HW: Various

[bernhard.pospiech]

Hi

OK, who else for the UK is comming ?
Would be great to meet many of you there

Contact me offlist if you want to arrange a meeting
We can exchange our Handy numbers....


Cheers
Bernhard





-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET]
On Behalf Of Henderson Keith
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 7:31 PM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: OT: HW: Various


Hi Folks...

Very quiet here...suppose that everyone in the US has been waiting in
line to see F9/11, and everyone in Europe has been watching football
every night, yeah?

Anyway, those who have really felt like talking have mostly been posting
over at Yahoo, but I still have enough 'loyalty' to this list to mainly
post here.

I've seen quite a few good concerts in the last several weeks, and am
looking forward big time to another Burg Herzberg event, this time with
maximal space rock percentage, with Hawkwind, MQB, Guru Guru, et al.
And the weather in central Europe so far this summer has been really
wonderful, that is, if you prefer a bit cooler temperatures as opposed
to last year's oppressive heat (such that the grass died and the dirt
went airborne into eyes/ears/nose/throat).

It took me a long time to realize that Herzberg is *not* at Wilhelmsthal
this year, but rather back to where I think it was in 2002 (and some
number of years before, I believe), but neither back to the very
original site, that being Burg Herzberg itself (hence the name).  But
the location has always been somewhere in the same region of Germany,
that being essentially the Fulda Gap, of some importance to Cold War
historians.  Anyway, as I haven't actually been to this particular site,
I can't add much to the discussion about how to get there, etc.  But the
site is pretty informative (if mostly in German), and has both a map of
the grounds and an overhead photo, and so that should be helpful.  Looks
like a better place than Wilhelmsthal actually!

The confusion I've had (I guess) is related to the fact that 1) Burg
Herzberg is under 'new management' this year (otherwise it would have
died after last year), but 2) the old crew (Think Progressive, under
Kalle
Becker) seems to still be planning to have a festival at the
Wilhelmsthal site the weekend *after* the "true" Herzberg, but called
something like "Herzberg goes Wilhelmstal" (which is really the renamed
(Kloster) Cornberg Festival, which was held just once (in 2001?), and
then cancelled both in 2002 and 2003, when Kalle was trying to run both
simultaneously).  He's got a great lineup for that one planned,
including Tull, Amon Duul II, Outskirts Of Infinity, Bevis Frond, On
Trial, and others.  But I hesitate to make serious plans for it, because
of recent history.  So I might make a 'game time' decision about staying
in central Germany over the four days in between the two fests, based on
what I hear at Herzberg.

Well, hope to see a few of you there...I know some folx are planning to
make it.  (Doug P.?  Is it going to happen for you?  Schade, wenn
nicht.)  The Finland one might have been fun though, with Dave W. and
Lemmy both guesting.  Any idea what the "complete" lineup at Herzberg
will be?

So, lately I've seen...
Judas Priest...Rob Halford back on stage with the Priest.  Can still
sing the old tunes decent enough, and they had him mic'ed up so well,
that he wouldn't have been able to hide it if he couldn't hack it.  The
set was pretty much standard material, nothing new, and so Painkiller
songs were the most recent stuff.  Beyond the Realms of Death and Victim
of Changes both were highlights, and they did an acoustic Diamonds and
Rust oddly enough. Strangest thing was that it was over at about 10 PM,
and it was still just twilight.  The show was indoors (a sporthall with
a few skylight windows in the roof) so it was awhile before it even got
'dark' inside.  Nearly sold out (Frauenfeld is a *small* town, maybe
10,000) with about 4,000 punters or so, mostly coming from Zuerich and
nearby towns I guess.

Marillion...well, I gave up on them years ago after that awful Radiation
album...but they were coming to Winterthur (also close to Zuerich) and
so I thought I'd see if they were still worthwhile.  I picked up the new
(single CD version of) "Marbles," and I quite liked the first long track
and a few other pieces.  Which I thought was promising.  But the show
was very boring...they played a 65-minute first set *all* of "Marbles"
material, and although it started out OK, there isn't much energy in the
album to translate well to a live setting, so a little bit of that goes
a long way. And then after a short break, they came back to play a bunch
more laid-back rubbish that I didn't know (so it must have come from
Anoraknophobia and the .com albums that I don't own).  Finally they
played at least "Easter" at the end, which is still the best H-era song,
and then started into something else I didn't know for an encore, at
which point I had to leave to catch the last train.  I suppose they did
at least "Market Square Heroes" (or something old) as a second encore,
but that wouldn't have done much to save this terrible show.  I mean,
the band is *all* Hogarth now, with the others just providing
atmospheric accompaniment.  I saw Fish a couple months ago, and although
he hasn't kept up the level of his music to the quality of "Sunsets on
Empire" at least he had a nice sampling of not only his solo material
through the years, but also a few "original" Marillion songs. Anyway,
time to give up on Marillion once and for all now...they're done.

Circle...the next night I went down to a small town near Fribourg to see
the first night of a three day 'punk/alternative rock' festival.  It was
called Kilbi-Bad Bonn, and they had both an outdoor tent stage, and an
indoor club stage, and the bands alternated such that there was music
non-stop from about 7 PM to 2 AM.  Circle (from Finland, if you didn't
already know) played in the evening on the tent stage.  Mostly new
material that they had just recorded at a studio in Germany a few days
beforehand...only one piece I recognized, but then I think they only did
three (or perhaps four) separate pieces during their one hour of stage
time.  So this was much like typical Circle, and not really very much
like the weird stuff all through the middle of their newest album
"Guillotine" that must be considered some sort of temporary departure
from their normal hypno-rock routine.  They still have just the
four-piece going, so Jyrki Laiho has not rejoined since last year.  So
just one guitarist now.  Enjoyable set, looking forward to yet more
discs from these guys.  The other bands were also sometimes interesting.
Beautiful Leopard were a decent Mogwai-ish post-rock band, and Unhold
were a SG-playing, Orange-amped stoner rock band (good heavy sound,
lousy vocals though).  And there were another couple weird 'progressive
hardcore' (for lack of a better word) bands.  The so-called headliner
were the Distillers (who I'd never heard of), who seemed to me to be
Australia's answer to Hole.  They drew almost all the 800-1000 people
into the tent for a spell, but I don't think the fans were so crazy
about them.  Rather ordinary IMHO.

Ah, Queensryche in Basel was next (following Monday)...they were
opposite to Marillion!  A really well-designed set of material featuring
both the best songs from the new album Tribe (not so terribly bad
IMHO!), which are all the odd-numbered ones (opposite to the Star Trek
movie phenomenon), and then old material including most of the Mindcrime
'rock-opera.'  And they had a
*real* Mary, which is cool, as opposed to the video version that they
used on occasion when I saw them in the '90s.  Chris DeGarmo is not
touring with them, so he's only 'half-returned' to the band, but instead
had some ugly
guy in a terrible shiny-faux-leather outfit who they never introduced.
The
worst thing was that I thought the sound was terrible...and having seen
10 concerts (or so) in this club already (maybe 1,200 capacity,
800-1,000 there?), I know that this place is not so challenging to get
"right."  It's
*not* echoey like some places I know (eg., Columbus' Newport). But
Rockenfield's snare sounded awful...really loud but without any "depth"
to it...just featureless thudding.  And the bass was a bit too bassy
while the guitars a bit too blaring, and so they were too "separated"
with a huge gap in the midrange.  I moved around a few times to find
where it might be better, but it was never good.  Plus, the lighting guy
kept flooding the front of the stage with blinding bright white lights
*all* the damn time, and that was really annoying.  I noticed that *he*
couldn't see them in his face where the 'island' was farther back, so I
bet if he was 10 m farther forward, he wouldn't have been doing it so
much!  Anyway, I enjoyed it mainly because they played such a good set
of material, and themselves put on a nice performance, their crew
notwithstanding.  Tate was able to sing just about everything still, but
he doesn't project the high parts quite so much like he used to, but
rather gets lost in the mix rather easily.

Then this past weekend I went to Luzern to see a triple bill of
Witchcraft, Grand Magus, and Orange Goblin in the Boa Kulturzentrum.
These places are always nice 'clubs' to see gigs in.  Like Gaswerk in
Winterthur, they have both a small intimate room and also a larger floor
for maybe 400.  Since only about 80 showed, we were in the smaller room,
so it suited just fine. I think either/both the first two bands were
Swedish, the show didn't start until the EM2004 quarterfinal match
between Sweden and Holland was finished (11:40).  And as some probably
know, it was 0-0 after 120 min., and went (like England-Portugal, and
STOP blaming Urs Meier for your own failures! :) BTW, he's from the area
of CH just near me, and a friend of mine knows him.) to penalty
shootout.  So, not only was the show getting started late, but the
bandmembers were in a bad mood (Holland won 5-4).  Which is ok, if you
play loud, angry music!  The first two bands were not bad, but I went to
see Orange Goblin (aus Liverpool?) primarily.  They played most of the
new album, and I think one or two from Big Black, but then also "Blue
Snow" and "Solarisphere" (from Time-Travelling Blues) at the end of the
set, which are both awesome songs.  Live they are much more
balls-to-the-wall than psychedelic, but I can handle that.  The singer
isn't as good live as on album, and he overdoes it a little I think,
just to be heard.  The show ended about 2:30 AM (crazy late for CH!),
but I had come earlier in the day and set up a tent at a nearby
campground and so I didn't have to stay up all night to wait for the
morning train home.  Luzern is a really nice city, and so you can't beat
going there, especially if there's good music to boot.

So, that brings us up to date.  But a few other things...has anybody
caught these guys (also from Sweden) in the US yet?  I've heard their
first album from 35 years ago, but not their reunion stuff.  They have a
few more dates before they go home, so here they are...

Trad, Gras och Stenar...
29/6 Neumo's, Seattle, with Kinski among others
1/7 Talking Head, Baltimore with Mighty Flashlight, Big Huge, Entrance
2/7 Tonic, New York, with Bardo Pond and Mighty Flashlight 3/7 TT the
Bear, Boston, with Sunburned Hand of the Man and Major Stars
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And I don't know if everyone here heard (it was posted on Yahoo) that...

Note from Jonny Greene (Gong-GAS):
"Apparently Tim [Blake] has been involved in a bad car accident and has
spent some time in hospital. A speedy recovery to him."

Later post from Mr. Blake himself...
"Ok Guys !
1/ Yes, alive..
2/ Not permanently maimed (yet)
3/ But thoroughly 'shook up'
4/ Connected in Hospital - now that's neat ... merci the French Health
service !!!

All activity halted 'till September though ...

Now what was this about nurses ... ... ?
Sacre Bleu!"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And then that there's this event planned...

THE GONG FAMILY CONVENTION OCTOBER 23rd-24th GLASTONBURY ASSEMBLY ROOMS
Basil (Zorch) Here & Now House of Thandoy (with Mike Howlett) Invisible
Opera Company of Tibet Joie Hinton (DJ set) Thom the World Poet

...though this lineup is not fully confirmed, so keep checking GAS...

and OZIT has released a double Steve Hillage CD of a concert at Deeply
Vale 1978, which is worth having IMHO.  Although I think I could do
without the addition of extra music of Hewitt's own band Tractor, added
(I guess) in order to promote himself.  Though there was space for it,
so maybe it's not such a big deal...you can turn it off when you want.

That's all I guess...see (some of you) soon...

Grakkl (FAA)