Thank you all for your friendly welcome messages.
Yes, tore, I did notice there`re a lot of younger guys here, so it`s reassuring to know that I`m not alone : anyone from the land of grey and pink probably has a few years under their belt too.
I liked the "occassional" that you put in front of Soft Machine - that`s quite often enough for some of their material. In fact some of their tracks sound best if you never play them at all !
Thanks also for the offer of help - that`s very kind. I`m going to check out the guide, see what`s been said about the Allmans, and will try to work out private messaging, etc.
Cheers.
P.S. My favourite Caravan title: "If I could do it all over again, I`d do it all over you."
Never listened to their music much, though.

I'm a norwegian in my very late 20s, so I am older than the average member here, but beatlemania is still a very distant time! I'm a sucker for english bands and artists from the 70s, though. :)

Soft Machine indeed requires me to be in a certain mood before I want to listen to them, but Caravan is played quite often here. As you probably know, In the Land of Grey and Pink is generally their most celebrated album, but my favourite is For Girls Who Grow Plump In the Night (another funny title ;)). If you like other Canterbury bands (or prog rock or jazz fusion in general), you should check out our prog & fusion album club thread! Basically, the goal is to listen to albums and then discuss them and so far from the Canterbury scene, we've done Henry Cow, Gilgamesh and Robert Wyatt :)

Welcome to Music Banter!

Nice to meet you, tore !
Thanks to your recommendation, I`ve just listened to Nine Feet Underground for the first time. What a great track ! Don`t know how I`ve overlooked Caravan for so long.
I`ve just skimmed the history of your prog and fusion album club thread; you can count me in when I`ve worked out what to do.
Thanks again.

Wow, wow.
Wait a minute.
Please, do explain...

Thanks for your interest, s_k.
Nothing so spectacular,really. He once played in a small pub in London that used to feature a different band every night, but unlike most artists, after the show he was standing outside on the street corner; on his own, just taking the air. He had a walking stick and a beret, so he looked quite an exotic character, although nothing like the spooky genius of Gris Gris . So I complemented him on the concert and although he didn`t really say much, he shook my hand before I stumbled off in disbelief.
And how about you ? Any encounters with the famous ?

Nah, not much.
I get recognized by some members of Calexico by now, but that's because I go to every concert they give in the Netherlands (that's about on every year).
I once drank a beer with the singer of Jaya the Cat, but that's not all that exceptional.
Nothing like shaking Dr. John's hand (altough it could be very well that more people here have heard of Jaya the Cat than of Dr. John. Got to love Gris-Gris ;))

Well, that`s quite something, being recognised by Calexico ! Perhaps next year they`ll be inviting you up on stage.
For Jaya the Cat, I have to do some research as that`s a new name for me.
I`m glad you like Gris-Gris; even including Dr. John`s other albums, I`ve never heard anything else that sounds so weird and seemingly effortless.

Wouldn't want to. But having a beer backstage sure sounds nice.

They're semi-well known. They play on pretty big festivals here, but there's a very big chance they're not all that well-known in the US (where they come from). In the nearby town of sittard, ska/reggae/skapunk/dub bands get quite some attention because of a little Mexican pub called Ernesto's. It only fits like two-hundred people, but big ones like the Skatalites and the Slackers actually play there. Once they are known there, they are known throughout the country in no-time. Don't know why, but this happens everytime.
And they keep going back there.

I have to admit I don't know his other albums. I bought Gris-Gris a couple of monts ago and thought it was brilliant.

Come to think of it, I'm going to take it out of my record cabinet right now ;).

In the nearby town of sittard, ska/reggae/skapunk/dub bands get quite some attention because of a little Mexican pub called Ernesto's.

That`s very international; listening to US ska in a Mexican pub in the Netherlands. I found a couple of short clips of Jaya`s music and liked a track about " ...make this life glamorous `coz it`s not ..." . Great lyrics, but I don`t care too much for the in-your-face vocal style of some of their other songs.

Enjoy the Dr. John: enjoy Guilded Splinters and Croker Courtbullion as I don`t think you`ll find better Dr. John tracks anywhere. The other albums I tried ( Babylon, Remedies ) had a couple of gems but so much substandard material that I never play them much.

Cheers.