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  ::                                                              ::
  ::                     - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? -                    ::
  ::       The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts         ::
  ::                          Issue # 47                          ::
  ::                   Tuesday, March 25th, 1997                  ::
  ::                                                              ::
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From: Mark HEWINS <hewins@musart.co.uk>
Subject: John Martyn, John Stevens etc.etc.
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 19:58:59 GMT

Hi Aymeric & the Rattlers,

I have been amazed and surprised to see John Martyn's name come up in WR.
He's a Great Guitar player who taught me a few (technical) things on the
Instrument. Fantastic open tunings he plays.......

I played with him in the John Stevens band which made the 'A Luta Continua'
CD. Also in the band was Elton Dean and Nick Evans, Evan Parker, etc etc.
Subsequently there was a concert at the Roundhouse. Featuring a certain Phil
Collins augmenting John Stevens on drums. He'd just recorded 'You can't
hurry love'. He was a good mate of John S's, I think....
I remember setting up my amp next to Phil's kit, then watching his reaction
when I started feeding a coathanger through the strings of my Guitar during
the gig... +_^

Incidentally, the support band that night included Andrew Cyrille who was
later to play on 'Kew Rhone' etc.

Happy Hunting....
P&L>M
   MARK HEWINS
     < http://www.musart.co.uk/hewins.htm > (/markcv1.htm)
    (try the new CHORD PICKER)
                         < http://www.musart.co.uk/script/chords.htm >

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From: d-wayne@lanl.gov (Dave Wayne)
Subject: John Martyn
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 09:24:53 -0700

Regarding the John Maryn string: I've had a few of his early-80s records &
found them to be fairly interesting, but not stunning (...the one I remember
owning was called "Sapphire"). Most of them feature top-notch players like
Tommy Eyre (Zzebra), John Giblin (Brand X), Phil Collins, etc., but the
music's not overtly complex or fusion-like. Musically, I think they're a bit
like Richard Thompson's records, only slicker, spacier & without Richard
Thompson's great guitar playing. The lyrics are very dark & intelligent.
Martyn also has a very raspy vocal style which is an acquired taste. On the
other hand, John Martyn's first few records are much more interesting. The
band on his first solo record (...which I heard once, and I believe was
titled "Live At Leeds"... but please correct me if I'm mistaken!) was pretty
incredible: John Stevens on drums, and Danny Thompson on acoustic bass.
(...that also explains the John Stevens connection mentioned by Julian
Christou in WR #46). Evidently, it is very "collectable". Another one of his
records, "Solid Air", got quite a bit of good press when it came out, but I
was too busy at the time listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra to notice...

I would also like to recommend John Stevens' "Away" records (there were
several on Vertigo, and at least one more on the Vinyl label...) to anyone
who enjoys really odd jazzy music. I think the band was an attempt to play a
more commercial brand of jazz fusion, but Stevens & his colleagues were just
too avant-garde and interesting to pull it off! The end result sounds to me
a tiny bit like Ornette Coleman's Prime Time band. Most of the players on
Stevens' "Away" records were also in his other ensembles: the 'Spontaneous
Music Ensemble' and 'Folkus'. Stevens also recorded some sides with Allan
Holdsworth on guitar ("Touching On" and "Re-touch"). I think those have been
re-released on CD, but the "Away" stuff hasn't (...to my knowledge). Anyway,
happy listening...
--
Regarding the re-emergence of Pierre Moerlen: this is the first thing to
make me smile since the passing of Tony Williams a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for coming back to us, Pierre!!

Later,
Dave Wayne

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From: neato@pipeline.com
Subject: Gong's Missing pieces
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 10:54:54 -0500

[In WR#46, Age Rotshuizen wrote:]
>[...] why two recordings, once released on LP, were never released
>on CD. I'm talking about the Glastonbury Fayre songs & the Greasy
>Truckers live set.

"Glastonbury Fayre" was available for a bit on CD (taped from vinyl) but with
the complete liner notes and ephemera... In addition, I have recently seen
it listed in a catalog that usually doesnt deal with "bootlegs"... So maybe
somebody has rereleased it... Although I kind of doubt it, since with so
many different artists (The Dead, Bowie, Bolan, etcetc) appearing, it would
probably be impossible to secure all the rights... The Gong track on it was
never really one of my favorites

[Did I dream when I saw a *video* of "Glastonbury Fayre" at Oxford Street's Virgin Megastore last November ? It had a track by Gong. I even seem to remember seeing a double CD of it, but I may be wrong. I think the Gong song was "You Can't Kill Me", but my memory doesn't always serve me well. As a sideline, Robert Wyatt once described Gong's performance on the "GF" album as "...the most un-earhtly (and least whimsical) tapes the group ever made" - AL]

As per Greasy Truckers ("Live at Dingwalls Dancehall")... Last week I saw an
expensive CD copy (looked like a bootleg) of the first Greasy Truckers recording... so the second (with Gong) might be available as well somewhere... This Greasy Truckers recording is quite good... plus you get Camel and Henry Cow (although now we have the latter anyway via "Concerts")

>IMHO they - i.e. the record-companies - should have released the 1977 Live
>Etc. album on a double CD including the two missing pieces of Gong,

Unfortunately the record company who owns the 77 live recordings - Virgin - does not own the other live recordings... Unfortunately business is business... Actually I thought it was pretty cool of Virgin to include the
missing track from 77 on the "Angels Egg" release... Most companies would have
just let it languish... Since these recordings originally were released on
Virgin, i prefer the Virgin CD reissues as opposed to the Charly or
Spalax...

[As far as I know Charly was the follow-up label to Byg, founded by Jean-Luc Young of Byg - Byg *also* released "Flying Teapot" and "Angels Egg" at the time, because Gong had signed two different contracts - AL]

Lastly, to further complicate things and to further aggravate we Gong
completists, the version of "Continental Circus" on the Italian label Giacomo (as opposed to the French Mantra release) has a couple of extra live tracks added on... Quite good

whew...
cheers

                        all my mistakes were once acts of genius
                                         neato@pipeline com

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From: KURDILLA@hq.rtis-c.com (KURDILLA, DAN)
Subject: Cutlers
Date: 18 Mar 97 10:31:30 EST

Hello, Aymeric,

After reading the message from 'RAYMBEN' in the latest WR :

>Wouldn't you consider Ivor Cutler a part of the Canterbury scene,
>or at least linked to it?  I was surprised that you didn't have a link
>to his website and a discography...   He is Chris' father, isn't he?

I think it may be worth repeating the following bit from WR#3 (message from Steve Feigenbaum of Wayside/Cuneiform):

>Ivor is NOT Chris' father. Chris' father was in the foreign service,
>which is why Chris was born in America (Washington D.C.) & why Chris is
>able to hold dual citizenship & dual passports. Certainly an interesting
>rumor though!!

Interestingly, Steve seems to be responding to a message from RAYMBEN, who presumably didn't read WR#3.

[Of course Ivor isn't Chris' father... I let Ray's message appear in WR#46 thinking it was meant as a joke. Wasn't it, Ray ? - AL]

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From: Gregg Westgate <MelGreg@bbs.macconnect.com>
Subject: Gong "Angels Egg" CD reissue
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 16:22:51 +0000

Last issue: Age Rotshuizen wrote:
"(There are two versions of Angel Egg, I bought the wrong one, i.e.without the Live Etc.-track)"

I have bought both versions of Angel Egg on CD (Charly and Virgin). IMHO the Charly version produces a truer sound, closer to the vinyl. Perhaps they used dolby on the Virgin. The sound difference to me makes up for not having the misplaced extra tunes that the Virgin provides anyway. Perhaps I am too much of purist but I was mildly offended when Virgin added songs to Angels Egg.

Gregg Westgate
Manhattan, New York

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                        END OF ISSUE #47

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