MICHAEL DES BARRES: Exclusive interview

I like being a journalist. OK my craft has come in for somewhat of a battering in recent years, and I usually don't tend to admit that I once wrote various odds and sods for The News of the World. But I still - on the whole - enjoy what I do, and one of the things that I enjoy most is the fact that I end up talking to such nice people. Last night I email Michael des Barres. As regular readers of this blog will know, yesterday I posted a sneak preview of his upcoming new album; a slinky, funky (and ever-so-slightly-sexy) bluesy number called 'Painkiller'. In the lunchtime post my new MP3 recorder arrived, and I spent much of the day trying to work out how to use it. I emailed Michael asking whether I could talk to him at some point, and - much to my pleasure, (and I have to admit, slightly to my constevrnation) - he emailed me back with his telephone number.

I shooshed Prudence out of my study. She was asleep on the floor and snoring loudly, and I was afraid that if she had stayed, then Michael would have thought that I was suffering from a particularly embarrasing digestive tract disorder. I grabbed a bottle of diabetic pop, plugged in my new MP3 recorder and telephoned him. It had been years since I last did a pop star interview, and I have to admit that I was a little nervous....

MICHAEL: Hi Jonathan
JON: Is that better?
MICHAEL: Yes, much. Now you sound like Anthony Newley where before you sounded like Eno
JON: I'm telephoning from a tiny village in North Devon that no-one has ever heard of. We are in the middle of nowhere, and the telephone lines are not great
MICHAEL: That's absolutely spectacular, I haven't been in Devon in 40 years. I think with Silverhead my first band, during the 70s when it was the de rigeur thing to do to get a cottage in the country and make an album, I think we went down there, but we ran out of coke so fast, we all ran back to London
JON: I think in the little village that I am in no-one has ever heard of coke; they think its that black stuff that comes in bottles
MICHAEL: (laughs) but you can have it with Jack Daniels...

...anyway I am delighted that you have picked up on the song. The whole album is really rough; its a real lineage album. Its not a homage, but its kind of part of my roots; that whole growing up in the mid-60s, going to The Marquee and seeing Zoot Money and Georgie Fame. The whole trajectory of the British Edwardian dandy blues guys. I wanted to make that album, and that's what we've done.

JON: It is interesting that you say that, because I thought when I first heard it that I could hear Zoot Money's fingerprints all over it..

And it was perfectly true. There is something magickal about the hammond organ driven bluesy rock/pop from the mid-1960s. I was only a boy at the time, and discovered it all many years after the event, but I discovered Zoot Money playing on a Kevin Coyne album in the late 1970s and fell in love with the sound. My old friend Tony 'Doc' Shiels, the Irish bluesman, gunslinger, surrealist and wizard also spoke (and speaks) very highly of George Bruno 'Zoot' Money, and the whole English funky blues sound that Money pioneered can be heard in wallages on 'Painkiller'. It was his love of this sound that inspired the band to search for authenticity with the correct keyboards, and a masterful musician - Jebin Bruni, who plays with Fiona Apple - to play them.

Michael spoke of his teenage years in swinging London. Mitch Mitchell, drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience had been a classmate, and together they had seen many of the musical legends of the time. "Did I remember Terry Reid?" he asked. "Well Duh!" I wanted to say, but decided not to. You don't say "well duh!" to someone you have only just met, and whose vocal ability you have admired for yonks. Yes, I told him. I did remember Terry Reid - the amazingly unrecognised singer who apparently turned down the post in the nascent Led Zeppelin that eventually went to Robert Plant in favour of a solo career that went nowhere fast. He is one of the most under-rated singers of his time...

My conversation with Michael was like that. He was obviously supposed to be plugging the forthcoming album, which is called 'Carnaby Street' (fittingly enough for a record which revisits the scenes of Michael's mis-spent youth, but we soon realised that we were two men who still took music seriously, and I just enjoyed listening to him reminiscing about "magickal times", the memory of which are "what this album is all about". He waxed lyrical about the glorious mixture of blues and soul which produced such a rich vein of music over the years; a vein which he is unashamedly mining on the forthcoming album.

He is in the process of taking a reunited Silverhead for some reunion gigs in Japan. In December Michael told Japanese fans:

"I have always felt that Silverhead came alive in Japan. We were a very young band when we arrived. On landing at Tokyo airport we were greeted by car loads of fans who followed us into the city. They gave us such love. We realised that Rock and Roll could bring people together and help celebrate each other. We left Japan a better band. Now we return and will play our hearts out for you...These songs mean as much to us today as they do to you....May you come forever....!!"

But when he returns to America after the gigs, he will be starting real work on promoting the new record which will be out in the summer or autumn.

One of the things that I found particularly refreshing about him was the fact that he still feels passionate about what he does, as - apparently - do his fans. A lot of the people, about 80% he estimates of those who come to see the band, he told me, are young men and women who think that "we are an indie band". You could almost see him grinning as he said that. I told him the true anecdote about how I had played 'Painkiller' to a young lady of 14 who had been working in my office all afternoon, and how she was already talking about getting me to blag her a copy of the album and some tickets to go and see the band if they come to England. This actually appears to be a very real possibility if things go well, and it won't just be young Jessica trying to blag her way onto the guest list. I think her ageing Uncle Jon will be trying to do that as well.

The main emotion behind the album, he says, is "Joy. Its not angry, its not ironic, its just energetic"... "It's just the blues" I interject. "Exactly" he said. The opening track sets out his stall for the album. It starts with the line "I was 19 in 1967. I'm just laying my cards on the table. I'm not being retro, I am not looking backwards, I'm just saying that this is what happened".

"We are very proud of it, and its a great band" he enthused. The cover, by the way, according to Michael "has me bursting out of a Union jack".

He seemed so pleased that I had been so impressed with 'Painkiller'. "Its at a very early stage" he said, and went on to say that I was one of the first people who had heard it. He said that he was particularly impressed with Gonzo Multimedia, because when he met Rob Ayling it was so perfectly obvious that he, like Michael, and like me, was someone who still took music seriously and truly believed that it was important and life affirming. We talked about dogs, and we talked about cake, and scones, and I promised that if he wanted to, next time he is in England he can come down to my tumbledown rural retreat and play with my dog and eat my wife's home-made cake. He sounded rather enthusiastic at that and promised that he would pack his wellies alongside his high heeled boots. And I think that he might actually have meant it.

He was one of the nicest and most charming blokes that I have spoken to in a long time. His level of enthusiasm about 'Carnaby Street' has enthused me to such an extent that I am really looking forward to hearing more of it. Unless I have completely misjudged the situation, Michael des Barres is a perfectly charming, and completely sincere geezer who - blessed with a fine set of vocal chords, and the idee fixe that rock music is a good, noble and spiritually uplifting discipline, who has quite possibly just made one of the great albums of a long and distinguished career.

Bring it on dude.

LINK: Chris Squire and Steve Hackett team up for album

Michael Buckner / Michael Loccisano, Getty Images

Here’s a riddle, of sorts. What’s a “Squackett?” No, it’s not some hybrid bird created in a lab, unless you want to get metaphorical and consider music a bird and a studio a lab. It’s what you get when you cross Yes bassist Chris Squire (who has played on every one of said band’s records) and onetime Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. The duo will release ‘A Life Within a Day’ on May 29 via Esoteric Antenna.

The meeting of progressive minds was born when Squire was working on a solo effort, needed some guitar parts and was put in touch with Hackett. During those sessions, Squackett was born. As it turns out, it’s not all the prog that you could ever want in one fell swoop, as the pair chose to take a simpler, more direct sonic route.

“It was very much about a bunch of pals swapping notes and anecdotes,” Hackett stated in a press release. “I would say if people are looking for uncountable time signatures, in the main that’s not what this album holds. I think the songs are more simple and direct.”

Read on...

HAWKWIND IN THE NEWS

Hawkwind seem to be having somewhat of a renaissance recently. OK, in my mind they never went away; my best friend and often collaborator of the past twenty-five years is a bloke called Graham Inglis who is a massive Hawkwind obsessive. He has a tendency to do things like listen to all his different versions of 'Brainstorm' (both legitimate and bootleg) in chronological order at high volume - a process that took several consecutive evenings of thunderous noise. (As he lives in my spare room, I know this from first hand experience).

Back in the day I saw them live many times, but I blush to admit that although I used to spend every summer in a tent or transit van visiting muddy fields to hear bands of longhairs make whooshing noises on analogue synths, I haven't been to a festival in over twenty years. I am actually quite shocked to admit that the last time I saw Hawkwind was at the Treworgey Tree Fayre in 1989. But Graham has kept me up to date with their various activities, and now that I am in the enviable position of writing about rock music each day once again, it is nice to do things like this: post a list of links to today's Hawkwind stories (at least the ones that don't involve bootlegs) extracted from those jolly nice people at Google News Alerts:

Hawkwind - Onward [review of forthcoming album]

I saw Hawkwind live sometime in the late 90s. It was in the Wolverhampton Civic Hall and it must have been all of 20 people in the audience. They came out looking like space pirates on the run, played like their lives depended on it and left us speechless.

It doesn’t pay to underestimate Hawkwind.

In the past few years, they seem to be undergoing a renessance of sorts. I ‘m not sure why exactly. Perhaps it’s the younger generation of prog, stoner, metal and electro fans who realised that much of the psychedelic soudscapes of their music originated with this band. Perhaps it’s just the fact that they ‘ve been doing this for so long, that they have become British Institutions. Unfortunately their discography is a sprawling mess, full of countless live albums, bootlegs and collections and it’s hard for the newbie to get into them.

http://www.crowsnbones.com/2012/03/hawkwind-onward/

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[Another review of forthcoming album "Onward"]

More than four decades since the release of their eponymous debut, rock luminaries Hawkwind are still churning out albums with pleasing frequency. Many bands of this vintage get to a point where they tour constantly doing a greatest hits set and do little to challenge themselves and rarely issue new material.

Those well-established bands that do still produce new albums on a regular basis often fail to maintain the quality of yore and with numerous line-up changes and only Dave Brock surviving to this day from the original band, one doesn’t necessarily expect greatness from them in 2012.
Happily though, there is plenty of life left in these old space dogs.

http://www.thisisnotascene.com/2012/hawkwind-onward/

There is also a peculiar piece of writing entitled: Would Jesus go to a Hawkwind Concert?

I am massively enjoying this. Thank you Rob.

CHRIS THOMPSON: Smashing CD/DVD Set

As you may have gathered from my inky fingered scribblings here on the Gonzo Blog, le Grand Fromage de Gonzo himself paid us a visit the other day. I know that it is nothing to do with our twenty five year friendship during which we have been cheerfully rude to each other continuously, but more to do with the fact that he likes my wife's sponge cake!

However when he was down he gave me this picture. "It's me with Chris Thompson, dude" he said (or something to that effect).

"Err" I said (not liking to admit my ignorance in front of a man who will do his best to exploit any character flaws that he may find in me, and not remembering the name of arguably the greatest singer that Manfred Mann's Earth Band ever had is definitely a character flaw.

I tried to make light of it, and gloss over the dreadful lapse in my music history savvy, but Herr Grossen Cheesenmeister saw his advantage and made my life miserable for at least three minutes until the subject moved on, and he started making my life miserable over something else. "Its a great album, man" he said to me (or at least I think thats what he said but his mouth was full of cake at the time and Prudence my soppy old bulldog/boxer bitch was trying to climb up onto his knee). I have to agree, It is a great album, and included with the pacvkage is this insightful interview by my predecessor Jon Kirkman..

RATHER COOL: A 13 year old boy plays 'Trilogy' by ELP

SOME KING CRIMSON RELATED LINKS FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT

'Starless', originally 'Starless and Bible Black', should have been the title track of the album of that name that King Crimson unleashed onto the world in 1974. However, it was not until later that same year, with the release of their seminal album, Red (1974), that the song appeared with a shortened title.

http://grownupbackwards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/king-crimson.html

This sedated music is perfect for a somber, gray morning such as this. Despite the sleepy overall atmosphere, morphing from one hypnotic state to another, this is an incredibly engaging album. Mel Collins is indispensable, and the vocals of Jakko M Jakszyk fit beautifully. In a word, for those who like the King Crimson song "Eyes Wide Open," they too shall like this.
"A Scarcity of Miracles" Airy, gloomy textures mist through and around until at last they take shape, donning the apparel of foggy, calm jazz rock. The final two minutes, from which the title of the album is drawn, is brilliantly crafted. I daresay that this is one of the greatest pieces of music in which Robert Fripp has ever been involved.

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=701749

33 years after their last performance together in W. Europe, the two progressive-rock legends and founding members of UK, Eddie Jobson and John Wetton, reunite to perform some of their classic material from UK and King Crimson. They will be joined by Austrian guitar virtuoso Alex Machacek and British drum master Gary Husband.

http://underthebridge.co.uk/events/listings/uk/

LINK: Blogcritics on Trevor Rabin's new album

It's been said that writing about music is a bit like dancing about architecture. When you're talking about one of the most accomplished musicians and composers working today, this observation is something of an understatement. When discussing an artistic and challenging achievement like Trevor Rabin's Jacaranda, a writer really has to strain for on-target adjectives and terms to describe this richly varied and multi-dimensional musical soundscape.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-Review-Trevor-Rabin-Jacaranda-3448871.php#ixzz1r71EUvSw

Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online

Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online

by Joel Rose National Public Radio March 28, 2012

Folklorist Alan Lomax spent his career documenting folk music traditions from around the
world. Now thousands of the songs and interviews he recorded are available for free online, many for the first time. It's part of what Lomax envisioned for the collection — long before the age of the Internet.

http://research.culturalequity.org
http://research.culturalequity.org/home-audio.jsp

Lomax recorded a staggering amount of folk music. He worked from the 1930s to the '90s, and
traveled from the Deep South to the mountains of West Virginia, all the way to Europe, the
Caribbean and Asia. When it came time to bring all of those hours of sound into the digital era,
the people in charge of the Lomax archive weren't quite sure how to tackle the problem.

"We err on the side of doing the maximum amount possible," says Don Fleming, executive director of the Association for Cultural Equity, the nonprofit organization Lomax founded in New York in the '80s. Fleming and a small staff made up mostly of volunteers have digitized and posted some 17,000 sound recordings.

"For the first time, everything that we've digitized of Alan's field recording trips are online, on our website," says Fleming. "It's every take, all the way through. False takes, interviews, music."

"Alan would have been thrilled to death. He would've just been so excited," says Anna Lomax
Wood, Lomax's daughter and president of the Association for Cultural Equity. "He would try
everything. Alan was a person who looked to all the gambits you could. But the goal was always the same."

Throughout his career, Lomax was always using the latest technology to record folk music in the
field and then share it with anyone who was interested. When he started working with his
father, John Lomax, in the '30s, that meant recording on metal cylinders. Later, Alan Lomax
hauled giant tape recorders powered by car batteries out to backwoods shacks and remote villages.

Lomax wrote and hosted radio and TV shows, and he spent the last 20 years of his career
experimenting with computers to create something he called the Global Jukebox. He had big plans for the project. In a 1991 interview with CBS, he said, "The modern computer with all its various gadgets and wonderful electronic facilities now makes it possible to preserve and reinvigorate all the cultural richness of mankind."

He imagined a tool that would integrate thousands of sound recordings, films, videotapes and
photographs made by himself and others. He hoped the Global Jukebox would make it easy to compare music across different cultures and continents using a complex analytical system he devised — kind of like Pandora for grad students. But the basic idea was simple: Make it all available to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Lomax was forced to stop working when his health declined in the '90s, and he left the Global
Jukebox unfinished. Now that his archives are online, the organization he founded is turning its attention to that job. The Association for Cultural Equity is housed in a rundown building near the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan. Most of Lomax's original recordings and notes are now stored at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. But Fleming says the New York offices still exude the DIY vibe they had when Lomax was working there — right down to the collection of castoff chairs and desks, none of which seem to match.

"There was never any money in it for Alan," says Fleming. "Alan scraped by the whole time, and left with no money. He did it out of the passion he had for it, and found ways to fund projects that were closest to his heart." Money is still tight. But that never stopped Alan Lomax, and it hasn't deterred Anna Lomax Wood, either.

"He believed that all cultures should be looked at on an even playing field," she says. "Not that
they're all alike. But they should be given the same dignity, or they had the same dignity and worth as any other." Almost 10 years after his death, his heirs are still trying to make his vision a reality — one recording at a time.

Scott Peterson

MARTIN STEPHENSON IN THE JARROW GAZETTE: Local boy makes good

http://www.jarrowandhebburngazette.com/news/daintees-set-to-take-out-a-boat-to-bolivia-1-4414807

ONE of the North East’s best-known bands of the 1980s are set to embark on their first tour for 20 years, playing a classic album.

Martin Stephenson with The Daintees have announced a UK tour performing their acclaimed and most celebrated album, Boat To Bolivia, in its entirety, 26 years after its release.
The County Durham singer-songwriter has an impressive reputation for hearty live shows.
This tour follows the success of when Martin and The Daintees performed the album at two sold-out shows at London’s Jazz Café three years ago.

It begins at The Sage Gateshead on Saturday, and tickets, priced £19.50, are still available from 443 4661.

Stephenson’s early love of literature and music led to the formation of the first Daintees line-up in his early teens.

After becoming something of a busking sensation, Newcastle record label Kitchenware signed the band and sent them into the studio.

After two singles, including 1982’s Roll On Summertime, they began work on their debut album.
Boat To Bolivia was released in 1986, and was praised by critics, including the NME, which said it “builds bridges between love and hate, between cradle and grave, between folk and pop, between the past and present”.

Read on...

MEMORIES OF JON ANDERSON IN NEWCASTLE 1980

Jon had just left Yes for a solo career. He had been replaced in Yes by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles, which is a story for another day’s blog. I remember this show well. Marie came along with me and we had tickets near the front, sitting right in front of Jon. I don’t think there was a support act. Jon’ s solo material was very impressive and his voice as strong and beautiful as ever..

Read on...

MICHAEL DES BARRES - An exclusive sneak look at the next album

I have always liked Michael des Barres. Back in the mid 1980s when I was still a student and dating the girl who was to become my first wife, I heard a band called The Power Station. Alison (my first wife-to-be) was a massive fan of Duran Duran and so being as OCD as I am, I bought loads of Duran Duran rarities and spin-off records for her. One of them was the aforementioned debit LP from The Power Station. Its vocals were by Robert Palmer, a dude whom I always admired, and I was disappointed when I discovered that he didn't want to play live and so left the band after the first album but before they had started touring.

One day we were reading the music press and my future ex-wife said: "Oooh, they've replaced Robert Palmer with some bloke called Michael des Barres".

"Who the hell is he?" I grunted bad temperedly, but I checked him out and soon became a fan. Over the years I have got hold of stuff that he did with his previous bands, Silverhead and Detective. I also got mildly OCD about Led Zeppelin at around that time and as Detective had been signed to Swansong this was an added bonus. Over the years I have heard various bits and bobs that Lord des Barres (yes, he is a member of the British peerage) has done, and I have always been impressed.

This morning I woke up feeling dreadful. Bipolar and diabetes are not a good mix, and I have not been a well man for years, but this morning I was feeling particularly yucky. My sprits were lifted, however, by an email from the big cheese himslf. It contained an MP3 of a new song by des Barres, and a picture.

"This is jolly good" I typed back. "Tell me more".

"Well, its a sneak preview of a track from the forthcoming album 'Carnaby Street' which we are putting out in the late summer or fall" he replied.

I remonstrated him for not using the Queen's English. "It is autumn, dear boy", I wrote, but asked whether I could post the aforementioned sneak preview onto the blog.

"Go for it" he replied.

So I did.

MICHAEL DES BARRES UPDATE

OK, this is all rather complicated. It began this morning with an email from le grande fromage himself. Rob sent me a sneak preview of Michael Des Marres' new album, and boy is it good, but before we get to that, let me take you back to February via a story on Michael's website...

The Michael Des Barres Band played a special showcase gig at The Alley Rehearsal Studio in North Hollywood on February 3rd.

In attendance was Rob Ayling from UK-based label Gonzo Multimedia. The label is hoping to release the band's debut album sometime later this year, as stated in a news story on Gonzo Multimedia's:

"Michael Des Barres recently played a special showcase for Gonzo MD Rob Ayling in front of a specially invited audience at Little Feat's rehearsal facillity in North Hollywood. Michael performed new songs which will form the basis of a new studio album which will be released later in 2012. Rob Ayling was also discussing with Michael the possibility of other archive projects with Michael which are also looking to see the light of day later in 2012 and into 2013."

"I am so happy to be allied with this inventive and honest company... We are going to have so much fun together...and so are you!!", Michael wrote in a comment on Facebook.

A selection of photos from the showcase can be seen on photographer Heather Harris' blog.

Michael's episode of the FOX TV-show The Finder, originally scheduled to air in March, will now air on April 22nd instead.

FOX has decided to have a one-month break in the first season, and will also move the show from Thursdays to Fridays. The remaining episodes of season one start airing on April 6th.

More in the next posting...

SPARKS - Talent is an asset

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Omnibus Press; 2nd edition edition
(15 Feb 2012)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1780381506
ISBN-13: 978-1780381503
Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 14.2 x 3 cm

It is always interesting, as far as I am concerned, when I get a biography of someone that I know absolutely nothing about. My knowledge of Sparks pretty well begins and ends in the summer and autumn of 1974, when I bought precisely one album and one single, and about thirty years later when I downloaded L'il Beethoven.

But their well crafted arty oddnes has always rather intrigued me. In fact, as I said to Rob Ayling yesterday, they are such an odd band that I am surprised that they never recorded for Gonzo.

So I sat down and read the book from cover to cover in a couple of sittings, and - yes - it is well written, and gives all the times, the dates, and the personell changes. This is pretty good, as far as it goes, becuause this particular rock historian has now got an invaluable new book for his library.

But in another way it is a crashing disappointment, because I wanted a book which let me into the peculiar world of the Mael Brothers. I want to get inside their heads, and find out intimate glimpses of their thought processes. But that, this book singularly fails to do? But is it a failure? Not at all.

The one thing that comes over above all others in this excellent book is that only two people inhabit Planet Mael, and that no-one else ever has, or ever will, be granted any degree of access there. To say that Ron and Russell are private people is a ridiculous understatement - I have been reading rock biographies for forty years, and writing about them for thirty. I have never come across anyone who guarded their privacy as diligently as these two. So as the book that I want to read will never be written (unless one of the two principals decides to write an autobiography) this is a pretty good substitute.

Owain Roberts (Reposted from the IONA Newsletter)

Rachel and Matt Cohen from the band ‘The Reasoning’ urgently need our help. On 10th March, Owain Roberts, their good friend and the guitarist in their band, disappeared in the South Wales area, whilst out on a walk.

He has not been seen since and obviously the band and his family are extremely concerned for his safety. No-one has any idea where he is. Left is a small copy of the poster the police have put together, which can be downloaded from the Facebook page Rach and Matt have set up. There are also more photos of Owain on there. If you think you may have seen him, please make contact via their Facebook page, Freefone 0800 700 740 or email messagehome@missingpeople.org.uk

He may have had his passport with him. For more info visit:

www.missingpeople.org.uk/owainroberts
www.facebook.com/findowainroberts

MERRELL FANKHAUSER: Psychedelic Dreams

Rick Wakeman Tops Crystal Palace Concert

Hawkwind and Focus also due to play

The Crystal Palace Garden Party takes place on 23-24 June and Rick will play on the first night.

Hawkwind, Focus, The Strawbs and Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash also play on Saturday 23 June while Sunday 24 June is the Jubilee Proms with the London Gala Symphony Orchestra.

More info at www.crystalpalacegardenparty.com

THE BEST OF MERRELL FANKHAUSER

London, UK – Music collectors worldwide rejoice! Legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist Merrell Fankhauser, who has led one of the most diverse careers in music, has released for the first time a new compilation 'The Best Of' two-CD set on UK's Gonzo MultiMedia. Featuring vintage tracks, hard to find gems and unreleased material, Merrell Fankhauser's 'The Best Of' is sure to please the most avid fan. Merrell Fankhauser is considered one of the main innovators of surf music and psychedelic folk rock, and is widely known as the leader of the instrumental group The Impacts who had the international hit “Wipeout”. His travels from Hollywood to his 15 year jungle experience on the island of Maui have been documented in numerous music books and magazines in the US and Europe. Merrell has gained legendary international status throughout the field of rock music; his credits include over 300 songs published and released.

“Merrell Fankhuaser 'The Best Of' is my first retrospective, a 2-CD set with songs from 1963 to now. It was a difficult task to pick a group of songs from nearly forty albums – I found a few unreleased gems along the way.” - Merrell Fankhuaser

Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' features tracks spanning the majority of the music legend's extraordinary career; featuring Merrell And The Exiles (1963-64), Fapardokly (1966), Merrell And HMS Bounty (1968), MU (1971-74), and solo (1976-2011) including several unreleased recordings. Many tracks included on this compilation are hard to find, highly sought after, collector's items that have been out of print for many years, making Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' the definitive collection.

Merrell Fankhauser has presented a number of television programs over the years including 'California Music', 'Route 66 TV Live', and in 2001 he began hosting a music show called 'Tiki Lounge' that airs on the California Central Coast, Southern California, Hawaii and parts of the East Coast. 'The Best Of The Tiki Lounge' volumes 1&2 DVDs feature highlights from Merrell's cable TV show and is also available now on Gonzo MultiMedia UK.

To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' two-cd set: http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15291/MERRELL_FANKHAUSER-The_Best_Of.html

To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'Best Of Tiki Lounge' DVDs: www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15360

Visit the official Merrell Fankhauser website at www.merrellfankhauser.com

HAWKWIND: How weird is that?

As most readers may have gathered by now, I am a Fortean researcher as well as a rock music historian, and the older I get, the more I find that the universe seems to operate by its own peculiar logick that has very little to do with what we experience as consensus reality. Phenomena happen in waves, as do people's enthusiasms. For example, tofday, Google News Alerts flagged up two totally different stories relating to Hawkwind's 1975 'Warrior on the edge of Time' album. How weird is that?

Hawkwind -1975 - Warrior at the Edge of Time
Quality: 5 out of 5

Trip-O-Meter: 4.75 out of 5

I'd put this album up as the moment when Hawkwind were directly bathed by the cosmic rays of the celestial one-mind. Y'know, we need a good sci-fi way to call this their best album. Everything we need for prime Hawkwind is present and accounted for. Long-winded, psychedelic heavy metal anthems? Check. Weird, rambling Michael Moorcock spoken interludes? Check. Insane 70's analog synthesizers screamin? Check. Lemmy? Check. Yeah, in many ways Hawkwind was (or is, really) the real life Spinal Tap, but that equates to nothing but awesome on this platter.

Read on...

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This album was Hawkwind’s most polished at the time, and one that would signal the abrupt end of the group’s tenure on UA, which was a pity. But this sixth and final album (discounting the contract-fulfilling, cross-faded “Roadhawks” compilation) was where Hawkwind’s initial burst of space-metal punk blur-outs joined at the hips with druggie busking would be in full force for the final time as pan-galactic mystery tunes are interspersed between nocturnal instrumental bridges. Lead guitarist Dave Brock was on a total songwriting high as “Warrior” held three of his stupendous psychedelic traumas in the shape of both sides’ respective openers: “Assault And Battery”/“Golden Void” on side one and “Magnu” on side two.

Read on

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And from a different corner of the Internet....

I had a friend who was almost as fanatical about Hawkwind as I am. That friend is no longer with us having passed away a week ago today. This post is for him. I’m thinking about you buddy & hope you’ll keep jamming the space rock wherever you are...

JUDGE SMITH: They love him in Israel

JUDGE SMITH - Orfeas Gonzo 2012

http://dmme.net/reviews/reviews49.html#wally An ancient Greek hero as a Wembley-straddling guitar hero: a VAN DER GRAAF originator twists the myth with much verve and imagination. Lurking in Peter Hammill's shadow, Judge Smith is no less adept with a word and a tune, a string of albums and stage productions under his belt, so his "songstories" gained a certain following which is bound to grow after this, the British veteran's third one. To see Orpheus in the modern spotlight is, perhaps, not that original an idea but to project a dilemma of an artist, who has to deliver his crowd-pleasing money-making hits while longing for creation of something, on the famous "to hell and back" anabasis - where a glance behind one's shoulder means losing the Muse - is interesting move, indeed. That's all theory, yet Smith shaped it in practice as a rock opera, a tag that Judge's quite unwilling to apply, even though one can see similarities between his protagonist being unwell and staying at the hotel instead of playing a big festival and Pink in "The Wall", but there's more experimentation in the George Orfeas near-death experience. Great librettist as he is, Smith makes unnoticed the absence of rhymes on most of the songs as well as the melodies and recital unison, a result of speech transformation into music so gripping feel the story's peripeties and so strong is delivery - in a broad variety of genres - which involves Lene Lovich plus, in instrumental compartment, another VDGG alumnus David Jackson on brass and guitarist John Ellis, formerly with THE VIBRATORS and THE STRANGLERS. Of course, idiosyncrasy reigns o'er the proceedings, but it's of a tasty kind with Judge as an arresting rhapsode backed by a fantastic band who bend "Seven Yard Promenade" into a classic sax-oiled rhythm-and-blues piece in Act One and don a death metal group masks in dry metal of Act Two's "Carpet Of Bones", a thematic relative of "Carpet Crawlers", and "Tear Him Asunder" from Act Three. There's even a power ballad here, "Orphic Lullaby", whereas "Orfeas' Audition" rides an orchestra-drench twang. Less seriously, "Wolfman George" parodies a famous riff in swinging fashion of a Zappa canon, "In-Flight Movie" comes on in a disco inferno form, and "The Crab Nebula" glides on lounge electronica - all organic, even the Mediterranean fusion and rap of "Don't Deafen Me, Persephone" or theatricality of Smith and Lovich duets in "Orfeas and Eurydice". An immersive tale that's never boring and bearing a happy end - not to everyone's taste yet daring in its scope and fun to listen to - "Orfeas" might be Judge's best work yet. ****

WALLY/JACKSON WEBBER: Eulogistic reviews from Israel

WALLY - Montpellier Gonzo 2012

http://dmme.net/reviews/reviews49.html#wally More than three decades on, the Harrogate moon rises again. It's like a heady moonshine has never been away. When WALLY fizzled out in the late '70s, nobody paid much attention and lamented the demise of a band who brewed the impossible alchemic concoction of English prog and West Coast country rock. Remembered mostly for being produced by "Whispering" Bob Harris and Rick Wakeman, their two albums became cult items nevertheless, so the group's 2009 return was met with much acclaim, even though nobody hoped for another studio work. Yet here it is - some completely new compositions, some based on the halcyon days' demos, no line drawn between them - and nostalgia trip "Montpellier" ain't, even though "Sister Moon", which connects with the ensemble's cover sign, ripples with silvery celestial sadness. Still, featuring five original WALLY members, WALLY sound surprisingly fresh, while deeply rooted in their own tradition. Thus, "Thrill Is Gone" rocks in a modern Americana way, homespun and calling to chug along, but once the birds' chirp gives way to majestic piano chords in "Sailor", a panoramic view unfurls before one's mind eye to float solemnly on Paul Middleton's and Frank Mizen's steel guitars and Nick Glennie-Smith's smooth organ before the blissful vocal harmonies strike in full force and riffs make the picture bright and clear. The same instrumental combination lights the heart-gripping velvet of "In The Night", a power ballad with the strongest pop hooks on offer - female backing, Roy Webber's warm voice and Will Jackson's transparent guitars reach for heaven on this one - and "She Said" might challenge Neil Young for troubled textural sensuality. Significantly, both songs are new, previously recorded for a Jackson Webber album so, after a long, slow, violin-oiled yet optimistic coda of "Giving" shimmering with magic, there's a longing for more music from the veterans. ****2/3

JACKSON WEBBER - What It Is Gonzo 2012

A logical and tuneful union of two stalwarts of British progressive folk scene - a perfect trip for a snug and bubbly journey down memory lane. Roy Webber and Will Jackson have too much in common not to feel the mutual gravitation, even though the former quit music in the late '70s when his band WALLY folded and the latter has been playing in public all of his life, most notably in MAGNA CARTA. Once Webber, who decided to write again, booked into Jackson's studio a powerful chord was struck, its repercussions resounding to this day: having recorded the twelve tracks in 2006, three years later the pair ended up in the reformed WALLY whose new album, "Montpellier", includes two songs from "What It Is" cut anew. Here, the sparse, ghostly "In The Night" with its exquisite six-string lace and the piano-driven "She Said" sound different, their acoustic texture more palpably delicate as Will's silky guitars wrap around Roy's mellifluous voice that grabs your attention right from the arresting chorus of mandolin-adorned opener "Falling Down" and lets go only when the bitter-sweet ring of "On Your Own Way" fades away. Yet for all the gentle flow there are rolling and rollicking pieces in a country vein that'll quicken the listeners pulse: although the reckless rumble of "Shame On You" comes too close to His Bobness' pastiche to set an irony barrier straight, "Another Time" rides the organ lick in the most rocking way THE BAND would have liked, and steel sliders of "Heartbreaker" might make Tom Petty green with envy. A shimmering celebration of simple joys of life peaks in "All These Times", so it's impossible not to relate to such a happy dozen - that's what it is in the end of the day. ***4/5

YES: Roundabout

From the Gonzo Multimedia DVD Union: Live

WALLY: A very Weird Review

This is a particularly peculiar review of the Wally album. The bloke who wrote it seems to like the album well enough, but has totally missed the point on several salient points apertaining to the band and their career. For example, since when has Harrogate been in the United States?

Wally – Montpellier

Review by: Guillermo Urdapilleta

Year: 2010
Produced by: Wally
Label: Wally Music




Musicians:
Roy Webber: vocals and guitars
Frank Mizen: bass and pedal steel
Will Jackson: guitars and keyboards
Paul Middleton: steel guitar and bass
Pete Sage: electric violin and bass
Roger Narraway: drums and percussion
Nick Glennie-Smith: keyboards and vocals


Tracks:
1. Sailor (7:43)
2. Sister Moon (6:01)
3. Thrill Is Gone (6:02)
4. Surfing (7:17)
5. In The Night (6:06)
6. Human (6:31)
7. She Said (7:15)
8. Giving (8:24)

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Wally is a band from the United States who had released a couple of albums in the seventies. After a long gap, they came back with new material in 2009, and in 2010 released this album entitled “Montpellier”, which consists of eight songs that make a total time of 54 minutes. The songs duration range from 6 to 8 minutes each.

The album kicks off with “Sailor”, a track with a great atmosphere that let us imagine the trip of precisely, a sailor. The first introductory minute is interesting, with environmental landscape. Later the voice enters and creates with piano a delicate and ballad-like sound which later is progressing and creating a kind of soft neo-prog sound, very light, if you ask me. A couple of minutes later it changes and the rock element is much more evident here, with also an extra amount of energy and a more interesting sound.

“Sister Moon” starts again with the environment sound, like being in the ocean. Then just like in the previous track, a soft, charming and ballad-like song starts.. Later it progresses and adds new elements that give it the entrance to the progressive rock realm, to its lightest side, actually. The lyrics are cool and in moments easy to sing. After four minutes there is a good guitar riff which is greatly accompanied by the other instruments.

“Thrill’s Gone” has a very 80s sound, reminding me of some hard rock bands. The song is pretty catchy, with nice keyboards and a great implement of female vocals as back. A guitar riff comes later, but the rhythm and the structure are the same all the time. Nice if you want to move your body for some minutes. “Surfing” has a nice introductory minute with organ and soft vocals; later drums and a “tick-tock” sang appear and the song begin to build up a new structure. After two minutes it explodes and becomes rockier and more emotional due to the vocals, but also to the higher volume of the instruments. I cannot help but remembering Dire Straits here (and actually in previous tracks also), they have a very alike flavor. Later there is a brief but worth mentioning instrumental part where a delicious violin is implemented. Then the song returns to its original structure and finishes like that.

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MIMI PAGE: Another cool podcast

The Great Unknowns Presents: Breathe Me In, Ep 145

Mixed Media

Music

2012-03-08 17:47:00

This week, I wrote a review about Mimi Page. In this week's episode, we personally selected music that would compliment each song from one to the next. Not only do we have music from Mimi Page's brand new CD, Breathe Me In, we also have unreleased music by Max and the Moon. For nearly a year, Max and the Moon has been in hiatus from performing, but not on hiatus from creating music. In ...

MARTIN STEPHENSON: Boy to man (California Star)

A sad tale of a young child who ask the great spirit to guide him on his lifepath away from harming another soul.

http://www.martinstephenson.me.uk/Site/Podcast/Entries/2012/1/12_Boy_to_man_(California_Star).html

In the first verse he is two years old and makes the request "I hope I never have to kill a man."

In the 2nd verse he is 17 and feels the euphoria of life, discovers poetry, love and song; in this verse he is "sure he’ll never have to kill a man."

3rd verse sees political climate change. He is 20 and trains as a Partisan. Still he "hopes he’ll never have to kill a man."

Final verse he comes to a clearing in a wood, sees a young enemy soldier resting 'neath a tree, they have a stand-off and in the moment the enemy soldier is shot, the young man runs to his brother in war and comforts him. On his brother's dying breath he whispers "Im glad I never had to kill a man."

So this song could be a curse, a dream, a fear.