gfdg: May 2009

Named after the 19th Century mariner and novelist, this Glaswegian band made just one privately-pressed LP. Its back cover announces that ‘Captain Marryat is a Scottish band, and have been playing together for just under a year. They already have a sizeable following in the pubs n’ clubs circuit and this, their first LP, is a sample of the music that brought them success’. The line-up was Tommy Hendry (vocals, acoustic guitar), Ian McEleny (lead guitar, acoustic guitar), Allan Bryce (organ, vocals), Hugh Finnegan (bass, vocals) and Jimmy Rorrison (sic) (drums, vocals). They were originally intending to record a single, but the engineer at the Glasgow studio they’d booked told them that there was time enough to make a whole album. They therefore taped five tracks they’d already written (‘Blindness’, ‘It Happened To Me’, ‘A Friend’, ‘Songwriter’s Lament’ and ‘Changes’) and finished the LP with an improvised jam (‘Dance Of Thor’). The result came in a drab flipback sleeve, and according to one dealer is ‘a progressive rock rarity with psych flourishes – doom-laden organ plus acid guitar riffs and strong male vocals’. The 250 copies pressed were sold at gigs, and two that surfaced on eBay in late 2008 went for around £3000 each. (RMJ) http://www.galacticramble.com/page10/page3/page3.html

A1 Blindness
A2 It Happened to Me
A3 A Friend
B1 Songwriter's Lament
B2 Changes
B3 Dance of Thor

- Jimmy Rorrison - Vocals/Drums
- Hugh Finnegan - Bass/Vocals
- Allan Bryce - Organ/Vocals
- Tommy Hendry - Vocals/Acoustic Guitar
- Ian McEleny - Lead Guitar/Acoustic Guitar

Thanks a lot to obscuremusic

Posted by obscuremusic on ProgNotFrog-Forum:
http://pnfforum.com/index.php?topic=8563.msg24888#msg24888

A1 Blindness

B3 Dance of Thor

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St.Nic of Detroit a.k.a. Nicodemus
I'm very happy to have found Nicodemus on site myspace from which I extract the text and pictures.

"I picked up an acoustic guitar at seven years old and could instantly play, much to my suprise. I played an unconventional style which many other guitarists could not figure out what I was doing or how- they were into the copy note for note conventional guitar lesson taught style of music-mimicking their heroes. In my teens I had a band, J.H. Trio, and got a real good shot at being signed to Motown, which was an exceptional experience. I remember David Ruffin telling me, "Man, it don't matter what they say about you as long as they keep talking about you and spell your name right."
A Record deal was in the works when our manager split with the Master tapes and pressing plates- so much for that- The other members gave up, leaving the whole experience to just that, an experience, but one that shook me to the bones and kept me recording through the end of the sixties. I started my own label in 1970, Zedikiah Records, and started recording under the name Nicodemus, putting out 45's, Albums, and Cassettes, fighting against the media's eventual change to CD and then MP3.
I recorded sporatically on a level of at least one or two releases per year as a soloist and then heavially with my brother, Matchez the Congo Kid- he dropped the Congo Kid in 1978 to be just Matchez. So we recorded as Nicodemus and Matchez, building our own studio called R.A.T. Brothers which stood for Recording Artist Techniques, and released the formats on my label Zedikiah Records. In 1974 we recorded as a band with a third member, calling ourselves N.M.G., releasing a couple 45's and one Album. The band broke up as touring was to begin due to ego problems concerning the monopoly of my tunes in comparison with how few Matchez and lead guitarist, M. Grozde, had wanted to contribute, which were unfinished creations.
I sold my guitars, bought a flute and a five string bass(very rare at the time) and started creating more abstract styles of my work while using keyboard and working with sound inside and outside to get the background sounds as an influence to what I was creating. Matchez and I rejoined to record a few albums in the 80's and then again in the 90's, building up a vast library of work which I first called "Future Folk" starting in 1970 and stayed with for four Albums, "Spacechild Squall", "Backstreet Orange", "What For?", and "4 Candles for Angel". I went back to solo work and producing various bands as well as being a one album member for others. I did the Psyche Rock Scene with the acid jazz freestyle recordings of KhloeRoks Black, Gravitar: It's an Idiots Life, and Sweet Kelly. Sweet Kelly I had worked to build up and hype, but out of the three piece band, Radar(now of Alien Inquisition), was the only one serious enough to take the hard fact that music is work but work that is supposed to be fun, after all if you're not enjoying the work(and you beginners beware, serious music is serious business!) you aren't gonna follow through. So into Sweet Kelly's third album recording sessions, Sweet Kelly was already breaking up. While Radar and I see each other and exchange brainstorms, I went back to solo albums, one being "Antannae Moonlite", another being a CD version of 1979's "What For?" with five added songs, "The Strange Saga of Henryetta Flagetta", 1986's "Better Art Music" with my bro Matchez, "A Light in the Dark" which was released through Parallel World, a New York label which contacted Jello Biafra to ask if I'd let them release a' comp of my music. Which by no fault of Jello, he was just a messenger, the CD was released but not promoted which was pretty much fine with me, a new CD of my work that I got paid a paltry sum for. I figured it was like doin' a concert, whoever did hear it was still hearing my space cadet infusion of mind altering on many different levels.

The Lion Roars For Freedom

I've changed styles and created styles and am working to continue after 40 years of being a professional Recording Artist- "I used to say insanity is the highest kind of high", and I used that theory through all the fazes and hazes of my career. Music is like lifes blood, without it I could not survive- Especially when hit with an inoperable brain tumor in 1990 and given six months to a year to live. I have died six times and been brought back to life, twice after being toe tagged and being covered with a sheet. A stroke in 2006 and another in 2007 knocked me on my ass, "Hospice was in the house giving me a' slow and easy way out with the Death certificate written out, only to be signed and dated- but i've recovered again, not completely but enough to know without my mental need like a child to suckle, a fish to swim, the whole human circus which sucks the ever polluted air in need to breathe, so I need to create my music."
My experiments from the ambient soundscapes of Salunox, were a whirling carosal of brain damage put to good use. I would fall asleep standing up after three days of trying to get what it was that I had to pull from the manic universe and create still more. I hope to be here, Body and Soul, and still work solo and with others- walk into other studios and mesh sound and style vocal harmonies to my voice, besides me doing my own back ups. I have been amazed at the sounds my soul has encountered over more than fifty plus years and pray to the ever reeling creation of woman and man to touch another heart through their truly wonderous insights.
Oh, and some final notes.... on "A Light in the Dark" on Parallel world. It was released in 1996, but in 2003, in response to their poor promotion, I released "Lights in the Dark", which contained some songs from from the Parallel World release, some from "What For?", and a hand full of new ones. And in 2007 "In the Math of an Unparallel Universe" was released on Fat Naybors Discs. "High on the Hill & Other Behavioral Questions" is due to be finished and released with hope in 2009. Since the sixth time I died back in 2001( My son, BluRaven gave me C.P.R.) I have been called St. Nic of Detroit a.k.a Nicodemus.
Peace to all-Erase Racism-And there is no excuse for abuse-Save the Children-They are the ones who will wave upon wave bring their voices and sound out in rejoice or despair giving their dreams a' go. Some of all the millions of music makers and shakers become "popular" or "famous", I have settled for being what I wanted to be, an underground artist who answers to no one but my heart. This Legend Lives on... St.Nic of Detroit a.k.a. Nicodemus" www.myspace.com/stnicofdetroitakanicodemus

"I have survived 19 years with inoperable brain cancer (which has begun to return), after a stroke in 06 and another in 07, some long time radiation damage, and a 4am crash on I-94 back in 05 which broke me some bones and wrecked I.O., my 1969 rigid frame Harley Chopper(which now just sits at one of the club houses) I retired from my lifelong membership in Satan's Last Revenge motorcycle club (original chapter 1969 in detroit, 1%ers President from 1973 to 1980). I''M back up to speed onGUITAR & bass and my vocal abilities . I have these back...finally...now if providence will give me [if I even dare ask cosidering the luck I'VE HAD ]A CHANCE TO FOLLOW THRU WITH MY PLANS I shouldbe able to kick a lil' mofoking azz because the music -N- ART iz wat IZE all 'bout I've DONE MY WILD THANG , RODE MY RIGID FRAME UNTIL MY SPINE IS A 3rd of what it once was but,[IF I STAND UP REALLY STRAIT AN' DON'T SLOUCH] I CAN STILL HAVE A striking posture for a man whose broken just about every bone in my body at one time or another-N- many bones more'n once,but as two very special friends,[and i am basicly a stone loner,] friends I must add I'VE MET ON THESE HERE PAGES 1.who told me ST. NIC

Real Tight

it's time to start livin or start dyin'...and 2. It's all relative isn't it NIC? I ONLY HAVE TO CONCLUDE THAT THESE FINE FOLKS -R- NOT JUST RIGHT IN THEIR ADVICE TO ME.....THEY'VE GIVEN ME BACK THE KEY TO MY SOUL...TO ALL THE REST OF YOU WHO'VE LISTENED TO MY ALBUMS ...45'S..AN' CD'S FOR THE last 40 ought years and to my family of the crest spread far -N- wide thanx fer not givin' up on 'ol ST. NIC. here as, i've said I DON'T KNOW MY AUDIENCE,... BUT MY AUDIENCE KNOWS ME...THANX FOR BEIN' OUT THERE -N- AS BEST AS I CAN I SHAL KEEP THE LEGEND ALIVE ..... ALL MY BEST TO YOU ALL .. AND TO ALL IT'Z ALLRITE!!! St. Nic of Detroit a/k/a NICODEMUS" www.myspace.com/stnicofdetroitakanicodemus

01 Cabbage Head
02 Whiskey Bottle
03 Scream
04 I Am Not Happy
05 Curse This Syndrome
06 Diary of A Warped Thumb
07 Nothin's Out of Touch
08 Sittin' In Confusion
09 Legend of The Headless Harley Rider
10 Return of The Spider 11 No Sanctuary

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gfdg

Captain Marryat - "Captain Marryat" {UK} [1974]

Désirée - "Make It With a Smile" {Germany} [1976]

Nicodemus and Matchez - "Better Art Music" {USA} [1986]