Kansas: Miracles Out Of Nowhere

To the point of know return...

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From the cosy glow of their 40th anniversary, the reconciled Kansas guys are happy to tell their story. The good story that is; the one that goes from organising a ‘free beer’ local show to pull a crowd for the record company to headlining New York’s Madison Square Gardens five years later.

With Midwestern honesty, they remember their musical chemistry, determination, hard graft and “miraculous coincidences” before hitting paydirt with Leftoverture and their signature hit, Carry On Wayward Son.

They pay fulsome tribute to impresario Don Kirshner who signed them, supported them – and nabbed their publishing before they even knew what it was. They bear no grudge, they admit they would never have made it without him. But the story stops before the 80s when it all got messy.

There’s a few live snippets as well and the accompanying CD has 13 of their best, segued by soundbites that could become annoying./o:p

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Hugh Fielder

Hugh Fielder has been writing about music for 47 years. Actually 58 if you include the essay he wrote about the Rolling Stones in exchange for taking time off school to see them at the Ipswich Gaumont in 1964. He was news editor of Sounds magazine from 1975 to 1992 and editor of Tower Records Top magazine from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been freelance. He has interviewed the great, the good and the not so good and written books about some of them. His favourite possession is a piece of columnar basalt he brought back from Iceland.