For issue 20, Facelift's regular contributors were asked to nominate their favourite 5 Canterbury-related gigs. A few of them bent the rules a little...
Nick Loebner - braved the Facelift bedsit in its early days and lived to tell the tale, although he later moved to London. The man behind the Pip Pyle, Phil Miller and Bill Bruford interviews. Famed less for his dodgy motors than for his continual attempts to hijack the magazine with Cardiacs reviews and efforts to get on to the Canterbury family tree through the back door.
Martin Wakeling - threatened to write an Ayers biography for Facelift - ultimately turned it into an Ayerszine and fine sleevenotes for a variety of Ayers CD releases. Regular contributor on all things Ayers for Facelift - near-neighbour in Facelift's infancy and good friend.
Stephen Yarwood - keeps clocking up the interviews: Bill MacCormick, Mont Campbell so far, and he's allegedly hot on the trail of Fred Baker. Now attempting to avoid being typecast as purely a 'bass-player interviewer' by getting his teeth into Elton Dean.
The Ooglenovastrome - remained incognito for many years under this monicker and so shall he remain - responsible for a large chunk of Facelift's archive cuttings as well as interviews with Peter Blegvad and at least one interview on this website.
Barry H King - no-one knows more about Caravan than this man. Interviewed Richard Sinclair in our longest interview yet and continues to compile the band's chronology for Facelift. One of our most valued contributors - his correspondence reveals an extraordinary knowledge about the most unlikely subjects - although we still don't know what the H stands for!
Mike King - no relation - like Martin, he too threatened a Facelift issue on his own favourite musician, then turned it into something much grander, the Robert Wyatt biography 'Wrong Movements'. Responsible for burrowing in the archives and turning out all sorts of wonderful music. Meeting up with Mike in Toronto and London have been two of this editor's fondest memories during 10 years of the magazine.
Rick Chafen - organiser of countless US tours for many of our heroes, I met Rick on his brief trip to the UK in the mid-Nineties, where he arrived in Manchester armed with a case of Dr Pepper and many fine stories. Rick told us his version of events in issue 11.
Chris Bussicott - one of our earliest subscribers, first came to our attention with his review, 15 years on (in atrocious handwriting) of Hatfields last ever gig, Chris has stayed the course and battled through being unfairly labelled as our 'Kevin Coyne expert' to become an equally valued contributor. Co-invented the (as yet unimplemented) 'bobbins quotient' method of reviewing CDs.
Aymeric Leroy - runs the highly-regarded Canterbury website 'Calyx' - Facelift has published his Pierre Moerlen features in recent issues, which originally appeared in his prog magazine 'Big Bang'. Tireless supporter of the scene, with an astonishing grasp of the English language - a Frenchman not afraid to correct my English!
Noel Baker - another perennial reader who turned to prose to get that all-important free subscription. Has carved out that all-important niche of 'reviewer responsible for stalwarts of British jazz who play in the Midlands'.
Steve Ashworth - Steve once confessed that he might have started his own Canterbuyzine if someone else hadn't got in there first. He now contents himself with running a website devoted to his second love, rochdale Football Club. Renowned for drinking heavily at gigs (which may be connected to the above). Set up the Dave Stewart interview as far back as issue 3 - regular contributions all the way through.
Martin Mycock - another Midlander and part of the circle of Holdsworth freaks which stretches from California to the Isle of Man. Looking through his list of top 5 gigs, I realised that I'd also been at a few of them myself - introductions are clearly in order.
Dave Ashcraft - Of the 3 contributors from the other side of the Atlantic here, not only have all 3 named National Health performances in their top 5 gigs, but all 3 gigs were in the UK. Dave provides the strongest case for global communication, as well as the NH archive pics this issue.
Simon Kerry - the other member of the Rochdale contingent, who found out he lived on the same road as as another contributor, revealed himself to be a fine photographer, and turned his hand to reviewing as well. It's him you'll find posing additional questions in the Didier Malherbe interview here.
read...
issue 20 - the issue that never happened!
- contributors' top five gigs