I was there but could only stay for the first two sets. Alex Maquire's
sextet(not 'quintet' as Jon Newey insisted on referring to it as, although
admittedly it was supposed to be a quartet!)with Fred T Baker on superb fretless
and then a duo set by Sophia Domanchich and Simon Goubert. Both excellent and
was sorry I couldn't stay to hear the others although I did a few days later buy
In Cahoots' "Out of the Blue" as compensation. But I felt I just had to attend
as a mark of support for Hugh. There was a good turnout I'm pleased to say and
finally, one funny thing, I got there early enough to be standing in a short
queue outside the 100 Club in Oxford Street at around 7pm waiting for the doors
to open. When I arrived I asked a couple of young chaps if this was the 'queue
for Hugh' and they looked at me like I was mad. Turned out they were waiting for
a bus! Then I asked a more mature looking bloke the same question and he
smilingly replied in a more friendly way ('well I wouldn't exactly call it a
queue') in the affirmative. Then folks started to approach this guy in front of
me and greet him with 'Hi Brian'. After a while of racking my brains I realised
that this tall-ish, greying and quite dapper in-a-hip-way way bloke was none
other than, yes you've guessed it, Brian Hopper.

Great gig - the bits I saw anyway and I wish Hugh and his family, Aymeric and
all Rattlers and very happy 2009!

Roger F

Prog at the BBC is worth a quick view.

Once you get past the bombast of Emerson Lake and Palmer, up pops Mr. Ratledge
explaining his use of Echoplex. This being followed by the "Six" version of
Softs playing Fanfare/All White.

If this was not enough the 1973 incarnation of Caravan is next with "The Dog,
The Dog, He's at it Again".

Hopefully non-UK rattlers will be able to see these once they get out on
Youtube, Dailymotion, etc.

I hope that everyone has a rattlin' good 2009.

Cheers
Steve

Steve Barker <ssbarker@...> wrote:

>Once you get past the bombast of Emerson Lake and Palmer,
>up pops Mr. Ratledge explaining his use of Echoplex. This
>being followed by the "Six" version of Softs playing
>Fanfare/All White.

I thought the documentary was good too, with contributions from Robert Wyatt,
Richard Coughlan and, of all people, Mont Campbell! Also interviewed were Bill
Bruford, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, Peter Sinfield, Carl Palmer, Arthur Brown,
Gary Brooker, Roger Dean, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins.

Henry

I thought this was a good programme although there have been similar ones on
Prog Rock (an older version was screened last night on BBC 4). Mont Campbell was
poignant in his explanation of why he quit 'the business'. Simply, he received
no artistic or audience recognition for his skill. For Mont's benefit I would
just like to put on record here that I would rather listen to a lifetime of Egg
than a second of ELP. Egg achieved something more than all those bands such as
Genesis and ELP who unwittingly paved the way for the pomp rock of Queen (and as
a reaction to Prog, Punk). They created a lasting musical legacy which is of
just as much interest now as it should have been then (these albums are still
being reissued on CD as we speak, including Egg ones). I also think that the
line of true 'progression' could not have been achieved by following the
self-limiting line of rock music.

So my take on this is that whilst some of the major bands such as Floyd
struggled on, post-'Dark Side of the Moon', producing music which I personally
can't listen to now, there were others who took the - dare I say it? - jazz
route to progression, which, even now, thirty years on, is still a viable music.
Hence guys like Bill Bruford quit Crimson to concentrate on jazz and similarly,
if only for a fleeting moment, so did Phil Collins with Brand X (if only he'd
persevered). But the Canterbury scene did this too. Softs went from out and out
pop with Softs # 1 to total jazz with Soft Machine 6 and beyond (it was voted
top British jazz album in the Melody Maker jazz polls back then). This also goes
for the likes of Phil Miller and Hatfield which via National Health eventually
evolved into In Cahoots.

Perhaps this is because prog noodling is ultimately quite boring except for the
protagonist(s) but can transform into much more satisfying 'noodling' (or
improvising, as is the preferred term) in a jazz context. As far as the hybrid
King Crimson is concerned, they were neither fish nor foul. Fripp's almost
regimental approach was unique. Bill Bruford's anecdotal evidence in saying that
with Yes they had discussions about what went next in the music but with Crimson
there was... nothing, 'Nothing was said', this was absolutely enlightening. He
was right also about the motivation of all these talented proggers. They wanted
to play like Hendrix rather than the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. As Robert Wyatt
said in the programme, 'we had the chance to be rock stars and we blew it'.

A good prog-ramme all round.

Cheers,

Roger F

Just to say I'm so sad to have missed the benefit. Stomach flu made it beyond
impractical but much love to Hugh, his family and friends.

DB

Doug Boyle wrote:

>Just to say I'm so sad to have missed the benefit.
>Stomach flu made it beyond impractical but much love
>to Hugh, his family and friends.

I share the same thoughts. I have to say, though, that seeing a subject line
this week with just the word "Hugh" on it scared me as much as a subject line
saying "Lars".

Michael

Hi everyone

Of all the people interviewed, Mont Campbell was the only one whose name I
didn't recognise. After the programme, I looked him up in Wikipedia, and I'm a
bit confused now.

According to the entry, after Egg he changed his name to Dirk Campbell and now
writes film music. I checked out Dirk Campbell's own web page, and the guy on
the photo looks totally different from the guy on the programme. It doesn't
mention any of his Uriel/Egg adventures, but concentrates solely on his film and
commercial recordings.

Are they one and the same person, or is this just some Wikinonsense?

Vix

[Yes, definitely the same person. I haven't seen the documentary and have never
met Mont/Dirk in person, but evidently he wants to keep these two phases of his
career separate - A.]

I agree with Roger re Egg. I was fortunate to see them play in a church of all
places (ie nave/apse etc, not a church hall) in Redhill, in 1969 --- the vicar
was moving to another parish and his art-student son persuaded him to allow a
gig to be put on, with Dr Strangely Strange and Egg. The light show added lustre
to the stained-glass windows, and the bass man (Mont Campbell?) stood high up in
the pulpit to play!

Yes, definitely the same guy, although I was surprised to see the long hair and
beard which aged him somewhat. I'm surprised he doesn't admit to being in Egg on
his website, as he was happy to contribute to the notes in the Egg book issued
last year, so he's obviously not ashamed of his work with them. I thought both
he and Bruford offered an air of seriousness and intelligence to the program
which along with the Canterbury parts made it a superior offering to the other
prog program shown on Saturday. It was great to hear Egg played at the beginning
of the show, and also to hear Terry Riley's 'Poppy Nogood and the Phantom band'
being played in the background at one point. It must be more than twenty years
since I last heard that, and I was delighted to find you can download the whole
album ('A Rainbow in Curved Air') from Amazon for a mere £1.58!

Alan Terrill

"Alan Terrill" <alanterrill@...> wrote:

"I'm surprised he doesn't admit to being in Egg on his website, as he
was happy to contribute to the notes in the Egg book issued last year,
so he's obviously not ashamed of his work with them. "

It seems, from what Aymeric said in an earlier post, that Campbell is  ok being
"Mont" when the pre 1974 period of his life is up for discussion. But anything
after that he is "Dirk". And he has made a conscious decision to split his life
in that way. I remember a 1990s interview with Ratledge when he said something
like he'd buried or burned his past. In a far more extreme sense, and I hope
this taken in the right way, Wyatt too had issues addressing his pre accident
self I think.

Stuart

[For a while ca. 1973, Mont was known as "Muchsin" (!), for instance when his
wind quartets were performed at Henry Cow's Explorers Club in 1973, pre-"Civil
Surface"... Seems it took him a while to find a "satisfactory" first name...
Early articles also refer to him as "Martin"... Anyway, 'Mont' was short for
"Montgomery-Campbell"... - A.]

Hello Rattlers,

Would like to let you know that Malcolm Mortimore, Gentle Giant's drummer from
"Three Friends", has posted a few short video clips of the recent RANTLE GIANT
gig in Sussex.

Prologue <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dkiDCm0Bec>
Playing The Game <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8D-wRUKMqI>
Boys In The Band <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yVzJkjkXs>
In A Glass House <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuEpQaCcIIQ>
Giant <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM3ssMImw00>
Peel The Paint <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wEVIjfPzAM>
His Last Voyage 1 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQKC1RzK7A>
His Last Voyage 2 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t0PQwh3lKw>

RANTLE GIANT
Gary Green guitar
Malcolm Mortimore drums
Roger Carey bass
Andy Williams guitar
John Donaldson keyboards

All the best
New York based gentle-rantler
Leonardo/MoonJune

Did anyone catch the program on Tubular Bells last night? There was no advance
detail, but this was a program from 1974 which showed a cut down, (25 minutes),
version of Tubular Bells played in the studio by a large group of musicians
drawn from Henry Cow, Gong and Soft Machine. I recognized Mike Ratledge and Karl
Jenkins (Soft Machine), Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlen (Gong), Fred Frith,
John Greaves and Tim Hodgkinson (I think, could only see him in silhouette)
(Henry Cow), plus Mick Taylor (I think!-Rolling Stones), Mike Oldfield himself,
plus another guitarist and two flute players I didn't recognise. It was a bit
like seeing an old school photograph and trying to remember all your old
friends!

Musically it sounds a bit lame now, but it was great to see all those old heroes
together. I was fortunate to see the original performance of this piece at the
South Bank with all these people and Viv Stanshall as well. I recall he read out
the instruments out of synch, so as he announced 'two slightly distorted
guitars' the bells came in. I don't know if he was trying to be amusing or was
just drunk.

Alan Terrill

[This was actually filmed in November 1973. The two flute players were Geoff
Leigh and Jon Field of Jade Warrior, and the other guitarist was Ted Speight...
I think you got all the others correct. Please note that this is available
commercially on the Mike Oldfield "Elements" DVD released a few years ago, so
it's not exactly a recent (re)discovery... - A.]

Gary Green used to play with a band in Chicago called the 'Elvis Brothers'. I
saw them at a local street fest many years ago and had no idea who it was
playing guitar on that stage.

Aymeric wrote:

"For a while ca. 1973, Mont was known as "Muchsin" (!), for instance
when his wind quartets were performed at Henry Cow's Explorers Club in
1973, pre-"Civil Surface"... Seems it took him a while to find
a "satisfactory" first name... Early articles also refer to him
as "Martin"... Anyway, 'Mont' was short for "Montgomery-Campbell"... -
A."


His full name is Hugo Martin Montgomery-Campbell. Before he went to the City of
London school (where he met Stewart, Hillage and co) he went to the same school
as me, although he was before my time by some years. The school publishes a book
every so often saying what its ex pupils are up to. The most recent version of
this book lists Campbell as "deceased 1980" - he looks remarkably well
considering all that...

[Maybe they sent "Mont" an update form which he returned with that mention ? I
wouldn't be so surprised... What was that school you mention btw ? - A.]

Aymeric wrote:

"Maybe they sent "Mont" an update form which he returned with that
mention ? I wouldn't be so surprised... What was that school you
mention btw ? - A."

Felsted School. His time there gets a brief mention in one of the "copious
notes" booklets that accompanied the recent(ish) Egg/Uriel releases.

Yup you could well be right - considering his penchant for alter egos I could
well believe he did return the update form with his current status as
"deceased"!!!

Stuart

While BELLS are the topic, and my old original vinyl is shot, dare anyone
recommend a version, whether the original or later, on cd? It can sound corny
but I love it, and recently watched a dance performance that used BELLS very
effectively.

David K.

[The 2003 re-recording has all the instruments sounding in tune, I personally
think it's quite successful. I haven't kept up to date with the various
remasters of the original, but I believe a "definitive" remaster appeared a few
years ago... As for TBII, III, Millenium etc. - I only know the first, which had
its moments. Not sure I heard the last two - A.]

Hi everyone

This last week has been a real trip back in time for me - my Mum used to really
love Tubular Bells when I was a kid, and on top of the Prog documentary (blame
my boyfriend for getting me into that stuff!) it's been a real treat courtesy of
the BBC.

I was going to ask if anyone knew the line-up for the Mike Oldfield session, but
I see you've already beaten me to the punch. Thanks a lot...

Vix

There have been a number of revisions of the original TB but as I'm no
audiophile, they all sound great to me.

Tubular Bells 2 is a stunner but avoid Tubular Bells 3 like the plague - it's
hideous!!

Andy G.

Here is something for you all.....

There's an mp3 free download for this track on Manzanera's Expression Records
site:

THE UNKNOWN ZONE (Wyatt/Eno/Manzanera)
Phil Manzanera: Guitars
Brian Eno: Chaos drums and synth bass
Robert Wyatt: Keyboards
Yaron Stavi: Double Bass

Engineered and mixed by Jamie Johnson at Gallery Studio, London, October 2006

DOWNLOAD HERE: <http://www.manzanera.com/home/index.html>

Cheers
Frederic

Do you know anything about Robert Wyatt's music for a film by Artur Aristakisjan
called "Mesto na zemle" (aka "A Place On Earth")? I've just read that this
movie's music is by Wyatt; and a lot of webistes confirmed it but nobody told
whether it is original (unreleased) music or just music from some of Robert's
CDs.

Best

Alessandro

For those interested, my review of the Henry Cow 40th Anniversary Box went up
this morning at AAJ (with thanks to Aymeric for his eagle eye with a
surprisingly low number of gaffs to be corrected). For those unaware, it's a
whopping 10-disc box (9CD, 1DVD, broken for financial ease, into two separate
sets but with a bonus if bought in its entirety) that tells the story the
group's few releases in the '70s simply could not.

Here's the review:
<http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=31544>

Best!
John

Hello!

Has anyone downloaded the free "Unknown Zone" from the Phil Manzanera site? The
first couple of times I tried I was only able to get 10 seconds. Finally I was
able to get 4' 46" but it ends abruptly. Is there a slightly longer version that
perhaps fades out nicely?

Thank you
Frederic

I've uploaded the mp3 on this server:
<http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JD0NES8Z>

Enjoy
David

PS: The track is not that good... unfortunately.

Frederic wrote:

>Has anyone downloaded the free "Unknown Zone" from the
>Phil Manzanera site? The first couple of times I tried
>I was only able to get 10 seconds. Finally I was able to
>get 4' 46" but it ends abruptly. Is there a slightly
>longer version that perhaps fades out nicely?

Same thing happened to me. First download was just a few seconds. When I got the
full download it also ended abruptly. But the size of the download was exactly
as stated on the website.

Gary

Let's try with this one:
<https://download.yousendit.com/bVlCSlI5NEhQb0tGa1E9PQ>

Hi Alessandro,

I found snippets of the film at youtube and in one part there was clearly a part
of 'Alifib' listenable. Seems there is no special wyatt composing for this film.

Joe

>PS: The track is not that good... unfortunately.

I quite like it!

- Nick

OK, Rattloids: I'm listening to Jeff Morris Tepper (ex-Captain Beefheart
guitarist)'s "Moth to Mouth" CD and "Out and Down" has a VERY Hugh Hopper-ish
fuzz bass line.

I'd swear it was the Man himself (no, Hugh doesn't actually play on it).

Hello everyone!

First of all, this is going to my entire address book, so apologies for cross-
and misdirected-mailings.

My debut solo album, The Supermarket and the Turncoat, is finally complete and
ready for your ears! I am now selling pre-release CD copies to coincide with
your mailbox in time for the launch date, February 1.

To order directly from me via PayPal, go to my myspace:

<http://www.myspace.com/wyattmosswellington>

Or you can purchase from CD Baby:

<http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mosswellington>

Or within Australia, reply to wyattmw@... for other payment options
(direct deposit). Digital version will be available from iTunes and other
digital stores after February 1.

Or pick up a copy directly from me at the launch, Sunday February 1, 5-9pm at
the Excelsior Hotel, 64 Foveaux St Surry Hills, Sydney. Louise Nutting, Nina
Stamell and Cody Dillon will also be performing, and they're great.

much love to everyone,
Wyatt

About time too Wyatt!!!

- Nick