CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND

1980-11-15

Student Union Bar, Loughborough University.
Loughborough, England.

01. Hair Pie Bake III ( Bass Solo )
02. Nowaday's A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
03. Abba Zaba
04. Hot Head
05. Ashtray Heart
06. Dirty Blue Gene
07. Best Batch Yet
08. Safe As Milk
09. Flavor Bud Living
10. Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
11. One Red Rose That I Mean
12. Untitled
13. / / Doctor Dark
14. Bat Chain Puller
15. Band Introductions
16. Old Fart At Play
17. My Human Gets Me Blues
18. Sugar N' Spikes
19. Sheriff Of Hong Kong
20. Suction Prints
21. Big Eyed Beans From Venus

total time approx. 81 minutes

1st gen. aud. cassette.

Maxell XLII-S Tapes > Onkyo Deck > TDK DA-3826 > CD-R > PC > .wav > Traders Little Helper Flac level 8 > dimeadozen

transfer by mcchocchoc. Another from the Archives here. Excellent sound.

The Band . . .

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, chinese gongs
Eric Drew Feldman bass guitar, synthesizer, mandolin, mellotron, electric piano
Robert Williams drums, percussion
Richard Snyder guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar [on: Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles]
Jeff Moris Tepper guitar, slide-guitar

Live Guest: Gary Lucas national steel dualion [on: Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles, Flavor Bud Living]

The top of Doctor Dark is cut due to a tape flip. According to the old database, there were two shows on this date. This is the only recording I have in the collection. On my cassette it is not note if this is either a late or early show.

I also decided to add an extra to this torrent/share. Included is a text file of an email "interview" I did with Richard Snyder back during some point in 1997 or 1998. It has never been on posted any websites or anywhere else, only a few friends have read it. It is pretty neat. Enjoy !



Here are some quotes from the old database about this show . . . ( thanks D. for all of your hard work ) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

*******************************************************************************************
Dave Lang: I have to agree that live was the best experience, if only because of the tremendous personalities of the various magic band members, the whole band oozed charisma and the cap'n especially. I also agree that the Jeff Morris Tepper band kicked ass, I thoroughly enjoyed the 1980 show I saw at Loughborough, tremendous playing.
[FireParty]

Geoff Geddes: By 1980 technology had moved on and the Loughborough tape is of excellent audience tape quality (B+?), the good atmosphere at this show is evident and the nature of the small Loughborough Student Union Bar make the music sound loud and effective. Audience noise is limited to people pushing through to the bar at the back of the room 'scuse me, scuse me' etc. You can also hear our discussions between numbers but these could easily be edited out.
The audience was split between Beefheart fans who had come from all over the East Midlands to see their man and the regular student union crowd who would turn up on any Saturday night to drink at the bar and 'listen' to who ever happened to be playing. Even in 1980 there must of been a ten to twenty year age gap between the two halves of the audience. Being students they have tendency to show off and offer scant regard to any act that happened to be on. However it is wonderful to hear how the Captain won over this audience, helped by the glowers and threatening looks of the true fans who did not want some nerdy young students wrecking the set. The Captain was treated with due respect and given a rousing greeting when he came on stage, you can here him remark "Better than London". The students were a bit bemused by the poetry, this was not exactly ZZ Top and they found it difficult to concentrate, note the shout of "Who shot JR?" during the reading, an interesting contemporary reference since the Dallas Series was the big TV talking point in the UK at this time.
The music is wonderful, full of energy and invention. Sugar 'n Spikes is outstanding, I think it is my favorite version of this number. At the time I thought it not as good as previous gigs I had been to but this was just the jaded view of a long time fan still missing Rocket Morton and the old Magic Band. With the passing of the years the tape now sounds just fine to me. ********************************************

( yep . . the tape sounds fine ! ). Enjoy.




NEVER FOR SALE / FREE / TRADE ALWAYS & ONLY. THANK YOU

shared at dimeadozen on Feb. 21, 2011.


---


Email Interview with Richard Midnight Hatsize Snyder

by John ****** (jbk,mcchocchoc,zintar) ( 1998 ) never on a website or published anywhere.

John - Do you have or remember a favorite show during your years with Don ?

Richard Snyder - Umm. . .that's a hard one ! Many of the shows were wonderful, but perhaps the most noteworthy, for a strange reason, was our gig at The Starship in Milwaukee. It was the first and only time on the entire tour, European & American, that Don was actually happy with the stage monitors ! Add to the fact that some wild girl from the audience saw fit to jump on my back and ride me backstage and you've got a memory sealed in my gray matter forever . . .

John - Were the last gigs, in fact The Golden Bear ( Jan 30/31, 1981 ) ?

RS - Indeed they were, and quite arguably they were the best, Musically speaking. In fact, there were songs performed at The Golden Bear that were only played there and nowhere else on the rest of the tour !
Go figure.

John - Are you still friendly with Jeff, Robert, and/or Eric ?

RS - On a very casual level, I'd have to answer yes.
Of my post-Beefheart years, Jeff ( or Moris, as he shall only answer to that now ) was the only one that I've had the greatest amount of contact with, even playing for sometime ( live only, no recordings ) in his band.
I've had recent contact with Robert, via email, but
Eric ( who's been the busiest of us all ) is the one with whom I've had the least contact, though he's the sweetest soul you'd ever have the pleasure to know
( and the one of us that Don still manages to hold in the highest regard ! ).

Actually there was one time . . and one time only . . .
that Jeff ( oops, Moris ), Robert and myself got up on stage together at a club in LA called " The Music Machine ". We really just wanted to go onstage and just
play . . . ANONYMOUSLY . . . just have a little fun, no pressure. However, Jane Cantillon ( if I remember the spelling ), a Hollywood scene-hopper, saw fit to take the stage and announce gleefully to the audience . . .
" Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you . .
THE MAGIC BAND ". Yowwwww ! The audience could have cared less. The unwelcome pressure was on us. The wind was fully taken out of our sails . . .
and we sucked. I guess I've come to realize that, though she was just a well meaning fan, and I essentially forgave her for "blowing our cover". It made a casual get-together a rather frustrating experience -
and we were initally excited about doing it before that moment. Oh well.

John - What was the hardest piece of Don's for you to play ?

RS - I s'pose it would be "BRICK BATS", not so much because of any technically difficult passages ( those were always reserved for the classically trained fingers of Gary Lucas ), but because of that " Vulcan Mind Meld " section in the middle where Jeff and I played that jerky little guitar passage in unison. The rest of the world disappeared when we locked in on that section.

John - Why did you not play on both songs on SNL ?

RS - Simply because Don wanted to do *ASHTRAY HEART* and there's no second guitar part ! When we did it live, I'd usually go off-stage and check my tuning.
If I'd had a bigger ego, I s'pose Id've been all offended
and whatnot ( or I would have insisted on doubling
Jeff's part ) - but I always went along with ANYTHING
Don wanted to do, which is why I was one of the few "late-era" Magic Band players to not only get a "nickname", I was also one of the few to get
" wardrobed " by Don ! Everything that I wore onstage
( even my hair length ) was fashioned to Don's
specifications.

John - Hahaha ! Did he take you out shopping ?

RS - No, but I remember how, in a very deliberate manner of speaking, he laid out his vision . . . " Get a
pair of Khakis, make sure they are 100% Cotton. Then color them with RIT Dye, " Cardinal Red ". Then get a long-sleeve tshirt . . 100% cotton . . and RIT Dye that
Cardinal Red. We're gonna get you a Red Derby - from
" Jay Lord Hatters " in NYC. They do Doc Severinsen's
hats, so you KNOW they do good work !"

His first idea for the hat was *three* bow ties -
one yellow, one black and one white, but when we tried it out in the "concrete" as opposed to the "abstract",
the yellow bow tie eventually got the heave-ho.
The last touch on the "bow tie theme" was a small,
plastic plaid bow tie pin ( which if you take a look at the back cover of " Ice Cream For Crow " you can see ),
affixed on the right breast area.

Regarding hair length, Don insisted that I get my hair cut or *NO* video or album cover appearance ! !
"You look like somebody's old Aunt with that long hair !"
, he told me. Hahaha. At the time, I wasn't happy about having to get it cut ( my one and only moment of protest, heh heh heh ) and after being a bit of a brat about th ewhole thing, I finally succumbed. He was very
" Fatherly " about it all, now that I look back on it . . . . . . . fondly.

John - Did you guys hang out much after shows ?

RS - Oh, on the odd occasion. I was the "square" of the group, all things being relative, and I was always the
" early to bed, early to rise, healthy, ( no-so ) wealthy,
and ( occasionally ) wise " character of the troupe.
As a result, I certainly missed out on alot of adventurous
opportunities - but the Road Managers loved me,
being the first one ready in the Hotel Lobby, showered and ready for the next stop.
Robert was always the last one ready, earning him the unofficial MagicBand nickname " Wait For Me Williams ".
Hahaha. So, I s'pose that the answer in a nutshell, was
" not much ". I don't think the rest of the guys knew what to make of me. Think Ringo in "A Hard Day's Night". Heh heh heh. My one vice on the road was my record collecting bug. I hit ANY record store that I could find within walking distance of wherever we were staying . . . and London in particular was rife with them.
I had even taken a large, empty suitcase with me to store my gatherings as we went from city to city.
Keeping in mind the weight that a stack of vinyl can eventually accrue, you know that I was prone to develop a certain extra bit of hand and arm strength.
hahah.

John - Did Jan go on many legs of the 80/81 Tour ?

RS - Jan and Don were/are One. Jan was *ALWAYS*
with him - and to us she was a " Den Mother " of sorts
( though I am sure that she'd absolutely *hate* such a twee characterization ! ). She was the one who took care of his financial responsibilities and handed out the band members per diems ( my record buying money, that is ! I never ate all that much ).

John - From the era you were involved with I have the Paris 80 and Mudd Club footage, were there any other shows filmed that you are aware of ?

RS - I can't say that I'm aware . . and I didn't even know that there was Mudd Club footage ! Whoa !
I'm not sure which came first, the Club 57 or the Mudd Club gig, but we played both of those clubs in one night ! I think it was about 5am in the morning when we finally wrapped up our Mudd Club set . . . or did we start at 5am ? Haha. It was a ridiculous night for all of us, the "roadies" included - and we were all of an accord
that it was silly of us to have attempted such a double-header. Ah, but we were so much younger then.
Again, I think that Robert, in his more Archival bent,
had a camera with him . . not that I remember being the subject of many photos. None of us had a Super-8
and/or VideoCam to create any doc footage either.

John - Wow. I'll dub the Mudd Club video for you. How did you guys travel ?

RS - We had a van in Europe, driven by our Road Manager - in the U.S. we took two separate cars.
Since I was, as I noted earlier, the "good lad" who got his sleep and didn't "party", then I did most ( if not damn near all ) of the U.S. driving duties while Jeff, Eric, and Robert took naps.
Again, I really didn't mind . . . except when I got a speeding ticket in Connecticut and had to figure out
how I was going to arrange to pay for the fine before we got ourselves situated in New York.

John - Aside from James Blood Ulmer in N.Y.C. , did you guys share the bill with any other decent acts ?

RS - Yes, but I only remember a few of them.
D.N.A. ( with Arto Lindsay ) opened fro us at
My Father Place in NY. Art In America, a pop/progressive band with an electric harpist opened for us at Harpo's in Detroit - despite their tendency to get a bit corny in the lyric department, I thought that they were pretty interesting musically.
We also played with the Cosmic Angles in Holland,
who, despite their reputation at the time, failed to
" beam in on me ". I think it was Robert who was hyped on 'em.

John - When was the last time you saw Don ?

RS - Boy, that was *many* years ago, at an Art Show
of his in Santa Monica. He was there in his wheelchair -
and I remember feeling pretty uncomfortable with seeing him that way, not out of any sense of embarrassment,
but because I hadn't expected it in the least.
We used to speak rather frequently on the phone, but as
he was a chronic insomniac, his tendency to call you at 2 - 4 am in the morning coupled with his desire to have your complete attention could be a pretty taxing combination on a regular basis - but utterly charming and even welcome when such late night/early morning encounters were persued with a lesser zeal. After awhile, he just stopped calling. No reason in particular - the calls just stopped.

John - It's clear that alot of the later albums consisted of alot of older revamped material . . .

RS - . . Indeed, it is clear. However, one must keep in mind that Don basically had a "Massive" creative burst
around the time of " TROUT MASK REPLICA " . . . and he had shoeboxes full of cassettes loaded with riffs, parts, bits, and songs that he'd hammered out on the
Piano ( before you even ask, I haven't tape *one*, but apparently Matt Groening has a few of Don's piano demos ) - and from that weighty motherlode, Don was to mine continuously, even stealing from himself on the odd occasion ( as I point out in the " Beefheart Quiz " )

John - Wow. I actually do have about 15 minutes of one of
Don's " Work Tapes ". It's pretty neat. Piano, whistling,
humming, etc. OK, On the tunes that were " newly composed " for " ICE CREAM FOR CROW ", did you have much input on your bass parts ?

RS - I really had abandoned any input on my parts -
and I'm not completely convinced that that was essentially to the best service of the music. To make a comparison, one is quite aware when one is hearing the efforts of ZOOT HORN ROLLO, ROCKETTE, or DRUMBO,
inasmuch as they had not only learned their parts, but had " ingested, digested, and expelled " their parts.
Due to the rather rushed manner in which ICFC was thrown together, the band not only had to learn their parts, but they had to try to attain a chemistry of sorts - that extar intangible quality that hovers over and envelops the efforts of a living, breathing musical entity.
To tell you the truth, there just wasn't enough time for any potential " chemistry " to evince itself.
For your information, " Skeleton Makes Good " was ENTIRELY learned and recorded in one day ! Don basically came into the studio with an " I've got something to do ! " radiance about him that day - and he proceeded to take each of us aside and give us our
parts, however disparate they would end up sounding together. Each of us was playing a part that had NOTHING to do with anyone else's part in th efirst section - and, if there was any way to resolve the parts, Don didn't want us to have the time to get, er, " Musicianly " about the whole affair. Hahaha.
Don LOVED that song !

John - That's a pretty good Album, alot of hardcore fans would disagree. Too bad it was not toured.

RS - The Mamas & Papas used to say " Harvey's In The Room " ( yep - as in that invisible Rabbit ) whenever they got that " extra voice " that arouse out of their best harmonic blending sessions. Harvey didn't show up very frequently on ICFC, unfortunately. The project never really reached a state of full gestation, and, as a result, it has the sonic equivalence of a premature birth
( though to be fair, the finer moments on th ealbum kept it from being stillborn ! ). Those who are not as inclined to find favor with ICFC may be sensitive to this lack of . . . um . . . Harvey-ness ! hahaha.

One must, however, applaud the no less that genius efforts of Cliff Martinez to step in and learn as much as he did, especially in learning " The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole " - which he
did practically in one overnight transcribing session.
Sheer genius . . . a virtually impossible task - and he made it submit to his concentrated will . . . and skill.

My favorite ICFC track is " The Host, The Ghost, The Most Holy-O ". The music is so slinky and slitherin' . .
and you can hear the bass. Hahahaha. I love the "group vocals ", which put me in mind of " Strictly Personal's "
" On Tomorrow ".
My least favorite, " Semi-Multicolored Caucasian ". Jan reportedly loved this "leftover" track of Don's, so Don wanted to include that one for her. It just dosen't do it for me . . but I guess you can chalk that one up to being another one of " the things we do for love ".

John - I have a rehearsal tape from what I believe is two or three days before recording the LP started, some talking, riffs, all of the songs . . . . do you know the tape ? It's quite good. How long did you guys rehearse that stuff, I have heard about two weeks ?

RS - How wild ! I don't know the tape you are referring to, but I've got to imagine that the spirit of such a tape is probably not too far removed from the Beatles
" Let It Be " sessions, at least in spirit. There was a bit of an awkward air to the proceedings, what with an
" un-toured" Magic Band trying to get to know each other AND learn new music . . . and not having a heckuva lotta time to do either in !

The single greatest missed opportunity of Don's history was not jumping into the studio with the
" DOC " tour line-up after that tours end. I'll probably say this over and over again . . . but the sheer intensity
that that band could deliver on record could have dome quite a bit to improve the Gestalt of ICFC, even if the album would have been duplicated track for track.

John - Tell me about the sessions. Was Don there when you guys laid down the basic tracks ?

RS - He was always there, if only to voice any disapproval
over any ideas our Engineer, Phil Brown, might have wanted to try out. Phil was originally hired to Produce the record - and I had even recommended him for the job.
However, it soon became apparent to Phil that his input was not welcome . . . and after awhile, I think that he just didn't feel like trying to claim any victories. He just wanted to move on . . . and I can't really blame him.

John - Were you there for the vocal overdubs ? Or, did Don sing during any of the laying down of the basic tracks ?

RS - Actually, I was not. I'm not even on " The Host "'s
male chorus ! I think I popped in a few times, but inasmuch as the control room was overpopulated
( Don, Jan, Jeff, Phil, Gary, Eric . . . and EVERYONE there already had an opinion and was either making their point or moderating the proceedings ), I think that
Cliff and I decided to stay outta the way of "progress".

At one point, I dropped in the studio to see how mixdowns were going - and it just made my head spin.
Everybody wanted their instrument a little bit louder
( and I guess, for the most part, they got their way . .
inasmuch as the bass is rather buried on ICFC.
Oh well ! ).
The track that really suffered from this " too many cooks " school of mixing was " The Past Sure Is Tense ",
especially toward the end where pandemonium reigns !
Perhaps that was the intended effect . . but in retrospect, a little bit more restrained use of volume control could have achieved the same effect with less . . . um . . irritation ?

John - After the LP was released, did you guys ever play again, privately ?

RS - No. In fact, after ICFC was released it became apparent that there would be no tour, Cliff and I did some jamming ( ugh ! what a word ! ) together in the
service of an aborted musical project called
" Two Balls and a Bat ", which preceded his joining up with " Roid Rogers and the Whirling Butt Cherries "
( soon to become The Red Hot Chili Peppers ).

I also did a tour of duty with Moris Tepper's band,
but inasmuch as I was still actively playing in the
Mystery Band, it became just a bit taxing on my system to try to maintain two full time musical pursuits and still keep the ol' day job. Add to this the fact that Moris lived in an area several miles away ( where the Mystery Band were my local homies ) and that I wanted to do a series of ( admittedly ill-conceived and executed )
solo shows myself and a decision to stop playing with Moris was a phone call away.
In retrospect, my leaving only served to benefit Moris.
The change in his approach and instrumentation after my departure were much more exciting than those we had fashioned during my tenure. Good on ya, Moris !

the end.