Hans Cleuver, Focus' first drummer, passed away. A conversation

In 2017 Gary, Mark and Wo. embarked on what turns out to be a series of conversation on music. Always jumping from topic to topic. One started on Focus (read on here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.nl/2017/03/lets-focus-thoughts-on-band-focus.html). Yesterday (6-3) news came that Focus' first drummer passed away. You will find that this sad fact led to many other bands and occasions.


Gary, 7-3-2018
I was sent this by Focus:

"Hans Cleuver , the first drummer of Focus, passed away. We owe him a lot, concerning his inspiring work for the group, both musically and in organising the very first gigs in Amsterdam! Our thoughts are with his wife and children."

Thijs van Leer, on behalf of all members of Focus

Mark, 8-3-2018:

Thanks. He's not the drummer on Moving Waves so I looked up the Wikipedia history of the band. Hans Cleuver was a life-long close friend of Thijs but after the first album "In and Out of Focus" as we know it (have you got that, Wout?), Jan Akkerman wanted him out and his mate Peter Van Der Linden in on the skins. So a mighty prolonged rift in the band ensued with Jan's man winning out in the end - and hit the big time when Moving Waves took the world by storm (after Focus appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test music programme on British TV - the only one that took popular music seriously - all of Polydor's record plants had to switch their entire production to churning out round the clock enough Moving Waves to meet the demand).

So it seems Hans's life story is similar to that of the hapless Pete Best though cruelly no-one wanted to take Pete's side in the Beatles case, only his female fans at The Cavern one of whom legend has it gave George a black eye for sacking their handsome first drummer with the un-fab quiff (after his own band fizzled out in the mid-sixties Pete ended up being a civil servant for a Liverpool office of the Dept of Employment, Gary!). Only when the first Anthology album came out in 1995 with Pete on drums on the pre-EMI recordings did he make any significant money out of his association with the Fab Three. Hans, however, seems to have kept his hand more securely in the music business and later teamed up with Thijs again so I guess he never felt he was as big a loser as Pete.

I met up with Pete Best's brother in Liverpool a few years ago. He was doing tours of the Casbah Club (by appointment) which was run by their mother Mona Best and is where the Silver Beatles as they were then called first played regularly. John and Paul helped out with decorating some of the walls and miraculously their arty handiwork with paint brushes has survived after all these years. You could say the remarkable Beatles story started in that cramped suburban club rather than at the legendary Cavern and like Hans in the history of Focus, Pete was a key player in The Beatles' formative years. However, his fussy and noisy drumming on the earliest recording of Love Me Do is horrendous compared to Ringo's simpler style (even if George Martin didn't like the latter and got a session musician called Andy White to replace Ringo for the original Parlophone single version. White passed  away in 2015 by the way, aged 85).

(I know: hou je mond, shut up Mark, you're rambling on about the Fab Four again). Unlike last year's Strawberry Fields remaster, there are no Beatles records on this year's Record Store Day list just out: see http://www.nme.com/news/music/record-store-day-2018-releases-2255889  Nor any Focus - but hey guess what! There is a double album of Shocking Blue's singles! How about that for premonition on our part?! I think I might be tempted by the Curved Air pioneering picture disc re-issue of Air Conditioning. - and the 12" demo of Bowie's Let's Dance...and the "early mix" of Lazy Sunday Afternoon.  I see there is also a picture disc version of Tormato, Gary. 

I thought Led Zep didn't release singles! RSD is on 21 April so start saving the pennies.....and cents!

Close your eyes and drift away....... 

Gary: 8-3-2018

Fascinating story about Pete Best, most of which I did not know about…. I know only to well that feeling of leaving the music scene to get a job in a Dole Office, Pete has my deepest sympathies! In the drumming world you either like Ringo or (like George Martin) not… similar to whether you like Charlie Watts or not…. I was neither a fan of Ringo or Charlie’s style of drumming.

Yes, the personal dynamics within Focus were pretty volatile, especially between van Lear and Ackerman although the decision to replace Hans Cleuver with Pierre van der Linden (Peter Van Der Linden is I think the Dutch Technologist who I once saw at a conference in London some years ago?) was the right one as he is a truly amazing drummer! He, like Carl Palmer, was heavily influenced by Buddy Rich and so technique is of the highest importance….  Although van der Linden was Ackermans friend he still plays (as you say) for Thijs van Lear’s version of Focus to this day!

I saw Curved Air at the Mick Jagger Centre last year, Sonja Kristina looks and sounds absolutely amazing for her age (68)…. There seems to be something of a youthfulness for our generation that wasn’t there for our father's time at our age… not sure what it is? Most of the 70s bands are producing reissues (especially on vinyl) and seem to be making a good income from it to supplement the pension! I get e-mails from Yes advising me of reissues and remasters 6 months in advance although the price they ask is somewhat daunting at times. Prog magazine is also a good source of upcoming new and reissues: http://teamrock.com/prog.

Led Zeppelin on yellow vinyl!!!! Also maybe worth considering saving pennies for Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin which is the first and only official illustrated book to be produced in collaboration with the members of the band. Celebrating 50 years since their formation. Published by @ReelArtPress due October this year? And if you can afford it Zeppelin is releasing a 'Deluxe Box’ in March of the live ‘How The West Was Won’ which was recorded at the Forum in Los Angeles…. Not enough money to buy everything though on a Civil Service pension!!!! 

Wo., 8-3-2018

Good morning, gentlemen.

The news about Focus' first drummer has passed the Netherlands by it seems. To be honest I had never heard of the man. To me it seems like Pierre van der Linden was Focus' only drummer that mattered. He played with Akkerman before in Brainbox (and in the very early 60s in Johnny and his Cellar Rockers). You should listen to the band's first single 'Down Man' (listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJWLVYK9zk4). Kaz Lux is the singer. He worked with Akkerman again in the mid-70s for a few duo albums. 'Down Man's lyrics may not be the best English, the song is fabulous. It even made the U.S. charts at the time.

BTW, I have got the two Focus albums second hand in the spring of last year. The second one an issue from before it got to be called 'Moving Waves', just 'Focus II'. Great records that I truly enjoy. I also got the greatest hits of Kayak (mach I), another sympho rock band from NL. The first band I got to see live at high school. Several of its singles still stand out. And, Shocking Blue? What can I say? At least Sweetwood is finally close to nailing 'Send Me A Postcard'. The drummer has got the break. The bass player may still be grumbling about the complexity of the verses but is getting there.

What our conversation on Focus has done for me, is that I have started to listen to several bands (again) and found that the quality of music coming from this country in the late 60s and early to mid 70s was extremely good.

After Focus Van der Linden played drums in a trio with Rick van der Linden, a second cousin, then ex-Ekseption and Jaap van Eik called Trace, a mix of jazz rock and classical. I haven't played that album for ages. So am about to do so soon.

Led Zeppelin released several singles here in NL. I think they charted four times. 'Good Times Bad Times', 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Immigrant Song' and 'Black Dog'. The second one was their biggest hit over here. One day in early 1970 I went out with my hard saved up nickels and dimes to buy 'Whole Lotta Love' in the little village we had recently moved to. They had never heard of the song, so I came home with 'Marie Jolie' by Aphrodite's Child instead. Talking about missing a piece of history. Although I really liked that band's singles at the time.

Personally I pass the RSD by most of the years. The prices are near horrendous and usually for something I already own in some form. So I decided to save up for something I do not have. I can't tell about the international origins of RSD, but I have read that the daughter of a local retailer, who since starting in Leiden in the 90s branched out over the country, yes, against all odds, started the initiative as a school assignment that got a bit out of hand. His shop in Leiden has only grown bigger through the years. No longer living there I noticed recently that both remaining record shops have had an overhaul making them look a lot better. So they must be making money.

On Ringo Starr. I know he is not rated highly as a drummer and wasn't even when he was at his Beatles heights. Yet, listening to the songs, many of his contributions stand out as something special. Nothing flashy, just setting a totally different sound than many other drummers would have come up with, I think. That is a very special place to be in. And Charlie? I think he's totally unimaginative and has no ego to speak of. So he plays just what needs to played without a single extra anything. Creating the tight sound the Stones usually have. All that it needs probably. I was at the Django Django show yesterday and Franz Ferdinand on Sunday. Here the drummers are fabulous, playing all these strange rhythms, keeping me wondering: how do you do that?

So here's a link to the present, gentlemen, where some fantastic music is being made by bands like this. Both bands' latest 2018 efforts, 'Marble Skies' and 'Always Ascending' are stellar records.

Wo., 8-3-2018

I checked up on Hans Cleuver on Wikipedia. He remained manager of Focus until 1980, and started a drum academy in Utrecht. His daughter Emilie was part of a 100% percussion outfit called Slagerij Van Kampen. The name is a pun on butcher (slager) and hitting (slag).

Cleuver was married to Bojoura, a Dutch hippie singer, who scored several hits in the late 60s and early 70s. George Kooymans of Golden Earring, then Golden Earrings, wrote several songs for her, but her hits were mostly covers, e.g. 'Frank Mills' from 'Hair' and 'The Letter'. Kooymans had received singing lessons from Bojoura's mother, who was a Bulgarian soprano. The song I remember best is 'If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium', a song I heard somewhere not too long ago.

Just a little background with thanks to Wikipedia.

Gary
Mark
Wo. 

Breath Of Life. Ralph de Jongh

De Nederlandse muzikant Ralph de Jongh bracht afgelopen december in één keer maar liefst drie platen uit.
 
Het was mijn eerste kennismaking met de muziek van de Nederlandse muzikant, die overigens ooit werd ontdekt door niemand minder dan Harry Muskee (Cuby & The Blizzards).

Op de flinke stapel platen die Ralph de Jongh tot dusver in eigen beheer heeft uitgebracht domineert de blues en het is blues van hoog niveau. Het is bovendien blues die buiten de bestaande hokjes durft te denken en die heerlijk rauw, puur, eerlijk en intens uit de speakers komt.
 
De wat mij betreft mooiste plaat die Ralph de Jongh eerder deze maand uitbracht heeft echter niet zo heel veel met blues te maken en begeeft zich vooral op andere terreinen. Op Breath Of Live werkt Ralph de Jongh samen met de violiste Ewa Pepper (geboren als Ewa Górzynska).
 
De in Polen geboren maar al enige tijd in Nederland woonachtige violiste drukt nadrukkelijk haar stempel op de instrumentatie op Breath Of Live, dat verder wordt gedomineerd door de akoestische gitaar en de doorleefde stem van Ralph de Jongh. De combinatie van de akoestische gitaar en de viool vind ik een hele bijzondere. Ewa Pepper krijgt op Breath Of Live flink wat ruimte, wat de plaat van Ralph de Jongh een bijzonder of zelfs uniek geluid geeft.
 
De songs op de plaat bevatten meer invloeden uit de folk dan we van Ralph de Jongh gewend zijn (al duikt stiekem ook wel wat blues op), maar ook dit is een genre waarin de Nederlandse muzikant uitstekend uit de voeten kan.
 
Zeker wanneer de viool de hoofdrol opeist heeft de muziek van Ralph de Jongh en Ewa Pepper een zeer stemmig karakter, maar de ingetogen klanken zitten ook vol gevoel. Dat wordt nog eens versterkt door de zang van de Nederlandse bluesmuzikant, die zijn hart in ziel legt in zijn vocalen. De combinatie van de vaak wat melancholisch aandoende klanken en de emotievolle zang van Ralph de Jongh geeft de plaat een bijzondere lading en het is een lading die aan komt.
 
De naam Ralph de Jongh klinkt natuurlijk zo Nederlands als de pest, maar in zijn zang hoor je hier gelukkig niets van terug. Een Nederlands accent is voor mij met grote regelmaat een afknapper, maar Ralph de Jongh klinkt alsof hij zijn songs heeft ingezongen in een lokale kerk ergens in het diepe Zuiden van de Verenigde Staten.
 
Omdat de productiviteit van Ralph de Jongh momenteel kennelijk geen grenzen kent, is Breath Of Live ook nog eens een dubbelalbum met maar liefst 17 songs en bijna twee uur muziek. Het is allemaal muziek die het moet doen met het veelkleurige vioolspel van Ewa Pepper, het sobere akoestische gitaarspel van Ralph de Jongh en zijn meeslepende zang, maar vervelen doet Breath Of Live geen moment.
 
Ik moest heel even wennen aan het sobere karakter van de plaat, maar inmiddels laat ik me keer op keer meevoeren door het fascinerende vioolspel en de emotievolle zang op de plaat. Breath Of Live is een buitengewoon fascinerende plaat, die alleen maar meer glans krijgt door het feit dat Ralph de Jongh al zijn muziek zelf uitbrengt en dit jaar ook nog veel andere muziek heeft gemaakt. Die andere muziek ga ik later nog eens ontdekken, want voorlopig beperk ik me tot het intense, wonderschone en uiteindelijk verslavende Breath Of Live.

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt Breath Of Life  hier kopen:

https://ralphdejongh.com/product/breath-of-live/

Here's the link to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

Eurus. The Oh Hellos

They still exist those bands that unashamedly play and sing that overly optimistic modern folk tunes. The Oh Hellos is one of those bands.

No newcomer to this blog, it returns with its seven song mini album called Eurus. Brother and sister Maggie and Tyler Heath sound happier than ever on Eurus. The fiddle drives the songs forward, the acoustic string instruments do the rest. The mix of Irish folk and U.S. stamina creates a mood that is as good a cure as any against all the gloom coming out of the U.S. in the past year and a little. So soothing, so soft and optimistic Eurus opens.

The singing, dancing and playing (probably some drinking as well) together around the fire element is overwhelming on this record. At the same time a little Dropkick Murphies is let into the music giving the music a little kick in the backside to spruce things up a little. Just this hint of darkness, that comes mostly from a bass guitar and drums.

The album does start so exuberant, it gathers pace and speed along the way. 'O Sleeper' starts in a dreamy way, like a brook in a forest before it goes out into the wide, open world. Slowly it winds its way into the world before it becomes a stream. Ever wider and wilder. The whole of Smetana's 'Moldau Symphony' in a few minutes. Towards the end of 'O Sleeper' The Oh Hellos takes us back to the beginning. The short instrumental song 'Dry Branches' takes us back into the forest and makes us look at that small brook again. Focusing on all the sounds, made by the birds, the furry little things scurrying beneath the branches and leaves on the forest's surface and the wind in the trees.

The album starts getting into its own with 'Grow'. "Let the river run its course ... and let the wild take over". And I hadn't noticed this line when I wrote the above. The previous songs' imagery was enough for my mind's eye to summon it. The Heaths again slowly go all out in this song. It is so catchy in a way that it is impossible not be affected if not infected with the mood of the record. This eclectic song is the one reminding me most of the now almost ex-folk revival of 201x. 'Grow' is the kind of song that deserves being added to the roster. Especially as it moves into the more classic folk song, fiddle and banjo all around, 'Eurus'. The voices multiplied into a choir.

Eurus is the Latin name of the Greek God of the Eastern wind Euros. In my country an eastern storm is a rare thing. (And then we had one today. Circa one week after writing these lines. Freezing cold for this country it was.) Eastern wind is either cold in winter or warm in summer. It comes from the east, from the continent. So it usually is everything this record is not, quiet and exceptional.

The party just grows and grows as Eurus progresses towards its final three songs. The fun of listening keeps pace with the party The Oh Hellos offers me. It not just about dancing though. There is so much determination and strength gathered in Eurus. It is as if The Oh Hellos is making one last stand. They are building a wall of some kind. The sound of Eurus is so big, so larger than life almost. And yes, dancing is allowed. Wild, with full abandon, as if nothing can break.

Looking at the band's Bandcamp site I notice I have missed an album, another 7 song one, called 'Notos'. The south wind. This implicates we have two more albums to go, Zephyros and Boreas. All to be combined in a box set called Anemoi in 2020. If they are much fun as Eurus is, let me sign up here.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy Eurus here:

http://music.theohhellos.com/album/eurus

Here's the link to our Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

The Girl, The God, The Rush. SUiT

SUiT is a band with Dutch and German members. European integration through rock? It seems the right place to start, as music conquers all borders and convictions. Two members studied at the Rock Academy of Tilburg and two at the Pop Academy of Mannheim. The four members met during an exchange program and started to work together. The Girl, The God, The Rush is SUiT's debut album. A lot of good is to be written on it as you'll find out by reading on.

While listening for the first time to SUiT I noticed a lot of similarities with the more serious or better, the less eclectic side of Franz Ferdinand. Suit is able to rock in the same kind of way while keeping the break on the whole time. The dancing without going wild sort of music the Scottish band is also so good at.

This was just my first impression as there is so much more going on on The Girl, The God, The Rush. It's the kind of album that takes the listener on a tour across different sorts of music and moods. SUiT is a band that mastered several musical styles and genres, without any qualms to play them all for us.

Another thing that is noticeable is the how the members of this band master their instruments. There is no hesitation in leaving holes and silences in the songs. This makes the individual instruments stand out. Everything is heard. There are no overdubs or extra instruments. Just guitar(s), bass, drums. When the second guitar comes in for a heavily distorted solo in 'Over The Next Hill', the first clean rhythm guitar drops away. It is not 100% so, true, but in the basis this song is this "clean".

SUiT has another boon. It can take the tempo off and remain interesting and so strongly convincing. In part that is in the voice. Alexander Braunbarth has this extremely pleasant rock voice. The vocal melodies are nearly all strong and convincing. The music is resourceful, involving some risks as too empty is often boring and that is what SUiT is not. Even the perhaps weakest song on the album '1Q84' (sorry, I liked the books better) still has its moments and stands its ground.

In general SuiT is a two guitar band. Both singer Brautbarth as Ivo Schot play the guitar, with Rutger Martens on bass and Stefan Wandel on drums. Next to writing songs with a lot of empty spaces there are several with the chugging rhythms of desert rock, while the rhythm playing of U2's The Edge clearly has been studied into the fine little details. All these, as such, fine details do lead me to the following comment.

In part the songs on this album seem to be the exams leading to the graduation from the respective academies. The influences of the originals are easily divined. (Write them in the comment section if you like.) For a first album that is fine of course. SuiT has clearly put its whole into it and graduated with flying colours. Simply because there is so much to enjoy on The Girl, The God, The Rush. The band dares to show itself and its proficiency by leaving a lot that could have been in here out. This album is a fine blueprint of where SUiT is at in 2018. If the band manages to set the next steps through touring more the follow up ought to be smashing.

Wo.


Here's the link to our Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g

The Violent Years (Big Planet, Scarey Planet). The Jazz Butcher

With The Violent Years Fire Records releases a second box set with albums released by The Jazz Butcher. The band's second album, 'A Scandal In Bohemia', but first in the box set 'The Wasted Years', totally surprised me and may actually make it to the list of my favourite albums of the 80s. This surprise made me curious for this collection of course.

The first album in this box, 'Fishcoteque', surprised me also. More in the sense that the band put a challenge on itself to put the words "Jazz Butcher" in each song, than because of memorable songs. So I quickly skipped that album, as what I think doesn't say anything about how others perceive it.

I settled on 'Big Planet, Scarey Planet', the second one in the box. The album is not as eclectic as my introduction to The Jazz Butcher, but I recognise a good song when I hear one. 'BPSP' is full of them. It was released in 1989 and I'm trying to do the mental step to what I used to hear and listened to at the time. There's a difference here, as I'm sure you'll appreciate. My 60s heroes came with strong albums. Nearly without an exception. I heard The Stone Roses for the first time. Of course all sorts of house and rap, my generation gap in music presented itself to me. New music passed me mostly by, not having a lot of money and barely coping with keeping track of my old heroes. So lending cds and taping them became a standard, but does any new music of the day stick out? Lenny Kravitz, I suppose and I tried to get my ears around REM and found myself trying at best. Tears for Fears' third album was alright (side one). There must have been others, that I do not recollect straight away.

So much for history. The Jazz Butcher passed me by at the time and probably would have, had I heard it at the time. 29 Years later my ears definitely work differently. The Clash clearly has left a footprint on this album, while The Jazz Butcher is not afraid of letting a little pop in to its take on punk and new wave music.

The line up had already undergone major changes by the time this album was released four years later. Discogs names Alex Green, Kizzy O'Callaghan, Laurence O'Keefe, Paul Mulreaney and The Jazz Butcher as members. The latter being founding member Pat Fish and main, though not exclusive songwriter here and co-producer with John A. Rivers. The band has a long line of past members as Wikipedia shows.

Setting aside a few experimental, perhaps to be called sci-fi songs seeing the title of the album, songs, the atmosphere of the album is quite consistent. High sounding guitars lead the way in a punk, pop infused album of up tempo songs with a fairly upbeat feel. No one is cheering out loud, but no one is wailing or crying either. Add an exuberant saxophone here and there and here's Big Planet, Scarey Planet. Things seem to be just fine.

The album starts with a punked up version of 'More Than A Feeling' by Boston. The lead guitar has a similar lead melody in the verse. The music is far to subtle to be called punk, the intention is what is telling, as is the singing. 'New Invention' is the kind of song a band would want to open an album with. Strong, varied, attention attracting loud. Fun little things happen while the rhythm chugs onwards.

The country punk of 'Line Of Death' is the starting point that makes clear how varied BPSP is going to be. The Village People's 'In The Navy' comes by, albeit disguised. The Jazz Butcher tried all sorts of styles on 'A Scandal In Bohemia' and does so on this album. Something the listener needs to have the stomach for. 'The World I Was Looking For', the fourth song, is propulsing itself forwards the whole time in a way that makes me smile the whole of the way. The better songs of The Clash come to mind, without having so much to do with the music of The Clash as such. The sax solo adds to the joy no little.

'Bicycle Kid' has a funny lyric but musically it doesn't do much for me. Like some songs on Robyn Hitchcock's latest, eponymous album. 'Bicycle Kid' has a full 60s flavour though, unfortunately the kind I do not like specifically. The Jazz Butcher returns with 'Burglar Of Love'. Listen if you can guess what guitarist inspired the intro. A strong verse vs. a not so strong chorus. That usually is the other way around.

Being so varied Big Planet, Scarey Planet is in fear of losing the attention of a lot of people. The strong instrumental melody of 'Do The Bubonic Plague' is seriously hampered by the spoken word vocal. Luckily the album moves towards the ends with the kind of song indie bands still like to write and play to this day. 'Bad Dream Lover' is the kind of upbeat song that makes someone want to put the record on again. It might have been a perfect ending to an album holding a lot of interesting songs, were it not for 'The Good Ones'. The Jazz Butcher presents a combination of The Kinks' 'Better Things' and 'Pale Blue Eyes' by The Velvet Underground. Certainly interesting but not the best song on the album. As a whole all these songs are worth investing time in to get to know them better. Even 29 years after the original release.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy The Violent Years here:

https://thejazzbutcher.bandcamp.com/album/the-violent-years

or listen to The Jazz Butcher on WoNoBlog's Spotify Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=CXZ7VyNbSuW7mRymF-PwSw