11th January 2016
BOWIE
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1st July 2015
PROCOL HARUM DEBUT ALBUM RE-RE-RE-ISSUED, REMASTERED & EXPANDED WITH EVEN MORE SENSATIONAL STUFF. COR BLIMEY!
It is a safe bet that anybody viewing this post knows the story(ies) of ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’. Isn’t it? Over the years it has been updated and supplemented with morsels of information, slivers of new memory recall and the rule of law. But still the ‘holy grail’ of the first demo recording of the song remains as elusive as ever.
29th June 2015
It’s Our Birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 45 YEARS TODAY!! YAY!!!
Well, although we don’t got no birth certificate to prove the specifics of Fly’s entrance into the wonderful world of music, but 45 years ago to this very day, Monday the 29th June 1970, the FLY RECORD label was established. It was set up by DAVID PLATZ and managed by MALCOLM JONES, who had quit his post as EMI Record’s A&R just three days earlier.
28th May 2015
Kestrel – Take It Away
If only KESTREL were ‘so #moneysupermarket’ and didn’t even know it. If ever a band and their sole album was buried beneath the centre of the musical earth, it’s this one. Great musicianship, catchy songs, Progressive Pop rather than Rock, but in hindsight wrong time and place even with producer John Worth screaming their name from rooftops to all and sundry.
21st May 2015
Spring – Grail
SPRING is sprung. Spring featured the late Pat Moran (whose credits as engineer/producer span Queen, Iggy Pop and Robert Plant) and Dire Straits drummer Pick Withers. Originally released in May 1971, the definitive edition features all the existing recordings made by the band sourced from recently recovered tapes and is now available on Esoteric Recordings / Cherry Red Records
20th May 2015
David Platz
21 years ago this day, 20th May, David Platz passed away. The phrase ‘a musician’s musician’ is oft quoted, but Platz was a publishers’ publisher. In the ‘engine room’ world of music publishing Platz pioneered the concept and realisation of administration deals, whether with the Rolling Stones (Mirage Music / Naker Phelge Music) or the Who (Fabulous Music); and in the early sixties, on the recordings side, he pioneered the formation of independent production companies, collaborating with producers (Denny Cordell, Gus Dudgeon, Tony Visconti etc) in signing artists and leasing their recordings to major record labels. And he always had an ear for those whose own ears he trusted, like music clairvoyant Tony Hall. Platz himself had a keen ear for a tune, whether a tune was heading for hitsville, or not. ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ being a hitsville case in point. On hearing the (now ‘lost’) song demo he wrote a memo to Gary Brooker reassuring him that it would be ‘a certain hit!’. Platz was a catalyst, his publishing cauldron fusing many an author and composer; be it poet Keith Reid with Gary Brooker; or Herbert Kretzmer with Charles Aznavour (to create ‘She’). It was Platz whose hand headed for his pocket in order to fund the recording of Black Sabbath’s debut album when no label ‘got’ them. Neither did his entrusted producer Gus Dudgeon, leaving it to the then engineer Rodger Bain to forge ahead. And the rest as they say, is probably on Wiki. By 1970 the opportunity to start an independent record label was grasped, Fly Records was formed, and TRex was launched riding a white swan. But beneath the skin of ‘the hits’ which fires the excite cells of party goers and smooth heart radio station listeners, lies the world of the contenders, or flops if you must. Or more aptly as has increasingly become all the rage in these post Shindig Magazine times, the long lost overlooked cult classic. Scratch the surface of the multi-award winning glam of David’s legacy, and behold the buried treasure of artists / bands like Spring, Kestrel, Tucker Zimmerman and others that make you exclaim “Who?”. All are now sought after collector ‘classics’.