Garfield French
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Suggest New Bands and Artists
Forum Description: Suggest, create polls, and classify new bands you would like included on Prog Archives
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=84137
Printed Date: April 18 2024 at 05:47
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Garfield French
Posted By: tszirmay
Subject: Garfield French
Date Posted: January 11 2012 at 17:28
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I had the 2 vinyls for a long time and just got the CD comp of the 2 recordings. "Out There Tonight" is definitely within the prog realm, with some stunning songs that encompass the whole disc. Youube and myspace are available by using Garfield the band or Garfield french. Or else you get a lot of cartoons!!!!
Here is a bio: Garfield French was an idealist who travelled to inspire his musical ideas. He would often go into seclusion - once on an island in Spain and later to a chalet in Switzerland - before returing to Canada where he formed the Garfield Band.
The band began by playing university pubs. Their stage show was so extravagent and elaborate that their excessive amount of equipment made it nearly impossible to book them in small venues. In October 1976, The Garfield Band performed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as openers for 10CC. The English act's record label reps were in the audience that night and took a shine to The Garfield Band. With a Mercury Records deal (through its subsidiary Capricorn) in hand, they became, simply, Garfield and released the Elliott Mazur produced 'Strange Streets' which spawned the hit single "Old Time Movies". The follow-up, 'Out There Tonight', was less than a break-through and the band found itself being held hostage at the hands of Capricorn and it would be a full year before the band's third album, 'Reason To Be', could be released (this time on Polygram). The band played with acts such as: Muddy Waters and James Cotton, The Doobie Brothers, Rick Derringer, The Edgar Winter Group, Max Webster, The Beach Boys, and in Montreal with Rush was the bands last show before they split up in the early 80s. Thomas aka tszirmay ------------- I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth. |
Replies:
Posted By: yam yam
Date Posted: January 11 2012 at 18:15
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http://www.myspace.com/thegarfieldband" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/thegarfieldband & YouTube samples of tracks 2,3,4,5,7,8 of 'Out There Tonight' http://www.myspace.com/thegarfieldband" rel="nofollow - Edit: The band were mentioned in this forum almost 7 years ago: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5647" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5647 , and a vote was taken on whether they should be included: 'yes' - 2, 'no' - 0, 'never listened to garfield' - 10...Nobody seemed to object, though there were only 5 replies to the o.p.
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Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: January 17 2012 at 11:19
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Thanks for the suggestion, I notified the Crossover Team. Remember though that you can go directly to team thread and make the suggestion directly to them there. Thanks David for the samples. |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:32
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I believe they were rejected by the crossover team a few years ago. http://progfreak.com/Garfield-92960.html?path=pa/recent" rel="nofollow - http://progfreak.com/Garfield-92960.html?path=pa/recent ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: Marty McFly
Date Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:40
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^ Or rather they rejected it (just a more faithful wording), but I believe you are right. They're more or less done for good. ------------- There's a point where "avant-garde" and "experimental" becomes "terrible" and "pointless," -Andyman1125 on Lulu  Even my |
Posted By: AreYouHuman
Date Posted: July 12 2013 at 19:53
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Just had to bump this one. Garfield deserved far more attention than they got. Admittedly they are one of those “and then there are the vocals…” bands, where there are some great musical ideas with some imaginative arrangements, but the vocals tend to put off some people. This is especially true on the first album, Strange Streets. If you can get past that you’ll find this band had a lot to offer. In that respect they could be compared to Pavlov's Dog, or even Rush's early stuff, which I admit I found irritating and a little silly at the time, what admittedly little I actually heard, on the basis of Geddy's vocals. Listen to the six songs in yam yam’s post and see if you don’t agree. Especially recommended are It’s Not That Bad (at All), Private Affair and Play It Again Boys. ^Tszirmay: thanks for the info in your opening post. My own history with them: I'd seen copies of Out There Tonight floating around stores in Charleston, SC, where I was stationed, and I'd read they were prog-leaning, so I picked up a used copy from a store that had 4 or 5 used copies. As I said, the vocals took getting used to but I wasn't disappointed. The first album, Strange Streets, was very hard to find, and I finally got to hear it when I picked up the CD of both albums last year. |
Posted By: seventhsojourn
Date Posted: July 13 2013 at 03:28
| As Martin said 18 months ago, they're done. Previously rejected by Crossover and Prog Folk. |
Posted By: AreYouHuman
Date Posted: July 14 2013 at 20:22
| ^ Sure, maybe they're done, but there's nothing wrong with a *little* extra exposure which is why I bumped the thread. And I seriously question if admin actually heard both of their albums in their entirety. |
Posted By: rojack45
Date Posted: April 26 2014 at 07:20
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Garfield French and band are awesome. I lived in Toronto for many years and got to see him perform in local clubs many times including his first performances of tracks from "Reason To Be" I have all 4 of his vinyls and feature many tracks in my restaurant playlist. R
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Posted By: AreYouHuman
Date Posted: April 27 2014 at 21:51
^excellent taste, R!  ------------- Caption: We tend to take ourselves a little too seriously. Silly human race! Yes is for everybody! |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: July 06 2015 at 22:17
| just thought I would bump this up, although it's a done deal. prog folk sent them to crossover who rejected them. Nowhere to go but prog related, and I don't see the point of that. On a personal level, the 2 Garfield concerts I saw in the late 1970s, one at the old Cafe Campus in Montreal and the other at Nepean Point on Ottawa overlooking the river (Garfield wouldn't come out until about an hour after scheduled concert time because they wanted it to be dark for their awesome light show) will always be highlights of my concert going career. Part folky crossover prog and part theatre, they were best experienced in concert, even though I think the first 3 albums are great and without a bad track. I remember they did a 20+ minute song called "Sundown" at their shows that they never released on record, Garfield saying that he expected it would appear on some future live album, that never had a chance to happen. Sigh |
Posted By: AreYouHuman
Date Posted: July 13 2015 at 22:03
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^ Lucky cat! ------------- Caption: We tend to take ourselves a little too seriously. Silly human race! Yes is for everybody! |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: July 14 2015 at 11:09
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yeah, but not so lucky considering it's beeen 36 years!!! Garfield deserved better, and so did his fans
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Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 02 2016 at 20:22
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just a bump to let you faithful Garfield fans out there know that heeeeeeeeeeee's back! http://www.garfieldfrench.com/home.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.garfieldfrench.com/home.html
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