Interviews + other links

[otherhalf]

A few links for anyone interested:

Brief interview with Leigh Stephens:

psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2011/07/leigh-stephens-interview.html

It's a shame it's so short and that Blue Cheer is sidestepped as a subject but interesting to note his current disregard for High Strung. I actually enjoy hearing it from time to time but perhaps Leigh himself now feels the synthetic drums etc. were a mistake .....like many of us here. Looking forward to the new CD though. Does anyone have the Tracey Adamis CD?

Interview with Chis Lockheed, bringing things up to date:

psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2011/10/kak-interview-with-chris-lockheed.html

Randy Holden interview:

psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2011/09/randy-holden-interview.html

I didn't realise until recently that you could search Billboard magazine via Google Books. Here is a link with Blue Cheer as the search:

www.google.co.uk/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22Blue+Cheer%22&tbs=,bkt:m,bkms:1168684103302644149
Nothing in depth, but of minor interest for dates etc.

Finally a couple of youtube links: Paul performing with United Blues Experience:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxvu7bjN6tE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZywTgP5kJDc

Thanks for bring the site back Eric.

.....and apologies to those who've seen all this before.

[56buzz]

great post otherhalf!
loved reading all that stuff in one place...very interesting
thanks

[ericalbronda]

Thanks for these links Other Half and your comments---
Great to hear and see Paul playing - talk about Rock Solid , what a gifted Drummer . Pauls father was a drummer.
For those curious regarding Leigh's interview .
The cover and back artwork for Red Weather was a compilation and involved Bruce Steinheimer as photographer and Bob O,Connor as the concept man and graphic designer . The pictures were taken by the cliff house in San Francisco.
Cast of Thousands was mostly produced and engineered by Jerry Russell, how easy memory fades . I am always suspicious of musicians that write , produce , perform and tend to forget all the help they had along the way and usually the end product is lousy as is the case here like the Vocals being mixed way down on Red Weather
Pilot was Bruce Stephens totally with Leigh on a couple of songs . It was never Leigh's band or concept or anything else. The contract was secured by me from RCA because of a demo tape with Bruce , Mickey Waller , and Pete Sears.
Like I said memory fades usually as selective memory failure.

Cheers,
Eric

[FeedbackLourde]

Thanks a ton for posting all this great stuff Other Half! And thanks Eric for bringing back the old website and for your continued commentary! Just when I felt that I was about to lose the faith (or filth as Dickie called it) it's great to see activity here on the board again that resembles the good old days of yore (anyone remember the first board that was just a single, continuous link?). My 1% Brothers and Sisters, if you are still out there, please make your presence known and let's bring back the amazing discussions that we used to share. We've already proven that BC is immortal. It does not have to end with Dickie's passing into the ether. He'd want it no other way!

[otherhalf]

Thanks for all the above comments. I'm glad the links were of interest. Yes, the selective memory issues are a sadness, Eric. Not sure if it's ego or the fact that such people are doers rather than reflectors and move on to the next thing without thinking too much about the past. Poor vocals aside, Red Weather is still a favourite of mine, so atmospheric...perhaps, because of your involvement, you are more conscious than most of its flaws? Anyone any idea whether the opening notes of I Grow Higher are borrowed from elsewhere (like Joannie Mann borrows from Soul Man) ....I feel sure they are but I can never place what it is!

[steveleighphens]

Hi 1% ers. I'm a longtime lurker. Signed up the other day when I found out about what Tony Rainier is trying to pull and was going to come on here and vent....

Here's some links that blew me away, you may or may not have seen them, but I hope you enjoy them. They all come from Joe Hasselvander's blog.

You'll have to scroll down to see what I'm talking about, but once there you can see some cool pix of the boys recording OutsideInside on the pier in NYC.
joehasselvander.blogspot.com/2008/11/desert-island-survival-kit.html

Enjoy!

[otherhalf]

Welcome to posting here steveleighphens. I think the magazine articles have cropped up before, but it's good to be reminded of Joe Hasselvander's blog . Great drummer, and he took a really selfless attitude to his involvement with Blue Cheer. Not sure how long you've been lurking but if you go back to around pages 15/16 of the board quite a lot of old articles were posted.

One I particularly like was the 1967 LA Free Press review. I think that back in the 60's a lot of critics were programmed to expect rock to become gradually more sophisticated, and it wasn't until people like Lester Bangs (not that he seemed to like Blue Cheer) and Lenny Kaye came along (followed by the 70's wave of punk rock) that the media world started appreciating that raw power, noise...primitivism even.... could be just as valid. The LA Free Press reviewer seemed to be ahead of the pack.

[steveleighphens]

Thanks, otherhalf. I've been lurking for a few years on here. Think I may even have signed up at one point, but never posted. I'll check back through those pages to see some more articles, thanks for the tip.

[steveleighphens]

Here's a link to a bunch of promotional and live shots with quite a few I have never seen before. Scroll down past all the football pictures and enjoy!!

www.gettyimages.ca/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-US&family=editorial&assetType=image&mt=photography&p=Blue+Cheer#12

[FeedbackLourde]

www.dailyrepublic.com/news/entertainment-local/colla-stephens-have-news-to-blue-cheer-about/

[otherhalf]

A few links:

Blue Cheer feature from Classic Rock. Not the most accurate!

www.classicrockmagazine.com/features/blue-cheer-lsd-rehab-whisky-fights-and-in-their-spare-time-they-invented-metal/

Some 1966 demos from Sopwith Camel (second link takes you direct to file download). Interesting to hear the early band, presumably before Erik Jacobsen was involved.

24hourdejavu.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/flying-camel.html

d01.megashares.com/dl/2mtmAHp/The_Sopwith_Camel_-_Outtakes_1966_(Bootleg).rar


United Blues Experience have recent CD (live recordings). A couple of tracks have drums and I would guess that it's PW (as he was featured on the same numbers on Youtube).

www.grooves-inc.co.uk/united-blues-experience-soul-fire-clearaudio-cd-album-pZZa1-1897937492.html

Two Randy Holden audio interviews. I've only dipped into them but notice the second one includes his version of Summertime Blues recorded some years back.

offplanetradio.com/podcast/offplanet-radio-live-04-11-2012-randy-holden-guitar-god.html

www.blogtalkradio.com/john-darlington/2012/01/14/randy-holden-interview-part-2

[riffraff]

Hey thanks again other half,
If you zip to the 1hr and 25 min mark on the offplanetradio podcast you will hear a new track by Randy Holden called "The Living End". There is about 6 minutes of it including some cool harmonica.