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Zappa Plays Zappa! July 4th........Adrian Belew!?


richbass

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I am sure someone had mentioned this. Is anyone out there hitting that up? There are a bunch of people coming out.

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA

July 4th - Elements - Kitchener 8PM!

July 5th - Ottawa Blues Fest with Adrian Belew openeing up, maybe he'll join Dweezil?

Belew has some awesome solo stuff with Les Claypool & Danny Carey, if you haven't heard it!

I think his touring band now is a power trio of a brother & sister that are 17 years old.

Check out Side Four (Live)

Dweezil stuck around last time for a couple hours to talk to people and sign, he's a good man.

See you there!?

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I first discovered Adrian Belew close to 30 years ago when he released his, I believe, first solo album - The Lone Rhino. Been a huge fan ever since. I saw him about 15 years ago in Toronto at The Spectrum, and got to briefly meet him after the show. Been trying to catch him ever since.

Zappa is one of those musicians that I just never got into for some reason. I mean, I like what I've heard, but I never bought any of his stuff. I'm also wondering if Adrian will join ZPZ.

Adrian was "discovered" by Zappa and played in his band for a few years. He's also played with David Bowie, Talking Heads, and many more, and was the music director of Bowie's Sound and Vision tour.

ZPZ are up against Steely Dan unfortunately.

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Adrian was "discovered" by Zappa and played in his band for a few years. He's also played with David Bowie, Talking Heads, and many more, and was the music director of Bowie's Sound and Vision tour.

Don't forget he's also been a charter member of King Crimson since the early '80s.

ZPZ are up against Steely Dan unfortunately.

Most unfortunate conflict of the festival if you ask me.

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Totally enjoyed the Kitchener show! Thank you Tungsten Gruvsten for the hook up!

I highly recommend this show for you Ottawa folks. If you are a Zappa fan, this is a must see. If you are not knowledgeable about Zappa, you will still dig it in a big way. A killer 8 piece band!

Is anybody currently writing music like this? Who is a modern Frank Zappa? Wow ...

Peace, Mark

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pfft on the floor the sound was frickin' great - damn loud too! dweezil was on fire! That was my least fave part of the last time around, now he has definitely picked it up.

Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy for a closer...unheard of! They played some surprises that's for sure, the Joe's Garage run was fantastic, Outside Now, Packard Goose were facking amazing...

A sold out house last night definitely might seal the deal for more shows of this nature...

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I've just finished reading a biography of Talking Heads ... Tina Weymouth fucked over Adrian Belew big time.

if you've got a few minutes to elaborate I'd love to hear more...

Well, pardon if I hash some of the details, but ...

Belew had worked on recording and touring with Talking Heads for Remain In Light. Weymouth then goes up to Belew and asks him if he is interested in joining Talking Heads as a fifth member, "but don't tell any of the others I mentioned this to you." Later, Jerry Harrison separately mentioned to Belew that they were interested in having him in the band. Following up on this, Belew raises the topic with Tina, but Tina tells him that they don't want him as a fifth member, they wanted him as a fourth member ... replacing David Byrne (no word on whether she had ever mentioned this to the other members of the band.) Belew starts to get a bad feeling about this. On top of this, Robert Fripp has just asked him to join the new lineup of King Crimson, so he has a few things going on at the same time.

Around this time, Tina, Adrian and Chris Frantz go down to the Carribbean to work on what would ultimately become the first Tom Tom Club album. Adrian worked extensively on these recordings, including a track called "L'Elephante", where Adrian wrote and played everything. Adrian informed Tina and Chris that he had a commitment to record with Fripp, then make his own solo record, but he would be back in 3 months and then they could finish the record. Tina said sure, they would wait. She didn't wait, and instead brought in her sisters to do vocals and just completed the record. Adrian came back after 3 months to a tape of the completed record. He then found that some of his solos had been erased, and a lot of the riffs he had come up with had been turned into the primary melodies of the songs. Yet when the record did come out, Adrian was not mentioned anywhere in the songwriting credits (including "L'Elephante, which was exclusively his creation). When he tried to address this, Tina said she considered him more of an arranger than a songwriter. Further enquiries and Tina and Chris just stopped returning his phone calls. The first Tom Tom Club album went on to be a substantial club hit and wound up going gold, but Adrian saw no songwriting royalties from it. Belew decided to let it slide (by a lot of reports I have read, Adrian seems to be one of the nicest guys in music) but you know it had to stick in his craw.

Adrian Belew ended up deciding to join King Crimson.

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thanks for the details. I'm thinking that King Crimson was the better choice than the Talking Heads, but too bad that he got screwed out of those royalties. He is an incredibly talented dude. Seems to have gotten the acclaim he deserves from other musicians (notwithstanding what Tina did), but never that much commercial success.

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Which biography did you read? I read one a few years ago, but can't quite recall the title or author (although I have a funny feeling it may have been the same guy who did a Richard Thompson bio about ten years ago). I do remember that it was horribly written, but informative nonetheless. I did get the impression that the author was attempting to portray Tina Weymouth as a baddie (rightly or wrongly, I don't know) and that all of the quotes in the book which were attributed to her seeemed mostly like responses to a draft of the book rather than interviews. Anyway, my point is that although I learned a lot from the book, I still thought the author had an axe to grind and that he could have benefitted from a refresher course in writing.

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Nice shot bouche!

I was converted after hearing ZPZ the first time. They are such a talented group of musicians and they're having so much fun up there when they are playing. I've been trying to get people to go ever since. Like somebody mentioned before, you don't have to know a lot of Zappa to appreciate the show at all. Great way to "discover" Zappa for any noobs out there.

Bummed I missed the Kitchener show, but I won't be missing Buffalo (for free )

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