I have just attempted to access my guestbook and it appears to be no more. I have no idea what the people hosting it are playing at but they have deleted the entire contents. If anyone has this page saved on their hard drive, which you will have if you have been there recently, please e-mail the file to me as I have lost the whole lot and would like to keep hold of it. It contains messages going right back to the early days of this site and it would be a terrible shame to lose it completely. Many thanks.

New up today is Ibex, a painting in the 1986 Collection which was sent to me by Detlef Juergens.

No real update for today, just an appeal for donations. I am finding it increasingly hard to cover the costs of this site, especially now that the phone bill has come in. This is a temporary problem after a summer of earning far too little money leaving me literally pennyless until the grant comes through in just over a month's time. If any of you happen to have some spare cash lying around and are able to help out with a donation to put towards the cost, then I would be extremely grateful.

Drop me a line if you are able to help out and I will ensure that you get good value for money from this site. I do not want to start charging for access, and I guarrantee that this will never happen - most of the material on this site is not mine to charge for. Nor do I wish to feature any more advertising than there already is. It seems to me that an appeal for donations is possibly a good solution.

Many thanks for your support. Proper update tomorrow.

Following the heavy plug I made yesterday for The Wire, I was very pleased to notice that they had done the same for The Radar Station. In this month's copy they featured The Radar Station as one of their recommended web-sites. See what they wrote about us here. If any of you have seen other mentions of The Radar Station in any newspapers or magazines, please do let me know.

I've added four pictures to Run Paint Run Run which were previously missing. There's The Gray Twist and White Crepe Boat both in the 1988 Collection, Tint Blush Coo in the 1990 Collection, and Globe and Brown Light in the 1991 Collection.

The highlight of today's addition's is undoubtedly the classic David Letterman interview with Don van Vliet from 1982, available to download in streaming audio. Find it in ZigZag Wanderer with other biographical material.

I have just tested the streaming audio out and I'm afraid that you might have to be patient with it for the time being. It took around 30 seconds to buffer, and then lost itself completely after about one minute. If this happens to you, just try again at a less busy time.

Finally, the Electric Poetry show is complete, I hope you enjoy it.

Four more Electric Poetry tunes up for you today, which means that there are only three left which I'm expecting to have up tomorrow. I have also added a review for the original Bat Chain Puller to the review section, The Floppy Boot Stomp, in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. This is taken from this month's The Wire. It is part of an article featuring The Wire's choice of the 100 records that should have set the world on fire, but, for whatever reason, didn't. I have also added a link to The Wire's excellent web-site which I recommend that you check out. Find it at http://www.dfuse.com/the-wire

The preparations for The Radar Station's radio show are still in progress. At last I have settled on a name - The Tromblown Orchestra - hopefully the first show isn't too far away. As ever, I'll keep you informed.

Hello all, welcome back to a refreshed and invigorated Radar Station following my week's holiday in Snowdonia. It wasn't your typical relaxing break as we were heavily rained upon and battered by the wind, suffering from leaky tents and broken tent poles, though very enjoyable none the less. There are few things quite so pleasing as managing to get a fire going in a bitter wind and pouring rain, although lazing in the sunshine with nothing much to worry about does have the edge. A roof and a carpet have seldom been so welcome.

I have a few new items for you today, there are a clutch of new tunes up on the Electric Poetry download page, and a new piece in Low Yo Yo Stuff from David Ramsey entitled Homage To The Mirror Man. I have also added a nifty suggestions form on the main page for anyone who would like to make comments, criticisms, suggestions or even donations for The Radar Station.

Some exciting news, which you have possibly already read about at Home Page Replica or Electricity is the arrival of Bill Harkleroad's new autobiographical book entitled Lunar Notes. This will be available in stores from 1st September, and I'm told that a bundle of autographed copies are available to us dedicated collectors. Contact Bill directly on zhr@teleport.com with enquiries about getting an autographed copy. Please do be patient with him, he is currently on holiday so don't expect a reply for a couple of weeks.

A few more for the Electric Poetry set which I'm sure will bring smiles to your faces. I've also added a new update to the Beefbox Info page which is the 'official' blurb about the box set which I am including in the Revenant site which I am currently working on. The news about this release is getting better day by day.

I'll be getting a few more Electric Poetry tunes up tomorrow as well, and then there will be no updates for a week as I'm going on a cheapo holiday camping in Wales, in Snowdonia. I'll get through your mail, serve up the rest of Electric Poetry, and get out a few other bits and pieces which I have been sitting on for far too long when I get back.

I've added the line-up information to the Electric Poetry download page, many thanks to Electric Theo for this information, and also for correcting me on the town - this gig took place in Amsterdam, not Rotterdam. Also up is the second helping from this show, Safe As Milk.

You have probably already noticed the new look intro page, I hope you like it. The last one had been with us for far too long and had certainly outstayed its welcome.

New up today is the first tune from a 1980 Magic Band show in Rotterdam, from the vinyl boot 'Electric Poetry' which was recently sent to me by David Naughton. The sound quality is much better than you will be used to around here (at The Radar Station, NOT Filtered.. where sound quality is stunning and well worth the download times), so expect to wait a little longer than usual. The first tune up is Veteran's Day Poppy, weighing in at 1,400K. I hope you enjoy it.

The Lick My Decals Off Baby Dutch radio show will be coming down very soon, so listen to it while you can. I will probably remove it next Staurday the 15th, mainly due to it's emormity.

We have two new poems in Life Walker today, both sent to me by Bill Haynes. These are The Beep Seal and One Man Sentence. Many thanks to Bill.

I have also included a link in the Beefbox Update page to an article about the box set. If anyone else spots anything interesting related to this, please let me know so I can include the links here.

Greetings all. A few new goodies for you to read have been added to your now bulging Radar Station. I have uploaded five reviews for The Floppy Boot Stomp Review Section, found in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. There are three for Lick My Decals Off Baby, one for Mirror Man, and one for The Spotlight Kid. These were all sent to me by Jim Flannery who I would like thank very much for his trouble. If anyone else has any interesting Magic Band reviews, particularly for the earlier albums, please do send them along as I would love to feature them. That also applies to any Beefheart material which you have and I haven't, not just reviews, in case you were wondering. Send it all along, and together we shall feast....

I have recently received word from Marc Wielart of the Supplement programme to say that he has uploaded the complete Don van Vliet interview which was broadcast on Dutch Radio Four recently. You can find it at their website at http://www.omroep.nl/nps/radio/4FM/captain.html. If they upload any more sections of the broadcast in the future, I'll keep you informed. Please note that they are unable to supply tapes of the broadcast for copyright reasons.30/7/98 - Following some rabid speculation which has been appearing in the Beefheart newsgroup recently, I have a statement from Dean Blackwood, Label Manager of Revenant (the label which will be putting out the Beefheart box set) putting such rumours to rest. You can find this statement on the Beefbox Update page, in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

It has also been brought to my attention that some people have been having problems with the streaming audio files which I have put up. I have sussed out the problem, and these will be working fine later today. Find them in the Lick My Decals Off Baby Radio Show page.

OK, apologies have been made, now it's time to make amends. I have converted the first half of last night's Lick My Decals Off Baby Radio Show to streaming RealAudio and put it up in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy for you to listen to. Unfortunately my reception deteriorated badly after the first couple of hours, so for now that's the lot. I'm hoping to get some decent tapes of the entire show, and when they arrive I'll get a clear version of the whole lot up. I'm also planning to include an edited down version featuring only the telephone interviews with Don.

The broadcast was pretty special although ruined for me partly by the poor reception later on, and mostly by the realisation of my mistake announcing the timings. I hope those that missed the beginning aren't too cross with me to enjoy the version I've put up here.

Next update will hopefully be over the next couple of days as I have a small back log of material which has been sent to me that I would like to get up as soon as possible. Many thanks to those that have contributed.

Humblest and most sincere apologies to all who tuned into the Beefheart broadcast at the wrong time. It is playing as I'm writing this and the full horror of my mistake is slowly dawning on me. Somehow I failed to take 12 away from 20 correctly and came up with 10pm for the time of the broadcast instead of 8. Ink mathematics...

To try to make amends for my appalling mistake I'm promising to put up streaming audio files for you to download and listen to at your leisure here at The Radar Station. There will probably be around five seperate chunks - those who missed the first two hours need only worry about the first three. I'm hoping to make this available by tomorrow evening, so pop back and listen in your own time. Once again, big apologies. Don't hit me too hard, I bruise easily.

One of the members of The Fire Party is able to get a (hopefully) top quality tape of the show which he is planning to make available to other Fire Party members via a tape tree. Sign up to the Fire Party today and don't miss out. I'll keep you posted about this too.

The Radar Station is very pleased to be able to beam out to you another complete live Magic Band show from 1973. Recorded live at The Town Hall, NYC on 24th February, the Magic Band sound stunning. You can download the complete show in the form of heavily compressed mp3s, so they are all tiny files which shouldn't take any longer than 5 minutes at the very most to download. I hope you enjoy it, many thanks to Steve Froy for the tape. This show, along with a later one from 1981 can be found in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

Tomorrow (Monday 27th) is the day of the 4 hour Beefheart web-cast from Dutch Radio 4. For information, please see last update from 20/7/98 (right underneath this one). I have recently downloaded the free beta version of RealPlayerG2, the newest version on from RealPlaer 5 which many of you are probably using. I would heartily recommend that you download the new G2 version which promises (and appears to deliver) great improvements in sound quality and fewer buffer stops. You can head straight for the download page by clicking on the RealPlayer button at the bottom of the frame to the left. If you are feeling extravagant you can also purchase and download the G2 Plus RealPlayer for $29.99 from the same page which can record segments of broadcast audio, although I have not tested this feature as yet.

I'm hoping to get up some RealAudio streams of the highlights from tomorrow's show here at The Radar Station for those that missed out. Next update Tuesday 28th July. Enjoy the show!

New up today is a second painting from Eugenio Borghi entitled Back to TMR 1998, which can be found in Low Yo Yo Stuff.

I am currently working on designing a web-site for Revenant, the record label which will soon be releasing the Beefheart box set entitled 'Metal Man Gets his Wings' which you have hopefully all heard about by now. If you haven't, then head towards the Beefbox News page. This is very exciting for me as I am currently seeking freelance work as a web-designer, if any of you are interested please drop me a line. The Revenant site is coming along very nicely and, once it is available to the public, it will feature information about all of Revenant's releases, streaming audio of one tune from each CD, regular news bulletins about future releases (including, naturally, the Beefbox), and information about ordering their excellent titles. I'll let you know when the grand unveiling occurs.

I have been sent some exciting information by Electric Theo concerning a 4 hour RealAudio web-cast covering Beefheart's career and featuring an exclusive interview from a 1993 telephone conversation. You will be able to hear this very special programme, entitled Lick My Decals Off Baby, on 27th July at 8pm GMT (9pm British Summer Time and 10pm CET) at http://www.nps.nl/supplement. To check the broadcast time in your time zone, head towards the Time Zone Coverter. If you do not have the RealPlayer, you can download it for free by clicking on the Realplayer button in the left hand frame.

I've updated the Beefbox News page to include a recent progress report which Dean has sent me, so have a look at that to reassure yourself that this project is real.

I'm hoping to get Justin's box of Beefheart off to Theo over the next few days, so I'm sure he'll be pleased. There are still a number of items which I haven't yet uploaded and am planning to over the summer, so we should be kept in good supply of new material at The Radar Station for a while to come.

I'm still working on the radio show project, this hasn't been forgotten about, and will hopefully be reality very soon. The show is likely to go out on a Sunday at around 8pm GMT, will last for an hour and will feature a diverse range of music such as:

Beefheart, Spacemen 3, Aphex Twin, Tom Waits, The Stooges, Sun Ra, LTJ Bukem, Tricky, 13th Floor Elevators, drum & bass, jazz, trip-hop, Mo-Wax, Skint, Krautrock, Neil Young, Love, Asian Dub Foundation, Can, Beastie Boys, Frank Zappa, DJ Shadow etc etc.

Lots of experimental stuff, easy stuff, big beats, small beats, anything I like. As ever, if you have any suggestions or comments, send them along.

No new Beefheart update today, as I've been doing a fair bit of work on Harry's Harbour Bizarre, my Tom Waits mp3 site. Do have a look, I've added a few more tunes to it as well.

Updates may well be a little irregular over the next couple of weeks as I am currently flat broke and trying to find some extra work. Hopefully I'll still get the odd piece up every few days. I have an update for the Beefbox news page which I'll get up tomorrow. Cheers, all.

New today is a review for Lick My Decals Off Baby in The Floppy Boot Stomp, and a piece from Dennis Allen for Low Yo Yo Stuff entitled 'Bong? Oh, Fury!' about the days when Don was a regular visitor at his house.

I've added an excellent picture of the entrance to one of Don's Californian exhibitions to Run Paint Run Run which was kindly sent to me by Voot Zombo, and will hopefully have some more up for you tomorrow (apologies for the day-late update, these things happen). Cheers!

The new chat room turned out to be a real clunker, and has already been done away with, however despite problems with this, Robert Williams spent 2 hours in our company yesterday, chatting about how he first encountered Beefheart (he roadied for a week on the 1974 Blue Jeans and Moonbeams tour), how he ended up playing in the Magic Band (an unsuccessful audition to play with Dr John impressed the Captain enough to grab him), why the Magic Band line up changed so much before Ice Cream For Crow (opportunities elsewhere and a desperate need for money), how his Beefheart connections led him to be working for John Lydon (disasterously) a few years ago and numerous other topics bringing us up to the release of his new album, Date With The Devil's Daughter.

Robert hopes that we can have a follow up chat in a few weeks' time, but without the crappy chat room, so those that missed it, or those that were pissed off with the slowness and the fact that we had no way of telling who was actually in there, will have another chance to talk with Robert and other Beefheart fans. Next time I hope to be able to keep a complete transcript of events to stick up in The Radar Station for those that miss out.

Many thanks to Robert for appearing, and also to all those of you who turned to ask questions, or just to sit back and listen. I hope you enjoyed yourselves, come back next time for a smoother ride.

Today the Radar Station is the proud host of a live chat with Robert Williams, and we have a brand new chat room to do it in. This was a last minute arrangement when we realised that the old Parachat chat room appeared to have gone down, and has shown no signs of re-emerging in time for our session later today.

So, against the odds, we're up and running. Check the info page for full details about times, etc, or head straight for Yellow Yap to test it out. I'm looking forward to chatting with you all later on, as is Robert. See you then!

Another mere morsel, this time for the album reviews section, The Floppy Boot Stomp. This review for Unconditionally Guaranteed takes a very similar approach to this album as I do, and I'm sure it grew on the reviewer just as much as it has on me.

I'd like to remind you all about the live chat with Robert Williams which is approaching rapidly (this Sunday, folks). If you haven't yet got yourself an up to date browser and downloaded the free RealPlayer, now's the time to do it. Check the information page for all you need to know. I hope to see you then.

Only a small update for you today, and that is a poem for Life Walker entitled Brown Star.

The Tom Waits fans amoungst us might be interested to know that I've added the five missing tunes to the Paramount show over at Harry's Harbour Bizarre. Hope you enjoy them.

A couple of new articles for Gimmie Dat Harp Boy - If It Weren't For Bad Luck from January 1981, which takes a look at the problems which faced Beefheart and Virgin after the release of Doc at the Radar Station; and The Numebr One Weirdo Comes Back To Earth from February 1978, looking at Beefheart's return to form with the Bat Chain Puller album..

New interview for ZigZag Wanderer with Kristine McKenna, taken from Wet magazine and simply entitled Captain Beefheart. This is a fascinating read with Don covering a wide range of topics from art and music to ants and philosophers. Also two pieces for Life Walker - the words for Bellerin' Plain and You Should Know By The Kindness Of Uh Dog The Way Uh Human Should Be.

Also updated the Beefheart boxset news page following a recent message from Dean at Revenant. I'm very pleased to learn that a release date has already been set for November. It seems that the wait for official releases of rare Beef no longer resembles waiting for the second comming. Congratulations to all involved in the project for moving it along so swiftly.

I have had some information passed on to me from Bob McPherson who has recently received a reply from the Michael Werner Gallery following an enquiry about purchasing Don van Vliet's paintings. I have added this to the Information Page in Run Paint Run Run and hope to be able to add to it once I get some information from them myself, particlularly a copy of their catalogue. I would like to offer a hearty thankyou to Bob on behalf of all those who have been asking for information about this ever since I set this site up. Cheers.

Back to normality after five days of insanity wallowing in mud at Glastonbury Festival. For the second year running we were heavily rained upon and then left to pick our way around in the stickiest mud you can imagine which in places was knee deep and reluctant to let you out once it had caught hold of you. It was also the best fun I've had since the horror of last year's festival which was declared the worst ever, weather wise, in the festival's 28 year history.

The music was fantastic, I missed a hell of a lot that I wanted to see because the mud and rain just made it impossible, but even so there were still many treats. Highlights were: Tricky who was absolutely terrifying - tense to the point where you'd think he was about to shatter; Sean Lennon who sadly played to a half empty tent with the crouds possibly put off by memories of the hideous mediocrity produced by his brother - Sean was every bit as good as you'd imagine from his exceptionally melodic and cheery debut album recently released on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label; and Spiritualized who were as mind blowing and powerful as ever, this time accompanied by their gospel choir to give a wonderful edge to their songs of heartbreak, despair and addiction.

The lowlight was undoubtedly enduring Bob Dylan for a full 15 minutes until the experience just became too tragic to watch any longer. I have never before heard anyone manage to strangle every shred of spirit from songs which are so inspirational. It was so bad that you couldn't even laugh about it, we just had to leave, wondering if anyone in the audience of probably around 40,000 was actually enjoying this spectacle. I suspect not.

I could go on forever, but this probably isn't the place for my holiday memoirs, so I'll leave it at that. A splendid time was had.

As far as Beefheart is concerned, there is a new interview up today in ZigZag Wanderer -Andrew Weiner's Beefheart Boogie taken from Creem magazine in which the Captain talks at length about his dislike of drugs and about why it is important to be nice. I'm sure I'll have some more up tomorrow, but I'm still recovering from from five days of precious little sleep, so who knows. Hope you enjoy today's helping.

I was hoping to get a couple of new articles up today before I head off to the Glastonbury Festival for a few days of top music, however I've spent all my spare minutes today experimenting with the new software that I need to kick off the live web-casts which I mentioned yesterday (see below). I've very nearly got it sussed, but have one small stumbling block getting in the way. If any of you have had any experience whatsoever at live broadcasts with RealPublisher and RealServer, please do get in contact as I'd love to have a pick at your brains.

After just one day since I mentioned starting these webcasts, I've aready had a few favourable responses and am very keen to get this off the ground and inflict some of my favourite tunes on some willing listeners. I'm promising something pretty special, though I'll give you more details once everything is in place. Right now I'm just hoping for some advice.

So the next Radar Station update will be on Monday 29th June once I get back from Glastonbury, hopefully with a suntan rather than the trench foot which many people picked up last year from prolonged wallowing in the mudbath that was Glastonbury '97.

I have put up an information page about Robert Williams' impending appearance in Yellow Yap for a chat with us all, be sure to check it out for times etc. If anyone is able to help spread the word about this event, I'd be very grateful. Perhaps other webmasters reading this might like to put an announcement on their pages and include a link to the info page at http://www.beefheart.com/rw.yap.htm - many thanks. If anyone has any questions about this event, don't hesitate to ask.

There's a new article for Gimmie Dat Harp Boy, entitled Captain Beefheart's Ship Comes In by Kurt Loder, from around Doc at the Radar Station time. Also added a new piece to Low Yo Yo Stuff from Derry Dover about his intitation with Beefheart's music.

The next project for The Radar Station is likely to be a weekly hour long live web-cast featuring music from Beefheart, those inspired by him, those who inspired him (no matter how much he denies it!) and other tunes plucked from my record collection likely to appeal to the Beefheart fan - a real mixture, but top notch stuff. This is only in the planning stages at the moment, but it is likely to be broadcast as a RealAudio stream, hopefully the first broadcast will take place within the next few weeks. Any suggestions, feedback etc would be much appreciated. This could well be our most exciting development yet, but one thought nags at me. Would anyone tune in? Please let me know.

Today's main addition is the splendid Lester Bangs article / interview entitled Captain Beefheart's Far Cry from a 1980 edition of Voice. Here we find Don chatting with his friend about his relationship with his wife Jan, the meaning behind some of his songs and his individual manner of expressing himself. Highly recommended reading! Find it in ZigZag Wanderer.

Also up today in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy are a few live photos sent to me by Thomas Harms of Hamburg entitled The Spotlight Kidder, and an amusing oddity from Search & Destroy zine entitled There's Corn In My Cap, sent to me by Mikael Djurvall. Many thanks to both for these items.

I should also mention that a Zappa compilation entitled Cheap Thrills has recently come my way, and features Beefheart on "The Torture Never Stops" - previously available on You Can't do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4. Beefheart completists not wanting to fork out vast sums for a double Zappa CD should consider getting Cheap Thrills instead as it is incredibly cheap at £3.99, though the thrills are a little hit and miss. It's a mixed bunch, occasionally Zappa at his very worst, occasionally pretty funny, but what have you got to lose? As the sleeve proclaims "If we cannot be free, at least we can be cheap!"

New today are a couple of articles / interviews. The first is in ZigZag Wanderer, entitled Captain Beefheart Pulls A Hat Out Of His Rabbit by Byron Coley, and features a laid back and chatty Captain discussing his favourite cigarettes, selling a vacuum cleaner to Aldoux Huxley, and punk rock. The second appears in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy, entitled simply Captain Beefheart by John Morthland, in which the Captain reveals how he'd just like to tickle us all, and talks about his 'art-baby'.

Also new is the tasty pic at the top of the left hand frame. So what's he holding, folks? A thermometer? A syringe? Or perhaps a pea-shooter? Don't ask me - I couldn't work it out. More tomorrow.

My exams are finally over and summer has now officially begun for me, at last. I intend to spend a fair bit of time developing and adding to this site as well as gadding about in the sunshine enjoying myself, so expect an ever growing Radar Station for the next few months.

To kick off I've added another piece to Low Yo Yo Stuff, this time by Jack Keck about his fondness for Old Fart at Play. Cheers Jack.

I also have tracked down a company selling two Van Vliet prints and have put up a page of info about this and also begging for more info about purchasing any items relating to his artwork. If anyone is able to offer any clues about purchasing his paintings, other prints or postcards then I, and many others, would be very grateful. As yet I have not been able to unearth any useful information abou this, apart from these two splendid prints.

Steve Froy is currently scanning past editions of the excellent Beefheart fanzine Steal Softly Through Snow which will be included in The Radar Station sometime in the future. Unfortunately back issues are no longer available, so this seemed like a logical solution.

Updates will appear daily for the next few days, so pop back often for more. Everything will be put on hold for a week from 24th June as I'm off to the Glastonbury Festival, usually an excellent source for live tapes and bootlegs amongst other things, so I'll be keeping my eyes open. Any new finds will be swiftly mp3d and beamed out from The Radar Station, so let's hope for some goodies.

OK, the time has come. I hope you like all the changes. The basic appearance has stayed the same, but the new use of frames should make the whole site much easier to navigate, and I've changed the size of the text in all the articles which I hope will make everything much easier to read. There are also many minor changes which are too tedious to go into here - trust me, I've been working hard.

I'm pretty pleased with the results, I hope you are too. As ever, please do tell me if you love it, hate it, or even if you couldn't give a toss. You're comments are appreciated. Those wanting to link to us should please point towards www.beefheart.com unless you are linking to an individual article, thankyou.

Updates have been neglected recently. Hopefully I'll be going at a furious pace by next weekend when my exams are over. Theo at Electricity has given us a mountain of interviews to mull over, so I hope you have been checking them out.

Filtered Thru Dust Speakers is now fully established at beefheart.com, so if you could update your links to http://www.beefheart.com/filtered/index.html, although a link to http://www.beefheart.com would suffice as I have put a link to 'Filtered' on the title page.

I am very pleased to announce that Yellow Yap, The Radar Station's Beefheart chat room will be hosting its first special event on Sunday 5th July, 1998, when Robert Williams, drummer from The Magic Band, will be appearing for a chat. I will also be featuring some streaming audio of tunes from his new album, Date With The Devil's Daughter, and some of his work with the Magic Band for you to listen to while you chat. Further details will be announced next weekend. In the meantime, get your Javascript enabled browsers sorted out and check out Yellow Yap. If there are any problems, don't hesitate to scream for help.

Robert has also just launched his own web-site containing pictures, downloads and lots of info about his life and music, do check it out, it's called The Devil's Playground.

I've managed to get up two new additions for Low Yo Yo Stuff, one from Robert Cloos who got to see the Magic Band and meet Don van Vliet in the Netherlands, and one from Voot Zombo who encounters the Magic Band's liquid drums.

Next update by 21st June at the latest (thankfully my exams finish on the 17th)

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last few days, but I've been mighty busy giving the entire site a hefty makeover. Expect the new version to be unveiled by next weekend, hopefully. I hope that you will find that the improvements make it much easier to find your way around the site, and I hope to have a better and more readable layout. Please try to contain your excitement and anticipation just a few days longer, and no pushing at the back, folks.....

I've got a new banner which I'd love any of you to use to link to The Radar Station, if you so choose. If you do choose, please let me know. Here it is:

There is some exciting news about a Beefheart box set featuring rare and unissued material. For more information, and contact information if you are able to help out in any way, please check out the Beef Box page in the news section of Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. Let's all try and help this project to succeed.

The Fire Party is ablaze again, so all you Party members can get posting. As for the non-members - what are you playing at? Get in there and sign up now!

Time for a bit of market research. What do you find easier to read? The black text or white text? Or perhaps a combination of the two? Which would you prefer the articles to be in? Should the print be larger? Do you find it easy to find your way around this site? How would you improve the main index? Is there anything about this site that you would change? Do please mail me with your answers, as I want to get this right, and need to have your input. Thankyou.

Life Walker has another new poem, sent to me by Detlef Juergens, entitled Doped In Stunned Mirages. Those familiar with the paintings in Run Paint Run Run may spot a few familiar themes in this one.

I've added two fascinating interviews to ZigZag Wanderer, one entitled 'Where's The Captain?' by Kristine McKenna, in which Don merrily discusses the future President Charlton Heston - the "big yellow tooth", and gives us an amusing insight into his relationship with his cat Garland - excellent reading. The other is the equally entertaining interview by Patrick Carr entitled 'A Study of Captain Beefheart' in which Don speaks about Ornette Coleman and environmentalism, amongst many other topics.

Also up today is a short poem for Life Walker - A Christmas Card From Don van Vliet.

The bad news is that The Fire Party list is temporarily out of action at the moment, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, so stand by to remove those gags.

Added a short article / interview about the changes in the Magic Band which took place around the Unconditionally.. album to Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. The article is called 'New Face, New Music'.

New today is an excellent introductory piece written by Peter Keepnews entitled simply Captain Beefheart, in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. Beefheart Veterans will probably be very familiar with the matirial, but this is a great introduction for the curious.

Some of you may be interested to know that I am in the process of starting a Tom Waits mp3 download site, called Harry's Harbour Bizarre. This is only the beginning, and there is much more to follow over the next few months. Beefheart fans - let me know what you think of Tom Waits, I'm curious. Personally, I find them inseperable.

At last - I've actually got an article up instead of spending my time tinkering with the site. It is another addition to The Floppy Boot Stomp, a review for Doc at the Radar Station from Down Beat magazine. It's time now to move on elsewhere with the site updates. Coming next is a series of interviews and articles, mostly appearing in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. Watch this page for updates.

Filtered Thru Dust Speakers is now up and running at its new home here at www.beefheart.com (snuggled in with The Radar Station). If you haven't already got delights such as Don's 40th Birthday, The Trout Mask Rehearsals or The Original Bat Chain Puller, now is the time to do it.

The Fire Party (Captain Beefheart discussion list) is already picking up steam - nearly 20 members at the last count. Join today.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I have changed the name of the site. Gone is The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart - a great name, but it has been used before and cannot be abbreviated. The competition closing date has not nearly been reached, however this was a good opportunity to change the name as I've got a new server and have been registering the new url with the search engines. My favourite suggestion was 'Moonlight on Van Vliet' from Steve Froy, and I kind of liked 'The Radar Station' as well, so let's go with both, or simply The Radar Station for short. Hope you like it. No further updates today as I'm way too busy getting the site registered and letting you know that we're here, in disguise. Well done for finding it.

Also new today is a special feature, The Fire Party, a Captain Beefheart discussion list - subscribe today and help make this an entertaining and useful success. I'm sure that this will become particularly useful to those wishing to communicate with other members of the Internet Beefheart community, in a more personal forum than a newsgroup or message board. It's spam free as well, folks. Sign up now...

OK, we've got a new home, and a snappy new url - www.beefheart.com - all housed under one spacious roof. This has become increasingly necessary recently, and at last I've forked out and done the deed. I hope that it improves things for you - it certainly will for me. Unfortunately it now costs me money to maintain this site, and although it will always remain free, any donations of money, chocolate, live tapes etc will always be welcome. Soon to be unveiled is our brand new name, and a host of other treats from Justin's Beefbox.

Because I've had to go through this entire site updating the links, I'd very much appreciate it if you would notify me if I've slipped up at all, or tell the person whose link you followed to the old site that we've moved. Many thanks.

The Floppy Boot Stomp continues to expand slowly - further reviews for The Spotlight Kid and Shiny Beast are now up. More daily updates to follow...

I've added Don van Vliet's birth certificate to ZigZag Wanderer, sent to me by Justin Sherrill.

I've had to move ZigZag Wanderer and all it's contents to a new server as I'm rapidly running out of space on this one. Sincere apologies for any inconveniences to those of you who have linked to the articles contained within. It is a pain, but I had no other choice and this will now be ZigZag Wanderer's permanent home. Life Walker is likely to make a similar move in the near future. If you notice any links on my site which I have failed to update, I'd be very grateful if you'd let me know. Cheers.

Run Paint Run Run appears to be out of action again, I'm getting 404 errors whenever I try to access it. I have contacted the server administrators, and hopefully will have this sorted very soon.

A bumper harvest for the album reviews section, The Floppy Boot Stomp today - 9 new reviews of Ice Cream for Crow, Doc at the Radar Station, Shiny Beast, Clear Spot, and The Spotlight Kid. I do recommend that you take the time to look at all these; they all provide a fascinating insight into Beefheart's career, and the material is seldom repetitive, with each reviewer bringing their own fresh interpretations of the Magic Band recordings. There are still more to come, however, this section is fairly light on reviews for the earlier albums - if anyone is able to send me anything which would plug the holes, I'd be very grateful.

Also one addition to the live reviews section, The Petried Forest - the Magic Band live at The Albert Hall, in London 1972. The Captain's magic suffers from a dodgy PA but still gains a top review.

I received Steve Froy's excellent contribution to Low Yo Yo Stuff yesterday, and am pleased to be able to feature it. He writes about his early days as as Magic Band fan and his encounters with the albums up to the bombshell that was Trout Mask Replica. Recommended reading. Any more from anyone else? Keep them coming....

Similarly with the competition entries, I'm getting a constant stream of them, all very promising. Let's have some more.

A new section has appeared in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy called The Petrified Forest. This will feature a collection of live Magic Band reviews, which makes very entertaining reading (I find them entertaining, anyway). There are only three reviews featured in there so far - from 1973, 1980 & 1981; more to come soon.

I've recieved a few suggestions already for the name change for this site, but don't forget - the best suggestion will receive a CD-Rom of a large collection of Beefheart material (mostly available over the Internet). Get thinking if you'd like a chance to win this.

I'm toying with the idea of removing the live Magic Band downloads - the sound quality on some of them is pretty awful. I'll probably just keep the best few up there, and you can always download a pristine copy of Don's Birthday Party at the excellent Filtered Thru Dust Speakers site instead. If anyone has downloaded any of them from me and thinks that this is a bad idea, please let me know.

Quick side issue - I've received an excellent tape of the Tom Waits Dead Man Walking show, so have replaced the crappy mp3s which I had up with new dropout free versions. Check them out - they are excellent.

First of all, a very welcome addition to Low Yo Yo Stuff from Eugenio Borghi entitled 'Beef Eye Heart'. It is a very fine painting by Eugenio dedicated to Don. Thankyou very much indeed, Eugenio.

Also up today are a couple of pieces in The Floppy Boot Stomp. There's a review of Bongo Fury in which Ed Ward writes a surprisingly luke-warm response to this (IMHO) very fine album, and Tom Clark offers a review from another galaxy for Lick My Decals Off Baby - probably the most appropriate attempt to come to grips with this album that you'll find. Hopefully more tomorrow - I'm currently trying to fit this in around one essay, two presentations and revision for an exam. It's not easy, but will all be over soon.

New up today: a 1997 article written by John French entitled Behind Trout Mask; an article and interview with Don which took place during the recording of the Ice Cream for Crow video, called Sonic Sculpture in the Mojave; a superb piece entitled Trout Mask Replica?? The Captain Must Be Mad!which froths with entusiasm for that album. I've also included this article in The Party Of Special Things To Do, our beginners guide. A number of items have been added to The Floppy Boot Stomp, the section of Gimmie Dat Harp Boy featuring Magic Band album reviews. Additions here are: the original Bat Chain Puller; 'Beefheart: No More Magic' which looks at Bluejeans and Moonbeams; and a TMR review written by Lester Bangs. Probably more tomorrow, but real life beckons and I may not be able to hold it away for too much longer.

I have been considering a change in the name for this site. It has been pointed out, and I completely agree, that 'The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart' is one hell of a mouthful, and has also clearly been used before. Does anyone have any opinions about changing the name? Any suggestions? I will offer a CD-ROM containing a ton of Beefheart material (virtually all available over the Internet, but this is much easier) to the sender of the best suggestion of a name for this site. Possible names should be snappy, Beefheart/Van Vliet related, and would help bring 'em along here in droves.

Finally, I should mention that Theo at Electricity is uploading aplenty at the moment, releasing archived material, so don't forget to check over there, and at Home Page Replica too for more of the best about Beefheart.

I've got the beginnings of an introductory Beefheart page for those unfamiliar with his music up. It's called The Party Of Special Things To Do and it features a few tunes taken from his readily available albums, and a brief guide to the best bits for the casual browser to look at (do we get any casual browsers here?). If you have any ideas about what I can include on this page to really get the Beefheart claw into them, let me know.

As you may have already read over at Home Page Replica, Justin has sent me his collection of the Captain's clippings which I am very excited about. You will be seeing a sudden burst of activity here when it arrives, as I'm sure you will over at Electricity when I send it on to Theo. Many many thanks Justin.

Also, a note for frustrated Mac users unable to get my mp3s to work. Micah has recently mailed me to say this: "Hi. I'm a mac user, and had been having problems running the Beefheart mp3s on your web page with MacAmp 1.0a10. Just wanted to let you know that I found out they work fine on a mac if you use SoundApp 2.5." Thankyou Micah. Hope this helps you out.

Another new feature has arrived - Cage Reservoir, the message board. Use it for information requests, broadcasting news, advertising times you will be having a Yellow Yap, anything Van Vliet / Beefheart related. It's a spam and porn-free environment, folks. Hope it's useful.

Pleased to announce the return of Run Paint Run Run. I've also lightened the background a little more following a few complaints, so throw away your spectacles. I hope this is better, let me know what you think.

We now have our own guestbook, The Rainbow Trout Replica. It's brand new and a little bit empty, so why not leave a few thoughts. The chatroom is fairly under-used at the moment, I've only encountered people in there a couple of times. If anyone thinks this could develop into a valued part of the site and has any ideas about how to get Beefheart fans in there, do let me know. There is always someone at the site, so why not pop into Yellow Yap while you are here. It would be entertaining if this feature could take off into the wind.

Regretfully, the server which hosts the entire picture gallery is temporarily (I hope) out of action at the moment. If they don't sort themselves out pretty soon, I'll shift everything elsewhere. For the moment, however there is no Run Paint Run Run. Hopefully we'll be back very soon.

I've just added another piece to Low Yo Yo Stuff, this time John McGuiness speaks of his horror on seeing the Bluejeans tour. Many thanks for this John. If anyone else has any stories they wish to tell about live Magic Band encounters, Don annecdotes, art exhibitions, first impressions of Trout Mask Replica, anything, mail it to me for inclusion in this section. Cheers.

This site now has it's own chat room, Yellow Yap. If you like the way the doo-dads fly, why not pop in to chew the cud with other passing Golden Birdies? This is a brand new feature, so you may have to linger for a short while until others turn up. I hope you find this useful, let me know what you think.

Site exclusive! Otis Owens, ex-Zappa-employee and friend of various Magic Band members answers a few questions in ZigZag Wanderer in a piece entitled 'A Octafish Speaks'. Thanks for your time, Otis.

There is also another excellent item for Low Yo Yo Stuff, this time from Greg Gardner who recalls the unfavourable beginnings of his admiration for Beefheart in a piece called "Out, Trout!"

I'm very pleased to announce that Run Paint Run Run is now complete. All collections and paintings are now uploaded and available. If you happen to have any paintings which I have not featured, please let me know. I hope you enjoy the gallery, as ever I would appreciate your comments for Low Yo Yo Stuff.

Added another piece to Low Yo Yo Stuff in which Tim remembers Don's tribute to John Lennon.

Work on Run Paint Run Run is progressing rapidly. I have added 4 more collections - 84, 85, 86 and 87 and will hopefully have the whole lot up within a few days. Once that is done, I'll reorganise Run Paint Run Run which will act as an index for the different collections, and will offer a taster of each. I hope you will find this more useful. In the meantime, check out the 1985 Collection, it's my favourite.

Added two sets of photographs to The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian. One features pictures of Don at the Galerie Michael Werner in 1985, chatting with Julian Schnabel. Many thanks to Electric Theo for the superb colour snap. The other set features a picture of my mate Paul at the Brighton exhibition in 1994. Do these two items belong together? Perhaps not, but who cares...

Added an item about Robert Williams' new album to Gimmie Dat Harp Boy, look under the new News section. If you have any news about ex-Magic Band members' activities, or about new publications, broadcasts, etc, please let me know and I will feature it in here.

Began adding material to Life Walker, the poetry section. If anyone has anything which they think should be included in this section, please let me know.

Added a piece entitled 'Pointed At The Moon, Looked At The Finger' by Luca Ferrari to Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. This is the introduction to a small book entitled 'Pearls Before Swine, Ice Cream For Crows' which I recently picked up on import.

Added an excellent overview of all Magic Band albums written by Mike Barnes in the April 1998 edition of The Wire to The Floppy Boot Stomp

Added a contribution from Billy Thompson to Low Yo Yo Stuff. Many thanks.

Completed 1988 Collection.

Added articles from the April 1998 Record Collector. These include an excellent interview with Bill Harkleroad aka Zoot Horn Rollo, an overview of all the Magic Band albums and a short feature on the 10 rarest Beefheart records. All these can be found in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. Check out the heavily tweaked picture with the introductory article for a full-on psychedelic Beefy.

There are now a few more pictures of the rest of the Magic Band included with the 40th Birthday Tour pictures, also sent to me by Raindog Greg Gardner. There are a couple of Eric Drew Feldman, a Midnight Hatsize Snyder and a Robert Williams.

Added 'Picture This' article to The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian. It's a piece from a local Brighton freebie newspaper from 1994 announcing the arrival of the Stand Up To Be Discontinued exhibition.

There is now a transcript of the poetry readings in Life Walker.

Added beginnings of 1988 Collection to Run Paint Run Run.

Started work on Low Yo Yo Stuff and added a contribution from Chris Hayes, many thanks Chris, though I still want more from you all, so c'mon.

Added 1989 Collection to Run Paint Run Run.

I switched servers for 1990 and 1991 Collections and updated links. Download times were previously impossibly long but are now vastly improved, so check out those pictures.

1990 Collection added to Run Paint Run Run.

I am intending to include a collection of reader's responses to Van Vliet / Beefheart's work, entitled Low Yo Yo Stuff. This section can include recollections of a gig, exhibition, your personal response to his music, poetry or art, or anything else you might have to say. If you would like to make a contribution to Low Yo Yo Stuff, please mail me with your thoughts. Cheers.