Droners on Radio 3!

Yesterday was a good day for Children of the Drone. In the afternoon I got an unexpected email from BBC Radio 3 to say that one of our recordings was going to be played on their Friday night avant-garde programme Mixing It. I'd sent them a couple of compilation CD's with a cryptical 'press release' some weeks ago, but then just assumed nothing would come of it. So that'll be on Friday 3^rd February, sometime after 10:15p.m. It'll be interesting to see what they have to say about us. It was rather a strange choice of track ("Children of the Groan Tube" from Compilation no. 4), a bit of a novelty from our preparatory session for 2002's "Off the Wall" comedy festival slot at The Phoenix, featuring a couple of plastic "groan tubes" Simon brought along as "comedy instruments".

We happened to be having a long-overdue session at Oblique House in the evening, and there was quite a large number of us - so I was able to pass on this good news. The enthusiasm this generated, together with the presence of Simon (who hasn't Droned with us for a while) making weird electronic noises with his laptop and peripheral devices made for quite a remarkable session:


Rupert, Henry, James
Simon - laptop, electronics, 'plant-chant' device, acoustic bass guitar
Keith - acoustic bass guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion
John - tablas, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, percussion, low whistle
James T - poetry, keyboard, percussion
Rupert - percussion
Henry - percussion
Melski - xylophone, percussion, vocals, readings
Red Cabbage - weird red cabbage noises
me - saz, balalaika, percussion, readings


Simon with laptop
I read from the local Express & Echo classified ads (I managed to find a signed, framed photo of Brian May for £30 o.n.o.!), Melski read from the 'lonely hearts' section, as well as reading and singing from the Penguin Book of English Madrigals ("Adieu Sweet Amaryllis", etc.) The newspaper had actually been brought into the room to soak up a spilled mug of tea; the madrigals book just happened to be lying around. Simon used some recordings of "numbers stations" found on the Internet Audio Archive at one point. John had his new tablas - sounding great, and Rupert brought along a wonderful percussive device (a "tone bar"?) which Henry immediately became enamoured by.


red cabbage - the most psychedelic of vegetables
The red cabbage "performed" via Simon's 'plant-chant' device. It'd been sitting in the fridge, neglected for well over a week, so that was a good chance to give it an airing...

A very fresh, creative, uplifting, heavily percussive session. Parts of it felt quite funky in an "angular early 80's Rough Trade" kind of way (although that's not so obvious listening back through).

Listen Here

Wilson Pickett/Grateful Dead

Wilson Pickett died yesterday. Today I happened to be streaming this Grateful Dead-themed podcast, and about an hour in was treated to an astonishing, tranced-out, ninteen-minute version of "In the Midnight Hour" recorded at The Fillmore on 19/11/1966, led by Pigpen at his best, the whole band playing like a single organism as only they could. This is perhaps the most captivating embryonic-period Dead I've ever heard, and a fitting (tho' unintended) way I could pay tribute to Mr. Pickett.

   
Wilson Pickett, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
To stream this, try clicking here, launch the M3U file in Windows Media Player (or equivalent), and then skip ahead to 54:40. The rest of the Podcast contains some top-notch Warlocks and early Grateful Dead recordings.

Jefferson Airplane concert streams

early Jefferson Airplane lineup, with Signe Anderson and Skip Spence
I'm back in Exeter sorting out recordings made in Wisconsin, but meanwhile I've just discovered a fantastic collection of live Jefferson Airplane recordings, here: SugarMegs streaming audio listings (scroll down about halfway to the 'J' section - they launch automatically in Windows Media Player, if you use that).

I've started from the beginning, with the 1965-66 recordings, before Grace Slick replaced Signe Anderson. This one is of particularly good sound quality. I was rather excited to discover one tracklist (Vancouver, '66) including a cover of Dylan's "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" - I recently came across a wonderful version of this which Fairport Convention did for a BBC session in 1967 (at a time when they were seen as a kind of UK equivalent of the Airplane). Unfortunately, though, this Airplane version is rather incoherent.

And I couldn't help skipping ahead to this - a 1968 jam at San Francisco's legendary Carousel Balroom involving Jack and Jorma from the Airplane plus Jerry and Mickey from the Grateful Dead.

This collection appears to be the work of a very committed Deadhead (there are numerous Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band and related streams, plus a lot of other good stuff). This is also helpful: Jefferson Airplane Live Base (an incredibly detailed database, with setlists, personal recollections, etc. )


classic Jefferson Airplane lineup, with Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden

New Year's Day 2006

I decided to skip the usual New Year's Eve revelry, as there was no one obvious thing happening in town that night, and the idea of a quiet night in seemed rather appealing. Instead, I went out to Stef's farmhouse near Iola on New Year's Day for a memorable music session. Stef, Jimers and Gavin from Sloppy Joe, plus Sarah Ludeman (formerly of local bands The Stellectrics and Irene's Garden) and myself engaged in a pretty thrilling bluegrass/country/folk/old-time/psychedelic jam in the kitchen until late at night:

Stef - banjo, fiddle, upright bass, vocals
Jimers - upright bass, jaw harp
Gavin - banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, vocals
Sarah - percussive box, triangle, vocals
me - saz

I was able to fit in quite effectively with the saz, shifting back and forth between "rhythm" and "lead" approaches. A lot of the old American tunes we jammed around are similar in structures to Irish and Scottish ones (some almost identical) which I've thrashed out for years in pub sessions. Sarah's rhythm box was an amazing anchor for the whole thing - it was a perfect instrumentation for the kind of thing we were doing.


Sloppy Joe - Stef, Jeff, Gavin, Jimers
Stef gave me a couple of copies of their most recent CD Touched in the Head, one of which I'll send to "Whispering" Bob Harris at BBC Radio 2 (I could imagine him playing some tracks on one of his several programmes). The cover features a picture of a hilarious clothes-peg model of the band she made. She also showed me what appears to be (according to the internal labelling) an 18th century violin made by the noted luthier Mathias Tir(?) which she picked up in a junkshop in rural Austria, and is hoping might be worth a fortune...

I recorded almost everything, although tragically, a wonderful extended version of Tom Waits' "Gun Street Girl" (which Gavin initiated, sang and played banjo on) occured during the one period where the MiniDisc recorder was accidentally switched off. Never mind...
Listen Here
I had kind of lost touch with Stef for the last few years (and she's only really started playing music during that time), so that was a really positive, inspiring start to 2006.