Some facts and figures about the Legendary Pink Dots

Edward Ka Spel Interview   Detailed LPD Discography  LPD & KaSpel Songs Samples 

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Edward Ka-Spel

Vocals/keyboards

Phil "The Silverman" Knight

Keyboards/eletronic devices

Edwin von Trippenhof

Guitar/bass

Niels Van Hoornblower

Saxophone/clarinet/horns

Ryan Moore

Bass/drums


FORMER MEMBERS

Mick Marshall

Guitar/keyboards

Bob Pistoor

Guitar

Martijn de Kleer

Guitar/drums

April Iliffe (White)

Keyboards

Graham Whitehead

Keyboards

Patrick Q Wright

Violin

Hanz Myre

Saxophone/flute/electronics

Roland Callaway

Bass

Julia Niblock Waller

Bass/keyboards

Jason Salmon

Bass

Keith Thompson

Drums

Tony Copier

Drums

Barry Gray

 



A PRE-MILLENIAL SPECTACULAR SHOW

With the year 2000 a sneeze away now, The Legendary Pink Dots are presently involved in the Second stage of their "Pre-Millenial Spectacular" marathon.

This is no ordinary tour to promote a new album. The Spectacular combines The Dots with solo performances from singer Edward Ka-Spel and bass player / drummer Ryan Moore's Twilight Circus Dub Sound System into a show that can last up to 4-5 hours at certain venues. Mutations of this package are scheduled to appear in 4 continents, and the culmination of this project is destined to manifest in Jerusalem late in the Autumn.

The album for the tour is the aptly named "NEMESIS ONLINE", a work that seems to be a little more significant as each day passes in this remarkable, disturbing last year of the century.It is the Dots' 26th full length CD in 19 years, and also appears as a deluxe double vinyl album.

Singer Edward Ka-Spel has also released the CD/2LP album, "THE BLUE ROOM" to coincide with this action, while also recently hitting the stores are "HORSIE" by the Twilight Circus and "SILVER MANDALAS" by keyboardist, The Silver Man.


HISTORY

If myths have substance then it would be possible to believe that LPDs change their line-up every week. Not true at all.. The line-up changed once in the last 9 years.

It wasn't always so stable. In the early 80s people came and went so fast that for about a month or so there were actually 2 versions of the Legendary Pink Dots with the same lead vocalist.

A troubled merger occurred in 1981 and the peculiarly unified results can be heard on LPDs first official album "Brighter Now" released at the end of '82. LPDs first appeared live in October 1980 at a local folk club in East London. Unfortunately half of the audience retreated to the back wall, interpreting the band's nervous state as a bad attitude. This attitude problem seemed attractive to the rest of the 100 strong crowd, but alas the band was never invited back. The Dots were paid 5 English pounds for this spectacle.

For some years during the 80s The Dots enjoyed a strong 6 person line-up (all English) and recorded albums such as "Island of Jewels", "Any Day Now" and "The Golden Age". They also toured Europe seriously and signed with the then small independent label Play it Again Sam Records.

Perhaps a litle prematurely 4 people left the band in 1988, and Niels Van Hoornblower stepped in as horn player while Bob Pistoor took over the guitarist's role.

With this line-up "The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse" and "The Maria Dimension" were recorded and the success of these albums led to Warner Bros. USA approaching the band with a view to making a deal. A little naively, the Dots never followed up this approach and remained under the wing of PIAS.

Tragedy struck in 1992 when Bob Pistoor died from cancer. Martyn de Kleer took over on guitar while Ryan Moore stepped into the band on bass after meeting them in his native Vancouver during LPDs second USA tour.

A protracted battle with Play it Again Sam dominated the next years and the band quit the label in 1994 deciding to take over their own affairs.

A fruitful partnership began with USA label Soleilmoon in 1995 and the band's popularity steadily began to grow again on the other side of the Atlantic. The year ended in spectacular fashion when the Dots played to the biggest ever audience in Mexico city (around 2,500 people).

It meant that The Dots' focus switched from Europe to America and the band returned there for a 30 show tour in 1997, and followed up with 36 dates one year later.

ENCYCLOPEDIA BIO

This east London experimental group was formed in 1981, based around lyricist and singer Edward Ka-spel and keyboard player Phillip Knight, who emerged as part of the burgeoning do-it-yourself scene of the late 70s. Performing what they described as 'psychedelic' music - in an 'exploratory sense, rather than nostalgia' - they released their first album, Brighter Now, on the small Birmingham independent label Phaze Records, eventually running through two other homes before settling with Play It Again Sam. The band emigrated to the Netherlands in 1985, after Ka-spel had become disenchanted with his native country's reaction to The Tower ('a really important album to me'). A series of recordings continued to fare better on the continent than in the UK, while Ka-spel recorded the latest of several solo albums with Steve Stapleton ofNurse With Wound. He has also branched out with a side project, the Maria Dimension, and worked with Skinny Puppy (as Teargarden for the 1987 album, Tired Eyes Slowly Burning) The latest incarnation of Legendary Pink Dots, meanwhile, has added Nils Van Hoorne (saxophones, flute, bass, clarinet) and Bob Pisteer (guitars, bass, sitar). Ka-Spel's prolific recording schedule continues apace, despite the market for his marginalized electronic pop songs having barely enlarged since the early 80s.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 1998



MISCELANEOUS

Birth : 1980, when Ka-Spel and Knight met together

Origin : England + Netherlands. are living in Holland since 1982

Main influence zones : Europe, USA, Canada.

Style
Hmm, quite hard to define... some read and seen qualifiers :
experimental, psychedelic, Avant-garde, weird, deviant, esoteric

Related bands (these are personal appreciations) :
Gong, NLC (Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites), Pink floyd ( mostly the psychedelic period )

Releases : 20+ "main" albums, 30+ sides projects (collectors tapes and vinyls), tons of compilations featuring. See the discography

Others releases : The Tear Garden (with some Skinny puppy's), Mimir, Solo Carriers of Edward Ka Spel and The Silverman

Best sales :
The crushed velvet apocalypse, The Maria dimension, Any day now

Slogan :
Sing while you may !


LINKS

Cloud Zero - the official Legendary Pink Dots Site

The Legendary Pink World

Dotland

Legendary Pink Dots Page

#PinkDots

LPD Newsticker

LPD at Satan Stole My Teddybear


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