Joey Molland interview

http://talking2musicians.com/

A native of Liverpool, England, Joey Molland is the sole remaining member of the group Badfinger from their most successful period in the early 1970s.  He shared lead guitar duties with Pete Ham, wrote songs, and sang.  This is an in depth interview in two parts.

In part one he shares memories of his early years in Liverpool, seeing the Beatles at the Cavern Club, playing guitar on the street corner on Penny Lane, working the local clubs, and joining Badfinger and recording with George Harrison as the group’s producer.  We also talk about slide guitar and various recordings.

In part two he shares memories of playing at Madison Square Garden on the Concert for Bangladesh, doing session work at John Lennon’s house on theImagine album, and much more.  We also preview his recent album Return To Memphis.

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Peter Banks: The Mars Tapes review

http://www.writeamusicreview.com/2014/11/rare-recordings-by-guitar-legend-peter.html

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Rare Recordings By Guitar Legend Peter Banks 'The Mars Tapes' Now Available!

London, UK – Much to the excitement of prog fans worldwide, rare recordings of guitar legend Peter Banks, best known for his work with YES and FLASH, is now available on GONZO Multimedia! Peter Banks Empire 'The Mars Tapes' (2-CD set) represents Empire lll in rehearsal at Mars Studios in Los Angeles in 1979. The band had set up camp at Mars Studios for six months rehearsing and showcasing their music, much of which has been unheard until this release. The band basically recorded every thing they did off the board, tape hiss and all.

Peter Banks (RIP 2013) and Sidonie Jordan, who not only co-wrote, but fronted the band with her powerful vocals, founded Empire in the early to mid-seventies after Peter’s FLASH endeavors and attracted artists such as Phil Collins. Peter and Phil had joined forces in a band called 'Zok And The Radar Boys' which was pre-Empire for Peter, and pre-Brand X for Phil. “Sky At Night” (bonus track) features Phil Collins on drums and backing vocals and Jon Giblin on bass and is testimony of their collaboration.

Sidonie Jordan, who has an extensive list of music credentials to her name, including a diversified solo career as a staff writer/recording artist for A&M Records, and has recorded for other labels such as Capital Records, Electra Records and Trojan Records. (Her song and recording of ‘All God’s Mornings’ was produced by Peter Townshend and featured on his ‘With Love’ album. Sidonie is currently producing and writing with Lez Larder owner of Skyline Studios in Sunbury- On-Thames UK, and Empire lll drummer, Mark Murdock, more recently known for his 'Cymbalic Encounters’ release featuring members from Brand X, agreed to release these recordings as a dedication to the memory of Peter Banks and his great contribution to progressive rock music.

Says Sidonie, “ 'The Mars Tapes' were recorded live at Mars Studios in Los Angles during the summer of 1979! And include a few tracks that never appeared on any Empire albums. As with all the Empire incarnations this album features the amazing talent and skill of Peter Banks, who has been called the Architect of Progressive Rock.”

Drummer Mark Murdock explains, “The Peter Banks Empire ship set sail against the ever-changing music world, and was uncompromising in producing a range of material with Peter Banks' 'Signature Guitar Sound and Style,' while incorporating themes of the time period in which the band existed and also reliving the past by playing songs from the early Empire catalog and even a YES version of ‘Something’s Coming.’ There are various tracks on ‘The Mars Tapes’ that also represented a ‘Work In Progress,’ which were both instrumental and vocal orientated. Empire was anticipating to make some big waves in the music scene, but the waves never reached the shore- until now!”

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Capt. BEEFHEART: Paris live US 77 review

http://www.tollbooth.org/index.php/home/music-reviews/1357-captain-beefheart-and-the-magic-band-live-from-paris-1977


Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band Live From Paris 1977

Created on Wednesday, 12 November 2014Written by Bert Saraco

Captain Beefheart - and the night that people danced to "Floppy Boot Stomp" and got rowdy during a composition about dust...

Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band Live From Paris 1977
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band
Gonzo Multimedia
www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk www.beefheart.com
CD 1: 13 tracks / 43:33 CD2: 13 tracks / 45:50

It's been four years since the Captain took his final journey but Beefheart fans still hope for musical rarities to emerge from time to time. This time it's Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band Live >From Paris 1977. Although the sound quality might give you flash-backs to those days when you'd sit in the audience with that microphone hidden in a Styrofoam cup while you taped the show, it's still a fairly complete experience, and the set-list is wonderful.

Performing songs spanning almost all of his career (but bypassing the strange pop experiments of the Mercury label albums), this version of the Magic Band faithfully renders everything from the bluesy "China Pig" to the hard core avant-punk of "Bat Chain Puller," and everything in between. The Captain himself (a.k.a. Don Van Vliet) is in good form and in a fairly amiable mood. It can be argued, or at least speculated upon, about how much of his persona was genuine and how much was the artist just playing his audience, but there's no denying that the man was uniquely gifted at the art of mesmerizing a crowd with his mix of blues, free jazz, rock and avant garde theater. On this particular night, Beefheart (who I sometimes think of as the David Lynch of rock) was in a good mood and at the top of his form.

Audiophiles might want to run away from this decidedly low-fi, crudely-edited audience recording, but those scrambling for any Beefheart they can get will revel in a live show that contains such gems (The Captain always refers to them as 'compositions') as "Dali's Car," "Abba Zabba," "My Human Gets Me Blues," "Pachuco Cadaver," "Veteran's Day Poppy," "Big Eyed Beans From Venus," and more. Reaching back to a spoken-word piece from Trout Mask Replica, Beefheart performs "The Dust Blows Forward and The Dust Blows Back," to the increasingly more vocal audience – whether the crowd volume was due to enthusiasm or confusion isn't quite clear but does sound a bit frightening...

Eric Drew Feldman played bass guitar, keys and synthesizer, Denny Walley and Jeff Morris Tepper played guitars, and Robert Williams handled drums and percussion while Captain Beefheart played Chinese gongs, sax, and contributed strange and wonderful vocals. This version of The Magic Band had just come off recording Bat Chain Puller, and Beefheart seemed genuinely pleased with the show. According to an interview in Zigzag, he said, "I'm real happy now, I mean real happy. I played Paris and the people were dancing and everything to our music. It's amazing, people dancing to avant garde music, or whatever they call it now."

So here's a chunk of Beefheart history for you – the band was good and The Captain was in rare form. Like that well-guarded but tattered and torn ticket stub that you keep tucked away, you might just want to get your hands on this somewhat tattered, rough audio recording of the night that people danced to "Floppy Boot Stomp" and got rowdy during a composition about dust...

-Bert Saraco
www.facebook.com/express.image

See more at: http://www.tollbooth.org/index.php/home/music-reviews/1357-captain-beefheart-and-the-magic-band-live-from-paris-1977#sthash.AQ2UVSSr.dpuf


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GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Frank Zappa - Broken Hearts Are For Assholes

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THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

FOR THE LOVE OF STORIES

i would listen to her speak of gurus

How her eyes aflamed for Sai Baba,Baba Muktananda,Da Free John

So we went Guru Shopping-checked out the Hari Krishnas

Sexual segregation-women cooking ,men drumming/dancing

Stayed for the free food/felt no need to return

Went by invite to a Bar Mitzvah-again-long,male,dull

Even the free food could not compensate

Went to the Spiritualist Church-where channeled spirits 

gave vague messages to random people.My Doctor said-

"Just because they are on the other side,does not mean they are smarter!"

Every Church-stained glass,altars,prayers.We wanted SPIRIT!

Finally settled for WHAT IS-wind,earth,fire,water-elements and elementals

Does not require belief.Nor tithes.Never disappoints.Always fresh!

21 YEARS AGO FRANK ZAPPA DIED

The best laid plans of mice, men and editors sometimes go pear shaped. For months I have been planning a Frank Zappa special for Gonzo Weekly, to coincide with today - the 21st anniversary of his untimely death. But although it will happen, it won't be this weekend for a whole string of reasons with which I will not bore you.

But I would like to remember his passing both in the magazine and here on the Gonzo Daily blog.

Because Frank Zappa was one of the most important, and certainly one of the most talented musicians and composers ever to come out of rock and roll music.


There is a panel in Watchmen that always makes me think of Zappa. It is the front cover of a nasty right wing newspaper which is emblazoned with the headline "Honor is like the Hawk - sometimes it must go hooded". Whenever I see that page I think how it should be changed to something like: "Art is like real life - sometimes it is stupid, sexist and utterly brilliant". And no-one did any of those things better than Frank Zappa.

I was seventeen and just about to be kicked out of the rather unpleasant Public School at which I was an unwilling pupil for a couple of terms, when I first discovered Frank Zappa through a fairly obscure compilation put out through Verve records sometime in the second  half of the 70s.

I bought it for the quite substantial sum of £2.50 and took it back to school where I played it to my peers who uniformly hated all of it except What's the Ugliest Part of your Body which made them snigger. Not for the first time, and by no means for the last, I realised that my tastes and those of the people around me were often going to be radically different, because I loved the record.

It gave me permission to be silly, and pointed out that the awful grey trench coated homogeneity of the circles in which I moved did not have the monopoly on ideas. Indeed silliness in music was as much of a thought crime as much of Zappa's perceived sexism is now. But I didn't care. I felt gloriously liberated, and from that day on my life was never the same.

Fifteen years later I knew that my hero was dying. But a world without Frank Zappa seemed unbelievable, and I was convinced that Frank would have a last minute reprieve like the one which only this year happened to Wilko Johnson. But miracles don't happen very often, mors certa, hora incerta, and 21 years ago today Frank Zappa died, and my life - but more importantly the world as a whole - was never the same again either.

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Ian McLagan (1945-2014)

WHAT WE LOVE (and lose..

LOVED The Small Faces

LOVED "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake"

LOVED the keyboard ribaldry

LOVED the fact that he came to Austin

LOVE the facet that he has a musical residency

DISLIKE the fact that he is in hospital with a head injury

when he healed our bent heads so many keyboard solos ago!

NO! set the music in his head FREE!

                                                            Thom the World Poet

YES: Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, “Electric Funeral” from New Way Of Life (2015): One Track Mind

 In an intriguing twist, the rebuilt Mabel Greer’s Toyshop now includes — just as it did in 1967 — two members associated with Yes. Only, it’s not the same two members.

Back then, this psychedelic precursor band featured Chris Squire and the late Peter Banks, both of whom would later serve as co-founders of Yes. Today, stalwart MGT members Chris Bayley and Bob Hagger are joined by Billy Sherwood and Tony Kaye, the latter of whom actually joined future Yes frontman Jon Anderson in a very late edition of Mabel Greer’s Toyshop in ’68.

Together, they’re helping to realize a dream long deferred for Bayley, MGT’s composer, vocalist and guitarist, and long-time bandmate drummer Bob Hagger. Their first song, the opener from the forthcoming New Way Of Life, moves with a narrative force from the spectral toward the muscular, fleshing out the band’s initial Summer of Love amalgam of influences. If anything, this is something in between what we’ve come to understand about both Yes and Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, in particular in the way this song expands on its basic template of mathematical structures, bucolic harmonies and cumulus guitar.

Read on...

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NEWS Charity album for Chepstow landlady set for release features Yes and Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes

Charity album for Chepstow landlady set for release

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First published Tuesday 2 December 2014 in Newsby Nathan Briant

A TRIBUTE album made by friends of a much-loved Chepstow landlady who died earlier this year will be officially launched on Friday.

Keen musician Alison Beasley ran The White Lion/Pye Corner, grew up in Bulwark and attended Chepstow School. The Electric Landlady CD will be unveiled at the Severn Bridge Social Club in Bulwark.

All monies will go to the St David’s Hospice charity, which cared for Ms Beasley at the end of her life.

After Ms Beasley died in March, friends wrote original songs that have been recorded in her friend Paul Hobday’s home recording studio in Chepstow. One was donated by another of Ms Beasley’s friends, Yes and Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes.

Read on...

Music review: After all these years, Yes they can

Ageless: Today's Yes lineup.

For a band that was born in 1968, and which has had several deaths and rebirths over the decades, the Yes who performed at the Palais sounded magnificently alive, with possibilities of continuing into infinity, or at least as long as time will allow ageing bones to play.

On Tuesday night, performing to the faithful in a theatre sadly not full, the years fell away. Yes played two of their classic albums, beginning with Close to the Edge and then Fragile, interspersed with two cuts from their latest CD, Heaven and Earth. They sent everyone home happy and singing I've Seen All Good People from The Yes Album of 43 years ago. It was all magical.

The concert began as a video montage of the band in its early years and in its heyday, when it played to thousands; the album catalogue coming in and out of view to a musical backdrop of Stravinsky. And then the latest incarnation of Yes – Steve Howe, 67; Alan White, 65; Chris Squire, 66; Geoff Downes, 62; and the upstart Jon Davison, only in his 40s (four with white hair and the latter still unravaged) – walked on stage and blew away any fears of an off-key night.


Read on...

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GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Soft Machine - Tale of Taliesin

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THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

WOT M EYE GONNA DO?

unplug your smartphone

pLACE IT IN A REFRIGERATOR

iT IS ALREADY A gps

yOUR SITE CAN BE FOUND EASILY

aLL DATA ON fACEBOOK /gOOGLE IS ACCESSIBLE TO OTHERS

aVOID dROPBOX AND ALL SOCIAL MEDIA

uNIVERSAL SURVEILLANCE IS REAL-24/7

nOTE THE apd HACKING OF facebook FILES OF THE PERSON THEY SHOT

eVERY PASSWORD CAN BE BROKEN.eNCRYPT ALL EMAILS

mY CAPS WENT A W O L. i ASKED EDWARD SNOWDEN

BUT he replied "I DON'T ANSWER QUESTIONS"

(YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE RIGHT 2 REMAIN SILENT

jUST ASK mIRANDA!

Edward Snowden’s Privacy Tips: “Get Rid Of Dropbox,” Avoid Facebook And Google

According to Edward Snowden, people who care about their privacy should stay away from popular consumer Internet services like Dropbox, Facebook, and...

techcrunch.com

Steve Hackett, Genesis Guitarist, Revisits His Classic Prog-Rock On Tour [Interview]

Over the years, guitarist Steve Hackett has taken several journeys -- both on album and in concert -- back to his Genesis days. The most recent studio recording was 2012's “Genesis Revisited II,” a double-disc featuring reinterpreted classics from the period that is most dear to Hackett: the era of Genesis that spanned 1971 to 1977.

For the album, the guitar wizard brought in 35 special guests, making for one spectacular prog-rock event. The lineup included vocalists Simon Collins (Phil Collins' son), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia, U.K.) and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) as well as Amanda Lehmann, Conrad Keely, Francis Dunnery, Neal Morse, Nad Sylvan and Nik Kershaw. Sharing guitar duties with Hackett were Steve Rothery (Marillion) and Roine Stolt (The Flower King, Transatlantic).

Read on...

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THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

TRIANGULATING AFFECTIONS

Laos is in love with Myanmar(she used to be called Burma

Shave that from history! She is in love with Vietnam

who has fallen out of love with China(over islands

in the South China Seas).Golden her Triangle

when CIA spelled AIR AMERICA.Now Generals rule

and poppies bloom.Guns,borders,walls,visas,passports..

Used to be slip across at night.Bicycles down Ho Chi Minh trail.

Nixon bombed out Laos and Cambodia-now Asia's economy is hot for shoppers.

History means bomb craters,Agent Orange,MIA fragments.

Contemporary means stalls,shops,smiles,tourists,jeepneys

Between each love affair-surrogate romances.Three in a single bed

never made for a comfortable night's diplomatic dreaming.

MICK FARREN on Watch Out Kids (1972)

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Mick Farren

Mick Farren (September 1943 – July 2013) was not someone who could be described as ‘best known for’ anything. Gloucestershire-born Farren was a singer with The Deviants and a musicia..

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Mick Farren and Andy Colquhoun

Mick Farren was a great man. Many people have described him to me as having been “barking mad”, but – even if this is true – it does not negate his greatness one iota. Born in ..

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Mick Farren and The Deviants

The Social Deviants were founded by singer/writer Mick Farren (born Michael Anthony Farren, 3 September 1943, in Gloucester, Gloucestershire) in 1967 out of the Ladbroke Grove UK Underground community..

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Mad Daevid Allen Interview 1975

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Daevid Allen

Australian beatnik Daevid Allen was a founder member of Britain's earliest psychedelic band, Soft Machine.He departed from the band after the release of their first classic single Love Makes Sweet Mus..

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Daevid Allen and Friends

Australian poet and musician Daevid Allen, born in 1938, moved to Europe in 1960, inspired by the writings of the ‘Beat Generation.’ After a year or so in Paris he arrived in the UK in 196..

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Daevid Allen and Kramer

Whichever way you look at it, Daevid Allen is one of the most interesting and enigmatic characters in modern music. An Australian, he was working in a Melbourne book shop when he discovered the writin..

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Yes' Steve Howe Guitar Lesson

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GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Crimson and Clover - Tommy James and The Shondells

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GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Pink Fairies - Walk Don't Run

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Jon Anderson, Patrick Moraz discuss Yes’ Relayer: ‘Very close to the edge of jazz rock’

Relayer, released 40 years ago on November 28, 1974, found Yes moving toward the more complex waters of jazz rock — sparked by the replacement of Rick Wakeman with Patrick Moraz. Unsurprisingly, these songs grew out of jam sessions. That informality opened up new vistas of improvisational freedom for Yes, if only for a moment.

“We had been jamming quite a bit, especially with Chris [Squire] and Alan [White], from the time I joined the band,” Moraz tells us, in an exclusive Something Else! Sitdown. “We had many, many jam sessions and co-compositions, those kind of things. On some of those things, we very close to the edge of jazz rock, and over time it might have taken us maybe much further.”

Indeed, Squire and White have never sounded more in sync, while Jon Anderson constructs some of his most involving prose poems. In keeping with its recording site inside Squire’s garage, Steve Howe provides the project’s edge, adding crunchy electric and pedal steel guitar throughout what quickly became known as one of Yes’ most musically complex albums.

This all but ensured that the endlessly challenging Relayer, recently re-released with a new 5.1 surround-sound remix, couldn’t match the UK charttopping success of either its predecessor Tales from Topographic Oceans or the subsequent Going for the One.

Read on...

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THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

WE RARELY TALK ABOUT

possibilities of personal extinction

via car accident,poor health,a sudden decision to leave

your skin behind you as you speed towards a future

we are not yet Blessed enough to know.

We do not focus upon Ferguson nor that Austin gunman

knowing just how close bullets come to civilians

We do not wish to live in a war zone.

Despite our best intentions,news screams loudly

Today will be a documentary.People talk like witnesses.

Shots ring out on YOUTUBE .Media Grand Jury guilty!

Our emotions engaged,evoked,elicited-sympathy&empathy

Crying in silence.Walking in protest.Standing up for justice

in a free fire zone.This is why we rarely talk about....

Terry Riley - Lighting up nodes by Anil Prasad

The global music community owes composer Terry Riley an enormous debt of gratitude. He pioneered the minimalism movement with his seminal 1964 composition "In C." The piece, based on interlocking, pulsating repetitive patterns, continues to influence countless musicians to this day. Riley is also one of the first to experiment with the possibilities of tape loops. His explorations began in the 1950s and played a paramount role in setting the stage for virtually everyone who integrated looping into their recordings and performances since.

His sonic footprint has stepped far beyond minimalist and avant-garde paths. Perhaps the most famous example is The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” in which Pete Townshend played organ parts inspired by Riley’s 1969 release A Rainbow in Curved Air. Gong, Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream, and Curved Air—named after Riley’s album—have also all cited him as significantly affecting their approaches.

Riley’s early musical associations included working with the likes of John Cale, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Morton Subotnick, and La Monte Young during the ‘60s. But his most significant artistic relationship was with the late master Indian classical vocalist Pandit Pran Nath. Riley was Nath’s disciple and spent a great deal of time in India with him during the ‘70s, accompanying him on tabla, tambura and vocals. Riley’s immersion in the Indian raga form during this period had a profound impact on his subsequent output and musical philosophy.

Read on...

RICK WAKEMAN/IAN LAVENDER: Famed duo to switch on lights at Oaksmere

A renowned musician and a well-known Suffolk actor will light up the 20-foot Christmas tree at a hotel in Brome this week.

Rick Wakeman, a veteran keyboard player who has worked with the likes of David Bowie, and Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in the classic British comedy series Dad’s Army, will turn on the lights at the Oaksmere switch-on event, starting at 7pm on Thursday.

The evening is also set to include fireworks, special displays of wartime vehicles and a visit by Santa Claus. Funds collected over the course of the event will go towards the 490th Bomb Group Memorial, which will be placed at Eye Airfield. For additional information, visit www.theoaksmere.com

GONZO PEOPLE: Olivia McCarthy

Happy Birthday to my beloved, beautiful and utterly delightful younger stepdaughter, who also happens to be the mother of my first grandchild.

I love you darling.