Frost*..... Turns up in unexpected places.

Started by Big Black Shed, February 25, 2009, 08:46:03 PM

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Big Black Shed

Long story short.

A few weeks ago I was nostellgic browsing on Last.Fm when I "re-found" a late 80's band called Diving For Pearls. A few clicks later the CD is on it's way from Amazon. It arrives complete with a Remastered sticker and a booklet with a bit of history. The company behind the remastering and re-release is called //http://www.rockcandyrecords.com. Interwebby that and it turns out it's run by Derek Oliver and Dante Bunutto, almost famous as 80's rock journo's.

Click-ity-click and I find this:

Diary of a Madman by Derek Oliver
December 10th, 2008

Been in email correspondence with a good man who runs a small 'mom and pop' record store down in the picturesque seaside town of Whitstable, Kent. Whenever I'm that way or visiting friends in the area I always make a point of stopping off to pay him a visit. The shop is called 'Rock Bottom' (no prizes for guessing where that title came from) and its one of the few old style stores around stocking a tasty selection of used vinyl (always dear to my heart of course), CD's and various bits of memorabilia. More importantly Mike, for it is he, is an extremely knowledgeable AOR-head with an additional love of good neo-prog. He recently turned me onto a band called Frost – a new name to me - but featuring a couple of folk that, as it turns out, I actually knew, namely bassist Jon Jowitt and guitarist/fast rising producer John Mitchell. I met JM a couple of years back whilst looking for a producer to oversee the Lethargy album, and visited his studio in Reading called Outhouse. John is hugely talented – it won't be long before he produces something that hits the radar big time. He's already done stuff with Funeral For A Friend and Enter Shikari, amongst many others so keep an eye on him.

Jon Jowitt is also highly accomplished and a former member of IQ no less, a band that I used to knock around with back in the early Kerrang! days. Actually my first encounter with IQ was pretty hostile – I was writing for the Melody Maker and reviewed their debut self financed album 'Tales From The Lush Attic' handing it a spectacular pasting. They came around to see me – five angry young middle class prog heads all with decent haircuts. Mike Holmes, the leader also cornered me one Saturday in my favourite record store in Notting Hill Gate, a man with a righteous grudge and a bag full of second hand records threatening to do me over. Thankfully common sense prevailed ie I'm 6' tall and built like a Russian discuss thrower whilst Mike was somewhat less imposing and keen to avoid physical sparring. By way of an olive branch they asked me to come see a show, something that I dutifully agreed to. At the time there was a widely publicised neo-prog scene erupting out of nowhere spearheaded of course by Marillion with bands like Pallas and Twelfth Night following up from the rear. IQ were right in the thick of it and the show was a glorious celebration of all things prog with the audience contributing as much to the experience as the band. I started to understand what they were all about.

They invited me to a band party at a house in Harlesden, which is a location as far removed from the prog rock ethos as you could possibly imagine. I'm not a party man myself but the rooms were so full of interesting characters and curious associates that I still think it was one of the best evenings that I've ever had. It was like stepping into a house commandeered by mad, surreal mentalists like Vivian Stanshall, Keith Moon, Peter Sellers, Salvador Dali, Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke. Mike Holmes was madder than the lot – an existentialist par excellence. I enjoyed his company immensely and we forged a good friendship that was rekindled last year with an invite to attend the bands annual Christmas show.

But back to my man in Whitstable...this particular Mike is struggling to keep his operation in full flight. The music retail sector - as they like to say in Music Week, the trade magazine - has been taking a pounding recently resulting in the virtual decimation of every independently owned record store in the UK. Indeed it's much the same story in the USA where music retail has collapsed – I was in New York a year ago and the great bastion of the US record scene Tower Records closed its doors for good. That sent shock waves around the music business and an arrow through my heart. The little man has no chance but I will continue to patronise Rock Bottom and any other similar set up. I encourage you to do the same and if you are ever in Whitstable, and you should be at least once in your life, then do please pay him a visit.

Had a good conversation this morning with Paul Elliott a long time friend and colleague – he is now a writer for such well-groomed tomes as Classic Rock and Mojo amongst others. He'd 'lost' his essay on the making of UFO's ground breaking double live album 'Strangers In The Night', a work that I'd commissioned for the recent Rock Candy/EMI CD reissue. Fortunately I still had the text. Paul's a devoted AOR lover – I caught him a year or so ago with a copy of Desmond Child & Rouge's debut album tucked under his arm at a Rush show. It was a curious accessory considering the nature of the evening's entertainment and one made even more unfathomable when he started a fight with some bloke who kept standing up  in front of him blocking his view. Blood was, I'm pleased to report, not drawn.


Frost*. It's bloody everywhere. :D  :D
It's not the winning or even taking part. It's the arsing about that counts.

D S

"Jon (sic) Jowitt is also highly accomplished and a former member of IQ no less"   :shock:

Has anyone told JJ he's been sacked?!  It's going to make that Frequency tour a little more difficult...
Come on, you\'re a lion!

Mouse

The name is cropping up all over the place. You never know, but it might not be that long until our beloved Frost* become...

...popular.  :shock:

Trapezium Artist

JJJ a former member of IQ? Did I miss something ... ?

Or in Mr Oliver's world, are people only supposed to be in one band at a time? Blimey; how is JM going to choose?  :D

(Oops - beaten to the punch ... ah well, worth repeating)

Pedro

Different people organise things differently in their heads....it was not so long ago that some folk heard the news that Dec and joined Frost* and concluded that JM must have been booted out. I suppose this is connected with the opti-pessi-glass-full-empty business - people invent their own rationale for stuff based on their outlook....so the leap from JJJ being in Frost* to it meaning that he can't be in IQ anymore does indeed suggest that the writer is a firm believer in the one-band-at-a-time (sweet Jesus) rule.  :)
"Putting food on the table is more important than 7/8"

Ash

Ash
xxx

LivingForever

Whistable is about 20 minutes drive from me. I need to go and keep this guy in business some time!

 :D

Maybe he has stocks of my lost CDs (Tall Ships, Darwin's Radio etc)
be rich big cat small talk get fat sign this see through choose me fkkk you

//http://giggingforever.blogspot.com/

Fogeyspasm

I have the Diving for Pearls album. there was some really good tracks on there and i really liked the vocalists voice.
Tally Ho Chaps
Bandits 11 O\'Clock High
Throttle to boost, im going in!

Big Black Shed

I have it on vinyl. Epic, their record company failed to promote them but they still sold over 250,000 copies. Then they got dropped. I can't find 1 poor track on the album. It's all good to me.

And yes, the vocalist has one hell of a voice.
It's not the winning or even taking part. It's the arsing about that counts.