The Gonzo Daily - Monday
Well, what an interesting few days its been. I
returned to the stage for my first live performance in thirteen years on Friday
night.
The event was called Reflektions and it was
promoted by my dear compadre Martin Eve, as part of his college course at the
increasingly stupidly named Petroc. I am very fond of Martin, and am
disappointed that he did not have more support from his fellow students and
college staff. But as these places largely exist so that successive incompetent
government administrations can look as if they are actually doing something
about youth unemployment, I suppose I shouldn't have too high expectation that
they will behave in a civilised manner. However, the event was lovely, with a
truly warm and loving vibe about it, it is just pity that it was not better
attended. However, I would like to stress that anything written in this review
is my opinion not anyone else's, and certainly not Martin's. Over the past year
I have had several run ins with the college, and am not at all impressed with
them as a whole.
It kicked off with the lovely Tracy Nicholson, who
sounds and looks bizarrely like Sandy Denny. She was followed by Stargrace whom
regular readers will have heard me talk about on a number of occasions, me, Jim
Watts playing a selection of Country Blues, and finally Dogleg, who mix jazz,
folk and rock into one glorious noise, surprisingly raucous for an acoustic duo.
The other advertised band didn't turn up, which is why I suggested to Martin
that with events like this it is better to advertise the event rather than the
performers. However my sage advice based on nearly forty years of producing
events like this was over-ruled by his course tutor, who - because of illness -
didn't turn up to see her advice go tits up.
Much to my annoyance, my trusty Ovation guitar
packed up two days before the show. I brought along a rather crappy electric
guitar that has been kicking around the place for years...and it sounded awful!
Steve Mayne from Dogleg, who I used to know back in the day (that particular day
being a third of a century ago) when he played guitar for a post punk band
called Optimax, and I was swanning around the place taking a lot of drugs and
pretending to be Brian Epstein, leant me his spare acoustic and so roared my way
through four of my songs (three old, one new) and two cover versions. Thanks
Steve, I owe you one.
This morning we had a very welcome interruption to
our routine when Animals & Men columnist Carl Portman, his wife Sue, and two
very well behaved dogs (at least one who has won prizes at Crufts) turned up for
a cuppa. It is always nice to see them, and I think that I have managed to get
him to write regularly for Gonzo Weekly.
And finally, Volume Three of the Journal of
Cryptozoology is out today..Good 'ere innit?
Atkins-May Project, Judas Priest, Judge Smith,
Peter Hammill, Van der Graff Generator, Edgar Allan Poe, 4th Eden, Phil Collins,
Genesis, Monika, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look
out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#126) is
available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It
has The Atkins-May Project on the cover, and inside yours truly interviews Paul
May about the new Anthology project. Doug writes about Phil Collins, Jon
eulogises over Monika, and Michael Des Barres' new album, and interviews 4th
Eden, and the director of a new staging of Peter Hammill and Judge Smith's
classic opera 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Jon critiques a book about
4Chan. Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd goes avant
garde, 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:
Black Sabbath, The
Polyphonic Spree, Bill Wyman, Abbey Road Studios, Paul McCartney, The Who, Percy
Sledge, Ronnie Carroll, Gunter Grass, John Shuttleworth, Hugh Hopper, Rocket
Scientists, Tommy James, Birmingham Sunday, Inner City Unit, Mick Abrahams,
OneRepublic, Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine, Brantley Gilbert,Paul
May, Al Atkins, Phil Collins, Colin Watkeys, Peter Hammill, Judge Smith,
Hawkwind, Richard Freeman, Steve Hackett, Toto, Yes, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman,
Jon Anderson, 4th Eden, Xtul, The Beatles, Ozzy, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Kate
Bush, Muddy Waters, NSync, Michael des Barres, Monika, America, Furor
Gallico
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!
* 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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