On this day 50 years ago Pink Floyd released their album 'Wish You Were Here' - cue the title track. 

Footnotes:

Ronnie Rondell Jr. the stuntman 'on fire' on the LP cover recently died. More on that story, click here. 

And... 

Curiously the band Badfinger had also released an album titled 'Wish You Were Here' - a year earlier. 

  

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary.
Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like
(or switch it off, if you don't like). 

The Genesis tribute band last Friday were brilliant. Genesis Connected were as billed 'Celebrating the hits of Genesis • Phil Collins • Peter Gabriel and Mike & The Mechanics'. Lead singer Pete Bultitude sounding just like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Paul Carrack, whilst also playing drums at various points in the show.

They totally nailed their version of the Phil Collins and Philip Bailey 'Easy Lover' song. 

Which prompts this video I found of a 20 year old German girl Sina Doering, known as Sina-Drums, who has loads of drum covers of classic rock songs from the 1970s and 1980s on YouTube.
This is her video of 'Easy Lover'. Such a great song, but from the drumming view it's a real insight.

   

As we are off to see tribute band Genesis Connected this evening, time to recall this: 

August 16th 1975 - Front page of the Melody Maker: "Gabriel out of Genesis?"

The September 6th edition had an article titled "Why I quit Genesis" by Gabriel himself. I had seen them play on the Final tour show at the Empire Pool, Wembley in April, performing the entire 'Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' album*. By my reckoning (helped by a Genesis the movement website) the 9th and final time I'd see them 'live' with Peter Gabriel.   

As we now know the news of his leaving was just the start of another chapter in the Genesis history. 

Earlier this year I chanced upon a long forgotten 'Gabriel-era Genesis' track off 'Foxtrot' called 'Can-Utility And The Coastliners', played by an Argentina tribute band called Genetics. It was an amazing cover and there were other videos in which Steve Hackett had performed with them (a seal of approval if ever there was one). 

Vocally Genetics are spot on, thanks to Tomás Price, and all the early favourites are covered, including this brilliant version of 'The Cinema Show'. 

* A Deluxe release of ‘The Lamb’ is due the end of September - see here.  

Genetics website here. 

  

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

The magazine headline read:

THE SHADOWS: Instrumental in inspiring a generation...

Inside it reminded me that "Apache & Beyond - sixty-five years after Apache's electrifying riff first revolutionised British rock'n'roll".

On August 27th 1960 The Shadows 'Apache' hit the No.1 spot in the UK singles chart and stayed at the top for 5 weeks. We've had this record as a Star Track (see here) previously. 

The Shads version didn't chart in America but was covered by a Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann. His version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961 and peaked at No.2 in April. 

I'd never heard any of this until now. With odd sci-fi noises, evoking alien life forms for no apparent reason ! This is 'Apache', written by Jerry Lordan and played by multi-instrumentalist Jorgen Ingmann.