PASCAL's KEVIN COYNE HOME PAGE

The Daily Telegraph, Dec 3, 2005

One Day In Chicago
  
Sadder even than the bleaching out of John Peel's musical legacy (Misty In Roots overlooked in favour of the Undertones) has been the relegation of those true mavericks who formed the core of the DJ's unique musical taste to a place on posterity's subs' bench. Kevin Coyne - a wayward creative powerhouse sometimes dubbed "the English Captain Beefheart" - loomed large in this special group, alongside Ivor Cutler, Mark E Smith and the actual American Beefheart.
While a career which saw him turn down requests to replace Jim Morrison as singer of the Doors and/or supply lyrics for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells might have marked him out as one of rock's nearly men, Coyne's extraordinary back catalogue proves otherwise. Recorded in 2002, with sympathetic backing troupe Jon Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts striving valiantly to keep up with Coyne's scabrous torrents of blues-inspired verbal invention, this album proved to be his swansong (he died at home in Germany, a year ago this week), but also makes a fine introduction for those encountering this cantankerous visionary for the very first time.
Ben Thompson

 
  
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