While continuing the site overhaul, I've greatly improved the search facilities here at the Radar Station. This was partly done by paying what is (for me) a considerable amount of money to rid the pages of advertising and irrelevant info from sponsors.

It's a vast improvement - you no longer have to wade through a mountain of rubbish proudly proclaiming "Lowest Prices on Captain Beefheart's wedding at DealTime," to quote but one absurd example.

If regular visitors are able to support this move by continuing to place orders with Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk through the links at the Radar Station then I stand a chance of being able to spend some more money to improve the site in other ways in the future. Your support is very gratefully received and ultimately benefits the site and all its visitors. Clearly this will never be a profitable venture, but you can help it to partly pay for itself.

Anyway, back to the search improvements - discussion list messages featured in the list archive will no longer show up in the search results. If you're looking for a specific article or topic at the Radar Station, it will now be vastly easier to find it.

Discussion list messages can be searched independently of the rest of the site by using the search box on the main discussion list page. At the moment this facility still contains advertising a-plenty, but I'm working on getting rid of that as well.

Finally, you can now monitor any page of your choice that appears in the search results by clicking on the 'Monitor page' link. This will open up a pop up window in which you enter your e-mail address. Then, whenever the page is updated, you will receive a notification by e-mail.

The most useful option would be to monitor this page which you can do simply by clicking on the link. Then, whenever any news or site updates appear, you will receive a single message to alert you.

I hope these changes and new features are useful.

Continuing on from my ruminations yesterday about the legitimacy of Dust Sucker and the somewhat convoluted explanations offered by the record company involved (see below for details), I've had a message from Andy Bean who has a promo of Dust Sucker:

Sounded highly dubious to me. I compared 'Dust Sucker' with the various versions of 'BCP' I have access to, and it sounds like the same recordings to me. Combined with the fact that they've swiped the bonus tracks from other sources, I think they protest too much.

You may think things have been quiet here at the Radar Station, but I've been gradually working my way through the overhaul and actually doing far more work on the site than I have in ages. There's still tonnes left to do, so please be patient if these more visible updates get overlooked for a while.

The main reason for this update is to announce that an exclusive article, Captain Beefheart's Wedding, by Mike Bugbee is now available. It tells the story of how Mike came to be one of three attendees at Don and Jan's wedding along with Bill Harkleroad. It's an essential read. Many thanks indeed to Mike for taking the time to write this fabulously entertaining account.

The new Beefheart bootleg release from Ozit Records, Dust Sucker, continues to mildly appal and intrigue me. Apparently they have decided to employ the dubious talents of Ken Brooks (author of the factually and intellectually challenged Tin Teardrop, commonly regarded as the worst book ever written about Beefheart) to provide the sleeve notes which is a bizarre / ominous choice indeed. See Andy Bean's comments in the Fire Party list archive about the promo CD.

It seems their claims of it being mastered from 'the Captain's own tape' may actually be true - even if it does misleadingly imply that this is an official release of the masters currently owned by the Zappa estate which remain unreleased at Don's request.

Arthur de Smet kindly sent along a link to Ozit's side of the story. If I understand this account correctly, and it may be that I don't, Dust Sucker contains an earlier version of Bat Chain Puller than the one held by the Zappa Estate. It also claims that Roger Eagle was given a copy of the tape by Don in 1976, and then given permission to release the tape by Don in 1980. Their story is so convoluted and strange that it's impossible to pass any comment on it at the moment.

Despite my (and just about everyone else's) scorn about this project, I can't help but await its release with some eagerness. If it is a different version of Bat Chain Puller from the ones circulated in the past, I'll be very interested to hear it indeed, even if it is a shoddily put together package.

I've recently bought a small amount of web space and bandwidth to bring the remaining audio interviews and video files back online. Don't forget that if you have a small amount of free web space that comes with your Internet connection account, it could be put to good use here at the Radar Station to bring more rare and unreleased audio files back online.

There's a new article in the visitors' stories and tributes section - Paramount Theatre, Portland, Oregon, 1970 - in which Melvin de Snoids recounts his live exposure to Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band in 1970.

Anthony Leedale has sent along some info about an up-coming Beefheart event in Newcastle, UK:

It's the blimp.....

The live and inspired celebration of FRANK ZAPPA & CAPTAIN BEEFHEART.

SAT 30th March 7.00 - 12.30 am @ The Cluny, Lime Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Tickets £6.50

Artists include - Satsuma, Deaf Ed Jeferson & Friends, Belly Rub, The Bulbs, Guessmen, The Hounds, The Baghdaddies, Beef Art, Hypnotic Pig Syndrome, Nil Recordings, DJ Nicky the Pimp, MC Chris Moyer, Blimp Raffle and Music Stalls.

The Mother Ship Returns!!

I've also been slotting in some trivia items to the lyrics pages, mostly thanks to the efforts of Derek Laskie. See Orange Claw Hammer for a prime example. If you have any trivia items or pick up on any Beefheart lyric references in the real world please do send them along.

I've added a few more articles to Clicks and Klangs' new home here at the Radar Station.

Firstly the entire series so far of Colin B. Morton's regular column, Welsh Psycho: Extracts from The Teenage Diary Of Colin B. Morton is now available. This is many people's favourite part of Clicks and Klangs and makes a damn funny read, unless you happen to be Phil Collins in which case you may be tempted to sue.

Also newly available at Clicks and Klangs' new home is Paul Donnely's Blue Notes and Brotherhood: The Legacy of Chris McGregor, The Blue Notes and Brotherhood Of Breath, and Simon Smith's Clark Hutchinson – an appreciation.

Much more to come over the next few weeks.

Rob van der Kroef has very kindly sent along a translation of the telephone conversation that Don recently had with Bongo from U2 which was published in the December 2001 edition of Oor magazine in Dutch.

Although the text has been translated from English to Dutch and then back again it doesn't appear to have suffered too much during the process. Mind you, only listening to the original tape would indicate how far the text has wandered (and if any one can oblige I'd be very grateful!).

I have to voice my surprise at this unlikely coupling (I mean... Bono?), and also my great pleasure at seeing Don's characteristic wit and humour intact. Despite all the reports, rumours and worst fears - Don still seems to be... Don.

I've had a little information about the legitimacy of the forthcoming release of the Original Bat Chain Puller entitled Dust Sucker. Jeff Economy recently posted to the Fire Party about his conversations with Gail Zappa about Bat Chain Puller in which she explained her reluctance to release it. You can read Jeff's full message in the list archive.

You can now order Dust Sucker from Amazon.co.uk should you so decide.

A review for last weekend's Captain Beefheart Project at the Knitting Factory appeared in Thursday's New York Times and the following review appeared on Variety on the 9th February:

Beefheart tribute appropriately chaotic Reuters Feb 14 2002 3:10AM

NEW YORK (Variety) - For the 1-1/2 decades that he spent as a recording artist, Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) was avant-rock's most iconoclastic figure. He fused surrealism with situationist thought, infuriating many and entrancing a cult following that would continue to pine for new work long after he left the musical world -- and a burgeoning career as a fine artist, due to physical infirmity. Guitarist Gary Lucas, who played in the last edition of Beefheart's Magic Band, and former Microscopic Septet leader Philip Johnston spent several months putting together the Beefheart Project (and the Fast and Bulbous band that headlined this gig).

Sensibly deciding to take an all-instrumental tack - Beefheart's multioctave growl being all but impossible to replicate -- the septet reconfigured the material for a brass-centric universe and set sail. At first, it seemed as if the ensemble would fall far short of the mark it had set for itself. The septet limped through a version of "Fast and Bulbous" that was distinctly slow and smooth, devoid of rough edges -- as was a rendition of "Pachuco Cadaver" that owed as much to Blood, Sweat and Tears as to the Magic Band. But then, as if by magic, the musicians began to grow fractious and obstreperous, with the horn players tugging in opposite directions from the core of "Abba Zaba," chattering and arguing like squirrels engaged in a turf battle. That sound, at once grating and charmingly nature-rooted, would've made Beefheart proud. The same could be said for the band's deconstruction of "When Big Joan Sets Up" (a piece that's loopy even by Beefheart standards): Braying, giggling and cajoling brass elements - and wiry contributions from a slyly grinning Lucas - converged, creating a veritable carnival midway onstage.

Then again, the principals didn't exactly make it easy on themselves, choosing to precede their performance with 90 or so minutes of rare film footage of the Captain himself. The video program went back as far as a lip-sync segment on "Where the Action Is" (on which Beefheart was surrounded by frugging beach bunnies), but focused on wildly intense live footage that cast Van Vliet as one part shaman and one part slapstick comedian. Mike Barnes, whose simply titled bio "Captain Beefheart" has just been released by Cooper Square Books, read passages from the tome between Lucas' solo essays on Beefheart compositions.

Presented inhouse. Band: Gary Lucas, Philip Johnston, Joe Fiedler, Rob Henke, Dave Sewelson, Jesse Krakow, Richard Dworkin. Reviewed Feb. 9, 2002. Reuters/Variety

It seems Fast 'n Bulbous are not going to put back in their polyethylene bag for long. I've just had the following from Gary Lucas:

Fast 'n Bulbous will perform at Tonic here in the East Village [New York] on Friday March 15th at 8 and 10pm - the show went so well at the Knitting Factory last Saturday that we've been besieged by requests for a followup show...so here 'tis (wish we could bring Mike Barnes back over for this one!)

Excellent news!

Radar Station visitor Kevin has very kindly made good use some of his free web space and uploaded a couple of the files that used to sit on the Radar Station's server before our bandwidth drought hit us hard. Thanks to his generosity you can now view the "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" and "This Is The Day" videos again. See the video index for the necessary links.

Can anyone else follow suit? If you have a few megabytes of space not being used, you could put it to excellent use and donate it to the Radar Station. You wouldn't have to disclose any of your log-in details to me unless you wanted to - you could merely upload a file, send me the link and I'll list it on the site. Please let me know if you can help out.

I've had a message from Borin Van Loon to let me know that he is now selling prints of his Beefheart illustration for Sun Zoom Spark magazine. If you are interested in getting a copy, you'll find full purchase details with the illustration at the link above.

I've received a second report about Saturday's Captain Beefheart Project at the Knitting Factory from Steven Beeber:

Just wanted to say I attended the Knitting Factory show and "Fast 'n' Bulbous" (or is that "Fast and Bulbous"? Or "Fast & Bulbous"?) was great. Not only was Gary Lucas his usual virtuoso self, but his brass-heavy band (trombone, trumpet, alto sax and bass sax joining guitar, drums and bass) really brought out the jazzier side of the Beefheart compositions.

The first piece, "Pachuco Cadaver" was especially revealing, as was its follow-up "When Big Joan Sets Up" - especially considering the fact Lucas introduced the latter as "the Rosetta Stone of Beefheartiana." The medley of "Click Clack" and "Ice Cream for Crow" was also great, and like "Big Joan" emphasised the jazz/horn aspect of Beefheart's sound by incorporating brief snippets of the "Mike Gunn" theme. Other highlights were "Suction Prints, "When It Blows Its Stacks" and a brief snippet of "Golden Birdies" (those pantaloon ducks to be specific).

Lucas also made a sentimental reference to Zappa by playing a couple of his numbers ("King Kong" was wildly atmospheric, while "Willie the Pimp" had a nice groove). As he said, (referring to the documentary shown beforehand, in which Zappa is described as a second rate Vliet at best), "I felt so bad seeing him in the film." All in all, a really fun and inspiring evening. PS Lucas is talking about putting out an album with the new band. If anyone has any pull with producers, demand that it be recorded and released today!

Many thanks to Steven for passing on his thoughts.

Thanks also to those of you who have passed along your comments about the site face-lift that I'm currently working my way through. There's masses left to do, but I'm very pleased that you seem to think it's worth it. Cheers.

I tuned in to last night's Captain Beefheart Project web cast but couldn't get any sound at all unfortunately - I guess they didn't manage to get their technical problems fully sorted out after all which was a pity - did anyone else get to hear anything from the web cast? It was a bit of a tease to see Mike on-stage doing his reading without having a clue what he was saying or how it was going. I'm sure it went well.

Don Trubey sent along the following comments about the evening:

I just got home from the Knitting Factory (here in NYC) where Gary Lucas hosted an evening of BeefArt. (I heard that the show sold out minutes after it started, so the place was packed to the rafters with enthusiastic Beefheads. Glad I got my tix last week.)

First, Lucas showed some rare videos, "The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart" by Elaine Sheppard, and "Low Yo Yo Stuff" by Anton Corbijn.

Then, Mike Barnes read some excerpts from his Beefheart biography, interspersed with "Sure 'Nuff n' Yes I Do" and "Evening Bell" by Lucas.

Then, more videos, some of which I'd seen at your site and in the Grow Fins boxed set, some I'd never seen, like a couple ("Who Do You Think You're Fooling?" and "Diddy Wah Diddy") from a '60's American music show called Where The Action Is.

Then, the evening was capped with Fast 'N Bulbous, a seven-piece ensemble featuring Lucas and saxophonist/arranger Phillip Johnston. They played fine, jazzy instrumental versions of "Pachuco Cadaver," "Abba Zaba," "When Big Joan Sets Up," "A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets to A Diamond" (bass solo), "Click Clack" (power trio), "When I See Mommy, I Feel Like A Mummy," "Veteran's Day Poppy," "The Blimp (with Johnston as manic narrator)," and, of course, "Suction Prints (really fantastic!)." Then, "Tropical Hot Dog Night" as the encore.

A grand time was had by all.

Mike will be doing a guest DJ slot on New York radio station WNYU on Monday evening which you can listen to at www.wnyu.org/plastictales. Apparently he'll be playing some rare Beefheart and whatever else tickles his fancy between the hours of 9 and 10.30 (EST) / 2 and 3.30 (GMT).

I've been sent some exciting news about a release of Bat Chain Puller which claims to be legitimate, though I want to do a bit more research into that before I pass comment. Bat Chain Puller is about to be released by Ozit, the same company who produced Merseytrout (Live In Liverpool 1980).

Captain Beefheart Dust Sucker (inc. Bat Chain Puller) Available 18th March

This CD includes the 12 tracks from the Captain's own tape of the original Bat Chain Puller album. You will never have heard these tracks in this quality. When Mojo magazine did a feature recently on classic lost albums, this album was part of the feature. There are a further 7 extra tracks including 5 live recordings of tracks from Bat Chain Puller plus a version of "Well Well Well" featuring Rockette Morton, and a live festival performance of "My Human Gets Me Blues". The first 4000 copies (this isn't many world-wide) will feature a limited sleeve. This 19-track CD is 70 minutes long and is made in the UK.

Tracks: Bat Chain Puller . Seam Crooked Sam . Harry Irene . 81 Poop Hatch . Flavor Bud Living . Brick Bat . Floppy Boot Stomp . A Carrot Is As Close To A Diamond As A Rabbit Ever Gets . Owed T'Alex . Odd Jobs . 101th Of The Human Totem Pole . Apes Ma . Bat Chain Puller. Harry Irene . Flavor Bud Living . Owed T'Alex . Well Well Well . My Human Gets Me Blues.

The obvious mistakes with several of the track names instantly make me very suspicious indeed about their claims that this is a legitimate release. I'll pass on more info as I get it.

In a hasty about-turn from yesterday, it seems the Captain Beefheart Project will be web cast after all. Mike Barnes has just contacted me to let me know that it has just been confirmed. Head along to The Knitting Factory web site at 9pm EST (2am GMT) for Mike's reading and 10.45pm EST (3.45am GMT) for Gary Lucas and Philip Johnston's performance.

More information and further u-turns will be posted as soon as I have them. Meanwhile, the gradual overhaul of the site continues...

Congratulations to Phillip who won the free pair of tickets in our recent give-away for this Saturday's Captain Beefheart Project special event in New York at the Knitting Factory. Enjoy your evening!

Many thanks to everyone who entered. Even if you didn't win but still plan to go, please do drop me a line to let me know what it was like. I'd love to be there.

I recently received a message from Paolo at the Knitting Factory to say that they have had some problems with their web-streams, so unfortunately the show won't be broadcast live on the Internet. Your only chance to see it is in person - don't miss out.

Blimey. What I had intended to be a simple merger of information from Clicks and Klangs has turned into a considerably bigger project, including a much-needed facelift and reshuffle of the two-and-a-half-thousand files available at the Radar Station. Needless to say, it isn't complete yet by any means and probably won't be finished for a couple of months at least.

Over that time you can expect to find some wild inconsistensies across the pages but hopefully not too many other problems. Please do let me know if you spot any bigger problems than this such as missing files and broken links. Many thanks. I'm aware that it currently all looks like crap in Netscape 4 (and a bit dodgy in Netscape 6) but will be working on smoothing that out as soon as possible. Apologies to Netscape users will have to suffice for the time being.

So far I've integrated the links directory and radio show from Clicks and Klangs and posted one interview, with Jim O'Rourke.

Regular visitors should not worry that the Radar Station is moving away from Beefheart - it isn't. We just have one new section which covers other artists. The main focus of this site will always be the music and art of Don Van Vliet.

Competition: (now closed)

The people at the Knitting Factory in New York have very kindly offered one lucky Radar Station visitor a pair of tickets for the Captain Beefheart Project which takes place next Saturday (9th, see panel above for full info).

If you would like to have a go at winning them, just send me an e-mail with your full name and address before 8pm GMT on Tuesday 5th February 2002. The first name pulled out of the trout mask will win one pair of tickets to the show.

Please, only enter if you can make it to New York on Saturday 9th February.

Hopefully I'll get some new material on line soon but most of my spare time is currently taken up with the site's facelift. I hope you like the changes - your comments are very welcome.

A quick update about The Captain Beefheart Project evening coming up in New York. The show will now be starting an hour earlier at 8pm to give time for further screenings of rare Beefheart videos. The programme is expected to run roughly as follows:

8pm - rare Beefheart videos 9pm - reading by Mike Barnes from new US bio, interspersed with some solo guitar from Gary 9:30pm - more rare Beefheart videos 10:30pm - US debut of Fast 'n Bulbous

The evening will end at around midnight after four hours of solid Captain Beefheart-related entertainment. Get along to it if you can.

Those of you who missed Brian Turner's Captain Beefheart tribute on his WFMU radio show last week will be pleased to know that they can listen to an archived version of the show at the WFMU site and view the playlist as well. If you haven't heard the show yet, I'd highly recommend that you give it a listen - the Gary Lucas interview is excellent. Gary talks for over an hour about how he first got into Beefheart, met Don, joined the band and became the Magic Band's manager. It's fascinating stuff.

It may be that I appear to have gone quiet again over the next couple of weeks as I'm in the process of merging my other web site (www.clicks-and-klangs.com) with this one and am doing a fair bit of work in the background to make it possible.

This seems like a good idea to me as I'm well aware that I've been spreading myself a bit thin between the two sites since I started full-time work, so, instead of having two sites, I'm going to combine them into one unstoppable force for all things fascinating. Hopefully.

Regular visitors to the Radar Station hopefully won't be traumatised by too many changes, and will merely notice the addition of a new section and some extra material. Clicks and Klangs will become a new segment of the Radar Station featuring original writing on a range of adventurous music - some Beefheart-related, some not.

I'll keep you updated with how things are progressing, I hope you enjoy the changes.

A few new additions have been made to the paintings gallery, thanks to Detlef' Juergens' tireless work scanning and sending missing paintings.

From 1987 there's "The Shiny Beast of Thought", "Zebra Bees" ("one of the best paintings from Don Van Vliet ever!" says Detlef), "Treed But Not Crow" and "Tinkling Like Mercury In The Wind".

Detlef also sent along a few corrections to some mistakes / omissions from the picture index which have now been remedied - "Cinnamon Chops" and "White Crepe Boat" are now displayed at the correct rotation! Sometimes you just can't tell...

Steve Froy has also uploaded a mountain of information about various Beefheart bootleg releases to the discography. I was startled to see just how much this section has grown recently, continued appreciation to Steve for all his help.

One final reminder to listen to WFMU tomorrow for the DVV birthday special. I've just had a message from the host, Brian Turner, outlining what will be happening:

WFMU Freeform Radio, Jersey City, NJ 91.1 fm/90.1 fm, streaming (and archiving) at www.wfmu.org

Captain Beefheart's Birthday Tuesday, January 15th, 4pm - 6pm on Brian Turner's show Join in for two hours of musical melange of Don Van Vliet's music through the years, saluting the Captain on his 61st. NYC guitarist Gary Lucas, who played in and managed Beefheart's early 80's Magic Band, will also be stopping by to tell some stories and talk up the forthcoming Captain Beefheart Project, a 7-piece band paying tribute on February 9th at the Knitting Factory.

It sounds like it would be rather foolish to miss it! I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Don an early happy 61st birthday for tomorrow.

I've been doing some work on the paintings and art info archives and have finally cleared a few things from the backlog.

I've put up a small collection of items relating to two exhibitions from last year - the Lowe Gallery exhibition in Atlanta and the Paintings from the Eighties exhibition in New York. Many thanks to Brainpang for sending along the very inviting invitation to the Paintings from the Eighties exhibition. Unfortunately I have no record of who sent me the other items but many thanks to them as well, whoever they are.

I received a message from the associate director of the Michael Werner Gallery with some updates on their contact details and the availability of some items which are now detailed on the purchase paintings info page.

Some of the audio interviews that had come back online ever since the Radar Station's bandwidth crisis of however long ago it is now, have now gone off-line again, I'm sorry to say. As ever, if you can help out with some web space, please do let me know - even just a few megabytes would put some files back online.

Another chunk of Frank Zappa's Grunt People script is now online, with still more to follow soon.

Understandably, everyone round these parts seems to be talking about an item in the Christmas special of Dutch music magazine Oor in which Don has a telephone conversation / interview with Bongo from U2 which took place in late 2001. I'm hoping to get a complete transcript up here very soon, however this will have been translated from English to Dutch and then back to English again which could lead to some deviations from what was actually said. If anyone can provide an accurate transcript in English I'd be very grateful.

Finally, don't forget that Tuesday is Don's 61st birthday which will be marked by a special show by Brian Turner on WFMU from 4 - 6 PM, EST (9 - 11pm GMT, see The Timezone Converter for other areas).

Hello again. Yet again, things have been quiet here at the Radar Station for some time while Christmas got in the way, as it tends to do. I hope all Radar Station visitors had a pleasant holiday and I would like to thank you all for your continuing support and to wish you the best for this new year.

Some exciting news has recently come in. An event is planned in New York on Saturday 9th February to mark the US publication of Mike Barnes' superb Captain Beefheart biography:

The Captain Beefheart Project

The Knitting Factory, MainSpace, 1 show 9pm, $15 Saturday February 9th

Fresh from their debut European tour, the US premiere of Fast 'N Bulbous, the 7- piece Captain Beefheart instrumental tribute band, featuring Gary Lucas, arranged and conducted by Phillip Johnston plus rare Beefheart video footage, including clips of all phases of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band plus a reading from Mike Barnes' celebrated new "Captain Beefheart" biography by the author himself (soon to be published in America by Cooper Square Press).

This is splendid news about an unmissable event if you're in the area. Gary Lucas is also playing solo at the Knitting Factory on Saturday 19th January. For more information, please visit the Knitting Factory's web site.

Full info about the long-awaited US publication of Mike's book will follow.

WFMU, possibly the greatest radio station in the world, are planning a special edition of Brian Turner's show to mark Don Van Vliet's 61st birthday:

Celebrate Captain Beefheart's 61st Birthday on Tuesday, 15th January.

From 4 - 6 PM, EST, on Brian Turner's show. Join in for two hours of musical melange of Don Van Vliet's music through the years, saluting the Captain on his birthday.

Listeners in the UK should tune in between 9 and 11 pm to catch the show. You can find help at The Timezone Converter. Full details of listening over the Internet can be found at the WFMU web site. Broadband users can listen to a 128kbps stereo stream and all other access speeds are catered for as well.

Gary Marker has passed on some excellent notes on the lyrics for Abba Zaba, and also some final corrections to the lyrics themselves. At last! A definitive version of a Beefheart song in the lyric archive! Many thanks to Gary for this.

The concert flyers and posters section has a few new additions: William has sent along some huge scans of three Family Dog posters advertising Magic Band gigs from 1967. Stephen Kroninger has contributed a huge scan of the poster from the 28th November 1980 gig at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. This is now available on the same page as his scan of the flyer for this gig which he sent along some time ago. Many thanks to both William and Stephen for these items.

Mark Taylor sent em a tip-off about a piece in The Guardian about Gary Lucas' latest project, The Du-tells, in which he talks about his time with Captain Beefheart:

"My mission in life was to tell people what he a genius he was, but he's a mind-fucker par excellence. We all have demons, but his could get pretty pronounced. He'd use them as a crutch to be ultra-abusive. I still love him, but I'm aware of the monster side. I'm not really inclined to call him up. I gave enough blood in that area, but I've memories to last a lifetime."

You can read the whole article at The Guardian website.

Also from the Guardian is a review for Rudy Vanderlans' very pleasing Cucamonga book of photographs of Beefheart-related locations and an accompanying CD featuring tunes by John French, Gary Lucas and Bill Harkleroad.

More from The Grunt People script very soon.

There is now one more question from John French's excellent Burundo Drumbi series online, in which Jarkko Nevalainen asks about Jeff Moris Tepper.

William has kindly sent along a promo photo of Don for 1982's Ice Cream For Crow which you can find in the newly reorganised music-related pictures section.

Mark Saucier has sent along his notes / interpretation of the song Moonlight on Vermont which make an excellent read and I've added them to the lyrics archive. Bob DeBorculo has also kindly sent along a few notes about Bellerin' Plain. If anyone else would like to have a go at writing an interpretation of any Beefheart song which interests them, I'd be very pleased to feature it here. I'm keen to flesh out the lyrics archive with entertaining and illuminating information rather than just feature reproductions of the lyrics. If you have anything that you think I should add, please do send it along.

Sequence #9 for the ..Grunt People script is now available.

As are a few extra snaps from Rik Walton, taken in 1974. Some time ago Rik gave us permission to include some thumbnails of his excellent photographs (prints of which are for sale at his website) and has since dug out a few more.

Respect to Michael Karoli, guitarist with Can, who died yesterday morning.

Thanks for your patience and for still visiting / supporting the Radar Station, even though things seemed to go completely silent here for nearly two months. Having been alternating between laziness, news-addiction, working on getting Clicks and Klangs up and running again and sifting and sorting seemingly endless computer problems, I've ignored the Radar Station for far too long.

In addition to my general uselessness, the Radar Station's news editor Rob has been away in the South Pacific for three months. Fortunately discographer Steve hasn't - he's been working hard on the discography which is gradually expanding and expanding. The covers section continues to develop (including a page about the Swedish tribute band) as does the Magic Band members' releases (including a trawl through some of Jimmy Carl Black's many releases) and he's made a good start on the bootlegs as well. As Steve says, sorting all this stuff out is "a bit like picking at a scab" but he's doing a marvellous job. I'd like to thank him again for all his work.

I've added several more pages to the Grunt People script, with more to come. There are still a few more of John French / Drumbo's questions and answers to come, but these last few need to be dug out of various e-mails and pieced together so they aren't quite ready yet.

Zoot Horn Rollo was due to be interviewed this evening on The Big Note but it has been postponed at the last minute, sadly. Keep your eyes on their site for details. The show is worth listening to anyway - described by its host as containing "choice selections from The Fugs, Captain Beefheart, Edgard Varese, Stockhausen, Mike Keneally, Stravinsky, The Residents, Renaldo and the Loaf, John Cage, Pierre Boulez, Wild Man Fischer, The Persuasions, Mats and Morgan and Anton Webern" it's certainly worth checking out - Zoot or no Zoot.

I still haven't written a review for Zoot's new CD - not due to disinterest as it is really rather good, merely lack of time. If you haven't yet done so, you can order it at Zoot's site.

Still no sign of the vinyl Grow Fins volume 3 (as far as I know - I haven't found it anywhere and nobody seems to know much about it). If you haven any real news about this, please do pass it on.

However, another keenly hunted item - Captain Beefheart T-shirts - are now available at The Garage - two of them, in fact! The Mirror Man T-shirt looks especially good, but the Trout Mask Replica T-shirt is, bizarrely, treated to a 'colour by numbers' effect which I don't quite understand. Whatever, I'm sure these will both please the huge number of people who have written to me asking where they can get Beefheart T-shirts from. I must admit that I find this one equally tempting. Many thanks indeed to Emily Booth for the tip off.

More is, as ever, on its way. I have a fairly large backlog to work my way through. Serves me right.

I'm sorry about the delay in continuing the features gradually being unrolled at the Radar Station. I've been having ever-continuing computer problems with my relatively new computer (faulty memory) and have been battling to keep the swine running. It seems the time has come to send it back and get it repaired, as soon as I've backed everything up, so there may be more delays with site updates over the next few weeks. Alternatively, there may not.

New up today are a few more questions and answers in the Burundo Drumbi! series of John French's answers to Radar Station visitors' questions. And there are still a few more to come...

Also, the second batch of scans of the Captain Beefheart Vs The Grunt People script, picking up where it left off last time at page 12. Please note, one page (number 13, ominously) is missing - if you can help out by sending along a scan of this missing page I'd be extremely grateful. Cheers.

Jeff Economy has very kindly sent along a cleaned up and high quality Quicktime video of the once-banned from TV Lick My Decals Off Baby advertisement. Also, for the sake of completion, he's sent along The Spotlight Kid television advertisement as well. Please note that both of these are virtually identical - if you pay for a slow connection you may prefer to only download the original (and better quality) Decals ad.

I've also re-uploaded the 'Magic Foot Dances' film. Recorded at the same time as their 'Detroit Tubeworks' late 1970/early 1971 appearance (available on the Grow Fins enhanced CD), this features nothing but the assembled feet of the Magic Band, twitching, wriggling and swivelling in the breeze just for you.

Find all three and more in the videos archive. Many thanks indeed to Jeff for his time and effort in making the adverts available.