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CURVED AIR

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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3983
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Topic: CURVED AIR
Posted By: Aber
Subject: CURVED AIR
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 17:11

Please can anyone tell me if they have herd of a 70's band called Curved Air

The had a lead Singer called Sonja Kristina

Has anyone got any idea what happened to them?Confused




Replies:
Posted By: mirco
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 17:14
I have one recopilation album. The most remarkable song on it is Vivaldi, beautifully played by Eddie Jobson. I don't listen much at the rest of it, so I can't tell.

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Please forgive me for my crappy english!


Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 17:28

Aber, Wecome to the forum and the archives!Big smile

Curved Air are featured in the reviews pages of this site, where you'll find a biography and details of their albums.

They are long since gone to the "Great gig in the sky", as a band anyway. In their day though, they made some great music, despite constant line up changes.

They found instant commerical success, mainly due to the fact that their LP was the first picture disc (open to correction!Wink). This was followed with a top 10 hit single with "Back street luv".

If you can find a copy, I'd recommend their "Air cut" album, a real lost gem.



Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 17:37

Thanks Easy Livin,

Just found them in the archives, and listened to the download

Though they were a bit before my time, I think that Sonja was the sexiest singer in all of the Prog bands, espeically when you consider that all the others were men.

 



Posted By: Possessed
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 19:42

I like Curved Air. My favourite album by them is:

Second Album

 



Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 19:47
I've got Curved Air live,Francis Monkman and Darryl Way are superb! Interestingly Curved Air were one of the few bands to get an actual prog track high in the British singles charts,'Back Street Luv',which reached about No4 in 1971 I think.


Posted By: Guillermo
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:10
I only have listened to their "Back Street Luv" song  MP3 in this website. But I know that in their different line-ups they included Stewart Copeland  and Eddie Jobson, but not at the same time.


Posted By: mirco
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:14

Originally posted by mirco mirco wrote:

I have one recopilation album. The most remarkable song on it is Vivaldi, beautifully played by Eddie Jobson. I don't listen much at the rest of it, so I can't tell.

I made a mistake: although Jobson joins CA at some point, te song Vivaldi isn't played by him 'couse it was recorded on the first album. The song is great, anyway.



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Please forgive me for my crappy english!


Posted By: Hangedman
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:31
My mom  had an album, and i like it but cant remember it to well, they are on the archives though.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:35

''Air conditioning''album.



Posted By: BebieM
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:37
what kind of name is "aber"?


Posted By: greenback
Date Posted: March 01 2005 at 20:37

i have air cut: powerful sound, razor guitars, beautiful piano and violin  played by......

EDWIN JOBSON



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[HEADPINS - LINE OF FIRE: THE RECORD HAVING THE MOST POWERFUL GUITAR SOUND IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF MUSIC!>


Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 02 2005 at 02:33

Hi there BebieM,

The answer to you question - Aber is a celtic word and means mouth of the river.

Have now located Curved Air's website http://www.curvedair.com - www.curvedair.com

Where I've been ale to find a link to Sonja's site http://www.sonjakristina.com - www.sonjakristina.com

And I've also discovered that she has a new band called mask - http://www.mask.uk.net - www.mask.uk.net

 



Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: March 02 2005 at 05:32

Try their CD, Live for a very good cross section of their music played by the original line-up:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000136/qid=1109759139/sr=1-14/ref=sr_1_2_14/026-4013407-5278830 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000136/qid=1109 759139/sr=1-14/ref=sr_1_2_14/026-4013407-5278830

I heard the album version of It Happened Tonight on a jukebox in the ealry 80's (the jukebox played 45rpm singles in those day), which eventually inspired me to go find this CD (Decca Deram released back in the late 80's - but it seems Repertoise now distribute).

Darryl Way formed Wolf (sample track on  Legend Of A Mind sampler issued by Decca 3 years ago). Involved with a electric violin concerto and Julian Lloyd-Webber in the 80's

Francis Monkman (who does a fabulous 30 sec segment from A Rainbow In Curved Air in the tune Propositions on Live), moved to Sky lead by classical guitarist John Williams, via a brief stop-off with Phil Manzanera's 801  (you must check out 801 Live).

Eddie Jobson forced CA to hear him do an audition at  the infamous Redcar Bowl (near Middlesbrough) when Way left, and they hired him on the spot - so the legend goes.

Stewart Copeland played drums in the last edition of CA and moved on to Police. [Off at a tangent:  Andy Summers had played with Soft Machine on one of those Hendrix package tours of the USA. Sting, heavily influenced by Jack Bruce, had been playing jazz rock in Newcastle before moving south and eventually forming Police.]

And Sonja is still going.................

 



Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 02 2005 at 13:41

Thanks for the link Dick

I've just tracked down a copy of the Second Album, can wait till it arrives in the post.

 



Posted By: Syzygy
Date Posted: March 02 2005 at 14:53
I was lucky enough to catch a Curved Air reunion show in London back in 1990 (or thereabouts), with Ozrics offshoot Noden's Ictus as support. It was a fantastic show - I've always liked their first three albums, though their later work lost the edge a bit - I mostly preferred Daryl Way's contributions. Wolf are worth checking out, not premier league prog but good first division material, particularly their instrumentals.

-------------
'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'

Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom




Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 02 2005 at 16:43

I have now discovered that Sonja was married to Stewart Copleand (Police drummer)

Stewart was also the drummer in Curved Air.

Wonder if any of the Police songs were attributed to her?



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 13:45

Curved Air's Second LP is their best in my opinion - "Piece of Mind" alone stands up with anything from the 'accepted' greats.

Not sure if Saturnalia's Magical Love LP picture disc preceeds Curved Air's First( both 71' I think) BUT its a moot point as picture disc's although certainly not numerous have been going since the mid-30s!!!

In fact, I recall Record Collector looking into this very issue a while back and I think the VERY first Picture Disc was a collection of speeches from.....no lessa folk that ADOLF HITLER himself - dated from the late thirties I think. It wasn't in a krautrock stylee I bet!!!

Dick Heath - can you tell us anymore on this issue????? What was the first 'Rock' Piccy Disc????

Any Idea????



Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 16:47
Originally posted by mandrake mandrake wrote:

Curved Air's Second LP is their best in my opinion - "Piece of Mind" alone stands up with anything from the 'accepted' greats.

Not sure if Saturnalia's Magical Love LP picture disc preceeds Curved Air's First( both 71' I think) BUT its a moot point as picture disc's although certainly not numerous have been going since the mid-30s!!!

In fact, I recall Record Collector looking into this very issue a while back and I think the VERY first Picture Disc was a collection of speeches from.....no lessa folk that ADOLF HITLER himself - dated from the late thirties I think. It wasn't in a krautrock stylee I bet!!!

Dick Heath - can you tell us anymore on this issue????? What was the first 'Rock' Piccy Disc????

Any Idea????

 

Strangely I do know something about this for two reasons. First I moonlighted in a record shop during the period both these albums were released, but secondly, I knew Rod Roach Saturnalia's lead guitarist (through his wife who worked in the same record shop as I). Rod was a junior A&R manager at RCA UK - which give him access to recording studio time. He had formed and recorded a band called Horse (in the late 60's) and subsequently helped formed Saturnalia as the make or break band.  Their gimmick, taking the lead from Curved Air, was to have the disc pressed up with a "3d" picture embedded in clear vinyl across the full 12" (I think CA only had their's at the centre of the LP, not into the microgrooves). Rod and his wife invited me out to the pub one night just before Saturnalia was about to be released, and we ended up at their small flat in Weybridge. Stuffed under their double bed were thousands of faulty pressings. I think out of the first pressing of 20.000 album less than 10 % were playable (in fact it was the 3d picture side  that was largely unplayable)- hence if you have one in good nick it is worth a lot of cash nowaday. I haven't  seen Rod for over 20 years, but spotted his name during the mid 90's on the back of an album he recorded with an ex member of Badfinger.



Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 16:55
Originally posted by Dick Heath Dick Heath wrote:

I think CA only had their's at the centre of the LP, not into the microgrooves.

Dick,

Curved Air's definately covered the entire record, not just the centre portion. The later standard black versions of the LP had actual size (12") pictures of the front and back of the LP on the cardboard sleeve. The printing on the record made spotting the track bands difficult, especially on side two which was predominantly white. I'm not sure how the pictures were applied to the vinyl, but after repeated playing they started to wear off!Confused



Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 17:06

Originally posted by Easy Livin Easy Livin wrote:

[ Air's definately covered the entire record, not just the centre portion. The later standard black versions of the LP had actual size (12") pictures of the front and back of the LP on the cardboard sleeve. The printing on the record made spotting the track bands difficult, especially on side two which was predominantly white. I'm not sure how the pictures were applied to the vinyl, but after repeated playing they started to wear off!Confused

 

EL I stand corrected - but my excuse: I don't think I've seen the albums together since 1972. There was certainly something different between the two, and at the time the Saturnalia was the more adventurous but didn't work too well  - was the CA one pressed up in black vinyl?



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 17:46

There does exist a black vinyl edition of the first CA LP - I have it - on Green Warner Bros. label K56004. I think this is a pressing contemporary with the pic disc (i.e 70')- the green WB label would suggest it is. I think they moved from Orange in 69' or 70' onto green for a couple of years. They moved to the "tree-lined avenue" label in 73 I think, just in time for The Exorcist soundtrack!!!!

Saturnalia's "Magical Love" was only a pic disc (apart from test pressing on black vinyl - booked at 70) - the original came with a booklet - and is booked at 100 with the book - and the repress on pic disc is from 73 and is the one I have - its quite common this pressing and you see it around for £10-20 - at least up-north you do - I don't know about inflated London prices!) - however the cat no is the same - so there is no way of knwing whether you have a 71 original without the book or a 73' pressing.  Or does anyone know if there were slight design differences. - its a surprisingly good early proggy LP Magical Love - a true cult obscurity.

Curved Air are a truly Great Band though - Second LP is amazing. Does anyone have the Sonja Kristina solo Lp - something about Acid Folk - "here Come the Acid Folk" or something like that - I believe its meant to be a forgotten folk-prog classic (or Acid-Folk)



Posted By: Chris Stainton
Date Posted: March 03 2005 at 18:35
Anyone know why "Air Cut" has never been released on CD?


Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 04 2005 at 02:43

 

Curved Air are a truly Great Band though - Second LP is amazing. Does anyone have the Sonja Kristina solo Lp - something about Acid Folk - "here Come the Acid Folk" or something like that - I believe its meant to be a forgotten folk-prog classic (or Acid-Folk)

Hi I've been able to complete a comprehensive research of CA and Sonja and I can now answer the above question...

The name of Sonja's solo album is called "Songs of the Acid Folk" check out here website

http://www.sonjakristina.com - www.sonjakristina.com for more details

 



Posted By: Aber
Date Posted: March 04 2005 at 02:49

Originally posted by Chris Stainton Chris Stainton wrote:

Anyone know why "Air Cut" has never been released on CD?

 

Hi Chris I've got some good news about your question

You can now by Air Cut on CD, comes with a poster of the band playing in 1973.

The CD is available from a Japanese company I think http://www.m2urec.com - www.m2urec.com (mu2u-2005)

The art work on the CD cover is amazing, very trippy and of its time, but it also looks fresh and modern

Every day I'm learning more and more, thanks to all members that have replied



Posted By: Guillermo
Date Posted: March 04 2005 at 12:01
Originally posted by mandrake mandrake wrote:

In fact, I recall Record Collector looking into this very issue a while back and I think the VERY first Picture Disc was a collection of speeches from.....no lessa folk that ADOLF HITLER himself - dated from the late thirties I think. It wasn't in a krautrock stylee I bet!!!




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