Leigh Stephens article - Music Without the Madness

[mikethedrummer]

Any help identifying the source of this article would be greatly appreciated.

[FeedbackLourde]

THANKS A TON, MIKE!!!! We really appreciate you posting these archives....

Rock On!

[56buzz]

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has contributed recently...the board has been very interesting and enjoyable these days..

[mikethedrummer]

I'm glad to be able to share this stuff with everyone. Thanks to FBL (and GypsyBall) for finding out how to post these images. I'll continue to add stuff as long it's of interest (not to mention the fact that it'll help me lose this "New Member" status!

[FeedbackLourde]

Don't worry about member-status, Mike. Getting your name on an album trumps all that!

[mikethedrummer]

Good point - THAT was certainly unexpected!

I think there are some interesting quotes from Leigh in this article, particularly the one about how heavy this band was going to be. And then he puts out "A Cast of Thousands".

[FeedbackLourde]

By the way he performed at Chetfest, I'd say he has no clue anymore what HEAVY is.

[vonearschplitten]

The most brilliant moment for Leigh Stephens is whatever he's doing to molest his guitar toward the end of "Second Time Around" (now THAT is a video I would like to see!!).
A "sonic blitzkrieg assault" is probably the best way I can describe his off-kilter overdubbing and layering feedback on top of feedback. It's poetic chaos and ends with a beautiful mess!!

[otherhalf]

Mike, the article above is from “Sounds” a UK weekly music paper that ran from 1970 through the 80’s and perhaps into the nineties. It’s from the issue dated 11th December 1971.
As the article mentions, the Cast of Thousands LP had already been recorded (a while back) and issued by the time of the interview. I can’t tell you the line up of the band that Leigh was working on at the time, but I think the bass player was probably Rik Kenton who subsequently joined Roxy Music. There is an article here that refers to him rehearsing with Leigh, and the timing would fit.

64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:R6Tj51mlkAMJ:www.manzanera.com/RoxyArchive/rwmm3.htm+%22roxy+music%22%22richard+williams%22%22melody+maker%22%22kenton%22%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk


I’ve just checked out the board after a week or so away and I’m amazed to find all these great historic articles that you’ve posted. Thanks very much for sharing them. A lot of them actually run counter to the idea often gets bandied about, that Blue Cheer were almost universally misunderstood/criticised. Maybe it was just the big, influential papers (Rolling Stone) that didn’t care for them? Does anyone have any Rolling Stone reviews for Vincebus Eruptum or Outsideinside?
How do you go about posting them? If someone can give instructions, I’ll try and post a couple in due course.

David

[rowenafaire]

there's a clip on leigh's myspace of his performance at the S.O.L . gig; i would say the man has moved on without leaving the madness behind - tho blue cheer it definitely is NOT...