The second part of Derek Laskie's interview with Herb Bermann, legendary writing partner of Don Van Vliet in the early days of the Magic Band is now available and is just as fascinating as part one.

At one point Herb expresses his annoyance with something written about him in Mike Barnes' biography of Don Van Vliet. I'm puzzled by his suggestion that Barnes should "do his homework" - I'd like to stress on the writer's behalf that this is clearly a very well researched biography.

Herb Bermann features only very briefly in the story which, despite his momentous contribution to one of my all time favourite albums, is probably fitting in a biography focusing on the life of Don Van Vliet. Here's what Mike Barnes has to say about the Bermann / Vliet collaboration:

One Herb Bermann was also involved in the realisation of Safe As Milk, contributing lyrics to most of the songs. Van Vliet explained his role to Conor McKnight of Zig Zag in 1973: "He was a fellow that I met up in the desert, a writer, and we collaborated on a few songs. At the time, the group I was with wouldn't listen to a thing I said... they said my songs were too far out for them. I thought that if I worked with someone they considered to be a professional writer, then they'd at least listen to it and maybe even play it."

That all seemed straightforward enough, except that Van Vliet was casting him as a shadowy, enigmatic character. "I got introduced to two or three different people who were supposed to be Herb Bermann," recalls Marker. "I would always get a different story." Van Vliet offered a number of explanations: that he was someone with whom he had collaborated on the lyrics, that he was his attorney, that as Van Vliet was in dispute with his former manager, who owned his publishing, he wanted to divert 50 per cent of the royalties to this fictitious name in case there was a problem.

Barnes then goes on to briefly summarise the actuality of Bermann's life which isn't far off what Bermann himself told to Derek. The understandably offending line about Herb conning a woman into taking up with him was a quote from an interviewee, not a comment by the author. Given the dearth of information available prior to Herb's own spilling of the beans in this interview, there wasn't much available for Barnes to counter this comment with.

I say this because I don't want this interview to give a false impression of what I consider to be a great biography - the first ever serious attempt to tell Don's story - which, like the Magic Band's recent heroic, heart-starting shows, deserves to be praised on the pages of beefheart.com, not belittled. Such is is and ain't is ain't.

But I should also express my sincere thanks to both Mr Bermann and to Derek for this fascinating insight into this even murkier than usual period of the Beefheart story. We learn now that Herb Bermann wrote some incredible words not only for Safe As Milk, but also Strictly Personal and Shiny Beast, and history needs to be amended.

I hope you enjoy the interview.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 8:52 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

A compilation CD, called The Buddah Years, has just been released based on the remastered Safe As Milk and Mirror Man Sessions albums.

The good Captain also appears on a new compilation called Creative Outlaws - U.S. Underground 62-70. An interesting collection that includes The Fugs, The Stooges, Blue Cheer, The Great Society, Country Joe & The Fish, Tim Rose, Tiny Tim, Lothar & The Hand People and amongst others. The idea of the album is that the tracks are supposed to represent the preoccupations and ideals of the 1960s counterculture. The Beefheart track included is 'Dachau Blues' - an odd selection I would have thought.

Posted by Steve Froy at 8:01 PM  - 3 comments - post a comment

Booking has just opened in Aarhus, one of the venues on The Magic Band's 2006 Scandinavian tour.

John French and Denny Walley, who are in the present line-up, were also members of The Magic Band when they toured Scandinavia in 1975 - which appears to be the last time that The Magic Band played in Scandinavia.

More venues are expected to start booking very soon. The schedule is currently as follows, although additions and alterations are always possible.

Tuesday, May 16th TV4, Sweden, live broadcast
Friday, May 19th Opera House, Umeå, Sweden
Saturday, May 20th Jazzclub Fasching, Stockholm, Sweden
Sunday, May 21st Aarhus, Denmark CANCELLED
Wednesday, May 24th Oslo, Norway CANCELLED

This information was last updated on May 8th.

Press reviews, photographs, and all sorts of information about The Magic Band's tours in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and their CD and DVD releases, can be found on our Magic Band Reformed pages.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 8:59 PM  - 3 comments - post a comment

'Wood', the first new Mystery Band CD for ten years, will be released on the Poo-Bah Record Label on March 28th. Former Magic Band member Rick Snyder has been playing with The Mystery Band since 1988.

The Mystery Band is led by the man responsible for arranging Rick Snyder's audition with Captain Beefheart, Ace Farren Ford. Rick Snyder's contemporary in The Magic Band, Moris Tepper, co-wrote one of the songs on the album, 'Jesus On The Radio', with Mystery Band member Gary Riley.

Further information and generous helpings of soundbites are available at The Mystery Band 'Wood' page

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 1:23 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

Ivor Cutler died on Friday.

He will be very much missed in this household and I'm sure many people who found something invaluable in Beefheart will also have found something invaluable in Ivor Cutler.

The following obituaries have appeared in the mainstream UK press so far:

• The Guardian
• The Guardian's Culture Vulture blog entry
• The Telegraph
• The Times
• The BBC
• Andy Kershaw's tribute - Andy's show this Sunday night will feature a classic Peel session from February 1979.

I still have some unused tickets for what would have been his last appearance here in Brighton about 4 years ago. The concert was postponed due to Ivor's poor health, and was never rescheduled. I'd never taken the tickets back in the vain hope that it just might happen one day.

The previous time he played near Brighton (at Sussex University, 4 miles outside of Brighton) around 1994, I did get to see him and he was wonderful. The audience was laughing and grinning throughout and at one point Mr Cutler was doing his best to stifle his own giggles at something particularly absurd that he was trying to recite to us - for a short while he simply could not get the words out. He was not the dour man some may imagine, he took a genuine delight in his own eccentricity and humour.

When he reached the end of the piece he said to us in a light-hearted tone, "It always amazes me that I have maintained a career out of this rubbish." There was nothing rubbish about his work which was as insightful, moving and funny as anything I've encountered.

Although I am definitely not the autograph hunting type, I wandered back into the hall after everyone had left, clutching my copy of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, to see Mr Cutler standing on the stage, packing away his harmonium. I nervously approached and asked if he would mind signing it for me. He gave me a very warm smile and agreed, asking me if I was a student at the university. Suddenly to my horror my brain melted away from the inside and I had no personality, thoughts or ability to speak left - I was literally wiped blank. I eventually managed to get out the words "No, I came here especially" and he asked me how far I'd travelled. Pause. "Errr I'm from Brighton," I stammered. "Did you walk?" he asked, still smiling. Long pause. "Errrr... no I cycled," I replied as he handed me my autograph and I thanked him and ran, terrified to the bone by this gracious, kind and genuinely friendly pensioner-poet, humiliated by my own unforeseen asininity.

I have never asked anyone for an autograph since lest my brain play the same cruel trick on me, but I do treasure my copy of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room. I feel that I earned it.

I'm going in a field
I'm going in a field
I'm going in a field to lie down

Have a good lie down, Mr Cutler, we'll miss you greatly.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 8:43 AM  - 4 comments - post a comment

Not strictly Beefheart related, but I thought I'd let you know that WFMU's fund-rasing marathon is now on and I'd urge any of you who ever enjoy WFMU to support the station and make a donation to keep them going another year.

If any of you haven't ever enjoyed WFMU then it's about time you started. It's entirely listener-supported, no advertising, no government grants and so they play exactly what they want to play - the broadest range of specialist, adventurous, odd and downright fun music available anywhere in the world.

Beefheart related items from the WFMU archive:

• The Golden Birdies comic
• 2002 Don Van Vliet birthday special and extensive interview with Gary Lucas
• Philip Johnston and Gary Lucas' Beefheart project Fast and Bulbous live in 2004

If you know of any more WFMU Beefheart specials please let me know and I'll include links here.

If you fancy something more general, you can just listen live or dive into the most recent archives to hear all WFMU programmes whenever you want. My personal favourites are:

• Downtown Soulville (outrageously funky soul)
• Greasy Kids' Stuff (especially great if you have any youngsters in your household)
• Sinner's Crossroads (gnarly raw gospel)
• Transpacific Sound Paradise (music from around the world)
• Irwin Chusid (wrote the excellent book about outsider musicians Songs In The Key Of Z which includes a chapter on Beefheart)
• Gateway To Joy (all-African on the first Friday of the month, still great the rest of the time)
• Music of Our Times (different themes from week to week, always fabulous)

There's so much more than just this though. A lot of the website looks like crap but the shows are magic. Sometimes I just can't believe my luck that something so good exists.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 6:08 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment