WR

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 5 :: :: Tuesday, June 4th, 1996 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: simonetta risaio <simonetta.risaio@infoboard.be> Subject: What is Canterbury Music? Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 22:48:38 -0700 I received the first three issues of WR. It is really great to find so manypeople who enjoy this music I've been listening to for so long. In fact, I amoriented more towards the Henry Cow side of Canterbury (with all that thisimplies), although I am very familiar with most if not all the groups peopletend to discuss about in this digest. By the way, you can imagine how Ienjoyed to discover - after almost 20 years - that Ivor (Cutler) is Chris's father! ;) After having carefully read all of the messages posted with the first threeissues, I really have a doubt. If it is clear (more or less) what I wouldcall Canterbury music, it is not clear at all what I would not call Canterbury music. What do the early Softs have in common with the group of Seven? Why do somepeople who write to this digest (I can't remember who) include Lindasy Cooper and exclude Fred Frith? or Keith Tippett? If the criterion is the fact of having played in one of the "historicalbands" - as one could derive from the fact that the mere presence ofM.Ratledge or H.Hopper makes a group to be Canterbury - then Fred is one ofthe co-founders of H.Cow, and Lindsay came in only much later, and for a muchshorter period of time. And Keith Tippett played more regularly with E.Dean, M.Charig and N.Evans than M.Ratledge did. If the criterion is purely musical, then I really don't see the relationbetween early Gong and P.Moerlen's ones, between early Caravan and the latestformation, between 73-75 Hatfield and the 1990 reunion. And one could go onlike this with more or less all the groups/musicians who have been playingwith one another, under different brands and combinations for the past 30years or so. Even between themselves, I am not totally sure that themusicians would acknowledge more than some kind of loose affinity. (In aletter he wrote to me some years ago, Fred Frith said about National Health: "Not my kind of music, I'm afraid"). The point I'm really making is that Canterbury is more a 'spirit', a way tointerpret music and the role of musicians, the inclination to cross musicalgenres without much respect for labels, definitions or traditions. What I would identify as the 'Canterbury sound' does not extend - in myopinion - beyond the first 3 Softs lp's, the first 4 Caravan, the first 2K.Ayers, Egg, Hatfield, Rock Bottom, the 1st Gilgamesh and possibly National Health. I really don't have a definitive answer to my initial question. I wouldsuggest that some openness would make any discography (or digest) more livelyand interesting, and - I would hope - encouraging to explore unknownterritories, which, after all, is the lesson I have been taught by most of the musicians we love. I hope I have not raised a debate that people don't want to go into, but Ifelt it necessary, having dedicated so many years of my life to this musical world. Luv to you all Mario Bucci [Hopefully, this is the start of a very passionate debate !... Thanks, Mario ! - A.L.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DrOrb@aol.com Subject: Thank-you Michael Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 00:50:01 -0400 Just want to express my appreciation for Michael Bloom's excellent historical account of Gong's first foray into the US. I see that Lisa Herman's name popped up... I loved her work withBlegvad/Greaves. I know she was in a band called Longhouse; I have the vinyl,but was greatly disappointed. Anyone know of anything else she has done or ifshe can be cajoled into doing some more work with "our crowd"? Rob Bennett ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Lisa Shannon" <lisanico@access.digex.net> Subject: Thanks Mike Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 07:41:05 -0400 (EDT) Tell Michael Bloom thank you! for his marvelous piece on Zu, which Iremembered thru a dense fog of time & the psychedelics I'd acquired fromfriends who were stage hands there at Entermedia that nite. I'd forgottenall about that press conference with Daevid Allen standing on his headdoing bicycles with his legs while Chris Cutler (and John Paige, I think) droned on ... Lisa ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rvs@crosfield.co.uk (Robert Smith) Subject: Hillagesolo Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 13:25:33 +0100 (BST) Regarding the synth solo on Steve Hillage`s Open album: I just had to know, so I asked the man himself. It was SH on his minimoog! So now you know. -- Robert Smith - Technical Author Crosfield Electronics Ltd Voice ... Direct dial: 01442 343399 Email ... rvs@crosfield.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: duplanet@global2000.net (David Greenberger) Subject: Babbington fact Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 10:44:55 -0400 Roy Babbington plays bass on one track on Elvis Costello's new album, "All This sueless Beauty." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Dhr. van den Oever" <jvdoever@worldonline.nl> Subject: Canterbury festival in Harlingen, Pays Bas Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 23:35:14 +0200 (MET DST) Hello Aymeric, This is to inform you and all other Canterbury fans that most probably onthe weekend of September 21st there will be a Canterbury festival inHarlingen, Netherlands. Guests include Richard Sinclair, Hugh Hopper,Patrice Meyer, Dave Rees Williams plus local Canterbury addicts. You can obtain more info by calling Teatse Vogelaar in Harlingen, Netherlands at (0)517-418193. I will e-mail when I know more. Au revoir, Jacques van den Oever, Barkhof 31, 8862 PC Harlingen, Hollande ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Harald Luss <halu@ping.at> Subject: Canterbury News Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 18:26:32 +0200 Just another quick one to thank you for the bunch of "Rattlin'" news. What a nice way to chat with fellow devotees of the Scene and meeting old friends again and getting new. I've been collecting records and tapes of the Scene since the mid/end 70's - I'm sure we also had a deal going in the past which I can't recall now - beginning of the Alzheimer disease I guess. Anyway, I really appreciate your efforts and look forward to upcoming issues. Unfortunately I can't give any support to your project of compiling tours of all those great Canterbury bands. Though I've seen a couple of acts in the early Seventies whilst my trips to London I can hardly recall any dates nor set lists. [You can still share your memories of these concerts, vague though they may be, can't you ? - A.L.] And even from the time of getting a collector there is little to report as Vienna or Austria wasn't on the route of any bands until the 90's. Gong played for the first time in Linz in 94 and my favorite, Kevin Ayers, made his Austrian debut in 92. So nothing really spectacular to expect from my end of the world.But I might be of help regarding the other project - the definite Canterbury discography. I don't know how far the thing has developed and I learn that you're a hard core collector yourself so I don't want to bore you with standard discs or facts. Since I know Manfred Bress from the early days I made many additions to his Canterbury Discography and updated it. Unfortunately he was (and is) using an Atari and it's been tough in the past to exchange files but I could offer you a Winword-doc.file of "our" discography listing records, year, country and cat.nr. It's almost 1MB large but worth investigating. Alternatively I could wait till your list can be downloaded and suggest additions then - your choice. [The discography can be accessed since May 25th at the following URL : http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/cantdisco.html - until today there was no link to it from the CALYX pages but this is now rectified. So you - and fellow WR subscribers - can now send their corrections ! - A.L.] And since you invited eyeryone to contribute or suggest future pages of Calyx how about a forum of trading records. Either one can deposite his wanted or unwanted records, ones another one would be happy to possess ? Sadly I'm just an ordinary PC user unable to write scripts or HTML language so even willing I can't do that job. [Anyone with a list of CDs/vinyls (not tapes or bootlegs) for sale can send it to me for inclusion in WR. If I don't get flooded with such material, this is OK - A.L.] So keep things rolling and going Bananas--- Harald Luss Fon: +43.1.911 01 11--- Floetzersteig 239 Fax: +43.1.911 16 38--- 1140 Vienna / Austria e-mail: halu@ping.at ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: swhigham <swhigham@mail.dodge.public.lib.ga.us> Subject: (none) Date: Sat, 01 Jun 1996 14:24:53 -0400 Enjoy your good work on the Canterbury scene very much. Also, am a big Robert Wyatt/Soft Machine fan, saw them on the Hendrix tour in Atlanta in August 1968. Seeing such an unusual group (at the time) was a great surprise learning experience, I have most if not all the albums, duplicated on CD too. Kevin Ayers stuff too. Saw Soft Machine in NYC in summer of 1971, at small club, maybe 75-100 folks there. They played it seems in memory straight through, a true "wall of sound" and all I could think of was that it was some sort of primal musical connection to something at a wellspring of creative juices, seriously!! Robert Wyatt did some of his singing amongst it all. I have a couple of live type albums from about this time. ANYWAY...thanks again. Keep up the good work, see you, Stephen W. -- Stephen Whigham, swhigham@mail.public.lib.ga.us ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bigbang@alpes-net.fr (A. Leroy) Subject: Caravan Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 23:52:33 +0000 A few Caravan news...First of all, I've just had confirmation from Dave Shoesmith of CD Services (Scotland) that the very 1st Caravan LP has just been reissued by a German label on CD. It is not clear whether it's a fully legitimate reissue. Anyone with more info ? I've also bought the new Caravan CD, "All Over You", which seems to be in the shops all around Europe. The line-up is the same as for "The Battle Of Hastings" CD of last year : Pye Hastings, Geoff Richardson, Jimmy Hastings, David Sinclair and Richard Coughlan. No bass player is credited. Originally announced as an acoustic album, this is not completely true. Actually, it gets more and more electric during its 48 minutes. It is made up entirely of covers of Caravan classics from the vintage period 1968-73 : "If I Could Do..." (3:31) "Place Of My Own" (4:06) "The Love In Your Eye"/"To Catch Me A Brother" (4:16) "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" (3:45) "Golf Girl" (4:33) "Disassociation" (3:55) "Hello Hello" (3:14) "Asforteri 25" (2:44) "For Richard" (8:12) "Memory Lain, Hugh" (5:01) "Headloss" (5:02) Of note is the location for the sessions : a studio appropriately named "The Legendary Canterbury Sound"... How can I describe this CD ? First of all, acoustic guitars are verypredominant, with keyboards not hearable on most tracks (of course, theyare the star of the show in "For Richard" !), and with Richardson playingfar more guitar (sometimes mandolin, flute and harmonica) than viola.Jimmy Hastings plays nice flute solos on "Place Of My Own" and "To Catch MeA Brother", and also a bit of sax. Overall, this is quite pleasant to hear. Some criticism now : first of all, I was a bit shocked to hear two RichardSinclair-penned tunes sung by Pye Hastings. While "Disassociation" waswritten by David Sinclair and "Hello Hello" by Pye Hastings (music) andDave Sinclair (lyrics), "Golf Girl" and "In The Land..." are associatedwith Richard and him only. Why hasn't he been invited as guest ? Apparentlythe relationships between the current Caravan and Richard aren't very good, which is a shame.Both "Memory Lain, Hugh" and "Headloss" have been added fake applause tomake them sound as live recordings. Whether this is supposed to be funny I don't know, but in my opinion this is a bit ridiculous. I won't comment any further - my tastes concerning Caravan are not necessa-rily those of the majority of the readers of WR... However, you are stronglyencouraged to give your opinion if you've heard this CD too. Last, but not least : has anyone ever seen "Better By Far" on CD ? (Not that I'm dying to hear it again... just wondering !). A.L. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cmeloche@julian.uwo.ca (Chris Meloche) Subject: BBC Sessions book info Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 23:07:13 -0400 (EDT) >[I did see a book that detailed all BBC sessions recorded in the 70's,>and probably sooner and later, which even had bands like Gilgamesh listed,>with complete line-ups and setlists. If anyone has this book, Canterbury->related facts are VERY welcome !!! I think the book was published in 1994 or>1995, I saw it in the Dublin Virgin Megastore last Summer - A.L.] The book is called "In Session Tonight" and was published by BBC Books in1993. It comes with a 60 minute CD of sessions through the years. The first3/4s of the book relates stories and the history of the rock radio sessions(to deal with "needle time" on the BBC). The last part of the book isalphabetical by artist and covers all of the session up to publication. Thetracks recording date, broadcast date, track titles, personnel, producer and location of recording studio are all listed. "In Session Tonight" (The Complete Radio 1 Recordings) by Ken Garner BBC Books, ISBN 0-563-36452-1 The main problem with the book is that many of the most interesting andhistoric sessions have been bulk erased over the years. I believe that the policy was to bulk erase tapes after 6 months for re-use. Wish I has a scanner and OCR software! Here's a teaser: Caravan... Jan. 5/69 (Top Gear) Green Bottles for Marjorie; A Place of MyOwn; Feelin', Reelin' Squeelin'; Ride. Pye Hastings (gv), Richard Sinclair(bv), David Sinclair (kv), Richard Coughlin (d). Rec'd Dec. 31/68 [Thanks - looking forward to more of that ! - A.L.] Cheers, Chris Chris Meloche (cmeloche@julian.uwo.ca) [sounds like "galosh"] Host/Producer: Wired for Sound P.O. Box 1403, Stn. A, London, Ont. CANADA N6A 5M2 CHRW 94.7 FM / Mondays 7 PM<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Freelance Contributor to: Scene Magazine (London), Metro Times (Detroit)Recording Artist: FAX Records (Frankfurt), Silent Records (San Francisco)General info: http://hyperreal.com:2000/1/music/artists/chris_meloche"Distant Rituals" info: http://www.silent.org/Chris_Meloche/release.html"Urban Myth 2" info: http://www.well.com/user/pyramid/cmeloche.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a bonus to this issue, I've included an interview I did last week withRic Sanders, while on a holiday trip in Scotland (strange things happen !).I found out about a Fairport Convention gig taking place in Edinburgh, andwent there with my tape recorder... Found Ric finishing his soundcheck...We talk for about 10-15 minutes just before the beginning of the show.The interview covers all of Ric's career, including Soft Machine and moreobscure Canterbury connections - hope you find it interesting. A.L. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF ISSUE #5 _________________________________________________________________________WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?_________________________________________________________________________ CALYX - The Canterbury Website http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/calyx.html Send all correspondence regarding 'CALYX' and 'WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?' to : bigbang@alpes-net.fr _________________________________________________________________________