MORE TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC PEYOTE PLACES

What is it with the PP Guru and females? Lately, The PP Guru and his *Ahem* Film Star Neighbor (and ex-lover) had sort of reached a tribunal understanding within their latest skirmish. More so, the *Ahem* Film star Neighbor has been in constant combat with his other neighbors and his roommate, Little Boy Ray and hasn't had anything really nasty to say to the PP Guru....until this morning.

Looks like it back in the shithouse again.

Let the PP Guru explain.

First, the PP Guru's neighbor on the opposite terrace, Spoiler Warning Jeff ( The PP Guru calls him Spoiler Warning Jeff, because he likes to go on tv show websites and read all the episode plots of upcoming shows and then calls the PP Guru on the phone to tell him about it, The PP Guru goes: la la la la la la la la la - the PP Guru can't hear you!! especially in matters of 24 or Smallville ) has been through several combative situations, because the *ahem* film star neighbor likes to cross racial divided lines and likes to use white trash expositional phrases everytime they get into a fight.

The PP Guru's roommate- Little Whiny Boy Ray got into a altercation with *ahem* film star neighbor because his car was parked a little to close to her garage and she couldn't open the door - therefore leading her to come stomping up to our apartment and demanding that Little Whiny Boy Ray move his car back a few inches.

Believe it or not, The PP Guru had to take her side on this issue- because for the simple fact, that she pays rent for that garage and therefore has the right to go in and out of it as she pleases. But still Little Whiny Boy Ray had to take umbarage and act like a spoiled brat power tripper and wouldn't come out of his little whiny boy room until our landlord called him to tell him to move his car. And even that took a little convincing. Maybe it was the threat of calling a tow truck that did the trick.

So lately, things have been mellow around Peyote Place until this morning, well actually yesterday morning to be precise, when the *ahem* film star neighbor falls into one of her common schizophrenic funks and goes incognito for a week and has paranoid visions that everyone is out to get her. So she calls the PP Guru on his new cell PP Guru hotline to tell him at 1:30 in the bloody morning that she may need to go to a doctor. I ask the *ahem* film star neighbor what can he do to help, being the ever-forgiving peyote chewing pacifist that he is . She says to bring down a few cigarettes for her. The PP Guru complies. He goes down to her apartment and leaves her five fine smokes and goes back to get ready for work. The PP Guru then leaves to goes out on his temp job and gives her a courtsey call during the afternoon to check to see if she's ok. No answer.

So far, so good.

When the PP Guru gets back to Peyote Place at 7 in the evening. He rings her up again. No answer- but the PP Guru leaves a message to let her know that he is home in case she needs any assistance or still feels she needs medical attention. And the PP Guru leaves it at that.

Again, things seemed a-ok.

Until around 5: 30 this morning. The PP Guru walks by her garage on his way to the local 7-11 and notices that she left the light on. He calls to leave her a message.

She picks up the phone and then all hell breaks loose.

She then calls the PP Guru another two times later in the morning to threaten that she is going to make a peyote poo poo platter out of the PP Guru if he calls to stalk her again.

Uh oh- here we go again.

The PP Guru doesn't know exactly what the heck he did wrong. He thought he was doing his neighborly civic duty to inform her that hey, maybe you're going to get charged up the yin yang with a electric bill- because knowing her mediative state, it may be ages until she goes back again to shut that light off. And the PP Guru knows that she's usually up at the ungodly hour of either four or five in the morning.

The PP Guru didn't want to bicker with her over this- so he kept the call short and sweet.

He hung up on her. The PP Guru doesn't take kindly to terrorist threats- damn he'd wish they would come up with some Osama Bin Lindin ringtone or something.

The PP Guru always knows that it's damn if he does and damn if he doesn't. It's just the nature of the game. She asks him for help, and due to the straping finanical difficulties that the PP Guru is pacing himself through, he tries his best to make something positive out of any given situation- the PP Guru doesn't really have the strength or a whim of mass destruction to go into another power-crazed conflict with her. The PP Guru has no recourse, but to step away and let extensionalism takes its course.

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The Wages of Syn

Of course, it isn't just neighbors who are bickering these days.

One of the PP Guru's close confidants in the comic book industry- ex-smut sequential art smuggler, Jay Allen Sanford, who used to be publisher of Carnal Comics has been following the exploits of Yes-Man, bass player, Chris Squire on the reformation of his band before Yes, The Syn in the pages of the local San Diego Reader. The Syn has been trying to play the states for months now and somehow, Squire has gotten two false starts in getting a tour to happen out here.

He's having trouble selling tickets. And he seems to be angry about this.

The PP Guru would think that someone would phone up Chris and break the news gently to him - that "uhm, Chris- The Syn may have sold out shows at the London Marquee way back in the day- when it was the 1960's. But no one in the states has ever heard of the band in the days before Yes.

Shows were scheduled at the Knitting Factory back in January. They got cancelled - due to....
low ticket sales.

The show was re-scheduled the following month at the same venue. Guess what happened? Fuck you guys are asute, That's right....cancelled again......because of low ticket sales.

Then again, thinking the third time was the charm. It got rescheduled a third time in March - same Chris time, and not the same Chris in synced up channel. Now with Chris, always getting up past noon and always the last to arrive to tune his Rickenbacker up would finally get the message...

But guess what? The show actually went on.... to about 50 or so people who actually bought tickets to the time - a scintila of a speck compared to the throes of messiah worshippers who turned up for Maestro Jon A's solo set at the Roxy last weekend. Due to the strapped for cash syndrome that the PP Guru seems to be constantly entralled in these days, he couldn't afford to see Chris strut his 60's psychadelia stuff, but made allowances to check out Anderson's gig.

However, Jay let me on some behind the scenes gossips of what was happening with Chris's shows down in San Diego. Here's some excerpts from some correspondance and part of an article he wrote for the Reader:

"Don't fall for any BS you might read about the cancellation of Syndates being due to Alan White having other commitments. These cancellations are due entirely to low ticket sales." Promoter Carey Driscoll of Acoustic Music San Diego was angry to find out, from theReader rather than booking agents, that his concerts tonight and tomorrow by the Syn (with Chris Squire and Alan White from Yes) weren't going to happen. First, only a few "west coast tour" dates were dropped by the band, according to a January 31 post on the Syn website saying White supposedly had a "prior commitment in Brazil" (with no explanation as to why conflicting U.S. dates had been booked). Another post, dated February 13, announced the entire west coast tour had been cancelled "due to logistical problems." Driscoll says the Syn's booking agents never notified him.

Calls to seven of the nine west coast venues listed as hosting the Syn revealed that five had already cancelled the shows due to low ticket sales, one had never heard of the Syn and claimed not to have booked them (Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp) and the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle still thought the band was coming February 27 and were surprised to hear otherwise (that show had originally been scheduled for February 15 at the Tractor but had been moved to the smaller venue due to low ticket sales). "Apparently bands discovering that they're not as big a draw as their egos allow them to think these cancellations somehow fall under the 'Act Of God' clause," says Driscoll, "apparentlybecause they think of themselves as gods."

"I'm still waiting on full information on why the band are unable to appear in February," says the Syn's booking agent, Chris Colbourn of Concerted Efforts. "I'm not just the agent but the promoter in Santa Cruz [February 17 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center], so I'm sharing a large percentage of the financial loss for the tour." He does not acknowledge any blame in the booking confusion, saying "tour dates for the Syn tour were contracted and signed by the Syn management, including [the] RockFantasy Camp appearance." Colbourn says he was about to notify Acoustic Music San Diego of the cancellations when contacted by Driscoll. Syn management did not return calls"

Remember back in the day when Asia keyboard Geoff Downes personally contacted the PP Guru about what had happened with the work visas that never arrived when the Syn were first supposed to premiere during the cancelled "More Drama Tour" with Geoff, Alan White, and Steve Howe? Chris has got a million of 'em. Work visas that is, that probably mistaken got caught in the wash. Or maybe Billy Sherwood's dog ate 'em - who the fuck knows. But that's besides the point. It seems that all this animosity that's stemming from Chris's decision to go all balls out on the Syn, rather than hang out and record another new album with Yes (that is supposed to herald Rick Wakeman's return to the boards) has inadvertally pissed off another ex-Yes band mate, Peter Banks in the making of the new Syn album- which caused Peter to fire off this angry letter:

*DECEPTION AND LIES: A TIME AND A NEED FOR PROVOCATION

*Statement from Pete Banks 24/03/05

"I, Pete Banks, would like to make this statement regarding my relationship with the band known as Syn. I have been concerned with certain gossip on the Internet regarding my relationship with this band.

I was originally a member of Syn, comprised of Chris Squire, AndrewJackman, Gunner Hakonarson and Steve Nardelli from around 1965 until their demise two and a half years later. (These dates are approximate).Steve Nardelli, the original singer of Syn, made a proposal to me that the Syn should be resurrected out of 'cold storage' and a meeting took place on the 31st of October Halloween 2003, which included Martyn Adleman, who had left the band around the time I joined back in the midst of the sixties. The original keyboard player and drummer sadly no longer cease to be.

The three of us decided to go ahead with the project, the funding of which would be provided by Nardelli. Nardelli and I spent much of November, December, and January writing and rewriting old and potentially new Syn material. I was recruited as producer, arranger,and co-writer, as well as guitar player and taking care of the personnel in the new band. Keyboardist, friend, and long-time working partner Gerard Johnson agreed to play and engineer on a newly proposed Syn album.

So, with the material that Nardelli and I had bashed together on acoustic guitars, we had some ideas for songs for a new Syn album; also a new archive album was proposed consisting of pre-historic Synconnections. The whole band began recording early in 2004. As producer,I wanted the project to sound like a group that had been transported from the sixties into the 21st century, and had found out that they could still play together.

The worrying fact that Martyn Adleman had not played drums professionally for over 30 years and that Steve Nardelli, who is running a sporting goods company, and had sang very little as a rock lead vocalist--all these handicaps could be overcome--and to a degree they were. Two pieces were completed 'Grounded' (an old Syn single) and'Illusion' (a more atmospheric piece masquerading as an epic). 'Time and a Word' was begun and most sections were completed. Unfortunately,Steve could not do full justice to the vocal as he had to rush away to go on holiday the next day--a big headache for myself as I had only been informed of this a few hours beforehand.

Most recording projects of such a loose structure suffer from technical and performance problems, which often a producer can overcome, but, the absence of the singer and the shakiness of the drummer are impossibleto fix in the mix. We overran on studio time, Gerard Johnson and myself had to finish a bulk of instrumentation and backing vocals at his home. The mixing sessions were difficult because of interruptions from Martyn and Steve (having then returned from his holiday). Comments such as 'can I hear more drums?' and 'the vocals sound a bit far back' can be a nightmare at such times. On the more positive side, the three pieces of music turned out pretty good, considering the conditions under which they were made. My arrangement and rewriting of 'Grounded' sounds very satisfactory and almost like a real band. Likewise, 'Illusion' has become a mini-epic with its components firing on all systems in the'old prog rock tradition'. Although there was a bit of a fight for prominence and domination in the mix, it was definitely overflowing with ideas taking us back to those late sixties values of musical freedom and enthusiasm that I still love. A new version of 'Time and aWord' remains unfinished, the vocal track is weak and my guitar parts are unfinished along with the music-links that push the piece together.I hope the current Syn do not fuck it up.

The last time I met Steve Nardelli was on the fourth of April 2004, appropriately just after April Fool's Day. He told me how happy he was with the three pieces and that we would finish them later on in the year when he could gather more funds to spend on the project. He also told me that I was indispensable to Syn and I had made the songs live again (perhaps I had misheard him on that one!). Despite my attempts to contact him, he has never spoken to me for nearly one year.

To make things clear and transparent, hear are the relevant facts:

I put the band together, recruiting Gerard Johnson and several bassplayers--Steve Gee was gracious enough to step in at the last moment to deputise. He coached and guided Martyn Adleman with his drumming and was a model of courtesy, reliability, and patience. I do not think that he ever got paid.

I originally suggested Chris Squire on bass, to which everyone agreed.Steve Nardelli, when I gave him Chris' number, never called.

I co-wrote all the songs.

I arranged all the songs.

I played guitar.I sang backing vocals with Gerard Johnson.

I produced the recordings of the three aforementioned songs.

I would like to make it clear that I am no longer a part of Syn, although nobody has officially informed me of this. I find the suggestion that I was hired as a session player very offensive as a professional musician. Steve Nardelli and Martyn Adleman are not competent performers, they are amateurs and I doubt that they can be 'roadworthy' or fit enough to play any gigs without substantial musical and physical assistance. Gerard Johnson's despicable attitude to my disposability has been unprofessional, two-faced, and deceitful. I use to regard him as a friend--a piece of bad judgement on my part.

The whole Syn project, which I worked on the 1st Nov 2003 to the 4thApril 2004, with so much enthusiasm and energy has become a complete waste of time; I have never been thanked or credited and it has been thrown back in my face. They deserve no success or credibility as a band or as human beings.

You can find the old Syn singles and B-sides plus a demo of 'FlowerMan' on my compilation 'Can I Play You Something?' featuring Mabel Greer's Toyshop, Yes, etc., released 1999 on Blueprint records BP301CD.

I find the behavior of Nardelli, Adleman, and Johnson totally mystifying. Their deceitful, hypocritical and cowardly behavior and inability to deal with the situation that I find myself in is something that I have never had to deal with in this profession. They refuse to even discuss this matter and release Syn material without any consultation with myself whatsoever. This also applies to the compilation album which I am featured on and was asked to produce, having already supplied a lot of archive material from my own personal collection. Incidentally, I do not include Chris Squire amongst this cast of villains, as he joined the band after my departure.

This whole Syn enterprise really stinks and I would just like to make people aware if they are contemplating purchasing any of these Synprojects of what kind of people the aforementioned characters really are. I am really saddened by my need to have to make this statement; music is the foremost drive in my life and the massive hypocrisy of these people fills me with intense outrage.

To Johnson, Nardelli, and Adleman, why not be human, why not show emotion...(very hard for most English people)? Why not have a fucking opinion?

Pete Banks "

Ok, maybe the PP Guru can cut Squire a little break- but you gotta admit- Alan White with committments in Brazil? What, was the PP Guru born yesterday (think real hard before answering that one).

More next time.

~

Coat

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Political commentary

We're all hoping that the final fall of the "Hammer" means we can get to all the foul corruption that is the Bush Junta II.

Impeach the Chimp!

- Sparky