Photograph
Academy 3 (Hop & Grape)
25th May 2005

This was possibly the last incarnation of The Magic Band due to various logistic problems, not the least of which was never being paid for a Scandinavian leg of one of their tours They faithfully recreated the Beefheart sound and who better to do it than the original musicians ? If you closed your eyes Drumbo even sounded like the good Captain.
My good chum Roddy Gilliard of Liverpool based Zappa heads, The Muffin Men, got the job of driving The Magic Band to their UK gigs and getting to know them. Thanks to Rodders, I got to meet and shake hands with the guy that inspired me to take up the bass all those years ago - Rockette Morton. In Fact Sbilts, Landmark(both Beat Science), myself(Beat Science and CasualTies) and John Dickenson(The Blues Blasters and Soul Bandits) got to meet all the boys and have a brief chinwag!
Some months later Roddy presented me with the hat that Rockette had worn on the tour and I have been proudly sporting it at several Beat Science and CasualTies gigs - gawd bless ya, Roddy!