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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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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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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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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 →

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Astounding, astonishing, awesome and any number of superlatives all the way through to zut alors (or should that be zoot alors!) This tour de force is THE craziest attempt at covering Beefheart’s music ever … but it works. An exact five-part harmony a cappella version of every sonic second of one of the most challenging albums of all time. So exact, in fact, that you can play the original and the cover together and they will mesh perfectly! Here is the proof : This is not the first attempt by The 180Gs at covering the seemingly impossible. After an amble through the foothills of strangeRead More →

Don Vliet's graduation photograph

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Don’s school career is shrouded in misinformation, mainly from the man himself. What the school he attended thought of him at the time we’ll probably never really know. However … on Thursday 19 September 2024 Don, Class of 1958, was given recognition by his old high school when he was inducted into the Antelope Valley High School Hall of Fame along with three other former pupils and staff of the school. According to the AVPress – https://www.avpress.com/news/five-people-to-join-av-high-hall-of-fame/article_d72784f0-756b-11ef-89db-3bbfa3dd6cfe.html – (who seemed a bit confused over the spelling of ‘Vliet’) : Van Vleit, Class of 1958, was nominated in the Visual and Performing Arts category, Van Vleit, whoRead More →

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Track list Side 1 I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or the Big Dig) My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains Click Clack Side 2 Low Yo Yo Stuff Too Much Time Clear Spot Lick My Decals Off, Baby Big Eyed Beans from Venus Rhino blurb : Captain Beefheart’s “Now Playing” vinyl LP includes 10 seminal tracks from across the artists’ catalog. Introducing Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band ‘Now Playing’- a diverse mix of blues, soul, and experimental rock, featuring songs like “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby” and “Her Eyes Are aRead More →

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An exhibition of Don’s artwork opens at Galerie Michael Werner in Berlin on Friday, July 5, 2024 from 6 – 9 p.m.; the show will last until August 31, 2024. The exhibition will occupy the ground and first floor of the gallery at Hardenbergstraße 9A, Berlin-Charlottenburg. There doesn’t seem to be a title for this particular exhibition. I’m guessing that the artworks on show will be those that were exhibited earlier this year in London. Gallery opening hours are Tue to Fri 11 am – 6 pm, Sat 10 am – 4 pm. For more information, please contact the gallery by phone at +49(0)30 31491880Read More →

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A great cache of previously unseen photographs of the band’s 1973 concert at the legendary Rainbow Theatre in London have finally seen the light of day. The photographer, Jan Podsiadly, had considered the shots were not good enough until he took another look just recently. Here’s what he has to say : It has been about six years since I dug out a set of negatives of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band performing at The Rainbow, in 1973. The contact sheet suggested a lot of blur and overexposure from the spotlights so I just copied one image and left the rest. Just now [FebruaryRead More →

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John French has created a 20 minute ‘Bucket List’ video update on various projects and preoccupations that are keeping him busy. He talks about various Trout Mask Replica related issues, drum videos, chasing royalties from his book and some Magic Band live albums that are in the pipeline. It’s well worth a look :Read More →

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Great news ! Another Beefheart album gets the Record Store Day treatment by Rhino/Warner. For release on 20 April 2024 will be The Spotlight Kid (Deluxe Edition), which means a second disc of outtakes from those sessions is included. There will be 7000 copies on 140g ‘milky clear’ vinyl. The track list of the bonus disc is as follows : C1. THE WITCH DOCTOR LIFE (instrumental ) [5:27] C2. SEMI-MULTICOLORED CAUCASIAN (instrumental)* [4:37] C3. YOUR LOVE BROUGHT ME TO LIFE (instrumental) [3:11] C4. TWO RIPS IN A HAYSTACK/KISS ME MY LOVE [2:38] C5. HARRY IRENE [3:33] C6. BEST BATCH YET (TRACK) [VERSION 1] [2:18] C7.Read More →

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An unexpected event – well, I didn’t see any adverts for it – was PJ Harvey’s appearance at Don’s art exhibition, Standing on One Hand,  in London between November 2023 and February 2024. Polly read several of Don’s poems. Does anyone know which ones? She finished her set with a poem, Man Can’t Anticipate Cat, that Don had written especially for her about her cat called ‘Garden’. Polly and Don often spoke on the phone and she sent Don some photos of her with her cat. Don loved cats. A recording of the poem is available on YouTube :Read More →

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Moris Tepper is releasing his seventh (?) album on 23 February 2024. This is his first for 14 years ! It’s called Building A Nest and is on his Candlebone label – www.candlebone.com It will be released initially on streaming platforms – Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music etc. but a physical CD will be available on 5 April. Here’s the first single, She Had To Run, from the album :Read More →