahavishnu Orchestra, living in the US, has medical troubles. His associate Sonja Kristina started this Funrazr, which I only became aware of yesterday.

Here’s some of the text. Link below. If you enjoy the mighty MO, or other of Jezza’s works, consider pushing a note or two his way. It can’t be easy losing (temporarily) your ability to play your instrument / earn money. 🙁

* * * * *

I am Curved Air’s Sonja Kristina , a close friend of Jerry Goodman – the brilliant pioneering electric violinist .

We met in the early ‘70s just before John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra was formed.

Over the last year Jerry has been in severe pain due to trapped nerves in both hands and elbows. As a result he has been unable to play his violin.

It is so hard for him to not be able to practice and perform.

After much investigation and advice he has embarked on a series of surgeries to free the nerves. With your help he is also exploring other therapies to ease the pain and restore flexibility.

He has had surgery on » Continue Reading.