Edward once again in The Best Of Britain

To keep me busy in these Kayakless times, I went to see "The Best Of Britain"-part 2. The second tour of this quite simple concept: piece together a group of brilliant musicians, and let them play a giant list of wellknown songs from the British pop history. And don't forget one important ingredient: some good vocalists. The Best Of Britain singers are Maarten Peeters, Brenda Bee, Syb 'Scaliger' van der Ploeg, and a man called Edward Reekers...

The conclusion is simple, and with all due respect to the other singers (who were great too): give Edward any song you like, and he turns it into something beautiful. Beatles, Queen, Alan Parsons, Peter Gabriel, no problem for Edward!

Nick Magnus likes Kayak

In 2009, the Genesis fansite ‘Genesis-News’ interviewed English musician Nick Magnus. Nick was –amongst other things- the keyboard player in the band of ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. When asked about his work in the studio with Hackett, Nick came up with some nice Kayak promotion!:

Q: What are your memories of being on tour or in the studio with Steve in the late 70s?

Nick: (…) and then we recorded “Spectral Mornings” in the January of '79 in Holland, in Visselord Studios (sic) in Holland. That was a fantastic experience. It was such a great building anyway, it was this lovely open-plan building – it was like an in-door street with in-door telephone boxes, and the studios going off the street. One of my favourite bands of all time, Kayak – do you know the Dutch band Kayak?

Q: No.

Nick: You don't know Kayak? Aaah, you should! Get the whole back-catalogue and stuff, it's great. It's fantastic. I've always been a big Kayak fan. They were recording an album called Phantom Of The Night in the next door studio to us, so I was going „Ooooh! It's Kayak here, wow!“ So we got to meet them. It was like a recreational time.

Nick Magnus, Kayak fan,  in 1978

Nick Magnus homepage: http://www.magnus-music.com/home.htm

Thanks to Mike Jones for finding this interview!

Ton Scherpenzeel with Camel at the Paradiso, Amsterdam

On Sunday 2 march, Camel played at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. I have been a fan of Camel since 1981, and I saw them play in Holland on several occasions. But normally, I would not make mention of a Camel concert on this weblog. However, 2 march 2014 was a rather special date…

As you may know, Ton Scherpenzeel was an on-and –off member of Camel. He toured with them in 1984 and in 2003. When I saw Camel in Amsterdam last october, they had Canadian Guy LeBlanc on keyboards. For their march 2014 tour, Guy was to do the job again. But due to health issues, Guy was not able to perform. Ton Scherpenzeel was approached at the very last minute, and he agreed to step in. 

And so, the Paradiso witnessed Ton’s return to the British band. With only 2 days of rehearsal, it was obvious that he was a bit nervous. But  after a couple of minutes already – and helped by the support from the band and the crowd-  it became clear that he would bring the evening to a good end.  Well done, Ton (and the others...)!

(By the way, after the concert I spoke a few words with Irene Linders, Kathy Lapthorn and Peter Scherpenzeel, who were all there to support Ton...)