Mallard

[Umma]

Magic Band Members: Mark Boston, John French, Bill Harkleroad, John Thomas, Art Tripp

Is it a duck ? ? is it a train? No, it's the Magic Band after they left Beefheart in 1974. Bill Harkleroad (aka Zoot Horn Rollo) and bassist Mark Boston (aka Rockette Morton) decided to form their own band. John French joined on vocals and drums and John Thomas, who'd been with French in Rattlesnake & Eggs, played keyboards.

Unfortunately only six demo songs were recorded with this line-up before French got the call to rejoin the Magic Band. Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, a Magic Band fan and friend of Mark Boston, financed their first album which resulted in their signing with Virgin Records UK. The album was recorded in the UK with just Bill and Mark from the original line-up. Art Tripp (aka Ed Marimba) had agreed to play drums (only if he had money upfront), and the vocals were handled by country/lounge bar circuit singer Sam Galpin who had no idea about the history of his fellow band mates. John 'Rabbit' Bundrick was brought in on keyboards.

Denounced by Beefheart as 'a bunch of quacks' they nevertheless included a version of 'Peon' because they'd heard he was in financial difficulties. However the track is credited to DONALD van Vliet!

The band went on to record another album, In A Different Climate. On this one George Draggota takes over on drums and John Thomas gets to play keyboards. These two with Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston and Sam Galpin were the band that toured Europe in 1976, appearing at the Reading Festival, the Roundhouse in London and on the German TV show 'Rockpalast' amongst other venues.

Poor distribution and the subsequent lack of financial success led to the band deciding not to continue.

The two albums have been released on CD although it is now deleted and fairly difficult to find.

Mallard (at the Captain Beefheart Radar Station)

[Shawn]

Interesting. Cool stuff Umma.

[Umma]

They're both pretty good albums too ... it's a shame they were discontinued.

[Kooperman]

I can't recall my orbit ever intersecting with any of Beefheart's music or Mallard's, although I've read about the eccentric Captain before in a few places.

[Umma]

Mallard is a little more sedate than the Magic Band, but you can hear the obvious connection in that they are the same musicians playing but minus the eccentricities/madness that fueled Beefhearts compositions. I like some Beefheart too, but not all.

[Umma]

short sample from 'Mallard'

Mallard___Back_on_the_Pavement.mp3

[nate]

short sample from 'Mallard'

it's not bad

i just grabbed the 2 albums from an undisclosed location

[Umma]

Story behind how I got these goes.... a friend wrote to Zoot Horn Rollo and asked if it was ok to fileshare these two albums with a few friends.... he said to go ahead as the industry had robbed him of the chance to make any money from them anyway... :D

nice bloke