BEEHIVE CANDY

Jeff Buckley was born in California's Orange County in 1966. He died in a tragic drowning accident on May 29 th 1997. He left one near perfect album, several live concerts recorded and released in full or part prior to, and/or after his death, and the material that may have lead eventually to a second 'proper' album. If you are a fan this leaves a void, that can never be filled. Sadly for an artist as talented as Jeff, the 'unofficial' recordings remain sadly few and far between. In away this is a good thing, as a badly recorded concert, would be such an injustice, to someone who was capable of such incredibly moving music, and never had the chance to expand definitively beyond his debut album. The bootlegs that I have of Jeff Buckley are few in number. I know of around fifteen, that are supposed to be of good quality, the live radio material seem to be those most widely circulated. This is my favorite. The copy I have was called 'The Grace Of J...

Steely Dan - precise, cool, bluesy, jazzy, mature, thoughtful, clever, serious, catchy, timeless, flawless, and hopefully you get my drift. Steely Dan were one of the bands that taught a younger me, that there was much more to music than three chord rock anthems, or in them day's who looked the part. When I bought Pretzel Logic, it became my favorite album of the time. I obtained a copy of a 1994 concert a while back, and was impressed with how good they sounded. I went to see them in London in 1974, I even remember the hassle our driver had finding somewhere to park, and the subsequent frantic search for a bar, before the gig. Arriving at the venue, the foyer was a sea of faded denim, and hair, so many long haired blokes, it seemed the hippies were back, from memory it seemed a rather male audience. So when I obtained a boot of the show recently I have to say I was over the moon. I was almost nervous when I began to play it, hoping it was at least listenable, and looking for s...

The 'Get Back' or ' Twickenham sessions', took place in 1969. Paul McCartney, wanted to get The Beatles playing together again as opposed to just recording. It was an opportunity to help the band gel together again, have some fun, and maybe lead to some new live performances. It was also a chance for band members to share new material, some of which would surface later on solo albums. In the end the now legendary roof top performance, was all that was to happen, as public performance's go. The actual sessions were filmed, and each film reel was accompanied by a mono soundtrack. The soundtrack has surfaced in different forms down the years. Recently I acquired the full soundtrack set, from a generation of copies quite close to the originals (so the sound quality is very good). These copies are not broken down into individual songs, rather they are inclusive of what was included on the film reel in use. I will when time permits try and edit these down to songs, to...

In part one of this series, I used the first CD from the mythology boot series. Mythology is such a large collection, that it would be easy just to source from that. It seems rather pointless to just keep dipping into this, especially as you can purchase the official Anthology series, especially if various outtakes, or work in progress versions are your bag. So I will try and expand out on The Beatles rarities trail. The Beatles took a conscious decision to stop performing live, and most live recordings from the USA tours that I have heard feature the screaming audience rather than the band. As a consequence the rehearsals for albums in the studio, have thrown up some real gems, as often the band would play 'live' without the audience. One of the best set of sessions are the ' Twickenham ' or 'Get Back' sessions. This is a story in it's own right, and will be featured another time, it deserves the attention. In 1968 The Beatles were both at Trident and EMI...

My first recollection of The Beatles, was watching them perform on the BBC probably in October 1963 at the London Palladium (no I do not have a fantastic memory, its a calculated guess, they were on the bill, and it was the sort of programme my parents would have had on). Yes I was very young !!! Keeping it simple, I have always liked the Beatles, if ever there was an example of popular music that stands the test of time, its them. In this occasional series, I hope to share some of their rarities, and in doing so probably only just scratch the surface. There are so many Beatles boots around it's a job to know where to start. In recent years however digital technology has allowed the ardent fan, not only to circulate the material more easily, but to clean up the sound quality, and in some cases, do such a fantastic job, it can rival 'officially' released material. I am going to ignore any chronological order, to support the fact my collection is growing as I type. However l...

I have always liked Genesis. They are so easy to knock, ex public schoolboys who made good, through progressive rock, circa early 1970's. Concept albums, followed by intelligent musical pieces, with complicated chord and time changes. Add to that Phil Collins solo music that gradually descended to the depths of bland for bland's sake. The fashion and dance sense of .... You remember why punk happened don't you ? Like I say I have always liked Genesis, with a few exceptions. So I wish them well on this years tour, and look forward to the superb digital remixes of their material to follow. For those of us, that missed out on tickets (that were already expensive), and who are currently falling over with laughter, at the prices some mugs are paying on EBay , or the modern day ticket touts on the web - 'who have managed to source exclusive tickets' are charging, here's a couple of excellent live songs. Both from the 1978 tour, and of the highest quality (soundb...

When ' Animals ' was first released, I was disappointed, I expected another ' Dark Side of the Moon '. .......................... Over time however, I have to say that Animals has become a Pink Floyd favorite of mine. Sadly the live material of this album has been pretty poor in quality down the years. ............................. Not surprising really, the American leg of the tour to promote this album was not a happy affair, which must have been clear at a number of concerts, and audience recordings from that time were generally pretty poor. I doubt the sound engineers were keen to risk the wrath of Roger Waters, however apparently there is an excellent sound desk recording somewhere, and here is a public grovel, for a copy if anyone can shed light on this. Having laboured the quality point, I have two good copies of Animals live namely, 'With Bright Knives' and 'Animal Instincts'. Cutting to the chase a pretty decent version of Sheep is available ...

I have to start somewhere. The first Pink Floyd concert I attended, was in 1975. I am pleased to say I was too young to have really seen them much earlier. That said, by the time Dark Side of the Moon came out, I was already a fan. Radio Caroline introduced me to Pink Floyd, and for that reason alone, I remain an anorak of Sky's 0199 Channel to this day. However way before I was going to gigs, fans were flocking to see Pink Floyd, and some were recording what they heard. Pink Floyd are up there with the most bootlegged of artists, maybe not as much as the likes of Led Zeppelin, but I would guess pretty much a top ten contender. What really makes a difference, is the quality of recordings made. None usually touch the live albums released with the artists approval . Pink Floyd however, by their very nature, seem to have had as much emphasis on quality, as quantity, when it comes to 'unofficial' recordings. Lets not get carried away here, there are some really awful Pink Fl...

Beehive Candy. Yet another MP3 blog ? THAT'S HOW THIS - THE FIRST POST ON BEEHIVE CANDY ORIGINALLY STARTED. Having looked back today in the first quarter of 2009, (as I check out reported missing files, that need re-uploading), I realise some of the first objectives remain pretty much the case right now. The first entry went on... Feedback will prove invaluable. So I hope to provide regular themes, along with a mixed bag of musical bits'n'bobs, from yesterday, and a fresh selection of new discoveries. If there are gaps between updates, it's because I want to enjoy developing this, not feel obliged to keep on adding new postings. HOW TIME REALLY DOES SEEM TO FLY BY! LETS HOPE THE BEEHIVE VAULTS CAN CONTINUE TO BE SHARED FOR A WHILE MORE. Be seeing you...