The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
We are always being told how the music industry is
in crisis and how record sales are plummeting. However, once or twice a year
there are still major artistic and cultural events which take the western world
by storm. One such has been Kate Bush’s renaissance following her ongoing
series of concerts in London. Another happened last year when the Rolling
Stones dragged Mick Taylor away from undeserved obscurity, and played a series
of barnstorming gigs including Glastonbury Festival, and another is going on at
the moment and started last night.
King Crimson have been, unarguable, one of the most
idiosyncratic and artistically interesting bands for forty five years now, since
they formed in 1968. Leader Robert Fripp left the music business some years
ago, and King Crimson seem to have been on indefinite hiatus since about 1998.
However, last year Fripp announced that the band will return, and last night,
the new seven piece line-up played their first show.
When Kate Bush announced her return to the stage
she asked politely that fans refrain from photographing or videoing the gigs.
She then enforced this polite request with an iron fist, which means that the
job of an arm chair rock and roll pundit like me is a little bit more difficult
than it would have otherwise have been. I don’t know whether King Crimson have
done the same, but there are no snippets of the band’s latest set available on
Youtube, and only one review that I can find so far. We shall just have to wait
and see what transpires.
Watch this space.
It has the one and only John Ellis, one time guitar
guru of The Vibrators, Peter Gabriel, The Stranglers, Peter Hammill, Judge Smith
and more on the cover. Doug Harr was there in the audience when Kate Bush played
live on last Friday evening, and Jon finds out about Clepsydra's plans for the
future from bass ace Andy Thommen. There are also new shows from the wonderfully
eccentric Jaki and Tim on their Submarine, from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at
Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive. There is also a
collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and ursine tree kangaroos
(OK, no weird arboreal marsupials from New Guinea, 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!!!
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!
To make sure that you don't miss your copy of
future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
As well as the Gonzo Weekly, there is a daily
service called - wait for it - The Gonzo Daily, and you can subscribe for free
HERE:
http://eepurl.com/OvPez
* 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/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
* 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 54 who - together with an
orange kitten 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 orange kitten?
The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. 
