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.
“I’ve just noticed that someone has posted”. Come on Colin we all know you have at least 27 laptops scanning the Web for any mention of MO or JM 24/7. 😁
Ha! No, honest – I’m often pleasantly surprised by such things. Having just spent two days doing an extremely boring piece of work, I’m unashamedly luxuriating with Mahavishnu music before collecting Indian food and watching ‘Strictly…’
Here’s something else very beautiful and MO-related, a cover of MO Mk I’s ‘Trilogy’ by acoustic ensemble the Wild Strings Quartet:
Didn’t have you down as a Strictly fan Colin.
Indeedy-do, Steve. And every year my exclamation to Mrs H is the same: ‘Nobody’s heard of these people!’ The definition of ‘celebrity is becoming increasingly stretched.
Brian Conley – a 1990s TV comedian, I believe, last seen as the PE teacher in ‘The Grimleys’, seems to have morphed into Frankie Howerd, with a bizarre auburn hairdo.
The tenplate for Strictly contestants is also becoming too predictable:
Breakast TV news/weather person
Someone from Hollyoaks (whom no one in the world over 20 has ever heard of)
A recently faded boy band person
A recently faded girl band person
A very camp homosexual
An overweight, jolly black woman
A sportsperson
An elderly person/retired entertainer
Somebody who was once in Eastenders
1) they appear to have switched off Gayle Moran’s microphone at some point
2) at around 9:54 there’s a marvellous shot of the female violinist looking somewhat bemused by the jazz-fusion wiggery erupting around her
3) readers of a nervous disposition should be warned that 11:45 to 19:45 consists entirely of drum-wankery (or whatever the membranophonic equivalent of fretwankery is called…)
Not a violinist, a violist – Marsha Westbrook: the one member of MO II I was unable to account for. She left the band in late 1974 and fell off the grid. I tried various avenues to locate her for an interview for ‘Bathed In Lightning’ – her school alumni society, following up marriage rumours, etc. No luck, alas.
As for point three, just out of sight of the camera during Walden’s drum solo, something had gone badly wrong with one of his two bass drums. MO II roadie Greg DiGiovine was gamely unscrewing the drum head and fitting a new one as the show went on. Poor Gayle’s keyboards kept malfunctioning during te set too, and the string quartet couldn’t hear themselves. Amazingly, none of this is really apparent to the lay person viewing the complete (bootlegged) performance.
I was lucky enough to see a performance of this a few years ago in New York. As an encore treat at one of his 70th birthday shows at the Blue Note with JM, Chick Corea brought on his wife, Gayle Moran, to sing Smile of the Beyond. The band, featuring Brian Blade on drums, gave it the full MO treatment. Is the new live album out yet Colin?
Well, I’ve ordered a copy from amazon and it hasn’t arrived yet…
That’s great.
Is that Layla appearing briefly at 10.24 ?
Only recently I noticed Sunshine of Your Love makes a cameo on Between Nothingness and Eternity.
It is indeed, Junior – played by John, echoed by Jean Luc. As well as that and ‘Sunshine…’ John occasionally introduced a Beatles riff into his live jams – from memory, I think it was ‘Day Tripper’. Something from the mid period, anyway.
This is how jazzers have a bit of extra fun while showing off. Introducing lines from other songs into solos. The more ridiculous/outlandish the bit they manage to put in, the better.