From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V9 #28 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Monday, February 2 2004 Volume 09 : Number 028 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] Norwegian Wood [Chandla911@aol.com] [AVALON] Green collapse [=?iso-8859-1?q?Chris=20Turner?= ] [AVALON] Mick Green [Jane Fraser ] [AVALON] Article on heart attack. ["Paula Brown" ] RE: [AVALON] Re:Gasboard ["Andrew Shearer" ] Re: [AVALON] Mick Green [=?iso-8859-1?q?Chris=20Turner?= ] To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 07:53:20 EST From: Chandla911@aol.com Subject: [AVALON] Norwegian Wood I see that Bowie is playing this festival this year, where Ferry famously played and got 'treed' a few years back. I seem to remember someone saying it rained throughout the day - is that typical weather for that time of year? Did anybody go to Norwegian Wood and have any tips or observations about the possible would-be travellers? I see Ryanair offer return tickets to Oslo from the UK for less than a tenner. How far would N Wood be from Bergen where Bowie appears the day before? Any tips on the travel prospects and costs? Any views on the size and/or personality of these two events? Please e-mail me off-list with any info... Best wishes Richard Mills n/p LMC vs U2 - Take Me To The Clouds Above (strangely there's no writing credits in the sleeve...) ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:13:38 +0000 (GMT) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Chris=20Turner?= Subject: [AVALON] Green collapse According to an eye-witness report I have received, Mick Green collapsed on stage in Auckland last night, the second of two NZ concerts, leaving Chris Spedding to handle the guitar work alone. I'm unaware of Mick's current condition. I understand Casanova, Virginia Plain, Don't Stop the Dance, Kiss and Tell and surprisingly, Broken Wings were introduced to the setlist. Band line-up remains unchanged. I must stress that at this time that this is an unconfirmed report. Regards Chris ________________________________________________________________________ BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save #80 http://btyahoo.yahoo.co.uk ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:27:32 EST From: Jocelynfiske@aol.com Subject: [AVALON] Re:Gasboard In a message dated 31/01/2004 18:23:41 GMT Standard Time, DEAGLERR@aol.com writes: > > Before I went out of town, I asked if there was any info on Mr. Ferry's > > early band the Gas Board. > > I.E. type of band & what BF did in it. > So far no answer from any of the sage members of the list. > Inquiring minds WANT TO KNOW!!!!! It might be worth mentioning Mike Figgis played keyboards. I often wondered why, with this connection, he never approached Bryan for one of his films, after all he couldn't be any more wooden than Sting who snored his way through Stormy Monday. The only other snippet I have, is that the saxophonist's name was De Souza (which amused me, but then I'm easily amused). Jocelyn ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 13:51:04 -0600 From: "Paula Brown" Subject: Fw: [AVALON] Gas Board Sent this yesterday and it didn't make it. Try one more time. =20 > Before I went out of town, I asked if there was any info on Mr. = Ferry's=20 > early band the Gas Board. Richard, here's an article from yesterday on Figgis. There's a photo = which won't show up on this list. I see articles on various members = from time to time, but I haven't archived them. =20 Paula http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1134486,00.htm= l Will Hodgkinson Friday January 30, 2004 The Guardian =20 =20 The walls of Mike Figgis's basement are lined with stacks of his own = photographic prints. Naked women feature heavily in the collection. = "I've had a lot of conversations about the role of pornography and = eroticism in film and photography, and most of it is absolute shite," = says the director, who divides his time between shooting mainstream = Hollywood movies and experimental films, staging art installations, = playing musical instruments and developing intricate filing systems for = storing everything he ever did, ever.=20 "But there is a short that comes with the British DVD release of The = Beast that is genuinely erotic, because it allows you into this world = that questions the object of eroticism. Nagisa Oshima's Ai No Corrida is = the same: it has a weight of tragedy running through it. With both of = those films you cannot separate the eroticism from the narrative and = turn it into a commodity."=20 The Beast, by the Czech director Walerian Borowcyck, is a surreal update = of the Beauty and the Beast story in which the =20 =20 ADVERTISEMENT=20 =20 beast rapes the beauty, who accordingly falls for his primitive charms. = Ai No Corrida is one of the most erotic films ever made - not least = because the acts its lovers participate in are genuine in every sense of = the word. Both came from a time - the late 1960s to the mid-1970s - when = countries all over the world were offering their own version of the = French new wave, producing impressionistic, direct films that reflected = the personality of their director.=20 Mike Figgis really belongs to the new wave, but he had the misfortune to = be born a couple of decades too late. Since his 1995 film Leaving Las = Vegas, which he filmed on 16mm to get around having to pay for shooting = permits, he has made a quadruple screen drama (Timecode) and a film = within a film within a film (Hotel). Presumably it is his Hollywood = blockbusters, like 2003's Cold Creek Manor, that pay the rent.=20 "Films like Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard affected me hugely when I was = growing up," says Figgis, who has used digital video cameras to liberate = himself from traditional film-making constraints, just as Nouvelle Vague = directors such as Godard and Truffaut liberated themselves in the 1960s = by doing away with sets, costumes and huge casts.=20 "Once you know enough about film-making, however, it becomes very = difficult to watch films in a pure way because you know all the tricks = that have gone into making them. There have been European films like = Festen and Man Bites Dog that smash through the bubble of knowledge that = you build up, but it's very rare. Harmony Korine is doing interesting = things on DV, but the problem is that people don't have a relationship = with digital equipment because they don't consider it special. Godard = said that you should own your own equipment, and he was accused of = stealing from his budgets to do so, but his attitude was that if he = didn't love his equipment he wasn't going to use it in the best way."=20 The film that, for Figgis, sets the high water mark of artistic = perfection is Pierre Granier-Deferre's 1973 Holocaust-era romance The = Last Train. "I was in Rome over Christmas, and I caught the last 40 = minutes of this film I had seen 30 years previously. Within the first 10 = seconds I knew what it was. It stars Romy Schneider and Jean-Luc = Trintignant, and it's the story of two people leaving Nazi Germany on = the last train out. He has been separated from his family and he's = trying to get back to La Rochelle; she's a Jewish-German woman escaping = the Nazis. They're thrown together and they have this very intense = two-day affair. I remembered that it had a great ending, but I wasn't = prepared for how great it was. Everyone should watch this film before = trying to make one themselves. You know, fuck your conjuring tricks: be = honest and direct, and brave in how you allow your actors to work. She = has a wonderfully tragic persona, and he's a brilliant actor - The = Conformist is my favourite Bertolucci film because of his performance in = it. He's the new wave version of Bogart, with the kind of face that = shows nothing and everything at the same time."=20 There are a lot of CDs in Figgis's well-ordered office, and they cover = the ground from avant-garde jazz to pop to classical. Music was his = first career of choice: after leaving school he played alongside Bryan = Ferry in the R&B covers band the Gas Board, and he studied music for two = years in London before going into theatre. Also in the collection are a = number of film soundtracks, among them Bernard Herrmann's scores for = Psycho and Taxi Driver. Music is, Figgis claims, "the whore of the film = industry," but prostitution does come with its own rewards.=20 "The history of cinema is really the history of music," says Figgis. "If = you look at Hitchcock and see what Bernard Herrmann is doing, you become = aware that the whole European avant-garde had made its way, through the = refugee movement, from Europe to America and from America to Hollywood. = You will hear an atonal piece of music in a thriller that is highly = effective because it bypasses a cliched romanticism of conventional = harmony. You listen to Bartok's Music for Percussion, Strings and = Celeste, which Kubrick used, and it's frightening and powerfully eerie. = A mainstream audience will be enthralled and happy to be listening to = this avant-garde music, but they wouldn't dream of buying a piece of = music by, say, Charles Ives. That is one of the more interesting = subversive possibilities of film."=20 Should there be any time left at the end of the working day, it seems = that Figgis might indulge in a spot of filing. "Billy Forsyth said to = me: 'Everything we do now is about highly advanced filing clerk = techniques.' He's right: if you don't develop your own filing system you = can't function in the digital world, and now I have an arranged marriage = between my computer and a stock of high-quality notebooks. You've got to = catalogue your ideas. We're all librarians at heart, aren't we?"=20 [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of sp.gif] ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 21:16:22 +0000 From: Jane Fraser Subject: [AVALON] Mick Green So sorry to hear about Mick's heart attack. Is there any way we can get a message to him to wish him a quick and full recovery? Jane ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 15:37:33 -0600 From: "Paula Brown" Subject: [AVALON] Article on heart attack. I apologize if someone posted this already and I just haven't got it. I = see Jane mentioned the heart attack. This article doesn't say who, = oddly. Paula http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2802456a11,00.html Bryan Ferry's guitarist collapses on stage=20 02 February 2004 =20 One of the guitarists for Bryan Ferry collapsed on stage after he had a = heart attack at the British singer's concert in Auckland last night.=20 Playing at the Civic Theatre just after 9pm, fans looked in shock as the = man collapsed and Ferry, oblivious to the attack, kept singing until the = song had finished.=20 The band mates, however, looked uncomfortable as they had seen the = attack but kept perfectly in time while five roadies dragged the = guitarist off to the side of the stage.=20 Fans saw the man, in his 50s, be given CPR and about 20 minutes later = saw him be stretchered off by ambulance staff. He was taken to Auckland = Hospital in a critical condition.=20 After Ferry realised one of his guitarist's was missing, the band = finished their set but Ferry never told fans what had happened to the = guitarist [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of null.gif] ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 22:40:54 +0000 From: "Andrew Shearer" Subject: RE: [AVALON] Re:Gasboard Seem to remember seeing there was some animosity between Figgis and Ferry, possibly differing versions of history etc. I'll try to find the source. Andrew >From: Jocelynfiske@aol.com >To: DEAGLERR@aol.com, avalon@smoe.org >Subject: [AVALON] Re:Gasboard >Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:27:32 EST > >In a message dated 31/01/2004 18:23:41 GMT Standard Time, DEAGLERR@aol.com >writes: > > > > > Before I went out of town, I asked if there was any info on Mr. >Ferry's > > > early band the Gas Board. > > > I.E. type of band & what BF did in it. > > So far no answer from any of the sage members of the list. > > Inquiring minds WANT TO KNOW!!!!! > >It might be worth mentioning Mike Figgis played keyboards. I often wondered >why, with this connection, he never approached Bryan for one of his films, >after all he couldn't be any more wooden than Sting who snored his way >through >Stormy Monday. >The only other snippet I have, is that the saxophonist's name was De Souza >(which amused me, but then I'm easily amused). > >Jocelyn > > >___________________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon > _________________________________________________________________ Find a cheaper internet access deal - choose one to suit you. http://www.msn.co.uk/internetaccess ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 23:10:47 +0000 (GMT) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Chris=20Turner?= Subject: Re: [AVALON] Mick Green I have recieved a message from Chris Spedding via his webmaster. Mick is now off the critical list and is described as comfortable. He will remain in Aukland until he is ready to return home. The tour will continue in his absence. Regards Chris --- Jane Fraser wrote: > So sorry to hear about Mick's heart attack. > > Is there any way we can get a message to him to wish him a quick and > full recovery? > > Jane > > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon > ________________________________________________________________________ BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save #80 http://btyahoo.yahoo.co.uk ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 02:25:47 +0100 From: Bahi Subject: RE: [AVALON] Gasboard From Andrew Shearer: > Seem to remember seeing there was some animosity between Figgis and > Ferry, possibly differing versions of history etc. I'll try to find > the source. In an article on Ferry published in Q magazine, Figgis was quoted as saying that the Gas Board had to get rid of Ferry as a singer because of that tremolo that so impressed the late John Walters (Peel's producer) when he heard the Roxy demo tape. On being told of his erstwhile band member's comments, I remember that Ferry called him "fucking rude" - probably a lot funnier than Bryan had intended it to be. Searches on Mamma and Google turned up nothing till I left out the naughty word. Of course, Viva RM has it: > Figgis claims that The Gas Board fired Ferry after two years with the > band "because he wasn't a very good soul singer; he had that tremble." > Told of this allegation, Bryan Ferry gets rather cross: "The reason I > left The Gas Board was because I wasn't doing any work, since I was > organising it as well as singing, which meant I was going into college > less and less. The rest of the band wanted to drop out and go > professional, and I wasn't prepared to do that at the time. How dare > he say that! It's f***ing rude, isn't it? I think he was jealous of > me." John Porter and Graham Simpson know the truth, presumably. I'm surprised that no one has tracked down Simpson and paid him to tell his side of the story. He's the only person who worked with Ferry on all the early songs and arrangements and saw Roxy take shape from the beginning, before anyone else on that first album was a part of the band. Davy O'List's thoughts would be interesting, too. I still love the Peel session version of If There Is Something, with (I guess) O'List on guitar. I can see why he probably wouldn't have fitted in with the whole Roxy thing but that track is fabulous. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V9 #28 *************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest