Wednesday, April 29, 2015

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS ROUND ABOUT

The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
 
I love this time of the year. The fresh green leaves on the beech trees in the garden, the holly blues flying over the ivy on the side of the house, and the goldfish spawning in the pond.  However, yesterday, we had only just got the axolotls settled into their outside accommodation, and bought some bedding plants for the new raised bed that Danny has built next to the main pond, than we were told there was a frost warning, so we had to rapidly rethink our plans.
 
As I write I am listening to 'Postcards from paradise', the eighteenth solo album from Ringo Starr, one time drummer with you know who. It would be so easy to slate this album as being irrelevant and not breaking new ground. But the man is 75 for goodness sakes, and - you know what? He has turned in a perfectly respectable and solid album, which I have to say is at least as good as the vast majority of solo albums by ex-Beatles, and considerably better than some. OK, John got his kit off for peace and George chanted for Krishna, but that was a long time ago.
 
The album was produced completely by Starr himself, and engineered by longtime collaborator Bruce Sugar. Starr worked with many of his regular songwriting and recording colleagues on "Postcards from Paradise", including Van Dyke Parks, Dave Stewart, and Gary Burr. As with his previous albums, Starr maintains a philosophy of "If you show up at my house and you can play, you're on the record".
 
This is a much more enjoyable listen than a great deal of the stuff that I am sent. And anyone who can add the name of his favourite pudding into a lascivious song about a Creole girl in the Big Easy is OK by me. This is fine, very well played and crafted, and consistently entertaining music. People should give up waiting for the big statement and bear that in mind. Peace and Love (Peace and Love).
 
 
The Gonzo Weekly #127
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Circuline, Astronomusic, Blur, Blackbird Raum, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#127) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has the legendary Roy Weard on the cover, and inside yours truly interviews him about his autobiography, memories of Watchfield and Windsor free festivals and lots more. Doug writes about Circuline, Jon interviews Astronomusic, Jon eulogises over Blackbird Raum, and is pensive about Blur's new album. Jon critiques a book about Doc Shiels. Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd plays live with exclusive pics, Xtul gets even more peculiar, and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea, although I have been assured that they will hit land again soon. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons trying to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials having difficulty in making choices, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
 
This issue features:
John Lennon, Noel & Liam Gallagher, Tool, Black Sabbath, Nile Rodgers, Chic, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Bernard Stollman, John Shuttleworth, Hugh Hopper, Rocket Scientists, Tommy James, Birmingham Sunday, Inner City Unit, Mick Abrahams, OneRepublic, Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine, Brantley Gilbert,Roy Weard, Circuline, Astronomusic, Hawkwind, Jessica Taylor, Yes,
Reflektions, Tracy Nicholson, Stargrace, Jim Watts, Dogleg, Doc Shiels, Xtul, Yes, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Rick Wakeman, Blackbird Raum, Blur, Damon Albarn, A.C.,Spice Girls, Elvis, The Osbournes, Michael Jackson, The Partridge Family, Claude Serre, Jonne
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
 
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/
 

* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...
 
* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit…
 
* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!
 
* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile orange cat?
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