|
|
 |
This is the archive of the combined Barking Spider and Andy Broad Portsmouth Blues Site mailing lists.
For the latest information on what's on at The Bullfrog Blues Club click here
Barking Spider Promotions Mailing List |
|
It's nearly time for the COUNTRY JOE BAND to start rolling though the U.K.!!!!! The first gig in this area is at The Isle Of Wight Festival at The Venue@Ryde on Sunday, 6th June, a great little theatre very close to the ferry terminal. During the afternoon before the concert there will be by a talk by Country Joe & The Band about their experiences during their long and illustrious career. This promises to be a lot of laughs! This will be held at The Ryde Castle Hotel , also just a few minutes walk from the ferry terminal. The talk will take place around 1 p.m on Sunday 6th June, the same day as the evening concert. Doors open for the evening gig at 7 .30.p..m. and support will be Magick Cat and Ferris Wheel, the latter featuring Denis Reeve-Baker and Dave Allen, who with the rest of Reet Petite and Gone, were Joe's backing band during his 2001 tour. Next gig is at South Parade Pier, on Sunday, June 13th - the last gig of the tour - with support by CHAS & DAVE- Joe's great heroes! This will be a WONDERFUL night! Tickets for both these gigs are on sale at The Wedgewood Rooms Box Office, (023) 9286 3911. Latest news is that Joe's bringing a trombone with him! Joe says "I shall use it on FIXING TO DIE RAG. Also I am working up JEAN DESPREZ from the "War War War" album for the fans...you can pass that on". Here's short interview with Country Joe McDonald and Chicken Hirsh, of the Country Joe Band.... Whereas Country Joe's political views are well known what are the Band's views now, and have they changed since 1967? Chicken: My politics and basic beliefs have remained unchanged since about 1956. I am a free thinking loving liberal atheist. Our species struggles with its aggressive nature clumsily. I do the best I can under the circumstances. I hear that Joe & Barry Melton went to New York to meet with Albert Grossman. Did you meet up with him? Did you ever meet Bob Dylan? Joe: Our trip to N.Y.C. to find Albert Grossman so he could make us famous was a failure of course because we had no idea how to get in touch with him and had not given that any advance thought. We did not meet Bob Dylan for the same reasons. We returned to Berkeley with Ed Denson who was to become our manager who was then a road manager for The Blues Project . He drove their equipment....lots of amps...in a VW bus back across the country with Barry and me and in addition the guitarist Robbie Basho. Berkeley versus The San Francisco music scene - what were the differences? Chicken: The San Francisco music scene evolved out of the large dance halls anchored by the Avalon and Fillmore. Country Joe and the Fish was a jug band that went electric and evolved out of the Berkeley coffee house scene. Consequently we didn’t play for dancing or for that matter grooving like most bands of the time. We did play the Avalon and Fillmore, but we were always considered an art band (not fitting the mould). I think we were also the most political and articulate of the Bay Area bands. Bruce Barthol's father, a psychiatrist, is rumoured to have given the group "sensitivity training". What's the story here? (Bruce is the bassist for the Country Joe Band, and was a member of Country Joe & The Fish, as were all the other members of the Country Joe Band) Joe: We went to Southern California very early on when John Francis Gunning was still the drummer. Living in Bruce's parents home, we did a few days of group therapy training to get us to stop fighting and better communicate. It didn't offer any noticable change in my opinion... Chicken is rumoured to have started the F....K cheer while at the New York concert - true? Chicken: F***, yes. It was my recommendation. They didn’t have to do it. Chicken is rumoured to have started the banana hoax. What's the story here? from Chicken: Yeah, I am responsible for the banana thing. A colourful but dubious distinction. Two members of Big Brother & The Holding Company toured with Country Joe round Europe. Any memories of that tour, Joe? What were your links with Big Brother & The Holding Company? Was their first gig at The Golden Sheaf? From Joe: Hmmmmm. I have no memories of that tour....I was perhaps too drunk....There was no special band links with Big Brother but of course Janis and I did become boy friend and girl friend for a while, and I met her at that Golden Sheaf gig. Any anecdotes about Jefferson Airplane? Joe: I liked their sound and wrote "Grace" for Grace Slick to sing. but that was when she was with The Great Society and I was too shy to tell her .....and have never told her! How's the U.S. tour going? Joe: Very well! It is perhaps the best band I ever played in at the moment and we have only done about 10 gigs. Chicken: The shows have been phenomenal. The world though unchanged might just be ready for us now. Any new recordings? Joe: Due to the advent of digital recording every day can be a recording but we are just starting to play together and have not really gotten it togeather with a large repertoire but have tried out a few new tunes and probably will have a new selection in a year or so. There's a new song countryjoe.com.on the website that can be downloaded. What art does Chicken do these days? Is this particularly influenced by artists from the '60's or classic artists ( e.g. Philip Guston, Warhol, Lichtenstein) Chicken: My influences might go back to growing up in Chicago as a teenager and viewing the work in the Chicago Art Institute Museum. I liked Ivan Albright a lot back then. I’m more influenced by the Italian Renaissance the Impressionists or the Pre Raphaelites than I am my contemporaries. In the early 60’s while studying at the California College of the Arts, I studied painting with British painter John Copland who is credited with bringing pop art to America via Jasper Johns. I was aware of pop artists Warhol and Lichtenstein, and Guston later on, but unfortunately I don’t think I had any influence on them. I have successfully avoided labeling my work for 50 years so I don’t intend to start now. My technique and style is my own. So be it.