Swank-A-Rama @ Rocket Century

I apologize for missing yesterday and the day before, I was away from an internet connection (how could that be in today's constantly-connected wi-fi society? How, you ask? I don't use smartphones, but that may be changing...stay tuned) at the abovementioned mid-century event in sunny (more on that miserable fact later as well) south St. Louis, Missouri, and busy preparing for the event the day before.

My cohort sheltie dave notified me a couple weeks ago that we'd be setting up stereo gear at Rocket Century for their multi-vendor sale, and to amass some sellable (period correct) stereo gear to display, demonstrate and sell. There were 20 or so dealers from all over the country, and buyers as well. It was an early start, at dawn, literally, and everyone was there and ready to exhibit at 7 am!

The day was incredibly hot (if they'd held it in May I wouldn't have gotten my Rock Lobster tan!) and I got a nasty facial sunburn that has erupted in swollen bags under my eyes today! Not as sore as it was yesterday, it's still tender and bright fricking red! Sunscreen never dawned on me for a moment, but at least I figured to wear long pants, and my legs are thanking me now...

The best part of Swank-A-Rama was that I got to DJ the event with lots of Les Baxter, Esquivel, Arthur Lyman, and other period-correct exotica/space age bachelor pad tunes, that went over very well with the hipster crowd. I brought my Pioneer SX-636, AR-XA, AR4X speakers (reviewed in previous posts), and some stuff to sell as well. The tunes were supplied via high definition lossless computer files (with an extensive how-to on that to follow), and the sound quality was superb. No lousy lossy mp3 here! I refuse to present that crap as music live, even to a non-paying crowd, and the effort was well worth it! We and all present were marveling at how wonderful the AR4X's sounded, with prodigious bass and clear, crystal-clear highs. Overall, it was the cleanest, loudest sound I've ever gotten outdoors, for the scale of the event (midday St. Louis city, trying to integrate well with the neighborhood and so forth)! Usually I'm using a big PA to cover a much larger crowd and space, but this was perfect with a 25-watt-per-channel Pioneer and AR speakers, with 8" woofers and a 1" cone tweeter on an L-pad. I used no loudness control, and 7 out of 10 on the bass and flat on the treble for tone controls. The volume never exceeded half on the Pioneer!

I met lots of nice people, had a great time, and saw lots of mid-century furnishings and ephemera. Rocket Century is housed in an industrial setting, a four-story warehouse, and their interior was resplendent with every 50's-type interior design acoutrement you could imagine. In-stock items at Rocket Century currently include a nice Rock-Ola Jukebox and vintage pinball machine, both of which saw service virtually all day. I saw more vintage kitchen sets, more kidney-shaped coffee tables, area rugs, groovy lamps, and swank, decorative bar units and room dividers for sale and perusal than I'd ever seen in one place before. Pop and op art work for sale was displayed hung on a number of high metal strips, on cables and eye hooks for easy retrieval with a hook on an extension pole (like an extension paint brush you'd use to paint your ceiling).

All in all, the day was an amazing experience, give or take the Rock Lobster tan! What a painful mess! Me and aloe vera are best friends right now!

Tomorrow it's back to audio and music, so keep our tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Charlie - 70's sophistication from Britain

Charlie was a British rock band that was formed in 1971 by singer/songwriter Terry Thomas. The group was most active as a recording unit from the mid-1970s through 1986. Charlie never charted in their home country, but had four minor hits in the US: 1977's "Turning To You"; 1978's "She Loves to Be In Love"; 1979's "Killer Cut" and 1983's "It's Inevitable".

The band was briefly called "Charlie Cuckoo" (after a racehorse), but soon became known simply as "Charlie". Original members included:

• Terry Thomas, Lead vocals & guitar
• John Anderson, Backing vocals & bass
• Steve Gadd, Drums (Not the American session drummer of the same name)
• Martin Smith, Backing vocals & guitar

The band debuted as a recording act in 1976, with the album Fantasy Girls. They toured the UK in the spring of 1976 as support act to the Dutch progressive rock band Focus to promote the album. Their second album, No Second Chance, began the practice of featuring a photograph of a female model as the album's cover. "Turning To You", off that album, became Charlie's first chart hit, peaking at US #96.

The band had a more substantial hit in 1978 with "She Loves to Be In Love," which peaked at #54 in the United States. The following year, the band again had a minor hit with "Killer Cut", which rose to US #60.

Julian Colbeck, who had replaced Martin Smith after the first album, departed four albums later in 1980 amid some turmoil. He writes, "Finally, the touring band line-up of Terry Thomas, John Anderson, Eugene Organ, Steve Gadd, and myself ceased operations once Arista refused to release Here Comes Trouble, and our caring, sharing management company immediately cut off all our money in 1980. That's a whole other story but, for the record, our final gig was in 1979 at the Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island on Monday 29 October, alongside Foreigner." Thomas commented "Arista our new label in the U.S. wanted more songs - our company in the UK - Trident Audio Productions - refused to put us in the studio or spend any more money. The UK record company - Polydor - wouldn't release it until it had a U.S. release. Effectively Charlie had no record label and no money to live on. Eugene and Julian decided to leave."

In 1982, Terry Slesser joined the group as new lead singer, while Thomas, still a member of the band, began concentrating more on the instrumentation. In 1983, the group had their most successful hit single, "It's Inevitable", which peaked just inside the US Top 40 at #38. The MTV music video featured a rousing pie fight. The accompanying self-titled album was a flop, however, and the band folded.

In 1986, Thomas resurrected the band with a new crew and released In Pursuit of Romance. Thomas writes, "This was basically a contractual album - Steve had gone off to work with Iron Maiden as a drum tech and John had a job in the telecommunications industry. I ended up making the whole album by myself - it put me in the hospital!"

After a long layoff, in 2009 Charlie released their first album of new material in 23 years, Kitchens Of Distinction. The album began life as a Terry Thomas solo project, but as the finished product included contributions from Martin Smith and Julian Colbeck, the decision was made to credit the CD to Charlie.

Members

• Terry Thomas: Lead vocals & guitar (1976-1984, 1986, 2009)
• John Anderson: Backing vocals & bass (1976–1984)
• Steve Gadd: Drums (1976–1984)
• Martin Smith: Backing vocals & guitar (1976–1977, 2009)
• Julian Colbeck: Keyboards (1977–1980, 2009)
• Eugene Organ: Guitar (1978–1980)
• Shep Lonsdale: Drums (1979)
• Bob Henrit: Drums (1981-1983)
• John Verity: Lead Vocals & guitar (1981)
• Terry Slesser: Lead Vocals (1982–1984)
• Graham Broad: Drums (1986)
• Richard Cottle: Keyboards & saxophone (1986)
• Felix Krish: Bass, keyboards, & backing vocals (1986)
• Linda Thomas: Backing vocals (1986)

Charlie had more radio play and recognized hits where I'm from, thanks to a midwestern radio station, than in any locale, including their home! Local rock giant KSHE (94.7 FM St. Louis, Missouri, classic rock-formatted since 1967) featured no less than six Charlie songs, from their first four LP's. Program director Shelley Grafman had an ear for suitable classic rock radio fodder, and Charlie was right up KSHE's alley. They are generally thought of as a disco band (those beats kinda pidgeonhole you)... I look at them more as a very sophisticated, relationship-oriented pop rock group (generalizations, yes, but so much more than simply a disco band as they've been wrongly cornered).

Tomorrow we feature another band, another piece of gear, another portion of my existance, so keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Harman-Kardon 430 Twin-Powered Receiver

The Harman-Kardon 430 is a stout little receiver, measuring in at 25 watts per channel at 8 ohms per side, and low distortion ratings (less than 0.03, typically). It has the usual controls (tone, function switches, low and high filters) and two tape deck connections.

The looks of the 430 are the first thing that grabs you. The FM dial face wraps up and around the top of the receiver, and the on/off switch is a familiar red lamp that is almost too bright! The controls could use more than indented markers, as in an unlit room it's kind of hard to tell where the knobs are positioned. This is a minor niggle, as the receiver is very attractive for the most part. The knobs area is brushed aluminum, as are the knobs themselves.

On the back are the usual connections (two sets of speakers, two tape inputs/outputs, AM, FM, aux and one phono preamp). The phono stage is particularyly sweet when making CD copies as I did while testing it. No harshness or graininess, it operated smoothly with the AR-XA turntable (previously reviewed here) connected. The table has a grounding issue (no grounding wire!) so that had to be sorted before the system could be operated without hum.

This thing can pull in the FM stations, but as many AM sections from receivers of this age, it takes a bit of fiddling to get the antenna to pull in all but the strongest stations in any given area. That's with KMOX being the strongest AM radio station in the St. Louis area (it's a Clear Channel blowtorch at 50,000 watts). Smaller AM's can be brought in, just not as perfectly as the big guys. Let's face facts, AM is just not what it used to be. I hope, personally, that FM terrestrial radio doesn't go the same route, but that is a different rant for a different day!

I give the Harman-Kardon 430 Twin-Powered receiver a glowing 4 1/2 stars out of a possible five stars. Weak AM reception and no position marker on the knobs make up for the discrepancies. The twin-powered feature refers to the dual power transformers onboard, making the 430 much like two monoblock amps under its vinyl-coated hood. This feature gives the 430 a beefy sound that is obvious. It likes to play with higher eficiency speakers, given the lower power rating. It loves Klipsch offerings, as can be expected. Go to the Klipsch forums online and see how many Klipsch owners are also HK-430 owners.

Tomorrow we go back into the grab bag for yet another goodie, so keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos

 I Am The Cosmos is the only solo album by the American pop-rock musician Chris Bell, eventually released in 1992 by Rykodisc, having been recorded over a period of two to three years during the mid-1970s. Bell had previously been a member of Big Star. After the band's first LP (#1 Record), Chris left to pursue a solo career.

In 2009 the album was remastered and re-released in a deluxe two-CD version by Rhino Handmade with alternate versions and additional tracks, and three songs by Bell's pre-Big Star groups, Icewater and Rock City. Some copies included a bonus 7" single of "I Am the Cosmos" / "You and Your Sister" (pictured above), a replica of the original single. The booklet notes for the album were written by Bell's brother David, who also took the photographs used on the cover and in the CD booklet.


Speed of Sound" was used over the opening credits of the Peter Sollett film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. This song also featured on the various artists compilation album compiled by the The Flaming Lips, Late Night Tales: The Flaming Lips.


"I Am the Cosmos" has been played live by Big Star, The Posies, Gigolo Aunts, and The Drams, and has also been covered by This Mortal Coil together with a version of "You and Your Sister". Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn recorded "I Am the Cosmos" for their 2009 album Break Up.


This record, in Chris' absence, is hauntingly beautiful and eerily alive with rocking tunes, innovative rock guitaring and thought-provoking lyrics. The best of what went into the iconic group Big Star is evident in these grooves, and long after the fact (the original album was recorded in 1974 - 1975, that magical time in music history), this last testament of Chris Bell stands the test of time and sounds incredibly fresh. It's evident that he had a big hand in the songwriting of his former band, and one can only speculate what amazing records Chris would still be making (and with who) if he were still alive.


On a scale of one to five stars I give I Am The Cosmos 27 and a half meteors. It is one of my all-time favorites. I have the 180 gram vinyl version, on 4 Men With Beards Records (bootleg???) and it plays and sounds like the iconic record that it is. It's simply amazing in every way. RIP Chris, the world was a better place having you to write songs for but a very short time.

Tomorrow we plumb further depths, so remember...Keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Queen II - true genius

Here's a band that's about as polarizing as they come. They are a 70's artifact, that's for sure, and a few years ago they recorded with Paul Rodgers in place of the late Freddie Mercury. The album "The Cosmos Rocks", released in September of 2008, was an interesting collaboration, never intending to be permanent. Like many bands, the first few albums interest me most, and the reason? It's usually before the rot sets in! Personalities are on their best behavior at this stage, and everybody plays nice. No drug problems, or possessive, jealous girlfriends/wives for the most part. The record company hasn't started making ultimatums, and the manager hasn't shown his ass either. It was in this type of climate that Queen II was made, and Queen broadened ever so slightly their circle of influence.

Roy Thomas Baker produces this masterpiece with his state-of-the-art 80-something-track recorder, and the vocals get stacked like crazy. They were on tour with Sweet the year before this LP was made, and the multitrack vocals are a direct influence from then. Think Ballroom Blitz with its unique vocal delivery and you'll recognize the technique that was hackneyed by the time that Bohemian Crapsody was released a year later. Sweet rode that train for awhile as well. Sweet had an advantage, their bass player had a voice that didn't need tape manipulation, he just sang up in the stratosphere...Freddie's voice had quite an extensive range as well.

This was Queen's second album (hence the name!), and to tackle a concept of this magnitude at this stage of the game was brave, for sure. Queen II had no hits, the first LP had Liar, a powerful tour de force that kicked off the band with a real bang. Sheer Heart Attack was to follow (Killer Queen), and by most critics' opinion, it was a much more well-constructed effort. Myself, I believed then (and still do now), that II was the band's masterstroke (to borrow a phrase that appears as a song title on II). The lack of a song that radio would eventually play and wear out is a godsend for an excellent band. Radio has that one fault as far as I'm concerned. They can run a good song into the ground, and not even care. This small bit of remaining obscurity can add a couple years to the life of a band at its best.

Ogre Battle is no where near hit material, but at this time (1974) Queen was an album rock band. It fit their pseudo-underground style perfectly for me, and I know many musicians who totally fell in love with Brian May's guitar playing and look at the time. I knew many tall, skinny, curly-headed iconic types that aped his look and sound, down to using Vox amps, which, since the 60's had been a staple of British groups. Americans played Fenders for the most part, and the occasional Marshall from Marissa, Illinois made its way onto metro eastern stages from time to time. When a big band has a really flamboyant stage presence, local and regional musicians ape the style and become very influenced by the look and sound. Brian's shirt was open to the waist, and this wasn't a lame disco effect either. At this time in rock's development, there wasn't any throwback bands, the older bands were totally classic rock, no 60's nostalgia yet. Nostalgia was to play 12-bar blues in the 50's stye, which most progressive (relatively speaking) musicians rarely dabbled in, unless you represented yourself as a blues or southern rock band. It was a sign of copping out from rehearsing and playing arrangements, which, with chord progressions and serious musical changes, were de rigeur at the time. Nobody (and I mean NO ONE) that I can remember from that period (locally) could sing as good as these seasoned pros. Most singers were weak musically, anyway, back then.

I personally loved Queen II along with their first album, and I bought them both at the same time. I always felt like they were one double album, the concepts were so strong and concise between the two. I was in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on tour with the Belleville Black Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, and I had yet to start playing rock and roll (about a year out), when I bought the records, and had to wait a month till I got home to listen. Needless to say, they, and bands/artists like Bowie and Alice Cooper had an enormous influence on me, as it did on half the original hipsters from the big city. We liked our music heavy, and preferred Humble Pie and Grand Funk Railroad for example, as well.

The themes were as follows: one side was the white side, and one was the black. Using that imagery the themes were presented as white being mellow and black being heavy. Like Iron Butterfly, they were heavy on lyrical imagery and polar opposites in dynamics to deliver the musical themes. No "You're My Best Friend" pablum here, this sheet was scary and deep. I loved it, having been raised on Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, which was fairly represented by the slightly fey delivery. Bowie had given every artist an excuse to come off as androgynous, and Fred played this to the hilt. He was the only person I ever saw use a mic stand sawed off at the base, as a stage tool or prop It didn't stand by itself when he was idle, he was never idle, and he carried the stand as he pranced and preened around the stage. That was his signature, along with white and black skintight stage wear designed to accompany the two sides of the band stylistically. Tons of style and attitude... Everyone knew Freddie was openly gay, and normally this wouldn't fly here in the midwest. Maybe on the east and west coasts, but we weren't having any of that gay shit in the heartland/bible belt. Ony thing saving him, he was genuinely talented and he had the voice and the looks to prove it.

On  a scale from one to five I give Queen II five stars. There are no faults, and the songs run together like Sgt. Pepper, another cool technique. Their next album, Sheer Heart Attack was excellent as well, but the bigtime bug got Freddie and crew by Night At The Opera and Day At The Races, they'd become too big, and unrightfully so. They had sold out and their true fans recognized the ploy. The later day fans supported the band through the transition and they lost their initial fanbase as a result. They were too big too quick to even notice. This kills the best intentions and is an easy sellout.

Tomorrow we'll look at another vital part of the past with a view to tie in with the rock and roll theme as usual. Keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then.

John Michael Yaffe graduates high school!

I'm beyond proud! His class was around 200 kids, maybe as many as 225, and the ceremeny was short and sweet. My 85-year-old father and I sat in an overflow area without tickets (a brand-spanking-new, state-of-the-art auditorium with every acoutrement imaginable, and a HUGE video display, a truly amazing facility). His name is, as mine, Yaffe (Russian Jew), so we waited till the end of the alphabet (he was fourth from the end!) to see him accept his sheepskin. His plans? He will be leaving in the beginning of August to attend an honor academy in Texas, 50 miles east of Dallas IIRC, for a year, to sort out his immediate future. Thereafter he'll have a chance to go on to 4-year college if he chooses. This interim move is a good thing, he has ADHD and definitely needs to take things slowly before he catches on! His emphasis will be music, as a singer with praise and worship groups. He's been accepted to this program, and if he stays with it, he will attend Oral Roberts University on reduced tuition. I'm thrilled to see him studying music, following after his father, and the opportunities that lie before him. At 18 years old, he's an adult now, and has the freedom that eluded him in his mother's custody. He'll be leaving his job at McDonald's to relocate and I will miss him massively. His graduation present? That's easy, a vintage stereo system (his request!)! Good Luck, John Michael Yaffe, the world awaits.

Tomorrow we return to the audio/musical world that surrounds me like a warm overcoat (hardly necessary in out current weather - 90 degree temperatures!). We need rain severely in the St. Louis metro-east area! So, as always, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you tomorrow!

Consumer vs pro amps - big difference?

There's a lot of misinformation floating around the audiophile community, and most of it stems from rumors and fuzzy facts about how useful pro audio items (amps simply as a common example of the level of confusion present) are in home theater/2-channel settings. This couldn't be farther from the truth of how these excellent amps can be utilized in integrated setups.

Not only can an audiophile use pro amps in a home stereo rig, he/she can use a mixture of consumer and pro audio items in one big happy system. A common misconception is that pro amps are big, rattly and their fans, used to perform cooling duties, are too noisy to be of any resonable audiophile usage. Wrong! I've seen people hide them under floor joists to get them out of the visual plane, but I rather like the "industrial" look of a big, gnarly set-up. It comes from my years as a musician, gear salesman, and sound person. To me, Crown power amps, for instance, always have a place in my rigs because they are reliable, sound great, and as time goes on, they're getting lighter than ever. QSC and Peavey are two other alternatives, and you can find them cheaply, being sold by starving musicians (I are one, believe me!).

I have an analog set up that is as natural and organic as possible. When I strip it down (which I can do with no difficulties), it only consists of a SET amp, a phono stage, and a pair or two of speakers. SET topology, by virtue of its design, desires low impedance (down to a dead short, according to the manufacturer) and is mostly in want of sensitive, easy-to-drive loads. I use two 4-ohm-per-side loads (impossible to run with larger, high-power home stereo amps, you'll kill them trying this) to optimize the 4-watts-total output. Commonly, pro amps will do down to 2 ohms per stereo side, like I mention in my SET rig, but, conversely, a common 2-channel home stereo integrated of receiver wants to see 4 or 8 ohms per side. I know people who see three speaker connections on the back of a Pioneer or a Sansui receiver and feel like they can use all three at the same time ("hey, if there are three connections, you ought to be able to use all three at once!") This is what makes the distance betweeen their listening room their repairman a well-worn path. Or, on the other hand, the distance betweeen their listening room and the trash can...

Home stereo users, uneless they are big DIY'ers, eschew the use of pro crossovers, too. They're paranoid of turning on the amps and sending lows to the high drivers by mistake. To this, I say that if you're overtly concerned, make sure some gremlin or 3-year-old hasn't assumed the role of personal audio assistant! Check the settings, you did set them originally, and there's no reason you can't commit the settings to memory.

I've seen conventional audiophiles rig up lightbulbs to act as fuses, or resistors inline to prevent surges. I say (YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY) that anyone who's smart enough to integrate pro and consumer components, should be able to run a pro crossover in a modern/vintage pro/consumer rig without incident. I have done such for years, and I definitely took the time to learn how to do it, and how to set it up in the first place. Your ears alone will tell you if you're leaving a big midrange frequency gap if you're doing a two-way setup, and unless you're well-experienced, I'll advise againgt doing three-ways unless an expert sets it up and you take due diligence to learn the concept (first of all), then take notes or memorize the particular crossover settings so you can revert back to them in case things get mixed up somehow. A good rule of thumb is to let the bottom speakers do the brunt of the heavy lifting and let the tweeters do the highest, airy stuff, set as high as you can allow.

This is one of my pro amps. I use it in a number of configurations, one of which is in a basic 2-way configuration. I use another Crown amp (a vintage D-75) to run Electro Voice full range speakers on top, and big JBL/Bag End cabs for low end. This way, the bass is crossed over at 80 hz.  For this configuration, I use the big Crown/JBL set-up for low bass management strictly. Alternately, I'll use both amps with Seleniuim horn drivers and JBL lenses to do a more conventional 2-way set-up where the JBL/Bag End combo is doing most of the work. In this iteration it operates at 2400 hz and below, and at 800 watts per channel at 4 ohms a side I rarely turn it up (both amps on one half) over half! It's nice to have headroom at this level, and it sure sounds nice with JBL E-140's and Selenium horns. I use one half as a nominal reference point, you can choose your own optimal point without problems. Just be careful to watch your power meters, or you'll hear a crappy, clipping system. It will sound bad, and before long, you'll smell burning copper. If I'm traveling light and only want to do mono, I use this amp alone, lows on on side and highs on the other. It operates as two separate mono amps (another benefit of pro amps in this configuration).

So, kiddies, don't be afraid to mix and match your pro and consumer components, because, by and large, they will play nice together and sound excellent. If you have any reservations whatsoever, consult someone who will assume the responsibility of replacing everything if they set things up wrong!

Tomorrow we'll delve back into the world of michaelhigh, and by then my 18-year-old son will have graduated high school without incident (hopefully...I'd hate to see him do a faceplant with all those teenage and parental cameras running! That's a sad memory to carry into perpetuity, especially when you hometown is roughly 2500 and YouTube is so accessible!!). So, until then, remember! Keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you tomorrow!

Bob Welch dead of apparent suicide at age 66

From the Los Angeles Times and Wikipedia:

"NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Guitarist and singer Bob Welch, whose work in the early 1970s for Fleetwood Mac set the stage for the band's multiplatinum success later in the decade, died on Wednesday at his home in Nashville, Tenn.. He was 66.

According to a spokesman for the Nashville Police Department, Welch was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. The spokesman said Welch's wife, Wendy, told police he had been suffering from health problems.

Welch joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 as a 24-year-old living in Paris, just as the group was making the transition away from being a British blues rock band and into the 1970s commercial powerhouse that it became.

As a singer and guitarist for the group, Welch was lesser known than the pair who replaced him -- lead vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. His work on early albums such as "Future Games," "Bare Trees" and "Heroes Are Hard to Find" with band mates who included Mick Fleetwood and John and Christie McVie set the tone for what was to come.

Welch left the band in 1974, and it was his departure that set the stage for Fleetwood Mac's hit-making lineup when Nicks and Buckingham were hired to take on his two duties. That would become the group's most successful lineup, releasing the 1975 album "Fleetwood Mac" and "Rumors," the band's acclaimed 1977 hit album.

Welch went solo and scored a top 20 hit in 1977 with "Ebony Eyes." The album from which it was culled, "French Kiss," featured a number of former Fleetwood Mac members, as well as a rendition of "Sentimental Lady," a song originally recorded with Fleetwood Mac but reworked by Welch. Bob Welch struggled with a variety of marginal bands until 1971, when he was invited to join Fleetwood Mac, then an erstwhile English blues band that had lost two of its three front-line members, Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, within a few months. Along with fellow newcomer Christine McVie, a keyboardist/singer-songwriter (formerly of the British blues band Chicken Shack) married to bassist (and long-time band member) John McVie, Bob helped to steer the band in a more melodic direction, particularly after lead guitarist/singer-songwriter Danny Kirwan left the band in 1972.

In the summer of 1971, the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac held auditions at their retreat in England, Kiln House, while seeking a guitarist to replace Spencer. Judy Wong, a friend of the band who served at times as their secretary (the Kirwan-written song "Jewel-Eyed Judy" was dedicated to her), recommended her high school friend Bob Welch to the band. Welch (who has been described as Wong's high school boyfriend) was living in Paris at the time.

The band had a few meetings with Welch and decided to hire him without actually playing with him or listening to any of his recordings. Welch was tasked for the role of rhythm guitar, backing up lead guitarist Danny Kirwan. It was felt that having an American in the band might extend Fleetwood Mac's appeal in the States. Welch eventually went to live in the band's communal home, a mansion called Benifold, which was located in Hampshire. (Using mobile equipment borrowed from The Rolling Stones, the band would record four albums at Benifold: Future Games, Bare Trees, Penguin and Mystery to Me.)

In September 1971, the band released the first Fleetwood Mac album featuring Bob Welch, Future Games, with the title song written by Welch. This album was radically different from anything the band had done up to that point. The choice of Welch seemed to be paying off as there were many new fans in America who were becoming more and more interested in the band. In 1972, six months after the release of Future Games, the band released the well-received album Bare Trees, which featured Welch's song Sentimental Lady. (The song would become a much bigger hit for him five years later when he re-recorded it for his solo album French Kiss. He was backed on the album by Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham, who had replaced Welch as the band's guitarist.)

While the band was doing well in the studio, their tours were more problematic. Danny Kirwan developed an alcohol dependency and became alienated from Bob Welch and the McVies. Welch held contradictory attitudes towards Kirwan in the 18 months they were band mates in Fleetwood Mac: On the one hand, their personal relationship was difficult as Welch felt that Kirwan was playing mind games with the band; and on the other hand, Welch had enormous respect for Kirwan's musicianship.

In 1999, Welch stated: "He was a talented, gifted musician, almost equal to Pete Green in his beautiful guitar playing and faultless string bends." In a later interview, Welch said: "Danny wasn't a very lighthearted person, to say the least. He probably shouldn't have been drinking as much as he did, even at his young age.... He was always very intense about his work, as I was, but he didn't seem to ever be able to distance himself from it... and laugh about it. Danny was the definition of 'deadly serious'."

The end for Kirwan came in August 1972, during an American tour, when he stormed off stage in a violent rage after arguing with Welch.  Before a concert on that year's US tour, Kirwan and Welch rowed over tuning and Kirwan flew into a rage, smashing his guitar and refusing to go onstage. He reportedly smashed his head bloody on a wall in back of the stage, then moved into the sound booth to watch the show, where the band struggled without him as Welch tried to cover his guitar parts. After the fiasco of a show, he criticized the band.

Mick Fleetwood subsequently fired Kirwan, partly on the recommendation of Welch. The artistic direction of Fleetwood Mac essentially was left in the hands of Bob and Christine.

The next two and a half years proved to be the most challenging for the band. In the three albums Fleetwood Mac would release in this period, they would constantly change line-ups around the core of Mick Fleetwood, the McVies and Welch. The band then faced the ultimate challenge, a very threat to their existence, when their manager put a band on the road in America under the name Fleetwood Mac that contained none of the band members, precipitating a legal row.

Kirwan was replaced by Savoy Brown lead singer Dave Walker and Bob Weston on lead guitar. Both Walker and Weston appeared on Penguin, released in January 1973, cracking the Top 50 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart in the U.S., reaching #49. Walker's style did not mesh with Fleetwood Mac and he was amicably dismissed, failing to appear on Mac's second album of 1973, Mystery to Me, which was shipped to market six months after Penguin.

Mystery to Me contained the Welch song "Hypnotized", which got a lot of airplay on the radio in the United States and became one of the band's most recognizable Fleetwood Mac songs to date. However, Mystery to Me only reached #67 in The States, as that market became increasingly important to the band, which was shipping albums in the respectable range of 250,000 units at the time.

Internal stresses caused by line-up changes, touring and the failing marriage of Christine and John McVie (exacerbated by John's alcoholism), and an affair between lead guitarist Bob Weston and Mick Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd proved debilitating to the band. Mick was devastated by his wife's revelation of the affair, and Weston was sacked from the band. Mick's distress led to the cancellation of a planned tour in the United States, the band's most important market.

In what would be one of the most bizarre events in rock history, the band's manager, Clifford Davis, determined not to cancel the tour, claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac. According to Bob Welch, Davis sent letters to all the remaining Fleetwood Mac band members saying he was putting a new "star-quality, headlining act" together and offering them jobs in this new band. Welch said that he believed that Davis' gambit was ignored by them all. Without telling any of the band members, he then set up a tour with a new group of musicians, booking them into venues in the United States under the name "Fleetwood Mac" even though none of the new musicians had ever played with any previous incarnation of the band.

Davis announced that Bob Welch and John McVie had quit Fleetwood Mac, and put the "fake Mac" band out on to tour the United States. None of the "fake Mac" members was ever officially in the real band, but it was announced that Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie would be joining the band at a later date. The members of Fleetwood Mac obtained an injunction preventing the fake Mac from touring under their name, while Davis obtained an injunction preventing the "real Mac" from touring. The lawsuits resulting from the fake Mac tour, which was aborted, put the real Fleetwood Mac out of commission for almost a year.

During this period, Bob Welch stayed in Los Angeles and connected with entertainment attorneys. Welch quickly realized that the band was being neglected by Warner Bros.,the parent of their label, Reprise Records. He came to the conclusion that if the band wanted to get better treatment from Warner Bros., they would have to change their base of operation to Los Angeles. The rest of the band agreed immediately. Rock promoter Bill Graham wrote a letter to Warner Bros. to convince them that the "real" Fleetwood Mac were in fact Fleetwood, Welch and the McVies. While this did not end the legal battle, the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again.

Instead of getting another manager, Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves. After the courts ruled that the "Fleetwood Mac" marque belonged to Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the two band members set up their own band management company, Seedy Management.
 
In 1974, for the first time in its history, Fleetwood Mac had only had one guitarist, Bob Welch, who took over lead guitarist duties. The quartet of Welch, Mick Fleetwood, and the McVies represented the ninth line-up in the band's seven year history.

Warner Bros. made a new record deal with the real Fleetwood Mac, after which the quartet of Mick Fleetwood, the McVies and Welch recorded and released the album Heroes Are Hard to Find on Reprise in September 1974. (The band did not switch to the parent label Warner Bros. Records until 1976, after the multiple platinum success of the 1975 album Fleetwood Mac, with Rumours marking their first release on the Warners' label in 1977.) The Heroes Are Hard to Find album was the first to crack the US Top 40 in the United States, reaching #34 on the USA Billboard 200 chart.

The Heroes Are Hard to Find tour proved to be the last one for Welch. The constant touring had taken its toll on him. His marriage was failing and he felt that he had hit the end of his creative road with the band. In a 1999 online question and answer session on the Fleetwood Mac fan site The Penguin, Welch also said he felt somewhat estranged from the British members of the band after four years. He claimed he felt close to Mick Fleetwood, with whom he claimed he was running the band in 1974, but felt estranged from John and Christine McVie.

Bob Welch resigned from Fleetwood Mac in December 1974 and was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Of the Fleetwood Mac albums on which Welch appeared, American album sales totaled 500,000 units shipped between 1971 and 2000 for Future Games; 1 million units of Bare Trees between 1972 and 1988; and 500,000 units of Mystery to Me between 1973 and 1976, when it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The Buckingham-Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac achieved supergroup status with the albums Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977), which shipped 5 million and 19 million units in the US, alone, both reaching #1 in the US. (Rumours, which has shipped 40 million units worldwide, is one of the most successful sound recordings ever released.) Welch's French Kiss, released in 1977, was his sole platinum album, and after his gold-certified album Three Hearts (1979), his career faded.
Mick Fleetwood continued to manage Bob Welch's career into the 1980s. In 1994, Welch sued Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, band attorney and attorney Michael Shapiro and Warner Bros. Records for breach of contract related to underpayment of royalties. In 1978, Welch and the three band members signed a contract with Warner Bros. agreeing to an equal share of all royalties from their Fleetwood Mac albums. Welch alleged that the three subsequently had struck various deals with Warner Bros. that gave them higher royalty rates. Welch alleged that Fleetwood and the McVies had failed to inform him of the new, higher royalty rate, thus depriving him of his fair share of royalties. The breach of contract lawsuit was settled in 1996.

When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, original band members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were named to the Hall, as were Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Welch, who anchored the band for several years and three albums, was not. "My era was the bridge era," Welch told the Cleveland newspaper the Plain Dealer in 1998, after he was snubbed by the Hall of Fame. "It was a transition. But it was an important period in the history of the band. Mick Fleetwood dedicated a whole chapter of his biography to my era of the band and credited me with 'saving Fleetwood Mac.' Now they want to write me out of the history of the group. It hurts."

Welch went on to tell the Plain Dealer, "Mick and I co-managed the group for years. I'm the one who brought the band to Los Angeles from England, which put them in the position of hooking up with Lindsey and Stevie. I saw the band through a whole period where they barely survived, literally." At the time, Welch believed that he had been blackballed by the Hall because of the breach of contract lawsuit against Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie. At the time of his snubbing by the Hall, he believed that the falling out with three band members led them to pressuring the selection committee into excluding him from the Hall.

In a 2003 online question and answer session on the Fleetwood Mac fan site The Penguin, Welch revised his opinion of why he was snubbed by the Hall. He had recently attended a Fleetwood Mac show and visited the band members back stage after the show. The visit reconnected him with Mick Fleetwood, his ex-band mate and ex-manager, after being estranged for many years. (He had never been estranged from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who were not party to the lawsuit.) By 2003, Welch believed that he had been snubbed by the Hall as the directors in New York, music industry insiders, did not like his style of music. However, he did believe that the lawsuit was a factor in his being blackballed, as it prevented him from getting in touch with Mick Fleetwood, whom he was not talking to at the time of the induction, who may have otherwise have used his influence to get Welch included with other members of the band. (Jerry Garcia had used his influence to get 12 members of the Grateful Dead inducted into the Hall, including some band mates whose contributions were considered marginal.) Welch said he had also communicated with Christine McVie but was still estranged from John.

In 1975, Welch formed the short-lived hard rock power trio Paris with ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick and ex Todd Rundgren's Nazz drummer Thom Mooney. Paris released two albums; Paris and, after Hunt Sales replaced Mooney, Big Towne 2061. Sales' brother Tony subsequently replaced Cornick before the group split.

In a 1979 interview with People, Welch said that the two Paris albums were "ill-conceived." Due to the misfire of Paris, his finances had deteriorated until he had only $8,000 left. Mick Fleetwood and members of Fleetwood Mac would soon help him reinvigorate his career as a solo act.

In September 1977, Welch released his first solo album, French Kiss (originally to have been called Paris 3), a mainstream pop collection featuring contributions from former band mates Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. This release brought Welch his greatest success, selling one million copies being certified by the RIAA on 5/1/78. It yielded three hit singles: a revamped version of "Sentimental Lady", which hit Billboard's Top 10, the rocker "Ebony Eyes" and "Hot Love, Cold World".

Welch followed up French Kiss with 1979's Three Hearts, an album that replicated the rock/disco fusion of French Kiss. It was certified Gold by the RIAA on 2/23/1979, and spawned the top 20 hit "Precious Love", while the follow-up single "Church" also charted. He also hosted a music video program, Hollywood Heartbeat.

Welch released solo albums into the early 1980s (The Other One, Man Overboard, Bob Welch, and Eye Contact) with decreasing success, during which time he also developed a heroin addiction. After cleaning himself up in 1986, Welch turned away from performing and recording and focused his attention on songwriting for others. In the early 1990s, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he put together a short-lived group called Avenue M, which backed him on tour and recorded one song for a greatest hits compilation. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1999, Welch released an experimental jazz/loop based album, Bob Welch Looks at Bop. He followed this up in 2003, with His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond, which contained new recordings of songs he originally recorded with Fleetwood Mac, as well as some solo hits. In 2006, he released His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond 2, which mixed a half-dozen new compositions, along with a similar number of his Mac/solo remakes.

Welch had been married since 1985 to Wendy Armistead Welch of Memphis, Tennessee. The couple resided in Nashville.

On June 7, 2012, Welch committed suicide in his Nashville home at around 12:15 p.m. He was found by his wife with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest; a suicide note had been left behind. Welch suffered from undisclosed health issues prior to his death."

This entire situation saddens me, greatly, to no end, really. I can't express my level of grief properly upon reading the details of Bob's coming and going from the band. He and his music were such an integral part of such a magnificent group of musicians, and his synergy while in the band is testament alone that he should not have been snubbed by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction committee as he was. I'd imagine (mere speculation) that the Mac themselves would refuse to be inducted unless Welch was excluded, thus furthering speculation that the Hall is, perhaps, a bit political in its decision-making concerning matters of this type. The acrimony surrrounding their separation is simply unbelieveable, after the music that emanated from that quartet (the group before Buckingham/Nicks joined). This is a hard pill to swallow for me.

May Bob rest in peace, and may the Mac, without retired keyboardist and magnificent vocalist Christine McVie, live on in the collective memory of their millions and millions of true fans. I, for one, loved the band in retrospect, having had quite different opinions of them after Bob left. I, of course, became able to see past his departure, and perceive the group as who they truly are, a supergroup who survived trying times despite personal and professional strife. I can't say the same for Bob, sadly.

Tomorrow we'll hit on lighter topics.

DAB - the wave of the future?

Countries with regular services

Countries with trials / tests

Countries with interest

DAB no longer used

DAB is a digital radio format for broadcasting radio stations used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,002 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format.

The DAB standard was initiated as a European research project in the 1980s.  The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) launched the very first DAB channel in the world on June 1 1995 (NRK Klassisk), and the BBC and SR launched their first DAB digital radio broadcasts in September 1995. DAB receivers have been available in many countries since the end of the nineties. DAB possesses the capacity to allow more radio programmes over a specific spectrum than analogue FM radio. DAB is more robust with regard to noise and multipath fading, since DAB reception quality first degrades rapidly when the signal strength falls below a critical threshold, whereas FM reception quality degrades slowly with the decreasing signal.

An unblinded "informal listening test" by Sverre Holm has shown that for stationary listening the audio quality on DAB is subjectively lower than FM stereo (but this may be due to observer bias). Most stations using a bit rate of 128 kbit/s or less, with the MP2 audio codec, which requires 160 kbit/s to achieve perceived FM quality. 128 kbit/s gives better dynamic range or signal-to-noise ratio than FM radio, but a more smeared stereo image, and an upper cutoff frequency of 14 kHz, corresponding to 15 kHz of FM radio.  However, "CD sound quality" with MP2 is possible "with 256..192 kbps".

An upgraded version of the system was released in February 2007, which is called DAB+. DAB is not forward compatible with DAB+, which means that DAB-only receivers will not be able to receive DAB+ broadcasts. DAB+ is approximately twice as efficient as DAB due to the adoption of the AAC+ audio codec, and DAB+ can provide high quality audio with as low as 64 kbit/s. Reception quality will also be more robust on DAB+ than on DAB due to the addition of Reed-Solomon error correction coding.

In spectrum management, the bands that are allocated for public DAB services, are abbreviated with T-DAB, where the "T" stands for terrestrial.

More than 20 countries provide DAB transmissions, and several countries, such as Australia, Italy, Malta, Switzerland and Germany, have started transmitting DAB+ stations. However, DAB radio has still not replaced the old FM system in popularity.

It's certainly good to see that radio hasn't lost its incentive to move and progress into the the future with innovative, SQ-improving innovations. At least for the foreseeable future, terrestrial radio will still be there to provide local coverage such as traffic and weather, and those are but two relevant reasons for the medium to exist well into the future. At least until dematerialization becomes our main mode of travel and we can dodge the raindrops (not to mention traffic mishaps), AM radio, with periodic updates of road closings, for instance, will still provide a necessary service to get us to and from where we're going, physically and logistically speaking. FM radio here in the United States is still a viable broadcast entertainment medium, however restricted you might find the current offerings in your area. I personally find surfing for local internet stations around the world lots of fun, and listening in unfamiliar markets reminds me of everyday life there (wherever there ends up to be!). Even foreign language stations are cool, it really doesn't even matter what propaganda might or might not be being disseminated at any given time. If it's music you're after, the difference in what's available in that country will be immediately obvious. If it's mindless chatter, you can get plenty of that here in the good ol' US of A!

Tomorrow, it's more of that programming that makes you jump for joy, puts a wiggle in your giggle, and rocks your rolls. So, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Power pop supreme - 'off broadway usa'

off broadway usa is an American rock band founded by John Pazdan, Dan Santercola, Paul Darrow and Paul McDermott and Cliff Johnson in 1977 in Oak Park, Illinois. After several line-up changes, their debut album On was released by Atlantic Records in 1979. The album reached #101 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "Stay in Time", which reached #51 on the Billboard Hot 100. Off Broadway released a follow-up album, Quick Turns, on Atlantic in 1980 and continued touring for three years before breaking up in 1983. The band is currently composed of original album guitarist and songwriter John Ivan (lead/rhythm guitar), founder John Pazdan (bass guitar/backing vocals), Brian Cote (lead vocals), Sal Monaco (drums) and Scott Licina (rhythm/lead guitar/backing vocals). They will be touring in 2012 in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the band, and are currently recording a newly updated version of the hit "Stay In Time" which will be released this year along with a live recording of the albums "ON" and 'QUICK TURNS" from the upcoming tour.

off broadway usa had it’s auspicious beginnings way back in the summer of 1977. At the time, bassist John Pazdan was playing with guitarist Dan Santercola and drummer Paul McDermott in a band put together by saxophonist Tom Webb (formerly of “The Flock”, a Chicago based fusion group from the late 60's) called “The TS Henry Webb Group”. After a short stint gigging at places like Harry Hopes in Cary the group disbanded, but Pazdan, Santercola and McDermott stuck together, and with the addition of keyboardist Paul Darrow played a combination of acid jazz, funk and “instrumental mayhem” for a stream of shows at a little dive on Cicero and Augusta in Chicago called There Is No Name. The only problem was that the band didn't have a singer, so the four members decided to look for a vocalist to hire. At this time John Pazdan had been dating a girl (Ms. Deborah McManus) who was interested in promoting the band, and one night the name Cliff Johnson came up in conversation between the two. Johnson was one of the original members (along with Pazdan, Mike Gorman, Mimi Betinis and Mick Ruane) of the Chicago power pop group “Pezband”, and since that time had gone on to front a rock outfit called “d'Thumbs”, which had recently broken up.

McManus knew Johnson wasn't exactly doing much of anything musically, and since both he and Pazdan were living in Oak Park she suggested to John that they hook up. After a quick phone call and formal invitation by Pazdan, Cliff started coming to band rehearsals at a house John was renting down the street from Fitzgeralds (before it was Fitzgeralds- in 1977 it was a fine, tacky bar called the Deer Lodge- Hamms on tap, only 50¢). At the time Johnson was heavily into Roxy Music, and with a slight stretch of the imagination that’s what the mix of he and the established band sounded like when they jammed- Roxy, circa 1977, swimming around in the early Brit funk/”Art Music” pond. One night after a rehearsal, following a beer or 15 at a tavern down the street from Pazdan’s house called the Weinkellar (aka the Wine Keel-Over), the band decided to say screw it, and bring Johnson on board permanently… as long as they would do everything the opposite of what was happening at the time (big hair, big amps, big lights). This just happened to handily dovetail into the growing NYC-punk/DIY scene, circa ‘77.

The name off broadway came from that same girl that Pazdan was dating, Deborah McManus (no relation to DeClan, Jim or Shamus). One night they were sitting around trying to come up with a name, and out of the blue she said “you know... it sounds like you guys, if you were in the theater, you'd be like... you know... Off Broadway.” Click! Following along that idea, Paul Darrow came up with the concept that their “big” light show, much like a cliched Off Broadway play, should simply be five bare bulbs on a piece of cord, one over each member of the band. The band also decided that bowling shirts, which were as 180 degrees as possible from “rockstar” at the time, would be the perfect choice of attire. So down to Johnson and Johnson (no relation) Sporting Goods in Oak Park they went to order 5 bowling shirts with the group members' name over the pocket…

The first official off broadway gig was at Harlow's Nightclub on South Cicero Avenue in Chicago, in December 1977. The band consisted of Dan Santercola on guitar, Paul McDermott on drums, Paul Darrow handling keyboards, Johnson on vocals and John Pazdan on bass and synthesizer. The set included ‘Peg’ by Steely Dan, ‘Too Much To Lose’ by Jan Hammer and Jerry Goodman, a reggae version of ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Full Moon’, “Drop Me A Line”, “Now You Got It Comin’” and a few others, including a scorching funkfusion instrumental by Eddie Harris called ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’. In attendance that evening were Rob Harding, Mickey Free and Mickey Sculley, who would soon become the group's first (though short-lived) manager.

That original lineup was short-lived, however, as Rob Harding soon replaced Santercola, after which the extraordinary guitarist John Ivan replaced keyboardist Paul Darrow and Mike Neff (later of another successful Chicago band, the “Hounds”) took over for Paul McDermott on drums. All of this transpired by the Spring of 1978, at which time the group became the “almost” house band at Mother's on Rush Street, and together that lineup (Pazdan, Ivan, Harding and Johnson), wrote and arranged the music which would take the Chicago music world by storm…

off broadway is one of those groups that, upon listening for the first time, you get the feeling, immediately, that, hey, this is very familiar territory. It still astounds me, 35 years later, that this band wasn't as big a hitmaker as, say, The Knack, who were great in their own right, or Blondie, who obviously had a better front person to watch and admire in a different way, being of the female type. Being from Illinois, I naturally gravitate to these "locals", much in the same way that Shoes and Cheap Trick still float my boat completely. The latter had an enormous track record over the years and is still going strong. The off broadways of the world are naturally meant to be flashes in the pan, that's the very volatile nature of cutting-edge rock, especially power pop. It can only retain that high sheen for so long, then it fades and gets relegated to a decade much the same way as Cheap Trich is mistakenly correlated to the 80's, by proxy of a couple bought-and-paid guaranteed hits (Desmond Child?). Off topic from on broadway, I'm personally happy that Cheap Trick have reverted back to the midwestern ethic of tour, tour, tour, record, tour, tour, tour rather than get so caught up in hiring George Martin, changing key members and generally grabbing for a brass ring that isn't even there anymore. They will forwever be loved as midwesterners by midwesterners, and they will definitely be featured in these pages in the future. Rightly so.

It was a definite surprise to me that off broadway usa had jazz fusion backgrounds, but you must remember, there were two distinctly different forms of music vying for dominance in the mid-late 70's. Pop/punk music was coming on strong, after a period dominated by prog and British pomp rock. Jazz fusion, while enjoying a steady, loyal following, especially in Japan for all these years, never really dominated any music scenes, and this time in music was definitely a pivotal point in the evolution of rock. As much as I love rock and pop I was truly hurt when jazz fusion didn't blow up in a much bigger way, but that's water under the proverbial bridge by now. There's room for every kind of music in the internet age!

Tomorrow we'll feature a slice of the michaelhigh experience as we have every day. This blog has been a total blast to create every single day, as it reflects my true love for all things rock and roll. The art form has been around long enough, with an extensive enough history and legacy, that there may never be an end to insights, to be chronicled here, that were gained while onstage, in the studio, or simply at home listening to radio and records! It's an all-consuming fire for me. SO...keep your tubes hot and your antenna up, and we'll see you all tomorrow!

Selling on Craigslist

Man, is this a chore! I figured there would be a percentage of no-shows and general runaround, but the figures are out. No one wants to respond after I answer their questions concerning availability (which, considering I listed an item and they initially responded., is beyond me, totally!)! Seems like this time around, after risking flagging for overposting, I managed to get one audition booked for tomorrow at 11:00am. I'm up and running, and the old girl (Kenwood KR-6030) sounds good enough to keep, if you didn't have the pieces I've reviewed thus far...They are by far my favorites, and I'm starting to have seller's remorse and the deal hasn't even been completed!

The only wonky features of the 70's Kenwood (80 wpc into 8 ohms, low low distortion, and switchable tone defeat and subsonic defeat, nice features for the no-tone-control-havin' crowd) are that the speaker connection knobs are pretty brittle, due to age. Two have snapped off, but I have 4 good ones fitted to the A speaker lugs. It's presenting well otherwise, and again, it's really filling my space with quality sound. Sometimes, when powering on, the combination power on/speaker selector switch gets a rush of voltage that blinks the lights pretty strongly (common for this type of combo switch at its age), but upon powering up for the first test run today there was no surge, giving me a much better feeling about the final outcome of the deal and its potential for success. Thank God this is only obviously intermittant.

Listening to Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, a sophisticated pop/rock recording reviewed recently on these pages, the Kenwood really shows off the Fortes in all their glory. It seems to be solid in every important aspect, things that a buyer might be most concerned about, like static, tuning FM, and the like. I'm pulling max signal from a local FM giant with a simple hunk of speaker wire as an antenna! I'm currently listening to the new ZZ Top on KSHE-95 (pretty lo-fi sound coming from Rick Rubin, Billy Gibbons' Pearly Gates Les Paul and whatever rattletrap amp he's touting this week), and the Kenwood's suited for much higher-brow recordings than this Tex-Mex gumbo (putting it nicely). By the way, the song abruptly stopped in mid-phrase, surprise, surprise, "forever CD's" are anything but, even if you're a high-fallootin' FM giant like KSHE!! By the way, Working Man and the Stones are well-represented on this combo.

Hey, if this deal doesn't go through, and anyone local is interested, get on over here and pick this thing up (No shipping this time around...)! It's a winner, whoever ends up with it. If I had an extra room or two I could pay it the attention it deserves, it's the most powerful receiver I own after the Sansui 8080DB!

Tomorrow we'll feature yet another music or audio item worth reading about, so in the meantime, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

My object of teenage lust - Pioneer SX-838 Stereo Receiver

When I was a teenager in the 70's (Class Of 1976), to have a Pioneer receiver was to have one of two things: either you had a good job or you had rich parents. My friend Joe who played in junior and high school band with me had the latter. He was the proud owner of the flagship Pioneer, the SX-1010. This was THE first "monster" receiver that started the receiver wars of the 70's (100 watts per channel minimum to qualify for the "monster receiver" designation), and he was fortunate enough to have Altec A-7's (they were a home version of Voice Of The Theater speakers, the most expensive, most beautiful-looking and -sounding speakers in the entire CMC Stereo Store's inventory) paired with his beautiful Pioneer and Dual 1229 turntable. To go to his house and listen to Electric Ladyland was to be invited into an Oriental opium den, except for the fact that he was one of the nerdiest, straightest bookworms in school. He was actually ranked fifth in his class, academically! No wonder he was smart enough to have the top of the line stereo components...but I digress once again!

From Hi-Fi Engine:
"The Pioneer SX-838 is a 5OW RMS stereo receiver featuring PLL FM MPX, precision equalizer, switched-turnover tone control and direct-coupled OCL power amp.

Depend on Pioneer to provide the latest electronic advances and the SX-838 stereo receiver is a perfect example.

Its FM tuner offers high sensitivity and excellent rejection characteristics thanks to its front end equipped with a frequency-linear 4-gang variable capacitor and two MOS FETs.

The FM IF section has a 6-stage limiter and phase-linear ceramic filters.

For the FM MPX demodulator, Pioneer uses a new PLL (Phase Lock Loop) circuit with an IC.

The results of these state-of-the-art touches are immediately apparent: FM sensitivity of 1.8uV, better than 80dB FM selectivity, capture ratio of 1.0dB (all IHF) and better than 30dB stereo separation (50 to 10,000Hz).

The Phono equalizer in the SX-838 provides accurate reproduction of all the sounds in any record groove by assuring no more than ± 0.3dB deviation from the RIAA curve.

In terms of power, the unit produces 50W + 50W of continuous RMS power (both channels driven at 8 ohms) with total harmonic distortion of less than 0.3% - remember that this figure is measured and guaranteed over the entire spectrum from 20 to 20,000Hz.

The SX-838 is distinguished from all other receivers in its price range by offering switched-turnover flexibility in its tone control operation, permitting the creation of a variety of tonal characteristics to match your room's acoustics or your mood.

And when it comes to versatility, it reproduces no less than six program sources (AM, FM, Phono 1, Phono 2, Mic and Aux).

It also has two stereo sets of tape deck connections with monitor switching (and deck-to-deck duplication).

If you wish, use the noise-reduction adaptor terminals to connect a third tape deck.

This unit is provided with a special Recording Selector, enabling you to record FM broadcasts while listening to the disc reproduction and vice versa - a unique time-saving device for your listening pleasure.

A total of three pairs of stereo speaker systems can be connected to the SX-838 (with a front-panel switch to use any one or any two of them at once).

Speaker selection and source indicators are provided on the attractive dial panel.

It's a Pioneer value from top to bottom, and your best buy for stereo receiver economy."

Yes! The object of my lust! Just as if it appeared in a Playboy centerful, naked as a fucking jaybird, for all the world to admire and ogle! It totally lives up to the hyperbole provided so techically, colorfully, audioally here! I give it a total of five out of five stars, just as you would your first girlfriend, one to keep and to love and repair as needed! Mine is stone mint and sounds like pure sex!

Tomorrow we get back up to no good as always, till then, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

Introducing The Beatles

Here's a band that needs no introduction! I'm going to eventually get to reviewing all The Beatles' albums, because, well, just because I can. And I will. Might even review all the Stones albums too! Now that would be something...Well, let's get on with The Beatles and their first release.

The Beatles...before Astrid Kerchherr got ahold of them to apply Jurgen Vollmer's French existentialist hairstyle to each and every one of them! They were four young Liverpudlians, arty and musical, and had just acquired the services of one Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr, a star in his own right prior to his involvement with The Beatles. Pete Best had been summarily drummed (!) out of the group, not "good enough", according to the new headmaster, George Martin (long before the Sir crept in). Even Ringo got the plebe treatment, having to sit and watch session drummer Andy White drum on their first single, but it wasn't long before Rings got a run at the skins.

Introducing... The Beatles is the first Beatles album released in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP came out on 10 January 1964, on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol's Meet The Beatles!. It was the subject of much legal wrangling, but ultimately, Vee-Jay were permitted to sell the album until late 1964, by which time it had sold more than 1.3 million copies.

When the "Please Please Me" single was issued in the United States, Vee-Jay Records signed a licensing agreement with Transglobal, an EMI affiliate that worked to place foreign masters with US record labels, giving it the right of first refusal on Beatles' records for five years. As part of that agreement, Vee-Jay planned to release the Please Please Me album in the US, and received copies of the mono and stereo master tapes in late April or early May 1963.

Originally, Vee-Jay considered releasing Please Please Me as it appeared in the United Kingdom. A surviving acetate made by Universal Recording Corporation of Chicago, probably in May 1963, contains all 14 songs in the same order as on the UK album, with the title still listed as Please Please Me. But in keeping with the American norm of a 12-song album, Vee-Jay chose instead to delete "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" and change the album's title to Introducing... The Beatles. Also, the engineer at Universal in Chicago thought that Paul McCartney's count-in at the start of "I Saw Her Standing There" was extraneous rather than intentionally placed there, so he snipped the "one, two, three" from Vee-Jay's mono and stereo masters. Except for those deletions, the order and contents of the album were untouched, resulting in a US album that bore the closest resemblance to a British Beatles LP until Revolver in 1966.

Preparations for the LP's release continued in late June and early July 1963, including the manufacturing of masters and metal parts and the printing of 6,000 front covers. But, despite the claims of many older books that Introducing... The Beatles was first released on 22 July 1963, no paper trail exists to suggest that the album was released at any time in 1963.

After a management shake-up at the label, which included the resignation of company president Ewart Abner after he used company funds to cover gambling debts, Vee-Jay cancelled Introducing... The Beatles as well as albums by Frank Ifield, Alma Cogan and a Jewish cantor.

Introducing... The Beatles itself was a gamble that almost didn't even come about. Dick Rowe had unceremoniously passed on The Beatles after auditioning for Decca Records, and as tapes of that session exist (and were released on their own "merit"at a later date), they show a rather premature attempt at musicmaking (lots of covers and styles all over the map). Maybe Rowe was right when he was heard to remark, "Guitar bands are in their way out". When Introducing... The Beatles was finally released, Mr. Rowe was eating crowe!

We all know the story from here. The Beatles became the most famous rock group in the history of the genre, and sold many millions of records for Parlophone, EMI, and Capitol (and all their many subsidiaries worldwide). They were the darlings of the press, mimed like monkeys (more on them later) whenever they were around, and even made some truly hilarious movies that are definite 60's timepieces, each unique in their own special way. For a band that spawned merchandising that consisted of everything from wigs to action figures, they worked some pretty lousy licensing deals in the beginning, till Brian Epstein got the hang of what he was selling. Eventually, The Beatles were rolling and manufacturing money as if it were growing on trees.

Next Beatle Time, we'll take an in-depth look at their first LP for Capitol, Meet The Beatles.

Tomorrow, we'll meet again, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel. Till then, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then!

From The Jam to The Style Council to solo - Paul Weller

Paul Weller (born 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam (1972–1982), Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983–1989). In 1991 he established himself as a successful solo artist, and continues to remain a respected singer, lyricist and guitarist.

Despite widespread critical recognition, Weller has remained a national rather than an international star, and much of his songwriting is rooted in English culture. He is also the principal figure of the 1970s and 80s mod revival and is often referred to as the Modfather.

Weller's career has been a mystery to me, much in the same way as artists who share his world-wide popularity but are only recognized widely in Britain. How can someone so fantastically talented, with such a brilliant songwriting tool, so prolific for so many decades on end, be an obscurity outside his host nation? This will never cease to amaze me. I've enjoyed The Jam during their heyday (even saw them in a small disco/bar in my hometown of 42,000 people, fer crissakes! The man gets around, to make it to my burg!), come back to enjoy The Style Council despite passing the first time around (I tend to do this; when enough bullshit music propels a once-great band to be rediscovered by me I finally sit up and take notice.), and am mad wild for the solo Weller. There's no question that he is a truly amazing talent in every aspect of singing, songwriting, and playing live for so long, and in so many forms. His studio output is prodigious in itself, he can write and record in any given style as if it were his destiny to continually outperform himself!

The Modfather is an icon in his native Great Britain, and although he was offered the CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2006, he rejected the award.

My favorite Weller, outside of The Jam, would be his solo acoustic shows, especially as guest to the likes of Noel Gallagher, and the concert video of "The Dreams We Had As Children", recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall in March of 2007, is an amazing testament to his live greatness. By now you should have it figured it out that Weller is tops on my list of solo artists, and rightly so. I can totally relate to him because he's my age! All I have to do is observe his artistry in action to realize that I still have time left on my own musical clock!

I give the brilliant, amazing, totally brilliant Paul Weller a resounding 437 stars out of a possible five stars for his uncanny ability to resurrect his musical career decade after decade. He makes music a pleasure to behold every time he approaches the mic, enters a studio, or graces a magazine cover. No wonder he's the poster child for Liam Gallagher's Pretty Green range of fashion ready wear. The title refers to a Jam song that suitably (!) befits the bespoke range of clothing, footwear and outerwear. My favorite Noel Gallagher quote (he has plenty, mind you!) is concerning Weller: "One day I have pictures of the bloke on my wall, next day I can't get rid of him!" The Modfather never ceases to amaze me with his totally timeless, magnificent moodiness, in the classic British tradition. Long live Weller! Long live all 50-something rock icons for that matter!

Tomorrow, it's another gem of a review from the keyboard of mind's eye music. So, till then, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you then.

Legendary AR-XA manual belt-drive turntable

There once was a day when the best turntables were located in console furniture-looking stereo sets that occupied a prominent place in mid-century modern living rooms around the globe. Often combining TV's, tube stereo receivers, and reel-to-reel tape recorders in some top-of-the-line models, they were beautiful, sounded fantastic (usually, not always, depending on the contents of the furniture and the quality of the speaker components), but, unfortunately, were cumbersome to vaccuum around and required regular dusting, polishing and cleaning to maintain their pristine appearance. All in all, it was quite a chore just to keep them up and running, and looking their best.

Enter Edgar Villchur, stereo fanatic, educator, writer and inventor. He was already famous for his 1954 (same year as the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar was invented, and that of Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley's debut, a most momentous year, all in all) invention of the acoustic suspension loudspeaker, utilizing a sealed cabinet and softer speaker suspension to form a portless enclosure capable of prodigious bass response for the first time with a bookshelf-sized cabinet. This started the trend of downsizing and separate components, rather than the all-in-one electronics-filled, furniture-styled cabinets that dominated living rooms nation- and worldwide.

Edgar received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in art history from City College in New York City. He worked in the theater, and had plans to be a scenic designer. World War II changed those plans, and he was trained by the US Army in maintenance and repair of radios, radar, and other equipment. He was stationed in New Guinea, where he rose to the rank of captain and was in charge of the electronic equipment for his squadron.

After the war, Villchur opened a shop in New York’s Greenwich Village where he repaired radios and built custom home high fidelity sets. He continued to educate himself in the area of audio engineering, taking courses in mathematics and engineering at New York University. After submitting an article to Audio Engineering magazine (later renamed Audio), he was asked to write a regular column.

Despite the fact that his Masters Degree was in Art History, Villchur applied for a teaching job at NYU in the mid-fifties, presenting the administration with an outline of a course in Reproduction of Sound. His proposal was accepted, and he taught that course at night for several years. This was the first time such a course had been offered anywhere. At the same time, he worked at the American Foundation for the Blind in Manhattan, organizing their laboratory and designing or redesigning devices to make it easier for blind people to live independently. The tone arm on the turntable made by the Foundation had 12% distortion. Villchur redesigned it so that the distortion was less than 4%.

One of his inventions for the Foundation for the Blind was a turntable tone arm that descended slowly to the surface of a vinyl record. This prevented the possibility that a blind person might drop the arm accidentally and that the sudden fall might damage the stylus or the record. In later years, when he was designing the AR turntable, he added this same feature to the tone arm. In the ads describing the advantages of the product, the photo showed a person accidentally dropping the tone arm, with a caption noting that this turntable was “For butterfingers.”

In 1961, Villchur designed a turntable (record player), and published an article explaining its several innovations. The tone arm and turntable platen were mounted together and suspended independently from the body of the turntable, so that a shock to the body of the turntable would have little effect on the playing of the record. Indeed, Villchur was fond of demonstrating this independent suspension by hitting the wooden base of the turntable with a mallet while the record played on flawlessly. The mechanical isolation of the tone-arm-platen assembly from the base had a further advantage. It eliminated the “muddy” bass sound that often resulted when vibrations from the loudspeaker were conducted through the floor and caused feedback through the pickup into the amplifier.

The low mass and damped suspension of the tone arm itself compensated for any irregularities on the surface of the disk so that even warped records could often be played without distortion. When released, the tone arm floated down to the record, so that if it were dropped, it would not crash into the disc (which could harm both the needle and the record). With its quiet motor and precision-ground rubber drive belt, the turntable had extremely low wow and flutter (the lowest of any turntable on the market at that time), and far exceeded the National Association of Broadcasters standards for turntable measurements. The overall look of the turntable was given an award by Industrial Design magazine.

This tonearm feature, unique to the AR-XA at the time, still amazes most people when I demonstrate it. To me this is the most brilliant idea, as I am incredibly butterfingered! I could walk past a turntable and knock it off the shelf with my belly if I wasn't watching my P's and Q's (and TT's!) To witness the AR-XA in action is to see its innovative design and operation before your eyes. To this day, decades later, they hold their dollar value as well as their audio quality quite well. To operate, you hit the switch, which activates the motor, which turns the platter. To adjust the speed, simply lift off the outer platter, adjust the belt up on the motor spindle, and there you have it. 45 rpm! Using the lower spindle setting renders 33 1/3. Manual play dictates that, at the end of a record side, you must manually retrieve the tonearm and return it to its rest. This is the most barebones-type operation I've ever seen on a turntable! Its beauty lies largely in its stark simplicity.

Mine is nearly mint, dating from around 1965 (as do my AR4X speakers), and save for a few dust cover swirls, looks very much like the day it was purchased new in the 1960's. I am the second owner, and the original owner definitely knew how to preserve this audio classic! I restored the missing AR badge on the lower left front corner (to give the table its original vintage look), and it sits proudly amongst my display of vintage audio artifacts. Plays and looks great, the AR-XA, after a new belt and cleaning, operates perfectly well, and on into the 21st century. No BPC here...

The AR-XA has won numerous design awards, and the Linn Sondek LP-12 and countless other suspension-type designed units owe a debt of design gratitude to the AR-XA, for they are but recreations on a basic thematic design originating in this model. Some are improvements, some just a slight variation, but they never would have been continually offered in this manner if not for Villchur and his forward-thinking invention, the first free-standing suspension audiophile turntable ever. His AR-XA set the trend for designs that still continue to be copied to this day.

Tomorrow we'll tackle another item in my repertoire that merits mention. Until then, keep your tubes hot and your antenna up! See you manana!