June 24, 2000 - July 28, 2000 - September 1, 2000 - September 20, 2000 - October 10, 2000 - November 24, 2000
November 30, 2000 - December 1, 2000 - December 7, 2000 - December 20, 2000 - December 28, 2000
2. Jeff Beck Jeff Beck is rock's marquis lead player and has been for over three decades. He first came to prominence in the '60s as a slashing, puckish lead player for the Yardbirds -- predating Hendrix's own wild lead excursions -- and since has made a name for himself in virtually every pop music genre,hobnobbing with Bon Jovi, Tina Turner and Mick Jagger, among many others. His secret of turning the tone knob on his Strat almost completely off and then turning up the treble on his amps gives his guitar a sweetness approaching heaven. His use of holding the slide in his picking hand to access notes well off the fretboard gives him outrageous range and texture. His only limitations -- and the things that have prevented him from the heights of fame -- have nothing to do with his considerable craft as a player: he doesn't compose much and he rarely, if ever, sings. * Essential Album: Blow by Blow * Classic Moment: "Where Were You?"
It seems we have a friend who has a friend who works for Sony/Epic in New York. As you can see this is already third hand information, considered hearsay I guess but hey, it's a good rumour and we like them. Anyway, our friend's friend was explaining to him how Sony does planning for the next year and schedules releases. It's a lot of meetings with execs and the like and talk of how many pressings of a new release should be made. So what we've heard is that Sony is planning at this time for a September '00 release of 'Jeff Beck Live'. With something in the neighborhood of 15000 pressings. Sounds good to us. However since we first heard of this, we've learned that Jeff's management hasn't heard from Sony and neither has Jeff. They (Sony) at this point don't have any live tapes but are in the process of re-working their artists' catalogue and Jeff and company are expecting to be contacted at some time.
Jeff and the band are still at work on new material we've heard....they are writing and looking for producers...also there is a chance of more live work for Jeff in 2000 since he's hinted that doesn't want it to be too long before he appears on stage again.
Lastly, this happened almost a month ago but it's worth a mention....anyone catch the Billboard Music Awards on the Fox Network? I mean, why would you, two hours of pop music drek, but over the closing the credits of the show, what did the producers of the show choose for music??..."Psycho Sam"! They only got about 40 seconds of it on but it makes you wonder if someone might have been trying to make a statement. (Ed. we've since heard that they used 'Psycho' for every bump out to commercial!) And another miscellaneous airing of Jeff can be heard on syndicated radio genius Phil Hendrie's show out of KFI in Los Angeles. He recently said of his 'bump' music, "I gotta get my Beckology CD in here, that's all we need here for music." And he's been using it ever since. And since we first mentioned this, we've learned that Howard Stern sidekick Fred Norris often uses 'What Mama Said' and 'Psycho Sam' for music beds to some of Howard's commercials.
Jeff did however win an award that's more up his alley. Jeff won the 2000 Orville H. Gibson award for best rock guitarist. The annual Orville H. Gibson awards are held a day prior to the Grammys and this year the venue was the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles. The awards are determined by a process that includes nominations by the editors of the leading guitar magazines, with the final honoree in each category chosen by music critics from around the country. Not bad.
Also, while Jeff was in California he was doing some work with Jed Leiber to soundtrack a new Disney cartoon about hot rods.
On the new live release we mentioned last time we have some more info. Seems that our 'source' at Sony is in the process of remastering 'Truth', 'Beck-Ola' and 'Rough And Ready' for a new release of these albums with perhaps and this is a 'big' perhaps, some new bonus tracks. He's mentioned in the past the possibility of a live Jeff Beck offing for the summer of 2000 and has since mentioned the possibility of Sony releasing a DVD of the Japanese concert Jeff taped last June in Toyko. However, we have since learned from the from the top as it were that there will be NO releases of ANY live material in ANY format in the foreseeable future. And since I first wrote this update we've found out that Sony has approached Jeff with the idea of adding bonus tracks to the remastered releases and that his reply was, "Nope."
While we're mentioning Japan, we've come across a real novelty that could only happen in Japan. We recently received from our good bud and Japanese correspondent Toshi a package that contained a bunch of promotional material and a CD for a group called 'CBA'. Seems both Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert have been over in Japan working with one of that countries' foremost guitarists, a chap named 'Char'. They have been touring Japan as 'CBA' or Char, Bogert And Appice doing covers from Carmine and Tim's BBA days. Upon listening to the CD, these guys are pulling off virtually flawless recreations of 'Lady' and other BBA classics. In fact you can see a 4 and a half minute video of the band live at Carmine's website www.carmineappice.com.
Lastly, funny thing happened during Ed Bradley's Eric Clapton feature that aired on CBS's '60 Minutes' news magazine on April 2nd. Seem's Ed made a little goof (or perhaps his producer) when he told the audience that Eric started Cream with 'Jeff Beck and Ginger Baker', of course he meant to say Jack Bruce....oops!
We've found out a bit of what Jeff was up to while out at the Grammy's in Los Angeles. Our friend and photographer extrodinaire, Robert Knight, got to have lunch with one of Jeff's managers, Ralph Baker, while he was out there with Jeff. He then got to spend an evening with Jeff and Jed Lieber in Jeff's hotel room. The only info gleaned, that Jeff does want to do more recording and touring. It seems the next day Jeff had lunch with Eric Clapton who now has a house in Los Angeles. Some of their lunchtime discussions we've heard centered around the new hot rod Eric is having built by hot rod wizard Roy Brizio, a '40 Ford Coupe. Roy, who has done work for Jeff as well, was down from San Francisco staying with Jeff at his hotel. For more info on Roy Brizio and the rod he's making for Eric, check out his webpage at: www.roybriziohotrods.com.
Finally we told you a while back that figure skater Michelle Kwan has been doing a routine to the music of Jeff's version of 'A Day In The Life'. Turns out that Michelle recently won the Women's Figure Skating World Championship in Nice, France skating to none other than Jeff's 'A Day'.....you go Michelle!
Please disregard all the stuff we just mentioned above. You'd think by now that when it comes to Jeff Beck, we would have learned that you can't just read or hear about something from the internet (that damn internet) and run with it. We've just heard from Jeff's management, Jeff is not doing Pori and it has been cracked up to what they call 'wishful thinking' on the part of the promoters....sorry for any inconvience.
If anything does come of this, here is the JP/BC tour schedule:
Sat. 6/24 Tinley Park, IL - New World Music Theater Mon. 6/26 Auburn Hills, MI - Palace Of Auburn Hills Wed. 6/28 Burgettstown, PA - Post-Gazette Pavilion Fri. 6/30 Holmdel, NJ - P.N.C. Bank Arts Center Sun. 7/2 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center For The Perf. Arts Tue. 7/4 Raleigh, NC - Alltel Pavilion @ Walnut Creek Thu. 7/6 Bristow, VA - Nissan Pavilion Sat. 7/8 Camden, NJ - Blockbuster-Sony Ctr. Mon. 7/10 Wantaugh, NY - Jones Beach Amph. Sun. 8/13 Phoenix, AZ - Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion Tue. 8/15 Irvine, CA - Verizon Wireless Amph. Fri. 8/18 George, WA - The Gorge Sun. 8/20 Marysville, CA - Sacramento Valley Amph. Tue. 8/22 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amph. Fri. 8/25 Denver, CO - Pepsi Center Mon. 8/28 Dallas, TX - Reunion Arena Wed. 8/30 The Woodlands, TX - C.W. Mitchell Pavilion Sat. 9/23 West Palm Beach, FL- Mars Music Amph. Mon. 9/25 Tampa, FL - Ice Palace Wed. 9/27 Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena Fri. 9/29 Noblesville, IN - Deer Creek Music Center Sun. 10/1 Cleveland, OH - Gund Arena
Another thing, nice picture of Jeff in last week's Rolling Stone Magazine feature on star's cars. Jeff looked a little tired sitting beside that powder blue deuce but hey, aren't we all. Anyway the article mentioned an incident where Jeff flipped one of his rods into a ditch after an Eric Clapton post-tour party....also mentioned him hooking up with Roy Brizio during his Grammy visit and him going to the Grammy's with his wife?? Huh?
Max Middleton is getting married in couple of weeks, we've heard Jeff has been invited and is expected to attend, congrats to best wishes to Max! Also stay tuned for our comprehensive interview with Clive Chaman, we should have part one on the page by next month.
We've gotten a couple of emails lately inquiring about a 1971 cult movie that(we guess) has recently been released on home video. 'Two Lane Blacktop' stars (of all people) James Taylor and the late Dennis Wilson as the driver and mechanic (respectively) of a '55 Chevy on a cross country adventure. One person wrote us saying Jeff appears in the movie but there is no sign of him in the credits so if he is it must be a cameo...anybody seen the movie and know??
Lastly, for some of you who get digital cable or have satellite (which I don't) there is a BBC America cable channel. They broadcast repeats of Jools Holland's shows and we're lobbying for them to maybe air the show that Jeff was on. If you want to send them a note or check out their schedule go to: bbcamerica.com....and let us know if you hear anything!
The New York Post several weeks ago printed a blurb that Jeff, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards might show up to celebrate Les Paul's 85th (wow!) birthday at the Iridium Club in New York on June 12th. Turns out the Post was wrong, Steve Miller did show up though.
We've since heard, thanks to our bud Bill Wylde in LA, that Jeff isn't in the film 'Two Lane Blacktop', ok, we've put that one to rest.
The Artist Direct website for Jeff is up and running, what we can tell from a quick perusal is that it appears there will be two sites; jeffbeckdirect.com will be the retail side, they're already selling some neat stuff. For everyone who has emailed us in the past asking where you could get tour T-shirts this is the place, they have two that were being sold last time around. You can also buy pins, keychains, a tour program from the '99 Japanese tour and an autographed copy of Beckology as well as everything else in Jeff's catalogue. The other site will be jeffbeck.com which will be the fan side with news, interviews, tour info and more.
Jeff was a no show for Max Middleton's wedding we heard, Chris Rea couldn't make it either due to illness but Mick Taylor did show up.
Lastly, just heard that Sony/Epic is rereleasing Truth and Beck-ola on it's Legacy label on July 4th (we've mentioned this before). They are being touted as 'expanded editions', we guess that means bonus tracks....what are they?....don't know but doubt it's anything we haven't heard before. Perhaps somethings like 'Tallyman', 'I've Been Drinkin' or...'Hi Ho'??
We do however have for you now a little update we did via email on the recent doings of one Carmine Appice, a friend of the page and generally good guy. So, check it out in Jeff Beck Bulletin #8!!
Also, the remastered releases of Truth, Beck Ola, and Rough And Ready came out on July 4th and even though they were intially touted as 'expanded' they contain no new tracks but are much better mixes than the previous CD's.
Get well greetings go out to Ron Wood who was admitted to the Priory in Roehampton, West London to undergo an alcohol rehabilation treatment at the end of June, we're sure he's out of there by now. Seems Ronnie had 'been partying a bit too much lately'....guess that's not hard when you have your own pub in the garden of your house!
Chris Hjort and Doug Hinman's long awaited Jeff Beck career chronology is now available. It is an incredible piece of work, loaded with info about Jeff's career from 1965 through 1980. It's a 'must have' for any serious Beckophile. Check out our 'ordering stuff' section for details.
And this just in.....Jeff has recently recorded some tracks with Chrissie Hynde for a Sun Records tribute CD.
Jeff will be touring Japan and Europe prior the the US. Some December dates in Japan have already been announced, he should be in the US sometime February. Here are the first Japanese dates that we have.
Also just saw this interesting quip on Steve Alexander's website and we quote; "New JB album finished!! The new cd is finished and overall it's a great improvement on the last one. However, any of you hoping for some great drumming performances on it will be sorely disappointed. Despite the fact that I did record some takes I ( and Jeff), were happy with, by the time the cd was mixed, I have been replaced on the record as the producer and Jeff decided to take things in an almost totally "programmed" direction. While this is disappointing, as naturally, I like to have my playing heard on everything that I contribute to, in this case, as the cd progressed and took shape,it became clear that a more technological type approach would be the one that would work best with the material. The next challenge is to adapt the new material for live performance, where obviously, I will be in more evidence."
Here's the lowdown on "You Had It Coming" (this is the confirmed title, we promise).....we got this from a reliable source that will go unnamed. This is essentially the press kit for the album (we think). As you will note the release date for the CD in Japan is November 3rd, in stores by November 21st....we've heard that the CD won't be released here in the states until January of 2001 but who knows.
You Had It Coming (confirmed title) is the latest studio effort from guitar legend Jeff Beck. Written primarily by Jeff, this album delivers the intense and articulate workings of a guitar virtuoso, with a decidedly modern sound. If "Who Else?" was a musical salute to what Jeff has absorbed from bands like the Prodigy, on this album, Jeff's sound continues to evolve, coupling his own brand of guitar work with varying rhythm tracks. The result is rock 'n' roll, with an industrial edge. The aural background on which the tracks are laid runs the gamut from the driving, industrial flavor of "Earthquake", to the smooth, ambient "Nadia".
Track Listing EARTHQUAKE ROY'S TOY DIRTY MIND ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' NADIA LOOSE CANNON ROSEBUD LEFT HOOK BLACKBIRD SUSPENSION Time Line October 5,6 LONDON--Japanese Press/Promo 24,25 PARIS--French Press/Promo 26 BERLIN--German Press/Promo (TBC) November UK: Rehearsals for Japan 11/03 (in-stores 11/21) JAPANESE RELEASE DATE 11/04 (in-stores 11/27) EUROPEAN SOFT RELEASE
December Japan 12/1-2 Tokyo TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM 12/3 off 12/4-5 Tokyo TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM 12/7 Sendai SENDAI ZEPP 12/8 off 12/9 Yokohama YOKOHAMA PACIFICO 12/10-11 Osaka OSAKA KOSEINENKIN HALL 12/13 Fukouka FUKUOKA SUN PALACE 12/14 Hiroshima HIROSHIMA YUBIN CHOKIN 12/15 Nogoya NAGOYA SHI KOKAIDO January (Rehearsals for US Tour--tbc) February Mid-Feb US Tour begins March US Tour April European Tour May European TourBIOGRAPHY - Jeff Beck is a name synonymous with the electric guitar. With YOU HAD IT COMING, Beck's latest album during his three-and-a-half decades as an Epic recording artist, his name becomes tantamount to innovation, as the guitarist continues to experiment with modern, cutting-edge music.
YOU HAD IT COMING finds the legendary British musician further enthralled by the nature of sound. "It's almost a chosen path for me by someone else, because I was never a singer," Beck says of his songwriting. "Without a vocal, you've got to concentrate on what people hear. Sound is everything."
The predominantly instrumental album is bounded by a collage of drum loops and digital-age wizardry, all at the service of Beck's signature guitar playing. "I view technology as a friend -- there's no use messing around with enemies," he says. I first ran across some electronic music 30 years ago, and I assumed it would be coming along much sooner than it did. I thought,'If only you could get that sound on a guitar.'"
The outcome of his prolonged interest is YOU HAD IT COMING, a project that combines the tones and technology of the new millennium with the skill and credibility of experienced hands. After releasing last year's Grammy-nominated Who Else!, Beck's first album of original music in a decade, the musician spent much of 1999 on tour with his newly assembled band. This was quite an about face for the celebrated guitarist, who hadn't been particularly prolific during the previous two decades, instead consuming time through his other passion of tinkering with vintage cars. But a subtle revelation paved the route for back-to-back recordings. "It was trying to come to terms with the fact that I didn't want to stop playing," he admits. "The thing looking me in the face was, 'If you don't play Jeff, you're not going to play.' After 120-odd gigs, including people's back gardens in Italy, I didn't want to go all through that for nothing -- to lose track of the band and go into recession again."
Quite the opposite happened, with Beck holing up in London's Metropolis Recording Studio with his band (guitarist Jennifer Batten, bassist Randy Hope-Taylor and drummer Steve Alexander) programmer Aiden Love and producer Andy Wright. ("Andy, we call him 'the trawler,' Beck quips. "Because everything I play he trawls through, like a fishing boat, to get all the good bits.") The collaboration resulted in a record that joins the distinguished pantheon of his prior milestones: Truth, Blow By Blow and Wired -- still among the best selling guitar albums of all time.
Opening You Had It Coming is "Earthquake," a tune emblematic of Beck's new approach, fueled by a hammering distorted riff that alternates time signatures between 6/4 and 5/4. The tumultuous tune is so named because "an earthquake represents the opening up of a new world, whilst giving the old one a good shaking " Beck returns to his roots with "Rollin' and Tumblin'," a swampy blues gem that has inspired previous interpretations by Muddy Waters, Cream and Canned Heat. "Rollin' and Tumblin' is something which has been lurking in my cupboard for 25 years," Beck says. "I've wanted to do a hot-rod version of that, but the drummers were never right and the singers weren't there." Beck found his ideal vocalist in Imogen Heap, a young Londoner whose scorching take on the tune was recorded in one pass. Perhaps the quirkiest cut is "Blackbird," which finds the ex-Yardbird collaborating with an unnamed feathered friend. "Round about spring, a blackbird sings loudly up on my roof," he says. "Although I didn't record that bird, I got a tape of a blackbird and started jamming with him. If you listen, the notes the bird is singing are almost beyond human hearing, but the actual punctuation and tonal things are there. I aped the bird as close as I could, and we all had a good laugh with that one." The guitarist considers YOU HAD IT COMINGfs standout track to be "Nadia," written by Indian musician Nitin Sawhney, whom Beck describes as "a genius -- like an Asian Stevie Wonder." Beck remembers first shuffling through Sawhney's CD while driving home. "I couldn't believe the diversity of the tracks. I stopped on 'Nadia' and I almost crashed the car, because it was such a refreshing, almost commercial, Indian song. I started whistling bits of it, then I thought, 'What am I waiting for? This is custom made for me.'"
Not one to employ an arsenal of custom-made gear, Beck stuck with a single guitar and amp (a modified white Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall JCM 2000) for the majority of the recording. It's still a mystery how he can pull so many sonic elements out of such a limited setup. But that is an enigma that has applied to the guitarist for decades. Beck has been credited with inventing techniques and sounds that are so common within the rock lexicon that it's difficult to envision the style without it. He is regarded as the first rock guitarist to use distortion and Eastern-influenced droning riffs, as well as the earliest to popularize the talk box (called a mouth bag in England), years prior to Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do." Has Beck ever invented something he didn't get credit for? "I suppose the most unnoticed in my style, and probably the best things, were some of those slippery licks," he says. "The illusions that I can do with some triplet scales, people have sort of brushed them aside for something more gimmicky -- which is something people will do. Jimi Hendrix gets remembered for setting fire to his guitar almost more than for playing it."
So is Beck the world's greatest living rock guitarist? "Nope," he says emphatically. "That's the most ridiculous thing to start those kind of sweeping titles. I don't see why everybody has to make everything the best. 'Is it the best? Is it the fastest? How fast does this car go, mate?' It's not a contest. We're all different. It's like asking which is the best breakfast. It's not a question of that; it's what you fancy. I'm not in the business of making self-appraisals. As long as there's something original going on, that's all that really matters."
We expect that rehearsals are just about wrapped up by now and that Jeff and company are preparing for travel to Japan next week. However, we have learned that Jeff will be doing another round of interviews (we guess by phone) late next week and that Epic is now in the process of queuing up requests for these interviews.
Also Jeff's TV producer friend Peter Richardson (hey Peter, where's that JB documentary you were working on?) has a new sitcom on the Beeb2 (BBC2) called 'Stella Street' seems Jeff might be making a cameo in it sometime this season.
First off, Steve Alexander. According to his webpage the reason he's not doing the Japanese tour is due in a way to his hospital stay over the summer. Seems the insurance carrier for the tour wouldn't insure the tour against losses due to illness, ie Steve, since he was just in hospital over the summer. He does say however that he is expecting to do the upcoming US tour.
Speaking of the Japanese tour, it appears that Jeff will once again appear on Japanese TV while he's there. According to one of our new Japanese spies, Naoko Osumi, Jeff will be play and be interviewed on TV Asahi's 'News Station' program on November 30th. We goofed first reporting this (oops), we were told 'the 30th'got the month wrong this has already happened. If we get an expected copy of the show, we'll report on what was said/played.
Lastly, according to London's Evening Standard newspaper and pollstar.com, Jeff along with Nitin Sawhney and Route Of Kings, will appear as special guests at Sting's Hyde Park concert in London on July 28th, 2001. Now that sounds like a hell of a show, maybe it'll be televised like Sting's Central Park gig? We'll see.
Hello, I went to the 1st show of the Jeff Beck Japan tour tonight. opening:Blackbird(tape) 1.Earthquake 2.Roy's Toy 3.The Pump 4.Brush With The Blues 5.Blast From The East 6.Dirty Mind 7.Nadia 8.Psycho Sam 9.Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson/Savoy 10.Loose Cannon 11.Angel(Footsteps) 12.Star Cycle 13.You Never Know 14.Rollin' And Tumblin' 15.Blue Wind 16(encore).A Day In The Life The lighting of the hall slowly darkened and the tape of "Blackbird" started. And Jennifer played heavy riff of "Earthquake".This tune is the first tune in the new album. Next "Roy's Toy",Jeff played tapping used in main riff. "Nadia" is absolutely incredible. Jeff played slide guitar in intro and middle part. I was surprised at "Rollin' And Tumblin'". Because Jennifer sang this song. Not only is her guitar play great, but her sing is excellent. Jeff used only one guitar. It was main white stratcaster. The lighting of the stage is gorgeous.Dazzling lights, twinkling lights like stars. There are two big screen on the backdrop. And they used smoke many times. Andy Gangadeen's drum play is wonderful.He used three bass drums. Jeff's guitar play is simply amazing. He is a real guitarist. from ToshiOur thanks to Toshi for this, stay tuned for more.
So far the Japanese tour is going well even though when Jeff left the UK he was battling a bit of the flu. Good news however, 'You Had It Coming' at #7 in Japan on it's first week of release. We're just curious if it had to do with folks in the U.S. and elsewhere buying the import off Amazon.com. Would that count as a Japanese sale?? Oh, and a late add to the setlist, 'Where Were You' was added to the encore for the December 2nd show. Also it seems on the December 4th and 5th shows the intro was 'Blackbird' sans Jeff, just the bird singing by itself, hmmm, and the order of the set list was changed slightly but we haven't all the details yet.
Here's an ad that appeared in the Sunday Mirror for the Sting concert in Hyde Park next year. Thanks go to Phil Allen.
And just when you think you've dug up every Jeff Beck session ever, you come up with another. The latest issue of Record Collector magazine mentions a European release of a CD on RPM Records featuring a woman by the name of Sharon Sheeley. Title of the CD is "Sharon Sheeley, Songwriter". Ms. Sheeley was the 60's European equivalent of Carol King. Her writing credits range from Eddie Cochran to Jackie DeShannon to Glen Campbell. The new CD has a couple of mid-60's sessions sung by one Ben Findon and featuring Jeff Beck on guitar on one track. Release the hounds!
Dec.2 & 4 Tokyo International Forum 1.Earthquake 2.Roy's Toy 3.The Pump 4.Brush With The Blues 5.Blast From The East 6.Dirty Mind 7.Nadia 8.Psycho Sam 9.Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson/Savoy 10.Loose Cannon 11.Star Cycle 12.You Never Know 13.Angel(Footsteps) 14.Rollin' And Tumblin' 15.Blue Wind (encore) 16.Where Were You 17.A Day In The Life"Where Were You" was added to the encore. The intro tape of the show was "Blackbird" from new lp, it used on Dec.1 & 2 only. The other shows, the tape of the bird singing was used in intro. It is the first time Jeff play "Rice Pudding" in Japan. When Jennifer sang "Rollin' And Tumblin", Randy played a Telecaster.Jennifer not play her guitar while she sang this song.In the second verse of "Blue Wind", audience sang good."Where Were You" was so beautiful.
Dec.5 Tokyo International Forum Dec.7 Zepp Sendai, Miyagi Dec.9 Pacifico Yokohama, Kanagawa 1.Earthquake 2.Roy's Toy 3.The Pump 4.Brush With The Blues 5.Blast From The East 6.Dirty Mind 7.Nadia 8.Psycho Sam 9.Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson/Savoy 10.Loose Cannon 11.Star Cycle 12.You Never Know 13.Rollin' And Tumblin' 14.Angel(Footsteps) 15.Blue Wind (encore) 16.Where Were You 17.A Day In The LifeThe set list was changed slightly. And performed of the new materials getting better and better. In the final part of "Angel", Jeff used a screwdriver instead of a slide bar on Dec.4 & 5. Zepp Sendai is all-standing small room, they seemed enjoyable. The show on Dec. 5 was the best show I have ever seen.
Dec.10 & 11 Koseinenkin Hall, Osaka Dec.13 Sunpalace, Fukuoka Dec.14 Yubinchokin Hall, Hiroshima Dec.15 Nagoya Shi Kokaido, Nagoya 1.Earthquake 2.Roy's Toy 3.The Pump 4.Brush With The Blues 5.Blast From The East 6.Dirty Mind 7.Nadia 8.Psycho Sam 9.Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson/Savoy 10.Loose Cannon 11.Star Cycle 12.You Never Know 13.Rollin' And Tumblin' 14.Angel(Footsteps) 15.A Day In The Life (encore) 16.Where Were You 17.Blue WindThe set list was changed slightly again. Two shows at Osaka was really great. The final show at Nagoya, Jeff looked tired. And he played mistakes sometimes. I spend pleasant two weeks. I hope Jeff comes back to Japan in the end of this tour. I want to see their amazing play again. from Toshi
There's a new Stevie Ray Vaughn box set out there that maybe Santa will bring some of you. The 3CD+DVD set has a live cut of Jeff and Stevie doing "Goin' Down" which was their standard end of show jam song during 1989's 'The Fire And The Fury' tour. This one was recorded at the Tingley Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico. (US, Epic/Legacy, E4K 65714)
We know a lot of people are ordering the Japanese import of 'You Had It Coming' from Amazon.com but we've heard that recently it was not available for shipment for several weeks. However we understand that www.BigCD.com has YHIC available for immediate delivery.
The February issue of Vintage Guitar has a couple of notables who mentioned Jeff in recent interviews;
Quote from Jim Weider, who has worked with The Band.... " I always like to hear what Jeff Beck's doing, but I'd love to hear him do something more organic because he's such a great feel-and-touch player. I'd love to hear him just go in with a great rhythm section and just play the guitar." Quote from Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi - "I'm using the Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 watt. I really love that amplifier. I got turned on to it when I went to see Jeff Beck.
Lastly, this Jeff Beck buddy sighting.....anyone been wondering what Jimmy Page has been up to since his back went out during the end of the JP/BC tour? Well he's been recuperating right up the street from the 'A Jeff Beck Webpage' home office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Aside from several 'sightings' by locals on Las Olas Boulevard over the last month or so, it was recently reported in the papers down here that Jimmy has rented a place right off Las Olas and that the lease is thought to extend through April. Happy Holidays Everyone!!!
After admitting that he never forget's the excitement of having a good band around him and being onstage, Jeff was called on the carpet a bit for continually talking at his translator and toying with the chopsticks. Hah! In a brief bit he put the chopsticks down and laughed as the slightly arrogant but charming host introduced the next segment which was to be the beautiful tune Nadia from the new Lp.
As the cameras panned to the stage one must consider a few background influences coming into this taping. The band had little time to rehearse. Andy G. had just come aboard just for this Japenese tour at the last second. Jeff was just coming down with the flu. Finally Nadia, the technically most difficult tune to perform was picked for the Japenese audience. A probably wise decision was made not to do the track live and hence the track was guitar-synced albeit one heck of a performance. A far cry from the 1975 Midnight Special show in which Jeff endured four live takes before lodging his protest with the fifth synced take, Jeff here on Nadia was painstakingly true to the lines. The first time through I couldn't even notice. I was down to Bill's house for the holiday and it was he, a guitarist, who noticed that the amp lights weren't on and that certain notes necessitated the use of the whammy bar which Jeff didn't touch. (They were the notes where you can hear Jeff 'flick' the whammy for that 'warbly' sound. Also he didn't finger any notes which we know he does during the song. BA) Anyway, the performance such as it was was flawless and Jennifer, Randy, and Andy looked like they were really in to it. Jeff even smiled a couple of times while following the lines as if it were his best stage effort. Overall a great video! One interesting Guitar observation. Jeff had two red diamond marks on his Strat. They were located on the pickguard to the right of the high e string and slightly above the first pickup. Bill's best guess is that they are there to help mark the short critical distance for slide tapping notes for things like "Angel Footsteps". I'll find out more about this later. (My nearest guess is they mark the 5th and 10th 'frets' above the second octave. BA) Anyways an overall great video and a must for collectors.
Oh, and we now know what song Jeff and Chrissie Hynde did for that still unnamed, star studded 50th anniversary tribute to Sun Records that is coming out on London/Sire....it was Little Junior's Blue Flames' "Mystery Train".
Be seeing you...