[the_original_ib]

"Oh, and I'm glad I stumped you on a country! Yeah!"

Oh believe me, it's far from impossible!

"Cool. Or if you have problems with individual eastern bloc countries, how about something in a "Songs from the Former Soviet Union" or "Look what happened when the communists finally got the BOOT!" type of show. A couple from Estonia, Maybe something from Latvia or Lithuania,"

Yeah, that's the idea. I *think* I can get two hours out of Estonia if I stretch it. I have nothing from Lithuania and don't know if anything exists. I have a couple things from Latvia, both newer. I only know of one or two bands from the Ukraine and have neither. I know of one band from Belarus but don't have it. So there's work to be done. I have a couple of good contacts for East Euro stuff so I might be able to CDR-swap my way to a show at some point but the collection won't have it.

There is one band from Turkmenistan that I have, and one artist from Tuva (not prog but what the hell). The only real problem with a "former Soviet Union" show is that these areas have little to do with each other... Latvia and Turkmenistan have nothing in common (which is part of the problem of the Soviet Union frankly).

As for Russia itself... this I could do a two hour show for but it's not at the level I want it yet. The oldest prog I have from Russia is early 80s. My East Euro contacts might be able to help me with older stuff. The main delay with these shows is wanting to do them right.

"or if you want to expand past the former SU, maybe Czech Republic, Slovakia (most peaceful seperation of one country into two in recorded history!), Yugoslavia (the LEAST peaceful separation of one country into many in recorded history!), Hungary, etc."

Happily these countries all support shows. In fact I have already done a two-part series on Hungary.. one was older bands and the other "newer" bands (80s and later). Yugoslavia I am about to do a four-part series broken down into the countries as they exist today. Romania I did a show already. The Czech and Slovak stuff is in the pipeline but I still have to do the research of what was from which and how it ought to be grouped together.

"Andorra?"

This is a tough crowd.

"Actually, isn't Ponty's bass player he uses now from Cameroon?"

Not sure myself. I do want to do shows with African countries but I have so little music from there. There is definitely some cool stuff but it's just a question of figuring out what's out there, planning shows, and then finding the music.

Regards,
Sean