simon glass - alt.fan.capt-beefheart - 070403:

They were running on love! A brilliant gig which left me feeling enriched, wired and a bit sad (for the fact that Beefheart himself couldn't perform these days even if he wanted too). Mere crumbs perhaps compared to performances of various Magic Band incarnations with Captain Beefheart himself, but by the standards of bands that I see these days, just... well, magic - especially after a weekend of performers staring into the depths of their laptop screens. The only real problem with the performance was the fact that after one hour of the performance, just as John French - who did look a bit like a member of the Beegees - announced that their next song was going to be 'Moonlight On Vermont', the fire alarm sounded and we all had to leave the building.

john 'beegee' french

robert 'wait for me' williams - alt.fan.capt-beefheart - 110403:

(reacting) In East Sussex at Camber Sands the fire brigade let us go back on stage (after determining that some drunken teenager set a false alarm) and we finished our set after twenty minutes or so of shaking hands with the fans outside. About 75% of the audience filtered back in.

That's funny about John looking like one of the Beegees. He told me that dressed as a cowboy and singing Don's music would probably piss Don off. I think Don van Vliet would have been proud.

Who was it that said a bunch of old guys wouldn't be able to pull this off? (spencer's old friend - teejo) Yeah, right! These aren't just any old guys! These guys are THE MAGIC BAND! And if it sounded this good after just two gigs (also meaning next day's concert - t.t.), just imagine what the next tour will be like.

Better tighten the chin strap on your helmet and dust off your antenna. THE MAGIC IS BACK!

ralf nygård - alt.fan.capt-beefheart - 020503:

Subject: Tv news report from the All Tomorrow's Parties show

Here's a link to tv4 news, sweden: www.tv4.se. There's some footage from a couple of the songs played at Camber Sands so you can get a glimpse of the occasion if you weren't there.

[notes by teejo:
beside short flashes from the concert the three and a half minute 'real one player' item contains a swedish voice-over along illustrations to the beefheart past (including the cover of a bootleg!), as well as pieces from an interview with john 'drumbo' french held the day after the show. the clip should be available for two years, but as the website fails an internal search function, it might be difficult to find out where it is stored in case it is moved to a later archive in future.
in his modesty ralf didn't mention that hé filmed the performance and did the interview, but because he sent me a few useful stills from the live footage, he gets credited here after all.]

mark boston

simon glass - alt.fan.capt-beefheart - 020503:

The ATP gig was broadcast on the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1 earlier this week (tuesday 29 april - t.t.) - and it sounded better than being there! I think the PA mix wasn't quite right - for instance the drums did sound too reverby. John Peel admitted that he didn't make the effort to see the Magic Band in the UK recently because he assumed that it was just a tribute band cashing in. But after he had played the recording he was overcome with enthusiasm and emotion - he could hardly continue the radio show!

IMPORTANT REMARK
but more than a year later john peel took revenge on himself

*

what almost nobody knew was that a team of other bbc employees had been following the adventures of the magic band during the rehearsals in the usa and their stay in england with tv equipment. elaine shepherd, who supervised the artist formerly known as captain beefheart nine years earlier, hoped to use the footage in a 'follow-up documentary' which should feature the band's 'tomorrow's party' in london (or the other way round, i don't know)

when the dvd live in concert & crow's milk was released more than a year and a half later, it turned out that the docu part pays seventeen minutes of attention to the 'all tomorrow's parties' happening. the section - which was mixed with footage made by ralf nygård who provided stills for this web site - contains dressing room scenes, some fragments of music nót played the next day ('hair pie' bass solo and 'sure 'nuff 'n' yes i do'), and a full report of the fire alarm incident....

a few month after the release of the dvd 'live in concert & crow's milk' with excerpts, some complete tracks made up the bonus veedee 'live at camber sands' to the cd 21st century mirror men. all seven are instrumentals from the beginning of the show, and the material actually is the video footage filmed by ralf nygård.