Gentle Giant release previously unseen interview footage from 1980

Gentle Giant
(Image credit: Richard E. Aaron / Getty Images)

Gentle Giant have released previously unseen and unedited footage of the band being interviewed backstage at the Gusman Cultural Center in Miami in June 1980, which you can watch below.

"It amazes me that there are still things to be discovered,"e says Noah Shulman, son of Derek, and the man who put together the Proclamation fan video earlier this year that saw the surviving members of the band reunite (virtually) for the first time since 1980.

Jack Skelly who compiled Gentle Giant's Tour History had chronicled the events of that evening:

"Interestingly, Derek introduced the song Knots to the crowd as a “psychedelic” song. One fan claims Giant looked ill during this concert, even remembering John Weathers repeatedly throwing up into a bucket on stage during the show. As it turns out, the fan was correct. The band had eaten some bad burgers beforehand, jokingly described by Derek in a backstage press interview after the gig, as “Kentucky Fried Rat”. This also explains why Derek frequently left the stage when he was not singing. The food poisoning hit the players when the opening act, a group called Hoochie, took the stage, and continued through all of Giant’s set. Gary recalls this difficult gig, but says they still managed to put on a good show, even though they played without their own lighting and sound rig. This equipment was, unfortunately, on its way to Houston, the site of the following night’s show."

The film is used with permission and courtesy of HistoricFilms.com.

Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.