Canterbury Binge: 2021

[Steve F.]

And I still keep wondering if Ratledge actually had a habit of wearing his glasses -outside- of his hairdo.

All photos and broadcasts of this period show that that was the look.

[chalkpie]

I have finally fallen in love with Joy Of A Toy (1969) by Kevin Ayers. What a whimsical and charming album! And David Bedford's arrangements are brilliant. Joy Of Toy kind of feels like continuation of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to me.

Totally agree. It's a wonderful, wonderful album - and I would guess largely unknown to most of the world out there. It's become a Canterbury fav for me over the past few years - although I seem to appreciate the first four Ayers albums more with every passing year during the binge. The vibe on that album is just perfect.

[Dave (in MA)]

All photos and broadcasts of this period show that that was the look.

Apparently it was not an unheard-of style choice back in those days.

[JKL2000]

Jed, are you enjoying the Antique Seeking Nuns? I love that stuff more than Sanguine Hum.

I haven't had a chance to listen to it fully, but I definitely like it. Coming into all this having listened to SH first, when listening to ASN I focus most on the bits that sound like SH, and it kind of comes off feeling like demos or something. But that's overstating it, as it certainly has it's own more relaxed, freewheeling style. I think for my own, personal tastes I prefer the careful, crystalline, proggier sound of SH, but I'm surprised and pleased to find that I like ASN. I've known the band name for a long time and didn't know about the band's relation to SH, so I always assumed it was a band I wouldn't like. But that was ONLY going by the name, which was a bit off-putting to me.

Within just a few weeks I've bought everything released by both bands - all the CDs available, and the downloads of whatever wasn't available on CD ( I already had two of the SH CDs). So I've got a lot to enjoy. This music is one of the best discoveries in years for me! Especially Sanguine Hum - they made Neo-Prog respectable!

[auxfnx]

I hope you don't mind if you've seen this already in other threads, but I am just posting it around to ensure that anyone who may be interested can come across it



New Rascal Reporters album featuring pieces written in their prime Canterbury era - the mid to late 70s, at the tail end of Pigling Bland and beyond!

[Bytor]

Hatfield and the North, Live at Salle des fetes Tomblaine / Nancy February 7th 1975 (approx. 90 minutes)

This is one of my all-time favourite boots because:
-It´s the only full-length concert of one of my all-time favourite bands that I have
-it´s a great performance
- the sound is good
- I would have wished to see that concert

It must be an audience recording, taped with good equipment. From time to time the balance goes off (normally at the beginning of a track) until the taper puts it again in balance. Very good overall balance between the instruments and no distortion. ( It would have made a great third Hatwise edition with a bit of audio cleaning)

This was the French tour after the recording (and I think before the release) of Rotter´s Club. The band was in great form, the internal problems hadn´t become audible yet, it´s a medium size venue, the concert was organized by Atem ( a French fanzine from memory) the atmosphere seems to be great, kind of a perfect concert conditions.

Stewart starts with a tone generator into including a citation of the French National anthem followed by a complete version of God Song. Then the major part of the first half of Rotter´s Club starting with John Wayne until Fitter Stoke (Share it and Lounging start the second set)
I really like the song list, which puts more focus on the individual compositions especially from the first record. Then Calyx followed by a Miller section with Underdub, Part of the Dance and Nan True´s Hole. The first set ends with Landcrabs and a short intro of Your Majesty.
The second set starts with Share it and Lounging followed by a great version of Mumps. In the middle of Mumps Stewart does a Rhodes solo including Arriving Twice by Allan Gowen, The concert ends with O What A Lonely Lifetime and a reprise of John Wayne and as an encore Going Up with a short reprise of Part Of The Dance which is unfortunately cut…


Attachment 14911Attachment 14912

Where can we find this?

[alucard]

^ It circulated on some bootleg sites. As double cd it was released by the Highland label.

[alucard]

I hope you don't mind if you've seen this already in other threads, but I am just posting it around to ensure that anyone who may be interested can come across it



New Rascal Reporters album featuring pieces written in their prime Canterbury era - the mid to late 70s, at the tail end of Pigling Bland and beyond!

Fantastic band ! Good to know they have a new release ( of older material)

[auxfnx]

Fantastic band ! Good to know they have a new release ( of older material)

thank you! it's older material, but new instrumentation and production added in the last year!
we are still working on our album of all-new material, and it will likely be the next thing after this release!

[Piskie]

Hello! I have just joined the Forum, and as I have been on a personal Canterbury binge for the last 12 months (at least), I thought I would drop in to say how much I have enjoyed this thread- and 'binges' from previous years which I have been slowly working through. Don't ever stop!

[arturs]

^^^ Welcome Mr. Piskie. Please feel free to share your thoughts and feelings of the albums you have been binging on.

As for me, NP: Hugh Hopper 1984. I listened to this a lot when the Cuneiform re-issue came out, but slowly forgot about it over time. Dusted it off and even the most experimental tracks (Miniluv, Miniplenty) are flooring me right now. Really good stuff. Can't quite get my head around the fact that a major record label actually released this!

[Piskie]

Gong and it's various offshoots have been central to my Canterbury binge - If I was to pick out an album that's been mighty pleasing me of late I would go for Daevid Allen's 'Good Morning'. I love the sound that he crafted with Euterpe, and the everyday touches such as the cockerel crowing and sparrows chirping that I'm sure he would have recorded at Deya. Of course, being Daevid the material flows from the ordinary to the cosmic and back again. Some of the best songs he ever wrote. I wouldn't change it, but I can't help wondering if you took the Gong Shamal album, Hillage's Fish Rising and this one and brewed them all up together what a amazing follow up to You we would have had!

[alucard]

Pulled out some more live recordings:
Hatfield and The North / Imperial College November 17th 72 (can be found on the site dedicated to Phil Miller)
This is historically speaking a great recording, unfortunately a bit short 34 minutes (sound is ok, great tape cleaning job !!)
It´s post Delivery and pre- Stewart Hatfield with Dave Sinclair on keys and Robert Wyatt and Lol Coxhill guesting (each on one track) It’s kind of a Hatfield & The Mole with more linear playing that reminds Matching Mole. You have classic Hatfield compositions but also some stuff that never appeared or in other forms among them “A Mewsing” a Sinclair composition featuring Robert that sounds like “Signed Curtain” and another Sinclair one “ “Watcha Gonna Tell Me which appeared in 1980 on the Caravan record The Album plus a Pip Pyle composition All Day Forever with Pip playing rhythm guitar.
(You can listen/download the concert on the Phil Miller site with liner notes by Aymeric Leroy from which I took the infos above)

Hatfield and The North / Tin Pan Alley, Emmen, Netherlands, March 29th 1974 (about 37 minutes , boot sometimes combined with other concerts) two of the tracks have been officially released on Hatwise Choice
This is one of the better sounding HTN boots, a soundboard recording. There are quite a lot of edits and it does not have a nice flow, a bit of a ragged listening even so the sound is great.

[calyx]

Pulled out some more live recordings:
Hatfield and The North / Imperial College November 17th 72 (can be found on the site dedicated to Phil Miller)
This is historically speaking a great recording, unfortunately a bit short 34 minutes (sound is ok, great tape cleaning job !!)

The original cassette - which I believe was Richard Sinclair's own recording... he had a habit of recording everything, and not just his own bands, but Matching Mole, Robert Wyatt etc. - had absolutely no info on where, when etc. It was my best guess that this was from this concert as a press announcement said Robert and Lol would sit in. I sent the rough transfer to a guy called Tom Phillips whom I trust as one of the best for cleaning up such stuff. So he "remastered" it, and turned it from stereo back to mono as it really was a mono recording.

Yes, it's an amazing document. The tape was either partly recorded over or started late, because the recording cuts into "Shaving Is Boring", but I'm not sure how much was played before it. "Shaving Is Boring" clearly isn't the kind of piece they'd start a gig with.

[alucard]

The original cassette - which I believe was Richard Sinclair's own recording... he had a habit of recording everything, and not just his own bands, but Matching Mole, Robert Wyatt etc. - had absolutely no info on where, when etc. It was my best guess that this was from this concert as a press announcement said Robert and Lol would sit in. I sent the rough transfer to a guy called Tom Phillips whom I trust as one of the best for cleaning up such stuff. So he "remastered" it, and turned it from stereo back to mono as it really was a mono recording.

Yes, it's an amazing document. The tape was either partly recorded over or started late, because the recording cuts into "Shaving Is Boring", but I'm not sure how much was played before it. "Shaving Is Boring" clearly isn't the kind of piece they'd start a gig with.

Great job you are doing ( and everybody involved on the site) Keep it coming

[JKL2000]

Doing "Bundles" now.

[Kcrimso]

Been listening lots of National Health lately. I just LOVE Of Queues and Cures album! "Squarer For Maud" is one of my all time favourite songs.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I just LOVE Of Queues and Cures album! "Squarer For Maud" is one of my all time favourite songs

The secret behind that album's success, as I see and hear it, is the combination of intensely intricate compositions and an addictive joyous feel of live-in-the-studio rawness which disarms the fright of it. "Squarer for Maud" drenches this formula triumphantly, but little beats those first 2 1/2 minutes of "Dreams Wide Awake". You can practically seize the sheer bliss so evident in that organ solo, Pyle's drums swinging along like an ecstatic afternoon trudge.

If afternoon strolls can be ecstatic, that is. Needs some Laphroaig, I suppose. And perhaps a pretty gal.

The flute solo in "Binoculars" is out of this world as well. Pure euphoria!

[Scrotum Scissor]

BTW, what on earth has happened to the 'Canterbury Scene' page on Wikipedia? It used to be somewhat elaborate and systematic, but now there's only a shallow presentation of the term and its offset. As if someone has actively erased the previous information there.

Anyone know?

[Dave (in MA)]

If you look at the "View history" tab for the page, it appears that some guy ripped out 5k worth of text last June because he had a bug up his ass about the History section of the page not being sourced.

[chalkpie]

Been listening lots of National Health lately. I just LOVE Of Queues and Cures album! "Squarer For Maud" is one of my all time favourite songs.

"Squarer" is indeed a masterpiece composition imo. I made a Canterbury/RIO/avant CD mix years back which I still listen to occasionally and this tune was on it, so I've heard it exxxxxxtra amounts of times by this point. A truly beautiful, original, and daring composition. Probably my fav on Of Queues, but that's splitting bow hairs.

[Scrotum Scissor]

it appears that some guy ripped out 5k worth of text last June because he had a bug up his ass

I know. I found him and killed him evilly.

[chalkpie]

I know. I found him and killed him evilly.

Clue solved : "Richard did it with the scissors in the scrotum in the (music) library"

[calyx]

If you look at the "View history" tab for the page, it appears that some guy ripped out 5k worth of text last June because he had a bug up his ass about the History section of the page not being sourced.

That's exactly what made me give up contributing to Wikipedia pages, when some watchdog reprimanded me for including (factual) information sourced from direct correspondence with the artist, and explained to me that, in contrast, anything sourced from some online blog would be deemed acceptable just because you can link to it.

[Scrotum Scissor]

some watchdog reprimanded me from including (factual) information sourced from direct correspondence with the artist, and explained to me that, in contrast, anything sourced from some online blog would be deemed acceptable just because you can link to it.

Jesus!

I'm an historian, and I can tell that this is essentially what's happening within Western academia as a whole as well. They 'pick/select' literature and sources/information from what "appears in conjunction".

These are f'n dangerous times, and I find them disconcerting.