Steely Dan Europe 2007: Donald Fagen on stage in Italy

Here's a photo of Donald Fagen on stage in Lucca, Italy on the last night of the European part of the Heavy Rollers tour.

The photographer; Gary Bi, has a handful more.

Going to flickr.com and searching for "Steely Dan" will give you something like 1 800 hits. Enough to keep you glued to the computer screen for an hour or so.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Sayonara!

I do recall a post dated July 22 promising a full account of our experience from the Steely Dan in Stockholm trip to be published on Monday. Now, we could defend us saying we didn't specfy exactly what Monday we'd write, but of course it should've been up on the 23. It's a week later and still nothing.

The few times I've started to collect my thoughts and facts I've felt like that Monty Python character Mr. Gumby who shouted "my brain hurts!"

I haven't been able to get those few lines and links written. Hopefully soon...

Last night was the final night of the European tour, and Donald, Walter and the band is most likely already back home in the U.S. of A.

They have three weeks to rest up before the 15 day tour of Japan begins on August 18. The tour will then finish up with nine dates in Australia and New Zealand.

I do look forward to the gigs in Japan. The 15 concerts is divided between just three different cities. Will the fact that they're not traveling that much make for a different show? Will the setlist change more than it has so far? Shorter sets? Longer sets? Different songs?

Looking forward to the reports from Japan!

Weekly chart July 29

1. Jimi Hendrix - Highway Chile - War Heroes
=. Emerson Lake & Palmer - From The Beginning - Trilogy
3. Giles Giles & Fripp - Why Don't You Just Drop In (2) - The Brondesbury Tapes
=. Frank Zappa - It Must Be A Camel - Hot Rats
5. Frank Zappa - City Of Tiny Lites - Sheik Yerbouti
=. The Beatles - Clarabella - Live At The BBC
=. Spyro Gyra - Catching The Sun - Catching The Sun
=. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Uncle Bernie's Farm - Absolutely Free
=. Billy Cobham - Red Baron - Spectrum
10. Jimi Hendrix - Tax Free - War Heroes
=. Christian McBride - Aja - Sci-Fi

And that's the way it shapes up this week.
While we're on the subject of charts and pupularity. Live365 who host Radio Dupree markets itself as an alternative to commercial radio. On live365 you can play whatever music you like. OK. Fine.
At the same time they publish charts over the most played songs and ... surprsise! Those charts look eerily like commercial radio's charts. Same artists, same songs.

And to a certain extent that is also true for the Radio Dupree charts. Although we rarely play stuff that can be heard on current Top 40 radio, we have a core of artists that our listeners like. Most of the new - or rather new old - stuff we try to add is neglected or given the thumbs down.
Commercial radio might very well be on to something playing the same old same old over and over again. The familiar works best on Radio Dupree as well.
Is there anything as an adventurous listener left on this planet? Has there ever been? We all find our "musical homes" and refuse to take in anything else?

See for yourself in our brand new monthly chart as we update our website next weekend. Any surprises? We doubt it...

Weekly Top 10 - July 22

With the Steely Dan show hitting Sweden this past week it is somehow OK to find a track from the groups onlylive album; Alive In America from 1995 topping this week's chart.

1. Steely Dan - Peg - Alive In America
2. Dick Heckstall-Smith - Future Song - A Story Ended
3. Larry Carlton - Rio Samba - Mr. 335 Live In Japan
4. Frank Zappa - Heavy Duty Judy - Shut Up'n Play Yer Guitar
5. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
=. Frank Zappa - Catholic Girls - Joe's Garage
7. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Magic Fingers (single edit) - 200 Motels
=. Frank Zappa - The Closer You Are - Them Or Us
=. David Bowie - Sons Of The Silent Age - "Heroes"
=. Billy Cobham - Red Baron - Spectrum

Chris Potter live with the Dave Holland Quintet

Yes, we saw Steely Dan in Stockholm and yes, we did like it. A lot.

So why so quiet on this blog then? It's been four days since the gig.

Easy. It was all part of a visit to Stockholm, and we were too busy enjoying whatever we enjoyed in the Swedish Capital to collect our thoughts into coherent sentences regarding the Steely Dan show. And pretty much left the Internet to fend for itself while we took in something else.

Promise: Monday will see a post (with some links) about the Steely Dan Stockholm experience.

While you wait:

Ever wondered what Chris Potter, saxophone player for Steely Dan on the 1993-4, 2000 tours as well as the Two Against Nature CD, has been up to since then?

Well, lately he's been touring with the Dave Holland Quintet, and they played the Swedish Jazz Festival one day after Steely Dan. And for you can hear close to an hour of Dave Holland Quintet's performance online thanks to Swedish Radio. It's in two parts and will go from part one to two in the middle of a song, but that's nothing we can do anything about. It's just coded that way.

Here's what you do. Click the links and you get a window where you can choose between three different streams: Windowsmediaplayer broadband, windowsmediaplayer modem or Realplayer. Pick your favourite!

Dave Holland Quintet Part 1 (Begins with a two minute spoken intro in Swedish. It's the announcer/DJ saying hi and hello and welcome to the Jazz Festival coverage.)

Dave Holland Quintet Part 2

These links will expire on August 19, 2007.

Dave Holland Quintet is Dave Holland Bass, Robin Eubanks Trombone, Steve Nelson Vibraphone, Chris Potter Saxophone and Nate Smith Drums.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: SPOILER! Setlist ponderings...

So, based on what's been played so far on the Heavy Rollers tour, what can we expect to hear in Stockholm Tuesday evening?

Dirty Work, Bad Sneakers, Kid Charlemagne, Green Earrings, Black Cow, Aja, Peg, Time Out Of Mind and Godwhacker have all been played at each and every one of the European stops.

If they plan on playing all nine in Stockholm it leaves room for another four or five songs. This being a festival show they will probably cut the "normal" 16 song setlist to 13 or 14 like they did when they played the jazz festivals in Stuttgart and Rotterdam.
Of course, I can always hope that Sophie Zelmani who plays before Steely Dan cuts her set short or that Eric Gadd who is on after is late...

I would love to hear the newer stuff. So give me Two Against Nature and Godwhacker. They've been played during the tour and we're up to 11 songs.
Almost Gothic hasn't been played on this tour but is what I'd love to hear. How about something from Morph The Cat or Walter's upcoming solo album? Just wishing and dreaming here, but...

So we have a Danfest before and after the show. Just an excuse for Steely Dan fans to meet up and share the evening. Read more on the Danfest in Stockholm here.
The Danfest has very little to do with Radio Dupree. The connection? We're fans of Steely Dan. It's all the brainchild of Jim "Hoops" McKay who's been running dandom.com and the Dandom Digest for Steely Dan fans for years and years. More on the idea behind Danfests here. Big thanks to Jim!
We here at Radio Dupree are just fans and going as fans!

And we will bring the mobile phone/cellphone to catch whatever action there is pre-show, show and post-show. I can't promise anything THAT exciting, but whatever I snap will be uploaded as it happens to http://www.flickr.com/photos/danfest_stockholm/

The actual setlist will be posted here.

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Just for fun as well as wanting to keep track of what might or might not be played in Stockholm, I've tried to collect (mainly from friendly posters on the Dandom Digest and dandom.com guestbook) the setlists for Steely Dan's Heavy Rollers 2007 tour.

I've done it as a document using Google's Documents & Spreadsheets service. You can see the document by clicking here. I'll update it and maybe even get the time to clean up the spelling and so on. Excuse the mix of Swedish and English.
Finding a setlist mistake? Please mail us at radiodupree@yahoo.se.

Weekly Top 10

One day late thanks to some screwed up stats in the deepest bowels of live365.com's computers.
They had to "recrunch´" the data. And here's the result! You, the listeners, have voted these your favourites the past seven days:

1. Joni Mitchell - Impossible Dreamer - Dog Eat Dog
2. Ray Manzarek - Sun Boat - The Golden Scarab
=. Joni Mitchell - Cool Water - Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm
4. David Sancious - Valley Of The Shadow - Just As I Thought
5. Larry Carlton - Rio Samba - Mr. 335 Live In Japan
=. Frank Zappa - Let's Move To Cleveland - The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life
=. Focus - Tropic Bird - Mother Focus
8. Steely Dan - Haitian Divorce - The Royal Scam
=. Pink Floyd - Green Is The Colour - More (soundtrack)
10. David Bowie - Eight Line Poem - Hunky Dory

So how can I partake in the making of this chart? Easy! Go listen to Radio Dupree and use the up, down, wish or maybe even buy buttons in the player window.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Michael Leonhart in Paris

Michael Leonhart & Jon Herington played a gig in Paris on July 11. Here's a link to two songs and a 15 minute interview with Michael and Jon Herington in two parts.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Berlin starts at 20.00/8.00!

steelydan.com have updated tonights listing for Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin stating that there is no opener and the show starts at 8.00 p.m./20.00.

I can't say that I've kept a note of what time the show was supposed to begin, but since its up on the homepage it must mean a change from the original plans. So if you have a ticket for tonight i hope you get the info!

Steely Dan Europe 2007: North Sea Jazz Festival

No, Steely Dan won't be broadcast live on the Internet as they play the North Sea Jazz Festival on Saturday. But you can look and listen to a lot of other music thanks to Netherlands Public Broadcasting; Nederlandse Publieke Omroep.

Click the NPO-sign to get to the jazz page or click here to open the video playback directly.

Here's the list of artists being webcast. A mix of live and canned from previous years. The times are CET Central European Time, i.e. six hours ahead of the U.S. east coast. Example: Amos Lee at 18.30 = 12.30 p.m. ET

Friday 13 juli 2007
18.30 Amos Lee (live)

19.45 Amp Fiddler (2004)

20.15 Gym Class Heroes (live)

20.45 Bucovina Club Orkestar feat. Shantel (2005)

21.30 Katie Melua (live)

22.30 Hoogtepunten 2003-2006 : Jaguar Wright (2005) - Jimi Tenor Bigband (2003) - Groove Troopers (2003).

Saturday 14 juli 2007
18.30 Campbell Brothers (live)

19.00 Raul Paz (live)

20.00 Joe Bonamassa (live)

20.45 Raul Midon (live)

21.30 Larry Carlton Group (live)

22.30 Reunion (live)

Sunday 15 juli 2007
16.30 Mike Stern Group (live)

17.45 archief 2003-2006

18.00 Candy Dulfer (live)

18.30 Randy Brecker (live)

19.45 archief 2003-2006

21.00 Sly & the family Stone (live)

22.15 Fanfare Ciocarlia (live)

In addition Radio 6 broadcast from the festival as well. A mix of recorded and live music plus interviews, but not the same stuff as above. Here's a listen direct link.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: "...with his handicam in tow..."

Or maybe that should read "with his mobile phone/cellphone in tow"?
At any rate a YouTube search for "Steely Dan" and "2007" bring up a number of mostly short clips from the current tour (plus some other Steely Dan related stuff).

And after a two day break between Paris on the 10 and Stuttgart tomorrow evening it is on with the European gigs. Wonder what they did on the days off? Well, Michael Leonhart & Jon Herington did a gig on their own in Paris, so maybe the rest ventured out into France and surrounding countries to see what Europe has to offer seven years after the last tour?

Stockholm is just five days away...!

And while in Sweden might I suggest a quick dash to the closest Duka store to stock up on that essential Steely kitchenware?

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Calling all Pugh-Heads!!! + Happy Birthday Carolyn!

Attention all who got their tickets to see Jim Pugh play that trombone as only Jim Pugh can; he's back on stage as of the Brussels gig!
Brussels was on July 9. A date that apparently also qualifies as the birthday of one Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLYN!

Andy Smith has - after 36 yeas - finally gotten around to seeing his favourite band; Steely Dan. Read his thoughts on the Liverpool gig here.

Gina over on Mizar5 has started to write about the Brussels show from her perspective. Check it out!

With the Paris gig done Steely Dan's Heavy Rollers tour's next stop is Stuttgart July 13. Just time enough for Michael Leonhart to play a one-off gig with Jon Herington in Paris.
The date is July 11 and the place Sunset-Sunside Jazz Club at 60 rue des Lombards.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: "Hiya kids"

Saturday at Hammersmith Apollo, London gets a positive reveiw in The Guardian:

Read it here.

Birmigham review can be found here.

And Liverpool is covered here.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Paul & David

Apparently spotted in the audience at the Hammersmith Apollo, London-gig; Paul McCartney and David Gilmour.
(Not together though...)

Wonder if they got their Steely Dan t-shirts?

Steely Dan Europe 2007: New trombonist + "new" song

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
- setlist discussion coming up -

No news about why, but Mark Nightingale has replaced Jim Pugh on trombone. A bit more on Mark can be found here. And here's another page about Mark that's part of the Trombone page of the world with short bios and more on over 4000 trombonists!!! Amazing...

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Looking back at the shows played so far the setlist features songs from all nine Steely Dan albums with Aja and The Royal Scam popping up more often then the rest.
If we've kept or setlists correct Liverpool was the first time this tour that Home At Last from Aja was performed. And it stayed on the setlist for London as well.

Wonder what other "new" songs might pop up during the remaining dates?

Liverpool & London had identical or almost identical setlists. Reports differ on Bad Sneakers. UPDATE July 10: According to a comment by Lars-Erik it was indeed played in London.

Time Out Of Mind
Godwhacker
Bad Sneakers (Was it played or not in London?)
Two Against Nature
Hey Nineteen
Haitian Divorce
Peg
Dirty Work
Home At Last
Green Earrings
Josie
Chain Lightning
Aja
Kid Charlemagne
FM
My Old School

Weekly Top 10

The listeners have spoken. Here's the Top 10 for the past week.

1. Genesis - Dance On A Volcano - Seconds Out
2. Frank Zappa - Florentine Pogen - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 4
3. Meridian Arts Ensemble - Harry, You're A Beast/The Orange County Lumber Truck - Smart Went Crazy
4. Genesis - Musical Box - Live
5. Steely Dan - Peg - Aja
6. Genesis - Horizons - Foxtrot
7. The Moody Blues - Tortoise And The Hare - A Question Of Balance
8. Genesis - Cinema Show - Seconds Out
9. Ray Manzarek - Sun Boat - The Golden Scarab
=. Peter Gabriel - Keine Selbstkontrolle - Peter Gabriel (3) Ein Deutsches Album

Genesis is - apparently - being enjoyed.

Steely Dan Europe 2007: Photos!

Looks like the official tour photographer finally had time to hit that darkroom, mix up the chemicals and start developing. Four funny, enlighting and suitable-for-framing examples can be seen on steelydan.com. Just click the pics from the road-link.

London concert goer Mike shares a few pics from the London gig here.
(Link via the dandom.com Steely Dan Fan's BlueBook).

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Another thing we've started to look at is the weather on the eve of the 17 and Steely Dan in Stockholm. OK if your indoors, but this is outdoors and we've had a lousy week with winds and rain. Will it continue?
According to a 10 day forecast it'll be cloudy and rainy in Stockholm all week and up to the 17. Still cloudy but no rain. Now, we've talked to people in the weather business who said that you can't predict weather with any centainty more than three or four days into the future. So we'll hope for a few sunny days before the evening of the show to get that warm, cozy Swedish summer feel in the air.

Steely Dan Europe 2007

It's day three of the European leg of the tour, and we're still waiting for a setlist from Liverpool while the guys and girls are busy playing London .

Stockholm, Sweden is just 10 days away and since we're living in Sweden and plan to catch the show at the Stockholm Jazz Festival we'd like to encourage anyone going there reading this to click the banner above or this link. It'll bring you to a page where you can sign up to recieve news about a so called Danfest - a gathering of fans before the show.
No big production; just a chance to meet other Steely Dan fans, have a drink,food and a chat before we walk the short distance to Skeppsholmen and the main stage. (Other surpriss pending!)

Meanwhile we'd like to point out that of the European dates there's one that both steelydan.com and donaldfagen.com have difficulties with.

According to steelydan.com the tour will bring the band to SOCKHOLM:

Socks are fine, but we do know it's Stockholm as in stock = log and holm = islet.

donaldfagen.com seems set on the show taking place in good ol' Sweeden:

But one e or two ... who's counting? Radio Dupree is not proud to be one of the blogs where letters frequently appear in the wrong place or not at all. We like to blame it on our dirt cheap Chinese manufactured keyboard, but will - at a pinch - admit that any weird spelling just might be due to human error...

Tonight: Steely Dan Europe 2007

And so it begins; the European leg of the Heavy Rollers 2007 tour. First stop after the US dates is tonight in Birmingham, England. It is followed by dates in Liverpool and London before they move on to mainland Europe.
Sam Yahel Organ Trio is the opening act for half of the 16 shows (*).

* Jul 05 - NIA - Birmingham UK
* Jul 06 - Aintree Pavilion, Liverpool, UK
* Jul 07 - Hammersmith Apollo - London UK
* Jul 09 - Forest National - Brussels Belgium
* Jul 10 - Le Grand Rex - Paris France
Jul 13 - Stuttgart Jazz Festival - Stuttgart Germany
Jul 14 - North Sea Jazz Festival - Rotterdam The Netherlands
Jul 15 - Zitadelle - Berlin Germany
Jul 17 - Stockholm Jazz Festival - Stockholm Sweden
Jul 19 - Molde Jazz Festival - Molde Norway
Jul 21 - Pori Jazz Festival - Pori Finland
* Jul 23 - Falkoner Theater - Copenhagen Denmark
* Jul 24 - Stadtpark - Hamburg Germany
* Jul 25 - Museumplatz - Bonn Germany
Jul 27 - Blue Balls Jazz Festival - Lucerne Switzerland
Jul 28 - Piazza Lucca - Lucca Italy

Radio Dupree is of course most interersted in the July 17 concert in our country of Sweden, but we'll keep a keen eye open for what's being played.
Will there be any new songs added to the setlists or will they stay the same as in the US? Will they dust off that "classic" from seven years ago; The Steely Dan Show?
We'll have a first indication in a couple of hours when the Birminghamn gig is over and the reports starts to come in!

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Spoilers - Spoilrers - Spoilers - Spoilers - Spoilers - Spoilers - Spoilers - Spoilers -

UPDATE!

Thanks to Kalvin from Portsmouth who posted the setlist over on the dandom.com guestbook:

Jeri
Time out of Mind
Godwacker
Bad Sneakers
Two against Nature
Hey 19
Haitian Divorce
Peg
Babylon Sisters
Green Earrings
Dirty Work
Josie
Chain Lightning
Aja
Bodhisattva

FM
Kid Charlamagne

Genesis live via satellite - how was it?

So how was it? Taking the car to Lövånger - one of 20 places in Sweden that showed Genesis Düsseldorf, Germany gig live in cinemas.

Well, we arrived and the cinema could take 200 people. Around 70 came and paid 165 Swedish kronor for the ticket.

You could buy food before the show, got coffee and a biscuit after and beer was on sale during the show. Still a far way from a rock concert.

And while the sound blinked out for tenths of a second around ten times during the show it was a great evening with a mainly middle aged audience. The picture was great and Phil Collins even aknowledged the audience in cinemas in three countries wathing the thing live. It was the next best thing to being there in person.

After the show - which was also satellite fed to Spain and England - we agreed that we'd do it again. Let's see what pops up on the screen the next time!

Siggy will give a review of the music on our updated Radio Dupree homepage in a day or two.

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The very same homepage is also the place where you'll find our Monthly chart of listeners favourites, but while we wait here's the weekly chart in all its glory:

1. David Bowie - Word On A Wing - Station To Station
2. Magma - Spiritual - Attahk
3. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Igor's Boogie, Phase One - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
4. The Beatles - Blackbird/Yesterday - Love
5. Genesis - Musical Box - Live
6. The Beatles - Within You Without You (Instrumental) - Anthology 2
7. The Moody Blues - Tortoise And The Hare - A Question Of Balance
8. Frank Zappa - The Dangerous Kitchen - The Man From Utopia