Ääni korjaantui aloitusbiisin aikana varsin hyväksi, vaikka cd-taso jäi sekin saavuttamatta. Siirtyminen muovisita tietsikkakajareista Kossin Porta Pro -kuulokkeisiin

Greetings everyone. So very sorry for the huge delay.
I had to change plans, what I wanted to do and what I ended
up doing were/are two very different things. I hope you won?t
be disappointed by this.


What I wanted to do was give you guys some old tracks with
new solos. At the same time, I was trying to work on our new
recordings and trying to balance them both was very difficult
for me.


I do not work well at all under pressure. In fact, the harder I
am pushed the more I put my foot on the brakes. If I get
pushed really hard I tend to just Stop.


I do not think that I have ever delivered (solo records) a single
record on time. But it didn't matter then because no one
(besides the record company, if there was one) payed for
anything before it was delivered so therefore it wasn't so much
pressure. When the record came out then the fans could buy it
and there it was in their hands?. Done Deal. But the Pledge
thing became awkward for me because people payed in
advance for something that may take a long time, a pressure I
am not used to at all.


So I changed gears and decided to research really old tapes
that were in my possession. My good friend and engineer
Robert Fiest came to my house and I gave him a collection of 2-
inch and 1/2 inch masters. He kindly took them and had to
bake them, a long, expensive process, and then transfer them
to his computer. Which he did successfully. Then he sent me
the files to review what we had.


These are some of the tracks we found. There are also 2 new
tracks, New Dawn and Poochini.


New Dawn was written by my old friend Pat Smythe. We used
to play it with Pat's quartet in the early 70s. This version I
played the chords on the Synthaxe. The solo I played on the
Starr Z board. A very interesting machine. I used the same
instrument on Chad Wackerman's last record "Dreams
Nightmares and Improvisations ? (A New Day and The
Billows). I haven't quite got the hang of it yet but it pushes me
in different directions which I like.


Water on the Brain with Paul Williams was supposed to be on
the old IOU record? but the tape was stolen and was
recovered AFTER the original album was done. So here that
one is! Gary Husband, dms, Paul Carmichael, bs, Paul
Williams voc. AH gtr.


The Abingdon Chasp with Bill Bruford drs Francis Mose bs-
(Gong) Jeff Young kbrds Ray Warliegh alto sax and me. I don't
like listening to my old stuff. It sounds so lame to me but the
other guys sound great! Ray Warliegh was a dear friend of
mine. He was an amazing super melodic player?. Miss him.
The Road Games Cluster*&^%$%^&*


When I was on the road with UK I met Edward Van Halen. A
wonderful generous soul to say nothing of his amazing
talent!!!!! He was instrumental in getting me hooked up with
Warner Brothers. The issues I had with WB had nothing to do
with Edward. He is a jewel.


After I was signed by WB under the wings of Ted Templeman
(a fabulous producer) however, I realized that?s when my
troubles began. In fact, they signed me but had no real
intention of letting me do what I wanted to do. They had
another agenda.


First they wanted to change my band personnel. I was in hell,
my band mates were also my close friends and WB wanted to
mess with it. Anyway, we started recording at "The Music
Grinder" which was run by Gary Skardina and Ron Felicia,
very cool people but then Ted (TT) decided that he didn't want
me to use that studio and told me we had to move to a WB
studio called "Amigo". Then the shit hit the fan. Ted told me I
couldn't use my engineer and that I had to use an engineer he
liked, directly working with Ted not me!


We were starting to mix and then we had to stop because Ted
said there was another "FAMOUS" band in one of the other
rooms that was having problems with the 2-inch tape machine
they were using. THIS IS WB so rather than rent another 2-
inch they decided to steal our machine. %^&*()(*&^%$%^&*
Then transfer all our 2-inch tapes to a 3M Digital
machine. Quite possibly a pioneering digital machine but it
sounded horrendous. (In my opinion.) That?s when I threw up
my hands and basically gave up.


All the tracks labelled Outtakes are in fact all outtakes from
the "Music Grinder" featuring Joe Turano, a fabulous singer in
my opinion. TT would usually listen to mixes over the phone
and make decisions as to approval or disapproval? usually the
latter.


These 2-track rough mixes were sent to Ted for his decision as
to yes or no. It was NO.


Note: Jeff Berlin's amazing solo is well evident here.
I had forgotten about these tracks but once I heard Joe again I
thought you guys should check him out. (Certain things, like
bits of guitar solos were either muted at the time or not done
yet, as they were 2 track mixes, I obviously couldn?t put them
back.)


Although these were rough mixes it just goes to show how
much sonic destruction happened as a direct result of TT?s
decision to transfer to the 3M machine.


The Mark Pinski mixes: (Mastered by Robert Fiest for Pledge)
During this time, I met Frank Zappa, who was very kind to
me. I told him my story about the WB problems (I don't think
he was a fan of WB either) and he very generously offered to
let me use his amazing studio. He said go get a couple of 24
track tapes from WB which I did. I had to sneak them out as
they were vaulted but I managed to get a couple of reels out.
I took them over to Frank's house and he introduced me to his
engineer Mark Pinski. He mixed 3 tracks in one evening. His
mixes also showed the destruction that the transfer to the 3M
machine at Amigo caused. However, we ended up not using
them as Ted Templeman would not allow it.


Anyway, Mark?s mixes were excellent but very bright, so when
I heard them again from the 2-track masters we knocked off
some of the high end. That?s what you have!


Poochini. (Nickname) is a little short dedication to my
Daughter Louise's hound, Daisy. She was the most beautiful
sweetest hound. She was a Pit Bull mix, part Dalmatian. We
miss her.


Once again I apologize for the huge delay and thank you all so
VERY much for your patience and incredible support. It has
truly meant a lot to me!!


Yours Sincerely, Allan.