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:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 49 :: :: Friday, April 18th, 1997 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear WRattlers, Sorry for the long silence. As I said in the previous issue, I've been having heavy computer problems, which fortunately are now solved at a much lower cost than initially feared. I think I can safely say that WR is up and running again, and Calyx updates will follow soon as well. I'm just back from London with an interview with David Bedford, as well as bits of news from meetings with Phil Miller, John G. Perry and Mark Hewins. More of this later... A.L. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Davidkow@aol.com Subject: Where to get Spirogyra recordings? As a big fan of Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, I'm interested in Barbara's early band Spirogyra but I'm finding it hard to find a place that's even heard of them, much less with recordings by them. Do you have any idea where I might be able to track down one or more of the 3 albums they recorded? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Clay Gaunce Subject: Changes to "The Trip..." Hi, Aymeric. Our web site manager at WRFL finally got around to updating the program changes which occurred in Januray. Whenever your time permits, please update the "Contacts & Links" entry for "The Trip with Clay Gaunce", which has moved from Saturdays 3-6 to Wednesdays 6:30-9. I had to sacrifice 30 minutes of program time in order to make the change, but it's better for two or three reasons: prog rock is better suited for evening/night listening (IMHO), the show is reaching more young (i.e., college student) listeners who can use the exposure to "better" music, and it's just more convenient for yours truly. I just saw where your hard drive crashed again, so please, take your time with this update...and good luck with the hardware! Thanks. Clay P.S. Just did an Easter special focusing on the influence of Anglican Church music in the development of prog rock, including the last five tracks from side two of Soft Machine Volume Two, composed largely by Mike Ratledge who, as you know, studied with the organist for the Canterbury Cathedral. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Age Rotshuizen Subject: John Martyn/Gong Hello Rattlers, I'm beginning to get the idea we're getting a bit out of focus here: John Martyn, Pizzicato Five. The first one is a folk singer. He may have some connections with Canterbury, but let's not turn him into the new Robert Wyatt. Pizzicato Five are Japanese, nineties & they're making 'cocktail'/'lounge'/ 'easy tune' music. It's hardly a Canterbury connection. It's great to hear that the Gong-side of the Greasy Truckers album just exists of parts of Bataclan & Sheffield. But I've still got a problem concerning Gong. It seems impossible to find the Hedayat-album anywhere. The stores here in Amsterdam don't have it. It isn't even in their databases. Is it really a hard to get CD, or is Amsterdam the wrong place to get it (I've just recently (last week) been able to buy Spaced, 'cause it wasn't available, while - according to the Calyx latest releases page - it was released in September!). Jim asked us what's the best sold Canterbury record. Interesting... I would say Soft Machine vol. I or II, or maybe Shamal. And how about Camel (they were popular, weren't they?), Stewart & Gaskin (they had a hit single with a bullet), John Martyn? Greetings, Age, Amsterdam. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eric Rutten Subject: new Gary Windo CD feat. R. Wyatt? Hello, I just heard about an review/article in the french TV and culture magazine Telerama of last week, concerning a CD by Gary Windo, featuring Robert Wyatt. Does anyone know more? Is it old recordings in a posthumous album? In how far does Robert Wyatt contribute? Who else does? Eric [This CD is "His Master's Bones", a collection of unreleased Gary Windo recordings, both as a leader and band member. They date from the period 1970-84, and feature various line-ups. Most notable for Canterbury fans is an alternate version of "Minipax" from Hugh Hopper's "1984" album, and a couple of tracks from Gary's unreleased 1976 project "Steam Radio Tapes". In addition to Robert Wyatt, these feature Hugh Hopper, Steve Hillage, Bill MacCormick, Julie Tippetts and Nick Mason. This CD has been released on Cuneiform - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Erik Rieselbach Subject: "Why am I so short?" Hey, it's great to see someone who's such a big fan of the Softs. And it's extra-great to find the lyrics to the Third version of Moon in June, much of which I've never been able to figure out. One correction (I think)--in "Why Am I So Short?", second verse, I think the third line is "I've got a yellow suit that's made by Pan." Pan, as I remember, was a very trendy London boutique in the '60s. (I remember from reading about it; I wasn't there, unfortunately!) But mostly, thanks for the great work! Best, Erik Rieselbach greenpig@interport.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Age Rotshuizen Subject: Ratings Hello, I found some ratings concerning the best sold Canterbury album in a book of British ratings: Soft Machine - Third highest spot: 18 weeks: 6 Camel - Rain dances 20 8 Camel - Breathless 26 1 Soft Machine - Fourth 32 2 Hatfield - Rotter's Club 43 1 Nucleus - Elastic Rock 46 1 Caravan -Cunning Stunts 50 1 Caravan-Blind Dog 53 1 Bear in mind, this is only a British chart! Greetings, Age, Amsterdam. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Noah Trivitt" Subject: Adiemus homepage Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 14:24:00 -0500 Hello, I recently came across your page on the group Soft Machine. I run the Adiemus Unofficial Home Page -- http://www.netxpress.com/~nst/adiemus/. [rest of message deleted] Noah ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Paul Hobbs" Subject: Hatfield, Egg & Tim Blake Are any live recordings (BBC ?)available on CD or cassette ? [Don't know about Tim Blake, but there are bootleg BBC recordings of Egg and Hatfield in circulation. Richard Sinclair apparently had plans to license the Hatfield sessions for a CD release but the Beeb wasn't very cooperative... Same thing happened to Camel. Richard sold small quantities of these sessions on tape during his 1992-94 tours - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: MHolmes822@aol.com Subject: All Over You Hi Aymeric Just to let you know that in a couple of weeks we will be releasing a special limited edition of All Over You. This version has a completly new cover and booklet plus extra tracks. Be Alright/Chance of a Lifetime (taken from Japanese release of Battle of Hastings) plus a single mix of If I could do it all over again. Cat No is HTDCD57L. All the best Malcolm HTD ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Aymeric Leroy Subject: Newsbits Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 14:05:22 +0000 - Robert Wyatt's new album is coming out in September (this has been announced officially in the French rock magazine "Les Inrockuptibles"). - The Soft Head album has been reissued on Ogun Records, with 20 minutes of bonus material. With a line-up of Elton Dean, Alan Gowen, Hugh Hopper and Dave Sheen, this is unsurprisingly first class music. A must ! - There is an interview with Chris Cutler in the British magazine "Wired" which covers Chris' career with Henry Cow et al, and his activities as the founder of the Recommended label. A few nice pics are included. I didn't buy a copy myself, so if anyone can make photocopies or scan the photos... - Phil Miller is writing new material for various projects, as well as planning tours of In Cahoots, Short Wave and Miller-Baker. One of the tracks he mentioned to me featured drum programming by Pip Pyle, and he's planning to record contributions by Fred Baker and Jim Dvorak. Didier Malherbe is also expected to turn up at Crescent Studios later this month. - I went to see Evan Parker's quartet at the Vortex. Elton Dean was there as well (as usual). The rhythm section was Paul Rogers (head-shaven!) and Mark Sanders. The performance was very free, entirely improvised and noisy. Weird, but interesting. A nice contrast with the Camel concert a couple of days before... - A tape recording of the only gig by Sinclair & The South featuring Bill Bruford (Jan 76) has been uncovered. Sound quality is dodgy. I was able to hear a snippet thanks to Mark Hewins. Richard himself has yet to hear the tape and decide if he's going to do anything with it. - John G. Perry told me : (1) Rupert Hine is working (slowly) on the upcoming CD re-release of the Quantum Jump albums (2) No firm plans for a reissue of "Sunset Wading" although John promises he'll ask Rob at Voiceprint to see if Decca are ready to license it (3) John is thinking of a third solo album, which ideally would have his ex-Sunset Wading colleagues playing as well as Anthony Phillips on 12-string. But the writing process is slow and I feel John needs encouragement to start working on it seriously. The music would be a bit more "dance-oriented", emphasizing the Latin influence already obvious on the Quantum Jump and SW albums. John is currently working with ex-If/Strawbs keyboard player (& arranger/conductor) John Mealing in advertisement music. Well, that's most of what I can think of now... A.L. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eric Kaye Subject: Gong I am looking for any photographs taken from the Gong reunion concert in Paris, May 28, 1977. Especially ones with Mike Howlett's band, Strontium 90. Any help would be most appreciated. Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ely Rabin Subject: Mercy Dash Also a while back I asked W.R. about the Mercy Dash reissue--that is the cover lists 6 trcks and the disc has 5, so which 2 are the medly. (Intro/Calyx is already listed as a medly, so it must be another couple.) Anyone out there with the vinyl that can help out with this? Thanks, Ely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: chris topham Subject: Re: 801 Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 21:35:16 GMT >Also, Bill, I'm not sure if this is a rehash but is the 801 live album ever >going to be rereleased with the full concert on it? How much was left off >the album? This brings back the memories; in the mid-'70s my dad was in the RAF at Coltishall in Norfolk, and I was knocked over to find out that 801 would play their first gig not 15 miles away at West Runton pavilion. Rang around my schoolmates (we had all just left that year and were waiting to go to University) and 4 of us went along for the evening. It was a late soundcheck so we caught the back end of what sounded like it would be something very special. The show itself ranks along with the VdGG reunion gig in Victoria Aug '75 as the best I ever saw. All I can tell you is that it was a full set with 2 encores but I'm not sure what was missing when the album was released :-( I *know* that's not what you wanted to hear, but ................... I'd never seen a live band play that well before, and Simon Phillips' drumming was...so commanding. Chris in West Sussex, England ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: chris topham Subject: Re: Cafe Jaques [PETERGIF@aol.com wrote:] >One last thing.....I have two albums produced by Rupert Hine of the band >CAFE JACQUES which were released on Columbia (1977,'78) in the US.... >Geoff Richardson, and John G. Perry appear as guests on both LP's. They are >very good records from a band which never took off. Does anyone know if >there were any other releases from this band aside from "Round the Back" >and "International"? I have _Round the Back_ and agree it is a very fine album. Don't know of any more releases by them but I am in touch with Keith Wilkinson who was in the band; he now plays for Squeeze. I'll see if I can find out for you... Chris in West Sussex, England ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Otherroad@aol.com Subject: Richard Sinclair & Cuneiform Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 14:30:02 -0400 (EDT) Hello Friends: If you haven't been by The Artist Shop recently, you may want to stop by. We have some new faces at our site that you know well. Please join us in welcoming Cuneiform Records. This label is a progressive giant featuring some absolutely incredible music. Cuneiform has a large catalog (around 100 releases) so it'll be a while before I get soundbites and graphics up for everything. But I've got it started with eight of Cuneiform's latest releases from Soft Machine, Gary Windo, etc. The rest of the catalog is also listed and available for purchase. Of special interest are, Hugh Hopper, Phil Miller! You'll find our Cuneiform page at. We have also have our friend, Richard Sinclair on our New Label Page. I know you all know him well, so I'll spare you the bio. For me, Richard's voice and his songwriting were the heart and soul of Canterbury and I'm delighted to have his album, RSVP, in The Artist Shop. I hope you'll stop by for a visit. Gary ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Phil Howitt Subject: PRESS RELEASE - Get a complete set of Facelifts!! Due to a number of enquiries over the past six months, I've decided to make available all the back issues of Facelift. My intention was to run down all the back issues and reprint only on the Internet, but it's surprised me quite how many webpeople still want the hard copy (plus a lot of people who don't have access to the Internet). So, although I do still intend to publish back issues on the Net at some point (and two are up there already on http://www.ice.net/~ponk/facelift.htm) I've reprinted the first 11 issues, and still have original copies of issues 12-17. Issues 1-11 reprints are actually photocopies, but quality is just as good as the originals (which weren't always great anyway), and in the case of issue 11, the new cover actually looks better than the glossy original, which had a white line running straight across Pip Pyle's forehead! To find out what's in each issue, check out http://www.ice.net/~ponk/facelift.htm and look through the index for each issue alternatively, write to me at: Phil Howitt Facelift Magazine PO Box 69 Manchester M16 8RD e-mail: phil@facelift.sonnet.co.uk Prices are as follows: Issues 1-10: £1.00 each in the UK (£1.20 Europe; £1.50 elsewhere) Issues 11-15: £1.50 each in the UK (£1.80 Europe; £2.25 elsewhere) Issues 16-20: £2 each in the UK (£2.50 Europe; £3 elsewhere) any cheques/POs should be made payable to Phil Howitt for overseas enquiries you can send me an e-mail first and I can suggest different methods of payment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Klein Subject: Robert Wyatt Dear all, I hope you allow me to bother you with a question to which you may know the answer. As you may have noticed from my e-mail address, my first name is Richard. I happen to get married in six weeks time with a girl named Ruth. While browsing through a record shop a few months ago I noticed--to my immense surprise and laughter--the existence of an album called "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard". This obviously is the perfect wedding gift to my wife, but what kept me puzzled ever since I first saw the album and tried to find more information on Robert Wyatt is the meaning of the title. Hence the following questions: Do you have any idea who Richard and Ruth are? And do you know why Robert Wyatt chose to use their names for one of his albums? And why is Ruth stranger than Richard? The only other Ruth and Richard couple I know (although I have not done an extensive search) are some famous English architect (whose surname I have not remembered) and his wife. I look forward to your reply on richard.klein@ivm.vu.nl. Best wishes, Richard Klein [If you know the answer, please e-mail Richard privately as he is not on the list, but please also Cc to WR, thanks - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF ISSUE #49_________________________________________________________________________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 Send all correspondence regarding 'CALYX' and 'WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?' to : bigbang@alpes-net.fr _________________________________________________________________________