FM and Nash the Slash

[olzen]

Yeah, brilliant player as well. Listen to his killer solo on "Up to You" from "City of Fear"! Ben generally plays much cleaner than Nash, but on that song, he rips it up!

[2066]

This guy that I met last week who knew Nash is a guy named Mike who played in a band with him called Breathless. Apparently they recorded but never released anything. He has a record store near me at Broadview and Danforth called Mike's Music. Extremely nice fellow! I could have talked to him for hours, but Mrs. 2066 was waiting for me and you guys know what happens when you're very late! I'm going to back to his store next week when I get my cheque from the government.

Did you ever confirm, Terry, is this guy Michael Waite? I do vaguely remember Nash mentioning the band Breathless when I interviewed him in '81. And Nash did play on the Michael Waite and Eyes album Cosmic Wave.

I went over there last week and, yes, it's him, as I figured. I chatted for a quite a while with him and then bought a Sigur Ros double cd and a British vinyl copy of Mother Focus...but his assistant forgot to charge me $9.99 for the Focus album! I was too busy talking to him about this and that and Nash/Jeff (My friend Michael King who has a reissue label and has written a book about Robert Wyatt knows Nash/Jeff very well), that I didn't notice the omission on the reciept. I'll have to go back and pay him for it because I get a serious attack of the guilts about this sort of thing. He also promised to dig up a copy of his album for me.

[Massed Gadgets]

He also promised to dig up a copy of his album for me.

That's awesome! Wish I still lived in Toronto, I'd definitely drop by. Tell him I still listen to his album. Me and the Silver Surfer is one of my all time favourite songs!

[olzen]

Sounds like a nice guy. Wish I lived in Toronto - he'd probably be able to get me Nash's autograph...

[Massed Gadgets]

Well, since I am going to be in Toronto this summer, I will have to drop by and meet Mr. Waite.

Incidentally, I recently ordered a Japanese miniature album sleeve edition of Headroom on CD. I'm guessing this is some kind of bootleg because I don't ever remember hearing about a CD release. And yeah, obviously it would have to be mastered from the original vinyl. But the Japanese usually do superb mastering jobs, so I ordered it just to see what I would get.

[olzen]

Where did you order it from? I've been poking around on the net to see if I could find that one, but I haven't been able to find it. As far as I know, there is also a Japanese CD issue of "Surveillance".

I'd love to hear some more about your Head Room CD when you get it, Massed Gadgets! Especially whether it contains take 1, 2 or 4 of "Border Crossing".

[Massed Gadgets]

Well, got it and it sounds pretty good. Other than a very slight touch of surface noise from the original vinyl here and there (and I only heard that on my headphones) the mastering is done quite well. There is perhaps a little distortion in the cymbal swells now and then, but nothing that really bothered me. I was quite pleased. The packaging is really nice, a miniature LP sleeve replica with a slip inside that includes the original liner notes. I can't honestly tell you what take of Border Crossing it is though with no matrix number. My original vinyl has the B1 suffix in the matrix number, indicating Take 1, and the packaging with this CD is very similar to my vinyl (the cover with "HEAD ROOM direct to disc LIMITED EDITION ROCK RECORDING FEATURING PROGRESSIVE ROCK TRIO FM" on it as opposed to "FM direct to disc LIMITED EDITION ROCK RECORDING"), so who knows. Wikipedia lists the song length as 15:24, but the version on this CD is 15:56 including perhaps about 2 seconds of fade out silence. There is no listing of track length on my vinyl, so short of sitting down and timing it, I can't compare.

I bought it from Greg Walker at Syn-Phonic Music (http://synphonic.8m.com/). He has the Surveillance one as well. I might get that one too. How did your vinyl copy you got sound?

[olzen]

Sounds nice. I think I've got take 2 myself, so I might just upload a sample sometime so you'll be able to compare. If they're ever able to do a proper CD edition, I hope they'll be including all 3 known takes.

I haven't got Surveillance yet myself, nor City of Fear. I'm definitely getting them soon, though. But if you were asking about the sound quality of my vinyl copy of Head Room, it's quite good. There's a little surface noise through all of it, but nothing disturbing. The needle did skip during Headroom the first time I played it, but it hasn't done it since. The seller had graded it EX, and I can't really argue with that. It's in great condition, but it could be a little better.

[Massed Gadgets]

But if you were asking about the sound quality of my vinyl copy of Head Room

Yes, that's what I was asking about...sorry it was confusing the way I put it. I've only played my vinyl copy maybe 2 or 3 times in the 25+ years that I've owned it. I taped it on cassette when I originally got it and just listened to the cassette, but that was long ago lost, so I'm glad I have a listening copy of it now on CD.

[olzen]

I hardly ever listen to mine either. I have transferred it to my computer at 96 KHz and 32 bit, though, so I have a very high-quality digital version of it. It's definitely a crown jewel in my collection - I'd never thought I'd be able to get it, let alone for less than £6!

[Massed Gadgets]

Well, I dropped by Mike's Music in Toronto and met Michael Waite...very nice guy...we talked a lot about music and he had a lot of great Nash stories to tell. He actually managed Nash back in the 80's, but of course, when they were younger, they played in Breathless together. He said recently he found some old Breathless promo T-shirts when he was cleaning up, but he had already given them away. Oh well. I told him a few of my Nash stories too and he loved them, especially the one about getting his bandages after the '81 Halloween gig. Anyway, it was great meeting him. He's getting back into the music himself, but he's been focusing on guitar (he used to be a keyboardist), and wants to play some blues...he mentioned Hendrix and Cream as influences. Great guy.

[olzen]

Cool! I saw Waite's video for "Electric Violence" recently. That's all I've heard from him apart from his production work for FM, but I really liked that song.

[Massed Gadgets]

Ha ha! I'd never seen the video for that. He still looks like that today, except his hair is gray now. He's still wearing the same rings.

[olzen]

He looks like Rasputin! Odd to imagine that this is the guy who produced the very poppy "Con-Test"!

[Massed Gadgets]

It struck me that he's done a lot of different kind of things musically over the years, so it doesn't really surprise me.

Have you ever heard or seen anything of FM with the Claudio Vena line-up? There doesn't seem to be any footage on youtube that I can find. It's a pity, I would have liked to have heard them. I had high hopes that it was a new beginning and maybe they would record again with Hawkins/Deller/Vena, but it seems to have just fizzled out after Nearfest 2006. Their website hasn't been updated since then.