Rosie Vela was scheduled to do some dates in the U.K. around the end of May/early June but these were cancelled due to illness. That sounds familiar: thirteen years ago Steely Dan were forced to cancel some of their later concerts when Donald Fagen went down with a sore throat. Anyway, one new date that I have seen confirmed is for the Hammersmith Odeon in the first week of October. She has recently played three successful nights in New York, opening for Andy Summers.

It will be interesting to see if Walter and Donald appear on the follow-up to Zazu because if they do, it'll almost certainly mean that we will have to wait longer for their own LP. And while we are on the subject of waiting, here is a very appropriate quote from the KPFK interview by Walter. Talking about Steely Dan fans being deprived of their music due to the twice-postponed release date of Aja, he said, "Steely Dan fans, we like to think, are probably the ones that can keep it up for the longest."

There are a lot of British groups around at the moment who are acknowledging the influence of Steely Dan upon their music. Firstly, there is a Scottish band called Danny Wilson, a three-piece who have just broken into the U.S. charts with their single Mary's Prayer. Secondly, another Scottish group, Deacon Blue, fronted by an ex-teacher, who have taken their name from that song on Aja. They have received a lot of critical acclaim for their debut album, Raintown, and have been gigging extensively around the country. Finally, yet another Northern group -- the Kane Gang -- who, in recent interviews, have been "admitting" to listening to Steely Dan -- even throughout the turbulent years of punk.

Last modified on Tue Feb 06 20:54:59 1996