A lone stanza from the huge store of my teenage doggerel:
Or lack of sleep is killing me
Of all the nights to pick
To put the clocks on BST
Perhaps that made me sick
Pink Floyd in Italy (15)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we conclude “Alex the Gnome”’s notes in the insert which came with the CD “An Italian Tale”:”
“This leg of the tour should also be remembered for of the notorious concert in Venice on July 15, 1989, when the stage was placed on a barge in the middle of the lagoon, that will be remembered more for the controversy (and the poor organization) than the music played. The band once again returned to Italy on [sic] September 1994, during the last world tour, for 6 concerts to promote the album “The Division Bell” and for the novelty of performing the entire rendition of the album “The Dark Side of the Moon” in sequence. This was the last gift from a band beloved by Italian fans for many years, who were mortified by the total absence of live performances by the Floyd when the band were performing, delighting audiences in many other European countries, the imagination and the many artistic expressions that made them great.
“All in all, the Floyd are largely in debt to their Italian fans, who were not guilty for relying on such poor local promoters and who were the first victims of the provincialism of certain cultural and musical choices, who had been keeping away from the country a large number of foreign artists at their artistic peaks. This Brescia show is released for the first time on CD and stands as a sort of compensation to those who wanted to be there but could not, who were there and did not understand and who were there but have not forgotten.
Alex The Gnome”
And a final pic:
Incredible String Band – “Changing Horses” (1)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
The Incredible String Band.
I see from the ISB Handbook , edited by Adrian Whitaker and referred to above, that the band did a lot of touring in 1969. I never saw them until they reformed at the beginning of this century. However, this was of course the year of Woodstock, and I learned about 15 years ago that the band had played there, and I now even have a DVD which includes their performance there. Frankly, it was easy to see why they were not included in the original 3 LP selection, as they did not really fit in. Moreover, they were doing “inaccessible” stuff from the forthcoming LP “I Looked Up”, which do not come over well at such an event as Woodstock was.
Anyway, the LP they released that year was “Changing Horses”, which I bought in early 1971 from a new discount record mail order service called “Virgin Records”, which was how Mr Branson started off.
Relics of ISB and the Floyd
One of the many reasons I am currently alternating posts on these two bands is that in 1971 they both released albums called “Relics”:
More More of these in due course, God willing.
In the meantime, note that the PF Relics was only ever a single LP. In a typically confusing manner here, though, there is a single LP ISB Relics AND a double one! It is the double one shown here. I bought the single one first but gave this to my sister when I got the double one.
Pink Floyd in Italy (14)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we continue with “Alex the Gnome”’s notes in the insert which came with the CD “An Italian Tale”:
“The day after the band performed regularly at the EUR Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, adding new songs to the set list played at Brescia including “Astronomy Domine” to include in the show. After this brief and somewhat tormented experience Pink Floyd returned to Italy for only a few days in October of the same year to shoot their famous concert in the amphitheatre of Pompei [see above].
“After this last visit, the band wouldn’t return to Italy for a long while; the promoters poor reputation had the management decide to turn their backs on the Italian public. Only 17 years later, in 1988 and with the release of “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” this embargo ended and Pink Floyd played 5 shows in 3 different cities (Turin, Modena and Rome), the huge success meant that the band would return again in Italy the following year (with the same show) for 8 other shows to 4 other Italian cities, including Verona, where they finally played for 3 nights at the famous Arena where they would have played on August 26th 1972 during a festival, but unfortunately this was cancelled due to the alleged hostility from the Italian press.”
Next PF time we conclude Alex the Gnome’s notes. Meanwhile, a pic from the CD packaging:
The Incredible String Band – “Wee Tam and The Big Huge” (21)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
The Incredible String Band.
At long last we now come to the final post on this brilliant and baffling double LP, which will consider the very last track on it. This is a masterpiece called “The Circle is Unbroken”, timed at 4.47 minutes. It claims to be a Williamson composition, which is certainly true as regards the lyrics. The tune, however, is an ancient Celtic traditional folk melody the true authorship of which is lost in the mists of time, and one of the most beautiful and haunting ones you will ever hear. This is arguably the best fitting cadence to an album that I know. Mike plays organ, and Robin plays whistle and Irish harp. Robin sings solo throughout, and these are the words:
“Seasons they change while cold blood is raining
I have been waiting beyond the years
Now over the skyline I see you’re travelling
Brothers from all time gathering here
Come let us build the ship of the future
In an ancient pattern that journeys far
Come let us set sail for the always island
Through seas of leaving to the summer stars.
Seasons they change but with gaze unchanging
O deep eyed sisters is it you I see?
Seeds of beauty ye bear within you
Of unborn children glad and free
Within your fingers the fates are spinning
The sacred binding of the yellow grain
Scattered we were when the long night was breaking
But in bright morning converse again.”
My very last comment on the double album is that, uniquely, it has a credit for typesetting: James C. Joyce Ltd.
Pink Floyd in Italy (13)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we continue with “Alex the Gnome”s notes in the insert which came with the CD “An Italian Tale”:
“Everything looked pretty much established (posters had already been printed advertising the event) when, once again, the fear of public disorder led local authorities to deny the necessary permissions (the music of the Floyd obviously appeared very antagonistic at that time). A curious thing to highlight is that James Brown has played one of his high-octaine shows at the Palazzo dello Sport in Bologna in 1971, without any kind of problem from unrest nor needed any special permission to play.
“The show was about to be cancelled when the band promoter finally managed to find the availability of another city not too far from Milan, Brescia, where the “Palace of Art Events” was available for the band. The ticket price was set at 1500 Lire (about 1 Dollar 15 cents or 65 new British pence). The Floyd played for two hours in front of an audience that had arrived from many parts of Italy but the light show, that the band would later become renowned for, was not very sophisticated or developed at that time so it was mainly the job of the music to captivate the audience. “Echoes” was still listed as “The Return of the Son of Nothing” (Its name was changed during their first Japanese tour in 1971) and had been performed live no more than a dozen times before that evening. “Atom Heart Mother” without its familiar brass and choir had a major impact, and after closing the show with “A Saucerful of Secrets”, the Floyd were forced to deny the rumour that Syd Barrett should appear on stage with them for the concert the following day in Rome, that rumour being originated from EMI before the Italian tour ( a Machiavellian attempt to increase number of tickets sold).”
More from these notes next PF time. Meanwhile, another pic from the insert:
The Incredible String Band – “Wee Tam and The Big Huge” (20)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
The Incredible String Band.
This time we continue, and indeed conclude, Prydwyn Piper’s notes on the penultimate track on the album, “Douglas Traherne Harding”, these notes appearing in the book “An Incredible String Band Compendium” edited by Adrian Whittaker.
[The writer has just opined that Harding was the sole supplier of actual quoted words in the song.]
“Another relevant passage:
“Nor is Christianity…unaware of the fact that genuine illumination must dispel the dark opacity of our bodies no less than of our souls. “When thy eye is single,” said Jesus mysteriously, “thy whole body also is filled with light.” This single eye is surely identical with the precious Third Eye of Indian mysticism, which enables the seer simultaneously to look in at his Emptiness and out at what’s filling it.”
“The lyrics of Douglas Traherne Harding are a wonderful synthesis of spiritual teachings drawn from a variety of sources – the words of Jesus, Thomas Traherne’s 17th-century ecstatic worldliness, D.E. Harding’s 20th-century heedlessness – all ultimately traceable to their appearance in Harding’s On Having No Head. I hope that this brief overview of those sources will have whetted your appetites to explore them further as they’re all well worth the read. And how about that delectably detuned fiddle solo!”
Immediately after this in the book is this note from Adrian Whittaker:
[Ed: “The wheel turned full circle: in Douglas Harding’s Religions Of The World (Heinmann, 1969), the “Suggested Reading” appendix listed Mike’s song, complete with Wee Tam Elektra catalogue number! Harding commented: “A pop song can be more enlightening than some of the books listed above”.]
I must say that I have found it most helpful to regurgitate all this stuff. I had never really liked this song very much, regarding it as by far the worst on the double album. Rehearsing these learned details has shown me the track in a new light, so I am now able to enjoy it a lot more.
Pink Floyd in Italy (12)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we continue with “Alex the Gnome”s notes in the insert which came with the CD “An Italian Tale”:
“In 1971 the band was recording their new album “Meddle” in between their usual touring schedule. After their shows in Germany, Holland, England and France, the Floyd, sponsored by the famous (at that time) Italian music magazine “Ciao 2001”), were hired for two concerts in Italy. The scheduled dates were pencilled in for the 19th and 20th of June in Milan at the Ice Palace and Rome at the Sport palace (where they had last played in 1968). For the first show, there were immediate problems because the local promoter had not reckoned with the prefect of the city and the Mayor Aldo Aniasi who had refused permission because there were previous problems during a Chicago show and they were afraid of further riots.
“Another city was found half way between Milan and Rome, such as Bologna, where there was a Palazzo dello Sport that was considered suitable for the show because of the capacity (over 5000 seats) and for the quality of the structure.”
More from these notes next Pink Floyd time. Meanwhile, here is another pic from the CD packaging:
The Incredible String Band – “Wee Tam and The Big Huge” (19)
Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
The Incredible String Band.
This time we continue Prydwyn Piper’s notes on the penultimate track on the album, “Douglas Traherne Harding”, these notes appearing in the book “An Incredible String Band Compendium” edited by Adrian Whittaker.
[continuing Harding’s “no head” scribbles]
“”It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing…was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary…it was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything – room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snow-peaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and found a world.””
“The remainder of Harding’s book is in large part an exploration and explanation of this basic revelation, culminating with his happy discovery of Zen some years after his original “experience of headlessness”.
“I enjoyed reading all the Traherne – I did always have a soft spot for old Christian mystics (like Mother Julian of Norwich), but once I had read On having No Head I realised that however much Traherne Mike may or may not have read circa 1968, all of the quotes which he used in Douglas Traherne Harding appear in On Having No Head.
More from these notes next ISB time.
