Bill Fay the prophet of Folk

Ok, so Bill is now all the rave with write-ups in Mojo ,Record Collector and Classic Rock Magasine, , but is it because these days so few musicians lack substance and thus we are forced to find somebody in the past that has never been lauded, or are we paying our dues, having been ignorant of such visionary's of the past. On a personal note I have been following Bill since the seventies and admittedly being a Christian Zionist, I have found particular appeal in his apocalyptic edge specifically in the early eighties when the Haley's Comet was approaching. Well now we have a wave coming and again Billy Fay rises up like an Atlantis soothsayer. Whether you like it or not Fay is what Mad Max 111 will be listening to while cruising the Namibian sand roads of Worlds end. Alright so here is a bit of history in the making, read well brothers an sisters for this is just the beginning.

Contemplating ballads that will stand the test of time

Bill Fay a UK based singer, songwriter and pianist, in hindsight an overlooked apocalyptic sage with a vision to the future. Ex-Them drummer Terry Noon helped Bill to sign a recording contract with ‘Decca’ putting out the oddly “Some Good Advice”/”Screams In The Ears” backed by Southend band The Fingers. This was followed by the lush orchestrated album Bill Fay backed by Unit 4 Plus 2, ex Mouse / Running Man guitarist Ray Russell, Nucleus drummer John Marshall, Ray Russell Quartet bassist Daryl Runswick & drummer Alan Rushton. The brass input was courtesy of The Mike Gibbs Very Big Band enhancing the anti-war “Gentle Willie”, organic “Garden Song”, a story of spiritual quest, “Methane River” and “Goodnight Stan”, all contemplating ballads that will stand the test of time. Dispelling the string arrangements Bill then put out the raw apocalyptic Time Of The Last Persecution, largely an electric album featuring again guitarist Ray Russell expelling nimble fingerwork on (“Til The Christ Come Back” & “Come A Day”) and “Laughing Man” while the pleading “Don’t Let My Marigolds Die” and naked “Tell It Like It Is” express an artist free of pseudo trimmings.

This album did at least entrap the late John Peel who invited Bill to perform on BBC2 TV show ‘Disco 2’ and radio shows BBC Radio 1 ‘Night Ride’ and ‘Sounds Of The Seventies’. Sadly Decca’ ended Bill’s prophetic reign until the late 1970s and third and singularly most underrated Tomorrow Tomorrow & Tomorrow emerged, supported by The Acme Quartet. Hard to describe this spacy contribution, namely “The Strange Stairway”, “Spiritual Mansions” and surreal ”Cosmic Boxer”, the album highlight being “Jericho Road” a fitting epitaph to another call for repentance. In 2004 ‘Wooden Hill’ released From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock - a beautiful collection of demos 1966 - 1970 backed by Honeybus who covered “Warwick Town” and “Maxine’s Parlour” during their BBC Radio 1 Sessions. This magical album spills infectiously with “Maudy La Luna” , “Doris Comes Today”, the ethereal “Strangers In The Field” and sublime “Brighton Beach”. Bill’s songs have inspired many, namely Wilco, songwriter/producer Jim O’Rourke, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and David Michael of Current 93. A cover version of Fay's, "Pictures of Adolf Again", by producer Jim O 'Rourke and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, can be heard in Koji Wakamatsu’s film United Red Army. The title track of "Time of the Last Persecution" became a live standard of the Brit Apocalyptic Current 93. Fay is due to release a new album entitled Still Some Light.

Great Guitarists -Just Waffling

Great Guitarists –just waffling

Attempting to unravel the greatest guitar riffs of the past not even the glorified Rolling Stone Magazine will attempt and with good reason. The controversy and debate that could swell from such an undertaking may cause loss of readership largely because nobody digs their heroes being gutted. Albeit opinion the statements must have some credibility and although not fully agreed upon will at least have a nod of approval from the more astute rock aficionados of the world. Let’s talk speed and I don’t mean ‘thresher metal’, I mean speed with dexterity, in my heyday Mahavishnu Orchestra- "Lila’s Dance" had no equals but John cLaughlin’s guitar was still too overlaid compared to the holy grail of Alvin Lee’s riffs at Klooks Kleek Railway Hotel, yes I’m talking Woody Herman’s “Woodchopper’s Ball” where you can hear every freaking note, sussed and emulated by the Irish dynamo Rory Gallagher when he executes Dobro with similar dexterity. I suppose speed is not everything, so lets talk application and technique, and few would challenge the sustaining crescendo of Carlos Santana, sheer class in every aspect. Although often forgotten is that Carlos failed terribly in the blues, err yes he did, were they not initially called The Santana Blues Band ?? You can't blame him once he saw that young Jewish cat called Mike Bloomfield cradle the guitar like a baby and nimbly reach into delta restrain. Application application !! you gonna love or hate me but Frank Zappa really knew how to apply and sometimes so freaking fast but his riffs were often gestures leaving you with the thought, ‘could he keep it up,’ when he did the riffs became indecipherable just like another great guitarist called Robert Fripp of King Crimson who also tended to hammer into abstract and bizarre scales deemed 'Fripptronics' .

Ok Jimi Hendrix ! you've been waiting for this and I so wished to keep him out of this debate, but you can’t and why not, simply because he is out of this world from blues to psyche, even his acoustic is outstanding, a blues qualification I would like to have attributed more to Stephen Stills, Davey Graham or Jorma Kaukonan, my fuck the latter could surprise you in a mean way, ‘I’m talking Hot Tuna baby’. 

The blues vibrato of say Paul Kossoff or heavy loaded Robin Trower have few competitors but even Gary Moore ‘and I don’t dig him’ because his roots are rock has to be commended for fulfilling his obligations. Untouchable blues tone can only be Peter Green while Snowy White came close, yet the frazzled torso of Jimmy Page’s blues is so infectious , sexual and oh so freaking nice, Page makes love to his blues, its erotic and oozes, you cannot resist it. ‘God’ Clapton, sorry ignore that, Eric hates it also, was more traditional in application but very finally tuned and sweet as mothers milk, overrated yes, but for damn good reason, except oh sheet!…as Clapton remarked when Mr Roy Buchanan held those sustaining notes, hate to say this, even sweeter than ‘Slow ‘Hand, well until Roy starts overlaying and everything gets a bit distorted, ‘he always freaking does that’.

I will put Duane Allman up there, how can I not, he upstaged Clapton on numerous occasions and Clapton was in awe of him, certainly the best blues slide guitarist ever, My favourite blues man was Les Harvey of Stone The Crows, (personal yes) but he had something I have never heard with anybody else, up to you to check that out otherwise you would never believe me. 

When it comes to class rhythm blues , don’t underestimate Steve Miller and Chris Spedding, they ejaculated twang style and with such finesse’ Ok as a blues all rounder I have to give Mick Taylor full points , have not heard anybody better , his live blues execution is phenomenal, flawless and gives me shivers. Getting back to Prog technique, Richie Blackmore and Trevor Rabin get full points for their determined salvo riffs, while the dense frenetic complex axe runs of Steve Howe were unique for its time. Steve Hackett of Genesis knew timing like few before him and the balance between acoustic and electric was incredible, although these days the latter seems to have overwhelmed. But what of the underrated guitarists that seemed to always be absent from the polls, I’m talking Clem Clempson, whom Jack Bruce regards as one of the best and I cannot argue. Then Miller Anderson of Keef Hartley Band or silent Stones guitarist Harvey Mandel who could ignite sporadically and create fierce and very fast riffs, a.k.a Canned Heat live? Another favourite of mine was Brian Parrish from Badger, John Hedley of Every Which Way and Gong’s Steve Hilage, but the latter does get a bit boring with his glissando riffs.  Here I go again, Les Harvey Stone the Crows live at The BBC has no equals? Ok so all this is so freaking retro but these days its all flash and showmanship, the two last great guitarists that held me was Stevie Ray Vaughn but keep comparing him to his mentor Hendrix and the blind guitarist Jeff Healy, shoo! that cat has serious revelation but then again don't forget I'm just waffling.........

The fundamental difference between King Crimson and the Prog Brit cartel

The fundamental difference between King Crimson and the Prog Brit cartel

Wading through the countless Prog Rivers and endless streams of England’s Progressive tide however magical, cannot be described as a wondrous Tolkienistic endurance of Dr Robert Moog’s resurrection and eventual demise. The causeway has valleys of unreachable dimension and between those undulating plains, hidden crevices and jagged cliffs lies a beast of enigmatic proportion called King Crimson that will grind your senses to a pulp. What I am saying is that the barbed wire crescendo of King Crimson is incomparable to say the Latimer’ guitar (B Marvin) riffs of Camel , the Anglo Saxon tales of the synth Genesis or Canterbury mellotron delights of viola flavoured Caravan.

Fripp's Crimson was delusional and bizarre throwing you into turmoil and over the precipice in once instant and then soothing you in the next with Lake’s pastoral vox and mellotron manicured soundscapes. 

But don’t get comfortable in the courts of that Crimson magician because Fripp reinvents himself with each album as in the anguishing ‘Wake Of The Poseidon’ or jazz abstract ‘Lizard’, I mean Tippet’s input was far from accessible compared to say Yes vocalist Jon Anderson's lengthy contribution, adding sanity to the ‘Lizard’s’ shape shifting metamorphosis. Fripp was continually churning out bizarre landscapes, often rancid with jazz invocations and off beat structures, while Camel pursued a more consistent plain of synth conceptual creations wonderfully augmented by Bardens’ characteristic keys, yet it was primarily Latimer’s guitar that always took frontal. Only in the latter seventies did those Camel ridden trails enter a saxophonist drone, although notably never sliding into a jazz incline. The revolving door of keyboardists and Mel Collins’ soaring escapades may have distanced some Camel riders, albeit in flow with the changing tide of the seventies. Even Caravan, a Canterbury marvel who could whip up astounding live synth battles had moments of morose gesticulation, (John Peel nodded off to some of the more wavering BBC mellotron trials)

Genesis was consistently the most original Brit Prog band with its determined lyrical richness, ultimately their mainline strength even if Gabriel claimed he walked out the ‘Broadway’ machine, what a fucking machine, superbly oiled and far from the endless striving of Yes’ Topographical dimensions. 

Genesis’ ‘Lamb’ offered short tasteful morsels of mellotron coupled with astounding drum scales, Hackett was so in the crease that one hardly noticed that it was guitar and not keyboards. Crimson went from bizarre to bludgeoning vibrato after Wetton made his glorious entry, but not the quite the finesse of the Crimson courts. Caravan trails dismembered sadly at Waterloo and some blundering bulldog with no more water at any oasis, but refilled graciously with the jazzy Hatfield & the North and National Health, the latter nothing to do with Thatcher but more the enlightened slant of Mr Robert Wyatt, six guns fully drawn for the ‘shipbuilding’ Falklands. Possibly the closet relative ‘bastard’ to Fripp’s inventive prognosis would be Hammill’s Van der Graaf Generator , a more Gothic somber splendor, but far more refined as time goes by than the relentless ravaging of Crimson’s saber warriors.

Van Der Graaf was wonderfully ugly, sensationally awkward and as real as rough gravel, a far cry from the adult contemporary pleasurable Renaissance fronted by a blonde beauty called Annie Haslam.  

Hammill’s lyrical magnum force, arguably the best in Britain, moreover globally was a force to be reckoned with that even Gabriel stood in awe of. Yet beyond the brightness and lightness of the chosen few the likes of Julien J Saverin, Gravy Train, Audience, Beggars opera and Curved Air were busy carving an indelible stamp on the more discerning mass of Prog lovers. Across the channel Germany was logistically at the forefront of the Prog revolution, sadly deemed ‘Krautrock’ an inherent stab at historical enemies that even vented at the soccer stadium. In sheer numbers their Prog bands outnumbered Britain, 10 to 1 but that’s another story?

The rise or fall of Internet Radio

History 

The enigma of multimedia, the looming vulture that perches ominously over every terrestrial station, the rise of internet radio that has arrived like ‘District Nine’ and many are not quite sure what to do about it. Ironically 'Internet radio' first streamed into partial existence the year that Nelson Mandela took power in South Africa when ‘Whole Wheat Radio’ in Alaska launched its debut broadcast across the barren snow-capped mountains of the Rockies. Not quite at grips with their revolutionary momentum, ‘Whole Wheat Radio’ gave seed to grunge nurtured Seattle who transmitted the trans group Sky Cries Mary on Nov 10th, 1994, through Paul Allen’s digital media ‘Starwave’. Literally a week later the Rolling Stones concert was the "first major cyberspace multicast concert," but an air of negativity by Mick Jagger quoting” I wanna say a special welcome to everyone that's, uh, climbed into the Internet tonight and, uh, has got into the M –Bone and I hope it doesn't all collapse? So what is' Internet radio', some student sitting in a UCT residence with an Apple laptop transmitting the latest Kings of Leon or is their more to the mix than the IT fix. 

The Stats & facts

Internet radio is commonly known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio, web-casting, an audio service transmitted via the internet. The reason for 'Internet radio' has many dimensions, firstly Internet radio services are largely accessible from anywhere in the world, secondly are cost effective to start up, thirdly they are the very actualization of the present day multi-medium platform, i.e. as hip as it gets. Initially 'Internet Radio' provided a niche for specific genre’s that don’t get commercial radio play e.g. Prog Rock, Jazz, Surf Guitar, Grunge etc or more strategically a communication medium over great landscapes where repeaters are far and few between. Amidst predictions as much as they rise as much as they fall, but numbers mean nothing in the mouth of a revolution. More importantly Edison research, in 2000 found that three quarters (74%) of American teenagers and young adults regularly listened to radio, yet by 2010 that had dropped to 41%. At the same time, listening to audio on the Internet had grown from 16% to 42% – overtaking conventional radio in this segment.

South African Front (WP) So what’s happening on the WP local front, possibly the first on the streaming wagon was visionary Mark Shuttleworth’s educational station ‘Hip2B2Radio’ followed closely by local pioneers ‘2Oceans Vibe Radio’ under the sturdy arm of Richard Hardiman & Seth Rotherman, son of renowned McCulley’s Workshop pianist Rupert Mellor. ‘2Oceans Vibe Radio’ gives you the buzz of what’s happening on the hip front backed by Seth Rotherman’s bizarre yet colorful interactive Blog, singularly the largest in the country. These cyber cats don’t do jingles but all shows are sponsored while music may be Podcast at various times. Presently Cape Town Internet radio has mushroomed with ex KFM (The Unicorn) Richard Griggs’ ‘Zone Radio’ entering a non- political space by playing quality music, largely requests backed by capable presenters e.g. Justine Hoskins ‘the voice of Killarney racing’ etc. Richard has strongly focused on training presenters while oddly still presenting jazz on ‘Fine Music Radio’. ‘Zone Radio’’ flexes its Facebook interface as the tool to gauge listenership and entice audience. Ex Cape Talk celebrity Soli Philander veered back into his thriving community with the much pouted ‘Taxi’, an interactive talk radio with precise feedback from the community and its happenings, boasting the real story without blurring of the truth. In and amongst his comrades is jazz aficionado Eric Allan, another ‘Fine Music Radio’ exile. Over the mountain in another country yet so near is ‘R&R radio’ (Republic Radio in Houtbay) giving adult contemporary music to a refined listenership under the focused guidance of Tom Purcell, another FMR veteran.

The calculated cost 

The real question has the market and Ad agencies recognized the power of multi-media marketing, I think not and bandwidth although cheaper and faster, still not in line with US traction. The recent announcement by Neotel and its 8000.000 plus loss, with Telkom still owning the last kilometer paints a not so rosy picture for the expectant cheaper and quicker bandwidth. Ironically whether it’s the terrestrial BBC, SABC or even ‘Fine Music radio’ and ‘Cape Talk’, there is little audio broadcast content that cannot be accessed online. Globally Internet radio has taken off strongly in Germany /USA and Australia while (Aunty BeeB) BBC vanquished most with her regulation laws, ‘I guess still recovering from those pirates that rocked the boat, Luxembourg Radio / Radio London / Carolina etc’. Presently governing authorities AKASA / Sentech have remained distantly silent over the Internet Radio revolution while presently the only authority over Webcasting is ‘SAMRO’ giving royalty where royalty is due. Yes ‘Internet Radio’ does not have the admin and AKASA overheads of terrestrial radio stations but neither do they have the drive-time accessibility or amps documentation to prove their listenership to Advertising agencies. Sadly and predicted by myself confirmed by Shawn Dewberry- where he slates the listener statistics provided by local online radio stations in SA, saying that they are "complete fabrications, utter nonsense, lies, even", confirmed below

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/53479-shocking-claims-about-online-radio-in-sa.html

With the rise of Blackberry way, a move that will jettison millions of young people into the cyber lifestyle of the MP3/ Eye pod revolution, audio streaming seems to be the way ahead but not without one major stumbling block ? A typical stream can suck up a 3 Gigabyte cap (typical for reasonable broadband connection) in 48 hours flat, which works out to roughly R15 per hour of radio. (40GB/month per listener) (Just the other day I could not help but notice that my 17year old niece on her Blackberry was mumbling that they actually warned her that that radio streaming was eating her bandwidth).

Prediction, prophecy or master of their own realty

The irony of present Internet radio stations is that not one have embraced the survival code of audio streaming as across the waters by providing a specific niche genre of music such as jazz, Prog Rock , Grunge, Blues, Folk Music, Heavy Metal, World Music etc. All present internet radio stations have tried to emulate a terrestrial Station and even though defining an individual character, not exclusive, due to presenters not knowledgeable to a particular genre of music. The reason , most stations are run by past popular radio presenters that have been given the boot and thus need a voice.

Two more posing threats lie brooding in the macro autocracy of SABC, opening up the AM frequency to small independent radios stations, presently only Cape Talk very alive and well, the last a Gandalf soothsayer to all said and done, the dreaded Pirate Radio Station, imagine ‘Robben Island Radio’, ‘The Flying Dutchman’ from some yacht or an acid beatnik from in his kombi parked off next to a mountain which is impossible to trace. ‘Cape Town calling to the underground metal heads, acid beatniks, Prog rock nerds and jazz aficionados, come out of your caves, communal flats and small town organic retirement and start the revolution’. About 10years ago Music Webmaster Brian Currin & Steve ‘Sugar’ Siegerman (Mabu Vinyl) launched SA Rock Digest to the disinterested attention of Music Giants and Ad agencies. This ignorance of the multimedia platform was disastrous and only now music shops race to fill their houses with Eye Pods / MP3 players. Will audio streaming be a threat to terrestrial stations? Hey it’s ‘District Nine’ all over and the prawns are rising?

Shiloh Noone (Radio Presenter/Rock Author)