With the loss of Rick Buckler (aged 69) and Jamie Muir (aged 82) today, it seems like it won’t be long until the ‘new age’ finally takes over, everyone that was born in the forties & fifties that made music as young men and women in the sixties, seventies and eighties and as older men and women beyond, will soon be gone. I remember years ago telling people that ‘the young ones’ don’t know who The Beatles or Pink Floyd are and why would they? It’s more true now than ever, and we all know where that leaves Emitt Rhodes and Robert Wyatt. Maybe it doesn’t matter, I don’t think many people of my age lost much sleep over not knowing who Tex Beneke was. The world moves on.
I was thinking about all those healthy young people running around under Queen Victoria in 1899, enjoying new inventions with lives of hope ahead of them. When you think about mobile phones and their impact on the world, this is a headline from then:
The Omaha Daily Bee, July 9th, 1899 - “First Telephone Model Now in Patent Office”.
In a developing era of constant new discoveries and inventions, things were bad for most, today, well, today, there’s a lot more people. The estimated world population in 1899 was 1.56 - 1.75 billion, today it is 8.2 billion, that’s quite a jump in 126 years and although a lot of people have a better life now, I wonder how the actual numbers compare.
I felt terrible today, a hangover from yesterday, and looking at a computer isn’t conducive to repair. So I managed ‘some’ pressing tasks on the keyboard but nowhere near enough - I’m hoping tomorrow sees me on an upward turn, instead of just ‘having a turn’ (love that expression). I forced myself to watch the football as part of the plan to relax but it was cold in the front and under the blanket, I tried to do nothing but watch, but football is often not relaxing. I ate, I watched, and I typed and it all led to more diamonds and now when I’ve finished writing here I’m going to hit the sack early with quiet Pink Floyd (it’s a band).
We’ve been trying to figure out a plan to promote the new record (Archaeological Dig Volume 1) and other records (Valley Of Salt, Blueburst, No Fear Of Silence and future Space Summit) in this day and age. It’s not easy to do between the digital and the amount of records released and the style of the records that I make versus what’s actually popular out there. Having said that there’s lots of artists that I like that are popular, it’s just getting it out there and I’m luckier than most having some kind of a history.
https://indeeplabel.com/
Pre-order Archaelogical Dig here:
https://schoolkidsrecords.tuneportals.com/UPC/634457202474
Valley Of Salt here:
https://valleyofsaltband.com/
Space Summit here:
https://schoolkidsrecords.com/UPC/634457061224
Blueburst here:
https://blueburst.bandcamp.com/
No Fear Of Silence here:
I nipped out to the chemist on the square to get some antacid to combat one of the issues I was experiencing and a few shops down is the mysterious icons shops. I walked by and looked in the window and I saw a mysterious lady in there, and a mysterious dog in a mysterious basket. I wondered about the symbolism and how a factory made plaster Jesus is enough to inspire awe.
Music today has been King Crimson - Larks Tongue In Aspic (1973) as percussionist Jamie Muir died today aged 82. Rick Buckler the drummer from The Jam also died (young) aged 69 but as a fan of both groups, I figured that there will be fewer notices about Jamie than Rick and despite their rather different percussive skills they were what was needed for the groups they were in. Jamie Muir was only on the one King Crimson album before leaving suddenly to enter a monastery. Two players from opposite musical worlds, both so good. RIP.
Click on the “Watch on you tube” link to see Jamie Muir
Read Bill Bruford’s piece below.
Music Of The Daze
Bill Bruford’s piece today:
Jamie Muir died today 17.02.2025 in Cornwall, UK, with his brother George by his side. From Bill:
Jamie was the drummer/percussionist with whom I worked on the King Crimson album ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973). He had a volcanic effect on me, professionally and personally, in the brief time we were together many years ago – an effect which I still remember half a century later. I’m sorry we lost touch, but his departure from our working relationship was so sudden and unexpected, I sort of assumed he didn’t want anything more to do with me and my colleagues in King Crimson!
He was a lovely, artistic man, childlike in his gentleness. There was probably a dark side underneath. It could be glimpsed as he climbed the PA stacks in a wolf’s fur jacket, blood (from a capsule) pouring from his mouth, on a rainy Thursday night in Preston, Lancs., to hurl chains across the stage at his drum kit. One of these Robert Fripp will tell you, only narrowly missed him.
His conversations with Jon Anderson at my 1973 wedding party, in Jon’s words, ‘changed my life’. Jamie also changed mine.
I consider it a privilege to have known, and benefitted from the company of, a man of such quiet power, even briefly. He struck me as one of those about whom one might truthfully say he was a beautiful human being. He will be much missed. Goodbye, Jamie.
Image: Collaborating in Covent Garden, London 1972. L-R Jamie Muir, Robert Fripp, David Cross, Bill Bruford. Image by Barrie Wentzell.
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Always saddened when these heroes pass, but that makes me appreciate their music more and want to learn more about them. Love when my favorite bands criss-cross in these posts—love the intricate connections and how talents overlap. Will give these guys a spin today at work—best wishes to you, Marty. Hope you get some relief. My wife is finally getting back to normal—mouth wise, anyway!
Vale drummers. It feels the music industry is curated and groomed - but talent can still push through despite all artificial Pap that the industry relies on