Old Man Riva
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Posts posted by Old Man Riva
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A slight detour, I know, but thanks to The Fasting Showman’s excellent recommendation re. Dennis Davis I stumbled across this...
Too good not to share... Enjoy!
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Love this! Dennis Davis on drums (Bowie drummer on Station to Station through to Lodger), and, I think, Emir Ksasan on bass (played with Bowie on the second/soul leg of the Diamond Dogs tour)...
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David Bowie - David Live
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I think this is the very bass... He’s had a few from the Gallery for the competitions.
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He played with Nick Heyward in the 80s. I seem to recall him appearing live on The Tube (or the Whistle Test) with Nick Heyward around the Warning Sign era (I think they did that track live).
If it’s out there it’s well worth a watch as it also features the excellent Alan Murphy on guitar...
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9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:
I saw Furniture at Nottingham Trent in the late 80s (promoting Food, Sex & Paranoia album) knowing nothing but "Brilliant Mind" and was utterly blown away by both the music and the performance.
Through the world of Google I’ve just checked and the Leicester gig was in ‘86.
The band were flat, the audience was flat and the gig just meandered along into nothingness. I think the band felt it and the singer started making a few barbs about how flat the audience was, which didn’t particularly help, and it almost all ground to a halt.
Genuinely the only time I’ve ever left early because I wasn’t enjoying the band...
I’m pleased your experience was better!
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Furniture at Leicester Poly (early/mid 80s).
”We’re Furniture, what’s your excuse?” the singer deadpanned, as people drifted away...
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12 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:
It's an almost impossible task keeping up with all the Bowie related bits and pieces that pop up on You Tube. Individual songs from The White Room have popped up before, but there's now a proper 'soundboard mix' of all the songs from that show that has appeared, including Teenage Wildlife. It does, as you say, sound 'meaty', but I think it's all the better for it. I'm ripping that tomorrow for sure.
That’s great! I remember recording it on VCR and watching it over and over. I think the original broadcast was 2-3 songs (as I recall, further tracks were shown later in the series).
His band (as always!) were superb, but I remember being absolutely blown away by the drummer at the time. Because of the album credits I thought it was someone called Sterling Campbell, but it was, of course, Zack Alford.
9 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:I don't mind telling you that this took some finding.
As previously mentioned, I did think we had previously published this track, but when I searched our You Tube channel, I couldn't find it.
I think we decided not to publish as it went a bit wonky towards the end. That said, it's fitting tribute to Big Kev who has supported us since Day 1.
It's the one and only time we have performed it.
Wow! I think the biggest compliment I can give is that Mrs Riva walked passed when I was playing it and asked when it was from! When I told her who it was she said, “I thought it was Him!!”.
The backing vocals on the “Don’t believe in yourself...” sections are superb.
When all this madness is over, and you’re gigging again, I’ll be there, sir!
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44 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:
Schaller 3D isn’t it? Used to be standard on Warwicks in early 80s
Brilliant! Thank you, sir...
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30 minutes ago, owen said:
Ha, vintage bridge envy
Definitely! I think it may be Schaller. A mate of mine had an early Squier and he swore by the replacement bridge he’d had fitted. A big talking point was the adjustable saddles - the hours flew by!
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On 14/01/2021 at 16:37, mowf said:
I've got a '75 P that I had refinished in natural when I bought it 20 odd years ago, as the previous owner had seen fit to do a DIY snakeskin effect job on it... The body is definitely two different lumps of wood and somebody told me it would have been a solid colour originally to mask this fact, don't know how true that is but sounds feasible. You can see the join line running between the bridge and the scratch plate in the photos.
What bridge is that? They were around in the early 80s (poss 70s?) - the rolling/adjustable saddles were quite the thing...
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Bought tickets for a Simple Minds Once Upon A Time gig at NEC just to see Shriekback supporting them.
Shriekback were their usual brilliant selves, and Simple Minds were a far cry from the New Gold Dream band/sound that I’d seen just a few years before. I thought they were rotten, if I’m being honest.
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Day After Day is a wonderful song. George Harrison plays slide guitar on it.
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22 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:
Noooo! That's the best bit (especially the last four words).
Way back when, Mr Blue Sky was used at Coventry City home games (Highfield Road era) to get the crowd going as the players came onto the pitch.
At about 2.55 the pumping cello drone would begin and the song would blast off, ending with the afterthought choral piece at the end, and into kick off.
Before all this I used to quite like the song, nowadays whenever I hear it I’m filled with a sense of foreboding, anxiety, and the feeling of impending crushing defeat.
I’m sure it’s not what Jeff Lynne had in mind when he was ripping off Sparky’s Magic Piano all those years ago!
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33 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:
Yes, I know what you mean about Quicksand. Cracking song. We used it as an opener ourselves once for a very dear friend who comes to all our gigs. I can’t remember whether the video is still on our channel. The recording didn’t come out that well as I recall.
We used the White Room version of Boys Keep Swinging as a template for what we do. Kicks derrière that one.
I like Hours, but then I like Tin Machine as well and that doesn’t tend to go down too well in the Bowie fandom 😂.
Nothing wrong with Tin Machine! The Sales brothers have some real rock ‘n’ roll pedigree, which I think Bowie was really drawn to. Add Reeves Gabrels into the mix and it was actually a pretty bold move, in retrospect.
Though it may just have been a fun palate cleanser after Never Let Me Down..!
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3 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:
Yes, Teenage Wildlife was pretty much ignored until the Outside Tour. It was performed quite regularly throughout it though.
I hadn’t realised it was ever played live. Such a great track!
The Outside album was a good moment. It felt like a ‘band’ statement after Buddha of Suburbia (which, IMO, is an overlooked and excellent soundtrack album), that benefited from that similar soundtrack approach. He played a couple of tracks on Channel 4’s The White Room, and the band came across brilliantly - I’ve found that sometimes the TV sound can really let a Bowie performance down, but the White Room sound was really, erm, ‘meaty’, for want of a better word.
For me, the 90s started well with Black Tie White Noise, but ended on a bit of a low note with Hours. Some excellent moments in between, mind!
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1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:
I’ve just finished listening to disc 1 of the Phoenix set and it’s excellent apart from Under Pressure which sounds a bit loose. Also love what they did with Driftin’ Blues into The Jean Genie. I liked the way they started gigs on this tour. Quicksand is a great low key opener and it goes into the revamped TMWSTW which is equally subdued.
I was lucky enough to see a fan club Phoenix Festival warm up gig at the Hanover Grand (the venue is long gone and wasn’t particularly good for live music, IMO). He/they began with Quicksand. He casually strolled on with a 12 string acoustic and began playing... it was one of the most emotional moments I’ve had at a gig. He was yards away, with his amazing voice just filling the place.
It was actually all a bit overwhelming, to be honest. It was a mixture of really enjoying a gig and then feeling it was all a bit surreal so my mind would start to wander and try and process what was happening. I couldn’t really take it all in.
To this day it still feels like such an odd choice for a gig!
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Glad you got that sorted!
I wasn’t aware of the series until this thread. I’ve since been getting lost in some of the shows via Spotify. The 1995 gig includes a version of Teenage Wildlife, which was a song I didn’t know he’d done live previously.
Ruddy marvellous, Mr Jones! He’s bloody missed...
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The track (Love in a Simple Rhyme) that closes Van Halen’s Women and Children First album has a bit tagged on the end that, whilst sounding great in itself, sounds completely out of place. When it happened I assumed it would be the opening riff to their next album, which would’ve been a nice idea, even though I say so myself!
There’s a track on AC/DC’s Powerage (their best album?) called Down Payment Blues that has a blues-y outdo tagged on, though on the original UK release it wasn’t on the album, it appeared on the Australian release.
Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ by the Stones has an outro/jam that always seemed a bit tagged on. Sounds great, mind...
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33 minutes ago, Billy Apple said:
That was the moment I discovered out cat had been using the nook as a toilet. All my old records growing mould on them and stuck together with cat pi55
He was my cat as well... What an absolute B@5tard!
You’ve lost that loving feline?
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9 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:
Corollary to Godwin's law:
"As a discussion on the Internet grows longer, the likelihood of a comparison of a reviewer being compared to Gary Bushell increases."
That’ll be Tommy Godwin, Gal’s “erstwhile poncey mate who dishes the proverbial on the likes of Hoxton Tom faster than my pal Jonesy and other assorted wastrel geezers that knew the Krays do when they’re avoiding buying a round at the Lig & Firkin”.
Or summat..!
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3 minutes ago, peteb said:
Actually, I didn't mind Bushell's writing on rock stuff, once he got over telling everybody how working class he was and relating everything to Punk...!
I didn’t mind “Gal” referencing his roots, it was his choice of words and order he put them in that I couldn’t stand!
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8 minutes ago, Bassassin said:
Agreed - in different ways they were the scene's breakthrough bands. However I was a Sounds reader pre-NWOBHM and I'd say the catalyst for the entire scene was a Geoff Barton review of a gig (not sure but probably at the Soho Soundhouse), featuring Maiden, Angel Witch and (I think) Samson. I'm pretty sure that review was where the term itself was coined. At the time Barton was pretty much the sole champion of metal in the otherwise agonisingly hip UK music press, and if you were in any way interested in the denim & leather side of music - as a fan or as a musician - Sounds was what you read.
Sounds, and Radio 1's Friday Rock Show (TV on the radio!) became the focus of grassroots-level metal bands all over the UK and the coverage that Barton & Tommy Vance gave those bands created a UK-wide movement, of sorts. Bands like UFO, Priest, & Motorhead tend to get lumped in with the scene but weren't really part of it, although Motorhead's success & industry-outsider attitude made them seem closer to the grassroots bands.
I was a fan as well as trying to get a band together at the time, in 1980 when the scene was properly happening it definitely felt like something you could be part of.
I was an avid Sounds reader from the mid/late 70s as it tended to feature a better balance of the music/bands I liked more than other music papers did - i.e. guitar/rock bands, along with punk and New Wave.
Coming from the wonderful industrial city of Coventry (we were always told we came from the furthest point from the sea of anywhere in the UK - there’s a boast to be proud of?!) the paper opened me up to so much music and bands from afar that I’d never encountered, especially some of the US bands.
I used to always look forward to articles by a writer called Sylvie Simmons who covered US bands and/or tours. My introduction to a lot of US bands was through her articles. Another writer I liked was a guy named Pete Makowski (sp?), who tended to cover rock and New Wave acts.
I think it was Geoff Barton who wrote the first Def Leppard article in the paper, which was the one that introduced them to the readers for the first time, and detailed their background - working class, industrial city - which really resonated with me.
Apart from that, his obsession with Kiss always got on my nerves (I’ve genuinely no idea why, but at that tender age it probably didn’t take much!), but I’d rather read his articles than anything by Garry Bushell, who, I feel, chanced his way into/onto the rock articles in Sounds at that time, and whose writing just didn’t do anything for me at all.
And Sounds also often had supporting photos by Ross Halfin, which could raise the quality of an article somewhat...
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In terms of heavier music being embraced by the mainstream I don’t think the role of the first Beastie Boys album can be overlooked or understated, ditto the Aerosmith/Run DMC collaboration.
But that’s probably one for another day/thread!!
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Your most listened-to live album?
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Old Man Riva
Slade Alive! was like a ‘Beatles moment’ for want of a better phrase.
Everything changed after hearing that, and seeing Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, T Rex et al all loud and proud on TOTP in the same year - a game changing time...