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History Of Festivals part 3 Mar-y-Sol: April 1-3 1972, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico In 1972 promoter Alex Cooley, who had two year previously produced the second Atlanta Pop Festival, came up with a novel idea. With local authorities, the cops and just about everyone else making it harder and harder to put festivals on, why not go somewhere where the man wasn't going to bum you out, like, dude. Somewhere where legal hassles would be minimal. Hey, how about Puerto Rico? Cool idea, yeah? Well, actually no. The venue Veja Baja is on the north coast of the island on 420 acres of countryside righ by sandy beaches. Cooley rented it for the Mar-Y-Sol - (sea and sun) festival. Special package deals were put on from major East Coast cities. But at $152 for a round trip from New York, it wasn't cheap for rock fans used to gatecrashing for free. Cooley expected 25-50,000 to make the effort and spend the money and in the final reckoning just 30,000 turned up. The site was constructed by commune The Family in between bouts of being groovy and doubtless smoking the good stuff. It was a kind of paradise; sun, sea, surf and rock n roll. Natually, things, as they tend to do, went wrong. A week beforehand the local court slapped an injunction on the festival because of the possible sale and consumption of drugs. No shit Batman! Well they got that right. Some fans decided not to make the jounrey on hearing this news. Others just travelled anyway figuring hey, its a festival, things always go screwy. It was as late as Thursday when the injunction was over-turned just as people were arriving for the Friday show. Free buses were set to take people from the airport to the site, except none turned up. The bus people thinking the gig was called off, didn't show. Ooops. So fleets of cabs were dispatched to pick people up instead. This took a long time because it was a 3 hour journey so the Friday night music was delayed while people arrived. It was hot and wells drilled for water began to run dry. Locals started selling water for up to a buck a glass. Bad vibes man. Then the locals found that people were showering in an open area and there were like chicks man, in the nude dude, like wow, so there was some leering, jeering and whistling. relations between the rock n roll festivalers and the locals deteriorated. No one was surprised when a some Puerto Ricans got wasted on drink and tore down a couple of American flags putting up their own flag instead. Fights broke out. Things were uncool. A 16 year old coke dealer from a neighbouring island was murdered with a machette in the night presumably by local dealers. A couple of others drowned while swimming and a third was killed when he hit his head on a rock. The grim reaper, it seemed, also liked to rock. Apparantly there was a marijuana shortage and so people got loaded on tranq's, barbs and psychedelics Pot was selling for $50 an ounce instead of the more usual 15-20. But more suffered from sunburn than bad drugs. Presumably, if more widely stoned, the vibe would have been much more mellow. It's hard to get involved in a fight when you're lying on your back wondering what the colour blue tastes like. Music finally got going on Saturday afternoon and things chilled out a bit. Nitzinger, Brownsville Station and folkie Jonathan Edwards all did good sets but it was BB King and then the Allmans who really put some energy into proceedings. Despite the death of Duane they were still the kings of festival, playing for hours, right through till dawn. Sunday opened with jazzy Dave Brubeck and the excellent Herbie Mann - check out his Notes From The Underground album on which Duane Allman plays. it's marvelous. Savoy Brown did their boogie and ELP did their neo-lcassical noodlings. At some point Mahavishnu Orchestra did a set. Alice Cooper played till the sun rose. However, reports suggest that of the 30,000 there, many didn't see the music for fear of having tents and such ripped off and so hung around the camp area. As Friday had been a write-off, the music continued into Monday with J. Geils Band, Cactus, Dr John, Bloodrock and The Faces amongst others. Several bands including Black Sabbath were booked to play but didn't perform. for a full list of the bands that did and didn't play go here People began to drift away though as rumours of there no transporation to get back to the airport circulated. This was actually true. Bummer. Bad vibes pervaded. Get me off this island seemed to be the general feeling. But with no way of getting to the airport many started walking hoping to thumb a ride - rmeember when people did that witohut worrying they'd be picked up by a homicidal maniac? And so a refugee line of hairy people trudged up the highway, some paying for rides from locals - $20 was the going rate. Everyone felt very bitter at this turn of events but it wasn't over yet. The airpot was in chaos with planes over booked with other tourists returning to America. The Red Cross even turned up and tents were erected to accomodate all the people waiting to leave. It took some 3 days to get a flight out. Cooley reckoned he'd lost $200,000. The Puerto Rican government wanted the promoters for tax evasion but didn't bother to try and extradite them. It was the only festival to be held there. Everyone had had their fingers and everything else burned. There's a double album on Atco of the event - details here expect to pay around $20(£10) for it. It spent 7 wqeeks on the Billboard chart peaking at 186. Best track? The Allman's 'Aint Wastin' Time No More' and Mahavishnu Orchestra's 'Noonward Race' i'm not sure if it got a Uk release. It's not in the Record Collector bible so I'm guessing it didn't. Cactus released some tracks recorded live at the fest on 'Ot 'n' Sweaty. and in 2006 Greg Lake found a 16 track recording of ELP's performance which is on From The Beginning on disc 5. I think J. Geils and a couple of others also released their sets. This web site has loads of pictures and more info about it all. Very good it is too. Next week: back to where it all started; The Human Be-In and the Fantasy Faire and Magic Mountain Music Festival 1967. Far out, cosmic and solid maaaaan. Oh yes. Bring your chakras baby. This Weeks Free Stuff: Genesis. This week is a Genesis special. DVDS: We've got 3 pairs of these to give away. The Genesis Songbook This is a cracking and comprehensive 100 minutes with loads of interveiws with everyone who has been in the band all put together with archive footage. Songs include The Musical Box, Supper's Ready, The Lamb Lies Down, Turn It On Again and loads more. I've got 3 to give away. Genesis: Total Rock Review This is a cheapo 'history of' with some old clips linked together by interviews with journalists and DJ's. However, if you're a Genesis fan you need this DVD for the live tracks - performed for a TV show around '73. They are absolutely remarkable. You get The Fountain Of Salmacis, Twilight, Musical Box, Return Of The Giant Hogwood. Everyone is on top form but for me its Phil Collins who steals the show with an incredible performance on drums. And the music is incredible - a unique sounding hybrid of pastoral folk and progressive rock; so creative and wonderfully original. So feel free to ignore the documentary, go straight to the Live Tracks. CDS Genesis Live: Volume One: The Shorts & Volume Two: The Longs CDs These 1993 live CDs do exactly what they say on the cover. You win both and I'll throw in a copy of Phil Collin's No Jacket Required as well because I feel a bit sorry for Phil really. One of the best drummers ever to come out of this country who went on to do a great job singing and fronting the band, who then has a massive solo career in parallel, played in brilliant jazz-rock band Brand X and yet somehow in his native lands is somehow a by-word for mediocrity. I just don't understand really. Ok, you don't have to like all his music but hey, he's achieved so much, he deserves our respect. To win just email me john@djtees.com and put Genesis CDs and/or Genesis DVDs in the subject line. Last weeks Cream and Yardbirds draws have been made and winners will be contacted. It was our most popular yet with other 1,100 entering! Sorry you can't all win!. Keep on trying. Remember, I give away free CDs and DVDs every single week so do come back every week to find out what's new. |
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Last week we created two new designs. AC/DC’s Angus Young in full head banging mode, and Dickey Betts, the Allman Brothers and Great Southern’s legendary guitarist. I’ve been really pleased with the response to these, especially to Dickey Betts who I rate as a top player and much under-rated in the UK anyway. He plays with great melody and lyricism and has always had killer tone. Outside of his work with the Allman Brothers, his band Great Southern are well worth getting into if you’ve not heard them yet. The band are currently on tour in Europe and their latest album Lets Get Together is as good an album as you’ll hear in 2008. You always get at least one great long instrumental on his records going right back to In Memory Of Elizabeth Reid of course. History Of Festivals: Part 2 The history of festivals is littered with disasters with the army being called in, promoters losing a ton of money, artists not being paid, bad acid and crazy Hells Angels acting as security. But it wasn’t always like that. This week I’m looking at two festivals held in July 1969 that were both very successful in terms of good vibes, good music and good money. The Atlanta Pop Festival was held on the 4th and 5th of July 1969.and pulled in 140,000 people to the Atlanta International Speedway in Georgia. Despite riots at recent festivals in Denver and Northridge, California the local authorities gave the event their blessing. Local newspaper The Atlanta Journal ran an editorial praising the variety and quality of performers and saying ‘a full music diet is good for a city. Pop music is important and expressive of our times.’ How enlightened and, like, groovy man. And as if by instant karma, the whole festival ran smoothly and everyone had a great time. The Friday night was choc full of top notch blues and jazz bands including CCR, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter, The Butterfield Blues Band, Dave Brubeck, Booker T and Blood Sweat and Tear. The Saturday gig included Led Zeppelin, Janis, Spirit, Joe Cocker, Chicago, Grand Funk Railroad, The Staple Singers and Tommy James and Shondells. The festival was organized by Alex Cooley who later put on the excellent Texas International Pop Festival later that year in Dallas. The thermometer tipped over 100 degrees and the local fire department hosed the gathered rockers down with fire hoses. But unlike at other festivals where high temperatures seemed to go hand in hand with violence or demands for a free festival, no such trouble happened in Atlanta. Photos of the event show a massive, shade-free venue with a tiny stage set in the middle of it. It’s about as far away from the giant stages and sound systems we see today. The program for the event interestingly dealt openly with drugs, stating, “Atlanta is a generally cool town, with relatively few dope busts. Almost all psychedelics are available with the exception of grass. Prices on lids range from $15 to $20, tabs of acid from $4 to $6, hash at $10 a gram. We have music and be-in's in the park every weekend." I don’t know how that compares ot prices today – has their been inflation or deflation in drug prices? The latter I’m assuming. Alex Cooley made $12,000 from the event. The fact that it had passed off so successfully was credited with helping the counter-culture flourish in the area. There are a few blogs of people’s personal experiences at the festival and most seem to confirm how excellent most of the band were, especially Led Zeppelin who where sweeping across America at the time, taking the country by storm. How much anyone could have heard with the primitive PA systems is open to debate but this was certainly one festival fondly remembered by those who attended. The Seattle Pop Festival was held 25-27 July at Gold Creek Park, Woodenville, Washintgon. It was $6 for one days, $15 for all three. Bands playing included Chuck Berry, Black Snake, Tim Buckley, The Byrds, Chicago Transit Authority, Albert Collins, Crome Syrcus, Bo Diddley, the Doors, Floating Bridge, The Flock, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Guess Who, It's A Beautiful Day, Led Zeppelin, Charles Loyd, Lonnie Mack, Lee Michaels, Rockin Fu, Murray Roman, Santana, Spirit, Ten Years After, Ike & Tina Turner, Vanilla Fudge, and the Youngbloods. Not bad eh! 70,000 attended and it was promoted by Boyd Grafmyre who had previously worked with the New American Community at successful and highly groovy not-for-profit Sky River Festival in ’68 also in Washington. This was one of the first not to use any regular or off-duty Police officers as security. He brought in 150 youth volunteers from Seattle’s Head Start programme. They were ticket collectors, maintenance and security. The whole weekend ran so smnoothly that Grafmyre grossed over $300,000 in return for $200,000 spent. This huge profitable successp roved that if you did it right festivals could make you a lot of money. Chick Dawsey who owned Gold Greek , was surprised by the fans who turned up, “I disagree with their movement 100 per cent," said Dawsey, "but some of us adults better get the hell closer to them. They respond very much to kindness, we older people better learn this -- If they need a drink of water we, the establishment, should go out and offer it." Hey that sounds like a straight due getting with the programme to me. Cool. Of the bands that played, naturally Zep were brilliant as the soundboard bootleg that has been available for decades proves. There’s a great contemporary account of The Doors set here www.encorecomm.com/story4.htm and Santana, who were to be a big hit at Woodstock the following month, were also widely acclaimed. While there were problems with sanitary issues and water supplies, this was still a well run, peaceful, very cool festival. Not bad for $15 certainly. This Weeks Free Stuff I’m pleased to say that a big pile of new freebies is now sitting on my shelf and boy you are in for some treats in coming weeks. And we kick off with some Cream. DVD CREAM: The Fully Authorized Story This is an abolsute gem. You get a 200 minute documentary of the band and an additional CD with Swedish radio sessions from 1967 ajnd 5 previously unreleased audio tracks from 1967. There is stacks of archive footage, interviews with all concerned, clips, and 6 full length live tracks. Cream remains one of my favourite bands of all time – the ultimate power trio. This is a must have DVD and I’ve got 6 copies to give away. CD CREAM DISRAELI GEARS If you can get an original vinyl copy of this and it’ll cost you up to £30, then you really should because the artwork is so good. However, the music is equally stunning. Kicking off with Strange Brew and Sunshine of your Love and containing other classic like SWLABR and my favourite Tales Of Brave Ulysses – what a vocal on that on – Jack Bruce is so under-rated as a singer, possibly because he’s such a staggeringly great bass player. It’s an incredible 41 year old now but it sounds fresh, challenging and blows the bins right out on your speakers. I’ve got 4 copies of this historic, legendary album to give away. Book: Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson. 320 pages of history which takes you back to the mid 60s and tells the whole story about how the band came together, why they were so revolutionary and how in a short space of time – less than three years – it all fell apart. CD Five Live Yardbirds The original vinyl album is highly collectible and it really is the finest expression of the early 60s British R & B boom. The band’s power is undeniable. Their Smokestack Lightin’ is monumental and Five Long Years is Clapton at his best. Also on this CD you get all the 7” singles featuring Eric, all of which stand out as classics. Wild raw and recorded live at The Marquee in 1963, this is historic music. I’ve got 3 copies to give away. To win any of these just send me an email john@djtees.com with Cream DVD, Cream CD, Cream book, or Yardbirds or any combination of those into the subject line along with your address. I’ll pick the winners next week. Good luck! |
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Sunday 06/07/08 Free Stuff Last week Chris Murgatroyd from Hebden Bridge won over £300 worth of CD's, DVD's and books. This week's free stuff is a bit more modest. I'm just waiting on some new stock of CDs and DVDs arriving but I've got some tasty stuff for you nonetheless. White Stripes - Elephant History will record Jack White as one of the 21st century's finest song writers and musicians. Not many people can claim to have written a riff that has been taken up by football crowds worldwide - but that's what he's done on 7 Nation Army. There's a low-fi, organic and really powerful spirit about this album. Kings Of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood Hard to catahorize and all the better for that. This is a kinda modern southern rock/boogie by the Kings and features the excellent single Molly's Chambers. Joe Satriani - Is There Love In Space? I've been buying Satch albums since Surfing With The Alien 20 years ago and this one is a cracker. It has a Flying In A Blue Dream feel about it and of course Joe's tone and melody are impeccable. The only trouble with Satch records is they make you feel like giving up the guitar cos you'll never anywhere near as good as he is! Metallica - And Justice For All Ground-breaking metal from 1988. For man this is the 'real' Metallica's peak. So metal it hurts. The Clash - From Here to Eternity The definitive best of from Complete Control to Should I Stay Or Should I Go. More straight up and down rock n roll than we realised at the time, this now sounds like classic rock; which is a very good thing indeed. I've got two of each of these to give away so just emaikl me john@djtees.com with either Satch; Clash; Kings of Leon; White Stripes or Metallica in the subject box or any combo of those, and i'll put you in the draw to win them next week. As festival season gets into full swing, I thought it would be interesting to look back on two festivals from 1970 when the whole idea of a festival was still considered a radical, some feared, revolutionary idea. 200,000 hairy people in a field listening to rock n roll was genuinely a cause of concern for some of the authorities. Their fears were misplaced. Few were plotting social revolution, most just wanted to get laid and listen to some good music and smoke a bit of dope. But these were changing times and no one knew were rock n roll was heading. One thing was for sure, some of the best bands of the era played. So lets go back 38 years to July 1970. The Atlanta Pop Festival was held at Middle Georgia Raceway, Byron, Georgia 3rd July to 5th July 1970. So it wasn't Atlanta then. It was a scorching hot weekend with tempratures breaking 100 degrees. The promotoers thought they could attract 100,000 people and advertised the festival on FM radio stations. Tickets cost $35 which was considered high at the time and because of that, they sold just 10,000 in advance. There as also a feeling in the air that music should be free - and so people without tickets began to turn up and chanting 'free festival' I've tried this out side of pubs but chanting free beer, beer should be free,' for osme reason just never works. A free stage had been put up outside the racetrack. Leaflets were printed up which said 'If we kill the festival, we play right into establishment hands. We destroy our own scene.' Sounds like a reasonable argument doesn't it? By all accounts the repsonse was ' music is for the people, power to the people, open the gates' etc etc' The promoters were naturally concerned with this turn of events and announced a free day on the Monday July 6 for those who couldn't afford the tickets. But this did nothing to help. Altamont had happened in December '69 and everyone knew how that had badly turned out. So the promoters, caved and made it a free festival on the Friday night at 9.30pm. Proof that collective action, whether in the right or in the wrong can be effective. The politics may have been tricky but the music was brilliant. Friday night featured the Allman Brothers, Georgia's house band. They played a stunning set which was available for decades as a bootleg but has since been released as a double CD. Of course it rained - a thunder storm broke during the Allman's set but they played on until being fried by the electricity forced them off promising to return later - which they did at sunrise on the Sunday, playing for four, yes four hours! Saturday dawned even hotter People passed out, queued for water and salt tablets and generally blistered in the heat. Add in the traditional bad acid and STP laced with stychnine and by Saturday night medical staff called in army helicopters to ship out the sick, the crazy and the sun-stroked. The place looked like a rock n roll version of M.A.S.H. Yay! Local officials were horrified by the drug use of course - this was all part of this new tradition - also naturally, to assuage their worries, the promoters hired some doctors to talk about drugs and their dangers and Bhajan andIndian yogi did a talk on 'a drug free experience of music and love' which was probably very groovy while you were trippig out of your brains. Richie Havens claims to have seen five or six UFO's during the yogi's speech, butt hen again, intoxicants had probably been taken.As Saturday was the 4th July, Hendrix played The Star Spangled Banner. There is film of his set. Check out a brilliant Stone Free Oher bands to play were BB King - a festival regular, Mountain, Procul Harem, Jethro Tull,Rare Earth, The Chambers Brothers, Lee Michaels, Cactus, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys, Poco and a brilliant Johnny Winter who played it's a killer set. Listen to him play Mean Mistreater here which is lifted from the vinyl album of the festival The show was documented on a triple live album which paired it up with the same years' Isle Of Wight Festival. You'll pay at leat £50 for a copy now. Atlanta is side one. This was the last time a festival was allowed on this scale in Georgia. Legislation was passed to effectively prevent mass gatherings Just a few days later on New York's Randall's Island an event billed as 'New York's Pop Festival was held. It was deliberately not called a festival which by now just put all the 'straight' people's backs up. So this was to be different. for a start it was to be held in Downing Stadium and there'd be no camping. It was billed as a series of concerts rather than a 'traditional' festival. However, three weeks before the shows, groups representing the Black Panthers, yippies and Free Rangers - self styled as the RYP/OFF Collective, presented the promoters with a list of frankly bonkers dmeands. They wanted 10 hand picked community bands to play at $5,000 per group plus expenses. 10,000 free tickets for them to hand out, bail funds for anyone arrested at the festival, and a portion of the profts from any film of the gigs. In return for compliance the RYP/Off Collective would promote the festival in their communities and would provde 'troops' to act as security and PR men!!If the promoters didn't agree, there would be violence and they would call it a free peoples event' and no one would buy tickets. The promoters, doubtless feeling a bit sick, said they'd negotiate. This in turn got the local Young Lords - who were to the Spansih communtiy(the local community to Randalls Island) what the Black Panthers were to the black community - a bit cross. They wanted a piece of the action. The RYP/Off people agreed and some of their demands were agreed to by promoters. By the time people arrived for the Friday show, 8,000 out of the 25,000 did not pay as so-called security looked the other way. Hendrix, Grand Fuck Railroad, John Sebastian, Steppenwolf and Jethro Tull (you can trade a recording of their set here) all played on Friday - a really strong line-up. There are recordings of Hendrixs' set out there. There's even amateur footage of a sizzling version of Ezy Rider and Foxy Lady By Saturday, the bands began realising they'd probably not be getting paid since there was so much gate-crashing, so managers wanted paying up front before bands took the stage. Ravi Shanker refused to go on, Delaney & bonnie, Miles Davis, Richie Havens and Tony Williams' Lifetime didn;t even bother turning up.Gate-crashing continued with the collective asking people to give them money and get in 'free'By Sunday the promoters gave up and called in a free festival but it had been free since the start in reality. 30,000 had gate-crashed it. Ten Years After and Cactus played without being paid as did the New York Rock N Roll Ensemble. Dr John, Mountain and Little Richard follwed suit but most bands just didn't turn up at all much to the punters disgust. A reporter asked promoter Don Friedman what he thought about it all, 'The festival spirit is dead, and it happened quickly. I don't know the reason's why. Greed on everyone's part, I guess. The love-pace thing of Woodstock is out. Anarchy. Complete and total anarchy. That's what's replaced it'. It's a sad and quietly profound statement. It was a financial disater; no money was paid to the collective, the bail fund collapsed, most performers were not paid. A move called The Day The Music Died did come out in 1977 and featured some of the bands performances. and highlighted all the problems that were encountered. Read more here The conflicting demands of all the different groups, the bands, the fans and everybody else just relfected the wider disparities between a disintigrating counter-culture movement in 1970 and a bourgoeing rock n roll industry. But above it all there was some blisteringly good music played at both these festivals and atthe end of the day, the music is really what matters. Then and now. I'll be covering another couple of festivals next week. I got loads of info for this from Robert Santelli's Aquarius Rising book, which is probably out of print now but if you can get a copy it is really a definitive history of the festival era in the 60s and 70s. |
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Loads of new stuff out this week as you can see from the front page, so here's a little guide to the music I dig most from these brilliant musicians. Glenn Hughes - you'll go a long way before you hear s good hardrock album as Deep Purple's Burn and that's driven on in great part by Hughes' bass and shared vocal duties with Coverdale. Before he was in the Purps you could catch Glenn in Trapeze - check out their album Meduza for plenty good rockin'. His solo work is a huge catalogue of stuff, I love the album he did with Pat Thrall in 1982. The 21st century has seen his output consistently high with Soul Mover and his latest First Underground Nuclear Kitchen being just two highlights. He does soulful rock funk hybrid better than anyone. Billy Gibbons; I've discussed Billy's superb work a few times but for me you'll go a long way to here a better bit of riffage than Cheap Sunglasses on Deguello. And check out his playing on Tejas. Just life affirming riffing. Matt Sorum: Guns n Roses and Velvet Revolver sticksman. He's built like a brick sh*thouse and is a super-human powerhouse that drove Gun's on. I also love VR and his work on Slither is just proper rock drumming sone to the max. Ian Paice Deep Purple's most under-rated musician and one of THE most influential drummers of the rock era. He's up there with the best. I can think of no better example of his art than on the live version of Stormbringer on Made In Europe. He plays this storming rock number like a jazz drummer - which is what he was originally - stopping, stuttering, then pounding the living daylights out of the skins.....his work on the hi-hat is genius. There are and have been so many great musicians in the Purps but the music they made needed omnipresent Paice behind to make it live and to give it power. Lemmy - Mr Rock n Roll himself, on stage giving it the full gun as always. The embodiment of power and heaviosity, he looks like his music sounds. Ace Of Spades remains a genre defining record and No Sleep Till Hammersmith one of rock n rolls best live albums. Pidgeon Detectives. Crazy name, superb band from Leeds. Ami took this superb shot of the lads. We put it on a shirt. Ace. Their new album Emergency is a stormer. Willie Nelson: He just gets better and better as he gets older. Has the most lived in face ever! His mid 70s Red Headed Stranger is what I keep going back to. Great ballads and senstive, poetic western songs. Don't forget that if you order before the end of Wednesday and you want to entered into the draw to win over £300 of CDs, DVD's and books, as documented below, then all you do is email me john@djtees.com with your order ID number and I'll put you in the hat. |
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This week we have a new Jeff Healey design created from one of Tony’s shots of the great bluesman taken on his first tour in the UK in support of the brilliant See The Light album. We’re giving profits from this design to Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund. RIP Jeff. http://www.daisyseyecancerfund.ca/ YOU COULD WIN ONE BIG MASSIVE PILE OF GOODIES!! This week we have ONE big bumper packs of goodies for you to win. I’m clearing the decks of a lot of odds n sods that have built up in the freebies boxes. So, we’re giving away £300+ of Albums and DVD’s and books!! But in order to have a chance to win this bundle you need to BUY something from us between 18th June and 25th June. I'll pick the winner at random on the 16th. Then all you do is email me john@djtees.com with the Order ID number and I’ll enter you into the draw for the packs. If you don’t buy anything in the coming week I can’t put you into the competition. So if you’ve been thinking of buying something, the next 7 days is a great time to do it!! And just look at what you could win!! George Harrison – Living In The Material World The 1973 solo classic from George. Uplifting and laid back and chock full of LA’s best sessioners noodling away in the background. Peter Gabriel – Shaking The Tree One of England’s unsung geniuses – this is 16 of his best. Shock The Monkey still sounds like a radical piece of music that would still shock many a monkey and Biko is as stirring as ever. He’s just very, very fantastic. Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn 36 minutes of ground breaking ambience featuring Mike’s strangled granny style of guitaring. All done without sequencers and anything other than one mans musical genius. He was 22 when he made this. Bloody hell! The Association – Greatest Hits We thought it was fluffy pop at the time but now it’s clear it was classy, uplifting, wonderfully constructed music. You can’t listen to Windy and not feel better about life. John Lennon – The Collection Kicks off with Give Peace and Chance and ends with Cold Turkey, in between are all the hit singles. And how brilliant is Number 9 Dream? I always fancied being a Mind Guerilla. Elton John – Greatest Hits In the 70s he was at his brilliant best – fantastic stuff like Honky Cat, Bennie & Jets and Daniel are all present and correct and just downright ace. The Who – Live At Leeds It’s the best live album of all time. Essential rock n roll. If you don’t love it, you should get new ears fitted. The Rascals – Greatest Hits We’re talking 60s American rock n soul here. Most famous for Good Lovin’ and the all summer long classic Groovin’ Impossible not to enjoy. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Greatest Hits 12 songs from their mid-late 70s period including their rip-snorting version of Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light and James Taylor – Hourglass His best 90s album which echoes the classic Sweet Baby James era. Classy stuff for grown ups. Wings – Band On The Run McCartney’s best non Beatles album? I think so. Heavier than you might remember, Let Me Roll It is a forgotten classic on here. The Who – My Generation The Very Best Of Want 20 of The Who’s finest moments? They’re all on here. Best track? The Seeker. Bonnie Raitt – Give It Up Laid back, classy, tasteful blues on this, Bonnie’s second outing. The Police – Synchronicity Their final album and the most interesting. The title track is early 80s prog rock and owes more to Yes than to the insipid white reggae that they made their name doing. And Wrapped Around Your Finger is one of those fantastic ballads that Sting writes every 20 years or so. Van Morrison – Moondance It’s always a marvellous night for a Moondance. About as stoned soul as you can get, it made Van the Man. Al Green – Greatest Hits Vol 1 And they are great hits. Unrelenting, wonderful soul. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is almost too delicate and beautiful to exist in this cruel world. The Beach Boys - The Warmth Of The Sun A comprehensive trawl through their less well known tracks. Rarities, remixes and lost treasures are the order of the day here. Worth owning for the staggering piece of music that is Sail On Sailor from the Holland album. Mountain – Best Of The heaviest of heavy bands best stuff and some live belters such as Crossroader – a real stormer and there’s a 5 minute guitar solo from Leslie West of course……play loud. Very loud. It will frighten your children, even the ones you’ve not had yet. The Who –Ultimate Collection A 2 CD collection of all their best stuff and a third bonus disc with footage of the 1974 Charlton gig on. Cracking stuff it is too. Allman Brothers Band – A Decade Of Hits 1969-79 A magnificent 16 track introduction to one of the best bands ever. All killer, no filler. The Black Crowes – One Mirror Too Many/Pimpers Paradise/Somebody’s On Your Case. Quality rock n roll taken from the Three Snakes & A Charm album. Released as a single in 1996. The Black Crowes – Hotel Illness/Words You Throw Away/Interview with Rich Robinson A 1992 single drawn from, the awesome, must have Southern Harmony album The Black Crowes – Lions Some said it wasn’t a strong album but Midnight From The Inside Out and Lickin’ remain two of the toughest bad ass songs they ever wrote. And there’s a lion with a third eye on the cover, which is never a bad thing. The Steve Miller Band – The Best Of 1968-73 From the early psychedelic stuff – which is my favourite - to the Joker, dipping into blues and acoustic stuff along the way. Much under-rated as a songwriter and guitarist. Steve Miller Band – The Gangsters Back, Live In New York An Italian release of a live show in 1978. Full of classics and a ripping version of Going To The Country. The Pink Fairies – What A Bunch Of Sweeties. Notting Hill’s primo stoner band of the early 70s. Wild, anarchic R & B. Warning: contains riffs that may disturb your mind. Don't forget to boogie and up the pinks! DVD A Night At The Family Dog – featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Santana Its 1970, its San Francisco, drugs have been taken. So on come Santana and do Incident At Neshabur and Soul Sacrfice, then the Dead ramble through China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider, Airplane do a cracking The Ballad Of You Me & Pooneil and Eskimo Blue Day and then everyone comes on stage and jams for 15 minutes. Rambling, sloppy and yet compelling live work by all concerned. Sponsored by Rizlas I would imagine. Emerson Lake And Palmer: The Birth Of A Band- Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 It was their second gig. It was massive. It was scary. As radical, messy and glorious as you might imagine. Unmissable for any fans of insane musicians breaking new ground. Comes with interviews with all concerned. And to think just 6 years later these radical musicians were called old farts – ridiculous. ELP remain one of the most original bands ever. BOOKS Hammer Of The Gods – Stephen Davis. ‘A fierce and fearless story about a band that remain a legend of musical, sexual and mystical power It is the last word in rock n roll savagery.’ A classic of the genre, some say its not all 100% accurate, other say it is. Either way it’s a rollicking good read. The Longest Cocktail Party – Richard DiLello ‘An insiders diary of the Beatles, their million dollar ‘Apple’ Empire and it’s wild rise and fall’ A compelling look into what seems such a different era now. An era before things went corporate and before cynicism ruled. An era that was as this book ends already creeping in. That's all for this week. Good luck with the competition |
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Welcome to another week of rock n roll t-shirts. We have just created a new design of Jeff Beck So this a great time to discuss one of England's most innovative and stellar guitarists. Let’s get the basics out of the way first. Along with Hendrix, Jeff Beck is the most influential guitarist in the history of rock n roll whose legacy continues to wash down the decades. He invented the way we know the an electric guitar can sounds Beck is a sonic architect. Even before Hendrix arrived on these shores he was utilizing feedback, whammy bar histrionics, playing of weird scales and using effects pedals when working with the Yardbirds. You can get a taste of it on their hit ‘Happening Ten Years Time Ago’ and throughout the whole album The Yardbirds – which is usually known as Roger The Engineer. That album came out in July 1966 and its revolutionary 35 minutes of music. Some say it created what later became heavy metal but that’s only true in the sense that the techniques Beck deployed influenced a whole generation of players who ended up in metal bands. For a brief period, the Yardbirds toured America with Beck and Jimmy Page both on guitar – you can see them in the movie Blow Up of course and on the soundtrack of that movie you can hear Beck and Page on ‘Stroll On’. ‘The Happening’ single also features them both of lead guitar and John Paul Jones on bass. But Beck was soon sacked or quit the band and went off to form the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart. The two albums they did, Truth and Beck-Ola set the blueprint for the heavy blues rock group that would be so influential in the coming decade. As the 70s dawned Beck seemed to grow tired of the heaviosity and began recording more soul and jazz influenced work. Rough and Ready in 1971 owed much to R & B and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group was recorded in Memphis with Steve Cropper producing. Both are tasty outings and feature a young Cozy Powell on drums. Weirdly in 1973 he took what many at the time thought was backward step and formed Beck Bogart & Appice. A power trio they sounded clumsy and dated compared to his previous two albums. If their eponymous album had been released three or four years earlier, it would have had an audience but in ’73 those days were gone. Beck was dismissive of the album at the time however, if you can get their Japanese only live album it reveals three brilliant musicians - though none of them can sing to save their lives - who really could cut it live, even if their best stuff were other peoples songs such as Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. The mid 70s saw him at a creative peak releasing Blow By Blow and Wired. The first of those is perhaps THE jazz rock fusion album par excellence. Jaw dropping playing backed up with an epic sense of ambience and dynamics, Beck redefined what was possible on guitar. His version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Cause We Ended As Lovers’ is an inexpressibly beautiful piece of music; tender, expressive and emotional. This was a no mere guitar noodling, this was a fella who had a genius about him. Wired, though not quite the equal of Blow By Blow, was by most people’s standards a mind-blow. The 1977 Live album lacks the subtlety of the studio albums but is an enjoyable romp through this period’s music. As the ‘80s dawned There And Back came out and was a top 30 album in America. Star Cycle was used as the theme tune to the UK music TV show The Tube. I saw him on this tour and can report he was in top form, playing with the awesome Simon Phillips on drums. There and Back is a forgotten Beck album I think but its hybrid spacey jazz rock boogie still satisfies. Over the following 28 years he’s released six or seven albums sporadically – the best of which is Jeff Becks Guitar Workshop – which was a return to the mid 70s form in terms of expression and melody and won him a Grammy. ‘Where Were You’ from the album is a magnificent delicate piece of music and is up there with his finest work. He still tours regularly and if remains a radical purveyor of guitar music. His days as a heavy rock style guitarist are long gone but he turned up in 1007 to play with The White Stripes and proved he could still do that Yardbirds thing is he wanted to. I’ve always thought that he must be an influence on Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tuffnal, who shares Becks’ hair cut and accent, and lets face it, Beck went up to 11. And then some. The essential JB is Roger The Engineer, Truth, Blow By Blow, There And Back, Guitar Workshop. Get those ones first and then stretch out. One rarity to look for is an album by jazz rock band Upp. Their 1975 debut album features him on guitar and is excellent jazz rock funk. CHEAP STUFF I've uploaded a new batch of cheap stuff on 10th June. Get yourself a bargain while you can. As you know, it always flies out and when its gone it really has gone. Prices from £4.00. It's worth checking this page all the time - as we're often putting bits and pieces on there at low low prices. So bookmark it! FREE STUFF Pack 15 DEEP PURPLE – LIVE IN PARIS 1975 This is a two CD historic recording of DP’s show on April 7th 1975 after which Ritchie Blackmore left the band. With Coverdale on the vocals in magnificent form, we tear through the best bits of Burn and Stormbringer albums, then throw in a long, long version of Space Truckin and Smoke On The Water and you’re guaranteed an aural feast. Originally some of this appeared on Made in Europe of course and while debate over the pre-eminence of Mark 2 or Mark 3 Purps, there is some outstanding rock n roll here – some of the finest you’ll ever hear in fact. I am a huge Deep Purple fan of course and own every single thing they have ever released, and that’s a lot of stuff! LED ZEPPELIN – HOUSES OF THE HOLY It’s my considered opinion that the opening three tracks on this – The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song and Over The Hill And Far Away are the best opening trio of songs on any Zep album. And of course you also get no Quarter on this which is in the top 5 Zep tracks ever for me. So all in all, its total class. Pack 16 GRATEFUL DEAD – TWO FROM THE VAULT Recorded 23/24th August 1968 at the Shrine Auditorium in LA, here are The Dead in their acid drenched glory. 11 minutes of Dark Star, 14 minutes of The Eleven, 17 of Turn On Your Lovelight make up the best part of two hours out on the outer reaches of rock n roll. It’s radical music. Turn on and tune in. IRON BUTTERFLY: IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA Also recorded in 1968 and also severely whacked out. The 17 minute title track became the very definition of acid rock at the time. Heavy, heavy organ from Doug Ingle, Iron Butterfly was the perfect name for this band. Colourful but heavy it spent 87 weeks on the Billboard chart and peaked at number 4. As usual just email me john@djtees.com with the pack number in the subject line for a chance to win. I'll draw the winners next week. All previous draws have bene done so there's no point in entering for them now! That's all for this week. Keep an eye open for some more great guitarist t-shirts coming soon. Be rock n roll. cheers......Johnny |
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