So here it is 'Merry Christmas', as Slade let me know very loudly in Asda last week!
I hope everyone is safe and well. Work here continues on issues for next year, and what was two - is now three! No rest for the wicked and I'm working on covers today, before I start paging up, then corrections... and on it goes! I trust you all have a great day, and all best wishes for the coming 2022.
David
Free Appreciation Society
Magazine Issue #160
December 2021
Okay, the final issue of 2021 has gone out to UK subscribers today, and all overseas readers during past last couple of days.
Free Appreciation Society Magazine - Issue #160
This is the second instalment of our FAS 'My Brother Jake / Free Live!' quadrilogy! We now conclude the February UK tour, and then the group head into the studio to record and complete the mixing and selection of songs for the 'Free Live!' album... And of course they decide to break up. Lots going on here as the future of FREE grinds to a halt before they head over to Australia and Japan for the final shows (issue #161)
Lots to read here. Plenty of period press and interviews, and also a tape by tape breakdown of the final sessions that spawn both 'My Brother Jake' (including information of who it was actually about) and 'Get Where I Belong'. Also a few previous unpublished photographs from the period, along with information on the promotional film for 'Jake' and reviews.
This issue has no less than five addendums in the text, and these will go up onto the blog in a day or so. Then if you come here you can check them out as you read. Pretty cool, even if I say so myself - so long as 'blogger' actually lets me put them up!
A hugely comprehensive issue. Enjoy!
56 pages absolutely packed with FREE!
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Mailed out today to all UK subscribers. Posted for overseas on Monday & Tuesday.
It is cheaper to buy directly here (from the FAS itself) than it will be on Ebay, where there are other fees involved for both UK and overseas buyers. ALL payments are via Paypal, so it's all very easy and secure.
Casual buyer? Want the magazine cheaper? Get a subscription!
A subscription is the cheapest way to get the FAS magazine.
For subscription information email: fasarticle@aol.com
You can buy this individual issue from the email address above.
Drop me a mail giving your location and a Paypal money request will be sent to you.
It's cheaper than buying them on Ebay where they are £6.50 (UK)
UK price including postage from here directly is £5.80 for this issue.
This includes postage and Paypal fees.
A subscription for three issues (UK) is £14.85.
Okay, with a brief gap between magazines (#160 starts going out in about 14 days) it's time for some more YouTube recommendations. I have to admit I've been watching a fair bit of stuff there, and have been enjoying content from 'Nat's What I Reckon', 'Critical Drinker' for fun, and the excellent 'Ghost Town Living' for something a bit deeper, as Brent explores and pretty much rebuilds the abandoned mining town of Cerro Gordo that he bought (yes, really), near Lone Pine in California. Well worth checking out and beautifully shot. The mine explorations are mind-blowing. These are my personal picks, they don't have to be yours.
Among those, and all the great space documentaries, are
plenty of music 're-evaluate and review' channels. They vary in quality
and content, but there's a fair bit of FREE stuff going up on a regular basis.
Among those worth viewing is 'Now Spinning Magazine' with Phil Aston.
Here you'll find plenty of mentions for Free and Paul Kossoff, as Phil is a big
fan. So when the television only has the endless repeats of 'Parrot'...
and 'Murder She Wrote.' Oh, I mean 'Poirot', sorry... or
the awful remake of 'All Creatures Great & Small', with what has to
be the most sickeningly smug looking cast anywhere on TV! Well just turn that
shit off and have a look here.
Classic Albums Reviews : Free Highway 1970
Classic Albums Reviews : Back Street Crawler 2nd Street
Classic Albums Reviews : Free Tons of Sobs
Others you might like
Bad Company with Brian Howe a Re-appraisal
5 Awesome Guitar Solos & Where To Find Them
Now Spinning Magazine (Homepage On You Tube)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnZSsMr4k8ZVlrJ8MUYR4GA
Check here and click 'videos' for loads more content.
Free Appreciation Society
Magazine Issue #159
November
2021
After a bit of a break we are back... and a few changes. Firstly the magazine is being printed on a new machine and this has make the tiny text from those old newspaper articles a bit clearer and sharper. Yes, it's still very small, but even I can see the difference with my crappy near vision! So that's the good news. Sadly the second change isn't quite so good. When the printing was done Gary (who has been printing the magazine since issue #100) took the copy round to the finishers (fold, staple and crop) to find they had closed and completely sold up. Basically there as an empty unit where they had been. The business wasn't been sold as a going concern, it ceased to trade completely. It was a bit of a shock and meant somewhere else had to be found quite quickly, which Gary has done, and is much appreciated. So everything has been finished but it appears some adjustments may be required to balance things, and of course we've lost our 'mates rate'. Teething problems. So we are working on it. As things were quite settled regards this final stage of the magazine production, and we got a very good price with people we'd used for a long time, it's all a bit sad really. This kind of thing always causes issues for us, but more than that we are sad to see our friends go out of business in this way. It's somewhat disconcerting, and I have to say, I hate this kind of change in things, I'm getting too old for this shit... but...
Anyway, here we are... and here we go...
Free Appreciation Society Magazine - Issue #159
This is the first instalment of our FAS 'My Brother Jake / Free Live!' quadrilogy! Here we work through the first couple of months of 1971 and Free were busy. So we have comprehensive details on the American tour in January. Lots of new minutiae about the shows, the Detroit 'Tube Works' TV broadcast uncovered and confirmed, along with reviews, tickets, adverts, posters and press, as the group play a highly successful series of gigs around the USA. We then begin our look at the UK tour, which started pretty much as soon as they got back home in February, and this leads us into the next issue (#160), due in December.
Also in this middle of this issue is a full reproduction of the rare Free / Amazing Blondel tour programme from the 1971 UK tour. This hardly ever comes up for sale these days, and when it does it's very expensive. Here it's reproduced in pretty much it's original size, and this does have a few nice images I've never seen anywhere else; the photograph of Andy Fraser asleep next to Simon Kirke while travelling is priceless, and long unseen. Life on the road, so glamorous!
A hugely comprehensive issue. Enjoy!
56 pages absolutely packed with FREE!
---------------------------------------
Mailed out today to all UK subscribers. Posted for overseas on Monday & Tuesday.
It is cheaper to buy directly here (from the FAS itself) than it will be on Ebay, where there are other fees involved for both UK and overseas buyers. ALL payments are via Paypal, so it's all very easy and secure.
Casual buyer? Want the magazine cheaper? Get a subscription!
A subscription is the cheapest way to get the FAS magazine.
For subscription information email: fasarticle@aol.com
You can buy this individual issue from the email address above.
Drop me a mail giving your location and a Paypal money request will be sent to you.
It's cheaper than buying them on Ebay where they are £6.50 (UK)
UK price including postage from here directly is £5.80 for this issue.
This includes postage and Paypal fees.
A subscription for three issues (UK) is £14.85.
'Three-word title of the song by the band Free that reached number two in the UK singles chart in 1970'
The answer of course 'All Right Now'.
The idea is to pick the question
(and to know, and give, the correct answer) listed out of five, that the least
people out of 100 get right when asked randomly among the general public (phew!).
So you can see by the board that 14 people knew the answer to the Free
question. The third question being the one that none got right when asked (the 'pointless'
answer) - hence if you had that answer you won that round.
ANYWAY. There was no mention of it being Paul's birthday or anything, so whether this was planned or a somewhat bizarre random coincidence I can't say. Thanks to Angus and Addy for being very quick to report this one, as I missed it.
It seems all the stars were aligned on this day as...
I understand it's not too much of a surprise they'd be some Free music here somewhere. Bob is well known as a huge Free fan and in this episode he not only mentions seeing Andy Fraser (his hero) with Free, but they also play clips from the songs 'All Right Now', 'Lying In The Sunshine', and 'Little Bit Of Love'! Quite a splash of Free there then! I'm glad Bob didn't tell his 'My Brother Jake' story again - which is incorrect (see upcoming story of the song in FAS #160), but having all this on one day was a bit... strange... In a very nice way.
Order details:
Tight But Loose Special Edition Orders (if still available)
and
Omnibuspress - Evening With Led Zeppelin
Also a 're-making of' podcast here;
https://www.spreaker.com/user/discoveryeric/episode-23-dave-lewis-mike-tremaglio-eve
In the meantime while I'm here, a quick update to let you know the next batch of FAS issues are coming, slowly but surely. Working through the first half of 1971 really has taken a long time, and I've been checking diary dates and updating things significantly. There are a lot of new details on the group history coming. It was obvious after the Covid printing delays last year that the 'lockdowns' would push everything back this year, which it has. That and a bit of writing / researching 'burn out' on my part. We did already have four issues earlier in the year, so we've not done that badly, and that's a lot of work. I only used to produce two magazines,and with a much smaller page count!
In the meantime, spare Koss a thought today, and if you have time play a little of his music. I'll begin my own listening pleasure at 7pm BST exactly if anyone cares to join in. There is no better plan, and lets face it - there's nowt on the tele!
A&M Records USA
'Stealer' single edit. From 3.23 to 2.30 (early fade)
Taken here from the promotion single but retail copies have the same version with the same fade.
A&M Records USA
Promotion 7" single to radio, with edited versions of tracks from 'Highway'.
Side A - 'The Highway Song' (Edit - 3.15)
Side B - 'Love You So' (Edit - 3.30)
Free Appreciation Society
Magazine Issue #158
June 2021
Okay, these have now all gone out overseas. The UK issues will drift into the mail over the next week. A few went out yesterday and today, but I'll be posting a few more each day from Monday. They'll all be on their way by the end of the week at the latest.
It's a bigger issue than usual (72pages), and heavier (120g). This not only knocks the mailing cost up to £1.53 (from .66p) but it means some issues require 'making up' in postage, where some of you kindly send SAE's and you've put on various denominations of stamps yourself. It just all takes a bit longer. 2nd class, 1st class, 2nd large letter and 1st large letter stamps all need different levels of extra postage adding to them this time, and as the PO here (locally) has no stamps above 20p... Well some of you have a nice collection on your envelopes! I'm just glad I don't have to lick them all these days!! I'm also taping up all of the paper envelopes to try and stop the PO from destroying them - which is becoming more and more of a problem.
This issue, being bigger, has a slightly more expensive individual cover price, but not to subscribers - where it is simply one issue of your sub. It's really my choice, but running one album period out over five issues is a bit much to handle and it's either I cut something out of it, or use it all and make the issue a bit bigger. I choose the latter, as I've promised you all I can deliver in this final series. I blame FREE!
So here we go...
Free Appreciation Society Magazine - Issue #158
This is the concluding instalment of our FAS 'Highway' quadrilogy! A bumper 72 pages here (as opposed to the usual 56) and this issue opens with an exclusive introduction from Simon Kirke. It then runs through all the record issues from the period - worldwide - for the single, 'Stealer', and the LP 'Highway'. This includes the good, the bad and the ugly!
A hugely comprehensive issue. Enjoy!
72 pages absolutely packed with FREE!
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The three music 'addendums' for this issue will be uploaded a few days after the final issues have been mailed out. Probably next weekend.
Casual buyer? Want the magazine cheaper? Get a subscription!
A subscription is the cheapest way to get the FAS magazine.
This individual issue is available here directly.
In the UK it's £8 and to order email fasarticle@aol.com
For overseas prices please email with your location and ask for a total.
It is cheaper to buy directly here than it will be on Ebay, where there are other fees involved for both UK and overseas buyers. ALL payments are via Paypal, so it's all very easy and secure.
A three issue subscription in the UK is £14.85.
'Sunny Day' - Epic Soundtracks
Nikki Sudden (Adrian Godfrey) and his brother, Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey) are probably best known for their punky work in Swell Maps. In fact the noisy siblings were both BIG Free fans, and both were subscribers to the FAS from very early on. Nikki (later in Jacobites, and with a long solo career), continued to get the magazine up until his death from a heart attack in 2006. Tragic really, he was only 49.
In fact we owe Nikki something of a debt of gratitude as it was he, via his friend BBC DJ Annie Nightingale, that first came across the complete Free BBC session from April 1971 with all the outtakes. He sent me a DAT tape of it. Thus securing it's safety from BBC damage, loss or erasure in the future.
Anyway, Epic (Kevin) also continued to record after Swell Maps had disbanded and in 1995 released a CD called 'Debris', basically a compilation of tracks from other sessions recorded over the 1981-1994 period he'd never made available before. Among these was his solo version of the Fraser/Rodgers song 'Sunny Day', a favourite of his and recorded during the sessions for his 'Sleeping Star' album in January 1994 but not included. I don't think it's ever been available anywhere else, and curiously I can't find this on Youtube so I thought I'd put it here. The 'Debris' CD fetches quite a price these days it seems, often well over £100, so I'm pleased that Kevin sent a copy at the time!
I appreciate of course this won't be to everyone's taste, but the treatment here is very different to the original version by Free on 'Highway' - which is why I like it. This is musically stripped right back, and has a lovely wistful melancholic feel to it, but at the same time it's still very pretty (or I think it is). It's also rather poignant really. You might want to play it a few times before you make up your mind.
Kevin actually died before Adrian, the official cause 'inconclusive' but it appears he passed away in his sleep, way back in 1997. He was 38. Both were good friends of mine, Nikki wrote to me frequently over many years in his spidery writing from wherever he was in the world (in the end that was New York, where he died). I miss them both, so it's nice to be able to include this little rarity here.
'Sunny Day' - Epic Soundtracks.
From the CD 'Debris' (1981-94 collection)
Seems 'Classic Rock' magazine (on-line) have decided that Back Street Crawler's '2nd Street' is their album of the week, and have retrospectively reviewed it. I should perhaps point out it is now 45 years old!
Anyway, good enough for me, I always rated it highly. Some quite interesting comments, but take them all with a pinch of salt. It is after all only really your own opinion of the album that should matter to you. As for me personally, well this is one of my favourite records, by anyone, ever. The songs are great, the quality of the performances are excellent, the production is superb - and while Kossoff was never fully committed to the album due to his own personal issues, his parts are generally well played and emotionally charged. I consider the record as a whole piece, not just something with Paul Kossoff on it. My opinion is that had he been in better shape, and fully engaged with this record, it would have been sensational. But that wasn't too be. All of course, just an opinion - and you don't have to share it. Anyway, check out what 'Classic Rock' and others have to say here...
If you don't have a copy of this you should try to find the Japanese
release on HQCD (mini LP syle) from 2014 (shown here) as that is by far the best
sounding version available, the remastering is excellent.
I'm just this minute back from the post office - which means...
Free Appreciation Society
Magazine Issue #157
May 2021 (Dated inside as March 2021)
There is a rundown of all the gigs, showing how the set-list altered, and how the band begin to incorporate the piano numbers into the performances for the first time.
56 pages of history, text and press, including interviews, adverts, recording session reel boxes, photographs, reviews... everything! A magazine full of updated and new information dealing with a specific period from the band's life and the most in depth look at the 'Highway' album EVER!
56 pages packed with FREE!
Mailed out today to all UK subscribers. Posted for overseas last week.
For a subscription email: fasarticle@aol.com
Otherwise you can buy this individual issue from the email address above. Drop me a mail giving your location and a Paypal money request will be sent to you. It's cheaper than buying them on Ebay - (UK £6.50)
UK price including postage from here directly is £5.80 for this issue.
A subscription for three issues (UK) is £14.85.
Quite a simple one this time, demonstrating the difference between the introductions on the Single and LP mixes of '(The) Stealer'.
Out to all UK subscribers today, about five minutes ago!
Free Appreciation Society
Magazine Issue #156
April 2021 (Dated inside as Feb 2021)
The second of the FAS 'Highway' quadrilogy coming over the next few months in our attempt to play 'catch-up' after all the lockdowns due to Covid 19. In this issue we take Free through September and October 1970. This includes the wrapping up of the recording sessions for the upcoming 'Highway' album, which began on August 18th, the recording of two shows at Croydon (September) that were used in part for the 'Free Live!' album, and the filming of Island Records very first promo films (for 'Stealer' and 'All Right Now').
There is a rundown of songs being recorded, tape by tape, and information on both full Croydon concerts, which tracks were used from the shows, and where you can find them (also you can see what hasn't been used to date). In the middle of this issue you'll also find a complete reproduction of the 1970 Island groups programme, as sold at the Fairfield Hall show (and others).
56 pages of history, text and press, including interviews, adverts, recording session reel boxes, photographs... everything! A magazine full of updated and new information dealing with a specific period from the band's life and the continuation of the most in depth look at the 'Highway' album EVER!
56 pages packed with FREE!
Sent out to overseas subscribers last week.
Subscriptions and individual issues are available.
For prices send an email with your address (for postage prices) to;
fasarticle@aol.com
Or you can buy from Ebay, which is more expensive due to
their 'sale' fees, when the listing goes up in a week or so. Just search
'Free Society Kossoff' to find issues on Ebay.
