“Fish Warehouse” - sessions + concerts by Gorgonzola Legs (1984 - 1989)

1/17/2019

First: The name Gorgonzola Legs was from an album by Vivian Stanshall (member of the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band) named ’Sir Henry At Rawlinson End’.
Quoted: Lady Staines wants a 4th player for a game of bridge ...
"Sir Henry" she says, "would you like to be the 4th man?" Henry glared at her wattled neck, gorgonzola legs ... "
Madam", he intoned, "I wouldn't even have liked to be the first man!"

Vivian Stanshall. Album cover: Sir Henry At Rawlinson End

From 1984 till 1989 one day a week the music collective Gorgonzola Legs gathered in the Fish Warehouse in the harbour of IJmuiden, the main port of Amsterdam. All these moments of making weird sounds and messing around with crazy objects were captured on a 4-track cassette recorder. Hours and hours of recordings were listened to and finally Hessel Veldman made a selection of tracks that were interesting to be remixed into ‘compositions’.

Several tapes were released on the ExArt label. [See Post 2] But also two special tapes were released by LOR Tapes and Harsh Reality Music. Slimy Clupea Harengus (LOR Tapes) was a compilation of live recordings made at several venues in The Netherlands. Short Stories (Harsh Reality Music) was a compilation of improvised sound-poetry and storytelling, also recorded at the Fish Warehouse.

Flyer for Slimy Clupea Harengus and Short Stories

Listen to and download a track recorded in Haarlem @ Patronaat. From Slimy Clupea Harengus.

live_in_patronaat.mp3
File Size:	14204 kb
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April 1988 the cd ‘Piscatorial Debris’ was released. We did a presentation @ the Witte Theater in IJmuiden by playing a special impro-gig as support of Snakefinger. It was the start of Phil Lithman’s European tour. The tour he never finished, because he died in Austria two weeks later.

Newspaper interview, written by Peter Bruyn, on the release of Piscatorial Debris

Newspaper announcement for the Snakefinger / Gorgonzola Legs concert @ Witte Theater

The live recording of the Witte Theater set became the soundtrack for the Piscatorial Debris video, made by Henry van Kleeff. The video was filmed @ the Fish Warehouse in the main hall, more than 150 meters long, on a forklift truck slowly moving backwards. It was the same slow movement as in the soundtrack.

Interview @ Witte Theater with Hessel and Henry van Kleeff

Listen to and download an excerpt from the live-recording made @ the Witte Theater in IJmuiden & soundtrack of the ‘Piscatorial Debris’ video.

gorgonzola_legs_piscatorial_debris_live_in_witte_theater.mp3
File Size:	33668 kb
File Type:	mp3

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2 Comments

Hessel
'sanYo CreatE' Veldman

Hessel Veldman (1956), musician, composer and radio-producer, started his search for uncomfortable music during his teens.
An early fascination for electronic noise and dissonance, from the beginning of the 1970s,
in combination with a preference for writing and performing extremely idiosyncratic music, has created a wide range of experimental compositions and radio productions.

For the Dutch broadcasting company VPRO, Hessel produced his first experimental solo work 'I Can Hear Trumpets?' (1980). During the Holland Festival of 1983 in Amsterdam, 'Portable Vaudeville' with Willem de Ridder was created. Four nights in a row this sound-poetry show was presented in the Schouwburg in Amsterdam. Under the name FNTC many experimental radio plays were made during the 80s and 90s and broadcasted worldwide.

Via his private cassette label Exart (1982-1995), music albums and video productions were released under all kinds of artists-names (including Y Create [electro-psych-pop], Forbidden Photographs [noise], Gorgonzola Legs [impro industrial-jazz;
a live on stage experience], Austin & Kelly [plunderphonics]).
And since the last few years, after the release of the CD 'Madadayo' in 2004 on EE Tapes, Hessel regularly performs solo or together with other like-minded artists on special request.

In 2004 Hessel Veldman started producing for Concertzender public-radio in The Netherlands.
Also he’s director and coordinator of live-productions and from 2010 chief-editor for the Contemporary Music department: Crosslinks.

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Rafael González

1/17/2019 12:17:19

Very interesting, as always! Thanks!

Luca

2/25/2021 11:54:20

Hello

Thank you for this, I often consider Gorgonzola Legs a lost treasure. Do you have anymore live recordings of the band? I have almost all the tapes except for the missing "Legs In Concert" one, I actually don't find much information about it except the inlay of Bunker. Also curious if any live recordings exist of their tour with Paul Daniels? Hessel would know obviously, but we don't, its been years.