WR

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 134 :: :: Monday, July 19th, 1999 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A WEEKEND "CHEZ JACKY", BRESSE-SUR-GROSNE JULY 16/17, 1999 Jacky Barbier's club "A L'Ouest de la Grosne" is well-known to lovers of the Canterbury scene, since several recordings made at that lovely country club in the middle of Burgundy were the basis of many an important album - starting with Soft Head's "Rogue Element" in 1978, then Hugh Hopper and Richard Sinclair's duo album "Somewhere in France" in 1983, and even a bit from Gong's "Shapeshifter" album (not on the US version I'm afraid). Anyway... Jacky was celebrated his club's 25th anniversary last week. I was only informed of this last Monday, so I'm sorry if any of you couldn't make the gigs due to the late notice. I only attended the last two nights, so I missed a few excellent gigs such as Faton Cahen's quintet. But I did see what I obviously most wanted to see - the Canterbury guys. The line-up wasn't exactly the one originally announced. Early programs stated Elton Dean would be there, but he was lost to a weeklong jazz course somewhere in England. Similarly, Didier Malherbe was absent, although I understand he did drop by briefly earlier in the week. So we were left with a most unusual quartet - John Greaves on vocals, piano and bass; Patrice Meyer on guitar; Hugh Hopper on bass; and Pip Pyle on drums. With such a line-up we were inevitably in for something unusual. I wondered if I should expect a pure jamming gig, but following Friday afternoon's rehearsal the guys came up with a loose musical "concept" - a mixture of John Greaves songs and various instrumental pieces. Strangely enough John was featured mostly on piano, even on the instrumentals - his unique style gave a special flavour to those pieces; on others he played bass together with Hugh Hopper. As Shyamal Maitra too couldn't make it, this Quartet also played on the Saturday night, playing the same set with minor changes in the order - but basically the order was this: 1st Set: Wanglo-Saxon (H.Hopper) Fa Si La (P.Meyer) The Green Fuse (J.Greaves - text: Dylan Thomas) Instrumental Piece (P.Pyle) [not sure about the title]Miniluv (H.Hopper) / How Beautiful You Are (J.Greaves/P.Blegvad) Dead Dog Dingo (P.Pyle) [another new instrumental piece] 2nd Set: Instrumental Piece (P.Meyer) [not sure about the title again] For Bearings/Silence (J.Greaves/P.Blegvad)Big Dick (P.Lemer) [a piece from the current In Cahoots repertoire] Seven For Lee (E.Dean) The Song (J.Greaves/P.Blegvad) A couple of observations: - As far as I remember, the pieces with both Greaves and Hopper on bass were the Pip Pyle instrumentals; quite unexpectedly Hugh's pieces (even "Miniluv"!) featured Greaves on piano... A particularly nice segue was "Miniluv" into "How Beautiful You Are", something I would never have dreamed of hearing one day! - "The Green Fuse" featured John Greaves with the sole accompaniment of Patrice Meyer's guitar. The first night's rendition was notable for being cut short by John due to a couple of very drunk youths chatting loudly in the second row. After he got them to calm down a bit, he resumed the song. The two sets were followed by extended jam sessions that went on well into the night (I went to sleep at about 4am each morning). The first night featured Charles Loos, a Belgian pianist that will be known to some as an original member of Cos (with Pascale Son on vocals) - starting with jazz standards in duo with Patrice Meyer. They were joined by a local 6-string bass player, then by Pip Pyle on drums. John Greaves joined in for some unrelated, but highly captivating recitations. A great moment was his delivering the lyrics to "All The Things You Are" while the others were playing "Moon River"... A second jam had former Art Zoyd guitarist Alain Eckert (who incidentally almost replaced Dave Stewart in National Health - I guess no one was aware of this...) joining Charles Loos, Hugh Hopper and Pip Pyle for an extended jam. Also featured was flautist Chrystelle Blanc-Lanaute, a friend of Hugh's he met while she was living in England - she can be heard on Hugh's last two releases, Hughscore's "Delta Flora" and Hopper/Kloessner's "Different". Hugh's wife Christine almost joined in on trumpet on the second night but apparently was too hesitant to do so. Too bad! On the second night, a local blues band was drafted in at the last minute to make up for Shyamal Maitra's absence. And after the Canterbury all-stars played their two sets, some more jamming took place. The band was getting tighter, and Elton Dean's "Seven For Lee" had some highly inspired jamming from the quartet and returning guest Alain Eckert. Another unexpected guest was tenor sax player Eric Prost from Collectif Mu, an innovative jazz band whose albums are out on Magma's Seventh Records label. I was able to chat a bit with everyone and ask them about their upcoming projects. * Hugh Hopper is finishing his second album with Lisa S. Kloessner, which he promises will have more real instruments on it, including Pip Pyle on four tracks, and Elton Dean on one (actually from the first CD's sessions). * Patrice Meyer is thinking of a new solo album (at last!) to be recorded live with his current trio. * John Greaves is recording "Songs 2" which he hopes to have finished by September - it will be quite unlike the first, with John himself singing all the vocals and playing piano and bass, with Francois Ovide on electric guitars, and Manuel Denizet on drums. The contents will be all new songs by himself, except one by Peter Blegvad from "Just Woke Up". Voiceprint will also be releasing a live recording from a solo gig John played in Japan in June of last year. * Lastly, Pip Pyle has few projects for the near future - he will be joining US group Absolute Zero for an autumn tour and possibly some recordings; and he told me Phil Miller is working on a "blues project" which he'd started working on last year hoping his brother would live to play on it. The new Miller-Baker album is apparently ready for release, but sadly there are no In Cahoots plans for the near future. I guess these performances will remain a one-off for those involved, but they will remain a great memory for those lucky to be present. As far as I'm concerned, I guess it was worth the three-hour drive ! Aymeric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: CuneiWay@aol.com Subject: Re: Facelift Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 12:08:17 EDT David MacLennan <David.Maclennan@moc.govt.nz> and a bunch of others wrote [some to me privately - please keep it ON WR & not in my private mailbox, ok?? - thanks] : >Great news about Cuneiform's release of the Soft Machine "Noisette" live>set, but I have a couple of comments that maybe Steve at Cuneiform might >care to address. >First, he says that Facelift won't be included because it's already on SM3.>Surely, though, it would be better to have the COMPLETE concert, Facelift>'n' all? I'm sure most fans would prefer this. Or do they want to keep it >as a single disc for cost reasons? It has nothing to do with cost. It has to do with the fact that Facelift [but NOT the rest of the concert] is owned by CBS/Sony, who are not in the habit of licensing material to little US labels. I've been down this licensing road before, & don't wish to waste my time again. I'm sorry if that's dissapointing, but that's the unfortunate business reality. >Steve then goes on to say that the sound quality of the tapes is excellent, >far better-sounding that Facelift does on SM3. >Now surely this clinches the argument for including Facelift on Noisette?>I'm sure we'd all like a definitive recording of this version. Yes, but there is no way to GET a definitive version - because the version we all know on Third is HEAVILY edited & processed - and all for the SIGNIFICANTLY better, as those who have heard the undoctored tapes can attest [Aymeric - care to comment?] The version of Facelift that we all know sounds just like the version on Third - hissier & less "full" sounding due to the serious "mucking about" performed on the tapes at that time, using copies several generations removed from the master. It *does* not sound as good as the rest of the [undoctored] tapes that we will be releasing - no reason to release that, since it would be exactly the same as found on Third [no improvement in sound], & the UNdoctored tapes are inferior in overall performance - no reason to release that either. And that's without even discussing the licensing situation. Additionally, for everyone's information, there isn't any way to give the absolute FULL concert - because the four original 15 ips reels each ran out during the concert - this makes for some gaps in the recording that we will be doing our best to "fix" by editing parts together. So, it's not going to be a "full concert" like Virtually was. It's going to be a reasonable approximation of most of the concert. That's the best we can do with what we have. Thanks for the input, but sorry to say, the answer is *definitely* no - Facelift will not be on the CD. Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rich Williams <punkjazz@snet.net> Subject: Blegvad/Syd Straw Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 16:27:46 -0400 [In WR#133, Xavier Marchon wrote:]>I think it's needless to present John Greaves here, but many may not have>heard of Syd Straw until now. Though her connections with the Canterbury >family can be found many years before : >>Finally, Syd Straw contributes backing vocals on some tracks of Blegvad's>album King Strut' (1990). I didn't find another trace of collaboration>between them until these 2 concerts at the Hotel du Nord. Straw and Blegvad were mainstays of the Golden Palomino's touring line-up from 85-88: The Golden Palomino's (Live Band) Anton Fier Drums Peter Blegvad Guitar Vocals Syd Straw Vocals Lisa Herman Vocals, Keyboards Jody Harris Guitar Chris Stamey Bass The band also usually featured guest artists such as: Carla Bley Organ Michael Stipe Vocals Arto Lindsay Guitar,Vocals Jack Bruce Bass, Vocals But, more to the point, the above line-up also did some gigging under the moniker "Peter Blegvad & Friends" or as "The Diving Ducks". During these performances the material leaned pretty heavily on the Blegvad catalog, even including some Slapp Happy material, Their performances were among the best I've ever heard from Peter, And he always seemed to be thrilled to be leading such a "Stellar Crew" as he put it. RW ------------------- Some Canterbury related discs still available athttp://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/4306/garage/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: gong-gas <gong-gas@gpo.sonnet.co.uk> Subject: GAS Rolling Flyer-July 99 Date: Mon, 19 Jul 99 11:54:07 +0000 NEWS Gong have a new drummer. Chris Taylor, of Soul II Soul and Roachford, completed the European gigs after Pierre had to leave the tour. He filled in at very short notice, learnt the set on the hoof and played superbly throughout. This meant that there were 3 new members of the band (Mark Hewins, Theo Travis and Chris) on the European dates. The music was great, new levels of light and shade brought the well-known Gong tunes into a completely different relief and when the new line-up stretched out everything changed yet again into exciting new dimensions. Chris and Mark then continued on to the North American Gong tour where Didier came into to replace Theo (who had other committments). Everything spun into further free-form in Japan (this time Chris, Didier and Mike Howlett were previously engaged) and the ‘Gong Family’ were represented by the trio of Daevid, Hugh Hopper and Chris Cutler and Gilli’s Goddess T line-up, with Mark Hewins playing wih both bands. Are you still following this, or have we lost you on the bend? Anyway, all I know is the gigs I saw in Europe were tremendous and reports from North America and Japan sound even more positive. Hicups on the GAS web-site. With summer comes lure of good weather, and camps and gatherings of all sorts,. The result is that the web-site has been sadly neglected of late. (Tim Flatus sends the message that “he’s having an operation....to have his head removed from his arse, and will be in soon”). Deep apologies for this, remedies are being put in place, so it’s less lightly to happen in the future. GIGS and EVENTS DAEVID ALLEN’S UNIVERSITY OF ERRORS Jul 22 - Portland, Or.: Berbati's Pan (with Rockin' Teenage Combo & The Gone Orchestra) Jul 23 - Seattle, Wa.: The Rainbow (with Rockin' Teenage Combo) Jul 24 - Eugene, Or.: Sam Bond's Garage Jul 25 - Eugene, Or, 455 West 1st Ave. (Buffalo Gals @ Center for Appropriate Transport) Jul 27 - San Francisco: Bottom Of The Hill (Waxing Full Moon Party, with Rockin' Teenage Combo & Azigza) KANGAROO MOONJul 20 - Bristol, Fleece & Firkin [info: 0117-927-7150] Jul 22 - Swindon, Victoria [info: 01793-535-7143] Jul 23 - Narberth, Queen’s Hall [info: 01834-861-212] Jul 24 - Tiverton, The Tube [info: 01884-258-534] Jul 25 - Colchester, Arts Centre [info: 01206-500-900] Jul 26 - London / Putney, Half Moon [info: 0171-780-9393] or other London venue (tbc)Jul 27 - Brighton, The Ray Tindle Centre [info: 01273-692-151] Jul 28 - Bath, Window Arts Centre [info: 01225-421-700] Jul 29 - Liskard, Sterts [info: 01579-362-382] Jul 30 - Cheltenham, Axiom Centre [info: 01242-253-183] STEFFE’S new psychedelic trance set in an evening of live techno, trance & dub with other acts. Jul 28 - London / Fulham, Kings Head (tbc) THE MAGICK BROTHERS [D.Allen-G.Clark-M.Robson] Aug 01 - Buxton, Badam Festival(Two day festival which also includes Hawkwind, Banco de Gaia, Arthur Brown, Bedouin, Spacehead (with Graham Clark), Tony McPhee, Magic Mushroom Band & loads, loads more - info: 01298-77280 or mailto:news@badam99.freeserve.co.uk) Aug 05 - Southampton: Talking Heads Aug 06 - Cheltenham: Axiom Centre. info: 01242-690-243] Aug 07 - Bath: Window Arts Centre Aug 10 - Cornwall, Fowey: Eclipse Camp (9th-15th Aug) 15 mins walk from beach. Bands each night. info: 01726-870-375]Aug 11 - Cornwall, Nr Penzance: Moon Shadow Camp. info: 01736-788-926] Aug 13 - Dorset, Wimbourne: Gaunts House Gathering. (GLOBAL follow Magick Brother on stage)Aug 14 - Dorset, Wimbourne: Gaunts House Gathering. (Daevid workshop-to be confirmed (Day tickets are available for this great children friendly gathering. (info: 01202-841-522 / mailto:sg@rgf-gaunts.demon.uk website: http://www.rgf-gaunts.demon.uk)Aug 25 - Full Moon Camp (Tallamh Community, Birkhill House, Coalburn, Lanarkshire, ML11 0NJ - also with Daevid workshops)The Planet Gong gig below is linked to this camp as well. tel 01555-820-555 Beginning Sept Possibly Austrian and Italian dates (tba)Info on Magick Brother dates (or you want to book one): 01342-718-730 PLANET GONG(aka Daevid with Here & Now and special guest Mark Robson)The full on psychedelic space-punk experience on the Full Moon... is this the perfect set? Aug 26 - Edinburgh, Carlton Studios (Carlton Rd) STEFFE Aug 26 - Edinburgh, Carlton Studios (Carlton Rd) Aug 29 - Haute-Loire (France), Festival GONG Oct 15-17 - 2/3 UK dates (tba) Oct 18 - Leverkusen (Germany), Jazz Tage (tbc)Oct 20 - Nancy (France), Chapiteau de la Pepinière [Jazz Pulsations Festival] (also: Magma, Annie Whitehead R.Wyatt project) (I'm not sure what the line-up for these Gong gigs will be. Chris Taylor will remain, I think, and Mark is busy. There is a strong possibility of Theo and Didier playing together in the band and maybe there will be a new guitarist.) RETURN OF THOM TOUR 1999 (pre-Milennial fever!) Jul 21 - Lismore (Australia), Lismore Club Jul 31 - Brisbane (Australia), Boundry Hotel (West End) Aug 20-21 - Cleveland (USA), Strange Daze Festival (Thom MCs and improvising fhule - book through Jim Lascko at mailto:jmfinity@now-online.com) Sep 09 - London, Vice VersoOct 20 - Cheltenham, Literature Festival (with Jean Binter Breeze)Gigs, shelter and support welcomed for this travelling troubadour world poet! mailto:worldpoet@rocketmail.com or tel (USA) 512-416-7435 FUTURE POSSIBILITIES Some of the events below may come to be, others inevitably will fall by the wayside or happen in dimensions beyond our gaze, but they are all being talked through now. PLANET GONG : USA Tour Plans being hatched for Daevid, Steffe, Keith Missile, Steve Cassidy & Mark Robson to bring the perfect, anarchic, space-punk set/band to the States. Oh Ali Baba, Ali Baba....make it so. GONGMATRIX : US dates in October. Gilli, Pierce on bass, James on Keys and programming, Aryeh on electric violin, harp and flutes. GONG 2000 : Israel gigs, European Tour, S. American Tour. Further updates on the Gong/GAS website (hopefully). * * * * NEW RELEASES - order info: http://www.sonnet.co.uk/gong-gas Goddess T - "Electric Shiatzu" (Voiceprint)Gilli Smyth, Orlando Allen, Tone with Daevid guesting throughout on gliss produce organic dance music unlike any other. Brainville - "The Children’s Crusade" (Shimmy Disc)Daevid, Hugh Hopper, Kramer and Pip Pyle together as Brainville.Mind-bending psychedelic noise. Hard yet gentle, heavy yet ethereal. You want beautiful extremes... you got them here. Daevid Allen’s University of Errors - "Money Doesn’t Make It" (InnerSpace)Imagine Gong’s Continental Circus crossed with New York Gong and a splash of Camembert and you have a picture of this release. A Rhythmic gliss and guitar fest. FUTURE RELEASES Here & Now "Gospel of Free-Live 76-78" (GAS) [mid August] Kangaroo Moon "In Transit" [late August]Russell Hibbs (with bonus Daevid tracks)- ? (Voiceprint) [autumn]Hawkwind (with Tim Blake) "The Complete Live 79" (Hawks) [finishing artwork] Didier Malherbe’s Hadouk - 2nd CD [finishing artwork]Daevid Allen’s University of Errors- 2nd CD (Inner Space) [mixing] Tim Blake "Crystal Island" (Voiceprint) [recording] Steffe new CD [recording] Invisible Opera Co. of Tibet new CD [recording] Anima Rising (Steffe/Cheryl Newsam)- ? [to be mixed] Daevid Allen-Seven Drones [mixing/artwork]Daevid Allen’s University of Errors- 3rd CD (Inner Space) [recording] Lady June/Mark Hewins "Rebela" [to be mixed] Tim Blake "New Jurusalem" (Voiceprint) [reissue] Bubbled Up On Dub- Vol 2 (Gliss) [seeded] GAS bits 22 Meanings Special Subscription CD-Well we finally got it all together. Sorry about the monsterous delay, all manner of things slowed this process down. They will be with you soon. There are about 10-15 copies of the limited edition of 100 left. Get in touch if you are interested. 1999 GAS tape-ditto the above for any of you waiting for the 1999 GAS tape. The one good result of the delay is there are now some very recent musical gems included on the tape. Next GAS mag-Will be out before the end of Summer. If you have any contributions, photographs, illustrations or anything for the personal ads please contact us. * * * * Surrealist Proverb for today: Faithful as a filleted Cat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Rae <raejonnymac@yahoo.com> Subject: Ozrics report & Frith video Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:04:12 -0400 (EDT) Hello Aymeric, A couple things to report in on. First of all, I went to Cleveland, OH to see the Ozric Tentacles at The Odeon; opening for them was a group called The Star People, all of them suavely-dressed! They reminded me of a cross between King Crimson and Cocktail Lounge Music, and overall they were very good musically. It's kinda hard to describe the mayhem of an Ozrics performance, so I won't really try, but the balance of music & lights were once again phenomenal, the band was really on, and the 2 hour set was excellent, with plenty of older gems mixed in with the powerful new material...I recollect "Eternal Wheel" and "China Type" as amongst the older pieces. Great show, but, as always, the 4-1/2 hour drive back home just drains ya. The next day, I visited an old friend, who had just received his recent order from Wayside Music. I was in luck; he had not watched his recent video acquisition, "Step Across the Border" the wonderful documentary on Fred Frith... God, I had waited 8-9 years to see this film!!!! And now, here it was, in the convenience of videotape!!! Anyway, the film itself did not disappoint, but most annoying was the fact that the video reached its end before the film actually ended!! Golly, WTF!! And my friend had laid out $35 US for this; makes ya wonder if THE WHOLE BATCH is defective...I don't wish to cause controversy here, but having NOT seen the film before, I have no idea HOW MUCH of the end is missing. And, seeing that the product IS DEFECTIVE, will there be steps taken TO REPLACE the defective item; after all, it would be nice to see the end of the film. DAME, Wayside, any suggestions? By the way, the recent inquisitions/submissions into The Henry Cow archives were most illuminating; besides owning "Concerts" the only other live 'Cow that I have is from a French show in 1977... not the greatest quality, I fear, but still listenable with some dashes of EQ, and, I suppose, a must for those die-hard HC fans... I hope something can be salvaged from the old archives, as I think most would be willing to forego 'pristine' sound quality in exchange for "the goods" especially in terms of unreleased material, either composed or improvised. Well, that's about it for now; I'll wait a bit before I consider spending $35 for my own copy of The Fred film. Thanks for keepin' WR rolling along... Mike Rae. [As Chris Cutler mentioned in the last issue, work is indeed underway on a collection of unreleased Henry Cow material. Stay tuned... - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF ISSUE 134 _________________________________________________________________________ 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! (i.e. send me a message)* PLEASE SEND ME PHOTOCOPIES OF MAGAZINE ARTICLES, LYRICS TRANSCRIPTIONS etc.!!!(Contact me beforehand at my usual e-mail address <bigbang@alpes-net.fr>)_________________________________________________________________________