Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Kelvin Hall, Glasgow
1972-04-02

Lineage: AUD>Tape (unknown gen)>Wav (using Wavelab)>FLAC (level 8, using Trader's Little Helper)

Tracks:
01. Hair Pie: Bake III (1:05)
02. Smoking Rio 6 (1:26)
03. Hair Pie: Bake III (0:56)
04. The Mascara Snake (0:35)
05. The Mascara Fake (0:25)
06. The Mascara for God's Sake (1:25)
07. When It Blows Its Stacks (4:06)
08. Click Clack (5:01)
09. Grow Fins (4:53)
10. Band Intro (0:36)
11. Hobo Chang Ba (3:14) instrumental
12. I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby (5:38)
13. Old Black Snake (3:56)
14. Peon (3:36)
15. Abba Zaba (3:21)
16. Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop (3:22)
17. Alice In Blunderland (5:07)
18. Spitball Scalped A Baby (21:46)
19. My Human Gets Me Blues (3:53)
20. Steal Softly Through Snow (0:49) instrumental cut

Total length: 75:10

Quality: 7/10. Sound improvement using Freefilter, equalizer.

Line-Up:
Captain Beefheart/Don Van Vliet: vocals, sax, harmonica
Rockette Morton/Mark Boston: bass guitar, guitar
Oréjon/Audi Hon/Roy Estrada: bass guitar
Zoot Horn/Rollo Bill Harkleroad: guitar, slide guitar
Winged Eel Fingerling/Elliot Ingber: guitar, slide guitar
Ed Marimba/Art Tripp: drums, percussion

Comments:
Danny Houston: There used to be a great club in Glasgow, Scotland called The Maryland, and the owner Willie Cuthbertson (one of the great unacknowledged heroes of Scottish Rock) brought Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band up to play at a place called the Kelvin Hall. This venue was famous already in the halls of rock n roll fame as the site of the Kinks first "Live" album. Because we knew Willie he promised to take us back stage to meet the Captain before the concert.
We were all massive Beefheart fans - there were about 6 of us - and Gus (Angus Macintyre) was the biggest Beefheart fan of all. We met up for the gig and were all pretty excited. Gus had hired a tuxedo and looked like a drunk waiter in a posh hotel! When it came time to go back stage we all walked in single file behind him into the dressing room. I was a massive Zappa fan so was knocked out to meet Roy Estrada (Orejon), Artie Tripp and Elliot Ingber (Winged Eel Fingerling). The Captain was very gracious, and I remember him making small talk and jokes about Pluto, the Disney mutt that I had on my T-shirt, which helped me to calm down a wee bit.
Now, Gus was very artistic, and unbeknown to us he had some gifts for the Captain. He reached into this brown paper bag he had brought in, and pulled out this bottle of Spanish brandy that he had read somewhere in an interview that the Captain liked. Then he pulled out this glass cube that he had made, and suspended inside it somehow was an orchid. It looked really fantastic, and he presented it to Jan, the Captain's wife. Then he brought out this other larger glass cube, that had this large cigar inside, trapped diagonally in top and bottom corners, with a nail through the middle of it. Well, the Captain was really touched by this and the whole vibe in the dressing room was really great. These 6 extraordinary Americans, producing the best music on the planet, all nattered away to these rather drunk and very excited Glaswegians (did anyone except the Captain understand what we were saying?).
Too soon it was show time and we went out and parked our arses in our front row seats. The show began with a ballerina which was in fact a constant on this tour. Who was this ballerina? Why have I never read an interview with her? Then Rockette came out and strutted around doing a wonderful dance and bass solo. As his bass solo shaped itself into the riff from When It Blows Its Stacks, the rest of the band came on. Finally the Captain came out with the bottle of brandy that Gus had given him and he said, "This is for Angus Macintyre!" and took a big swig from the bottle and the show began. Well, we were all blown away completely, of course, and the show was an absolute blinder.
We didn't go backstage after the show, but had tickets for the gig in Edinburgh, a few days later.
I do remember one part of the show where things went askew and the Captain and Artie Tripp both said something peculiar in the middle of a song that we didn't really understand. Years later in a mid-page spread in the Melody Maker, in an article entitled something like "Rock and the supernatural" there were all these quotes from rock stars about 'weird stuff' happening on stage. The Captain said that he and Artie Tripp saw something on stage at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. I particularly remember it because the closing quote from the Captain was "Perhaps it was the Loch Ness Monster"!
Gus had given the Captain his phone number, and the next day the Captain phoned up, found he was out, but sent a taxi round to pick up his mum and sister and they both had dinner with the Magic Band and the Captain in their hotel. Because it was Easter weekend, all the shops were closed and the Captain was really disappointed - he wanted to go out and buy a tartan suit!
(Danny Houston: A Meeting With The 25th Century Quaker)

Brian Kerr: I remember the gig well, although the band were 50 mins late as they were held up in fog somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow, I think. The band played most of the songs from the "Clear Spot" album and of course closed with "Golden Birdies". My main memories are of Captain Beefheart's (Don Van Vliet) amazing voice and of course the twin guitars of Zoot Horn Rollo and the other guy? ... Also Rockette Morton was amazing strutting around the stage playing the bass in his inimitable style. I must also mention Ed Marimba who was superb on drums also. A good night was had by all. Of course! Of course!
(Glasgow/Apollo Forums)

Andy Richards: don't know what gig you were at mate i saw the Captain in 1972 got there about 10.30 problems from manchester, captain came on said sorry threw Rockette on came back a little later Huge spliff in his gob, blew the house down finished about 12.30 Electricity highpoint Zoot Horn Rollo with straw hat and cherout playin fkn amazin slide support band was John Cann renamed Bullit band something daft.....they really were The Magic Band.
(Glasgow/Apollo Forums)

Don Van Vliet: "You know what? I'll tell you something very funny.... when I was up in Scotland this time, in Glasgow, and I was playing the part with Ed Marimba - and he saw this too, it's really funny - I was playing the horn and I was kind of labouring. I was tired, really tired, about ready to scoop myself, and all of a sudden pow! I just went completely out. We played for two hours and I didn't see two minutes of it. And after I had played I heard my voice saying over the microphone: "Go down and see the Loch Ness monster, 'cause it's here'. Now, that's funny, that's funny." He looked across to see if I thought it was funny too. Yep, it was funny.
"My wife," he continued, "said: 'what are you doing man?', and really, I could see her point. But then Ed came up and said he saw something on stage. "Now wait a minute," I told him, "did you see it, too?". and he said, before I even mentioned it:"Ii swear I saw something gold on that stage". It's silly to talk about it, but we both saw it. It was gold and it moved, like some sort of energy. A circle, and it came down on stage. And - you won't believe this - there was a little woman with it" he looked across again, and shook his head in bewilderment. "I know, I know ... I thought myself: you're crazy! But I saw it, and now I am convinced that those things, those people are there. It has to do with the magnetic poles, you know. I have heard people say leprechauns, maybe that was, what it was. But I've never had them described to me." He paused. "It certainly didn't have any clothes on, I can tell you that."
(Michael Watts: Captain's Log ... A Strange Coach Trip With Captain Beefheart. Melody Maker. April 22, 1972)

In the article Beef art In The Guardian soon after this Don Vliet is quoted as saying "I hate the English 'language'- you know, conforming to set rules and correct grammar. I've just been in Glasgow, and listening to those people speak is so different; there's real music in it. But the English language - I call it a word crawling over a razor blade."
(Merete Bates: Beef Art. The Guardian. April 15, 1972. Cited in: Blimp Over Europe #1)