I recommend that you check out this flier......

[Brandon Burke]

Did anyone here attend these shows.....?

[Brandon Burke]

Just as a side note: Capt Beefheart during the Trout Mask Replica/Lick My Decals Off, Baby era, the Soft Machine (pre-Soft Machine III, the way I like 'em), Steve Lacy, Dave Burrell, Robin Kenyatta and Alan Silva in one night?! Gimme a break.....

[A Lark Ascending]

In that poster you have the explanation as to why it was so much easier to make the leap from rock to jazz in the 70s!

[kenny weir]

Heck Bev, I expected you to claim you were there!

[A Lark Ascending]

Afraid not! I was still only mid-teens around that time, a bit young for festivals...especially in Paris!

[Brandon Burke]

Frankly, I'm surprise that no one here saw these shows. After reading about a number of you having seen Ayler, etc I figured it was a no-brainer. Also, Bev, I see your point. This is especially the case regarding avant/prog rock. I lean considerably more toward the avant/psychedelic side but I still see where you're coming from. As a side note, it would have also been great to see The Pretty Things during the S.F. Sorrow/Parachute era....

[brownie]

I was there.

This was the infamous Amougies festival organised (disorganised would be the better word) by those Byg crooks in the wake of their recording sessions from the summer of 1969. The correct name for the affair was

Le Festival Actuel.

Thius was scheduled to be held in Paris but the organisers could not get the authorisation to have it in Paris or in the Paris area. The event was moved to Amougies, in Belgium, just north of the French border.

Was there for the first three days. This was held under a huge tent. I remember rain falling practically all the time. You'd better have the right boots to survive in the mud.

There was some great music there (I remember the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Sonny Murray among others).

Had to get back to work in Paris after the third day.

There was an official film made throughout the festival. This was directed by Jerome Laperrousaz. The film was released in 1970. I saw it at the time but was left unimpressed. The film was as confused as the festival (and my memories of it).

[Brandon Burke]

I was there.

This was the infamous Amougies festival organised (disorganised would be the better word) by those Byg crooks in the wake of their recording sessions from the summer of 1969. The correct name for the affair was

Le Festival Actuel.

Thius was scheduled to be held in Paris but the organisers could not get the authorisation to have it in Paris or in the Paris area. The event was moved to Amougies, in Belgium, just north of the French border.

Was there for the first three days. This was held under a huge tent. I remember rain falling practically all the time. You'd better have the right boots to survive in the mud.

There was some great music there (I remember the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Sonny Murray among others).

Had to get back to work in Paris after the third day.

There was an official film made throughout the festival. This was directed by Jerome Laperrousaz. The film was released in 1970. I saw it at the time but was left unimpressed. The film was as confused as the festival (and my memories of it).

brownie, I must say that your notes about the film footage is very interesting. I know some folks who would be more than happy to fund the release of that footage. What else can you tell me about the folks who filmed it?

BTW: Thanks for replying with notes about the expreience. I helped orgainize the digitization of the ICES Festiveal (1972) in London featuring an AMM recording that should appear sometime around February. There was already an article in THE WIRE about it. The label who licensed the material fell under some hard times (not exactly financial--better in fact, I'll tell you in a PM) so I can't speak for the issue date for sure but I can say that it's my favorite AMM session without question. Very very good. Also appearing, for those who care, were Taj Mahal Travellers, Portsmith Sinfonia (featuring Brian Eno), Lol Coxhill, Steam!, Naked Software, Steve Allen Whealton, Gentle Fire, and Transition (featuring Takehisha Kosugi of Taj Mahal Tavellers). Heavy shit......

[Brandon Burke]

The correct name for the affair was

Le Festival Actuel.

Correct name ot not, what you see in that post is a scan of a photocopy I made of the original advert. I purchased it (the original) for next to nothing. This guy didn't know what he had, or didn't give damn..... Had French print on the other side of the page and everything. Printed on newsprint. So according to this thing, it was (supposed) to take place in France. I'd be interested in knowing why it moved to Belgium, more specificaly......

Edited November 2, 2003 by Brandon Burke

[brownie]

Brandon, as I mentioned in my first post, the organizers did not obtain the authorisation to have the festival held in Paris. The organizers then located the Amougies area in Belgium, not far from the French border and decided to have the festival held there. This was a last minute decision. I remember some of the musicians were housed in hotels in Lille, France, very close to the border and Amougies.

I may even have photos I took at the festival somewhere in my mess.

If you can read French, here is a report on the festival amougies

This appeared in a 1969 issue of the French magazine 'Rock and Folk'.

Caught also a mention of the film on the web. Somebody reports his impressions:

I saw this movie in Montreal this past summer. There is some Pink Floyd

footage, also FZ and some CB but no Intersteller Overdrive. Boy what a

shitty movie, like woodstock on that brown acid! Zappa introduces the

Captain, and plays a little guitar with an other band. PF plays a couple

of songs, maybe Eugene and I forget the other one. I had read about the

FZ/PF jam, and was dissapointed that it was not in the film. Boy what a

horrible film!  Steve

Have to agree with the assessment. I remember the film was shown on French cable TV years ago. I taped it but did not keep the video. Thought it was a waste of footage.

Laperrousaz was a young director who later made a film about motorbike races called 'Continental Circus'.

[A Lark Ascending]

For festival mayhem this one is hard to beat. By Chris Welch from his book on Yes. It's worth the read!

One of the more bizarre Yes gigs occurred in July, 1969, when they were booked to play in Ireland on a package tour that included The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Nice. On paper it was a wonderful combination. Indeed, the shows they played in Belfast and Dublin were superb and, with the Bonzos on hand, the tour was rich in comic moments. But the end of the tour was a farcical disaster, the ultimate Yes wild goose chase or pig chase, as it turned out.

The groups, accompanied by their managers Roy Flynn and Tony Stratton Smith and myself, spent the final day in a hot and stuffy coach, driving endlessly through twisting narrow country lanes between Dublin and Cork where the venue turned out to be a football ground on the outskirts of town. When the three bands arrived on that sunny Sunday afternoon long ago, they were fully expecting to see a massive crowd building up. Instead the ground was deserted; indeed there wasn't a soul for miles around. The roadies discovered a makeshift stage comprising a tangled mass of scaffolding, which had been set in front of the spectator's stand and apparendy given up as a bad job. Then they found the power supply: a cable that snaked across the pitch to a small wooden ticket hut where it was connected - incredibly - to an electric kettle flex stuffed into a three pin socket with the aid of match sticks. When the roadies tried to plug in the band's instruments, amplifiers and PA system the whole lot simply fused and went dead.

They tried this three times to no avail. The crew advised the management that there was no chance of any of the bands putting on a show. The troupe of some 14 travelling musicians sat down on the pitch in their satin stage gear and cried with laughter. At that moment an awful stench swept across the empty field. It seemed to be emanating £rom a nearby building, which on closer inspection turned out to be the 'Cork Pork Abattoir'. The squealing of unhappy porkers rent the air.

All eyes turned on The Nice's portly manager. Tony Stratton Smith sensed he could not escape retribution. He had led us into the valley of doom. The cry went up from 'Legs' Larry Smith and Viv Stanshall of the Bonzos - "Debag the rotters!" The portly manager and his accountant were chased across the pitch by a yelling mob of musos intent on removing their trousers. Nobody had ever seen Strat run before - and he put on a surprising burst of speed. The pair were saved by a sudden diversion. There was a loud explosion and a shower of rust fell from the grandstand roof Roger Spear, the Bonzos' sax player and special effects man, had let off a cherry bomb. Loud were the cheers as the sun began to set over Cork. Perhaps lured by all this noise and disturbance, a few disconsolate and somewhat tetchy locals turned up demanding to know why the bands weren't giving the advertised concert. When shown the electrical supply they shook their heads as if this was some feeble excuse.

The party repaired to the nearest pub where the pints flowed and Keith Emerson of The Nice began an impromptu performance on an upright piano, playing boogie-woogie and 'Nut Rocker' with such vigour it drove the locals into a frenzy. A version of 'Give Peace A Chance' somehow turned into a chorus of 'Give Booze A Chance!' It was the craziest concert I ever saw - The Nice, Yes and Bonzos in full vocal cry. But when a wild eyed youth started beating time on the piano with glass beer mugs and smashing them to pieces, it was clearly time to escape. As glass showered in Keith's face the roadies managed to get the musicians outside and into the coach to take them to the airport and on a direct flight home to London. I was too late. The bus had sped off and I found myself surrounded by crazed revellers whose mood was starting to turn ugly, despite the unique free concert that Keith had been cheerfully orchestrating.

As the angry crowd chased after the disappearing coach, I was offered a lift and foolishly jumped into a car full of strangers who seemed intent on kidnapping me and dumping me in the countryside. I convinced them to let me out and ran towards the lights of an airport. Quite how I found the elderly Aer Lingus Viscount turbo prop revving up on the darkened runway I don't remember. On board there were Yes, The Nice and the Bonzos filling the twin columns of seats. Viv Stanshall greeted me with a cry of, "We are all nudists and we want our freedom!" which had Peter Banks in stitches. Actually, he remained fully clothed throughout. As we bumped down the runway and up into the night sky, my face evidently betrayed stress and the usual fear of flying. "Don't worry," said Viv seriously, "if we crash, we'll all be fucking legends."

Half way across the Irish Sea the captain made an announcement. "The Americans are about to land on the Moon." It was a wondrous story and Jon Anderson was greatly amused by the whole episode which seemed like an extraordinary dream. Did we really watch Neil Armstrong make his lunar landing from the safety of London, the same night we had got into a punch-up in an Irish pub? Says Jon, "I remember that night vividly, especially Keith playing the piano and everybody singing 'Give booze a chance'. Then us getting in the bus and listening to the news of the Moon landings. All of a sudden the bus moved off and we were on our way to Shannon airport. By then we were all so drunk I was just in fits of laughter for about three hours! It was a wonderful, crazy time."

Edited November 2, 2003 by Bev Stapleton

[brownie]

To elaborate further on why the Actuel festival did not take place in Paris, you have to remember this was happening one year after the violent Paris students riots of May 1968. The Actuel festival was to be held in central Paris and the last thing the French authorities wanted was a Woodstock type festival where tens of thousands of youths would congregate in the heart of the city. The authorities (this was during de Gaulle's presidency) vetoed the original site.

The festival was moved to Amougies on the Belgian side of the French-Belgium border. The daily shows went out from late mornings to early mornings.

It was widely attended but I remember that a lot of musicians felt they had been ripped off.

Quite a lot of good music was made there and there were some very interesting jams. It also provided oppotunities for many of the new jazz musicians to play in front of large and enthusistic audiences.

[Brandon Burke]

So I'm finally getting around to reading Notes and Tones by Art Taylor. His interview with Philly Joe includes some specific details about the BYG festival. I was surprised to hear Philly Joe say that "There were some groups that were really good. In fact, the group that went on before we did left the bandstand kinda warm, and Archie Shepp knew it was left warm......" The reason why I find this interesting is because--assuming the performance schedule was as indicated on the flier--Philly Joe was likely refering to Kenneth Terroade. Not someone I would assume Joe might dig.

But that's precisely why this is such a good read.

Edited February 29, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[jon abbey]

occasional lurker, first-time poster, this comment made me register and chime in with my two cents:

  I can say that it's my favorite AMM session without question.  Very very good.

to each their own, I heard this for the first time yesterday, and barely made it all the way through. I can say that it's my least favorite AMM session without question. Very very ordinary and dull, you wouldn't know it was AMM if it didn't say so on the front cover (it barely is, it's the Gare/Prevost duo version, during the period when Rowe and Cardew had left the band). either way, hardly representative of AMM, for better or for worse.

if you're looking for a different sounding free jazz/improv reissue from the early seventies, I enjoyed this one that came out last week for the first time much, much more than the Anomalous AMM (available through Forced Exposure):

VA

Title: Inspiration & Power 14 Free Jazz Festival 1

Label: ART UNION (JAPAN)

Format: 2CD

Catalog #: MTCJ 5501/2

New reissue of this classic free jazz/underground compilation, from the early 70s. Often cited as a big influence on Otomo Yoshihide, etc. 24-bit remaster, mini-LP gatefold packaging. CD 1: Toshiyuki Miyama & his New Herd Orchestra, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Itaru Oki Quintet, Now Music Ensemble. CD 2: Masahiko Togashi & Masahiko Satoh duo, New Direction for The Arts, Masahiko Satoh's Gorandoh, Yohsuke Yamashita Trio. Recorded at Shinjuku Art Theater, Tokyo, June30-July 12, 1973.

Edited February 29, 2004 by jon abbey

[Brandon Burke]

occasional lurker, first-time poster, this comment made me register and chime in with my two cents:

  I can say that it's my favorite AMM session without question.  Very very good.

to each their own, I heard this for the first time yesterday, and barely made it all the way through. I can say that it's my least favorite AMM session without question. Very very ordinary and dull, you wouldn't know it was AMM if it didn't say so on the front cover (it barely is, it's the Gare/Prevost duo version, during the period when Rowe and Cardew had left the band). either way, hardly representative of AMM, for better or for worse.

if you're looking for a different sounding free jazz/improv reissue from the early seventies, I enjoyed this one that came out last week for the first time much, much more than the Anomalous AMM (available through Forced Exposure):

VA

Title: Inspiration & Power 14 Free Jazz Festival 1

Label: ART UNION (JAPAN)

Format: 2CD

Catalog #: MTCJ 5501/2

New reissue of this classic free jazz/underground compilation, from the early 70s. Often cited as a big influence on Otomo Yoshihide, etc. 24-bit remaster, mini-LP gatefold packaging. CD 1: Toshiyuki Miyama & his New Herd Orchestra, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Itaru Oki Quintet, Now Music Ensemble. CD 2: Masahiko Togashi & Masahiko Satoh duo, New Direction for The Arts, Masahiko Satoh's Gorandoh, Yohsuke Yamashita Trio. Recorded at Shinjuku Art Theater, Tokyo, June30-July 12, 1973.

Fair enough. I think I like Keith Rowe more in theory than in practice and rather like the fact that the ICES recording doesn't sound like typical AMM. I get a more open and organic feel from this recording whereas some of the better known AMM stuff seems awfuly *weighed down* to me. As though they're saying "Look everybody! We're making art over here." The ICES recording sounds more like two men/minds in conversation, simply making music.