la corrente principale del sole tranquillo Quiet Sun - Mainstream (1975) 0:00 Sol Caliente 7:34 Trumpets with Motherhood 9:21 Bargain Classics 15:09 R.F.D. 18:32 Mummy Was an Asteroid, Daddy Was a Small Non-stick Kitchen Utensil 24:34 Trot 29:51 Rongwrong Personnel Charles Hayward - drums, percussion, keyboards, voice Dave Jarrett - Fender rhodes, steinway grand piano, farfisa & hammond organs, VCS3 Phil Manzanera - electric 6 & 12 string guitars, treated guitars, fender rhodes piano Bill MacCormick - electric bass, treated bass, back-up voices with Brian Eno - synthesizer, treatments & Oblique Strategies Ian MacCormick - back-up voices Sol Caliente (Phil Manzanera) – 8:02 Trumpets with Motherhood (Charles Hayward) – 1:30 Bargain Classics (Dave Jarrett) – 5:37 R.F.D. (Jarrett) – 3:09 Mummy was an asteroid, Daddy was a small non-stick kitchen utensil (Bill MacCormick) – 6:09 Trot (Manzanera) – 5:00 Rongwrong (Hayward) – 9:39 Mainstream Studio album by Quiet Sun Released 1975 Recorded 1975 Genre Canterbury Scene, Progressive Rock Length 39:23 Label Island Producer Quiet Sun Professional ratings Gnosis (not rated) Stephen Yarwood (favorable) Melody Maker (favorable) Allmusic 3/5 stars Mainstream is the only album of the UK band Quiet Sun. The band split up in 1972, Manzanera to Roxy Music, MacCormick to Matching Mole, Hayward to This Heat and Jarrett began to teach mathematics. In 1975, Manzanera booked a studio for 26 days to record his first solo album Diamond Head and got Quiet Sun together again to record a studio album from their previously composed material at the same time. The result Mainstream was critically acclaimed and became the New Musical Express album of the month, apparently Island Records fourth or fifth biggest seller at the time, close up to Bad Company and Cat Stevens. Reworked versions of two tracks from Mainstream - Mummy was an asteroid... (merged with Manzaneras song from Diamond Head East of Echo, and rechristened East of Asteroid) and Rongwrong - were performed by Manzaneras 801 project during 1976 and feature on their acclaimed LP 801 Live. A CD release of Mainstream was released in 1997 on Manzaneras label, Expression Records. I Quiet Sun sono un gruppo musicale britannico di rock progressivo degli anni settanta. Furono il trampolino di lancio per quotati musicisti, tra i quali Phil Manzanera, che entrerà nei Roxy Music, e Bill MacCormick, in seguito nei Matching Mole. I Pooh and the Ostrich Feather[modifica | modifica sorgente] Il gruppo si forma nel 1967 al Dulwich College di Londra, dove tre studenti formano i Pooh and the Ostrich Feather. Si tratta di Phil Manzanera alla chitarra, Bill MacCormick alla batteria e voce e Charlie Hayward alle percussioni. Nel primo periodo eseguono cover di famosi brani di musica beat e rock psichedelico, ma cominciano anche a scrivere materiale proprio a cui contribuiscono tutti e tre i membri. I primi tre anni vedono diversi musicisti entrare ed uscire, tra questi Victor Sylvester al basso; la band esegue dei concerti dal vivo riscuotendo un discreto successo e divengono i Grateful Dead di Dulwich. I Quiet Sun Nel 1970, con luscita di Sylvester e insoddisfatto dei provini effettuati con altri bassisti, Mac Cormick lascia la batteria e passa al basso, viene inoltre ingaggiato Dave Jarrett alle tastiere. La band prende il nome Quiet Sun, e suona ora rock progressivo, genere molto in voga in quellanno, rifacendosi ai brani degli emergenti Soft Machine. Il sound dei Quiet, grazie al lavoro di Manzanera, risulta comunque più aggressivo di quello dei Soft, che erano allora sprovvisti di un chitarrista. Con il lavoro realizzato in questo periodo i Quiet Sun entrano di diritto nella corrente musicale di rock progressivo che fa riferimento alla scena di Canterbury. Nei successivi due anni il gruppo compone diversi brani e arriva a fare dei provini per la Warner Bros. Records nel 1971, ma non riesce a farsi mettere sotto contratto. Si intensificano intanto le performance dal vivo, in una delle quali Robert Wyatt, attratto dal talento di MacCormick, lo convince ad entrare nella sua nuova band, i Matching Mole. Scioglimento e reunion Manzanera nel 1971 comincia a collaborare con Bryan Ferry, e da lì a poco entra nei suoi Roxy Music; con luscita dei due leader il gruppo si scioglie nel 1972. Durante una pausa artistica dei Roxy, Manzanera riforma la band nel 1975, in occasione della registrazione del suo primo album solista, Diamond Head. Affitta uno studio per 26 giorni durante i quali, oltre che registrare il suo lavoro, incide anche il primo ed unico album dei Quiet Sun: Mainstream. Il disco viene realizzato con la formazione del 1970 (Manzanera, MacCormick, Hayward e Jarrett) impreziosita dalla collaborazione di Brian Eno al sintetizzatore, ed i brani sono quelli composti nel periodo prima dello scioglimento. Lopera, pubblicata nel 1976 dalla Island Records, riscuote un buon successo di critica, e viene nominata album del mese dalla rivista New Musical Express. È questo lultimo atto della band, i cui membri sono riassorbiti dai propri impegni professionali. Discografia 1975 Mainstream 2000 Manzanera Archives: Rare One (album di Manzanera che include 4 brani inediti dei Quiet Sun) Review by Ted Mills (ALLMUSIC) (3 stars) Phil Manzaneras pre-Roxy Music group never got to release their first attempt at an album, but in a break from Roxy in 1974, Manzanera regrouped the band and put out this effort, recorded at the same time as his solo extravaganza, Diamond Head. Here, Manzanera disappears into the art rock group dynamic, the album is a selection of progressive jams which feature some tasty guitar work, complex rhythmic structures, and the always reliable bass work of Bill MacCormick. There is a certain dryness to the whole proceeding, a holding back, a lack of warmth, but perhaps it this is from over half the tracks sounding so much better a year later as part of 801s Live, including Sol Caliente, Mummy Was an Asteroid, Daddy Was a Small, Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil, and especially Rongwrong. Here the Charles Hayward song sounds like a university common-room joke, with its name-dropping of reading Shoenberg in the bath and such. Compared to the lush arrangement and rewritten lyrics of the Brian Eno-sung 801 version, Quiet Sun sounds like one album away from brilliance. Recensione di macaco (DeBaser) (3 stars) Se gli album fossero donne, potrei dire che ultimamente mi sono proprio dato da fare, quante avventure, sentimenti e sane sudate, qualcuna presa alla leggera, altre piú sentite, qualcun altra ti lascia per giorni lodore addosso, altre le senti che ti fanno viaggiare, certe solo da accarezzare una volta o due, altre che non riesci a venirne fuori anche se ci perdi dietro settimane. E poi questa, che ti coglie di sorpresa, non te laspettavi che sarebbe andata cosí, anche se al primo sguardo e visto le premesse ci avresti potuto scommettere che avrebbe dato certo. Quiet Sun, scoperti seguindo a ritroso la carriera del batterista. Le premesse: 1975, Phil Manzanera, Bill MacCormick, Charles Hayward, chitarra, basso e batteria, organizzati anche secondo le strategie oblique del sempre benvenuto Eno. Giá mi sento scombussolato. Phil e Bill giá insieme li ho sentiti, ma non con Charles che pure lui non scherza in genialitá e in quanto a sregolatezza forse ne avrebbe da vendere agli altri due. Cé pure un altro tizio; Dave Jarrett. E chi é? Ah, uno che poi é andato a fare il professore. Lascolto: un rapimento totale, schitarrate non troppo impazzite ma ben incazzate ci accolgono in un suono canterburyano che mi riporta alla mente lalbum rosso dei Matching Mole, saranno le Enologie o le bassezze MaCormicke? Le composizioni sono democraticamente ripartite fra i musicisti e il tutto funziona alla grande, in un continuo omogeneamente variato. Sorprendono anche quelle di Jarrett, mica te laspetti da uno che non conosci, che scriva roba tipo Bargain Classics. E poi avrei dovuto immaginare che Hayward, avesse suonato anche lui un po di prog prima di avere quellintuizione, da grande artista, di non voler scrivere la fine di qualcosa, ma di voler anticipare i tempi futuri con quei geniali This Heat. E se doveva terminare qualcosa, é lui che scrive l´ultima traccia dellalbum Rongwrong, che é subito amore e brividi (poi ripreso nel famoso live 801), dal sapore squisitamente wyattiano, quasi a voler dire: se pensate di tirare il collo al prog, fate pure tanto noi siamo immortali. Quiet Sun, il mio ultimo grande amore. Review by Ricochet (progarchives) (4 stars ) Quiet Suns Mainstream is a complex, succulent, abstract-adverted and classic creative album, released with little reference to anything but its own character and to the astonishing or great five artists that face up the ensemble, with different forms of supreme talent, cool groove, transient expansion and even some hot-art independent hard tone. At least by pure feeling, everything he is generous and preciously simple, but tirelessly trademarked and pressed as a vintage, special and pretentious composition. The album has a horizon of music and mottoes so enlarged, that it spreads genuine affection for uncustomary, converted or styled (deeply) interesting qualities. The notes come perfect, the classic off-spread seems frivolous compared to music, plus the band really assudes on highly distractive and double-side expressed full manners and rich humbles - for Mainstream to essentially be the greatest even they worked on (its the only one, but Im just saying that a lot of work, under a lot of time, did wonders). After all this, it becomes a bit of unmentionably special rock, music, fusion, space taste and abstraction eclectic development. Its fun but also deadly serious and hard-listened, it sounds round and complete, it is progressive-seeded or concept-art awakened. Where it breathtakes and where it fails really comes to sound as secondary and bit too deeply preferential. Dave Jarrett works on the complex and feisty keyboard session in Mainstream, but Hayward and Manzanera also join it, the keyboard stuff is huge, addictive and pretty much taken out of normal shapes. Hayward anyhow works on drums and percussion aesthetics, with Manzanera is the crazy, artistic guitarist. MacCormicks bass will, on the other hand, strike that rhythm and that essential vibe in every moment you pretty much get with him. Brian Eno is invited with a lot of synths and...strategies, nothing spectacular, but indeed the closest thing you can associate him to rock. This album gets way too many small hints to Roxy Music and the bands the artists flew in or out in their career, without meaning at all a musical connection. Following up (all the way) is the albums matter of music and steaming style, finding, in short time, many moments of overwhelming pleasure and quality, reasonable abstract and full hustles of craft, a lot of fusion feed, some purely technical and nerve-plural lines, and deep or distanced (by the success achieved) high mentions of a musics pallet of elements, all of these complementing or contrasting, avoiding or looming each other into Mainstreams various art. Sol Caliente brings the suspense of Mainstreams greatest writing and playing, having quite all it takes to produce a fever of an art and a high tide of risky motions: a tiny abstract sound-fight introduction, getting more scratching by decomposing & independent guitar riffs, finally reaching a dark-gray main theme, of a small catchy line, but which evolves under a mainly sensational improvisation of poly-fusion; the guitars insanity, the drums soft spill and the various key-moods reflect best what hard gulp it all is. The second part is even better, the word of playing it being excruciating but meaning mindblowing. This piece (having taken a whoop of half a paragraph to shallowly get interpreted) is undoubtedly a masterful thing. It is only after this one that good standards continue or stop to appear. The movement, for sure, changes. Trumpets with Motherhood actually is the finale of the previous climax, having hallucinative short lines of guitar and keyboard atmosphere and tangled scratches. Bargain Classics is bright and interesting, experimental and indescribable at first, then roasted in a tilting furious and ambitioned rock and fusion impact. Its a pulsating and heartbeat-stopping fine massive piece, but it also shares insensitive losses of perspective. The art haunts every pouring spice, the musics idea of saved up expression doesnt even exist, plus the emotion stabs an abstract smash. R.F.D. gets into a dream of hazes and stormy harmonies, by powerful synth-morphs and keyboard fusion. Its a first contrast in the album, showing the dependent glamor and thirsty rocket science within moody and frightening sounds and clouds. With Mummy Was An Asteroid, the album starts slipping, this one being a humongous dazzle and mad-wave of all the crashing instruments playing rock and avant-melodiousness, plus sharing a flavoring radical ambition of sound and arrangement, discouragingly psyching up the austerity of art and poly-rock. Great guitar melody and bossy grooves, but thats all. The album ends soon, with Trot as another abstract fusion fruity loop, rich but imperfect and with Rongwrong as the highest eclectic composition, following a heartless but consistent art of harmony, soft string, dapple explosions and tough to follow juice-beats, plus a more kind and passive instrumental fantasy. Mainstream can knock down a lot of elementary music and quality, mainly being the work of special artists and properly efficient art-abstract orientations. This is a three-three point five stars album for me, going however on excellent chords, as it tends to be a shot-fix album of rare progressive improvisation. And a geniality strangely spoiled by the music emotion. Recensione di Riccardo Bertoncelli (myword) Tenetevi lontani dai luoghi comuni, prendete le strade meno battute e levate lo sguardo al cielo Se non credete agli elfi, ai draghi e al Prog, se Santo Graal è una parolaccia che suscita istinti omicidi e la copertina di Tarkus vi perseguita negli incubi peggiori, allora gli anni ’70 possono essere per voi una buona riserva di caccia. Tenetevi lontani dai luoghi comuni, prendete le strade meno battute e levate lo sguardo al cielo, a cercare angoli di firmamento dalle insolite fatte e colorazioni. A un certo punto, appena oltre la costellazione di Canterbury, potrebbe apparirvi un asteroide che per spontanea associazione di immagini collegherete alla Tour Eiffel. Hermés, si chiama quell’asteroide, enorme e rossastro nel cielo di una Parigi lontana nel tempo – potrebbe essere l’inizio del Novecento. Che ci fa Hermés sopra Parigi? E come ci è arrivato? E sappiamo qualcosa dei suoi abitanti, che mandarono flebili segnali solo in un paio d’occasioni e comunque non più dal 1975? Scuserete l’introduzione patafisica ma sono eccitato dal recupero di un CD che inseguivo e che ha ridestato in me il ricordo di un ottimo trascurato album di tempi lontani. L’album è il primo (l’unico) di una mai considerata band, Quiet Sun, che Phil Manzanera coltivò in due diversi momenti della sua vita: quando era giovane rampante psichedelico e ancora non aveva deciso cosa fare da grande (1969-71) e quando appena più in là era diventato una rock star con i Roxy Music (1975) e cercava una via di uscita alla routine del successo o forse una scusa di buona musica per lavarsi la coscienza. Nel CD che finalmente ho tra le mani c’è tutta la storia, parte 1 e parte 2: i sette brani dell’album che una sussidiaria della Island, la Help, pubblicò nel 1975 e quattro demo della stagione precedente, quando Manzanera e i suoi cercavano invano di emergere nei tempestosi flutti della scena londinese di inizio ’70. Di più: ci sono la testimonianza di Nigel Soper, il grafico che si inventò Hermés e quella leggendaria copertina, un ricco archivio di recensioni e note d’epoca (inversamente proporzionale alle vendite del long playing) e una traccia di talking history in cui Manzanera da grande ricostruisce la vicenda, paranoie & fastidi & sassolini nelle scarpe included. Per dir le cose fin dall’inizio, c’era una band che si chiamava Pooh & the Ostrich Feather nei sobborghi di Londra, anno 1967. Erano “i Grateful Dead di Dulwich”, se riesco a scriverlo senza un accesso di riso, e pasticciavano quanti più progressismi senza troppa fortuna, nella scena minore appena dopo il beat. Durarono fin verso il 1969, guidati da un giovane Phil Manzanera che ancora si faceva chiamare come da anagrafe (Philip Targett-Adams) e armeggiava una vetusta Hofner Galaxie. I Pooh atterrarono nel 1969 dopo un traballante volo di cui nessuno si era accorto e Manzanera anziché ritirarsi pensò di alzare la posta, fondando un nuovo gruppo con il compagno Pooh Bill McCormick (basso), l’amico Charles Hayward (percussioni) e un insegnante di matematica versato in tastiere acustiche ed elettriche, Dave Jarrett. Presero nome Quiet Sun e io per anni ho pensato, facendo due più due con l’asteroide famoso di copertina, che fosse chissà quale riferimento astronomico. Macché, aprendo il fascicolo del CD c’è una foto d’epoca che spiega tutto: un giovane Manzanera sdraiato su un divano e sopra la scritta “Quiet Son”. Arieccoci, ancora nel grande campo delle storpiature: Quiet Son-Quiet Sun come Soft Machine-Machine Molle-Matching Mole. McCormick era amico di Robert Wyatt, Manzanera cominciò a frequentarlo e la musica dei Quiet Sun virò subito da quelle parti, nel senso di Soft Machine, un elastico rock impiccione con ossessivo swing nel DNA – “hot, dark, manic and electrifying” lo avrebbero definito bene a missione compiuta. Ma la missione non era facile e per due anni la band girò a vuoto, perdendo posizioni anche nella classifica dell’immaginazione; non erano più nemmeno “i Grateful Dead di Dulwich”, semmai i cugini poverissimi dei già poveri Caravan. Molte energie del periodo vennero spese a cercare un contratto discografico, come testimoniato da un carteggio riportato nel fascicolo del CD. La CBS e la Liberty risposero no, la Warner fu possibilista, la Island (nella persona di Muff Winwood, fratello del più celebre Steve) aggiunse al rifiuto ironiche considerazioni e Manzanera se la legò al dito – vedremo tra breve come si vendicò. Alla fine naufragò anche l’ipotesi Warner, e ascoltando il demo preparato per loro e gli altri materiali del periodo non è difficile capire perchè; i Quiet Sun suonavano testardo e difficile, erano avanti di due-tre anni sui tempi e quell’anticipo sconcertava, con lunghe tirate strumentali che le formine di genere del periodo non sapevano contenere. Lo scioglimento fu una sconfitta ma per certi versi una benedizione. Tutti ebbero una promozione - be’, non proprio, quasi tutti, perchè Jarrett uscì dal giro e andò a fare il mestiere per cui aveva studiato, il professore di matematica. Ad ogni modo: McCormick si unì a Wyatt nei Matching Mole, Hayward fu il batterista di Gong e della Amazing Band di Mal Dean e Manzanera vinse il primo premio della lotteria pescando il biglietto dei Roxy Music, con Bryan Ferry giovane e Eno ancora capelluto. Entro due anni dallo scioglimento solare, fine 1973, il giovane Brit-colombiano poteva vantare tre album nei Top 10, compreso Stranded al numero 1, e una meritata fama di chitarrista tra i migliori della sua generazione; e il bello è che i suoi discografici erano diventati quelli della Island, i medesimi cioé che sdegnosamente avevano rifiutato i Quiet Sun. Così fu facile consumare la vendetta. Quando a Manzanera venne chiesto un album solistico, per fare pendant con quelli di Ferry e Eno già usciti, lui rispose assolutamente sì ma pretese di infilare nei giorni di registrazione anche la vecchia calpestata band. Non uno ma due, quindi, prendere o lasciare. Alla Island presero. PM prenotò gli studi dell’etichetta per tutto il mese di gennaio 1975 e con amici vecchi e nuovi registrò due album, il più poppeggiante Diamond Head (gran bel disco peraltro) e lo sperimentale cocciuto fuori fuori Mainstream, a nome Quiet Sun. La formazione era la stessa della prima ora con la sola aggiunta di Eno, “synthesizer, treatments & oblique strategies”; e tutti contribuivano a dovere, come un vero collettivo, due pezzi Manzanera, due Jarrett e Hayward e uno solo McCormick però irresistibile, a cominciare dal titolo: Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil. Vendetta, cocciutaggine ma anche smania creativa. Manzanera in quei giorni era un vulcano di idee, venerava una sua specie di jazz rock patafisico, sentiva ribollire il sangue latino e non solo, con i Roxy aveva appreso le più subdole arti del pop, Eno lo guidava per la terra incognita dell’elettronica e Wyatt come Astolfo lo portava sulla moon (in june) in cerca di inafferrabili chimere. Se Diamond Head era un credibile mix in forma di prodotto commercialmente appealing, Mainstream era un’altra somma possibile, più libera e imprevedibile, una storta radice canterburyana proprio quando stava per esaurirsi quella bellissima fioritura. E’ un album che si ascolta ancora oggi con piacere, sia quando il discorso lo conduce il leader con la sua inebriata chitarra sia quando prendono il sopravvento le tastiere dell’incontenibile Jarrett; “detriti di una multipla collisione tra elementi di Lifetime, Soft Machine, Velvet Underground e una testata nucleare sfuggita al controllo” spiegavano bene le note originali, dimenticando peraltro di citare i parenti più stretti, i Caravan, che balenano in tutto il loro pigro fulgore in un pezzo soprattutto, R.F.D. I Caravan e Wyatt, ecco un’altra dimenticanza. Robert fu invitato alle sedute e siglò con l’arabesco della sua voce la commovente Frontera, uno dei pezzi-chiave di Diamond Head; peccato che non sia rimasto un’oretta in più a ricamare anche Rongwrong, l’unica canzone dei Quiet Sun, il sigillo dell’album che Hayward canta non proprio bene. Wyatt non c’è ma il clima è quello dei suoi dischi dell’epoca, Rock Bottom per esempio, e come avrebbe masticato bene nella sua gola quei vaghi versi indolenti e surreali: “Ah, se solo sapessi leggere tra le righe/ pensa a tutti i tesori che potrei trovare/ imparerei il segreto della trance e della levitazione/ libererei la mia anima in sei facili lezioni”. Simili versi e altri del genere (“Nel frattempo io me ne resterò a casa/ ad ascoltare Schoenberg in bagno/ lasciandoti alla geometria della mia risata”) furono pura istigazione a delinquere per il grafico Nigel Soper, a cui il compito di rendere con un’immagine iconica quella difficile musica fuori schema. Traviato anch’egli dal nome Quiet Sun, e dalla mamma asteroide di quel titolo, Soper rispolverò le sue nozioni di astronomia e in un negozietto di libri usati trovò una vecchia illustrazione di Flammarion a proposito dell’asteroide Hermés, avvistato sopra la Terra circa 1937. Prese l’immagine, la colorò et voilà – ci stava a modino. Nessuno ha più sentito parlare di Hermés, e se è per quello anche dei Quiet Sun. Review by Kazuhiro (progarchives) (5 stars) Their histories go back to 1967. The member who was students companion actively acts as a band in around 1971 in 1967. They take up the tune such as Cream and put out the creation of music of which the color of psychedelic goes out strongly at this time. It talks about guitar players Phil Manzanera by the following interview when the recorded music was in the state that was not able to be consented so much though they were challenging the recording with an original tune already. For the member of a main of this band, at that time, the guitar player was Phil Manzanera. And, the drum player is Charles Hayward. The Bass player is Bill MacCormick. Time when the band was formed develops into four person organization that received Dave Jarrett in the keyboard player in 1971 on which it actively acted though was members these three people. And, there was time when wind instrument players Dave Monaghan was slightly on the register in the band, too. They inquire into a more original music character when becoming this time. It is guessed that the content of the recorded demo tape was not a too good result. The reason is that manzanera announces the sound source of his archives afterwards. We were able to confirm their music characters at that time and directionality by this sound source. They have been very influenced from Soft Machine at this time. And, the band dissolves as it is though the band goes with the tour of Softs and existence has become a phantom. However, the spirit was clarified again by this album and we were able to enjoy music with a high the perfection. Manzanera was answered in the following interview. ｢I do not think that the music collected to the recorded demo tape is too good as the situation of the recording. However, it is felt that the performed music is very wonderful. I thought that it was very too good not to leave the tune of the band as a record. ｣He is talking about this remark at time when this album is produced. The band is formed again in 1974. Manzanera began the production of Diamond Head of Solo Album at this same time. His Solo Album and the album of Quiet Sun are recorded to a simultaneous period. However, after announcing this album, they become phantoms again. Music very has originality and ..easy loud tones.. has finished about the quality with an aggressive fantasy though is talking by them and as influencing from Softs and Zappa. Sol Caliente performs Quietness and Movement in union from a quiet start the band. They really have peculiar feeling. The drum gives the impression tossed about space on the way. And, the guitar explodes again and the impression of the tune is kept by a mysterious unison. Trumpets With Motherhood succeeds the part of the first Coda as it is and is endless. Bass to which also to a minimal phrase of Dave and Bill is distorted twines. Bargain Classics starts from a peculiar drum of Charles and dashes with a peculiar melody. This tune by Jarrett has digested the element of the musician influenced till then well. The flow advances with the tension further. The tune moves to R.F.D. that Jarrett composed again. The tune keeps between constant [[&*!#]e] floatages and advances. The shine like the jewel has been shot and the flow of the album has the impression that a little relief is given by this tune. Mummy Was An Asteroid,Daddy Was A Small Non-Sticks Kitchen Utensil is a tune by bass players Bill. It explodes with the first melody and in twining of the keyboard, is indeed good at bargaining. The composition of a complex rhythm draws out each members taste as it is. The tune changes into three rhythms and ends suddenly with peculiar feeling kept. A minimal phrase of Jarrett recalls Mike Ratledge though Trot starts from a little rhythmical element. The tune shifts suddenly from a classical element to the part of Rock. RongWrong is a tune in which lyrics exist only in this album. The tune has some melodies in the whole. However, the element that paves [me**] that takes the place has peculiar feeling. There might be feeling of the element and Softs psychedelic as for this tune a little. Drum players Charles Hayward is answered in the interview. ｢This band obviously has aggressiveness and discharges energy with the feeling of live. Music goes to the most essential part. ｣I think that this remark is a remark that remarkably shows the directionality of the music of this band. The band will not be a mistake if always inquiring into essence even with what kind of element. However, Bass players Bill MacCormick is spoken in the interview. We wanted to become existence such as Yes and Led Zeppelin The band is doing very good work including MacCormick though I was surprised at this remark a little. They certainly have a lot of elements of the band that influences it. However, the band has splendidly digested it. I guess that the band with originality like this doesnt exist so much. Ian MacCormick of the brother of Brian Eno and Bill that participates in the recording supports this work from the under. This work might be a valuable band with originality it is important in the work that derives to Canterbury Scene. Recensione di B.A. (peninsula) Rovistando tra i detriti spinti sui lidi rock dall’ondata progressive, può capitare di imbattersi in un relitto eccezionale come questo. Per il membro più illustre della formazione - Phil Manzanera - i Quiet Sun costituivano un’esperienza parallela alla carriera solista e all’impegno con i Roxy Music (cfr. l’analogo caso Phil Collins/Brand X). L’opportunità di sperimentare soluzioni inedite veniva condivisa con lo straordinario bassista Bill MacCormick (ex-Matching Mole), con il tastierista Dave Jarrett e con il batterista Charles Hayward. Collaboratori esterni, l’ingegnere del suono Rhett Davies e l’enigmatico manipolatore di idee Brian Eno. Più che sui consueti schemi espressivi cui allude ironicamente il titolo dell’album, gli arrangiamenti si basano sull’esposizione ciclica dei temi, entro cui le note subiscono un’incessante trattamento timbrico. Non mancano, tuttavia, apprezzabili spunti personali: Sol Caliente e Trot sono trainate, rispettivamente, dai convulsi riff di Manzanera (chitarra) e da un raffinato fraseggio di Jarrett (piano acustico). Introdotta da Trumpets With Motherhood - un’improvvisazione percussiva d’impronta free - Bargain Classics si sviluppa attorno a un serrato interplay strumentale, che contrasta efficacemente con l’atmosfera sospesa della splendida R.F.D. - Nella classifica dei titoli più folli, Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil insidia il primato della farneticante All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother di Mingus (Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus), ma contiene anche un gustoso assolo di organo Farfisa. Sull’unico pezzo cantato - Rongwrong - la parte vocale eseguita da Hayward è apertamente ispirata allo stile canoro di Robert Wyatt. La ristampa CD è eccellente sotto il profilo tecnico (sebbene presenti alcune incongruenze rispetto alla ripartizione dei brani sul Long Playing), interessante per le note interne (che includono le recensioni entusiastiche della critica più avvertita e la documentazione degli ottusi rifiuti ricevuti da diverse case discografiche), imperdonabile per la scelta di restringere l’inquadratura della bellissima copertina (di cui riproponiamo la versione originale). Biography by .... (classic-web.archive) Ever seen the inside of a 24-track studio? Or Mission Control, Houston, for that matter? Relatively speaking, theyre much the same. If you dont concentrate, the technology certainly wont - and, your average musician being what he is, youll be working well if you can cut your album - from backing-tracks to final mix - in under a month. Diamond Head, the recently-released and much-lauded solo debut by Roxy Musics toreador of the Telecaster PHIL MANZANERA, took 26 days between January and February of this year. Which means it was on time - a rare occurrence in this present era. Slightly more remarkable is the fact that Manzanera managed to record a second album at the same sessions: Mainstream - a complex and intense performance by a group called QUIET SUN. Thus, the work-o-meter swung up to very fast and a lot of the environmental hysteria suppressed and channelled so cunningly by Senor Manzanera in the majestic Diamond Head burst out during the urgent, clock-watching, early-hours takes for Mainstream. Hot, dark, manic, and electrifying, Mainstream stands smouldering in the debris of a multiple collision between elements of Lifetime, The Soft Machine The Velvet Underground, and a stray nuclear warhead. Beyond a shared use of vivid colour and high-voltage execution, Mainstream seems to have little in common with its sister album, Diamond Head herself. But look closer (and roll credits . . . ): PHIL MANZANERA Guitars To those listeners unfamiliar with the freedom and ferocity of Phils playing on Alma and Miss Shapiro (Diamond Head), his work on Mainstream will come as a shock. It ought not to. QUIET SUN is where Manzanera came from and his notable guitar contributions to Roxy favourites like Ladytron, The Bogus Man, Serenade Mother Of Pearl, and Prairie Rose distil and concentrate a lyricism and power evolved in quite different musical circumstances. Back in 1966 our boy was at school at Dulwich College, a large and fairly conventional public school in South London. Dreaming spires, green swards . . . and rock n roll. The Beatles, Dylan and The Beach Boys were at their heights. The American West Coast was beginning to open up. The alternative society was beginning to make itself felt. Phil Manzanera was beginning to practise on an old Hofner Galaxie. 1967 was nice if you liked that sort of thing. At Dulwich College if you didnt like that sort of thing, you were either very boring or one of the teachers. With this premise in mind and a stack of import stuff by Zappa, Beefheart, Spirit and The Velvet Underground under his arm, Phil approached a chum of his, hereafter referred to as: Pooh ticket BILL MACCORMICK Bass Later to play scintillating runs on a Fender Precision for the likes of Gong and Matching Mole, MacCormick at this time believed himself to be either a drummer or a vocalist. The group he formed with Manzanera - the long forgotten Pooh And The Ostrich Feather - believed him to be a vocalist too, and so he was. However, the drums were to be played by a volatile lad from the year below these two: CHARLES HAYWARD Percussion Charlie did a lot of screaming and playing his bizarre kit in a manner roughly equidistant between Andrew Cyrille and Keith Moon. He joined Manzanera and MacCormick in writing the bands earliest material, collaborating with Phil on a paean to famed surrealist Marcel Duchamps entitled Marcel My Dada, the theme of which can be heard menacing the genial levity of Frontera on Diamond Head. Pooh and the Ostrich Feather For three years and with a constantly evolving line-up, Pooh And The Ostrich Feather were The Grateful Dead of Dulwich - a thankless task, as you can imagine. But inspiration was just around the corner in Dalmore Road, where lived Robert Wyatt and most of the contemporary Soft Machine. MacCormick became friends with Wyatt and stole all his licks. But in order to incorporate elements of The Soft Machine into a band which encored with Paul Butterfields Born In Chicago, certain members had to be liquidated. This was effected without mercy. Manzanera, MacCormick, and Hayward conferred over a possible fourth recruitment in the wake of the 1970 putsch, and resolved that what they needed most desperately was somebody with a PhD in Mathematics. Consequently they ran through a list of Old Boys of the school and came up with: DAVE JARRETT Keyboards The coincidence was too good to be true. With a will, the quartet got down to rehearsals - only to discover that they had no bass-player. Vocalist and drummer (failed) MacCormick conducted a series of auditions with bassists on leave from Victor Sylvester until losing his patience at 11.06 on March 3rd 1970 and taking up the troublesome instrument himself. Within three hours he had tuned the bottom E. Symbiosis Within two years, QUIET SUN had accumulated the mass of complex and distinctive material which serves as source for both Mainstream and approximately half of Diamond Head. At this point, it was decided to call a halt. Phil was spending a lot of time round at Bryan Ferrys house, pretending to operate a mixing console and tuning David OLists guitars. Bill, having not recovered from the Portsmouth Poly jam between QUIET SUN and Robert Wyatts Symbiosis, was hot for more and suggested to Wyatt that the bass-player he needed for Matching Mole need not necessarily be Charlie Mingus. Charles was flitting back and forth between Mal Deans Amazing Band and David Allens Gong, in the meantime writing songs that nobody could play - like RongWrong on Mainstream. Dave, moreover, had a yen to lecture on quantum physics. QUIET SUN ceased in 1972. . . . . . to resurface, three years later, on the HELP label with an album of material selected from their original set. Recording Mainstream was hell, although a good time was had by one and all in strict accordance with studio etiquette. The group had time for only two brief rehearsals and most of the basic tracks on the finished album are first-takes. It sounds hectic, and it was. Quiet Sun ticket 2 But worse than this was the fact that Diamond Head was being recorded in the same place at the same time. Special observers were brought in to make sure that parts of one album did not defect to the other - a task made more herculean by the fact that not only were Diamond Head and Mainstream the first twins born in a London studio, but they also shared many musical features. For example: Mainstream opens with Engineer Rhett Davies live cue-in, followed by Sol Caliente. The tune being played on echoplexed fuzz guitar might strike fans of Diamond Heads Lagrima as familiar. In fact, Lagrima, Frontera, East Of Echo, and Alma all derive from one extended QUIET SUN composition - Phil Manzaneras Corazon Y Alma (Heart And Soul) - written in late 1971. Less obvious is the similarity of the 5/4 bass riff from Same Time Next Week and whats happening behind Manzeneras savage outburst on Track Two, Side Two of Mainstream - Trot, vintage 1970. Indeed, if you listen to East Of Echo, you encounter three or four QUIET SUN references now placed in their original context by Mainstream. The two records co-relate, in other words. In their duality they illuminate each other. Quick - buy both. You know it makes sense. Bill MacCormick biography by .... (calyx.perso.neuf) Bass & Vocals Born : 1951 - London (England) Past Bands : Pooh & The Ostrich Feathers (1968-69), Quiet Sun (1970-71, 1975), Matching Mole (1971-73), Phil Manzaneras 801 (1976-77), Random Hold (1978-80) A Short Bio: Bill MacCormick was born in London in 1951, the son of an airline pilot and a school teacher. As a teenager, MacCormick became acquainted with Robert Wyatt thanks to his mother who knew hers. With his brother Ian (later a well-known rock critic at the NME under the alias Ian McDonald), he attended early Soft Machine rehearsals at the bands headquarters in West Dulwich, in suburbian London. It was partly under the Softs influence that MacCormick formed a school band in early 1968 with Phil Manzanera (guitar) and Charles Hayward (drums). In the beginning, he was actually the bands singer, but eventually moved to bass when they dropped covers (by Cream, Jefferson Airplane and other assorted psychedelic bands) and recruited Dave Monagham (sax) - who left shortly thereafter - and Dave Jarrett (keyboards). From then on (1970) they became known as Quiet Sun. Warner Bros paid for demo sessions at one of their studios in Dorset, but eventually didnt sign the band. Quiet Sun soldiered on for about a year, rehearsing and playing a few gigs, notably opening for Steamhammer and Symbiosis, the band led by saxophone player Gary Windo. This was where MacCormicks talents as a bass player were noted by Robert Wyatt, who was playing drums in Symbiosis during his free time from Soft Machine, and wasnt actually aware that MacCormick had turned into such an accomplished musician in such a short timespan. A few weeks later, having left the Softs, Wyatt called MacCormick to ask him if he would join his new band venture, Matching Mole. Matching Mole lasted for a little less than a year, during which two albums were recorded. The eponymous debut was quite experimental and centered on Wyatts compositions and improvisations. On the second, MacCormick penned a few tracks himself. Matching Mole was quite popular on the continent, especially France and Holland where Wyatt was a popular figure from his Soft Machine days. This is how MacCormick apparently missed an opportunity to join his old friend Phil Manzanera in Roxy Music, being away from England on tour with the Mole... It was Wyatts decision to split up Matching Mole in October 1972, and it came as a disappointment to the other members, including MacCormick. Through Wyatt, he got in touch with Gong who were looking for a bass player and spent a few days rehearsing with them at their home base in France. But that particular combination didnt work out, due in part to language problems, so MacCormick went back to England. He was not to be heard of until the following Spring, when it was announced in the press that a new Matching Mole was in the process of being formed. This was indeed the case, with Francis Monkman and Gary Windo completing the line-up, but a premature end was put to any such plans when Robert Wyatt had his back accident in June 1973. MacCormick himself had to be taken to hospital the very next day, suffering from appendicitis. The next eighteen months were spent away from music. MacCormick frequently visited Wyatt at his hospital, and started getting involved with politics, joining the Liberal Party in December 1973 and taking part in the general elections of February 1974. His musical activities were only resumed later that year when he was asked by Phil Manzanera to play on his Diamond Head album and, simultaneously, record the long lost Quiet Sun album with the reformed band. In the following 3-4 years, MacCormick mainly worked with Manzanera, playing on his first four solo albums and with the band 801 (which released the albums 801 Live and Listen Now in 1976 and 1977 respectively). He also played on Wyatts Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975), and had a brief foray into journalism, writing a few articles for the NME. The final chapter in MacCormicks musical career was his stint with Random Hold, a band that was sort of crossover between prog and a more modern, song-oriented form. Also in the band were David Rhodes (guitar) and David Ferguson (keyboards), and ex-801 frontman Simon Ainley (vocals and guitar). Random Hold released an eponymous EP in 1979 and two albums, The View From Here (1980) and Avalanche (1981). Following an American tour supporting Peter Gabriel, MacCormick left due to a major personality clash with Ferguson, who eventually carried on the band on his own, Rhodes having left to join Gabriels backing band. This was the end of Bill MacCormicks musical career. Since then, Ive gotten further into politics. I worked for the Liberal Party organising elections. I left in 1989 and Im now a director of a market research company (!?) that, amongst other things does all the Liberal Democrats research. Im a local councillor (in South London), daddy, balding, fat(ish), blah, blah!. Phyl Manzanera biography by Jason Ankeny (ALLMUSIC) Country Life The longtime guitarist for legendary British art pop sophisticates Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera was born Philip Targett-Adams in London on January 31, 1951. The child of an English father and Colombian mother, he was raised in various spots, including Hawaii and Cuba, and while living in Venezuela began playing guitar at the age of eight. Profoundly influenced by both Latin music and rock & roll, while attending school at Londons Dulwich College in 1966 Manzanera co-founded the psychedelic band Pooh and the Ostrich Feather, later rechristened Quiet Sun concurrent with a move toward a more avant-garde approach. When the group dissolved in 1972, Manzanera replaced guitarist Dave OList in Roxy Music, joining in time to record their self-titled debut LP. A series of classic albums followed and upon completion of 1974s Country Life, Manzanera returned to the studio to record his first solo effort, the largely instrumental Diamond Head. Around that same time, he contributed to solo efforts from fellow Roxy Music alums Bryan Ferry (Another Time, Another Place) and Brian Eno (the groundbreaking Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain [By Strategy]), and even cut a Quiet Sun reunion LP, Mainstream. ManifestoManzanera continued balancing his Roxy Music duties with solo projects and session dates, in 1975 producing the up-and-coming New Zealand group Split Enz; with Roxy Music entering a state of suspended animation a year later, he formed the short-lived 801 before touring with Ferry. The 801 aegis was revived for 1977s Listen Now!!; upon completing the follow-up, K-Scope, Manzanera joined the revived Roxy Music for Manifesto, their best-selling album in the U.S. He remained with the group through their last studio album, the 1982 masterpiece Avalon, and following their final tour he reunited with ex-Roxy saxophonist Andy Mackay as the Explorers, also recording a 1986 LP with onetime Asia frontman John Wetton. While 1990s Southern Cross featured extensive vocal contributions from onetime Split Enz member Tim Finn, Manzanera was largely absent from the studio during much of the decade to follow, primarily focusing on live performances (including appearances at the Guitar Legends and WOMAD festivals). In 1999, he issued the Latin-influenced Vozero, closing out the year by backing Ferry at the British Gas Millennium Concert, their first joint performance in 18 years. Article from Meloy Maker by Wayback Machine (web.archive) Quiet side of the Sun Melody Maker, 16.8.75 IT ALL began with Pooh And The Ostrich Feather. Laugh if you must, but that band have just produced the most brain-searing convincingly malevolent album to stagger out of a recording studio since the Velvet Underground. The album is released this week and its called Mainstream. Pooh ticket The band who have unleashed this monster are known no longer as Pooh And The Ostrich Feather. Sometime around 1970, they must have realised that they sounded a shade too much like the title of a Temperance Seven album, and changed it to Quiet Sun. Quiet Sun were (and are on Mainstream), Bill MacCormick (electric bass, treated bass, back-up voices), Charles Hayward (drums, percussion, keyboards, voice), Dave Jarrett (Fender Rhodes & Steinway grand pianos, Farfisa & Hammond organs, VCS 3), and Phillip Targett-Adams Manzanera. Thats right; Roxy Musics Phil Manzanera. Back in 1967, Manzanera was at school in Dulwich, along with MacCormick and Hayward. This enterprising trio set out, with no lack of ambition, to establish Dulwich as a hotbed of radical musical activity. Armed with an insubstantial arsenal of equipment and the obligatory light show, the trio - backed by a constantly changing group of teenage instrumentalists - proceeded to devastate Dulwich and all points south. They were, apparently very big in Sydenham. Psychedelic to the last, Quiet Sun concentrated on acid tinged arrangements of Crossroads and Rollin N Tumblin, with Manzanera already well into his primitive, but effective, echoplexed fuzz-guitar routines, generally coming on like the Home Counties very own Randy California. Set against these surrogate West Coast vamps were rather more zappy compositions like Charles Haywards homage to the celebrated surrealist Marcel Duchamp enticingly titled Marcel My Dada. The Soft Machine established themselves as an important influence on the emerging Quiet Sun, and if it hadnt been for the groups own inherent intelligence and Bill MacCormicks friendship with Robert Wyatt, its not inconceivable that the band would have been counted out as another of those Sons Of Canterbury outfits specialising in tricky time signatures who were thrown up in the surf of the Softs pioneering assault on contemporary English music. Fortunately, Quiet Sun decided they wanted to be neither Dulwichs reply to the Grateful Dead nor the new Caravan. When we were thinking in commercial terms I suppose we wanted to become the new Led Zeppelin or the new Yes, comments Bill MacCormick, flicking fine beads of sweat from his forehead. The rest of the time we wanted to become the new Lifetime. Caravan poster As early as 1966, Bill had become friendly with Robert Wyatt. The Softs had rented a house in Dulwich near the school at which he, Manzanera and Hayward were laying down their operational plans for a massive attack on English rock. Bill was a regular house-guest at Chez Soft Machine and was taken with Roberts expansive taste in music. By the time Quiet Sun reached its final form as a quartet with the inclusion of Jarrett on keyboards (there was a sax player, Dave Monaghan, involved for a short time, too), they were well involved in composing and performing extremely complex pieces. In fact the material which is featured on Mainstream and several of the themes which appear on Manzaneras excellent solo album, Diamond Head, were composed by Quiet Sun between 1970 and 1972, which was the life span of the original band. That period, generally, opened up a lot of musical horizons, reflects Manzanera. Just listening to all those different groups like the Soft Machine, and the groups which came out of America at the time like Zappa, who was using the techniques of jazz in a rock context, that combination and Bill being turned onto jazz by Robert really changed the direction of our music. That whole period for me was like a musical university. Quiet Suns premature fusion of complex styles didnt exactly line the band up for immediate success. They secured a committed following around Dulwich, where they played at any available venue: everything from youth clubs, church halls, school halls, basements and front rooms. It was the height of that acoustic, singer/songwriter period. Everyone wanted to be Crosby, Stills and Nash, says Manzanera. Quiet Sun, of course, was the complete antithesis of all that. If Quiet Suns audience displayed an encouraging tolerance in the bands increasingly adventurous performances, record companies were a little less forthcoming in support of their idealistic experimentation. There really wasnt a company which was willing to sign us up, continues Manzanera, although the guy at Warner Brothers, who in the same three months turned down Roxy, gave us the chance to go down to a recording studio they had in Dorset to record some demos. Quiet Sun split up in 1972 because of the economic pressures, and resulting conflicts within the band which were precipitated. Mainstream then, an album which would have shaken the foundations of rock had it been recorded three years ago, has had to exist as a vague idea ever since. Until Phil decided to record his solo debut, and revive Quiet Sun at the game time. But, following the disintegration of Quiet Sun, Manzanera replaced a guitarist called David OList in a band called Roxy Music. The rest of that story is - as they say - history. Haywards first move was to join Mal Deans Amazing Band, which set him off in another direction as a drummer. Hed already been interested by people like Frank Perry and Tony Oxley, but this was the first chance for him to gain any practical experience of this kind of music. Then he joined Gong. I was with them for two months, and I just couldnt take it. It was all too much for me. There were some ridiculous emotional scenes, which I couldnt handle So I left. Then I started working with High Tide. I left them told them some story about how I wanted to go and tour Europe, and split. It was about that time that I tried to get the original Radar Favourites together. As you might have heard, Radar Favourites have recently decided to dissolve through financial problems. Charles isnt quite as pessimistic as Geoff Leigh about the future of Radar Favourites: I have a certain emotional affiliation with the name - its my rock project name - and I feel rather sad that someone has said that Radar Favourites is finished without them consulting me first. Bill MacCormicks name might be more familiar. It should be, since hes amongst the best bass players around. Should you require any evidence just check out Enos Here Come The Warm Jets, Manzaneras Diamond Head, Mainstream, particularly his own composition Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-stick Kitchen Utensil and his work with Robert Wyatts Matching Mole (two albums, both deleted) and on Roberts Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard. When Matching Mole collapsed in disarray, MacCormick received a telephone call from Wyatt who informed him that Gong were looking for a bass player: I thought, Whoopee . . . (he does not sound enthusiastic at the memory). This van met me somewhere in London, the door opened and I got in, and there were half a dozen other bass players whod got the same message. That was all I needed - an audition for Gong. He got the job and crossed the Channel to join Gong in France. Like Charles, his association with Daevid Allens pothead pixies was brief: About ten days. It took me that long to convince myself that being in Gong wasnt quite what I was looking for. On his return to England Bill met Robert again, and with Francis Monkman and Gary Windo they decided to form a new band. In June of 1973 they began rehearsing some songs which Robert had written in Venice (which would eventually form the first side of Roberts Rock Bottom album). At the end of the first week of rehearsals Gary phoned me in hysteria on a Saturday morning and said that Robent had fallen out of a window. At the time, Robert was living in a flat on the top floor of a 15-storey block of flats. So I thought that was that . . . Then Gary explained what had actually happened. Two days later I went into hospital, in sympathy, with appendicitis. Anyway for a long time the doctors didnt knowhow badly Robert was injured. So we vaguely kept the idea together and thought that we might get another drummer in, and Robert would play keyboards. But as it turned out, Robert was in hospital for nearly seven months, and wasnt really fit when he came out. So that was all knocked on the head. In the September of that year I did a few things on Enos first album, and then I didnt do anything musical at all for quite some time. I just didnt feel like it, and I had no energy for music. Until about last October when Phil said that he was doing his album and that hed also like to get the Quiet Sun thing done as well. Phil: I listened to some of the live tapes wed made of Quiet Sun, and it seemed such a pity that wed never put it down on record, because there was so much good music there. I thought it would be valid, and I fitted it into the 26-day schedule Id arranged for recording Diamond Head. In a way, Im glad that it was recorded now and not four years ago. Because at that time we would never have had the conviction to record the album as we have, with all the roughness left intact. Whereas, now we can say thats just how its meant to be. Charles: We were always an extremely aggressive band, possibly more aggressive than the record suggests. And I couldnt have imagined the album being produced in any other way. It had to be almost live, with all the irregularities left, to capture the way we played. I think we managed to capture that energy. Curiosity by .... (randomhold) Dulwich College, early 1970s... Dulwich College is a large public school in South East London. Its big - about 1,400 boys go there - and it sprawls across many acres of prime suburban turf, surrounded by its own grounds and those of the nearby golf course. Its one of the wealthiest schools in the country. It owns Dulwich Village. It controls the look and the feel of the area surrounding. Nearby are two other schools from the same foundation: James Allens Girls School and Alleyns. Founded in the early 1600s by Edward Alleyn, one of Shakespeares best buddies, the school is renowned for its academic excellence, its sport... and, for a period of about six years either side of 1970, for producing a rash of rock and roll musicians (but they dont like to talk about that). First up came three young gentlemen, resplendent in their school blazers and caps. Their names: Philip Targett-Adams, Charles Hayward and William MacCormick. Philip was a boarder in Blew House, was in the school swimming and water polo teams and played Number 8 for the Second XV rugby team. At the same time, Bill was carving out a name for himself as a part-time school rebel. Also a member of the 2nd XV, he was in the school First XI at cricket where he and a colleague caused consternation by refusing to have their hair cut the regulation length above the ears. Dangerous! Then came Charlie. He didnt play sport unless absolutely forced. He got his exercise smashing the living daylights out of a large, red glitter, double bass drum, Premier drum kit. This bunch were to become the core of the justly well-renowned school psychedelic rock band Pooh and the Ostrich Feather. Unknown to them, several youngsters of varying ages would attend their regular performances in the Schools Bath Hall. Each of them harboured some as yet unformed desire to be up there performing, posing and generally larking about. They were, in age order, David Ferguson, Simon Ainley and David Rhodes. DF was serious, non-sporty, heavily into Labour Party politics and interested in the theatre and drinking large quantities of Holsten Pils (or whatever its equivalent was in those days. Simon was not so serious, a bit sporty in a light-hearted fashion and interested in ladies, rock n roll, ladies, beer and ladies (or whatever their equivalent was in those days). DR was VERY serious for one so young, played guitar, spent his time intimidating his opposite number in school rugby matches (he would later play hooker for the school 1st XV - and for our American cousins thats a position not a profession) and was planning to become very interested in Courage Special Bitter when he could convince the barman at The Dog, the local pub in Dulwich Village, he was old enough. Little did they know that, several years later, they would all become professional rock musicians (with varying degrees of success) and that four of them would, in 1978, become part of the same eccentric and hugely unsuccessful rock combo: Random Hold. But then, thats not their fault. Dulwich didnt teach Precognition at A-Level in those days.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:59:10 +0000
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