Drokk track offered in new Megazine

The latest issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine (322) is on sale now with an exclusive downloadable track from a brand new album by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Emmy-nominated composer Ben Salisbury.

 

DROKK is the pair’s ‘soundtrack’ for Judge Dredd’s world, creating a soundscape befitting a nightmare 22nd Century megalopolis filled with criminals and crazies, and policed by authoritarian Judges.

 

Readers can scan a QR code and exclusively download the first track from the album: Lawmaster/Pursuit.A founding member of Portishead, Barrow is the producer/owner of the Invada Records UK label and a lifelong 2000AD fan. Salisbury is a soundtrack composer with over 200 film and TV credits to his name, including three David Attenborough series.

 

DROKK was born out of a meeting in late 2010 with a screenwriter to discuss possible work on a feature film project. Although their involvement in the film did not continue, they were encouraged by early demos.The issue also comes with an exclusive interview with Barrow about the album, his love of 2000 AD and the challenges of bringing Mega-City One to life with music.

 

This issue, priced £5.60, includes the debut of Snapshot, a new creator-owned series by Andy Diggle and Jock, as well as the first work for the 2000AD stable by Leah Moore and John Reppion, who have penned a stand-alone Tales from the Black Museum story.

You can order the Meg online via the 2000 AD website or find it in all good newsagents and comic shops

Drokk Me! It's only some Mega-City music

Musicians Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury are to release Drokk in May - an album inspired by Judge Dredd's 2000AD home town, Mega-City One.

Geoff Barrow is a founding member of Portishead and producer/label owner of Invada Records UK.  Ben Salisbury is a soundtrack composer with over 200 film and TV credits to his name, including David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood.

Set up by Geoff and Paul Horlick aka Fat Paul "to lose money friends", Invada Records strives to showcase the finest in experimental music, from kraut rock to hip-hop, taking in doom, post-rock, metal and noise along the way. Don't expect genre-specific releases, they're out to promote underground gems you'll struggle to find elsewhere. 

Barrow and Salisbury met over 10 years ago when they both joined a Bristol football team for old men. After many disastrous games they decided they might be more productive working on a music project together.

Other work commitments kept them apart until late 2010, when the pair met up with a screenwriter to discuss some possible work on a feature film project.  Although their involvement with this particular film did not continue, a collaborative writing relationship had begun…

When Barrow and Salisbury revisited and started expanding upon this early material they decided to continue writing what was essentially soundtrack music.  Barrow, along with album designer and long term friend, Marc Bessant, were both avid 2000AD readers from a young age, and the sprawling metropolis and classic stories of Mega-City One seemed the ideal inspiration for this ‘soundtrack’.

Although Mega-City One has been brought to life in great detail over many years by the acclaimed work of writers and artists alike, the creators of Drokk feel there is still huge scope for readers to have their own vision/soundtrack of the city. Rather than intending to be the definitive sound of Mega-City One (could there be a ‘definitive sound’ of a city so vast, changeable and varied?), Drokk is Barrow and Salisbury’s personal, outsider’s’ interpretation.

Drokk was written in a six month period between Barrow’s Portishead world tour and Salisbury’s composing jobs for the BBC.  Although it is a soundtrack of sorts, Barrow and Salisbury instinctively felt that music for MC1 should steer clear of the rich orchestration common to many contemporary film scores.

Even for electronica, the music is often purposefully stark and spare, with the majority of tracks created exclusively on the Oberhiem 2 Voice Synthesizer (a 1975 classic keyboard), and its onboard sequencer used to create rhythm and drums sounds. The only exceptions are a handful of tracks which combine the synth with digitally manipulated and time - stretched performances of acoustic instruments (such as piano, violin, mandolin, ukulele, voice and hammered dulcimer).

There is also a brief cameo from Barrow’s other band, BEAK.

We're told Tharg is delighted by the new album.

"2000AD is delighted that Judge Dredd continues to inspire artists in the year of the character’s 35th anniversary, especially such high profile talents as Geoff and Ben," said one of his droids. " You can tell, from their vision of the Big Meg, that they’re massive fans of the strip."

• Drokk is to be released on 7th May 2012

• Listen to 'Drokk - Justice One'

Commando: Music From The Home Front

In this 50 anniversary year of the Eagle award winning Commando, there are a number of tie-ins scheduled to be published in addition to the standard 104 issues of the comic. As well as the latest of the big reprint books, Rogue Raiders, Carlton are just about to release a set of four Commando paperbacks that will reprint three themed stories in each book.

However the book that we here at downthetubes are most keen to see is also from Carlton and that is Commando 50 Years: A Home For Heroes written by former Commando editor George Low. Rather than being a reprint book, this will be a hardback book about Commando that is due for release on 13 October 2011. It will include a foreword by BBC Top Gear presenter James May who has already pinned his war comics credentials to the wall in forewords to David Roach's two IPC combat picture library art books, Aarrgghh! It's War and The Art Of War. Early reports suggest that this Commando book will be well worth the wait.

In the meantime there is another Commando tie-in to tide us over until that book is released - and it is perhaps the most unusual tie-in in Commando's half century history. EMI have just released Commando: War Themes, a compilation album of themes from war films including such well known movies as The Dambusters, 633 Squadron and Lawrence Of Arabia. With an Ian Kennedy cover of an Allied Willies jeep being chased by a (rather suicidal) German Messerschmitt Bf109, the albums will be available in both CD and downloadable MP3 format.

This isn't the first time that DC Thomson titles have been used to market music compilations with Jackie being used for a whopping six multi-disc albums while last year saw The Broons Family Album released in time for the Christmas market. It is however the first time EMI have used a DC Thomson "boy's" title for their music albums.

There are more details of all the Commando books currently available at the Carlton website.

Commando: War Themes is available from Amazon UK in both CD and MP3 formats.

Stately Hunt Emerson releases CD

Birmingham-based cartoonist Hunt Emerson is to release a single, Josephine, on May Day 2011.

Released on the new Spritely Records label, Josephine is a song by legendary singer-songwriter John Otway and described by Hunt as "an epic tale of  innocence lost set on a village green during traditional revels."

Dripping with pagan passions, we're told Josephine, performed by Hunt and Stately Homes of England (aka Billy Milk and White Glove), comes in a variety of mixes and several desirable editions including an 8 track CD in beautifully designed Hunt Emerson sleeve (£5); a CD plus 4 signed A3 prints by Hunt Emerson (£20); an 8 track download (£2) or individual tracks (79p); and, for the real Emerson (or Otway) fan, a deluxe edition limited to TEN copies only,  which includes CD, A3 prints, an original drawing by Hunt Emerson, and a top quality Spritely Records apron,
all packaged in a special envelope.

Along with the regular 8 tracks, the Deluxe CD includes two extra mixes, one of which
will be exclusive to each CD. The highly collectable Deluxe edition of Josephine will be priced at £100.

Hunt has a longtime connection with the British music business as well as his amazing cartoons for the likes of Fortean Times, The Beano and other titles. In the past he worked with bands such as The Beat (currently on tour, by the way) and Jazz Butcher (google them if you've never heard of them, their music is great fun).

• Hunt is taking pre-orders for the Deluxe edition now at www.thecrowdscreams.tumblr.com (where you can listen to a short version of the track)

• Hunt Emerson's Official web site: http://largecow.com


• Stately Homes of England: www.statelyhomesofengland.com

thingNY's Call for Comic Artists

We don't normally circulate much non-British news, but this US-based music project posted their international appeal for artists on our events page, so we thought we'd repost the information here.

A New York-based xxperimental music ensemble, thingNY is looking for comic book artists, illustrators, designers and other imagicians to illustrate the comic book libretto (liner notes) of their soon to be released album, ADDDDDDDDD: an opera by thingNY.

The New Yorker's Alex Ross called new music uber-group thingNY part of the city's burgeoning avant-garde classical music scene 'striking an attitude of resistance to mainstream culture'. The not-for-profit collective comprises composer-performers from the New York city metro area and revels in creating and performing unrelenting experimental new works with passion and enthusiasm, oscillating between the 'sweeter sounds' and the 'punishingly loud'.

Debuting in October 2006 at Jersey City's landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, thingNY has gone on to produce three seasons of experimental music including a radio play by Beckett, a collaborative opera and over two dozen premieres.

Paul Pinto tells downthetubes he is hoping the show may be brought to the UK at some point.

• More info: http://www.thingNY.com


• The next performance is on Saturday 20th March at 8.00pm at the Issue Project Room @ the Old American Can Factory - 232 3rd St. Brooklyn, New York. Tickets at https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/7950605


• To read more about the project and to download guidelines and audio here: http://www.thingny.com/opera/call



• Selected artists will be contacted by 22nd March and final drafts will be due 1st April 2010. The company says it regrets it cannot pay volunteer artists but selected artists will receive a copy of the finished product, credit and two tickets to the thingNY show of their choice.

Don't Forsake The Prisoner

Fans of The Prisoner reading this blog might want to check out the various web sites of US band Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, which has a new music project in the works inspired by the show aptly suited a group whose very name is inspired by a The Prisoner episode.

The band plan to record 17 songs all inspired by the episodes of the series: three are available for download here, and they sound good to me!

"Our set-up is kind of unusual," says drummer and vocalist Sophia Cacciola, formerly with the band Blitzkriegbliss. Together with bassist Michael Epstein (current frontman of The Motion Sick) "We are a duo - I sing and play drums, and and the bass player plays through both a guitar-rig and a bass-rig."

Sophia and Michael met in early 2001 while working different aspects of intelligence for the same US government agency. Both had been fascinated all of their lives with spies and had sought out spy-related careers after childhood obsessions with TV shows like The Prisoner, The Avengers, Danger Man (known in the US as Secret Agent) and Mission: Impossible. They each found, however, that real-life intelligence work was not as glamorous as they had hoped. Epstein was better at mathematics than gymnastics, so he was put to work in a secret computer laboratory. As an expert in cryptography, he spent his spy years working to identify and decipher transmissions hidden in digital images.

Cacciola, on the other hand, is still not allowed to disclose the specifics of her five years of government work, but she will admit that she never had to shoot anyone. In fact, she never carried a gun at all.

Both of the band members have since retired from the intelligence business. Although neither has ever cartwheeled between lasers to avoid alarm systems, transported microfilm, or even directly encountered enemy agents, the pair has crafted a series of songs drawn from a blurry mixture of real-life experience and Hollywood depictions of espionage.

They have also drawn on the minimalist approaches of classic spy television, known for its plodding cerebral traversals, rather than modern explosion-heavy fare to create the sonic landscapes for their stories, with a music style that echoes the sound of proto-punk/new wave/no wave bands and dark songwriters like Joy Division, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and even Leonard Cohen.

• Check them out at http://donotforsake.com: they're also on myspace, twitter and Facebook.

• Download the new EP: The New Number 2: http://bit.ly/dnfmomd

• Mailing list: http://www.reverbnation.com/donotforsakemeohmydarling

• See the band in action playing Episode 6 - Many Happy Returns in this live youtube video

Alan Moore's Hip Hop Collaboration

Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen writer and co-creator Alan Moore is collaborating on a new graphic novel project with art rap musician Doseone.

Partly inspired by Radiohead's deluxe version of In Rainbows, the Moore project, tentatively titled Unearthing, tries to hit all senses at once. Music site Pitchfork reports the autobiographical work is due to include a "photographic novel," a two-hour audiobook already recorded by Moore, art prints, and a vinyl soundtrack featuring Doseone and Fog and will be released next year by UK indie label Lex Records.

"It has a score by some artists and the visual side of it is amazing," Tom Brown, founder of London-based Lex, told Billboard.biz.

"It's full of recurring themes, and all this recurring writing breaks and reconstructs its phrasings over and over again throughout," he continued. "So we kinda found those motifs, brought them all in and out, and then made holes in it, where we made things recur and then patched the holes."

While the full line up of artists has yet to be confirmed, Billboard reports the score that accompanies the book is being worked on by Andrew Broder of alternative act Fog and spoken word artist Adam Drucker. Brown says musicians in the frame to provide key elements of the soundtrack include Mike Patton of Faith No More and Justin Broadrick, formerly of industrial metal band Godflesh.

"It started as a collaboration between [Alan] and Mitch Jenkins, an old compatriot of his who is a photographer and who does really brilliant work," Doesone, who holds Moore in high regard told Pitchfork. "They wanted to do a graphic novel that is photo-art and novel. And this is more novel than graphic at this point.

"It's actually more a novel. Mitch did all the photos, and so it will be more like a giant coffee table book than anything else. But the writing itself is extremely dense," Doseone told Pitchfork.

"It's a prose-based novel, and it's too confusing for me to try and correctly encapsulate. But it is about, uh, a co-worker of Alan's and somehow seemingly about Alan himself. And it's about the comic industry, the world of magic, the world we live in, the world we don't live in. Really fantastic writing."

The project is not, the musician says, being done 'comic style'.

"'Graphic novel', in this case, is completely misleading. Like 'rap record' with Themselves. It's actually more a novel. Mitch did all the photos, and so it will be more like a giant coffee table book than anything else. But the writing itself is extremely dense. It's a prose-based novel, and it's too confusing for me to try and correctly encapsulate. But it is about, uh, a co-worker of Alan's and somehow seemingly about Alan himself. And it's about the comic industry, the world of magic, the world we live in, the world we don't live in. Really fantastic writing."

During the recording of the audiobook in Northampton, where Moore lives, the process was filmed for possible inclusion in the box set.

• Unearthing will be released in 2010. Read the interview with Doseone on Pitchfork here.

• Lex Records Official Web Site

Standby For Stingray Music

Fanderson, the official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society, have released the soundtrack for the puppet series Stingray on CD for the first time. The double CD has a total of 54 tracks consisting of over two and a half hours of Barry Gray's original music for the series.

Remarkably the soundtrack for Stingray, which was first broadcast on television in 1965, has never been released before on CD, or even vinyl, with only the theme music and Aqua Marina, the end credits song, being readily available so this double album marks a major coup for the fan club.

Over the years Fanderson have released many soundtrack albums of Barry Gray's music from the various Anderson series. Their licensing agreement with copyright holder ITV Global Entertainment means that only 1000 copies can be pressed and that they can only be sold to Fanderson members. This means that once the albums sell out, as most previous releases have done, they become highly collectible and often sell for over £100 on internet auction sites.



Indeed at least one copy of the new Stingray album has already appeared on eBay with the seller obviously hoping that some gullible buyer would not realise that it would be cheaper to join Fanderson for one year and buy the album directly from them than it would to be to pay his seriously inflated starting price. The album was removed from sale after Fanderson contacted the seller directly while the club have already noticed an increase in new membership applications since they started advertising the new album for sale.

Due to the limited nature of the release the cost, £29.99, is high but this is not some knocked up fan CDR but a fully realised double album with a full colour glossy 28 page booklet included, making it a better product than many soundtrack albums you would buy on the high street.

A one year membership of Fanderson costs £25 in the UK, £28 in Europe and £31 for the rest of the world for which, in addition to the access to their impressive sales list, members get three copies of their A5 glossy full colour fanzine FAB and a membership premium of an exclusive perpetual Century 21 Diary. The diary which is formatted as one week to one page is a tribute to the TV21 diary that Letts produced during the 1960s and is filled with colour photos from the various Gerry Anderson TV series. For the comics fan, the diary includes the cover of one Anderson related comic per week, from the obvious TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope to the less well known New Captain Scarlet and Space Precinct titles.

• More details about the Stingray soundtrack album are available on the Fanderson website which also includes details of how to join the club.

Stand By for Action!

Producers Ralph Titterton and Tim Mallett have assembled 40 tracks representing the best of TV and film music genius Barry Gray, capturing some of the very best of his theme work that graced many classic 1960s shows produced in the UK.

Beginning with their earliest television programmes, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's series featured the distinct musical compositions of Barry Gray, an unassuming but innovative genius who was responsible for the themes and incidental music for shows like Thunderbirds, Space: 1999, UFO, Stingray, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and more.

Some of the best of Gray's unforgettable music has been collected in one album by Silva Screen Records, available from 4 May physical and MP3 format. Many of the tracks have never been offered commercially before, with highlights including music from The Secret Service and UFO, different title themes and library tracks used for Supercar and Fireball XL5.

This release celebrates the career of one of television's greatest composers and features an extensive collection of music from 10 of his Gerry Anderson collaborations. Also included is unreleased material, newly discovered mixes and an extensive booklet packed with memorabilia and track by track notation from Barry Gray archivist Titterton.

• Buy the CD from amazon.co.uk
• Buy the MP3 from amazon.co.uk
• More Barry Gray Releases available from amazon.co.uk

Time for a Little Music...

Ace comics artist and painter Chris Reynolds, creator of Mauretania Comics, kindly sent me a copy of trombonist and composer/arranger Mike Hext's Mr OK, a new album for which Chris has provided the cover.

Mike came to prominence after winning the first ever BBC TV Young Musician Of The Year Competition in 1978 and has since led a versatile career as a trombonist, valve trombonist and composer/arranger, much in demand as a jazz and studio musician, and who also composed the soundtrack to the film Hunters of the Lost Sun back in 2003.

Now, I have to confess I'm not a huge jazz fan, so dropped the CD onto my player with some trepidation. I needn't have been so worried: it's a terrific, mellow piece of work, a tribute to the American valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. Pleasant on the ear, if you're a fan of such music it's well worth tracking down, either from label Mainstem's web site (www.mainstem.co.uk) or via Mike's official site, where you can here the title track.

Produced by David Hays and recorded at Red Gable Studios, London, the album features a high quality line up including Martin Shaw on Trumpet/Flugel, Nick Rodwell on Alto Sax, Jim Rattigan on French Horn, Malcolm Edmonstone on Piano, Julian Jackson on Bass and Andrew Bain on Drums.

Chris also directed me to some of his terrific new paintings on his web site Metropoppyfield.com, a collection of stunning art from this talented 'Stuckist'. Below is just one of them, Ocean Mails, which sort of reminds me of those frontispieces you used to find in old British boys' annuals. Smashing stuff!

Giant-Size Band-Thing!

You know, now I'm even more annoyed that I missed out on the Birmingham International Comic Show last weekend (the result of circumstances beyond my control). If I'd been able to make it for the whole weekend and known they were on, I'd really have liked to have seen comics artist Liam Sharp and co, aka the Giant-Size Band-Thing strutting their stuff at the Launch Party, but twas no to be.

So instead, those of us who missed Liam, Phil Winslade, Charlie Adlard and Paul Birch perform as an all-comic-pro band to help kick the con off, we'll just have to settle for the entire set on YouTube (playlist ink below), the gig the result after a mere five rehearsals!

"Who knows," says Liam. "the Giant-Size Band-Thing may keep on rolling..."

In terms of the day job, Liam's new book, Gears of War #1 is out now in the US, and his novel, God Killers, is out now too. More information at: www.mamtor.com

Barry Gray Centenary Concert Update

The organisers of this event have asked me to help plug the Barry Gray Centenary Concert (which Jeremy Briggs trailed here back in July). After watching a few classic (and, admisttedly, some not-so-classic) Thunderbirds episodes on SciFiUK over the past few days and being a life long Anderson fan, I'm more than happy to do so!

Here's the latest information, in full, including links to two new promotional videos (the Parker movie is fab!)...

BARRY GRAY CENTENARY CONCERT
SATURDAY 8TH NOVEMBER 2008

AN EVENING CHARITY EVENT IN AID OF THE CINEMA AND TELEVISION BENEVOLENT FUND AT SOUTH BANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON

THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA, conductor FRANCOIS EVANS

GUEST OF HONOUR: GERRY ANDERSON

COMPERE: BRIAN BLESSED

Barry Gray bequeathed to generations of TV viewers a creative legacy whose technical brilliance and inspiring creative sweep has become an enduring and integral part of our popular culture. From the child-like innocence of 'The Adventures of Twizzle' and 'Torchy the Battery Boy' to the epic excitement of ‘Stingray’, 'Thunderbirds', ‘Captain Scarlet', ‘Joe 90’, ‘UFO’ and ‘Space: 1999’, the musical ability of Barry Gray has subtly enriched the history of both the entertainment media, and our own personal recollections.

The one element that links all these programmes is one of Britain’s, and indeed the world’s most famous television producers: Gerry Anderson. Over a period of eighteen years Barry Gray scored music for a total of twelve of his television series, and four feature films. Gerry Anderson will be attending the concert as guest of honour, along with members of Barry’s family.

The programme will be performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, which was founded in 1945 primarily as a recording orchestra, and is resident at Southbank Centre. It is made up of more than eighty musicians giving around forty concerts in London and over sixty concerts a year at its residencies and other venues around the UK. It is the world’s most recorded orchestra with over a thousand releases to its credit. Guest musicians will include composer-pianist Crispin Merrell (‘Space Precinct’, ‘Lavender Castle’ and ‘New Captain Scarlet’), Hammond organ player Harry Stoneham (‘UFO’) and from Paris, Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire (ondes Martenot).

Compere for the evening will be one of the country’s best known and highly respected actors: Brian Blessed. Brian has featured in three Gerry Anderson productions. He was the lead in ‘Into Infinity: The Day After Tomorrow’ and guest-starred in two episodes of ‘Space: 1999’. Brian’s more recent work has included his roles of ‘Duke Frederick / Duke Senior’ in Kenneth Branagh’s film version of ‘As You Like It’. He has also filmed a guest role in ‘The Royal’ for ITV. Other recent work includes his role of ‘Cardinal Piccolomini’ in the feature film ‘The Conclave’ and ‘Lord Francisco del Ruiz’ in ‘Day of Wrath’.

Ralph Titterton, restorer of the Barry Gray archive, co-producer of the Barry Gray original soundtrack CDs, Cathy Ford, Barry Gray librarian; researcher and biographer, and film composer and conductor Francois Evans have joined together to produce a concert to celebrate the centenary of Barry Gray’s birth. A percentage of gross income from the concert will be donated to the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund, registered charity number 1099660. In 1979 Barry Gray was invited to arrange and guest-conduct some ten minutes of his own compositions for the annual ‘Filmharmonic’ Concert of Film Music, the proceeds of which benefited the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund. The organizers of this special evening felt it fitting to continue Barry Gray’s association with this Charity.

’Providing care behind the scenes’, the CTBF is the trade charity of the British film, cinema and commercial television industries including cable and satellite. It encourages the next generation by supporting young talent, welfare services for those who have fallen on hard times, owns and manages its own residential care home: Glebelands, which aims to provide comfortable accommodation in a caring environment set in its own grounds.

Tickets:
Tickets can be obtained from either Southbank Centre’s ticket office Tel. 0871 663 2500, or online at: www.southbankcentre.co.uk priced from £10.00 - £45.00, concessions 50% off (limited availability).

New online Quicktime videos, advertising the event, are available to view.

2’05 Promotional Concert Video:
• http://www.barrygray.co.uk/video/parker_announces_bgcc.mov



3’06 Mini Documentary on Composer Barry Gray (1908-1984):
• http://www.barrygray.co.uk/video/barry_gray_musical_maestro.mov

• For updates on the concert see: www.barrygray.co.uk/events.htm

In Memoriam: Pink Floyd's Richard Wright

I was sorry to hear that founding Pink Floyd member and keyboardist Richard Wright has died at the age of 65 after losing a short struggle with cancer.

Wright performed with the legendary rock outfit from their very early beginnings and for almost their entire career, contributing to the group’s 1967 Syd Barrett-led debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and classic Floyd albums as Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

That album features a song cycle dedicated to Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett, who'd flamed out years before, and while the image had no connection with the Human Torch its simple but stunning cover was one no Marvel Comics fan could fail to notice on its first release way back when. I certainly did.

The official web site issued the following brief announcement yesterday:

"The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness, that Richard died today .

"The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."

Wright, a self-taught keyboardist and pianist met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason while at architecture school and was a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound in 1965, and the group's previous incarnations, such as Sigma 6.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Syd Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote and sang several songs of his own. He left the band after falling out with Roger Waters during recording of The Wall but officially rejoined when Waters hiself left, contributing vocals and keyboards to the 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. In 1994, he co-wrote five songs on The Division Bell album, singing lead vocals on the track Wearing The Inside Out.

Writing on his website, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has praised Wright for his "vitality, spark and humour".

"In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten," he notes. "He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.

"I have never played with anyone quite like him."

• Official Pink Floyd UK web site
• David Gilmour's official site
• National Public Radio Tribute by Robert Hilton

McCarthy, Parkhouse Signing Date Set

Jim McCarthy and Steve Parkhouse will be signing their new graphic novel Sex Pistols: The Graphic Biography at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 28th June 1-2pm.

Jim McCarthy is an illustrator and comic strip artist who has created for 2000AD. He worked on Bad Company, Bix Barton, The GrudgeFather and Kid Cyborg.

Steve Parkhouse has worked as an illustrator and writer for many big names including Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Mark Millar and Terry Gilliam. He created the vivid illustrations for the Sex Pistols Graphic, which tells the explosive story of the rise and fall of the most famous punk band in the world.

MamTor Music

Not content with publishing some pretty cutting edge comics in the past few years, UK Publisher MamTor, run by my old mucker artist Liam McCormack Sharp (you'll remmber him as now has its own music divsion via amazingtunes.com.

"Mamtor" is decribed as a musical project that blurs genres and utilizes the skills of both accomplished musicianship and modern technology to create intimate and epic music for those of eclectic taste. I just enjoyed listening to "Tribal Memories" and will be stopping back for more later...

Running Wild on BBC2

Comics artist Lee Sullivan, perhaps best known for his work on Doctor Who, Robocop and Transformers UK, has a secret he's about to share with the nation.

"I'm in a Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry tribute band called Roxy Magic," Lee reveals, "and in a bid for obscurity, we've managed to get ourselves onto the TV quiz show Eggheads which will be broadcast this Wednesday 24th October at 6.00pm on BBC2.

Sadly, we're not playing, but at least you'll get a chance to see what fine intellectuals the band are!"

Created by 12 Yards and hosted by Dermot Monaghan, in Eggheads five amateur quizzers take on five quiz professionals -- including Who Wants to be a Millionaire winner Judith Keppel, former Brain of Britain Chris Hughes, and World Quiz Champion Kevin Ashman -- in a big money quiz.

The record win is £75,000, won by a team of five Oxford Brookes University students called "Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow".

• Find out more about Roxy Magic at www.roxymagic.co.uk

Jazz Butcher on emusic

Have you ever bought an album for its cover? When it was released way back in 1984, Hunt Emerson's energetic, enthused art for Jazz Butcher's Scandal in Bohemia was what caught my eye, and persuaded me to hand it over to the staff in the (sadly long gone) Ear Ere Records store in Lancaster and ask for a listen.

I was hooked (the Emerson cover a definite plus). I followed Jazz Butcher via their albums through the 1980s and once caught them live at a gig in London when I was working there (somewhere off Euston Road, I think).

As a review of the band over on music download site emusic recounts, The Jazz Butcher was the vehicle of prolific singer/songwriter Pat Fish, described by them as an archetypal British eccentric whose sharp observational wit and melodic gifts navigated the group through over a decade of constant line-up shifts, stylistic mutations and even a series of name changes which found the band performing variously -- and apparently randomly -- under such titles as The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy and the Jazz Butcher & His Sikkorskis From Hell.

But every time I mentioned Jazz Butcher when the matter of favourite bands came up, it was rare that anyone had heard of them (in fact, I think it was only Nick Jones at Titan Books who ever named one of their albums). Strange, considering they only disbanded in 1995.

Well, that's all going to change, surely, because not only is a lot of the Jazz Butcher's back catalogue now available via emusic, I've just found the band's official web site and JB Pat Fish's MySpace site. So, go check them out. And I still rate Scandal in Bohemia as a fab album!

Luminous Spooks!

There's nostalgia and then there's nostalgia. For some of us older types, it's the 1966 World Cup, "Love Cats" by the Cure and TV21. For the owner of the web site linked here, it's Luminous Spooks.

I'd never heard of Luminous Spooks before now, but in 1965, there was a set of cereal premiums given away in Sugar Puffs. They were called 'Luminous Spooks' and a television advertisement promoted them. Apparently, composer Barry Gray (who also wrote the music for Thunderbirds etc) did the music for this and Thunderbirds voice actor David Graham was the voice artiste.

Anyway, this web site has to be one of the most impressive labours of love about a product from a bygone age that I've seen in a while and the creators have done a fine job tracking down everything you need to know about the "Spooks". But does anyone reading this remember the television advertisement and its music -- and if they do, do you know where a copy of the advertisement might be found?

Get in touch with the site owner and let them know.

The Madness of Corporate America

I imagine this doesn't really need publicity here, but right after a revealing longer piece by comics creator Steven Grant which is more about the misery of being a comics creator trying to get a project off the ground, is a non-comics item of utter corporate madness:

Here's a good one: The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) has decided that even if you create your own music you can't play it on your own website without paying them. They talked the US Copyright Office into designating their subsidiary Soundexchange the collector of Internet radio royalty payments for all music played on the Internet, not just music controlled by the RIAA.

Why? Pretty much just so they can enforce their will on Internet radio. What this means is that if you compose your own symphony and want to podcast it, you have to pay Soundexchange the royalties that you owe yourself. Then Soundexchange will pay the royalties back to you, if you pay Soundexchange for the service. If you don't want to join Soundexchange - and if your music doesn't fall under RIAA jurisdiction, why would you? - they don't have any obligation to give you the money you're owed. Because, apparently, nonmembers simply aren't owed any, even though they're required to pay.

It's basically racketeering, and like most such schemes various companies and organizations are now trying to impose on the Internet, I can't wait to see how they plan to enforce it, since the Internet is an international operation and it's only a US government agency that has authorized this thuggish stupidity. Not that it'll stop the RIAA from trying to operate like a pack of mobsters, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when someone decides to take them to court over this.

It's hard to imagine courts will uphold the scheme for long though I expect some judge somewhere will think it's a wonderful idea, so arguing it in court doesn't seem in the RIAA's best interest, but if they back down on any threats of legal action they'll be backing down on all of them. Most likely they'll face any legal challenges with the standard corporate practice of driving up legal costs for the opposition and trying to keep the case from ever coming to trial.

Reading further into this, I'm bemused to discover via BoingBoing that The RIAA is the most hated "company" in America, according to a recent poll on the Consumerist. The RIAA's campaign of suing thousands of American music lovers has been the single biggest PR disaster in recent industrial history -- which is why Engebretsen's employer beat out Halliburton, Blackwater and Wal-Mart for the coveted "Worst Company" slot.

Seems the Performing Rights Society in the UK just isn't trying hard enough. :)

See this band at your peril...

Compering the local Spotlight Club's Gong Night -- 18 excellent contestants offering performances mix of stand up, poetry and song in a bid to win a £50 first prize -- was great fun on Friday night, but I have to admit complete bafflement at the decision to round the night off with a performance from Cogna, an avant-garde duo that left me completely cold and the room virtually empty within about 30 minutes - no mean feat considering how crowded it was.

Perhaps as a warning to others, some kind soul has posted a segment of one of their earlier gigs on MySpace. I noticed a couple of people mobcasting this latest performance, so you might find that on the web at some point, too. There are a number of videos of them on YouTube. (The band also has its own web site and happily informs visitors the filmed gig above was described by one local reviewer as "weird s***", which they took as a compliment).

Nygel Harriot won the £50, a man with huge comic talent (he's written jokes for Ken Dodd in the past, among other scripting work).

Yes, Lancaster is oozing talent of all kinds these days, and not just comics artists like Paul Harrison Davis and Ant Mercer. But not, I feel, from every quarter...

(I'm reliably informed by cartoonist Nick Miller that although Cogna may not be everyone's cup of tea, they do not deserve the description of "possibly Lancaster's worst band ever". That moniker surely belogs to a a bunch of University students calling themselves Rhino back in the 1990s.

"They always turned up at their gigs so drunk they were incapable of playing their instruments, or doing much more than giggling and falling about," Nick recalls. "People were paying good money to see this. Anyway, they managed to do a couple of gigs and then disappeared, by popular request. Our Off the Beat reviewer covered what turned out to be their last gig, and we published the review under the title RHINO PLASTERED.

"So far as I know, no demo tapes of this band exist, anywhere. Thank God. If Myspace had existed back in those days, no doubt they would have made a tape of themselves throwing up (it would have been slightly more musical)..."