19 Dec 2006
I am currently working on a book about the South African
poet Sinclair Beiles (Kampala, Uganda 1930), who lived with the American beats like William Burroughs and Gregory Corso
in Paris in the
late fifties and early sixties, before everyone moved on. Sinclair, who edited Burroughs's Naked Lunch, went to Greece and then to London,
to return to South Africa
in the early eighties. He died in 2000.
I have followed in the footsteps of Sinclair in Kampala,
Paris, Athens, Hydra, London and Johannesburg, and intend to wrote the book as
an ‘in search of…’, a piece of travel writing that should give the reader
insight in the life of a remarkable man and a true free spirit. Every now and
then I will publish bits of writing on Sinclair on this site, so everyone can
read it and comment.
I would also love it when people who have additional
information on Sinclair (the gaps are still too many) would contact me and
provide some of the missing bits.
Please email to fred.m.devries@gmail.com
- Nils Lofgren - Nils Lofgren (1976, A&M)
- The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies (1971, RCA)
- Reigning Sound - Break Up Break Down (2001, Sympathy for the Record Industry)
- Johan - Pergola (2001, Excelsior)
- Funkadelic - Funkadelic (1970, Westbound)
- The Saints - Prehistoric Sounds (1978, Harvest)
- Zounds - The curse of Zounds (Rough Trade, 1982)
- Patrick Fitzgerald - Grubby Stories (1979, Polydor)
- Jim Neversink - Jim Neversink (2005, ENT)
- Culture - Two sevens clash (1978, Shanachie)
- Elliott Murphy - Night Lights (1976, RCA)
- Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour (1974, Polydor)
Desirables
These are little jewels, found listening, watching, tasting, visiting and reading
- Check out the blog of my buddy siebe thissen! and also www.siebethissen.net
- Also check the website for great Australian band The Triffids with many beautiful downloads
- Check the interesting story about British graffiti artist Banksy on the website of the New Yorker, and also one on the Guardian's website
- Anyone who's interested in whatever happened to that great punk band The Zounds must check out Steve Lake's website and buy his great new cd 'Northampton General Lunatic Asylum' by Thee Evil Presleys, which contains great and furious rock 'n' roll, and can be ordered from Beverly Recordings bevrecordings@btinternet.com
- Anyone interested in the acetate tapes of the first Velvet Underground album (mentioned in the epiphany section of the August issue of The Wire) can download the tracks for free from the WFMU website (lots of crackles and hiss, but worth it!)
- A couple of years before Alice Coltrane died, The Wire carried a long interview with her. An unedited version can be found here
- Also a excellent Alice Coltrane mix on my friend Siebe Thissen's site
- Great site for anyone interested in garage rock and beat from the sixties is garage hangover
- Compulsary read: Remake/Remodel by Michael Bracewell, about the individuals, the scenes and the art/historical context that gave us that beautiful, stunning, groundbreaking first Roxy Music album
- Check out http://www.savoy.abel.co.uk/ for a real underground British publisher that specialises in science fiction, pj proby and lots of other quirky things
- When in Cape Town, please visit the Book Lounge cnr Buitengracht and Roeland St.Tel +27 21 4622425 Fax +27 21 4622424 E-Mail: booklounge@gmail.com