Today is the Radar Station's first birthday! To mark this occasion, you can read a short piece looking over the first year on-line. It's been a great year web-wise, and I'm sure there will be many more to come. Many thanks for all your support, assistance and contributions.

I've also posted a page of guidelines for Fire Party subscribers which I hope will help to keep things running smoothly (problems with Listbot aside!). If there is anything missing, or anything which you think should be left out, please let me know.

New up today is a special feature on The Magic Band's 1980 appearance on Saturday Night Live which you can find in the rare music archive. You can download top quality mp3s of the two songs - Ashtray Heart and Hot Head, see some video stills, and soon you will be able to download the videos as well. I'm currently having troubles with the video for this sequence - for some reason once I've digitised it the video and audo become out of synch with each other. I've had this problem with a few video sequences, and as yet haven't found a solution. Any suggestions?

The My Father's Place show is finally complete, and there is a new video in the video section of the rare music archive. Today the thoroughly unpopular 'Tragic Band' get an airing with a version of This Is The Day. No complaints, please - just don't download it if you don't like it. It is a not-bad version of a beautiful song.

Big apologies to members of the Beefheart discussion list, The Fire Party, for the delays which are currently being encountered when waiting for messages to get posted. I sent the following message to the list today, if you haven't got it yet, here it is:

"Sincere apologies for the slowness of the list at the moment - I've noticed that it sometimes takes up to a day to get messages out, and this is clearly unacceptable. I have contacted Listbot, and will hopefully receive some kind of indication how long this is going to go on for. The list was, however, out of action last Wednesday due to Listbot conducting some maintenance work, so I assume that the delays which we are currently experiencing are due to the backlog caused by this missing day.

"If things fail to improve soon I'll try to work something else out, perhaps trying to set something up on the beefheart.com server. This would clearly be a better option as we wouldn't then have to rely on a third party as we do at the moment. In the meantime, hang on in there - The Fire Party has made some fascinating reading recently and I hope we don't lose anybody over this."

Also, tomorrow will bring a new edition of the Tromblown Orchestra after all as I won't be going to Swanage this weekend as expected. Ness has hurt her back and so can't manage it (nothing serious, just uncomfortable). All being well we'll be off next weekend instead.

At last! After three weeks of silence The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment returns with one of the best shows yet. If you got ears, and the Real Player G2, you gotta listen.

Apologies for the lack of recent shows, but as you probably know I have had other things to attend to recently (see 10/2/99 below). This edition will remain up for another two weeks as Ness and I are visiting my mother next weekend again. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to regular weekly shows fairly soon.

David Steadman dropped me a line to let me know that British television viewers will be treated to a Beefheart clip & brief discussion about how he got his name tonight (Sunday 14th) on the repeat showing of BBC 2's Never Mind The Buzzcocks at 23:30. I'll watch out for it, cheers David.

New up today is a 'controversial' review of Lunar Notes by Ed Baxter of Resonance magazine which takes a very negative view of Don Van Vliet's ethics and personality. Many thanks to Ed for sending this along and granting me permission to reproduce it here. Don't flame him, though...

I've also finally completed the enormous and excellent 'Beating of an Ashtray Heart' interview which has been available in the music articles section for some time in an abruptly truncated form. At last the interview is complete, and I've added all the photographs.

I forgot to tell you yesterday (how could I??) that the Perfect Sound Forever Beefheart Special is now available for your enjoyment. I've printed out the whole lot (nearly 50 pages of text!) and it makes fantastic reading, covering every Beefheart album released. You'll notice some familiar names amongst the authors - I've got a piece in there on Unconditionally Guaranteed (don't flame me either!). Big congratulations to everyone involved in getting this together, all the sweat was well worthwhile. Jump directly to the Beefheart special from here, if you so wish.

I've updated the Beefheart Box-set news page with the complete track-listing and release date, so you all know exactly what delights will soon be coming your way. I was in the process of uploading a new video from the 1971 live TV appearance, but noticed that the three videos from this show will be on the box-set, so you will have to wait until then to see the full set. I've deleted Big Joan from the video archive - those that missed it will have to wait until May, sorry.

To make up for this you can now download the video for Ice Cream For Crow instead. You'll have to unzip it with Winzip, or a similar utility first. Inexperienced users needn't worry, it is very easy to do. I'm working on a simple video troubleshooting guide to provide further assistance to the lost and bewildered.

Also up are two new tunes from the My Fathers Place show, available in the rare music archive.

Sincere apologies for the total silence of over two weeks, but I have been at my mother's in Swanage (Dorset - south coast UK) ever since the 29th January. My father died peacefully in hospital on the morning of the 30th and was cremated yesterday.

I was heading home that weekend anyway as things were not looking good. I received a phone call on the morning of the 29th to say that my father was unlikely to make it through the morning; fortunately he did make it until 8am the next day and I was able to visit him shortly before he died. We had to wait ten days until the funeral, though fortunately had plenty of my mother's family around to help us through it all.

The last two weeks have certainly put a few more grey hairs on my head, though it is a big relief to be back in Brighton and to have just spent a very pleasent couple of hours going through some of the 250 e-mails waiting for me, and listening to some of the CDs that I have been sent. Thank you so much to everyone that has been in contact recently, or sent me something useful for the site. I will be replying as soon as I am able, but have a hell of a lot to do here at the moment - I haven't been in to university for three weeks.

All the best.

I had intended to have a few days' break from The Radar Station, but Michael Scott sent me eight new paintings and Detlef Juergens sent me a pile of painting info, so instead I've been updating the painting index 'Scratch Of Light' and uploading the new paintings.

Have a look at Don't Ruin Step On Thing, Flashlight In The Daytime, Day Barette (a much improved scan), and Yellow Scarab - all in the 1990 Collection. Then head towards the four untitled paintings in the 1989 Collection. Many thanks to both Michael and Detlef.

As promised yesterday there is now a fresh set of beautiful sounding mp3s of The Original Bat Chain Puller available in the rare music archive, and a couple of new tunes from the Live at My Father's Place bootleg.

There are also two new videos available in the video index. The first is of When Big Joan Sets Up, a US television appearance from 1971. There are a few more tunes from this show that I will be uploading over the coming weeks. The second appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973 and features a sequence of Beefheart on stage, with the studio version of Big Eyed Beans From Venus playing over the top.

New up in the biographical items section is the cover sheet from the official Refusal of Leave to Land Report when the Magic Band were refused entry to the UK in 1968 and were deported to Hanover. This amusing incident is well documented at Home Page Replica which features the full report as written up by an anonymous immigration official.

I've added one item to the ex-Magic Band members section of the on-line Beefheart store, an album by Rising Sons which features Taj Mahal with none other than Ry Cooder and Gary 'Magic' Marker. I've just got hold of this album today and can heartily recommend it. Rising Sons, the album, is just over an hour of the most joyous, swinging blues that you are ever likely to hear, check it out as soon as you can.

This week's edition of the Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment is also available as if you didn't have enought to listen to already.

At last I am able to open the doors on an exciting development here at The Radar Station (well I'm excited, anyway). The new Video Collection can be found in Filtered Thru Dust Speakers, the rare music archive. So far you will only find two items, but they are real beauties. There's the Mother's King Kong from 1968 and, new up today, is I'm Gonna Booglarize Ya Baby from German TV's Beat Club. Much more to follow.

I have been sent a pristine copy of The Original Bat Chain Puller, Beefheart's unreleased classic, which is a big sound improvement on the mp3s currently available in the rare music archive. I've made some new mp3s which sound wonderful and will be uploading them over the weekend. If you are thinking of downloading Bat Chain Puller then I'd advise waiting a few days and you'll get some much better sounding tunes.

On an unrelated issue, so many of you have written to ask about my father's progress, which I very much appreciate, and I thought I'd fill you in here.

Things do seem very bleak, although he received the results from recent tests yesterday which ruled out cancer of the liver. It is going to take him a very long time to get over this, if indeed he does. In addition to a severely damaged liver and all the problems that go with that, he would appear to be suffering from depression and doesn't have that much of an inclination to get better. Fortunately he was moved to a more local hospital today which makes it much easier for my mother to visit him, so she is quite pleased, and she says that he seems to have perked up a little in his new surroundings. I'm hoping to visit them next weekend.

Thankyou for your good wishes, I have passed them on and it quite touched him that so many people around the world had wished him well when they didn't even know him. Cheers.

New today, yet another Live at My Fathers Place tune and a new piece for Low Yo Yo Stuff from D. Whitney Quinn entitled Love Over Gold.

If there are any budding (or actual) journalists out there, Perfect Sound Forever still need articles on Stricly Personal / Mirror Man, Spotlight Kid and Doc at the Radar Station. If you can help, and can write something very quickly, get in contact with Jason now.

Plenty of listening treats for you today. Firstly there is the latest edition of the Tromblown Orchestra, this week you have a Beef sandwich. There is also a new tune available from the My Fathers Place bootleg - Moonlight On Vermont.

I'm very pleased to announce that the Radar Station has its first video available for you to download, though not actually featuring Captain Beefheart. It is a nine minute version of King Kong by the Mothers of Invention recorded at the BBC in 1968, and it is marvellous. The Mothers at this time featured two musicians who would go on to join the Magic Band - Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada, and obviously Zappa himself, hence the inclusion of this piece.

It is a whopping 10 megabytes, but it's well worth the wait to download. You need Real Player G2 to watch it. Mac users will be pleased to hear that the G2 Real Player is at last available for their system.

Set the viewing screen to 'double size' and sit back. Picture and sound quality are excellent, and the performance is astonishing - The Mothers at their very best.

I'm still in need of some more Beefheart on PAL video so that I can develop a video section for the Radar Station, so if you can help me out please get in touch.

For various reasons I haven't gone away this weekend as expected. Many thanks to all those of you who sent in good wishes about my father, it is much appreciated. He seems to be slowly improving, and my mother is in good spirits as well.

So, as I'm still here, I'll be able to get up some material recently created with my new video card which I finally got hold of today. To kick proceedings off you can now find a selection of stills taken from the Anton Corbijn film "Don Van Vliet - Some Yoyo Stuff" in the biographical items section (ZigZag Wanderer). The pictures all look pretty good, hope you like them.

Today is Don Van Vliet's 58th birthday, so congratulations and a very happy birthday to him. If any of you are up for marking this event, see below or go to the Don Van Vliet News Page to find out about some events that are happening in honour of Don's birthday.

I have a new event to add to this list:

EVENT: "Speed Boat" live with DJs from Revolver, slides and projections.

DATE: Friday, 15th January 1999 (that's today!)

TIME: 7:30 - 11pm

LOCATION: "The Stars & Stripes" behind Waitrose on Western Road, Brighton, England. Entrance is in Waitrose car park - it's not as complicated as it sounds. £2 entry.

The band, Speed Boat, are too good to miss - expect plenty of their material to appear on The Tromblown Orchestra as soon as I get some tapes from them. If you can make it, come along, I'll be there somewhere.

Due to the change in my plans, you can expect a regular edition of The Tromblown Orchestra to be beaming out as usual from this Saturday. In the mean time, there is another tune from My Father's Place for you to listen to.

Another tune is up from the Live At My Father's Place bootleg.

I mentioned yesterday that there is a special Beefheart tribute night taking place in Glasgow to celebrate Don's 58th birthday. I've just received word from Slam Buckra that he has organised a similar event:

EVENT: "Beefday Birtheart" a live music/poetry/ performance art show/dance/shindig celebrating the music/art/words and 58th birthday of Don Vliet (aka Don Van Vliet, Captain Beefheart), hosted by Slam Buckra.

DATE OF EVENT: Friday, January 15, 1999.

TIME: 9:09 P.M. `til 1:11 A.M.

LOCATION: "Duffy's Tavern" 337 Main Street, Chico, California, United States of America. (530)343-7718

ENTRAILS: Video collages, the music of Captain Beefheart & live music/poetry and misbehavior provided Slam Buckra & His Groove Palookas.

Hope it is the success it deservs to be. Unfortunately I won't be able to do anything special at The Radar Station to commemmorate the event as I will be away for the weekend (no new Tromblown Orchestra either this week).

My father is currently very ill in hospital with a severely damaged liver, so I'm heading home to Dorset for a few days to give my mother a little extra support and to walk the dog. I'll be back on Sunday.

Two more songs from the Live At My Father's Place bootleg are now available for you to download from the rare mp3 archive.

I still haven't got my video capture card as the supplier has been out of stock; but it is on its way. You'll be the first to know when it arrives.

Beefheart fans residing in or near Glasgow may be interested to know that there is a Beefheart tribute night celebrating Don's 58th birthday taking place on Friday 15th January (that's this Friday) at The Thirteenth Note Cafe, King Street, Glasgow. Phone +44 (0)141 553 1638. It costs 2.50 pounds sterling to get in. Get there if you can.

There's a new edition of the Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment for you to hear, fresh today.

I'll be receiving the comission from the on-line Beef-store very soon from amazon.com, and had decided to use it in a productive way which will be beneficial to the site. The best thing I could think of was to get a video capture card and make some sequences of film available. I'll have my Hauppauge card up and running later today (hopefully), and you should see the first few video clips appearing soon.

If anyone has some good quality Beefheart video that they would like to share with the world, please get in touch with me, as my collection of Beefheart video is extremely limited. Unfortunately I can only make use of tapes recorded using the PAL system, which is the standard for the UK and (I think) most of Europe.

Please get in touch if you have anything to offer, cheers.

OK - finally the first drafts of 'Scratch of Light' - The Van Vliet Picture Index, and the Exhibition List are now up in the picture gallery and the art articles archive respectively. I hope these are useful. The picture index should make life much easier for anyone hunting down a particular painting, and for those of you who send me scans of paintings and want to check whether I already have them.

Two of you have recently been busy doing just this - thanks to Rob Chapman for sending Provided You Go Outside which you'll find in the 1984 Collection, and also to Detlef Juergens who has sent me So Potate (1989), White Tree And Black Gate (1988) and Feather Times A Feather (1987). All these paintings can all, obviously, also be found in Scratch Of Light - The Van Vliet Picture Index. Thankyou so much to both of you for sending these along.

Also up is a new tune for the My Father's Place bootleg, Abba Zabba.

I've finally added the missing bits from two articles - the opening of The Pop Life; a review for Ice Cream For Crow, and the end of the excellent article by Kristine McKenna entitled Sonic Sculpture In The Mojave. This closes with comments from the Ice Cream For Crow band about the writing of the Magic Band's material, and is an essential read.

There is a new tune available from the My Father's Place bootleg, the mighty Harry Irene.

I've also done a little work improving the look of the on-line store, making it a little more attractive and also a little less wordy. Amazon.com have made available a few more recordings from Gary Lucas, so I've included them in the ex-Magic Band members section. The sound clips of 'Skeleton At The Feast' sounded so good that I've just ordered it, I'll let you know what I think when it arrives.

A few titles appear to have recently become unavailable as well, sadly. One is the Magic Band's Live In London 1974 album, which isn't that much of a loss. I haven't removed the links to these albums as I'm hoping that they will be back again soon. Don't worry, there is still plenty to choose from in there.

Also up is a new page, Don Van Vliet Quotes (available in ZigZag Wanderer) which collects all the quotes featured in the 'Don Van Vliet Quote Of The Moment' section on the main index page. This will gradually build up into an entertaining collection of Don's wit and wisdom. If anyone has any suggestions regarding their favourite quotes, please let me know. I'm trying to avoid some of the more obvious ones which ended up almost becoming cliche like in their frequency of use, but if anything jumps out at you, send it along.

As promised yesterday, the live and rare mp3 archive has a new addition. You can now download the first few tunes from the Live at My Father's Place bootleg. This is a show recorded in New York in late 1978 and features a lot of Shiny Beast material. I'll be uploading a new song from the show every couple of days (or thereabouts). These mp3s were created and sent to me by David Naughton, many thanks to him.

The paintings index which I mentioned yesterday is taking much longer than anticipated. The first draft will probably be available by next weekend, and will be the tentative beginings of a definitive guide to Don's paintings and exhibitions.

The people at the Perfect Sound Forever e-zine are currently piecing together a Captain Beefheart extravaganza, featuring exclusively written pieces about each of his albums and more. If you would like to get involved then let them know as soon as possible. They still want articles on the following albums:

Safe As Milk
Strictly Personal
Trout Mask Replica
The Spotlight Kid
Mirror Man
Bluejeans and Moonbeams
Shiny Beast
Doc At the Radar Station

If you are able to write something, get in touch with Jason and get going as soon as possible.; everything must be complete before the end of January. I'm working on a piece about Unconditionally Guaranteed, and will be seeking to right a few wrongs concerning this unjustly dismissed gem of an album (that isn't sarcasm, by the way - I really do mean it).

There is an exhibition introduction from 1988 new up today in the Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian. This interesting piece was kindly sent to me by Michael H, though precise source and date are unknown. Any ideas?

I'd like to wish all Radar Station visitors a very happy new year - I doubt I will get anything new up tomorrow as it is New Year's Day, traditionally the worst, most hungover day of the year. All the best.

OK, I'm back after my Christmas break, though feel more in the need of a holiday than ever. Hope you had a relaxing time (is Christmas ever relaxing?)

Detlef Juergens has very kindly sent me his transcripts of the Zoot Horn Rollo and Robert Williams chats which have been extremely useful as I didn't have a copy of the Robert Williams one at all, and sections of the ZHR chat were lost when my computer crashed, or when I was busy preparing the substitute chat room when the original one went down. You can now read everything that occurred at the Zoot Horn Rollo Chat Page. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the Robert Williams transcript up fairly soon as well. Thankyou to Detlef for these.

Also Michael Scott has been busy again, sending me more paintings for inclusion in the gallery. New up today is one painting in the 1984 Collection entitled Aunt Cigar's Baby, and five paintings in the 1985 Collection entitled Two Rips In A Haystack, Ming Move, Measures Balance, Sixteen Chrome, and Woman And A Dog Walked By. Hope you enjoy them, thanks yet again to Michael.

More tomorrow.

A small update for today, and the last before Christmas. Danny Houston has sent me an excellent account of a meeting that he and his friends had with Don, which you can read in Low Yo Yo Stuff, entitled A Meeting With the 25th Century Quaker. This is an excellent example of Don's often enormous hospitality, and is well worth reading.

Greg Gardner, who sent me the mp3 of Light Reflected Off The Oceands Of The Moon a few days back, has also sent along a scan of the front and back of the ep sleeve from which it came, so I have added these to the download page. Thankyou Greg.

I've also added the picture which accompanied the Don't Sit On The Porcupine Fence article, kindly scanned and sent to me by Jesus Quintero.

I'm off to Dorset tomorrow for a few days to visit my parents and Ness' parents, and should be back by the 28th when I will hopefully be able to get a new update up for you.

I'd like to wish all our visitors a very happy Christmas, and all the best for the new year. Many thanks for all your support, encouragement and assistance over the last 10 months since this site was born. All the best.

As of now, and for the next two weeks, you can hear The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment's Christmas Special - Drinking Up A Waits Christmas, a perfect accompaniment for when you're splashing the wine over the festive season. Hope you enjoy it.

Greg Gardner has kindly sent along a top quality mp3 of Light Reflected Off The Oceands Of The Moon, a Beefheart obscurity from a Virgin ep of 1982. You can download this from Filtered Thru Dust Speakers, the rare music archive. Thanks to Greg for that.

New up today is a press snippet about the recent New Work exhibition, kindly sent to me by Micheal H, along with a bundle of goodies including an article entitled The Art of Don Van Vliet, which you can now find in The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian.

Many thanks to Michael for sending this lot along - it'll be gradually appearing here over the next few weeks.

Our man in Mexico City, Jesus Quintero has also very kindly scanned and assembled the excellent Don't Sit On The Porcupine Fence: Beefheart's Grown The Best Batch Yet article which you can find in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. This is well worth a read - the Captian chats about topics such as why he hopes people are bored right now, tobacco, and why Virgin Records is a misnomer. Jesus also sent me a photograph which accompanied the article which I'll be getting up very soon.

Coming this weekend on The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment, a festive special of seasonal tunes by Tom Waits. Nobody creates a wintery atmosphere better than this man, and this a specially compiled collection which makes ideal listening over the Christmas period for those of us who would prefer not to hark at the herald angels' singing. This special show will be available for two weeks, taking you into the New Year. Hope you enjoy it.

New up today is an array of items relating to the recently closed New Work exhibition in New York. Included are all the paintings featured in the exhibition catalogue, the press release, advertisment, visitor reports and other bits. These can all be found in the New Work Menu which is in The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian (the section for art articles).

If anyone has gathered any items not featured (such as press reviews, etc.) please do send them along as I would love to include them. If you made it to the exhibition, send me your thoughts.

Also up are five paintings very kindly sent to me by Michael Scott: Rolled Roots Gnarled Like Rakers and Whalebone Farmhouse in the 1986 Collection, Flame Specked Chemistry and Poinsettia in the 1976 Collection, and Avah Creen in the 1984 Collection. Michael has been very generous in his time scanning and sending these paintings, and he says there are plenty more on the way. Thank you Michael.

At last, term is over and I'm free until early January. Expect plenty of work on the site over the coming weeks.

I've finally got the transcript of Sunday's chat session up, so if you missed it, now's your chance to see what was said. You can find this permanently housed in the Gimmie Dat Harp Boy music articles section.

There have been a few grumbles from people that were unable to get into the chat room which surprised me as there should have been no problem after the crashed room had been sorted. However a quick look at the logs showed that the room was probably overwhelmed as there were a hell of a lot of you trying to get in. I'm sorry if you missed out.

I'm hoping to hold another chat event with another Magic Band member in a few months' time, and will investigate forking out for a professional chat room specially for the event. I'm hoping that the profits from the on-line beef shop will help to cover the considerable cost of using a professional chat room, but obviously if the kind of troubles that we had on Sunday can be overcome then it will be worth it.

That said, Zoot commented afterwards that he was a little overwhelmed by the barrage of questions that were coming at him, so perhaps it was just as well for him that we didn't have even more people present. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tomorrow I'll be getting up a host of missing paintings, including some from Don's recent New Work exhibition. See you then.

I'm fresh out of the chat room and would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone that dropped by, and especially to Mr Zoot Horn Rollo for making this an extremely interesting and enjoyable session.

The evening was set to be a disaster when, three minutes before kick-off, and with a chat room full of people, the chat server went down. After much sweating, swearing and blind prayer I managed to get a back-up chat room up and running, and eventually many confused people managed to find their way into the new room, including (thankfully) Bill Harkleroad.

There is a near complete transcript of the session which I'll be uploading just as soon as I can for those of you that weren't able to make it.

Zoot announced the winner of the competition, none other than Mr Crab-Nebula Cake (the hyphen is silent). So congratulations to Richard Mason for submitting that one, a signed copy of Lunar Notes will soon be on its way to you for your superb Zoot-endorsed pseudonym.

Again, on behalf of myself and all the visitors to the Radar Station, may I thank Bill Harkleroad very much for an excellent evening, and for some wicked guitar moments (not to mention the trousers). May your exceptional contribution to musical experimentation never go overlooked.

More tomorrow (hopefully, if I can get an essay on the conflict between ecology and capitalism out of the way).

There is a special Zoot Horn Rollo edition of the Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment up, to coincide with Sunday's live chat. You can therefore listen to an hour of Zoot's finest Magic Band moments while chatting with him here at The Radar Station.

You can talk with Zoot at 9pm GMT this Sunday (6th December). To find out what 9pm GMT is in your time zone, head towards the handy time zone converter. Then just enter the chat room at the appropriate time. Try to turn up at the beginning, if possible, to avoid any repetition of questions. Hope you enjoy it, see you there!

I've just been sent the catalogue for Don's New Work exhibition which ends today in New York, and the paintings are very beautiful. If you can, get down there today before it is all over.

I'm compiling a list of all of Don's exhibitions for inclusion at The Radar Station, including details of which paintings were on view, catalogues produced, etc etc. If you have any information at all which would be helpful, please let me know. Expect the paintings from this exhibition to appear here over the next week or so.

OK, the closing date for the competition has come. We had around 50 entries, mostly with correct answers though some were a little wide of the mark, but still highly entertaining. I don't think 'Stoinker Apparatus' was a Magic Band album, nor was 'Pack-rat-hat', though perhaps they both should have been. And Mallard are still yet to release the albums 'Zoo-Head' and 'Also Ribs'. Several people sent me their 'submittal', telling me how much they'd like to win but failed to answer any of the questions. Sorry folks, that was part of the deal.

I have chosen 6 people who answered all the questions correctly and suggested 'Magic Band member' names that either amused me or would have complemented the Magic Band well. These have been passed on to Zoot who is making the final decision. The winner will be announced by Zoot in the Radar Station chat room on this Sunday at 9pm GMT. Zoot wil then stick around for about an hour or so to answer any of your questions.

For further details about the chat session, including a link to a Time Zone Converter, and the shortlist of suggested names head to the ZHR Chat Info Page. Hope to see you on Sunday.

A new edition of the Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment is now available. Unfortunately, while recording the show, I was also trying to read up on capitalism, industrialism and environmentalism, which meant that I was somewaht distracted at times. You may notice that I accidentally shaved the end off a couple of songs, including the Captain's Circumstances. I'll be paying full attention next week, I promise.

I'm also planning a far better page design for both the shop and the radio show. I'm part the way there with the radio show page - let me know what you think.

New up today are six entertaining live reviews written and sent to me by Ben Waters, covering the six Magic Band gigs that he was lucky enough to see. Many thanks to Ben for taking the trouble to fill us all in. You can find them listed in the live review section (The Petrified Forest) of Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

Michael Scott has very kindly sent along another four Van Vliet paintings which I didn't have, and you can view all of these in the 1986 Collection of the picture gallery. The new paintings are With Twinkling Lights And Green Sashes, Check Bif, Garden Lion, and the splendidly named Candle Powered Rodeo Ghosts. Many thanks to Michael for these.

The brand new edition of Steal Softly Thru Snow (the Beefheart fanzine, this time entitled 'Singing For Women') has just arrived through my letterbox, and it is wonderful. You don't need me to review it for you, just buy it and read it as soon as you can. Go this way for information about ordering it. Limited back issues are also available.

I've included a review from this month's Mojo for Bill Harkleroad's Lunar Notes book in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. This review bizarrely describes Beefheart as being an 'amateur human being'. However difficult to work with he may have been, I'm sure that no-one would consider his approach to life 'amateurish'. Or am I just being pedantic?

A quick reminder - you can win a signed copy of Lunar Notes here at The Radar Station, and we have a live chat with the author Zoot Horn Rollo coming up very soon on 6th December. For information about both these events, dive in here.

A mammoth update today. Two new articles are up in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. Firstly there is a piece about the banning of the Lick My Decals Off Baby television advertisment, entitled Metromedia Refuses To Air Captain Beefheart TV Commercial. You can download the advertisment in the audio visual section of Home Page Replica.

Secondly, there is a fascinating interview entitled Conversation With Captain Beefheart which shows a side to the Captain which many peolpe claim does not exist. In this interview he offers full credit to the Magic Band for the formation of the band and the part they played performing the music. He talks about the mistakes that he made which led to the break up of the Safe As Milk Magic Band, and talks about his regret over losing such a great band. He explains the change in the name from 'Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band' to 'Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band', "I'm just out there playing harmonica and singing. I'm in the group, rather than being Captain Beefheart with the group hiding behind the cape of the mystery man".

Just to tip the balance back again the other way he also heavily slates Zappa and Krasnow for "ruining" his albums. Nevertheless, this is an important interview which shows that Beefheart was/is capable of humility when discussing his extraordinary musical achievents.

I've added a few albums that were missing to the ex-Magic Band members section of the on-line Beefheart shop. Many thanks to Peter Warner for pointing these out to me. They all feature Eric Drew Feldman and include Frank Black, The Pixies and Snakefinger. If anyone notices anymore that are missing, please do let me know.

I have created a news-specific page to make it a little easier for less-regular visitors to find the information they are looking for, and to promote releases, events, publcations etc. relating to Don van Vliet / Captian Beefheart.

All news items will still continue to appear first here at Up Sifter, which will be updated much more frequently than the news page, so regular visitors might still want to look here first.

One other entertaining minor addition - on the suggestion of Radar Station visitor 'apes-ma' - the home page now contains a 'Don van Vliet Quote of the Moment' featuring one of Don's eminently quotable statements which will be changed every couple of weeks, and filed away in a 'dictionary of quotes' which will be created once enough have been gathered. Thanks to 'apes-ma' for this excellent idea.

The 'Garage Special' radio show appears to have gone down a treat, many thanks for everyone that has written in about this show. More themed specials are being planned for the future, expect a Krautrock show in two or three week's time, and a live Beefheart special sometime after that. Any other requests?

The latest edition of The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment is now available for your enjoyment, and this week we have something very special for you. Nearly one hour of some of the greatest psychedelic punk garage tunes to emerge in the mid/late 1960s. This stuff is simply amazing and I urge you all to give the show as many listens as you can over the next seven days before it is gone. It'll sound better each time you come back to it.

As ever, you must have the Real Player G2 to hear it. It's still free, and it still sounds fantastic. Get it here and now.

Carl Berger, who took the photographs of Don at his exhibition at Galerie Michael Werner, has sent me an excellent account of that day back in 1985 which you can find in Low Yo Yo Stuff entitled Don Van Vliet at the Gallerie Werner, Cologne, 5th May 1985. Many thanks to Carl for this piece.

Lee Kilpatrick has pointed out that I was missing the two French, Frith, Kaiser and Thompson albums from the Magic Band Members section of the On-Line Beefheart Shop, so I've now added them, thanks to Lee.

Beefheart / van Vliet fans residing in New York will probably already be aware that the Knoedler & Company Gallery are currently hosting a Don van Vliet exhibition entitled "New Work". The exhibition will run until 5th December 1998 and features paintings and drawings which have been completed within the last few months.

If you are in the area, get along to The Knoedler & Company Gallery, 19 East 70th Street, New York to see this (probably) unmissable spectacle. It is especially heartening to have this reminder that this is a living artist that we are all getting excited about here. Go along and see what he has been up to.

Many thanks to both Neato and Michael H for their invaluable information about this event, I hope to be able to get hold of more details very soon, and will naturally pass them on as soon as I can. Neato has written a report on the exhibition which you can read in The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian. If anyone has any more info or is able to provide either a copy of the information booklet which accompanies the exhibition, or scans of the paintings, then please get in contact.

This weekend you will be able to tune into the first special edition of The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment, as I am piecing together a 'garage' special featuring the very best of 60s psychedelic punk, including artists such as The Stoics, The Great Believers, Satori, Love, The Buckinghams, 13th Floor Elevators, Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, and of cource the Magic Band. If you have any fondness for this classic genre of music then make sure you have the RealPlayer G2 now and tune in any time next week from Saturday to hear the show in all its long-hair glory.

You can hear each week's edition at any time - why not listen to this week's now?

Some exciting news from Steve Froy - there is a new edition of the essential Beefheart fanzine Steal Softly Thru Snow available:

Out Late Nov '98. The latest & long overdue issue of the "one & only" FANZINE. Totally dedicated to preserving the memory of the 'legendary' CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND by devoting each 'meticulously researched' issue of our long running FANZlNE - STEAL SOFTLY THRU SNOW, to documenting in chronological order THE MAGIC BAND'S global musical legacy, preserved on glorious vinyl throughout the 60s, 70s and early 80s (& on into the 90s with their reissued metal counterparts!) and of course keeping you all updated on What's Shakin in VLIETLAND!

APOCALYPSO FANZINES has delved into each period of THE MAGIC BAND'S recording history in almost religious detail starting with Steal Softly Thru Snow #1 - "The A&M Days", and continued through to our seventh issue titled Steal Softly Thru Snow #7 - "Singin' For Women", which concerns itself with the recording period and album finally released in December 1972 titled "CLEAR SPOT". Our aim is to try and separate fact from fiction by talking to those that were there and to scour the many interviews and articles from this period to obtain this information. This time it was our great pleasure to meet DON'S trusty aide & sidekick; the one and only DRUMBO, who talked in depth of his time 'in & out' of The Magic Band and the True Story of the Recording of "TROUT MASK REPLICA".

In the wake of the BBC's 60min Documentary on DON VAN VLIET, titled "THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS CAPTAIN BEEFHEART", and the recent publication of "LUNAR NOTES" - ZOOT HORN ROLLO'S BOOK (...of memoirs of his BEEFHEART years) and forthcoming solo album, we've endeavoured to cover as much as possible of what has been happening over the period since our last issue... including the most amazing news yet - the scheduled March '99 release of a "5 CD Set" of "Live & Unreleased Recordings" from THE MAGIC BAND. So, especially those who do not have access to the INTERNET, and the extremely informative HOMEPAGEREPLICA, we are back, bigger & better than ever! Completely 'revamped' into its Original Stylish Format that you, our 'patient & faithful' Subscribers deserve! Anyone wishing to acquire the latest issue please write to the following address... Anyone with money outstanding will be dutifully credited and receive their issue... Fast `n Bulbous - Got Me?

* APOCALYPSO FANZINES, c/o 21 Windsor Avenue, Walthamstow, London, El7 5NA UK.

COST:- UK 3.50 UKPounds + 40p p&p EUROPE & ROW 3.50 UKPounds + l.50 UKPounds p&p (or 7.00 US Dollars + 3.00 US Dollars or 3 IRC.s p&p) Subscription for Next 3 Issues of "SSTS UK = 10.50 UKPounds + 1.20 UKPounds p&p. EUROPE /ROW = 10.50 UKPounds + 4.50 UKPounds p&p AIR MAIL (or 30.00 US Dollars)

This is good news indeed, if you haven't yet seen a copy of SSTS then this is the time to start. As far as I know there are no back issues available. If anyone has a spare copy of issue #6 and would like to trade for it, please let me know as I am missing this one. The above information will be permanently available on a news page in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

I've also updated the full statistics and top 150 pages for www.beefheart.com.

I've added the Magic Band members' section to the on-line shop, including Gary Lucas, John French, Mu, The Mystery Band, The Fraternity of Man, Jeff Moris Tepper, Eric Drew Feldman and Robert Williams. There are a few in there that I haven't yet got so I'm hoping to complete my collection as well.

Sadly amazon.com are not offering Robert's latest album Date With The Devil's Daughter, however you can order it through his own web-site which is listed on the links page.

I am aware that a few of the links from the Magic Band members' section to Justin's album information at Home Page Replica are currently broken, hopefully this will be put right soon.

Next up for the shop is a collection of artists regularly featured on The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment, and other particular favourites which may be of interest to the Beefheart fan.

We've got that little bit closer to the end of the overhaul today. The buttonbar to the left is more or less complete - do you like the new touches? At last the site is relatively colour co-ordinated. If there are any glaring mistakes, please let me know.

New up today: a very brief article written by Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in which he speaks about his love of the song Orange Claw Hammer entitled Voyage of Discovery which can be found with the music articles.

Also up is an item about the 1994 Brighton exhibition entitled Exhibitions. This can be found in the art articles section, as can a review of the Stand Up To be Discontinued book which was kindly sent to me by Arild - thankyou for that.

I've just got hold of a trial version of a log-analyser and so am able to offer the full statistics for this site, and also the top 100 pages for last week. I was very pleased to discover that the Radar Station is currently getting on average 381 seperate users per day - and that was during a week when it was off-line for a day and a half.

Many thanks for your support!

Well it all looks a bit different here, doesn't it? Gone is the tacky look of old, here is your new slicker and fitter Radar Station. There are still a few minor details that need correcting, mainly the odd graphic that needs touching up, but if you notice anything wrong at all, please let me know. There are well over 300 pages at The Radar Station (and we're still growing), so it is highly likely that a couple have passed me by. I hope you like the new look - I much prefer it.

Exciting news - I am able to confirm the date and time that Zoot Horn Rollo will be appearing in The Radar Station chat room to tell a few stories and answer a few of your questions. Get here early on 6th December for the chat which begins at 9pm GMT. During the chat session, Zoot will be announcing the winner of our competition to win a signed copy of his new book Lunar Notes. For full information head towards the ZHR Chat & Competition page.

New up today is the new edition of The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment.

Justin at Home Page Replica has an excellent new interview which he has just gleaned from John French. Head over there immediately if you haven't already read it.

Very briefly - as you can see we have a brand new set of buttons in the left hand frame. This is the first part of a site overhaul which will hopefully make it easier for you to find what you are looking for. As ever, any suggestions or your constructive thoughts on any problems with the site are most welcome.

You will very soon be able to download the Early Years bootleg from Filtered Thru Dust Speakers which Mike and I are currently working on (I told you he wasn't going away!). More news of this as soon as it is ready.

Next update won't be until this Saturday when the next edition of the Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment will be beaming out. See you then.

This is the day! The biggest update ever here at beefheart.com!

Firstly The Radar Station is very proud to have joined forces with Mike Shecket's Filtered Thru Dust Speakers which is now a permanent part of this site. As you may have read, Mike feels he is unable to continue to maintain the site so has handed it over to me. I have removed most of the tunes which are due for release on the Beefbox, added a few more of my own, and re-encoded and re-located the complete Copenhagen show which will hopefully resolve the problems that many of you have encountered with these files. Mike will still chip in with the occasional item for Filtered, so he hasn't gone away comlpetely.

I'm also very pleased to announce the Radar Station's newest feature; our on-line Beefheart shop, 'Unconditionally Guaranteed'. As of now you are able to buy every available Beefheart release, every Zappa release which features the Captain, and every available Beefheart book at this site. You will soon also be able to buy recordings by ex-Magic Band members and artists featured on The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment.

This service is made possible by amazon.com who offer The Radar Station a commission on every item sold through links from this site (whether Beefheart or not) at no extra charge to you. If you would like to support The Radar Station, please feel free to buy all your books and CDs through us. All profits (if there are any) will be ploughed back into the site, enabling us to keep on growing, improving and serving up more on your favourite dada-ist genius. Hopefully.

There are also five new paintings up in Run Paint Run Run, all very kindly sent to me by Michael Scott. Check out Night Nitrate, Pig Erases Statue In Passing and Ghost Gait, Ghost Gate from The 1985 Collection; and Sea Wig and Carp Catcher from The 1986 Collection. These were all taken from the Skeleton Breath Scorpion Blush book of 1987 which is now, sadly, unavailable. Many thanks to Michael for these, who also has a few more to send along.

There is also a new edition of The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment ready and waiting for you. As ever your comments are very welcome. It would appear that the new G2 encoder which offers near perfect sound produces RealAudio files that are only playable on the new G2 encoder. I will gradually be re-encoding all the Real Audio at The Radar Station to take advantage of this massive improvement in sound quality. If you haven't yet got the new G2 player, just get it now for free. Please.

Unfortunately the G2 encoder has not yet been released for the Mac, so Mac users will have to be patient for a while. Many apologies, though it's well worth waiting for.

Finally, a news item. Anton Corbijn's management are seriously considering releasing his excellent short film / interview "Some Yo Yo Stuff" from 1994 which stars Don, and any Beefheart fan would want to see this illuminating document. Corbijn's manager has promised to keep me updated with any progress which this release makes, and the whole thing sounds very hopeful.

Those of you interested in purchasing any prints of Corbijn's photographs of Don (and other subjects) should visit the site www.state.co.uk for more information. Be warned that they are not cheap.

Next update will hopefully come fairly soon, though the work at university is piling pretty high at the moment. This update has taken a lot of work - if you see any mistakes at all, please let me know as soon as you can so I can fix the problem. As yet there are no buttons for the left-hand frame for either Filtered or the new shop - I'll get this done as soon as I can. Many thanks.

Apologies to Cody Vandever at Woe Is Uh Me Bop. I have just received a message from him concerning his new shop, also through amazon.com. Perhaps I should have announced this two weeks ago when I started working on it to avoid these clashes. All the best Cody.

This week's instalment of The Tromblown Orchestra Radio Experiment is now beaming out, and it's the best yet (despite the complete lack of professionalism on my part). The sound quality is exceptional, I'm sure you will agree.

If you haven't already got it, or if you are still using RealPlayer 5, download the RealPlayer G2 which will offer near perfect sound quality. It is completely free - don't get confused with the RealPlayer Plus G2 which offers certain extra benefits that you have to pay for (though if you can afford it I would recommend forking out for this instead).

Henry Kaiser has informed me that he can't get the Ella Guru streaming audio file (see below) to work on his Mac. These files work perfectly on a PC, so if any other Mac users have problems or successes with the streaming audio on this site, please let me know.

Next update is coming on Saturday 31st October, and it'll be a big one - a new edition of the Tromblown Orchestra, the full incorporation of Filtered Thru Dust Speakers into the Radar Station, the addition of new paintings to the gallery and another brand new feature for the site which will be announced next week. Intrigued? See you then...

I know it was only yesterday when I said there would be no more updates for a couple of weeks, but I had some very exciting news today which I wanted to pass on immediately - the release date and track listing of the Revenant box set. For full information please head for the Box Set News page.

It's a killer, believe me.

I have also redone the streaming audio of the David Letterman Don van Vliet interview which you will find in ZigZag Wanderer, taking advantage of my new encoder (see below).

As you may have already heard, Filtered Thru Dust Speakers (the excellent rare Beefheart mp3 site) will sadly be no more from 1st November due to other commitments on the part of Mike Shecket who runs it. However, this will not be the end of the availability of the original Bat Chain Puller and Lick My Decals Off Baby (and all the others) on the net, as Mike has handed the complete site over to The Radar Station for safe keeping.

After 1st November you will be able to access a new section at The Radar Station, called 'Filtered Thru Dust Speakers', naturally, which will contain all of Mike's excellent mp3s and all the ones which are currently up at The Radar Station as well. I'm also planning to include a few more extra treats, and to shift the whole of the Copenhagen show, which many of you continue to have problems with, onto the www.beefheart.com server which should offer much more reliable downloads.

All this will obviously take quite a bit of work, so it is very unlikely that there will be any fresh updates here at The Radar Station until 1st November, with the exception of the Tromblown Orchestra broadcasts.

Those of you who regularly listen to streaming Real Audio on the internet will be well aware of the limitations which this medium suffers from; these limitations have affected the two Tromblown Orchestra shows up to date with low sound quality and the occasional buffer stop. However, I am very pleased to tell you that I have recently upgraded my encoder to make full use of the newly developed 'G2' RealAudio system. The next Tromblown Orchestra show will therefore be beamed to you in near-perfect sound quality, which I hope will greatly increase your enjoyment of the music. To take full advantage of these changes I would strongly recommend downloading the free RealPlayer G2 from the RealNetworks site.

To hear the really astonishing quality of these new audio streams, check out Ella Guru. Gone is the squelchy fuzzy sound, and yes, you can even hear the cymbals.

So - next update probably won't be until 1st November (apart from the Tromblown Orchestra broadcasts) but when it comes it'll be a whopper.

The Tromblown Orchestra has at last arrived. This is The Radar Station's new hour long web-cast featuring music from Beefheart and beyond. For full information, just follow the link. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

New up today is an article for ZigZag Wanderer entitled Beefheart's Baby in which Don talks about his creative urge.

If you like the picture which accompanies this article, you can download a version which I have re-sized for your desk-top by right clicking here and choosing 'Save Target As...' from the menu (also listed in ZigZag Wanderer). It probably looks best with a resolution of 1024 x 768, though it should look great for those using higher than that as well. Hope you like it.

- I have recently acquired the new Frank Zappa release "Mystery Disc" which contains a whopping 35 tunes including a very young Don van Vliet on "I Was A Teenage Maltshop" and the extrordinary "Metal Man Has Won His Wings", both making this an essential purchase for any Beefheart fan. Unfortunately it also contains a fair chunk of self-indulgent and uninteresting spoken word pieces, (some of which previously materialised on the Mothers' "Ahead of Their Time" CD), but that is what the skip button is for. The music, however, is fantastic. And you'll find this picture in the booklet as a special added bonus:

You are now able to order autographed copies of Bill Harkleroad's new book 'Lunar Notes' directly from him. Signed copies are $25 (U.S. currency only please). Send cash, check or money order (with your name and address) to:

Bill Harkleroad P.O. box 51106 Eugene OR. 97405 USA.

I'll be including a full report / review of the book here as soon as I've read the thing. I've been the proud owner of a copy for about one hour now, and I'm looking forward to diving in to it very much.

New at The Radar Station today:

A new article from 1975 in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy entitled Zappa and the Captain Cook which takes a look at Frank and Don's occasionally troubled friendship. Some of the comments contained in this article could help to explain the continued deterioration of their friendship after this point.

New in The Semi Multicoloured Caucasian is a small piece from a 1986 edition of NME announcing a then forthcoming art exhibition, entitled Beef Art.

I have also made a few small improvements to The Party Of Special Things To Do, the guide to both Beefheart and The Radar Station for the uninitiated.

A few new items today - firstly a new article for The Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian which is a review of Don's second exhibition at the Michael Werner Galley, entitled simply Don van Vliet at Michael Werner.

There is a new review from January 1981 for The Petrified Forest collection of live reviews (located in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy).

I have included another of George Bullfrog's excellent photographs which I accidentally left out when uploading them to Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

Also up is a new link to Fire Party member David Lang's new Beefheart pages - particularly interesting here are the pictures captured from videos of The Magic Band at various eras.

I've finally added a Frequently Asked Questions section which I hope will help out some of you, without having to wait for me to reply.

The Copenhagen show is now complete, with today's additions - Golden Birdies and Big Eyed Beans now available.

The Copenhagen show is nearing completion with Electricity being the latest addition. Many of you are still experiencing problems with these tunes, some finding that following the links to the files only fills their screen with meaningless code, while many others have been successfully downloading and enjoying the tunes. Again, if anyone has anything practical to suggest I would be very pleased to hear it. I should be getting a new encoder very soon and will re-do all the songs again with that. Hopefully we will have better luck then.

I've also added a few more sites to the links page, all environmental or political rather than musical. I hope they are useful to some of you.

I've made a few minor changes to The Rainbow Trout Replica (the new guestbook), and have also moved Cage Reservoir (the message board) from its previous dodgy server to the thoroughly sound beefheart.com.

Don't forget that if you have any general queries, items to sell or trade, or are looking for a particluar piece of Beefheart related memorabillia then Cage Reservoir is the place to advertise it - and it's completely free.

I've got the guestbook back up, this time without the crappy adverts and without the danger of being deleted for no reason, which is what happenned to the last one. Have a look at the new Rainbow Trout Replica and leave a message if you have something to say. I'm planning on hosting Cage Reservoir (the message board) myself as well, just in case that ends up getting mysteriously wiped. That's the next project.

Another new tune for the Copenhagen show - Poofter's Froth.

I am very pleased to inform you all that in approximately three weeks' time Bill Harkleroad aka Zoot Horn Rollo will be appearing in Yellow Yap for a chat with us all, to answer a few questions, tell a few stories and lay a few lunar notes on us.

Zoot has also very kindly offered an autographed copy of his new book, Lunar Notes, to The Radar Station to give away to one lucky reader in an exclusive competition. More details about both these events will be available at The Radar Station as soon as everything is confirmed.

Those of you who cannot wait that long can purchase copies of Lunar Notes here.

There is one more song available today for the Copenhagen show, which I have been informed by many of you are playing perfectly. Rhys has contacted me again to say that he has tried downloading the tunes again and they mostly work fine the second time around. Those of you that have had problems with these (and a few have), please do try again as it is worth it. Many thanks to everyone who has contacted me about this, your feedback is very much appreciated.

There is a new review up in The Floppy Boot Stomp review section for Shiny Beast, entitled 'Captain Beefheart Takes Up Cudgel Against Catatonia, Enlists Brave Shiny Beast' and if anyone can explain that title to me then gratitude will be forthcoming.

Also up are two more tunes from the Copenhagen show, including the awesome Alice In Blunderland.

I have received a couple of messages from people who have downloaded the tunes and found them to be badly corrupted and unlistenable. If any of you could give me some more feedback about them I would be extremely grateful. Rhys Davies wrote:

I downloaded a couple of the Copenhagen mp3's - Moonlight and When it Blows it's Stacks, and they both seem corrupted. All my other MP3s work fine, and I even got the latest version of WinAmp, to be on the safe side, but they squeak and skip like a malfunctioning CD player, with VERY LOUD SOUND SPIKES coming through the speakers. I can just about make out the magic band in the background, but I reckon something is up with your new encoding software....

Has this happenned to you? Do you know a solution? Have they worked for you? We are both using the same mp3 player - Winamp 1.92 yet mine play absolutely fine. I'd be very grateful for any help on this. Many thanks.

George Bullfrog has sent me a fantastic set of photographs which he took of the Magic Band on stage in 1970 in Albuquerque. If anyone is interested in purchasing prints of these photographs, let me know and I'll pass your messages on to George. Many thanks to George for sending me these pictures which you can find in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy.

A couple more tunes are up today for the Copenhagen show.

Bill Harkleroad aka Zoot Horn Rollo has a new website which I've just learned about from Home Page Replica and included in the links section.

I'm beginning to upload another Magic Band show today, available in Gimmie Dat Harp Boy. This time from Copenhagen on Hallowe'en night, 1975. The quality is our best ever (96 kbs) and the music is awesome. The Magic Band are really going for it all out, but the Captain is something else altogether. He seems intent on ripping out his vocal chords for all to see; it's truly terrifying - how they can take the strain I can't imagine.

I'll be uploading a couple of songs every couple of days until the show is complete. These files are much bigger than usual, download times will be between 10 and 15 minutes for most songs. Many thanks to Steve Froy for providing the tape which they came from.

Thanks to David Naughton who pointed me in the direction of a decent mp3 encoder I am now able to make better quality mp3s. I'm working my way through all the Tom Waits tunes at The Radar Station's sister site - Harry's Harbour Bizarre first, and then will get to work on the Beefheart tunes on this site, apart from those few which are readily available on the albums. If you want to hear those properly, just go and buy the albums.

Expect The Radar Station to be beaming out much crisper versions of the few live shows that we have up. I'm planning to feature a few more in the future as well.

Only a brief update today - a new item for Low Yo Yo Stuff written by Dominic Schaeffer entitled 'Swampy Beefy Throbbing Goodness'.

I'm getting closer to the first installment of The Radar Station's weekly live webcast. The Tromblown Orchestra will be mixing it up on a Sunday evening soon at 9pm GMT. Download your free Real Player now to get ready for the show. There are numerous treats in store, including Beefheart favourites, rarities and complete Magic Band live shows, though we will not be restricting ourselves purely to the output of the Captain. Expect live sets from the Beefheart-inspired, varied tunes from my record collection which I think any Beefheart fan should hear, some live mixing, requests, dedications, and much more. We will be serving up anything from Krautrock to trip-hop, from country blues to psychedelic punk, from glambient to hip-hop, from the fried to the completely frazzled. All delivered to your ears with a healthy dose of complete incompetance and total lack of professionality. It's on it's way, don't miss it.

As soon as I'm able to set the fist date you'll find information about it on this page. To check the times in your time zone, head to the Time Zone Coverter, converting from 9pm GMT.

Apologies for the lack of updates, I have spent the last week wrestling with my computer following a severe crash. I've had to wipe it clean, re-install Windows and re-install everything else which I needed. Fortunately I didn't loose too much, apart from a few days of daylight. I've been unable to get my ftp software working properly until now, so at last The Radar Station is back in action.

There is a new update for the Beefbox News page, featuring an appeal from Dean for certain tracks which have proved hard to find. If you are able to help out, please drop him a line. You'll find his e-mail address along with full information about this release at the Beefbox News page. Also up is an article about Revenant entitled Resurrection Shuffle from April 1998's Spin magazine.

It has recently been suggested to me that I should be doing more to encourage dialogue between visitors to this site. We already have a chatroom, discussion list, message board and guestbook (currently out of action but back soon), it was difficult to imagine what more was needed. However I have recently discovered the joys of ICQ which is a small piece of software available free from www.icq.com which informs users who is online at the same time, out of their online friends and acquaintances. Users can then send messages directly to their friend's screens, request a chat, or whatever they have in mind. I am planning to compile a list of visitor's ICQ numbers to enable much easier contact with other Beefheart fans. If anyone is interested in joining this list, go to www.icq.com, download the software for free, and then send me your ICQ number to include on the list.

You will notice that I have included my ICQ number, 18222705, and online-status near the bottom of the frame to the left hand of the screen. Simply click it to page me with your ICQ number.

I have received a message from someone wanting to sell an original Don van Vliet painting entitled 'Rocket To The Moon' from 1962, signed 'Don Vliet'. If anyone is genuinely interested, please contact me while I check this out. If anyone has any more information about this painting, please do send it along.