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On Friday 29th August 2025 Robyn Hitchcock performed the Safe As Milk album live at The Chapel, San Francisco. A second set Deep Cuts & Classic Tracks  included a selection of other Beefheart songs from the later albums. The musical director for the show was Allyson Baker from the San Francisco rock band Dirty Ghosts. She and her husband played a couple of Beefheart songs with Robyn Hitchcock at The Chapel in May 2025 – Electricity and Zig Zag Wanderer – and enjoyed the experience so much that they wanted to do it again. By coincidence the promoter of the show that night had anRead More →

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This is the back story behind the previously unknown song “White Powdered Wigs”, originally co-written in 1968 by Don Van Vliet and Peter Anders, who was then part of the duo Anders and Poncia. Don had mentioned back in early 1968 (Melody Maker 3 Feb 1968 – Those Beefheart Blues … by Tony Wilson) that he had written a song with Peter, saying in an interview, “I wrote a song with Pete Anders. I also wrote another one called ‘Fifth Dimensional Judy’. We physically love England” but no details or confirmation had ever emerged about the track until now. He had also mentioned in laterRead More →

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Back in 2015 Robyn Hitchcock performed the whole of the Clear Spot album live at various UK venues – read about that here. On Friday 29th August 2025 he will be performing the Safe As Milk album live at The Chapel, San Francisco. A second set will include a number of other Beefheart songs from the later albums. At the moment this appears to be the only performance before Robyn heads off to perform Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album at several US venues. Along with Robyn will be some ‘special guests’ (although others, currently unknown,  are promised): Chuck Prophet Kelley Stoltz Blag Dahlia (The Dwarves)Read More →

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The Radar Station’s favourite Beefheart tribute band, Orange Claw Hammer, have a couple of gigs coming up soon. The band will be presenting their jazz inflected take on many Beefheart classics at this year’s Edinburgh Festival under the banner Sugar n’ Spikes and all things Beefheart. They will be performing at Bannerman’s in Edinburgh on Saturday 9th and Saturday 16th August 2025. Tickets are available in advance form the Fringe Box Office or online at www.edfringe.comRead More →

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The photography for the Strictly Personal album was the work of Guy Webster. The wonderfully bizarre inner gatefold photo of the band has been discussed in another post. The other photos for the album were taken at a separate session, probably at Webster’s studio and the resulting images were colourised and mocked up as postage stamps for use on the front of the album to help it look more like a real package that had been through the mail. Apart from these five images that were used on the album there were probably other ones taken on the day too. None of these have everRead More →

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When I put together the Radar Station tribute to Elliot Ingber I approached his brother, Ira, and asked him if he’d like to contribute something. Ira said he’d prefer to talk to me about Elliot. So over the course of three facetime sessions we spoke about Elliot’s career and a whole bunch of other related stuff. It’s taken me a while to collate it all as there was a hell of a lot to sort through, but, finally, here is a transcript of our chat about Elliot. I also took the opportunity to ask Ira about his involvement with the Bluejeans and Moonbeams album. IRead More →

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In March 2025 I spoke at length to Ira Ingber about his brother Elliot when putting together a tribute following Elliot’s death and I took the opportunity to ask Ira about his involvement with the Bluejeans and Moonbeams album. Not much is written about this 1974 Beefheart-lite album because it’s not liked by many hardcore fans. So, I thought it would be of interest to find out a bit more about how it came together from someone who was involved with the recording. Our chat inevitably rambled over other Beefheart topics and so I have also included some of  these reminiscences and comments from IraRead More →

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One of the most exciting pieces of footage of the band is the live version of ‘Click Clack’ filmed at the Bataclan in Paris in 1972 which was broadcast on the French TV show POP2. It was known that more of the concert was filmed and a 30 minute audio of the concert has circulated amongst collectors for many years. This audio also includes a short interview with Don. The question asked by all fans since has been ‘is there more footage of this Bataclan show somewhere?’ A few years ago I was told that no further footage existed in the vaults, only the ‘ClickRead More →

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We are sad to hear of the death of Terry Van Vliet, he was 89 and had been suffering with dementia. Terry was an older cousin of Don’s, and also born in Glendale. His parents were Harold and Winifred Vliet. Like Don, Terry reclaimed the ‘Van’ for the family name. He went to Lancaster Valley High, the same school as Don. It was here that Terry developed  a passion for poetry and literature. When he moved to Las Vegas for a while he joined a small theatre group and found another passion, acting. He returned to Los Angeles and tried to pursue an acting career.Read More →

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Henry Kaiser has put together this video tribute for Elliot featuring some solo guitar inspired by Elliot’s time in the Magic Band and a group version of Alice in Blunderland originally performed in 1995. The video also includes contributions from Scott Colby, Max Kutner plus Jimmy and Morgan Agren.Read More →

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Here at the Radar Station we were saddened to learn of the death of Elliot Ingber on 21st January, he was 83. This is Don’s simple but expressive sketch of ‘Mean E’ taken from the cover of The Spotlight Kid album which also included this poetic sketch, also by Don : No B.O. for this boy it’s like a winged eel fingerling crawling thru lime jello it’s like chrome black eyebrow rolled out real long a paper brow magnifying glass fried brown, edge scorched, yoked like a squeak from a speaker behind forehead of the time, licorice schtick open tube of valuable JuJuBees. Our shortRead More →

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Back in October of 1971, I went to see Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band at the Gymnasium at Tuft’s University in Medford, Mass. This gig was shortly prior to the early 1972 release of their THE SPOTLIGHT KID album. I was 19 years old and I had seen earlier incarnations The Magic Band of going back to 1967. I had all the Beefheart albums in my record collection, and I knew all the songs. Something was different at this show; there were new songs and there were unprecedented improvised blues-rock guitar solos on many of the tunes – from a guy with long hairRead More →

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“The Winged Eel slithers on the heels of today’s children” —Don Van Vliet, Beatle Bones ’N’ Smokin’ Stones Elliot Ingber (or Winged Eel Fingerling as he was a known during his time with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band) has the distinction of being one of the only of the celebrated guitarists who passed through the ranks of The Magic Band to enjoy total freedom—free reign, as it were– to improvise long psychedelic guitar solos by Don Van Vliet — a band leader notorious for insisting that his musicians pretty much stick to the notes and forms laid down in their marathon rehearsals. Elliot is probablyRead More →

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My perspective will be different than most who knew Elliot as was in the band for just a few weeks in 1975, the Knebworth band, Soundstage Show public television and the Roxy, Hollywood. I also did some recorded jams with Beefheart, Jimmy Carl Black, Elliot and myself. He was a serious guy. He worked hard on his guitar parts to be exact. I sometimes switched back and forth between guitar parts from the albums. Elliot never complained about having to then switch his guitar parts. One night I stayed at Elliot’s home. He had a lot of dental floss strands draped over a door knob,Read More →

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Sad news today: Elliot Ingber just passed away. I first met Elliot a few days after Ry Cooder quit the band in June of 1967 after the Mt. Tamalpais Fantasy Fair incident. Don Van Vliet and I went to the famous “Log Cabin” on Laurel Canyon Blvd. There was a party going on, but we went into a room there that I think was Miss Christine’s room. It was filled with amps and drums, and a guy who looked a great deal like King Neptune was playing lead. Don and Elliot were already acquainted, apparently. The band was “Fraternity of Man.” Elliot asked Don toRead More →

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Elliot the wonderful hipster!!…. He became a respite from “ THE HOUSE” for me and because it was just us working on the tunes we would go off into blues land. Those were the best moments for me because he was in his element. One time we were rooming together in Manhattan and we had the window open, he asked me “what key is New York in?” I told him definitely F# … with a long pause I added “minor”  … he was thrilled! I had so many funny times with him. We hadn’t connected for many years and a few years back we hadRead More →

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I’ve had the thrill of hanging out with various affable weirdo geniuses from the Magic Band over the decades, but the strangest meet-up was a dozen years ago with Elliot Ingber. Guitarist pal Henry Kaiser was visiting L.A., and he invited me to tag along for a super-secret clandestine rendezvous with Winged Eel Fingerling himself. (Henry had first seen Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band perform in 1971, and Elliot’s searing guitar solos were so galvanizing that the next day Henry bought his first guitar and changed his life. You can hear Henry’s band Monster Island play “Alice in Blunderland” on a 1976 7-incher.) AccordingRead More →

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Artist and musician Alison Mosshart talks about how Don’s artwork has influenced her “in millions of ways” in a video on the Harpers Bazaar website. You can find it here – https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/bazaar-art/a63202571/alison-mosshart-the-art-that-inspires-me/ Alison covered ‘Dropout Boogie’ when she was in The Kills. She has also performed with Jack White, another Beefheart fan, in the band Dead Weather.  Read More →