HW: Totally random wandering thoughts

[Henderson Keith]

Hi Folks...

These last few months, I've not had the time available
to sit and write and follow closely all the various threads
on the list.

Although, it's nice to see a series of threads with actual
discussion going on (which keeps the list being dominated
by self-promoting people, myself included, and those who
like to use the list for showing off their 'witty' oneliners,
which is all well and good, but only if these are included
with actual content relevant to the discussion), even though
some of the discussion of late is either about the fine
points of marketing and economix (which I could hardly be
bothered to care about, tho' I even made it to the bottom
of one of DP's posts where he was certain nobody would ever
venture) or else one-person's-harsh-criticism-is-another-
person's-valid-constructive-advice stump-borne-proclamating
(if I may make up my own such terms).

Well...anyway...since the recent high-volume thread was
originally based upon (roughly) something *I* started, I
thought maybe I should just ask...
Uh, did everybody who signed up to be in the HWCA thread
actually receive the final product?  And are happy with
said CDRs?  (As in, no quality control problems with the
copying/readability in any of the discs?)  Just so I know
whether it's been a success or not in this particular
aspect.

On that note:  I won't be doing this again, so if anyone
else wants to take on the task of compiling future editions
(if the interest is there, and it is accepted as 'legit'
according to the authorities...given that these are all
works of other musicians, writing credit aside), then
maybe I should point out that Farflung did a recording of
"Robot" that was meant to appear on the "Myth of Solid
Ground" CD, that was never issued except as a self-made
CDR demo version that was sold to a select few at one of
the Strange Daze's.  And Tommy left this off because HW
were appearing there (which made it the StrangeWind event
I guess)...but now he's offered one of the Robot-laden
copies of his own on Ebay, and some fool (probably
someone here on boc-l!) gave him $76 for it.  Tommy's
been pretty active on Ebay of late it seems, so you
can basically do direct-merchandising from the band
(sadly, this is I guess a final 'closeout' sale of the
band's own 'back-catalog' stock) there.  Nazbar is his
'handle' if you wanna search in the future.

On the Farflung front, also another copy of 25,000 Feet
per Second is available on Ebay here...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2523537141&category=1572

So, of late, I've seen a few very enjoyable concerts,
including:
The Gathering: who actually weren't quite as impressive
as I hoped...the new album and the selection of tunes they
did this night in suburban Basel were particularly laid
back affairs, and they really should have done a lot more
of their uptempo rock numbers, like Liberty Bell, Shot to
Pieces and the like.  So the male members of the band
hardly did much, and although it was nice to hear Anneke
sing *anything*, this show was missing something compared
to the "Planet" tour I saw in Columbus in c. '99.

Guru Guru: same club three days later...in one sense, the
same show I saw last year in Stuttgart - the review of that
show is at A-I.com - but in a *much* bigger space (about
the same number of people though)...but then, the lead
guitarist this time was Italian-Swiss Luigi Archetti and
not Hans Reffert, so there was actually quite a big
difference.  And although Reffert is a talented player, I
though Archetti was a much better fit to the band and
a lot more psychedelic.  It was a very fun show, and
despite a large void of quiet in the back of the hall,
bandmembers and patrons alike enjoyed themselves greatly.

Porcupine Tree: tiny club in Zurich (should have swapped
halls with Guru Guru...more people wedged into 1/5th the
space)...sold out and sweaty.  New rhythm guitarist/backing
vocalist makes a huge difference in the overall sound.
Very loud, nearly metallic show...and really quite amazing.
They have always been *much* heavier in concert than on
disc, but this show indicates that they're trying to ramp
up to an eventual planned tour with Opeth in America (who
Steve Wilson produces...deathish-metal aus Norway?).  And
although I really disliked both Dimbulb Sun and Recordings,
I think In Absentia (on Lava/Atlantic Records) is really
a very good album and things like 'Creator had a mastertape'
were just stunning.  And "Tinto Brass" likewise.  They did
"Darkmatter" as one encore, and even it was rather heavy
as well.  Richard Barbieri obviously has diminished in
importance to the bulk of the performance, but there still
remain quiet bits where he at least should still continue
to show up.  Very surprising that this band has seemingly
bucked an oh-so-obvious sell-out trend, but I always
retained some faith that SW was still and will always be
an 'artist' first, even if he becomes very wealthy in time
(still some doubt about that).  I still don't care for his
"artificial discography-padding" (in the guise of offering
special 'collectors' items' (Hint: if it *says* "Collector's
Item" on the package, it's not.) that all the fans would
just *love* to have, just for that one extra special out-
take track of the band tuning their instruments.

Amon Duul II - in Verviers, Belgium (will do a review
for A-I.com, perhaps to appear as early as the end of
the month, we'll see)...haphazard at times, as I expected
based on Live in Tokyo (it wasn't *that* haphazard!).
Anyway, a dream come true for me, in that it completes
the 'Holy Trinity' of bands (HW, Gong, AD2) at long last
after waiting 20 years or so.  And this was really the
exact same lineup as Wolf City, so rather special.  And
what was really cool is that by random chance the band
stayed in the same hotel as I did (same as Stuttgart with
Guru Guru! Blind luck I tell you)...and so I had a nice
breakfast with Lothar Meid the morning after.  Next Tuesday
they play in Augsburg (Spectrum Club...www.spectrum-club.de)
if anybody's in the area.  I wish I could make it, but
probably won't, since it's not on a weekend.

Coming up in the neighborhood is...Fish, Y&T, Jethro Tull
(Montreaux Jazz), Burg Herzberg (Nektar, Man, etc.) and/or
Kloster Cornberg (Damo, PTree, others), and maybe Wurzburg
for either Magma or Anekdoten/Paathos.  Oh yeah, and I'm
going to be in the London area on May 3rd-4th for absolutely
no reason whatsoever (given that WotW was cancelled), so
I thought maybe I'd go to Dover to see this band called
"Tea for the Wicked" that might be interesting.  Anybody
know them?

Other shows in the UK that weekend seem to be by tribute
bands...what the hell is the deal with tribute bands?  OK,
I'm guilty of seeing-in-the-past/having-interest-in-seeing
tribute bands of *Hawkwind* (and indeed their recordings...
see HWCA thread above), but out of all the bands I like,
I can't think of *any* other target-of-tributization-band
I would care to hear being 'recreated' by a bunch of
pretenders...
'Cept maybe AD2 or Gong, neither of which are likely to
happen any time soon.  And I just really don't get Alan's
Ace of Spades deal...hmm...funny, "Chemical Ali" naming his
band after Saddam Hussain's playing card.  :)

Anyway, what's the point of all this?  I thought when this
all started a decade ago or so (ignoring for the moment
the existence of Beatlemania-type offerings in the deeper
past)...I mean, the *rampant* tributization...it would just
be a 'fad' or 'phase' like that ridiculous 'unplugged'
nonsense, but here it is 2003, and it's still here!  There
are two Pink Floyd tribute bands touring/playing in the UK
at the same time in early May!  (Off the Wall and Think
Floyd if you *must* know.)  WHY?  I love Floyd, but even
if these groups *could* play the songs better in some way
than the group (of senior citizens) itself, it's still just
not right.  With music (IMHO), the original artist playing
their own tune at even just 50% the 'ability' (assuming
some loss of virtuosity based on mere age) of that possibly
by a younger "mimic" is still far and away more preferable
in my mind.  Well, when I say it's not 'right,' I don't
mean that they 'can't' or 'shouldn't' do it, just that I
would hope that most people wouldn't give a sh*t about it
unless that was *their* favorite of all time...and so in
that case the whole fad should have been gone a long time
ago.

Oh...I saw a silly compilation in a store here called
something like "The World's Greatest Air Guitar Album" (a
double CD package) including both Silver Machine and
Ace of Spades.

That's all the time I have folx, will see you all on the
other side of the Easter break (we have an Easter Monday
here (in addition to the 'regular' one on Sunday)!...what
the hell is that?  Isn't one Easter enough per year?  Or
actually I could pretty much do without it all together.

Grakkl (FAA)