Accounts of Van Vliet's precocious achievement in art often include his statement that he sculpted on a weekly television show.

Van Vliet's artistic enthusiasm became so fervent, he claimed that his parents were forced to feed him through the door in the room where he sculpted.

Drummer John French had now joined the group and it would later ( notably on Trout Mask Replica ) be his patience that was required to transcribe Van Vliet's creative ideas ( often expressed by whistling or banging on the piano ) into musical form for the other group members.

Ry Cooder told of Moon becoming so angered by Van Vliet's unrelenting criticism that he walked into the room pointing a loaded crossbow at him, only to be told " Get that fucking thing out of here, get out of here and get back in your room ", which he obeyed.

Critically acclaimed as Van Vliet's magnum opus, Trout Mask Replica was released as a 28 track double album in June 1969 on Frank Zappa's newly formed Straight Records label.

Van Vliet's cousin Victor Hayden, " The Mascara Snake ", performed as a bass clarinetist later in the proceedings.

The group rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in their small rented house in the Woodland Hills suburb of Los Angeles.

Zappa said of Van Vliet's approach, " was impossible to tell him why things should be such and such a way.

An album with " a very coherent structure " in the Magic Band's " most experimental and visionary stage ", it was Van Vliet's most commercially successful in the United Kingdom, spending twenty weeks on the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number 20.

" Magic Band members have also said that the slower performances were due in part to Van Vliet's inability to fit his lyrics with the instrumental backing of the faster material on the earlier albums, a problem that was exacerbated in that he almost never rehearsed with the group.

Following Vliet's death, John French claimed the 40-second spoken word track " Apes-Ma " to be an analogy of Van Vliet's deteriorating physical condition.

The album's sleeve features Van Vliet's 1976 painting Green Tom, one of the many works that would mark out his longed-for career as a painter of note.

Van Vliet's biographer Mike Barnes speaks of " revamping work built on skeletal ideas and fragments that would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material.

The final Beefheart record, Ice Cream for Crow ( 1982 ), was recorded with Gary Lucas ( who was also Van Vliet's manager ), Jeff Moris Tepper, Richard Snyder and Cliff Martinez.

Two books have been published specifically devoted to critique and analysis of his artwork: Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh: On The Arts Of Don Van Vliet ( 1999 ) by W. C. Bamberger and Stand Up To Be Discontinued, first published in 1993, a now rare collection of essays on Van Vliet's work.

A deluxe edition was published in 1994 ; only 60 were printed, with etchings of Van Vliet's signature, costing £ 180.

According to Dr. John Lane, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in 1997, although Van Vliet's work has associations with mainstream abstract expressionist painting, more importantly he was a self-taught artist and his painting " has that same kind of edge the music has.

One of Van Vliet's last public appearances was in the 1993 short documentary Some Yo Yo Stuff by filmmaker Anton Corbijn, described as an " observation of his observations ".

Musically, Van Vliet's primitive style contrasted sharply with Zappa's compositional discipline and abundant technique.

The strands of this logic emanating from Vliet's Beefheart persona having been ' written in ' as a character in a ' teenage operetta ' that Zappa had formulated, along with Van Vliet's renowned ' Pepsi-moods ' with his mother Willie Sue and his generally spoilt teenage demeanor.

French recalled that the musicians ' contract with Van Vliet's company stipulated that Van Vliet and the managers were paid from gross proceeds before expenses, then expenses were paid, then the band members evenly split any remaining funds — in effect making band members liable for all expenses.

* Seth Van Loo – lead vocals ( 2007 )

The original band was Jay Kay ( vocals ), Toby Smith ( keyboard ), Stuart Zender ( bass ), Nick Van Gelder ( drums ) and Wallis Buchanan ( didgeridoo ).

Richie Unterberger of Allmusic called the album " blues – rock gone slightly askew, with jagged, fractured rhythms, soulful, twisting vocals from Van Vliet, and more doo wop, soul, straight blues, and folk – rock influences than he would employ on his more avant garde outings ".

Van Vliet spent the next few days overdubbing the vocals.

The instrumental backing was effectively recorded live in the studio, while Van Vliet overdubbed most of the vocals in only partial synch with the music by hearing the slight sound leakage through the studio window.

This rock classic consists of Akkerman's guitar chord sequence used as a recurring theme, with quirky and energetic interludes that include alto flute riffs, accordion, guitar, and drum solos-along with Van Leer's whistling, nonsensical vocals, falsetto singing, and yodeling.

Steven Van Zandt used this time to shine on backing vocals, as his voice changed on performances of the song from the Born To Run Tours to the The River Tour.

Steve Van Zandt was now officially back to background vocals on this song, going to Bruce's mike with great confidence, giving the song an even more upbeat vibe.

On June 3, Michael Anthony began a successful tour with Hagar billed as " The Other Half " ( a reference to them being half of Van Halen with the other half being Eddie / Alex ), with Anthony singing lead vocals sometimes.

It was Van Halen's first studio release since 1998 and first with David Lee Roth on lead vocals since 1984.

* Eddie Van Halen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals ( 1972 – present ), lead vocals ( 1972 – 1974 )

* Alex Van Halen – drums, percussion, backing vocals ( 1972 – present )

* Wolfgang Van Halen – bass, backing vocals ( 2006 – present )

The band was formed in October 1967, comprising Brendan ' Brush ' Shiels on bass guitar ( born in 1946, Dublin, Ireland-formerly of The Uptown Band ), Noel ' Nollaig ' Bridgeman on drums ( born in 1947, Dublin-currently with Van Morrison ), Bernard ' Bernie ' Cheevers on lead guitar ( born in 1948, Dublin-formerly of The Intruders ), and Phil Lynott on vocals.

As of December 2011, these included Geoff Foot, who has been associated with the band since Noone's departure, as lead singer and bass guitarist, Kevan Lingard on keyboards and vocals, and Simon Van Downham on guitar.

Van Halen released 5150 ( 1986 ), their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which was number one in the U. S. for three weeks and sold over six million copies.

In 1995 Van Halen released Balance, a multi-platinum seller that would be the band's last with Sammy Hagar on vocals.

Bands to emerge from other major British cities included The Animals from Newcastle ( with the keyboards of Alan Price and vocals of Eric Burdon ), The Moody Blues and Spencer Davis Group from Birmingham ( the latter largely a vehicle for the young Steve Winwood ), and Them from Belfast ( with their vocalist Van Morrison ).

* Donnie Van Zant ( vocals, guitars ) 1974 – present

Anthony is known for his stage antics, his effects-laden live solos, his number of custom-made bass guitars including a Jack Daniel's model shaped like a whiskey bottle, and his background vocals in Van Halen.

Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band Mike played in before joining Van Halen.

Musicians who contributed to the album included guitarists David Gilmour ( Pink Floyd ) and Carlos Alomar, pianist Herbie Hancock, Sting ( who provided backing vocals on " The Promise "), Grace Jones ( who provided the brief but dramatic spoken-word interlude on " Election Day "), bass player Mark Egan of the Pat Metheny Group ( whose very distinctive fretless sound can be recognised in " The Promise ", " El Diablo " and " Lady Ice ") and David Van Tieghem, a percussionist from New York.

* Van Conner-bass, backing vocals