Haze
World Turtle
Von Daniken
NEWS UPDATE
November 1997
November 1997
November 1997

Wilderness Of Eden
Thanks to everyone who has ordered the new CD. It's been our fastest selling CD release ever, so if you didn't get the free Outtakes tape - it's too late they're all gone! We're really pleased with how the CD has turned out & have had a very positive reaction both from fans & the handful of reviews so far.

Gigs
Dates so far have been the usual mixed bunch - see the tour diary, but we have got some exciting new dates coming up, with appearances from some of the special guests on the CD.

Outtakes
For those of you who didn't get your orders off in time - here's what you could have won!
Side 1

  1. 'More' which was missed off the CD due to time constraints (the pressing plants are no longer willing to guarantee quality on CDs over 74 minutes long). Features guest vocals on the chorus by Fredrik Satsuma and alto & baritone sax from Derek Nash
  2. A shorter version of 'Wave', without violin solo but with drums, & with Gordon on mandolin. The more eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that Gordon is credited with violin & mandolin on the back page of the CD booklet, but with just violin on 'Wave'. This is because the version that appeared on the CD was recorded after the Outtakes version, by which time Paul had received a mandolin for his birthday, so he played it on the CD instead.
  3. A solo version of 'Human' by Paul on acoustic guitar, with multitracked E-bow guitar solo.
  4. The long version of 'One Day', without Sam & the choir, but with sax solo at the end, rather than in the middle!
Side 2
  1. 'Chris's raving mad house mix' This is my attempt to prove that distinctions between styles of music are, well, to put it bluntly, bollox. It is based around the bass riff from 'Kickback' & Nick's 'The Long Sleep', plus samples left over from the CD sessions. Me and Sharon arranged it, then Paul added some rather drunken first take lead guitar, played with a bottle top! At the risk of ending up like Salman Rushdie, I can admit that the sampled singing is taken from a reading of the Quoran, made somewhere in the desert, & copied to cassette during my Gabadon Music Services days. I realize I've probably missed the point of 'dance' music as surely as the LSO's Classic Rock CDs miss the point of rock - but it was good fun, and that's all the excuse I need!
  2. 'Kickback' an old version with now deceased chorus.
  3. 'Vertigo' two old versions spliced together, from before it became the overblown monster we all know and love.
  4. 'Stalemate' my instrumental meandering that Paul based the song on.
  5. 'Epitaph #2' my favourite on the tape, much slower & with a different chorus to the 'Epitaph' that appears on World Turtle's Haze CD. We are considering writing a new verse for it, so it will have nothing left in common with 'Epitaph #1' (Like those flat worms you teach to play bass, chop 'em in half so they grow a new head, chop 'em in half again so they grow a new tail, and they can still play bass!)

Tour Diary
Things got off to a good start at the Whitchurch Progressive Rock Festival on August bank holiday, with copies of the CD available well ahead of schedule & Gordon guesting on violin on our Friday night set, sandwiched between the very lovely Damian Wilson & Warren's latest victims on the sound desk, Arena. However it is the Saturday afternoon session that will go down in history, as the first (and so far last) time I have appeared solo on stage singing & playing acoustic guitar! I did Hangman & The Papist, Survive, Far Over Misty Mountains & Barley & Grape Rag to an unfeasibly positive reaction. Re-Genesis's seamless copy of Gabriel era Genesis could only pale by comparison:-)

From the sublime to, well Tintagel House, and Sheffield Green Party's annual fair. We should have been playing on the lawn, but the stage organizer had a bad back so couldn't organize a stage & as the rest of the nation was watching the funeral of Diana Princess Of WalesTM on telly, it was decided that it wouldn't be tactful for the neighbours to hear us having a good time! So, we ended up in the Merlin Theatre for Linda's debut appearance on viola with the band. Hopefully she'll be able to join us at the Speakeasy Christmas Show too.

I took the opportunity of the two weeks off between Sheffield & Rotherham to sell my keyboards & buy two new ones! This led to much frantic reprogramming to try and replicate the sounds used on the CD, but I think I've just about cracked it. For the tech-heads I've got an Alesis QS-7 with 640 pleasantly conventional sounds on board and a Roland JP-8000 'digital pretending to be analogue' retro-rave machine with knobs on!

Rotherham, Wakefield and Northampton passed uneventfully enough, only Wakefield letting us down in the good gig stakes - a great place, just no people (except Ken 'Evolution' Senior, who was press-ganged into doing the door for us!). Most notable event of the night was us going for a takeaway pizza and hearing Stalemate on the radio in the pizza house. Bizarre!

Rotherham also happened to be on the birthday of Classic Rock Society organizer Jenny - see J R Turner's Turtle Power page in the October Wondrous Stories for a review. Look out for an interview with us on JR's page in the November edition. If you're not already a member of CRS, drop Martin Hudson an SAE at 47 Brecks Lane, Brecks, Rotherham S65 3JQ (or computer boffs can try:- http://www.classicrocksociety.net/) for the latest word in classic & progressive rock.

Doncaster saw the return of Nick Duckenfield to the road crew and us being stopped by police on the way home for the first time in many years (events he assures us are unrelated), while Crewe was a great gig, our biggest crowd of the tour, supporting David Bowie (not the David Bowie, but a convincing doppleganger nonetheless), marred only by the fact that Crewe is bloody miles from anywhere!

Leeds saw us at a new venue for us, CJ's, supporting new Cyclops signing Parallel or 90 Degrees, who are well worth checking out - in fact we'll try and get them down to Sheffield before too long.

Which leaves only Banbury, a great little venue and a small but perfectly formed audience. I just hope they bring their mates next time!

Haze 20th Anniversary Reunion
I kid you not! After the remarkably good humored and disaster free 'Timstock' festival back in June, when Chis joined us for a couple of song, plans are now afoot to stage a full 20th anniversary reunion show on Friday 29th May 1998. We're looking at suitable venues at the moment, but it should be in the Sheffield area with admission kept to £5/door £4/advance. We'll try and get a few old friends along, Rog Patterson is threatening to get married on or around that date, but we'll try to persuade him to pick up & attempt to tune the old 12 string again!

Tour Dates
November
26th Sheffield Dikkins, Carver St. Adm Free. 8-11. 0114 2332247
27th Stoke Wheatsheaf, Church St Adm £5?. 8-11 (supporting REM tribute band Monster) 01782 844438
December
2nd Croydon The Gun Tavern, Church St. 8-11pm. Adm £2 (with special guest Derek Nash on sax & flute) 0181 686 4684
19th Sheffield Speakeasy Abbeydale Rd. 8-11 Adm Free The Christmas Show! 0114 258 0414
February
4th Sheffield The Boardwalk, Snig Hill. 8-11. Adm £3. 0114 279 9090
Sheffield's top new rock venue, with special guests Credo (who still haven't finished their new album!), plus appearances from Wilderness Of Eden CD special guests Nick Robinson, Gordon Walker, Derek Nash & Fredrik Satsuma!
Please check with us or the venue before travelling. More dates to be added, so make sure you've ticked the gigs box on the back page to receive the latest info.

Blue Satsumas
I'm now standing in on keyboards with Fredrik Satsuma's blues band Simply Blue. We're playing at the Boardwalk, Snig Hill on Saturday 6th December and at Gatefield Social Club Abbeydale Rd on Saturday 10th January. The material is fairly straight ahead blues, but it's a good opportunity for me to try out my new hammond organ keyboard sounds!

E-Mail
Yes, you can now e-mail us! We can also send out tour dates & newsletters by e-mail, just let us know if you want to be sent all gigs by e-mail, or just local ones (i.e. same county as you live in), and if you want newsletters by post or by e-mail. The address is:- worldturtle@norrow.demon.co.uk And while you're at it, check out the website at:- http://www.cheesypeas.demon.co.uk/turtle And let us know if you've any ideas for improvements, or if there's anything you'd like to see there. See you soon!
Chris

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