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Sunday, September 29, 2019

Bob Dylan Isle of Wight 1969


Bob Dylan Isle of Wight 1969

by Pete Clemons




When talking about the legendary Isle of Wight festivals, then undoubtedly, the one held in 1970 generally crops up in. But equally as important was the one held during 1969 and headlined by Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan had been out of action, as far as the live scene was concerned, following an accident in 1966 and chose the island for his comeback gig rather than an offer to perform at Woodstock. Speculation was rife beforehand. It was suggested he could be onstage for a full three hours and that even The Beatles would reform to support him.

Those ‘lost’ three years had been spent writing reams of new music. A documentary film had also just been produced. George Harrison had even offered Apple Studios as a place for him to record.

Bob Dylan flew into London on 23 August and, after time in the capital, travelled direct to a 17th century manor house on the island which had been offered for his disposal. He stayed on the island for around 5 days and, such was the interest, brought with him an entourage of around 300 press men and photographers.

In addition to the hordes of UK music fans, hundreds of American fans also flew in for the gig as the crowd numbers, estimated at 200,000, grew to three times the population of the island.

Sunday 31st August 1969 and the festival had been in full swing for a couple of days. But the crowd noticeably swelled as first couple of bands, Liverpool Scene followed by Third Ear Band, hit the stage.

Gary Farr, brother of compere Ricki, was next up performing songs such as ‘Good Morning Sun’ and ‘The Vicar and the Pope’.

Following Gary came singer songwriter Tom Paxton who received one of the biggest ovations of the entire festival. It was totally unexpected but honestly deserved. Paxton is a craftsman and clearly won a whole host of new fans with songs like ‘Can’t help but wonder where I’m bound’, ‘Rambling Boy’ and ‘Last thing on my mind’. Obviously overwhelmed, Tom returned for several encores.

The Pentangle, however, didn’t fare so well. Low flying aircraft spoiled the ambience and a fire at the perimeter fencing caused the interest of some of the audience to wane. Members of The Rolling Stones unwittingly chose The Pentangles set to make their entrances. That meant the photographers refocused their lenses - much to the obvious annoyance of the band.

Next up was Julie Felix with a selection of songs that included ‘I want to be alone’ and Leonard Cohen's ‘Bird on a Wire’

As dusk set in Richie Havens made his appearance accompanied by a guitarist and a Congo player. They performed a dynamic version of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and warmed the crowd up with what was to come by way of a version of ‘Maggie’s Farm’.

It was now the turn of Bob Dylan and by now the atmosphere was charged. As Dylan took to the stage, albeit briefly, a few missiles were aimed at the photographers who were clearly blocking the view of some.

But Dylan’s appearance was brief. Bob’s backing group, The Band, then performed for almost an hour. Testing the WEM PA apparently. Still, they managed to showcase a lot of their own debut album.

Bob returned to the stage to rapturous applause. The Band stepped aside allowing Bob to perform acoustic. ‘It ain't me Babe’ and ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ followed. The Band returned and accompanied Bob on ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and ‘I’ll be Your baby tonight’ but clearly things were not going well.

We are going to do one more Bob announced and ‘Mighty Quinn’ followed. Bob did do an encore but the whole thing was nowhere near the rumoured three-hour set. And with a ‘thank you, thank you’ he was gone.

At the end of it all, none of the pre-gig predictions came to fruition. Bob Dylan’s shortened set lasted for around an hour. Maybe he had been ill as rumoured. But he certainly disappointed many. Bob allegedly netted 50,000 dollars for the performance and CBS capitalised as Bob’s then latest album Nashville Skyline which, despite all the publicity, was never harmed at all in terms of sales.


















10 years of Kscope

10 years of Kscope
by Pete Clemons


https://kscopemusic.com/

I was recently reminded of the days of classic budget sampler LPs such as ‘The Rock Machine Turns You On’ and ‘You Can All Join in’ by way of a CD celebrating 10 years of the Kscope label.

Admittedly, the 10-year celebration was a year ago now, but the CD came as an additional freebie I received as being part of an order I made through distribution mail order outlet Burning Shed.

Rock Machine and You Can All Join in, were compilations released by their respective labels, CBS and Island, as part of campaigns to turn people on to the exciting new sounds of the late 1960s. As opposed to this Kscope release that has been released to celebrate a decade of the label.

Rock Machine sold over 140,000 copies and entered the charts during June 1969. It featured and introduced us to bands such as The Byrds, Moby Grape, Blood Sweat and Tears and Spirit. And it was described at the time thus...’it's the happening sounds of today. It's all here - the talent, the product and the big concept to make it all happen. Now, doesn't that turn you on?’

Similarly, You Can All Join In was instrumental in giving bands such as Free, Jethro Tull, Spooky Tooth and Traffic exposure to a wider audience as it reached number 18 in the charts.

And this Kscope release has been designed to showcase the more underground sounds of today. And the importance of this unassuming album can’t be overstated.

Kscope, now an independent company, was formed during the very late 1990s. It was Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree who thought up the name which came from a play on the word Kaleidoscope. Plus, it reminded Steven of that old TV promoted budget label of the seventies, K-Tel, which also appealed to him.

Initially Kscope was an outlet for the music of Steven Wilson’s own band Porcupine Tree. In fact, the first release on the label was an album called ‘Stupid Dream’ by Porcupine Tree released during 1999. But the Kscope label went dormant when Porcupine Tree signed up for Lava Records at the time of their 2002 album release ‘In Absentia’.

May 2008, however, saw the Kscope name revived after Steven Wilson suggested that the label be opened for new releases by new talent and allow the bands to develop musically. It provided a home for the growing post-progressive genre and an evolving, flexible and adventurous style of music without boundaries.

As such The Pineapple Thief became one of the first of that new talent to be signed up and the bands seventh album ‘Tightly Unwound’ became the first album released on the newly revived Kscope label.

Kscope albums are available via an on-line distribution company called Burning Shed. Burning Shed is run by artists and musicians for artists and musicians. Given that, you are always guaranteed a first-class service. Additionally, however, I have even noticed that our own relocated HMV has a good number of Kscope products available on their shelves.

You Can All Join In was chronicled at the time as ‘one of those seamless compilations that simply cannot be improved upon. A dozen tracks highlight the best – and that is the best – of Islands recent and forthcoming output’.

This was exactly the feeling I experienced on first hearing the Kscope compilation containing the work of No-Man, Engineers, Blackfield, Gazpacho, Lunatic soul, Tesseract and many others.








Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Bill Gates and The Flamingoes (Coventry Band)

Bill Gates and The Flamingoes
(and the Beatles!!)

By Pete Clemons






Some years ago, I wrote a piece about Coventry band The Flamingoes who existed somewhere between 1963 and 1966. 

The Flamingoes featured Alan Payne on lead guitar, Ollie Warner on bass guitar, Rob Woodward (Lieutenant Pigeon) keyboards, Murray Winters (Mackenzie) on lead vocals and Bill Gates on drums.

During the creation of the article I had met up with Gill Gates, who had been married to Bill. I clearly remember Gill mentioning the fact that Bill had had a brush with The Beatles. But it was such a huge comment that I admit to possibly not taking it too seriously.

That was, however, until guitarist Alan Payne confirmed it. And it was at that point when I began to take the comment seriously.

Bill Gates was born on the 2nd August 1938 in a British Military Hospital and indeed served in the British Army. Bill’s army service records show that he was stationed in Germany between 1960 and 1963.

Early August 1960 saw drummer Pete Best join The Beatles. The Beatles arrived in Hamburg, Germany during the evening of 17 August 1960. They stayed in Hamburg till November 1960. Firstly, playing the Indra Club then moving onto the Kaiserkeller.

The Beatles returned to Hamburg during April 1961 to take up a residency at the Top Ten Club where they stayed till July of the same year.

A year later and another Hamburg residency when The Beatles performed at the Star Club between April – May 1962. Pete Best was then fired during August 1962.

A final Hamburg residency took place at the Star Club took place between November and December 1962. But by this time, Ringo Starr had been installed into the drum seat.

Gill was insistent that Bill Gates stepped in for Pete Best at a Beatles gig in Hamburg possibly during 1962.

Alan Payne went even further: ‘In '62 Bill played with The Beatles in their Hamburg days’. He continued: ‘Indeed Paul McCartney particularly liked him and wanted him to join The Beatles in the days prior to Ringo Starr days. Not only cos he was this great drummer but had an amazing high ranged voice - he did most of the singing in The Flamingoes but Bill was doing his national service at the time and despite all the efforts from Paul and Brian Epstein they couldn't get him out of the army, which is incredibly sad not only for Bill but I can only imagine what the Beatles records and vocal arrangements and harmonies would have been like with him in the mix’.

Additionally, Alan went on to give another gem of a quote: ‘On another occasion some years later after leaving the army, coming home to Coventry and forming the Flamingoes we did a gig with The Who at Rugby Town Hall (some 12-15 miles from Coventry). Bill did the most phenomenal drum duet with Keith Moon that night - words cannot express just how amazing they both were, Bill with his incredible showmanship - very Buddy Rich like, running round his unbelievably big triple Slingerland drum kit throwing this drumsticks at various drums and catching them in this almost acrobatic routine and the Keith Moon doing something similar and finally doing his famous party trick of kicking all the drums off stage’.

Alan concluded ‘So thank you Mr Bill Gates for changing my life forever’.

Sadly, Bill Gates is no longer with us. He passed away on 2nd July 1993. But after gathering evidence like this I am now absolutely convinced that Bill did indeed perform for The Beatles. What is more, he could have changed the face of musical history as we know it.






The original article on the Flamingoes by Pete Clemons is here (click the link to read the full article)