Horrors! No Peter Blegvad C/D on ILM!

I really like a lot of the songs on King Strut. I have praised his work with Slapp Happy on other ILM threads, but yeah, that album is good. I have one other one on an old tape from the 90's, can't remember the name.

Mr. Odd, do you have all the Slapp Happy stuff? It's 70s and gets lumped in with prog but it's really pop at it's very best, just totally classic and wonderful and perhaps the best music ever. While I'm probably partial to Anthony Moore's solo records, Blegved's comic strip Leviathan is absolutely genius.

I've got _Casablanca Moon/Desperate Straights_ but haven't listened to it in years, so I'll check it out again tomorrow. I never looked into Slapp Happy's_Ca Va_, which has a pair of excellent Blegvad tunes that show up later on his solo records, "The Unborn Byron" and "Let's Travel Light".

Desperate Straights is when they join up with Henry Cow, so it leans prog. Casablanca Moon is great songwriting and fun production, but you should check out Acnalbasac Noom, which is a totally different recording/production, with the Faust guys who helped out on their first lp Sort Of, which is also highly recommended, though Acnalbasac Noom is the best.

Dan very much otm. My pet theory is that the first two Slapp Happy albums (counting Acnalbasac as #2) should really be considered Krautrock anyway (see Faust connections and listen to that band's catchier stuff and it kind of makes sense).

There's a live tape of Blegvad fronting the Golden Palominos where he does very rocked up versions of some of his solo stuff, including a killer Lou Reed-ish take on Special Delivery. Surprisingly good sound too...could have had a legit release.

Lastly, that promo he did for King Strut called Peter Who? is very entertaining.

I much prefer "Casablanca Moon" to "Acnalbasac Noom". Not a popular opinion it seems.

Oh, forgot that Blegvad plays on Anthony Moore's "Out" album, which is like the super-secret classic Slapp Happy related album. I had passed on this one for a while, until realizing that it was recorded something like 20+ years before its release. Turns out it's like a great lost Kevin Ayers album (Ayers also plays on it) or something. Very organic feel, lots of Moore's trademark odd meters wedged into catchy pop tunes, etc. Woefully underrated, probably because most people assume it was recorded closer to the year it came out. I'll admit to preferring the best tracks from "Flying Doesn't Help" but as a whole I'd pick "Out" over that one.

Granted it's not a Blegvad album proper, but he is on it and for all I know may have contributed to the songwriting (I got it from eMusic, so no detailed liner notes, though Andy Summers is on it too). Allmusic is correct in noting that his cover of "Catch a Falling Star" is wonderful.

I've not heard of that album! Will check it out...

Out is fantastic. Lovers of Mine = best song ever.

Oh man, how come I'd never heard of (or seen) this album before? "Johnny's Dead" was released as a Slapp Happy single (or b-side), I know that much

Cosign for Moore's Out and Flying Doesn't Help. Great records that, for me, fit in the same stylistic family as Cale's Island albums and Taking Tiger Mountain.

DL "Stitch In Time" (if I recall the title correctly)if you just want to try one song.

Meanwhile my favorite Blegvad solo record is Just Woke Up, but I haven't ever seen a copy of the well-reputed King Strut.

I always love mentioning how Anthony Moore wrote lyrics on Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and I love signs that David Gilmour is a bit of an art-rocker at times. What would've been great is if Moore just joined Floyd at that point in Waters place. That could've been interesting.

thanks for the tip on moore's out -- I always liked flying doesn't help. I always took out for one of moore's later avant records, which are hit and miss, though scenes from the cloudland ballroom is five stars, like a longhaired fuzzed out cover version of stockhausen's stimmung, and the b-side has two long jams with members of faust.

blegvad's kew. rhone is fantastic, I like downtime, still haven't spent enough time with any of his other pop records. there's a later blegvad / greaves record unearthed, has anyone heard that?

-Unearthed- is the spoken word thing I mentioned, it's great. -King Strut- got reissued a few years back and should be available online. Peter hasn't done much since the -Choices Under Pressure- rerecorded best-of though he did do an observational piece on Barnsley called -Passing Through- which is fun but not critical. I can't wait for another volume of "Leviathan", a comic strip that is both funny and thought-provoking.

Out is a bit of a mixed bag, though it's more poppy, doesn't have the fuzzed out rock qualities of Flying Doesn't Help and World Service.

I think Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom and Secrets of the Blue Bag both preceed the other solo stuff, I thought they were early/mid 70s.

There's a live tape of Blegvad fronting the Golden Palominos where he does very rocked up versions of some of his solo stuff, including a killer Lou Reed-ish take on Special Delivery.

is this available online anywhere?

Peter Blegvad has been contributing to Radio Free Song Club.

I finally got around to putting this up on youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZOikZPWNbU

That's a good'un. He just released another album with Andy Partridge, "Gonwards". It's a winner!

ReR has released Peter's "Bandbox", reissuing "Downtime", "Just Woke Up" and "Hangman's Hill" along with a two disc set called "It's All Experimental" of outtakes, demos and lots of live stuff. I ordered early and also got "The Impossible Book - A Radio Play" starring Peter, Andy Partridge, David Thomas and others. There's my weekend listening!

Finally listened to his original version of "Daughter."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM2OfKvXdrA

I hope he made some money from that one, didn't a cover version appear in a movie?

Probably. Feel like the Loudon Wainwright version is the most well known.

One of the most disturbing nightmares of a song ever: "Irma" from The Naked Shakespeare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wn-qyDlcPY

The Naked Shakespeare was a case of a talented writer and musician obviously trying hard but missing a spark somehow.

xps Loudon Wainwright's version played over the end credits of Knocked Up iirc. I was shocked to find out it wasn't a Wainwright original.

(xp) Pretty much sums up his solo career tbh.

I've loved Acnalbasac Noom for years, but nothing else in the Slapp Happy extended universe really did much for me until I heard Kew. Rhone. for the first time earlier this year, and it was all I wanted to listen to for weeks.

Yes yes yes!!! The "Kew. Rhone." book is also recommended: https://www.colinsackett.co.uk/kewrhone.php?x=93&y=76

Didn't know there was a book! Just ordered it.

Great! Happy reading!
Also it's worth linking to the Quietus article/interview (w/ Blegvad) about it (linked from the Uniformbooks/Colin Sackett page above):
https://thequietus.com/articles/17243-peter-blegvad-interview