Our Campaign was successful. Our DVDs are manufactured, and we are now offering them for sale! It's easy to order: just scroll down to "Select a Perk" and select a perk! You then choose your region and will be asked for your name and address. Payment is through PayPal.
If you just want to donate to future projects, you will see a selection "No Perk, I just want to Donate." Click on that and continue. There is already another project "in the can" that will eventually be released but needs funding to get started.
Short Summary
“Singing
Through You” is a live video of The Magic Band performing The Music of Captain
Beefheart, March 16, 2013 at ‘Chelsea Under the Bridge, London’ ( referred to
hereafter as “UTB”). This is seriously a
hi-tech venue and as they offered us a multi camera video recording of our show
we soon thought of making this into a live DVD and secured the services of Paul
Riley from Proper Records to record sound.
It
seemed like the planets were definitely in alignment, because March 2013 also marked
the 10-Year Anniversary of the Magic Band reunion.
It only seemed apropos to request that Elaine Shepherd
produce the video. She had been
assigned by BBC to produce “The Artist formally Known as Captain
Beefheart.” Later, she produced
The Magic Band reunion documentary “Crows Milk” narrated by the late John Peel,
and our first concert in London at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. With the aid of master editor Peter Elphick she just finished up this show in September, 2015.
You’ll notice from the trailer ‘Owed t’Alex’ that
we feature some interesting camerawork courtesy of The Audience. Phone
and camera recordings by a number of fans were generously donated to our edit
suite. We have thanked them profusely for helping us
to make a good thing even better.
A bonus for me was being able to spend time mixing
the sound myself and creating a listening experience that is the best it can
be.
On top of
that, photographer Rob Monk had been hired on the night of the show to shoot photos of me for an article
in Rhythm Magazine -- which was a bit nostalgic because I was photographed for
Rhythm 10 years earlier prior to our first concert – another synchronous event. It seemed like a day of alignment - a
great band, the music of Captain Beefheart, our final concert of the tour and
everyone enthusiastic.
When I walked into the venue I sensed that it
was going to be a magical evening.
The venue was perfect for a video shoot. The stage and sound crew were all friendly and helpful, the
dressing room comfy (!), and there I was - posing for shots in this great hi-tech
setting. We had some of our
favorite supporters show up that night, and afterwards there was a nice reunion
of sorts.
Afterwards, when the lights were dimmed
and the dressing room was empty, I stood there, a bit in awe that ten years had
passed. And yet, the music still
lived and was as powerful as the day it was conceived. Not a bad investment of time. No, not
at all.
As a bonus video, which
really wasn’t my idea but that of Ms. Shepherd, there is footage from my
book-signing Q&A at Rough Trade in London to promote ‘Beefheart: Through
the Eyes of Magic’. We’ve used some
interesting photos to illustrate the conversation and it’s an entertaining 25
minutes that will at least enable you to pretend that you have read my 864 page
book.
This campaign is important in that it
empowers the band to be in charge of their own merchandise. Although we have a great fan-base in the
UK, Europe, the US and Australia, it’s a rather selective crowd and so,
because the music is less accessible than your average “pop band,” we need to
cut our overheads and one way to do that is through the manufacture and
distribution of our own products.
Through your contributions, we achieve
more and more independence and more ability to call our own shots and support
ourselves as we play the music.
Without a certain amount of revenue, we cannot continue. The more revenue, the more we are able
to focus on the music instead of having to do other projects to make money.
For your pleasure:
Since we have met our campaign quota, we have been invited to join "In Demand" which allows us to make available to you the DVDs we manufactured. We will have basic prices
for the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. The only difference is postage. We have a basic £14 price for the DVD alone and have estimated the postage for each of the zones listed in the "perks."
And it will not be released by some cheap knock-off company that
illegally reproduces bootlegs for profit.
The profits, after overheads, go directly to the band.
This is the entire performance minus one piece,
Circumstances, which, for technical reasons, has been omitted. The following are featured:
1.
My Human Gets me Blues
2.
Lo Yo Yo
3.
Diddy Wah Diddy
4.
Bass Solo ( Hair Pie / Rockette Morton)
5.
Clouds intro to “Golden Birdies”
6.
When it Blows it’s Stacks
7.
Hot Head
8.
Doctor Dark
9.
On Tomorrow
10. Alice in Blunderland
11. Hair Pie
12. Suction Prints
13. Steal Softly
14.Ode T’ Alex
15.Click Clack
16.The Floppy Boot Stomp
17.Moonlight on Vermont
18.Big Eyed Beans from Venus
19.Electricity ( Encore )
Other Ways
You Can Help
If you can’t help
by making a financial donation and receiving a DVD, and you still want to help
you can always share this link to your Facebook or Twitter account. You could even do a bcc emailing to
your friends who might be interest. Any way you can spread the news is good. There are several Beefheart sites on
Facebook (The Magic Band, The Drumbo Club, I Honestly Love Trout Mask Replica ) and this has been my chief focus. Sorry, I don’t Twitter… just one thing too many for me.