Gentle Giant Remasters (Part 3)

^ So much for my "typical Québécois compatriot" looks! ...Well, I'm STILL a Canadian anyway!

 

Looks to me like Irwin Schmidt might have been visiting Ontario!!

 

Dan Lawrie shared this latest honoring of John Weathers on the O-R list -


From www.today'sdrummer.nuts

By progboy.today'[email protected]

Most drummers just try to keep up with their bandmates without
embarrassing themselves. But some drummers (or "percussionists", as
they prefer to be referred as) stand out for their ability to keep the
groove in 4/4 while the rest of the band goes off in 13/8. Such is the
legacy of one John "Pugwash" Weathers, most notably of the bands Man
and Gentle Giant, although he also has drumming credits with the likes
of Eyes Of Blue and Wild Turkey.

Weathers, bedecked with an Oakland Athletics baseball jersey, belted
out the most joyous of noises on drums, various percussive instruments
including vibes, with the progressive rock heavyweights Gentle Giant.
But he was also known to provide the solid backbeat for other bands.

With Gentle Giant, Weathers was tasked with making the complex music
"danceable".

"It was a difficult task", Weathers says, "As the boys were playing
this impossible rhythm and I had to just keep tapping out this 4/4
until it all resolved. Kerry (Minnear, the band's keyboardist) would
always write it out so it would come out at the end." John has another
spot of tea. "It still amazes me that it all worked out."

Now, at the young age of 70, Weathers has announced his comeback with
the solo album "Pug". No longer able to play the traditional drum kit
due to health issues ("It sucks getting old", he says), Weathers has
produced this album using a virtual percussion program called
"Pugdrums" which allows him to generate the sounds from his recliner
in Wales. "It's great!" Weathers exclaims, while being interviewed in
his garden on a cloudy day. "I can just sit in my chair and generate
these complex polyrhythms to the computer and then mix in all the
other parts. It's brilliant!" The other parts, by the way, include
performances by guitarist Robert Fripp, bassist John Wetton (his last
recording before his untimely death) , keyboardists Keith Emerson (his
last recording before his untimely death), former band-mate Kerry
Minnear, and Rick Wakeman. Guitarists include Gentle Giant's Gary
Green, John McLaughlin and longtime friend Gary Boyle. Brian Eno
produced the final product.

"It's very sad that John (Wetton) and Keith (Emerson) have since
passed away, but I think this was some of their finest work", John
says as he finishes his beer. "I hope that this work will add to their
legacy".

John's wife Carol adds "This has been the greatest thing since Ant
(Bowles) gave us those heirloom tomatoes. John doesn't have to travel,
can still make music, and only needs a decent internet connection."

Though there is no concert tour planned, John promises that some
studio footage will be posted on Youtube in the near future. "People
need to see and hear this. And I hope they purchase the CD from
www.pugrecords.com for the low price of 20 pounds sterling."

No Shulmans were harmed in this post.

 

Little late, but just saw this: Gentle Giant Missing 8-Track master Tapes

Anyone want to guess whether this guy is on the level or if he's just jerking us around?

Couldn't find any mention of it on here, apologies if it's old news.

 

I don't believe I buy it.

Advision Studios | Wikiwand

By the mid-1960s Advision had become one of the top London studios for Rock and Pop music. The Yardbirds recorded their 1966 album Roger the Engineer at Advision on a 4-track machine. The Move recorded some of their early hits at Advision, including Flowers in the Rain in July 1967.[5] In early 1968 Advision became the first studio in the UK to obtain a professional 8-track recorder, which was built by Scully Recording Instruments. Among the first artists to use the 8-track machine were T. Rex, The Who, and Caravan. In 1970 the studio used a custom 24-channel desk with an 8-track recorder.[1][2] Advision was also first in the UK to install 16 and 24 track recorders in the early 1970s.[6]

In 1971 a 20-channel Neve console was added to the mixdown suite.[1] In the 1970s, the studios' focus moved toward Progressive rock music, and the company began producing music for bands such as Yes, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.[2]

A 1974 re-fitting gave the studio a console built in California by Quad-Eight Electronics for quadrophonic mixing and the UK's first computer-aided mixdown desk.[2][7]

 

Well, you should probably read it literally, he might be talking about "8-Track", not 8-Track reel-to-reel multitrack tapes. If that's what he's talking about, he could tell the truth. And then it wouldn't be a problem, some rearranged copies for 8-Tracks aren't that special. I would have saved them anyway...

 

and luckily we got one ... now we just need glass house, free hand, and interview!

 

There are quad mixes available digitally for Freehand and Interview FYI.

 

yes, i have them .... really hard to find too

 

A response to my question about the 'Missing 8 Track Masters' post above from Dan Bornemark on the O-R List -

Hi Gary, Dok and all.

In 1996 I undertook a massive project which I called Save The Tapes Project.
In agreement with the band I transferred all the original 24, 16, and 8-track
tapes that still existed. In addition to the tapes that Kerry kept in his attic,
I found a number of older multi track tapes at the Polygram Archive in London.

To my joy the guys at Polygram handed me the very first 8-track tapes with
PRE-GG SONGS like 'Hometown Special', 'Weekend Cowboy', 'Freedom's Child',
'Bringing Me Down' and an early version of 'Nothing At All'.

These became the corner stone for what was to become Under Construction.
Obviously only 5 songs wasn't enough to fill a CD with so Ray asked me to
transfer the bands original work tapes. Kerry composing, Ray's demos, band
rehearsals etc. That was like a dream coming true for me. During the summer
of 1996 I spent countless hours and days to discover and save everything from
analog tapes and a bunch of cassettes (from Gary, Ray, John and Kerry) down
to digital media.

Much of this was included on Under Construction which by then had grown
to a 2 CD project. Of course I also found a number of cool moments on the
multi track tapes.

So, back to the multi track tapes. In the winter of 1996 I went to Birmingham
to transfer all I had found on analog multi track tapes to digital tapes. The
before mentioned very early 8-track tape was only the beginning.

I found the complete tapes for the first album (Gentle Giant) on 16 track tapes.

From Acquiring the Taste: only 'Pantagruel´s Nativity' and 'The House the
Street the Room'

From Three Friends: 'Schooldays', 'Peel the Paint', 'Mr. Class & Quality' and
'Three Friends'

From Octopus: 'Think Of Me With Kindness', 'A Cry For Everyone', 'Dog's Life',
'Knots' and 'River'

NOTHING from In a Glass House. That's a story on its own. But it's really lost.

From Power and the Glory: Everything including the single. From this album
and onwards it's all 24-track tape.

From Free Hand: Everything

From Interview: Everything

From Playing the Fool: About 75% of the four shows recorded for the album.
Yes, on 24-track tape!

From The Missing Piece: Everything

From Giant for a Day: Nothing

From Civilian: Nothing, except a copy of the song 'Heroes No More'!

As you might know by now, I thought there was even more material to
release in a new box set. In 1998 (I think, or maybe 1999) I headed back
to England (from Sweden where I live) to rescue what was left on Kerry's
16-track work tapes from after the band split (in 1980). Imagine my joy
when the beautiful song 'Home Again' first rolled out from the speakers.
Unfinished but still magical! 'Home Again' was the first piece for the next
box set, Scraping the Barrel. Oh, and I also had the joy to find what was
later named (by Gary) 'Moog Fugue', written by Kerry. Also an unfinished
piece, but with some persuasion from me he agreed on completing both
'Home Again' and 'Moog Fugue'. At this stage we got help from Phil Shulman
with the lyrics for 'Home Again', great guitar playing from Gary and drums
added on by John Weathers. Sadly these drum takes happened to become
the last recording of his great drumming before his leg problems became to
severe.

All in all the audio material presented on Scraping the Barrel is over 12 hours
worth of music.

Thanks for reading! -Dan Bornemark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The potential for what is left is staggering! Possible Steven Wilson remixes of Freehand and Interview with Ray's cool animations! Just think, a completely remixed live GG show from the 24 track tapes!
The mind boggles and the mouth drools!

 

Great news about Freehand and Interview!

 

What immediately comes to my mind is how cool an "Alternate Official Playing The Fool Live" might be, at least conceptually! Imagine the same track list, same running order, but with each song taken from a different concert than what was released. That's assuming there isn't anything pertinent among the missing 25% -- even substituting one song performance which was already released would kill the concept.

And mastered RESPECTFULLY, of course. No loudness war crap, no extreme EQ moves. Etc.

I can't see them really doing this, but I thought I'd share it since it popped into my head.


EDIT: "Sweet Georgia Brown" can be slipped in from the original since it's the only performance of the song.

 

Another O-R member reacted to the news this way -

"Actually, the piece of this that really piqued my interest was that there are 24-track masters
of so much unreleased material from the Playing the Foole concerts! Forget Steve Wilson...
I think the higher priority is Playing the Foole Redux!"

Dan had this to say in response -

"David! You hit the nail! Right now I'm actually performing a complete mix session
of the Playing the Fool tapes. Right now, this very moment, as I write this email, it´s
'Timing' from the Munich Concert. What a KILLER VIOLIN SOLO! The best, if you ask me.

I'd like to share more details, but that will have to wait. All I can say is that the sound
quality of this finally matches the virtuosity of the playing of our beloved boys in the band.

Gotta go back to the mix to remove a little buzz a and a hum during Frère Jacques.
Oh, did I mention that it's all gonna be released soon.

The four venues recorded for PtF are Dusseldorf, Munich, Brussels and Paris."

 

Another comment and response -

"A box set of ALL the live Playing The Fool recordings would be excellent (although I understand that some of Kerry's parts had to be rerecorded due to buzz from the lights)."


"Well, after releasing PtF some of the actual 24-track tapes were
used again by Ray, Gary and Kerry in the early eighties to record
other music on. So I know for a fact that the lost recordings actually
are gone in favour for newer compositions such as 'Home Again', 'On Safari'
and such.

A complete collection of the four shows is in other words not possible
to obtain. BUT, as I said, I am mixing everything that still exist these
exact days! The sound is excellent and I'm taking the utmost care of
all little details so that the result is clean from unwanted hum, feedback-
noises have been taken away wherever possible, the delicate balance between
the instruments (and they are MANY, as you know) is taken care of.
It's a pleasure to mix, a life long dream as many of you know, and
Sisyphean task to undertake.

Now back to 'Free Hand' from Munich 1976. Cheers! -dB"

 

Did anyone pick this album up? Comments? Thoughts?

I was sad to realize it doesn't appear to be available anymore.

 

It never was. Just an April Fool's joke.

 

Doh!

Bloody migraines are making me slow on the uptake.

 

@Dok, that's unexpectedly good news! If they're including the violin solo, that means "Timing". So, there goes my idea!!

 

The second press of the two-fer BGO GG/AtT indeed got corrected but unfortunately they raised the volume on AtT to make it equal to GG, making both a bit peak limited (AtT wasn't on the first press). Doesn't matter now since the flat transfers of the three first albums on the blu-ray edition of Three Piece Suite are superior to any other digital release.

 

I asked Dan Bornemark on the O-R list today how the mixes for the Live album were coming, if there was anything he could share. He responded -

"We are super excited about the result of the mixes! Killer sound, as JPW put it when he heard a snippet in Manchester... ! "

Another Swedish member who has heard them said - "It’s pure, raw musical magic! You are in for a treat guys."

I then asked about when we might see a potential release and Dan said this year, 2019.

 

Egads - this is great news!

I bought the 2009 Alucard version of Playing the Fool yesterday @ Rhino Records in Claremont, CA. I was in the area for the Riverside Wasteland tour stop in Pomona - great show!

Haven't listened to PtF yet.

 

The 2009 Alucard PtF sounds very good - full, plenty of bass. Clear sound. I like it.

And most importantly - great music and performances!

 

re; Glass House

what is the best master on cd of these?

DRT, Road Goes On, Terrapin

 

I don't know the DRT (I suppose you mean the one from 1992), but I thought the RGF and the TT was the same?
But anyhow, the Alucard ‎– alu-gg-02 is by far the best sounding CD edition of In a Glass House that I've heard (not compressed as the later Alucard), highly recommend it: Gentle Giant - In A Glass House

 

thanks!