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This is the archive of the combined Barking Spider and Andy Broad Portsmouth Blues Site mailing lists.
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Barking Spider Promotions have pulled of a great coup when the hippie-era rock icon Country Joe McDonald from California is appearing as special guest of The Rolling Stones on the final day of the The Isle Of Wight Festival, on June 10th. Barking Spider has championed Country Joe since 2001, when we brought Joe back to Portsmouth for the first time since 1969, and Portsmouth's legendary Reet Petite and Gone reformed to become Joe's band on a nationwide tour. Since then we've managed all of Joe's U.K tours. Although the The Isle Of Wight Festival sold out in under two days, there's a chance to see Country Joe the day before, when on Saturday June 9th he appears at Havant Arts Centre. Joe's recording career started in 1965, and soon after he formed Country Joe and the Fish. In 1966 they recorded their debut album, the classic 'Electric Music For The Mind and Body', acknowledged by many as the finest psychedelic album of all time. The late great d.j. John Peel, in his last ever interview, said 'My favourite album of that era, really, was, and remains Country Joe and the Fish's 'Electric Music For The Mind and Body'. The album and it's follow-up, 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die', both remained in the U.S. album charts for over two years, while the group increasingly toured around America. 1967's Monterey Pop Festival was probably the best line-up of any of the festivals of the sixties - amongst others, Country Joe and The Fish appeared with Janis Joplin (Joe's girlfriend at the time), Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Otis Redding, Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds and Canned Heat By 1968 Country Joe and The Fish were touring successfully around the world and their fourth LP was released in spring 1969, shortly before Joe's most famous appearance, at the massive "Woodstock" Festival. Although Country Joe and the Fish played at Woodstock, Country Joe McDonald's solo career took off when on the first day of the festival he performed an impromptu solo set, after the scheduled artiste failed to appear. Joe led the crowd through the notorious "Fish Cheer" as an introduction to "Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag", his satirical anti -Vietnam song for which he's become best known. Joe had the audience in the palm of his hand, and his performance became one of the most enduring images of the subsequent 'Woodstock' film release. It was the Woodstock solo spot which sealed Joe's destiny as primarily a solo artiste for the next 35 years. Soon after the festival he broke up the band, and has continued as a solo performer ever since, releasing in excess of thirty albums since 1969. Musically speaking, he's come a long way since Woodstock, and his musical tastes run much further afield than the acid rock that launched his career. However, in 2004 Joe reunited most of the original Country Joe and the Fish as The Country Joe Band for a couple of tours of the U.S.A. and the U.K. - only Barry "the Fish" Melton sat it out. In 2004, The Country Joe Band’s U.K tour saw them headlining the roots weekend of the resurrected Isle Of Wight Festival and also The Bath Fringe Festival. In 2005 they headlined the opening night of Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival to an audience of over 20,000, and other notable appearances included Eastleigh Summer Festival, Tartan Heart Festival in Inverness and headlining the "The Summer of Love" event at Falmouth. Country Joe McDonald's music constantly evolves, and after the 2005 tour Joe put the The Country Joe Band "on hold" to concentrate on solo performances, and recently has been playing solo throughout the U.S.A. and Europe , with The Jefferson Family Galactic Reunion , featuring members of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and others. During the summer of 2006 Joe was a featured artiste on on the "Legends Of Woodstock" tour which included The Who, Canned Heat, Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and also Roxy Music. McDonald's solo albums run the gamut from folk to blues to art music. They include the acclaimed 1969 album “Thinking of Woody Guthrie", which showcased his talent as a folk interpreter; “Superstitious Blues", a strong 1991 set of folk and country blues that featured Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead on several tracks; 1995's “Vietnam Experience", a dozen powerful antiwar songs, including a new rendition of his "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"; and 1996's ambitious album “Carry On”, which includes a four-song cycle devoted to nurse Florence Nightingale. His powerful musical renditions of the World War I poems of Robert Service appeared on the "War War War" album, and at The Havant Arts centre performance the first set will be Joe’s live performance of the entire album. He has also collaborated with bio-acoustic specialist Bernie Krause, a pioneering electronic musician now living in Sonoma County, to blend acoustic guitar and harmonica instrumentals with the sounds of nature for an album of meditative tracks titled “Natural Imperfections". His latest album, “Live At The Borderline”, is due for release on 25th March, the first day of the tour. It’s a powerful 2 CD set of the entire solo show performed in 2006 at the legendary London venue. The first pressing, limited to 1,000 copies, produced by Barking Spider Promotions in conjunction with Country Joe's own "Rag Baby" Records, will only be available at venues on the tour. McDonald's commitment to his counterculture ideals is the unifying theme in all his projects. "I grew up in a family that held strong beliefs in peace and love and working together, so it was pretty easy for me to adapt to the '60s goals," he says, noting that his parents were left-wing activists during his childhood in Washington, D.C. "My mother later became politically active in Berkeley and my father was involved in unions. Others grew up with those same influences but later went over to the dark side, but I do what I do because it keeps me sane. I play music for myself, always have, though I enjoy it if the audience appreciates it, too. And I enjoy doing service for the community. It keeps me centred and I have no plans to change." Contrary to his image - a Navy veteran who is also a prominent anti-war protester - McDonald is not the kind of person who attends demonstrations or carries picket signs. "But as people can see from my website," he explains, "I have a wide variety of causes that I support, especially veterans and healthcare workers." Another cause is gay rights, especially same-sex marriage. "Coming down on same-sex marriage will certainly make us look like the Taliban, won't it?" he ponders. "I mean, we're in this funny historical place right now in that we're waging war against the Taliban, and yet we have our own uprising right here among people who don't quite fit the mould." Country Joe McDonald appears at Havant Arts Centre on Saturday June 9th. Tickets are available from the box office, (023) 92472700 or via their website, www.havantartsactive.co.uk FULL TOUR DATES ARE 25 May: Coal Exchange, Cardiff, Wales 28 May: Roisin Dubh, Galway, Eire (Double header with KINKY FRIEDMAN) 29 May: Glor, Ennis, Eire. 30 May: McKenna's, Monaghan, Eire. (Support by BOO BOO DAVIS) 31 May: Music Factory, Carlow, Eire. 1 June: Whelan's, Dublin, Eire. 2 June: 12 Bar, Swindon, Wiltshire, U.K. 3 June: Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham, U.K. 4 June: Robin 2, Bilston, Wolverhampton U.K. 5 June: Borderline, London U.K. (support by BEX MARSHALL) 6 June: Musician, Leicester, U.K. 7 June: Huntington Hall, Worcester, U.K. 8 June: Anchor, Barcome Mills, nr Lewes, West Sussex. (Support by ARLEN) 9 June: Arts Centre, Havant, Hants, U.K 10 June: Isle Of Wight Festival, U.K. (Special guest of THE ROLLING STONES) BARKING SPIDER PROMOTIONS (U.K. & Eire) Cluain Beag, Allykeolaun, Kylebrack, nr. Loughrea, Co. Galway, Eire Tel. 00353 (0)909 749813 Mobile: 00353 (0)871 330954 and 105, Landguard Rd., Southsea, Hants., PO4 9DR, U.K. Mobile: 07970 959793 or 00353 871 330954 ----------------------------------- E mail: spiderpromos@aol.com Barking Spider Website: www.barkingspider.abelgratis.com Southsea Folk & Roots Festival Website: www.southseafolkfestival.co.uk John Roberts’ Webspace: http://www.myspace.com/spiderpromos Tel. (U.K. 24 hr information hotline & ansaphone) 0044 (0)2392 436267