Carmine Appice Remembers His Friend Ginger Baker

Carmine Appice and Ginger Baker, along with the Who’s Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix’s Mitch Mitchell, pioneered hard rock drumming.  Carmine feels that Ginger's influence is everywhere.

"I admired Ginger's drumming because he combined technical skills, with a jazz feel and innovating double bass drum patterns. He could pretty much play anything in the jazz, rock or afro arenas. His influence is tremendous and it is everywhere. We became friends in 1967 when Cream and Vanilla Fudge toured together, we toured again in later years and Ginger and I also did drum clinics together. Ginger was always the wildest guy on the tour and although he could be quite prickly, we had some mighty good times.

It saddens me that so many of my early contemporaries are gone -Keith, Mitch, and now Ginger. I believe we were four that pioneered the underground rock music movement. Everything was new, including the drumming which combined elements of old and new, and gave birth to the hard rock, progressive and psychedelic genres. God bless you, Ginger. RIP."

-Carmine Appice

PHOTO from Guitar Center's Rockwalk Hall of Fame induction. Carmine, Ginger and Alex Van Halen. 1991. Also inducted that day: Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, John Bonham.

2018: 50 Years of Jethro Tull

It was on the 2^nd of February 1968 at the world-famous Marquee Club in Wardour Street that Jethro Tull first performed under that name. The group would go on to become one of the most successful and enduring bands of their era, selling over 60 million albums worldwide and entering the cultural collective consciousness along the way.

To celebrate this golden anniversary, Ian Anderson will present 50 years of Jethro Tull in eight UK concerts during April 2018 as part of the worldwide touring schedule.

The debut album, This Was, was released later that same year. Founder, frontman and flautist, Ian Anderson, is rightly credited with introducing the flute to rock as a front line instrument, not to mention the codpiece! 

Jethro Tull are one of the biggest selling Progressive Rock artists of all time and their immense and diverse catalogue of work encompasses folk, blues, classical and heavy rock.  The anniversary concerts will feature a broad mix of material, some of it focussing on the earlier formative period through to the “heavy hitters” of the Tull catalogue from the albums This Was, Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung, Thick As A Brick, Too Old To Rock And Roll: Too Young To Die, Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, Crest Of A Knave and even a touch of TAAB2 from 2012.

Anderson says: “I am not usually a birthday or anniversary kind of guy but, just for once, I won't be a party-pooper either! I treasure the memories of the earlier years of Jethro Tull repertoire, associated as it is with the adventures of visiting so many countries for the first time to connect with new fans around the world. And this is a celebration of all the 33 band members who graced our ranks - musicians who brought their talents, skills and styles to bear on the performances live and in the studio. Join me and the current band for a nostalgic evening of varied music, representative of my ever-changing songwriting as our careers progressed through the years.”

Right now European Tour dates are announced, stay tuned to http://jethrotull.com/tour-dates/ as more dates fill in between now and 2018.

April 2018

Tuesday 3rd: Manchester: O2 Apollo

Thursday 5th: Newcastle: City Hall

Friday 6th: Edinburgh: Usher Hall

Saturday 7th: Liverpool:Auditorium

Monday 9th: Bristol: Colton Hall

Tuesday 10th: Birmingham: Symphony Hall

Wednesday 11th: Cambridge: Corn Exchange

Tuesday 17th: London: Royal Albert Hall

Ian Anderson is accompanied by Tull band musicians David Goodier (bass), John O'Hara (keyboards), Florian Opahle (guitar), Scott Hammond (drums) and surprise virtual guests

About Jethro Tull

Formed in 1968, Jethro Tull have released 30 studio and live albums, selling more than 60 million copies worldwide. During their 50-year history, the band has performed over 3,000 concerts in more than 50 countries, playing 100+ concerts each year.

www.JethroTull.com

Canadian Prog Rockers Druckfarben to release Second Sound CD

Left to Right: Phil Naro, Peter Murray, Ed Bernard,
Troy Feener and William Hare

Canadian progressive rock band Druckfarben will release their sophomore album, Second Sound, worldwide on March 22. The record will be available in CD form from their website (druckfarben.ca) and CD Baby, and digitally from iTunes and Bandcamp.

Second Sound features bold new colours in such songs as “An Answer Dreaming”, “In Disbelief” and “Liberated Dream”, and concludes with the 19-minute “Second Sound” suite. “This is a natural progression from our first album,” says guitarist Ed Bernard, “but also introduces musical elements that might be surprising to those who know our music so far.”

Bernard leads the group, which was formed in 2008 along with bassist Peter Murray (Surrender Dorothy, Ron Sexsmith), keyboardist William Hare (Crystal Shawanda, Angelica DiCastro, Abraham's Children), drummer Troy Feener (Full Nine, Tom Cochrane) and singer Phil Naro (Talas, Peter Criss, DDrive). In German, Druckfarben means “coloured ink used for printing on textiles or other media.” In the mid-80s, teenaged Ed and Troy had no idea what the word meant when they discovered it stencilled on mysterious black barrels in their rehearsal studio. But many years later it resurfaced as the name of Canada’s great new prog export.

All five members of Druckfarben grew up with a shared love of classic progressive rock music, such as Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Rush, King Crimson and Kansas. They played their first show on March 1, 2008 in Port Credit, Ontario. Their self-titled debut was released in October 2011, followed by a live DVD (Artifact) in 2013. They quickly built up an international following, including supporters such as Kim Mitchell, Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard), and Maurizio Guarini of Italy's Goblin, as well as producers Terry Brown (Rush) and David Bendeth (Bruce Hornsby, Paramore).

The band is eager to perform the exciting new material from Second Sound live throughout 2014 and beyond. 

For news and updates, follow:

Official site: www.druckfarben.ca

Facebook: www.facebook.com/druckfarben

Twitter: www.twitter.com/druckfarben