#Steven murray bike crash professional#

He was flat broke: his apartment was repossessed and he cut himself off from everyone and went to ground in his shabby Farm Lane office. Anthony never fully recovered from this devastating experience. It was hard to build and widen our readership, particularly as WHSmith outlets, for some bizarre reason, refused to sell a magazine with a circulation less than 100,000.ДЄnthony was to lose The Wire, his much-loved and hard-won trophy, the following year when he suffered what I can only describe as a brutal вЂboardroom coupвЂ™. Even when The Wire joined the generous Naim AttallahвЂ™s prestigious Namara Group in 1984, it was a struggle to keep such an вЂoutrГ©вЂ™ magazine up and running. The creation of The Wire was an audacious, adventurous and enduring moment in the music. As Anthony found himself deeper and deeper in debt, his friend Leo Feigin (Leo RecordsвЂ™ label boss) also chipped in a substantial sum at one point.

#Steven murray bike crash professional#

He drew up a professional вЂbusiness planвЂ™ which impressed Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the Arts Council enough to stump up ВЈ2000 each in grants. It would be called вЂњ The Wire: Jazz, Improvised Music andвЂ¦вЂќ I listened, in disbelief, but enthralled, as he enthusiastically outlined this вЂinsaneвЂ™ prospect, and I was the first to enlist.ДЄnthony initially financed the magazine himself, producing it with the help of a group of committed, music-loving friends who worked for free. In 1982, Anthony announced his most ambitious project yet: he was going to launch a вЂjazz magazineвЂ™. The same year, Anthony, John Russell and percussionist Roger Turner launched the critically acclaimed but regrettably short-lived independent CAW record label. вЂWithout that time spent with John,вЂ™ said Anthony, вЂthere would have been no Actual MusicвЂ¦вЂ™.ДЄnthonyвЂ™s Actual Music events created an historic opportunity (and a discerning audience) for the avant-garde giants of the day: Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Abdullah Ibrahim et alвЂ¦ as well as creating a platform for the key contemporary British experimentalists. In 1979, John convinced Anthony to start promoting. Anthony said that living with a musician gave him вЂa different view of the music he was listening toвЂ™. John provided accommodation for Anthony for nine months. As a result, a mutual friend put John and Anthony in touch, as they both came from Ashford. Anthony had a letter published in Melody Maker complaining about the lack of coverage of improvised music. The first person Anthony got to know when he moved to London at the end of 1978 was guitarist John Russell (also recently sadly departed). To see Lady Gaga currently decorating the website of a magazine like Jazz Journal would have made him laugh out loud and he would have loved the hat. In spite of his passion for the вЂseriousвЂ™ end of the music, Anthony was no purist and listed Prince and Martha Wainwright among his favourite artists. In 1975, John Clare and Dave Ryner at Honest JonвЂ™s record shop recognised AnthonyвЂ™s infinite вЂoneness with the sharp endвЂ™ of the music and asked him to join as their avant-garde music specialist. Meanwhile, AnthonyвЂ™s vinyl record collection grewвЂ¦ and grew, expanding from Blues Incorporated, Cyril Davies and the Graham Bond Organisation to jazz heavyweights: Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton et al. Anthony became Alexis KornerвЂ™s biggest fan and a friend, and persuaded the influential вЂFather of British BluesвЂ™ to document his fascinating musical journey in interviews, which Anthony lovingly recorded on a bulky, reel-to-reel tape recorder. His first job, which he hated, was a soul-destroying clerical position at the SchottвЂ™s Music company where he felt misunderstood and a misfit.Д®scape was offered in the form of the sparky British Blues Explosion of the 1960s. Photo courtesy of The Camping Biker YouTube channelДЄnthony Wood, inspirational promoter of improvised music, founder of groundbreaking magazine The Wire, was a man on a mission in 1979 - his sights set on taking to uncharted heights what, even in the late 1970s, was often unceremoniously dismissed as вЂchin-stroking musicвЂ™.ДЄnthony proceeded to blaze a trail for this revolutionary вЂin the momentвЂ™ music and, in the process, helped shine a light on the gifted musicians who performed itвЂ¦ and AnthonyвЂ™s passionate speeches in defence of this challenging genre would leave even the musicвЂ™s most hardened critics buffetted and bruised, but definitely better informed.ДЄnthony Wood was born in Germany to English parents, but came of age in the late 1960s in a suburban corner of Ashford in Kent.