Musings on the byways of popular culture
The legendary Dave ‘Maha Dev’ Codling, ex Quintessence rhythm guitarist, has recently revitalised his 1979-80 US band Made In Japan, fronted by Tony Fried. Here’s a video for new song ‘Think Pink’.
Did anyone in the UK see this week’s ‘The Apprentice’? There was a guy whose plea to remain ‘in the process’ was that he had ‘a background in breakdancing’. We got to see some of this in the show and more in the ‘You’re Fired’ show after it.
I know nothing about breakdancing but, as far as I could tell, he was crap at it. Was I right?
For a while this year I noticed that the most recent Quintessence archive CD I worked on, ‘Spirits From Another Time: 1969-71’, wasn’t appearing when one searched for the band name on amazon.co.uk in their CDs & Vinyl section – weirdly, though, when one searched using the album title a note came up saying ‘some adult items may be restricted’ and if one carried on, there it was – a Quintessence album, hidden from the world for no good reason!
Brian at Hux Records just rang to tell me that he’d noticed orders for this release (but not other Quin CDs on his label) have fallen off a cliff and he couldn’t figure out why.
I explained the amazon thing. We both checked the site, while on the phone, and – deeply weirdly – while I can now find the album (seven down the page when searching for ‘Quintessence’ under CDs & Vinyl), Brian couldn’t! He read out what he could see and everything was in the same order as on my screen EXCEPT that ‘Spirits from Another Time’ was missing.
I emailed him the URL of the pge I was seeing and when he looked, he was still » Continue Reading.
This is just a heads-up for anyone who may be interested and missed the Kickstarter campaign: my very limited edition companion volume to ‘Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the Emerald Beyond’ (Jawbone, 2014) is now available via the good auspices of Peter Muir at Market Square Music.
For a day or two I knew how it felt like to be New Order circa ‘Blue Monday’ – some default postage rates glitch meant that I was losing money on every copy bought! But Peter has (I am told… touch wood…) sorted the whole thing out now and copies can be purchased (at £14.95) for the moment exclusively via www.marketsquaremusic.com – with postage anywhere in the world.
The book will be listed on amazon.co.uk in due course BUT it will be £19.95 and will only post to the UK. I’ve opted to have this amazon listing because it’s a widely known/trusted online retailer, but from a one-item, low-run seller’s point of view it’s a bit of a killer, hence the higher price to mitigate that. Also, one cannot alter amazon’s default ‘rest of world’ postage rates, hence UK-only from amazon once it’s up there. I hope that makes » Continue Reading.
Regulars around her will know that I’ve been involved in helping the Hardchargers – Irish blues sensations from the Ballyclare delta – towards a nationally released album. There have been a few bumps in the road – an inconvenient hellhound has been on the chaps’ trail this year in one form or another – but the album, ‘Scarecrow’, is but a Pledge Music campaign away from being pressed and will be released through Market Square Records (digital and physical) on November 17.
The Pledge campaign will start today -as soon as Lonesome Chris Todd has figured out how one sets a time limit on it. That’s no slight on Lonesome Chris – but on Pledge Music, which seems to have made that aspect of the page construction impossible to find. Maybe that’s the last bark of the hellhound…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkykzU0bo0&t=19s
I’ve just noticed that someone has posted a high quality version of the great ‘Smile of the Beyond’, from MO II’s Montreux performance in 1974 (which, bafflingly, was among the 60-odd minutes omitted from the official DVD of the show) – and it has to be shared!
Rare in the MO canon in being primarily a vocal item, featuring the exquisite Gayle Moran, the studio recording of this was among the late George Martin’s favourite productions, done in one take.
But fear not, bolted on to the song is a 20-minute wig-out.
Mark Abrahams from somewhere up north (but but not Scandinavia, whence came his two predecessors) is the new guitar player in WA, Muddy Manninen stepping back at the end of the last round of touring earlier this year.
WA started a US tour two days ago, and here’s a clip from that very show. UK tour starts in October. I’ll be at Glasgow Nov 12.
Let’s rock!
A heads-up to anyone interested in the Mike-meister – I have a detail-drenched feature on the great man in the new issue of Record Collector (L Zep on the cover, out in a few days).
A while back I asked the massive for advice on crowdfunding print costs for a book – which was gratefully received. Said book was duly funded and is currently with the printer. Trebles all round! 🙂
This time, I come for advice related to a musical trio I’ve been helping towards an album. Rather like my book, their product is essentially already in place (recorded, mixed, mastered, booklet designed, website near complete, distribution arranged). A set of circumstances has meant that their gigging has been far, far leaner this year than it has been for the previous 5 years, hence a cash flow blip.
So, they are resolved to use crowdfunding to cover the manufacturing cost, in time for release in November.
Here’s the thing, though… They’d prefer not to use Kickstarter if possible, because a couple of acts within their geographical area have over-used it, or used it in a way that seems a bit tawdry (I don’t know the details), and the chaps are worried about being tarnished by association.
The flipside of that, though, is that Kickstarter is well-known so it is a brand/platform people sort of instinctively trust.
So… can the massive recommend any other » Continue Reading.
The indefatigable Brigid O’Neill – one of the finest writers/singers in a jazzy/folky vein in Ireland, in my view, has a long-awaited new album next week. These only come along from Brij every 20 years or so, though she’s presented a terrific EP and single in the past couple of years (practically a torrent of releases in Brij-world).
I’m sure her beautiful song ‘Pilot’s Weather’ (which originally began life as a lament about ironing, ‘Pile O’ Sweaters’)* will be on it. The live performance in the video was recorded at a terrific concert I was at in Downpatrick a few months ago. If you like the mellow, electric piano/double bass sound world of 70s Joni Mitchell albums, or of Bruce Cockburn’s ‘Circles In The Stream’ album, give it a listen.
(* okay, it’s a joke…)
I recently bought a cheap copy of the Woodstock 4disc Director’s Cut DVD – a longer cut of the film proper (with a sensational, and fabulously filmed ‘new’ Canned Heat performance the standout) plus a couple of discs of extra: a nice set of featurette interviews and 2+ hours of unseen performances (mostly very good, sometimes great, bar a bloody interminable load of rubbishby the Grateful Dead).
Anyway…
I couldn’t sleep a couple of nights back so poured a whisky or two and watched some of the film. It got to the bit where TYA play ‘I’m Going Home’. Dear me. I seem to recall thinking this was quite exciting when I first saw it on TV sometime in the 80s – and my friend Carol From Luton only yesterday told me it’s her fave bit in the whole thing – but, my goodness, I thought on this recent rewatching, this is boring. And self-indulgent. And uninspired in every way – or at best one minute of in-the-moment ad-libbery stretched to ten times its limit bubbabubbabubba-reddressonreddresson-goinhomegoinhome-bubbabubbabubba-OW!!!-homebabygoinhomebaby-OW!!!-gngngngnnnnnnnnnnnn [ad infinitum]
The bonus disc interviews make it abundantly clear that the director/editors were forensic in choosing the most impactful moments, lyrically (this was » Continue Reading.
Forthcoming from Equinox on October 2 – ‘The Godfather of British Jazz’:
The Godfather of British Jazz; The Life and Music of Stan Tracey; Clark Tracey
I’ve had the pleasure of assisting Lonesome Chris Todd and his colleagues in the Hardchargers towards a debut album this year (nationally released on October 27).
Lonesome Chris has also been making occasional forays into solo performance lately, magically wrangling this 12-string beast and field-hollering his blues in unsuspecting bar-rooms around Northern Ireland.
This video was shot recently in the Toddfather’s apartment. Obviously, Chris himself lives not in a well-heeled plush environment but in a shotgun shack down a dirt road by a cotton plantation (actually, that’s not *too* far from accuracy…. okay, he lives on the sleepy far edge of a country town, down a cul-de-sac beside a marshy meadow…).
‘No Stone Unturned’, in an 11-minute smouldering electric form is one of the highlights of the forthcoming album, ‘Scarecrow’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNoRb9Fr568&feature=youtu.be
I went to the Hilden Brewery Festival yesterday (Lisburn, NI) – my annual trip to the world of ‘new music’. I heard lots of interesting people, but bought onlky one disc – from this chap, Joshua Burnside, a singer/songwriter who was performing in an terrificly warm, fuzzy electric trio format.
This was his opening song, and it stood out, ‘Holllogram’ [sic], from his latest album. Video of live solo performance.
(Where is Johnny Concheroovy when you need him?!)
Stray All In Your Mind The Transatlantic Years 1970-1974 (4CD Box Set)
A 4 CD CLAMSHELL BOXED SET FEATURING EVERY TRACK RECORDED BY STRAY FOR TRANSATLANTIC RECORDS BETWEEN 1970 & 1974
NEWLY REMASTERED
STRAY REUNION CONCERT AT THE BORDERLINE, LONDON ON OCTOBER 20th 2017
INCLUDES ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET WITH NEW ESSAY BY MALCOLM DOME
Esoteric Recordings label is proud to announce the release of a re-mastered 4CD clamshell boxed set anthologising all the recordings made by the legendary STRAY for Transatlantic Records between 1970 & 1974. Formed in 1966 by West London musicians Del Bromham (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Gadd (vocals), Gary Giles (bass) & Steve Crutchley (drums). Crutchley soon departed the band and was replaced by Richie Cole.
By August 1968 and whilst aged only 15 or 16 years old, they had begun to make a name for themselves on the Underground music scene in London, performing at legendary venues such as The Roundhouse and Middle Earth. The band’s hard-edged progressive rock earned a loyal following, which resulted in the band signing to Transatlantic Records in January 1970. Over the next four years the band would record five » Continue Reading.
What does it sound like?:
‘Bright Phoebus’ is an album of fantastically idiosyncratic, compelling, uncategoriseable songs by siblings Lal and Mike Waterson, released in 1972 on legendary producer/hapless businessman Bill Leader’s label Trailer in a run of 2000, 1000 of which were faulty. Bill’s twin labels Leader and Trailer had started in 1969 and hit the buffers before the end of the 70s. I wrote about Bill and labels, in the context of the Irish music he recorded, at length here: https://theafterword.co.uk/bill-leader-the-man-who-paid-the-pipers/
He also recorded much Scottish and English music – folk club artists and ‘pure’ traditional musicians, hence the split label imprints. Mike & Lal had found a level of fame in the 60s as two of the four ‘Watersons’, sensational acapella harmony singers of traditional songs, from Hull, who burned out, curiously enough, in my home town, Belfast, in 1968, when an all-night singaround at a festival proved one burnt candle too many. The group stopped, Mike took up painting and decorating and I’ve no idea what Lal did. Perhaps, as she did in the 1966 BBC film ‘Travelling For A Living’ she just drew the curtains.
In 1971 Anne Briggs recorded Lal’s song ‘Fine Horseman’ (one » Continue Reading.
I’m inspired to post this for two reasons: (1) My John McLaughlin book Kickstarter campaign closed today, having been successful (hurrah!); (2) just at the moment, I’m taking a breather from (i.e. procrastinating) doing something far more mundane. Which is why we’re all here…
The last chapter I wrote for the book was based around a chap who stumbled on the Mahavishnu Orchestra doing an afternoon show at a small college in New York State on May 14 1972, and whose life was changed as a result. The following day, the ‘Vish were at another academic premises in New York, Hunter College, following the great Judy Collins. By chance, WBAI radio broadcast the show and someone was there with a video camera, possibly from Columbia Records, possibly filming a prospective promo clip – nobody knows.
I’ve been enjoying the WBAI audio while doing the mundane stuff. I’ll post it below. Meanwhile, here is a glimpse of Judy Collins in 1972, followed by that mysterious ‘Vish video clip from that very day. Regrettably, the Mahavishnu Orchestra never appeared on Sesame Street, while it remains unknown as to whether Judy’s act at Hunter College involved any Muppets. when you were going on » Continue Reading.
I was listening to the new Charlie Byrd compo ‘Sixties Byrd’ last week and was struck when his version of ‘A Taste of Honey’ came on – I’d forgotten the name of the piece, so it took me a while to recall it, but I immediately thought, ‘This is SO emblematic of the era…’ It seems to encapsulate the decade, somehow.
I then thought about Harry South’s closing theme to ‘The Sweeney’, which seems to sum up the damp, washed-out grimey, beige 70s in a similar intangible way.
Any other suggestions? It’s often NOT a particular pop song but a piece of soundtrack music or suchlike. Like, that jittery flutey thing from Austin Powers, you could say, sums up the entire Swinging London thing (is that piece of music a pastiche or of the time?).
I’ve recently read Ronnie Corbett’s ‘Autobiography of the Two Ronnies’, published in 2006. I recommend it – an affectionate but substantial look at the pair’s pre-show history, how the show worked, and their post-show activities related to the (by then) family entertainment institution they had created.
One aspect puzzled me, though, and it’s something I’ve heard Ronnie C state in TV documentaries and the like. The two Rons were annoyed about the early 80s ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’ sketch ‘The Two Ninnies’ for a couple of reasons, that it was BBC comedians criticising other BBC comedians (with seemed not the done thing in those days) but mainly because – as the Rons interpreted it – they were being criticised for “using bad language”.
Ronnie C defends this at length in his book by saying the Two Ronnies only used the word ‘bloody’ three times in however many series, etc. But it seems to me that the pair were – weirdly, as it seems so obvious – missing the whole point of the ‘The Two Ninnies’ sketch: which was effectively putting IN the ‘bad language’ where the Rons had left it OUT, but with a nod and a wink.
Audio clips are now posted on amazon for the September CD of John McLaughlin’s ‘Live At Ronnie Scott’s’, recorded in March. Sounds impressive…
My friend Cormac ‘Wizard of Sound (and Vision)’ O’Kane invited eight-piece Nordic bluegrass orchestra Hayde (pronounced ‘hide’, apparently) to perform live in the kitchen/social area of his studio premises in Belfast last night – filmed before an invited audience and streamed live on his Facebook account. It was fantastic!
The lead vocalist, Rebekka, is world-class to my mind, as is the (guesting, not a regular member) jazzish banjoist Mikael. But the real USP, I think, is the ensemble playing and arrangements – not the usual case of speeding through the song then everyone exchanging virtuoso solos, but real ‘arrangements’, with particularly interesting four-part vocal harmonies and the unusual (successful) involvement of an accordion. Front man Jo is very funny. It all helps.
The only downside was the lack of songs about Vikings – not a single ‘Longship Mountain Boys’ or ‘Foggy Fjord Breakdown’ to be seen. And not a single song in Norwegian! Apparently NOBODY sings songs in Norwegian…
The show starts around 32 minutes in (bypass the comedy warm-up).
https://en-gb.facebook.com/cormac.okane1/videos/1622928554392841/
Seemingly not. Still, how often do you hear of book signing sessions at off-licences?
My friend Cormac O’Kane – on a high from last weekend’s Buddy Mondlock concert at his studio in Belfast, Red Box (see elsewhere on the blog…) – is putting on a short-notice BYO/whip-round gig for a Norwegian Bluegrass Orchestra, called Hayde, next Wedneasday, August 2, who find themselves in Belfast for a day without a show. I know, I know – happens all the time…
If anyone fancies it and can be in the Belfast area next Wednesday, come along.
I expect Locust and Kaisfatz can tell us all something about them. After all, Norway is just a few hundred yards down the road from Stockholm, isn’t it? 🙂
Best known as an obscure outpost in BBC Radio 4’s late-night Shipping Forecast, Valencia is also the location of an outpost of Boston’s Berklee College, the home of jazz degrees. John’s former Mahavishnu Orchestra colleague Rick Laird went there (Boston) in the middle 60s, as did his estwhile collaborators Howard Riley and Michael Gibbs.
On July 10, a couple of weeks ago, John only had to go as far as Valencia (from his home in Monaco) to receive an honorary doctorate in music, presented by Berklee President Roger H. Brown.
As the press release puts it:
Berklee’s honorary doctorate recipients are recognised for their achievements and influences in music, and for their enduring contributions to American and international culture. Past recipients include Duke Ellington (the first, in 1971), Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Smokey Robinson, Steven Tyler, Loretta Lynn, Juan Luis Guerra, Annie Lennox, Paco de Lucia, Carole King, Willie Nelson, George Clinton, Rita Moreno, Lionel Richie, and A. R. Rahman. Honorary doctorates have previously been awarded at the Valencia campus to Eddie Gómez (2013) and Plácido Domingo (2014).
John performed as a special guest at the commencement concert at the Palau de les Arts Reina » Continue Reading.
As a ‘bonus track’ to my recent thread about an adventurous weekend of music, my troubadouring and songwriting guest Buddy Mondlock was talking about list songs in my kitchen (that’s where he was talking about them – there were no list songs in my kitchen, per se) and I said, ‘Like Neil Diamond’s ‘Done Too Soon’?’
‘What?’
‘You’ve never heard it?’
‘No’.
Because it’s on all of Neil’s best-ofs I assumed it must have been a big US hit back in the day but, no, it was only a Billboard #65. Who knew?
Still, it’s a track on one of my all-time favourite records, Neil’s ’12 Greatest Hits’ (a mid 70s vinyl comp). I played it for him, realising – as I always do – that there are several lines I’ve never been able to work out. They sound like random goobledegook – albeit very effectively emotive ones. (Similarly with ‘Holly Holy’, Neil can somehow make near nonsense sound utterly profound through the sheer commitment of his performance and the brilliance of his chord changes/arrangements.)
So I’ve finally got around to looking the lyrics up. I still don’t know who seven of these people are, but at least I know » Continue Reading.
