Battered Ornaments
1969-xx-xx Copenhagen, Denmark (unknown venue) (M?-AUD)

01. ? (instrumental) -> Then I Must Go -> Twisted Track

Total Time ::: 19:16

::: Quite OK stereo audience tape, you can hear it all, no audience noise (too shocked?). Check samples for believability factor & a little levitation, but the entire recording for the acid test.
::: Warts: Couple of microphone buzzes about 10 & 16 minutes in, the volume dropped & had to be adjusted. Otherwise I got no problems with it at all.
::: From the second half of 1969, after Pete Brown had left the band. Much heavier live than on the album or in the radio studio, as you might expect....
::: If you have more date or location info, please let us know.

Recording Information ::: unknown equipment -> master stereo audience tape -> unknown generations -> unknown generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette, Dolby not indicated.

Playback 2012-xx-xx ::: unknown generation Maxell XLII-90 cassette on Nakamichi BX-300 cassette deck, Dolby off, azimuth & pitch adjusted, heads cleaned & demagnatized -> Tascam CD-RW900SL pro CD recorder -> CD-RW -> computer, EAC secure -> wavs -> Audacity (fades &/or glitches, dropouts, volume adjustments, no EQ) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. First uploaded week of 2012-01-28

Line-up (unconfirmed) ::: Chris Spedding - guitar, vocals // Nisar Ahmed Khan- reeds, flute, vocals // Roger Potter - bass // Rob Tait - drums, vocals // Pete Bailey (?) - congas?, african drums, percussion, vocals. (I wonder if this is a 4 piece band without Pete Bailey).

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

CoolSonics 102 ::: Thanks to the original taper & traders! ::: Corrections welcome ::: Astonishing quotes from the BBC music audition panels that decided who should be allowed to play on the BBC, from Ken Garner's "In Session Tonight" book, 1st audition, while Pete Brown was still in the group, "Tuneless lead vocalist... a lead voice which could never be called singing... all the tricks serve only to emphasise their mediocrity. ...lyrically meaningless & pretentious ...material laughable...awful." Failed their audition! After Pete Brown left the group, they tried for a BBC audition again & passed, with the caveat, "avant-garde hairy group for Top Gear-type shows only." Now, if you don't know the band & those quotes don't leave you a bit sweaty & anxious in anticipation, I can't imagine what I could add. Pete, of course, is a killer lyricist & poet, best-known for writing some material that was used by Cream, but with the Battered Ornaments & his band Piblokto! made some of the most righteous heavy experimental rock the planet has seen so far. Piblokto's "Thousands On A Raft" is one in a million, a piece of wax that likely melted the minds & speakers of more hardcore music freaks than Byron Coley has ever met. You can take it to the desert island of your dreams along with Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments "A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark" & the Pink Fairies "Never Never Land" & live off the noodles that drip out of your ears every day. The Battered Ornaments "Mantle-Piece" doesn't quite rate for me but it is a fine lisening experience & lands on the stereo every few months. Don't expect your chickens to come home to roost or yer wife to be smiling while this are going fullbore in the living room, but YOU'LL dig it & that's what counts. This is for those of you who like your Chris Spedding on acid & effects. It'll leave you splattered all over the ceiling & wondering if yer still avant-garde & hairy enough to listen another time round.

More recordings on the way, making up for years of slow netspeed. Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes & much more, & to Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace) for over 30 years of trading & friendship. Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Weeks, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees

Support the artists! www.chrisspedding.com -- http://www.petebrown.co.uk

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!