Conference marvin::uk_music

  To get the ball rolling, I can tell you the names of two of the band 
  members, namely Stewart Copeland (who went on to be the drummer for The Police)
  and Sonja Kristina (sp?) who sang lead vocals.
  Their biggest hit, in the UK at least, was a song called "Back Street Luv".
  Beyond that, I'm afraid I don't know much...

  �Paul�

re -1: "Back Street Luv"

I'm glad you said that it would have bugged my for ages otherwise.
When I read the base note I could here a jumble of lyrics in my head but could
not remember the title. Must have been a mid 70's hit.

Well I'm the wrong side of the pond now but would probably buy a CD if there 
was one with "Back Street Luv" on it. I'm still building my CD collection, 
mostly with older stuff (Roxy Music, Old Fleetwood Mac, Eagles etc). There a 
lot of greatest hits CD's out covering the music of my youth.

Oh, well back to the 90's.

    
    One of the first bands I saw, St Albans Civic Centre 1975. All I can
    remember was the electric violin and that Tangerine Dream was played
    over the PA after the act, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Weird times ;-)
    
    Mike. 

        For reasons not relevant to this conference, I keep a copy
        of "Air Conditioning" in the office. I'm looking at it now.
        It is from 1970 and has the following tracks:

        PROGRAM A:  It Happened Today, Situations
        PROGRAM B:  Blind Man, Vivaldi
        PROGRAM C:  Stretch, Screw, Propostions
        PROGRAM D:  Hide and Seek, Rob One, Vivaldi (Cannons).

        I used to play it a lot. I remember electric violins feature quite 
        heavily - almost manically on "Vivaldi" where they can be heard
        exploding at one point. Writers' credits on the label are F. Monkman,
        S.K. Linwood, D. Way and R. Martin.

        I'd love to play it again, if anyone has the means.

        Ian.

Ah! Curved Air.  I always had a soft spot for them.

They were one of the bands that played during the original stage productions 
of Hair. In fact, I have a copy of the soundtrack album, which features Sonja
Kristina.

Their first album was Air Conditioning. They released "Vivaldi" off that (an 
amazing violinic tour de force), together with another track off the album and
a track NOT off the album called "What Happens When You Blow Yourself Up"! It
originally appeared as a picture disk and was pretty unplayable.

The second Album was called, mysteriously, Curved Air Two. My favouite.  It 
featured the hit single "Back Street Love".

The third and last album from the basic line-up of Sonja, Daryl Way (violin),
Frances Monkman (guitar, synth), Florian Pilkington Milksa (er... maybe)(drums)
and various bassists was called Phantasmogoria (sp?). Another great Album.

Daryl and Frances left and were replaced by Eddie Jobson (violin, who was 
allegedly chosen 'cos he could play Vivaldi with all the echo bits WITHOUT an
echo box) and a chap called Kirby (guitar, later joined a band called "Stretch"
who has a minor hit with something that slips my mind at the moment...). They
recorded an album called Air Cut...

All I remember after that is an Album called Midnight Wire, a live album recorded
by most of the original lineup to repay the Inland revenue and a couple of solo
albums by Sonja.

Daryl Way formed a band called WOLF, made a couple of albums.  Don't know what 
he's doing now.

Frances Monkman joined SKY.

I last saw Sonja and Daryl in Bracknell's South Hill Park playing with an unknown
bassist - they did a great set, but never released anything.

I noticed that Sonja appeared at the Gosport Arts festival supporting Richard
Thompson.  I would have loved to seen them, but wasn't able to go.

Well, that's the Curved Air data bank exhausted.  Can anyone add anything else?

    Only some old gossip from my teenage everything-you-can-possibly-know
    -about-The-Police days - Stewart and Sonja were (still are?) an "item";
    not sure if they ever made it down the altar.
    
    Debs.
    

    That Stretch hit was the funktastic 'Why Did You Do It?', around
    1975/6.
    
    Bob

    
    	A tremendous THANK YOU to all who have contributed "So far"8*)
    
    	And special mention goes to D. Morris who certainly came through
    with a lot of stuff I didn't know!!  Thank you. 
    
}} Eddie Jobson (violin, who was 
}}allegedly chosen 'cos he could play Vivaldi with all the echo bits WITHOUT an
}}echo box)
    
    EDDIE JOBSON??  Didn't he play with "Roxy Music"?  
    
    I heard the tunes "Metamorphosis"(Sp?) and "Easy". Such diversity!! I
    love it!  What about the keyboardist here?  Who? Any other stuff by
    him/her?
    
}}Daryl Way formed a band called WOLF, made a couple of albums.  Don't know what 
}}he's doing now.
    
	When this was mentioned a little bell went off (or should I say
    violin <GR>)!  I have an album by "WOLF"!  My fav song off it is called
    "MacDonald's Lament"  (Whoever MacDonald is?) 8^|
    
    I guess when you have particular tastes in music you never really steer
    to far off course do you?  So "Wolf" and "Curved Air" have a
    connection!  And one of my other all time favorite bands is "Roxy
    Music" (which I noticed wasn't really mentioned in this conference) and
    if I'm right about Eddie Jobson then the sentence I started this
    paragraph with is starting to become more of a statement than a
    question!! In fact, more proof of this is the fact that I really liked
    "The Police" also.
    
    I'd like to keep this topic alive if possible.  It sounds like a lot
    has been contributed to the music world by this band and maybe more if
    we keep digging.  If anybody can add more, please do!!  
    
    		Once again, thank you all now and in the future....
    
    Dave
    
    
         

        Trivia note no. 1

        Curved Air had the first multicoloured vinyl album!!!

        Back in the early-mid 70's I was privileged to see the original
        design, produced by a friend of mine's cousin (he claimed to be
        Curved air's manager but I had my doubts).   The design consisted
        of a ring of naked women holding hands with feet pointed towards
        the centre.  The actual album (the name of which escapes me) was
        in traditional black vinyl and stamped into it was the image in
        white vinyl.

        If I remember correctly the process was not a success and the
        white and black vinyl easily separated and made the record
        useless.

        FYI -- the cousin lived near Muswell Hill in north London
        (England :-)


        Charley

(-1)

The multi-coloured album sounded like an old 78 when you played it!  I believe
another band brought out a similar album at the same time.  Was it something
like Spirogyra (or something?).

(-2)

The only Wolf album I know of is something like Canus Lupus (I'll check it 
tonight). I'm sure Daryl Way produced another Wolf album - sounds like your's.
I seem to remember Wolf featured a jazz-type guitarist (John Etheridge? This is
really pushing my trivia recall brain cell).

I guess when you look at it, there were a number of bands connected with other
Curved Air personnel- Wolf, Sky, Stretch, Police, Roxy Music, Caravan (the 
bassist  on Air Cut was in Caravan at some point). Perhaps other noters can think
of some others.

I only saw Curved Air twice. Once at Reading Festival (circa 1971). A wonderful
evening, also featuring Mungo Jerry (who did a great set) and a first for me, 
Genesis (the start of a long-lasting love affair). Curved Air had no real stage 
presence, but played their stuff well. Daryl Way did a Townshend-like token
smashing up of violin on stage (frankly, it looked a bit pathetic, but that's
Show-Biz!).

The only other time I saw them was on their Pay-Off-The-IR tour. A great set, 
but Sonja's voice was shot (proved on the Live album).

Great Band.

     >   The design consisted
     >   of a ring of naked women holding hands with feet pointed towards
        
        My God, so it does!  I never noticed.
        
     >   The actual album (the name of which escapes me) ...
        
        Airconditioning, see earlier reply.
        
     >   If I remember correctly the process was not a success and the
     >   white and black vinyl easily separated and made the record
     >   useless.
        
        Any offers for this still playable 8-Track Cartridge version?
        
        Ian.

    I know nothing about Curved Air except that they did a totally
    brilliant track in the film "Ghostbusters" called "I Can Wait For Ever"
    (I think!). I put it onto cassette off my Son's LP of the
    music_of_the_film_of_the_book_of_the_street_of_the_same_name ..
    whatever .. and keep it in the car to take my mind off the M25 ....
    
    Mike.
    
    
               

   <<< Note 1182.11 by COMICS::WEGG "Some hard boiled eggs and some nuts." >>>
    
    }}        Airconditioning, see earlier reply.
    }}        Any offers for this still playable 8-Track Cartridge version?
    
    	Not really, but if you can come up with one of those black & white
    vinyls or the picture disk then we can certainly haggle!!  8*)
    
    
    -=Dave=-
    

Curved Air are also famous for having been used as the backing music for
The Book in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. The scripts have exact
referneces to tracks etc.

.8>    has been contributed to the music world by this band and maybe more if
.8>    we keep digging.  If anybody can add more, please do!!  

A tiny bit more info. Francis Monkman, Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno plus
a couple of others formed a band called 801 who released a couple of lp's
in 1976/76, namely "Listen Now" (well reviewed at the time) and "801 Live".
I have them both, and would even be willing to part with them.


Rod
    

There's a track on Sky2 called Vivaldi and credited to Darryl Way. I seem to 
remember this being an old Curved Air track.

Balders

    Re -1
    
    Thats right - BTW. Monkman was a member of sky.
    
    Also, Eddie Jobson not only played with Roxy Music but also had a brief
    spell with Jethro Tull (who I went to see a couple of day's ago, but
    that's a different story).
    
    Wolf's second album was called "Saturation Point".
    
    Daryl Way re-joined Curved Air after breaking up from Wolf -
    although they toured I don't believe they cut any albums.

Some more on Curved Air's albums...
    
    I have a few other Curved Air albums, but since US and UK releases are 
sometimes different I'll list the tracks and line-ups as well...

Air Conditioning: It Happened Today ; Stretch ; Screw ; Blind Man ; Vivaldi
		Hide and Seek ; Propositions ; Rob One ; Situations ; 
		Vivaldi with Cannons.
	Kristina, Way, Monkman,Martin, Pilkington-Miksa 1970

Second Album : Young Mother ; Back Street Luv ; Jumbo ; You Know ; Puppets
		Everdance ; Bright Summer's Day '68 ; Piece of Mind
 Kristina(listed as Sonja Linwood), Way, Monkman, Eyre, Pilkington-Miksa 1971

Air Cut : Purple Speed Queen ; Elfin Boy ; Metamorphosis ; World
		Armin ; UHF ; Two-three-two ; Easy
	Kristina ; Jobson ; Kirby ; Wedgwood ; Russel 1973

Live : It Happened today ; Marie Antoinette ; Back Street Luv ; Propositions
		Young Mother ; Vivaldi ; Everdance
	Kristina ; Way ; Monkman ; Pilkington-Miksa ; Kohn 1975

Best of : It Happened Today ; Vivaldi ; You know ; Back Street Luv
		Melinda (more or less) ; Cheetah ; Metamorphosis ; Purple
		Speed Queen
	1976

Airborne : Desiree ; Kids to Blame ; Broken Lady ; Juno ; Touch of Tequila
		Moonshine ; Heaven ; Hot & Bothered ; Dazed
	Kristina, Way, Jacques, Reeves, Copeland 1976

Yes, I do like them. :^)

Cheers,
George

    
         <<< Note 1182.18 by ISLNDS::HERMAN "Who am I to disagree?" >>>
                            -< a few other albums >-
    
    George,
    	Thanks for the album list.  You do sound like a true fan of theirs!
    Sorry for the gap in time for this response. (For some reason I've had
    to WORK! 8*) )  I've become a real fan also!  I've managed to get all
    the albums you listed here except Airborne.  Is this one as good as the
    other ones?  I see you listed some different people on this one.
    
    	I also got an album that you didn't list here called Phantasmagoria.
    Do you have this one?  If you like I can dig up the tracks and line-up
    info for you.
    
    	Do you know if any of these are (chuckle chuckle) available on CD?
    
    
    		Later,
    		-=Dave=-
    
    

    I seem to remember seeing a 2nd hand Curved Air CD for sale at Ross
    Records in Portsmouth yesterday(*THE* 2nd-hand CD shop!). Couldn't tell
    you which one it was. Price 6.99.
    
    Andy