Randy Holden Link Removed From BC Website!

[gypsyball]

I was looking forward to getting the "Blue" album. But I guess he thought that "Blue" wasn't strong enough to go against BC's "What Doesn't Kill You" album.

[riffraff]

Man, Gypsyball, you gotta get Blue Cheer or Randy Holden to come out your way, so you can talk to these guys and get some actual down to earth in factuo information. Randy and Blue Cheer releasing (not yet, though) music at about the same time has nothing to do with "a competition". It has more to do with Paul Whaley being able to come over to the States to tour and record.
"Blue" was never an album. It was a concept put forth by Randy Pratt in his eagerness to do a follow up recording to Guitar God with Randy Holden. Some (not all) of the recording got included in Guitar God 2001. I know the cover is shown on Randy's website and he says it is a work in progress. Why don't you email him and ask him about that album and a track called ......

[FeedbackLourde]

RiffRaff,

Correct me if I'm worng but I thought that Randy wasn't going to release any of the recording she just did with Paul--something to either do with poor sound quality or sour grapes because Paul chose to join back with BC. What's the scoop? Did you ever get any tapes from these sessions?

[riffraff]

I don't know. At one time he was real happy recording with Paul. I think on play back it was mutually agreed between Paul and Randy that the music was not in time. (i.e. more rehearsal time was needed. I also think Randy was having problems with his foot. So the amount of time they thought they had to get it down kinda evaporated. Don't forget Randy also had sessions with Vinnie Appice, who is now behind the kit for Black Sabbath. I keep asking Randy about those....but until he gets to mixing .....
As for definites, it's just a wait and see what Randy announces on his website....

[featheredfish]

Randy has been having problems with gout. Strange, but not long ago, Didi Saller was having the same problem. Randy has been playing and recording with his former sparring partner, ex-Sons of Adam and Love drummer Mike Stewart, and his bass player and recording engineer, Elliot. Randy says that there is enough new material to bring out three or four albums. As RiffRaff says, it`s all down to when the get around to mixing it. You also have to put things into context. Music is no more than a hobby for Randy these days. It`s a bit of fun, as he calls it. He has much more important things to get on with, like an ever expanding art business.

[riffraff]

Yeah Feathered how the weather there across the pond. The best chance of finding concert material of Blue Cheer with Randy Holden is over in Europe. I am sure most Europeans recognize that version of the band more than any other. Any luck or ideas on where to start?

The only thing I would add to your post is that Randy may be concentrating on his music the next few years. The art business will always be there. The opportunity to play with a great line up of musicians usually only lasts a few years. Noticing the equipment Randy had in that video ...it looked pretty serious to me ...more than a hobby....

[FeedbackLourde]

Whether it's a hobby or more serious ambition, I wonder why Randy then passed up the opportunity to come jam with Blue Cheer on stage the last time they played LA. Wouldn't tis have been a golden opportunity to treat the fans and show us what he's got? And what's the point of having 4 albums worth of supposedly great material if no one ever gets to hear it. You could only live on legend for so long.....

[gypsyball]

You raised a good question there FBL. Atleast Blue Cheer goes on tour, though it would be nice for them to play stuff off of the Beast, and HL & LL albums. It will be interesting to see what their set list will be like when they go on tour again, after the new album comes out.

[rory finkelstein]

admin said:

Whether it's a hobby or more serious ambition, I wonder why Randy then passed up the opportunity to come jam with Blue Cheer on stage the last time they played LA. Wouldn't tis have been a golden opportunity to treat the fans and show us what he's got?

Simple! These guys can`t seem to get over shit that happened OVER 30 YEARS AGO. I have never seen a band with it`s past members who won`t play with another former member because of bad feelings from the past more than this band. Get over it already. With all respect to Duck, I guarantee a BC tour with the original lineup would pull more bucks than any current version of BC. And don`t give me a rash of shit like "well, they shouldn`t do it for the money". As much as I like my job, if they stopped paying me, I wouldn`t go. Why are musicians held to a different standard? Hell, if The Police can get back together for even a week, than any prior version of BC should be a piece of cake! Now, as I understand it, Leigh has no desire to go back out on the road, and we should respect that. But for Randy to continually call himself a Guitar God (He`s not; He`s good, but he`s no guitar god, in spite of what he thinks), then doesn't release new music or play live is proof of being a legend in your own mind. Sorry, but constant permutations of "Population 2" will not, I repeat, will not stop folks from buying the Hobbitt/Flashback version, no matter how many so-called "current" versions he may come up with.
I say this all, not with anger but with affection for a band who seems more and more like a friggin` soap opera than a kick-ass rock and roll band. Look guys, it's not world politics we`re talkin` here, just rock and roll music.

*Steps off of soap box*

[gypsyball]

Looks like Holden's remastered Population will be available on his website August 30th.

[FeedbackLourde]

Hope this mix isn't completely redlined like the last one.

[otherhalf]

A few weeks back I visited the British Library periodicals section (where they have microfilmed records of various old music papers) partly to look up some half remembered references to Blue Cheer’s 1968 visit to the UK. Unfortunately, the microfilm was illegible in parts but Melody Maker’s announcement of their visit might be of some interest here. It says:

Blue Cheer due for short visit

American West Coast group Blue Cheer arrive in Britain next week for a short promotional visit.
They arrive on Tuesday (October 15) and play London’s Blaises the same night.
They also appear at Richmond’s Middle Earth (16) and the Round House Chalk Farm (19)
They appear on BBC TV’s “How It Is” on October 18.
On October 25, 26 and XX(illegible) they are in Holland for XX (illegible, but probably TV) and concert appearances.
A new single “Feathers From Your Tree” is released tomorrow (Friday)

A couple of weeks later there was a Melody Maker article about the band which described them as having been “in London for personal appearances and radio and television dates”. I have to say, I’m not at all convinced that there actually were any radio dates, I certainly never heard of any. “How It Is” was a “magazine” programme fronted by John Peel with reviews, some politics and a band playing (live) in front of a studio audience (clips of the Nice and Joe Cocker playing on the programme have survived and been played many times on the BBC Sounds of The Sixties series. I watched out for Blue Cheer on How It Is but (relying on memory here!) the programme was either cut short or not broadcast at all due to some major sporting event (maybe the Mexico Olympics?). However, it’s just possible that something was recorded and not used. Also, it’s possible something might have been recorded for TV in Holland. I seem to remember that the band had a sizeable hit with Summertime Blues in Holland, and Dutch TV companies seem to have been better at preserving stuff than in the UK. It might be worth someone who’s in regular contact with band members asking whether they remember any TV or radio recordings being made in the UK or Holland, although in my experience unless bands have a compulsive archivist like Bill Wyman in the ranks these things rapidly get completely forgotten.

I’ve not heard definitely of any live tapes from that particular time but I do remember a conversation with Bill Allerton of Stand Out records (quite a keen Blue Cheer fan) about 20 years ago when he told me that someone (from the Isle of Wight I think!) had offered him a tape of the Roundhouse gig…but he’d not followed it up. My guess is that someone somewhere will have one. Maybe, if the band themselves are interested, a request for old tapes on the official website is an idea? I’ve recently got in touch with some musicians (completely unrelated to Blue Cheer) and given them some un-circulated tapes of gigs and BBC sessions that I made back in the seventies and that they don’t have in their own archives…so if I’ve recorded material like this and just hung on to it the chances are that others will have done too.

Riff Raff, with due respect I’m not convinced that “most Europeans recognize the Randy Holden version of the band more than any other”. Obviously, that was the line up that played some very memorable concerts here, and having seen the Randy Holden line up play made New Improved seem particularly special. However, the irony is that we all went along expecting to see Leigh Stephens as there was absolutely no prior warning that he’d left the band, and I can’t recall Randy even being introduced as the new guitarist (Melody Maker says that he’d joined three weeks previously). We were just left to figure out why the guitar sound was different!
I’d agree with what Featheredfish said elsewhere …that all the line ups are relevant and important and made music that is well worth investigating on its own terms. Like the Byrds and Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in their early days, Blue Cheer (or Dickie) could often manage to make something positive and timely out of line up changes. I do believe though that (for people of my age at least) it was the Leigh Stephens line up that made us sit up and take notice and created the buzz and the audience for at least some of the subsequent albums. That certainly doesn’t mean that I want to hear material and sounds from those first two albums recycled endlessly though, and I’m hoping that What Doesn’t Kill You will be a mature work that speaks about their lives now, and lets Duck loose to make his own sound.

Randy Holden is kind of a special case. I was a major fan of his work until those shenanigans with the trademark made it difficult for me to listen to his music with a satisfied mind. One look at this board indicates that there are others who are disenchanted too, and given that Blue Cheer and Randy Holden have fairly small and overlapping fan bases, he seems to have scored something of an own goal. When he came back with Guitar God around 10 years ago it seemed like amazingly unexpected good fortune and, for those who remembered him and admired his work, one of the best musical events of that decade. I assume it doesn’t bother him personally, but I still find it sad to see his attitude turning something that could have been so good for his audience rather sour, and making him the butt of running jokes.

[FeedbackLourde]

Nice to see you return to the board, Otherhalf. And thanks for that informative post! Glad you stuck around lurking in the wings.

Not to seem like I'm jumping on a bandwagon, Riffraff, but I'd like to add that 1/2 the 80's & most of the 90s, BC was European based and did play around a lot. If anything, I'd think that the Europeans would've associated Duck or Dieter with the band....

[gypsyball]

admin said:

Hope this mix isn't completely redlined like the last one.

I hope so to.

[Festooned Piglips]

Say what you will about The Guitar God rereleasing Pop. 2, but there is no denying that THIS