See John Peel's session info page at the Radio 1 web site for more info.

Almost as exciting is the news that Calexico are on session on John Peel the following night on Wednesday; a double treat!

I've added many more photos and reports to the reunion pages, many thanks to all of you who have sent items along. I've pieced together a definitive set list with thanks to Benjamin Horrendous, Mike Godwin and Gavin Baker for their help.

Especially worth a mention here are some snaps from Cormac O'Donoghue and Janet The Planet. The latter happens to be none other than Denny Walley's wife and includes a pre-gig shot and several taken from the stage during the ATP gig.

If anyone else has any more contributions, please do get in touch.

Following last year's release of Magnetic Hands which focussed on Beefheart's UK tours, the forthcoming Railroadism CD will cover his USA tours in a similar way. Have a look at the Viper label's site for more info.

I recently received the following message from Mike Villers at Genius Records:

I just wanted to update you on the status of the Philly all female
Beefheart retrospective... It's shrunk back a bit, to 20 songs, and will
be out in June. The advance single is cancelled - here's the final
song list:

1 Where There’s Woman - Sweetie
2 The Past Sure is Tense - Winterbrief
3 Witch Doctor Life - Global Transmission
4 Run Paint Run Run - Big Mess Orchestra
5 Apes-Ma - Radio Eris
6 Abba Zaba - Artgirls
7 Well – Nourock w/ Interplay
8 Sugar Bowl - Jane Gilday
9 My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains - Nancy Falkow
10 Crazy Little Thing - Mia Johnson w/Tom Gillam Band
11 I’m Glad – Friends of Janet
12 Ashtray Heart - Beware
13 Lick My Decals Off Baby / I Love You, You Big Dummy (Medley) -
Mediatrix w/Image 33
14 Frying Pan - Thorazine
15 Plastic Factory - Lisa Christ Superstar
16 Party of Special Things to Do - The Special Things to Do w/EDO
17 Ella Guru - Sherry North
18 Call On Me - Euclid Street
19 When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy - Tintinabulus
20 Orange Claw Hammer - Mrs. Bob w/King of Siam

I have about 15 songs in the can, and am currently wrapping up the last
5-6 or so. This weekend I'm recording a Pogues-styled "Orange Claw
Hammer."

Thanks again for supporting the project.

Mike Villers
Genus Records

Mike also sent along a couple of mp3s from the collection, both of which are currently in rotation on the Radar Station's radio show. The first is Jane Gilday doing "Sugar Bowl" and has a similar spirit to the unmissable Pachuco Cadaver - Jimmy Carl Black and Eugene Chadbourne's inspired collection of Beefheart covers.

The second is Tintinabulus doing a fairly faithful cover of "When I See Mommy I Feel Like A Mummy" which mutates into a spacey Gong-esque mellow freakout for the last five of its nine minutes, if such a thing as a "mellow freakout" can exist.

If the rest of the Mama Kangaroos album is only half as good as these then I'd heartily recommend it to you.

Have I mentioned that Anton Corbijn's excellent film profile of Don Van Vliet, Some Yo Yo Stuff, is now out on DVD? I think I've overlooked this, probably because I am cursed with a region 2 DVD player and therefore can't do anything with it.

This is a great film and moving interview - if you haven't seen it I'd recommend that you get a copy. Available now from amazon.com for $10, though even cheaper used copies were also available from Amazon at the time of writing.

There's plenty more still to come - thanks to everyone who sends along info, contributions, comments etc. I'm sorry that (despite my new year's resolution mentioned below) I still don't get to reply as quickly as I should or to follow up your comments as soon as I'd like.

I currently have to slot the site in around a full time job, five month old baby, house hunting, flat selling, a lazy disposition and the need to retain my own sanity. If ever I seem a little slow, please bear with me and be sure that I aim to stick at this site as it's a lot of fun.

Thanks, as ever, for all your support.

I must start with an apology - for the last week (ending today) you have been able to listen to five tunes from The Magic Band's recent gig at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival on the BBC Radio 3 web site at the end of last week's Mixing It show. I'm sorry not to have brought you news about this sooner but I've been having a problem uploading to the site (more about this below). Hurry along to the radio on demand player and skip forward 30 minutes to hear the Magic Band play the following:

• Moonlight in Vermont
• Sun Zoom Spark
• Dropout Boogie inc. poem
• Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do
• Big Eyed Beans from Venus
  

Shame on me for not telling you sooner, hope you can catch it before the programme is replaced by tonight's edition. If you're reading this after Sunday evening (BST) then you're too late, sorry.

Secondly, I must make another apology.

I have just added a new and intriguing item to the site. Many of you reading this will probably remember the 1993 interview with Don and various Magic Band members by Dave DiMartino which appeared in the December 1993 edition of Mojo magazine titled "Yeah, I'm Happy". This article was followed by a letter to Mojo from John French in which JF apologises to Don for any upset which may have been caused by the article.

Having put both these items on site some time ago, I later received a statement from Henry Kaiser in which he asked me to put on the site alleging that he never spoke to Dave DiMartino and that all the quotes attributed to him in the above article were made up.

Now, I've recently receive a few e-mails from a very miffed Dave DiMartino stating that none of the quotes in his article / interview were made up by him and that he most certainly did interview Henry Kaiser. Dave sent along a transcript of the interview with HK which took place over the phone in September 1993. Also included was a short snippet of the recording of the interview to further prove his point.

Since I have unwittingly had comments on the site which unfairly cast doubt upon the integrity of Dave DiMartino as a writer, I'd like to sincerely apologise to him and am happy to comply with his request that I display a message from Dave, along with the interview and sound-snippet to clear his name. I hope this helps to make amends.

As mentioned above, I've been having some problems uploading files to the site recently which is why I still haven't added the remaining photos and comments about the recent Magic Band shows which you have very kindly been sending. I hope to get these online asap.

Strangely, I've also been having problems accessing the site in my browser - the normally excellent Norton Internet Security firewall is blocking my access to the site. In order to view my own pages I have to disable my firewall briefly. This has only just started happening and doesn't appear to affect ANY other sites, nor any of the other sites that I have designed in exactly the same way. I have no idea why beefheart.com is being blocked from my browser - if anyone else has ever noticed this happening and can suggest a solution I'd be very grateful.

Ian Archer has sent along some splendid photos of crowd and band from Monday's Magic Band gig in London. Many Fire Party faces can be seen in these snaps, including Fourfather Benjamin Horrendous' zip-head which is verging on infamy as I write.

As promised yesterday, I've got the rest of Daniel Frampton's dramatic shots of the band in action online as well, and Geoff Geddes has kindly sent along three snaps of venue, audience members and full band.

Sincere thank to everyone who has sent along photos, reports and condolences to me for missing the whole event. If anyone else has anything else that they think I should add to the reunion archive, please do send it along. I hope to get the rest of your messages and reports online over the weekend.

Best news of all is that the Magic Band are likely to return to the UK in the autumn, though I have absolutely no further information about this whatsoever at the moment. As soon as anything becomes more clear, I'll add details to the main reunion page.

You can read the Guardian newspaper's review for the gig at their web site. If you spot any more press reviews, please let me know.

Many thanks to those of you who have sent in your enthusiastic reports about the last two nights' Magic Band shows which sound like a real thrill for those present. I'm gutted not to have been there and trust that it's only a matter of days before I've misremembered the whole thing and am convinced that I was actually on-stage with the magicest of bands.

Daniel Frampton has very kindly sent me some snaps of the London show (preview of John French below) which I hope to get online tomorrow evening, along with any more messages that I receive about the shows. Do keep them coming.

© Daniel Frampton 2003

At the time of writing this, the Magic Band are playing their second UK reunion gig, which also happens to be the second that I've failed to attend. I can't quite imagine why I'm not there but suspect that the ravages of parenthood may have something to do with it. Since all of the Fourfathers (who happen also to be four fathers) are there it seems like a pretty poor excuse. What a dope.

This is probably the only concert that I've ever got this excited about and not attended! Mike Barnes' recent article in The Wire had me drooling at the very thought of the music and anyone who has heard the new Magic Band has been exceptionally enthusiastic in their praise. Yet here I am at home typing up this non-update like a fool. Dang!

If you were lucky enough and sensible enough to get along to either of the shows, I'd love to hear all about it and put your stories and comments here on site.

I've added a few links to articles elsewhere about the reunion to the reunion news page and I'm sure there will be plenty more to follow.

The new issue of The Wire magazine, just sent out to subscribers and in UK shops soon, has a big feature on the Magic Band reunion by Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes, entitled The Captain's Conjurors. Highly recommended reading (and the photos are great too!), this is your early warning not to miss out on a copy.

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to send in questions for Mark Boston. I'm sifting through all your questions right now, and Mark is answering them in-between rehearsals and, very soon, gigs. His answers will appear on this site in due course.

The reunion continues to fare very well and I hope to have a report from John French to pass on to you in the near future. You can read a short piece about a reunion rehearsal at the All Tomorrows' Parties site.

The All Tomorrows' Parties festival in the UK has now sold out. Tickets are still available for the Shepherds Bush Empire show on 7th April. I hope to feature some of your reports on these shows on this site, please do send your comments along to me.

Several members of this site's discussion list are going to the show - if you'd like to read or add to the enthusiastic pre-gig chatter, including regular reports from Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas, subscribe now.

What does Rockette Morton really run on?

This is your chance to find out.

I'm very pleased to announce that Mark Boston, aka Rockette Morton, has agreed to answer questions from Radar Station visitors and Mark's answers will appear in full at the Radar Station in due course.

This is an excellent opportunity to pose any question you like to the man whose bass rumbled so magnificently throughout some of the Magic Band's finest moments (Trout Mask Replica, Lick My Decals Off Baby, Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot), and will once again be rumbling when the Magic Band reform this year.

In addition to the promised new Magic Band recording, Mark has also made some new solo recordings which I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you about.

If you have any questions for Mark please send them along to me at graham@beefheart.com and I will pass the best ones on to Mark to answer. Feel free to send along as many or as few questions that you have to ask.

Don't forget to keep an eye on the site over the next couple of months for his answers.

While I'm here - I'm still updating the radio show nearly every day in between nappies and naps - working on the radio show has provided an excellent means to try to cling on to my sanity and something great to listen to the rest of the time.

Many thanks to those of you who have contacted me recently with good wishes, it's very much appreciated. Sorry not to have replied to you yet. I recently passed on similar apologies to beefheart.com's discussion list and received the following message from Gary Marker which amused me so much I have to repeat it here:

Don't fret, those of us who have endured the New Parent Syndrome, including its attendant physical and mental slalom (assuming we have enough brains left to remember) will immediately hand you a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card. In other words, we'll cut you plenty slack, because we understand the predicament you're in and that you're currently operating whilst suffering sleep deprivation and diminished capacity. And it'll only get worse, as the hours of missing sleep begin to pile up. Within a year, you'll be willing to confess to any crime, if someone will just allow you eight hours of uninterrupted slumber.

But you'll eventually adjust, which usually happens just about the time you discover that KID NUMBER TWO (usually unplanned) is on the way, which means the entire process is about to begin all over again. But you'll eventually get back to a so-called "normal" life, even though your IQ will probably be about 30 to 70 points lower than it was when your first bundle of joy arrived.

Hang in there.

Many thanks Gary, that's very reassuring, I think.

Incidentally, I've made my first ever new year's resolution which is to try to answer e-mail as-and-when it arrives rather than let them pile up and threaten to engulf me. Let's see how long that lasts.

Happy new year to you all.

Some of you have correctly guessed that my recent silence has been due to the birth of our first son, Reuben, who arrived healthy and happy on Monday 2nd December 2002. It's been an incredible experience so far - utterly consuming and exhausting, as many of you reading this probably already know from personal experience.

If you are interested, you can view a few photos of the little tyke. Many thanks to those of you who have written recently, sorry not to have got back to you yet. I've a stack of unanswered e-mail as anything that isn't directly baby-related has been very hard to get around to doing, as yet he tends not to scream for me to reply to my messages so that's taken a bit of a back-seat.

One thing that I have been able to keep up with and which has provided a little bit of sanity in my routine is my radio show. You can tune in now for a whopping Christmas extravaganza - none of the usual cobblers that is currently playing in every shopping centre in the western world. This is all kicking Radar Station-friendly festive stuff including the likes of Esquivel, John Fahey, John Lee Hooker, Louis Armstrong, Loudon Wainwright III, Arthur Lyman, Bjork, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Sun Ra, Nico, Acme Rocket Quartet, Bessie Smith, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Woody Guthrie and many more. Plus about half the show is the usual ever-changing Radar Station-fare all mixed up together.

Hope you enjoy the show - do tune in often as tunes are removed and added virtually every day.

Steve has continued to provide his excellent updates, ever refining and expanding the discography. I hope that and the radio show keep your appetites whetted until more Beefheart arrives at the Radar Station. In the meantime, all the best for the holiday and the new year and thanks for your continuing support and interest in what goes on at this site.

If you reached this page via the front page of the site you probably already know the news, but I'm going to tell you again anyway. The Magic Band have reformed (without Don Van Vliet) for three dates and a new recording of classic Beefheart material.

Head toward the reunion news page where all information will appear as and when I have it. The Radar Station is very proud to be the first place anywhere in the world to bring this information to you and will also be equally proud to be dancing in the crowd when the event finally happens.

This is only a brief update today to give you the momentous news as I'm stuffed full of cold and my duvet is looking very appealing at the moment. Suffice it to say that I'm thrilled and cannot wait to see the Magic Band when they play live for the first time in over two decades.

No, I haven't disappeared, I've just been horrendously busy.

Most of my spare time has been spent battling it out with my computer following an upgrade to Windows XP. This has been a disastrous move and I've been completely unable to update this site for much of the time.

I still haven't got my soundcard and scanner working properly (hence the temporary abandonment of the Grunt People script updates) after hours, days and weeks of tinkering. The problems have been so annoying that I've even considered doing a virtual Reginald Perrin and just getting rid of my computer altogether and getting on with a normal life like normal people. I could read books, go for walks, see friends and relax instead of fighting with unrecognised drivers and unresponsive software. Grrr.

On top of this, in approximately four weeks' time I'll be a dad. I've had a lot to do to get ready for this - most of my non-working hours over the last few months has been spent sanding, painting, pasting, hammering, chiselling and swearing in preparation.

Despite all this, I have actually been able to do a few updates - the overhaul has gradually dribbled on, and I've uploaded some new material but was then unable to get back into the site to update this page to tell you all about it. A couple of months ago a new instalment of Colin B. Morton's column Welsh Psycho appeared entitled "Let's hunt and kill that bloke from Coldplay" and The Wire magazine's review for the live collection Magnetic Hands is also available. What else? God knows but it's out there somewhere.

Plus Steve has continued work on the discography, and has also added a few new items and updates to the bibliography as well.

There's so much to get online, but the technology is currently preventing me from doing so. I'm especially excited about the huge pile of clippings sent to me by Andy Watson which I'm planning to get online in a new 'scrapbook' section of the site - just as soon as my scanner is working again.

I've just completed a big update of the radio show, putting most of Steve's Blues Roots of Captain Beefheart online. Broadband users can listen to this, all mixed in with several hours of other stuff, Beefheart and beyond, any time they like. I've greatly improved the sound quality, but doing so has restricted its availability to those of you with a broadband connection. Since most people who listen to web radio will have a broadband Internet connection I hope this won't be too much of an inconvenience for most of you. See the radio show page for details about how to tune in.

There's so much more, but that, for now, is it. The crux of this update is just to let you know that the Radar Station isn't dead, it's merely sleeping. Updates will resume just as soon as they can, thanks for your patience.

While this will have come as a disappointment to many, I think it is likely that most of us who would love to see the Magic Band live in the 21st century will understand their complete disdain / disinterest in the exploitative machinations of the music business. Frankly these guys deserve to be treated with more respect.

Read John French's statement in full.

Steve Froy has added some info to the discography about the new CD collection entitled either The Best Of Beefheart or The Best of The Virgin and Liberty Years depending on where you live (or how accurate you want to be).

It contains some great music, some good sleevenotes from Mike Barnes but still fails to have any real value due to the availability of the far more comprehensive, career-spanning compilation The Dust Blows Forward.

Speaking of Mike Barnes, ResonanceFM are rebroadcasting his excellent 8 hour Beefheart special tomorrow (Sunday 30th June). London residents can tune in on 104.4FM, everyone else can hear it at www.resonancefm.com between the hours of 14.00 and 22.00 BST. In Mike's words:

Thrill to the sound of two grown men trying to avoid being driven insane by
severe cabin fever. Lots of great music, rarities and related stuff, some
readings and guest interviews with ex-Magic Band musicians Gary Lucas and John French.

Rob Fawcett, who has been taking care of the Beefheart news page for the last year or so has finally had to hand this section of the site back to me due to increasing demands on his time by his job (he runs the 'alternative' section of the Radio 1 web site and John Peel's own web site).

I'm very sorry to see you go, many thanks Rob for all your help.

Overhaul. Still doing it. Thanks for patience. Can't wait until it's over. Still listening non-stop to Arthur Lee and Brian Wlson.

I'm still working my way through the site overhaul - I'm currently reorganising the discography - and there is still a lot left to do so other updates will be infrequent until it's complete. Frankly I'm looking forward to getting back to running a web site instead of endlessly juggling and tweaking content but there's so much to sort out right across the site that this is an essential task. Thanks for your patience.

It is possible that the overhaul will lead to a few broken links finding their way online for a short while - if you stumble across anything that isn't working properly, please do let me know and I'll correct it as soon as possible.

There's a new instalment of Colin B. Morton's Welsh Psycho column, this time considering football, nationalism and unhealthy obsessions with 1966.

Clicks and Klangs is still gradually being transferred over to the Radar Station and the contents of issue 2 are now available.

Steve Froy has added some information about the new Magnetic Hands live compilation to the discography.

There's also a new and somewhat pointless 'best of' compilation on its way which manages to completely avoid the eras commonly regarded as being Beefheart's best. It's only redeeming feature is likely to be the sleeve notes written by Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes. Information about this release will follow as soon as either Steve or I are able to get something online.

Finally I thought I should mention the two gigs that I've seen over the last couple of days - Brian Wilson on Wednesday and Arthur Lee last night. I would have written a review for Clicks and Klangs but decided not to as I was very likely to gush all over the place which would have just been embarrassing for everyone.

I was lucky enough to see Brian Wilson when he played at the Royal Festival Hall in London back in January and when I heard he was playing again, just a few minutes walk from my flat in Brighton, I had to go again and managed to get front row seats. It was the most incredible night - after seeing Brian's fairly hesitant performance in Buckingham Palace on the telly on Monday night, I was thrilled to discover that the success of the January gigs was no fluke. He looked very much at ease on stage, chatting and joking between songs and clearly having as good a time as the rest of us. The performance was astonishing - the band do a perfect job of recreating the sumptuous sound and harmonies of the original tunes - these are not bored session musicians by any means! Brian's voice, demeanour and enjoyment of the whole occasion were a sheer joy to encounter. Highlights were "Love and Mercy", "Cabinessence", "Heroes and Villains", "Wonderful", "Surf's Up", "Sail On Sailor", "Forever" and all of Pet Sounds. Sensational stuff.

Despite my considerable admiration for Arthur Lee's music, I must admit that I went along to his gig feeling fairly unenthusiastic - after the show that I'd witnessed the night before, it seemed nothing could possible be anything other than a disappointment. I was so wrong - from the opening tambourine of "My Little Red Book", through most of Forever Changes and songs from Love, De Capo, Four Sail, Out Here, and even Vindicator, Arthur Lee and his new Love just obliterated any doubts that anyone may have had. Looking barely a day over 30 and with far more energy than me even on a good day, I'm sure this won't be the last we see of him. All the songs were performed faithfully, but with a startling power that musicians are seldom able to sustain once the novelty of their own new material has worn off. For the second night running, I wondered if these great songs had ever sounded so good. "Seven and Seven Is" was simply terrifying.

The only minor disappointment was that there was no newer material - Arthur's album from the 90s had some very promising moments, as did the EP released just a short while before he was imprisoned. I had read interviews in which he stated he spent much of his time inside writing songs and I was eager to hear some of these new tunes. Fortunately I suspect there is plenty of time for them to emerge. During one of Arthur's London gigs before he was imprisoned he stated "You need a king of rock & roll and I need a throne". I suspect both vacancies have been filled.

If you ever get an opportunity to see either Brian Wilson or Arthur Lee, I urge you to go along.

Thanks to James Silberbauser's help I may have solved the problem with Netscape 4.x either crashing or displaying no content when you attempt to view this page. It all still looks very odd in Netscape 4.x browsers but at least it should all be visible. If you have any problems viewing any of this site in any browser please do let me know.

Please do consider upgrading to the latest version of Netscape, Opera or Internet Explorer depending on which you prefer. That way you can be more certain that you are viewing the pages of nay recent sites as the designers intended, rather than through the bizarre eyes of Netscape 4.x which deals with even the simplest of formatting code in a very strange way indeed.

After a lengthy gap of significant updates (but still lots of insignificant tweaks going on - there's only all the music related info left to go through now) here's a round up of recent news:

Firstly, Mike Barnes, Beefheart biographer, has sent along some news about an 8 hour Beefheart radio special that he will be hosting on this coming Sunday:

I am hosting the following two shows, both called "A Day In The Life" on the temporary (year-long) radio station Resonance 104.4FM, set up by the London Musicians Collective . Although radio reception is limited to the London area, it is available on streaming audio (or will be in time for these shows) on www.resonancefm.com

Sunday May 12th 2pm-10pm (UK time - BST) - Captain Beefheart.

Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes and musician, poet and Beefheartophile Ivor Kallin, host an eight hour exploration into the music and milieu of Captain Beefheart including rarities and related material, and Magic Band members' solo projects. The show will include very special phone-in guests from the USA.

Sunday May 19th 2pm-10pm (UK time - BST) - Shirley Collins

Mike Barnes hosts an eight hour show on the life and music of Shirley Collins. Shirley will be in the studio from 2pm to discuss her own music, her favourite traditional singers and her song collecting trips to the USA with Alan Lomax.

The show will feature unreleased material from the upcoming 4CD box set Within Sound, set for release on the Fled'gling label in the autumn. Shirley will also introduce a selection of unreleased recordings made by her late sister, Dolly. Special guests will be dropping in, including musician David Tibet of Current 93 and the Durtro label.

Michael Alderson has spotted an import CD single available at Amazon.com by Captain Beefheart called 'Magic Band' and wondered what it was. I assume this is a new compilation (not single) subtitled "Best Of The Virgin & Liberty Years" which features new sleeve notes from Mike Barnes. I don't have any more info about it yet but will pass on anything that I hear.

Steve Wilkerson sent along a tip-off that you can buy a (complete?) version of the Captain Beefheart Vs The Grunt People script at www.scriptfly.com - I hesitate to pass this along as I have no idea about the legality of the site, the quality of the product, nor the reliability of the vendor. If you do decide to order a copy, please let me know the outcome so I can pass it on to others. Thanks to Steve for the info.

I haven't forgotten about the scans of the Grunt People script that I am gradually making available at the Radar Station, I've merely been side-tracked / waylaid by the site overhaul and will resume uploading the script in the near future.

To continue passing on people's grumbles / comments about Dust Sucker, here are a few words from Aron Weinbach:

I think the sucker here is me for shelling out 16 bucks in a moment of excitement over thinking I found the real deal or at least a possible good listen. Off speed for sure, no care what so ever in the remastering and "My Fathers Place" material again! Oh well, well, well!

and, from the other side of the coin, here's Bigmonkey:

Whilst I agree that the packaging and info is well dodgy, the music is brilliant, and lets be honest, we wanted to hear this, so why wait for the Zappas to get their act together. The quality's not that bad and I personally think this hangs together much better than the legitimate release of shiny beast (bat chain puller).

Chris Burrows pointed out that the is no mention on site of the Old Grey Whistle Test DVD which features Captain Beefheart doing a splendid version of Upon The My Oh My. I have no idea how I've neglected to mention this before as I own it and it is a superb collection. Also included are PiL, Tom Waits, Teardrop Explodes, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, Talking Heads, Roxy Music and loads more. All the tunes are exclusive live recordings and much of it is essential stuff. You can order it or find out more at amazon.co.uk

I'll include some proper info about it on site as soon as I get the chance.

Don Trubey has been having some problems with this page and writes:

Just a quick note about a problem I've been having at the Radar Station.

For about a month or two, every time I load "Up Sifter" in Netscape, it "unexpectedly quits" just as the page finishes loading.

I'm still using an old version of Netscape (v.4.7), but this is the only page on your site (or any site online I've come across) that makes Netscape blow up.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have no idea what is causing it - if anyone can help out with some advice or suggestions I'd be very grateful indeed.

On and on it goes... only about another 500 pages to tweak into the slightly new format and another 100 Clicks and Klangs pages to add to the site....

Speaking of which, there is a new and rather good article by Alice Dubois looking at the current state / decline of mainstream country music and the few beacons of hope burning away in the underground. Don't miss Country at the Crossroads (Will the Devil Never Tire?). Many thanks to Alice for her excellent contribution.

The contents of Clicks and Klang's first issue have been fully integrated into the Radar Station as well.

It's good to see that the overhaul appears to be worth the effort - according to the site stats, last month (March 2002) was the first month for ages when the site received over 1,000 unique visitors every day with a peak of 1,421 visitors!

(Small print - the last day of the month didn't quite get 1,000 visitors but that was probably because you were all too busy either eating Easter eggs or mourning the Queen Mum so it doesn't count.)

The general verdict on Dust Sucker, the new release of the original Bat Chain Puller album is that it sucks more than dust. This is no reflection on the quality of the music which is outstanding, merely on the release itself - desperate to sell itself as a legitimate, legal release, this bootleg is, by all accounts, a very shoddy package.

I haven't heard it yet and am unlikely to do so as I'm simply not going to buy it. Would you buy a diamond wrapped in a dog turd? Well... possibly, but not if Ken Brooks had written liner notes on it first.

Here are a few words from some who have heard it and are therefore in a better position to pass comment than I:

Paul Southard:

I have no idea if any other Beefheartophiles have been railing about this crappy rip-off, but this is REALLY a case of "nice package, too bad about the hiss, dropouts, distortion, overloads, incorrect speed, clicks, pops, lack of high end, etc.

This is a bootleg dressed-up (and advertised) like a milestone (and I wont say that I wasn't warned by you guys). But I saw the Bat Chain band at 6 shows at Keystone Korner in San Francisco all those years ago and I talked to Don and Morris about tons of stuff INCLUDING the new record. I had never even SEEN a bootleg of it so I HAD to buy this hoping that miracles happen... not yet they don't, and I feel like I gotta spread the word.

JWB:

Sorry, folks. I got my copy today and I have to say that it's quite poor.

The "Bat Chain Puller" album is definitely from a new, unbootlegged source (the reel-to-reel pictured inside?) but it sounds like a 4th or 5th generation cassette dub. The bootleg version that is coupled with the mono Safe As Milk sounds VASTLY superior. THAT bootleg was supposedly mastered from an original promo cassette... the one that was released in Europe. That promo cassette would have been a much better source than the shitty piece of oxide used here.

To add insult to injury... there is a 3-second gap of dead silence in-between every song. The tracks do not "fade out". So you hear "hissssssssss... silence... hisssssssss". This disc was "remastered by Owith Sahmet". Good job Owith!

The blatant hype and incorrect information in the booklet is just plain....insulting. "The Captain's original master tapes" my asshole.

The live tracks come with no information. The unidentified version of "Bat Chain Puller" sounds superb. I don't know which show "Flavor Bud Living" comes from either. Anybody know? I'm sure that all of the bonus tracks are stolen from other bootlegs.

Three other live cuts are from the NYC '78 show... but they are taken from a poor-sounding, off-speed bootleg instead of the MASTER TAPE that was released by Rhino.

These "Milksafe" people put off an air of "Beeheartian scholar" but in fact they don't seem to know SHIT. Am I the only person who seems to think this?

This release is surprisingly poor, even by "bootleg" standards. Don't be fooled.

You can also read Steve Froy's initial impressions as sent to the Fire Party, this site's Beefheart discussion list.

Apparently, the CD proudly announces Ozit's future release entitled Gimme Dat Harp Boy which collects together some of Beefheart's early influences. It wouldn't surprised me if this isn't a lot different from Steve's excellent Blues Roots compilation that was broadcast by the Radar Station's old web radio show a few years ago. In fact, judging by the comments made above, it wouldn't surprise me if it was a direct recording of that very show. That is pure misinformed speculation on my part, however and I wouldn't ever put it in writing....

To be fair, a lot of people are also praising this release highly. I suspect this is more due to their joy at being able to find this lost gem at their local record shop, rather than having any reflection upon the quality of the release itself.