Loosh - 34 Years of Music
The story of a musical dream, the number 7, black cats and tamborims.
Loosh - 35 Years of Music
Monday, 13 April 2020
So many times we have heard we were not a proper band because we make music virtually.
Since the early nineties, when we tragically had to split up because of immigration laws, as you have followed in our story here, we have decided to continue as a band, but make music on the then-new medium of the internet.
We were severely criticised and made fun of. People asked us, but you don't play live? We bet on the new medium and we managed to forge a thirty-year work virtually.
Now during this war with an invisible army, the whole world, all bands, are playing virtually, podcasting, launching work and rehearsing, each from their own homes.
We hope that this experience might make people respect our pioneer work and see us as a band.
The show must go on!
Friday, 10 April 2020
https://www.mixcloud.com/markgtaylor9/reference-point/?fbclid=IwAR2qj8mLC-nvdfoFjVgTNxxammb8OYec6H14y4LhSaJoj3prmxezV65kXAA
Monday, 1 April 2019
https://soundcloud.com/loosh/03-joker-of-hearts
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Whenever I wish upon a star, a fountain or the candles of a birthday cake I think I am not alone in wishing for the health of loved ones and our planet, but we all have little personal wishes and secret desires and as an artist a favourite wish throughout the years was to be successful with our music.
As the years went by and the recognizable success did not match our expectations I caught myself considering the definition of the word success. What is to be successful in music? If you write the most beautiful song ever and nobody hears it, is it still a success?
Humans have always had a struggle in their hands to value art. We can understand exchanging currency for food and even currency for currency, but what is the value of art? We seem to shuffle into considering some pieces of art of a priceless value while others of no value at all. You might find a piece of classical music beautifully executed is worth less than something concocted at a basement with a computer or a blue ball on top of an unmade bed is more valuable than a watercolour.
There is also the issue of a doctor or a teacher going to school, training to exercise their profession and eventually working in their trade while a musician or an actor might find themselves to the mercy of some abstract quantification of success and never being able to make a living from their trade.
What to say of artists like Nick Drake, my favourite ever, who acquired cult status after his death but did not enjoy such recognition in his lifetime? If he had not found such status would his music be any less divine? Alzo Fronte who found some cult status later in life, being discovered by the Japanese and having a heart attack before he could finally enjoy the fruits of his work. I sometimes think I shouldn't wish for any recognition anymore as that would probably be my fate at my age!
Bearing on being cliché and complaining about contemporary music and the music business and its lack of originality and talent as well as standardization at a massive scale, I often ask myself such questions as what level of recognition and success would make me happy? What would make me retire from this life feeling gratified with what I have achieved, and the more I ask the more I get the feeling that the answer is being content with what I produce regardless of any other factor. I am a dreamer and I like to believe that somewhere in the Universe there is some sort of bonus points you accumulate for being charitable, good to others, to your planet and producing beautiful art it does not matter by what means, being music quite high there in the scale.
I hate the fact that Lewis Taylor decided to be a plumber but his music has touched me and that matters, for me he is highly successful. When I listen to the Plain Healers from New Jersey, in my world they are as successful as Led Zeppelin because their music has touched me just the same.
Success is creation, when a song or a piece of art is created it is successful. It matters not who has listened.
Friday, 5 August 2016
Rio 2016 is here!
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Phoenix from the Flames

As Redskin we composed a great number of songs, many never got to be recorded, some of my favourites were: Heartbreaker, Psalm, Seedless Grapes in the Morning, Grandfather, Premonitions, What's left to be done, Chart Song, Echoes in a Tunnel, Eerie, The Head that Bangs the Drums, Magdalena, even though none of us can remember now what this song sounded like, The Right Time, Hollow Man, Sugar Cane, Two Reasons, You're like no other, Manor House and Bath Houses.
In 1994 we recorded a demo at KKO studio with Heartbreaker, Psalm and Seedless Grapes in the Morning, this time on a CD instead of a cassette tape, and started contacting again record companies using our old list, now even more out-of-date, and some new contacts that Tayo managed to fish from the slow Internet, by today terms, in his home computer, a luxury at the time, as very few people had them. Many came back as non-existent addresses and the usual sorry-we-are not-hiring-at-the-moment or we-don't-listen-to-demos.



But All She Wanted Was to Dance

...I he

Another obvious conclusion was that unfortunately Felix Fritz music died with it, at least with the limitations which drum machines offered at the time, there was no way we could make the same type of music we did before. Paulo then had a fantastic idea. At the time we were really enjoying the California Soul of the late 60's Love and Arthur Lee, also Nicky Drake from England and Paulo had an eternal question: " If all bands have at least one acoustic track that is absolutely amazing why don't they make all tracks like that?" I think the nearest a band has done in that respect was Led Zeppelin's 3rd Album, almost an entire album with acoustic tracks but why a Rock band couldn't just do the songs that we loved and not just one or two tracks, unless of course it was a folk band, but that's not exactly the same thing. So he came up with the opposite approach to Felix Fritz, if Felix Fritz made Brazilian music mixed with Rock using Rock instruments we were going to now make Rock music using acoustic Brazilian instruments typical of samba and other Brazilian rhythms and so we did using Viola Caipira, a 10 string guitar, Cavaquinho, a Brazilian ukulele and bandolim, a Brazilian mandolin, among others.
Now how to call this new born child? As a joke to Virgin Record's answer to hiring us, we called it Dancyn' Days out of one of Led Zeppelin's songs, which is not a dance track at all.
Dancyn' Days songs couldn't be more different than Felix Fritz, Using a drum machine, no keyboards and loads of acoustic string instruments we sounded very different indeed. This band marks the beginning of my career as a do it all person, first a roadie, then keyboard player and now Ba

Amongst Dancyn' Days songs there were Rough, Song for a Married Girl, Up in Smoke, Islands, the only song I've ever written or started from scratch on the bass, Dreams and Lies and Victoria.
With Dancyn' Days we started using false names that were more English sounding, except Brent who didn't need it but actually started being called by his nickname "Play". Our Press releases were also getting better thanks to the advent of early Mac Home computers, for which Brent was an avid user.

We had great fun as Dancyn' Days but we never got to play any gigs or do any sort of promotion except sending demos to record companies as our archenemy, The British Immigration, was about to strike again, this time on all of us, except Brent who was British, thanks to our elected new President in Brazil Mr Collor...
...To be continued
Pictures: 1 - Brent Hieatt, 2,3 and 4 - Unknown
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Top 5's
- Artists
Groups
Songs
Albums
- Five leaves left - Nick Drake
- Led Zeppelin III
- Forever Changes - Love
- Best of Friends - Joe and Bing
- Looking for you - Alzo
Singers
- Eddie Vedder - Pearl Jam
- Morrissey
- Elizabeth Frazer - Cocteau Twins
- Alison Goldfrapp
- Natalie Merchant - 10.000 Maniacs
Soundtracks
- Rumble Fish - Stewart Copeland
- Get Carter - Roy Budd
- Ascenseur pour l'échafaud - Miles Davies
- The Thomas Crown Affair - Michel Legrand
- Midnight Cowboy - John Barry
Films
- Once upon a time in America - Sergio Leone
- Rumble Fish - Francis Ford Coppola
- Ascenseur pour l'échafaud - Louis Malle
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Peter Jackson
- Star Wars Trilogies - George Lucas
TV Series
- 24
- Mad Men
- Downton Abbey
- Lark Rise to Candleford
- Jeeves and Wooster
Animation
- Toy Story Trilogy
- Up
- The Corpse Bride
- The Simpsons
- Futurama
Actors
- Kevin Spacey
- Jeffrey Rush
- Ralph Fiennes
- Robert de Niro
- Al Pacino
Actresses
- Jodie Foster
- Meryl Streep
- Helen Hunt
- Judy Dench
- Helen Mirren
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Happy Carnival everyone
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Back to work

We are now back to working on some new songs, Horses, the first song we record with my own lyrics, which I wrote when I read "Bury my heart at wounded knee" many years ago and brings back the Indian theme. It also counts with the collaboration of Pity Gomes singing as a backing vocal a sacred chant to evoke light from a Brazilian Ayuaska shamanic ritual.
We are also working on a cover from a very cult obscure 60's/70's artist that I love, that I hope you will enjoy, as well as a song for autism charity with lyrics I wrote based on the Option Process, the philosophy behind the Son-Rise Program, the Program I have been homeschooling my autistic son for the last 5 years with great success.
Watch this space!
For more info on the Son-Rise Program visit http://www.son-rise.org
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
For Max

Max came from a very poor background, he lost his Mom at 6 years old and was abandoned by his Father at the age of 11 to fend for himself. His first job was to sell bananas in the streets of Duque de Caxias, our home town in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. He was helped by a mechanic who felt sorry for him, for even though he was 11 he looked like he was about 7 or 8 because of malnutrition. The guy let him stay at his Garage and so he learnt everything about cars, one of his biggest passions, after Flamengo, one of the biggest Brazilian Football teams. He played football very well and it was playing alongside my uncle that he met my Mum at the tender age of 16, she was only 13. At first she didn't want anything to do with him as she wanted to be an artist and a singer but as persistant as he was he kept saying he was one day going to marry her until she fell for his Italian looking charm. My Dad was always a fighter, he was determined to give my Brother and I everything he never had as a child and so he did, not just to us but to all our friends. Everybody who knows him knows his joy is to give, for nothing in return.
Friends who shared the stage with us know we would always gather at our place for eating and drinking at any time of day or night. He famously bought a bakery display of sweets with 20 containers which decorated our kitchen and was always full. All friends loved to come in and just open the containers satisfying a hidden childhood dream in everyone, eating as many as you wanted.
After working for nearly 50 years he retired and enjoyed some time off with us in Europe when he received a letter from the Brazilian Government that his pension would be cut because there was fraud in the department that issued it. He has been fighting for the last three years to prove his innocence and have his deserved pension back and in the meantime to survive he sells with my Mum sugar cane juice and pastries at a street market, they work really hard and do not have much but never lost their giving personality, they find joy in giving.
I don't believe my Dad ever thought or desired that we were commercially successful, I think in his mind he would provide for us forever, that's what he would have wanted, he is ashamed of taking anything from us but I am absolutely certain he would love for our music to be recognized, to be listened to, for every body's music to be listened to. You could always see him with tears in his eyes when he saw some story of musicians or artists who never made it in life but suddenly got a later break or something of the sort. Perhaps his own story would have made him sensitive to the hardships of life.
As Max is recovering in hospital we would like to play a song we made for him called Sugar Cane, just like he is, so sweet!
Sugar Cane (Willesden Green) by Loosh
Come back to us safe and sound Max, we love you!
Paulo, Simone and Tayo (sign your name below) Your children on children's day
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
The 7 luckiest moments in our history in no particular order


6 - Our Gig at the Fulham Greyhound in London, a really cult place at the time, also a great reception

Sunday, 29 August 2010
The 13 Most Unlucky Moments in our History in no particular order

4 – We decided to have a drink after our rehearsal in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. When we came back we found someone had broken into our car. We could actually see the thieves as they run away carrying our keyboards. All the sounds I used for the songs were programmed by myself so none of the songs sounded the same again.

6 – After finishing the sound check for a gig in Rio, Paulo popped out for a drink and found Herbert Viana in the queue at the venue ticket box set. He was a famous Brazilian front man to a Brazilian band called Paralamas do Sucesso who were also embarking in the same Brazilian rock style we were at the time and it would be a great promotion for us if a more famous musician enjoyed our work. Paulo spent the whole night looking for him amongst the faces in the public but he didn't think he was in.

9 - Rough Trade Records got interested in our work just before it went bankrupt in 1991.
10 - We actually won a competition of best band at the Robin Hood Pub and a recording but the prize was never given out.
11 - We got a review from a demo section on NME Magazine with a really grumpy cow whose only purpose was to put down unsigned bands in the best way she could. Thankfully some links to our tracks were also published along with the review and we got some fans who decided not to trust her and listened to the tracks.
12 - While returning from a rehearsal in Rio Paulo and I got stuck in a tunnel during a shoot out between Police and robbers. The longest few minutes of my life. When they were gone we got up from the bottom of the car where we had been ducking down and checked out for any blood, thank God all still tucked in carefully into our veins!
13 - We are still unsigned, but many people say they appreciate our music, now this bit is up to you to change, forward this blog to your friends and spread our songs, our music is our life, we would love to see it grow and see it loved.
There's no luck, there's no chance everything turns out the way it was meant to be
I think the Mill fans the creator when he throws his dice every night after midnight
Friday, 13 August 2010
Happy 25th Anniversary!!!

To celebrate we are launching this podcast with 7 lucky songs each one of them a remake Loosh style for the 7 different stages of our career. We are not going to charge you to download our tracks but would you consider donating $1, that's it, just one American Dollar to the Autism Treatment Center of America - Home of the Son-Rise Program?
I have myself been running a Son-Rise Program for my autistic son for the last five years with amazing results. If you donate for our songs, as a present for us, just one dollar and invite all your friends to do the same we could together help the Autism Treatment Center of America to donate scholarships for more families like mine.
Make Friday the 13th a lucky day for autism:
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/document.php?documentid=52§ionid=7
"The Autism Treatment Center of America™ is the worldwide teaching center for The Son-Rise Program® , a powerful, effective and totally unique treatment for children and adults challenged by Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Asperger's Syndrome , and other developmental difficulties. Our team of committed teachers combines Autism strategies, support and education that combines over 100 years of “real life” experience working with children using The Son-Rise Program®. Over the last 27 years we have worked with more than 22,000 parents and professionals from around the world teaching them a system of treatment and education. We do not put limits on the possibilities for your child. We can help you to bring your child as far across the bridge from Autism to recovery as possible. For some, this means complete recovery. For others, this means improvements in their child's development, human connection, communication, skill acquisition and quality of life far beyond what most would have ever predicted."Autism Treatment Center of America
2080 S. Undermountain Road Sheffield MA
01257413-2292100
1 - Dreams and Lies is a Loosh song
2 - Seedless Grapes in the Morning is an original recording by Seven Miles High
3 - Victoria She Was is a remake Forro (North Eastern Brazilian) style representing Dancyn Days
4 - King's Road to Rio is a remake of Rio Sightseeing representing Felix Fritz
5 - Tres Mulheres is sang in Portuguese and is representing Kaddish
6 - Mess is a remake of Cleopatra Morreu and is representing Kafka
7 - Procissao is sang in Portuguese and is representing Colonia Penal
Thank you so much for celebrating our anniversary by listening to our tracks and helping a great cause. Enjoy the tracks!
Luz Taylor
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Picture Albums - England
![]() |
Felix Fritz |
![]() |
Dancyn Days |
![]() |
Zen Arcade/Secen Miles High |
![]() |
Loosh |
Picture albums - Brazil
![]() |
From the beginning |
![]() |
Colonia Penal and Kafka |
![]() |
Kaddish |
![]() |
Redskins/Zen Arcade |