Space Pirate Radio

 

On the few occasions I visited Guy, I found him to be very closed-up

about a lot of personal matters. I didn't press him for information.

 

I frequently called and talked to him during the show;

several times I was on the phone with him for over an hour,

and had to wait while he did station ID's during the call.

He was a bit more open then, but only a bit.

 

I guess I should have recorded the phone calls in addition to recording the shows.

 

 

 

Daniel Hayes Pearson

Space Pirate Emeritus 

I struggled to help Guy switch to video, a video version of SPR that would've been perfect for VH-1 or M-TV; Space Pirate Video, a show broadscast from the Moon featuring videos by Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, et cetera, and even introduced him to producers in LA who introduced us to other musical/video production types but Guy would sabotage himself by tardiness.  He was professional enough to impress these people but it was all to no avail, usually because he was incapable of compromise that he thought negated his artistic ideals.  He uncompromised himself into obscurity.  Begging and pleading with him was futile.  He had a strange ability to destroy his support network.  My last meeting with him was at some hamburger place in Santa Barbara, sitting on a patio where I bought him lunch with my last $15 dollars.  He thanked me by insulting me non-stop for the duration of the lunch.  I was so angry I didn't reply and walked away never to see him again.  He left Santa Barbara radio shortly after that last bitter meeting and I lost track of him at that point.  I still have his tapes and listen to them often; in fact, I'm listening to them right now.  He introduced me and others to some of the most fun and beautiufl music ever produced by contemporary artists and I thank him for that.  I remember music by Bryan Ferry and Kate Bush.  When he went off the air at his last Santa Barbara station I began listening to Musical Starstreams and Hearts Of Space on other stations.  Their music was okay, sort of, and their playlists were more informative, but it wasn't the same as the music Guy played for all those tri-county night owls, night-shift workers and insomniac students at SBCC and UCSB.  I'm sorry he never got his Peter Sellers book published or possibly even written.  I am not surprised to learn in this forum that he had been beaten severely by some unsavory characters he had associated with.  Guy was always good at provoking people.  Sounds like he might have provoked the wrong ones.   I felt like punching him at our last meeting, him being such the ingrate and all, but thought it best to just take my leave of him.  He was rich in potential for artistic success but was his own worst enemy.  I would very much appreciate information on how to get copies of some of his shows.  I'm mostly interested in the music he played, not so much his comedy bits.  His repartee was better.  If anyone can turn me on to a site where I can buy some Mark Schreve music it would be just grand to hear from you.  I wish Guy well.  I bear no hard feelings.  He is who he is.  I'm so glad I found this forum.

 

Haha ... I put up the money for that and my name is on it ... and still have a couple of copies left.

 

That same year I put together on cassette a compilation of comedy bits from the many recordings I had ... and on one birthday show, Guy played like 3 hours of it (maybe it was 20  ... and he finally said ... he had to stop it ... it was an overload ... and it was ... but it was fun.

 

I'm considering putting these together again, now that I can mix and match these better and have more fun ... still can't sell them ... but I'm sure we can all enjoy the love and laughter ... and I think that Guy ... for once can look at us and say ... thank you ... and I will say the same. And if he doesn't say it a la Spike Milligan I will demand a translation on the spot and give away the money to the Genghis Khan Ducks Appreciation Society.

 

If anyone deserves a pat in the back, he really does! If anything ... I'm sure that he would enjoy knowing that there are folks that appreciate some of the fine work he did ... now if we can tie him up, force him to walk that plank and get his mouth near another microphone .... and I don't mean do another NL!

 

My first recording was a couple of weeks after that ... how well I remember it! Like yesterday ... gosh ... I don't even remember the date of the first show I have ... I'll let you know soon enough ... and list the work.

 

The 1st show I have was from the week that PFM's The World Became the World came out in the West Coast .... and that is the opening cut of the show. I think it is either the 3rd or 4th week of March or so.

 

Now you got me in tears ... that was a real special time for me ... goodness ... 34 years ago!

 

Thx

 

I brought a list with me this time.

 

The complete shows I have are:

 

1988    Nov. 14

 

1989    Aug.  21   28

             Sept. 11   18    25

             Oct.    02   09   16    23   30

             Nov.   06   13    20   27

             Dec.   04   11   18    25

 

1990    Jan.   01    08   15   22   29

              Feb.  12    19   26

              Mar.   05   12   19   26

              Apr.    02

 

1991    Aug. 26

 

1994   June 13

 

The compilations I have are from shows in the period  1991 Sept. 02   to  1994 Feb. 07, 

and a few after that.

The last dated info I have handy is for  2001 Sept. 24. I believe that is the last show I have anything from.

 

I believe one reason why Guy's comedy bits work so well is that his absurd sense of humour combines rather favourably with his lack of fear in delivering a live-on-air improvisation.

This shows his confidence in his material, and rightly so.

 

One thinks easily of Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams.

Guy may have a narrower range, and less time to practice, than either of them, but I have laughed harder at some of Guy's efforts than I have at any Winters or Williams bit.

 

For me, two "champions of comedy" are Chef Bruno, fat as he is, disguising himself as a hat rack, and Oscar B. Chow being sexually excited by small appliances. Both of these ideas still crack me up when I think of them.

 

We miss SPR because it was fun.  Although we may never find its like again, we have our memories (and some of us have recordings) that  will serve us for a while, at least. Even if that's all we have, it's better than nothing.

 

The very first set of shows were after Joe Collins' Miles High at 2AM in the morning on Mondays.

 

This changed later to 1AM and then Midnight, with Joe's show before it.   

 

From about 1975 or so on, most of the shows were pretty much 6 hours long until Larry Johnson, or Ray Breer (Brier?) would come in the morning.

 

Sometime in that period, Guy became one of the backups and alternates, and eventually was given Friday and Saturday nights (Saturday and Sunday mornings actually).

 

To my ears, there are some "dailies" he did that were ... out of this world ... I have a couple of them:

 

Carfax Abbey (for Halloween)

Dis-Orient Express (for the Ides of March)

Christmas (self explanatory)

The Real Don Steel (April Fool's)

at least one or more Halloween Shows in different years

 

I really have to finish the spreadsheet I have!

 

Even though the Halloween "specials" are fun and specially enjoyable, my favorites of them all still are the "Mind Melts" (as I called them -- might have been Guy's word for them -- don't remember properly) ... and the insanity and fun madness in them coupled with sound effects, music, craziest stuff in the world .... I always thought that "Revolution #9" was cool and (to me!) quite self explanatory and a massively good snap shot of the times and era ... you took a camera and snapped 20 seconds apart ... and there you have it. Guy did the same thing, and in my book was probably a bit more focused and less "Godard'ian" in the "laissez-faire" department of the creativity. On top of these he would add some of his own comedy bits that made these ... special ... and while it could take away from the background sound/music/effects, more often than not they complemented things ... which focused the thinking and energies better. In general, in those days, many folks might have thought that it was simply "ston'y" radio, but I can tell you that by that time Guy and I had already "graduated" ... we got really mad when Reagan said ... "let them smoke dope .. I'll win all the elections" ... the fudger knew exactly what he was doing!

 

There were times when things were decidedly weird and strange ... but even then, for me personally, it has been very rare to see/hear these and think of them as "abstract" ... when it comes to acting, theater, film and in general any of the arts ... there is very little that is abstract in it, and Guy is one of those folks ... he does not usually do anything because it does not mean anything ... even his comic timing is a normal reaction to our slow-ness and his ability to sink in and swim on our wavelengths. The same applied to radio and his choices of music and themes ...

 

The best part of this was his mercurial ability to shift and match themes and create whole shows around a specific theme and have more stuff based on those specifics than just 2 songs on your regular radio station ... if he ever did a teacher/student thing, I can tell you that even Van Halen and what's his name would blush! And I will bet you that the comedy bit would be a take off on the twit song about the teacher! Of course it won't happen now that I said it ... but something like it would be there.

 

And that was the beauty of the way he worked.

 

But he needed the space to do this ... in a formulaic station that couldn't give a darn about his opinions ... this would be a major problem.

 

But on the internet ... Guy ohh Guy ... there is no better place for it!

 

f**k radio ...