In 1968, Mike Kowalski and Ed Carter were members of a band in London called The New Nadir who supported the likes of Ten Years After, Jethro Tull and Jeff Beck at The Marquee Club.
Producer Joe Boyd signs the band to his company Witchseason Productions, home of Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, John & Beverley Martyn, among others.
Boyd asks Mike and Ed to record on a number of tracks on Nick Drake's Bryter Later as he needs a rhythm section for one of that album's sessions.
So the connection is Joe Boyd and Witchseason Productions.

A couple of posters on this thread have been asking if there's been a good book about Holland. I remembered the Shelley Benoit booklet that I first read in Kingsley Abbott's Back To The Beach compendium, and found a link to it here :

http://troun.tripod.com/holland.html

Should tell you quite a lot about the making of Holland - not everything, but fills in several gaps !

A very underrated band. I started a similar thread back in 2013 here :

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,16716.0.html

There are some good posts, it would be great to revive this discussion with the current board membership.

Carl's vocal tag is the soul of Kokomo !

Went to see the current version of Yes last week. A phenomenal gig despite the issue of the band's current "is it really Yes without so and so ?" lineup (Steve Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, vocalist Jon Davison and bassist Billy Sherwood).
Playing the albums Drama and Fragile in full plus other highlights, Steve Howe in particular was on fire, bassist Billy Sherwood did a sterling job covering the much-missed Chris Squire and I found a new appreciation of how tricky their music can be.
It was loud, pompous, excessive, prog-tastic and on this showing, I'd definitely go and see them again.

Setlist :

Onward (Chris Squire tribute)

Drama set -

Machine Messiah
White Car
Does It Really Happen ?
Into The Lens
Run Through The Light
Tempus Fugit

Time & A Word
Siberian Khatru

Interval

Don't Kill The Whale
Owner Of A Lonely Heart

Fragile set -

Roundabout
Cans & Brahms
We Have Heaven
South Side Of The Sky
Five Percent For Nothing
Long Distance Runaround
The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
Mood For A Day
Heart Of The Sunrise

Starship Trooper

Any danger of this going back on topic, please, mods ?

Actually, I know the answer to this question - there will be some reports from London soon, so hopefully that'll steer things in the right direction...

Just watched this - particularly like the way AGD introduces himself and tells the host of his passion for our heroes...

An advert for Evian Water with a cover of Kokomo - what fresh hell is this ?! *

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWG3rtGoIlI

*Disclaimer : I like Kokomo, but this is terrible...

Having now actually seen the clip :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A54YD3CEvlE&feature=youtu.be

It's very nice and all, but is it worthy of all this fuss ?

Btw, I love The Big Bang Theory !

When Sean O'Hagan of The High Llamas met up with The Beach Boys to discuss producing an album for them :

http://uncanny1.blogspot.co.uk/2005/05/brian-wilsonandy-paleysean-ohagan.html

Sharing whole article for context, but drawing particular attention to the following paragraph :

'Mike Love was less than hospitable. "He called me a blueboarder straight away, because I'm from England. 'You're all blueboarders,' he said. I was stunned. But it's weird - he's totally homophobic, but he struts about like a Seventies camp queen, doing his little breath mint wiggle. "Why all the gay moves, Mike?" ' *

*board has automatically changed words above to "blueboarder", the rest of the article's a fascinating insight into how BB-land worked at the time...

An interesting and uplifting interpretation. I'm familiar with Brad's work but hadn't heard this before, thanks for sharing.

At least the interview comes with an up-to-date photo of the touring BB's - quite a good one too...

It seems fairly obvious from their chequered history that our heroes would definitely have benefited from a strong manager - God Only Knows what would have happened with a bit of stability, continuity and consistency.

I love the acapella sections, wish they could go on a bit longer. And I agree, the Knebworth version is great...

"These kids would buy these huge Marshall amps, crank them up and those simple little melodies would just roar."

Marshall amps ?

Correct me if I'm wrong but surely the sound of Dick Dale and other contemporary surf pickers would come from California's own Fender amps and reverb units ?

Any demand for a Beachago tour in 2016 or beyond ? International, of course...

Ahem...surely the big news here is that Mike is considering adding "Trader" and "Feel Flows" to the setlist ?

According to "Wouldn't It Be Nice", the Brian pseudo biography, he used to watch Mr Rogers' Neighbourhood every morning.

Not de-railing this thread too far, but as a 5-string player myself, it's not all about going down to the low B - playing runs further up the fingerboard is made easier and there are more options for finding the required notes.

To dismiss 5-string basses as tasteless is frankly untrue and insulting to players who use them and love them.

(By the way, I also love 4-string basses - I'm playing my 4-string fretless at a gig tonight !)

Timothy White mentions "Indian Wisdom" as a Smile track in "The Nearest Faraway Place", however, I'm with Andrew - I've never seen such a track mentioned anywhere else as being a part of Smile.

Just bumping this from the "Mid '80s Yamaha Keyboard" thread, but what's with Bruce giving Foskett a little slap around the chops at 6.40/6.41 ? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMyVjodwCHY&feature=youtu.be

Never mind about that - I'm more concerned by the little slap round the chops Bruce gives Foskett at 6.40/6.41  

Have just got back from seeing "Love & Mercy" and can safely report that Carol Kaye is shown to be nothing but one of the top studio musicians of the day...

Fabulous - a real treat !

Am I the only person who thinks KTSA isn't actually that bad ?