It is hard to think that I might not see the Magic Band perform again. That is as sad as when Arthur Lee died and put an end to Love’s wonderful resurgence a few years back.
But I have the memories, the photos and I have the music. I’m playing it now – Moonlight on Vermont.
Here’s a few more photos from that last gig (if only I’d had a camera at that first one in 1967!!):
Eric was well on form, showboating with the crowd and John and Max. He was full of it.
When I first saw Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band way back in 1967 (could that really be fifty years ago?) I was a young kid of 18 and they were certainly the weirdest band on the planet. Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart brought his Acid Drenched Desert Blues all the way from the Mojave to London.
The were the most exciting band I have ever seen live – way up there with Hendrix, Doors, the Who and even Roy Harper.
I have constantly shouted the truth peacefully ever since.
From the first moment I heard them I was hooked. When I saw them live my mind was blown. What a voice. What a driving sound. What lyrics. What supreme weirdness. They had it all.
When I first saw the Magic Band reformed long after the Captain had fled the scene I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was blown away. You couldn’t replace the Captain but John French was almost as good and the band were just as mind-blowing. That first band had 5 original members. Over the years they dropped away. Until here in 2017 there is just John French as an original. But he was the guy who organised the music and it shows. The guys that have come in are all brilliant.
I miss Rockette Morton, Denny Whalley and Gary Lucas and I would have loved to have seen my old hero Zoot Horn Rollo one last time but not to be. But Eric and Max were superb. Jonathan and Andy gave it a firm based. The band still rocked.
John “Drumbo” French – Lead Vocals, Harmonica, Sax, Drums
Eric Klerks – Extended Range guitar, BKP Vocals
Max Kutner – Guitar and Slide guitar
Jonathan Sindelman – Keyboards
Andy Niven – Drums
This was supposedly the farewell tour. I hope it isn’t. But if it is it has been a great run. I’ve had another twelve years of Magic music. Something I never thought would happen. It’s been brilliant. Despite the sound problems in Leeds, which really pissed John off, it all sounded great to me and I had a brilliant evening.
The title is a little misleading; as it is not a book about Beefheart , but rather an account of growing up through the 60s and 70s in Britain. For people like myself 60+ year’s of age and like the author, a keen collector of records and tapes, this book will have a deep resonance. It was like living my early years of music all over again, as Mr. Goodwin kept mentioning the recording artists that I knew.
An enjoyable read, made for the coach, train, or ‘plane trip.
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If you were there, the 60s that is, and you have forgotten much, and you will have, then this is an interesting memory jogger. It is Chris Goodwins account of the real ‘underground’ music scene of the time and not what is popularly touted to the interested young of today.
If you are genuinely interested in the genesis of modern music and its evolution especially through the 60s and 70s then this is an interesting guide and full of quirky anecdotes which may appeal to the young of all ages
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How very dare you captain sweetheart weird only to the tone deaf with t h no hearts. Pink Floyd are not just Roger waters all their best music came from three good music players making up for their average bass player.other wise locally book.
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We move from the rock of a 2004 White Stripes gig to the deep blues of Son House performing in 1968 in the very first paragraph, which gives some idea of the huge range of personal and musical experience covered in this always lively and thoroughly engaging personal testimony. We are taken on a freewheeling and cheerfully anarchic journey across time and space from the earliest days of rock’n’roll through the vibrant 60s and its many musical offshoots and current influences, with every anecdote giving ample evidence for the author’s central idea – that music transforms and inspires like nothing else, forging an organic link with our own lives and even the politics and beliefs we live by. There are sharp, vivid, honest and cheerfully scatological portraits of his musical heroes with warm praise and candid criticism providing the salty ring of truth. The book has wry down-to-earth humour, a breakneck momentum, mostly good musical taste, fascinating gossip, strong opinions, passionate loves and equally passionate hates – and there’s not a dull moment in it. Written with a warm and generous spirit, in the end it amounts to a radical critique of much more than music. It captures the modern zeitgeist with zest and courage. Recommended.
If you grew up listening to music in the 60s then like me you will love this book, there were so many similarities between my musical awakening and the author’s that it was… Read more
