Andy Latimer - ...and on guitar (2018)

Andrew Latimer was born on 17 May 1949 in Guildford, Surrey, and is best known as a founding member of the progressive rock band Camel, and is the only member who has been with the band since their formation. Formed in 1971, Latimer, drummer Andy Ward and bassist Doug Ferguson successfully auditioned for Phillip Goodhand-Tait, who was on the lookout for a tight-knit band to complement fresh songs for his 'I Think I’ll Write A Song' album. Subsequently combining forces with Brit-R&B veteran keyboardist Peter Bardens they played their inaugural gig as Camel in December 1971, supporting Wishbone Ash, and were signed to M.C.A. Records the following summer. Their eponymous debut album arrived in early 1973, and was received to mixed reviews, containing as it did jazz-inflected rock and off-tangent prog-improvisations, although there were highlights in Bardens' 'Mystic Queen' and Latimer's 'Never Let Go'. Probably on the strength of their side-long 'Greasy Truckers – Live At Dingwalls' Various Artists recording, 'God Of Light Revisited – Parts One, Two, Three' (see my previous Camel post), the band switched labels to Deram, and released 1974's 'Mirage'. The record was a vast improvement, and clearly marked out their own territory among the big boys of the progressive rock scene. Cosmic opener 'Freefall', the flute-led Focus-like 'Supertwister' and the lengthy 'Nimrodel' medley were exceptional in both texture and interplay, while side two's 12-minute 'Lady Fantasy' suite endeared them to the American market, where the album bubbled under the Top 100. Camel really came into their own with their conceptual interpretation of 'The Snow Goose', which was their British Top 30 breakthrough record, and in a way became the band's 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. Their fourth album 'Moodmadness' came out in 1976, and took them a stage further in their musical development, remaining one of my favourite albums of theirs. 

Following a couple of line-up changes, they followed this with 'Rain Dances' in 1977, which is another great album, and they continued to release records throughout the punk era and beyond, with their loyal fans always ready to buy them and follow the band on tour. 1977 was also the year that Latimer first started to offer his guitar skills to other artists, playing with Michael Chapman on his 'The Man Who Hated Mornings' record, and then a few years later playing with Francis Monkman on his 1981 solo release, but he was nowhere near as prolific as some other guitarists in doing this, and so there was a six year gap before he appeared on Asher Quinn's 'Open Secret' album. In 1992 Latimer was diagnosed with the progressive blood disorder polycythaemia vera, which had unexpectedly progressed to myelofibrosis, but this was kept private and was not officially announced until 2007, when he underwent a successful bone marrow transplant, and began a long road to full recovery. He was still managing to record and tour with Camel during this time, but he didn't appear on any other artist's album until 1998, when he helped out Camel band-mate Colin Bass on his solo album. A couple of collaborations with Dutch prog-rockers Kayak have yielded some nice recordings, and once he'd recovered sufficiently from his operation, he was more productive, making guest appearances on half a dozen albums between 2010 and 2018, often on lengthier progressive tracks. Because of this I've decided to make this a double disc set, with the first disc mostly the shorter tracks that he played on, and the second disc containing a couple of epic workouts among its six pieces. Whether it's a short, consise song or a longer prog-rock workout, his guitar-work is always instantly recognisable, and these tracks contain some superb, soaring guitar lines, underlining why he is citied as an influence by artists such as Steve Rothery of Marillion, Bryan Josh of Mostly Autumn, Bruce Soord of The Pineapple Thief, and The Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.   

Track listing

Disc One
01 I Think I'll Write A Song (from 'I Think I'll Write A Song' by Phillip Goodhand-Tait 1971)
02 The Man Who Hated Mornings (from 'The Man Who Hated Mornings' by Michael Chapman

                                                                                                                                            1977)
03 Learning To Live (from 'Dweller On The Threshold' by Francis Monkman 1981)
04 Soldier Of Love (from 'Open Secret' by Asher Quinn 1987)
05 As Far As I Can See (from 'An Outcast Of The Islands' by Colin Bass 1998) 
06 Full Circle (from 'Close To The Fire' by Kayak 2000)
07 Masquerade (from 'Random Acts Of Beauty' by David Minasian 2010)

Disc Two
01 Infinite Light (from 'Justify' by Nathan Mahl 2014)
02 Baby Good For You (from 'Emergency Love' by Andrew Cresswell Davis 2014)
03 At Wild End (from 'At Wild End' by Colin Bass 2015)
04 The Gypsy's Comin' Home (from 'Living On A Little Blue Dot' by Jan Schelhaas 2017)
05 Ripples On The Water (from 'Seventeen' by Kayak 2018)
06 Home Again (from 'Out Of Sinc' by Dave Sinclair 2018) 

Thanks to Stenn for the suggestion.

Torus - Torus Of Revolution (2020)

Torus are a young hard rock/grunge trio from Milton Keynes, and comprise Alfie Glass on guitar and vocals, Harry Quinn on bass, and Eleanor Lawrance on drums. They've been together since 2019, when Glass recorded some of his songs as demos, and then started looking for a band to play them. He soon hooked up with old band-mate Quinn, but it took another year before Lawrance joined on drums, and straight away they began rehearsing and recording together. The music is inspired by bands such as Queens Of The Stone Age and Kyuss, and they've been releasing singles since 2019, with a new three-track EP being released in June 2020, all of which are available on Bandcamp. They've been so prolific that if you take all the songs they've recorded so far there are actually enough to put together their debut album after only being together for eighteen months. So check them out, and if you like what you hear then do support them.   

Track listing

01 Next Time
02 Hold On
03 The Feeling
04 Valley Of The Weasel
05 Follow
06 Blurry
07 Oceans
08 Make You Mine
09 Off The Ground
10 Under
11 Numb

Duane Allman - ...and on guitar (1971)

Before Duane Allman became a guitar hero in the Allman Brothers Band, he was a hotshot session guitarist who was logging tons of studio time with some of the best R&B singers in the world. After the Allman Brothers started to be appreciated for their albums, Duane continued to record with other artists, most notably with Eric Clapton in Derek And The Dominos, until his death in 1971. Some of his best recordings were with artists like John Hammond, who was the son of the record-company exec who helped launch the careers of everyone from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan, and from Aretha Franklin to Bruce Springsteen. Like his father, he loved rural acoustic blues music and built a cult career paying tribute to his heroes, attracting some famous fans, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Allman, who played on a couple of Hammond's albums. Clarence Carter was a blind R&B singer who hit the Top 10 with 'Patches' and 'Slip Away,' which Gregg Allman later covered, but on 'The Road Of Love' from 1969 he takes on soulful blues with some help from an eager horn section and Duane Allman's jagged guitar. Delaney & Bonnie had lots of famous friends and fans, including Clapton, Leon Russell and George Harrison, and their 'Livin' On The Open Road' is a bluesy R&B rocker with a positively piercing guitar solo provided by Allman. Boz Scaggs spent two years with the Steve Miller Band when he booked some time at the famous Muscle Shoals recording studio, working with its terrific in-house session group, and his eponymous 1969 album is filled with great music, including the superb 'Waiting For A Train'. Aretha Franklin's 'This Girl's In Love With You' includes some great covers, such as The Band's standard 'The Weight', as well as the soulful 'It Ain't Fair', and fellow soul-maestro Wilson Pickett also benefited from Allman's guitar prowess on his 'Hey Jude' album, most noticeably on the title track. Alongside these legendary US performers, he also played with a number of lesser-known artists, such as Johnny Jenkins, Eric Quincy Tate, Judy Mayhan, and Sam Samudio, as well as renowned bluesman Otis Rush, and Canadian rocker Ronnie Hawkins. Most of the songs on here were included on the extensive 2013 'Skydog' album, but they were scattered throughout the seven discs, and included multiple tracks from some artists, and so I've extracted what I consider to be the best of them from the years 1969 to 1971. So that this is not just a rip-off of that record, I've managed to track down one additional song that wasn't on 'Skydog', from Judy Mayhan, and I've only selected the recordings where you can really hear the contribution that Allman is making to the music, thereby condensing the 7CD set into one concise 55-minute album.  

Track Listing

01 Twice A Man (from '2 Jews Blues' by Barry Goldberg  1969)
02 You Reap What You Sow (from 'Mourning In The Morning' by Otis Rush 1969)
03 Dirty Old Man (from 'New Routes' by Lulu 1969)
04 Cryin' For My Baby (from 'Southern Fried' by John Hammond 1969) 
05 Hey Jude (from 'Hey Jude' by Wilson Pickett 1969)
06 The Road Of Love (from 'The Dynamic Clarence Carter' by Clarence Carter 1969)
07 Waiting For A Train (from 'Boz Scaggs' by Boz Scaggs 1969) 
08 Ghost Of Myself (from 'I'm A Loser' by Doris Duke 1969)
09 Everlovin' Ways (from 'Moments' by Judy Mayhan 1970)
10 Comin' Down (first album demo by Eric Quincy Tate 1970)
11 Down In The Alley (from 'Ronnie Hawkins' by Ronnie Hawkins 1970)
12 It Ain't Fair (from 'This Girl's In Love With You' by Aretha Franklin 1970) 
13 Down Along The Cove (from 'Ton-Ton Macoute!' by Johnny Jenkins 1970) 
14 Beads Of Sweat  (from 'Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat' by Laura Nyro 1970) 
15 Living On The Open Road (from 'To Bonnie From Delaney' by Delaney & Bonnie 1970) 
16 Relativity (from 'Sam, Hard And Heavy' by Sam Samudio 1971) 

Dead Kennedys - The Iguana Studio Demos (1978)

Dead Kennedys were an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978, and became one of the defining hardcore punk bands during their initial eight-year run. Their lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing establishment political figures and authority in general, as well as popular culture and even the punk movement itself. The band got together when East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) advertised for band-mates in the newspaper The Recycler, after seeing a ska-punk show at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. The original band lineup consisted of Jello Biafra (Eric Reed Boucher) on vocals, East Bay Ray on guitar, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall) on bass, 6025 (Carlos Cadona) on rhythm guitar and Ted (Bruce Slesinger) on drums and percussion, and this lineup recorded their first demos in 1978. 6025 left the band in March 1979 under somewhat unclear circumstances, generally considered to be musical differences, and in June the band released their first single 'California Über Alles', on Biafra and East Bay Ray's independent label, Alternative Tentacles. Despite this now being considered a classic punk-rock single, the band's East Coast tour was poorly attended, as they were a new and fairly unknown entity at the time, and had no album to promote. In early 1980 they recorded and released the single 'Holiday in Cambodia' (another classic punk-rock record), and in June the band recorded their debut album 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables', which was released in September on the UK label Cherry Red. Perhaps surprisingly, the album reached number 33 on the UK Albums Chart, and on 25 March 1980 the band were invited to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in an effort to give the event some 'new wave credibility'. The day of the performance was spent practicing the song they were asked to play, the underground hit 'California Über Alles', but the band became the talking point of the ceremony when after about 15 seconds into the song, Biafra stopped the band, saying "Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now. We're not a punk rock band, we're a new wave band." The band, all wearing white shirts with a big, black S painted on the front, pulled black ties from around the backs of their necks to form a dollar sign, then started playing a new song titled 'Pull My Strings', a barbed, satirical attack on the ethics of the mainstream music industry. This song was never recorded for a studio release, and the performance at the Bay Area Music Awards is the only time the song was ever performed. Over the next six years the band courted more controversy by including a poster of H. R. Giger's 'Penis Landscape' with their 'Frankenchrist' album which resulted in an obscenity trial, releasing the 'Too Drunk To Fuck' single and getting it banned from the radio, and encasing their 'In God We Trust, Inc.' EP in a sleeve depicting a gold Christ figure on a cross of dollar bills. After two more albums, the band split in 1986, before reforming in 2001 without Biafra. These demos have been available for a while as a bootleg, and finally got an official release for Record Store Day in 2018, but as that was a limited edition, and also omitted four tracks from the original Iguana Studios Tape, here is the full tape as recorded by the first inception of the band in 1978.

Track listing

01 Kepone Kids
02 Forward To Death
03 California Über Alles
04 Your Emotions
05 Kill The Poor
06 Holiday In Cambodia
07 Kidnap
08 The Man With The Dogs
09 I Kill Children
10 Dreadlocks Of The Suburbs
11 Rawhide
12 Mutations Of Today
13 Cold Fish
14 Forward To Death
15 Viva Las Vegas
16 [Unknown]
17 Saturday Night Holocaust

Kayak - Try To Write A Book (1981)

I'd always considered Kayak to be one of the best progressive rock acts to come out of The Netherlands, releasing a string of excellent albums throughout the 70's, but it was only recently that I discovered that they also issued a lot of singles in their home country, and the songs from many of them were not taken from their then current albums. Co-founder Ton Scherpenzeel is the only member who is on every Kayak album, playing keyboards, accordion, occasional bass guitar, and double bass. He formed the band in 1972 with singer/drummer Max Werner, Johan Slager on guitar, Cees van Leeuwen on bass, and drummer Pim Koopman. They began as a symphonic progressive rock act with an emphasis on the songwriting, and their 1973 debut album 'See See The Sun' is often cited as their best record, and their biggest contribution to the symphonic prog genre. The band use many of the classic progressive/symphonic instruments, such as moog and mellotron, and their second, eponymous album in 1974 was a good continuation of their melodic progressive rock style. In 1975 they released their third superb prog-rock album in 'Royal Bed Bouncer', featuring some longer compositions, and 1976's 'The Last Encore' contained perhaps the most original music that the band created in their progressive period. After this they wanted to improve their record sales and so changed direction to a more commercial sound, with 1977's 'Starlight Dancer' and 1979's 'Phantom Of The Night' being their most commercially successful albums. In 1981 they released their prog/pop crossover album 'Merlin', and shortly afterwards the group disbanded. Twenty years later they reconvened, and the second phase of their career commenced with the strong symphonic/crossover album 'Into the Fire' in 2000, but this collection of rare singles and b-sides concentrates on that first phase, from their beginnings in 1971 as The High Tide Formation, through to a split single with fellow Dutchmen Earth And Fire in 1981, to commemorate the Monte Carlo Rally. 
     

Track listing

01 Fluffy (single by The High Tide Formation 1971)
02 White Walls (b-side of 'Fluffy')
03 Try To Write A Book (b-side of 'Lyrics' 1973)
04 Give It A Name (b-side of 'See See The Sun' 1973)
05 We Are Not Amused (single) 
06 Bulldozer (out-take 1974)  
07 Ballad For A Lost Friend (b-side of 'Phantom Of The Night' 1979)
08 I Want You To Be Mine (extended version for US album 1977)   
09 Ivory Dance (b-side of 'Ruthless Queen' 1979)                        
10 Theme From 'Spetters' (Part II) (b-side of 'Lost Blue Chartres' 1980)
11 Total Loss (single 1980)
12 What's Done Is Done (b-side of 'Total Loss')
13 Monte Carlo Rally (No Total Loss) (split single with Earth And Fire 1981)
14 The Car Enchanter (single 1981)

Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant / Karl Pilkington - The Ricky Gervais Show - Series Five (2008)

Series 5 consisted of four more episodes, released on 15 September 2008 through the iTunes Store. This series was released all at once as an Audiobook, almost two hours in length and split into four half-hour episodes. It differs from previous series as they were all recorded at the same time, and there are no contests or any interaction from the listeners.

Track listing

01 Episode 1

02 Episode 2

03 Episode 3

04 Episode 4

The Teardrop Explodes - Kirby Workers Dream Fades (1982)

The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978, who are probably best known for their Top Ten UK single 'Reward'. The group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970's, including such groups as Echo And The Bunnymen, Big In Japan, Wah! Heat, and OMD. The group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope, who had arrived in Merseyside in 1976 as a student. His first band was Crucial Three, with two native Liverpudlians – Ian McCulloch (later of Echo & The Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie (who went on to form Wah!) – in which Cope served as bass player. Cope and Wylie briefly teamed up in The Nova Mob, along with future Banshees drummer Budgie, but they only lasted for one gig before Cope reunited with McCulloch in the similarly short-lived Uh! Cope and McCulloch went on to form a fourth group, A Shallow Madness, but their ongoing ego clashes led to McCulloch leaving the band during rehearsals, ultimately to form Echo and the Bunnymen. Cope, meanwhile, had befriended Liverpool scenester Gary 'Rocky' Dwyer and had suggested a new band name to him – The Teardrop Explodes, taken from a panel caption in the Marvel comic strip Daredevil # 77. With Cope taking on the roles of singer and bass guitarist, The Teardrop Explodes was completed by recruiting Paul Simpson and Mick Finkler from the wreck of A Shallow Madness, and proved a more hardy gigging proposition than its predecessors. The band were soon signed as label act and management clients to the up-and-coming Liverpool indie label Zoo Records, run by former Dalek I Love You & Big In Japan bass player David Balfe and future KLF man Bill Drummond. Another act on the label was Echo & The Bunnymen, who maintained a love/hate relationship and continuing rivalry with the Teardrops throughout their existence. 

The band released their first single 'Sleeping Gas' in February 1979, following which Simpson left the band by mutual consent after Cope decided that his stage presence was over-shadowing his own. His initial replacement was Ged Quinn, who played on the band's subsequent British tour, but Dave Balfe had also been lobbying for full Teardrops membership for a while, and by July 1979 he'd succeeded in ousting Quinn and taking his place as keyboard player. The band's next single was 'Bouncing Babies', and it inspired a tribute song of its own in 'I Can't Get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies, which was an ode to the difficulty of obtaining a copy of the record. In February 1980 the band released their third and final single on Zoo Records, 'Treason', which was recorded in London with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, and in the summer of that year they began recording their debut album 'Kilimanjaro' at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire. It was during these recording sessions that Mick Finkler was fired, as Cope considered his attitude too complacent, and he was replaced by Balfe's Dalek I Love You colleague Alan Gill. In November 1980, Gill left The Teardrop Explodes, claiming not to enjoy the touring lifestyle, being replaced by former Shake guitarist Troy Tate, but by now Cope and Balfe's abrasive relationship had worsened to the point that Balfe was ousted as group keyboard player, although he continued to be involved with management. Their next single was a song that Gill had brought in before he left, and which was finished and released as 'Reward', reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The band relocated to London to take advantage of their growing success, although by now Cope was retreating into a drugged lifestyle and beginning a period of unrestrained megalomania. In March, the band played their first American dates, and another single from the album, 'When I Dream', received airplay on progressive radio in the U.S., introducing the group to new fans. 

On their return to the UK, the band recorded the song 'Passionate Friend', which was allegedly about Cope's brief recent relationship with Ian McCulloch's sister, further increasing the friction between Cope and his former bandmate. The single reached No. 25 in the UK chart, and expectations were high for the band's second album 'Wilder', which was recorded in London during November 1981 with a nucleus of Cope, Dwyer, Tate and Balfe. Unlike the first album, which was more of a band effort, Wilder was mostly the work of Cope, who took sole songwriting credit on every track on the album, and it was a bleaker, more sombre work than its predecessor. Singles were released from the album, but they mostly missed the top 40, and by now Balfe had developed an interest in writing songs and lobbied to join Cope as band songwriter, with Cope retained predominantly as singer and frontman. In September 1982, the band reconvened at Rockfield Studios to record their third album around the nucleus of Cope, Dwyer and Balfe. Creative tensions were high, as Cope wanted to write ballads and quirky pop songs, while Balfe was more interested in recording synth-based music. Balfe took over the sessions and locked Cope and Dwyer out of the studios for much of the time, but Cope hated Balfe's instrumentals, and walked out of the sessions with only part of the singing done and the album incomplete, quitting the band after a disastrous UK tour to which they'd already been been committed before the fractious recording sessions. In February 1983, Mercury Records released a delayed (and now posthumous) Teardrop Explodes EP, 'You Disappear From View', which included songs salvaged from the aborted third album, but it performed poorly, and was that last official release from the band. Many of the singles they released had exclusive b-sides, and a few of these were collected together on the 'Piano' album in 1995, but none of their songs after 1980 were included, and so I'd always felt that it needed an upgrade to include the rest of their tracks which never appeared on their albums. It's topped off with their contribution to the Zoo compilation album 'To The Shores Of Lake Placid' in 1982, and I've housed it in a sleeve based around the Daredevil comic which gave them their name.  

Track listing

01 Sleeping Gas (single 1979)
02 Camera Camera (b-side of 'Sleeping Gas')
03 Kirby Workers Dream Fades (b-side of 'Sleeping Gas')
04 Bouncing Babies (single 1979)
05 All I Am Is Loving You (b-side of 'Bouncing Babies')
06 Kilimanjaro (b-side of 'When I Dream' 1980)
07 Read It In Books (b-side of 'Treason' 1980)
08 Window Shopping For A New Crown Of Thorns (b-side of 'Colours Fly Away' 1981)
09 Christ vs. Warhol (b-side of 'Passionate Friend' 1981)
10 Reward (single 1981)
11 Strange House In The Snow (b-side of 'Reward')
12 East Of The Equator (bonus track on 'Wilder' re-issue 2013)
13 Use Me (b-side of 'Treason' remix 1981)
14 Rachael Built A Steamboat (b-side of 'Tiny Children' 1982)
15 Take A Chance (from the 'To The Shores Of Lake Placid' Zoo compilation 1982)

Neighb'rhood Childr'n - Yesterday's Thoughts (1969)

The Neighb'rhood Childr'n were an American psychedelic pop/rock band from San Francisco, California., who started in 1963 in Phoenix, Oregon as The Navarros, playing surf music and R&B. The original members were Rick Bolz, George Gleim, Dyan Hoffman, John Morrison, and Gary Campbell, and after cutting a single on a local Oregon label, the band began recording in San Francisco and got caught up in the psychedelic rock movement. Morrison was drafted and replaced by Tom Ryan on drums, and later Campbell and Gleim joined the reserve, and Ryan also decided to quit the band. These three were replaced by Ron Raschdorf on guitar and W. A. Farrens on drums, and this is the line-up that recorded their self-titled album on the Acta label as Neighb'rhood Childr'n, which was released in 1968. They toured constantly in support of the album, opening for The Who, The Grass Roots, Deep Purple, and The Beau Brummels and going on a short tour with The Turtles, but after encountering problems on tour, the band developed a religious focus and changed their name to White Horse. A second album that was recorded for Dot Records was not released because of the closure of the company, and as the couldn't find another label to release their second album, the group disbanded in 1970. Their sound was compared to that of Jefferson Airplane, especially because of the vocal interplay between Dyan Hoffman and Rick Bolz, and their Atco album is well worth seeking out by fans of the genre. The songs they recorded for their second album have turned up on compilations, mixed in with tracks from the Atco release, along with others recorded before the album came out, and so this album extracts just those unreleased recordings, and adds in their very first, non-album single from 1968, as well as a rare promo single from 1969, to make up a great album of late 60's psychedelia from an unjustly over-looked band. 

Track listing

01 That's What's Happening (previously unreleased 1967)
02 Sunday Afternoon (previously unreleased 1968)
03 Can't Buy Me Love (previously unreleased 1968)
04 I Want Action (single 1968)
05 Little Black Egg (previously unreleased 1967)
06 Tomorrow's Gone (previously unreleased 1967)
07 Louie Louie (previously unreleased 1967)
08 I Need Love (previously unreleased 1967)
09 Yesterday's Thoughts (previously unreleased 1967)
10 On Our Way (promo single 1969)
11 Woman Think (b-side of 'On Our Way')
12 Behold The Lillies (b-side of 'I Want Action')
13 Feeling Zero (alternate take 1967)
14 Long Years In Space (alternate take 1967)

Peter Cook - The Musings of E. L. Wisty (1988)

After posting the recent Pete & Dud audio clips, I wondered if there might be any rare recordings of that other stalwart of Peter Cook's repertoire, E. L. Wisty. Most of the best of his musings are gathered together on the brilliant 'The Misty Mr Wisty' album, so I wasn't expecting to find too much, and I was right. Apart from the sketches featured on the record, he did appear on some other shows throughout the 60's, first being seen on 'Beyond The Fringe' in 1964, and then on 'The Braden Beat' in 1965. He made a comeback in the 70's, when he appeared on the Secret Policeman's Ball series, and then later on in the 80's he showed up on 'Saturday Night Live'. Lastly, there's an advert for Pontins Holiday Camp from 1988 to close the album, and there was just enough material to make an nice album-length post, which I've cleaned up as best I can, so hope you enjoy it.  

Track listing

01 Macism (1965)

02 Spinach (The Braden Beat 1965)

03 Experiences Down The Mine (Beyond The Fringe 1964)

04 Interesting Facts (Pleasure At Her Majesty's 1976)

05 The Asp (The Secret Policeman's Ball 1976)

06 From Beyond The Veil (Pleasure At Her Majesty's 1976)

07 Bags Shelley Winters (Saturday Night Live 1986)

08 Pontins advert (1988)

Allan Holdsworth - ...and on guitar (1978)

The premise of this series is to showcase famous guitarist's guest appearances on other people's records, but Allan Holdsworth had such an individual career that for this post it will be slightly different. Holdsworth is a unique musician, who is held in high regard by both his fans and his peers, and yet his career is quite fragmented, in that he tended to join a band, record one album with them, and then leave to move on, in effect becoming the guest musician in his own life.

Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford on 6th August 1946, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather Sam Holdsworth was a jazz pianist who had previously moved to London to pursue a career in music, but he eventually returned to Bradford. Holdsworth was given his first guitar at the age of 17, receiving his initial music tuition from his grandfather, and his professional career began when he joined the Glen South Band, which performed on the Mecca club circuit across Northern England. His first recordings were in 1969 with the band 'Igginbottom on their lone release, ''Igginbottom's Wrench', on which he also sang and wrote most of the music. In 1971 he joined Sunship, an improvisational band featuring keyboardist Alan Gowen, future King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir and bassist Laurie Baker, but although they played live, they never released any recorded material. The following year he teamed up with Nucleus leader Ian Carr, and played on Carr's solo album 'Belladonna', before moving on to join progressive rock band Tempest, and recording their self-titled debut studio album in 1973. Leaving Tempest, he then joined Soft Machine, playing on their 'Bundles' album, then leaving them to join The New Tony Williams Lifetime and playing on their 'Believe It' album. 

Another move in 1976 found him in Gong, and recording their progressive jazz/fusion album 'Gazeuse!', before joining Jean-Luc Ponty to play on his 'Enigmatic Ocean', and in 1978 he was off again to team up with Bill Bruford for his 'Feels Good To Me' record, before Bruford formed the progressive rock supergroup U.K. with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson, and invited Holdsworth to join them, where he played on their first album before leaving them. Whilst U.K. continued with different musicians, Bruford returned to the core line-up of his solo band now simply named Bruford, with Holdsworth retained as guitarist, and their second album 'One Of A Kind' was released in 1979. At this point Holdsworth was ready to pursue his own musical aspirations and soon left the group, teaming up first with Gordon Beck, and then Gary Husband, and by 1982 he'd released his first album as bandleader, with I.O.U.'s self-titled record. After eleven solo albums, and constant touring to promote them, he passed away on 15th April 2017, with his death attributed to high blood pressure. 

Holdsworth's mercurial career has covered many bands, sometimes going back to play with them again years later, but the one thing they all have in common is that their music was enhanced by his inventive guitar playing. Holdsworth was known for his highly advanced knowledge of music theory, through which he incorporated a vast array of complex chord progressions, often using unusual chord shapes in an abstract way based on his understanding of 'chord scales', and intricate improvised solos, frequently across shifting tonal centres. He used a myriad of scale forms often derived from those such as the lydian, diminished, harmonic major, augmented, whole tone, chromatic and altered scales, among others, often resulting in an unpredictable and dissonant 'outside' sound. His unique legato soloing technique stemmed from his original desire to play the saxophone, but unable to afford one, he strove to use the guitar to create similarly smooth lines of notes. His guitar style really was unique, and he continues to be cited as an influence by other musicians to this day. 

Track listing

01 Golden Lakes (from ''Igginbottom's Wrench' by 'Igginbottom 1969)

02 Hector's House (from 'Belladonna' by Ian Carr 1972)

03 Up And On (from 'Tempest' by Tempest 1973)

04 Land Of The Bag Snake (from 'Bundles' by Soft Machine 1975)

05 Proto Cosmas (from 'Believe It' by The New Tony Williams Lifetime 1975)

06 Expresso (from 'Gazeuse!' by Gong 1976)

07 Enigmatic Ocean Part III (from 'Enigmatic Ocean' by Jean-Luc Ponty 1977)

08 If You Can't Stand The Heat...' (from 'Feels Good To Me' by Bruford 1978)

09 Nevermore (from 'U.K.' by U.K. 1978)

David Bowie - Silhouettes And Shadows (1980)

'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)' was released on 12 September 1980 by RCA Records, and was Bowie's final studio album on the label, and his first following the Berlin Trilogy, which, although considered significant in artistic terms,  had proven less successful commercially. With 'Scary Monsters...', Bowie achieved what has been said was a perfect balance of creativity and mainstream success. The album garnered critical acclaim and peaked at No. 1, attaining Platinum status in the UK, and restoring Bowie's commercial standing in the US.

During the recordings sessions, the songs gradually evolved from the sketches of melodies and lyrics that Bowie brought to the studio, and some started out with different titles until they evolved into the finished recording. 'Fashion' began as 'Jamaica', but unable to think of anything to write, Bowie discarded the song until late in the recording cycle, when it was transformed into the piece that appears on the album. 'Ashes To Ashes' started out as 'People Are Turning To Gold', 'Teenage Wildlife' as 'It Happens Everyday' and 'Scream Like A Baby' as 'Laser'. This song was actually written in 1973, and recorded by Ava Cherry and the Astronettes as 'I Am A Laser', and it was demoed by Bowie during the sessions for 'Young Americans' in 1975. 'Is There Life After Marriage?' was fully written and recorded for the album, but for unknown reasons it was never included. 'Scary Monsters...' has always been a favourite of mine, and so I was intrigued to find a bootleg of alternate versions of nearly all the songs, with only 'Fashion' not appearing on it. With a little re-jigging of the running order to match the parent album, and a new title and artwork, we have an alternate look at 'Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)', with the only track sounding out of place being the supposed 'disco mix' of 'Ashes To Ashes', which just seems to me to have the intros extended, but I've left it on as, if it is legitimate, then it has never been officially issued. 

Track listing

01 It's No Game (No. 1) (Alternate version)
02 Cameras In Brooklyn (aka 'Up The Hill Backwards')
03 Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (Alternate version)
04 Ashes To Ashes (12" disco remix)
05 Is There Life After Marriage? (previously unreleased)
06 It Happens Everyday (aka 'Teenage Wildlife')
07 Laser (aka 'Scream Like A Baby')
08 Kingdom Come (Alternate version)
09 Because I'm Young (Alternate version) 
10 Tired Of My Life (It's No Game No. 2) (demo 1970)

Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant / Karl Pilkington - The Podfather Trilogy (Series Four) (2006)

The fourth series of The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts was slightly different to the first three, in that it was billed as a trilogy, entitled 'The Podfather', and the three free podcasts were released to coincide with special days. The first was released on 31 October 2006, to coincide with Halloween, the next was on 23 November 2006, commemorating Thanksgiving, and the last was released on 24 December 2006, to celebrate Christmas. 

Track listing

01 Halloween       (31/10/2006)
02 Thanksgiving   (23/11/2006)
03 Christmas        (24/12/2006)

Eddie Van Halen - ...and on guitar (2013)

As a tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on 6th October 2020, at the age of 65, here is a special '...and on guitar' which was put together by correspondent Zach. I didn't realise that he'd guested on quite as many albums as he did, so had passed him by, but this actually makes a really good listen, and also showcases just what a great guitarist he was.

The Van Halen brothers were born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen on 26 January 1955, and Alexander Arthur van Halen on 8 May 1953, and their father Jan was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist. In 1962, the Van Halen family moved from the Netherlands to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California, and both brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six. From 1964 through to 1967, Eddie won first place in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College, and his parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Eddie liked rock music much better, and so when Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit, but after hearing Alex's performance of the Surfaris' drum solo in the song 'Wipe Out', he gave Alex the drums and began learning how to play the electric guitar. The brothers formed their first band with three other boys, calling themselves The Broken Combs, and it was while playing in the band that he first felt the desire to become a professional musician. In 1972 Eddie and his brother Alex formed another band, and a couple of years later they changed its name to Van Halen, playing at well-known clubs like the Whisky a Go Go. In 1977, Warner Records offered Van Halen a recording contract, and their debut album of the same year reached number 19 on the Billboard pop music charts, becoming one of rock's most commercially successful debuts. By the early 1980's, Van Halen was one of the most successful rock acts of the time, and the album '1984' went five-times Platinum a year after its release. More hit albums followed over the next twenty years, and in the down-time between recording them, Eddie engaged in several projects outside of the band, including solo work and partnerships with his brother on film soundtracks, such as 'Twister', as well as musical collaborations with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, Nicolette Larson, Michael Jackson, Brian May, Sammy Hagar, Thomas Dolby, LL Cool J, and a film soundtrack with Roger Waters. Eddie famously played the solo on Jackson's 'Beat It', but as the rest of the guitar on the song was played by Steve Lukather (and also for reasons of space) I've left it off this album, although tracks by all the other artists are represented.  

Perhaps surprisingly, Eddie was also an inventor on three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension-adjusting tailpiece, and an ornamental design for a headstock.

Track listing

01 Tunnel Of Love (from 'Gene Simmons Vault' by Gene Simmons 2017, recorded 1977)

02 Can't Get Away From You (from 'Nicolette' by Nicolette Larson 1978)

03 Blues Breaker (from 'Star Fleet Project EP' by Brian May + Friends 1983)

04 Eagles Fly (from 'I Never Said Goodbye' by Sammy Hagar 1987)

05 Eastern Bloc (from 'Astronauts And Heretics' by Thomas Dolby 1991)

06 Respect The Wind (from the soundtrack of the film 'Twister' 1996)

07 If Six Was Nine (from 'Tribute To Jeff' by David Garfield 1997)

08 The Water Sings (from 'Fatherless Child' by Rich Wyman 1996) 

09 Lost Boys Calling (from the soundtrack of the film 'The Legend of 1900' 1998)

10 We're The Greatest (from 'Authentic' by LL Cool J 2013)