| CJ Stone's Britain: Ghost town (Coventry) |
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I’m in Coventry, sitting in a café on a wet winter’s morning. In this city of the eternal shopping arcade, the shopper’s are milling about, wandering from BhS to Marks & Spencer and back, and I’m wondering how I can describe something as familiar as this. “Ordinary” is the only word; extraordinarily ordinary, like a carrier bag, the kind you pick up at every supermarket and then discard once you’ve put the shopping away. Functional but undistinguished. Plain.
Well, I have got a terrible hangover: beers yesterday afternoon, gin-and-tonics (super-sonics) in the evening, and a night in a weird B&B. This one had two dogs that barked if you so much as breathed, the walls were pink and the only decoration in my room was a tiny, plaster dog. The proprietors seemed to be under the impression I thought it was a knocking-shop. I was with my friend Emma. The proprietor showed us into a double room. “No, it’s just for me,” I told him. “I only want a single.”
“Your friend will be leaving then?”
“Well in a minute, when we’ve said our goodbyes.”
“Okay, but only for a minute, not 15,” he said.
Later Emma came over to take me to the pub. She was made to stand on the steps.
“Tell me about Coventry,” I said, once we’d sat down with our drinks.
“Well there’s Two-Tone music, the car-industry, the cathedral, the blitz and … er … Two-Tone music, “ said Emma, counting out the points emphatically on the fingers of one hand. “Oh, and George Eliot went to school here.”
I saw George Eliot’s school. It’s now a tandoori restaurant. As for the other things she mentioned, three of them are connected: it was the industrial base which brought the bombers to flatten the city during the second world war. In the process they destroyed the cathedral too. The Whitley Bomber was made here, along with machine tools and components for the car industry turned over for war uses.
The old cathedral is a burnt-out shell which has been incorporated into the design of the new cathedral as a monument to the people’s resilience and patience under fire. In one devastating night – November 14 to November 15 1940 – the fire-bombs raged, the high-explosives rumbled and burst, and the entire city centre was razed to the ground.
In the central shopping area, I saw a banner. “Coventry: Birthplace Of The Car,” it said. I later found out that last year had been the centenary of the world’s first car factory, built in 1896 by the Great Horseless Carriage Company, later to become Daimler. From horseless carriages to virtual gridlock in 100 hundred years, it’s a centenary worth thinking about.
It’s where I ran away to when I ran away from home. I took my first drugs here: a cough medicine called Dimerol
The Guardian Weekend March 8 1997
The only part of Coventry’s history that I can talk about with any confidence is Two-Tone music. That was my era. It was nothing original; they just took Jamaican ska music and reconstituted it. What was new was the spirit in which it was performed: as a tribute to multi-culturalism, as an attempt to heal the rift between the races. And Ghost Town, by the Specials, still sums up town (and so many other towns like it): “Bands won’t play no more/too much figh-ting on the dance floor.”
Finally there’s Anarchy Bridge, a narrow, riveted steel structure crossing the railways lines, scrawled from end to end with slogans. “Women are angry, it states, boldly. “If you want to feed the world you’ve got to starve the rich,” it adds, controversially. “Welcome to Anarchy,” it welcomes, welcomingly. “Why arrest skaters?” it asks, puzzlingly. “Sex, drugs and more sex,” it pouts, provocatively. “I got a Cavalier GSI 2000 down this bridge at 25mph,” it claims, startlingly. At this you have to look up and down the bridge, just to check that it is at all possible. And indeed it is, just about: wide enough by about six inches either side.
There ought to be a place like Anarchy Bridge in every town, where people can write their thoughts, state their case, no matter how odd. The Specials were photographed here. It’s a landmark feature in an otherwise featureless town, a monument to humdrum absurdity and to a pointless kind of optimism. “Troops out of Ireland,” it suggests, as if the British government often goes skateboarding over Anarchy Bridge, just to find out what the people of Coventry have to say.
(Maybe they actually did. The bridge was demolished on January 13 1997. RIP Anarchy Bridge.)
I have a special affection for this friendly, unpretentious little city, where people care enough to say hello to you in the pub. It’s where I ran away to when I ran away from home. I took my first drugs here: a cough medicine called Dimerol.
Read on...
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NOW AVAILABLE FROM GONZO MULTIMEDIA
"Stone writes with intelligence, wit and sensitivity."
Times Literary Supplement
"Wry, acute, and sometimes hellishly entertaining essays in squalor and rebellion."
Herald
"The best guide to the Underground since Charon ferried dead souls across the Styx."
Independent on Sunday
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| SOME OTHER BOOKS BY C.J.STONE |
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- Hardcover: 512 pages
- Publisher: Viking (4 Oct 2012)
- ISBN-10: 0670921718
Blimey. This is a monumentally peculiar book. It is disjointed, repetitive, and meanders from subject to subject with a total lack of focus. I also like it a lot.
Neil Young writes how he has given up alcohol and marijuana some months before commencing work on this long-awaited autobiography, and there are times within these 400+ pages that he reaches a new lucidity about events of his past, almost as if he is revisiting them with a new and sober vision.
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The disjointed and episodic nature of the book is disconcerting in the first few chapters, but after a while one realises that it has its own internal structure and logic and that if he had written the book in a more conventional linear manner it just would not have worked anywhere near as well. He keeps revisiting his current obsessions; the LincVolt project, and his PureTone process which he hopes will replace mp3s as the industry’s standard for digital streaming of music.
He is a strange, but oddly likeable fellow; and although he appears to have been brutally honest about his chequered past – the break ups of his relationships prior to meeting Pegi, for example – he still comes over as a nice man, and more importantly, a man of steadfast integrity. His accounts of his relationships with his two sons, Zeke and Ben, who were both born with cerebral palsy even though they had different mothers, are oddly touching, and I was very impressed by the way he always refers to them as Zeke Young and Ben Young in the text. Doing this, rather than just using their Christian names as nearly everybody else on the planet would have done, emphasises that he sees them as true individuals, and wants us to do likewise; not ignoring, but seeing passed, their disabilities. This is a massively laudable thing, and I take my hat off to him.
He also doesn’t attempt to brush over his brief relationship with Charles Manson, although the song Revolution Blues which appears on his On The Beach album from the mid-70s does appear to be more admiring of the Family ethic than the account given in this book. However, unlike the retrospective accounts by Dennis Wilson, which are quoted in Heroes and Villains by Steve Gaines, Neil Young does not indulge in retroactive histrionics. He just states the facts, gives a wry smile, and moves on.
He is obsessed with cars, and motor vehicles in general. His LincVolt project, for example, seems to be particularly dear to him. It is an attempt to convert large luxury cars to sustainable eco-friendly methods of power. This is something that if I had the money, I would be involved in as well. I miss driving a Jaguar, but I’m only too aware that each time someone does so it is a another coffin nail into the casket of pollution which surrounds the ‘green hills of Earth’. I like the way he names each of his cars, and most of his instruments; his favourite guitar – the one he recorded so many classic albums with – is called Big Black. I was oddly sad to finish the biography late last night, and I am very pleased that Neil seems to have got the writing bug and intimates that there will be more books of autobiography on the way. This is good, because he has only scratched the surface of his remarkable life in this book. Long may he run.
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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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* the following legal interpretations are Graham's *
The Hawkwind name battle has - publically, at least - been fairly quiet this week, so this might be an opportune moment to recap on events thus far, and bring things up to date.
Firstly, the matter is currently being looked at by the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board - there's no white-wigged lawyers leaping up and down in court and shouting "Objection m'Lud" - well, not at this stage, anyway.
November 2012: Nik Turner, ex-sax player with Hawkwind, applies to trademark the name "Nik Turner's Hawkwind" in the USA.
Various procedural delays and then requests for extra time for annoyed parties to respond filled up most of 2013.
November 2013: Hawkwind's "archive record label" (Cherry Red) lodges an objection, citing confusion.
December 2013: Dave Brock, current Hawkwind member and holder of the "Hawkwind" trademark, lodges a detailed opposition to Turner's application, citing various grounds. The current Hawkwind record label (PlasticHead) also lodges an opposition.
January 2014: Nik Turner's legal representative asks for both of the record company objections to be kicked out, basically (my words) on the grounds that it's all none of their business.
January 29: Nik Turner (through his legal rep) denies the validity of Dave Brock's opposition.
February: the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has just announced that they are going to chew over the Nik Turner idea of kicking out the record company objections.
Or, to put it in more formal language,
"Proceedings herein are suspended pending disposition of applicant’s motion to dismiss."
And we are advised that a decision will be forthcoming "in due course."
Until then, it seems we're in what NASA would call 'another hold' - ie, wait and see. |
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The Flaming Lips have released an EP 'Peace Sword' which contains music based on the film of Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game'. The NME reports: "Christ knows what sort of therapy Wayne Coyne’s signed up for, but here he follows an album about the emotional anguish of his marriage disintegrating (this year’s ‘The Terror’) with the next logical step: an EP about 22nd-century teenage space-Rambos fighting massive insectoid aliens".
With the recent release of Peace Sword, and planned tour of the UK in May, it's a good time to reflect on the Flaming Lips music and culture, best consumed at their live performances. Having skipped last year's tour to support The Terror in 2013, here's Doug's take on the prior major tour in the states, after the Embryonic release: |
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The Flaming Lips burned brightly last time I saw them at the Fox Theater, Oakland on October 1, 2010 when they played to a sold-out crowd of initiated followers. The music of this band is a jarring combination of funk, progressive, noise, and psychedelic music, that may invoke a dreamy state in the listener. Their most recent release at that time, Embryonic, is a relentless, percussive masterwork that was not particularly featured in the set list at the Fox. Instead the band pulled more evenly from material released over the last dozen years, probably because this show fell late in the tour.
In general, there is a lot to applaud in a Flaming Lips show:
- Front man Wayne Coyne climbing inside his clear plastic ball rolling through the audience
- Tons of confetti delivered via colorful cannons, showering down on the audience along with a multitude of giant balloons
- A dozen amatuer dancers – boys stage left, girls right – posing and shimmying to the sounds
- Wayne donning a giant pair of hands containing palm lasers shooting out in all directions
- Beautiful light pallet with acid-house projections on clever rear video delivery system
- Talented musicians that improve on the studio recordings with their aggressive live delivery
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He actually IS called Jon Pertwee, and he runs a shop selling pop culture memorabilia with a special emphasis on Dr Who related stuff. He is an old mate of mine, and from now on will be doing a regular column in this magazine. Hooray!
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The way that TV is represented today by magazines in general is "Hey..look at this real life person from this wonderfully crap real TV show.." Blah blah and indeed ..blah.
You see.. in the 1970s the average child on the street was bombarded with a hundred different shows on just the three telly channels..these were largely compressed down into one bitesize weekly magazine.."Look-In"..and here is a run down of this truly beautiful thing.
"LI" was a "TVTIMES"(other listing magazines are available!) spin -off, aimed at the Chopper riding, Opal fruits sucking pre teen.
It came out in 1971 and petered out about 1994 - it had jolly comic strips, crosswords that wouldn't test a backwards horse and had nifty pullout posters of the "pop" star of the day..
The genuinely beautiful covers were drawn by a London-based Italian artist, Arnaldo Putzu. He was a main poster designer for the main run of the magazine, before they were replaced by photoshopped head shots of that week's star.
The magazine carried a wonderful TV advert campaign "la-la-la Loooookiiin" and showed the children's shows and a TV TIMES-esque listing at the back of each issue.
As the '70s rolled on ,"LookIn" struggled to keep up with various teen magazines that were strutting onto the newsagents' shelves.Children didn't want to see comic strips of "Logans Run", they wanted David Essex and Duran Duran.
The covers and magazine changed, it became a punchy snap shot of "Factz" and "Fotos"; in short,a poor quivering darkened corner-dweller trying to bathe in its former Saturday tea time slot, "LookIn" dies and a piece of every kid died somewhat too.
I had nearly all of the magazines. They were duly stored in a neat pile in the corner of a room, gradually bending in on themselves in the stack.
It was a sad day when my "Birthparent" chose to torch the lot, in a no budget reconstruction of the "Towering Inferno", burning about a hundred issues as I stood and watched, bottom lip quivering. Today the magazine has long gone, reduced to long blown away ash. What I still have, however, is the best memories of one of the finest magazines ever, except the one you are reading, obviously..
Jon Pertwee,
News at Ten Washington
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| THE WORLD OF GONZO ACCORDING TO GHOSTMAN RAINES |
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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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After a few mildly dismal weeks for news from the Yes camp and from all their various alumni, this week is a bumper one. I am very tempted to try plotting the amount of these stories each week on a graph, and seeing if I can correlate it against current events. Maybe I will even be able to foresee the future. I could call it PROG-OMANCY!
Starting off with Rick Wakeman for a change, there are loads of stories from him this week starting off with his involvement in a community TV project, and his involvement in a forthcoming tribute to Jon Lord. He is also apparently featured in a new comedy show on BBC4 called The Life Of Rock With Brian Pern |
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Jon Anderson is apparently putting a new band together, and he also appears on a well known US radio show. But don't be disappointed. He will also be playing Woodstock with students from the Rock Academy. Golly! And finally an interview with Alan White!
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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Changing the world one gift at a time
The worldwide Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Freecycle groups match people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them. Our goal is to keep usable items out of landfills. By using what we already have on this earth, we reduce consumerism, manufacture fewer goods, and lessen the impact on the earth. Another benefit of using Freecycle is that it encourages us to get rid of junk that we no longer need and promote community involvement in the process.
http://uk.freecycle.org/ |
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BITCOIN COLLAPSES,
DUMB STARBUCKS OPENS |
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PARODY&COMEDY BOTH GROWTH ENTERPRISES
The Onion gives better head lines-
all that can be imagined has already happened-
survivalists/Seventh Day Adventists stockpiling food
Right Wing Militia arming for a showdown-
Waco,Ruby Ridge,Pine Ridge,Wounded Knee
California both raining and in drought simultaneously
Las Vegas having to pipe in water to their desert
full of swimming pools ,green lawns and golf courses
Water has now become a privitized source
Post-fracking,owned via Amatil Corporation
sold as sugary Coca-Killa or fluoride solution
Every thing is happening @once
Every thing repeats until addressed
And then begins again..
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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.
But people send me lots of pictures of interesting, and, may I say, peculiar things. But once again this week it is over to my lovely wife...
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The other day, the BBC told us that Michael Jackson fans win one euro for emotional damage.
Wow, was it really five years ago that he died?
"Five Michael Jackson fans have been awarded one euro each by a French court for the "emotional damage" they suffered after the pop star's death.
The case saw 34 fans sue Jackson's doctor, who was jailed in 2011 for the involuntary manslaughter of the singer.
The court in Orleans ruled five fans had proven emotional suffering.
Their lawyer said they had proven their suffering "with the help of witness statements and medical certificates."
"As far as I know this is the first time in the world that the notion of emotional damage in connection with a pop star has been recognised," Emmanuel Ludot told the AFP news agency.
"They have been subjected to ridicule and I am delighted their suffering has been taken seriously by the law."
The damages were symbolic, he added, and the claimants would not be seeking to claim the one euro each from Conrad Murray.
The five fans say they hope the ruling will help them gain access to Michael Jackson's grave in Los Angeles, which is closed to the public."
So why should they gain access, just because they won one euro each, which – by the way – at the time of writing is 0.82p? And the damages were symbolic were they? So did they decide between them on the one euro, or was that the amount suggested by their legal representatives? If the latter, and call me a cynic if you like (I am …. so sticks and stones…) it could be said that ‘ridicule’ and ‘taken seriously’ could be construed slightly differently. But, a case like this is bound to make headlines. And just think what those loosened legal floodgates could see wash through now.
The man had a few problems (yes that is a gigantic understatement) and Lord knows there are plenty of pro-MJ nutters and anti-MJ nutters out there mingling with a large contingent of general crazies so, to be honest, I am not really surprised his grave is closed to the public.
But….he was one hell of a dancer in his day.
The Haçienda Manchester
I came across this very oddly-worded sale on Ebay with regard to the above:
HACIENDA URINALS / TOILETS, FACTORY RECORDS, MADCHESTER, ACID, NEW ORDER, ECT(etc. actually, please get it right). And in the item specifics it notes: Artist – Joy Division
Apart from anything else, I did find myself wondering why Joy Division is added there, rather detachedly. Or is it just a weird pun relating to the joy one experiences at being able to empty one’s bladder?
Bids start at £1,050.00 or you can ‘buy it now’ for £1,495.00, and you’ve got till 20th February unless someone gets there first. But you had better warn your other-half beforehand so you can at least agree on the placement of said article in your home.
The ad makes them sound so delightful and the seller certainly has a way with words.
“URINALS HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO A DISPLAY UNIT WITH DRAWERS AND LED LIGHTING + LASER AND SMOKE MACHINE.
A TRUE PIECE OF MANCHESTER MUSIC HISTORY COMPLETE WITH ORIGINAL PISS STAINS.” My first thought after reading this was ‘wow, I bet this chap has great chat-up lines’, and my second was, ‘I wonder if this could lead to some interesting DNA testing?’ Yeah, okay, that is how my mind works, but just imagine: you could find out who actually went for a tinkle in which urinal and then break up the display and sell each urinal separately for many dollars if you could prove someone famous had relieved themselves in it. However, much to my chagrin I found out that: Urine itself does not contain DNA, but it may contain epithelial cells, which do contain DNA. Most healthy individuals, however, do not excrete epithelial cells in their urine.
I shall write no further about that last sentence as I do not want any lawsuits filed against me.
But the guy is generous to a ‘T’: “CAN DELIVER IF LOCAL FOR A SMALL FEE.” What is the going rate these days? Used to be a penny; “Off to spend a penny in the penny house” and all that in my day. But I think it is now 20p in some places, or I seem to recollect having to fork out 20p in Bristol Coach Station on several occasions. “Off to spend twenty pennies in the twenty pennies house” doesn’t really utter forth from the mouth with ease does it? Apart from not making much sense either. But hey-ho, on with the show.
“WILL SELL WORLDWIDE BUT BUYER MUST SORT OUT TRANSPORT.” Now that could be a tricky one to fill out on the export/import docket.
Go on…..you know you want to.
And to close the doors on the cabinet this week, did you know that:
“Termites will eat wood two times faster when listening to heavy metal”?
All that head banging you see – the rapid movement makes them tighten up those jaw muscles and gets those termite teeth swinging into double action. Okay, well it may be to do with the vibration I expect, to be honest. Not that I am an expert on such things. But I know a man who is……. |
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SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION TIME
Just in case you are interested, here is yer beloved Editor at iTunes
   
Check it out now... |
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| INTRODUCING THE NINE HENRYS |
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There are nine Henrys, purported to be the world’s first cloned cartoon character. They live in a strange lo-fi domestic surrealist world peopled by talking rock buns and elephants on wobbly stilts.
They mooch around in their minimalist universe suffering from an existential crisis with some genetically modified humour thrown in. 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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The Weird Weekend is the largest yearly gathering of mystery animal investigators in the English-speaking world. Now in its fifteenth 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.
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| the running order (so far) for the 2014 event |
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| WINDS OF PLAGUE Resistance (CENTURY MEDIA) |
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The guys are back with their fourth album and show no sign at all of slowing down. This is brutal deathcore with the odd tinkle of the ivories to provide some light to go with the shade, but mostly this is all about heads down and lets get rid of the dandruff. It may not be pretty, and in concert will be incredibly intense with a massive moshpit, but this is all about hanging on by your fingernails for 34 minutes of out and out aggression. These guys really mean it, and come at you like a steamroller on steroids that is jet propelled. It is not trying to be anything that it isn’t, and is a refreshingly honest approach to music as they set out their stall and continue to prove time and again that they are the real deal. There is just enough mix of styles (Meshuggah being a main influence, along with Biohazard and Slayer) to make this continuously interesting and the use of keyboards here and there provide a welcome relief. As heavy as lead, but far quicker, this is solid form start to end.
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| YGODEH The Experiment Interrupted (INVERSE) |
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| Originally formed in Latvia, these guys are now located in the UK, and this is their second full-length album. Comprised of Piton (Guitars, synthetic sounds, samples programming), Vadozz (drums), Stalker (bass) and Serberus (vocals), they have created something that is really unusual. They describe it as “Synthetic Death Metal for Your Brain!” and that is probably better than anything I could come up with as this is very different indeed. It’s roots are in Death Metal, but add to that a pop sensibility, symphonic and classical touches with electronic overtones and you may start to get close to what |
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this is about. The guitars are often strangely muted in some way, as if Piton is riffing hard but playing behind a gossamer curtain, which just removes the brutal edge. This is experimental in many ways, while also being mainstream in others. It would be interesting to see these guys in concert as I would imagine that brutality is much more to the fore in that environment, but here in the studio they have created something that has definitely caught my attention.
This is available physically through Inverse, or digitally through many sites such as Bandcamp, and this is something that definitely deserves to be heard at the very least. In some ways compelling, and always interesting, this is pushing hard against certain boundaries. |
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| COPERNICUS L’étérnité Immédiate II (NEVERMORE) |
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| You’re going to have to bear with me on this one, as to say I am confused myself is something of an understatement. If I have my facts right, after the release of ‘La Eternidad Inmediata’ in Ecuador in 2005, Copernicus performed 25 concerts all over the country with a show that was very faithful to the original album. The concerts were always performed in Spanish, but as recording costs were very low in that country Copernicus decided to rerecord the original. Once that was completed he then revisited the album, recording vocals in different languages and releasing them as different albums. So, the one we have here is the one with |
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the vocals recorded in French, hence the title ‘L'Éternité Immédiate II.’ But, what is even more confusing is that the title of the album does not reference ‘II’ anywhere. Still with me? Leo from Moonjune has been working with Copernicus on reissuing albums, and apparently he prefers the French version, which is why this has now been made available again.
There is a booklet with the digipak, lyrics and notes, but of course it is all in French, which isn’t a lot of help to me, so instead I’ll concentrate on the music. This is also quite different to what I would normally expect from this artist, as while it is still jazz and avant-garde, there is a warmth and delicacy often missing from the albums I have heard from him. Normally he is wild and abrasive, very much in the face of the listener, commanding the band as if is the centre of a whirlwind but this seems to be much more thought out and directed. Maybe that is due to having just played a series of concerts, and then of course re-recording vocals in different languages, but whatever the reason this seems to be a far more structured and controlled approach than I would normally expect. In fact, it was such a surprise that it took a while for me to really get into this album, but musically this is quite superb with some wonderfully restrained playing from those involved.
Copernicus is always going to appeal only to a small audience due to his very nature, but if you haven’t come across him before then this may actually be a good place to start as it isn’t nearly as provocative as some of his albums while Cesar Aragundi (guitar), Freddy Auz (bass), Newton Velasquez (piano, synthesizer), Juan Carlos Zuniga Lopez (drums) and Matty Fillou (saxophone) are a heck of a band – all brilliant musicians in their own right. |
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| DESERT WIZARDS Ravens (BLACK WIDOW) |
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| Desert Wizards is an Italian band who started off in 2007 when four friends decided to start a band that would concentrate on classic 70’s hard rock with a strong doom and psychedelic feel. After just a few months they recorded an EP, and a year later recorded their debut album. In 2010 they were signed to Black Widow who released a new version of that album, with a new title and artwork, and following on from the success of that they are now back with their second (or third – depending on how you look at it). The line-up is Marco Mambelli (vocals, guitar, bass), Anna Fabbri (piano, organ, vocals), Marco Goti (lead guitar) and Silvio Dalla Valle (drums), and together they have created a sound that is very true to the period they are influenced by indeed. |
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There are times when the Hammond organ is the lead, or gentle piano, or they are crunching some classic riffs and while never as heavy as Sabbath they have obviously been taking some pointers. But, there is definite prog here as well and the one cover is the closing song on the album, “Childhood’s End”, which of course originally appeared on ‘Obscured by Clouds’. Not many bands dare cover material by Floyd, and even fewer look to this album, so it is intriguing to say the least. It is also a very good version indeed, staying true to the original and giving it new life yet never moving too far away from the early Seventies.
This is avery strong album, and if you miss music from forty years ago, although even then it would have been a little dated due to the amount of Blue Cheer psychedelia contained within, then this may be for you. As the label say themselves “The music is heavy, dreamy, trippy, reflective and evocative....sit in the dark, light some candles, take a beer and get away from the world....” for more details visit www.blackwidow.it |
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