Kevin Ellman talks about the upcoming Utopia reunion shows

Great interview Butch! Wish I could be there for the shows.

Bobby Sutliff

 

Thanks. B, Todd loves Ohio it's like artistically fertile ground for him so don't be shocked that if Utopia does a tour you'll probably be the first pit stop.

 

Very informative. From rock drummer to financial planner. Crazy!! Kind of like Jeff Baxter going from rock guitarist to national defense advisor. Thanks for the PM.

 

No problem,mate. His dad was the man behind Beefsteak Charlie's, so from there Kevin honed his business acumen. I loved going to Beefsteak Charlie's as a kid.....I didn't get a chance to see any bands there unfortunately.

 

Willie or Roger, I assume? I would guess that Roger was invited but couldn't get away; and that Willie and Todd are still on the outs.

 

Many drummers in the seventies really liked Kevin Ellman's clever techniques, including Neil Peart. The Ikon is shock-full of crazy-good drumming.

 

You assumed incorrectly BUT great guesses. I already answered this question previously in a less than coy manner.

 

Neil Peart? You mean he liked Kevin's drumming ,wait a minute that can't be....

From my interview with Kevin:

Neil Peart was influenced by you,have you two ever met?


I'd love to meet him some day and I did read that article where he did say he was influenced by the way I played ,it's kind of amazing to realize that you do influence people. I guess the only regret I had is that had I kept on playing ,kept developing I would have played with Todd played with other people in other big rock bands. I would have left a larger body of work. I would have influenced more people. Maybe I wouldn't have had as good a home life or as good of a relationship with my kids,so it's hard it's a trade off it's a tough life as a drummer.Some day I'd like to meet Neil if possible.


I think it's cool that Kevin had such a great impact on drummers of his time, though by his own admission his musical career became a business/financial one at a crucial juncture to have some sort of stable home life.

 

Anyone see any reviews of last night's show, or hear how long it ran?

 

I was there. In a word, unreal. I've seen TR 100+ times.. I think this was the best.

A little over 2 hrs. Lots of emotion and great playing. They were on it!

Set:

Moogy overture (Moogy on keys)
Never Never Land (Todd and Moogy)
Crying in the Sunshine
Lady Face
...Dust in the Wind
Utopia Theme
Freak Parade
Another Life
The Ikon (not all of it but most of it)
Heavy Metal Kids
Set Me Free ("Carmen Ghia" a.k.a. Kasim on keys and vocals)
The Wheel
Do Ya
The Last Ride
Freedom Fighters
Just One Victory

(encores)
Sons of 1984
(You Gotta Have) Friends

 

I posted two of the tracks on the main Todd thread.......:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=6200056&postcount=554

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjreqVUv81U

So you enjoyed it that much,LK? Cool,I wonder if you got to talk to the group after the show,if you go tonight tell Moogy,Kas,Ralph, John and Kevin I said hello!

 

Thanks for the report. Psyched for tonight. So what time did the show end around? Trying to figure out if the train will work or if I need to drive.

 

Recollection is that it ended around 9:40. They're videotaping tonight so all bets may be off.

Didn't hang last night. It was a perfect evening and I was pretty emotional. Plus, I spent tons of time with TR in the fall during his IU professorship, there was no way last night could be made better. Enjoy tonight!

At LaGuardia now.. Headed home with sweeter memories

 

Thanks. So I guess they do not wait until the posted time of 8 to start?

 

Same set list last night. Reallly enjoyed hearing Todd on the Moogy material that started and ended the show. Throughout the show Moogy, Ralph, Kevin and John showed very impressive musicianship, and it was great to see them playing the Todd material they had originally been featured on. Seems like the occasional miscues were more due to Todd's issues than anyone else's. Nice that Jesse Gress's contributions were kept to material that was not from the first 2 Utopia albums, so we got the original band works in a more pure format.

They had to restart sections of Freak Parade a couple times, which they clearly did with the plan of being able to make significant edits for the PPV. Kind of made me wish they hadn't been doing a PPV (or had been doing it live warts and all), as in parts like this it turned it from a concert into more of a live recording session.

Wonderful experience all around. Glad Todd remains willing to stretch himself in directions like this, even when we can see it is a stretch. My fav parts of the show were Freedom Fighters, Another Life, The Wheel, Set Me Free, Heavy Metal Kids, Sons of 1984, and JOV (where Kas switched to bass).

 

Is Kaz playing bass or keys in these shows?

 

Kaz was only doing vocals, except Set Me Free (keys) and JOV (bass)

 

I missed this thread

Is this still ongoing, or just one-off shows, or what?

 

Just the two shows. I don't imagine that Moogy's health would allow for much beyond that, plus Rundgren's already got a couple different runs of shows scheduled for the immediate future on into the summer.

 

So they are in the midst of another tour now, through Nov 19. Due to his health, Moogy is only participating in the three shows in NY state. This time they are doing everything on their two albums (in January they omitted at least Something's Coming and 7 rays), and not doing anything else.

 

Excxept for "Mister Triscuits" which was Roger Powell's song.

 

How do we get to be Forum Ikons instead of Forum Icons?

 

Ah, I love that one! And how it slides into "Something's Coming" which I didn't realize in that out-of-context was from Wast Side Story for quite a while.

Geez, I hope I can catch this lineup sometime. One of my top favorite bands EVER EVER and that's really saying a lot. From "Utopia" to "Heavy Metal Kids"...with 30' 22" of The Ikon amazingly in between.