Stop! Stop! Stop! The Hollies live on German TV!

Without a doubt a very successful band at home they didn't enjoy the same success in the USA but were among the top groups in some European countries like Sweden and Germany.
The Hollies on Beat Club 1966

Here are a couple of great live appearances from two different German shows.
The first one is from "Beat Club" 1966 and the band performs "Look through any window", "Very last day" and "I can't let go".
The Hollies on Beat Beat Beat 1967

The second is from "Beat Beat Beat" 1967 and they start with "On a carousel" followed by "Bus Stop" and "Stop stop stop".
This is The Hollies at their very best a band that's not always given the right recognition by some but they were absolutely magical with a knack for very catchy melodies and able to reproduce their vocal harmonies on the live stage just as well as on the records.
They put several albums and singles out, and of course with so much stuff being released not everything is great but almost!
Despite the odd weak track here and there I strongly recommend their self-titled 1965 LP and those released in the following two years: "Would you believe" and "For Certain Because" from 1966, "Evolution" and "Butterfly" from 1967.
Meanwhile here are as a taster those 10 UK 45s between 1965-1967 with some great B-sides that never made it onto the official UK LPs, "King Midas in reverse" being a personal fave of mine among those.





http://www.shareonall.com/HOLLIES_45s_xibr_rar.htm
Hope you enjoy it!

Those Kinks...Live and Wild on TV!

While we often look for undiscovered or forgotten bands, lost masterpieces and so forth, a lot of the times after the initial excitement we are left with some records that we won't go back to in a hurry...what am I going to listen to now?
But of course: The Kinks!

I don't need to be in any particular mood, give me The Kinks ANYTIME!
I wanted to post a couple of clips a while ago and since I've noticed The Kinks in few blogs lately here they are!
My little tribute to one of the greatest bands ever!
There are many great clips, like their "Beat Beat Beat" appearance in Germany, several ones from US and UK TV and many more that were shown at the time in the different European countries.
The Kinks Live & Wild, 1964!!!

Here are The Kinks going mental in 1964 on "The Beat Room", it must be one of their wildest TV appearances ever, also a nice live take of "Milkcow Blues" from US TV show "Shindig" with Dave Davies on lead vocals.
The Kinks Live on Shindig 1965!

ENJOY IT!

More African Soundz!

This time we start with a sort of Continental anthem all the way from Kenya, then you get more from Ghana and Nigeria, the unmistakable Ethiopian sounds of Mulatu Astaqé (also found with different spelling...) and others and one I'm not too sure where they came from.
One of the most entertaining tracks here comes from Zaire (that's how The Democratic Republic of the Congo was called at the time of this recording) and it's perhaps one of the most African sounding...clocking at over 12 mins I love the way it changes around the middle to then go back to its initial groove.
Dig it!

01 Steele Beautttah Africa KENYA
02 Orlando Julius & His Afro Sounders New Apala Afro NIGERIA
03 The Ogyatanaa Show Band Ageisheka GHANA
04 Christy Azuma and Uppers International Naam GHANA
05.Dionisio Rocha Lemba ANGOLA
06. Bahta Gebre Heywet Gizie ETHIOPIA
08.The Uhuru Dance Band Agbadza GHANA
09.Uppers Chapter 2 Samarin Bolga GHANA
10.Dackin Dackino Yuda ZAIRE
11.Sorry Mamba Porry
12.Mulatu Astaqé Yègellé Tezeta ETHIOPIA

http://www.shareonall.com/AFRIKA_1_poae_rar.htm

Africa...Oh Africa!

Lately I noticed few bloggers complaining about not receiving enough comments...
Back in February I posted one of three African comps I had made for my sister, promising more if people enjoyed it...I never received any comments whatsoever (hold on! One positive comment but under a different post...) but do you know what?
It's probably the other way round...the less comments you find the more people liked the music!
I'm only kidding, but after a quick look I noticed how the number of people who downloaded my African comp was almost double when compared to most of my other posts.
Conclusions: I'd love to hear from somebody who liked it but I couldn't care less if you can't be bothered...meanwhile here is another African comp with artists coming from NIGERIA, GHANA, ANGOLA, ETHIOPIA and others also featuring early stuff by Fela Kuti, once again this is for "beginners" if you're a fan of this stuff you'll know all or most of it...

01.Fela Kuti Laise Lairo
02.Fela Kuti Omuti Tide
03.The Black Star Sound Nite Safari
04.Ngoma Jazz Belita Kiri-kiri
05.Alemayehu Eshete Honey Baby
06.Fela Kuti Highlife Time
07.Ayalew Mesfin Hasabe
08.Fela Kuti Ololufe Mi
09.Kalle & L'Africa Team De Paris Africa Boogaloo
10.Kale with Orchestre OK Jazz Tika Nedeka No Te
11.Jimi Solanke Eje Kajo
12.Fela Kuti Wadele Wa Rohin
13.Orlando Julius & His Afro Sounders Home sweet home
14.Alemayehu Eshete Ayalqem Tedengo
15.Pedrito Ngalenga Kubata
16.Gambuzinos Kalumba
Hope you dig it as much as the first one!

http://www.shareonall.com/AFRIKA_2_vfdv_rar.htm

Love Makes Sweet Music!

A Trip on the Dear Old Soft Machine...
One of my very favourite bands here Live at the BBC in December 1967 (tracks 3-7).
It is a wonderful performance with the first couple of songs by Kevin Ayers, both great and both never issued on the Softs records.
Their first single (tracks 1 & 2) was released in February 1967 by the four piece band, with the great Robert Wyatt on spectacular drums and unique vocals, Mike Ratledge on keyboards, Kevin on bass and vocals and Australian Daevid Allen later of Gong on guitar. Both songs were written by Kevin Ayers. I always loved his stuff with The Soft Machine and obviously once he was gone it was a different story, I love their second album and even "Third" but from then on it's not really my cup of tea...Kevin Ayers would re-record several songs from this period for his solo albums but they will never sound as good!

Also recorded when they were still four are tracks 9-17, those have appeared several times over the years, they were demos recorded in April 1967 soon after their debut single . Over the next few months they recorded a bunch of songs for projected new singles like the different take of "She's gone" from a July 1967 session (track 08).
The last song on this post is the 45 version of another great Kevin Ayers composition that was on their debut album "Why are we sleeping".
Kevin left after the Softs first fantastic album and was replaced by Hugh Hopper that together with Wyatt and Ratledge went on to record a lot more stuff and appear in the bonus tracks...but what exactly is a dream and what exactly is a joke?

01 Love makes sweet music
02 Feelin reelin squeelin
03 Clarence in Wonderland
04 We know what you mean
05 A certain kind
06 Hope for happiness
07 Strangest scene (AKA Lullaby letter)
08 She's gone (45 version)
09 That's how much i need you now
10 Save yourself
11 I should've known
12 I'm so low (Jet propelled Photographs)
13 When i don't wan't you
14 Memories
15 You don't remenber
16 She's gone
17 I'd rather be with you
18 Why Are We Sleeping
Bonus tracks!

http://www.shareonall.com/SOFT_MACHINE_Love_Makes_Sweet_Music_mkwn_rar.htm

Viaggio Allucinogeno Nº 3: Armando Piazza "Suan"

This is the final part of this Psychedelic Italian Tryptich...another very rare and obscure record by a bit of a mysterious character, at least for me!
"Suan" is a very different record and came out in 1972 but apparently even then it wasn't easy to find since it was either sold at concerts or by mail.
Armando Piazza was a songwriter from Naples and he's joined here by Shawn Phillips who was living around there at the time.
Shawn, that among other things played in Donovan's best records from 1966-67, is playing bass and some guitar in this album.
It is mainly acoustic with bursts of fuzz guitar, check the spooky "The House on the hill"...it reminds me a little bit of Jake Holmes.
A second album with the backwards title of "Nuas" came out, it's not bad, more people are involved in it and it has some good tracks but overall I think it is inferior to "Suan".
Tracklist
01 Going into the sunset
02 Birds
03 In the station
04 The house on the hill
05 I met a woman
06 My friend
07 Harmony
http://www.shareonall.com/SUAN_iscl_rar.htm
UPDATE! (June 03)
Please note that thanks to some vital information I just received, I now discovered that the above tracklist is the one "put together" by Akarma that reissued both albums on one CD, the actual REAL running order is found in the comments!

Viaggio Allucinogeno Nº 2: Le Stelle di Mario Schifano

Here we are most definitely flying higher, a lot higher, reaching for the stars!

This was and still is a work of Art, starting with Mario Schifano himself,a Pop Artist that designed the beautiful cover/artwork.

In fact this record has been "translated" as a kind of Velvet Underground (Le Stelle) and Andy Warhol (Mario Schifano) of Italy.
Considering where it came from it is an astonishing record.
It is without any doubt one of the most wanted and expensive records to come out of the Italian 60s and for once rare means good!
While several bands started recording very long tracks and placed them on side two of their albums, like Love's "Da Capo" or the Seeds "A Web of Sound" here a bold decision was made. “The Last Words of Brandimarte, as taken from Orlando Furioso, with guest Peter Hartman and end; to be listened to with the TV on, but the sound off” is the opening track that will blow your mind, with around 17 minutes of improvisation, you can just imagine the band playing it live with psychedelic lightshow and art by Schifano...

It starts with the guys talking in the studio, then a girl begins what sounds like a Medieval melody, there is chaos until around 6-7 minutes in when a cool psychedelic guitar enters the frame and that's when the band seems to find some kind of path for the next 10 minutes or so.
Side two in contrast has five short and more accesible songs, having said that they don't really sound like anything else around in Italy at that time.
They were obviously not aiming at the charts...
People that witnessed their performance at the mythical "Piper Club" in Rome were certainly left with their mouths open.
The band also released a final 45 in 1968.

Their only album was called "Dedicato a..." and was released in 1967.
Here is the tracklist:
01 Le Ultime Parole di Brandimante, dall’Orlando Furioso, ospite Peter Hartman e fine (da ascoltarsi con TV accesa, senza volume
02 Molto alto
03 Susan song
04 E dopo
05 Intervallo
06 Molto lontano (a colori)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vzjjmzmjmtz/STELLE.rar