::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
  ::                                                              ::
  ::                     - WHAT'S RATTLIN'? -                     ::
  ::     The Weekly (or so) Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts   ::
  ::                         Issue # 171                          ::
  ::                  Monday, December 18th, 2000                 ::
  ::                                                              ::
  ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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                    IN CAHOOTS LIVE IN YOUR TOWN?

                   IT CAN HAPPEN! ...WITH YOUR HELP

Pip Pyle called me with the good news that he and Phil Miller are busy organising a European tour for In Cahoots next year. The new album, "Out Of The Blue", will at last be released in January 2001, and the dates should take place in May/June.

This is an appeal to everyone who may be interested in helping organise an In Cahoots gig.

If you can help, please contact <crescentdiscs@supanet.com>

Although there are no plans for dates in America at this point, I am sure the band would like to hear of any possibilities... And who knows?...

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PETER BLEGVAD'S "LEVIATHAN"

Please allow me to again bring up the subject of the excellent Peter Blegvad book collecting the best of his "Leviathan" strips. I intended to run this brief interview with the book's publisher, Mark Ellingham, alongside one with Peter Blegvad himself, but I didn't get around to doing the latter. Hopefully later on. Anyway, here's the story of how the book came into being, told by Mark himself.

"Story's quite straightforward. I was a long-time Slapp Happy fan and when we had a party to promote The Rough Guide to Rock (Rough Guides being my day job) I suggested Peter came and played. He turned up and played a great set, throwing in a number of Slapp Happy songs (A Little Something, Haiku...) along with his own.

We got talking and I confessed to having stolen the name "Sort Of" for a new publishing venture I was starting with my wife, Natania. "Fine", said Peter, "That's great - you can publish Leviathan". And that was that, really. We published our first book last year, by Chris Stewart, a friend who had moved to southern Spain and bought a peasant farm. The book was called "Driving Over Lemons" and to our surprise was a bestseller. This helped in our production of Leviathan! (Chris Stewart, by the way, was the very first drummer in Genesis).

The Leviathan strips were in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and formats - most on large sheets of art paper, some with acetates, a few on computer - so we had to get them very carefully scanned, and then adjusted on screen by Peter. Originally, I'd kind of envisaged doing much of the book in two colours rather than full, four colours... but since Levi's babygro was green and Rabbit was pink, that was not possible. It all had to be full colour. This was expensive!  And then my friend Julian Rothenstein (a designer who runs a great small book company, Redstone Press) helped on the cover and made it even more complex, with mirror/silver writing and lines, and insisted that we had the edges of the paper painted red.

Well, it would be a small miracle if this book breaks even but I'm glad we have done it in the way we have ... it is a book of some beauty, I feel".

* * * * *

Signed copies are available from Sort Of books for £15 (including postage). Contact <mellingham@roughguides.co.uk> for info. Regular copies can be bought in bookshops at £12.99.

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            NEW "CANTERBURY" DISCUSSION LIST - IN FRENCH!!

It is called Backwards, I am launching it for the benefit of French fans of Canterbury music, in particular those whose level of English prevents from contributing to WR. It will be unmoderated for the time being.

Subscribe to: backwards-subscribe@egroups.fr

(Une nouvelle liste - en francais - consacree a l'ecole de Canterbury vient d'etre creee, "Backwards". Pour vous y inscrire, abonnez-vous a l'adresse ci-dessus. A bientot!!)

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From: GHodges223@aol.com
Subject: Mongezi Feza-Robert Wyatt
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 19:48:05 EST

>I'm also studying Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom (the joys of
>self-directed scholastic learning!) and have found, yet again,
>an apalling lack of enlightenment on Mongezi Feza. Could
>anyone tell me anything about him - how did he die? Sadly
>enough, very little remains on Dudu Pakwana and the mob,
>who I gather to have been quite integral figures
>to the London jazz scene.

To quote from Robert Wyatt from Mike King's "Wrong Movements":

(Of Mongezi Feza, known to his friends as "Mongs", who passed away of double pneumonia on 12/14/75) -

"He was a very little person, quite small and quite shy, when he was sober. He didn't say a lot. He still seemed a bit stunned being outside South Africa. None of the people I know who came out of South Africa ever got used to it [...]. I never got the impression he was relaxed.  I think he had been a bit too traumatized."

"Mongezi had a bright hard sharp, intelligent trumpet playing which had no bullshit in it. The way he played was very non-self indulgent, although he could play very extended stuff [...]. There's a track on "Rock Bottom" that's quite long-winded harmonically. He only heard it about twice and he had the chord sequence completely in his head! - for every take. So the people who think of him as a free jazz player might think, well he didn't really know the changes, he was very good on changes, he just liked playing freer."

"Mongezi's death had a very dramatic effect on me. The nature of his death was really that he had come to England thinking that he had escaped the tyranny of racism, but of course in coming to England he came to the mother and father of apartheid. And although in England we don't have official racism it's very difficult for a non-white person to adjust. In his case he had to go to a mental hospital where he was considered shizophrenic, and while he was in the hospital he died quite suddenly of double pneumonia. It's extraordinary, it's not necessary for a young man to die when he's already in the hospital of double pneumonia. I have a feeling that if it had been Prince Charles that he would not have died, or quite simply if he had been white he would not have died. I think that gave me a strong push towards a sense of political urgency."

**Not sure how Dudu Pukwana passed away - it was early, though. There are, however, great recordings available thru Ogun Records- Brotherhood of Breath, Blue Notes, etc... many with these fine musicians recorded well (thank God, and thank Hazel Miller and friends!)

[And more good news - a previously unreleased live recording from Brotherhood Of Breath, recorded in 1973, comes out on Cuneiform Records in January 2001 - AL]

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From: "Kenneth Egbert" <invizzigoth@earthlink.net>
Subject: Change in publication info
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 14:47:45 -0500

Hello, Aymeric:

Thanks for the continued Rattles; good to see the fireflies are still flying. One of our editors happened to look in our Publications info section and found quite a lot of the information out of date. So here's the new bits:

   COST OF SAMPLE ISSUE: $4.00 in USA  $5.00 outside USA  $9.00 in Asia
   AVERAGE LENGTH OF ISSUE: 55-95 pages (8 1/2x11 Xeroxed format)
 
   ADDRESS:   TONE CLUSTERS Magazine
              PMB #105
              5648 Riverdale Avenue
              New York, NY 10471-2106
              USA
       Email: toneclusters@earthlink.net

And if there's anything else we missed, let us know. Of course we continue to cover Canterbury releases and will be glad to Email a list of available back issues with Canterbury material in them. Working on a possible interview with Mark Hewins for 2001. Did want to mention that we cover imaginative and/or subversive music of allo kinds, not just Canterbury, so the more open your mind the more you will be into what-all else we see fit to  expound upon.

Best regards until next Rattle...
--- Ken Egbert
Publisher, TONE CLUSTERS  

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From: "Thierry ANTOINE"<thierry.antoine@laposte.net>
Subject: Small ad
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 09:04:47 +0100

Hi,

I'm a guitarist living in Nancy, France. I would like to communicate with
Soft Machine / Robert Wyatt fans in Great Britain. Also into Kinks, Jethro Tull, Joni Mitchell, High Llamas...

E-mail : thierry.antoine@laposte.net

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*               FORTHCOMING CANTERBURY-RELATED CONCERTS                 *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

        [for more info : check out the 'Concerts' page of CALYX]
         http://perso.club-internet.fr/calyx/index/concerts.html

==> DIDIER MALHERBE / HADOUK TRIO <======================================

Dec 18 - PARIS, New Morning / Jan 18 - NICE, Cedac Parc de Cimiez / Jan 19 - CHOISY-LE-ROI, Theatre Paul Eluard [Festival Sons d'Hiver] / Mar 23 - VILLEBON-SUR-YVETTE, MJC Bobby Lapointe / Apr 05 - TRAPPES, Le Grenier A Sel / Apr 24 - QUIMPER, Theatre de Cornouailles

with Loy Ehrlich (hajaj & synth) & Steve Shehan (percussion)

also:

Mar 29 - HYERES,  Festival Souffles de Rythmes

by Caraibes Trio, with Roger Raspail (percussion)
                  and Alain Jean-Marie (piano)

More info: http://www.malherbedidier.com

=========================================================================

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*                        AND OTHER GOOD GIGS...                         *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

==> AMY DENIO, with FRED FRITH and others <==============================

Apr 05 - OAKLAND, CA (USA), Mills College

==> JOHN ETHERIDGE <=====================================================

Dec 23 - LONDON, Pizza Express (Knightsbridge) / Jan 10 - MONTAGU,  Montagu on the Garden Hotel (Montagu St, W1) / Jan 14 - WEST HAMPSTEAD, Sirous / Jan 16 - LONDON, Vortex (Stoke Newington) / Jan 17 - LONDON, The Pheasantry (Kings Road)

Info: http://www.johnetheridge.f9.co.uk

==> F.FRITH/I.MORI/Z.PARKINS <===========================================

Jan 12 - PARIS (France), Sons d'Hiver [solos evening] / Jan 13 - PARIS (France), Sons d'Hiver [Traffic Continues w. Ensemble Modern]

==> MAGMA <==============================================================

Dec 22 - RENNES (France), Salle de la Cite

=========================================================================
=========================================================================

                          END OF ISSUE 171
_________________________________________________________________________

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