COSMIC LAKE
Having finished tour with Ringo Starr, Greg Lake immersed himself in a couple of projects, some taking in something new, the others not so new. The latter – i.e. Lake’s classic songs both as a solo performer and a member of KING CRIMSON and ELP – sees Greg re-record the material in 5.1 Dolby surround sound format, while the former means the artist is tuning up not only for a collection of Christmas songs (why not compete with Keith Emerson, really?) but also for bringing forth a 10-minute symphonic suite to be used in conjunction with the upcoming Team Encounter space launch. The piece, encapsulated, will be rocketed in space then.
AN OCTOPUS’ GARDENER
Ringo Starr‘s next album is said to be out in March, and there’s one detail of it leaked out. Mr. Starkey has co-written with Eric Clapton and recorded a special song dedicated to their dear friend, late George Harrison. The song also features a famous morbid man, Roger Waters.
COLD OF THE MOMENT
Usually, the site doesn’t report on concerts yet special kind of events make it to these web pages once in while. And here’s one of those shows, a low-key at the first glance but of importance due to rumours that are bound to ensue: John Wetton and Geoff Downes will perform a one-off concert at London’s “Mean Fiddler” club on December 21st, accompanied by Wetton’s long-time sidekicks John Mitchell on guitar and Steve Christie on drums. Not talking to each other since ASIA’s 1999’s failed reunion, the former writing partners played together on July 20th-21st at the John Wetton Fan Convention, and now, seemingly in peace, are back in the action. Hopefully, Carl Palmer won’t drop by, for the peace is a fragile thing.
H TO HE, WHO AM BACH
J. S. Bach’s music has always been considered as an art of the highest order, whilst music that VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR brought to the world suggests some disorder, to say the least. So one may wonder why the band’s keyboard player, Hugh Banton, took to recording Bach’s “The Goldberg Variations” that’s out as an album now. A sort of explanation comes with the classic piece story…
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was one of Bach’s pupils who served as a harpsichord player for the Russian ambassador at the court of Dresden. The boss had insomnia and would call up his pet musician to ease his suffering, and that’s when Goldberg asked the great master to help him out with cheering up the Count. Bach came up with the variations.
Now there’s something clicking, ain’t it? And what Hugh played on organ looks like this:
1. Aria
2-30. Variations
31. Aria
ONCE SNAKE-BITTEN
The future of THE COMPANY OF SNAKES is uncertain: the band don’t break up but are put on hold. Lacking a record company support during the last year which saw the release of link id=’192′ text='”Burst The Bubble”‘ anchor=’snakes’], and getting busy in the projects of their own,
Bernie Marsden, Mickey Moody and Neil Murray decided not to plan anything for at least until the next summer, though there’s a talk of a possible DVD release.
LIKE A WILD HURRICANE
“Machine Head” is undoubtedly the most popular album ever recorded by DEEP PURPLE, and now it underwent the DVD treatment. Not that it’s a regular DVD-Audio thang but rather a documentary of how the 1972’s classic LP came about, this “we all came out to Montreux” story.
The story’s told with a full participance of all five DP Mk 2 members who, in separate interviews, reveal how it was being done and demonstrate their immortal riffs and licks. Most surprisingly though is that Ritchie Blackmore didn’t refuse to delve into his past and took an acoustic guitar to show it all, while producer Martin Birch and Roger Glover went into the original multitrack tapes for the best analysis.
Except of the featured songs from the album as well as “When A Blind Man Cries” and “Black Night,” the DVD has extra material that didn’t make it to the TV edition, including live footage from 1973’s show at Hofstra University NY. A must.
