Buy The Lost Broadcasts by John Mayall from Gonzo Multimedia

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John Mayall - The Lost Broadcasts (DVD)

Genre: Blues
Release Date: 13th February 2012

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Label: Gonzo
Catalogue Number: HST067DVD
Price: £9.99

The Lost Broadcasts are a series of DVDs featuring performances that have rarely been seen since the original transmission on German television, in some cases more than forty years ago. Some of the artists featured within the series are legendary and these 'lost' performances will be a fine addition to any music fan's collection.

John Mayall is a British blues legend who is universally known as “The Godfather of British Blues.” His career stretches back more than fifty years and with his band the Bluesbreakers has been responsible for bringing attention to some of the world’s finest guitarists including Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor and Walter Trout to name just a few.

Other major musicians to have passed through the ranks of John Mayall’s band have been John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac), Andy Fraser (Free), Aynsley Dunbar (Frank Zappa, Journey and Jefferson Starship), John Hiseman (Colosseum) and Keef Hartley.

The performances featured on this DVD are drawn from two sessions filmed just over a year apart. The first session from January 1970 saw John pioneering a line-up without a drummer. The then current album was Turning Point and featured Jon Mark on guitar and John Almond on sax. Holding down the bottom end was bassist Steve Thompson who left shortly before this session was filmed and would eventually join Stone The Crows. The bassist featured here was Thompson’s short-lived replacement Alex Dmochowski. Two tracks were performed live in the studio, one of which would be familiar to those people owning the Turning Point album as I’m Gonna Fight For You JB, featured on that live album. The second track is the extended workout of The Train.

The next session was filmed in February 1971, by which time John Mayall had formed another band, this time featuring American musicians, including Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Paul Lagos, Larry Taylor and Harvey Mandel the latter two musicians had previously been with American blues band Canned Heat. The two tracks featured here, My Pretty Girl and Deep Blue Sea, would feature on the USA Union album, which had been released in late 1970. John Mayall continues to record and tour regularly and in 2005 was awarded the OBE in the Honours List.

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Review: SADLY, BOYS AND GIRLS, THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE AROUND WHO HAVE NOT HEARD OF CAPTAIN BEEFHEART

Submitted by Lee Roberts on Thursday, August 23, 2012 - 12:39

Title: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: The Lost Broadcasts

Genre: Live Music

Starring: Captain Beefheart, Rockette Morton, Zoot Horn Rollo, Orejon, Ed Marimba,Winged Eel Fingerling

Studio: Ais

Runtime: 29 Minutes

Release Date: June 26, 2012
Format: DVD
Discs: 1
Rating: 2.75 (out of 4.00)
GRADE: C+

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, nope I never heard of this particular captain nor of his magic band. Which after watching this DVD of The Lost Broadcasts I can understand why I’ve never heard of this guy or of the band. These lost broadcasts where filmed in 1972 where the band did multiple takes on some of the songs. Opening the set is a bass solo song, ‘Mascara Snake’ that’s one of the better bass solos that I’ve heard and one that’s actually got a good thrumming tempo to it.

This band was clearly a band of the peace and love era that was moving into the 70’s. Their wardrobes are a dead giveaway for it, especially with the bassist in his techno patterned suit and the drummer in his vest and eye monocle. Along with the clothes there’s the set which is basically nothing, a silver background square, a stage, and nothing else. It’s one of the more boring looking sets that I’ve seen but with all the wild looks of the band members the set didn’t need to have much more to it.

Even though I didn’t know anything about the band I did find this DVD to be quite entertaining. Not in the normal fashion of a musical recording would be where I like the music because it’s being played well with good vocals and lyrics. What was entertaining about this DVD was how the band looked, the simplicity of the set, and how the camera operator stayed on the drummer as Captain Beefheart introduced the band members. I was laughing out loud when Captain Beefheart would introduce a member but the camera never moved to show that member, only the drummer. Though as funny as that was it there are also the songs being played. This band was decent, nothing great, they knew how to play their instruments at an average skill level, but the lyrics and how Captain Beefheart sung them was just crazy. Captain Beefheart could really belt out those vocals and when he was just doing those random non-word sounds I was impressed. Though I think my most liked moment of this DVD was not the singing, the instrumentals, or the clothes but when one of the tech guys interrupts the recording and Captain Beefheart walks off. This might not have been the best bands, they looked odd, the music was even odder, but it’s easy to understand how they are a cult band and this was a very entertaining DVD to watch.