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Roger Waters ventured
outside Pink Floyd in 1970 to
compose a soundtrack for The Body,
a documentary about human biology, with
sometime Floyd collaborator Ron Geesin.
Our Song features recordings of Geesin’s farts
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Originally credited to
the three band members,
The Barbarian, the opening track on
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s debut album, is a
reworking of Béla Bartók’s 1911 piano piece
Allegro Barbaro. When the late composer’s
wife got in contact, she was initially told to
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confessed to his cheeky steal.3
The rivalry
between ELP
and Jethro Tull
could get silly. In 1972,
when Tull walked into
Tokyo’s Hilton Hotel and
saw ELP checking in, Ian
Anderson insisted the
promoters book his band
rooms elsewhere.4
Deep Purple’s
first rehearsal
with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
ahead of their 1969 Royal
Albert Hall performance
of Concerto For Group And
Orchestra saw one cellist
storm out, complaining
that she hadn’t joined the RPO to play with
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Mike Oldfield wasn’t initially
keen to tour his 1973 album Tubular Bells.
He was only halted from cancelling a June
’73 show in London by Virgin boss Richard
Branson handing him the keys to his Bentley.6
At one Wembley
performance of Jethro Tull’s
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audience members were so bored that
they began fashioning paper planes from
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Supporting Black Sabbath
in America in 1972 was a tough gig for
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thrown on the stage during their set at
the Hollywood Bowl, the group walked
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Black Sabbath’s audience “a bunch of
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Hawkwind’s 1973 single
Urban Guerrilla was banned by
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John Peel once called ELP
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included it in future tour programmes.10
Gong were once booked
into the same venue as
The Boomtown Rats. Spotting
the prog musicians in his audience, Bob
Geldof urged the crowd
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*RQJ¶V'DHYLG$OOHQA NEW DAY YESTERDAY:
PROGRESSIVE ROCK &
THE 1970S by Mike Barnes is
out now on Omnibus Press.10 T h i n g s
We Learned
About Prog
Mike Barnes’ 600-page prog rock bible,
A New Day Yesterday, is a trove of trivia.Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of
Secrets are to release Live At
The Roundhouse, a document
of their May 2019 shows at
the legendary London venue.
The recording is being made
available on CD/DVD, vinyl
and Blu-ray on April 17.Def Leppard will release a
new box set, The Early Years
79-81 on March 20. The box
features remastered versions
of On Through The Night
and High’n’Dry, a previously
unreleased live show taped
in Oxford in April 1980, BBC
sessions tracks and more.The Black Crowes are
touring the UK in October. The
reunited Robinson brothers
kick off their first British dates
since 2011 in London’s O
Brixton Academy on October 12.IN BRIEF
Unwitting
prog great:
Béla Bartók.ZZ Top, Aerosmith and
Motörhead’s Warpig are
the latest rock icons to be
immortalised by the good
people at Funko Pop! Vinyl.
The figures can be pre-ordered
now at http://www.popinabox.co.uk