Clive Jones (sax & flute), Kay Garret (vocals), Bob Bond (bass), Clive Box (drums), Kip Trevor (vocals), Zoot Taylor (organ), Jim Gannon (guitar), Geoff Griffith (bass), Romeo Challenger (drums), John Culley (guitar) and Ric Prince (vocals) have all recorded for Black Widow.
You can support Black Widow's forthcoming music by buying music directly from Black Widow's bass player Geoff Griffith. Included are many tracks from his 1980's band Moving Fingers.
Follow the link:
King Crimson, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Supertramp, Black Sabbath, Atomic Rooster, Pesky Gee!, Coven, Yes, Pink Floyd, Free, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Cressida, Warhorse, Hawkwind, ELP, Arthur Brown, Necromandus, Raw Material, David Cross Band, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Wicked Minds, Sir Lord Baltimore, Bloodrock, Zior, Skin Alley, High Tide
Order this amazing Black Widow DVD from http://www.mysticrecords.co.uk
Order your BLACK WIDOW DVD "Demons Of The Night Gather To See Black Widow - Live" from http://www.mysticrecords.co.uk - follow the link.
The whole "Sacrifice" album show (Beat Club 1970)is included.
IT'S AMAZING!
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=8ydmDk8dYCE
This BLACK WIDOW's classic song was covered by New Zealand's TIMBERJACK as early as in 1971!
ALBUMS:
Exclamation Mark LP (1969 Pye Records) as Pesky Gee! ~
Sacrifice LP (1970 CBS Records) ~
Black Widow LP (1971 CBS Records) ~
III LP (1971 CBS Records) ~
IV CD (1997 Mystic Records), recorded in 1972 ~
Return To The Sabbat CD (1998 Mystic Records), recorded in 1969 ~
Come To The Sabbat - Anthology 2CD (2003 Sanctuary Records) ~
Demons Of The Night Gather To See Black Widow - LIVE CD/DVD (2008 Mystic Records), recorded and filmed in 1970
Please check BLACK WIDOW RECORDS on www. blackwidow. it - also on MySpace:
www. myspace. com/blackwidowrecs . They have released many albums related to Black Widow like: BWR 024 BLACK WIDOW: "IV" (LP) ~ BWR 029 BLACK WIDOW: "Return To The Sabbat" (LP) ~ BWR 039 VARIOUS ARTISTS: "King Of The Witches - Tribute to Black Widow" (CD/2LP) ~ BWR 049 AGONY BAG: "Feelmazumba" (CD/LP) - more to follow...
PicJazz.com
Your local record shop should be able to order the release for you! This release is available worldwide.
BLACK WIDOW - Come To The Sabbat live 1970 (the full song)
http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=lEmALYV72sc
BLACK WIDOW - In Ancient Days live 1970, first 10 minutes from the DVD!
PLEASE CHECK PASI/ news+info about BLACK WIDOW & related FOR BLACK WIDOW NEWS!!!
Note: This site continues the work of an original Black Widow MySpace site www.myspace.com/blackwidowleicester which was run by Ash(R.I.P.). I have a full support from Black Widow's Clive Jones to run this site. I also have a couple of more sites here supported by Clive. Please check www.myspace.com/peskygee (an official Pesky Gee! MySpace site), www.myspace.com/agonybag (an official Agony Bag MySpace site) and www.myspace.com/smackmanagement (an official Clive Jones MySpace site). My site www.myspace.com/pasifinland also supports everything which is somehow related to Black Widow.
*BLACK WIDOW BIOGRAPHY*
==========PESKY GEE! years==========
The band that became Pesky Gee! assembled in the Midlands town of Leicester in 1966, fronted by two vocalists - Kay Garret and black soul singer Basil Francis - with a supporting cast of Chris Dredge (guitar), Clive Jones (sax,flute), Alan Hornsby (brass), Bob Bond (bass) and Clive Box (drums,percussion). Like many young bands of the era, the original Pesky Gee! were primarily a soul outfit, playing the same circuit as other local names like Legay and Family. But the arrival of psychedelia in 1967 led to a musical realignment and a slightly revised Pesky Gee! line-up - Francis was replaced by Kip Trevor (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica) - willingly embraced the musical excesses of the new wave.
By the end of 1968 Pesky Gee! were starting to make some headway. After a gig in Warrington they were approached by songwriter Malcolm Rabbitt who told the group that he had written a song called "A Place Of Heartbreak" that would be ideal for them. Rabbitt introduced the band to London-based producer/manager Patrick Meehan Jnr., who in turn brokered a deal with the Pye label.
The group's new progressive rock approach was evident on their debut single, issued by Pye in March 1969. The Vanilla Fudge track "Where Is My Mind?" and Rabbitt's "A Place Of Heartbreak" were short songs that combined the melodic approach and commercial sensibilities of the traditional pop market with the more abrasive edge of the underground scene. But despite the quality of both sides, and the particularly potent vocal combination of Kip Trevor and the Julie Driscoll-like Kay Garret, the single failed to find favour with the public. Dredge (later in Ashton, Gardner and Dyke) and Hornsby left to be replaced by Jim Gannon (guitar, vibraphone, vocals) and Jess "Zoot" Taylor (organ, piano), both of whom had been members of the band called Broodley Hoo.
"Where Is My Mind" had been issued primarily as a taster for a forthcoming debut album and the first (and, as it turned out, the last) Pesky Gee! LP appeared in June 1969. The record company mistakenly christened the album "Exclamation Mark" because of "!" at the end of band's name! Despite this farce, "Exclamation Mark" was a highly promising debut set. "Piece Of My Heart" was a fine rendition of the Erma Franklin classic (also successfully attempted by Janis Joplin) that enabled the band to revisit their soul roots. "Season Of The Witch" was a stroll through Donovan's much-covered epic that featured an arrangement straight from Vanilla Fudge version. "Dharma For One" revealed the band's debt to the 1968 UK blues rock boom in general and Jethro Tull in particular.
Despite such an impressive debut album the sales were not so impressive and Pesky Gee! were unceremoniously dumped by Pye after just a few months with the label. Bloodied but unbowed, Pesky Gee! underwent a change of name as well as a musical metamorphosis.
==========BLACK WIDOW years==========
With the arrival of occult movement (the black magic novels of Dennis Wheatley were moving into bestsellers lists and Black Sabbath were beginning to make waves on the local Midlands scene) Pesky Gee! changed their name to Black Widow. It was the drummer Clive Box who suggested to his fellow band members that they take the occult themes that were all around and reinvent themselves accordingly. In November 1969 Black Widow travelled to D.T.Studios in Kettering, Northants, to record a bunch of songs that had been quickly written to fit the supernatural theme. The intended album's concept was clearly evident from the chosen title: "Sacrifice". However, after making this demo session, their female singer and one of their strongest weapons, Kay Garret, left the band and her musical career behind though she later returned into studio to record a handful of demos for her aborted solo album (backed by Black Widow, a couple of tracks appeared on "Come To The Sabbat" 2CD anthology released by Sanctuary).
Those original "Sacrifice" sessions with Kay Garret have been released later as an album called "Return To The Sabbat".
At the beginning of 1970 CBS paid for Black Widow to return to the studio to remake "Sacrifice" with Kip Trevor now handling all lead vocals. "When Kay left, we really started to work on our live act", recalls Clive Jones. "I am sure CBS saw us live before deciding to sign us. Also, of course, Pat Meehan Snr was managing us and that must have helped us". CBS issued the album "Sacrifice" in March 1970. The songs remained the same but there were significant differences between the demo and released versions of "Sacrifice". Those new sessions included live strings, most notably on "Come To The Sabbat". Those strings were played by children from the London School of Music!
Soon after "Sacrifice" sessions Geoff Griffith came in for bassist Bob Bond. Geoff would add his songwriting skills to Black Widow's sound also.
"Sacrifice" attracted significant attention amongst the underground fraternity, even reaching the UK album charts, where it peaked at the No 32 position in early April. Certainly its public profile was helped by the appearance of the band's calling card "Come To The Sabbat" on the CBS double album sampler "Fill Your Head With Rock". "Come To The Sabbat" was also released as a single in most territories and it had some success except not that much in UK!
Choreographed by members of Leicester's Phoenix Theatre Company, the highly theatrical Black Widow show centred on the female demon Astaroth, portrayed by a naked girl who was mock-sacrificed at the end of each performance after having simulated sex with Kip Trevor. The character of Lady Astaroth was occasionally played by Maxine, the wife of Alex Sanders, who advised the band on occult-related matters and even employed them on a film documentary. Clive Jones recalls: "Vicars would turn up at the shows, waving crosses and telling the crowds to beware of the evil dark magic of Black Widow! At the Lyceum in London we were told we could only do the show if the girl didn't take her clothes off on stage. We had to agree beforehand but she still ended up naked and all hell broke loose. Someone from the audience managed to take a picture which appeared in one of the Sunday papers!".
The band's increased profile led to them playing at the August 1970 Isle Of Wight festival where they were sandwiched between The Groundhogs and Supertramp. The band had a good gig in front of their biggest audience ever but they didn't do the black magic show on this occassion and also there had been one more line-up change within the band.
Pat Meehan was informed that a proposed US tour showcasing his two main acts, Black Sabbath and Black Widow, had been cancelled. "Charles Manson had just been arrested and tried for what were described at the time as black magic murders", Clive Jones recalls. "The powers-that-be in America wouldn't allow us into the country, though Black Sabbath were admitted after they'd disassociated themselves from Satanism. But I'm not sure exactly why we were kept out - were the Americans thinking about our safety or did they think that giving us a visa would be bad publicity for them?". It was at this juncture that Black Widow's management suggested the band to move away from the occult imagery in the hope that this would lead into more positive publicity and potentially wider appeal. Kip Trevor and Jim Gannon agreed with the band's management while Clive Jones and Clive Box favoured retaining their unique identity. Finally drummer Box was replaced by Romeo Challenger and the band's association with Alex Sanders was ended.
This new line-up recorded a stand-alone single, a version of Billy Boy Arnold's blues classic "Wish You Would". A new album, "Black Widow", also appeared, overseen by the same studio team that had worked on the band's debut set - Patrick Meehan Jnr. as producer, assisted by engineer (and future Queen soundman) Roy Thomas Baker. Curiously, however, this was actually the second version of this album to be recorded, as Clive Jones reveals. "We never heard the original version. Meehan told us that there were a fault on the recording but we din't really believe this - the version of "Mary Clark" that appeared on the CBS "Rockbusters" album was taken from the original sessions though he explained that this was the only track that hadn't been affected by the fault. Who knows, maybe a copy of the original, unheard "Black Widow" sessions has survived somewhere?".
The new songs like "The Gypsy", "Tears And Wine" and "Mary Clark" introcuced a band which was still capable of good songwriting and musicianship despite now entering the world of overcrowded British progressive rock scene. One of the album's masterpieces is "Legend Of Creation" which gave space to some inspired soloing and that particular song also worked well in live situations. However, the album failed to to repeat the commercial success of their debut and Jim Gannon left the band at this point.
Black Widow continued to tour and record with John Culley, a former guitar player of Cressida, replacing Gannon. A third album entitled "Black Widow III" was recorded (Francis Monkman from Curved Air helped on some of the album's keyboards). Sadly this set also failed to make commercial impact despite the quality of tracks like "King Of Hearts", "Accident" or the three-part-epic "The Battle".
The band had built up a following in Europe through extensive gigging (a live Black Widow album had been recorded at Montreaux, Switzerland, but the tapes were destroyed in the following week's fire) but CBS were unimpressed by album sales figures and in mid-1972 Black Widow were unceremoniously dropped from the label's roster.
Black Widow returned to D.T. Studios to cut a fourth LP in the summer/autumn of 1972. Sadly, however, they were unable to land a deal despite they were producing one of the finest works of their career. Tracks like "You're So Wrong" suggested a new level of maturity, while the superb "Sleighride" - an all-year round Christmas song based around Prokofiev's "Sleigh Bell Ride" melody, also utilised some three years later by Greg Lake for "I Believe In Father Christmas" - compared favourably with the kind of material that market leaders such as Yes ("We toured Italy with them - they were a big influence on us by this point", recalls Clive Jones) were producing around the same time. Nevertheless, the tapes from these sessions would be left unreleased until over 25 years later they saw the light of day under the title "Black Widow IV".
The band's failure to find a label to release the album proved to be a final straw for Kip Trevor who left after its completion. The band recruited an American singer Rick E (his real name is Ric Prince) for a handful of demos including "Floating" and the thoughtful "Pictures In My Head" (these tracks are also heard on "Black Widow IV"). When they were unable to find a home for these tracks either Black Widow disbanded and and all the members went their separate ways.
==========After BLACK WIDOW years==========
The various members of Black Widow went on to enjoy mixed fortunes. Ric Prince was a singer for Twisted Sister before Dee Snider and Ric continues to have his singing career in America. Kip Trevor sang in sessions and became a successful music publisher. Romeo Challenger found his fame and fortune with being a drummer for Showaddywaddy while Jim Gannon had hits with mid-1970's outfit Fox. Jim also recorded with Yellow Dog and nowadays he is a respected session musician continuing to play guitar in Australia. Geoff Griffith formed a band called Tibet (with Neil Stout) before recording with Moving Fingers in mid-1980's (Moving Fingers had a hit song in certain countries).
Clive Jones and Clive Box formed a crazy punk/heavy metal outfit Agony Bag which released a cult single in 1980 and also their other unreleased tracks have been released under the title "Feelmazumba". When Agony Bag disbanded Clive Jones became a songwriter for other artists and bands but he has continued to record himself as well. Clive's occasional one man live show as "Dr Pesky" has become legendary. Clive has also recorded some new Agony Bag songs. His latest project has been his ambitious musical called "Metal Heart" which includes lots of special guests. Clive Jones has also collaborated with various musicians and bands.
Clive wrote a song (as a tribute to ABBA) "Hey You, Ring Me Tonight" which was recorded by the Swedish band The Airwaves and the song was released in 2009. An unreleased version of Agony Bag's "Rabies Is A Killer" (written by Clive Jones) was used on a horror movie "Jessicka Rabid" (directed by Matthew Reel). Some of the bands Clive has recorded with (or appears on their albums as a special guest) are Abiogenesi, Death SS, Dilemma Of Nicole, Tilion and Witchfield.
In April 2009 Clive Jones joined on stage with a Canadian band Propagandhi during three of their UK gigs - Propagandhi is one of the many bands who have recorded their version of "Come To The Sabbat".
==========BLACK WIDOW revival==========
In 2000 an Italian-based record company Black Widow Records released a Black Widow tribute album called "King Of The Witches" which included an introduction song done by Clive Jones himself. During last few years the interest towards Black Widow has continued to increase - an unreleased bootleg recording from Italy (1971) has been found and also Black Widow's Beat Club television show performance from 1970 (56 minutes) was located.
In 2005 a great fan from Finland called Pasi Koivu contacted Clive and the result was a surprisingly fruitful musical co-operation and friendship. To his great surprise Pasi ended up opening official sites for MySpace, arranging news stories and interviews and he has helped to find some unreleased items and lost persons (including ex-Black Widow guitar player John Culley who was miraculously found in 2006). Pasi's idea for the title of the Black Widow DVD was approved by Clive Jones and Mystic Records (Pasi himself got the idea from the old poster).
==========BLACK WIDOW live DVD==========
November 2007 finally saw the release of Black Widow's long-awaited Beat Club live performance DVD (filmed in 1970) called "Demons Of The Night Gather To See Black Widow - Live". It was immediately available through www.mysticrecords.co.uk but it was also told the official worldwide release date will be 28th January, 2008. Mystic Records was, however, sending this package to people who could not wait to see the movie!
It's a classic performance by Black Widow - people who have seen it have been amazed by the show. The critics have been showing their support as well and the band has been featured on many European music magazines. With many new fans supporting the band the time had come for Black Widow to return with new material.
==========New BLACK WIDOW songs==========
Geoff Griffith and Clive Jones have been working hard on new Black Widow music and an Italian keyboard wizard Paolo "Apollo" Negri plays keyboards on the new album! Paolo's most famous band is Wicked Minds and he has also various solo projects.
The new album will include such future classics as "Sleeping With Demons" (also the working title of the album), "Hail Satan" (a follow-up song to the old classic "Come To The Sabbat" including the chant and flute), "That's When Evil Touched Me" (including lyrics by the Canadian lyricist and friend Sylvie M.Durette) and "Partytime For Demons" (according to Clive Jones the song was inspired by chatting with Pasi Koivu).
Tony Martin, a former vocalist for Black Sabbath (and now having his own solo career) has shown his interest to guest on the new Black Widow album.
HI AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE ADD ON YOUR PAGE ...I HOPE YOU GET A CHANCE TO LISTEN TO MY SONGS AND MAYBE LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU GET TIME...I WISH YOU WELL AND HOPE YOU ENJOY MY MUSIC ..THANKS AGAIN...YOUR FRIEND PATRICK K
BALLO DELLE CASTAGNE - 108 10" vinyl 45rpm - HR!SPQR
108 are the diabolical passions that beset us and we must battle to become Buddha. 108 is a magic and exoteric number in many mystic religions and cultures. All you need to discover about the real nature of this world: pure fiction! Two cover songs about the diabolic passions from great Italian artists of the 70’s like Biglietto per l’Inferno and Franco Battiato.
As the lotus grows in mud without showing any traces that might betray its origins, its leaves and its stem, while floating in water not wet, so it `s also the wise man who lives in the world, but is not of the world...
As Thanksgiving Day rolls around, It brings up some facts, quite profound. We may think that we're poor, Feel like bums, insecure, But in truth, our riches astound.
We have friends and family we love; We have guidance from heaven above. We have so much more Than they sell in a store, We're wealthy, when push comes to shove.
So add up your blessings, I say; Make Thanksgiving last more than a day. Enjoy what you've got; Realize it's a lot, And you'll make all your cares go away.
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Please check BLACK WIDOW RECORDS on 
Online!
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