Please note that some of the links in this archive will be to pages which
have since expired.
Archive 7: September 2001 - March 2002
Sunday 17.03.2002
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.
It certainly does seem that way.
Saturday 16.02.2002
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.
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.
Sunday 17.02.2002
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.
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!
Tuesday 12.02.2002
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.
Sunday 10.02.2002
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.
Wednesday 06.02.2002
In a hasty about-turn from yesterday, it seems the Captain Beefheart Projectwill 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...
Tuesday 05.02.2002
Congratulations to Phillip who won the free pair of tickets in our recent
give-away for this Saturday's Captain Beefheart Projectspecial
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.
Sunday 03.02.2002
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.
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.
19.01.2002
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.
14.01.2002
A few new additions have been made to the paintings gallery, thanks to Detlef'
Juergens' tireless work scanning and sending missing paintings.
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.
13.01.2002
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).
06.01.2002
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."
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.
18.11.2001
There is now one more question from John French's excellent Burundo
Drumbi series online, in which Jarkko
Nevalainen asks about Jeff Moris Tepper.
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.
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.
05.11.2001
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.
07.09.2001
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.
View the complete Up Sifter archive for everything that has ever happened
here at The Radar Station: