Oh man, so sorry to hear this, Laces. Great loss to the music industry as well. Condolences to you and his family. 62 is no bloody age.
My condolences on the loss of your friend Laces. It looks like he was a producer with a lot of talent..R.I.P. Steve... I love the Generation Terrorists album..
The Betty Wright song by Allen Toussaint, what a body of work he has including this from the Meters. Supported the Stones at Earl's Court 1976 I was there. Remember this, bloody good.
Rather than get fit during lockdown, I decided to record an album, just for fun. This is the first single if anyone is even remotely interested:
The Mad Capsule Markets were a Japanese punk band with heavy electronic/techno influences. Some of their songs were absolutely unlistenable to me but it was also the most bananas, unhinged show I’ve ever seen live. Lots of songs with a drummer playing over prerecorded drum samples creating what can only be described as an assload of noise. I’m pretty sure that the sound had caused physical objects around me to bleed. Loved it.
Curious to see The Meters cited in this thread. I had never heard of this band until the early 1990s but they were continually being mentioned in articles about the music scene in New Orleans. They were massively influential in the US where the band had a lot of credibility amongst jazz musicians and George Porter has even cropped up on albums my the likes of Los Hombres Calientes. Strange that they are so overlooked in the UK but I find it quite fascinating how differently "pop" groups are perceived by musicians as opposed by fans. Clearly they are aware who are the genuine musicians and who are the "fakers." This seems even more markedly noticeable in America and , when you delve into the kind of musicians is involved with these artists, you start to appreciate this more. The obvious examples are Jimi Hendrix, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince and Nile Rodgers. The one band that I was really shocked to hear described by jazz guitarist Will Bernard as " a really great band" was The Beastie Boys but I have since heard tracks by them which are firmly in the Jam Band style of things. I had never considered them as an improvising band. Allen Toussaint is another stalwart from New Orleans and was even more firmly associated with jazz. So much of the music from this city owes an indebtedness to jazz and you do sense that New Orleans musicians are very conscious of their musical heritage and perhaps being more musically open-minded. You get the feel that very capable musicians are guiding the musical culture in the city whereas I think the UK is perhaps the opposite where there has been a suspicion of more educated musicians , especially within Rock. I am not a fan but I think this is probably typified by Punk although by no means a trend that has been limited to this style alone. You can probably trace this idea of more "homespun" bands having more credibility back to The Beatles. (Ringo Starr being perhaps the most famous example of a pop musician held up for ridicule for his lack of musical prowess.) This is not to say that there aren't British pop musicians who are working at a higher musical level although I do not think that there are as many British acts who are working at the same musical level as the American bands. From recollection, the only British "pop" I can recall being venerated as musicians are Mark King and Gary Husband from Level 42 - the latter now working as a drummer and pianist in Jazz/ Fusion. Not sure the UK could ever produce an artist like Toussaint (maybe Georgie Fame is the closest?) let alone someone like Frank Zappa whose music is operating at extremely high technical levels.
R.I.P. to the influential Proto Punk New York Dolls' Guitarist, Pianist and Songwriter, Sylvain Sylvain... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55674280