Free Speech * De Gedachten zijn Vrij: Principal Edwards Magic Theatre * Mon. 29 Feb., Tue 01 Mch [2016-09]

NEW * NIEUW:  Principal Edwards Magic Theatre  ** REPEATED / HERHALING: CHRISTY MOORE * WORSTELEN MET GOD (Frederik De Preester leest Eric De Preester) * THE FOOL, plus Eric Burdon, George Harrison, David Bowie *  **
There is no freedom without freedom of speech: always, everywhere and for everyone. Anything less is a violation of it.  

SCHEDULE
MONDAYS  & TUESDAYS 12:00 > 20:00 hrs CET or 11 a.m. > 7 p.m. GMT (UK)
FORMAT
Free Speech consists of four 60-minute shows.  A new show is added each week. It is followed by three previous shows.

THE PLAYLISTS 

12 noon  and 16:000 hrs CET (11 a.m. and  3 p.m. UK time) NEW SHOW
PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE
More a troupe than a group, The Principal Edwards Magic Theatre is a typical example of the late sixties / early seventies. The lyrics are about individual freedom, but this isn’t a political concept, rather something vaguely philosophical, even esoteric. At any rate, this freedom is self-centred, eah individual being “King of all you say or do” (from: Weirdsong). One is free with drugs, the mind floating among the spheres. This freedom is to be found in the countryside, far from the madding crowd, possibly following a commune style of life (when the troupe becomes a group again). On their album The Asomoto Running Band, it  becomes clear that life in the country isn’t always what one expected it to be: the countryside people are close-minded (“Kettering”) and estate developers are taking over (“McAlpine’s Dream”). The idealisation of nature was common, nature offering both an escape way and an alternative. (Eddy Bonte) . RADIO 68 PLAYS tracks from The Asmoto Running Band  and The Devon Tapes, plus various artists evoking nature such as Donovan, Crystal Jacqueline, Dantalion’s Chariot, Ronnie Lane and Simon Dupree & The Big Sound.

13:00 and 17:00 hrs CET (12 noon  / 4 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
WORSTELEN MET GOD: Frederik De Preester leest protestgedichten en atheïstische gedachten van Eric De Preester * Uittreksels uit Radio 68-interview met Frederik De Preester ** Muziek van Donovan, Dylan, David McWilliams, David Peel, The Byrds,  John Watts, Cat Stevens.

14:00 and 18:00 hrs CET (1 p.m. / 5 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
THE FOOL: their self-titled album from 1969, plus Eric Burdon, George Harrison, David Bowie, Seemon & Marijke, The Growing Concern

15:00 and 19:00 hrs CET (2 p.m. / 6 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
RORY McLEOD from his debut album Angry Love, 1985 ** AND ALSO: Armand, Shamanaid, Jim Hightower, Victor Jara, Michele Gazich 

BACKGROUND ** MEER INFORMATIE

THE PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE 

“The collective was originally formed at the University  of Exeter in the late 1960s, and then was later based at a farmhouse in Kettering, as a commune after educational studies were causing conflict with their musical activities. The core of the group was Belinda Borquin, David Jones, and Root Cartwright backed by several musicians and dancers.

The group was signed to John Peel’s Dandelion Records after he witnessed their first gig, and their single “The Ballad of a Big Girl Now”, was released in 1969. Following the single, the band released of two albums –Soundtrack and The Asmoto Running Band – the second of which was produced by  Nick Mason of Pink FLoyd. The sometimes whimsical, sometimes epic (verging on  prog rock writing style of guitarist Root Cartwright, was paired with the eclectic lyrical contributions of David Jones, Gillian Hadley and Monica Nettles, and was performed by vocalist Vivienne McAuliffe. The violin and recorders of Bindy Bourquin were another key element of the group’s trademark sound. Lyn Edwards, originally on bongos, took over on the drum kit..

The group disbanded in December 1971. Then, a new band called Principal Edwards  started with a smaller nucleus (including new bassist Richard Jones from  The Climax Blues Band. They recorded a few new singles and a third album called Round One for  Deram. Most of the Deram recordings were also produced by Nick Mason. Later,  a number of demos were released as The Devon Tapes .”  (Wikipedia)

RADIO 68 PLAYS tracks from The Asmoto Running Band  and The Devon Tapes, plus various artists evoking nature such as Donovan, Crystal Jacqueline, Dantalion’s Chariot, Ronnie Lane and Simon Dupree & The Big Sound

 CHRISTY MOORE

Christy Moore, who was born on 7 May, 1945, was a founding member of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first solo album was recorded in 1969 and he released a new album in 2016. In 2007 he was named as Ireland’s greatest living musician by RTE. Read the interview with Martin Chilton (2012) here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/christy-moore-interview-i-search-for-the-perfect-word

ABOUT “RIDE ON”:
(…) this is the legendary wit which has made Christy Moore one of the most formidable and popular live performers in the country, harnessed to marvellous effect. His other song ‘Viva La Quinta Brigada’ is politically sound as a bell, if a touch guileless. What is most impressive in terms of Christ’s development as a writer is the evocative chorus, given an effective Tex mex warmth by the combination of Donal Lunny’s Prophet – sounding like an accordion – Declan Sinnott’s many guitars and the threesomes wholehearted singing (…) But ‘Back Home In Derry’ is altogether more poignant. About a bunch of sixty Irish rebels transported to Australia in 1803, the song becomes much more as it describes the atrocious squalor of their imprisonment: “Five weeks out to sea we were now 43, we buried out comrades each morning, in our own slime we were lost in a time, endless night without dawning.” ( Source:  Niall Stokes, http://www.hotpress.com/Christy-Moore/music/reviews/albums/Ride-On/473724.html

CHRISTY MOORE’s LYRICS:  www.christymoore.com/lyrics

RADIO 68 plays: Ride On, El Salvador,  Vive La Quinta Brigada, The Dying Soldier, The Least We Can do, Back Home in Derry and The City of Chicago

WORSTELEN MET GOED: FREDERIK DE PREESTER leest ERIC DE PREESTER

In 1969 verscheen bij Uitgeverij VITA de poëziebundel “Worstelen met God” van de “Dichter zonder Naam”. Deze merkwaardige uitgave bestaat vooreerst uit een inleiding over het morele klimaat in het toenmalige Vlaanderen en verklaart tevens waarom de dichter anoniem wenst te blijven. Daarna volgen 23 gedichten, goed voor ruim dertig pagina’s, waarvan het titelgedicht de hoofdmoot vormt. Na enig speurwerk vonden we de anonymus: Eric De Preester, schrijver, dichter, drukker en de man achter uitgeverij VITA zelf. “Worstelen met God” is één van de weinige uitgesproken atheïstische en ronduit godslasterende gedichten uit Vlaanderen, tevens een hoogstpersoonlijke  getuigenis.

Eric De Preester overleed onverwacht in 2015. We vonden zijn zoon Frederik bereid om voor te lezen uit het werk van zijn vader, inz. protestgedichten en atheïstische gedichten.

“Worstelen met God”  en het voorwoord tot de bundel, werden met toestemming van de dichter overgenomen op http://www.eddybonte.be/opinies/WorstelenmetGodAtheisme.cfm

.THE FOOL

The Fool were a Dutch quartet transplanted to London in the middle ’60s, whose original impact on the rock world was visual rather than musical.  They were two women, Marijke Kooer and Josje Leeger – who designed clothes for people like Patti Boyd Harrison (George Harrison’s first wife) – and with Marijke’s husband, Seemon (Simon) and their friend, Barry Finch they became collectively known as “the Fool,” exemplifying the hippie ethic of the mid-’60s.    The Fool is an album with some of the same English folk elements – including bagpipes! – but it is not a folk music album.  So what is it?  Good question.   In an odd way it reminds me of George Harrison’s very under-appreciated Wonderwall Music:  both are early precursors of “World music.”  But The Fool is much more.
http://rockasteria.blogspot.be/ 

Their self-titled album from 1969 refers to  a tarot card, The Fool being “the number 0 (zero) in the kabalistic tarot which represents the cosmis egg  whence come all things. Zero is also the symbol of the absence of substance quantity or mass. Thus it denotes absolute freedom from every limitation”.

INSIDE YOUR MIND (lyrics by The Fool)

Inside your mind, it’s colour-blind
We all are slowly learning
Don’t give up, you got to go on Loving, hearts are burning
The road is steep but high above the Angels sing in choir
Doesn’t matter if you break It only brings you higher In the sparkling light of the sun at night
When the moon begins to fade Spins the world in all her majesty Into another shade
If you are fast asleep at night Your soul is on a travel It raises you unconsciously upon a nicer level
If you want the world to become Sooner a bit better It is important that you see We got to get together
In the sparkling light of the sun at night  When the moon begins to fade Spins the world in all her majesty Into another shade