Let me first fill you in on the background. I set up Lotus Records Mail Order in 1980/81 with the intention of retailing Euro-rock, Synth music & associated "genres" throughout the U.K. and Europe. At that time, Punk was still happening, New Waves of all sorts were happening, but none devoted to anything remotely musical. Into Jazz-rock, Prog rock, Euro-rock, Synth music, etc?? Then forget the shops, forget the media, quite simply, Lotus was the only source for this music.
Within three years, we had built up a mailing list of over 1000 people, single handedly brought several bands much greater recognition and sales (BERNARD SZAJNER, HELDON, ELOY, to name a few), were the leading synth music distributor in Europe and had carved a reputation for my own speciality at the time - MAGMA!
Move on a few years and we were distributing anything that moved with a MAGMA or ex-MAGMA musician in it, from the sublime to the ridiculous. So, imagine my suprise when one day I get a call from Duncan Lane, an old friend (of sorts) from the early-mid 80's when we used to distribute the music of METABOLIST, the closest any U.K. band ever came to the colossal musical power of MAGMA. He rabbited away about wanting information (I forget what exactly after all these years) because a guy called Steve Davis was putting on some MAGMA concerts in London. I gave him what help I could and he explained about how Steve Davis had contacted the band and they didn't know who on earth he was, or what snooker was. It was only at this point that I clicked and thought "you mean THE Steve Davis don't you". But didn't say anything to Duncan on the grounds that I'd just spent the last fifteen minutes on the phone letting him think I knew what he was talking about. As soon as the call finished, I seemed to remember that we'd had some orders for MAGMA product from a Steve Davis and, sure enough, it was him and he'd been sending us cheques for MAGMA product. LOTUS Records - suppliers to the rich and famous!!
Two days later I got a call from Steve, himself, the first of a couple or three calls and, although I forget what it was all about, it ended up with LOTUS being allowed to give out mail order leaflets at the MAGMA concerts. I remember asking for an actual stall selling all things MAGMA, but that was vetoed by the band and, I think, the hall...C'est La Vie.
So, there I was with MAGMA (OFFERING) coming to the U.K. for three concerts, promoted by Steve Davis and actually getting publicity. A huge spread in, I think, The Daily Telegraph was enough, and an interview with Steve Davis on the saturday afternoon on Radio One was great. But, as it turned out, the clincher was a five minute feature on BBC TV at Breakfast Time.
Carole Righton's feature was broadcast on the Friday morning after the first concert. Due to work commitments, I couldn't make the first night, but got to the second and third nights. On the Friday, I got down to the theatre and, once there, found Mr Davis and he was in a great mood, as happy as someone who's found a long-lost relative!! He told me how well Thursday's show had gone. That the number of people in the audience was respectable, but how he didn't expect huge numbers of people to turn up anyway. I also heard the stories of the fact that two grand pianos had been vetoed before a third grand piano was voted acceptable; of how, on one of the three days, the band couldn't rehearse in the afternoon due to a prior but forgotten booking already made by the hall.
On Friday night, with quite a sizeable audience in attendance, OFFERING (MAGMA) came on stage to a rapturous applause and proceeded to play what, for me, having heard tapes of the first night and been present at the other two, was the best of the three concerts. Not having seen OFFERING live, before now, what struck me was just how powerful the band was onstage. I must admit I expected an acoustic MAGMA to be something of a boring affair, but the keyboard, piano and percussion plus electric and acoustic bassists, proved to be both wild and gentle. But it was Stella Vander who stole the show proving that, without her, OFFERING would be nowhere near as good as they are. The audience reaction was tremendous and everyone enjoyed such a unique experience.
On the Saturday night, after TV, Radio and Press coverage, the concert had actually sold-out by the early evening and a full house gave Vander & Co an ecstatic reception, even though many of them had never heard OFFERING's music before. Again, another stunningly powerful set!
After that, everyone went away happy; Mr Davis had seen MAGMA and not lost as much money as he might have thought; MAGMA found out that a British audience (ready and willing to accept their music) still existed and we did a lot of business promoting MAGMA. Sadly, Charly Records, who had released a couple of MAGMA CD's showed absolutely no interest in promoting the band or capitalising on the recent concerts. In fact, when a Charly rep sold a MAGMA CD into us he hadn't been given anything to promote the band to the dealers. What with the failure of anyone to distribute OFFERING's CD in the U.K. (and promote it), although Impetus distribution did their best, the MAGMA resurgence, in terms of sales, ran aground almost as soon as it had set sail.
A year later, Steve Davis repeated the process and put on more MAGMA concerts in London. It had originally been planned to take the band out of London, particularly to Manchester and, possibly Birmingham, but all this fell through.
This time around, the concerts were all well attended but, in my opinion, for whatever reason, the group didn't have the same spark as the year before. They played some good music but it wasn't the fantastic mind-blowing music we had witnessed a year earlier. Many thought that the Jazz element was too overpowering and that the MAGMA element was being pushed into the background. But you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds and it is better to have a 90% par MAGMA in the U.K. rather than no MAGMA at all.
From then on, Lotus subsided and MAGMA (and Mr Davis) disappeared from the U.K. concert scene. Now in 1991, Lotus is back; perhaps someone, somewhere in the U.K. will realise MAGMA's potential and promote a concert or two. We can but hope!!