The Factory was a wonderful small club in Madison, Wisconsin. The club held 750 concertgoers and Jimi Hendrix played two sold-out shows on February 27th, 1968. The concerts were reported to be epic and can be found in their entirety on the web.
The story behind this poster is an interesting one. The artist, Brad Cantrell, was a high school student who submitted artwork to a local underground newspaper. The promoter of the concert saw Brad’s art and asked him to design the poster for the concerts. According to a reliable source, Jimi Hendrix liked the poster a great deal and asked to meet the artist. Brad was brought backstage and Hendrix told him he loved the poster because it had an image of Abraham Lincoln with him on the same poster.
UK space rockersSpiritualized have released a video for their 1995 Top 30 single “Let It Flow” as they announce the release date for the new vinyl deluxe reissue of that year’s “Pure Phase” album for June 11th through Fat Possum Records.
The album is the second in this series of 180g double albums mastered by Alchemy Mastering, presented in a gatefold jacket with reworked green artwork by Mark Farrow and available in both a standard black vinyl pressing and limited edition glow-in-the-dark vinyl exclusive to D2C/indie retail.
Briefly renamed Spiritualized Electric Mainline, “Pure Phase” expanded on the amount of personnel involved in making a Spiritualized record, with Sean Cook joining on bass and the Balanescu Quartet adding string arrangements. The record sounds like no other as there are two mixes running together concurrently.
You can’t really compare this record to any other because of how we mixed it; in such an “incorrect” way,” comments mainman Jason Pierce. “We mixed the tracks twice but I couldn’t decide which one I liked better so we said “let’s have them both”. Both of them were on tape so we spent hours cutting them into usable sections. If you run two things together in parallel you get this kind of Hawkwind effect (phase), which gets deeper as they drift away from being ‘locked’, so we had to keep re-locking on a bass drum every eight or ten bars and it took forever.
“If you listen to the isolated parts, everything is incredibly simple, the horns, the slide, all these little motifs and they lock together like some strange kind of machine. Something like Kraftwerk was the nearest thing in my musical vocabulary at the time. Great rock and roll music is like systems, it has its own endless cycle. Pure Phasewas Michael Nyman, Steve Reich and John Adams, rock ‘n’ roll and gospel music, and it sounds like driving as fast as you can in torrential rain.
“I wish I could do it now, to mix things twice and throw it together and end up with this magic world. It was a thing that was out of our control and it just sounded better than we could have imagined so we chased it.”
The Spaceman Reissue Program edition of Pure Phasepromises to give those recordings the fullest spectrum audio and physical treatment they’ve deserved since 1992. It will be the second in this series, following Lazer Guided Melodies, with 180g double albums with lacquer cut from original sources by Alchemy Mastering, presented in a gatefold jacket adorned by reworked art by Mark Farrow, and available in both a standard black vinyl pressing and limited edition glow-in-the-dark vinyl,
The Thompsons were without a record contract in 1980, when Gerry Rafferty offered to finance an album for them with his “Baker Street” producer Hugh Murphy. The sessions yielded 10 tracks – and Richard later rejected them all. Eighteen months later, though, he and Linda re-recorded six of the 10 songs with producer Joe Boyd as “Shoot Out The Lights”. Rafferty’s Folly, then, offers an alternative version of what became the couple’s final album.
It’s more polished, with more instrumentation – keyboards, Moogs, accordion, simulated strings – compared to the stark Shoot Out The Lights. Other surprises include “Wall Of Death” and “Don’t Renege On Our Love” with Linda on vocals, as well as a beautiful version of Sandy Denny’s “I’m A Dreamer” (later included on Linda’s 1986 comp, Dreams Fly Away).
Both Thompsons have since relaxed their attitude to the Rafferty sessions – Linda has admitted she prefers some of her vocals here. But it wasn’t bundled in with last year’s deluxe edition of Shoot Out…, and for now, it exists only in boot form, including this and Before Joe Could Pull The Trigger, which throws in demos from ’80-’82.
Tracklist:
Don’t Renege On Our Love, Back Street Slide , Walking On A Wire , The Wrong Heartbeat , Shoot Out The Lights , For Shame Of Doing Wrong, I’m A Dreamer Written By – Sandy Denny , Modern Woman , Just The Motion , Wall Of Death , Lucky In Life , How Many Times Do You Have To Fall? , Pour Will & The Jolly Hangman , Wall Of Death , Sword Dance / Young Black Cow , I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight .
Bass – Dave Pegg
Drums – Dave Mattacks
Fiddle – Dave Swarbrick
Guitar – Simon Nicol
Guitar, Vocals – Richard Thompson
Producer – Gerry Rafferty
Vocals – Linda Thompson
Sound quality: Excellent See also: One Brave Henry, live folk club gigs from 1973
Recorded September/October 1980, Chipping Norton Studios
A collection of original albums and a pair of new titles featuring rarities from the late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro are being released.
Omnivore Recordings will release the two sets of rare Nyro music: “Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan” and the never-before-issued “Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape“. Both will be available on CD and digital, with Go Find the Moon also available on vinyl (as a 45-rpm LP). Each was restored and mastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves and produced for release by Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski and George Gilbert with the approval of the Laura Nyro Trust. Originally issued only in Japan only asLive in Japan in 2003, the 16 tracks recorded at Kintetsu Hall, plus five recorded at On Air West, return as Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan, to be released July 16th, 2021.
The set runs the gamut of her career, from Nyro-penned hits including “And When I Die,” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Save the Country,” to covers of Bacharach/David, Smokey Robinson and Phil Spector classics. Capturing Nyro’s February 1994 visit to Japan, the set features Nyro on piano and vocals, augmented by the harmonies by Diane Wilson, Dian Sorrell and Diane Garisto.
In the summer of 1966, a year before her appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, an 18-year-old LauraNyro auditioned for producer Milt Okun and Artie Mogull, a noted A&R man. After the session, Mogull became Nyro’s manager and Okun signed on to produce her debut record, More Than a New Discovery. The first song she performed, “And When I Die,” became the opening track on The Peter, Paul and Mary Album, and achieved even bigger success with a cover by Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape is due out September 10th, 2021.
Also due is Laura Nyro—American Dreamer, an eight-LP deluxe vinyl boxed set housing seven of the artist’s original albums from 1967-1978, all remastered especially for these editions. The package includes the LPs More Than a New Discovery, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, New York Tendaberry, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, Gonna Take a Miracle, Smile and Nested, alongside an original LP of Rarities and Live Recordings. Housed in a bookshelf slipcase box that includes a 36-page, 12-inch book with extensive liner notes, the collection features rare photographs and interviews with Todd Rundgren, Charlie Callelo, Herb Bernstein and many more.
A member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nyro not only wrote songs that became hits for artists like 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand, but has been cited as a major influence by artists as varied as Kate Bush, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz and others. Born in the Bronx in 1947, she died at age 49 following a bout with ovarian cancer. She recorded 10 of her own studio albums (one released posthumously).
We’ve long championed the extraordinary legacy of singer songwriter Laura Nyro. Madfish are to release “American Dreamer”, a limited edition remastered vinyl box set of albums by the influential and celebrated singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Now, the U.K.’s MadfishRecords label is returning her 1967-1978 catalogue for Verve and Columbia to vinyl in a new box set. During the singer/songwriter movement in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Laura Nyro was one of the most celebrated tunesmiths of her day. She penned soulful, literate songs that took the folky introspection of her peers and infused it with element of soul, R&B, jazz, and gospel, giving them an emotional heat that set her apart.
The 8-LP box set “American Dreamer” is due on July 30th. The slipcased collection presents newly remastered versions of her original studio albums:
More Than a New Discovery (1967)
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968)
New York Tendaberry (1969)
Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (1970)
Gonna Take a Miracle – with Labelle (1971)
Smile (1976); and
Nested (1978).
The set does not include her final two Columbia long-players (1984’s Mother’s Spiritual and 1993’s Walk the Dog and Light the Light) nor the posthumously-released Angel in the Dark (2001). Similarly, Laura’s live albums including 1977’s Season of Lights have not been included.
However, “American Dreamer” will also include a bonus eighth LP, Rarities and Live Recordings, of 15 previously issued gems including the mono single versions of “Stoney End” and “Eli’s Comin’;” the Bones Howe-produced “pop” single version of “Save the Country;” the demos of “Lu,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” and “Emmie” from the 2002 CD reissue of Eli and the Thirteenth Confession; the outtake “In the Country Way” from the 2002 CD reissue of New York Tendaberry; four tracks (“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “O-o-h Child,” “Up on the Roof”) from Laura’s May 30th, 1971 Fillmore East set as released on CD in 2004; the demos of “Someone Loves You,” “Get Me My Cap” from the CD expanded editions of Smile; and the live medley of “Emily” and “Nested” from the Nested expanded edition.
This collection features a 36-page booklet with liner notes by author Peter Doggett and appreciations from Elton John, Rosanne Cash, Rickie Lee Jones, Donald Fagen, Bette Midler, Alice Cooper, Graham Nash, and others; as well as new interviews with Todd Rundgren, Charlie Calello, Herb Bernstein, and others. There’s no word yet on who handled the remastering or, in the case of More Than a New Discovery, whether the mono or stereo master was utilized. Each LP is adorned with a custom Madfish label.
Fortunately for those of us who loved her music, that was not the end of the story. She returned briefly to the fray for three turbulent years in the mid-to-late 1970s, and then enjoyed a final decade of artistic achievement and public acclaim, before illness took her from us at the tragically early age of 49 in 1997. Nyro found her early fame challenging yet despite living under an unrelenting spotlight, she was able to create this series of utterly beautiful and stunningly unique albums.
The box celebrating this singular artist is due from the U.K.’s Madfish label on July 30th.
Gonzo Multimedia are celebrating the 30th anniversary of theYes “Union” Tour – which featured all eight members of the band with a special limited edition super deluxe edition box set which contains containing 26 CDs and four DVDs.
The main offering is a DVD which features a multi-camera shoot of the 8th August 1991 show at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, with accompanying soundtrack mixed by Trevor Rabin. This comes with two CDs.
What then follows are nine double or triple CD sets – some with DVDs – which are from a mixture of fan recordings, desk tapes and FM/Radio Broadcasts. The label say this is “a way for the band to combat this highly bootlegged tour, where some fans are paying in excess of $70 per show from various Japanese websites”.
The CDs and DVDs come in old-school ‘fatbox’ jewel cases and are contained within flight case packaging. Each heavy-duty case has been sprayed individually, with the stickers placed on by hand meaning no two flight cases are the same. It includes a numbered certificate, reproduction tour programme, repro AAA laminate, repro cloth passes, 10 band photos and two posters.
It has been well documented that I loathed the “Union” studio album as the whole project was taken out of our hands and destroyed by those handed the responsibility for finishing it off. However, the Union Tour was another matter. Probably the most amazing and enjoyable tour I have ever been on with Yes and I am so glad it was recorded and filmed as it was an incredibly special time that can never be repeated. The Union Your is for me, the most important event in Yes history.” Rick Wakeman.
Shoreline Amphitheatre (Remastered) 8th August 19912CD+DVD
Pensacola Civic Centre 9th April 19912CD+DVD
Worcester Centrum, Worcester, MA 17th April 19913CD
Nassau Colosseum 20th April 19912CD+DVD
Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Stuttgart, Germany 31st May 1991 (FM Broadcast)3CD
Wembley Stadium, UK 29th June 1991 FM Broadcast (2CD) + Star Lake Amphitheatre 24th July 1991 (single CD)3CD
Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Wisconsin 26th June 19913CD
Madison Square Gardens, NYC 15th July 19912CD+DVD
Spectrum Theatre, Philadelphia, 12th July 19913CD
Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan 4th March 19923CD
Vinyl fans have their own version of the box which offers a 4LP coloured vinyl set of the Shoreline Amphitheatre show and gives you a DVD of that same show. It also comes with the printed bits and is limited to 1000 units.
The release dates vary somewhat depending on where you are purchasing these from but certainly in France, the Yes Union 30 Live box will be released on 25th June 2021.
“For the Grateful Dead’s second live album, released two years after its predecessor “Live/Dead”, the band delivered an equally magnificent, but entirely different, Grateful Dead sound. Whereas “Live/Dead” was a perfect sonic encapsulation of the band at the peak of their Primal Dead era, “Skull & Roses” captures the quintessential quintet, the original five piece band, playing some of their hardest hitting rock ‘n’ roll (‘Johnny B. Goode,’ ‘Not Fade Away’), showing off their authentic Bakersfield bona fides (‘Me & My Uncle,’ ‘Mama Tried,’ ‘Me & Bobby McGee’), and some originals that would be important parts of the Dead’s live repertoire for the next 24 years ‘Bertha,’ ‘Playing In The Band,’ ‘Wharf Rat’. Of course, the Grateful Dead were never defined by one specific ‘sound’ and amongst the aforementioned genres and styles the band brought to this album, they also delved deeply into their psychedelic, primal playbook with an entire side dedicated to their 1968 masterpiece ‘The Other One.’ This is one of the most deeply rich and satisfying tracks preserved on an official Grateful Dead album, up there with “Live/Dead”‘Dark Star’ and Europ ’72’s ‘Morning Dew.’ Skull & Roses sounds as fresh today as the first time I heard it in 1985, and as fresh as it was upon its spectacularly well-received release in 1971.”
Not only did “Skull & Roses” serve up supremely fine tunes, it was also the one that scored the Grateful Dead their very first Gold record, introduced the world to the iconic skeleton babe Bertha, and asked the questions – Who are you? Where are you? How are you? – giving birth to the first official generation of Dead Heads.
“Kicking off Skull & Roses, “Bertha” is the first official recording of a Garcia-Hunter song since the remarkably strong batch of 1970’s double bill of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and it certainly keeps up the A-level song writing from the previous year’s magnificent output,” Lemieux writes. “Bertha remained an important part of the Dead’s live repertoire, played consistently from 1971 to 1995, a testament to both how much the band loved playing it, and how much Dead Heads loved hearing it.”
As Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux notes in the video description, this cut of “Bertha” opens up the Skull & Rosesdouble live LP. With the newly-remastered audio taken from the original tapes, Jerry Garcia‘s vocals come in as a crisp beacon of light, welcoming fans into the proceeding collection of choice live cuts taken from various gigs in 1971.
Dead Heads, old and new, get ready to reunite on June 25th with the release of GRATEFUL DEAD Skull & Roses: EXPANDED EDITION. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the 2CD set will feature the album’s original 11 tracks, newly remastered from the stereo analogue master tapes by Grammy® Award winning engineer David Glasser using Plangent Process Speed Correction. We’re topping it off with more than an hour of previously unreleased live recordings taken from the much-requested July 2nd, 1971 performance at the Fillmore West, the band’s final performance at the historic San Francisco venue. Standouts include the 17-minute Pigpen spectacular “Good Lovin’,” an achingly beautiful take on Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home,” and a spell-binding version of “The Other One” that rivals the one captured on the original Side 2.
Looking for something more byte-sized? The GRATEFUL DEAD (SKULL & ROSES): EXPANDED EDITION and the original edition will also be available for HD digital download in FLAC and ALAC, exclusively at Dead.net, on release day.
‘Milk’,the first release by singer songwriter Jinnwoo his first in five years, carries the abandoned fairground sinisterness of Alice-era Tom Waits and the guttural voice of the Tallest Man on Earth, without truly sounding like either artist, such is its singularity. Jinnwoo, the alias of the Leicester-born artist Ben Webb, is preoccupied with nostalgia and his latest track explores this fascination, as he explains: “I obsess over photographs or old letters, or emails. It’s glorious and unhealthy. This song is about that. About how a part of us wants to sit and dwell, and we feed that part of us with photos or old songs.“
“Glorious and unhealthy”characterises the opposing feelings within ‘Milk’. On one hand, there is something strangely comforting about this song, but on the other, a sense of disquiet and foreboding abounds, resulting in a curious, intoxicating listening experience.
The new single ‘Milk’ by Jinnwoo. Released April 16th 2021 via Square Leg Records. Written and performed by Jinnwoo.
“I didn’t care for the sound he got on tape or the performance much either,” said Tom Verlaine, dismissing Brian Eno’s attempt to record the quintessential New York loft act’s first LP. Five tracks were recorded at Good Vibrations studio before Verlaine pulled the plug on a putative Island album and his schoolmate, bassist and musical co-conspirator Richard Hell. “Double Exposure” shows why; Verlaine, second guitarist Richard Lloyd and drummer Billy Ficca are moving towards the chiselled arches of 1977’s Marquee Moon, while Hell plunks agriculturally behind them. Told before the session that none of his songs (“Blank Generation” included) would be recorded, Hell knew the end was nigh when Verlaine told him to stop jumping around on stage. (“He didn’t want people to be distracted,” Hell later recalled.)
In late 1973 the trio formed, calling themselves Television and soon recruiting Richard Lloyd as a second guitarist. They persuaded CBGB’s owner Hilly Kristal to give the band a regular gig at his club which had just opened on the Bowery in New York. Television was the first rock group to perform at the club, which was to become, along with Max’sKansas City, the center of the burgeoning punk scene. The members of Television reportedly constructed the first stage at CBGB’s, where they quickly established a significant cult following.
“Double Exposure’s” never-to-be-released title track and a live version of the 13th Floor Elevators’ “Fire Engine” show the jazzbo-garage vision that Television abandoned along with Hell; early versions of “Venus” and “Prove It” signpost their future as Quicksilver Messenger Service but with better hair.
This is two demo recording sessions from Television years 1974 & 1975. The bands highly acclaimed debut album ‘Marquee Moon’ was released in 1977 (Elektra Records) and was very successful in Europe however failed to enter the Billboard 200 in the USA. Both sessions were included on the bootleg ‘Double Exposure’ which surfaced in Italy (No Label No. DE-92-SC), and was first released in 1992. The original bootleg included three live tracks from CBGB’s in 1975, that are missing from this version.
The Television 1974 demos were recorded at Good Vibrations Studios in NYC with Richard Hell on bass, and produced by Brian Eno and Richard Williams of Island Records.
The August 1975 demos were recorded with Fred Smith on bass and were part of the session for Terry Ork of Ork Records which produced Television’s first single “Little Johnny Jewel” (Ork, 1975, included on expanded re-issue of Marquee Moon).
It is fascinating listening to the early versions of these songs that eventually appeared on ‘Marquee Moon’. Each session and versions are distinctly different the second having a ‘harder edge’ to them and closer to the final released editions.
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The Fat Angel Sings 