Monday, 24 October 2016

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, 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 and 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 within 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?"

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
(we were very very young)
and we wanted peace in a time of war
everyone was GUNG HO!
against UNCLE HO!
ready to Napalm/Agent Orange
Bomb the beJesus out of Vietnam
One or two were brave in public view
to stand up to the military push
They embraced peace and rationality
Hounded by all who could only see
war as progress.Death took too many youth.
We were grateful then for such as Tom Haydn
We remain grateful for the existence and activism
of so few brave men/standing up for peaceful civilians..
In an age of Wikileaks /Chelsea Manning and exiled Assange
Remember Tom Hayden!
Chuck Taylor and 3 others shared a link.

Tom Hayden, a 1960s radical who was in the vanguard of the movement to stop…
latimes.com|By Los Angeles Times

THE PINK FAIRIES GET NAKED

Legendary British rockers the Pink Fairies will be releasing their first album in three decades on November 4th, 2016 when Gonzo Multimedia releases the band’s Naked Radio. Fronted by singer and guitarist Andy Colquhoun, the band reunited in 2013 and has played a number of successful U.K. shows over the past couple of years. The Pink Fairies today are comprised of Colquhoun, bassist Sandy Sanderson, drummers Russell Hunter and George Butler, and keyboardist Jaki Windmill.

Formed in 1970 out of the ashes of infamous U.K. band the Deviants (which included Sanderson and Hunter), the Pink Fairies were active participants in London’s psychedelic underground rock scene of the early ‘70s. They promoted free music, drugs, and anarchy and were famous for stunts like playing for free outside the gates at the Isle of Wight Festival and Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. The initial band line-up, which included guitarist Paul Randolph, Sanderson, and Hunter recorded a pair of cult classics in 1971’s Never Never Land, which included former Pretty Things drummer ‘Twink’, and the following year’s What A Bunch of Sweeties, which included a second guitarist in Trevor Burton.

Rudolph was replaced by future Motörhead guitarist Larry Wallis for 1973’s Kings of Oblivion, the final album of the era for the band and another bona fide cult classic. During much of the rest of the 1970s and early ‘80s, Pink Fairies members played in various bands, frequently with former Deviants bandmate Mick Farren, before the opportunity to record for Demon Records was offered. A new Pink Fairies line-up was formed around Wallis, Sanderson, and Hunter with Twink and Farren’s guitarist Andy Colquhoun to record the band’s last album, 1987’s Kill ‘Em and Eat ‘Em.

Drummer Russell Hunter, in a press release for the new album, states “it’s over 45 years since the first studio album and nearly 30 since the last. The passage of these years is inevitably etched to some extent on all these songs, some much deeper than others. But in the final analysis, they’re all some facet of the Pink Fairies.” Check out the video below and you'll agree that the band sounds every bit as wiggy as it always has...then buy the CD from Amazon.com!

Naked Radio” IS available to pre-order only on PledgeMusic together with other exclusive merchandise and experiences, go to this link http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/pink-fairies to find out more.

Brown, Gregg Kofi: Rock 'N' Roll UFOs

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=19257



Brown, Gregg Kofi: Rock 'N' Roll UFOs
Guitarist Greg Kofi Brown is a member of the African funk band Osibisa. He was discovered by the band while performing in London with Peter Green. On his new album Rock 'N' Roll And UFOs the funk rock pioneer digs deep through his catalogue offering a career anthology. He enlists the help of some fine guest artists like guitarist Dominic Miller (Sting), keyboardist John Rabbit Bundrick (formerly of The Who) and the cast of The Who's Tommy plus many more.

On these seventeen tracks Brown's soulful voice and heavy bottom end serves the dance floor rather well covering soul, funk, pop and disco. Some of his best tracks are unplugged such as the pretty acoustic ballad "All The Way For You" featuring Dominic Miller on guitar and the uplifting message of "Open Up My Arms" with Gus Isidore on guitars. On the catchy dancefloor pop of "How Can I" Bundrick offers some nice keyboard layers while the soulful "Whisper In The Wind" features smooth lead vocals and a glistening pop groove with a splash of reggae.
For the most part these are good tunes, the one misstep being a disco version of The Who classic "Listening To You" which just doesn't work. At least the album gets back on track with a couple of acoustic tunes, the poignant and insightful "Freedom's Ring" and the breezy "Summer Rain". 
For what is essentially a pop album, Rock 'N' Roll And UFOs is a fine listen, filled with nicely crafted melodies and uplifting soulful beats.
Released on Gonzo Multimedia.
Track Listing:
1. Chasing Shadows
2. How Can I
3. All The Way For You: Unplugged
4. N'Kosi B
5. Open Up My Arms
6. Shadow: Hughs Dance Mix
7. Tender Eyes: Unplugged
8. This Guy
9. Wake Up In The Morning
10. Whisper In The Wind
11. Listening To You
12. Freedom's Ring: Unplugged
13. Summer Rain: Unplugged
14. Freedom's Ring: The Groove Mix
15. Take Your Time
16. Tricky Situation
17. Perfect Rainbow
Added: October 20th 2016
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score: 
Related Link: Artist's Official Site
Hits: 10
Language: english

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO


Rock n Roll & UFOs Gregg Kofi Brown Anthology
CD - £9.99

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Al Atkins OFFICIAL Victim Of Changes




http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/al-atkins

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Trevor Rabin Interview - The Prog Report



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Union
DVD - £10.99

Rock of the 70s
DVD - £7.99

PLAYLIST: SF #184

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College’s Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Every other week the show is now presented by Jeremy Smith and as the two promotional pictures that he sent consisted as one of him covered in mud and the other of him covered in guinea pigs he is obviously mad as a bagful of cheese, which means he will fit in here just fine!

He writes: I’ve been a huge music fan ever since my parents bought me a transistor radio and I would listen to the sixties pirate music stations at nights under the covers. This love of live music has stayed with me to this day and I still love standing in a small club like the Borderline in London with some mates and watching a band with a pint in my hand. With the Strange Fruit radio show, I want to continue the trend of doing themed shows and playing the music I love z
  
Strange Fruit 184 – Feel the Noize

Does what it says on the tin, Strange Fruit goes one louder.
 
Featured Album:  Bob Mould: Patch the Sky
 
Tracks: 
1  Motorhead: Motorhead
2  Bass Drum of Death: Crawling Over You
3  Slade: Cum on Feel the Noize
4  Muck & the Mires: I'm Your Man
5  The Fadeaways: How Can I Make Her Mine
6  Bob Mould: Voices in My Head
7  Bob Mould: The End of Things
8  Mick Farren: Fast Eddie
9  Lightning Raiders: Criminal World
10  New York Dolls: Personality Crisis
11  The Pop Group: We are all Prostitutes
12  Pearl Jam: Jeremy
13  Mountain: For Yasgur's Farm
14  Peter Tosh: Come Together
15  Led Zeppelin: When the Levee Breaks
16  The Stooges: 1969
17  Brian James Gang: New Rose 2006
18  Alice Cooper: Eighteen
19  The Tubes: White Punks on Dope
20  The Men They Couldn’t Hang: Smugglers
21  Bob Mould: Pray for Rain
22  Bob Mould: Lucifer and God
23  The Mobbs: Violets are Blue
24  The Mobbs: Piffle
25  The Mobbs: Grub before Punch
26  MC5: Sister Ann
27  The Members: The Sound of the Suburbs
28  Canvey Island All Stars: Morning Dew
29  Blue Oyster Cult: Born to be Wild


THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, 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 and 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 within 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?"

OUTLAWS IN A FIELD TOGETHER
indigenous to earth /garden/wilde areas
Mushrooms sprout up after rain
Bloom in their capped brilliance
Rising up like little villagers
Poking their round heads
into other people's businesses
Hear them rising as we dream?
See them resplendent each new morning?
Gratefully,we pick and eat them
Ingest for ceremony /split dimensions
Always both Common and Sacred
"Take One!Alice-Welcome to Wonderland!"
Every Garden Grows Some!(Visions,that is..

awaiting you to see them..Via Mush  Rooms..

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: "Badi Der Bhai Nandlala" a Lord Krishna Bhajan

Being Sunday I always post sacred music. The name of the deity may change, or even the deity Him/Herself but the spirit remains the same

Friday, 21 October 2016

GONZO WEEKLY #205

Gonzo Magazine #205
 
We have exciting news about the new Pink Fairies album  together with exclusive photographs of them in rehearsal, Jon burbles on about Alan Bennett and the movie of The Lady in the Van, Doug goes to see The Specials, and Alan meets Lenny Helsing, whilst we run a book review a century and a half late.
 
Good ‘ere innit?
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, and Friday Night Progressive, and because last week was a full moon, Canterbury Sans Frontieres. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a thrilling and slightly disturbing episode of Xtul. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
 
This issue features:
Alan Bennett, Maggie Smith, The Who, Boy George, Rolling Stones, The Last Shadow Puppets, Bob Dylan,  Radiohead, Chuck Berry, John Lydon, Leonard Cohen, Bart Lancia, Alan Dearling, Clowns, Strange Fruit, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Robert “Big Sonny” Edwards, William Nelson "Sonny" Sanders, Robert Bateman, Rick Wakeman, Martin Stephenson and The Daintees, Archie Fisher & Barbara Dickson, Binky Womack, Arthur Brown, Nils Lofgren, Jackie Lee, The Pink Fairies, The Specials, Lenny Helsing, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, Little Richard, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Gizz Butt, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Martin Springett, The Gardening Club, Jules Verne, Neil Nixon, Keith Christmas
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 204 (Gas Tank)
Issue 203 (The Gardening Club)
Issue 202 (Gong)
Issue 201 (Auld Man's Baccie)
Issue 200 (Deep Purple)
Issue 199 (Yes)
Issue 198 (Steve Ignorant)
Issue 197 (Gilli Smyth)
Issue 196 (Paul May)
Issue 195 (Dave Brock)
Issue 194 (Auburn)
Issue 193 (Genre Peak)
Issue 192 (Rick Wakeman and Brian May)
Issue 191 (Karnataka)
Issue 190 (Erik Norlander)
Issue 189 (Rick Wakeman at the O2)
Issue 187/8 (Yer holiday special)
Issue 186 (Beatles)
Issue 185 (Judge Smith)
Issue 184 (Mick Abrahams)
 
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
 

SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.

COMING THIS WEEKEND


THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band ~ Delilah



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Presents The Loch Ness Monster
CD - £7.99

Fairport Convention - Excerpt From "London Rock" Documentary (1970)



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Live In Maidstone 1970
CD - £7.99

Live At Maidstone Castle 1970
DVD - £7.99

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, 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 and 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 within 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?"


DONOVAN RETURNS AS "SUNSHINE SUPERMAN"
Yet we remember him for "A Child's Garden of Verses"
I love him best for ATLANTIS-"For if the elders of our age
choose to remain blind-let us rejoice and let us sing.HAIL ATLANTIS"
In 2011,in the Baltic Sea,a magnetic object was discovered
bearing symbols for Jupiter and "One"
The evocation of Atlantean thinking both direct and profound
The magnetic resonance of pyramids and spheres ,both found and still buried
whether deep in oceans or under soil found best by radar/sonar technology-
it is the wonderful story of Atlantis that surfaces
whenever we choose to remember
there were many civilizations long before us
and will be many more long afterwards..

HAIL ATLANTIS!

Chris Squire 2013 interview



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO:

Union
DVD - £10.99

Union (2CD)
2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's
DVD - £7.99

The Lost Broadcasts
DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s
DVD - £7.99

Thursday, 20 October 2016

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Beatles--Rain [ official music video]



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

The Beatles Tapes
2CD - £10.99

The Beatles and WWII
2CD1DVD - £14.99

Arthur Brown - Interview (@ 90.4 fm) February 25 2012



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
The Lost Ears
2CD - £10.99

Chris Squire interview 2007



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO:

Union
DVD - £10.99

Union (2CD)
2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's
DVD - £7.99

The Lost Broadcasts
DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s
DVD - £7.99

Planet Elektro - Interview Rick Wakeman (Yes)



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:

Richard Christopher 'Rick' Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for hi..

Richard Christopher 'Rick' Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player and composer best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock .

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, 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 and 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 within 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?"

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Sunshine.Simplicity.Semi-rural /suburban.
Working class.(Once there was one..
Naive as cliche.Eyes,ears witnessing
Unfolding of hard growth ,fast changes.
Communist Bookstore bombed.
Police in brown /changing to blue.
Same as dredged /muddy Brisbane River
From penny ferry to catamarans.
From real beaches to City Beach.
From tropical fruits to gay bars.
Of course-optimism!Learning via libraries.
Chermside and District Youth Club.
Our Lady of the Angels,Wavell Heights.
From new Swiss slick trams to diesel buses.
From Gregory Terrace to University of Queensland
From Brisbane Town to a Capitol City.

That is where i am from.You are where eye am heading to 

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling, yer Gonzo Grande Fromage, 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 and 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 within 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?"

Bob Dylan's 126th Dream
LIKE, IF THE MAKER OF EXPLOSIVES
gives the monies he made
as some form of reparations
who is to object /if President War Drone on Civilians
takes away the Peace Prize?
And what have books to do with anything?
In a post punk closed down publishing show biz texting world
Where Presidential Candidates use their rest room time to chime on Instagram
and text and tweet is the New Suite.Who Be Me to disparage literate productivity?LET IT BE
There are no Beatles anymore.John Lennon got the bullet not the Nobel bomb.He turned in his MBE.
And even the 60s have few in their sixties to celebrate with Janis and Jimi and Jim gone
only Leonard Cohen remains ,releasing new material on the world's burning stages..
Maybe his novels and stories and poetry might find favor?Perhaps when

he falls down/closer to Heaven.Maybe Zen.!Hallelujah!

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Eric Burdon & War Spill The Wine "Original Record Release"



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
The Animals And Beyond 
DVD - £7.99

Beat Beat Beat - Eric Burdon
DVD - £4.99

Van Der Graaf Generator: Peter Hammill discusses new album 'Do Not Disturb' [Full Interview]



CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Live at the Paradiso Apr 2007
CD - £10.99

James Young - Songs They Never Play On The Radio (CD)

http://www.goldminemag.com/blogs/spin-cycle-blogs/reviews-kaelan-mikla-bordellos-hawkwind-mike-hurst-vespero-orange-drop-hello-james-young-e-gone-grit-plankton-bridget-st-john-croydon-municipal-blue-oyster-cult


James Young
Songs They Never Play On The Radio (CD)
(Gonzo Multimedia)
These last few years, it’s been open season on the memory of Nico.  First, Chris, Cosey and Peter Christopherson curated X-TG’s reworking of her Desertshore album, initially alongside a host of guest vocalists; then as an absolutely stunning evil twin; and then as a glorious live remix.
Earlier this year brought the Soundwalk Collective’s collaboration with Patti and Jesse Paris Smith for Killer Road, a spellbinding collection of atmospheric themes and effects, over which Patti softly intones Nico’s lyrics.  And now comes this, keyboard player James Young’s musical tribute to the years he spent touring Europe with Nico through the early 1980s.
It’s a beautiful album, maybe reminiscent of Nick Cave in places, and a mellow John Cale as well, but it’s Nico who hangs almost unmentioned over all.  Although almost every track is a Young original, the arrangements deliberately echo those that Young and his bandmates grafted onto Nico’s own songs during their time alongside her… think of it, perhaps, as a second cousin to her final studio album, Camera Obscura, and feel that link even further as the album closes with “My Funny Valentine,” which she did indeed cover on that LP.
The album’s title, and title track, of course are taken from Young’s written memoir of this same timespan, a book that tells its story in unflinching and occasionally unthinkable detail.  The music, however, is neither a soundtrack to the book nor a booktrack to the sound – that, after all, was done back in 1994, on an album that confusingly shared its title with this, but which bequeaths just four tracks to the latest project.
And, terrific though that earlier album was, this one is better, effortlessly smoothing the cracks and weak spots that lightly tarnished the Creation album with stronger songs (“Down By The Wannsee” is breathtaking), effective instrumentals (“She’s In My Ears”) and, yes, “My Funny Valentine,” which hangs even more haunted and isolated that Nico’s own rendering.
It’s true.  It has been open season on Nico’s memory.  But you wouldn’t want to forget a thing.

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

PINK FAIRIES NEWS


For Immediate Release

The Pink Fairies To Release First New Album “Naked Radio” In 3 Decades!

London - The legendary Pink Fairies will be releasing their new album titled “Naked Radio” on Gonzo Multimedia. It is the first studio recording by this line up of the band since “Kill Em and Eat Em” in 1987. Fronted by Andy Colquhoun (The Deviants), the band reformed in 2013 and played a number of successful UK shows through 2014 and 2015.

Says drummer Russell Hunter, “It's over 45 years since the first studio album and nearly 30 since the last - The passage of these years is inevitably etched to some extent on all these songs, some much deeper than others. But in the final analysis, they’re all some facet of The Pink Fairies.”

The Pink Fairies are an English rock band initially active in the London (Ladbroke Grove) underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970's. They promoted free music, drug taking and anarchy and often performed impromptu gigs and other agitprop stunts, such as playing for free outside the gates at the Bath and Isle of Wight pop festivals in 1970, as well as appearing at Phun City, the first Glastonbury and many other free festivals including Windsor and Trentishoe.

After various line-ups through the years, now fronted by Andy Colquhoun (The Deviants), the band reformed in 2013 and played a number of successful UK shows through 2014 and 2015! And now much to the excitement of Pink Fairies fans worldwide, the new album 'Naked Radio' is scheduled for pre-order on October 14, 2016.

The Pink Fairies are:
Andy Colquhoun guitar and vocals
Russell Hunter drums and vocals
Sandy Sanderson bass and vocals
George Butler drums
Jaki Windmill djembe, keyboards and vocals


The Pink Fairies official website: www.pinkfairies.net

Naked Radio will be available to pre-order only on PledgeMusic together with other exclusive merchandise and experiences, go to this link http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/pink-fairies to find out more.

...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.