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April 2010 Ronni Urini Ronni 'Rocket' Urini's rare 1983 7" Single A-Side Sailship is finally making its debut in gloriously remastered form on a new Austrian 2-CD compilation Neonbeats - Austrian New Wave and Postpunk This is a limited edition of just 700 copies on the Austrian Klanggalerie label. Ollie (together with Kevin Ayers) gets a full credit in the booklet for playing guitar on the track. Our correspondent, Christian Loebenstein, reports that a big release party is taking place in Vienna on Saturday and he will certainly ask Ronnie if he remembers the session and particularly Ollie.
March 2010 Vivian Stanshall We have received not only some truly superb photos from Viv's legendary 1991 Bloomsbury Theatre concerts, but also a remarkable 20 minute audio interview with Ollie. The content of the recording, made by Viv's friend Dean Cole, portrays Ollie as an enthusiastic, optimistic and hard-working musician, clearly at the pinnacle of his profession. It is almost inconceivable that, less than a month later, he should fall victim to the evils of drug abuse. Audio interview, photos and full story here
February 2010 Don't You Rock Me [Daddy-O] ! An elusive recording of The Pattos in Italy, 1972 has been circulating on these strange 'torrent' sites [which are beyond me - why make it so complicated? Just give us a download link!]. Anyway, good friend of The Archive, Roger Houdaille, who clearly understands these things has provided a copy, and it's pretty damn good. The sound quality [portable cassette] is not up to much, but it is better than many, with a good overall balance. There is some seriously good widdling from Mr H and a brilliant skiffle session, featuring The Admiral on washboard. You can download it here. if you're quick. Otherwise, email us and we'll see what we can do ;-) See the Patto Antholliegy page for set list and more details
December 2009 The Mucky Duck Some time ago, Bob Beecher unearthed some remarkable photographs of Ollie in full bee regalia. There was some confusion regarding the source of these images, but it is now clear that they were from the Patto reunion gig at The Black Swan [aka The Mucky Duck], Sheffield in 1975. Amazingly, Bob has discovered some more from the same concert and we are delighted to display them on the appropriate pages on the site. The group shots are on the Patto page, Ollie in bee attire here and one of John Halsey here Many thanks to Mr Beecher for these contributions.
December 2009 Rusty Strings Perhaps the most bizarre artefact of Ollie's entire career, these multi-track instrumental recordings were made in early 1973, around the time of Patto's final, unreleased album Monkey's Bum. Ollie had experimented with the layered speeded-up guitar tracks on the song I Need You [from the aforementioned album] and had also used the technique with devastating effect on Singing The Blues on Reds from Roll 'em, Smoke 'em . . . However, the 'Rusty Strings' tracks are a world away from such masterpieces. Quite why he chose to do them is a mystery. Apparently, he planned a whole album under the pseudonym and there are reports of other tracks, such as covers of Elvis Presley classics either completed or in the pipeline. Equally unaccountable is why anyone would want to release them, but RCA did just that in early 1974 with a single coupling the Jerome Kern tune with a Halsall original [which does have some redeeming features]. 'Admiral' John Halsey describes these efforts as "Horrible". We are still waiting for a chart entry ;o) Many thanks to 'Rutling' Ken Thornton of the Patto Fan Site for finding and reseraching these recordings.
October 2009 The Next Big Thing
Ugly Things #29 features an extensive and excellent article on Ollie Halsall and Timebox by Ollie-freak, Ralph Heibutzki [aka the artiste, Chairman Raplh]. At least two further installment pf the Halsall story are planned for future editions of the magazine. This weighty tome is also jam-packed with loads of other great material. Order your copy now from: October 2009 Hinkley's Cancelled Unfortunately, the Hinkley's Heroes reunion and memorial benefit at The Electric Ballroom in Camden has been canceled due to poor ticket sales.
September 2009
New Photos Ian (Buda) Carpenter in Australia has unaethed some remarkable photographs of Ollie with Kevin Ayers. The images - showing Ollie playing a Gibson Melody Maker or Les Paul Junior - are probably from 1980 and are concert shots probably taken in Spain. Now uploaded at the bottom of the Ayers archive page in the Antholliegy. September 2009 Let There be Drums! 'Starvin' Marvin Siau has unearthed a marvellous clip of Kevin Ayers from Belgian TV in 1982. For some unaccountable reason, the members of his touring band decided to play musical chairs with the instrumentation. This resulted in Ollie being reunited with his first love, the drum kit . Whilst girlfriend Zanna Gregmar does a Hendrix impersonation with his Gibson SG guitar. "Kevin would play on any piece of wood that 's in tune and to save time in between gigs play on the same gear as the band before, " says Marvin. "It encouraged me to play without pedals on an odd instrument in uncomfortable circumstances sometimes, see how long I would hold out, hihi, learned a lot from that!" Bassist Bolle Gregmar recalls: " We all switched around on the instruments vecause Ollie didn't care to pose for a guitar solo he wasn't actually playing, so He's on Drums, Zanna on wicked Guitar, and Pedro Colom [bass player] on keyboard and me [drummer] on bass. e did the whole thing in one real take and one rehearsal. wish it were better quality. but This is a fun moment in the Bruxelles TV station. On that same Billing were The Jam and they did A Town Called Malice. There was a guitar incident with a forgotten Rickenbacker 12-string for Paul Weller and he refused to even play Kevin's 6-string Rickenbacker which was offered. So the result was that Mr Weller performed in the video sans guitaire." September 2009 Warts and All MP3 Download We are delighted to announce the release of an MP3 Download version of the live Patto album, recorded at The Black Swan, Sheffield, in 1971. The original CD is completely sold out and there are no plans for a reissue. We are taking this step to ensure continued availability of the only in-concert recording of the band. The Archive hopes to be able to extend the facility to other recordings in the near future. Full details here
July 2009 Patto in New Zealand Photographer Lloyd Godman has been going through some slides for a forthcoming book and came across two remarkable images of Ollie on the New Zealand leg of their 1972 tour supporting Joe Cocker. Pictures are posted on the Patto archive page half way down the left hand side.
June 2009 Tempest at The Marquee Is there no stopping this man? Satoru has now come up with a magnificent complete show by Tempest, live at The Marquee, London in October 1973. Halsall is on fire on this one. The balance is not perfect, but Ollie's guitar is something else. Qne of the best examples of how to blow every other guitar player of the stage in 2009 - let alone 1973. Quite simply, this performance rewrites the accepted development of rock guitar virtuosity.
June 2009 Patto at The Beeb For many years, the Archive has held a really poor quality recording of Patto on a BBC Radio 1 John Peel: In Concert show from 1971. Remarkably we have just acquired a copy direct from a BBC transcription disc. Apart from the vinyl surface noise [which should be little problem to minimise] the recording is excellent and details are listed in the Patto Live page of the Antholliegy listings. The set includes an extra track not previously heard. The Pattos are augmented by Bernie Holland on guitar, who does a splendid job - particularly when Ollie is otherwise occupied on the vibes. Bernie had stood in on bass for an ailing Clive Griffiths for some time and was asked to stay upon Griff's return. Many thanks to Yonemoto Saturo for finding this fantastic show.
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June 2009 Andy Partridge - PopDose Interview Paul Janisch managed to put some questions to long-time Ollie freak, Andy Partridge of XTC, via a user-interview facility on the PopDose site. Read here
June 2009 Kidderminster Andy Lloyd has discovered some remarkable photographs of Timebox in concert in the sleepy English town of Kidderminster in 1968. Andy managed to track down the photographer, Colin Hill. The Archive contacted him and he very kindly allowed us to post the photos here
June 2009 Gear magazine Congratulations to Graham Oliver of Saxon for managing to namecheck Ollie in an interview for Gear magazine. Read Graham's earlier contribution to the Archive here
May 2009 Vote For Me The 5th Patto, and guitarist extraorinaire, Bernie Holland, has entered into the spirit of the Eurovision Song Contest and entered his take on the current political turmoil. The Archive has awarded him 'Cent points' and considers that this would have been a better bet than that dirge by Andrew Lord Webbed-Feet
May 2009 Graham Oliver of Saxon None other than Saxon guitarist, Graham Oliver, has kindly contributed some memories of his first encounter with Ollie at an unlikely venue.
April 2009 Warts & All We have, literally, just a few copies of the Patto live abum left. These are the last remaining from 'Admiral' John Halsey's personal stock. Once it's gone, it's gone!
April 2009 Rutles Rehearsals Joerg Reinick has sourced digital versions of a Rutles rehearsal recording from 1978. The session features Ollie on lead guitar and vocals, with Neil Innes [rhythm, vocals,] John Halsey [drums, vocals] and Rickky Fataar [preumably, on bass]. These are remarkable performances barely removed from the final studio versions. Halsall provides not only some distinctive bursts of guitar but, throughout, remarkable pastiches of classic Beatles licks. The Archive has held a cassette version these for many years but has not got around to documenting them until now. Details here
February 2009 Patto Music for Movie Two tracks from Patto's 1970 debut album are featured in a new film. The movie, Observe and Report, which stars Seth Rogan is released in April 2009 and includes the songs Sittin' Back Easy and The Man.
February 2009 Enos you Know Ollie gets a brief mention in a biography of the life and times of Brian Eno. In the book, On Some Faraway Beach, by David Sheppard, Eno talks about the Kevin Ayers June 1st 1974 conceret and waxes lyrical about Ollie's "'fluent creamy solos'. Halsall was, naturally, quite taken with the eccentric Eno and talks about him in this 1974 interview
January 2009 Love at First Solo The December 2008 issue of Uncut magazine features a lengthy interview with Kevin Ayers and includes the following quote: "Ollie Halsall is one of the most under-rated guitarist in the world - he played the shit out of people like Clapton and Jeff Beck. He was really adaptable and could go from the gentlest song. really listen to the song, not just like a guitar player, but sensitive to a piec of music. But he could also be as had a rocker as anyone. My favourite Ollie quote is: "There are only two people I'd play free for: that's you and Randy Newman." It was an enduring collaboration: It was love at first solo. At the time, I had a nice big house in Mallorca, and he and his girlfriend [Zanna Gregmar] moved in - and we did a lot of work in and around Spain. We'd started collaborating and writing songs. It was like the musical equivalent of having a partner. I don't want to give everything away, really, but he started working with Spanish bands, as I didn't have enough going on, and they were paying him loads. And he hated it, and he fell into bad ways . . . and died of it. It was a massive loss of a friend and a great talent." The November issue of this fine publication included the following from a Rutles article: June 1977: Innes, Fatso drummer Halsey, South African bassist/drummer Ricky Fataar and ace guitarist Ollie Halsall are rehearsing Innes' 20 Rutles songs and trying not to collapse in laughter. Halsall, left-handed and similar to Macca in vocal range hopes to land the Dirk role in the film. "We had Ollie", says John Altman, "who could reproduce anything, play it upside down and make it funny all at the same time." To Halsall's disappointment, the part of Dirk has gone to Idle. Everyone who works with him later raves about Halsall's contributions as guitarist and singer, and he gets a 3-second cameo in the film as Leppo, the fifth rutle.
January 2009 Guitar Techniques The February 2009 issue publishes a letter from Pete Price asking for a feature on Ollie Halsall. The magazine agrees he 'has to be in GT' and the Archive has contacted them about a possible article. More news as and when
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