stolen body on the loose

Very good to see another independent vinyl label springing to their feet in the UK. Bristol's Stolen Body are certainly making enough noise to be taken seriously. They've got a list of interesting artists building and the latest release due in January is by Al Lover, a San Fransican producer (wots he doin' in Bristol then) with a back catalogue of garage and psyche. His new release 'Cave Ritual' is giving your ears 20 minutes of layered science fiction trance and a side of shorter tracks.
There's the briefest taste of that below.. (come on guys lets have a minute at least).

There's a Bristol Psychedelic Festival that the label are obviously all caught up with (Check their Facebook page) planned for 2015 plus further releases.
Stolen Body records also doubles up as a record shop selling vinyl from other labels specialising in garage rock and psychedelic rock (but not exclusively).
Much afoot down in Bristol then. See their website for some splendid noise and some tasty distribution for Rhino Records, and other classic bands of the genre. Even got 3 classic The Doors albums on 180 gram vinyl. Great stuff.

the reading festival 1978

photo © Paddy Mulvenna

This years Reading festival prepares itself for the August 22nd weekend with tickets for all 3 nights sold out.
From it's early 1960's years it's said Reading had declined from its true festival spirit and within a decade or so now had a reputation for it's hard rock and metal lineups performing before an audience with a somewhat less laid back and friendly atmosphere. As ever each new generation brings its own music and social reality of its times that in turn appears alien to the previous one.
Today with it's many stages plus BBC radio coverage from their own dedicated venues the lineups change once more and a broader audience of pop and rock appear throughout the weekend. As most festivals are inclined to be today, it's big business as usual. No one expects problems except with the parking.

Back in 1978 something very different was occurring. The Reading Festival introduced the first wave of punk bands into it's line up. Well somebody had to do it by 1978, and Reading was just about the first main festival to include the new age of Punk in any numbers to its billing. The year before 'Wayne County and The Electric Chairs' and 'Eddie and The Hot Rods' were the lone sign of change at Reading in what had turned by then into the home of a 70's long haired denim army.
The transition of 78 now saw an audience combining the Reading die hard hairy rockers and these new punk bands, who not only had their own audience but which was also inclined to have a roaming skinhead contingent mixed in with them. Unsurprisingly it was always going to be a tightrope walk as to who was going to actually complete a set with this lot mingling together.
What probably made matters worse were the bands being billed in a mixed order. Obviously some bright spark in the organisation thought peace and harmony would be best kept by giving everyone something they could get on with and not too long to wait between the two styles. One being the old school of rockers and the other the new wave of punk.
So there were the established rock bands of Foreigner, Status Quo, Ian Gillan, folk group Lindisfarne etc etc, even the 60's legends Spirit appearing on the Saturday, now mixed in with the likes of the new upstarts, Patti Smith, The Jam, Chelsea and Sham 69 etc, etc.

The 18th Jazz Blues Rock Festival, as Reading was titled, would turn out to be a lot less Blues and Jazz and a lot more Blood and Cans, with the two tribes pitching their own divisive views on the entertainment. On more than one occasion the skies darkened as a shadow of cans arced their way towards the stage.
Sham 69 were particularly aimed at and they quickly became disillusioned with the violence. Lead singer, Jimmy Pursey even made a brave attempt to bring the love to everyone by introducing long time hippy/prog guitarist Steve Hillage on to their set, predictably with little effect, until Sham's bass player was cleanly sconned with a can which more or less put an an end to their efforts, and leaving Jimmy in tears at the frustration of it all.
The Jam and the young Ultravox remained cool to the audience and the place. By now it was pretty evident punk was an urban experience best kept to the dripping walls of small clubs and not the idealistic musical visions of festival organisers. Festivals also needed a considerably more expansive noise to reach the hordes standing before them. The punk bands with their two or three miked up vox amps were likely not going to have the same presence shall we say, as a bank of Foreigner Marshall stacks turned up to 11.
See, this was 1978 and Punk was still in a transit van with Gaffa (Duct) tape holding the back door shut. The Clash did get it right a little later, but by then they had some money. And punk did appear more regularly at Reading in later festivals.

But out of this locking of rock horns at Reading 78 came The Pirates. A band that were there at the birth of 60's rock and roll in Britain. Namely as 'Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' and one of the pre Beatles era rock and roll groups. The original Pirates line up and the ones to back Johnny Kidd in the studio had been shaped from session men, as was the way back in the late 50's and early 60's, but by 1962 Mick Green was enrolled on guitar, Jonny Spence, bass, and Frank Farley on kit, becoming Johnny Kidd's chosen band for the road tours. That was until Kidd was killed in a car crash in 1966, although by this time Green had left to join Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas in 1964.
So after Johnny Kidd's tragic death The Pirates just faded from sight.

Then in 1976 Mick Green reformed the group with his old mates and put The Pirates back on the road.
Over the next 2 years they began to gather a whole new audience not drawn from a 50's rocker audience but the new spirit of 76/77, the blank generation. The Pirates would appear on punk gigs as easily as they would in any other. It was the energy. The attack of the band. And some simple theatrics... they dressed like pirates! ha. Irresistible.

Mick Green's reputation was also being passed around by now too. Wilko Johnson had been touting his inspiration for a couple of years. It was that right hand machine gun like staccato rhythm that Green could effortlessly drop into his lead licks that Wilko was now driving the good Doctor Feelgood with.
By the time The Pirates were playing The London Roundhouse in 1977 (picture above) there was a line of kids standing on stage left all watching Mick Greens lightning fast guitar work ready to leave that night and form their own band.

So there on stage at the 1978 Reading Festival no one had to make any decision about whether The Pirates were on one side of the chosen rock fence or the other. Punks, skins, rockers all new the Pirates were simply the embodiment of rock and roll with very few bands anywhere in the business that could lay claim to a similar history. It had taken nearly 2 decades from the origins of the rock and roll days but The Pirates were once again shakin' all over, and an audience with them. Green, Spence and Farley had not only understood that times had changed but also recognised them from a previous generation that was as equally confrontational and socially charged as they had been in the late 1950's and early 60's.
In 1978 it was now clear to many rock and roll had come full circle. In future decades rock bands and songwriters would produce songs directly and indirectly influenced by any one of the countless styles that had evolved during those 2 seminal decades.

Here's the last number of The Pirates set at Reading with an audience now at one with the music.
It begins with a short interview with Mick Green at the time. The clip is from a full length film of the 78 Reading Festival originally released on VHS.

the glastonbury effect

Glastonbury begins proper today with the usual gloomy weather forecast : expect rain.
and given the usual accuracy of the computer predictions of UK weather this will mean anything from showers to a biblical flood.

So far this year with little or no coverage of music festivals the BBC have obviously been shaping up for a full assault on Glastonbury as the official "get down with the kids" weekend.
And this morning an on-location news reporter was there at first light to remind us what we were missing as they interviewed three hapless campers who'd been hi-jacked on their way to a clear run at festival ablutions.
That now abandoned in the hope that all their mates would be seeing them live on TV, if indeed any of them were awake, they gave us all the much needed scoop at gawd knows what time of the day this was.
The three reporters stooges stood looking slightly dazed as he excitedly quizzed them in turn...
"So who are you looking forward to seeing then?"
A disheveled part Goth girl replied grinning "well er.. you know.. like...
every fink !".
"yes.. thank you.... and how about you, what's going to be the band to look out for?"
A young guy obviously not taking any chances on the possible downturn in the weather is dressed in a bright yellow cagoul and all weather gear as if he's about to take part in a world junior yacht race, nods his approval at the question.
"well er.. er.. Dolly Parton?.. and er...
the drink".
The reporters raised eyebrows betrayed his surprise to learn that Dolly Parton was even at the festival let alone the idea she'd be performing to the likes of plastered yachting scouts.
"and you?" as he pressed on to the third of the happy campers, a sullen looking dude with palid features and wearing a tatty red T-shirt which he's obviously slept in since last Wednesday sparks the interviewers observant eye..
"how about you.. oh.. you look cold" offering up an expression of 'you idiot'.
The dude ignores him.
"what about the headliners then this year? who are you going to see"
The inappropriately dressed one blinks back,
"Well there's Metallica... should be a laff... cuz no body'll know what to do.. cuz it's not their sort of crowd... oh yeah" a grin breaking his motionless face
..and the drink".
The reporter now with the latest festival lowdown dismisses them by simply turning his back..
"And back to you in the studio"

Oh yes we've all learnt much. The music's the last thing we're here for.
The main objective is to get pissed.
Peace and love comes to Glasto once more.

The headliners you'll be missing today (Friday) are Arcade Fire. Metallica (Saturday) Kasabian (Sunday).
By the way Blondie opened Glastonbury and played at the dreaded time of 12.15pm and reportedly didn't move the earth or the clouds because she didn't play all her old hits but added some new material. And as we all know you must never do that. Ever ! . ... for chrissakes.
Anyone with any sense will be at Sonisphere next week where at the very least you'll get to see the spectacle of Gary Numan hold his own against biplane dogfights, the Prodigy, Iron Maiden, and yet again Metallica (who are obviously trying very hard to expand their fan base).

glastonbury unfayre

The music festival season in the UK is underway. Not that we'd know that from watching any of it's coverage on TV. Unlike previous years when wall to wall footage of say, The Isle Of White Festival, has spilled over from the BBC3's "yoof" channel, this year there's been none. They probably realised the huge cost of the army of support that goes into a live broadcast has resulted in 70 highly paid technicians doubling up on overtime and having a long weekend off once the filming is underway. No doubt the esteemed public broadcasting will be keeping their camera's dry for Glastonbury and chucking their all into that.

And Glastonbury this year has caused somewhat of a controversy. Which is long overdue when it comes to rock and roll festivals. Who can remember the last time one even raised itself above the most common complaint, that of high prices.
But this year the Grand Poo-bah of Glastonbury, Trevor Eavis, made the controversial decision of awarding Metallica as the main headliners on Sunday night. Good grief can this be true, the American metal band and their legion of fans arrive in the home of the perceived world of the new age and post hippy hipness. Surely somethings got to give.
And it did. Amongst a whole load of complainers who objected most strongly to Metallica being at the festival was not because of the music, or nothing so mundane as the worry of a turn out on biblical scale of metal maniacs amongst them, but that Metallica's front man James Hetfield, does some hunting and is also going to narrate “The Hunt”, a new TV series about bear hunting in Alaska.
The social media was consequently lit up with rage by the usual burger scoffing tweeters having one of their big moments and started the modern day action of the outraged...
another online petition.
Which of course is the best way to register your protest when you can't be bothered to move your rear out of the armchair. There's also been much talk about this all not being in “the spirit of Glastonbury.”
So much for free speech in the home of the hipster peace camp.

Anyway Trevor Eavis has replied to the doubters
"There's no other band in the whole history of the festival that has been so keen to play, they will do the best set of their lives here."
Having thought the whole protest thing was about the music and missing the point entirely.
Frankly, it will do everyone a lot of good to hear what James Hetfield is actually going on about with "The Hunt" misguided or not, and also for everyone to hear something that they wouldn't normally hear.
That was the idea of the 'music festival' in the first place wasn't it? A festival of music. Where you'd hear a folk singer come on next to a rock band, next to a top jazz player, next to a funk band etc etc. Just have a look at the lineup at some of the early festivals (Monterey, Montreux, Woodstock, Isle Of Wight,). Not too many music fans complained after being at one of those.

And Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs will tell you it's all going to be really good...

quintessence in never never land

What an enigma Quintessence were.
Born out of the Ladbroke Grove scene in the late 60's, although none of the band were Londoners, they evolved a sound which you could liken somewhere between the improvising and jamming of The Grateful Dead and a percussive drive with peace and love lyrics of a sort of folksy Santana. The songs were more chants and narrations than tunes.
Their performances were something like a late 60's 'happening' and a mini festival.

To set the atmos before the band played, incense sticks were placed around the venues or on stage, audiences mostly sat on the floor and joined in the chants and rhythms with anything they could get their hands on. The smell of weed and incense permeated the air as the band built their music to a crescendo. It what was to say the least, a heady experience being at a Quintessence gig.
Hardly surprising then, when it came to transferring that particular alchemy to the reality of two sides of vinyl, it struggled to transfer. Not to say they were rubbish albums but anyone seeing the band live and went out to buy the new album hoping to capture a similar experience were in for a let down.
A live recording of Quintessance would have been a more suitable release. But not so easy or cheap for a band in the making to be dragging a mobile recording unit around, particularly between 1970-72 when they were at their peak.
It seems in those 3 years Quintessence were playing just about everywhere in the UK and Europe. College tours, festivals, radio broadcasts, free events, they even packed The Albert Hall twice! But still not seeing an abundance of vinyl sales despite all that.

Regardless, their record label Island Records, stuck with them and still expected big things for Quintessence until quite inexplicably the band turned down the chance of playing The Carnegie Hall in the States..... wow!
Why? Because they wanted more money! Which has to be said comes as something of a complete about face when it comes to the bands ethos up to that point in time. If they'd said it was for their own idealistic reasons. eg. the 60's evergreen "not selling out", you'd have a sort of understood no matter how gormless the decision would have been. But not enough money?
You see the leading light of the band was one Aussie, Ron "Raja Ram" Rothfield, a trained flautist and a devotee of the spiritual yoga teacher Swami Ambikananda. The majority of the band were of the same persuasion and had changed or been renamed individually to the more exotic sounding - Shiva Shankar Jones, Sambhu Baba and Maha Dev (the other two original members less inclined to that luxury were Allan Mostert and Jake Milton)
The bands lyrics always revealed this 'love' and 'devotion' to their spiritual guidance. The "music" and "spreading the love/message" was always the bands reason for being. Again, an oft repeated idealism in the late 60's.
You'll hear an example of that in the clip below where they extol these virtues in their song "Freedom".
"you've got to turn your back on fortune and fame".
So you can imagine turning down the Carnegie Hall because of the paycheck is a bit odd coming from a band that spent many a gig at free festivals. And admirable sentiments as their lyrics might be, but completely at odds with how the music business works mind you, when it came to pressing their message home in America, Ron "Raja Ram" Rothfield had wanted more wad from Chris Blackwell at Island Records. Blackwell, who up until this point had been staunchly supporting Quintessence lost interest, big time. Well you can see why that happened.
It also has to be noticed there may have been something of a flaw in the social karma of old Ronnie "Raja Ram" has he seemed to also have the knack of sacking or falling out with some of his fellow musicians. But for good or bad the band soldiered on for a few years but nothing really blossomed in quite the same way again and by 1980, Quintessence had burnt it's last joss stick. Although even that was more than respectable given they'd managed to get through punk music's late 70's clean sweep.
Which is rather ironic because if they'd held on another few years they'd have been as at home with the arriving New Age audience as they would have been in their Ladbroke Grove hippy roots.

Quintessence are still remembered enthusiastically by those that were there at the gig's in their peak days and if they never did get to make the big selling album the one thing that did go down in history for them is they played the first two Glastonbury Festivals (Fayres) in 1971.
This clip of them is taken by an amateur who managed to get very close to them on stage at Glastonbury in 1971, and although limited in camera shots or angles he managed to record the only known footage of them at the festival, along with some of the audience. The sound is quite good considering there's no sound crew for this lone shooter and you do get a terrific feel for the way the band performed.
"Freedom" cuts off abruptly at the end as the band go into one of their fantasy narration songs called "Giants".
Just a couple of years difference and the Quintessence story could have all been very different. It's often like that in rock and roll.

chinese rocks

Buried in the backwater of a high numbered Sky television channel is a most curious and unexpected bit of programming, it's called Propellor. It's a continual broadcast hoping to introduce us all here in the UK to the delights of the diverse culture in China. Not an ancient Chinese culture or grim faced propoganda of the old world but a modern 21st century outward looking China.
A world, frankly, the broader population here still knows little about, unless of course it's the recent unusual and somewhat chilling sight of two behemoth Chinese military aircraft turning up on a runway in Australia in the search for the missing MH370 airliner.
Anyway, here on the Propellor channel 189 at a various unlikely hours the programs are often fronted by bright young Chinese girls, who sometimes introduce us to bizzarre interviews with typical English stereotypes which presumably is for young Chinese people, and there are many here, to help understand what the hell is going on in this odd little Island.
You see understanding our culture appears as polar opposite to their world as theirs is to us. And boy it does seem odd at times.

Popping up in this eclectic programming comes one where we are introduced to 'China Rock'.. and no that's not the type of "Chinese Rock" that Johnny Thunders use to sing about but rock music in China. Lasting for an hour and a bit we're taken through the many styles and shapes that rock takes in this new 'open China'. And wow there is a lot more than you can ever have expected. Sure from time to time we've heard a mention of a Chinese rock band and one or two show up on the occasional blog but it's just a second glance and gone.

But there are all types of rock and it looks like they've absorbed and learnt every known category the west has come up with over the last 50 odd years.
There's Metal, Indie, Rock and Roll, Punk, (like metal, punk seems a hit with young men ready to abandon all old world decorum during a gig), there's surprisingly Reggae, Dub, not surprisingly Disco, Jazz and even Psychedelic and Progressive. The psychedelic is more in the line of a middle period Pink Floyd type and crosses over with Progressive.
As one of the members of a psychedelic band explained "psychedelic music is something you must listen to with your heart".
Eh? It seemed what he means is he writes a song on what he feels like, as opposed to straight pop music which he must believe is more predictable in it's subject matter. This psychedelic/prog lyric is also more like an allegorical poem then lyrics we might associate.
The subject might wonder about life and where it leads, this will be represented by traditional symbols like birds or water or plants or animals.
it's all very earnest, very serious and philosophical.. for a young dude that is.
Other young fan dudes understand this meaning and nod approvingly to the sage words. There is no mention or sign that psychedelic has ever been been the result of being clean out of your face on lysergic if you get the drift.
All these bands have all the equipment we're so familiar with. There's every type of classic amp and guitar on display. They are all played with studious precision and the tone and nuances are exactly like the originals.

And that's it. It suddenly occurs you are listening to an exact replica of something that sounds very familiar but not quite the same. The words, scrolling by in translation all seem correct but not in the same way. They're sort of back to front or upside down in their meaning to us in the Western world.
Our rather cynical ears can find it slightly daft.
Take for example even the name of the band. They are "Iron Kite" and they are a Metal band.
OK... I think we can see where that has come from. But for their serious considerations this is an important name, for they have seen this as being words of contradiction. Like the contradictions in life. And they give an example of the contradiction in living in the country and city life. Which seems an amounting difficulty for people in modern China. There is a huge gap between the two. One very poor and one very rich.
So as you can see, understandable and quite old school as far as song lyrics go. In fact that was realised back in the 60's only the other way round.
Then it was "going back to the garden" as Joni Mitchell sang.
Iron Kite go onto to make other upside down analogies.. they talk about how they see that cabbage.. yes stay with this... but cabbage means much to the Chinese people. It is eaten by rich and poor alike, and this has no boundary.
Iron Kite tell us further more the band identifies with this.. "so we are like the cabbage.. for rich and poor". An admirable sentiment no doubt, but somehow the whole thing goes upside down again when they add finally..
"We are the cabbage of rock"

Yes guys it's going to be tough cracking the western world.

Here's a great example of that upside down world. With an Indie band, although they are described here as Folk (?) -"China's Most Welcomed Folk Singer Hao Yun - It's Life" (at the Shanghai Midi Festival).
Notice the almost exact replica of any pop festival, certainly here in the UK, and the perfect Indie band sound and sing-a-long. Then read the lyric translation as Hao Yun sings and thousands of young fans join in with "Can't wait until I get to 60 to start looking for the freedom that I want ".
See that? it's gone upside down again.
Rock and Roll here has always been "hope I die before I get old".

the allman brothers play 'whipping post' at the crossroads guitar festival 2013.

Naturally the whole festival is stacked with top guitar players but here alongside Derek Trucks, Wayne Haynes and Greg Allman are two drummers and a percussionist who absolutely nail this to the Madison Square Garden stage. And goddammit with all these guitar gods around it's really hard to find a name check for them. We'll keep searching and update this post when they're found.
(now we got 'em - BUTCH TRUCKS (drums and tympani), JAIMOE (drums), MARC QUINONES (congas and percussion)
Despite that complaint this version of Whipping Post is one of the best you'll hear, with the sound quality in highest definition. The whole festival with it's monster lineup is out on dvd, blue ray, cd and you can order it from the Eric Clapton website" and no doubt lots of other outlets.

roadburn 2014

The lineup and tickets for Europe's leading psyche and stoner festival, Roadburn, are announced. They're all very excited about the teaming up of two German bands in particular.

"We’re thrilled to announce that two of the most fascinating European improv / psychedelic bands, Papir (DK) and Electric Moon (DE), will bring their tranced-out psych kraut exclusively to Roadburn 2014, channeling their mysterious cosmic vibes in The Papermoon Sessions as part of the Afterburner on Sunday, April 13th at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands."

When it comes to interstellar jams the German groups are way out there and these two are amongst the best, listen to their 21 minute cosmic fusion of Electric Monn and Papir's 'The Circle'.
It should be quite an event for all the right reasons (it's Holland!!). The Roadburn website takes the ticket booking and all the other info you'll need.

new hendrix documentary

Just when you think there can surely be no more Hendrix material left in the vaults of.. well who ever owns or has their sticky fingers on this stuff these days, along comes another part of the ever evolving story of James Marshall.
Given that his 'Experience/Band Of Gypsies' was to amount to just 3 years it's difficult to get the mind around just how much stuff this man created. It seems like every waking moment of the mans life was recorded over those tumultuous years.

The latest in the line of archive material is this weeks announcement of 'The Miami Pop Festival Documentary, 1968' with unseen footage.. and er... "home movies taken by Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell, while sourcing an extensive archive of photographs, drawings, family letters and more to provide new insight into the musician's personality and genius".
This feature length docu-film will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 4. The same day also unveils a new album naturally, "Jimi Hendrix Experience: Miami Pop Festival", which includes songs "Hear My Train A Comin'" and "Tax Free", "Fire," "Hey Joe," "I Don't Live Today" and "Purple Haze" recorded at the Festival.

Regardless of whether the fascination with the worlds greatest rock guitarist turns out to be any sort of revelation remains to be seen and the DVD/CD/Vinyl's likely main destination will no doubt be in those Hendrix completest collections, numerous as they may well be.
What is interesting though is the festival was originally planned as a two-day event, organised by Michael Lang the man who brought you Woodstock by the way, and the second day Sunday concert was rained out leaving everyone all dressed up and nowhere to go which in turn inspired Jimi to write the superb and haunting "Rainy Day, Dream Away." which appeared on Electric Ladyland album 6 months later in October 68.

It also happens on that fine Saturday in May a 15 year old lad borrowed his Dad's home cine camera and captured a small part of the festival on 8mm movie film. After a few shots of some swans (?) we then see brief shots of Arthur Brown, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Blue Cheer and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
So from a 15 year old vantage point, which is not that great, he was down the front fighting it out with a view between the audience heads and shots over and through stage construction of his heroes, most of which are now long gone.
What a defining moment this must have been for a 15 year old. There's no sound, just the edited clatter of the movie projector running, as it would have been very rare for someone outside of a professional to own a sound camera in 1968.
So here is Andy Seipos short home movie capturing a moment of history at the Miami Festival on that bright sunny Saturday afternoon, and like ghosts of another time they silently play on captured by the young Andy.
This won't be on the DVD.

the reading festival 2013

The Reading Festival 2013 begins today and runs through until Sunday. It's the UK's longest running festival having begun back in the 60's. Then named The National Jazz and Blues Festival it was organised by the National Jazz Federation, closely linked to the London rock venue The Marquee Club. Editor at the excellent archive UK Rock Festivals describes it's changes.

"In some ways its a shame that we now have to offer a more limited range of music at festivals , the majority of them seem to have to be genre specific. The concept of having a mix of music on the bill is only really used at the Womad festivals (world music). Attempts to present lineups that are diverse in their makeup meet with either apathy, or result in the bottling of those artists who fail to meet the expectations of those audience members who only want to hear the music THEY like and who don't want to expand their musical horizons. As the 70s progressed this became increasingly the case.The 80s only consolidated the situation.
Although the PA's and facilities are generally much better then these early festivals, we have regressed to some extent in the open mindedness of crowds towards accepting a wide range of music - although I can think of times in the early festivals where crowds were ugly towards certain types of acts - so perhaps its just promoters playing safe and giving the punters more of what they know they want."

Instead, as back in the ancient rock past of 50 years ago, the one stage that was erected triumphantly from dodgey looking scaffolding where the gathered 'heads' of the day milled about in a cloud of dope and swamp of mud not far from the banks of the River Thames, the slick 2013 festival is located elsewhere and has at least 6 stages and so many bands you'll have forgotten who you went to see in the first place. Although what you don't stumble on or wished you hadn't many will be gratified to find the band on YouTube before they've got to the next stage. Then, thanks to the BBC who've embedded themselves on site for the weekend, with the flick of a smartphone finger they can see themselves or their mates giving it large in front of the cameras. And if you miss that one don't freak the Beeb even have several stages named after them in their honour. BBC Radio 1 stage, etc etc. so if you don't see yourself in one video you will in one of the other 6 or more stage venues.
With a whiff of end of term madness eminating from the Corporation as the August Bank Holiday looms, a notoriously traditional time for the UK to pack up and get soaked in more ways than one, you feel with that many cameras about half the BBC staff under the age of 40 will have joined the throngs for a freebee. They'll all no doubt be working hard at it for your playback pleasure with Green Day headlining tonight, Eminem on Saturday, Biffy Clyro and Nine Inch Nails on Sunday.
Here's a BBC clip of Bring Me The Horizon performing their song "Sleepwalking" recorded a little earlier this afternoon. Lots more YouTube BBC clips of bands at Reading and the concurrent Leeds festival are here

amon amarth

Swedish metallers Amon Amarth are currently touring with their ninth studio album. The new album follows the bands familiar themes about Vikings and Norse mythology with the album cover depicting Ragnarök the last battle between the Æsir gods and Loki, accompanied by the army of the dead.

Over the summer they have been doing the festival circuits in numerous countries, including Download festival in the UK. Check out the video of the band performing the title track from the new album at Rock am Ring in Germany's Nürburgring. And yes, they have a Viking longboat on stage!

liverpool festival of psych review

And for 15 hours the freaks, the cats, the mop-tops, the Swedish guy offering a trick or treat back of pick and mix minus the Haribo, the dancers, the girls in floor-length furs, the fake Apache Indians with day-glo make-up, the DJs with fancy neckerchiefs, the dudes with maroon ankle boots, the beatniks that had travelled the globe a thousand times and were not done yet and the musicians soaked up the sounds of the first Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia...

Read more of Peter Guy's full review of last Saturday's festival with band tracks and pictures here

The Cult of Dom Keller with their garage drone

liverpool psych fest

The UK's biggest celebration of psychedelic sub-culture is back on at the Liverpool (natch) International Festival Of Psychedelia in September. Along with the bands, visual art, film, performance and mind expanding visual delights are all in line. For more on all the bands check their site here.
Lucid Dream (from Carlisle) will be in full flow and no doubt working their latest album out live. Give this track a go, their a good example of the new psychedelia unfolding.. "Love In My Veins" from the new album. All credit to them for going independent and releasing it on their own label 'Holy Are You Recordings!'.
And below that stream the whole album and buy from the widget.

stoned from the underground 2013 and the obelisk

The organisers simply claim the "lineup isn’t even that important because it's been awesome for almost 15 years".
Stoned From The Underground was held last weekend (9-13th July) in Stotternheim, Germany and gathered some of Europes and the US' best hard rock, stoner and desert rock exponents, Pothead, Earthless, Mustasch. Atomic Bitchwax, Truckfighters, Pelican, Acid King, Lowrider, etc etc.
Fridays' headliners were Earthless with their instrumental psychedelic rock from San Diego, California. A power trio of intensity that can jam with relentless energy from each of the players, Isaiah Mitchell – guitar, Mike Eginton – bass guitar, Mario Rubalcaba – drums.
You'd expect nothing else from Californian psychedelic rock, there's a long tradition to uphold.

And if you're in the mood for exploring more underground rock go and check out The Obelisk blog who run a radio station too.
"The Obelisk Radio was launched in 2012 live streaming music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting with a base of well over 7,500 songs formerly operating as StonerRock.com’s K666 online radio station. Get the station here

Also The Obelisk run a small independent record label, Maple Forum.
"This is an in-house operation, geared toward those who still believe in music enough to directly support the people making it. Releases will be limited and sold through The Obelisk". The added bonus to all this is there's no nasty commercial poke in the eye awaiting the visitor. It's all about the music... just as we like it.

Here's Earthless, Live at Stoned from the Underground 2013

hyde park 1969

Brian Jones is sacked from The Rolling Stones on June 10th 1969. On July 3rd, Jones is found dead. 2 days later The Stones played the Hyde Park Concert. As a dedication and tribute to Jones thousands of butterflies were to be released.

"Jagger wanted to release these white butterflies so I had to liaise with a butterfly farm in the West Country and the parks people who were concerned the wrong sort of butterflies might upset then ecosystem of the park.
Early on the morning of the concert I went to Paddington to collect boxes of butterflies. I peeped inside and as far as I could see it was full of dead butterflies. I called the farm in a panic and said "They're dead!" And they said they're not dead, they're cold, they are sleeping, you've got to warm them up.
How the fuck are we going to warm them up? We had these two hot plates, the sort that students use to heat baked beans, and so we put the boxes on them. I think one caught fire. When Mick opened the boxes, some of the butterflies flew away, but most dropped senseless to the stage. They weren't dead, they were cold. They only died when they got trodden on."
Andrew King. (promoter). Uncut Magazine. Aug.2013.

44 years later, tomorrow July 6th and also July 13th they play Hyde Park again.
No butterflies allowed.

glastonbury 2013 (part 2)

"How you doin' Glastonbury.. !!"
It's the go to phrase for every band when faced with the sea of faces stretching back into the festival horizon. The sun is out. Everyone is happy. The music is everywhere. 100 stages of it.
The biggest decision of your life for 3 days is which stage and what time.
At the same time you'll understand, rending any overview of the event impossible or pointless.
Glastonbury presents such a mass of performers it can also end up with the bizarre juxtaposition of John Lydon and Public Image Ltd singing "anger is an energy" on one stage and veteran C&W singer Kenny Rogers on another singing "You've painted up your lips an rolled and curled your tinted hair."
Although when it comes to engaging a crowd in between song banter Kenny has it completely nailed. Natural sense of humour and without a hint of pre-planned dialogue the sea of faces laughed and reacted with ease.

On the other hand the shock or need of addressing and engaging this sea of faces can leave what appears the most hardened rockers coming over a bit, well how can you put it... "lame".
Take for example Friday's headline 'Arctic Monkeys'. As tight and hard rock and roll outfit as you can find with Alex Turner's moody and sullen delivery, yet somehow he felt compelled to ask the sea of faces to "..sing Happy Birthday to my mum who's somewhere in the crowd". It's a phrase he might well be advised not return to again. Sort of eclipses any energy built up in a set.
Look guys, as much as we understand the love you might have for mum it's not really a great rock and roll moment when a crowd sings this because 1. It's been asked to and wouldn't have otherwise. 2. It's a ghastly tune,
The older performers are less intoxicated with the gooeyness of the moment and talk calmly with the sea of faces.

Seasick Steve did just that. That and battling with his homemade guitars that were reacting to the open air with an obstinacy to be somewhere else for the opening chords until Steve manhandled the tuning back into shape. Eventually they succumbed to their bosses wishes only to de-tune themselves for the next song. "did you hear that..? " he cheerfully asked "sounded like a washing machine". It did too. But who cares, Seasick Steve with John Paul Jones on bass and drummer Dan Magnusson always work their blues out.

Saturday of course was the big event. The Rolling Stones on the Pyramid Stage. Organiser Michael Eavis had waited decades for them to except the gig and last night the show rolled out onto the Stones' custom arena stage ready to take Mick's energetic pacing and prancing. The rest of the Stones are less animated so require less room, apart from a few feet for Keef to shuffle over to Ronnie or shuffle to the front to throw a few guitar shapes.
The presence here of their old lead guitarist Mick Taylor on a couple of numbers seemed an odd counterpoint considering he mainly strummed his way through a couple of songs with one lead break chucked in, and quite inexplicably played an acoustic guitar on 'Tumbling Dice' which remained unheard throughout.
With Bill Wyman on site with his band it might have been considered worthwhile and appreciated by die hard Stones fans to ask him to join them for a couple of songs . For what ever reason that did not occur.

The Stones set about compiling their show from their back catalogue of hits by the year. The only problem with that is after the Brown Sugar/Tumbling Dice era they sort of dry up making it seem like that's when the Stones did too.
But a surprise addition in the 1967/8 era was greeted with some anticipation, '2000 Light Years From Home' from their often unfairly derided psychedelic 'Satanic Majesties Request' album. Actually it would be preferable to hear that stuff these days than Mick rather inappropriately singing "Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good (a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should.. A-huh.
From a 70 year old man that just sounds plain creepy. Dump that song man.. it's over.

Anyway if anyone thought we were going to be treated to anymore than a track from 'Satanic..' they'd have been disappointed from the off, Mick informed us "..not the whole album... just this" seeming a little reluctant to do just even that track. They launched '2000 Light Years..' with some spaced out improvisation that sounded more than promising until engaging all boosters for the trip into space with a rather drunken version of the song. Slightly staggering and sorely missing Bill Wyman's majestic bass line, Keefs mistimed riff beneath Mick no longer singing the light ethereal vocal of the original, but barking out the lyrics much like er.. well the rest of the set, sounded just like they hadn't played it for 2000 years.
Mick's highest vocal range of the night being the between song cajoling of the sea of faces with high pitch shouts of "OW" through what seemed like most of the second half of their two hour show.
It was an odd way of solving the between song banter problem.
But the Stones show always is a spectacle and that's how it ended. In lots of spectacular lighting to the sound of You Can't Always Get What You Want.
It didn't rain on The Stones so they would have been happy. A few of the sea of faces were interviewed by gabbling BBC presenters who informed us "they were the best band they'd ever seen".
Yes, The Stones Roll on and on and...
Glastonbury finishes tonight with 'Mumford And Son'. Everyone will sing along. Bet someone say's "How you doin' Glastonbury.. !!"

Seasick Steve with stubborn hubcap

The Strypes don't care where they are.

glastonbury 2013

So the annual mudfest that is Glastonbury has begun. Good news for all, is despite the initial 2 inches of clay the weather sets to be fine over the weekend so festival goers will not have to purchase over priced waterproofs for the rest of the weekend.
The first up on the main stage today was Liam Gallagher and his Beady Eye. He had claimed he wouldn't play the festival again because it was now full of 'celebrities' and it had lost touch with its hippy roots, but when the chips are down for an extra boost to his recently released 2nd CD you can rely on Liam to do the right thing. His post gig comments of "great vibe" might not be the final word.

With the festival seeming even larger this year with over 100 stages it's going to be a struggle to work through the list of who's actually playing let alone make the gig in time to see the band. !00 stages! is that even possible.
The list of performers is endless. (see above)
Tonights main stage headline group are the Arctic Monkeys. Tomorrow the Stones. Rumours, yes always rumours, are abounding that Bowie might make a suprise appearance. One word "unlikely", unless he plans an inpromptu 'Dancing In The Street' with Stoneage Mick.
But the Stones are the big draw for the Festival and with live BBC television on overdrive to show as many highlights alongside the mangled words of over excitable presenters there's going to be plenty of chances to see parts of the show. The rest will no doubt appear as a very reasonably priced DVD later in the year.
At 200 pounds a ticket, and only knows what tout ticket prices are by now, this years pop bonanza is set to be a success for the Eavis company down at jollity farm.
Anybody bring the sun block?

download festival / isle of wight 2013

The rainy season festival season in the UK gets underway for real this weekend with two of the big hitters being held over the weekend, the Download Festival at Donnington Park and the Isle Of Wight Festival at Newport.

As the UK's College's and University's wind up after the end of year exams many of the besieged students will be making their annual escape to one of the venues in the hope it will be a carefree and uplifting experience as all good festivals should be. Despite the usual madness of testing the UK's weather patterns to remain sunny in June for more than an hour the roads and railways will be the usual clogged exodus of waterproofed and booted fans facing their test of faith in both events. One lot heading to the north midlands Donnington Park the other heading south to the Isle of Wight.

So what's on offer this year? While Donnington is staging more bands than you could possibly see over a weekend the Saturday night looks set for a power overload with rock monsters Alice In Chains, Motorhead, Queens Of The Stone Age and Iron Maiden. This lineup may register on the Richter scale sometime during the evening so all those in Leicestershire and surrounds would do well to find bunkers.

Down at the Isle Of Wight the headline show on Saturday is sedate by comparison with the Killers headlining Saturday and on Sunday, Bon Jovi. Although you suspect the main focus of the weekend will be on Friday night with The Stone Roses who have had huge gigs in the UK recently and greeted with much excitement by press and fans.
The odd thing with the Isle Of Wight this year seems to be the resurfacing of some old bands not seen for years. How they'll fare with an audience of some generations difference could go either way. Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats? Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel? Ian Hunter?.. man, these are bands most fans grandparents will know never mind their parents.

But it's all up for grabs once more.. there will be some bands that shouldn't have bothered and some who will sweep all before them.
We'll bring some updates as the weekend unfolds. Our moneys on the Download Festival being the storm bringer.

colour haze in the dunes

Following yesterdays post on the extraordinary Dunajam gathering in Sardinia ( see post for more) here's Colour Haze performing at the 2011 event. A little further on the coast but no less a spectacular setting for the audience and groups.
Can there be a better venue ? ...Unlikely.

motorpsycho in the dunes

Sick of the commercially over hyped festivals of mud you end up going to each year when what you're really looking for is a completely none commercial gathering to meet cool like minded people and hear great music while basking in the sun.
No that doesn't mean you need to go back to 1968 and Monterey, it just means you don't know about Dunajam. It happens every year and the organisers don't see it as a festival more of a mix between a picnic and a pilgrimage. And pilgrimage is probably what you'll feel you've been on when it's Sardinia where this hip picnic happens.
Then when you've actually applied for and got an invite, yes an invite !.. you'll eventually discover how to get there, where you'll find a discreet gathering of 100 or more like yourself who have made the journey too.
All sound unbelievable and like a journey through the looking glass? Here's Norwegian hard rock psychedelic explorers Motorpsycho setting up and playing at Dunajam in 2010. Oh yes and organisers don't wish to advertise the event too much.. after all they don't want any old rubbish spoiling what looks like a vision of another time and another world.
Jealous?.. you're damn right we are.