We Will Rock You

I was talking to a music journalist friend of mine recently about fandom and how sometimes we  -  as jaded journalists that get to speak to rock stars all the time  -   can conduct an interview with a big-name celebrity and remain unphased, then turn around and get excited about an interview with a personal favorite that might not seem as important from an outsider’s point of view. This interview with Gentle Giant singer/front man Derek Shulman is a perfect example of that. I suppose in the vast pantheon of the rock and roll galaxy some people might not regard Gentle Giant as big stars; the band struggled commercially during its ten-year run and never achieved the kind of sales and mainstream recognition of other genre bands like Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull or Genesis, and the members haven’t worked together since 1980.

But when I got the news recently that Gentle Giant was finally releasing seven of its titles through digital formats, I was ecstatic. With the advent of the Internet there has been a steady groundswell of interest in Gentle Giant, and there is a cult-like, surprisingly large and very fanatical audience for the band that has been waiting for this to happen for some years now. I happen to be one of those people. On November 3rd Gentle Giant will release In A Glass House, The Power and the Glory, Free Hand, Interview, Playing The Fool, The Missing Piece, and Giant For A Day through all digital channels. The albums are re-mastered and each one features several bonus tracks from either live concerts or live radio sessions.

After Gentle Giant folded in 1980, Derek Shulman went on to a very successful career as an executive in the music business, and for many years he spoke very little about his experiences in the band. In the last few years he has given a few sporadic interviews about Gentle Giant, but when I saw that he was to be available for interviews in support of these digital releases I jumped at the chance. I have only interviewed guitarist Gary Green before, for a book entitled Unsung Heroes of Rock Guitar, and I was very interested to see what Derek would have to say about Gentle Giant, its music, and the resurgence of interest in the group.

I interviewed Derek Shulman on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by phone from New York City. I knew this was to be a shorter interview than I am used to doing, as there is a lot scheduled in support of these releases. Hence the relatively brisk pace of this interview. I found Shulman particularly interesting because he is an artist from a particularly uncommercial band who then went on to a career in the business side of music, and as such he has an  informed take on the business and Gentle Giant’s place in it. I appreciated the fact that he seems to look back on his career with the band with pride for what it was, rather than bitterness for what it wasn’t. As Shulman readily acknowledged during this interview, Gentle Giant was a band of such umcompromising musicality that it would have been virtually impossible to make it into a mainstream pop success. Thankfully, the band left a rich legacy of music that has earned it a unique place in the hearts of its like-minded fans.

In this first segment we talk about why it took so long for these releases to come to the digital format; how people are re-discovering the band through re-releases; the band’s years at Capitol; why a label chose not to release In A Glass House in America; the challenges of working with old analog source tapes for digital re-masters; challenges of singing difficult melodies and harmonies in Gentle Giant’s music; and comparing the commercial fortunes and music of Gentle Giant to others that were also marketed as progressive rock.

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Gentle_Giant_Home_Page

Thanks to Anne Leighton for arranging this interview, and to Derek Shulman.

Stay tuned for Part Two of this interview, which I will post on Friday.

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FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

More than 2.5m people are thought to have watched the U2’s Sunday show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. — the first concert to be streamed in its entirety live on the video sharing website YouTube.

The gig, part of the band’s 360° tour which wraps up for 2009 this week, was free to view on the site.

People in 16 countries, including the UK, were able to watch the performance, which took place in front of a crowd of 90,000, the Sun reported.

Thousands of fans left messages thanking the band for the free internet gig.

The band bow out for this year with Wednesday’s show in Vancouver, but on Monday announced a string of dates in North America for 2010.

The US and Canadian dates take place ahead of more shows in Europe, which include U2’s first shows in Russia and Turkey, and other shows in Germany, Denmark, Greece, Austria, Spain and Portugal, among other countries.

FROM WWW.ROLLINGSTONE.COM:

The 23rd Bridge School Benefit, the annual concert organized by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, to raise money for the Northern California school for kids with severe speech and physical impairments cofounded by the latter, demonstrated how beautifully old can blend with the new this weekend. In addition to long-toothed fans and young ears sitting side by side on a beautiful Indian-summer Sunday in Mountain View at Shoreline Amphitheatre, new groups like Fleet Foxes could be heard mimicking old sounds, newish band Wolfmother showed off an even newer version of itself and the alt-rock vets in No Doubt proved that they’ve been reborn.

Bridge School ‘09 in photos: Gwen Stefani, Wolfmother, Sheryl Crow and more.

Following a pre-show performance by the Dennis Alley Wisdom Dancers, who then joined Young for his first version of “Comes A Time,” Mr. Gwen Stefani, a.k.a. Gavin Rossdale, got the nine-act, seven-and-a-half-hour show on the road with a set that included covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows In April” as well as old Bush hits. Next up was frontman Andrew Stockdale and his reconfigured Wolfmother, which had no trouble keeping its energy level at 11 despite the Bridge School concert’s unofficial rule to go acoustic. Even the students, who sit on the stage during the show, felt the jolt from Australia’s answer to Led Zeppelin, with some of them seen rocking out in their wheelchairs.

Fleet Foxes wunderkind leader Robin Pecknold talked about sitting on the Shoreline lawn with his dad during the 2000 edition of Bridge School, then proceeded to give audience members their own great memories with a heavily harmonized set that included “Your Protector” and “Sun Giant.” The band’s timeless choral-folk sound has been compared to My Morning Jacket, whose Jim James arrived onstage next with his Monsters of Folk supergroup, which also features M. Ward and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis. Like Fleet Foxes, Monsters of Folk were in their element in the stripped-down setting, playing excellent versions of songs from their self-titled album as well as selections from their respective oeuvres, though unfortunately both bands also just seemed to be hitting their stride when they reached the half-hour mark, which was the limit for every act on the bill.

After Sheryl Crow got the crowd dancing at the end of her set with “Soak Up The Sun,” comedian Adam Sandler—with a full band, though he knows what he’s doing with the guitar—had everyone laughing with songs like the clever “Listenin’ To The Radio” (”Why can’t I hear Beth callin’ me? / Why can’t I be the one to make Sara smile?”), the hilarious bestiality love song “My Little Chicken” (”If an egg can fit in there / why can’t I?), and, of course, “The Chanukah Song.” He also got as serious as his voice would let him on a series of covers, including a take on “Powderfinger” that featured Young himself.

Despite a couple of flubs, Chris Martin from Coldplay sat behind a piano and knocked out what was arguably the finest 30 minutes of the night. Along with a joke about hiding the balloon boy in his cap and getting violinist Davide Rossi (who did the strings on Coldplay’s latest album) to impersonate a horse with his instrument, Martin delivered excellent versions of “Clocks,” “Lost!” (technically called “Lost?” when performed on solo piano), and, most notably, “Viva La Vida,” which swelled the way it was intended despite only having two instruments backing it up. The reason for the “arguably” caveat is because No Doubt fans wouldn’t be wrong in pointing out that Stefani—who, following a day of dudes dressed for comfort, looked stunning in her little black dress—and her men (not to mention the string quartet) had the entire place transfixed. “Don’t Speak,” “It’s My Life,” and “Magic’s In The Makeup” sounded great, and when Stefani mingled with the excited students during “Just A Girl,” it looked like everyone was having the best time ever. Stefani confirmed the suspicion at the end of the song by stating, “I can’t believe this is my life,” and later talked about how inspiring the entire weekend had been and how it was good timing since No Doubt is about to write their next record.

Not surprisingly, things died down quite a bit by the time Neil Young closed the show, but he and Pegi plowed through and ended the show where it began, with “Comes A Time,” though this time it got a triumphant, we’re-all-in-this-together boost from most of the day’s participants

FROM WWW.BILLBOARD.COM:

Eric Clapton has pulled out of this week’s Rock and Roll Hall concert extravaganza in New York to have gallstones removed, organizers said on Monday.

Bruce Springsteen’s participation was up in the air, meanwhile, after the rocker abruptly cancelled a concert in Kansas City on Monday due to a bereavement.

Clapton, 64, “will spend time recuperating at home in the UK and is very sorry to disappoint the fans and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” a statement said.

It added that his tour itinerary was otherwise unaffected.

The guitarist was scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden on Friday, the second of a two-night celebration of the hall’s 25th anniversary. Others on the bill include U2, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and Annie Lennox.

The concert is not related to the annual Hall of Fame induction, which takes place in New York next March.

Springsteen, 60, is scheduled to perform on Thursday. But he cancelled Monday’s show “due to a death in Bruce’s immediate family,” according to his Web site.

Kansas City broadcaster KMBC-TV quoted police officials as saying that a 34-year-old member of Springsteen’s road crew died at his hotel, but that the death was not suspicious.

Neither concert officials nor Springsteen’s publicist were immediately available for comment.

Others on the Thursday bill include Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Sting and B.B. King.

(Reporting by Christian Wiessner; editing by Dean Goodman and Philip Barbara)

COPYRIGHT: (c) Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world

FROM WWW.BILLBOARD.COM:

Bruce Springsteen canceled a performance in Kansas City on Monday after the death of his cousin who was the assistant road manager of the E Street Band.

The death of Lenny Sullivan, 36, who had been with the band for 10 years, was announced in a statement on the U.S. rock star’s website.

“A warm and sensitive person, he was beloved by Bruce, the band, the crew, and the entire Thrill Hill family,” said the statement.

Celebrity website TMZ reported that Sullivan was found in his room at a local hotel on Monday afternoon. It said police were investigating the death although it was not being treated as suspicious.

The statement said all tickets would be refunded at the point of purchase and thanked the audience for understanding.

Springsteen, 60, who recently released his 24th album, embarked on a 47-date “Working On A Dream” global tour in April in California.

COPYRIGHT: (c) Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

Ratt are to call their new album Infestation.

The band’s first studio album in a decade, it was produced by Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette and will be released next March by Loud & Proud/Roadrunner.

The celebrated Los Angeles band will headline two shows in the UK shortly. These happen at London’s Islington O2 Academy on December 1 and Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall on December 3. They also appear at Hard Rock Hell III: The Vikings’ Ball at Pontin’s in Prestatyn Sands on December 4.

For further info, go to www.therattpack.com

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

It’s Christmas time. You can tell, because Slade have got their party hats on.

The mighty Midlands mudlarks will be taking us all  back ‘ome to the 70s with the album Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade Party Hits, released by Universal on November 23.

The full tracklisting is:

1. Merry Xmas Everybody
2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
3. Mama Weer All Crazee Now
4. Let The Good Times Roll/Feel So Fine
5. Coz I Love You
6. Gudbuy To Jane
7. Were Really Gonna Raise The Roof
8. C’mon Feel The Noize
9. My Baby Left Me But That’s Alright Mama
10. Skweeze Me Please Me
11. Let’s Have A Party
12. Hey Ho Wish You Well
13. Let’s Dance
14. I’m A Rocker
15. My Oh My
16. Standing On the Corner
17. Do You Believe In Miracles
18. All Join Hands
19. Oaky Coaky
20. Here’s To The New Year

For further info, go to users.swing.be/amazingslade/

FROM WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM:

Robert Plant is in talks to play at next year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Talking to BBC 6 Music, the iconic Zep singer said: “I’ve just been talking to Michael [Eavis, the festival's promoter]. There’s place for me there, but I have no idea who with.”

A somewhat cryptic comment from Percy. If he does appear at Glasto, presumably it will be with Alison Krauss. Or will it?

Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the festival, which is already sold out.

For further details, go to www.robertplant.com