Kevin Coyne - Classic or Dud, Search & Destroy, etc. etc.

".... it had two live Beefheart tracks that remained unissued until the recent virgin "live" CD"

Although prior to it's official release last year, that same Live In London / Drury Lane 1974 recording must surely have been in the running for some sort of award for the bootleg that was most frequently and conspicuously available from normally respectable High-Street and on-line retailers.

Which wouldn't have been so bad if the recording hadn't been made by Virgin to start with and had been of one of the many respectable incarnations of The Magic Band and not of the miserable miserable "Tragic Band".

Fwiw I believe there's supposed to be proper fim footage of that concert, probably unedited and probably rotting away forgotten in some EMI vault.

"And you'll be glad to know, I don't think he's Kevin Ayers anymore."

Just as well, otherwise you'd be reading the reviews of The Unfairground an interpreting the expression "return to form" a bit too literally!

"Then made a miraculous recovery and died again in December 2004."

He only did that to confuse Mark.

They kept swapping band members in the mid 70s did Ayers & Coyne. I know Common Kev was a fan of Posh Kev too.

I got "Unconditionally" not so long ago, hey I like it better than "Mirrorman".. it's not so far from "Clear Spot"

Is "Bluejeans" just as bad/OK/good/whatever?

"Bluejeans" is kinda worse but has better songs, if that makes any sense - "Observatory Crest", title track. "Further Than We've Gone" = a thing of beauty and wonder.

I prefer Unconditionally Guaranteed - at least it's a proper Magic Band.

The songs Tom names are all OK, as is "Party Of Special Things To Do"; but I wouldn't have said any of them were markedy better than "Sugar Bowl", "New Electric Ride", "I Got Love On My Mind" or "This Is The Day" - and to my mind there's nothing on Bluejeans & Moonbeams that's as good as "Upon The My O My" or "Full Moon Hot Sun", nor is there anything on Unconditionally Guaranteed that's as wretched as "Pompadour Swamp" or as pointless as "Captain's Holiday".

who will defend unconditionally guaranteed or blue jeans and moonbeams?

"Pompadour Swamp" isn't that bad!

just got case history and it's one of those i wish i'd been listening to for years. "a leopard never changes its spots" is dope. if this album's representative at all, this guy's stuff is way too hard to locate for how good it is

And where oh wehere oh wher can I find a copy of Babble (the album he did with Dagmar Krause)?

Listening to a copy of this now -- it's quite remarkable, a truly theatrical performance.

Love "Saviour" from Matching Head and Feet. Did he ever do anything else like it?

Lots about Coyne from me and George (who are both somehow just now discovering him), starting here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Funny to read American dudes talking about Kevin Coyne, a lot of his stuff must be well nigh incomprehensible to them, but Mark E. Smith seems to get away with it. Still don't know how many of the Americans have heard "Ey Up, Me Duck" or "The Miner's Song", which don't make much sense outside Derbyshire let alone the UK!

Thread about annoying and ridiculous singing voices being best made me think of Kevin & Dagmar, of course...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIKUVhZU5AM

... unfortunately the songs seemed to have been edited out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGoAPGSdxhM

A marvellous man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uUef7viRnI

wish there was more footage of that babble performance available.

(xp) Just realized that Magma is being used as incidental music in this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh2kxtlLeX8

Dude needs a good box set.

In fact, that gig that has the full suite of "Marjory Razorblade" needs re/issuing in full!

Well, Mark, you probably want to look out for "Kevin Coyne ‎– I Want My Crown" the 4CD anthology, which has two versions of the "suite" (but no "Looking for the River" for some reason - Keep that "V" sampler, oh you have!)

That set is going for silly money, but there's an MP3 d/l version on Amazon, so you know, etc.

At my daughter’s honor band concert and one of the principals of the participating high schools is named Kevin Coyne.