Ride a White Swan

Bolan's original Ride a White Swan featured no drums, simply a tambourine and clapping. Van Credenza remains roughly true to that original, with the beat provided by a cake tin stuffed with fabric. 

A complex time signature was attempted for the closing section of this cover, while Charlotte Dundas takes on the now familiar role as vocalist. 

Unusually for Van Credenza as an electronic combo, real guitars were utilised throughout.

When performing this number live, wearing top hats and feather boas on stage, Van Credenza is simply known as 'V Credenza'.

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undead

Van Credenza has been travelling.
'Un-dead' was Bram Stoker's original choice for his novel Dracula. 
Undead are deceased, but appear to be alive.


See Страшный Суд

A New Colour

Thalia

Van Credenza has been working on a new colour. Skilled watercolourists claimed it couldn’t be done, those expressing themselves through a variety of media also expressed doubt re Van Credenza’s endeavour.


You can now see and hear for yourself: watch without prejudice, listen out, for a new colour is here for all to muse.

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iF iF iF (Guns & Drugs)

Van Credenza has been examining the Scottish football scene. The foremost authority on the game, Chick Young of the BBC, perhaps explains the crisis which presently exists. Van Credenza is puzzled by some of the terminology.

The Jean Genie BlockBusters

Bob Holness, who at one point worked with Elvis Presley (most notably on live performances), is best known as presenter of quiz show Blockbusters, which originated in the USA, and was named after The Sweet's 1973 hit 'Block Buster!' 


Weeks earlier, a very similar riff to the one used by The Sweet was developed by David Bowie for The Jean Genie. But Bowie himself may have been listening to The Yarbirds covering Bo Diddley's 'I'm A Man'. Written in 1955, Diddley (aka Ellas McDaniel) was born within mere weeks of Bob Holness, and the pair had met while the latter was collaborating with Pressley. 


Incredibly, the originator of quiz show Blockbusters, Mark Goodman, also worked with Holness and Pressley (and may have had a chance encounter with Diddley) during the 1960's, and was very keen to involve the King of Rock'n'Roll in one of his shows. Elvis never consented, but Holness was eventually captured in 1983.


By this time, Holness, with his sound reputation in many aspects of show business, had potentially contributed to both songs combined here in the latest Van Credenza number: The Jean Genie Blockbuster.


Assisting the band vocally here are German songsters Fortuna (Lucius, Copia and Annonia).

Jackdaw & Crow

Noise.
Noise of mechanical structures. Man made machines. Noise.
Natural noise. Noise of the creatures around us. We curse it.
Noise!
Yet, we also treasure the din, for some among us cannot perceive sound.
Van Credenza brings together nature and apparatus, plus two deaf, totally anonymous guest musicians (JD & WMD) for 'Jackdaw & Crow'.
This item wasn't simply played; it was built by Van Credenza. We sent 'Jack' and 'Walter' to capture two live birds to use in the recording. Instructions were issued to our hearing-impaired collaborators (Mr Dow and Mr Marks-Davies) in order for them to construct makeshift percussive instruments. Finally, Tens pain relief machines were attached to both functioning ear restricted drummers to ensure they picked up and played the required beats, on time.
Whether this has been a successful project, only you can judge. Unless you too are unable to perceive noise.

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as the sun still burns away

Ten Years After are sometimes illustrated as a ‘hard rock’ band, but this number was relatively easy to play.

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That band got their name as they were formed a full decade after the ten day 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Two of the members of 10YA were massive Ferencváros fans.

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To the song: allegedly Alvin Lee wrote “As the Sun Still Burns Away” not about the star at the centre of our solar system, but about the newspaper of, at that time, several years standing, which had published lurid details of the band’s partying habits. They wanted no-one to know: Ssssh.

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“As the Sun Still Burns Away” is drawn from their 1970 album Cricklewood Green. Ferencváros play in green, hence the second part of the album name. The first, Cricklewood, is taken from the area in London from whence the band purportedly got their supplies.

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In tribute to 10YA, Van Credenza is releasing a vinyl copy of this song, one side playing at 45rpm, the other at 78.

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Pop Muzak MMXII

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Van Credenza took an extended break for the Christmas/New Year Celebrations (2011-2012). but they did make a trip to Montrose to record this tribute to Robin Scott (M), who a bloke down the pub told them had died.

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Unfortunately, Scott hadn't. So Biscuit changed the lyrics a bit, and Van Credenza rattled this version out.

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A selection from the tune:

"Newmills, Larbert, Partick, Gourock

Everybody talk about pop muzak

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Dance in the corner shop

Buy it on the net

Holness on Countdown

Celebrity Big Brother

I can't get Jumping Jack Flash, Get Back

Moonlighting Willis, Cybill Shepherd

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Newquay, London, Parkhurst, Thurrock

Everybody talk about, mm, pop muzak

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Do you read me?

Loud and clear"

Space Policemen

Space Policemen

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They're not a future phenomenon: space policemen have been with us for years (over 50 at a conservative estimate, Van Credenza doesn't know). Witness the early tv programmes set out for our children in the early 50's (including the Woodentops and Twizzle......even the titles were indicative of maintaining law and order in our cosmos): regulations must be obeyed, universal public order must be enforced.
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Mass small screen viewing was clearly the best method of implementing and conditioning suitable behaviour. Earlier experiments with cinematic control had been less successful, due to diverse distractions in picture houses. But the new domestic tube medium achieved results beyond the visions of our space policemen, especially when the very young could be brought under control from a very early age.

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And it didn't all start here, on Earth. Residents on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons (Earth-discovered' in 1655) have been TV box controlled by the space police for over 100 years.
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For this number, Van Credenza fused several influences and tunes, ranging from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee to the Z-Cars theme based on the Liverpool folk song Johnny Todd (arranged by Fritz Spiegel as a military march).
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Here Come The Warm Jets

This song was originally devised by eventual Liberal Democrat adviser on youth issues Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, peculiar in that at the time of his appointment, 'Eno' was almost 60 years of age (2007).

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But for those who have closely followed this principal innovator of ambient music, this political involvement came as no surprise. Brian Eno was an undercover pilot for a long number of years, serving in locations as diverse as Iraq and the Falkland Islands. In fact, the album 'Here Come The Warm Jets' was a collaboration with Argentinean dissident Eduardo Sanguinetti.

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See this: "The title Warm Jets came from the guitar sound on the track of that name, which I described on the track sheet as 'warm jet guitar', because it sounded like a tuned jet. Then I had the pack of playing cards with the picture of the woman in there, and they sort of connected. That was one of the things that was going on at the time: this idea that music was still tied to some idea of revolution, and that one of the revolutions was a sexual revolution. I wasn't making a big political point, I just liked having fun with those things. Most people didn't realise for a long time -- it was rather deeply concealed!"
Brian Eno, interviewed by Andy Gill in Mojo, June 1998"

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Recently, Mr Eno has expressed dissatisfaction at the political direction pursued by Nick Clegg. Appearing as a lost soul, aged 63, don't be fooled by this apparent discontent. He's probably off on another mission soon....'rather deeply concealed!'

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Van Credenza record this as a cover song, in a similar manner to Eno covering/concealing his true life purpose for all these years. 

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Nothing to say. Beware.





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