Curved Air is a pioneer British progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from a mixed artistic background, including classical, folk, and electronic music. The resulting band sounds are a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements. Together with Tide High and East Eden, Curved Air was one of the first rock bands after It's a Beautiful Day, The Flock and the United States to feature the violin. Curved Air released eight studio albums, three of which first broke the British Top 20, and had hit singles with "Back Street Luv" (1971) which reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.
Video Curved Air
Riwayat band
Sisyphus
The group evolved from the band Sisyphus, who played one of their early performances in Leith Hill Place ballroom, Surrey for masked ball and formed by Darryl Way (who studied violin at Dartington College and Royal College of Music) and Francis Monkman, a Royal Academy of Music. Wandering around in an outlet shop from Orange Music Electronic Company, Monkman was attracted by Way's voice testing his first electrically amplified violin, and both "got to talk". They found that they had a lot in common, and in 1969 invited pianist Nick Simon who, along with bassist Rob Martin and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa, completed Sisyphus's composition. "Darryl and Nick are very fond of Spirit, people can call them formative influences for Curved Air," Monkman later recalled. Most of the Early Curved Air songs were written for Sisyphus, among them "Young Mothers in Style" and "Screws".
Sisyphus was hired to provide mentoring for new games Galt McDermott, Who the Murderer Was , at Mercury Theater in Notting Hill Gate, serving as a pit band. Mark Hanau, an aspiring band manager at the time, saw the show and decided he wanted to manage Sisyphus. He feels that Sonja Kristina, an aspiring folk musician he saw on the London production stage Hair , is a missing element in the group. On January 1, 1970, Hanau contacted him through singer and impresario Roy Guest. He listened to the band's music tapes and was impressed. With the joining of Kristina and Nick Simon's departure, Sisyphus morphed into Curved Air, named after A Rainbow in Curved Air's album by contemporary composer Terry Riley. The name was suggested by Monkman who, after playing at the first London show In C , was a big fan of Riley. The band's new voice soon united, and Water Curve five pieces were born, Sonja Kristina became the band's voice and sex symbol.
From formation to first breakup
After a series of intensive exercises at Martin's family home in Gloucestershire, five pieces launched the Great Britain tour, supporting Black Sabbath at one point. The band toured with their own sound engineer, Sean Davies (who later became the producer for the post-Curved Air Way band Wolf), allowing them to achieve a better sound mix on stage than any other group with an unusual combination of instruments. Curved Air Public Relations Tony Brainsby fanned the exciting hype, bidding war for the band to take place, and in the summer of 1970 Curved Air signed with Warner Bros., became the first British band on the company's roster. The band received a much publicized advance of Ã, Â £ 100,000 and their debut album Air Conditioning was released in November for the surrounding big hype being released as the first commercially available LP image disc. The album reached number 8 on the UK Albums Charts, although the accompanying single, "It Happened Today", failed on the chart.
After Air Conditioning Martin was asked to leave the group, and was replaced by Ian Eyre. The band released "Back Street Luv" which reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart to become the most successful single band to date. The Second Album peaked at number 11. One non-LP follow-up, "Sarah's Concern", went unnoticed.
The band played three US tours but never reached more than just a heresy there. In the course of a constant tour drummer Pilkington-Miksa actually became ill at the end of 1971 and for several months Barry DeSouza (Lou Reed, Jeff Beck, Kate Bush), whose band members knew of the studio work, sat down for him. It was DeSouza who played with Curved Air in 1971 Beat Club German T.V performance "Back Street Luv", a television version that became famous. In late 1971 the band joined Faces, Soft Machine, Marc Bolan and David Bedford for a Christmas radio program for the BBC.
One of the highlighted shows was on May 7, 1971 when Curved Air was the opening for B.B. King and Johnny Winter at the Warehouse in New Orleans.
By the time the third album released a serious musical difference in the band appeared. According to Cherry Red's interview Sonja Kristina (2007), Francis is fascinated by the nuances and harmony of nature, and "His other obsession is real/jamming... real 'out there' cosmic rock disorder.. And that is not Darryl at all.." a very disciplined perfectionist, he likes things as precise and as powerful as possible. Whereas Francis is completely the opposite; he just wants to play and things just come out of the cosmos. "As Monkman explains,
Basically Darryl and I respected each other's work, but we did not really look directly at things. And we never really got the writing thing together. I want to get my first "epic" together, so it looks like the split formed at Second Album . In fact, the center was never really crowded after Rob left.
This division is reflected in the track settings on Second Album and Phantasmagoria ; The A side of both albums is occupied by music composed by Darryl Way, while side B is devoted solely to the composition of Monkman, without true collaboration between the two authors. While working in the studio, the band was in a state of concern. "I remember the time when Clifford Davis, our manager after Mark Hanau, described what we had to do just to get close to the place, we felt burned out," Monkman later said. In late 1972, Monkman was a "neural accident" which he and his colleagues recognized were also on the brink of physical and mental harm. He must wear earplugs to go to the London Underground and go to naturopath three times a week.
Phantasmagoria was recorded with bassist/guitarist Mike Wedgwood, who replaced Eyre. The album title is taken from Lewis Carroll's poem with the same title. The album came out in April 1972 and reached number 20 in the UK. Curved Air parted ways, Way formed Wolf Darryl Way, Pilkington-Miksa joined band Kiki Dee, and Monkman moved into a work session and then played in, among other things, supergroup Sky.
New Curved air
After maintaining a good working relationship, Sonja Kristina and Mike Wedgwood formed a new band with Kirby Gregory (electric guitar), Eddie Jobson (keyboard, violin), and Jim Russell (drums). Jobson came from a band called Fat Grapple, which has been one of the support acts of Curved Air on tour. The new band is playing a stone brand that is much more conventional than the former Curved Air, with virtually no classical influence from the group. However, at the suggestion of manager Clifford Davis, they continue to use the name of Curved Air so as to give them a commercial foot.
Kristina then commented:
What I wanted to do with the band at the time was getting over the edge of the rock for it, and playing Kirby's guitar really excited me - he's really wild. And Jim is also the same, rock drummer is very solid. Mike and I really want to continue, and it is our manager, Clifford Davis who says we will do better business, keep calling the band Curved Air. So we keep the name and follow the same pattern as before, as the author band. Everyone in the new band contributed material except to Jim Russell, who is really not a writer. Before that it was mainly Darryl and Francis, but I managed to get some of my compositions.
However, the use of the name Curved Air is not enough. While all three original Curved Air albums have broken the top 20 of the UK, the band's new single album, Air Cut , failed to even chart. Due to artistic differences with Jobson, Kirby Gregory and Jim Russell both left the group to form Stretch. Warner Brothers realized that Curved Air is currently basically not the same band they signed, so the remaining trio recorded a demo tape for the label. The demo failed to convince Warner Brothers, and they terminated the contract. (The demo was later released as part of the Lovechild record.) Without a contract and only a half line, in the summer of 1973 Curved Air broke up. Jobson replaces Eno in Roxy Music, while Wedgwood joins the Caravan.
Reunion
In 1974, Chrysalis sued the band. "We have broken their contracts on the advice of Clifford Davis, who says we can prove that they are not acting in our best interests, but at the moment he is no longer our manager!" Monkman explains. To issue an unpaid VAT bill, in September 1974 the flagship band (Kristina, Way, Monkman, and Pilkington-Miksa) reunited for a three-week tour in England, united by Darryl Way manager Miles Copeland III. The reunion interrupted the new band Way, Stark Naked and Car Thief, and since the bass slot for Curved Air needed to be filled, Way brought the band's new bassist, Phil Kohn.
The reunion tour to see Sonja Kristina playing her role as a sex symbol Curved Air is much more dramatic than ever before. Among his previous breakup and reunion tour, he worked as a bookman at the London Playboy Club and, influenced by the clothing required by his work, he began wearing a "transparent" style costume highlighting his sexuality.
A live and singles album was recorded during the reunion tour, and although they failed to chart, they paid off their tax bill. With their debt being paid, Monkman and Pilkington-Miksa have no reason to remain in the band. And so, Curved Air broke up for the third time in years.
Stark Naked, Car Thief, and Curved Air
However, Darryl Way and Sonja Kristina remain interested in working together, and therefore Way carries two "Car Thieves", guitarist Mick Jacques and drummer Stewart Copeland. Although more members of this new lineup came from Stark Naked and Car Thieves rather than Curved Air (Kristina became the only member not of the former band), they decided to adopt the name Curved Air for the same reason as Kristina/Wedgwood who led the band. With Darryl Way at the helm, the new band often used the same classical and folk influences as the original band (and even played some original band songs on their show), but their core sounds were rooted in pop, rhythm and blues, and hard rock. Miles Copeland III, still serving as Curved Air's manager, puts the group on his own label, BTM.
The band started off with a European tour, which started badly. Way, a famous perfectionist, grew impatient with the struggles of his colleagues, especially the novice drummer Copeland. Then, for reasons that no one can pinpoint, the musicians suddenly "clicked" on each other and the band was on fire, quickly becoming a popular and acclaimed live acting.
Their studio effort is another story. Phil Kohn left and the band, unable to replace him in time for the session for Midnight Wire, relying on guest musicians to play bass (John G Perry) and keyboard (Peter Wood). Norma Tager, Kristina's friend, wrote the lyrics to the song "Midnight Wire". Kohn was later replaced by Tony Reeves, formerly of the Colosseum and Greenslade, but the recording sessions for both Midnight Wire and 1976 Airborne were expensive and very stressful for everyone involved. Both albums - as well as "Desiree", one taken from Airborne - failed to penetrate the charts.
Citing dissatisfaction with the inability of BTM Records to support Curved Air financially, Way set out. Although Alex Richman from Butts Band broke into the keyboard, losing the band's de facto leader was a huge blow. The last attempt of this sequence on the hit single, the cover version of "Baby Please Do not Go", was another failure. After months of gradually losing power, Curved Air dispersed so slowly that, with the memory of Sonja Kristina, most of the music press wrote of the band's absence as a "sabbatical". Copeland formed The Police, Reeves returned to work as a producer and played in the Big Chief's semi-pro band along with Jacques, and Kristina and Way pursued a solo career. Kristina and Copeland maintained a close personal relationship that they had formed during their bandmates and married in 1982.
Interim
Curved Air as a group was largely inactive for the next three decades, although some releases and retrospective compilations were released during this time. (Warner Bros. Records released the band's first compilation, "The Best of Curved Air", in April 1976, though naturally contained only material from four Warner Bros. album bands).
In 1984 Darryl Way asked Sonja Kristina to provide vocals for some of his solo recordings, two of which, "Renegade" and "We're Only Human", were released as singles under the name Curved Air. The third song, cover of "O Fortuna", was released as Sonja Kristina's solo track on the b-side to "Walk on By", but was withdrawn because of objections from Carl Orff's estate. Yet another song, "As Long as There a Spark", was originally recorded by Way and Kristina, but was released as Darryl Way's solo song, with Way performing his own vocals. Way and Kristina followed this recording with a brief tour in 1988, again under the name Curved Air.
In 1990, the quartet Kristina, Way, Monkman, and Pilkington-Miksa first held a one-time reunion concert at London's Town & Country, supported by Noden's Ictus. The show recorded by Francis Monkman, recorded on the album Alive, 1990 , was released in 2000.
After a one-off reunion, guitarist Mike Gore instigated a series of jam sessions involving three-fifths of the original lineup of Curved Air: Monkman, Pilkington-Miksa, and Martin. In 1991 some of these jams were recorded, finally released as Monkman's solo album called Clock in 2002.
2008 and so on
In early 2008, the band rejoined. On May 4, 2008, in a message to Curved Air Yahoo Group, Kristina suggested that the new line-up was herself, Darryl Way (violin), Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums), Andy Christie (guitar) and Chris Harris (bass). Francis Monkman, who was originally portrayed alongside Kristina, Way and Pilkington-Miksa for reunion, left the project behind. "Unfortunately, he does not have the same vision as us all about how (new projects) should be approached and not ready to compromise, so the way we have to split up," Way commented. Sonja Kristina asserted, "Francis was at the beginning but had a very different idea from Darryl about how he wanted this new Air Curved to be prepared and developed.He finally resigned.We continue with Darryl as our musical leader and director." Formation recently played in Southern England, Italy and Malta in 2008.
In 2008 a Reborn CD/box set was released, with 12 re-recorded Curved Air tracks and two new songs ("Coming Home" and "The Fury"). Two parents, "Melinda" and "Elfin Boy", were reworked and produced by Marvin Ayres. As Way explained, the band has two reasons for this: they are never satisfied with how the songs were originally recorded and they want to have the products they have and control. "Reborn is our way of preparing direct work," added Sonja Kristina. On Friday, June 13, Curved Air performed at the Isle Of Wight Festival for a generally positive response.
For the 2009 dates in Japan on January 16th and 17th at Club Citta, Kawasaki, the guitarist was Kit Morgan who succeeded Christie. On August 9, 2009, Eddie Jobson replaced Darryl Way in a one-off show at Chislehurst.
For their dates in October 2009, Way was not healthy, and Robert Norton (keyboard) and Paul Sax (violin) stood up for him. Sax has been playing on the 1991 album Sonja Kristina Songs from The Acid Folk and both Sax and Norton played on the 1995 album Harmonics of Love . "Robert Norton is incredible - like Paul Sax, a major violinist - one of the first arrivals at Yehudi Menuhin school - a passionate and brave player very qualified to get into Darryl's light.A band is a brilliant performer and inspiring people Chris Harris is literally our root on bass and Kit Morgan's fire on guitar, great chemistry and communication ", Sonja Kristina commented. This lineup (Kristina, Pilkington-Miksa, Harris, Morgan, Sax and Norton) continues to play as Curved Air until 2013. The band plays at the London High Voltage Festival 2011 (July 23-24), along with Spock's Beard, Jethro Tull, Dream Theater, and QueensrÃÆ'¿che, among others.
A live album consisting of recordings from the previous UK tour, Live Atmosphere , was released on April 2, 2012.
In October 2013, Kirby Gregory returns to replace Kit Morgan with his guitar. The new lineups (Kristina, Pilkington-Miksa, Harris, Gregory, Sax and Norton) originally played some dates in England before recording a new studio album,
On September 4, 2015, Curved Air played a special concert at Under The Bridge, London, to mark the 45th Anniversary of the Air Conditioning release. This album is played in full for the first time. The band was joined onstage by Darryl Way for "Vivaldi" and two other songs. Ian Eyre also played bass during "Back Street Luv".
In November 2017, Florian Pilkington-Miksa announced on the Curved Air website that "After having 9 successful and fun years playing drums in the reformed Curved Air line since 2008, I now decided to leave the band."
Maps Curved Air
Personnel
Members
- Current Member
- Sonja KristinaÃ, - vocals (1970-1976, 1984, 1988, 1990, 2008-present)
- Chris HarrisÃ, - bass (2008-present)
- Kit MorganÃ, - guitar (2009-2013, 2016-present)
- Robert NortonÃ, - keyboard (2009-present)
- Paul Sax - violin (2009-present)
- Andy TweenÃ, - drum (2017-present)
- Former member
- Darryl WayÃ, - violin, keyboard, backing vocals, guitar, drum machine (1970-1972, 1974-1976, 1984, 1988, 1990, 2008-2009)
- Francis MonkmanÃ, - keyboard, guitar (1970-1972, 1974, 1990)
- Florian Pilkington-MiksaÃ, - drum (1970-1972, 1974, 1990, 2008-2017)
- Rob MartinÃ, - bass guitar (1970; substitute - 1990)
- Ian EyreÃ, - bass guitar (1970-1971)
- Mike WedgwoodÃ, - bass guitar, vocals, guitar (1971-1973)
- Kirby GregoryÃ, - guitar (1972-1973, 2013-2016)
- Eddie JobsonÃ, - keyboard, violin (1972-1973; replacement - 2009)
- Jim RussellÃ, - drum (1972-1973)
- Phil KohnÃ, - bass guitar (1974-1975)
- Stewart CopelandÃ, - drum (1975-1976)
- Mick JacquesÃ, - guitar (1975-1976)
- Tony ReevesÃ, - bas, keyboard (1975-1976)
- Alex RichmanÃ, - keyboard (1976)
- Andy ChristieÃ, - guitar (2008-2009)
- Substitute musician
- Barry DeSouzaÃ, - drum (1971; filled for Pilkington-Miksa)
Order
Timeline
Discography
Studio album
Other albums
Singles
References
External links
- "Official Curved Air Site" . Retrieved 2009-04-11 .
- "Interview with Francis Monkman 2006" . Retrieved 2009-04-11 .
- "Sonja Kristina" . Retrieved 2009-04-11 .
- "Darryl Way" . Retrieved 2009-04-11 .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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