Gregg Brendian celebrates his 100th Progcast with a special interview with both Bill Harkleroad and Art Tripp. As well as a fascinating discussion of life in the Magic Band and Mallard there’s also some interesting excursions into the world of avant garde music in general. A great listen.Read More →
Marker on paper (possible the date is 1974 but date given at auction was 1976) 26.5 x 34.3 cm / 10.5 x 13.5 inchesRead More →
The Mosae Zappa – Overnight Sensation – event celebrating the music and life of Frank Zappa is taking place over the next weekend – Friday 24th – Sunday 26th November – at various venues across Landgraaf-Heerlen in the Netherlands. Special guest for Saturday 25th November is the ever busy Gary Lucas who will be performing at De Oefenbunker. Gary promises a set full of Beefheart music as well as showing scans of his art. Visit the Mosae Zappa website Read More →
Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Gallery are hosting an unusual Beefheart related exhibition from 11th November 2023 to 17th February 2024 called Rooms to Live. Rooms to Live is a collaborative piece by artists Derek Tyman and Andy Webster centred around two interrelated sculptural installations – Trout House Replica and So the Red Rose. As the name suggests, Trout House Replica recreates the interior of the Los Angeles Woodland Hills house where Beefheart dictated his legendary Trout Mask Replica album to the long suffering Magic Band. This space is being used throughout the exhibition as a performance space for musicians. As well as live performancesRead More →
Tracklist Disc One Electricity Take Me To Your House / You’re Gonna Need Somebody I’m Gonna Boogalise You Baby Mirror Man Upon The My-O-My Full Moon Crazy Little Thing Improu Peaches Take Me To Your House / You’re Gonna Need Somebody This Is The Day Upon The My-O-My Disc Two Peaches Upon The My-O-My Hot Head Feel Like An Ashtray Heart Intro In French Nowadays A Woman Gotta Hit A Man Beast Batch Yet Dirty Blue Gene Safe As Milk Flavour Bud Living Bat Chain Puller Big Eyed Beans From Venus The above track list is as printed on the cover of this release, sadlyRead More →
In 2023 Sam Peddor interviewed Bill Harkleroad on his My Back Pages website – www.mybackpages.org . A short but excellent interview. Find it via Sam’s website or listen here on SpotifyRead More →
Some great news for UK fans. For the first time in too many years there is going to be a proper exhibition of Don’s art work. Called ‘Don Van Vliet : Standing on one Hand’ this is an exhibition of paintings from the 1980s and 1990s. Venue : Michael Werner Gallery, 22 Upper Brook Street, London W1K 7PZ Date: 23 NOVEMBER 2023 – 3 FEBRUARY 2024 (Private View: 22 November, 6-8pm) (Note : it will be closed between 22 December 2023 and 2 January 2024) Curated by Charlie Fox., the Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm. From the Michael Werner Gallery press release :Read More →
To mark the album’s 45th anniversary Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) is being given a special release for Record Store Day 2023 on Rhino/Warner Records. Released on vinyl (just black as far as I can see) and cut from the original master tapes this will be a double album package. Disc One is the original album as released in 1978. The more interesting part of this release is Disc Two which features twelve demos, rough mixes and alternate versions recorded at the Shiny Beast sessions but have not been officially available before. The track list for Disc Two is : C1 Suction Prints (Demo) [Instrumental]Read More →
Vic was the band’s drummer during 1965 taking over from Paul Blakely playing with them locally as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Hawaii. Vic told the Radar Station : I went on active duty on 28 December, 1965. When I was in ‘Nam, I was a Commissioned Officer, a Second Lieutenant, a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer of the 297 th. Transportation Company in Nha Trang in 1966. He can be heard on the demo of Call On Me released on the Grow Fins compilation. Vic says he wrote the music for that song but didn’t get the credit when it wasRead More →
Gary Lucas will be presenting his Beefheart Symposium show in the Netherlands in July. Date : Friday 7th July 2023 Venue : The Royal Cinema, Heerlen, Netherlands The Symposium will include “lots of guitar, rare clips and Don Van Vliet’s beautiful art”. There will also be additional special feature. Gary will be playing live his score accompanying Orson Welles’s rare silent surrealist classic ‘Too Much Johnson’. More info here – https://filmhuisdespiegel.nl/programma/1604/orson-welles-captain-beefheart/?fbclid=IwAR2euGlMTDvlbpYBgNury8o1jfyoUyg1NIwgQDrgRAdlPGCQlp_jSpFQPicRead More →
Our favourite Beefheart tribute band, Orange Claw Hammer, have a number of live shows booked. You can check them out reworking the music of Captain Beefheart for the 21st Century on the following dates : 2023 Fri 7th July, 8pm. The Old Hairdresser’s, 27 Renfield Lane, Glasgow. Fri 14th July, 11am. Zappanale (Exhibition Hall), Bad Doberan, Germany. Sat 15th July, 8pm. Zappanale (Mystery Stage), Bad Doberan, Germany. Sat 19th Aug, 8pm. Edinburgh Fringe, Bannerman’s, 212 Cowgate Fri 25th Aug, 8pm. Edinburgh Fringe, Bannerman’s, 212 Cowgate 2024 Sun 25th Feb, 8pm. Backstage at the Green Hotel, Kinross.Read More →
Not a lot is known about the di Martino brothers – Andy and Dave (aka Augie or Auggie). (Note: not to be confused with the music journalist Dave di Martino who has written a few pieces about Don and the Magic Band) They seem to have been hustlers in LA, trying to make money where they could but hung around the fringes of the music scene there. Andy was a guitarist and the more ‘musical’ of the two whereas Auggie wasn’t a musician and was probably the business ‘brains’ of the operation. I have seen one reference to Andy as ‘a guitar teacher from SanRead More →
In late 1978 Don was touring to promote the release of Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). At the end of October or beginning of November he called in at the studios of KROQ Pasadena for an interview with Darryl Wayne and to answer questions from fans over the phone. Wife Jan is also in attendance and can be heard speaking to Don briefly. (Note: the information given on YouTube is mostly incorrect. The correct date and album details are given above and can be confirmed by Don’s mention of Richard Redus as being in the touring band.) Take a listen:Read More →
This show at Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC Jouy-en-Josas), Paris, was filmed for French TV. Good quality footage but unfortunate that it’s the 1974 touring band. Setlist – Mirror Man – Upon The My-O-My – Full Moon, Hot Sun – Crazy Little Thing – Sweet Georgia Brown – Peaches – Take Me To Your House/Who’ll Be The Next? (Chester Burnett) – You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Yer Bond (Traditional)Read More →
The CD version has been long out of print but Rhino have announced the re-release of I’m Going To Do What I’m Gonna Do as a two disc vinyl album for Record Store Day 2023. The first time on vinyl this will be a limited edition of 5000 to be released on 22 April 2023 with a price tag of 39.98USD. At the time of writing it is not clear whether copies will be able from non-US outlets. Originally released back in 2000 in the Rhino Handmade Series this album is of the excellent 1978 My Fathers Place, NY show which was widely bootlegged backRead More →
I’m pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Radar Station. Sam Smyth has been running one of the better Beefheart pages on Facebook for several years now and has a good following. He has been producing some interesting content which I thought deserved a wider audience. Although Facebook does have its uses, when it comes to searching for relevant posts you have to wade through a lot of sludge to find the diamonds. I didn’t want Sam’s posts to get lost so I offered him the opportunity share his posts on the Radar Station as means of archiving them, and making them available toRead More →
In late October/early November 1969, a few days after playing at the Amougies Festival in Belgium, Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) and Frank Zappa plus Magic Band member Mark Boston (aka Rockette Morton) made an appearance at the famous London club The Speakeasy, joining the band Juicy Lucy on stage. They were also joined by Cream drummer Ginger Baker and played a set that included Willie The Pimp. Juicy Lucy later covered Willie The Pimp on their second album Lie Back and Enjoy It, released in 1970 (the back cover of that album is featured at the bottom of this post). This live performanceRead More →
