Kevin Ayers & The Whole World :: LIVE in Driebergen NL 1970 - VOODOO WAGON

 And finally today Jeremiah (the Bullfrog!) over at HQ with The Voodoo Wagon has revisited some excellent and fascinating Kevin Ayers and The Whole World and a boot that has done the rounds for an age known as 'Colours of The Day' elsewhere but is well worth checking out again if you don't have it. 

. So if you are in whimsical psychedelic mood ( who isn't?) then this is for you!

Kevin Ayers In Driebergen 1970 - Voodoo Wagon

 Kevin Ayers & The Whole World

Gemeente Centrum

Driebergen NL

1970-07-30

VPRO FM Broadcast @320

01. The Oyster and the Flying Fish 

02. We Did It Again

03. Hat Song

04. If You've Got Money

05. Clarence In Wonderland 

06. Rheinhardt and Geraldine---Colores Para Dolores  

07. Why Are We Sleeping?

08. Lady Rachel 

09. Kevin Ayers Interview (Partial)

Kevin Ayers - Guitar, Vocals

Mike Oldfield - Bass

Robert Wyatt - Drums

David Bedford - Piano, Organ

Lol Coxhill - Soprano Saxophone, Bird Whistles, Flute

with

Bridget St. John - Vocals (Track 1,4)

KEVIN AYERS - The Whole World

The Whole Wide World 

Live at Gemeendecentrum, Drijbergen, The Netherlands; July 30, 1970. Broadcast on VPRO Piknik radio and TV. Ex stereo broadcast.

As oddly disconcerting as any live Ayers experience ought to be, this live broadcast from 1970 catches the Whole Wide World at their most maddening, a collection of songs that veers deliberately between the whimsical and the obtuse, with little middle ground in between.

So a fractured “We Did It Again” rubs shoulders with a mystifyingly brief “Lady Rachel” (oddly dominated by a piping Stylophone), “The Hat Song” rattles manically alongside a disheveled “Clarence In Wonderland,” and “Why Are We Sleeping” spreads out over close to twelve minutes of sheer madness, including a lengthy snatch of Ayers doing his best impersonation of a kitschy nightclub balladeer.

The Dutch broadcasters themselves add to the chaos with barking dogs and snatches of speech, while the general air of lunacy is only heightened by some positively leviathan improvisations. “Clarence In Wonderland” is extended out over more than 13 minutes, via solos that all but become sound effects; “We Did It Again” touches the quarter of an hour mark, as it rides a grinding garage riff that makes Mick Farren’s “Mona” sound restrained; and “Colores Para Dolores” is essentially a Lol Coxhill showcase that really wants to burst into the theme from the Benny Hill Show.

So, all is as one would expect to find from a period Whole Wide World show. 

- Dave Thompson

"Go on play The Oyster and The Flying Fish and have some fun!" me!

Oldfield Bedford Coxhill Fincher and Ayers

Kevin Ayers & The Whole World - May I? OGWT

O What a Dream! - Kevin