By:
On:
In: 1977 New York, Photos
With: 0 Comments

These two photographs were taken by Michael at The Bottom Line in New York on 25th or 26th November 1977. Many thanks to Michael for sending them along. Michael writes: The Band included The Captain, Jeff Moris Tepper, Eric Drew Feldman, Robert Williams, and Denny Walley on the other guitar. That one picture of the masked man I believe is thier manager Harry Duncan singing The Blimp! See Michael’s 1974 photographs as well. Copyright held by the photographer, Michael Eivaz. Used by kind permission, not to be reproduced for commercial use.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 1974 New York, Photos
With: 0 Comments

These three photographs were taken by Michael Eivaz on 11 April 1974 at The Town Hall in New York. Many thanks to Michael for sending them along. See Michael’s 1977 photographs as well. Copyright held by the photographer, Michael Eivaz. Used by kind permission, not to be reproduced for commercial use.Read More →

Don Van Vliet - Winterland 1973

By:
On:
In: 1973 Winterland, Photos
With: 0 Comments

These were very kindly sent to me by Dr Stephen Jove, taken during the Magic Band’s set supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra at Winterland, San Francisco, 31st March 1973. The first was taken by Ryk Ekedal, and the second by Stephen. Many thanks for their permission to feature them here. Copyright held by the photographers, Ryk Ekedal and Dr Stephen Jove. Used by permission, not to be reproduced for commercial use. If you would like to get hold of prints of these photographs, please e-mail Stephen.Read More →

Don Van Vliet - Frankfurt 1972

By:
On:
In: 1972 Frankfurt, Photos
With: 1 Comment

I received an e-mail from Thomas Harms in June 1998 in which he had kindly included a few photographs of the Magic Band live, and the Spotlight Kid himself. He included the following note with the pictures: I keep these photographs (all taken by a friend of mine) framed on my wall. I was 16 at the time. As you see, one is a backstage-photo, the others are on-stage-shots. They were all done at the Magic Band´s concert in Bremen in 1972, if I remember correctly. I think it was at The Lila Eule (The Purple Owl). The people in the pictures seem to beRead More →

Don Van Vliet, Mark Boston

By:
On:
In: 1971 Albuquerque, Photos
With: 0 Comments

These photographs were all taken by George Bullfrog in the summer of 1970 at a Magic Band show in Albuquerque, and he has kindly given us permission to feature them here. Many thanks to George for these fantastic photographs of the Captain in action. (c) George Bullfrog, 1970 If you are interested in purchasing a print of any or all of these pictures then please contact George at bllfrog@concentric.net for details.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 1972 Beat Club, Multimedia, The Spotlight Kid
With: 3 Comments

For many years, a classic performance of I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby from German television show Beat Club in 1972, circulated among fans. Then in 2012 the full 29 minute performance was released on DVD by Gonzo Media as The Lost Broadcasts but very rapidly became unavailable again once more. However, some of it is available to view on YouTube; the whole band are just incredible here and it’s hard not to be dumb struck by some of the vocals: DVD track list Mascara Snake (Bass Solo) Click Clack 1 Click Clack 2 Golden Birdies Band Introductions I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby 1 I’m Gonna BooglarizeRead More →

By:
On:
In: Multimedia, Safe As Milk, Telly and other filmed footage
With: 4 Comments

On 27 January 1968 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band performed on the beach at Cannes, France, in front of the Martinez Hotel. They were in Cannes to perform at the MIDEM music festival. It was filmed for the French TV show Bouton Rouge. The videos of Electricity and Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do are a fantastic document of a tight band on the rise: (Note: this film of Sure Nuff is in black and white – not sure why – but good quality as it’s been uploaded by Ina.fr who own the original footage. Sadly they haven’t made Electricity available.) This video ofRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1980 Saturday Night Live, Multimedia
With: 4 Comments

On 22nd November 1980 The Magic Band gave a storming performance of Ashtray Heart and Hot Head in front of a studio audience for Saturday Night Live. Ashtray Heart Hot Head According to Doug Stacey: “The person yelling “Shit!” at the end of the SNL performance was Radames Pera, the once child actor playing “Grasshopper” in the TV show “Kung Fu.” He was disgusted with the Beefheart performance. It was evidently his first exposure to Don’s music.” Robert Williams, the Magic Band drummer, commented on this heckling: “After the show we went to an after show party at a bar in Manhatten with the castRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1975.07 Knebworth, Your stories and tributes
With: 1 Comment

Well the only time I ever saw Don was at Knebworth around 1974/5 when they used to have those outdoor festivals in the summer. Remember? I was watching with some friends, having never previously heard any of his stuff at all. I can plainly remember John Peel coming on and introducing Don this way: ‘here he is: the guvnor!’, clearly remembered even though I was undergoing an artificially-induced religious experience… I was scared to death. The only way I could survive was to lie down between the legs of a mate’s girlfriend for an hour or so, while the man did his set and IRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1980.12.09 Club 57 Irving Plaza New York, Your stories and tributes
With: 2 Comments

I have been a Beefheart fan for about 30 years now and have many stories I could tell about how I feel and about collecting his music etc., but will save all that for another time. One story I would like to tell, though: I saw The Captain at Irving Plaza in NYC the day after John Lennon was killed (12/9/80.) The crowd was in a melancholy mood, waiting for the show to start. When the Captain finally hit the stage, he began the show with an improvised soprano sax solo, which lasted for a few minutes. When it was over, he bent over theRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1974 New York, Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

I am writing to you from my home in Colorado around midnight. I have been a longtime Cap’n B fan (since 1972) when I first had my reality changed by way of Lick My Decals Off. I was only 15 at the time and living in Brooklyn, NY, where I was born and raised. It was my brother who first introduced me to the Magic Band. What remains to this day as some of the coolest things I have ever witnessed are the concerts. I had heard, from my brother and his crew, fabulous stories of the live Magic Band. How Rockette Morton would doRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1980.11.02 Schouwburg Sittard, Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

I first got to know about Captain Beefheart through the music of Frank Zappa. I didn’t know what to do with this strange music. The story of the Simpsons guy, Matt Groening, is very accurate. I had exactly the same experience: I got Trout Mask Replica on tape and it all sounded very messy, as if there were no different songs on the album. My recording was of a German Straight pressing which had no song seperation – confusing. Then, in November 1980 the Captain was coming to the Netherlands. At the same time The Cure were touring, so I was hesitating. A good friendRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1973.03 Celebrity Theatre Phoenix, Your stories and tributes
With: 3 Comments

I have had the pleasure of seeing Beefheart at least a dozen times between 1972 and 1980, starting with “Clear Spot” line-up. The first time I saw him he was headlining at a theater-in-the-round in Phoenix, Arizona in 1973, and Little Feat was the opening act. It was a rather bizarre venue – the moving stage did a full revolution every five minutes, so although all the seats were close the perspective kept changing. After Little Feat put on a superb show, there was a lull between sets, and then suddenly, some… GUYS jumped out of their seats in the audience, and… RAN onto theRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1973.04.27 Guild Hall Preston, Your stories and tributes
With: 3 Comments

Some of the finer points of this tail may be a little out due to memory loss… but this is the gist of it: It was the Clear Spot tour in the UK in ’73. We had seen it in Liverpool, where we all lived, and his next venue was Preston at the Preston Guild Hall. One of our gang was a guy called Tony, he was a rather slim Irish character with a larger than life personality. He had a way of getting himself noticed wherever he went just by his exhuberance, and had managed to get noticed at the Liverpool concert; by theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Live performances, Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

I went to school in England in ‘67-‘68, and discovered the John Peel show on the BBC on Sunday afternoons. I figured I had pretty good taste at the time, with my favorite groups being the Who, Beatles, Kinks, Cream, Doors, Love, Jimi, et al. And oh yes, don’t let me forget the greatest, baddest of all, the true Mother of all Bands, the STONES! So, one Sunday after finishing my studies and knocking off a few righteous hits of some really potent, pungent black Afghani, I turned on the radio.. JESUS CHRIST! What the f*** is this??? I screamed out loud. What it was,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Live performances, Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

I was interested in something I saw in one of the links from this site–a photo from one John Petraitus taken of a Zappa/Beefheart concert in Bloomington, Illinois, May, 1975. My girlfriend and I were at the next show (or the one before?) in St. Louis. It’s been so long ago that I don’t remember much about the concert, but one thing will always stick out for me. When the show finally began (after an interminable set by the band Styx featuring their unconvincing evocation of Jimi Hendrix with a psychedelic version of “America the Beautiful”) the house lights went down, and eerie green pointsRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1972 Bickershaw Festival, Your stories and tributes
With: 2 Comments

In 1972 I lived in Manchester. Not that far from Bickershaw, so when the festival arrived a group of us decided we would be fools not to go. We arrived on Friday evening and put our tent up outside the concert perimeter and went in. My recollections of the groups who were on Friday night are not vivid. I remember being impressed by Doctor John, as he threw his sparkly dust into the evening sky, but that’s about it. Saturday was much more memorable. As has been well documented it was a little on the damp side and by the time Saturday evening came alongRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1971.06.25 Paramount Theatre Portland, Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

The first time I saw Captain Beefheart was in 1970 [1971 – Graham] at the Paramount Theatre in Portland, Oregon, shortly after the Lick My Decals, Baby album came out. My band-mates and I were sitting front-row, centre, along with our friend Matt Groening, who had introduced us to Beefheart via the Trout Mask Replica LP. First, Ed Marimba came out to a lone microphone that was center-stage, in front of the closed curtains. He was wearing the full-blown evening-suit with tails that he wore on the Decals front-cover. He had a monocle in one eye and was carrying an orchestral slapstick. Without saying aRead More →