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Yukorin View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2006 at 14:43



Ridiculously entertaining article with Christian Vander. Contains the infamous "Micksy Oldfield stole the Exorcist music from me honest guv'nor" line:



An Article From Batterie Magazine



John Coltrane is great and Vander is his son. It's beeen twenty-five years that Magma appeared in the Universe. It's with his leader and creator that we celebrate this "jubil=E9". Christian Vander, an extra-ordinary drummer and singer, is most of all a great musician, a composer who fights for life.

Batterie Magazine(B.M.) : Magma is said to be born in Turin, 1969...

Christian Vander(C.V.) : I went there just after the death of John Coltrane and I was living here for eighteen months, in dire straits. One morning, in spring, I endured a sort of revelation : I had to go back to Paris, without any reason to do so. That was the beginning. During the summer, I toured on the "Cete d'Opale" with Laurent Thibault ; there, we founded the story of Magma.

B.M. : Why and how was Magma born ?

C.V.: At this period, there existed a lethargical movement. Someone had to start, somewhere, from zero. I was listening very often to John Coltrane at that time and in fact I listen to him still nowadays. His music was not totally understandable and is perhaps still not.

B.M. : Was your musical background totally made of jazz ?

C.V. : Yes, really. And the music of Magma has been wrongly assimilated to pop or progressive music. Magma was not perhaps on the fringes but it was different. I've learnt to listen to all kind of music - and Coltrane in fact had lead the way. It's important to be attentive to other sorts of culture but without changing them. I would not pick up a folklore somewhere and interprete it in my own way. The question is to be the echo of what we hear.

B.M. : How such a music was brought to life and how did people meet to create this yet-unheard type of music ?

C.V. : This may be named chance but in fact there's no hazard. There were at that time musicians who wanted to go further in the musical territory, but they were not the ones everyone thought of : many musicians were angry because they could not jam with the stars ; one day, I organized a reunion in Paris and that was a total disaster. So I decided to convoke musicians from other parts of the coutry such as Claude Engel from Tours or Francis Moze from Bordeaux - and who had never played bass. We thought "A vie, e mort et apres". I do hope that nowadays each of them follows his way. I can say that during twenty-five years I have followed this sentence.

B.M. : In the elaboration of Magma's music, what are the importances of work, research and spontaneity ?

C.V. : For me, this is quite a natural way : I stand up, go to the piano and there, it comes. I've continued to work that way. of course, if i spend many hours in front of the piano, I always find something, but it's the daily music, a music that is in no way connected with the one which comes from our deep-inside ; we are just receptors to this music.

B.M. : The "kobaian", this tongue initiated by Magma, came that way ?

C.V. : Absolutely ; words came from nowhere : the first word I sang was "Kobaia". And I composed this song on a guitar, which is an instrument I had never played with before ; so, I sang "Kobaia" which means "eternal".

B.M. : And the myth of Kobaia came...

C.V. : Yes, practically at the same time. The name of Magma appeared later : one night, the group was expected to play at the "Rock&Roll Circus" but we had no name. We had been answered : "No name, no playing". So I went and sat in the next bar and I began to search for a name. Three years before, I was in a group with Bernard Paganotti and I had composed a song named "Nogma". The sound came : "Magma" ; I returned to the club and I announced this name.

B.M. : This group with Paga can be cosidered as the basis of Magma ?

C.V. : Yes, that was the first try. That was called "Chinese" and we were playing famous soul-music songs. but we were also composers and we used to sing in another language made of spanish, italian and strange sounds. Maybe it can be considered as the birth of the kobaian - but I had to wait to my return from Italy to make it all clear.

B.M. : The logo of Magma, this famous "griffe"(note : sorry, can't translate it), has been very important for the fame of the band. Where did it come from ?

C.V. : I didn't create that - I don't claim to innovate - but I'm very eager to be able to accept all the innovations. This logo seems to be a symbol of fire and sun. I had imagined it as a kind of chest-plate of an egyptian inspiration which would have covered all the body. But the sister of Laurent Thibault imagined it as a medal.

B.M. : At the beginning, how was the group judged ?

C.V. : Something sure is that the public reacted. Some had been very impressed while others had felt that as a sort of agression. It's true that at that lethargical time, Magma was really something different. But that was the purpose : it was time to awake - and this is my permanent aim.

B.M. : Progressively, the band turned into a more radical approach of music...

C.V. : Of course. At the beginning, my influences were very present : I was listening to musicians such as Pharoah Sanders. The ambiances created by these percussionnists were really fascinating and they could be echoed in Magma. After, the number of musicians was reduced, the sound moved. At the beginning, everyone composed but quickly I was the only composer. I have to reanalyze my music with the time and I think that I didn't want anyone to get familiar with my music : at the time, some were playing the same three notes for two hours-that was cool. But I had to be realist and had to awake.

B.M. : The sound of the group changed in the following years. For instance you abandonned the horns...

C.V. : In fact, it's very difficult to play with horns : you're on stage without having the time to repeat. It's much better to have four persons on stage who are really "inside the music" than twenty who are not really coordinated. Adding players is nice-to-see but it weakens the music. The whole orchestra must play as a single man- or you play in a trio.

B.M. : Quickly, Magma has been reproached to be aggressive and I remember that on the "1001o C" 's cover, you had mentionned "war drums"...

C.V. : At the beginning, I think it was made to differentiate ourselves from the other bands. We used to have black clothes which was not the current fashion. Everyone had flowers on their clothes but I, I prefered to see flowers in the country. And I had a kind of agressivity because I was ill at ease as many others, and i had to say it. I was simply discovering humanity's drama... Since I was a child, I had always listened to people who had this deep inside located shout, this "OM". At the beginning, it was Ray Charles and then after, John Coltrane ; I had understood his daily pain, I felt concerned without knowing why.

B.M. : On one hand, there had been a strong reject of the band such as rumours saying that the band was fascist , but on the other hand a great number of people identified themselves in your music. I remember having seen 2CV (note: a very popular french car) with the logo of Magma painted on it and driven by people who were dressed in black.

C.V. : Very often, the public has only seen the external side of Magma, its dark image. But, there was some fun in Magma and we were not playing only dark music. Many groups tried to imitate Magma but their appearances were falsified and they this wrong image to the public.

B.M. : But you have often been provoking when claiming that "MAGMA was the best band in the Universe" and when denouncing the surrounding musical vacuity.

C.V. : Time went by and I had no surprises when listening to other bands. I would like to see a flower merchant in each street ; that's the same for music : in Magma, we were always trying to go beyond our possibilities. We had the feeling that we were wasting our energy because what was surrounding us was simply chaos. It's a pity but it's the same thing nowadays, except a few groups that are diluated and isolated. I was always astonished by Magma and never by the others. To find new ideas I should have gone to clubs to listen to musicians, to "exchange our musical strength" ; but in fact I was listening to John Coltrane, which is not logical. That's the same thing nowadays.

B.M. : Most of the musicians who played in Magma were previously unknown. Did you discover them or did they came themselves ?

C.V. : Many musicians came to enter the band and I used to make a selection. In general, I used to accept musicians who had a real will to play with us. I tried to work with well-known musicians but the first they did was to criticize the music. So I only recruited new musicians who were searching for something new, something different. And there are many musicians of this type - we could have formed many others.

B.M. : Was the music very written ?

C.V. : I used to compose the melody line for each instrument and for the singer. Piano, bass, horns..., all was composed. But when the music had been played many times and had been assimilated, any new idea was welcome. Some musicians did contribute to the elaboration of our music. I was saying to the band's members "You're on stage, now you can express yourselves". No need to quote who was following my advice because when anyone listens to Magma, he distinguishes who evolves freely in the band. That's what I was doing when I was on the drums. I was playing Magma's music, I was at its service but I was permanently improvising.

B.M. : After "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh", the band reached its maturity. But "Kohntarkosz", the following album, explored totally new musical realms?

C.V. : It's a pretty sad story but things have to be said. A man called Mike Oldfield did steal my music - to be more precise, extracts from "Mekanik" and "La Dawotsin". When we recorded "Mekanik Kommandoh" in 1972, Oldfield was waiting for recording "Tubular bells", which is in fact an extract from my music. I played this music for him, without guessing that he would steal it for him. When I saw the film "The Exorcist", like a "good boy" I found its music fantastic. Of course it was : that was the music I used to play. I didn't make the relation between the two musics at once. But, one day one of Magma's member told me "Mike oldfield, he's the guy who was there when we composed Mekanik Kommandoh". In fact, he hasn't composed something else in the same vein because he had not the end of the music. Since this film, many film scores were composed that way - which is typically magma's one - and I couldn't play my music because I could have been accused of copying the others. That really drove me crazy. At this time, i had composed the following music of "Mekanik kommandoh" but, as I couldn't play it, I had to explore new harmonic realms, which were a little bit too complicated for my capacities - unless Mekanik - and that was "Kohntarkosz".

B.M. : There existed different eras for Magma. With "Attahk", you said you wanted to play rock or punk music...

C.V. : I've never said such an absurdity. People need bearings, references. I can't stop them. Many talk about the seventies, but what does it mean ? nothing. I've never followed a certain fashion because fashions are already outfashionned. Why asking me if Magma is ended ? It's a continuity, a suite. It does evolve like in a "spiral".

B.M. : How did you move to "Attahk" and then to Offering ?

C.V. : At that time, musicians were complicating the music. I had to return to sources to create a very simple musical basis, without any melody. For "Attahk", the band was more or less dissolved and in the recording studio I was alone with a couple of mercenaries.

B.M. : A rumour says that for "Attahk" you did write everything for each player...

C.V. : I wrote everything from A to Z. I'm gonna tell you something very significant : at a moment I told the bassist that his playing was wrong - when he was alone to play music ; I had the feeling that the bass was not assuming its function while there was no drums. He replied that it was nice that way. So I let him play but when I listen to this passage nowadays, I think that he was wrong : I can't understand how this guy could have thought he was playing the right way - but he himself will continue to listen to it for the rest of his life. So, shall I. That's the problem : in "Attahk" I had to do everything, I had to sing which is something I only used to do at home to compose.

B.M. : But, on stage you used to sing a song entitled "HHAI" ?

C.V. : Yes, but just at the beginning of the concert because singing is impossble while I'm on drums. In the "Bobino's Concert", it's evident that it's very difficult to sing and to drum simultaneously. Now either I sing either I play. It's with Offering that I developped my singing capacities. "Attahk" did open the way to the musics of Offering. These were musics that I had always played but that I played just for me. When I returned to jazz at the Riverbop (note : a parisian club), Jacqueline Ferrarri, the owner of the club, suggested to play all the musics I was keeping inside me. We had to find a name. Offering was a good name because there was the notion of gift.

B.M. : Music began to be more acoustic...

C.V. : As at the beginning of Magma. Because Magma was an acoustic band. Of course we had problems to find a balance between acoustic and electric : we'd been the first in France to play on Fender Pianos. I have always been attracted by acoustic music. To have the same sensations with electric instruments, you have to be a real artist. Jannick Top, for example, really masters his instrument : when listening to him, I can hear choirs, horns... He had a new approach on the bass but unfortunately no one followed his way.

B.M. : You declared that Magma could have been a band without any drums but in fact, your personnality as a drummer was overpowering the other individualities.

C.V. : I don't know why and I'm sad of that. For me, I was just helping the music of Magma : I was the drummer as others were the pianists, the bassists or the singers. I've never tried to be considered as a leader. I've always been considered as the drummer of Magma and not as the main composer, what I really became. There was no leader but an entity "Magma". Decisions have always been taken collectively. Do you know that I had been fired from Magma ?

B.M. : At the time of the first band ?

C.V. : Yes, I remember that we were in a truck. Faton and Teddy Lasry announced me that I was not following the spirit of the band, that I was not well-integrated. Loulou Sarkissian and I really laughed for quite a while. I thought : "Magma will continue but I'll form another zeuhl-band tomorrow". The following night we played together and they never told me that again. But I can say that I've been fired from Magma !

B.M. : Your way of drumming was very particular, very different of what the others did at that time...

C.V. : I was in fact very far from rock-drummers. I was following Elvin Jones and, even in jazz, no one was playing like him. I had listened Elvin Jones since I was eleven and I had worked on "My Favorite things". When I was playing the syncops, people were hearing it as wrong : it was different and thru Magma, people discovered Elvin Jones. When we were playing jazz at the Riverbop, we told the public - which was Magma's one - to listen to the themes we were playing in their original version, which were much better than ours. Progressively, they discovered Coltrane and perhaps that they forgot Magma. That's quite normal... During the whole first period of Magma, I've never told about John Coltrane although I was thinking of him all the time, he was everpresent in my music. I was thinking that when listening to Magma, people could understand the unsaid. But that wasn't so easy.

B.M. : Why did you return to jazz ?

C.V. : Essentially because of Jacqueline Ferrari, the owner of the Riverbop, who has always told me to do so. At the beginning, I haven't found the idea very good but progressively, playing in a club and being in direct contact with the public made me really feel good.

B.M. : Is it thru Coltrane that you discovered Elvin, or is it the contrary ?

C.V. : I used to listen to Coltrane before he played with Elvin. My mother made me discover him. We used to listen very often the LP of Miles Davis entitled "Cookin'" (with "Airegin", "Tune up", "When the lights are low") where John plays very beautiful choruses : there's something different in his manner of playing saxophone. It's the same thing with Elvin. Bobby Jaspar, who was playing with him in Belgium, presented Elvin to my mother as a future great drummer. One or two years after, Elvin began to play with John.

B.M. : You were born in a familly of musicians ?

C.V. : I don't know my father, in fact, who was someone fantastic, according to my mother. She married the pianist Maurice Vander who so became my father-in-law and who gave me a well-known name . I went to jazz clubs as I was really young and there were very often jazz musicians at home.

B.M. : Do you remember your first drum kit ?

C.V. : Yes, Chet Baker gave it to me. He had seen that I was alwys playing with my hands with him, following the rhythm. One evening, as I was eleven, he drove me to "le Chat qui Pache" (note : a famous jazz club in Paris), told me to wait for him and he came back with a brand new drum kit, offering it to me. It was his drummer's one and, fortunately for him, he had hired it. Two years after, I was sued for having stolen this drum kit.

B.M. : Did you learn to drum in a classical way ?

C.V. : At the beginning, i had a teacher but he died a little later. So I went to the consevatory of my neighborhood where the teacher told me that he couldn't integrate me at the middle of the year ; he showed me students that had been there for two years but I found that they didn't know much because I had yet worked very hard. Then, I tried to work with Agostini but I soon gave it up : I have never learnt the technical aspects of drums because what interested me was the freedom of my wrists ; my wrists have to act without being worried by the rest of my body. It's a problem of dialog not a problem of technical plans : someone who re-plays the same chorus many times just listens to himself and if he previews where to play his phrasing, it's already too late. Of course no one can't always improvise phrasing that seems to be written. I don't claim to do so but Elvin does. He permanently plays different phrasings and it's magic, never played at the same moment. It's free. That is the way I see things and that's why I looked for liberty.

B.M. : The link between the body and the instrument is important ?

C.V. : You've got to know well your body, that's all. I understood that you don't have to beat very hard the drum kit ; I would have liked to be told that but I discovered it. In Elvin's drumming manner, from a tone to another, there exists a great "plain" (sic). That made me discover a kobaian word : doweless. The great drummers don't beat the drum kit but it's the touch which is important. That's the same for other instruments. You've got to restrain yourself : so, the sound has a total amplitude.

B.M. : Why haven't you recorded drum-choruses ?

C.V. : Because drummers as Elvin did so : I don't understand what would be the interest of mine. I've searched for the perfect chorus, for myself, that I've developped on stage since 1972. I've developped around ten choruses and maybe we'll publish it or its summary.

B.M. : Haven't you thought of just playing drums ?

C.V. : For me, drums are an instrument who helps the solist. I can't listen to drums for hours but a saxophone, yes.

B.M. : What do you think of these drummers who play in a very technical and demonstrative way ?

C.V. : Just ask them what they think of themselves...The ones who learnt drums in schools have wasted their time because when they want to play in clubs, they've got to erase all the "cliches" they've been taught. Some teachers have not moved and they are unable to play a music which is alive. That's their choice. What you're taught in schools are things that have been discovered progressively, in an artistic way ; the students just assimilate it in a single year.

B.M. : How do you hear the drums in the Trio ?

C.V. : As the wind, as a cool blow. Something very difficult to communicate. The three instruments form an homogeneous movement whose tempo is indicated neither by the drums nor by the bass but by the whole sound. You've got to follow this tempo but you must appear like playing with it. And the touch is the key-element.

B.M. : In Offering, you're the composer, in the Trio you play John Coltrane's music...

C.V. : For me, jazz is really a music created by the blacks of America and it causes jazz to be so difficult to understand. But it's interesting to try to play it even if I think that jazz is inaccessible for the whites. Offering is my own colour ; in Offering, I really feel free and I can't play more rightly.

B.M. : And Fusion ? Was it a band created for a single album ?

C.V. : No, we made a couple of concerts at the Riverbop. The album has been recorded six months later. But certain parts where Didier and Benoit had played have been re-played in studio : that created major changes. We had played the rhythmics 'live' on soft themes but these themes have been replayed in a strict way - the rhythmics should have been replayed too. This was the problem with this album but it was a very interesting experience. I tried to play binary music, something that I had never done before. I had always played more or less a "ternairisant binary music" (sic)- as Dejohnette. You've got to be ternary if you don't want to play like a robot or if you don't want to be replaced by a rhythm-box. I know drummers that have worked on binary rhythm and who now come to the studio with their rhythm-box.

B.M. : Magma is a worldwide-known band and everyone knows its name. Why ?

C.V. : Because we went towards the public. When the medias evoke the seventies, they speak of France Gall or Sylvie Vartan (note : two famous popular french singers). Magma has imposed itself. The plot is evident : when you stand up and say something, you're considered as fascist and if you say nothing, you're the slave of the medias that decide who can play music or no. Magma has never followed these rules. For the 20th anniversary of the death of John Coltrane , not a single extract has been shown on telly even if there exists many films from his Antibes concert of 1965 ; that is something different from all the blood that we can see on TV and which afraids children. The television divides nations, families and generations. No one has the time to think : they watch at this screen, go out and kill the first man they see ; they are educated by the violence. A twenty-years-old man don't know that nowadays, there are ten times more agressions than when he was born. It's possible to eliminate violence and I'm noy afraid to say that the television is a murderer who introduces himself in each house ; I want to make a CD who would be named "Murderer" (note : in french, "Assassin"). People don't realize that they become prisonners of this black screen which presents to them only one side of reality. We've got to react. Eveything is in my music : I didn't know why I was screaming but it was instinctual. You become violent because what surrounds you doesn't let you to act and speak freely. Magma came that way because I hadn't understood that the earth was a prison camp and that outside there existed an unreachable world we can't attain. If we try to escape, if we try to show to the others the reality of the world, we are outcasts, we don't exist any longer. We are really crushed day by day by an invisible force ; that's why Magma exists, why Offering exists, why I still continue.

B.M. : What are your future plans ?

C.V. : With Offering, I hope to soon record "the Swans and the Crows" (note : Seventh plans "Les Cygnes et les Corbeaux" for autumn 1996). With Magma, I'll record "Zess", a music that many people are waiting for. I feel I'm ready to do it. An extract has already been published but the final version is more calm, more deep. For the electric side of Magma, I want to do a disk where I would only play with machines. Ther would be preprogrammed parts with which I would play, a sort of duel between myself and the machines. It will be a monophonic disk because music comes from the inside and not in stereo ; I do hope and think that people will be sent into raptures when listening to it. The title will be "MAGMA AETERNA".







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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2006 at 14:51


                    another article on a similar theme:


Christian's overall concept is now governed by what he calls ZEUHL, which I had mistakenly believed was the name of yet another spinoff. He calls ZEUHL music the "supreme accomplishment of my dream inside my dreams". Part of ZEUHL music was the development of the "Theusz Hamtaahk" series of compositions, which many consider to be Vander's masterworks. Included here is music such as Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh, Kohntarkosz, "Ementeth-Re", "Ptah", "Soi Soi", "Hhai", and the riveting yet unrecorded "Zess". Christian does plan to record "Zess" in his "integral version, which is the first piece composed as ZEUHL music." These pieces are and were phenomenally influential.

"These pieces got developed slowly," recall Vander. "Before starting to play Mekanik with the group, I was working on it for one year and a half, on my own. It's while playing it with the group that I found the definitive shape. After I did the first Magma double album, made of songs composed in 1969, I immediately started to get in more obsessional music, without knowing if I was going into something. I stayed on the piano for almost two months, playing on a D on the bottom of the keyboard, then I add, rerecording on our old revox, a few other D's, medium and sharp.

"I was looking for an 'OM,' unconsciously, and it was only after two months that a first chord appeared, resounding in the D; the a few chords that made a melody. It became, at this moment, the central melody of Mekanik. It is actually in the middle of Mekanik. Then I had to compose the beginning and the end. It was really original, I never heard this kind of music before. I intended to stay for years on that way. I knew it was 'fresh' and that there were a lot of possibilities inside.

"Unfortunately or fortunately, while we were recording in England in the beginning of 1973, we were playing Mekanik's main melody all the time, with Stundehr (Rene Garber). In the studio there was an English musician called Mike Oldfield. He only remembered this melody and it became a part of Tubular Bells, and was the music of the movie The Exorcist. Then this sound of music became usual for almost all the fantastic or horror movies. I could not go on using it. People could imagine I was copying Mike Oldfield, that's why I stopped suddenly and started Kohntarkosz."

(...) [stuff about "Joia" missing]

Lately Offering has expanded its musical vocabulary even further. In concert they have been playing songs such as "Opus" by McCoy Tyner, "Ole" by John Coltrane, the Deer Hunter movie theme, old Frank Sinatra covers (!), Coltrane's "Out of This World," their own "Another Day" (which incorporates excerpts of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and "Om," along with Pharoah Sanders' "Upper and Lower Egypt"), and a new major composition, "The Swans and the Crows." This piece is still undergoing change; only a part of it ("The Swans") has been publically played. As Christian explains, "The 'Swans and the Crows' is a piece for Offering. It is a proposition for Offering to develop the eternal story.

Vander says, "For me the whole story begins today. I'm going to be able to realize at last the Kobaian adventure on three different levels, to clarify the situation between Magma, Offering and ZEUHL music. Proportionally it's certain that it's gonna be less ZEUHL records than Magma or Offering records. After a while, things will get transparent. It always was my idea. It's becoming reality now, so good... the mind has to be ready for it."









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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2006 at 15:02


            UK snooker legend an' all round good egg Steve Davis on Magma (with a choice Magma=Marmite quote thrown in for good measure) :




My obsession

Lee Honeyball
Sunday March 7, 2004
The Observer


My name is Steve Davis and I have a vinyl problem. I love music but wouldn't say I'm a music lover. I like my own music but then doesn't everybody? Having no real grasp of reality - I play a game of potting balls in a hole with a stick - I started collecting for the pursuit of collecting. That's it, my life is a shell.

When did you first discover music?

When I was at school. I wasn't keen on the 'in' groups of the time like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cockney Rebel, Yes, or Genesis; I was a bit more off the wall. Along with my mate Neil Rogers, I went for the next level of progressive music - bands like Soft Machine, Caravan and Gentle Giant. We used to go to concerts together wearing our Afghan coats. It was around this time in the early 70's I discovered Magma, my true obsession.

When was the first time you heard them?

It was at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse in London where I'd gone to watch the support act, Isotope. I was 17. I had planned to go home before Magma came on but I hung around and had the most musically life-changing experience of my life. I came out in shock; they blew me away. If I had a time machine and could go back to re-live one day of my life, it would be that one.

How would you describe their sound?

They are the musical equivalent of Marmite - you either like them or you don't. They were a Seventies phenomenon but a bit too far out there for most people, even if you liked progressive music. I didn't dare put them on the communal record player at sixth-form because they would have been booed off. Maybe it's because they were French.

Are you offended if people say they are rubbish?

No, I've learnt to keep my mouth shut. While I think they are the best thing I've ever heard - challenging, stimulating, powerful - my wife thinks they've got a pact with the devil. People generally just go: [puffs out his cheeks and shakes his head] sorry!

Didn't you promote a concert for them?

In the late Eighties, I thought it would be nice if they came over to London to do a gig, so I set up Interesting Promotions to promote it. Well, I paid the bill is what I really mean. I never realised that there were 14 of them in the band, which raised the overheads slightly. They did three nights at the Bloomsbury theatre; the last night was a sell-out. I'd done my nuts [spent too much money], too, so it was great. Then I went back to [whispers] playing snooker.

Would you ever do it again?

Interesting Promotions sits there on the loss sheet, so probably not. What would be good, though, is if you could get all of the Canterbury jazz rock bands together and create a festival. They do a similar thing in America called Prog Fest.

So you must know Magma quite well now?

Yes, but I don't pester the life out of them. I admire them from afar. A couple of them came down to the snooker club with me when they were over and smashed a few balls around. The main guy, a jazz drummer called Christian Vander, is my hero. They had their 30-year anniversary in France a couple of years ago and it was brilliant. They are still making music and it's even better than before, I think.

What else do you listen to?

I've switched from the jazz funk era of the Eighties back to my roots and am listening to Seventies soul again. It was a great time for music and anybody who hasn't delved into that era is missing out. Everyone has a special relationship with their record collection - it's just that mine is bigger than most. I've never listened to all my records and I never will. I couldn't tell you how many I have because they fill an entire room and are all over my house.

When did you start seriously collecting?

During the mid-Eighties when I used to listen to Robbie Vincent's show on a Saturday night. I blame him for what's happened to me since. He played records I couldn't get in my local shop and which I found out were only available on seven-inch singles. I was more into vocal stuff at the time and began collecting original 45s made for jukeboxes. All of the artists were unknown to me but I went mad collecting them.

Are you still discovering new stuff?

All the time. There are new artists out there making quite progressive stuff that is both fascinating and challenging to listen to. Soul music has been hijacked these days. R'n'B can mean anything now; it's been completely b*****dised. I listen to proper R'n'B. Also, I've just bought an iPod so I'm listening to more music than ever.

Do you dance to music?

I don't do dancing if I can help it. I listen to my iPod all the time, though; at tournaments, out running, even with I'm playing on-line poker, which is another obsession of mine. I've upset people at functions because I refuse to dance. Karaoke? Nah, that is cold sweat material.







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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2006 at 15:08

What odds on a Magma cover of this timeless classic ?



              (already written in Chasdavian...)



Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We'll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue

Pot the reds then, skrew back
For the yellow green brown blue pink and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Now ol' Milo as we all know's
Got loadsa dappa suits
London bred and he keeps his head
'Though he's got Italian roots
Emotional but he keeps his cool
'Til he reaches the finals
And whether he wins or whether he don't
'I always bite me eyeballs'

Now our friend Den, hours he spent
Down the snooker hall
On the old green baize his mates seem amazed
At skills with a snooker ball
And them long shots, he never ever got
Why? The old mind boggles
But nowadays he pots the lot
'Cos I wear these goggles'

Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We'll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue

Pot the reds then, skrew back
For the yellow green brown blue pink and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Now Terry the taff was born in a gaff
In the valleys of the land of song
And as the reds he puts to bed
He likes to sing along
And if I win he says with a grin
It can only help me can't it
I'll celebrate, I'll buy another eight
'Hairbrushes for me barnet'

Now old Willy Thorne his hair's all gone
And his mates all take the rise
His opponent said cover up his head
Cos it's shining in my eyes
When the light shines down on his bare crown
It's a cert he's gonna walk it
It's just not fair giving off that glare
'Perhaps I ought to chalk it'

Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We'll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue

Pot the reds then, skrew back
For the yellow green brown blue pink and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Now Steve last year come very near
To winning the snooker crown
But he never got to put it on his ginger nut
Cos the black ball wouldn't go down
His manager of all said 'Sod that ball'
But it helped him make his mind up
Now he don't care who wins this year
'Cos he's got the rest of us signed up'

Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We'll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue

Pot the reds then, skrew back
For the yellow green brown blue pink and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Snooker loopy nuts are we
Me and him and them and me
We'll show you what we can do
With a load of balls and a snooker cue

Pot the reds then, skrew back
For the yellow green brown blue pink and black
Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Snooker loopy nuts are we
We're all snooker loopy

Snooker loopy nuts are we.....
We're all snooker loopy








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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 00:58



                Need a light for your Jazz cigarette ?















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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 00:59















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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 01:01




                           Kash or Kredit, Klaus ?














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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 01:27
Good stuff, Yukorin, thanks!

Steve Davis has suddenly turned into a hero of mine, I disliked him for ages!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 01:34
Originally posted by Yukorin Yukorin wrote:


Bands and artists in the Zeuhl family so far mentioned on this thread:



Magma
Vortex
Pataphonie
Archaia
Eider Stellaire
Dun
Koenji Hyakkei
Shub Niggurath
Weidorje
Ruins
Pseu
Eskaton
Runaway Totem
Guapo
Universal Totem Orchestra
Zao
Happy Family
Patrick Gauthier
Bondage Fruit
Yog Sothoth
Kultivator
Evohe
Univers Zero
Art Zoyd
Heldon
Lacrymosa
Metabolist
Strawberry Song Orchestra
Cicala Mvta
Triple Zero
Uppsala
Olive Mess
St. Erhart
Hiatus
Bedjabetch
Verto
Noa
Honeyelk
Xaal
Ex Vitae
Resonance II
Hellebore
Cortex
Anaid
Yoch'ko Seffer
Troll
Musique Noise
Jacques Thollot
Tipographica
Abus Dangereux
Altais
Serge Bringolf
Couer Magique
Cruciferius
The Zorgones
Nyl
Paga
Perception
Jean-Paul Prat
Speed Limit













missed a couple...


Potemkine
Rahmann
Epos
Mosaic
Simon Steenland
Ensemble Nimbus



any info on Epos (Russia), Mosaic, and Ensemble Nimbus appreciated. Callin' Black Velvet...








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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 01:58
Originally posted by Geck0 Geck0 wrote:

Good stuff, Yukorin, thanks!

Steve Davis has suddenly turned into a hero of mine, I disliked him for ages!



Hi Geckster,

I met him at a Magma show in London a few years back an' he really is a down-to-earth top bloke !
Apparantly he hosts a Zeuhl radio show. Wish he would come on this thread !





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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 02:06
That would be brilliant!

I'm rubbish at Snooker though!

I'm currently listening to Ain Soph by the way, not RIO I know, but they're amazing!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 02:07
Originally posted by Faaip_De_Oiad Faaip_De_Oiad wrote:

Wow, some very interesting stuff Yuko!

Cept when i click on the links in the Proto Zeuhl part.. I go straight to the beatles Archive page.

Which i s a bummer cause i wanna find out more about Mr. Carl Orff.

Oh well. To Google!!




mwahaha...!





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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 02:09
Originally posted by Geck0 Geck0 wrote:

That would be brilliant!

I'm rubbish at Snooker though!

I'm currently listening to Ain Soph by the way, not RIO I know, but they're amazing!



I was always a Kirk Stevens kinda guy myself...


Saw Ain Soph this year (with KBB). Great jazz noodlin' !






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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 02:17
Indeed, they sound wonderful!  I even have their pre-Ain Soph album and despite the flaws with the recording, the music is just as excellent!

I need to get some KBB and erm... that other jazz/fusion band from Japan... remind me!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 04:48
[QUOTE
[/QUOTE]
 
 
 
 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 08:20
Originally posted by Yukorin Yukorin wrote:


any info on Epos (Russia), Mosaic, and Ensemble Nimbus appreciated. Callin' Black Velvet...
 
Ensemble Nimbus.. well, I only have their Garmonbozia album which I haven't heard for a while.
It's a funny album, cause it starts with this 11 minutes or so track that is good and in the spirit of past RIO bands (such as UZ and Zamla, which is not surprising given Bruniusson is in the band) and then it shifts to shorter tracks which can remind more of Miriodor in their playfulness and sort of humouristic approach. I quite like this album, but I need to listen to it more often.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 09:04
Originally posted by avestin avestin wrote:

Originally posted by Yukorin Yukorin wrote:


any info on Epos (Russia), Mosaic, and Ensemble Nimbus appreciated. Callin' Black Velvet...
 
Ensemble Nimbus.. well, I only have their Garmonbozia album which I haven't heard for a while.
It's a funny album, cause it starts with this 11 minutes or so track that is good and in the spirit of past RIO bands (such as UZ and Zamla, which is not surprising given Bruniusson is in the band) and then it shifts to shorter tracks which can remind more of Miriodor in their playfulness and sort of humouristic approach. I quite like this album, but I need to listen to it more often.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Cheers, avs! Your description sounds quite tasty





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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 09:35

A bit more Stevie Wonder:




Steve Davis

Small Talk chews the fat with Steve Davis - and quickly discovers that if the biscuits don't kill him, the milk, steak and kidney pies or water surely will

Nick Harper
Friday August 13, 2004
Guardian Unlimited


Steve Davis
"Oh my word, that water tastes funny."
 
Hello Steve.
Hello Small Talk.

Let's get the snooker questions out of the way early doors. Who's going to win the World Championship this weekend?
I honestly don't know, Small Talk. There's four left and I think it's either Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan or Matthew Stevens.

Ah, you've really stuck your neck out for us, there, Steve.
I know, but I really do not know who's going to win it. I really have not got a clue. It's nothing personal with Graham Dott, but he's the only one I can't see winning it.

< ="text/" ="">


What about Rocket Ronnie's behaviour this week - swearing at pockets and so forth?
Well it seems to happen in all sports now, it's just the way the world's gone. Our Association needs to decide what should be done on a disciplinary level, so everybody knows. We need a code of conduct, which says you're either allowed to swear at the pockets and make rude signs or you're not, so everybody knows where we stand.

It's just harmless fun, no?
Well it's not for me to say one way or the other, Small Talk, I think it's something the World Snooker Association needs to decide.

Right, on to the big issues. What's your favourite biscuit?
[The line goes silent for several seconds, though a faint tapping sound can be heard]

You're struggling on the biscuit question...
I am, yeah... I'm going to have to come back to you on this one. It's just too early, I've just had breakfast and it's the last thing I fancy at the moment...

OK, we can come back to i...
I used to like Garibaldis, but I've not had one for years. Actually, I'd have one of those now if you've got any.

Alas not, Steve. Sorry.
I think biscuits have gone down hill generally though. They've got far more poisons in them than they used to have.

Like what, arsenic?
No, no, but the stuff they put in them can't be good for you. I think a lot of them have far too long a shelf life for my liking. I like a fresh biscuit with all natural ingredients in but I'm not sure you get them any more. If you can, I'm not sure where you'd get them from... [tails off, sounding genuinely troubled].

Who or what would you put into Room 101?
Erm, [tap, tap] polystyrene cups for drinking tea out of.

Any reason?
Well I'm sure you end up drinking a certain amount of polystyrene every time you have a cup, and that can't be good for you either, can it?

Probably not. You're sounding slightly paranoid, Steve.
Yeah, probably to some degree. But it's a worry what we're fed, isn't it? That's why I make sure I have me bacon and eggs every day [laughs].

Do you wear slippers?
Eh? Oh no. I've got a pair but they're lost in the house somewhere. They're actually a very nice pair - plain black leather. You'd probably describe them as the Rolls Royce of slippers, Small Talk.

So why don't you wear them?
Because they're more suited to a class of people that I've never associated with. They should really be worn with a really good dressing gown and a cravat, and I have neither gown nor cravat. I can't do them justice, so I don't even try.

What was the last record or CD you bought?
Ooh, I bought a soul 45 off the internet, I can't remember what that was called and it hasn't turned up yet. And I re-bought a load of Caravan albums on CD. They're as good as ever, and they were worth buying just for For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night.

You're not wrong.
You've never heard it, have you?

Erm, no.
Well you ought to. Go and buy it, it's a f-ing brilliant record. An absolute monster.

Kylie or Britney?
Erm, erm, [tap, tap] I'll say Kylie, but I haven't got a clue why. [Tappity tap] She did a very good version of Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby. But the other one [Britney]... I'm not too sure. [Sounds stumped] I honestly don't know much about them, Small Talk [laughs].

What's your favourite TV show?
Er, Poker Million. Friday nights, runs until July.

Shameless, Steve. What's your favourite TV show that you're not in?
Oh, you should have said. Erm... [sounds troubled]... [umms and ahhs for an age]... well I've got all the DVDs of Coupling. Will they do?

If you like watching a poor man's Friends...
No, I think it's the other way round. Even though the Americans make some very funny comedies, I still think when you get a brilliant British one, it's appeals far more to our sense of humour.

How much does a pint of milk cost? [Answer: 40-odd-p]
Oh God, I haven't got a clue. Erm, 59p?

59p? They're squeezing you dry, Steve...
Well I get it from Marks & Spencer. They must use better cows, or something...

If a lion fought a tiger behind the bike sheds, who would win?
Er... the lion? I haven't got a clue [again sounds puzzled]. He's king of the jungle, isn't he?

Indeed he is, so that'll do. Cheese or chocolate?
Ooh that's another tough one, isn't it. [More tapping]. I like them both but I'd have to go with a very strong cheddar or some quality brie. But if you're talking chocolate, it's have to be the [tap, tap]... the erm [tap, tap]... the 85% Lindt. Two squares of that and you need at least three pints of water.

Not tap water though, that could kill you.
Good point.

Thanks. What colour underpants are you wearing today?
I have a stripey pair of sort of greyey-blue boxer shorts on. They're not designer pants, no. They're just from a pack of three.

Own any lucky pants?
No, but I've got a lucky pair of shoes. I've worn them for the last 10 years but as I haven't f**king won a match for ages I'm not sure I'll continue wearing them. They don't wear out 'cos I only play in them, but one's got a big dent in the front from when I must have kicked a door or something.

What's your poiso... drink?
I like a nice Shiraz.

Ever drunk so much you've forgotten your name?
Erm, I drunk a lower grade of it on the night I got beat at this year's World Championship and although I didn't quite forget my name, I did end up shouting out of our hotel room for Ralph and Huey.

What, you were sick out the window? Rock and roll!
No, not actually out of the window, I was down on my hands and knees on the floor. Woke up the next morning with a big headache, but no rubbish wine in my system.

Phew, etc. What was the last book you read?
The Many-coloured Land by Julian May, a science fiction book. I've read it two or three times and keep going back because it's quite fascinating and I keep meaning to familiarise myself before reading the next one. There are three more in the series, and I'll tell you what, Small Talk, it knocks seven bells out of Lord Of The Rings.

Speaking of which, have you ever knocked another man out?
Yes, in the first round at the Crucible.

Yes, very good. But what about with your fists or a stick?
Oh no. I don't really have any muscles in my body capable of doing anything like that and I've certainly never used an implement.

Ever kicked another man in the groin?
No, I've avoided physical contact throughout the whole of my life.

What's your favourite pie filling?
Pie filling? [Small Talk nods, Steve appears to ignore the question in favour of more tapping before finally]... steak and kidney, I think.

You think? Surely the King Of Pies!
Yeah, but it's got to be home-made, Small Talk.

Need I ask why?
Because I think if it's home-made you can have every confidence that there's nothing dodgy in it.

...
You can never be sure, Small Talk. At least with my wife's pie I know what's gone in it.

Erm, tea or coffee?
Tea [tap, tap]. I usually go for Marks & Spencer's tea in the gold packet. I can't be any more specific than that, I'm afraid. [Tap] It's normal tea, though, none of that poncey rubbish.

Milk and sugar?
Just milk. Full fat, none of the poisons of skimmed that nobody knows about yet.

Eh?
It's true. The process they use to skim it produces very small fat globules, which are more dangerous than proper fat. Skimmed milk is no good for you. It's far worse than full fat, which admittedly isn't good for you either, but it's less harmful.

Are you sure?
Absolutely. Give it five years and they'll probably be writing pieces in the Daily Mail health bit about it.

You've got Small Talk worried now...
Do you dunk your biscuits in your tea?

Whenever possible.
Then you're history, Small Talk. You won't make the 2009 World Championship at this rate, so you won't be around to do this same interview with Ronnie.

But what a way to go: poisoned by skimmed milk.
Well yeah, it's not a bad way to go.

Erm, where are you off to?
Back to the internet to play some more online poker.

Ah, that explains the tapping and loss of concentration then...
Oh sorry, Small Talk. I'm multi-tasking, clicking and talking. I'm very advanced. Hang on, I must have won money without realising. It says here I'm 50 cents up!

Well done. It's been an enlightening and frightening pleasure, Steve.
No problem, Small Talk, thanks very much. Just watch what you eat and drink, that's all I'm saying.






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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 09:38


From the awesome Ork Alarm:





               http://www.simplesoul.co.uk/ork_alarm/08_the_steve_davis.htm









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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2006 at 09:41


Short an' sweet:



Prog Rock? Pot Black!

David Keenan’s Hidden Wiring

Of all of the science fiction-addled progressive rock avantists to rise like plukes from the face of the early 1970s, the French myth orchestra Magma were the most challenging, ambitious and ridiculous. Based around Christian Vander, Magma cut a string of unclassifiable concept albums that tried to reconcile the fiery tongues of post-Coltrane free jazz, the bombast of European classical music and muscular rock with a view that compounded eastern and western philosophy, the colonisation of other planets and occult vibratory systems, all articulated in a language that the group dubbed Kobaian.

In Vander’s future mythos, a band of humans split from an earth that was going down the plughole to found a utopian society on the planet Kobaia. Across a series of legendary albums, including 1001 Degrees Centigrade and Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh, the group built up a saga that came to be known as the “Theusz Hamtaahk” and revolved around the on-going spiritual dialogue between Earth and Kobaia.

Magma’s “healing music” was enough to strain the third eye of even the most committed head, which makes it remarkable that their sometime promoter is Steve Davis, long reputed to be among the dullest men ever to chalk a cue. Yet in a sport where wacky specs pass for a personality, Davis is a beatnik.

Alongside his passion for Magma, Davis is a record collector, with a taste that runs from progressive behemoths like Soft Machine, Gentle Giant, Caravan and Gong through obscure Northern soul. “I can’t begin to articulate why I like them,” Davis said in the run-up to the “Steve Davis and Interesting Productions present Magma” shows that took place at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre in 1988. “They’ve had a big effect on my life.”

He went on to describe his initial Magma epiphany. “It was at The Roundhouse in 1974. I was there in my afghan which used to stink when it rained. They were the best thing I’d seen. I’ve collected everything they’ve done since and been to see them as much as I could. ”

It’s an image that’s sure to come dancing to the front of your mind the next time some dork in a spotty bow-tie takes a dig at one of the few sportsmen to ever profess an interest in myth-science; Davis, stinking in a wet afghan, bobbing his head to the sound of a future language. And they said that Alex Higgins was a wild man.

19 October 2003






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