The Voice; Pavlov's dog

End of the seventies, begin of eitghties, Pavlov's Dog was one of my favorite bands. My then girlfriend was driven mad when songs like Julia blasted through our little appartment at top amplifier capacity again and again. The force of voice was fascinating. In the times before internet nobody really knew whether this was a male or a female. 

But eventually I forgot about them, even though piles of the first two famous records Pampered Menial (1975) and At the Sound of the Bell (1976) kept popping up as CD's in stores again and again. 

At that time the band was composed of vocalist David Surkamp (the voice), guitarist Steve Levin, tom Nickeson or Steve Scorfina, keyboardists David Hamilton and Doug Rayburn, bassist Rick Stockton, drummer Mike Safron, Bill Bruford or Kirk SarkasianBill Bruford, and violinist Siegfried Carver (born Richard Nadler). However, the band dissolved quickly in 1977.

Stranglely enough the splitting of the band was hastened by th poor success of the albums. That could not have been or because of my enthousiasm. 

The band reformed and reunited frequently, such as in 1990 and 2004. Many of the original members died prematurely: Siegfried Carver died on May 30, 2009 only 60 years old, Doug Rayburn on September 21, 2012 and Rick Stockton  on February 17, 2015.

The current members are: David Surkamp - vocals, guitar (1972–1977, 1990, 2004, 2005–present), Manfred Plötz - drums (2015–present), Abbie (Hainz) Steiling - violin, mandolin (2008-present), Amanda McCoy - lead guitar (2013-present), 

Rick Steiling - bass (2009, 2011-present), 

Nathan Jatcko - keyboards (2015-present) and David's Sara Surkamp - vocals, guitar (2005-present).

Pavlov's dog played in the little hall of the Paard. Unfortunately the venue seemed to be unable to cope with the magnitude of Surkamp's still powerful voice. At least in front of the stage he could sometimes barely be distinguihsed from the background of the instruments. That does not reduce the impression this band left to the audience and the voice could still be acknowledged in a couple of inreleased solo songs presented by David Surkamp.

Goings on in May and after

Paard van Troje

Wed 10.05.2017  Fischer Z celebrates 40 years
Thu  11.05.2017  Fred Eaglesmith, rockabilly and entertainer
Thu  25.05.2017  Rats on raft and de Kift, famous dutch bands called Punk by the Paard
Fri    08.06.2017  Lucy Woodward, jazzy singer

Tivoli Utrecht

Sat    06.05.2017  Tom Walker, a fine songwriter
Tue   16.05.2017   Spinvis for who missed their concert in the koninklijke schouwburg
Fri    19.05.2017   Kris Berry, see the same blog below
         21./22.05.2017   Agnes Obel, just wanted to remind that Mike's foot hurt much in this one...
Thu   25.05.2017   DAAU, Die anarchistische Abendunterhaltung, promises to be interesting inventive music

Rotown Rotterdam

Sun    07.05.2017   Orchestra Baobab in Lantaren/Venster
Fri     19.05.2017   The cosmic Carnaval
Fri     02.06.2017   Julia Byrnes