Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is a 1972 concert documentary film featuring the English progressive rock group Pink Floyd performing at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy, directed by Adrian Maben. Although the band are playing a typical live set from this point in their career, the film is notable for having no audience.
The main footage in and around the amphitheatre was filmed over four days in October 1971, using the band's regular touring equipment, including studio-quality 24-track recorders. Additional footage filmed in a Paris television studio that December made up the original 1972 release. The film was then re-released in 1974 with additional studio material of the band working on The Dark Side of the Moon, and interviews at Abbey Road Studios.
The film has subsequently been released on video numerous times, and in 2003 a "Director's Cut" DVD appeared which combines the original footage from 1971 with more contemporary shots of space and the area around Pompeii, assembled by Maben. A number of notable bands have taken inspiration from the film in creating their own videos, or filming concerts without an audience.
British heavy bluesrock band, based in Cardiff, Wales, formed in 1968 as 'Spoonfull'. In 1970 the band changed its name to 'Universe' and eventually disbanded in 1972.
Forever More was a late 1960s and early 1970s progressive rock band, featuring Alan Gorrie, Mick Strode (aka Mick Travis), Onnie McIntyre (aka Onnie Mair) and Stuart Francis. The principal songwriters for Forever More were: Alan Gorrie and Mick Strode, writing either as individuals or co-writing. Alan Gorrie, Onnie McIntyre, and Stuart Francis all originated from Scotland, whereas Mick Strode was born in Oldbury in the West Midlands. The band toured extensively in the United Kingdom and in Europe. They recorded two LPs: "Yours" and "Words on Black Plastic".
Formation of Forever More, 1969
Scottish musicians Alan Gorrie, Onnie McIntyre and Stuart Francis had previously been part of a band called Hopscotch, alongside two other Scottish musicians, namely pianist/vocalist Graham Maitland and vocalist Hamish Stuart (later of Crocodile, and Sir Paul McCartney's Wings). Mick Strode, meanwhile, had been the lead guitarist in various bands in the Midlands and in London, most notably with Robert Plant and John Bonham in the final 1968 lineup of their pre-Led Zeppelin group Band of Joy. Early in 1969 in Shepherd's Bush, London, Mick Strode met Alan, Onnie, and Stuart of Hopscotch; and soon afterwards the four of them formed Forever More. All of Forever More also played as session musicians in various studios in London.
Morphing and Evolution of Forever More:
Shortly before disbanding in 1971 Forever More, by means of a simple name change, morphed into a band called Glencoe. The line-up was still the same: Mick Strode, on lead electric guitar, had already incorporated his mandolin playing and acoustic guitar into their live performances; and all four members were offering vocal harmonies, although Alan Gorrie remained the principal singer with Mick Strode singing solo on some numbers, especially on his own compositions. Since Alan Gorrie played both bass and piano, Onnie McIntyre would sometimes switch to playing bass for live performances.
Not long after Forever More's change of name to Glencoe, however, Onnie McIntyre and Alan Gorrie decided to leave the band. Determined to continue as Glencoe, Mick Strode and Stuart Francis set about recruiting two new members for their band. The first musician who joined them was Graham Maitland, a pianist who had previously played with Stuart Francis, prior to Forever More's formation. The second new member was a very young bass player called Norman Watt-Roy, whose audition to join Glencoe is described in Dr.Sonja Strode's book (2011). This line-up toured widely in the United Kingdom until April 1972 when guitarist/songwriter Mick Strode decided to leave the band. Strode was replaced by John Turnbull and they released 2 further albums "Glencoe" (1972) and "Spirit Of Glencoe" (1973).
Having left Forever More in 1972, Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre formed the Average White Band, teaming up with Scottish saxophonists Roger Ball and Malcolm Duncan who had been part of Jimmy Litherland's Brotherhood (later known as Mogul Thrash). Together with trumpeter Mike Rosen, they were known as the Dundee Horns. In the heyday of Forever More it was not unusual for this brass section to jam with Forever More whenever their gigs coincided.
Past members:
Alan Gorrie : bass guitar, piano, vocals
Onnie McIntyre (aka Onnie Mair) - guitar, vocals
Mick Strode (aka Mick Travis): guitar, vocals
Stuart Francis: drums, vocals
Discography:
- Yours (1970)
- Words on Black Plastic (1971)
- Forever More: Yours + Words On Black Plastic (2007)
Dragonwyck started in October 3, 1969 in Cleveland , Ohio. The original members were Bill Pettijohn (vocals), Mike Gerchack (bass, vocals) Jack Boessneck (drums), Tom Brehm (guitar) and Kenneth Staab (keyboards, vocals). In the five years of performing in the Cleveland area, Dragonwyck recorded three albums: "Dragonwyck" in 1970, "Chapter 2" in 1973, and "Fun" in 1974, and a 45 RPM single "Lovin' the boys/The music" in 1974.
The core membership of Dragonwyck began in 1965 when drummer Jack Boessneck, guitarist Tom Brehm and organist John Hall formed their first band, The Mortycyans, whose name was fashioned after the English band The Undertakers. With the singer Roy Baker, the bass player Pat Osines and the rhythm guitarist Ned Fairfield, The Mortycyans played a mixture of American and British rock at schools functions, C.Y.O dances, fraternity parties and V.F.W Legion Posts throughout the west Cleveland suburbs. In 1967, John hall left the band to attend Northwestern University, and was replaced by John Chandler. A year later, both Roy Baker and Neil Fairfield left the band to attend college. At that point, The Mortycyans callled it quits.
In 1968, Tom Brehm, Pat Osines, the drummer Gary Sanger, the organist Skip Foster and the singer Greg Reese formed the short lived band Sunrise. The band performed music by The Small Faces and Procol Harum. When Greg Reese left the band, the singer Bill Pettijohn auditioned. Bill was uncomfortable with the high vocal range of the Sunrise song list and during a break he asked Tom to listen to a song he wrote called "Fire climbs". The band learned "Fire climbs" that night and soon booked time at Landon Magnetic Sound, a 2-track recording studio in Garfield Heights, Ohio. The sound engineer was George Stage. At Landon Magnetic Sound, Sunrise recorded "Fire climbs", "Flowers grow free", "The vision", "Anything I'd give" and "Ancient child". Although crude, these 1968 Sunrise recordings became the early sound of Dragonwyck. By 1969, the bands membership evolved to include The Mortycyans drummer Jack Boessneck, the bass player Mike Gerchack and the keyboardist Kenneth Staab. On October 3, 1969 Sunrise changed their name to Dragonwyck.
Their line-ups varied, but keymembers on all albums are Tom Brehm playing guitars and Bill Pettijohn singing.
Dragonwyck's intention was to write, perform and record their own music. Their musical style moved towards progressive rock. Their first album was released in 1970 for only 85 copies, as a demo LP. Musically they combine the elements of both British and American psychedelic sound with heavy metal tones. The mood of their music is dark and mystical, and their sound is dominated by guitar and Hammonds, Moogs and Mellotrons. This music was dark and hauting, with Doors-like vocals and keyboards and heavy fuzz-psych guitar. On January 20, 1970 they recorded a Kenneth Staab song, "God's dream", at Landon Magnetic Sound, where Sunrise had recorded. Landon Magnetic Sound was now a 4-track studio. The sound engineer again was George Stage. Dragonwyck soon returned to Landon Magnetic Sound to record an entire album.
In October 3, Dragonwyck celebrated its first year as a band and, on October 23, Kenneth Staab quit and moved to Florida. Kenneth Staab died in 1973.
During 70s, the original Dragonwyck performed in the Cleveland Ohio area at D'Poo' and Die, Mickey Finns, Pandora's Box in Elyria, The Electric Boathouse in Mainsfield, Admiral Bimbo's in Westlake and J.B.'s in Kent, where Glass Harp was the houseband at that time.
In 1976 Tom Brehm and producer Bill Cavanaugh started the band called Flying Turns, to continue the musical direction of the album "Fun".
Band leader Tom Brehm reformed Dragonwyck with a new and younger lineup in 2006 and embarked on a short European tour before fading once again into obscurity.
Performed Sunday morning, August 17, 1969: 2:30–3:30 am
Woodstock '69 :
Joplin appeared at Woodstock in the late hours of Saturday, August 16, 1969. She performed until the early morning hours of Sunday, August 17. Despite her reportedly not even knowing of the festival's existence, the Woodstock promoters were advertising her as a headliner. She thus became one of the main attractions of the historic concert.
Joplin informed her band that they would be performing at the concert as if it were just another gig. When she and the band were flown in by helicopter with the pregnant Joan Baez and her mother from a nearby motel to the festival site and Joplin saw the enormous crowd, she instantly became incredibly nervous and giddy. Upon landing and getting off the helicopter, Joplin was approached by reporters asking her questions. She deferred them to Caserta as she was too excited to speak. Initially Joplin was eager to get on the stage and perform, but she kept getting delayed as bands were contractually obliged to perform before her. Faced with a ten-hour wait after arriving at the backstage area, she shot heroin with Caserta and was drinking alcohol, so by the time she hit the stage, she was "three sheets to the wind".Joplin took the stage following Creedence Clearwater Revival. On stage her voice became slightly hoarse and wheezy and she found it hard to dance.
Throughout her performance she frequently spoke to the crowd, asking them if they had everything they needed and if they were staying stoned. She pulled through, however, and the audience was so pleased they cheered her on for an encore, to which she replied and sang "Ball and Chain". Her performances of "Kozmic Blues" and "Work Me, Lord" at Woodstock are notable, though her voice breaks while she sings.
Divine Symmetry (rare and unreleased tracks from 1970-1971)
As 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s album Hunky Dory I thought I would put together a mix of rare and unreleased music from this period.
Considering the Bowie estate have been marking the 50th anniversary of albums with some sort of archival release of unreleased music (as they did with 2019’s Conversation Piece box set and 2021’s Width Of A Circle), it’s likely that at least some of this material would be released in some shape or form in the next 12 months. Like the period in the run up to Space Oddity, Bowie was a very prolific songwriter in the period from late 1970 to the release of Ziggy Stardust with many of the songs recorded ultimately left on the sidelines. Unlike the songs recorded in run up to Space Oddity, a good portion of that music has surfaced through unofficial means, though some songs continue to elude the bootleggers including Black Hole Kids, Only One Paper Left, It’s Gonna Rain Again and King of the City.
The demo version of Quicksand, as well as (most of) Lightning Frightening were previously released on the Ryko reissues of Hunky Dory and The Man Who Sold The World respectively, though those disks have been out of print for about 30 years. Bombers was from the 1971 BOWPROMO promotional disk, which was previously officially released as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2017. The Glastonbury Fayre clips were sourced from the 2019 documentary film David Bowie: Finding Fame.
This mix doesn’t comprise of every recording available from the period, but features at least one version of every unreleased song in circulation. If this list was more thorough you’d have to sit through at least five versions of Looking For A Friend.
NOTE: This mix originally included the alternate take of Eight Line Poem, as well as most of the alternate mix of the chatter leading up to Andy Warhol. Both of these were copyright striked resulting in the video being blocked worldwide. I have since removed these tracks from the mix though curiously you can still find the tracks elsewhere on YouTube. Both are sourced from the 1971 BOWPROMO promotional disk.
0:00:00 - 0:04:42 Quicksand (Demo)
0:04:42 - 0:07:41 Rupert The Riley
0:07:41 - 0:11:44 Lightning Frightening (The Man)
0:11:44 - 0:12:03 Oh! You Pretty Things (Excerpt, Glastonbury Fayre, 23 June 1971)
0:12:03 - 0:15:21 Oh! You Pretty Things (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)
0:15:21 - 0:18:24 Tired Of My Life
0:18:24 - 0:18:54 Life On Mars? (Excerpt, Demo)
0:18:54 - 0:22:16 Kooks (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)
0:22:16 - 0:24:56 The Supermen (John Peel: In Concert, 3 June 1971)
0:24:56 - 0:27:52 Bombers (BOWPROMO mix)
0:27:52 - 0:30:43 Andy Warhol (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)
0:30:43 - 0:34:15 How Lucky You Are (Miss Peculiar)
0:34:15 - 0:34:38 Changes (Excerpt, Glastonbury Fayre, 23 June 1971)
0:34:38 - 0:38:22 Shadow Man
0:38:22 - 0:41:31 Looking For A Friend
0:41:31 - 0:45:39 Man In The Middle
0:45:39 - 0:49:09 Changes (Demo)
0:49:09 - 0:51:31 Buzz The Fuzz (The Sunday Show: Introduced by John Peel, 5 February 1970)
0:51:31 - 0:54:18 Fill Your Heart (Sound Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)
0:54:18 - 0:56:42 Right On Mother
0:56:42 - 1:00:36 Amsterdam (Sounds Of The Seventies: Bob Harris, 21 September 1971)
