Obscure Non-Prog Music Facts

presdoug wrote: richardh wrote: presdoug wrote: richardh wrote: Brit glam rock band The Sweet started out as a 'front' for record producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who used session musicians and The Sweet just mimed on Top Of The Pops and the like. Their first release (1969) was 'Funny funny' which was a rip off The Archies 'Sugar Sugar'. I'm not exactly when The Sweet started writing and playing on their own songs but guess it was 1971- 1972.Their last hit was 'Love Is Like Oxygen' in 1978.    The Sweet were the first band I ever saw live (1980) and gave me permanent hearing damage   I remember going to see The Carl Palmer band about 10 years ago and who should walk in and sit at the back of the auditorium - Andy Scott! Still completely recognisable. Nowadays he is most famous for doing a van advert on TV.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJS_eio4DTc   I remember hearing a few years ago that the drummer for The Sweet passed away. I remember them most for their album "Desolation Boulevard". In the early to mid seventies, they had some hits that were pretty big in Canada-i remember hearing them a lot on the radio and at dances when i was a teen in the seventies. Who could forget "Ballroom Blitz" or "Little Willy".     Sorry, but i can't watch youtube videos from my own computer, but will check that link out at my sister's. First record I ever bought was Ballroom Blitz I still listen to Give Us A Wink occasionally. Action (the album version) has my favourite intro to a song ever. That's cool, Richard. I also remember with fondness their hit "Fox On The Run" which was also huge in Canada.

yep I love that as well.

I don't know how obscure this is, but Franz Liszt is Wagner's father-in-law. Wagner also died two years before Franz Liszt which prompted him to write the elegy "At the Grave of Richard Wagner".

German-Czech conductor Franz Konwitschny was nick-named Kon-Whiskey for his heavy drinking habit.

Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was a real character, and known for his acerbic wit and invective, usually inflicted at the expense of somebody. When conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent toured the Middle East and was detained there, he phoned up Beecham. "You know, Sir Thomas, i recently did some concerts in the Middle East, but they detained me, and later i was released." Beecham replied, "Released?! Did they hear you play?"

Composer Anton Bruckner died a virgin. Johannes Brahms, quite the opposite, who was known to have relations with prostitutes.

Tchaikovsky detested Wagner's music.

Debussy detested the music of Richard Strauss.

Gustav Mahler was an early admirer of Anton Bruckner's music, and would listen in on Bruckner's music theory classes in Vienna when Mahler was a student. Mahler even conducted the world premiere of Bruckner's 6th Symphony.

Brit glam rock band The Sweet started out as a 'front' for record producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who used session musicians and The Sweet just mimed on Top Of The Pops and the like. Their first release (1969) was 'Funny funny' which was a rip off The Archies 'Sugar Sugar'. I'm not exactly when The Sweet started writing and playing on their own songs but guess it was 1971- 1972.Their last hit was 'Love Is Like Oxygen' in 1978. 

Edited by richardh - June 06 2012 at 01:37

Fox On The Rocks wrote: Neil Young and Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) both went to the same high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I'm not sure if they associated with each other though.

Neil Young and Rick James started out in the same band, the Mynah Birds, back in 1965.

 

U2 called the song "Hawkmoon 269" because they (allegedly, at least that's what they said) did 269 takes of that song. 

Edited by Dayvenkirq - May 29 2012 at 14:27

Dayvenkirq wrote: presdoug wrote: When conductor Sir Thomas Beecham toured Germany with his orchestra in the mid 1930s, Hitler attended, and later met privately with Beecham. Sir Thomas came away from that by commenting, "Now i KNOW what is wrong with Germany." I wonder what Beecham meant by that. I don't really get it.

I definitely think it is a direct criticism of Hitler himself. In the mid-thirties, people outside of Germany still did not really understand what Hitler was, and thus what he would be held accountable for regarding the fate of Germany. I think outsiders at that time would be induced to throw up their hands and proclaim "You know, i really don't know what is wrong with Germany", maybe sensing something was wrong, but not understanding what, really. Beecham, after being with Hitler directly, was thus able to pick up things out about Hitler's real self, and came out of the meeting "knowing what is wrong with Germany". And that, i am sure, meant Hitler. That is how i interpret his comment.

Edited by presdoug - May 21 2012 at 17:32

When the composers Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner finally met, at Brahms famous haunt "The Red Hedgehog" each sat at the end of a long table with their followers around them. It was hard to break the ice. Brahms ordered Pork dumplings. Bruckner then commented "Well, a man that orders pork dumplings can't be all that bad", and thus "the ice was broken".

When conductor Sir Thomas Beecham toured Germany with his orchestra in the mid 1930s, Hitler attended, and later met privately with Beecham. Sir Thomas came away from that by commenting, "Now i KNOW what is wrong with Germany."

At another concert of Beecham's that Hitler was supposed to attend, but was late for, Beecham made a mistake by commenting "the old bugger's late" which was picked up by microphones, and quite a bit of the audience heard it. Luckily, Beecham was able to keep his head.


Edited by presdoug - May 21 2012 at 13:16

In the 1920s, conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler conducted Mahler's symphonies with frequency.

There are over a hundred Jews who owe their lives to Furtwangler intervening on their behalf in Nazi Germany

Furtwangler himself had to flee the Nazis and go to Switzerland. Himmler wanted to arrest him due to his helping of Jews to safety.

Anton Bruckner's music was introduced to Russia in the 1920s by German conductors Hermann Abendroth and Otto Klemperer. Abendroth was the first German conductor allowed back to Russia after the cessation of WW2 hostilities.

Richard Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben was dedicated to conductor Willem Mengelberg.
   Dutch conductor Mengelberg, head of the Concertgebouw Orchester Amsterdam when the Nazis began occupying the Netherlands during the war, had the great courage and conviction in conducting a few performances of Jewish composer Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony, after the Nazis had taken over!
     This could put you into a concentration camp, but Mengelberg wasn't.

Franz Schmidt's Fourth Symphony was dedicated to conductor Prof. Oswald Kabasta. Kabasta showed great vision by being an early believer in Mahler's symphonies, but unfortunately, his career collided with the Nazis in a big way.,and thus, could not conduct Mahler.

German conductor Joseph Keilberth was born just two weeks after Herbert von Karajan.

Brahms was celebant all of his life.