Kats Karavan: The History Of John Peel On The Radio

[vinpinman]

Perfumed Garden has the Bob sessions.



Adam
http://fadesinslowly.com/




--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "nigel_wassell" <nigelw@...> wrote:
>
> Bob were great. They did three Peel sessions, of which the last featured songs that never received any kind of commercial release. It's available somewhere on the Net and well worth searching out.
> 
> Anyway, I was working in Southampton for a couple of weeks in the summer of 1991 and they played the Joiner's Arms - a famous "indie" dive. (I'd never been to a gig in a pub back room before...) I got there early, sneaked in to the soundcheck and then got talking to singer/guitarist/joint composer Richard Blackborow (he of the Bob forum post below). He quickly learned that I was a fan, expressed amazement that I'd recently paid £8 (or thereabouts) for a copy of their debut release - the "Prune Your Tree" flexi, and then I said that I was still looking for a copy of the 12" of "Convenience" to complete my set of Bob singles. "I think we've got an odd copy lying around the office," he quoth. "I'll send you one." And he was as good as his word - completely free and gratis! I've still got it, together with the covering letter. Meanwhile, back at the gig, the song itself was dedicated to "the geezer from Swansea who's got all our records"! Fame!
> 
> A truly great band. I often wondered what happened to them and the Bob forum provides the answer - a couple more years scuffling around the "toilet" circuit to diminishing returns before they basically got fed up and split up. Shame.
> 
> --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, robf <robfleay@> wrote:
> >
> > I just saw an interesting post on the BOB forum from Richard BOB about the inclusion of their track "Convenience" on this new compilation.
> > 
> > I'm not sure if you need to be registered to view it so I'll cut and paste the meat to save messing:
> > 
> > Universal Music are releasing a box set called 'Kats Karavan - The History Of John Peel On The Radio'. It's a 4-CD set and our single 'Convenience' has been included on it. You'll find some details here:
> > 
> > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kats-Karavan-History-John-Radio/dp/tracks/B002N1BNXC
> > 
> > It was lovely (and lucky) that we got asked to contribute a track, and it led to a right palaver. Having agreed to put the track on the set, I went home to go through The Library(!) of BOB tapes, and, predictably, 'Convenience' was about the only BOB release for which I couldn't find a master mix. All I could find was the original 2" 24-track session tape, recorded at Moles Studio in Bath. Bloodied but unbowed, I resolved to have the analogue tape transferred to digital so that I could remix it for the box set...reasoning that it'd be good to have a digital master of the song anyway, because there had never been a CD release of it, just the original vinyl.
> > 
> > I sent the tape to The Sawmills to be transferred, but they found that age and damp had rendered the tape's oxide layer 'sticky' and thus unplayable on a tape machine. The solution was to send the tape to London to be baked in an oven for 4 days by a nice man with a beard, who then did the transfer to digital. Having succcessfully achieved that, he then beamed the 24-tracks of 'Convenience', via the Internet, to me, in a studio in Cornwall, with mixing engineer John Cornfield. John is a bit of a dude...look him up...he did 'The Dukes Of Stratosphear' stuff, and much more.
> > 
> > Anyway, we re-created the old mix, and then allowed ourselves the luxury of tweaking it very slightly for the new millennium! You wont hear drastic changes...only subtle differences. It was good that Dean came down to join me in the studio for the mix; I'd not seen him for quite a while.
> > 
> > It was very nice re-visiting the recording after all these years; a real trip down the hackneyed memory lane. Nicest of all was hearing a few of the guitar licks hidden by the original mix.
> > 
> > It's 20 years since 'Convenience' came out and this new release is, I must admit, very gratifying. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ---- steve <saipanda@> wrote: 
> > > Hi folks,
> > > 
> > > Just received my copy of the new 4CD compilation. Nice package, looking forward to listening to it all. 
> > > 
> > > The related website has an online digital version of the booklet, which includes an intro by Ken G ("of this parish") that might be of interest to folks here:
> > > http://www.johnpeel.co.uk/
> > > 
> > > Many thanks to everyone for the recent shared shows and mixtapes. Great stuff.
> > > 
> > > Cheers,
> > > 
> > > SW
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ------------------------------------
> > > 
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > > 
> > > 
> > >
> >
>