Setlist:
CJM solo
Entertainment is my business, Camouflage Blues [?], Janis, Masked Marauder
Section 43, Thinking of John Fahey [?], a cappella, What a wondrous love is this,
When I walk through the trees, Donovan’s Reef, Fish Cheer/I feel like I’m fixing to die rag
Intermission

CJM and Nick Salomon
Pats song, Playground Blues, Nothing means nothing blues, Lady with the lamp,Carry on

CJM and the Bevis Frond
Who am I,  Here I go again, Sweet Martha Lorraine, Bass Strings, Rock and Soul Music
Encore
Death Sound

This was possibly the least well advertised concert of any major artist ever; apart from a very small plain entry somewhere in the depths of the Evening Standard in a particularly boring typeface this gig could have gone completely unnoticed. It didn’t even merit an entry in the copy of Time Out I glanced at. There was some press coverage in the Independent and the Guardian in the days immediately preceding the show,  and as it happened, you would have got tickets on the night, but I saw no flyers or any other reference to this somewhat seminal figure's first London appearance for 13 years; I even went so afar as to raise this lack of publicity with CJM himself by email to his website, and got a personal email reply. And what do you do with a personal e mail, the answer is simple of course, you take it to the show, blag you way backstage and ask the great man to sign a hard copy, what else, but I digress.
On with the show, the QEH, a place renowned for its good acoustics , but equally totally devoid of any of the atmosphere one might want from a ‘rock venue’, being about as sterile as an operating theatre; half full, or half empty depending on your disposition.
A bare stage and an understated entrance by CJM who throughout the 2 hour plus show kept up a monologue [dialogue] with a receptive middle aged audience intent on trying to recapture the spark he undoubtedly lit in peoples hearts and minds some 30 years ago
He kicked off with 2 songs that were not from his first  two classic albums;
‘Entertainment is my business’ a happy clappy satire, followed by another modern anti war song about the third world war, ‘ Camouflage Blues’. By the third song  ‘Janis’ the audience was beginning to settle down to realise this was not going to simply be a recreation of the classic psychedelic numbers, although when these songs did turn up they  were very warmly received, and truth be told, they were certainly the songs I wanted to hear. Janis, sung faster, higher pitched and solo was the first of many from those early CJM and the Fish albums that showed the may sides of West Coast electric vibes and lunacy in equal parts.
Masked Marauder followed, although using a guitar instead of that signpost sound of  David Cohen’s organ gave a  fresh slant to a well loved tune, then Section 43, done solo, using a drone type guitar sound with mouth organ overlay to recreate the tones and colours of another classic instrumental.
Country Joe acknowledged a debt to John Fahey next, with guitar playing most reminiscent of Faheys ‘Death of Clayton Peacock’. Then the first of a number  of unselfconsciously told tales of the history of the Fish, this one concerning attempts to extract THC from roasting banana skins; a slice of history from one present at the time, and a mark of Country Joe’s rapport with his audience that they listened attentively to a tale of west coast wackiness without impatience. It was during this story that I learnt that Chicken  Hirsch’s real name was Gary, which left me feeling the same way I had felt on discovering that Van Morrison’s  real name was George Ivan Morrison; some things are better left  undiscovered.
Two a capella numbers next, the first a  Shaker hymn, ‘What wondrous love is this’ which showed on CJM’s vocal technique to its best advantage, to an audience who had probably not anticipated hearing this echoing hymn sung solo. Then ‘When I walk through the trees’ written by the late Patrick Kilroy and sung  by CJM at the Human Be-in.
Back to the guitar and ‘Donovan’s Reef’ [ most recently available as a 38 minute jam on a fine live album ‘ Country Joe and the Fish and Friends at the Fillmore West 1969, the friends including Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, Jack Cassidy and Jorma Kaukonen and Steve Miller!!].
Finally a long introduction to the Fish cheer, which included the snippet that it was Chicken who actually suggested changing the F I S H cheer to the best known anglo saxon alternative, and the various run-ins with the establishment that followed. The telling of the tale took at least three time as long as it finally took to sing the ‘ I feel like I’m fixing to die rag’, but I had never heard the story before. And to be fair to the audience, we all joined in with a surprising gusto, trying to recreate the atmosphere as best we could for a bunch of middle aged English wannabe hippy types trying to return to the days of protest and patchouli.

After the intermission, which I spent trying to work out exactly what some ridiculously young people were doing at this gig, CJM was joined by Nick Salomon, mainstay of  the Bevis Frond, semi mythical and extremely long lived English pretenders to the psychedelic throne. CJM explained how they had met in the States a month before   [ probably explains the marginally under-rehearsed sound !]. They launched into ‘Pat’s Song’ from the second Fish album, then ‘Playground Blues’ dealing with the American and Dunblane type experience ‘ playgrounds  a killing ground’.
‘Nothing Much Blues’  dedicated to the memory of Kurt Cobain and Lewis Pearl junior [?] led on to Lady with the Lamp, about Florence Nightingale, one of CJM’s causes, see the CJM website at countryjoe.com for a lot more information. CJM was keen to praise her for innovation in the medical field, and to reflect on the relationship between a dying soldier and a combat nurse.
Next up was ‘Carry on’, a song about his mother, and dedicated, somewhat controversially, by the reaction of the audience, to Lady Diana, and Linda McCartney, although there was a ripple of applause for the latter. Similar in format to the Shaker hymn, this too had an ecclesiastical feel to it , reinforced with delicate guitar counterpoint.
Finally the complete Frond got the chance to plug in and rock out. ‘Who am I’ with full electric backing suddenly brought all those wonderful Fish memories back, CJM’s not quite falsetto voice improbably backed  by a bunch of Britain’s best worked really well on this and the rest of the all electric set. ‘Here I go again’ was introduced as Twiggy’s top ten hit, a statement that sent me scurrying to the NME’s 40 years of the top 20, and sure enough, you doubters out there will surely remember the week of the 25th September 1976, when her version reached number 17 in the charts [Dancing Queen by Abba was no.1]
Sweet Martha Lorraine, with its dark message was followed by a superb version of Bass Strings, all swirling keyboards which showed that these classics from the early electric fish days were still powerful tunes. Then ‘Rock and Soul music’ that manic fusion led to an outbreak of anarchy , as some of the audience tried to recreate the Fillmore atmosphere by invading the no mans land between the seats and the QEH stage with their writhing twisting dancing frenzied bodies, oh alright , maybe 20 brave souls tried to liven up the place with a bit of gentle out of the seat swaying to the screeching and well placed guitar breaks.
The encore of ‘Death Sound’ slowed things down again, but we were treated to the Frond’s monster metal guitar sound, which actually fitted in well with the old tune. And then he was gone….
Well there it was, some thing old, very old, something new, and a few stories from the lips of the man himself. A magical evening ; I had waited 30 years to hear the electric songs,  as I missed the Royal Albert Hall gigs  I think CJM and the Fish had done. I had lived with that image of stunned incomprehension that accompanied his Monterey Pop appearance, and I had heard Rock and Soul music with all its crazed genius And for all of you who missed it, get along there next time he comes over, the least we can do is fill the hall!

Eyes OfThe World/The Music Never stopped

Eyes of the World
billpannifer@easynet.co.uk