Friday 25 December 2015

Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention 'The Lost Broadcast: The Beat Club '68' to Be Released on DVD

For the first time ever, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention "The Lost Broadcast: The Beat Club '68" entire show will be released on DVD by Gonzo Multimedia in December 2015! This DVD contains a filmed rehearsal of Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention at the legendary Beat Club in Bremen, Germany, on 6th October 1968. It was part of the band's second European tour, the first having occurred a year before, although this was their first visit to Germany.

What can be observed during this event is a typical rehearsal scenario, where the band is eating, drinking, tuning up their instruments, enjoying some laughs, having cosmetics applied and gradually beginning to rehearse. The music is largely one long improvisatory continuous performance rather than a run-through of their greatest hits, but occasionally Zappa directs the band into the opening themes of some of his more well-known pieces. The ensemble performs interesting renditions of "King Kong", "A Pound For A Brown On The Bus", "Sleeping In A Jar" and "Uncle Meat", all of which would be included on the "Uncle Meat" album, which had already been recorded but would not be released for another six months. Also played was an instrumental version of "Let's Make The Water Turn Black", a version of "Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", a stab at the "Prelude To Act 3 of Lohengrin" by Richard Wagner and a nod towards "Octandre" by Edgard Varese.

The footage shows Frank's use his famous hand signals to great effect, conducting and controlling the direction of the music, instructing the musicians when to start, stop, punctuate, slow down, speed up, improvise, play in different time signatures etc.



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:


Frank Zappa is considered to be one of the most influential rock musicians of the late twentieth century. Between the start of his career in the late fifties and his death in 1993 he recorded and rele..

On September 19, 1985, Frank Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organizati..

No comments:

Post a Comment

...BECAUSE SOME OF US THINK THAT THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT
What happens when you mix what is - arguably - the world's most interesting record company, with an anarchist manic-depressive rock music historian polymath, and a method of dissemination which means that a daily rock-music magazine can be almost instantaneous?

Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.