Yay! I got my first birthday card today at the studio. (I guess that’s where the sacks will be delivered on Thursday.) Thanks Mark and Debs not only for sending me the card but for finding the studio address on the website, very enterprising. And while I am at it thank you again for those of you that have donated to this blog. (I hate the word blog.) As you know I’m not so concerned about keeping Olivia and myself alive, it’s more the archive that needs our love and support (ha ha). It’s not just keeping up the space but also keeping it fed. Seriously though we are all very grateful down here as our next six months look a little hazy with all the planned tours cancelled. I don’t want to harp on about it, we’ll see what happens and hopefully at least the upcoming Anekdoten shows might possibly go ahead even though we got the news today that the UK became the worst affected country in Europe and second most affected in the world after US. Will they let us leave?

At least we got delivery of the latest PROG magazine today (looks like the Gabriel era reformation is off). And thank you to Andy C. who visited us last summer when we were working on the Atlantaeum Flood project. He was inspired to donate a year long subscription to the archive. Those mags end up being pricey if you buy them monthly (Mojo, Uncut, Record Collector). In England there seem to be so many music magazines, it’s hard to buy them all, find time to read them, but they’re always useful for new releases and articles on interesting bands both new and old. I bought a couple of copies of Long Live Vinyl, add Q and all those special edition magazines about Bowie, The Beatles and The Who and all the classic bands – you could be renting a villa in Spain for the monthly magazine bill.

I wonder does anybody care about what the reviews say in magazines these days? It used to be that you had to rely on the NME or Sounds or Melody Maker in England and various country specific publications around the world, depending what country you were in. In Australia it was Juke and Ram. in Sweden it was Slitz. These days you can just go online and make up your own mind, who cares what a music journalist says. Did we really ever trust their opinions? I never bought it, I always thought they were too cruel and mostly wrong about everything. I famously stayed in bed and read my Sounds magazine instead of going in for my biology exam, but then I was something of a biology experiment with the tablets they were putting inside me every night.

The British press seemed to have had an influence everywhere, more so in the Punk era. In America in the sixties and seventies Rolling Stone used to be influential and about music, kind of like MTV used to be about music videos. What happened? How does a successful magazine or TV channel that got successful because of music end up not being about music anymore? I think I have the answer. What happens is that they become popular and that’s where the problems start. They are not satisfied in being popular in their particular area and the potential to make money becomes the subject of discussion at the board meetings. They realize that there are more popular things than pure music and as they have the infrastructure they can slowly change and entice cashed up advertisers and reach a wider demographic. One of Olivia’s friends works in television in Germany and her take on it all is that the TV shows are made for the advertisers to advertise rather than for the shows themselves, it’s the tail wagging the dog.

So Rolling Stone becomes a liberals’ current affairs magazine with a little bit of Rock ‘n’ Roll to remind the mainly male reader of the days before the khaki slacks. MTV morphs into Reality TV as that genre has become more popular with the young people than the actual music. Interestingly one changed for the older the other for the younger. And never the twain shall meet. As generations changed, Rolling Stone became your parents’ magazine. With MTV, the video generation wanted more than just that, they wanted to be engaged. Seeing your favourite band prance about in make-up got old because videos of singles simply can’t compete with the personal relationship that listening gives you. I’m talking about us, those of us that were successful in the video generation by mistake. When we fell in love with music it was because we listened to records, we didn’t watch videos. So everyone moved on from Beavis and Butt-Head and those funny little ads for the station ID’s. Those that came after MTV changed its format, weren’t even aware that it used to be a 24 hour music channel. Later, there’s the death of TV, the rise of YouTube and now Netflix and its competitors. I can now go into my local store and buy a DVD of say Alien or any popular movie of the last 30 years for 50 pence, that’s 62 cents in US money – they can barely give them away. I do not feel like I’m holding out by continuing to stock the archive with cool (and uncool) records old and new. I feel like at some point in the future long after I’m gone and as long as this collection of music, books and film can stay together, that someone, somewhere will be eternally grateful.

Music today has returned to the early seventies with one of those obscure Vertigo bands that all record collectors know about, the general public not so much. Gracious made three albums, two in the seventies, self-titled (1970) and This Is Gracious (1971). Another album, Echo, appeared in 1996, which I’ve not heard – yet. Their music is Rock Prog rather than Prog Rock, there seems to be a difference. The cover of their second album might be seen as controversial if one looks closely – a Rock singer in a pulpit (heaven forbid) and a stained glass window with a naked couple embracing – or wait a minute, no surely not?

Next were the first two Colosseum albums, beginning with For Those About To Die Salute You and Valentyne Suite, both released in 1969, albeit on different labels. The debut album was on Fontana, the second album was the first release on Vertigo Records and reached No.15 in the UK charts. They were formed out of a desire to fuse Rock and Jazz. Drummer Jon Hiseman had played with Graham Bond where he replaced Ginger Baker. There he met sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith. In 1968 they moved on to John Mayall’s band where they met Dave Greenslade on keys and Tony Reeves on bass. With the addition of James Litherland on guitar and vocals Colosseum was born. Later Litherland left and was replaced by Clem Clempson. If you like your late sixties and early seventies Rock jazzy then this is for you. Dave Greenslade went on to form Greenslade, Jon Hiseman to Tempest and Clem Clempson to Humble Pie with Steve Marriott. Colosseum ll, a different incarnation, featured some great guitar playing by Gary Moore. Reunions ensued, but most recently and sadly Jon Hiseman died and he was seen as the driving force. Fast forward to 2020, Clem Clempson’s Colosseum were booked for this years Night Of The Prog in Germany until…

Song Of The Day is Anekdoten’s Shooting Star from Until All The Ghosts Are Gone, released in 2015. Although I hadn’t joined the band until after this track was recorded (I did manage to play on the title track) I have played this crazy song many times live. Enjoy.

 

Shooting Star

Hold on, the king will come
Patience, my little child, time will be on your side
Hope’s gone for those who dared to walk out all alone
There’s no mercy to be found underneath the desert sun

Hold your head up high
Point the arrows straight at the sky
Hold your head up high

Struggling, battling the enemy within
Dangers lurking in the night hidden to the naked eye

Hold your head up high
Point the arrows straight at the sky
Hold your head up high
Take heed when you do hear my warning!

Comes a time
A clear blue morning
A cloudless sky
A new day dawning

No more fears or illusions
Only love
A brave new world awaiting us

No more wars
when we’re through it all
When we’re whole and one
there’ll be no more aggravation

We’re children groping in the dark
Can’t even see what’s in front of me
I wish upon a shooting star for immortality

A hard rain will begin to fall
We’ll be here waiting for the call
Know it won’t be very far
Did you see the sign?
Did you see the star?
Keep your eyes on the sky!

Anekdoten – Until All The Ghosts Are Gone (2015)