Kill Ugly Radio: Frank Zappa & Elsewhere

Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #17

Of all the live concerts in my music collection, today’s particular show had proved to be one of the most difficult to find because of it’s uniqueness and it’s rarity among live show collectors. It had been on my most wanted search list for a very, very long time. Of course, I’m talking about the group known as Mallard, formed in 1974 by Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo), Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) and Art Tripp III (Ed Marimba) after leaving Captain Beefheart‘s Magic Band. It was during Mallard’s European tour in 1976 that they performed the German TV Show ‘Rockpalast’ on September 7th, 1976.
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Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #9

As I chose today’s Sunday Big Note Listening Session, I was struck at how, over time, the details of many of these concerts and broadcasts are either lost or omitted by successive trader, poster, torrenter. Venue. Date. Location. Line-up. Important details. Indeed, most of the live music I have collected throughout the years has lacked some, if not all, of these details. Almost as important a hunt than that of the music, itself, are the details behind each concert. So was the hunt for the details behind today’s Sunday Big Note.
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Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #6

For this week’s Sunday Big Note, I’ve got a fantastic gem of a listening session in store – a soundboard of Wishone Ash from 1976. Although short (approximately one hour in length), the sound quality is excellent, and the performance, superb.
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Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #3

This week’s Sunday Big Note finds Chick Corea and Return to Forever performing at the Chateau Neuf in Oslo, Norway on the 14th of March, 1976. Return to Forever were touring to promote their sixth studio album, Romantic Warrior (the final album by this longest-lasting lineup which all tracks from today’s listening session originate). After this tour (and album) Chick Corea and Return to Forever would continue with a wholly new lineup with Stanley Clarke, producing one more studio album before disbanding.

From February 2011, Return to Forever commences a reunion world tour in Australia. The line-up, billed as Return to Forever IV, is Corea, Clarke, White, Bill Connors and Jean-Luc Ponty.

And so, without further ado, Return to Forever in Oslo, 1976:

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Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #1

Over the last few weeks and months, fellow KUR-Meisters, while compiling the various mixtapes for Kill Ugly Radio, I had an idea for an ongoing weekly “listening session” of various artists and groups, both Zappa-related along with his contemporaries, as well as others, from various field recordings, FM radio broadcasts, and internet webcasts.

I brought the idea to Barry who also shared my enthusiasm for a weekly “listening session” and he gave the project an enthusiatic green light. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a near rabid love of recorded live music, so it can pretty much be guaranteed that my contributions to the “Sunday Big Note” listening sessions will be of the “live music” variety. What the other SBN contributors will contribute, though, will be as much a surprise to me as it is to you.

Without further ado, for your listening pleasure, I present The Billy Cobham/George Duke Band at McAlister Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 18th, 1976:

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Mallard on Rockpalast, 1976

In 1974, Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo), Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) and Art Tripp III (Ed Marimba) left Captain Beefheart‘s Magic Band to form the new band, Mallard. Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame), a Magic Band fan and friend of Mark Boston, financed their eponymous album, Mallard, which resulted in their signing with Virgin Records UK in 1975. A second album, In A Different Climate, was released a year later. On this second album, George Draggota took over on drums from Tripp, John Thomas took over keyboards from John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick. These two with Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston and Sam Galpin were the band that toured Europe and performed the German TV Show ‘Rockpalast’ on September 7th, 1976.
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The Tubes, “Young and Rich” Tour, 1976

Michael Cotten, director and coordinator of The Tubes Project, has done a superb job combining still photography and the soundboard recording of The Tubes May 8th, 1976, Buffalo, New York show from their “Young and Rich” Tour.
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Philly Cheez

This just in by way of Andrew:

In a very recent interview, Dweezil said a live FZ concert circa 1976 will be released soon featuring Terry Bozzio and “a female singer”. Word is, Vaulternative will issue a CD of the Spectrum Theater in Philadelphia show from 29 October that year. Band was FZ, Bozzio, Ray White, Patrick O’Hearn, Eddie Jobson and Bianca Thornton.

Set list was:

1. Purple Lagoon intro
2. Stink-Foot
3. Poodle Lecture
4. Dirty Love
5. Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
6. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin
7. The Torture Never Stops
8. City Of Tiny Lites (incl. The Sanzini Brothers Pyramid Trick)
9. You Didn’t Try To Call Me
10. Manx Needs Women
11. Titties ‘N’ Beer
12. Black Napkins
13. Advance Romance
14. Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?
15. Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink
16. Would You Go All The Way?
17. Daddy Daddy Daddy
18. What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?
19. Dinah-Moe Humm
20. Purple Lagoon reprise
21. Stranded In The Jungle
22. Find Her Finer
23. Camarillo Brillo
24. Muffin Man
25. Purple Lagoon outro.

No word on the 40th anniversary edition of Cruisin’ With Ruben yet.

Tom Waits — Early TV Appearances

In the above clip, Tom Waits appears on Fernwood 2 Night, a parody talk show, hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), created by Norman Lear as a spin-off/summer replacement from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The show ran from July 4th, 1977 to September 8th, 1977. On it, Waits performs “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)” from his 1976 Elektra/Wea album, Small Change.

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