Rota

Tracks:

Transit Between Two
Holocaust
White Light
Barbs

One of several related groups that were more or less CA under a different guise. Rota pretty much pre-dates all of CA's material. The tracks that made it into Video Rideo are best of a pretty odd bunch. It was during these recording sessions that the concept of Spanner emerged. (Ben)

CA's mixed musical instincts become apparent early... progressive rock in 1980, with learner guitar and Bontempi organ. The core of the Rota project was a song sequence by John. The concept, as I recall, seems a very sound one for a prog rock album: the lead up to an apocalyptic event -- nuclear, I guess -- the event itself and the aftermath, with prospect of new start/life, etc. I can't think of anybody that did this (a concept album), though there were masses of songs on the subject around the time. The title for the whole set was The Cenotaph. (Gerard)

That was the Holocaust, sequence, the last section of which, Survivors, featured Gerard and me playing melodicas as if they were passing through an echo chamber with the repeat level set very high. This proved difficult, not because it needed a lot of skill to pull off, but because we were giggling so much. The other song sequence was Transit Between Two , which I wrote the lyrics for. This followed the journey of a soul from one body to another during the process of reincarnation - more progressive rock album fodder. The best bits of Transit Between Two ended up on Video Rideo, the worst bits were witness to the birth of Spanner. (Ben)