Andrew Hickey
speaker
2,253 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 3 Sep
Andrew Hickey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.
Appearances
These were the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis, which in his case was progressive.
By the early nineties he was a wheelchair user, and while his gallery continued to claim he was a working artist, he produced no new paintings after around the year two thousand, or at least no new ones that were put up for sale.
The inference has to be that by that point his disability had progressed to the point that he could no longer paint.
In the early two thousands a lineup of the magic band reformed, initially consisting of French on vocals, Boston, Gary Lucas, Denny Wally, and late period magic band drummer Robert Williams.
Various versions of this continued to perform live until twenty seventeen.
By the time I first saw them in twenty fourteen, the only B Farty ever members left were French, Boston and Wally, though they were still magnificent.
A year later Wallie had left.
He was then playing with a Frank Zappa tribute band.
And after Boston had some health problems and French went through with some bookings as the only member left, the Magic Band finally came to an end in twenty seventeen.
Its leader, Captain Beefart, Don van Bleet, had died seven years earlier, of complications of the multiple sclerosis he'd been dealing with for nearly thirty years.
The story of Captain Beefart and the Magic Band is one which raises all sorts of questions about authorship, creativity and the role of a band leader.
To what extent was Beefheart himself the individual creator of the work attributed to him?
And to what extent was he someone who ripped off his band members and took the credit?
How can we justify listening to a masterpiece like Troutmask Replica and knowing it was the product of abuse?
Does it make a difference that most of the band members are still proud of their work?
And many of them still say more positive than negative things about him even while acknowledging the abuse?
Does it make a difference that other than a few rarities compilations, none of the band members have ever made any money from those recordings, even as some of them have become among the most influential records ever made?
And does it make a difference for that matter that Van Vliet himself never made any significant income for his recordings?
And while he was exploiting his musicians, he was himself being exploited.
I can't answer those questions for you, and nor can anyone else.
Showing 841–860 of 2,253 · page 43 of 113
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