GONZO MAGAZINE #3 (8th Dec 2012)

THIS WEEK WE BRING YOU JON ANDERSON, YES, FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL BUFF, HAWKWIND, JEFFERSON STARSHIP, DAVE BRUBECK, HUW LLOYD LANGTON, ED CASSIDY, SPIRIT, AUBURN... This is the nearest that you are ever going to get to a posh weekend colour supplement from the Gonzo Daily team. Each week we shall go through the best bits of the week before, and if there aren't any we shall make some up, or simply make our excuses and leave (you can tell the editor once did contract work at the News of the World can't ya?) ALL THE GONZO NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT Issue Three         December 8th, 2012 So what is this all about? It is simple; my name is Jon and I am the editor of the Gonzo Multimedia daily online magazine. Now there is a weekly newsletter, once again edited by me and my trusty orange cat from a dilapidated ex-potato shed  in rural Devonshire. You subscribed to it by opting in on the website. I hope that you all stay to join in the fun, but if it is not to your liking it is just as easy to unsubscribe again. But what a long, strange trip it is gonna be... FEEDBACK Last week's issue again seemed to be very popular. Louise wrote asking whether we could have some stuff on Jon Anderson solo. Well, my dear, your wish is my command because that is exactly what we have for you this week. Paul from Bristol was impressed by last week's song by song with The Atkins/May Project and asks whether we will be doing the same thing with the band's second album. We certainly will, sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, if you missed it, here is another chance to see our review of Serpent's Kiss. CHECK IT OUT:  Part One  Part Two Remember, if you want more than your weekly fix of this newsletter you can check out the Gonzo Daily, which - as its name implies - does much the same as this newsletter but every day. It also features a daily poem from Thom the World Poet, and the occasional non-Gonzo rock music rambling from yours truly, plus book and gig reviews from our highly trained staff of social malcontents. And its FREE! You cannae say fairer than that! Each week, some of you seem to recognise me. Yes, I am indeed that weird bloke off the telly who chases mythological animals. I have a day job as Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, and also the editor of the CFZ Blog Network, and publisher of a plethora of books about mystery animals.

THOSE WE HAVE LOST:  Ed Cassidy, Dave Brubeck, Huw Lloyd Langton This has been a pretty tough week. Three giants of the sort of music that we listen to and write about here at Gonzo Weekly have left the building for the last time. This is what we wrote about them: Jon Downes remembers Dave Brubeck Graham Inglis remembers Huw Lloyd Langton Merrell Fankhauser remembers Ed Cassidy Huw Lloyd-Langton   -photo by Graham Inglis THE LATEST FROM JON ANDERSON An interesting interview with Jon Anderson, during which he empathises with the difficulties faced by his various replacements in Yes. What a nice bloke he is. Check it out... He also recently did an interview during which he went through the classic Yes album Close to the Edgetrack by track. I interviewed him earlier in the year and, yes - he is a very nice chap. However it wasn't until much more recently that I started to trawl through the solo albums that he has released through Gonzo Multimedia, that I realised quite what an impressive range of work he has produced. Check him out at Gonzo JEFFERSON STARSHIP AND AUBURN IN SOUTHAMPTON Back in October, Graham and I went to Southampton to film the legendary Jefferson Starship supported by Auburn, another Gonzo Multimedia act of whom I am very fond. We filmed both sets, and even the soundchecks, and arrived home in North Devon at gone 4:00am feeling rather pleased with ourselves. Then, a couple of weeks later as we were just about to edit all the stuff down into a cohesive whole, disaster struck. This little film tells the story of how (through crass incompetence) we managed to salvage victory from the jaws of defeat, and how, sooner than you might expect, there will be all sorts of Auburn and Jefferson Starshipgoodies available for you to see on the Gonzo Daily... Check out Jefferson Starship at Gonzo They say that good things come to those who wait, but the much anticipated debut solo album from Mostly Autumn guitarist Liam Davison is much more than simply good. Davison has been a member of cult classic rock outfit Mostly Autumn since its inception in the mid-nineties and in that time the band has built a devoted following; performed sold out shows; gigged relentlessly, released a string of classic rock albums; toured with the likes of Uriah Heep & Blackmore's Night, as well as appearing at Murrayfield Stadium as invited guests of Bryan Adams. Within the band, Davison has always been happy to stand in the shadows, supporting lead guitarist Bryan Josh, and throwing in the vital guitar components that enhance the group's lush soundscapes.  But now, with A Treasure Of Well-Set Jewels, he has produced a cornucopia of aural delights that showcase his unique guitar style and song writing talents. Throughout the album his six-string influences; in particular the likes of Jeff Beck and David Gilmour are evident for all to hear, and allied with his own unique style, has produced solos of breathtaking majesty. All songs are Davison's own compositions with the lush ballad, Once In A Lifetime a joint collaboration with Mostly Autumn's former lead vocalist, Heather Findlay. In fact it is one of Findlay's first compositions since leaving Mostly Autumn in April 2010 and is already destined to become a classic. Findlay also sings on the album's closing track, the masterpiece that is Picture Postcard. When you hear these performances it will come as no surprise that her unique style has resulted in several ‘best vocalist awards' over the past decade, from the likes of the Classic Rock Society. Also weaving her magic on the album is another of Britain's finest rock vocalists; Anne-Marie Helder, who as well as contributing to Mostly Autumn's sound in recent years, fronts her own band, the much acclaimed Panic Room, and has also worked with heavyweight names such as John Wetton and Geoff Downes, as well as touring with Ultravox. The other musicians featured throughout the album are bassist Paul Teasdale (Breathing Space), keyboard player, Simon Waggott, and Davison's Mostly Autumn band mates, Iain Jennings and drummer Gavin Griffiths. The latter is also renowned for his work with ex-Marillion vocalist Fish. With some of these songs having originally been conceived as far back as the mid-nineties, it's certainly been a long time coming, but now that the album is a reality, it might not be long before Davison, is, in his own words, from the album's opening cut, Ride The Seventh Wave, "climbing up to dizzy heights". Once you have heard A Treasure Of Well-Set Jewels, like us, you will probably concur, it's undoubtedly a candidate for best rock album of the decade. Take a look at Liam's page at Gonzo

COMING SOON..... From 1957 to 1964, Paul Buff owned Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, California. Musicians from all around came to Pal to record, and the studio produced classics like The Surfaris' "Wipe Out." Paul Buff moved to Original Sound Recording Studios in Hollywood and sold his Pal studio to Frank Zappa in 1964. Buff's studio wizardry is legendary, as evidenced by the 156 tracks on this DVD-sized collection. The 40-page colour illustrated booklet discusses all the artists and songs on the set, which includes 58 early tracks with Frank Zappa involvement. The CDs contain reproductions of the original record labels that Paul Buff ran in the early 1960s. Many of the tracks are making their CD debuts, and the original releases of these tracks would literally cost thousands if you could find them! THE BEST LAID PLANS... You can’t say that I don’t try.  As mother just told me, as I dictated this to Corinna, I am very trying. However, I am in dire danger of completely drifting away from the point.  Because technofear still rules here at the Gonzo Daily. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how those jolly nice people at recordmycall.co.uk had telephoned me, to tell me that their service was once again working properly.  Unfortunately, I think there is something wrong with my line, or, conversely, both my lovely wife and I are being more than usually stupid.  Because can we get it to work properly?  Can we heck. I did a smashing interview with Judy Dyble the other day, in which we discussed dogs, recordings, Fairport Convention, Robert Fripp, her new album, various old albums, and a semi-tame blackbird which came into her kitchen and demanded grapes.  It was a smashing interview.  And according to those jolly nice guys at Record your Call, it recorded successfully.  However, we must doing something particularly stupid because we can’t find it in order to download it. Today, I was supposed to be interviewing Don Falcone of the monumental groovy Spirits Burning. I’ve had to take a raincheck, because until either my line is fixed or Corinna and I can work out how to use the new improved service, not only is it pointless to conduct an interview that I can’t actually use, but I don’t want to risk having an interview that I cannot download. So here we are, stuck in rock and roll limbo.   I have every expectation that this is just us being silly, and that those jolly nice people at customer support will be able to sort it all out for us on Monday.  I bloody hell hope so.  Because I have an awful lot of people that I want to interview before Christmas, in order to make the Yuletide Gonzo coverage the most excellent that you could possibly imagine.   So watch this space!

BACK ISSUES OF THIS PERIODICAL:  USE NAVIGATION TREE ON THE RIGHT Copyright © 2012, Gonzo Multimedia, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Jon Downes, Editor. Gonzo Daily/Weekly, Myrtle Cottage, 9 Back Street, Woolsery, Bideford, North Devon EX39 5QR Telephone 01237 431413 Fax+44 (0)7006-074-925 eMail jon@eclipse.co.uk