WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Back in the early part of 1978, I was living in a fairly crappy boarding house on the outskirts of Bracknell in Berkshire. I had no money, and earned a pittance as a not very efficient clerk in the office of a firm of Builders Merchants. My wages just about covered my board and lodging, the weekly music papers and my train fares to and from work. Anything else I had I spent on books. One of my favourite purchases was the first two volumes of an encyclopaedia of rock music that I have long since lost. I couldn't afford to buy the records, but I read the book voraciously, and much of my knowledge of rock music came from there. But, with many of the bands concerned it is only now that I am getting around to hearing them for the first time.

So, when a dude called Chuck Flood, who is a reader of these hallowed pages wrote to me, and asked me if I had heard of It's a Beautiful Day, I could answer truthfully, that of course I had. I also knew that they featured the talents of electric violinist David LaFlamme and his wife Linda. I knew that the LaFlammes had split up in the early 1970s, and that the band continued with David at the helm.

Over the years I had heard bits and pieces, and had earmarked them as worthy of future study. But I had never done anything about it. But then, a few months ago, Chuck Flood wrote to me asking whether I would like to write a feature about the band, who are - I believe - playing in the UK this summer. Yes, I said, of course. And then promptly forgot about it.

A few weeks later a DVD entitled The David LaFlamme Story arrived in the post. I wrote to Chuck, thanking him, put the DVD at the top of my 'DVDs I gotta Watch Pile', and once again forgot about it.

This evening, with a bowl of rice and mussels on my knee, and an unruly orange kitten rushing about my feet, I sat down to watch it. And golly, it was a revelation!

This music is a gorgeous synergistic mishmash of jazz, rock, folk, Indian classical music, and psychedelic whatever. In fact it is nigh on impossible to categorise.  The original band were scenesters along side the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, and really deserved to have reached the heights of stardom that the others did. The documentary cleverly mixes film of the band back in the day, with contemporary footage of the 2012 lineup of the band playing the same things.

Listening to some of the original recordings, like I am doing as I type, one thing is very noticeable. The band have matured gracefully like a fine wine, and my initial impression is that the sound of the band as they are today is richer and fuller than it was back during the late 1960s.

Something that confused me a little  was an interview with Linda B LaFlamme, about how the couple met back in 1973,  when the credits at the end of the film showed her as the co-author of the signature song White Bird. Peculiarly she also told how she had preferred heavier music at the time and cordially disliked White Bird. This confused me, until I remembered the useful bit of information I had got from the Encyclopaedia of Rock Music all those years ago, and realised that not only had David and Linda, split up back at the end of the 1960s, but that - shades of Henry the 8th I am - he had gone on to marry a second woman called Linda. Confusing huh?

But golly she can sing. The harmonic nuances of their twin voices are extraordinary. To hear them, or better still see them on stage, you can tell quite how much love there is between them. In fact, you can say that about the whole band - they share private glances and smiles on stage, and you can tell that - to use a currently fashionable phrase - there is indeed a lot of love up there on the stage.

The DVD also features cameo appearances by Barry Melton from Country Joe and the Fish and Peter Albin from Big Brother and the Holding Company, and again it is easy to tell how much regard they have for David LaFlamme. He is obviously a man of whom a lot of people are very fond.

One ex bandmate who is referred to in passing, but is not named, and is certainly not in the film is Bobby Beausoleil, David's bandmate from a pre It's a Beautiful Day band called The Orkustra. Bobby joined the Manson Family, was convicted of the unpleasant murder of Bobby Hinman, and has been in prison for over 40 years with little chance of ever being released.

But fascinating as the story is, it is the music that stands up on its own, and which is - of course - the most important thing. And by goodness it is good. It explores realms that are seldome reached within the pop music canon, but - unusually for experimental music - their are great tunes, emotive words, and you can dance to it. Even I could probably dance to it, and I can hardly walk these days. Check them out on spotify, buy this lovely DVD, and go to see them live. I know I shall!

UK TOUR DATES

UK TourAugust 2: Green Hotel, Kinross, Scotland August 3: Tartan Heart Festival, Belladrum Estate, Beauly, Inverness-shire, Scotland August 6: Gloucester August 7: The Chichester Inn, Chichester August 8: The Beaverwood Club, Beaverwood Road, Chislehurst, Kent August 9: Boom Boom Rooms, Borough Sports Ground, Gander Green Lane, Sutton, Surrey, with Alan Clayson August 10: The Cellars At Eastney, 56 Cromwell Rd., Southsea, Hants. August 11: The Wight Rock Bar, The Colonnade, Lind St., Ryde, Isle Of Wight, with Dick Taylor of The Pretty Things & band August 13: The Musician, 34, Clyde Street, Leicester August 14: The Robin 2, 20-28 Mount Pleasant, Bilston, Wolverhampton, West Midlands August 15: Bluefunk R & B Club, The WMC, Park Lane, Poynton,Cheshire August 16: The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire August 17: The Greystones, Sheffield