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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
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Sunday - Captain Beefheart
Tropical Hot dog Night
Diddy Wah Diddy
American Bandstand Phone Interview June 18, 1966
from wikipedia:
"Van Vliet wanted the whole band to "live" the Trout Mask Replica album. The group rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in their small rented house in the Woodland Hills suburb of Los Angeles. With only two bedrooms the band members would find sleep in various corners of one, whilst Vliet occupied the other and rehearsals were accomplished in the main living area. Van Vliet implemented his vision by completely dominating his musicians, artistically and emotionally. At various times one or another of the group members was "put in the barrel," with Van Vliet berating him continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission.[61] Drummer John French described the situation as "cultlike"[62] and a visiting friend said "the environment in that house was positively Mansonesque."[5] Their material circumstances were dire. With no income other than welfare and contributions from relatives, the group barely survived and were even arrested for shoplifting food (Zappa bailed them out). French has recalled living on no more than a small cup of beans a day for a month.[27] A visitor described their appearance as "cadaverous" and said that "they all looked in poor health." Band members were restricted from leaving the house and practiced for 14 or more hours a day.
Physical assaults were encouraged at times, along with verbal degradation. Beefheart spoke of studying texts on brainwashing at a public library at about this time, and appeared to be applying brainwashing techniques to his bandmembers: sleep deprivation, food deprivation, constant negative reinforcement, and rewarding bandmembers when they attacked each other or competed with each other. At one point Cotton ran from the house and escaped for a few weeks, during which time Alex Snouffer filled in for him and helped to work up "Ant Man Bee". French, who had thrown a metal cymbal at Cotton, ran after him yelling that he too wanted to come. Cotton later returned to the house with French's mother, who took him away for a few weeks, but he later felt compelled to return, as did Cotton. Mark Boston at one point hid clothes in a field across the street, planning his own getaway.
John French's 2010 book Through the Eyes of Magic describes some of the "talks" which were initiated by his actions such as being heard playing a Frank Zappa drum part ("The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)") in his drumming shed, and not having finished drum parts as quickly as Beefheart wanted. French writes of being punched by band members, thrown into walls, kicked, punched in the face by Beefheart hard enough to draw blood, being attacked with a sharp broomstick,[63] and eventually of Beefheart threatening to throw him out of an upper floor window. He admits complicity in similarly attacking his bandmates during "talks" aimed at them. In the end, after the album's recording, French was ejected from the band by Beefheart throwing him down a set of stairs with violence, telling him to "Take a walk, man" after not responding in a desired manner to a request to "play a strawberry" on the drums. Beefheart replaced French with drummer Jeff Bruschel, an acquaintance of Hayden. Referred to as 'Fake Drumbo' (playing on French's drumset) this final act resulted in French's name not appearing on the album credits, either as a player or arranger. Bruschel toured with the band to Europe but was replaced by the next recording."
Douglas Walker - Other Worlds at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery,72 Queen Street, Civic Centre, Oshawa. Curated by Corinna Ghaznavi and Peter Dykhuis.
Opening: Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1pm
This just in from Libby Hague... Sympathetic Connections and the sea battle of Dan-no-ura September 11, 3 pm, AGO, Toronto. For the closing of Sympathetic Connections, Von Bark & The Zen Existential Puppet Theatre and Libby Hague will create within the sculpture installation a retelling of the sea battle of Dan-no-ura, a story of courage, loyalty and suicide. Andrew Paterson will be the narrator, in the role of Hoichi the Earless, the bard who sang for an audience of ghosts and Smadar Peretz will help make it all work out. The performance space will be standing-room-only and will allow for an audience of about twenty five people with audience participation. Those of you with video phones are welcome to film and the different clips will be edited into an on-line version. Meanwhile, for an unimpeded view go to the Young Gallery at the AGO. It is next to FRANK and open whenever the Frank restaurant is open. Libby Hague: Sympathetic Connections is presented as part of the AGO’s Toronto Now series, which inhabits the Young Gallery, a free, street-level space adjacent to FRANK Restaurant. Toronto Now is generously supported by The Contemporary Circle. Contemporary programming at the AGO is supported the Canada Council for the Arts. AGO’s Toronto Now series is curated by Michelle Jacques. |
John Dickson
