COMING SOON FROM GONZO: BRAND X
Is there anything about? |
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Brand X was another one of those bands who were beloved of other musicians, and the more discerning of critics, but which despite everything never had the commercial success that it deserved.
They were a jazz fusion band active 1975–1980. Noted members included Phil Collins (drums), Percy Jones (bass), John Goodsall (guitar) and Robin Lumley (keyboards). Not long after jazz/rock fusion greats Brand X put out their 1980 album, "Do They Hurt?", the band members went their separate ways (until their comeback in 1992 which only featured Goodsall and Jones).
However, they still owed their record label one more album. The solution? Release a rarities album! The problem, though, was that Brand X hardly had any unreleased material in the vaults at all---about three or four tracks at the most. But with a little doctoring & remixing of tapes, keyboardist Robin Lumley extended that number to six tracks (still scant, but better than four), and released Brand X's appropriately-titled collection, "Is There Anything About?", in 1982.
Writing on Amazon, Alan Caylow describes the tracks:
- “Ipanemia": written by guitarist John Goodsall, this piece is an excellent jazz/rock popper. Very cool and breezy.
- "A Longer April": this track is exactly what it says it is---a longer version of "April," from 1979's "Product." Either this is how Brand X originally recorded the tune before having to edit it down for the "Product" album, or Robin Lumley extended the track by doing some re-mixing on it. Either way it's a very dreamy, pleasant piece, and I like it. I also like the spacey little bridge section that's been added to it.
- "TMIU-ATGA": as the liner notes say, the title stands for "They're Making It Up As They Go Along." Lumley, fellow keyboardist Peter Robinson and bassist John Giblin improvised this short piece in one take, and Lumley stuck it onto the album. Filler? Perhaps. Instrumental noodling? Perhaps. But it's interesting.
- "Swan Song": a fun, poppy, keyboard-heavy instrumental, with a big "Ohh-ohh" chorus at the finale. Some fans reacted to this track with, "Oh my God, they've gone pop!" Chill out, you guys. I think there's always been an oh-so-subtle pop influence to a *little bit* of Brand X's music (just a little bit, mind you), so I don't mind if the band go whole hog and do a rare, full-on pop-music piece. And "Swan Song" IS a very good pop-music piece.
- "Is There Anything About?": Now here is a Brand X instrumental no one should have any complaints about. I can't tell when the band actually recorded it, but it is a smokin' hot, jammin' piece, just as great & funky as anything Brand X have recorded in the past. Brilliant."Modern, Noisy, And Effective":
- Brand X go pop again (gasp!) with a re-mixed, pop-flavored instrumental rendering of the song "Soho," originally from "Product." Extra keyboards and handclaps are tossed into the mix. Again, I don't have a problem with it. It's a fun piece with a good groove.And, to top off the album, the band's performances are juuuust fine, thank you very much, with Lumley, Giblin, Goodsall and ace drummer Phil Collins all getting in some tasty licks (as well as bassist Percy Jones on the outstanding title track).
It is the last album to feature Phil Collins on drums and includes some absolutely gorgeous slices of Brand X at their very best. This is a peculiar album; at the time many critics panned it, often because it didn't sound anything like the anodyne pop music that Phil Collins was making elsewhere in his career. However, in my opinion and that of thousands of fans worldwide it acts as a satisfying coda to a body of work which has very few paralells in the world of Jazz fusion. |
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 During the launch of her poetry collection at the Labour Club last year, Kate Adams read the title poem, The Cheering Rain.
Before she did she introduced the poem, saying that she was waiting for a publisher to confirm if it had been accepted for an upcoming anthology. She said that the publisher had asked her which country it was set in.
“ Birmingham,” came the reply, to a ripple of laughter.
It’s easy to see why the publisher was confused. The writer does indeed make Birmingham seem like a foreign country. There is an intensity about the poem, with its flashes of colour, with its sounds and its characters, with its running boys and its stall holders, which gives it the feel of a North African souk, rather than an ordinary street in the heart of industrial Britain.
Many of the poems have that feel. It’s like you are looking at Britain with new eyes, in exactly the way you would look if it was your first time seeing the country, as a visitor might see it: as an exotic land, as a place of mystery and wonder, confusing and obscure at times, frightening, but still vivid in its presence, with the presumption stripped away, so that all you are left with is the urgency of your immediate sense impressions.
This is the genius of these poems (if that’s not too big a word) that they offer us a new perspective, a new way of looking at things. All of a sudden we are seeing the world through the eyes of the migrant, through the eyes of the asylum seeker; we are hearing the thoughts of people for whom English is unfamiliar, people struggling to put into words their sense of dislocation, their sense of loss.
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HAWKWIND NEWS
(The Masters of the Universe do seem to have a steady stream of interesting stories featuring them, their various friends and relations, and alumni). Each week Graham Inglis keeps us up to date with the latest news from the Hawkverse.. |
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While things are still pretty quiet on the Hawkwind front, concerns for ex-Hawk Lemmy continue. The majority of Motorhead's gigs for the summer were cancelled for health reasons but he and his band made a return to live performing on Friday 2nd at Wacken Festival in Germany. However, the band's set had to be curtailed after 30 minutes, when Lemmy had to leave the stage.
Loudwire reports that Lemmy "looked pale and sluggish during the show, taking a long time in between songs."
A festival organizer then announced to the crowd that Motorhead’s set was over and that he did not know what to say "in a serious situation like this". MetalTalk.net reported that it's believed Lemmy collapsed behind the speakers after the sixth Motorhead song. They later updated their report to add that Doro Pesch, another performer at the event, announced from the Wacken stage during her set that "Lemmy is doing fine."
However, given Lemmy's well-known cavalier attitude to bodily health, anxiety among Motorhead and Hawkwind fans is still running high. |
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| THE YES CIRCULAR - TIME AND A WORD |
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| The Court Circular tells interested readers about the comings and goings of members of The Royal Family. However, readers of this periodical seem interested in the comings and goings of Yes and of various alumni of this magnificent and long-standing band. Give the people what they want, I say |
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Next up there are two Jon Anderson stories; one from what was once his local paper in Accrington about his forthcoming Manchester show, and one about his forthcoming guest spot in John Payne's Raiding the Rock Vault in Las Vegas.
Next there is an interview with Annie Haslam about Yestival, and an interview with Alan White, and another with Steve Howe. But there's still more. We also found room for a preview of the three album tour.
Phew! |
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| I am probably getting a bit OCD about all of this, but I find the Yes soap opera of sound to be absolutely enthralling, and I for one can't wait to see what happens next! |
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Start with a Japanese dot-add more-Zen stone gardens.Meditate within
Bipolar AB relationships-straight lines(broken)Meditate upon brokenness
Eternal triangles(always someone has an angle).Equilateral?Isoceles?Meditate upon Pythagoras.
Square dance.Barns,boxes,cages,bars,rooms,cells.4 equal 90 degree angles.Why?
Pentagon.Appropriated for conspiracy theories
Hexagon.Chemical configurations.Now-come to curl of wave or leaf
Bend of human form or almost .Elliptical orbits.Spiral staircases/seashell architectures.Gaudi.
Every drop in a pool joins All.Galaxies/constellations spin in space and time
Now walk the labyrinth in relationship/alone /singular/one @a time
This is your almost perfect life!
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In Victorian times every well-bred Gentleman had a 'Cabinet of Curiosities'; a collection of peculiar odds and sods, usually housed in a finely made cabinet with a glass door. These could include anything from Natural History specimens to historical artefacts. There has always been something of the Victorian amateur naturalist about me, and I have a houseful of arcane objects; some completely worthless, others decidedly not, but all precious to me for the memories they hold..
I used to be a collector of rock and roll memorabilia, but most of my collection went into my solicitor's pocket during my divorce from my first wife, and I never had the stomach to build the collection up again. However, people send me pictures of interesting things such as this rather nifty Pink Fairies autographed poster from the collection of Alan Dearling, who sent it to me after the demise of Mick Farren, whose fingerprints are writ large across this issue... |
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On the third weekend of August every year for the past fourteen years we have had the weirdest weekend you can imagine. The Weird Weekend is the largest yearly gathering of mystery animal investigators in the English-speaking world. Now in its fourteenth year, the convention attracts speakers and visitors from all over the world and showcases the findings of investigators into strange phenomena.
Cryptozoologists, parapsychologists, ufologists, and folklorists are descending on Woolfardisworthy Community Centre to share their findings and insights. Unlike other events, the Weird Weekend will also include workshops giving tips to budding paranormal investigators, and even a programme of special events for children. The Weird Weekend is the only fortean conference in the world that is truly a family event, although those veterans of previous events should be reassured that it is still as anarchically silly as ever!
The event is raising money for the Centre for Fortean Zoology, the world’s only full time, professional cryptozoological organisation. The profit from food and beverages goes to a selection of village charities, mostly working with children.
How do you fancy spending three days of high strangeness, good food and great beer, together with the cream of British Fortean researchers in the middle of the glorious Devon countryside? By the way, I am sorry to have to say this, but as this is a fundraising event, tickets are non-refundable, although you are free to resell them should you be unable to attend.
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FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Lee Walker: Dead of Night
Andrew Sanderson: Russia Expedition report
Lars Thomas: The Natural History of Trolls
Judge Smith: Life after Death
Jon Downes/Richard Freeman: Intro to Cryptozoology
Nick Wadham: You will believe in fairies; you will, you will!
Tony Whitehead (RSPB): Starslime
Glen Vaudrey : Mystery animals of Staffordshire
Darren Naish: Adventures from the world of tetrapod zoology
Richard Freeman: Expedition repoort Sumatra 2013
Sarah Boit: Orbs from a photographer's perspective
James Newton (London Cryptozoology club): Bigfoot
Shaun Histead-Todd: Pre Columbian civilisations in america
Ronan Coghlan: Amphibians from Outer Space
Jon Downes: Keynote Speech
Speaker's Dinner at the Community Centre
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| INTRODUCING THE NINE HENRYS |
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| I think Peter McAdam is one of the funniest people around, and I cannot recommend his book The Nine Henrys highly enough. Check it out at Amazon. Each issue we shall be running a series of Henrybits that are not found in his book about the nine cloned cartoon characters who inhabit a surreal world nearly as insane as mine... |
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Share the energy...
... of free cultures from Ruigoord and beyond.
by Alan Dearling. |
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I have returned. Back home in Scotland. Twelve hours sleep after eight days away (and only eighteen hours sleep in total). My mind and body has been awakened, transported, immersed, alive n’ kicking in the Magick and Alternative Power of Dreams that exist in Ruigoord – hippy central of the Netherlands. It’s been celebrating its fortieth birthday. And what a party! My mind is mashed, but in a totally delightful sort of way. (www.ruigoord.nl)
Originally an island, with an ancient past, Ruigoord (which means ‘Rough Place’) lies in the industrial heartland of Amsterdam’s West Port. Surrounded by container ships and the bustle of machinery, storage containers and large, looming wind turbines. It was originally squatted by the Amsterdam Balloon Company krakers; its church, St Geertruida turned into an art centre and its buildings into the workshops of artists, poets, musos, sha-men and women. Their slogan is ‘Fortuna Favet Fatuis – Fortune Favours Fools’. And it is one of the free-est places on Earth. An autonomous cultural zone, where they say, nature can create herself.’ Dreamers and diggers, all. Whaaaa-hooo! |
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Ruigoord, Landjuweel....I have been entirely offline; off my head; falling in love; dancing; madness; space cake; making speeches; wine supping; doing media; making friends; politicking; mayhem; more madness; music; firepits....
I was invited to attend and speak at the three day 3rd Futurological Symposium on Free Cultural Spaces. The underlying aim is to try and strengthen the network of free cultural spaces around the world. Making new links, and reaffirming old ones between places like Ruigoord, with Christiania in Copenhagen, the Boom Festival in Portugal, Doel in Belgium, ThyLejren in Jutland, spaces such as Pereira in Colombia and the Umbrella House in New York and many, many more. And these in turn need linking up with the thousands of squats, intentional communities, festivals, Travellers, permaculture farms - and all the diggers and dreamers around the globe.
I had a truly memorable time. First contributing to the symposium debates, then taking part in the Landjuweel Festival, which the symposium morphed into.
It is always hard to convey what is more a feeling than an activity. Ruigoord feeds the imagination. |
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But here are a few snapshots. Poet and activist, Hans Plomp, who I have known for many years, was one of the Ruigordoors to welcome the delegates. Hans said, ‘the Symposium has brought together free range human beings from 33 places round the world.’ Britta Lillesoe from Christiania told us, ‘We are no longer a social experiment. We need to link together all of the tribes. Christiana has up to 20,00 visitors a day in Copenhagen.’ Nils West also from Christiania later told me that the biggest challenge is get cannabis legalised in Copenhagen, then that will take the pressure off Christiania and its Pusher Street, where the street drug trade is estimated at £200 million Euros a year (but none comes to the Christiania collective). (www.christiania.org and http://www.christianiaskulturforening.dk/)
Felix Rottenberg acted as an incisive facilitator for the Symposium. At times there were almost too many presentations by committed communards. We heard from many spaces around the world where activists and artists have created spaces for creativity. The Boom Festival, held every two years in Portugal is one of the biggest counter-cultural events. Chiara Ballini, representing Boom told us: ‘Boom is born from Ruigoord. It started as a tranceparty and fleamarket...it has become a transformational event...with healing areas, electronic music, the acoustic rainbus people and a psychedelic welfare area. We create islands, with bridges we keep open in both directions.’ (www.boomfestival.org) |
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I was struck by the naive but wonderful Iwanjka Geerdink, with his concept of ‘Flowtowns’. His background in business and information technology, and his notion of ‘hippies with plans’ marks him out as somebody different. He told us that his dream is to create ‘connectivity’, what he called ‘a personal transhumance line’ of places where we can build free spaces and live. His personal line stretches from the Netherlands through France, and Spain to Morocco. He suggested that we need a floweconomy, based on barter and exchange of labour, and how he and friends have already started a BookCo-op as part on the connectivity of creators and their public. (iwanjka@gmail.com and www.novaglobe.org )
There were many extraordinary moments. A German lady, whose name I didn’t catch, presented a very polished PR presentation about her dance and arts company and then metamorphasised into a different being in the throes of massive seizure. She toppled from the stage, writhed and wretched. No-one was sure if this was reality or theatre. But as her wig fell off and many of her clothes, we realised that it was indeed an arts demonstration of Japanese ‘Butoh’ dance. Quite extraordinary. And so was Kent Minault’s one-man theatre performance. Kent had been one of the original Diggers of Haight in San Francisco. He held us spell-bound for over two hours as he re-enacted confrontations between Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, himself and other Diggers with police and authorities. On stage he played all the parts. He was there with Timothy Leary at the Be-Ins, scrounging food from the markets, then giving out the free food each day in the park; he was a friend of Hell’s Angels, the hippies, the dispossessed, he negotiated with Black Panthers and shared food and joints with bands such as the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish. Kent is another shaman |
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I could go on and on. I’m missing so much out. I’m just so knocked out at being for days in the centre of this University of the Imagination. In the Symposium there were a number of political anarchists such as Rutger van Ree. We were told that it was the ‘cultural and arts anarchists whose internal community-building (‘paradise for the tribe’) was preventing real, radical free spaces for economically excluded and the homeless. He was not alone in advocating a world where there is no personal ownership and that the political agenda is to confront, fight and change society. I disagree with some of Rutger’s ideas, but he is thoroughly nice, engaging bloke. During the week, he was distributing ‘de Black Out’, produced by XXX, Blcklst, it is a revolutionary travel companion for Amsterdam. It proclaims:
‘Support illegalised people, free the animals, free your mind. Hang out with friends, swim, read a book. Bake apple pie. Dig hole under the surveillance machine...Keep on confusing them. Fuck the Fucking Fuckers.’
Our final day was spent with more presentations from individual free spaces, squats and more. The afternoon was set aside for agreeing a set of specific words for a ‘Declaration on the Universal Right to Free Spaces’. A tall order and maybe more of an imperative for Felix Rottenberg and American Autonomedia publisher, Jordan Zinovich. (www.autonomedia.org)
We discussed some proposals. This was political ‘hot potato’. The political anarchists wanted no possibility of ownership or neo-capitalism. Others like myself, talked of creating a ‘hub’ of our contacts and ideas on the web, and then proactively nurturing this to link with other hubs around the alternative tribes of eco-villages, festies, Travellers, organic farms and squats. I remain worried that issuing a rushed, hasty Declaration that is not ‘owned’ by many others around the world could actually divide us, and be counter-productive in the long run. But those of us at the Symposium kept on talking long after the official end of the Symposium and the Landjuweel Festival kicked in. |
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Judging from the emails I’m receiving from other participants, we haven’t stopped. Nor should we. The other agreed plan is to start moving the Symposium around to other places – maybe Boom next year and then Christiania in 2015. The festivals and cultural spaces will all benefit if the networks for communication between us all are vastly improived and expanded.
I spent hours talking with, and listening to, Aja Waalwijk. He is so many things: extraordinary artist, remarkable thinker and communicator – but most of all a hugely generous and caring human-being. He told me how, if people look too rough or are hurt, he will often take them into his space and help them recover. I am so pleased to have him now as a friend. His workshop house was my base for meeting other presenters and those helping organise the infrastructure of the Symposium and the Festival. Paul van Goudoever played guitar and sang in Aja’s outdoor space. Paul is the official Ruigoord photographer and his gentleness helped to calm us when there were small crises. Hans Kup is the official documentary film-maker for the 40 year event. He and his beautiful partner, Rita, became my unofficial spirit guides during much of last few days. We shared music, food and drinks and talked of music, creating spaces. A remark from a long-term Ruigoord resident has stuck in my brain. She told me: ‘At this moment our prominent men have strong feminine characteristics, and some women here have taken on strong male roles.’ Thinking about it, it fits for Aja and probably Hans and maybe Michael Kamp too.
I realise I am hardly telling you about the Landjuweel Festival. Shame on me. All those magical world-people in the dance tents, many more dancing and listening around the various stages, in the arts spaces and playgrounds, and glowing in the late-night-into-the-morning communal fires. There’s been so much to do and enjoy. I made so many new friends, talked about any subject in the universe. I was uplifted by the Beeldenroute procession of flaming torches around the whole site, which was encrusted with lights, art installations, music and performances, and finally a stupendous firework display in the surreal setting of the port surrounded by huge tanker vessels and warehouses.. There was also the making of the Eye of Ruigoord. The organisation of this was a bit shambolic, but the idea is neat - to send a visual image of an eye-blinking out into space. I spent some wonderful times with people I know by name like Alan W. Moore (art squats/historian, Madrid and more), Britt-Marie Lindgren (visual artist), Nils West (Christiania), Marjo Palm (visual artist and much more to me), Stevphen Shukaitis (author/academic: imaginal machines: http://essex.academia.edu/StevphenShukaitis), John (quarter Scot muso), Rock n’ Roll Nico, Fantuzzi (a muso from Puerto Rico who popped up everywhere), Dan the barman from Oz – a long, glorious list of young braves, in-the-middle tribes-men and women and elders. We listened to so much music together, talked the talk, danced the dance, supped the spiritual waters and herbs that kept us awake, active and creative. |
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I can still feel the hugs from so many people, the smell of the firepits glowing and smoking through the night and into the sunrise. Truly life affirming.
Many Tribes, One People!
Aja Waalwijk writes about the emerging network of cultural free spaces:
‘It’s natural that our Cultural Free Havens should change over time. In Christiania in 1972 the average age of a Christianite was 25; in 2011 it’s 45. In Ruigoord and Doel one sees the same situation, particularly when it comes to the average age of those who actively initiate artistic actions. By way of contrast, the average age of the initiators in southern Europe, at Boom festival, for instance, is about 30. In 2012, more than 50 per cent of Amsterdam’s youthful population originated from Turkish, Moroccan, or Surinam backgrounds. These youngsters have never heard of Provo, Jasper Grootveld, Magic Center Amsterdam of the Lowland Weed Company, and they are unlikely to ever squat or live in a commune. But reclaiming public space continues here (as happened in Occupy Amsterdam), as it does in cities like Istanbul and Ankara and other centres throughout the world.
New Cultural Free Spaces remain out there to be claimed and developed. And we remain open to welcoming them into our emerging, ever-expanding network of kindred spirits.’
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Alan Dearling still hopes to create some sort of book, e-book or on-line blog, celebrating and documenting the movers, shakers, creators and dreamers who have contributed to the Alternative Netherlands over the last forty plus years. Check it and his publications out and contact Alan. www.enablerpublications.co.uk and adearling@aol.com |
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COMING SOON:
Deep Water by Gary Windo |
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Gary is one of those people who never really achieved the recognition that was due to him. Not while he was alive, at least. A highly original musician with an instantly recognizable style, Gary Windo was part of the Canterbury scene in the Seventies. Most notable was his work with Robert Wyatt on the albums Rock Bottom (1974) and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975), and Hugh Hopper on 1984 (1973) and Hoppertunity Box (1976). He was also a member of the Carla Bley band for three years.
Windo was born in 1944 into a musical family in England, and began playing music at a very early age. He took up drums and accordion at six, then guitar at 12 and finally saxophone at 17. He settled in the USA in 1960, studying tenor sax and music theory with Wayne Marsh and Lennie Tristano. A long period of apprenticeship, both on- and off-stage, followed during the Sixties, until he finally decided to move back to England in 1969.
After jamming in London jazz clubs with musicians like Johnny Griffin, Chick Corea and Jimmy Ruffin, Windo rapidly became a fixture of the scene. In March 1970, he took part in an all-star jam session with Jack Bruce, Mitch Mitchell, Brian Auger and Graham Bond. And later that year he joined several jazz ensembles : Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Keith Tippett's 50-piece orchestra Centipede, and Symbiosis, a jamming band featuring Mongezi Feza, Roy Babbington and Robert Wyatt.
Having played pub gigs with guitarist Ray Russell's heavy-rock trio The Running Man, Windo recruited Russell for his own Gary Windo Quartet, which also featured Mongezi Feza on trumpet and Alan Rushton on drums. In the Summer of 1972, he played on Hugh Hopper's first solo album, 1984, and the following year formed the jazz quartet WMWM with Robert Wyatt, pianist Dave MacRae and bassist Ron Matthewson. He almost became a member of the new line-up of Wyatt's Matching Mole, before Wyatt had his accident and the project was shelved. However, Windo appeared on his subsequent albums Rock Bottom and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard.
Meanwhile, Windo kept touring with Brotherhood of Breath and Centipede, and formed Gary Windo & Friends, with his wife Pam Windo on piano, guitarist Richard Brunton and the rhythm section of Bill MacCormick and Nick Mason. This line-up played its sole gig at Maidstone College of Arts in November 1975, but was the precursor to Windo's Steam Radio Tapes project, recorded between 1976 and 1978 but never completed. Among the participants were, along with the aforementioned, Julie Tippetts, Robert Wyatt, Steve Hillage and Hugh Hopper.
In May 1976, Windo played on Hopper's album Hoppertunity Box, and followed him into Carla Bley's band, in time for the European Tour 1977 album. But while Hopper left to return to England, Windo followed Bley in America, playing on Musique Mécanique as well as various related projects - Michael Mantler's More Movies, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports... While in New York he also recorded the album Loaded Vinyl, with Pam Windo and CBB members Steve Swallow and D. Sharpe, but again it remained unreleased; and he appeared on Daevid Allen's New York Gong album, About Time.
Windo spent subsequent years in America, doing copious session work as well as incidental music for TV shows such as "Saturday Night Live", touring as special guest with NRBQ and the Psychedelic Furs. He also played with Pam Windo & The Shades, and recorded his first released solo album, Dogface (1982). Between 1984-88 he led his own rock quartet, the Gary Windo Band, with Knox Chandler (guitar), Jack Robinson (bass) and Steve Moses (drums). This album Deep Water (1987), originally released on Island records was the result. An unsung classic, I am very proud to be part of the team that has finally made this peerless record available again. |
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THE BEST LAID PLANS...
It has actually been rather a nice week here in the badly converted potato shed where my new assistant editor Captain Frunobulax the Magnificent and I labour on all the different projects that I do. |
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However, this is the busiest time of the year for us back in CFZ Towers, and for the next two weeks I shall be rushing around like a headless chicken trying to organise the annual Weird Weekend that is held each year in the village where we live.
I have been running it for fourteen years, and am very tempted to make this year our last. Basically it is all getting a bit much for me, and I would prefer a tad more peace and quiet in my life.
But then, like so many times in this issue of Gonzo Weekly I think of Mick Farren. His physical health was considerably worse than mine and he never let up his schedule for a moment. OK, it could be argued that this work level might have contributed to his untimely death, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is what he would have wanted. He died on stage, doing what he did best; mixing rock and roll with agit prop, and rabble rousing to the last.
I suspect that I will probably end up doing much the same in my life, and so I really cannot tell you whether this year's Weird Weekend will be the last. The prudent and sensible part of my personality (yes, there is one, believe it or not) thinks that being a 53 year old invalid, that I should take it easy. But a considerable amount of the time I can hear dear old Mick bawling in my ear, to not be a pussy, and to carry on regardless, preferably helping myself to a tot of jack in the black on the way.
The future is unwritten. Watch this space.
My rationale behind the Weird Weekend is much the same as my rationale behind this magazine, the CFZ, and pretty much everything I do. There are things that are valuable and important that are largely ignored by our trite and increasingly facile society. It is our responsibility to promulgate them. Each person on the Earth has a responsibility to try and make the world a better place. If you don't at least try you are traitors to our species and to the planet on which we live. And one of the ways that I try to do this is by publicising music, books, films, research and ideas that are in danger of being forgotten.
I am very pleased with this issue; each time we get closer to my ideal of an anarchic journal of sounds and letters and ideas that I have been trying to put together for at least thirty years. Once again many thanks to Rob Ayling for giving me the opportunity to do this.
Things are actually going rather well at the moment, and the next wave of Gonzo grooviness is imminent. As you know, I already do various podcasts for Gonzo Web Radio and I am toying with the idea of expanding this to something special, and doing a series of podcasts featuring music unavailable elsewhere, especially for subscribers to this magazine. Remember that it doesn't cost anything to subscribe, and that in doing so you are joining an elite, and rapidly expanding group of music fans who believe that we are not being given the music or the cultural coverage that we deserve. We are living in disturbing and strange times, but ultimately they are very interesting ones, and continuing to chronicle the Gonzoverse is an immensely rewarding thing to do. Thank you for reading.
Until next week,
Slainte
Jon Downes
(Editor) |
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