Guitars In Space

What sounds are produced if you play an electric guitar in space?

Imagine you’re space walking around the International Space Station, quite a trip in itself, and you’re carrying and strumming an electric guitar with a wireless connection to an amp inside ISS.  What would it sound like?  All (analog) music is vibration, so ….

Just asking.

Update 4/04/13

Here’s what happens.

29/4/67 – 14 Hour Technicolour Dream, Alexandra Palace, London

The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream – a multi-media extravaganza and “be-in” staged as a benefit for IT (International Times) magazine and widely acknowledged as the first mass expression of the psychedelic underground in the UK.
45 years ago, only 10 years after “All Shook Up” and just over 10 years before the Pistols split up. That’s a scary thought.

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“What Is A Happening?” The 30 minute Man Alive documentary in three parts.
http://youtu.be/WxtCXYMbMKI

“Excuse me, I wonder if I can wake you up for a moment?….Why are you asleep?”

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Extract from Pink Floyd’s set

Floyd footage from “Tonight Let’s All Make Love In London”

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Colour and B&W footage from the “A Technicolor Dream” dvd (2008)

…and more…

…and the official trailer…

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First hand accounts of the event ………

Extract from “Syd Barrett:Lost In The Woods” by Julian Palacios

Accounts from ukrockfestivals.com including a piece by John Crosby, the US journalist who invented the “Swinging London” concept.

A fascinating 14 page account in the visual style of much of the contemporary underground press – highly coloured and difficult to read

A personal account by Pink Floyd fan Colin Turner

The front page of the 21-28th April edition of IT, which organised the event

Fascinating if rather short interview with John Hopkins, one of the founders of IT magazine and organisers of 14 Hour Technicolour Dream

The International Times archive – for anyone interested in the ’60s counterculture and rock scenes, and they’re still publishing.

New Romantics – How’s it feel to have y’r arse kicked by a fairy?

I wasn’t there (I was about three miles away) but this made me feel like I was. Superb film.

Worried About The Boy

Fake Bands compilation #1

http://vimeo.com/36888862

Another J. Sprig compilation

Fake bands from the movies or tv.

Opening with The Mosquitoes – from ‘Gilligan’s Island’ mid 60s West Coast soft rock.

1:50 Andromeda – from ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ late 80s electro space funk.

4:02 The Looters – London punk, Ray Winstone vocals, Steve Jones guitar, Paul Cook drums, Paul Simonon bass. What a lineup! From ‘All Washed Up!’/‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains!’ 1982.

7:07 The Flowerbuds – looking a little like the sadly missed Ultrasound, from ‘Carry On Camping’ 1969.

9:03 Drimble Wedge & the Vegetations – swinging 60s art-rock (which could have been released on 4AD 10 or 15 years later) with Peter Cook on vocals from the original ‘Bedazzled’ 1967.

11:20 Steven Shorter – Paul Jones as mock Scott Walkeresque government puppet pop star in Peter Watkins’ ‘Privelege’ 1967.

15:50 Connie Franklin – Canadian TV miserabilist C&W singer played by Andrea Martin of SCTV

17:34 The Bugaloos – spooky, unsettling early 70s pop from Californian TV series which led to a minor hit for this single but not the album.

20:06 Tom Monroe – pre-punk 70s travesty of Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ and ‘Don’t Sleep In The Subway’ by lounge music legend Monroe, equally famous for his classic rendition of The Vapours’ ‘Turning Japanese’

21:30 The Queen Haters – J. Sprig has arguably left the best ’til last, a parody so sharp, so spot on, it’s barely a parody at all. Another SCTV segment.

Not a patch on the SCTV or Looters punk tracks, but I hope J. Sprig’s next compilation includes ‘Gob On You’ from BBC’s ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News’.

French Leatherette

http://vimeo.com/36527908

French post punk, new wave, metal, funk and punk.

01. “Extase” – Mecanique Rythmique
02. “Torso Corso” – Lizzy Mercier Descloux
03. “Il Ne Dira Pas” – Etienne Daho
04. “Aere Perennius” – Docdail
05. “Victoires Prochaines” – Seconde Chambre
06. “Electrique Sylvie: – Modern Guy
07. “Pepper Drums” – P.A Dahan & Mat Camison
08. “Sandie Trash” – Les Olivensteins
09. “Burger City” – Casino Music
10. “Detective” – Medikao
11. “Chercher Le Garcon” – DJ Shell
12. “Man Of Time” – Kas Product
13. “Jungle Soho” – End Of Data
14. “Wanda’s Loving Boy” – Poni Hoax
15. “Des Poi Sur Moi” – Masoch

The films/vids of J. Sprig on Vimeo tend to change quite regularly, so if you like the above, download or record it while you can. I neglected to do this back in December and regret my foolishness.

1 – 2 FU Memoirs of a Middle Aged Punk. BBC 2004

Glastonbury Fayre – 1971

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3083984598139385367=en

“You’re an architect, right?”
“I’m a constructivist.”

Screened as an episode of Channel 4’s Late Shift – 1988, this is one of the better festival films, using performances as punctuation for the scenes of festival life and community, rather than the focus of the documentary. Directed by Nicolas Roeg and, later, Peter Neal, and produced by David Puttnam, the quality of the film making really shines through, even though this Google Videos embed is hardly good quality (and the embed isn’t working – click on “Google Video” ➜ “Go to Google Video” bottom right of screen).

The shots of the construction of the Pyramid Stage, temporary living domes, tree houses and of vehicles being maintained are a reminder that revolution, or the building of an alternative lifestyle, means work. Hard work. That doesn’t mean that hard work is unpleasant – working towards a shared ideal will always be more rewarding than working to make a profit for others.

David Bowie’s headline set was dropped from the final cut along with Hawkwind’s, which is a shame. To the best of my knowledge, the running order of live acts in the film is as follows. Let me know if I’m mistaken.

Pink Fairies drum march
Terry Reid with Linda Lewis
Fairport Convention
Magic Michael ?
Family
Melanie
Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Mighty Baby?
Gong – as background music only.
Traffic

Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, Gavin Bryars – Ensemble Pieces – 1975 – Obscure OBS 2

From the excellent Wolffifth blog – “Rare vinyl records from the golden era of avant garde and experimental music” –

A1 – Christopher Hobbs – Aran
Bells [Tubular], Triangle, Cowbell, Piano [Toy] – Christopher Hobbs
Organ, Piano [Toy], Drums, Triangle – John White
Organ, Triangle, Percussion, Wood Blocks, Cymbal – Gavin Bryars

John Adams – American Standard
A2 – John Philip Sousa
A3 – Christian Zeal And Activity
A4 – Sentimentals

B1 – Christopher Hobbs – McCrimmon Will Never Return
Organ [Reed] – Christopher Hobbs , Gavin Bryars

B2 – Gavin Bryars – 1, 2, 1-2-3-4
Cello – Cornelius Cardew
Double Bass – Gavin Bryars
Drums – Mike Nicolls
Guitar – Derek Bailey
Oboe – Andy Mackay
Piano – Christopher Hobbs
Trombone – Paul Nieman
Violin – Stuart Deeks
Vocals – Brian Eno , Celia Gollin

Over 100 LPS to download – all links I have tried so far are ‘live’.

Rammstein – Amerika

Refrain:
We’re all living in America,
America is wunderbar.
We’re all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

Wenn getanzt wird, will ich führen,
auch wenn ihr euch alleine dreht,
lasst euch ein wenig kontrollieren,
Ich zeige euch wie’s richtig geht.
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
die Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen,
Musik kommt aus dem Weißen Haus,
Und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus.

We’re all living in America…

Ich kenne Schritte, die sehr nützen,
und werde euch vor Fehltritt schützen,
und wer nicht tanzen will am Schluss,
weiß noch nicht, dass er tanzen muss!
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
ich werde Euch die Richtung zeigen,
nach Afrika kommt Santa Claus,
und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus.

Refrain:
We’re all living in America,
America is wunderbar.
We’re all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We’re all living in America,
Coca-Cola, Wonderbra,
We’re all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

This is not a love song,
this is not a love song.
I don’t sing my mother tongue,
No, this is not a love song.

We’re all living in America,
Amerika is wunderbar.
We’re all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We’re all living in America,
Coca-Cola, sometimes WAR,
We’re all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

Imagine – Books. ”Nobody Knows Anything”

I finally got round to watching my copy of the BBC’s Imagine … Books: the last chapter? this morning. Well worth watching, if only to encounter the woman whose main job is to sniff books at MOMA and to hear Douglas Adam’s prophesy regarding publishing from over thirty years ago.

There is much talk throughout the programme on the future of the book publishing industry, the main point made by publishers and agents being that copyright laws must be strengthened to protect writers – and the livelihoods of publishers and agents – and to ensure continued availability of quality product. This does not take into account the growing Creative Commons, self-publishing and free download markets, or explain some of the ridiculous limitations placed on e-books through DRM, such as Harper Collins putting a 26-checkouts cap on e-book loans via public libraries

The production, distribution and sale of print books is very costly, in terms of resources as well as cash, so it would seem reasonable to expect that a shift to e-books leads to much reduced prices for the reader and increased royalties for the writer. This, of course, is not the case, as profit is all. The parallels with the movie and music industries are obvious, the main difference being that book publishers are more polite about exploiting their creators and consumers than record companies and movie producers, as one would expect.

Digital technology poses problems for big business due to the very nature of digitisation. Non – degraded copies are easily made and the rapid development of domestic scale technologies makes it easier for people to produce and/or edit their own media or choice of media, cutting out the middle man, so to speak. Big business responds by introducing restrictive and obstructive software, threats of legal action and using corrupt or stupid politicians to force through draconian legislation, rather than channeling their energies into using the technologies to make their products more pleasurable for the consumer.

Increasingly, movies are delivered to the cinema digitally, rather than by transporting fragile rolls of film. Digital technology makes switchable subtitles a piece of cake on movies, so why are there still so very few subtitled screenings in the cinema? I would think any cinema which publicised it’s policy of switching on subtitles should a deaf person arrive at the box office and make the request would quickly find a whole new audience. With books, the cheaper production costs, and higher profits, of e-books could allow publishers to subsidise the price of audiobooks to book lovers who had difficulty reading or holding a print book.

There will always be a demand for print books, just as there is still a demand for 35mm film, vinyl records, audio cassettes and even VHS cassettes. Partly this is down to the superior quality delivered, as with 35mm photographic film and vinyl, partly because the replacement delivery system is inferior – CDs are shit, always have been and always will be. But a digital file, be it music, an image, raw data or a book, is, to all intents and purposes, invisible. Even a tatty, trashy old print book has an attraction of its own as an object, a possession.