Captain Beefheart is dead

[belboid]

on my flight home the other day, I was shocked (shocked!) to find that Trout Mask Replica was available to listen to on the in-flight oojamaflipthingy, so listen to it I had to do. And, hopefully, left it cued up so the next person in that seat will get it when they turn the CD on too!

 

[TruXta]

Good man.

 

[danny la rouge]

BUMP _ BEEFHEART DIED LAST YEAR IN 2010!

A year on fromn his death theres going to be a release of the lost Bat Chain Puller album - not sure how thats different from Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) - have to wait and see...

I have my copy in my hand now. I will post a review in due course.

 

[killer b]

the magic band were marvelous last night btw. go see if you can on this tour...

 

[belboid]

I saw them at ATP on sunday, and while I'd agree the band were on fine form, the singer just really annoyed me for some reason from the off. Everything about him seemed too rehearsed and stylised, an impersonation of the Captain, not an interpretation of him. And Rockette Morton was wearing a bleeding jesters hat! You dont need to do anything to make us think you're a wacky dude, Rockette, you played with Beefheart for gawds sake!

 

[killer b]

he was wearing a massive shirt with pages from superman comic printed on it last night.

i thought drumbo did a great job singing. the gig was probably slightly heavier on the blues numbers and not as heavy on the crazed wig-outs as i'd have liked, but it was still fantastic.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Holy shit, look what I just found on youtube.



Get it before his record company does (probably that cunt Branston)

 

[Voley]

Christ! That is one hell of a find, Bernie. I've seen 'Booglarize' off that before but none of the rest of it.

 

[Voley]

he was wearing a massive shirt with pages from superman comic printed on it last night.

i thought drumbo did a great job singing. the gig was probably slightly heavier on the blues numbers and not as heavy on the crazed wig-outs as i'd have liked, but it was still fantastic.

I saw them in Exeter a few nights before that, b. I promised (well insisted / threatened) danny la rouge I'd document it in obsessive detail for him so now I'll do the same for you.
--------------------------------------
They were absolutely fantastic. They played 2x 1 hour sets with a short break in between where they came out and met us. They're gents. Denny, the guitarist, is a particularly friendly chap. I had a good long chat with him about how great 'Owed T'Alex' off 'Bat Chain Puller' is. They have attempted to practice it for this tour, apparently, and it was in his words 'a total disaster'. I hope I didn't come across as too embarrassingly adulatory. I'd celebrated the fact that I was about to see one of the most unique acts in the history of music by taking to strong drink so I may have been more than a little incoherent.

Here's what they did:

Steal Softly Thru Snow
Abba Zaba
Lo Yo Yo Stuff
Diddy Wah Diddy
Smithsonian Institute Blues
When It Blows It's Stacks
Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
Clear Spot
Circumstances
Kandy Korn
Hair Pie
On Tomorrow
Alice in Blunderland
My Human Gets Me Blues
Suction Prints
Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do
Grow Fins
The Floppy Boot Stomp
Click Clack
Electricity
Moonlight On Vermont
Big Eyed Beans From Venus

Highlights for me were some glorious harp playing by John French on 'Grow Fins', a wildly psychedelic 7 or 8 minute version of 'Electricity' and them playing an unbelievably bluesy 'Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do' just because someone asked for it in the interval. I don't think they've played that one live before in this incarnation. 'Big Eyed Beans' brought the house down at the end.

 

[killer b]

sounds like pretty much the same set we saw, i guess (i don't know all the songs you posted, but they the ones i do know were in a similar place in the set).

sorry to tell you this, but my mate who owns the venue ended up facebook friends with john french, and all his fb likes and groups he's in are all savage tea party shit - he was a fan of michele bachmann & glenn beck and all that shit. shame, 'cause he seemed really sound, and the music was awesome.

 

[Voley]

He was pleasant enough to chat to between sets. Ho hum.

 

[ska invita]

...along wiht Maureen Tucker (Velvet U's drummer)...i wonder how many of the great psychedelic era musicains now support the tea party? its an interesting trajectory. Gutted i didnt see them - i dont think they played london did they? seem to remember preston and southampton on the list though...

absolutley loving this video though, thank you - so tight live

 

[ska invita]

which is the guitar player slinking around all over the stage? loving his moves

 

[Voley]

which is the guitar player slinking around all over the stage? loving his moves

I'm not sure. He's either Winged Eel Fingerling or Zoot Horn Rollo.

Either way, his name lives up to his suit.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

.

 

[ska invita]

i got the feeling the german camera crew didnt know what he was saying so didnt know where to point the camera when he was introducing the band!

 

[ska invita]

which is the guitar player slinking around all over the stage? loving his moves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockette_Morton

In the book Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience, guitarist Bill Harkleroad details some of the tensions that arose between Don Van Vliet (best known by his stage name, Captain Beefheart) and members of the band. These tensions led to a split in 1974, when Rockette Morton left to form Mallard with bandmates John French, Bill Harkleroad, John Thomas, and Art Tripp. Following the demise of Mallard, he continued performing in various bands as guitarist and bassist. Always interested in studio performance, he remained active in his own recording studio. From 2003 to 2006 members of The Magic Band regrouped and performed on a world tour. Morton has also released a solo album,
Love Space, in 2003. Of this album he said, "If you enjoy listening to this music even half as much as I enjoyed recording it I'll be happy".

some snips of Love Space here http://www.allmusic.com/album/love-space-mw0000506674 (best leave it rest I suggest)

 

[Voley]

I always find it difficult to tell who's who because I only know what they look like these days. This is a bit of mobile phone footage of the gig I went to. Rockette Morton is the big bloke playing bass immediately stage left of Drumbo:



The person at the front of the stage nodding his immaculately-coiffured head perfectly in time to John French's harp playing with a more than a hint of panache is me. I've changed a bit over the years, too.

 

[killer b]

ooh, the whole of the preston gig is on youtube. this was my favourite.

 

[Voley]

Yeah they played it that way when I saw them too. Really dragged it out, really psychedelic. There were a few times during that gig that I wished I'd been tripping my tits off and that was one of them. First time I saw them John explained this was more like the original version of the song before it got recorded.

 

[killer b]

it was proper intense. how big was the room you saw them in? we had about 160 people packed into a tiny room, which is my prefered gig number these days i think.

 

[Voley]

If I won the lottery I'd follow Matt Groening's example and put my hand in my pocket to get them to tour more often. I fucking love going to see The Magic Band.

 

[ska invita]

youtube/phones cant do justice to live gigs - in my experience just spoils the memory a bit

 

[killer b]

french was saying they can't get any gigs in the US - basically they just get together to tour europe every now and then. bizarre.

 

[Voley]

it was proper intense. how big was the room you saw them in? we had about 160 people packed into a tiny room, which is my prefered gig number these days i think.

Smaller the better as far as I'm concerned. The Phoenix is just a bit bigger than that. Three, four hundred people maybe. Good place to see a band. I watched it basically on the stage. I could hear their monitors over the other speakers.

 

[Voley]

french was saying they can't get any gigs in the US - basically they just get together to tour europe every now and then. bizarre.

That's really really shit.

 

[killer b]

it's probably obama's fault

 

[Voley]

 

[hipipol]

Mr Zoot Horn Rollo, play that long ringing note, and let it float
Loved the man
Only saw them once
But Damn
Men let your wallets flop out
Women, open your purses

 

[Voley]