August 22, 2002 - September 5, 2002 - September 18, 2002 - October 10, 2002 - October 21, 2002
November 20, 2002 - December 14, 2002
Check out Dick's meeting with Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert and Vanilla Fudge 2002 in Jeff Beck Bulletin #9!
According to www.zawinulsyndicate.com, the website for jazzo extrodinaire Joe Zawinul's band, Jeff will be guesting on their upcoming CD. Release is tentativly set for April 2002.
Also, this late add....Jeff will be on Steve Alexander's solo effort due out sometime this spring/summer! That's it, badda-bing, badda-boom I'm done.
We now know more about that John Lee Hooker tribute CD we told you about last year. Seems it will be a two volume deal with the first volume coming out in May 2002, and second around August. We don't know which volume Jeff will be on but we do know the tracks...."Hobo Blues" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken".
Someone at Renault must be a Jeff Beck fan. We told you last year how they had a European ad campaign featuring "Hi Ho Silver Lining" in it's soundtrack. Now another has appeared featuring "Ain't Superstitious"!
Here's a picture someone turned us onto go to http://kajdan.free.fr/img/jeffbeckjmk.jpg and there's a pic of Jeff sitting in a garden with French guitarist Jean-Michel Kajdan. Pretty cool.
Lastly we want to reiterate that we now have a European-based mirror site. It's http://www.jplamon.com/beck . It's a backup to ainian.com, so if there's a problem with our server you can try the mirror.
The event was billed as "Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth - a tribute to George Harrison and an evening of 60's rock n' roll". About six songs into the show, Sting brought Jeff onstage to do "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (wow). Sting in his introduction called Jeff, "the greatest living guitar legend" (no kidding) and humourously added, "he's British of course". Jeff delivered what was described as "his first of two outstanding solos that night."
The backup band for the evening was a musical who's who. Narada Michael Walden (musical director), Nile Rodgers and Hiram Bullock (guitars) and Nathan East (bass) among others. Jeff next appeared onstage with Sting and Patti Labelle for "Superstition". In the introduction to the song, Sting mentioned how Stevie Wonder had originally written the song for Jeff.
Jeff's last featured song was Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", again with Sting on vocals (double wow). The reporter says, "Beck conjured up the spirit of Hendrix with his psychedelic rendition". Sounded like it was quite a night!
It seems that Jeff might be doing some more benefit work this summer. We've heard some rumours he may appear at a benefit in London that Paul Samwell-Smith is putting together, for what we don't know.
Lastly, what's up with the Jeff Beck Appreciation Society board on Yahoo? We noticed the format change which although cumbersome still worked, now it doesn't seem to work at all! Oh well, we hope it gets fixed, some cool exchanges on there.
Oh and congrats to Jeff for his Grammy....Best Rock Instrumental - "Dirty Mind".
Thanks to our friend Sam Stricklin we have one pic of Jeff from the Rainforest Benefit.
Some other notes from the Rainforest show....we hear there are boots around of Jeff's three songs, haven't heard them though and not sure of the quality. Jeff's appearance with Patti Labelle on 'Superstition' was something that Jeff has apparently looked forward to for a while. Back in the '70's in an interview Jeff said he would like to play with Patti Labelle. We asked Jeff's management about how Jeff felt about finally working with Ms. Labelle and they said, "Jeff is still impressed with her singing!"
Jeff recently did a session with Tom 'The Voice' Jones. Seems there is a proposed documentary on the history of the blues being put together and the director thought it would be great to have Jeff and Tom Jones do a couple of songs and they did. However the project at this point has outlet yet so we have no idea when/if it will get out. Tom Jones has worked with a lot of great guitarists. The one that first comes to mind is the guitarist from his old TV show, none other that legendary British session player, Big Jim Sullivan.
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Sharon Sheeley on May 17th due to complications from a cerebral hemmorage. Her story and connection to Jeff is detailed in Jeff Beck Bulletin #9. And what more can be said about the passing of 'the Ox', John Entwistle. We're all getting older.
We put a few new links on the front page that might be of interest. First, the new site to purchase official Jeff Beck merchandise is www.musictoday.com....Robert Small sent us a link to a site where you can download a free Jeff Beck desktop theme....And lastly from 'The Smoking Gun' a copy of a rider from Jeff's performance contract that details backstage accomodations, nothing outrageous but interesting.
Going to amazon.com recently we noticed that Sony has remastered 'Crazy Leg's' and it's listed as an 'import'. Not sure what could be different though. Besides Jeff's Sony catalog being remastered, there's also a release of 'Jeff Beck & The Yardbirds, The Yardbird Years' on Varese Records that says it's remastered as well. We're just wondering how and/or if they really got ahold of all the original multitracks to do this.
Speaking of the Yardbirds, we recently got an email from their new manager Robert Knight, who tells us a new official website is imminent and big things are in the works.
We've got a couple of real coups for you that we are launching the new Jeff Beck Bulletin #10 with....first we've come across a Dutch Kim Milford single and the story behind it is one that has literally sat in a closet for almost 30 years. And, we've got a exclusive interview with Jed Leiber....all in JBB #10!
Lastly, we understand that Jeff is currently working again with Andy Wright on some new material. Release date unknown.
We got a note from Annette Carson, author of 'Jeff Beck Crazy Fingers', recently. She wanted to let everybody know that Backbeat Books is in the process of printing a second edition of her book, the first edition was 9000 books and another 3000 are going to press, so copies are still available.
A few interesting links have been sent to us in the past few weeks, both of which we've added to our links section. They are;
According to 'Blues Matters' magazine that long awaited John Lee Hooker tribute CD that Jeff did tracks for will be released in two volumes with each volume being released at different times. The mag says volume one is due out this summer (which is almost over so it better be out soon), and volume two at the end of the year. As we've mentioned, Jeff did the songs 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken' and 'Hobo Blues' for the CD but we don't know on which volume they'll be on.
First, the published reviews. We know of three. The Times of London, The Evening Standard and The Guardian. Here are the links for your perusal.
Also before we get started here are some cool photos of Jeff and Roger Waters.
None of the reviews is a rave, the Times review is a pan really. However, every fan report we've gotten has said how 'on' and 'great' Jeff and the show was so go figure.
Here is what we have been able to gather from the three nights at the Royal Festival Hall. This is preliminary and hopefully more info will come.
Thursday, September 12....first, who was there as guests....Roger Waters, Jimmy Hall, Imogen Heap, Tony Hymas and Terry Bozzio. The House Band included Tony Hymas, Jennifer Batten, Steve Barney, Randy Hope-Taylor and Andy Fairweather Low who played 12 string on 'Bolero'.
As far as we know, the Big Town Playboys didn't appear on any of the nights, at least we haven't come across any mention of them yet. The set list......
Beck's Bolero - the opener, Jeff starts playing offstage and then enters.
Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson
Angel (Footsteps)
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Blue Wind
Still I'm Sad - no vocals.
I'm A Man - Jimmy Hall sings.
Ain't Superstitous - Jimmy.
Heart Full Of Soul - Jimmy and Aref Durvesh on tablas.
Morning Dew - Jimmy.
Savoy - just the trio of Jeff, Tony and Terry onstage we think.
Slingshot
Big Block
Freeway Jam
**Interval**
Pump
Brush With The Blues
Star Cycle
Behind The Veil
Rollin' and Tumblin' - Imogen Heap sings.
What God Wants - Roger Water sings.
What God Wants (Part 2) - RW
Nadia
What Mama Said
Going Down - Jimmy Hall sings.
People Get Ready - Jimmy.
Day In The Life
**Encore**
Where Were You
Hi Ho Silver Lining - Jeff and Jen duet on the solo and at the end the audience sings
along.
Other things we've heard about the first night...it seems Steve Barney and Terry Bozzio played drums together on some songs, definately not the 'Guitar Shop' numbers, but others. Imogen Heap was described to us as 'tall and beautiful'.
Both the Evening Standard review and a fan mentioned how Roger was reading the lyrics from a sheet of paper to which we say, 'So what.' A lot of artists use teleprompters these days.Now for Friday, September 13......we have all the previous guests plus...White Stripes. House band is the same.
Beck' Bolero Roy's Toy Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson Angel (Footsteps) Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Blue Wind I'm A Man - Jimmy Ain't Superstitous - Jimmy Morning Dew - Jimmy Behind The Veil - Whole band plus Terry Bozzio Savoy - Guitar Shop Trio Sling Shot Big Block Freeway Jam **Interval** Still I'm Sad - Jeff and band, no vocals Train Kept A Rollin' - White Stripes plus bassist Larry Lawrence I Ain't Done Wrong Heart Full Of Soul Mister You're A Better Man Than I Lost Woman Evil Hearted You I Ain't Got You - Exit White Stripes The Pump Brush With The Blues Star Cycle Rollin' And Tumblin' - Imogene Heap What God Wants - Roger Waters What God Wants (Part 3) - RW Nadia - with tabla player Aref Durvesh What Mama Said - with tabla player Aref Durvesh Goin' Down - Jimmy People Get Ready - Jimmy A Day In The Life **Encore** Where Were You Hi Ho Silver Lining - entire cast except Roger Waters
And Saturday, September 14......everything we think is the same except take away Roger Waters and add Paul Rodgers and John McLaughlin. We also have learned that Jimmy Page and ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Snowy White, who is now in Roger Water's band are there but don't perform.
Beck' Bolero Roy's Toy Rice Pudding/Jack Johnson Angel (Footsteps) Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Blue Wind I'm A Man - Jimmy Ain't Superstitous - Jimmy Morning Dew - Jimmy Behind The Veil - Whole band plus Terry Bozzio Savoy - Guitar Shop Trio Sling Shot Big Block Freeway Jam **Interval** Still I'm Sad - Jeff and band, no vocals Train Kept A Rollin' - White Stripes plus bassist Larry Lawrence I Ain't Done Wrong Heart Full Of Soul Mister You're A Better Man Than I Lost Woman Evil Hearted You I Ain't Got You - Exit White Stripes The Pump Brush With The Blues Star Cycle Rollin' And Tumblin' - Imogen Heap and Terry Bozzio Django - with John McLaughlin, Terry B.and tabla player Aref Durvesh Scatterbrain - " " Nadia - with tabla player Aref Durvesh What Mama Said - with tabla player Aref Durvesh Goin' Down - Paul Rodgers sings People Get Ready - Jimmy A Day In The Life **Encore** Where Were You Hi Ho Silver Lining - entire cast and audience sing along.I am positive we've haven't got this entirely right, but's it's the best we've got right now. When Imogen took the stage this night Jeff said, "This girl is gonna be a star." One of the newspaper reviews mentions how the most intense applause of the evening was for the numbers Jeff did with John. Jeff also said when McLaughlin took the stage, "I should put my guitar down now." Later he added, "I should take his guitar away from him."
In other news....finally we hear the John Lee Hooker tribute CD Vol. One entitled 'From Clarksdale to Heaven' will be released September 24. For more info go to www.bluestormmusic.com. Besides Jeff, Mick Taylor, Jack Bruce, Gary Moore and Peter Green are on this first volume.
Finally, last week prior to his first show at the Royal Festival Hall, Jeff was on BBC 2's Johnnie Walker show for a little chat. Nothing really revealing about the interview but you can listen to the ten minutes or so here; http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/johnnie_walker/replay.shtml
Also check out the new Fender Players Club link on the front page, some good stuff to read and buy there.
Here's a couple of more reviews of the shows, one's a fan review, the other a newspaper.
Also check out terrybozzio.com and stevebarney.com for their comments on the shows.Some boots of the shows are slowly surfacing. At this site, http://pinkfloyds.fika.org/, you can download 'What God Want's Pt's I and III from the Friday night show plus read a little of what Roger Water's been up to.
Lastly, Jeff should be getting back to work on his next album. He was scheduled to take a break after the RFH shows. And check out the John Lee Hooker tribute CD, 'From Clarksdale to Heaven'. Jeff's two tunes, 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken' and 'Hobo Blues' very cool, and Mick Taylor with Max Middleton on 'This Is Hip' is also great.
Also concerning the RFH shows, we got this great letter/review from Paul Guy who has given us permission to share with you. First let me precede this by saying that this 'guy' knows his sh*t. He has his own guitar shop in Stockholm, Sweden, has interviewed both Jeff Beck and Jennifer Batten for Fuzz Magazine (which are linked on the front page or go to http://home.swipnet.se/guyguitars), and has been a Jeff Beck freak forever. So here it is:
Hi guys -
I went over to London (from Stockholm) for the weekend last month to see
Jeff at the RFH on the Friday and Saturday shows. Need I say that he
blew my mind? I've been a Beck-freak ever since I first saw him play
with the Tridents. I was a staunch Yardbirds fan - saw them many times -
and I saw the old JBG in several incarnations, but I have only seen Jeff
play live *once* since the Rainbow show with BBA, and that was in Hyde
Park last summer for 45 minutes - which was great, but left me wanting
more... (I moved to Sweden back in 1975, and Jeff hasn't played here
since then.) To see him play two 2-1/2 hour concerts on two consecutive
nights was the treat of a lifetime.
I thought you might be interested in a few comments on the shows... (I'll leave out the set list etc. as you've already got that down.)
The band (and guest musicians) were superb. Steve Barney reminded me strongly of Cozy Powell, talk about power. He and Terry Bozzio synced perfectly when both were playing at the same time. Terry was incredible, as always. Tony Hymas - what a musician. Randy Hope-Taylor was 100% solid and right in the pocket from soup to nuts. Jim Hall sang really well and played some vicious mouth harp. Aref Durvesh was amazing on tablas. Jennifer Batten - to my mind one of the finest guitar players on the planet herself - is the perfect foil to Jeff, the presence of Tony Hymas on keyboards freeing her up to play the harmony/counterpoint lines that Jeff overdubbed on the studio versions of songs like "Beck's Bolero" and "Nadia". Whether exchanging blinding licks face to face with Jeff with a big smile on her face, harmonizing Jeff's lines, or laying exquisite synth textures behind his guitar on the slow ballads, Jen looked as cool and relaxed as ever.
Roger Waters, Imogen Heap, Paul Rodgers and John McLaughlin all performed immaculately. (I am inclined to agree with the reviewer who found Waters' set "ponderous", though.) Imogen Heap came on stage wearing hairy tall boots - and a hairstyle! - that looked like something from the Muppets, and did great versions of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on both nights. "This girl is going to be a big star", said Jeff. Introducing John McLaughlin Jeff said, "This is where it gets tough for me... I may as well take my guitar off and throw it in the bin." He then proceeded to play some stuff that had McLaughlin looking totally flabberghasted! (Jeff walked to the side of the stage when McLaughlin took his solo in "Django" and just stood and watched.) "Scatterbrain" was just phenomenal - Jeff's and John's guitars syncing so tight it was almost painful. Introducing Paul Rodgers for a wicked version of "Going Down" Jeff said, "This is like ten birthdays all in one for me."
But of course it was Jeff I was there to see... He prowled the stage like a restless soul, throwing out impossible licks, and coaxing notes from the guitar that by all rights shouldn't even be there. (I saw him using a pick on a couple of numbers, by the way.) In Jeff's hands a Stratocaster becomes a Stradivarius. (At times it even becomes a Hohner Blues Harp. At one point I was scanning the stage trying to see if Jim Hall had come out to play mouth harp without my noticing - but it was Jeff's guitar...) His reading of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on Friday almost had tears in my eyes, only to be topped by the Saturday version - which had me swearing never to play the tune again myself (a promise I broke 3 days later, but there you go). Jeff paid tributes to several of his own guitar heroes during the course of the evening, throwing in a Hendrix lick at one point, for example - and to my personal delight, finishing off one solo (wish I could remember which tune it was!) with a vibrato bar lick which was pure Hank Marvin, down to the sub-atomic level.
The Manor Mobile was outside recording audio all three nights - let's hope Jeff doesn't bin the live recording... His management wanted to make a DVD, but Jeff refused. (He told me in an interview a couple of years ago that he just cannot bear to watch himself on TV.)
The Friday show was great, but was slightly marred by the presence of a contingent of beer-guzzling White Stripes fans who - I surmise - had expected the Stripes to do their own set, not just half a dozen Yardbirds songs with Jeff. They got very upset and rowdy when (to my personal relief) the Stripes left the stage. One in particular was shouting "F**k the dinosaur, bring back the White Stripes!" over the intro to "The Pump", until told to "shut up or f**k off home" in very strong terms by several other members of the audience, myself included. (I had the misfortune to be sitting in the same row...)
The Saturday show was superb, after the first three numbers I said to my friend who came over from Sweden with me (but only came to the Saturday concert) "Jesus, Jeff is playing ten times better tonight than he was last night, and I didn't think that was possible!" The contrast between the audiences on Friday and Saturday was very tangible - whereas a good number of the Friday audience were up and down out of their seats fetching beer from the bar time and again, the Saturday crowd had come to see Jeff. The applause after his solos went quiet immediately he started to play again, no-one wanted to miss as much as one note.
I'm somewhat bemused by the poor newspaper reviews, one wonders what some of the writers had been smoking. Jeff has never been as generous to his fans before, and I was surprised at how often he spoke to the audience! I strongly suspect that much of what some interpret as arrogance has far more to do with self-consciousness about his voice (both speaking and singing) than anything else. One reviewer, interpreting Beck's "puking gestures" in "Hi-Ho Silver Lining" as "disdain for the song", missed the point entirely - Beck does not like his own voice, and was deprecating himself as much as anything else, IMHO (FWIW). Maybe he does hate the tune, but including it as the finale was - in my interpretation - a very generous gesture to his fans. On Friday he introduced the song by saying, "Well, I got away with it last night, so I guess we'll give it a go tonight as well". On Saturday he said "I'm really not in good voice tonight," (his speaking voice did sound pretty hoarse) "but I'll give it a try". Another reviewer complains that Beck's hairstyle and getup were "unfortunately similar to Celeb's Gary Bloke and Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel". I thought it was the other way round, Tufnel stole the look from Beck after all.
At the other extreme, practically all the reviewers rave about The White Stripes - who I thought were totally incompetent. I haven't heard any of their own material, so I won't comment on that, but they were definitely not up to the challenge of playing with Jeff Beck. I sat there wondering if Meg White had even *heard* the original records - she seemed to have no grasp of the song structures, and missed practically every break and rhythm change. None of the song keys suited Jack White's voice - he was having to drop octaves mid-line to reach the melody notes (and even succeeding sometimes), and his guitar was poorly tuned. (Bass player Larry Lawrence did a pretty good job though, despite the handicap of looking like an Austin Powers clone.) Jeff managed to keep it together somehow, but it looked like hard work to me... I have it on good authority that the Stripes' inclusion wasn't Jeff's idea, and as far as I'm concerned it was a disaster. Introducing them on Saturday night, Jeff said, "What can you say about the White Stripes? (pause) Amazing." I'm not quite sure how to interpret that. (BTW Jim McCarty was at the Friday night show - but did not play, more's the pity).
My buddy and I had after-show backstage passes courtesy of Jenny Batten on Saturday night, and she took us along to the party at the hotel in Trafalgar Square after that. So I finally got to meet Jeff, and get a photo of him with Jenny, Jim Hall and myself as a memento of the occasion. (Everyone except Jen looks totally wrecked!)
I know I'm biased, but I thought those two shows were the most amazing rock concerts I have seen in all my life, bar none. They will go down in history as Jeff's finest hour.
Keep up the good work on the page -
Best regards
Paul Guy
--
Paul Guy Guitars
Katarina Bangata 65, 116 42 Stockholm
web: http://home.swipnet.se/guyguitars
Thanks, Paul. As Paul and we have mentioned several press reviews of the shows were sort of luke warm but we did run across one in the latest Mojo Magazine that is more positive, check that one out at you local news stand.
Here's a small item about Jennifer Batten, she didn't play any guitar synth at the RFH shows, just guitar. All the synth stuff was left up to Tony Hymas. (Note to self, for historical purposes we need to find out if that was the first time.)
For the record, a few other things to tie up regarding the shows for posterity. The chap from the RFH who invited Jeff to do the shows is named Glenn Max and our hats go off to him! But contrary to some things we've heard and we guess things Paul Guy heard while in London, neither he nor anyone else 'pushed' the inclusion of The White Stripes on Jeff or his management. It was Jeff's idea, and this comes right from the horses' mouth, because 'he thinks they're brilliant'. The rationale behind them doing the Yardbirds set was that Jeff liked the energy and enthusiasm they would bring to the songs they, The White Stripes, grew up with. There was no interest in 'cloning' the originals but rather to try and capture the youthful energy the Yardbirds had when they themselves were young. The bottom line, the shows weren't about performing perfect copies of Jeff's music but having fun with his catalogue.
Along with the questions about whether any of RFH shows will be released, we've also heard rumblings that when Jeff tours the U.S. next he may bring along the RFH 'greatest hits' format, however everytime we've heard a rumour about something that will occur in the semi-distant future we've been dead wrong, but we know the idea has been bandied about.
News from other people's websites, on Terry Bozzio's....he says Jeff has contacted him and mentioned doing something with him and Steve Barney, could it be the aforementioned tour? From Steve Barney....he says 13 songs are in the can for the next Jeff Beck CD and a release might happen around March.
We got a note back from Paul Guy in response to our setting the record straight as to Jeff's decision to include The White Stripes at the RFH shows. He said he was sorry to imply that decision might have not been Jeff's but he heard the story from several independent sources. As for his opinion that The White Stripes performance left something to be desired he stands by it as do a lot of other folks out there. Everyone agrees however that the rest of the shows were exquisite.
A blues documentary is on the horizon with a Jeff Beck appearance featured. The songs we told you about a while ago that Jeff recorded with Tom Jones will be part of 'The Blues' a major TV documentary on PBS that we hear is being made by Quinton Tarrantino's production company. It covers the history of the blues in both the UK and the USA and should be aired sometime in 2003.
And speaking of Tom Jones, both he and Jeff will be on New Year's edition of Jools Holland's 'Later' show. It's billed as the 'New Year's Hootenanny', I think you can see it here in the states on BBC America, not sure though.
Also Jeff is featured on Jool's latest album 'Small World Big Band Volume Two: More Friends'. He performs an instrumental version of Henry Glover's 'Drown In My Own Tears'.
Be seeing you....