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:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 110 :: :: Wednesday, November 18th, 1998 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: CuneiWay@aol.com Subject: Allen Mathes' comments Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 11:16:39 EST [In WR#109, AMathes737@aol.com wrote:]>Am I saying that I miss the unique and mysteriously intriguing musical>entity that was once known as Hatfield and the North? You bet I am. Now I>know that these individuals are separated by geographical as well>psychological mountain ranges. But SEVEN SISTERS proves that they can be>brought together through the magic of DAT machines and other technological>devices to record engaging and totally satisfying music. More than that, >REAL Canterbury music, not a pale imitation. >[...]>So to all of you who listed a Hatfield LP as one of the 3 great Canterbury>records, I challenge you to come forth in this forum and demand MORE!>Maybe if enough of us ask for it the musicians will respond and even get>funded by one of these new labels spending all their resources digging up>embarrassing old stuff the musicians never wanted out in the first place.>(Anybody really think Anthony Moore's OUT needed to come out?!) Allen makes some interesting points, but as someone who actually *releases* records I think I need to point out two things: 1) Some of the musicians involved don't want to *do* this type of music any more.Or, if they DO want to do this type of music, they want to do it with their current bands. I haven't heard "7 Year Itch" yet [yes, it's actually that difficult for me to get Voiceprint stuff], so I haven't heard the "Hatfield" reunion in question, but I feel pretty sure, having had dealings with Dave Stewart in the past, that Dave's involvement was due more to helping out an old comrade than having ANYTHING to do with wanting to be involved in a Hatfield reunion. I would venture to guess that Phil Miller, to a less strongly felt extent, feels the same way. If Dave wanted to do a Hatfield reunion, he would have been involved in thevideo reunion which was a well paid situation for all members [that is whatPhil told me about the show, which I guess was the main reason Phil did it] That doesn't mean that these folks don't want to do interesting stuff; Ithought that Phil's last with In Cahoots was one of the better things thathe's done, but what I'm saying is that Phil wants to work with his current band, not a band that broke up 23 years ago. Now the 2nd point, about new labels spending their resources digging up old items. I will hope & assume that that was NOT directed at Cuneiform, since I havespent the last 15 years supporting new artists & new projects by older, favorite artists of mine. But you know what? They don't generally sell very well. You know what sells?Reissues & previously unreleased material by "famous dead bands" [as a Japanese correspondent so eloquently put it to me once]. How come "Silent Knowledge" by Elton Dean & band which came out 2 years ago [&which, imho, is a fine example of Dean's 90's work &, if anything, is an"easier listen" & less "free" than the Just Us CD] has been outsold by our reissue of Just Us in TWO MONTHS??!! How come Hugh Hopper's Carousel, certainly one of his finest 90's releases wasQUICKLY outsold by our reissues of Two Rainbows Daily & 1984? [And how come Hugh's TRUELY magnificent 3rd release with Hughscore, to beentitled "Delta Flora" that we are releasing 5/99 & which may be one of thebest albums to be released in '99 - YES, it's THAT GOOD - will undoubtablyget ignored by many of the people on this list and other fans because it's newor because Robert Wyatt or other semi-famous English musicians don't appear on it]??? And lastly, how come our two Soft Machine CDs [a famous dead band] are alreadyour best selling albums ever, when we have also released close to 100 NEWreleases by various talented artists who are working & struggling NOW?? These are genuine, tough questions, & questions that as a businessman, I have to think about. Allen's note was written in good spirit, but before you go blaming recordcompanies for not putting out the music that you want, maybe you should think about what you buy & what other people buy! If all Cuneiform sells well is reissues & previously unreleased releases byold bands, & when I work with these same artists on new projects that thendon't sell well, should you really be surprised that I AM keeping my eyes openfor reissues & previously unreleased items, in addition to new materials? Allen mentions that Anthony Moore album. He doesn't like it, but he DID buy it. Did he buy some albums by newer artists? If he did, god bless 'im!If he didn't, god bless 'im anyway, but he shouldn't be surprised thatVoiceprint continues to put out these records, even if they are not of good quality, as long as people buy them. I am sorry to say that this is the way that the world works. Even for us "enlightened" business types ;-) Thank you for your time. Best rgds Steve Feigenbaum Cuneiform Records ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: chris cutler <cc@megacorp.u-net.com> Subject: Re: WR#109 Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 17:50:03 +0000 hi concerning the Robert Wyatt video 'Little Red Robin Hood' (a musical portrait - much more than a documentary) made with dedication and love by Carlo Bevilacqua and Francesco di Loreto over the last 3 years with the close participation of Robert and Alfie (at home, in the studio) and with recollections and contributions from, amongst others, Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, Carla Bley, Hugh Hopper, Dave Mason, Dave McRae, Paul Weller, Andy Summers, Noel Redding, Lol Coxhill, Chris Cutler... Filmed citations include old footage of Soft Machine, the famous "Shipbuilding" video and there are many scenes from the recording of Shleep. A highly entertaining hour and a bit, excellently filmed and edited, and i'm sure completely indispensible to all RW admirers. Well I liked it. I went to the launch in Turin (Robert was there and introduced it) and afterwards arranged a special English (no subtitles) version for anyone interested. It's available direct from ReR Megacorp for £14. Email credit card order to megacorp@dial.pipex.com or by regular mail to 79 Beulah Rd. Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8JG. UK But please note - it's only in PAL format, not NTSC. By the way, the copyrights question raised rather forcefully (but understandably) by Elton D. seems to identify an important grey zone between the legitimate desires of the public to listen to out of print or generally unavailable material and the dependence of artists and composers on the (already meagre) earnings they derive from the sale or broadcast of their work. The internet in particular has a built-in ethic of free use and free access, which I would want to support. Nevertheless, if we pay the telephone company maybe we should try to think of some eqitable way also to recognise financially the work of the artists we are unofficially listening to -at least when we centralise distribution of recordings (I say this as distinct from swapping cassettes with friends, which is surely always legitimate). I've no idea how -maybe by sending some nominal amount either directly or through some central broker to the artists ? We don't have to play by business rules (we screw you you try to screw us) - it could be done more honestly ? Anybody got any comments or suggestions - just to keep the question on the surface. best cc ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Giuseppe Rallo <rallog@tin.it> Subject: Softs & Peel Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 01:29:22 Hi All, Following your suggestions I've purchased "The Soft Machine - The Peel Session". What a superb album, I'm going to buy the others !!! The inner notes are a little poor, they only say the date of the radio gigs, but there's no detail about which gig/date and formation per song. Could someone help me ? Regards, Giuseppe [You should have a look at Age Rotshuizen's website for a complete chronology of Soft Machine's BBC sessions - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Yutaka Masuda <yutayuta@iris.dti.ne.jp> Subject: Kevin's page in Japanese Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 00:54:14 +0900 Hello. I'm Yutaka Masuda. A Japanese man living in Tokyo City. And I am the author of a Caravan Page in Japanese. At first. I made Kevin Ayers page in Japanese. I think your browser can't show the Japanese words but this sight contents many pictures. Please visit!My Caravan page has moved to new URL. Old URL will be useless. Kevin's page : http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~yutayuta/Kevin/Dor.htm Caravan's page : http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~yutayuta/Caravan/Caravan.1P.htm Sincerly.(^.^)/~~~ Yutaka Masuda(Captain Ahab) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jean-Jacques Bayle <jbrancat@club-internet.fr> Subject: Old records for sale Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 00:53:29 +0000 I have several old vinyl albums for sale (in good condition), among them: -Matching Mole -Hatfield & the North -801 -Gentle Giant -Robert Wiatt For a complete list, contact me at : jbrancat@club-internet.fr J.J. BAYLE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dan Phipps <phipps@schoollink.net> Subject: A new Canterbury fan needs help!! Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 13:14:34 -0800 Hello Aymeric and all other Canterbury music-lovers out there!! -- I NEED HELP!! Can anyone out there possibly help me obtain a copy (either CD or a good qualitydub) of Steve Hillage's BRILLIANT album entitled "Aura"? I used to have this onvinyl (remember that??) on the Virgin International label and DUG IT, bay-bay!! Cannot for the life of me figure out whatever happened to it! Used to LOVEhearing "Unzipping The Zype," "Healing Feeling" and above all else, Hillage'sAMAZING version of The Beatles' "Getting Better." DOES THIS EVEN STILL EXIST out there somewhere??? Like I said, I NEED HELP...with this one. I'm also very very interested in obtaining some music by Pierre Moerlin's Gong, especially his band's "Expresso II" album, "Downwind" and of course, "Time Is The Key." Does any other Canterbury reader out there know of these albums? I used to have these, too, back in the '70s and all, but whatever became of these remains a mystery as well. Hmmm... I'd appreciate any SERIOUS response on this request from others out there into Canterbury things. Please e-mail me privately concerning this, if you would. I'll be waiting...and thanks Aymeric for such a nice website to tribute all things Canterbury!! Very nice indeed... Later then -- -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Phipps <phipps@schoollink.net> "Imagination like a muscle will increase with exercise." (Peter Blegvad) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Roger Farbey <mmr@easynet.co.uk> Subject: George Khan Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 17:25:04 +0000 Following on from the discussion about saxophonist George Khan, he is featured on two of Mike Westbrook Orchestra's newly re-released albums 'Release' and 'Marching Song'. On the continuing matter of the Canterbury top three albums I keep feeling that my list of a few issues ago failed to mention Hugh Hopper. This is a serious omission because Hugh has made and continues to make some very fine albums indeed. If I may so bold as to have a fourth top Canterbury album I would therefore highly recommend Hopper Tunity Box by Hugh Hopper. This is an exceptionally fine album, one of my favourites of all the albums I have. The title is very appropriate because there really is something for everyone on this album. Some storming riff based fuzz bass Hopperesque numbers intermingled with jazzy more reflective things including Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman. There are also some great performances from others on this album, most notably (after Hugh of course) from the late, great Gary Windo. The album is hard to classify in musical terms which is good because it's not purely jazz and not purely rock. It's just good. I should add that this choice is just my own personal Hopper favourite to date but I highly rate and commend to WR resaders most of his recordings (Soft Head/Heap /Franglo Dutch Band etc,etc) in the last ten years as well. Cheers Roger Farbey ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steve Taaffe <classic@feist.com> Subject: Radio Free Kansas releases 7 new shows Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 20:50:07 -0600 Greetings everyone. Radio Free Kansas has just released 7 new Prog, Psyc, Space, Classic Rock Real Audio shows. We've added plenty of Canterbury music also. Enjoy. We wanted to thank everyone for their email requests. Steve Taaffe Radio Free Kansas http://www.tafcommedia.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: qbic@planet.it (Emanuele Pinotti) Subject: free jazz & experimental records auction Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 16:53:25 +0100 Hi, Just to let you know that it's out a new "free jazz, experimental, electronic and improvised music records auction" at: http://members.planet.it/freewww/qbic/ best wishes emanuele ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "David Voci" <david_voci@tcibr.com> Subject: Henry/Hatfield + Date: 18 Nov 1998 11:26:29 U Hello All Rattlers, First off, a very steamy issue was 109. I will comment on some of the topics later in time. For some reason I seem drawn to Henry Cow's music of late... This is really turning out to be a diamond in the rough of a band who never ceases to amaze me. Too bad their catalogue is so sparse. These guys, along with Hatfield/NH/Matching Mole are probably my fave CB bands on my second pass of this genre (Soft Machine and related was my first, quite some time ago). Which leads into this statement...YES!!! to all CB band members who might read upon these pages... As a devoted fan of this excellent music I would love to have any old recordings that might surface and be reissued on CD. Missing Pieces is but only a brief hint of what could be available from old sessions and recordings that at the time were shelved due to whatever reason. [As far as I know, these recordings are the only known studio recordings of pieces not available on official albums. Not just a 'brief hint'. There are interesting unreleased bits to be found on live tapes, for instance the full version of "Borogoves" from 1977, and a lot of the 1979 repertoire. But not much in terms of entirely unreleased compositions, I believe - A.L.] A brilliant open letter in issue 109 that basically suggested that readers of the Rattle should lend their support to bands like Hatfield/HC/Mole etc to release old archive material of concerts/outtakes/different versions etc that fans like me would kill to get their hands on. It's ok to get live material by these bands when uncovered, but I'm talking more about unreleased tunes/different live versions of the same tunes and most importantly, live concert material that literally is improvised stuff (kinda like "Concerts" by HCow which seems pretty improvised except for 'Ruins' and the 1st track, Beautiful As The Moon, the latter of which has alot of improvised passages anyway). Not to mention the Greasy Truckers material that sounds like 20 minutes of the band tuning up (which I happen to love, btw). Please realise esteemed musicians and record company personnel, that no matter how lame something sounds it usually is quite the opposite for true fans (enter 'Spaced" by the Softs), meaning that anything that is found that sounds halfway decent probably is worth reissuing... I am a definite believer in this as in previous issues I've made mention about 3 Special Releases from Klaus Schulze of all unreleased material spanning 25 years. The point here is that the total number of CD's in these sets was 45 and the best part was that each CD was over 70 minutes long. I can only think of 1 disc that I would use as a frisbee, the rest are killer. Imagine something of this magnitude that encompassed the careers of above mentioned bands for example...or even a 5CD set of unreleased material (not just live cuts of previously released songs) would suffice. So, yes, it is quite a mystery why we aren't seeing more archival material other than concert stuff of the same old tracks, just re-done. It seems that with the time spent together that bands like Soft Machine, Hatfield, Henry Cow etc. should have a lot more tunes, jam sessions, etc. available from old tapes that never made vinyl that could be reissued. Henry Cow seems like the kind of band that could do something different every time they take the stage. [I really don't think there's as much unreleased stuff than you're saying. In his autobiography from 1989, Dave Stewart mentioned that no Hatfield composition had remained unrecorded, whereas at the time there was an album's worth of National Health material waiting to be released - this was to become "Missing Pieces"... - A.L.] It certainly seems, by the song listing for 'Canterburied Sounds' vols. 1-4, that the road is being paved for New old material to be let out of it's cage. It's great to get all the unearthed Softs recordings on CD now but my only complaint is that ultimately, we are hearing the same old songs over and over again... don't these guys have any other material? Additionally, on Soft Machine 6, the last song '1983' is an excellent song... I was hoping that Hugh's solo career would have material resembling this genre of playing but really haven't heard anything too close to this marvelous tune. ['1983' was recorded during the sessions for Hugh's solo album "1984" and a lot of that album, recently reissued by Cuneiform, has similar experimental material, as has a subsequent album by Hugh, "Monster Band", now out on CD on Culture Press - A.L.] Saw another copy of End Of An Ear today which I bought for a friend as I already have a copy so for all you folks who are trying to get out of print stuff the only thing I can say is that Lady Luck is just around the corner in some cases... The store I purchased it from is Compact Disc Warehouse and they are in Sunnyvale, California at phone 408 730 0991 Lastly, I was listening to a band called Orb last night and realised that one Mr Steve Hillage was credited as guest producer/guitarist on a song from their "UF Orb" CD. While not a major S.H. fan I guess there is a connection here to the wide wonderful world of Canterbury. Peace to all and may your every day be better than the previous, dv [I think I have to take a stand here. The aim of WR has always been to support the *current* work by 'Canterbury' musicians, as well as discussing their past masterpieces. I'm very concerned by what Steve Feigenbaum wrote above. I will just quote a conversation I had with Phil Miller at the In Cahoots gig in Brussels last month. I was suggesting to him that a live CD of the quartet line-up of the band would be great. Although visibly flattered, he said he was far more interested in released some entirely new stuff. I think we should all respect this sort of attitude, and welcome with open arms the fact that these guys are still trying to move forward, when so many of their contemporaries are just busy 'reforming' and trading on their past glories. I'm sure they all know it would be much easier and financially rewarding to reform Hatfield or Henry Cow... - A.L.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** FORTHCOMING CANTERBURY-RELATED CONCERTS ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * [for more info : check out the 'Concerts' page of CALYX - see URL below] CARAVAN[Hastings-Sinclair-Richardson-Coughlan-Hastings-Leverton-Boyle-Bentall] Dec 10 - Dublin, Vicar Street POLYSONS FEAT. HUGH HOPPER - SOFT MACHINE COVERS Dec 08 - St.Germain-en-Laye (France), La Clef DIDIER MALHERBE/PIERRE BENSUSAN Nov 27 - Paris (France), New MorningDec 05 - Alençon (France), La Luciole [tel: 02.33.32.83.33]Dec 15-17 - Paris (France), Satellit'Café [D.Malherbe solo]Jan 22 - Elancourt (France), venue unknown [tel: 01.30.51.53.54]Jan 23 - Montereau (France), venue unknown [tel: 01.64.70.44.14]Feb 26 - Valenciennes (France), Théatre le Phoenix [tel: 03.27.32.32.00]Feb 27 - Faches-Tumesnil [near Lille] (France), Les Arcades [tel: 03.20.62.96.96]Mar 06 - Jarny (France), Espace Gérard Philippe [tel: 03.82.33.12.25] NIGEL KENNEDY GROUP "BACH, BARTOK & HENDRIX" - US TOUR [feat. John Etheridge & Doug Boyle] Nov 18 - Las Vegas, NV Nov 20 - PAlm Desert, CA Nov 21 - Los Angeles, CA Nov 22 - Cerritos, CA Nov 23 - San Fransisco, CA Nov 27 - Portland, OR Nov 28 - Seattle, WA Nov 29 - Vancouver (Canada), Orpheum HERE & NOW Nov 27 - Cheltenham, Axiom Centre CHRIS CUTLER with various projectsNov 19 - Paris (France), Instants Chavirés [with Tony Buck/JM Montera/JJ Pauvros] GLOBAL Dec 18 - Chagford (Devon), Jubilee Hall WITCH Dec 12 - Totnes (Devon), Seven Stars Hotel And a plug for our Kobaians friends: MAGMA Nov 27 - St.Nazaire (44) (France) Nov 28 - St.Quentin (02) (France) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * END OF ISSUE 110 _________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?_________________________________________________________________________ CALYX - The Canterbury Website http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/calyx.html THE ULTIMATE ONLINE CANTERBURY DISCOGRAPHY http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/cantdisco.html WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? BACK ISSUES - ONLINE ARCHIVE http://musart.co.uk/watrat/watrat.htm + search engine : http://musart.co.uk/ssearch.htm * To subscribe, send me an e-mail with 'WR sub' in the subject line.* To send a message for inclusion in the next issue, send it with 'WR: [subject]' in the subject line.* If your e-mail address changes, please notify me and mention both your old and new addresses so I can remove the former and add the latter.* If you can no longer receive WR or don't want to anymore, don't forget to unsubscribe! _________________________________________________________________________