Captain Beefheart Up Sifter

Drumming with the Magic Band

2010-09-06T18:32:00.002Z

Michael Traylor, who shared the drum stool with John French during the recent Magic Band reunion tours, is featured in the latest issue of the US-based Classic Drummer Magazine.

In an article entitled Artistic Adventurer Michael discusses the contrasting sytles of playing Beefheart Music with the Magic Band and playing with pop/rocker Tommy Tutone.

Check the Classic Drummer website for more about the magazine

Gary Lucas at LSO St Lukes

2010-09-01T18:17:00.004Z

Friday 17 September 7.30pm

Transcender: Najma Akhtar & Gary Lucas + Parvathy Baul

Tickets £15/20

Produced by the Barbican

Concert at LSO St Luke's, 161 Old Street London EC1V 9NG

Two very different, but equally transporting, takes on Indian vocal traditions. Najma Akhtar’s music-making springs from a love affair with the Ghazal tradition of South Asian mystical poetry: here she teams up with legendary rock and blues guitarist Gary Lucas. Parvathy Baul is a young performer of ancient and hypnotic Baul songs.

Akhtar has been at the forefront of the World Music scene for the last two decades. Born and raised in England she has nonetheless remained rooted in the music of India, her ancestral home. Her first (1987) recording with Triple Earth, Qareeb, was a groundbreaking fusion of jazz and Indian Ghazals based on Urdu poems. She has gone on to prove herself as an extraordinarily versatile artist, using modern jazz influences with Indian vocals to create a haunting fusion of eastern and western styles. Her current collaboration with guitarist Gary Lucas is a thrilling example. Grammy-nominated songwriter and composer Lucas has more than 20 acclaimed solo albums to date, and is a soundtrack composer for film and television. Cited as one of the ‘100 Greatest Living Guitarists’ in Classic Rock magazine, his 2009 collaboration with Indian vocalist Najma Akhtar, Rishte, was a major hit in World Music charts. Lucas also co-leads Fast 'N' Bulbous, devoted to the music of rock visionary Captain Beefheart, in whose band Lucas first put himself on the musical map.

MESSin' with Drumbo

2010-08-30T14:30:00.003Z

Film curator, writer and lecturer, Gerry Fialka, is interviewing John French as part of his ongoing series of MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) interviews:

Echo Park Film Center

1200 N Alvarado St. (at Sunset Blvd.)

Los Angeles

Saturday 9 October 2010, starts 7pm

tickets: $5

The evening begins with a showing of the Crows Milk documentary about the Magic Band reunion. At 8pm Gerry will be talking to John French. This will be followed by the showing of the film of the 2003 Shepherds Bush show plus some of John's home movies of Don.

John will also be signing copies of his book.

Sounds like a ridiculously cheap evening's entertainment if you're in the area!

Let go flocks of them...

2010-08-29T15:13:00.003Z

Here a some golden birdies, bits, bobs and doodads for your delectation:

Moris Tepper has a new CD out called A Singer Called Shotgun Throat, a title suggested by Don apparently. Full details can be found on Moris's website - http://www.candlebone.com/pages/musicnews.shtml

For those manic collectors out there I've been trying to document all the Beefheart titles available as flexi discs. These are strange releases emanating from Russia and Poland. Check out what I've found so far on this Russian flexi discs page. If you've got others please let me know.

YouTube continues to be a great source for hearing attempts at Beefheart covers. Here's a selection of some I've come across just recently:

British folk guitarist Andy Roberts has put up two versions of Grow Fins:

plus he makes a valiant attempt at Big Eyed Beans From Venus on the ruan (a Chinese lute!), which has got to be one of the oddest instruments used for any Beefheart cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stTtCNn8h_I

Joe Mink has covered One Red Rose That I Mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxfTxu8fZrA

Martyslartibartfast has posted a dirty garage cover of Plastic Factory with a wonderful Three Stooges film accompaniment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc17FSx2zBw

And there's a falsetto version of Ain't No Santa Claus On The Evenin Stage if you can stomach such a thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46zl0bXNKI

Grant O'Neill has published a couple more entertaining articles about his friendship with Don during the sixties:

He's also written some pieces about Zappa too if you're interested:

Another sculpture by Agostinho Rodrigues - a family of penguins - has come to light. And the person who told me about it was also able to supply a few more background details about this mystery man. Take a look at my updated Don Vliet and Agostinho Rodrigues article

Captain Beefheart Symposium: 10 September

2010-08-22T09:18:00.004Z

Here's a treat if you can make it to:

The Magic Room Gallery

155 North Beacon Street,

Brighton, Massachusetts 02135

on Friday 10 September 2010 - 8pm until 11.30pm

tickets: $20

Gary Lucas will be presenting a Captain Beefheart Symposium where he will will give a lecture and musical demonstration devoted to his mentor and childhood hero Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart.

This will involve Gary showing rare video footage of the man and the band, delve into his complex artistic oeuvre as both a composer -- by performing some of his fiendishly difficult solo guitar compositions live -- and as a painter by showing slides of his formidable paintings and drawings.

Update (29 August):

In case you haven't seen it but Gary has added a comment to this post to say that he's reprising this symposium:

Monday 13 September - 7pm until 9pm

at The Stone, corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street on Manhattan's lower east side

tickets: $30

If you are lucky enough to get along to either of these events please send us a report.

Twenty Fifth Century Quaker meets The Spotlight Kid

2010-08-10T18:00:00.003Z

Some interesting articles have been appearing on the Associated Content website under the byline of Grant O'Neill.

Grant is a pseudonym for a guy from Lancaster who knew Don and many of the Magic Band back in the sixties. I spoke to him a few years ago and part of that interview was printed in the 'Steal Softly Thru Snow' fanzine. Just recently he told me that he wants to "discuss the Don most people haven't met" ... and that's what he's doing in these vignettes.

It's fascinating stuff ... with more on the way ... so check out these pieces:-

The Amazing Vanishing Spotlight Kid

The Spotlight Kid Revisited: Two Decades with Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart: Here I Am I Always Am -- or Maybe Not

Captain Beefheart: Live from Carolside

This train with grey tubes

2010-05-02T14:53:00.003Z

A marvellous animation to accompany the song Bat Chain Puller has appeared on YouTube. It's been created by Geritsel about whom I know nothing.

Find the video here

Thanks to the ever vigilant Derek for the heads up on this.

John Drumbo French interviewed for new Tom Waits DVD

2010-04-24T19:25:00.000Z

A new Tom Waits documentary DVD "Under The Influence" features interviews with John French (Magic Band drummer, arranger, latter-day front man and biographer). Produced by Chrome Dreams (who also made Captain Beefheart Under Review a few years back) the DVD dissects Waits' varied influences and I think we can guess why Captain Beefheart's right hand man was enlisted to help tell part of the story.

Intriguingly there is an extra short on the DVD called "John French Spills The Beans" - perhaps just an extended interview. If you have any more info please do let me know or post it below.

"Beginners Guide to Captain Beefheart" radio show

2010-04-13T08:24:00.000Z

DJ ShinyBeast at PhonicFM will be broadcasting a two hour Beefheart special on Tuesday 27 April 2010 between 8 am 10 pm BST. Tune in at the PhonicFM website. Thanks to Gordon for the tip-off.

New John French interview

2010-03-28T17:24:00.001Z

Stephen Toman has just got in touch to alert me to his recent John "Drumbo" French interview which has just been published online. Don't miss it: lots of John's thoughts about the Magic Band, the book, the reunion and far beyond. Many thanks, Stephan.

John French's book, Beefheart Through The Eyes Of Magic is available now from Amazon and elsewhere, don't forget to buy your copy.

Change of address for Up Sifter Beefheart blog

2010-03-14T15:08:00.004Z

Due to some small changes at Blogger, we've had to change the address of our blog. It's now available at:

http://blog.beefheart.com/ or http://upsifter.blogspot.com/ (both point to the same blog)
via an RSS feed
on Twitter @CaptBeefheart

If you're reading this you've already found our slightly new location but please do take a moment to update bookmarks and links if necessary. Thanks.

At the time of writing none of your comments are appearing on the blog but I hope to have them all back again presently.

Our Twitter feed @CaptBeefheart contains all the posts to this blog and occasional other morsels as well. You also welcome to follow my personal Twitter feed @prawntot for random interludes of something or other.

My skin's blazing through

2010-03-24T11:37:00.000Z

I had a message from Claire from Brooklyn yesterday:

A few months ago I was getting tattooed by Myles Karr at Three Kings Tattoo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I asked him what his specialty was. "Anything weird." he said.

"Oh, so like, the cover of Captain Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica'?" I asked, referencing the first "weird" thing that came to mind.

His eyes widened. "YES. Anywhere you want it, as big as you want it."

In his excitement he quoted me a ridiculously cheap price. I couldn't really pass up such an offer from one of Brooklyn's finest tattooers.... So now I'm wearing my very own Replica of Trout Mask Replica.

Not many of us outside of the Magic Band have suffered quite so much for Don's art!

Thanks Claire.

Herb Cohen dies

2010-03-21T10:50:00.002Z

Beefheart's one-time manager, Herb Cohen, has died aged 77. Cohen was a larger than life character, a hard nosed businessman who seemed to have a penchant for obscure talent. Not only did he have Don on his roster but he also managed Zappa, Tim Buckley, the GTOs, Wild Man Fischer and Tom Waits.

Unfortunately his relationship with Zappa soured and they fell out in 1976 amidst a nasty legal wrangle which left Cohen with the rights to many of the albums released on the Straight label. None of these albums have had a decent release on CD ... Lick My Decals Off Baby still awaits a proper remastering and CD issue.

A detailed obituary can be found here - Frank Zappa's manager: A smile on his lips, and a pistol under the bar

One-off concert featuring John Drumbo French in Ventura, California

2010-03-18T21:10:00.009Z

Henry Kaiser kindly sent us the following info today:

Groove Family Fundraiser for Breast Cancer presents
Robben Ford & Renegade Creation
Ultraviolet Licorice (featuring Bob Bralove, Henry Kaiser, John French (aka Drumbo), Dan Schwartz)
Steve White and the Barstool Pidgeons & Jonathan McCuen
Saturday April 17
at the majestic Ventura Theater
26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura, CA 93001 • 805-653-6489
Doors open at 7:00 • Show starts at 8:00 General Admission: $25.00

Many thanks to Henry for the tip-off. Henry says the current plan is for Ultraviolet Licorice to play for 90 minutes as the third of three acts.

If you attend, please feel free to post a review here as a comment.

Commemorative box set

2010-03-12T14:03:00.002Z

For all you collectors out there here's a nice box set based around Freddy Bannister's book. Freddy promoted many of Beefheart's early 70's tours as well as organising the famous Knebworth festivals.

Apart from the book there's some great Beefheart photographs, facsimilies of festival programmes and flyers ... plus extra special bonuses of some prime Beefheart concerts.

Find out more

Don takes a dive

2010-02-24T20:03:00.003Z

Don walked/fell off the stage during the band's performance at the Mt Tamalpais Fantasy Fair and Mountain Music Festival in 1967. This was supposed to have been a warm up for an appearance at the Monterey Festival but Don's acid induced dive caused Ry Cooder to quit the band and their big opportunity to make a name for themselves was missed.

Now, amazingly, some hitherto unknown photographs of the band's (short) appearance have surfaced on YouTube. Sadly, Don's dive isn't captured in any of the shots, but they're worth a look anyway.

Check them out here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kl6cCp_eWc

(Thanks to Louis for the heads up on this.)

Update 12/03/2010: I've written a short piece about the Mt Tamalpais incident for those who haven't heard the story before - read it here

Beefheart Through The Eyes Of Magic in UK press

2010-01-10T11:51:00.003Z

I've just got my copy of John French's beautiful massive tome and have been keenly devouring it in every spare moment. It's also had some favourable coverage in the UK press this morning.

Life Under Captain Beefheart's Regime appears in The Times and makes the book sound as fascinating and revelatory as it appears to be from what I've read so far.

If you spot any other interesting reviews or articles related the book please post links to them below.

Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic goes on sale tomorrow.

Blood-drenched rock stars run amok at the Vliet place: Captain Beefheart's celebrity gate-crashers bring gift of beetle bones

2009-12-29T12:11:00.005Z

While we at The Radar Station are waiting to get our hands on a finished copy of John French's long-awaited book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes of Magic, published on January 11th, I have assembled some Beefheart-related news items and trivia which we didn't get round to mentioning in 2009.

Captain Beefheart's final album, Hoboism

Head of No. 6 Records Terry Tolkin recollected Captain Beefheart and Bob Krasnow in an interview with Warped Reality Magazine. Talking of gaps in the No.6 catalogue Tolkin said:

The last one was a Captain Beefheart EP called Hoboism, a fantastic track left over from the Bat Chain Puller sessions. I had become quite friendly with Don Van Vliet through my years at Rough Trade and then especially Elektra. Elektra's CEO was Bob Krasnow, the last of the great 1960's A&R guys to run a major label........I went out to Don's house in Eureka, California. Kras had produced Beefheart’s Safe As Milk LP and then signed him to WB. Things somehow turned acrimonious after that and they hadn't spoken in 15 years. I had persuaded Don to let me back up a mobile studio onto his front lawn and we were going to record a LP of old blues songs. I had flown out there to meet him face-to-face for the first time and kinda seal the deal. Well, instead of coming together over the next three days, it mostly fell apart. Don used his wife, Jan, to say that they didn't want Hoboism to be the last word on his career and that they couldn't find anyone they like to play on the blues album.

Bob Krasnow's memories of working with Captain Beefheart on Safe As Milk, can also be found at Warped Reality's interview with Terry Tolkin.

Don Van Vliet in Chelsea

Four small works by Don Van Vliet are showing at Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea until January 23rd. Part of a group exhibition entitled Jr. and Son’s, Don's creations hang next to the work of S. Clay Wilson and are pictured in situ here at the Zach Feuer Gallery website.

Zach Feuer Gallery, 530 W. 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel: +1 212 989 7700 info@zachfeuer.com www.zachfeuer.com
Exhibition dates: December 12, 2009 – January 23, 2010
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10-6

Blood-drenched rock stars run amok at the Vliet place

Captain Beefheart's celebrity gate-crashers bring gift of beetle bones

It would be hard to find two rock stars who are more fixated on Captain Beefheart than Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Jack White of The White Stripes.

Both groups have recorded Beefheart songs and continue to play them live. Jack White dressed up as Captain Beefheart on the photo shoot for Get Behind Me Satan and in interviews Alison Mosshart regularly expresses her yearnings to be with Don Van Vliet.

There’s one musician who’s alive but isn’t working anymore that I would do anything to do something with – and that would be Don Van Vliet from Captain Beefheart. And I think it would be surprising just because he doesn’t do music anymore (laughs). That’s my favorite band, you know… yeah, I’d like to just be in the same room as that man. - Alison Mosshart in Sunfiltered, July 2009

Alison Mosshart has even become the latest celebrity collector of paintings by Don Van Vliet, one of which is the showcase piece of her art collection, though Mosshart clarifies: I collect for the money. - Alison Mosshart in Black Book, June 2009

So when Alison and Jack got together this year to record a video to promote Dead Weather, their joint project, it was hardly surprising that they decided to visit Don Van Vliet's old stamping ground of Lancaster, California.

Having just pumped each other full of bullet holes, Dead Weather cohorts Jack White and Alison Mosshart decided to relax with a visit to the childhood home of their shared musical hero, Captain Beefheart.

"We were covered in blood," Mosshart says fondly of the July pilgrimage. "Fake blood from head to toe, with 70 bullet holes through us. You know, we were just totally gross. We showed up at his house and left a bunch of beetle shells — dead beetles we'd found in the desert — and some burned sticks under his tree. It just seemed appropriate!"

Mosshart says the family now living in the Lancaster, Calif., house had never heard of the eccentric musical genius who had spent years there listening to R&B singles with schoolmate Frank Zappa.

"A bunch of dudes with no shirts came out of the house, and they had no idea who he was. And because we were all covered in blood and we had the film crew with us, all these kids were coming out of their houses and were like, 'Is this an episode of Cops?'"

from: Death becomes them: Alison Mosshart and Jack White kill some time with the Dead Weather by Bill Forman in The Colorado Springs Independent, 13 August 2009

New Rockette Morton album

Described as incorporating Jazz, Swing, Blues, Rock and Country in a very unique instrumental collection from two very unique individuals, Bret Short and Rockette Morton, Short n Morton is available at cdbaby.

Gary Lucas

The high point of Gary Lucas' year for me was his collaboration with Najma Akhtar and their winning combination of rock, blues and raga on the album Rishte. You can listen to tracks and samples from Rishte at MySpace and World Village.

And Beefheart saved Craig & other writings

The 12-year old anti-hero of Josh Lieb's new book for young adults is a Captain Beefheart fan.

I point to my beloved Captain Beefheart, a musician so brilliant, so evil, he drove his own band insane. He would not let let them eat. He would not let them sleep. He would not let them leave his house. He made them wear dresses (and they were not girls). He stripped them of their very names and subjected them to hours and hours of abusive group therapy session. When a dejected and desperate member of the band managed to escape the Captain's clutches, Beefheart snatched him off the street and dragged him back to the practice studio. It was cruel. Assuredly. Inhumane. Undoubtedly. Evil. Disgustingly so. And yet I defy you, today, to listen to Trout Mask Replica and say it was not worth it.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be your Class President by 'Daily Show' Executive Producer Josh Lieb has its own webpage at Sheldrake Industries.

The Downbeat 75th Anniversary Anthology: The Great Jazz Interviews includes an interview with Don Van Vliet. The book is reviewed at All About Jazz.

John French's Limb Independence by W. C. Bamberger is an essay which appears at online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever.

And Beefheart saved Craig by Jefferson Hansen is a book with an eye-catching title. The author tells me that it concerns a couple of teenage boys who are Beefheart fans in the 70's. Amazon review here.

A familiar face in the cosmic matter?

The other day, I was grinding and polishing a stony meteorite (as one does), and after polishing, there, leering out from the polished surface, was the captains face. I know this sounds rather like those names of Allah found in aubergines and such, but I'll get a friend to photo this and send you the image in case you might want to put it on your site - it really is quite astonishing

The image is best viewed small on the screen, about 10 cm x 10 cm, otherwise the detail obscures the image. The meteorite is a piece of one called NWA869.

Thanks to George Wake for sending this in.

An assortment of musical homage

Skeletonbreath - the band at MySpace.

Invincible Czars perform Upon the My-O-My at YouTube.

Ty Segal performs Dropout Boogie at YouTube. Album review of Lemons at Pitchfork.

Snow Patrol include a reworked Observatory Crest in their Late Night Tales compilation. The version Snow Patrol have chosen is not the original Bluejeans and Moonbeams cut but the A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond version which is prefaced by Eric Drew Feldman's intro to Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee. Odd.

Bob Dylan's album Theme Time Radio Hour, Season 2 on Ace Records includes Ice Cream For Crow

Cracker give a guest shot on their album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey to Patterson Hood from the Drive-by Truckers. On Friends Hood and David Lowery name check Captain Beefheart. See the video on YouTube here.

Now when you're on a date and you finally bring that girl home,
Put some Captain Beefheart on the stereo and you disconnect the phone
I'll show up drunk and raving, and then I'll pass out on the floor
Cause that's the kind of friend that you've got.

and finally........

According to The Guardian, The Jockey Club's chief executive, Simon Bazalgette was recently interviewed in the racecard at Cheltenham. Bazalgette said that his four ideal dinner guests would be "Richard Feynman, Vaseley (sic) Kandinsky, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Captain Beefheart."

Cal Schenkel is offering beautiful archival quality Giclée Prints of his acrylic on paper study of the Trout Mask Replica album cover artwork, 2009, hand-signed. 13x13in Personalized at no extra charge--specify inscription when ordering. See ralf.com

Old Skool Hooligans have a selection of Captain Beefheart t-shirts for sale.

Be quick if you want to see the video of Captain Beefheart's telephoned contribution to American Bandstand in June 1966 at YouTube. You can also read the story of Captain Beefheart's first TV broadcasts at Captain Beefheart Up Sifter

Impatient souls can whet their appetites for the revelations of John French's book at Proper Records website where there are twelve pages of extracts and photographs.

Our news-editor Derek follows his yellow brick road

2010-01-10T12:15:00.007Z

I'd like to offer a sincere big thank you to Derek, our erstwhile news editor, for all his help and close attention to detail over the last few years.

He's conducted an impressive Big Dig through anything with even a faint whiff of Beefheart about it and brought us some really interesting and illuminating stories. Who could forget Derek's interview with Herb Bermann; a character so mysterious in the Beefheart universe that many have even posited he didn't exist. Derek tracked him down, interviewed him and delivered the results to you here at beefheart.com

I'm sure Derek will still pop up here occasionally in the future with a few scrupulously chased tid-bits of Beefheart trivia / import but in the main I'm going to resume news-editor duties due to competing claims on Derek's time.

Thanks Derek, you've kept thinks moving on here at beefheart.com so beautifully. I'm sure our regular and occasional readers will miss your contributions greatly and I'm very grateful for all of your efforts.

John French book reviewed

2009-12-27T13:07:00.002Z

Due to be published on 11 January 2010 here is the first review of John's book Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic.

No secrets are given away in this review so feel free to read it without it spoiling your enjoyment of the book.

Read the review here

The Magic Band at Minehead

2009-12-15T19:50:00.002Z

These photographs show The Magic Band playing at 'Ten Years of ATP', a music festival in Minehead, on Sunday 13th December. Click on the images to enlarge them.

In the annotated set list keen followers of The Magic Band will spot some interesting differences between this concert and previous appearances.

The Magic Band MySpace page contains lots of interesting information including brief biographies of new members Eric Klerks and Craig Bunch and some notes which John French wrote about recent Magic Band rehearsals.

Samples from a recording of a previous Magic Band show, one of three scheduled to be released in February on Vinyl, CD, and mP3 downloads can also be heard there.

We hope to bring you news of more Magic Band activity in 2010.

Thanks to Louis Mills for his photographs and invaluable help.

Update 26 December: John French has posted his recollections of Minehead at The Magic Band MySpace page and a short review of The Magic Band set has appeared at Drowned in Sound

Greg Ladanyi

2009-12-11T19:24:00.005Z

Grammy Award winning producer, engineer and mixer Greg Ladanyi died in a fall from a stage in Cyprus in September. He was 57. His first job as an engineer was with Captain Beefheart.

In 2005 Greg Ladanyi described working with Captain Beefheart on Bluejeans and Moonbeams.

It was the most bizarre, twisted experience for me. This was before I was an engineer and before I went to the Sound Factory. I was the business side of Stronghold Studios, and my partner, Al Thomas, owned the studio. I found the job, brought them in, and they paid us $5,000 for studio time. We spent the money in two days paying our bills. But there was a clash with Al and the producer, and they wanted their money back. There was no way, but we didn't say that. I just said [to producer Andy DiMartino], "I'll do this." I had this personality that was effective that way. So I was on the phone with Al every 20 minutes. "How do I patch this thing in?" I knew what things were and I had live mixing experience, but never in a studio. And it was weird because Beefheart was out of his mind. He was trippin', the band was trippin', and I was only 21 years old. We were there all night and they were doing this stuff that all sounded like spaghetti to me. But I loved the feeling of being in the studio. Oh, that was amazing. So I had a pretty big crash course in personalities, the studio, delivering, and that was when I got the job at the Sound Factory as a second engineer.

Interview with Greg Ladanyi at Sony Creative Software
Greg Ladanyi memoriam at Studio Expresso

Messin' with the Kid

2009-11-29T15:08:00.002Z

I have great respect for anyone who attempts to cover any of Beefheart's songs.

So what do you say when someone decides to cover a whole Beefheart album!

Well, that's just what Benjamin Horrendous has done. Singlehandedly, he's (in his own words) 'messed' with each song from The Spotlight Kid to come up with his own vision of this great album.

Find out more about it here

Through The Eyes Of Magic - finally!

2009-11-16T19:32:00.003Z

The following press release about the publication of John's long awaited book has just come to our notice:-

John “ Drumbo” French

Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic

The ultimate book about Captain Beefheart written by the man who spent more time with him than most.

Published in hardback

880 pages, including 16 pages of amazing photographs, many published for the first time.

Includes reminiscences from key members of The Magic Band and The Mothers Of Invention.

Cover price £19.95.

Out 11 January 2010

Few names carry such formidable mystique and rabid cult status as Captain Beefheart, who led various lineups of his Magic Band to make some of the

most startling, ground-breaking albums of the last century. In 1982, he

retired to concentrate on painting, leaving the mythology he’d stoked

himself to grow untamed over the years.

John French is better qualified than anyone to talk about Beefheart, joining

the Magic Band in 1966 at the age of 17 just before recording their *Safe As

Milk *debut album, finding himself plunged into a tyrannical regime which

would dominate his life for the next 14 years as he played a major role in

eight subsequent albums, including translating the mindblowing avant-blues

assault of 1969’s *Trout Mask Replica *into readable music for the Magic

Band from the Captain’s piano poundings under torturous conditions he likens

to a cult.

Spanning nearly a thousand pages, French’s remarkable memoir starts with a vivid description of the rarely-documented early 60s Lancaster garage-rock scene which also spawned names like Ry Cooder and Beefheart’s childhood friend and later nemesis Frank Zappa, whose appearances in the book will enthrall his own legion of fans. As his spellbinding, often shocking tale unwinds, he encounters names including jazz giant Ornette Coleman, Jim Morrison and Paul McCartney, writing with dry, sometimes surreal humour and disarming honesty about his old boss and even himself, occasionally bringing in his old Magic Band comrades to jog his memory. The book is packed with new revelations, many previously-unseen photos and enough anecdotes to keep the Beefheart faithful ruminating for years, French finally crystallising and bringing to life over 40 years of legend and speculation in what has to be the ultimate book on the mercurial genius of Captain Beefheart.

---------------------------------

Also check out John's blog for some more tantalising extracts:-

www.myspace.com/drumbojohnfrench

The Magic Band - more concerts and albums planned

2009-08-13T13:13:00.002Z

John French has confirmed that The Magic Band will perform at All Tomorrows Parties' Ten Years Of ATP Festival in December. In mails to us this week he has given some details of the line-up and the expected content of the set. John has also confirmed that more live shows are being planned and that several albums of live recordings from the 2005 tours will be released in various formats. This is what John wrote:

About 6 weeks ago, Barry Hogan unexpectedly sent me an email inviting The Magic Band to play at their tenth anniversary Festival.

I was very happy to accept on behalf of the group. We decided to stick with drummer Michael Traylor and to replace Gary, who was booked in Eastern Europe during this period, with one of the guitarists from my Drumbo band, Eric Klerks. Eric is a fantastic player, in his twenties. He employs metal finger picks and also plays slide. He spent a lot of time in New Orleans and came to Southern California to finish his music education at Cal Arts.

Eric seemed like a perfect fit to me for inclusion into the lineup, and he is a man well-acquainted with Beefheart music, so should do a fantastic job. I am VERY excited about this. Other dates are pending, but we wanted to get confirmation on this event first, which just happened.

I’m planning on playing sax to at least one composition: Hair Pie. Back in 2005, I bought a student sax, which I barely had a chance to play until probably a year later. I spent about a half-hour a day going through children’s music books and reading simple basic songs to re-acquaint myself with the fingering ( I used to play flute, so the fingering is similar) and then started improvising to my own music on “City of Refuge.”

I am approaching Hair Pie with two concepts: One is the instinctual — whereas I hear ideas that work and sort of “learn” them by playing along with the sections of the piece. The other is the analytical — where I actually analyze the chord structure and tone center so that rather than just blurring the entire piece in a frenzy of notes, I can switch gears with the song and compliment the music. I have listened to the first results and am excited, because it adds a completely new flavor to the music. Probably my biggest dream in life has been to play the soprano — right after being introduced to John Coltrane by Van Vliet. Jeff Cotton and I bought Don his first soprano — a King saxophone — from Wallich’s Music City ( long gone ) in Hollywood — with our studio fees from “Strictly Personal.” We went right down the street from Sunset Sound to Sunset and Vine to get drum sticks and strings. I saw the soprano sitting on a high shelf. It was used, and cost $180 as I recall. Jeff and I split the price and gave it to Don as a gift.

So, we will be updating and re-vamping our set list. Also, we are going to attempt “extending” a few pieces a bit — just to savor the delicacies that usually fly by so quickly.

Sundazed records last year put out a vinyl release of out takes from the Mirror Man Sessions. I suggested the Title “It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper” because I overheard Don suggesting that title to Bob Krasnow back while we were recording. Krasnow thought it was too long, as I recall, and so they settled for “Strictly Personal” with the same packaging concept. I was approached to write the liner notes for “Wrapper,” which was a nice, easy gig.

In 2005, I had taken along my new laptop and a couple of audio interfaces and recorded most of The Magic Band performances on about 15 tracks of digital recording using a program called “Digital Performer” by MOTU. We hired Chris Constable, a young musician who lives near me, to go over as “soundman” and “onsite recording engineer.” He was not only able to help the in-house engineer at the venues with cues, but monitored the recording. Some places do not allow releases of any recordings done without getting a fee ( these folks are known as tightwads!!!). Others simply did not have the facility to give direct lines of each channel. The tracks were made directly from the board ( or “desk” as it’s called in UK) into my audio interfaces. The hard drive sat around for four years gathering dust, and I finally, out of curiosity, decided to open up the files and see what the music sounded like. The first thing I listened to was Mirror Man, and I made a rough mix of the performance from Portsmouth ( which I recalled as being one of our best ) along with one or two others and sent them to Bob Irwin, of Sundazed. He sent me back an email saying “these sound SO good, let’s put them out.”

The deal we settled on was for me to mix three shows — my choice. Sundazed will release each show as a separate double-vinyl album, a CD, and mP3 downloads. They will all be available next February.

I worked hard on these mixes, as I’ve never actually mixed music before, but since Bob had said they “sounded great ” I plunged in with my usual fervor. With a lot of help from “Magic” Dave Roberts at MOTU, I was able to master the techniques needed. The company was very pleased with the mixes. I used a few “micro-surgery” techniques to clean up the mixes and avoid some of the “stage sound” coming through the vocal mic, which makes the tracks a lot cleaner. I had one instance where there was about 3 beats of music just missing — as though someone shut off the equipment and then turned it back on — so I just clipped a section out and put it back together at the next turnaround

To my ear, some of these mixes are probably the clearest “official” releases of the material: such as the Trout Mask Stuff. I am really excited to get this stuff heard, and it really was pleasant to re-visit these great compositions once again. Thanks to Sundazed, Beefheart enthusiasts will be able to enjoy concerts they may have attended, or perhaps wanted to attend and couldn’t. I am expecting that they will be pleased with the results. There may be the possibility of more being released if these do well.

Some tickets are still available for TEN YEARS OF ATP via the atp festival website.