The New Look

Voiceprint Website
VOICEPRINT
G R O U P O F C O M P A N I E S
As one of the leading independent record companies Voiceprint
has always tried to be that little bit different whilst maintaining the

newsprint
high standards of the larger more corporate record companies.
We like to think that Voiceprint is flexible and user friendly. By
user friendly we of course mean customer friendly and it is you
people out there that we have to thank for making the company
the success it is. As you will have read in the Newsprint
magazine there are many new and exciting releases available
from Voiceprint. MD Rob Ayling has also been travelling the
world in order to secure even more interesting artists and titles
to add to the eclectic and wide ranging Voiceprint Roster the
most recent of these signings being Patrick Moraz. ISSUE SEVEN 2006
Throughout 2006 you will be able to buy many of Patrick’s albums
directly from Voiceprint including such rarities as the Mainhorse
album which has never been available officially on CD and also
the album Patrick recorded as part of Refugee.
On the new site you will find that we have discounted the prices

HAWKWIND
of all our CDs making them cheaper than they have ever been
and not only that we can guarantee that any order we receive
from you will be despatched within 2 working days which I think
you will find is faster than the majority of the BIG online web
sales companies.
In addition to that the Voiceprint website will feature a great many
interviews and features about the artists on or distributed by
Voiceprint and also news of new programmes on the Voiceprint an audience with Dave Brock
Web Radio Station all of which will be available as Podcasts.
If you prefer to read about your Favourite artists then Newsprint
will be the regular source of information for you and this regular
online magazine will be available to download in PDF format
free of charge.
We can promise you a great many interesting things coming
up in the next year in terms of releases, offers, news stories,
Pod casts and interviews. If you want to kept up to date every
month with what is happening here at Voiceprint HQ then just
return this email with the word ‘Subscribe’ in the subject box
and we will ensure that every month you will receive our e-print
Newsletter. We also promise not to pass on your details to any
other companies. We hope to hear from you soon
www.voiceprint.co.uk

Newsprint... stop press

In a new development, Voiceprint have branched out into the
television business and launched Voiceprint TV. In another strong
customer friendly move Voiceprint have also launched Voiceprint
Soundbites. Details of these two exciting developments are
below:
Voiceprint Launch Voiceprint TV
In keeping with our aim to move forward and provide Voiceprint
customers with the best possible service Voiceprint have today
launched Voiceprint TV
Using the Youtube website you can now watch as well as listen
to some of your favourite Voiceprint artists
To check out our debut programme featuring Rick Wakeman and
Gordon Giltrap just click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmwwtiIqaM&search=Rick
%20wakeman
There will be more videos added for your viewing pleasure over
the coming days and weeks. It is free to subscribe to Youtube
and if you subscribe to Voiceprint TV you will automatically be
informed each time we add a new video or programme to the
site
Voiceprint Soundbites
Working in tandem with Voiceprint Web Radio we now present
Voiceprint Soundbites. This consists of one track from a featured
album on the Voiceprint catalogue, together with a personal
KEITH CHRISTMAS ELTON DEAN MAN
introduction by the artist. We are proud to announce that Patrick MORE TALES FROM THE HUMAN ZOO AN APPRECIATION A FAMILY AFFAIR
Moraz has kindly agreed to launch the series with a personal
introduction to all of the albums Voiceprint have released. Other
artists will be adding their thoughts to their catalogue releases
over the coming months but artists who have so far contributed
IONA MARTIN STEPHENSON
to the series are; Geoff Downes Snowy White, Corky Laing, THE CIRCLING HOUR SPINNING THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE and more
Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman.
newsprint
Patrick Moraz fact coming from Yes I feel it to have been a serious

the story of i lapse of judgement!

All joking aside perhaps thirty years on people will
ISSUE SEVEN 2006 ock musicians rarely need an excuse to
see this quite wonderful album for what it is worth, a

R immerse themselves in a concept album and

oddly enough Progressive Rock keyboard
piece of art that has transcended time and fashion
and a piece of work that people will find themselves

c
coming back to again and again. One thing is for
players it would seem are probably the main culprits.
certain with The Story Of I Patrick Moraz certainly
It would be perhaps a little unfair to say that Patrick
began his solo career in style and enhanced a

ontents
Moraz was following a tradition of keyboard players
career that has seen him work with two of the
from Yes making fanciful concept albums. Let’s face
world’s biggest and most respected rock bands with
it people were probably expecting him to do just that
Yes and The Moody Blues and release more than a
when it was announced that all the members of Yes
dozen diverse and highly appealing albums.
would release solo albums in late 1975 and early
1976. The Story Of I
three patrick moraz The Story Of I was indeed a concept album and Located on a plateau, surrounded by a jungle of
forgive the pun a towering concept at that. Basically strange vegetation and animals, stands a building, The Story of I
four keith christmas the story written by Patrick takes place in a huge I.
hotel where guests exchange their life for the pursuit A ‘Hotel’ offering people of all creeds, colours and times each year, the winners of the floors, those
five elton dean of pleasure and follows the lives of a man and sexes the realization of their impossible dreams, who have successfully completed the course, are
woman who accidentally fall in love while staying at people united only in search of the ultimate pushed out onto the diving board by the attendants,
six john wetton and the Hotel. experience. to plunge in a few minutes the distance it has taken
years to mount.
geoff downes This is the briefest Progressive of outlines as to go I stands for initiation, identity, idealism, integration,
into any further depth would be pointless although illumination, immortality, infinity… The ground onto which the bodies fall is transparent,
seven the kon tors for those with an interest the original story is re The building is controlled by a sphere hovering and reduces everybody instantly to its component
printed below. overhead, within which is stored all information on atoms. Below stretching deep beneath the earth, is
eight francis dunnery The music was a dazzling mix of rock jazz and the emotions, sentiments and sensations of all the another, similar building, like a reflection of the one
even classical with Latin overtones and undertones people in the various rooms. towering above. There, the reconstituted diver will
experience the inverse of the previous conditions.
nine introspective present throughout. Well, if you’re going to do From all over the world people are attracted to this
something then I suppose you pull out all the stops, centre. The bait is the possibility of experiences Somewhere, sometime in the building a man
ten dave bainbridge bearing in mind that at the time of this release Patrick way beyond normal existence… They are offered and a woman meet and fall in love, deeply, truly,
was firmly installed as the keyboard player with Yes the fulfilment of all their dreams, all their hopes all completely. Sometimes they go through the games
and had not only toured extensively with the band and tests together, sometimes they are separated,
twelve eddie and the hot rods but also contributed to the excellent Relayer album.
their secret ambitions and desires. And they flock in,
sometimes during the games they are paired with
the disappointed those who have realized that any
That the press were keen to talk to him was an each other, sometimes they compete with each
thirteen ian wallace hope of development and personal fulfilment in the
other~ but always they are in love, and they are
understatement. The music however was probably outside world is forever gone, that their futures are
the most diverse and possibly the least “Yes” like as barren as their presents determined that their final sacrifice shall be together.
fourteen snowy white album to come from any of the members of Yes who So they rise and approach the top.
The only price is the same as the reward:~ Life
all unleashed their particular works of art onto the The days of sacrifice the payment of the ultimate
sixteen anthony phillips public within a few months of each other.
itself. For if, after careful screening, the applicant is
price, life, are always popular. People gather to
allowed to take part in the various ‘games’ on the
The overriding feel as I have already stated is Latin watch their favourite heroes, whose developments
seventeen martin stephenson different floors~ after he has continued through his
have been recorded and electronically relayed for so
with a strong Brazilian feel throughout. I vividly own idealized situations he will die. This has been,
remember catching Patrick on that most wonderful until this story starts irrevocable. long, to take the final step… The end of illusion.
eighteen attrition of television programmes The Old Grey Whistle Test However, there is a key~ a key which so far has not But on this particular day all of the world waits for
and whilst to be perfectly honest I and quite possibly the final episode in the love story they have been
twenty hawkwind Bob Harris were none the wiser following Patrick’s
been found~ a possibility of escape.
witnessing for so long, as never before have two
description of the basic concept which at times After he has entered the building, the searcher can people together reached the top. The pair link
twentythree david foster sounded like the plot of a science fiction film. The only go up. He must rise through sensations of ever hands and walk over the crowds, along a narrow
music however was a whole different ball game. increasing magnitude, artificial situations of greater plank. Every touch of apprehension, all their mutual
twentyfour jan akkerman Pop at times mixed with jazz and of course the
and greater challenge, Some, despite the delicately adoration and deep feeling of love for each other, is
beneficial manoeuvring of the omniscient sphere, amplified and relayed to the attentive millions. At the
dreaded prog rock. The Story Of I works its way
twentyfive man through the various pieces and following the story
which can slightly aid when difficulties become too very end of the diving board, they look once at each
great, surpass the abilities of the individual. other and take the final step.
through the music is far easier than you might think
twentysix annie haslam and is certainly not the bore that some concept However, he MUST rise, conquering all obstacles, And the crowd watches in awe, as the two figures,
albums tend to be after the initial ten or fifteen learning his own final limits, and he can never turn already dwarfed by the distance, rise from the end
twentyeight the fellowship/ andy ellison minutes or so have elapsed. In fact possibly it is the back. He sets his own pace for the ascent, it may of the board and, carried by their love, vanish into
albums diversity that works in its favour and also take years for the completion of the course, but the skies.
twentynine gilli smyth makes the piece as interesting as Moraz originally there is only one direction for him
Original Story by Patrick Moraz
envisioned it to be. The album certainly stands up All the while, his progress, his feelings, everything
thirty gentle giant to scrutiny some thirty years on and listening to he does and is, is monitored by the overhead Patrick Moraz
the entire work on compact disc also enhances the globe~ each despair, when the problems seem Mainhorse (IVPOO1CD)
thirtytwo live in london experience as we are able to listen to the album in insurmountable, each stage of a triumph over Refugee (IVP002CD)
its entirety without a break. It is actually this point a victory, his pains, his lusts, his pleasures, his The Story of I (IVP003CD)
thirtyfour the voiceprint sampler that makes me wonder just why Patrick Moraz ecstasies, are recorded, electronically sorted, and Out In The Sun (IVPOO4CD)
never decided to go down the route of perhaps a the best sensations transmitted for the most popular Patrick Moraz (IVP005CD)
thirtysix the new voiceprint website gala performance with an orchestra and choir. In entertainment for the rest of the world. And, seven Coexistence (IVP006CD)
Coordination: Anne Marie Lavelle / Direction: Rob Ayling
Articles and editing: Jon Kirkman
Layout and design: Jon Price @ Kadu Ink
Elton Dean photograph by Erik Poulsen © Erik B. Poulsen/Two
Monkey Finger / Martin Stephenson photographs by Sally Williams.
Contact: Tel - 0191 5121103 / Fax - 0191 5121104
Email: info@voiceprint.co.uk
Write: P.O Box 50, Houghton-Le-Spring, Tyne and Wear,
DH4 5YP. England
Website: www.voiceprint.co.uk
Mainhorse Refugee Out In The Sun Patrick Moraz Coexistence
Keith Christmas
more tales from the human zoo

Stories From The Human Zoo Brighter Day Weatherman Light Of The Dawn

K
eith Christmas came through during the
late sixties playing his own brand of folk
and rock tinged pop. More famously Keith
played on the David Bowie album that would
eventually be titled Space Oddity. From there he
formed a rock band briefly before signing a solo
deal with Emerson Lake and Palmer’s record
label Manticore. While with Manticore Keith
Christmas released two albums Tales From The
Human Zoo and Brighter Day the first of which
Brighter Day was produced by ELP and former
King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield. After these
two albums Keith became disenchanted with the
music business and dropped out for many years
before reappearing with a new blues influenced
style. In late 2004 Keith spoke to Jon Kirkman
about his diverse and interesting career
Jon Kirkman Tell us about playing on David Bowie’s
Space Oddity and how that come about
Keith Christmas It came about because he was
running a sort of folk club in the late sixties when
folk was really popular but being the sixties David
called it the Beckenham Arts Lab and it was at the
Three Tuns a pub on Beckenham High Street and
university and I was doing alright gig wise but I didn’t
really know how to hustle, but luckily I managed to
get a deal with Manticore via Greg Lake with Pete
Sinfield producing. To say those albums were more
rocky wouldn’t be totally correct, as in places it’s
quite folky. It’s a bit of a mix though as some of those
tracks are quite ethereal and some are very heavy.
So that was Brighter Day. Human Zoo was recorded
in Los Angeles with a bunch of session musicians.
JK Tell us how the deal with Manticore came about
and what it was like recording with Greg Lake and
Pete Sinfield.
KC Well Greg was weird (laughs) No Greg was a
mega star, he was a member of one of the biggest
bands in the world. Greg and the boys always thought
big talked big, spent big and of course earned big.
That was what they were used to and the way it was
for them. I mean we booked Command studios went
in there and Greg snapped his fingers and curries
arrived and snapped his fingers again and musicians
arrived. We banged these four tracks down together
and then he disappeared to go off and do other ELP
type things and handed the production over to Pete
Sinfield. So initially some of it was done by Greg
and then he swanned off to be a star and Pete did
doing all right solo wise and I’d done a few tours
after I left university. At the time 71-72 73 ish I toured
quite heavily and then I had a bit of a quiet period.
In ‘74 I did Brighter Day and after that I put a band
together and I remember we did two gigs. One was
at the Marquee, which got great reviews.
JK Why did you decide to record Stories From The
Human Zoo in Los Angeles?
KC Well after the two gigs with the band I signed
for management with Jack Cross and he said I
should go to America and I said ok that sounds like
a good idea. So I said to the band after these two
gigs. “Sorry lads that’s the only two gigs we’re going
to do” and that was that. At the time Jack said let’s
go and live in America. I’d always wanted to live in
America anyway and also I’d had some pretty hard
years. I’d done a lot of sleeping on people’s sofas. I
remember when I was recording Brighter Day I was
sleeping on someone’s sofa so you can see that I
was two stages removed from what people thought
a successful musician’s life was about. So I’d been
pretty poor and we were doing a lot of drugs I’ll admit
that and so America gave me the chance to get away
from all that, which is of course what I did. I think it
was a very good idea to get away from London So
JK Following Stories From The Human Zoo you
took a rather low profile and in 1981 withdrew from
the music business why was this?
KC (Laughs) Well I came back to England in 1976
there was no market for artists like me. It was black
cold, wet and miserable with strikes going on and
everything and I struggled on. I wound up in a little
bedsit and then wound up on the dole because
I couldn’t get anything. I was watching everything
coming apart. Believe me there’s nothing great about
being poor and I just got fed up and I realised I wasn’t
going to be anymore than I was at that moment so I
started digging holes in the ground for a living. That
was the only work I could get. After twelve years
of being a musician I was unemployable I had no
real life skills at all and I remember quite clearly I
was thirty-five years of age. I’d got a degree and I’d
recorded five albums and I was digging holes in the
ground!
I went round my mind like a rat in a cage looking
for one door out and there was only one door and
I realised that I had to dig better and deeper and
longer holes and be the best digger of holes I could
then I realised from that moment on that a weight
had been lifted off my shoulders.
I did that for a while - a few years actually - and then
left that to train as a teacher.
JK What made you want to move back into the
music business in the late eighties? Was the musical
climate more to your liking?
KC I never moved back. I have never become a
musician again. I’m not a musician. I’m a teacher
now. Inside in my soul I will be a musician until I die.
It’s never left me so I don’t have to go back to it. I just
don’t do it as a job.
I have dabbled with a few things like a working band
for a few years and made albums like Weatherman.
Then I did a solo album in my front room, which I’m
very proud of. So I’ve never really gone back to it but
every now and then a bit of product comes out.
JK Weatherman in 1991 was a return but with a
blues format to it, is this where you would like to be
musically?
KC It goes back to what I said earlier about having
the mind of a rocker and the voice of a folky.
JK In closing then. What does the future hold for
Keith Christmas?
KC I don’t know. The way I used to live my life I
used to make things happen and forced them into
the mould as I thought they should be. Unfortunately
that wasn’t the best way for me as a person, it
doesn’t suit me. I’m much better making things
happen organically rather than forcing them. So
what I have is a very nice life. I’ve got a beautiful
wife, great kids and a nice house and some time
in the next two years I’m going to be able to take a
pension from my job and that’s the time to look at
some of the plans I have in my mind.
Keith Christmas
Brighter Day (VP220CD)
Stories From The Human Zoo (VP219CD)
Weatherman (VP221CD)
Light of the Dawn (KPC001CD)

Elton Dean: An Appreciation

out the back was a very large garden where people
would go and commune with nature and various
substances. It was a very popular place and stars
like Marc Bolan used to go there and I was one of his
favourite guests and he used to play and have a bit
of a strum and be the warm up. Anyway I played his
club a load of times and he asked me to go and play
on his record which had the big production number
on it Space Oddity which was done elsewhere and
he had an album to fill up with sort of fairly ordinary
tracks and I played on around five of them.
JK You had released a number of albums prior to
the Manticore deal, which covers Brighter Day, and
Stories From The Human Zoo but these albums
weren’t as rocky as the Manticore albums why was
that?
KC The first three were done in 69-70 and 71. They
were done while I was still at university and were
more folk jazz oriented. The third one particularly
had a band side with some really good musicians
who played with Stephen Stills. We had Fuzzy
Samuels on bass and on the other side was acoustic
with strings arranged by Robert Kirby who did one of
the Nick Drake albums and it was my sort of artistic
experiment to show two sides of me. I was a folkie
but I desperately wanted to be a rocker. I think if I’d
had a bit more wit and common sense I would have
realised that I haven’t got the voice to be a rocker
and I probably haven’t got the temperament to be a
rocker either and if I’d have stuck with the acoustic
I’d have probably been alright.
Then there was a gap or hiatus when my management
of the time dumped me down the toilet along with
all the other artists and I found myself languishing
in the country for a couple of years having finished
the rest. He did make me laugh though when we
came to the financial reckoning at the end he had
charged me for the curries (laughs). Actually in fact
he charged me half for the curries (laughs). I thought
that was funny.
JK Were there any compromises made for the
album or was it a joint effort between the three of
you (Yourself/ Greg Lake/ Pete Sinfield).
KC Compromises? Well in a way I was very innocent
and as a person I’m quite compliant so if someone
comes along and says this person has got a great
deal for you and this person is famous. I’ll admit I
was probably a bit of a groupie - probably still am
- really certainly I was then. So these people would
come along and I’d say everything was fantastic I’d
turn around and say yeah that’s good or whatever. I
don’t think I’ve ever turned round to anyone and said
well I don’t know if I want six-part sax or whether that
is the right instrument for that track. I suppose if I’d
had a bit more wit and wisdom I might have been a
little more aggressive about my opinions but I’m of
the opinion of get on with it or get on with something
else. I don’t suppose it’s very professional really
is it? So yes in a way I suppose it was one big
compromise really. They would tell me what to do
and then I did what I wanted (laughs).
JK Following the release of Brighter Day how much
live work did you undertake and who did you tour
with. Was it just you as a solo act or did you form a
band to tour the album. Did you play any festivals
aside from the Glastonbury Festival, which was prior
to Brighter Day?
KC I’m not sure really I don’t remember. Well I
remember before Brighter Day I was doing solo gigs
but they were beginning to dry up a little bit. I was
why Stories From The Human Zoo was done in LA
was because that was where I had gone with Jack.
They actually gave me the chance to go and do it
with Creedence Clearwater up in San Francisco.
Thinking back that might have been a better idea
but I didn’t want to do another album with a band I’d
done that in the past with Mighty Baby and they were
a great bunch of guys but the recording was done
very hastily and I didn’t like the quality of the stuff
that came out. I’d been writing stuff that was across
such a wide range of styles that I didn’t want to get
tied into one thing so I thought that was better.
JK The album has a very American feel to it was this
the plan at the time and in hindsight are you happy
with the direction the album took
KC It was interesting because some of the musicians
like Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn were wonderful
legends and other great musicians playing on it. It
was done at Mike Pinder’s (ex Moody Blues) studio
in the canyons north of LA and it was really cut off
from everything and we’d been up there a week or
so and this strange character comes up and says Hi
“I’m Mike Pinder!” Anyway In terms of style when I
first met the girl who is now my wife, one of the things
she asked me about was my albums so we sat down
one night and got an old tape deck out and played
them all and something struck me very strongly -
that the first three had a very rough and ready feel
to them in places, mistakes, naive writing very naive
playing but they did improve. The production went
from awful to pretty good. So with these later albums
you can hear I am almost learning my craft sort of
having to grow up. There was more money spent on
them of course. They are slightly darker albums but
they are better produced.
Elton Dean 28th October 1945 - 7th February 2006
ong time member of the British Jazz Rock band
L The Soft Machine, Elton Dean has died at the
age of 60. Elton had been suffering health
problems for the last twelve months and passed
away on the 7th of February in hospital in London.
Elton Dean was a long time member of the highly
regarded British band, playing with them between
the years 1969 and 1972 and was part of the classic
line-up of the band that featured Hugh Hopper Mike
Ratledge and Robert Wyatt, although his reputation
had been forged prior to his time in that band by
stints with Long John Baldry’s Bluesology alongside
a young Elton John. In fact Elton John claimed he
thought of the name Elton John by combining the
names of Elton (Dean) and John (Baldry). Inspiration
for names aside, Elton Dean’s next musical step was
with noted jazz pianist Keith Tippett’s Sextet where
he would record two albums and play countless
well received concerts. Following his time with Soft
Machine Elton Dean’s resume was wide and varied
playing with the likes of Carla Bley, Keith Tippett’s
Ark, Soft Heap and the London Jazz Composers
Orchestra.
More recently he has been performing with The
Soft Machine Legacy who have been playing to
increasingly large and enthusiastic audiences both
in the UK and mainland Europe. In fact more recently
towards the end of 2005 the band performed on
the long running German rock music programme
‘Rockpalast’ and earlier in the year released a live
album entitled Legacy Live In Zaandam and has
also performed along with Hugh Hopper with French
band The Polysons under the name Polysoft.
Widely considered one of the best players of his
generation, Elton Dean also recorded and released
a number of critically regarded solo albums some of
which are available through Voiceprint Records.
It is for many fans however that he is remembered
for his outstanding work with Soft Machine during its
most popular period between the years 1969 and
1972
A steady stream of highly collectable official bootlegs
has satisfied the demand from this highly thought
of British band and more recently the band were
afforded the luxury of a fine official biography.
Published in 2005 and written by Graham Bennett Selected Releases on Voiceprint.
and entitled Out Bloody-Rageous, the book was a
critically well received tome that did much to explain Elton Dean
the popularity of this legendary band. El Skid (VP230CD)
Into The Nierika (BP292CD)
In addition to Elton’s work with a variety of artists
QED (BP339CD)
in a variety of styles, Elton Dean’s solo albums
Two’s And Three’s (BP167CD)
were well received and continue to sell steadily. For
Elton Dean & Hugh Hopper
many however it is his work with Soft Machine that
stands the test of time and for which he will be best The Mind In The Trees (BP274CD)
remembered. Soft Machine
A talented and versatile musician the jazz scene Legacy Live In Zaandam (FGBG4617)
and on a wider scale music in general will mourn Somewhere In Soho (VP262CD)
his passing. Live 1970 (BP290CD)
Wetton and Downes
2006 will see the Silver Anniversary of the
formation of one of the great supergroups of the
eighties. Asia came together out of the ashes of
the then most recent line up of Yes which had
not long ground to a halt following the Drama
tour of 1980. Steve Howe and Geoff Downes both
felt they wanted to continue working together
and joined with John Wetton ex just about every
major British Rock band of the last five years
and Carl Palmer from the then recently defunct
Emerson Lake & Palmer.
The band recorded their self titled debut album
which was subsequently released in March 1982.
From here on in things took off with the band barely
hanging on. The debut album went on to sell almost
nine million copies worldwide with a great many of
those sales coming from America. The band toured
relentlessly and were perhaps hurried into recording
a second album entitled Alpha. Unfortunately
sales weren’t as high as the debut album although
two million copies of an album isn’t to be sniffed
at. Following an American tour John Wetton was
sacked and the band called upon Greg Lake to help
them fulfil a contractual obligation in Japan which
emerged as the live video Asia In Asia. Greg Lake
left and John Wetton returned and then Steve Howe
left. Asia recorded their third album Astra in 1986
before the band took a short break. When they
returned it was to promote the half Best of half new
material release Then And Now. Following a short
tour taking in the UK, Russia and South America
however John Wetton left the band. Are you keeping
up?
Geoff Downes opted to keep the Asia flag flying
with vocalist John Payne and the duo kept the
band moving through a number of albums and live
dates for the next fifteen years. In July 2005 John
Wetton and Geoff Downes recorded together and
the resultant album ICON hinted at something that
many fans had hoped for - a full scale reunion of
the original line up of Asia. The news broke initially
on Steve Howe’s website stating that all the original
members of Asia would indeed be celebrating the
twenty fifth anniversary of this magnificent band.
heading
for asia
During the British dates in support of the Icon album
Jon Kirkman spoke to both Geoff Downes and John
Wetton about the specifics of the Asia reunion and
just what it might entail
Jon Kirkman 2006 sees something that a lot of
people have been talking about, certainly for the last
six months or so – the twenty fifth anniversary of the
formation of Asia. Of course as everything comes
to those who wait there was an announcement
intended to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary and
then nothing. Can we start with you John because
the news broke on your website.
John Wetton (Laughs) Actually it didn’t!
JK Really? Well I stand corrected.(Laughs)
JW It was Steve Howe’s website that broke it first but
the whole thing started when the four of us all stood
in the same room for the first time in twenty three
years on the 5th January. We were miraculously
in the same room still alive and we discussed the
possibility of working together again. Everyone
seemed to be healthily in favour of it so that’s where
it started.
JK Geoff, I imagine it would it be correct to assume
that the catalyst for this was the fact that you and
John were working together, would that be right?
Geoff Downes Yes, a couple of years ago we did
start working on a few songs. John and I had not
been in that much contact for some time and we got
together through a mutual friend and John suggested
with work on something for the Rock of Faith album.
That is really how it started. We sat down at the old
piano like the old days twenty off years ago and
found that we still had quite a lot to offer as a writing
partnership. That developed into the Icon album and
I suppose in some ways it has sown the foundations
for the reunion of the original band.
JK The writing partnership between the two of you,
it is quite fair to say from the early days of Asia was
on fire. You were hot weren’t you?
JW We were hot yeah for sure, there was a time
when we just rattled them out, and we couldn’t sit at
a piano without something coming out of it. It was a
very good period, it still is isn’t it?
GD Yes it still is, in fact the Icon album did not take
us that long to write. It was always a case of I had an
idea and John had an idea and we would put them
together or else one of us would have more of an
idea and we’d work on it. We would manage to get
it into a song quite quickly. When we were working
with the original band they used to have weekends
off and we used to go straight into the studio and
bash out demos down of all kinds of things, not
necessarily of Asia stuff but stuff we had written
together that we felt was worth documenting.
JK We have to state here categorically that although
you two guys were in Asia, are in Asia whatever the
definition of that is at the moment. Icon was not
a plan to re-capture old glories but was a definite
single project which is why it was called Icon and
that was put across very strongly when the album
came out. However it must have crossed your minds
that the two main writers of Asia – this is working
again. Whose idea was it to give Steve and Carl a
call?
JW I think the lynchpin was when we played in
Germany at the end of October last year as Icon.
We played about 75% of the set that we are going
to play tonight which contains quite a lot of Asia
stuff and it just felt good, it felt right. At that point we
were only a heartbeat away from making a couple
of phone calls. I actually don’t know who made the
phone calls do you?
GD No, I think an approach was initially made
from Frontiers about the original band but it didn’t
revolve around that any more once the feelers had
been put out. I think the fact that Steve is not that
active with the Yes thing paved the way for him to
get involved in it and the same with Carl. It didn’t
exactly snowball but the pieces were in place and
everyone looked at it from the outside and said it
looks like a good idea.
JK Well situations as you have just said can snowball
particularly these days with the internet rumours fly
thick and fast. How do you guys keep a handle on
this because it would be very easy to get caught up
Dragon Attack Live in Buffalo
in the fervour of an original line up of Asia reunion?
It has been very quiet both from you and the last
line up of Asia which was fronted by John Payne.
This must be deliberate presumably. You have said
what needed to be said at the time and until there is
something to be said, nothing else will be said.
JW Absolutely right and the fact is that we remain in
contact on the phone so that with all the stuff flying
around it is very easy to read something that can
be attributed to one of us and you might think, “Oh I
must have a word with him!” you know. Actually we
know that is not the truth. People have appeared on
websites impersonating someone else. It is dodgy.
GD The main thing is that we want to do it right.
It is a one time opportunity for Asia to go back out
there and not only play the original Asia stuff but add
some extra music relevant to our various careers. It
is a one time opportunity that we want to be cautious
about how we approach it. We don’t want too much
hype or anything like that. It is effectively the four of
us wanting to do it and have a good time as well.
JW Something else that there is also a question
over is that we didn’t quite put the lid on it in 1983
and this is the only opportunity we will get to do that.
We are not going to shirk at that one.
JK 2006 is the 25th anniversary of the band forming
but 2007 will see the 25th anniversary of the first
album. Would I be hedging by bets if I say that
maybe early 2007 we will see something from you
guys?
JW You mean March 28th 2007? (Laughs) We have
discussed doing another album and certainly Geoff
and myself are not short of material. Every time we
put a writing spell together we always seem to come
up with a lot of stuff and I think that it is important
to point out and it is something we have been
KH
on Tors to Animals
f r o m
ard as it may seem now Britain in the
late fifties and early sixties was an
almost barren land in terms of home
grown music. Most British music fans had to
make do with the watered down pop of the
likes of Cliff Richard and Marty Wilde or else
the hangover from the big band days with the
likes of Dickie Valentine. There were however
hot spots throughout the UK with small but
dedicated groups of musicians who would go on
to huge success across the world - championing
the cause of R n B music. All that was a few
years off yet but in places like London, Liverpool
Birmingham and Newcastle a small but popular
scene featuring local talent grew up.
In Newcastle one of the bands that sprang up
playing their own brand of R n B was the Kansas
City Five. The lynchpins of this band were three
of the musicians that would eventually form the
Animals a band that were considered second
only to the Rolling Stones in terms of influence
amongst the R n B bands of the initial wave of
the so called British (music) Invasion of America
in 1964. Keyboardist Alan Price, drummer John
Steele and vocalist Eric Burdon were all at one
time in The Kansas City Five.
Live in Hyogo Live in Massachusetts ‘83 Now Live 1990
discussing in the last couple of days is the Icon stuff
to us in many ways is quite a different approach,
the orchestral angle or the actually arrangement is
really quite different from the way the original Asia
was put together. It will be a case of this is Icon and
this is Asia – there are two quite different styles that
we address to each one.
JK We have now in March 2006 the Icon project on
the go, Steve Howe is doing a few solo gigs, Carl
Palmer has some touring to do in America. Do you
think this is a very good time – there is something
on the horizon but there is a little bit of cushion that
stops people getting too carried away?
JW Well we are faced with the reality of what we are
doing now rather than what we are doing later but I
echo what Geoff says that we would really like to do
Icon 2 because it may seem from an outsider it is us,
the original Asia writers but it is in such a different
vein. For instance there was one time during the
Icon record when I was actually contemplating using
the F word in a song. I looked at Geoff and he said,
“Whatever” you know. I didn’t in the end but we allow
for that possibility. We can do anything we want with
Icon. I wouldn’t have dreamed in a million years of Wetton Downes
doing that with Asia.
JK Well we have a lot to look forward to. John and
Wetton Downes (STALL103CD )
Geoff it is always a pleasure to speak to you guys.
You are both in great form and I am really excited at Asia
the prospect of this. I guess it is a question of watch Dragon Attack (VPTMQ004CD)
this space and keep watching it. Live In Buffalo (VPTMQ005CD)
GD Absolutely, watch this space and sooner rather Live In Hyogo (VPTMQ006CD)
than later I think there will be something more Live In Massachusetts ’83 (VPTMQ008CD)
concrete coming up. Now Live 1990 (BP253CD)
In early 1962 however Alan Price left the band
to join another Newcastle band The Kon Tors
whilst Eric Burdon left to live briefly in London.
One key member of the Kon Tors however was
Bryan ‘Chas’ Chandler. Other members included
vocalist Nick Brandon and guitarist Gordon
Cleghorn.
Following the usual musical chairs prevalent
within bands the Kon Tors shortly metamorphosed
into The Alan Price R n B Combo which in turn
with drummer John Steele and the subsequent
return to Newcastle of Eric Burdon and the
addition of guitarist Hilton Valentine - shortly
after would become The Animals The Kon Tors
The recordings featured here however come at Mortonsound Recording Studios and whilst
from the short period just before the band
these historical recordings are raw they have
changed from the Kon Tors to the Alan Price R
been re mastered for this release and represent
B Combo and as such are an historic document
of one of the best bands in Newcastle who the very first recordings from a band that would
would shortly go on to become one of the best
evolve and go on to universal acclaim in the
bands in the world. sixties and beyond as the Animals.
Tracks include the songs that would have
featured in the bands then live set such as
Love Letters, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do and
a self written song sung by Alan Price The The Kon Tors
recordings are taken from an acetate recorded The Kon Tors (MORTON1CD)
 Introspective
FRANCIS DUNNERY
twenty years on
and not quite
thank you and goodnight
a glance over the shoulder

W
elcome to Introspective, a series of
programmes about some of your
favourite artists as diverse as Eddie and
the Hot Rods, Bill Bruford and Steel Pulse. See
them as you’ve never seen them before talking
to me and performing many classic tracks in
& a look into the future

One Night In Sauchiehall Street

selected and some rare footage. Introspective
is real, it’s bereft of soft lighting, kind edits and
or those of you with a long memory the name

F Francis Dunnery may well be a familiar one. If

not then the band he led, It Bites, will certainly
be a name you should remember. It Bites had a
massive hit single in mid 1985 with Calling All The
Heroes. While the single was a great catchy pop
hit the band had rather more musical aspirations.
The album Big Lad In The Windmill was certainly a
surprise for rock fans who were able to look beyond
the pop hit and the image. Ah yes, the image. Well
remember it was the eighties and foppish clothes,
big shoulders and even bigger hair, with a touch of
make up, was de-rigueur back then. It Bites went
on to record another two excellent studio albums
and a final live album suitably titled Thank You And
Goodnight.
From here Francis Dunnery embarked on a solo
career, kicking it off in fine style with the album
Welcome To The Wild Country. Sadly, despite the
album being excellent, solo fame and fortune was
not quite ready for Francis and in truth he wasn’t
ready for it either. Following this studio album there
was a swift about face and the live acoustic album,
One Night In Sauchiehall Street featured Francis
and Ashley Reakes in a mix of music, poetry and
spoken word. At this point Francis was enjoying a
creative sugre but commercial success was harder
to achieve, although by this time he had built up a
strong and dedicated following. The first seeds of
his own cooperative label Aquarian Nation were also
sown during this period.
Shortly after this he left the record label - who in
reality had picked him up off the back of the It Bites
deal. By his own admission he was not ready for the
solo trip and following an invitation from Robert Plant
he joined Plant’s band for his Fate Of Nations world
tour. In 1994 Francis signed a new deal with Atlantic
Records and issued the well-received Fearless
album.
Over the following years Francis Dunnery worked on
a number of his own projects and also assisted in the
production and recordings of other albums released
through his label.
Two other higher profile projects Francis was
involved in were the Grammy award winning albums
The Mis Education of Lauren Hill and Santana’s
Supernatural.
Not content with recording, releasing albums and
touring, Francis - who is interested in Metaphysics
and Astrology - wrote a regular horoscope column
for Billboard Magazine entitled ‘Musicscopes’. More
recently he has studied for a masters degree in
psychology, a project he has managed to juggle with
his career as a musician and label boss; although he
does tend to concentrate on one thing at a time.
During a tour in late 2003 Francis decided the time
was right for an It Bites reunion. The seeds of this
were sown at a concert captured on the live DVD
Live At Union Chapel which is a fine shop window
for the talent on the Aquarian Nation label. As well
as containing a selection of the best of Francis
Dunnery’s material it also features an acoustic set
from It Bites. In fact as the reunion went so well that
plans are afoot for a more long term reunion although
Welcome To The Wild Country
Let’s Go Do What Happens
this will not prevent him from continuing his solo work
and collaborations, the most recent being live dates
with legendary keyboard player David Sancious.
These days Francis Dunnery is resident in New York.
He still manages to tour regularly and record both
for himself and as guest on other artist’s albums not
least those artists who record for Aquarian Nation.
Oh yes,have I mentioned he is working again with
It Bites? Twenty years on from thier appearance on
Top Of The Pops performing Calling All The Heroes
Francis Dunnery has arrived at the place where he is
most comfortable and although he’s been more than
“Once Around The World” thankfully, it is not quite
time to say “Thank You And Goodnight”.
FRANCIS DUNNERY
Welcome To The Wild Country (FDWILD1)
Let’s Go Do What Happens (FDWILD200)
Man (AN001)
Hometown 2001 (AN002)
One Night In Sauchiehall Street (AN006)
Live At The Union Chapel (ANDVD1)
stylists and it steers clear of the more obvious
biographical questions you’ll already know the
answers to.
So goes Sam Boyero’s introduction to the
Introspective series of DVD releases.
The Voiceprint Introspective series gives the artist
the opportunity to resolve the past, present and
future and perhaps give a more rounded view of a
career that in most case is continuing to move on
rather than being stuck in the past.
Almost all the artists featured in the series whilst
having a successful past continue to record and
release new albums and play to sizeable audiences.
The opportunity to set the record straight but also
contextualise their success with their current and
even future plans, makes for a tempting proposition
Man for the artist and also makes for an interesting
programme.
Eddie and the Hot Rods
The interviews by and large are relaxed affairs either
taking place in the homes of the interviewees or
recording studios. In the case of Eddie and the Hot
Rods it was deemed more suitable to talk to front
man Barry Masters in a London bar bearing in mind
Eddie and the Hot Rods pub rock roots.
As you may or may not be aware, many of the
artists featured in the Introspective series have
what is known in the business as ‘A Past’ which can
sometimes makes the industry a little resistant. In the
case of Eddie and the Hot Rods Barry Masters has
fronted the band through thick and thin since their
breakthrough as part of the pub rock movement
during the mid seventies. Barry who chose to do
the interview in a pub himself says that the band is
playing better than ever and the fans still seem up
Hometown 2001 for it.
Looking at the specially filmed footage for
Introspective it might as well have been last week
rather than almost thirty years ago as the band tear
their way through Do Anything You Wanna Do. The
audience look no less restrained either bearing in
mind that some of them probably nip home after the
gig to the wife and kids. Amazingly however down
the front you can see a fair proportion of younger
fans that in reality weren’t even born when that song
was racing up the singles chart in 1977. This is where
the Introspective format works best
Bill Bruford
Jazz will always have a dedicated and loyal audience
and for those people who play jazz the genre is seen
to be at the cutting edge musically so to speak.
Interviewed at his home in Surrey, Bill Bruford would
have more than many to say about the business. The
band that has held Bill Bruford’s interest over the last
twenty years however has been his own jazz combo
Earthworks. Over two distinct periods no one has
pushed the jazz envelope further than Bill Bruford.
During the conversation, Bill talks passionately
about what it is about jazz that attracts him so and
also where he sees himself moving musically in the
Live At The Union Chapel future
Snowy White
In the case of Snowy White who has an incredible
career behind him as a session man to the likes of Al
Stewart, Cliff Richard and of course more famously
Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy, you find out just what it
is that makes him tick and just what influences this
modern blues player in terms of his chosen path of
performing the blues.
Snowy also has more recently released a new
album as well as two DVDs. In the interview which
took place at Snowy’s home we find out what it was
like having a hit single and also “Why did he leave
Thin Lizzy?”... Well I won’t spoil that for you but once
again looking at the footage on Introspective it is
clear that Snowy White has lost none of his touch
on the guitar.
Martin Stephenson
From jazz the series moves to Martin Stephenson
whose career bears the hallmarks of being the most
schizophrenic of those featured in the series Martin
was the founder member of the Daintees who scored
hit singles and albums in the early eighties. The
band featured regularly on the play list of Radio 1
and worked with some of the finest producers in the
business including American Russ Kunkle. Martin
however tired of the business and the hoopla the
band was forced to jump through like many others
of the period.
As you can imagine Martin Stephenson is no mere
pop star. Martin was steeped in traditional music
which in hindsight - listening to some of the Daintees
albums - was always there. Martin takes us on a
musical journey much like his records that even being nominated and winning the Grammy award for
takes us out into the Highlands of Scotland. All this
the album Babylon Bandit. You also get to hear how
and he manages to throw in a few tales along the
the band was invited to perform for President Bill
way.
Clinton at his presidential inauguration in 1993.
Steel Pulse So as you can see looking over your shoulder can be
The first release in the Introspective series comes not only informative but highly entertaining so long
from Birmingham band Steel Pulse. In the DVD we find as you keep your eye on the road ahead.
that the band were formed at school before coming To have such access to real talent is a rare thing…
to the fore during the punk era playing many gigs Have it the Introspective way!
with various punk bands of the time who were united Introspective
under the Rock Against Racism banner. Steel Pulse
Steel Pulse (VPDVD16)
hit big time with their album Handsworth Revolution Martin Stephenson (VPDVD23)
and the single Ku Klux Klan. Subsequently however Bill Bruford (VPDVD22)
you find that the band became a huge success in Snowy White (VPDVD18)
America which culminated in 1986 with the band Eddie and the Hot Rods

The Circling Hour
Dave Bainbridge of Iona in conversation
ver the last fifteen years Iona has built up
O a solid reputation as one of the premier
Celtic Rock Bands. Over a series of
well constructed and classy albums the band
has established itself not only across the UK
and Europe but even as far afield as America
and Japan. Following the album Open Sky in
2001however the band decided to take a break.
The main reason being vocalist Joanne Hogg started
a family. During the hiatus the various members all
busied themselves with other projects. Most notable
of these were the solo albums from Dave Bainbridge
(Veil of Gossamer) and Troy Donockley (The Pursuit
of Illusion). There were even a couple of albums a
DVD and selected live dates from Troy and Dave.
In late 2004 however the band once again picked up
the reins and started performing selected concerts.
It was to be but a short step to think about returning
to the studio for the next Iona studio album. That
decision was made in summer 2005 and the new
album The Circling Hour is due in the summer. With
the first album in almost six years ready to go, Jon
Kirkman spoke to Dave Bainbridge about the new
album and the band’s hopes for the album and plans
for more live dates to promote the album
Jon Kirkman It’s six years since you released a
studio album, for those not in the know, could you
tell us why the band took a break.
Dave Bainbridge Well basically we had planned
to get the next studio album out around 2002 but
whilst we were in Japan Joanne (Hogg) announced
that she was pregnant and over the next couple of
years had two boys who are now 2 and 4. So for the
last few she has been being a mother most of the
time so that has restricted what we could do with
the band.
JK Of course these things do take time and it’s
important for most people to spend time with their
young children.
DB Well for Jo it was quite miraculous because she
and her husband had tried IVF and that had all failed
and then out of the blue she got pregnant. It was
great really for her. Obviously there were implications
for the band but we have tried to be supportive and
tried to work around the time she can still work with
the band. The writing took a lot longer because she
was preoccupied with other things!
JK There were other projects that other members
of the band were involved in weren’t there? You
recorded an excellent solo album entitled Veil of
Gossamer, Troy recorded a couple of solo albums
and there was a couple of Troy and Dave albums as
well so you weren’t exactly sitting back were you?
DB As soon as Jo announced that she was pregnant
for the second time we realised that we wouldn’t be
able to do any gigs for a while. I had been planning
on doing a solo album for ages so that gave me the
opportunity to do that. I started it in November 2002
and most of 2003 was spent writing and recording
that. Troy and I also got together to do some duo
gigs because we needed the money (laughs) but
also we thought it would be a great opportunity to
do something slightly different, with some Iona stuff,
some more traditional stuff and some solo album
stuff in a format that gave us a bit more freedom.
When you play live with a band, the arrangements
of the Iona stuff could be quite complicated and
have to be fairly set. We found that with the duo we
could leave more spaces open where we could just
improvise or bounce back off each other live which
was really nice.
The Circling Hour
JK As we are speaking now in April 2006 you are
nearing completion of the new album which is called
The Circling Hour. When was the decision made to
look at a new Iona album?
DB It was really probably last July. We have had a
few writing sessions over the last few years so some
of the bits on the album have been formulating since
the end of the Open Sky album. There is one of
the tracks which is called Wind, Water and Fire in
which there is an opening section that is keyboard
and violin based, we actually recorded that with Troy
and Frank the drummer at his home studio. Those
were our initial sessions for the studio album so
we have had one or two times together. We had a
good session in Ireland a couple of years ago where
probably four or five of the songs took shape but
we have been really seriously recording it from July
last year.
JK You’ve played some gigs as Iona and recently
released a live DVD. Was any of the new material
tried out in a live setting? I know some bands like to
do that but did you?
DB Yes we did actually. We would have tried it more
if it was Britain. We had three tracks that are on the
new album that we played live. What we did was
play them on the live DVD recording in London and
also on some gigs in Holland and Germany. One
track was called Strength; Factory of Magnets for
the Soul, which is quite an interesting title (both vocal
songs) and then Wind off the Lake which is one of
Troy’s tracks. It has some vocals but is a longer
instrumental featuring Troy. We did that one live but
it has mutated into a sort of a huge epic piece.
JK You find that sometimes don’t you when you
work songs in live. You think this is a great song,
let’s try it live and then it becomes something slightly
different when you come to record it.
DB That’s true. The track’s strange actually, when
we played that live we didn’t really have a set chorus
for the song, it was just an improvised vocal line with
a bass and guitar riff underneath. Then when we
came to record the vocals for it, we came up with
this really nice vocal hook line which has really lifted
the song up to another level. We got a good reaction
from the audience when we played the tracks live so
that gave us quite a boost knowing that they were
going to be liked.
JK I have listened to some of the album; it’s not
finished yet – and if I am honest, some of the
tracks on this album are rockier than you have ever
attempted before with Iona. Was this a deliberate
attempt to move in a different direction?
The Eye of the Eagle
DB Yes a while back, it could be back in about
2001 actually; we had released Open Sky and we
had various discussions about the direction of the
next album and I have always collected notes I can
use when I am writing and I wrote down a load of
comments from the band members. The general
consensus was that it would be nice to have an
album that has a more “up” feel with more rhythmic
stuff going on. On Open Sky there was quite a lot
of long ambient passages which were great for that
album but we did not really want to repeat ourselves.
I think it makes more of a statement as well because
there hasn’t been a studio album for so long that we
wanted it, from the very beginning, to come in with
a bang.
JK Do you think that some of the long time fans
will be surprised by the direction you have taken?
Certain tracks really hit you right between the eyes.
It is certainly a statement of intent in some ways isn’t
it?
DB Well I think it is still very much Iona. It has got all
of the Iona elements; you know Jo’s voice and Troy’s
pipes and the keyboard textures and my guitar and
stuff so I think fans will like it. It is still unmistakably
the band which is the main thing.
JK With a band like Iona that has a fair bit of history
behind it now, how difficult is it to come to a new
album? Is it like trying to re-invent the wheel? Does
it feel like that for you?
DB It’s not like we haven’t been working together
for the last six years so it is not really re-inventing
the wheel.
JK No, I mean in terms of having so many albums
out and having some sort of legacy. There is the
need not to repeat yourself.
DB I think there is probably a danger that people are
going to expect the same sort of thing and the band
gets stuck into a rut of sounding the same. I think
that is one of the reasons we have tried to be more
rhythmic and more rocky this time.
JK I suppose there is an element of having to give
the fans a little bit of what they might expect but
something new as well in order to make it interesting
for you guys as a band.
DB Really we have approached it more in terms of
the best materials that we have at the time and then
tried to interpret that through the band’s musical
filter I suppose. Sometimes what you intend to do on
an album doesn’t happen. We had two more tracks
that we were going to include in the album which
we have left off because one of them was quite
an ambient instrumental track and the other was a
slow ballady vocal track. We realised as we were
gathering material that it was becoming too much
like the previous album with the amount of slower
material so we had to make a conscious decision to
prune that a little bit.
JK Is it difficult to take that decision though, after all
artists don’t write to order generally. They create and
therefore it must be hard to have to lose that track.
DB Yes it can lead to quite heated discussions
sometimes. It is usually down to me, being the
producer of the album. I think it is good that it is
quite a long time before we decided the kind of
album we wanted to make. That gives me an overall
perspective of how the tracks fit together and if
some do not fit into that secure vision for the album
then you have to make a decision on whether they
stay or not.
JK The album is in the final stages of production
now; you are still doing some mixing I believe. Are
you looking at an early/mid summer?
DB I would think so yes.
JK I know you have some live dates planned before
then. Following the release of the album, what are
your touring plans?
DB The band has some live dates in Holland,
Belgium and Germany at the end of April and the
first half of May. We can’t really commit to doing a lot
of touring because of Jo’s home situation. It is sort of
three gigs here and three gigs there sort of thing. We
are doing a couple of UK stints. We have some gigs
lined up in October and November; it could be just
about six gigs. We will probably just continue doing
that really and fit around Jo’s schedule, maybe three
Live in London
gigs a month in the UK. We do want to try and get to
some places we haven’t been to for a long time.
JK How does it feel as a band going out on the
road with a new album? I would imagine it is very
exciting.
DB Yeah, we can’t wait to play some of the new
tracks; we will see how that goes. We have got
some rehearsals actually starting tomorrow. There
is quite a lot of stuff to learn. We’re not playing the
whole of the new album initially anyway but we will
probably do something like six new tracks.
JK Having heard a fair bit of the album I would say
that a lot of it would translate rather well to the live
arena. Parts of Wind, Water and Fire would make a
really good showcase for part of the concert.
DB Well there are two long tracks on the album,
one is called Wind off the Lake which we are doing From Silence
live. Wind Water and Fire is the longest track on the
album, about fourteen minutes altogether. We are DB It was strange at the time because we had never
not going to be initially tackling that one because it even met these Japanese musicians prior to playing
is too much to learn in a very short rehearsal time. with them. We had heard them and knew that they
Certainly we will look at doing that for later in the were great. It took a bit of adjusting but after about
year. By the time we get to the UK gigs we might an hour of playing with them it sounded great. We
have that one ready for playing live. thought maybe we could extend this idea to other
countries in the times that Jo isn’t available, to go
JK I would love to hear that live. I can imagine the
on tour and maybe do some of the big instrumental
lights and everything for that number! I guess you
tracks using local musicians in different places.
guys can see the potential in that.
JK That would be an interesting thing to develop.
DB Yeah, where we can, we take our own lighting
DB We have already got someone who wants to put
engineer with us but it depends on the venue and
on some concerts in America and in that area we
the size of the concert we’re playing. When he is
there he is very good at responding to the mood know some great musicians. That is all down to the
visa situation though.
changes and everything.
JK I hope that comes off. Meantime the Circling
JK With the situation regarding Joanne and her
Hour is hopefully released in the summer, with
family commitments and touring other parts of the
some gigs before that and in the UK at the end of
world, I know you and Troy did some gigs in Japan
the year. There is plenty to look forward to and for
about eighteen months ago, would that be an option
or would that perhaps be too far?
those places that can’t see Iona live, there is the live
DVD.
DB At the moment we are restricting band gigs to
DB It is brilliant to finally have that out. We have been
UK and Europe and we will see maybe in a year
talking about doing a live video for years. Now we
or two when both of the children are at school, it
thought we could do something really representative
might be a different situation then. In the meantime
of the band as it is now. So I am really pleased with
Troy and I are looking at doing other gigs as a duo
it.
and possibly even doing countries like the USA. We
JK That’s great Dave.
know about lots of different players in lot of places
who are really great players. We would love to be Iona
playing Iona music with them. We did this when we The Circling Hour (OPENVP11CD)
were in Japan. One of the gigs we did we had some Live in London (OPENSKYDVD2)
Japanese musicians; they learned a few of the Iona
Dave Bainbridge
tracks. We just had a rehearsal in the afternoon then
played them in the evening and it worked out really The Eye of the Eagle (OPENSKYDVD3)
well. Dave Bainbridge & Troy Donockley
JK For an artist that must be incredible; it mixes the From Silence (VPDVD15)
elements of the familiar with the unfamiliar. From Silence (OPENVP5CD)
Eddie
and the
Hot Rods
still got that teenage
I
f we were able to borrow Dr Who’s TARDIS
and travel back in time to late 1976 or early
1977 we would find ourselves in the midst of
the firestorm that was PUNK.
There were a number of leading lights in the Punk
movement with the Sex Pistols at the top of the tree
closely followed by the Damned. Not far behind them
however was a band from Southend called Eddie
And The Hot Rods. Now whilst the music papers
would have you believe they were a punk band in
reality Eddie And The Hot Rods just happened to be
at the right place at the right time.
The band were initially part of the “Pub Rock”
movement alongside two other Southend bands
Dr. Feelgood and The Kursal Flyers. Both the
Feelgoods and The Kursal Flyers were reasonably
well established at the end of 1976 and Eddie And
The Hot Rods looked like being the third band from
Southend to do the business.
Signing to Island Records, who at the time were still
seen as a leading independent label Eddie And The
Hot Rods released their debut single Writing On
The Wall in early 1976, which while critically well
received commercially, fell by the wayside. It was at
the end of the year that the band had released an
EP recorded live at the Marquee, which just missed
out on the top forty. They had also released an
album entitled Teenage Depression, which while its
title may suggest the angst, and alienation of punk
was in fact a high-powered rock n roll album, which
although may have hinted at the “New Wave”, was
decidedly “Old School”
The Rods as everyone knew them certainly looked
the part however and were more in tune with the
younger audience than their contemporaries like
the Kursal’s and Dr.Feelgood and the gigs were all
stripped down no frills affairs which again went down
well with the young audience that was now picking
up on the band. A highly influential article in the
Melody Maker by Caroline Coon also did the band
no harm at all and Eddie And The Hot Rods went
from strength to strength.
In early 1977 Graeme Douglas from The Kursal
Flyers jumped ship and joined the Rods as they now
became known and with his arrival the band became
a little smoother with the rawness tamed if not entirely
abandoned. The change in line up coincided with the
summer of Punk and the Rods also scored heavily
with a hit single. Do Anything You Wanna Do. The
truth of the matter was that while Graeme Douglas
gave the band a veneer of class and pop sensibility
the Rods gave Douglas the raw rock n roll attitude
he craved for but didn’t receive whilst a member of
the Kursals.
There was no doubting the quality of the record,
which reached the upper reaches of the singles
charts and remains a staple of the bands live set to
this day. The album from which it came Life On The
Line was also a good album, which saw the Rods
adopt a more sophisticated sound from their debut
of less than a year previous. There was no let up in
depression?
energy although many of the original fans must have
at this point been a little confused.
The band would not trouble the compilers of the
singles charts again following Do Anything You
Wanna Do although they would go on to release
two further albums in the form of Thriller (Their final
for Island and no doubt a subliminal influence on
Michael Jackson) and Fish and Chips (Their first
...and last for EMI) the band folded shortly after the
departure of Graeme Douglas in late 1980 shortly
after the release of Fish And Chips. Eddie And The
Hot Rods would reform a number of times over the
next twenty or so years, sometimes with the original
line up and sometimes with just vocalist Barrie
Masters and various others.
The crunch that made the decision of reforming more
permanently was the offer to perform a major UK
tour in 2000. Barrie put together a re conditioned Hot
Rods and has barely been off the road since then.
All good and well you might say but aren’t the band
merely re treading past glories? The answer to that
is an emphatic NO. The audiences for Eddie And
The Hot Rods may well contain a sprinkling of the
original audience who by now have almost certainly
grown up to become professionals like doctors, bank
managers and the like but also a newer younger
audience who have a desire for a high octane rock n
roll band to blow away the cobwebs.
There is also a new album to promote and the album
Better Late Than Never could well be the album to
seal the bands renaissance. Recorded quickly in late
2004 the album is far closer to Teenage Depression
than Life On The Line and gives younger groups
like the Vines The Hives and the Killers a run fro
their money. The critics seem to think so as well as
the album has received uniformly good and positive
reviews.
One of the stand out tracks on the album is a cover
of the Ian Hunter song Once Bitten Twice Shy which
the band have made their own. So much so in fact
that you would swear that Ian Hunter had written
it especially for the band although the album as a
whole is what was once known as “A Corker” and
when played loud on your hi-fi will certainly give the
neighbours something to bang on the wall about. If
good sweaty rock n roll is your bag then Better Late
Than Never is the album for you and Eddie And The
Hot Rods are the band for you.
In 2005 with a line up that features Barrie Masters
alongside guitarists Richard Holgarth and Chris
Taylor, Drummer Simon Bowley and bassist Dipster
the band are still playing over a hundred and fifty
gigs a year and not just in the UK. In July of 2005
the band once again travelled to America for a short
tour, which was a resounding success. The band
now has its sights firmly on Australia and Japan both
of which should pan out towards the end of the year.
With the band set to record another album before
the year is out and more recently a concert sharing
the stage with Dr.Feelgood at the Astoria in London
to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Pub Rock
Live 2005
Better Late Than Never
things couldn’t be sweeter for this hard working
band who never quite gave up and got proper jobs.
Don’t just take my word for it though. Check out the
band,s website at www.eddieandthehotrods.com.
Read the messages from the fans all over the world
that have seen the band recently or more importantly
fans from all over the world that WANT to see the
band live in their neighbourhood soon.
Thirty years on Eddie and the Hot Rods are quite
possibly playing at a venue near you. They have a
DVD on the shelves and a new album Better Late
Than Never that as a title is more apt than you might
think...Oh Yeah do the band still have that Teenage
Depression? Well of course not but you may well
suffer from it if you miss the band when they play at
a venue near you...You have been warned!
Eddie And The Hot Rods
Live 2005 (VPDVD21)
Better Late Than Never (VP370CD)
Better Late Than Never (VP370CD)
Ian Wallace
King Crimson Songbook
Ian Wallace is probably a name that is familiar to
many music fans bearing in mind that over the
last forty years Ian has played with some of the
biggest names in rock music and considered
one of the most accomplished and in demand
drummers.
Ian first came to the attention of music fans in the
sixties when he was the drummer for northern pop
combo The Warriors.
Ian also marked himself down in music lovers books
when he joined another legendary progressive
rock band King Crimson playing on the albums
Islands and Earthbound. Following the split with
Crimson leader Robert Fripp, Ian along with the
other members of King Crimson (Mel Collins and
Boz Burrell) formed the short-lived Snape. Shortly
after the demise of this band Ian Wallace found
himself playing with Alvin Lee during a break in Ten
Years After’s activities
More recently Ian has recorded and released a solo
album entitled Happiness With Minimal Side Effects
and also leads the Crimson Jazz Trio. The Crimson
Jazz trio have released their debut album of King
Crimson interpretations entitled The King Crimson
Songbook. The album has received many critical
plaudits including a glowing critique from King
Crimson leader and guitarist Robert Fripp who also
wrote the sleeve notes.
Jon Kirkman Spoke to Ian Wallace in early 2006
about his career and the interest in the Crimson
Jazz Trio and started off asking him about his time
in King Crimson
Ian Wallace Well my overriding memories of the
original King Crimson are obviously very numerous.
It was almost a two year period and the first time I
was in a band of some notoriety. I had played in the
Bonzo Dog band but just as the backing drummer
and had been on the road with them seeing what it
was like to perform in front of large crowds. One of
the things that really sticks in my mind is coming to
America for the first time. It was so exciting because
all the music I really love comes from America –
jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, soul music
– everything really apart from classical music. I think
we were all very excited, me Boz and Mel were,
maybe Robert a little less so because he had been
there before and it was our first time. We had a ball,
we really did. It made me want to move to America
which was what I finally managed to do in 1976 and
I have been here now over more than half my life.
So I really feel this is my life and King Crimson was
the vehicle that allowed me to be here.
Jon Kirkman I believe Robert Fripp has endorsed
your latest band and album The Crimson Jazz Trio
The King Crimson Songbook, which must be great
for you to hear from your old boss and particularly in
such a positive way.
IW It is, Robert and I renewed our friendship over a
period of time starting about 1982 when he called
me. We hadn’t spoken for twenty years. He was
having some legal problems which involved all the
members of King Crimson. We had a really nice
chat and he calls sporadically. Then I met him when
he was doing a guitar thing at Tower records in Los
Angeles and I happened to be walking past. I saw
his name and went in. It was the first time I had seen
him in a long time. Then I moved to Nashville and
he would come to Nashville to visit Adrian Belew. He
called me and we had lunch and then I invited him to
dinner. We became really good friends and still are
of course. When I did the CJ3 album I called him and
asked him to do the liner notes. He wasn’t sure and
asked for the CD. I sent it to him and he phoned me
and he was laughing. He had just played it in the car
– he absolutely loved it.
JK The General opinion would suggest that the
Crimson Jazz Trio is going to be a big success and
many people would like to see the band live so
first of all will there be any touring for the trio and
secondly are you surprised in the interest generated
by this project.
IW Yes they will be touring. We’ve already done
shows in America and we’re talking to people about
playing in Europe. I’d like to go to Japan; I’d like to go
everywhere. We have had offers and we are working
on it. We’ve been out this spring, and hopefully this
summer certainly and the rest of the year.
As far as being surprised by the reaction to the
album, it’s very, very positive. I was a little surprised
but I knew that when we finished the recording we
had something really good but it’s actually exceeded
my expectations
JK We can’t leave today without mentioning the 21st
Century Schizoid Band, which has been extremely
popular although the band seems to have been
taking a break recently - are there any plans for the
band to work together again in the future in either a
live or recording capacity?
IW Well let’s put it like this. There are no plans not to
work together again in the future. Right now Jakko
is working on his solo album which is great. I have
heard most of it while I was in England. Mel is also
working on some stuff; I of course have got the CJ3
thing so everybody is doing their own thing at the
moment. Maybe at some point in the future I would
love it if we could get together and continue. We
have restrictions in the fact that I live in Los Angeles
and McDonald lives in New York. Mel lives most
of the time in Germany and Jakko and Peter live
in England. That presents itself with a problem but
never say never I love playing with the Schizoid band
and I hope we can play again together sometime in
the future or as Jakko says, “Come and see these
guys before they die!” So let’s keep everything open
and never say never.
Fission Trip
Ian Wallace
Happiness With Minimal Side Effects (VP367CD)
Fision Trip.Volume 1 (VP369CD)
Crimson Jazz Trio
Happiness with Minimal Side Effects The King Crimson Songbook (VP373CD)
 Snowy White
the way it is
Little Wing
ritish born guitarist Snowy White (Born
Keep Out - We Are Toxic
B Terence Charles White) first became
interested in music at the age of eleven
when he was inspired by blues musicians
Buddy Guy and B.B. King. He pursued his
blues style in a number of bands and during the
seventies Snowy made a reputation for himself
playing numerous sessions for a wide variety
of musicians such as Al Stewart, Cliff Richard
and Peter Green. More famously Snowy toured
as second guitarist with Pink Floyd augmenting
the band’s sound on the tours to promote the
Animals and The Wall albums. By late 1979
however tiring of the session scene Snowy
accepted the offer to join the rock band Thin
Lizzy. Snowy recorded two albums with Thin
Lizzy (Chinatown and Renegade) and completed
a number of successful tours before deciding
that the band’s music and more importantly
No Faith Required their lifestyle wasn’t to his taste.
He formed his own band featuring drummer Richard
Bailey and bassist Kuma Harada. With this band he
recorded his first solo album entitled White Flames.
A single lifted from that album (Bird Of Paradise)
became a surprise hit reaching the British top ten
in early 1983.
From here Snowy White recorded a number of blues
based albums all of which were warmly received by
the blues audience his records were aimed at.
His latest album The Way It Is was released in 2005.
Jon Kirkman spoke to Snowy about his career and
the new album.
Jon Kirkman You released your most recent album,
The Way It Is at the end of 2005 and one of the
songs featured on the album is the song Bird Of
Paradise which was your debut solo hit. Why have
you chosen to re-record that particular song?
The Way It Is Snowy White Well the basic reason why I recorded
Bird of Paradise again was because I wasn’t happy
with the sound on the first recording and although I
liked the performance and I liked the atmosphere,
I though it came out well, the actual track was
recorded in a rehearsal studio and it never sounded
the way I wanted it to sound. I had a bit of a chip
on my shoulder about it over the years and I just
decided for my own peace of mind really to have
another go at it and make it sound a bit more like I
thought it should sound. I changed it quite a lot and
it sounded ok so I decided to put it on the album. So
it was really just for me.
JK When Bird Of Paradise was first a hit in 1984 it
was totally different from the sort of music people
had previously associated with you having been a
member of Thin Lizzy. First of all, briefly tell us why
you left Thin Lizzy and was it a surprise when the
single was such a big hit
SW Well the reason I left Thin Lizzy was that I was
getting a bit frustrated. The reason I joined Thin
Lizzy was because I thought they were a great band
with good songs, Phil was a great front man. They
had a good future in front of them and there was
talk about giving me some space to do my thing in
the band, being the sort of blues musician type but
it never came about. Phil got into more and more
drugs and became more difficult to work with and I
just got more and more frustrated with it in the end.
When it came time to start recording the third album
with me I knew that when I got to the studio Phil
wouldn’t be there and so I didn’t bother to go in and
decided I had had enough. I didn’t see Phil again.
As for having a hit single., it was a big surprise
when Bird of Paradise was a hit. When the record
company wanted to put it out I didn’t really like the
way it sounded; as I said I felt I could make a better
job re-recording it. I agreed to have it released
because they said nobody would actually hear it!
So that was obviously wrong because Radio 1
started playing it and in those days Radio 1 was the
place where you got your music played to get hits.
It surprised me and I think it surprised the record
company and everybody.
JK I notice that Bird Of Paradise is conspicuous
by its absence on the new live DVD (The Way It Is
Live). Was there a reason for this?
SW Well, I find that Bird of Paradise is not a good
song to do live and I don’t actually enjoy playing it
live to be honest and it is a really old song. When
I have got a four piece band there aren’t enough
musical instruments to give it the full sound it really
deserves. There are many other songs I would
prefer to play live other than Bird of Paradise. I have
done it occasionally when I have had desperate
requests from somebody who has travelled three
hundred miles to hear it or something like it, so I will
try it. But it is not a track that automatically pops up
onto the set lists when I am making them out.
JK There are a couple of well known players on
the album in addition to your regular band like Max
Middleton and Rabbit Bundrick, presumably you
know these guys from the numerous sessions you
guys have played over the years.
SW Yeah, Max Middleton and Rabbit, Richard
Bailey on drums are my band at the moment. I
have known Richard since he was fourteen years
old; in fact Richard played on the first version of
Bird of Paradise and all my first albums. Kuma
Harada plays for me a lot – I have known him
since he first arrived in England in about 1970.
Walter Latupeirissa, however is my current bass
player. I have known Walter for about ten years so
in fact I know and respect these guys, I love these
guys. They are great musicians who play because
they love playing music and we have got a good
atmosphere going whenever we get together. I
thoroughly enjoy being on the road with these guys,
and I love the gigs we do so I think I am very lucky.
JK Away from the album for a moment and looking
at your influences, many guitarists over the years
have been fans of one of the 3 Kings so which, if
any, are your favourites - is it Albert, BB or Freddie
King
SW Well, Yeah, one of the first guitar players I ever
heard playing blues was B.B. King and I loved it, I
really loved it. I listened to Albert King and Freddie
King, Otis Rush and J.B. Lenoir, all these guys.
They were all great; they all influenced me. So I
sort of dived into that area of blues music and I
knew that was how I wanted to play. I just wanted to
play that sort of thing. That was my ambition when I
started playing the guitar actually, to just play blues
and earn a living playing it.
JK We’ve already mentioned your live DVD but
there is a limited live CD as part of the package and
there are a couple of Peter Green tracks on there
and on The Way It Is you have re done Black Magic
Woman. You also played on Peter’s solo album of
the seventies In The Skies. Do I take it Peter Green
is also an influence?
SW I have always loved Black Magic Woman which
was a Peter Green Fleetwood Mac song back
in about 1968. It was great and although a lot of
people think that Santana is the original version of From London which dates from an early period
course Peter’s was. It has been one of my favourite in your solo career and comparing the two it can
songs since then and I have always wanted to do it be seen that you have been incredibly consistent
and I have. A Columbian guy I know came up with throughout your career. You seem to have found
an arrangement for it which to me really worked exactly where you want to be and consolidated that
and we tried it and it sounded ok. I enjoyed it and I position through sheer hard work would you agree
thought I would put it on the album. I thought it would with that?
come out very well. Peter Green is obviously a big
SW Not sure whether I have been incredibly
influence on me. He was wonderful with beautiful,
consistent throughout my career. I am also not sure
soulful guitar playing; it was a lovely sound – yeah,
I am where I want to be. It feels like it is a journey
he was a big influence on me as well.
and I don’t know where it is going to. I don’t really
JK Most of the album is self written so how easy or know what I am looking for – I know I am looking for
hard is it to come up with an entire album’s worth of something but I don’t know what it is. It is an endless
material in the modern blues genre?
journey and it is an exciting journey. It makes it
SW I don’t find it too difficult, not really. Writing exciting and it just goes where it will. I feel I have
music for albums is a pleasure. I have got so many got a lot more travelling in me yet and I am up for
ideas in my head and when I am thinking about whatever the future brings.
how a song will sound I am always imagining my
JK Well the album is out and you also have a couple
guys in the band playing it and interpreting it. That
of DVDs on the market as well which kind of book
gives me a lot more inspiration when I think of it
end your career so what’s next for Snowy White?
like that. When we get to the studio I don’t fix on it
– beforehand we kick it about as a band. It becomes SW Well Snowy White and the White Flames, our
a band song. It is a pleasure; I really enjoy having all next thing is to carry on and try to do more of the
these ideas and trying to get them down. The only same – more playing, more gigs. As I said before I
frustration normally when I record albums is the fact have no trouble with material for albums, I have a
that there are financial restrictions and that I can lot more in my head for a new album when the time
only spend so much money. So even though I may
feel like re-recording some of it and make a better
job or have a new idea quite often I can’t go that
far. I have to be content with how it is at the time.
comes for that. In the meantime I am looking to put
a lot more live work together in 2006 and getting
out there and playing my guitar, playing my music.
Hopefully people will enjoy it because I will and that
It can be frustrating that but generally I am very is what I am looking forward to. That is what I do and
pleased with the way things go because really it is what I hope to continue to do.
just further steps along the road where I want to get
to and I am playing great music with my band. It is
all positive stuff.
JK With your solo career stretching to over twenty
years now do you have time to play any sessions
anymore as you have in the past worked with the
likes of AL Stewart, Pink Floyd, Peter Green and
obviously more famously Thin Lizzy.
SW I don’t do any sessions. Very occasionally I will
play on a friend’s album or something but I have
never been a session player. I don’t know where
that came from. A session player to me is someone
who can go in and play all styles of music, pick
things up quickly and play other people’s music. I
can’t do any of that. Nobody really asks me to do
any of that any more. I am very happy doing my own
career and just doing my own music.
JK You seem to play a great many live gigs and
you play a great many of those gigs in mainland
Europe but where do you see your main audience.
Is Europe and particularly Germany an especially
good market for you?
SW Yeah, Europe is a good market. That is where The Way It Is… Live
we do most of our live stuff. I thoroughly enjoy
going over there; it isn’t very far away and it is easy Snowy White
travelling. When I am with my band, touring around Little Wing (VP396CD)
Keep Out - We Are Toxic (VP397CD)
and playing gigs every night it feels like it is where I
No Faith Required (VP398CD)
should be. I am totally content so I consider myself
The Way It Is (WFVP001CD)
to be very lucky to be in this position.
Live From London (IPDVD008)
JK Aside from your recent album and DVD there is The Way It Is… Live (VPDVD12)
also another DVD out at the moment entitled Live Introspective (VPDVD18)
Anthony Phillips
having a field
A
nthony Phillips is as many people are aware a
founder member of Genesis alongside Peter
Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. As
a member of Genesis Ant recorded two albums with
the band (Genesis To Revelation and Trespass)
before leaving in 1970. Since that time Ant has
produced a number of well received rock albums
and a series of acoustic based albums which have
also done incredibly well.
Finding himself with the urge to record another album in
2002, Ant decided he would do “A Quicky” and record a
new album and then return to work on the library music.
Of course sometimes things don’t go to plan and in the
case of Field Day it was definitely a case of things not
going to plan.
Writing and recording the album may well have
stretched over considerably longer than he anticipated
but Ant was certainly pleased with the results as he
told Jon Kirkman in early 2006 when the album entitled
Field Day finally made it to the stores.
Jon Kirkman Your most recent album is entitled Field
Day. First of all this is a guitar album in every sense of
the word but why has it taken so long for you to return
to the guitar as your main instrument.
Anthony Phillips Well the guitar is my main instrument
but for long periods of time I’m involved in television
and library music work which is keyboard based in
order to access the vast array of sounds available and
conjure up all the different moods. It’s possible to do
that with the guitar but it’s just that much more difficult.
So this is the reason why the guitar has not featured in
my more recent work and I don’t tend to do guitar for
library and television music as I quite like to keep the
two separate.
The reason being I don’t mind people telling me not
to do certain things when its keyboards, but I do have
more pride in my guitar playing and I wouldn’t take too
kindly to someone like A.N Other TV person telling me
how to play the twelve string. I hope that doesn’t sound
arrogant but I’m sure you get the point. I also try and
break my albums up in terms of the different styles and
such. I did a piano based one and the guitar had been
long absent. I was very out of practice and I just wanted
to get back to where I once belonged.
JK I am very much reminded of the Private Parts and
Pieces series of albums when I listen to this album so
why call it Field Day and not another Private Parts and
Pieces?
AP The Private Parts and Pieces Sobriquet if you like
was really a series of albums at the time when there
were two really quite separate careers with completely
Anthology Archive Collection vol I
day
different styles I was releasing albums around the punk
era that were meant to be a little harder edged and rock
based and so the acoustic guitar stuff was clearly light
years away. So I was very lucky to get a release for
those albums then. They were very much against the
climate of the time and to start with it was just Private
Parts and Pieces. It wasn’t meant to be a generic thing
but it became a convenient way of separating those
two styles. However that situation doesn’t exist any
more as I don’t really make rock albums and therefore
the Private Parts and Pieces delineation has slightly
changed. I feel that Private Parts and Pieces tends to
imply to people that it’s a set of pieces from different
times, different styles, different instruments and so on
which would be woven together to hopefully make a
contrasting but pleasing and homogenous album.
So where I write completely new pieces from scratch
deliberately for an album then I feel a title like Private
Parts and Pieces is misleading. So I wanted to try and
get away from the slight bits and bobs connotations that
I’ve had from a couple of people over the years which
to my mind means that Field Day is a bright sparkling
new album
JK There are eight pieces on this album under the title
Parlour Suite which I think are really just lovely but what
stops you from perhaps turning something like this into
a more extended piece perhaps with an orchestra.
AP Well Parlour Suite was actually one of the later
pieces I wrote for the album and seems to have had a
nice reaction from people. One reason for that may be
that it is one of the freshest pieces that wasn’t done to
death by oodles of rehearsing and although there were
one or two difficult pieces it didn’t require an enormous
amount of technical work on it although the third part
did. I was also working in a favourite tuning and it just
felt right.
JK I’ve read the notes on the sleeve and you mentioned
that you originally decided to start work on the album
in 2001 and viewed it as a “quicky” and yet the album
turned into some sort of Marathon and then took three
years to finish. Was this a frustrating time for you?
AP (laughs) Yes as you say the album was supposed
to be a “quicky” but I found as I improvised on each
instrument and I’m lucky to be able to play so many
different types of stringed instrument and styles of
guitar that the ideas just flowed and it became hard to
make a decision as to which pieces to develop and use
and to be fair I felt I had quite a strong body of material
in so much as I could tell but then how can you ever be
sure? The problem with playing things to people in their
incipient state is that everyone contradicts each other
and says something different and you end up wishing
Archive Collection vol II
you hadn’t asked them in the first place so yes, my
quicky turned into a Marathon because of a) the volume
of pieces and B) the technical aspect of some of the
pieces and also because other music kept interfering.
JK If we look at the album as a whole taking into
account the amount of material on the album and also
the diversity of styles between the different pieces, the
spread of the album is rather broad. So the question is,
was it your initial plan to a record double albums worth
of material or was it a case of when you started you
couldn’t stop?
AP Well I tried to get as much variation as possible
both in terms of instrument and therefore timbre and
also style so you’re going from softer more melancholy
pieces to some light breezy tearaway pieces. In fact
there’s one called Tearaway. I feel pretty comfortable
in both styles despite having the reputation for the
slow, melancholy things. I do love the exciting stuff as
well and I hope that’s borne out. I did actually fail with
classical guitar pieces that were fast and I was worried
that the balance might be lost on the album because
of that - I think that its fractionally out of kilter - but it
wasn’t a case of I couldn’t stop, in getting back to the
question. It was really just a question of having too
much material and it needed all to be played correctly
and inevitably every time I came back to it after a pause
or phase or whatever I suppose the odd novelty track
did come in and it was really difficult to judge if they
were worthwhile.
JK I suppose it is a case of ‘what’s in a title’, but I would
actually consider you a modern classical composer
and musician these days rather than a rock musician.
Would that be a fair comment to make or do you still
feel you are capable of writing and recording a rock or
pop based album?
AP The issue of whether one is considered a rock
musician or a modern classical composer? Well sadly
the way the media works I’m regarded as neither
because radio is so narrow that classical stations
wouldn’t play me because they wouldn’t regard me as
modern or classical and I certainly wouldn’t be played
on rock stations. So strictly speaking I’m a none person,
which I’m afraid regardless of the quality of my music
is a sad indictment of the narrowness of our modern
radio when you consider all the barriers we tried to
break down and if you think back to the days of the
Beatles and the combination of the orchestral forces
traditionally with the more pop or rock instruments. I
think I’m probably past doing a hard rock album as it
were but I still love things that are very rhythmic and my
roots, certainly my rhythmic roots are in rock. If I could
justify the time and had more time I wouldn’t rule out the
question of doing a song based album that was more
rhythmically based. I’d like to think that I traverse both
but obviously in recent years I have fallen perhaps more
into what the public would think of as being a modern
classical composer. I’m most grateful to be thought of
being that in a way.
Anthony Phillips
Selected Albums Available Through Voiceprint
Field Day (BP362CD)
Anthology (BP201CD
Archive Collection vol.I (BP279CD)
Archive Collection vol.II (BP360CD)
M
artin Stephenson is one of the many
artists who broke through in the early
eighties and who has managed to retain
not only his fan base but also his credibility
despite the fact that his career has taken a
number of twists and turns and seen him move
with ease from eighties pop through to roots
music and a few other stops in between.
The rootsier side of Martin’s influences however
have never been far from the surface and indeed
as far back as the debut with the Daintees on Boat
To Bolivia there had been a track dedicated to The
Reverend Gary Davis (Tribute To The Late Gary
Davis)
Wheel Of Fortune is a collaborative album that
features Martin alongside father and son John and
Isaac Sutherland. The album is an eclectic affair,
which brings together Martin’s pop sensibility, and
the roots feel of his more recent albums.
Jon Kirkman spoke to Isaac about producing the
album and then Martin, John and Isaac give their
thoughts on some of the songs.
Jon Kirkman Isaac you produced the album. What
approach did you adopt?
Isaac Sutherland Well I know what I like a good
sound to be like, in so far as the CDs I listen to
on my stereo sound a particular way. Obviously it
will change from each CD you listen to and each
production you listen to and how you break it down,
but I just tried to get the best out of each track as it
stands rather than trying to get a uniform sound. For
instance some tracks have got a really deep bass
sound and others have a really clicky bass sound.
That sort of thing you know.
JK Were you influenced by any of Martin’s earlier
records?
IS Not really although I had heard some of his
material and I liked it. The first time that Martin got in
touch with me was through a guy called Dave Foster.
There are some things I suppose that have crept in
there but nothing serious.
The Hanged Man
Martin Stephenson Well The Hanged Man is a
turn of the century song that probably originated in
Scotland. It was made popular though by the North
Carolina Ramblers in the twenties.
John Sutherland A Nice old fashioned song
(Laughs) A scratchy fiddle and an acoustic guitar
and you get the authentic North Carolina sound
Isaac Sutherland Yeah I just stuck the microphones
in front of them and let them do it. Sat there and
listened to it in real time.
Martin Stephenson
spinning the wheel of fortune
Wheel Of Fortune
Wheel Of Fortune
MS It goes gently round. It’s just a very simple song
really. I just recorded it originally in a very stark
acoustic form and put it down to a click track and
then Isaac put bass and drums on it and John added
a few things.
JS I added harmonica lead guitar and mandolin. I
was trying subconsciously to arrive at an ultra modern
Scottish sound because there were certain elements
of the melody that are as Scottish as Haggis and I
really like the feeling that it creates and the emotional
effect it has on me. Lovely song.
IS Yeah I think that song in particular is like a Celtic
Knot work painting. Many simple lines but played
together it gets very confusing and very hard to follow
but it weaves. Yeah a Celtic Knot work painting would
be a good description of Wheel Of Fortune I think.
Illusions Live At Lincoln Cathedral
MS Illusions, Yeah. You can’t blame Mrs Thatcher
and you can’t blame Saddam Hussein. We make our
own thunder and we drink our own rain (laughs) what
a dodgey poet!
JS (laughs) What a profound statement sir! That
must be what they refer to as homespun philosophy
but the song is rather nice and I really like the way
that we have incorporated the accordion and pedal
steel alongside the other guitars. A weave of sound
that is most unusual.
IS Yes it is most unusual and the piano features
Haggis Hall. Actually I hope he doesn’t mind being
called Haggis Hall his name is John Hall, sorry John.
But he put the piano on. Then we got a guy in called
Brian Coghill on accordion and pedal steel. The rest
was done by us
JS Well the different musicians and instruments
have given it a totally different feel from thet tracks
that feature primarily just the three of us. In fact a
different feeling to it entirely.
MS For me it’s a bit like playing in the sand pit, in that
you bring different energies in and are allowed the
freedom to make the sound multi dimensional.
Live At The Roscoe
The Age Of Meditation
Wheel Of Fortune is available to buy now as is a
IS Well The Age Of Meditation is totally synthetic in
live CD and DVD of Martin Stephenson, alongside
that the steel drum sounds, harmonica, saxophone
John and Isaac Sutherland recorded at Lincoln
and the trumpet were all played on a guitar using
Cathedral.
a very fancy pedal board that allows us to do such
things through means of a pick up. All the synth parts Martin Stephenson
on this particular track were actually played on a The Wheel Of Fortune (BVCD012)
guitar. Live At The Roscoe
JS And very effective it is as well Martin Stephenson, John and Isaac Sutherland
MS Aye. I would say its Caithness reggae (laughs) Live At Lincoln Cathedral (HPVP106CD)
it’s catching on. Live At Lincoln Cathedral (VPDVD13)
A ttrition
tearing arms from deities
Attrition was formed in 1980 by Martin Bowes.
The band has undergone a number of changes
over the last twenty five years with various vocalists
coming and going whilst al the time retaining
their cutting and experimental edge. 2006 will
see the release of the album Tearing Arms From
Deities 1980-2006 which is a celebration of the
bands twenty five years success outside of the
mainstream. Also planned for 2006 is an extensive
touring schedule and plans to re master the bands
back catalogue. Martin Bowes laid out the bands
manifesto for the next twelve months and what it
was like looking over his shoulder at the last twenty
five years.
Jon Kirkman
Attrition are about to release their latest album
which is entitled Tearing Arms From Deities 1980-
2005 which is a collection of some of the band’s
best material the first question must be what was it
like looking back over twenty five years of material.
Martin Bowes It was really good. I don’t listen to
much of my older work, well not that often… so I
actually learnt a lot from doing that. In perspective
I changed my mind on the effectiveness of some
of the pieces I’d done and could see much more
clearly what I was attempting on others. I also think
I regained a few things I had lost along the way.
There’s that thing about learning from the past and I
think it applies to the arts as much as anything…We
should all do this every wenty five years or so!
JK How did you choose the material that appears
on the album and how do you approach re working
or remixing material of that age without trying to re
write history.
MB Well I took some time with this. Wanted it to
be the definitive collection, which wasn’t easy after
15 to 20 albums. I didn’t want a simple singles
collection or just to throw a track off each album on
there as some kind of sampler. I wanted something
very special that would last as a document of my
work and something as much for old fans as for new
ones. So I made sure that Tearing Arms... worked
as an album in itself, that it flows as a complete
work. And at the same time it reflects some of
the varying styles I’ve worked with… from dark
ambient to neo-classical to harder industrial and
experimental works…
As the pieces I chose were freed from their original
albums I could work with different mixes or edits
that worked here.I also revisited the original 4 track
tapes from the first 2 albums and was able to remix
them and enhance those tracks… there wasn’t an
attempt to re-write anything but more the chance to
improve on some of the production and make the
album flow even though the pieces varied a lot in
sound quality with over 20 years separating some
of the recordings.
I actually took the same approach with the attrition
artwork and in the booklet that comes with this
release you will find re-worked and rare versions
of the art that accompanied many of these albums
and sleeve notes I wrote which go some way to
explaining what the tracks are about as much as I
actually can do that!
So it all works as a whole and I’m really pleased
with this release.
JK How did the band fit in with some of its
contemporaries twenty five years ago such as
Cabaret Voltaire and the Legendary Pink Dots? It
seemed to be a very explosive and creative time
MB We were really born in that post punk wave
which was very strong here in the UK and there
was so much going on. Bands like Cabaret Voltaire
and Joy Division were a big influence to us to start
with and like anyone we expanded our influences
pretty early on There was a second wave of more
experimental and electronic UK bands in the early
80’s and we were very much a part of that alongside
people like The Legendary Pink Dots, Coil, Portion
Control, 400 Blows, Bushido. We met the Pink Dots
in 1983 and toured with them in Holland soon after
that and ended up living in London in the same
house for a while. It was a very creative time but
the music was much better received over in the rest
of Europe where we started to tour more and more
and many of the musicians ended up living there.
I think the UK was all the poorer for that but these
day’s music is much more universal than it was
then…it doesn’t matter so much where you live.
JK With a catalogue so wide ranging not only in
style but also in terms of material. How do you
approach the re-issue side of things. There is an
immense amount of material to consider.
MB Yes. I didn’t realise when I started out that 20
years down the line it would be a massive part of
your work as a musician just keeping your back
catalogue alive! But it’s a very necessary thing…
we have done pretty well at keeping the albums
in print over the years but there are titles that are
unavailable now and I have decided to re-issue
many of them as 25 year anniversary editions, re-
mastered with extra tracks and new artwork. I’m
also working on some very rare early recordings
that haven’t seen the light of day since the early
80’s cassette boom where we appeared on lots of
compilations; and some live recordings over the
years…all these on our new label “Two Gods”… so
there is a lot to do.
JK You had a collection entitled Recollection 84-
89 and this covers just five years how much more
difficult was it to compile this album. Common sense
dictates that it would possibly be five times more
difficult is that so?
MB That album was our first CD release and
compiled the first four albums and singles, mostly
for the USA. It was released on our old label there,
Projekt. Obviously Tearing Arms required a lot more
thought and took me a lot longer but at the same
time it was easier in a way. I had so many tracks
to choose from and it was easier to find a selection
that best represented us and that I was also pleased
with as final mixes etc. I also pretty much filled the
CD space with the new one. I could almost have
gone for a double album.
JK Attrition could be seen to be at the vanguard of
what is termed Underground but is it any easier to
work outside of the mainstream than inside or part
of the mainstream.
MB Well we have always been somewhat outside
the mainstream. We don’t write pop music and I
don’t really think I ever will. It’s not that Attrition’s
music is that inaccessible. In fact I think it has
been more accepted as the times have caught up
with us,(we don’t get told to get a drummer and a
guitarist any more as we did and many electronic
bands did in the early ‘80’s!) There is a certain
acceptance. It’s never easy being a musician or
artist in any scene, mainstream or otherwise, but
if you care about the music I think it can help you
get through the difficult times. We all want to be
more “successful” in whatever we do and that’s in
a creative way as much as a financial way. I am no
exception but at the moment I am pretty happy with
things as they are.
JK Your recent album Dante’s Kitchen took some
time to see a release which begs two questions First
of all was there a deliberate decision to leave almost
four years between Jeopardy Maze and Dante’s
Kitchen and secondly does this album mark a return
to regular activity from the band.
MB Oh yes. I think we are busier than ever at the
moment. It certainly feels like that. There were
some personal reasons for that four year gap; some
technical. I felt like spending some time taking
on board the massive advancements in music
technology that have happened over the last few
years and experimenting with that… to come up
with a next stage in my music. I never want to keep
re-treading the same ground; well not too much,
maybe occasionally to see if there’s anything I’ve
missed; but the more important reason was a major
life crisis as I split up with my long term partner
and had to rebuild my life. I had to fight through
the courts to get to see my lovely children. I went
through two years of hell and I found out a lot about
how the English justice system treats single fathers.
Things have worked out well now and the album
Dante’s Kitchen is a very dark album as a result, but
it’s there as a reminder… I don’t want to forget that
JK You have worked with a number of female
vocalists over the years. Could you tell us something
about some of those and who are you working with
presently?
musicians… synths/keyboards, mine and Laurie’s
MB I worked for years with my original vocalist Julia, vocals. There’s a lot going on. I think it works.
although about ten years ago she decided she didn’t
We also work in a strong visual presence to the
want to perform live any more which meant I had to
show which is just as important and I think that side
approach the band in a different way. Since then
is often overlooked by more traditional “rock” bands.
I’ve worked with a number of different singers and
We’re working with an artistic statement rather than
still work with Julia on recordings. For the last year
a “show”.
or so I’ve been working with Laurie Reade. I was
recommended her by my old US label. She’s based We have offers to tour the USA this summer and to
in Minneapolis and I’m in England!... but it works. return for two more festivals after that. Laurie will be
We do a lot more touring in the USA so it works bringing her own musical project High Blue Star with
pretty well.I’ve just come back from a fantastic show us on that tour. We are also planning our first trip to
with her in New Orleans at the Convergence Gothic Mexico and working on a UK and European tour in
festival there. the autumn. It changes all the time but there’s a lot
of possibilities for us this year.
JK This may sound like an obvious question but
perhaps a necessary one with any band. How does JK In summing up what can we expect from Attrition
the predominantly electronic sound transfer to a live in the future? I believe you are readying further
setting? What are your touring plans? albums for re-issue in an updated style in terms of
re mastering and possible bonus tracks.MB
MB It’s always been a problem for electronic
musicians of any genre, how to do this thing live. Well I am working on those series of re-issues and
I look at it is that, with the exception of the violin two new soundtrack works. I have been getting Tearing Arms From Deities
parts, almost all the music is created by me on increasingly involved with film work. I’m also working
machines and they really don’t play live! I prepare on production for a few other projects and am well
drums/bass/sequences; very much the machines into writing the next Attrition album proper which is Attrition
part as backings and as they are pre-programmed I planned for a 2007 release. We’re busier than ever Tearing Arms From Deities (2GodsCD)
allow a lot of improvisation over that from the “live” and I’m pleased with all this.
 HAWKWIND
In the summer of 2005 Hawkwind were gearing up to perform a series of concerts at a variety of
take me to your leader: earth date july 2005
festivals across Europe. Leading the band from the front as he has been for the last thirty six years
through success and slumps alike; Dave Brock settles down in the living room of his farmhouse to
talk about the bands latest album Take Me To Your Leader.
Dave was in optimistic mood and eager to talk
about the album which features the current line up
of Hawkwind which aside from himself includes long
time members bassist Alan Davey and drummer
Richard Chadwick alongside newer member Jason
Stuart on Keyboards. The album also features a
number of special guests including former Hawkwind
member Simon House. TV personality Matthew
Wright and long time Hawkwind fan provides vocals
on a re make of Spirit Of The Age and Arthur
Brown features on a couple of tracks. Just for good
measure Lene Lovich drops in to lend her vocals to
the track Angela Android.
Jon Kirkman began by asking why it had taken so
long for the album to come together:
JK The new album Take Me To Your Leader is
coming out in the near future but it was recorded
over a long period of time wasn’t it?
DB We actually did record it then we did it all again.
We were learning how to operate a computer and
we sort of recorded a lot of stuff that sounded rather
sort of wishy washy so we did it all again later on as
we got more knowledgeable on the computer.
JK I find that quite odd really. When you think
Hawkwind you think very futuristic and here you
are saying you have now worked out how to use
the computer.
DB We were barbarians with electronic equipment
that’s why! We’re not that genned up you know.
JK You always manage to use the technology to
your best ability don’t you?
DB Yeah, if you use the machine rather than the
machine using you. It is very easy to actually get
into a situation where you can loop everything as
lots of people do on a computer. It makes it very
easy to play the minimal guitar and loop things.
You end up doing loops that sometimes take hours
and hours where could play in. It is much more fun
playing in.
JK Now, Spirit of the Age, as most Hawkwind
fans know is a track that was originally on Quark
Strangeness and Charm. Why have you decided to
re-record it? Matthew Wright the TV guy is on this
particular version isn’t he?
DB Yeah, he is and that is the reason we decided
to put it out. He was doing a radio station in London
and I went on there. He said he was a big time
Hawkwind fan and I said, “I bet you are!” – doubting
that he was, you know. He said he knew all the songs
so I asked him if he knew the words to Spirit of the
Age which he did, reciting them perfectly. I found
he had been to Stonehenge and was a staunch
Hawkwind fan. I asked him if he would like to come
and do Spirit of the Age with us on stage reciting it
as a poem actually. Also a lot of people don’t realise
that he does write some really nice poetry. He is
quite politically orientated and so on – an interesting
character. Consequently we asked him to come and
sing on the album, so that’s the story.
JK I suppose with a band like Hawkwind – you have
been in existence 36 years, does it ever surprise
you some of the people who come out as Hawkwind
fans these day? I guess there must be a few strange
incidences like that.
DB How do you mean?
JK Well years ago people would have said it was
a guilty pleasure liking Hawkwind but now a lot of
people say they are big fans. Matthew Wright does
not look like your average Hawkwind fan.
Take Me to Your Future
DB That’s true but I am sure there are. I do recollect
the head of Lloyds saying he likes Hawkwind. It
doesn’t give us any free insurance though does it!
JK I suppose these people were sat in a field as
teens listening to Hawkwind somewhere down the
line weren’t they?
DB Yes I would say so; there were a lot of free
festivals that we used to do and such. As they go on
through life with their children, believe it or not their
kids come down and say to us that they used to hate
their dad’s Hawkwind collection but now they think
it sounds really good. So we are becoming in vogue
again! (laughs)
JK I suppose it is a case of if you are round long
enough you will come back into fashion anyway.
DB I think so, it is like a long term sort of
graph that goes up and down and then a long line
for a while and it will peak a little bit here and there.
We have just come back from Germany playing a
festival with Jefferson Starship, Robin Trower and
the like, sort of old bands and an interesting line up.
There were a lot of people so people do like to see
old bands because they are pretty good normally.
JK You are reasonably happy being the founder
member of Hawkwind just continuing. There has
been a constant thread of yourself all the way
through although Hawkwind has maintained this
very high profile within the rock business. What do
you put the longevity of the band down to?
DB Stamina! (Laughs) It fluctuates so dramatically.
There are times when you feel like giving up when
things go wrong. Music is supposed to be a pleasure
that is the mainstay. You are trying to do shows that
are interesting and sometimes a lot of bands are
similar to us, you have your good and bad days.
One day somebody might come to see us and we
are mediocre and then the next day we’re fantastic.
That is what it is like when you are a musician. It
makes it interesting for fans to see if we can keep
that level I suppose.
JK Let’s look at the track Greenback Massacre. I am
figuring that there might be a message here with this
particular track. Would I be right?
DB Yes, It is written by Alan Davey and it is all
about the American greed for oil and suchlike as
we all know.
JK I think what I like about Hawkwind is that there
have been occasions when people have thought
that they are just a standard rock band but there
have been some songs that have had a very
pertinent message. I can go back as far as Urban
an audience with Dave Brock
Guerrilla. There must be a feeling that you really
want to comment on something like that.
DB Obviously you have to and loads of bands are
doing it now. What you’re trying to put across to a
younger audience is look what is going on here.
They are all aware of what is going on and it is up
to them to try and change things. As you get older
you tend to lay back a bit more but words to songs
are a good way of putting across these messages
the same as poems used to do years ago. It is the
same sort of thing.
JK The title track of the album is Take Me To Your
Leader there must be a story about that! It is a very
Hawkwind title to an album actually.
DB Well it was taken from this little alien doll I was
given that when you press it, it goes,”Take me to
your leader!” That was where we go the title from.
Then we did actually write a lot of philosophical
words to go with it.
JK Sometimes album titles come from the strangest
sources don’t they?
DBYeah I think so. That old Sci-fi book, I can see it
now. Do you remember 1950s sci-fi books with girls
clad in bikinis striking these poses as a monster is
grabbing hold of them.
JK The Creature from the Black Lagoon!
DB Yeah, Take Me to your Leader was one of those
as well.
JK Obviously it is a Hawkwind album but you have
some special guests on it apart from the track Spirit
of the Age with Matthew Wright on. Arthur Brown
appears on two of the tracks, we’ll talk about the
other in a minute but he is on Sunray. Arthur and
Hawkwind must go back a long time.
DB I suppose we do go back a fair time because
Arthur is a continuing artiste really. Our paths have
crossed a few times and the first time was when he
was doing the Canterbury festival. He was doing
Silver Machine there and he sang with us. We asked
him to come and do the tour which he did. In fact
we saw him just two weeks ago at another festival
we were at.
JK How do you feel about bringing special guests
in like that? Some bands think it is great but others
don’t want to dilute the thing and draw attention
away from the fact that it is their album.
DB That’s true. It is interesting and it makes it
interesting for the audience really to have guests.
If you do parallels with jazz musicians, they very
often have guests coming along. It is good for the
band too. It makes a band pay attention sometimes
because you have to keep yourself together and
pay attention to what Arthur’s doing. (laughs) He still
tries to clamber up the side of the speaker cabinets!
We’re shouting, “Arthur, take it easy now!” He gets
carried away.
JK In a live situation that adds to the spontaneity
though doesn’t it?
DB Yes it does. With Lena (Lovich), Arthur had put
us in touch with Lena about doing some vocals
with us and what we did was sent Angela Android
up there to her studio in Cambridge and she sent
various bits and pieces of her voice back down to us They have just had their son work with them a while
which we put in as the android on Spirit of the Age. ago and it was fantastic. Look at Man you know with
She sings actually on Angela Android. Martin Ace. They have got their boys playing in the
band and they are really good hot bands. They are
JK A lot of people will remember Lena Lovich’s
really in touch with what is going on. I think a lot of
big hit at the turn of the seventies. She has a very
these bands are good.
unique voice. How does that fit into the Hawkwind
mix? JK This begs the question, the way that the
Philharmonic Orchestra carries on with different
DB Well quite well I think. She is an interesting
members, could you ever imagine a time when
character and she does have a very individual voice
Hawkwind could continue without any of its original
and style of course.
members maybe in another twenty five or thirty
JK I believe the single is going to be Spirit of the years?
Age, is that right? Why do you think that is right as
DB Yeah! I say yes because as you know there are
a single now?
quite a few bands like Jefferson Starship who only
DB Well if you use the word relevant, they have had one original member but they sound like the
been relevant always because ever since the ideas original band. It is not a bad thing. A lot of people
of cloning and so on although there is more of it now do want to see what these bands were like and that
of course. They would just go on being relevant. is the nearest you are going to get. There was the
Until they get android sex dolls to do whatever you Illegal Eagles that do a total take off of the Eagles
want them to do it will be relevant won’t it? show and they sound very like them.
JK I suppose this album more than anything proves JK Have you ever seen a Hawkwind tribute band?
that Hawkwind are a relevant band. You probably
have people who knock the band and say you are DB There are quite a few actually.
just seventies has-beens but an album like this JK There is Spacehead isn’t there who do some
means you are aware of what is going on musically very good versions of Hawkwind songs.
and can see where Hawkwind fits into that. DB Yeah, there is also Silver Machine too, there’s
DB I suppose so. It is like Crosby, Stills and Nash. a few I can’t reel them all off. They have sent me

Canterbury Fayre 2001
a few CDs, Time Brothers from Scotland is another
one. They have done the whole of the Space Ritual
in their show.
JK Where do you draw the line between being
flattered and upset about these things?
DB It is the audience that matter. They might want
to see the original if you are putting on a good
show. It costs a lot of money to get a big show with
a light show with four or five people operating lights,
dancers and roughly about eighteen people on the
road. Obviously they have to be paid if you are
putting on a good show. You couldn’t do this in small
clubs it would not be possible.
JK You were talking about the band doing a lot of
festivals. There seems to be a never ending supply
of festivals these days all over Europe and in the
UK. In the summer months there seems to be a
festival every week end.
DB Yeah but we are not playing on them though.
JK You have played a few of them this summer
haven’t you?
DB Yes in Europe, not over here
JK What do you think of Glastonbury? I suppose
people would associate Hawkwind with Glastonbury
wouldn’t they?
DB They do but we don’t play there either.
We always used to play at the free festival at
Stonehenge. Having said that we topped the bill
in 1981 but unfortunately the stage got destroyed.
It was supposed to finish at twelve o’clock and
everything had run late. New Order were on before
us. They finished at quarter to eleven and we went
on at quarter past. It got to midnight and the chief
of Wiltshire police was saying that everything had
to finish at twelve o’clock and we had to end it and
apologise. We had this big firework display that
never went off and everyone started smashing the
stage up and someone set fire to it. I think we were
banned from ever playing there again after that. We
went back in 1989/1990 and we did In Travellers
Field and we got in trouble for doing that with
Michael because we were playing at five o’clock in
the morning and waking everybody up.
JK Surely everyone at a festival is meant to be
awake at that time?
DB A lot of them were in bed, I was in bed. Then
there was this knock on the door and I told that we
were going on stage!
JK Digital Nation is again a very Hawkwind sounding
title, obviously these things just come to you. How
difficult is it to keep coming up with something that
is not only relevant to the band but going to relate
to your audience? That must be hard after thirty six
years.
DBSometimes! Sometimes not! You don’t actually
write stuff all the time. In the course of a year you
might write a lot of songs and different tunes but
maybe at the end of the day only use four. The
members of the band have different ideas of writing.
The Weird Tapes - Volume 8
Yule Ritual - London Astoria 2000
You might have twelve or fourteen numbers in there
and you decide which ones you are going to use for
an album and to go on the road with. It is always
better to play these things live at first before you
record them because then they flow nicely. Quite
often we do it back to front unfortunately and you
will find most bands do a similar thing and have the
same problems that we do. It’s all the same.
JK Another important track on the album is entitled
A Letter to Robert; it is another track that features
Arthur Brown. Am I correct in thinking this is another
link to your past here – something to do with Robert
Calvert?
DB That was one of those magical moments.
Richard (Chadwick) and I had actually done the
backing track for this, we were mucking around and
made up this electronic track. Arthur came down
one day and we were talking about Robert and we
had a rough idea of what we wanted to do a song
about. Arthur went off on one of his ramblings which
was a magic moment captured there and then that I
thought was quite brilliant.
JK A case of the right place at the right time then?
DB Absolutely.
JK I suppose a lot of people do associate Robert
Calvert with Hawkwind and rightly so. Do you think
he would have been pleased by the end result
himself?
DB I think he would be pleased because he was an
artist whose stuff we are still going on doing. Some
of his old songs we do differently. We are actually
going to be doing the Calvert album putting a lot of
his poems to music which is totally different to what
I have done. It has still got Richard (Chadwick) and
Alan (Davey) on it but we have got this black singer
from Bristol who has got a fantastic voice and she
does some weird things as well. I think he would
love all that.
JK Here we are in the summer of 2005 and the
album is due for release. I presume there will be a
tour to promote this album.
DB Yeah we are doing a tour in December..
Take Me To Your Leader
Atomhenge 76
JK How much of this album can anyone reasonably
expect you to include in the set? You have to draw
the line between playing the songs that people want
to hear but you are tied to promoting the new album
as well.
DB We are doing three or four tracks. I mean, we
have been doing them for the past year to see how
they go. Obviously we can’t do the ones Arthur is
on but you never know he might pop up and do the
Astoria with us, who knows?
With that my audience with Captain Brock was over.
Hawkwind toured the UK successfully at the end
of 2005 and in early summer 2006 are poised to
release their latest album Take Me To Your Future
which will be another first for the band as it will be
released in the new Dual Disc format.
Hawkwind
Selected Discography:
available through Voiceprint
Take Me To Your Future (HAWKVP38DD)
Take Me To Your Leader (HAWKVP35CD)
The Weird Tapes Volume 8 (HAWKVP36CD)
Atomhenge 76 (HAWKVP5CD)
Yule Ritual London Astoria 2000 (HAWKVP19CD)
Canterbury Fayre 2001 (HAWKVP22CD)
David Foster
Open Road
avid Foster’s credentials as a musician could
D not be better. Starting off in the pop band The
Warriors in the mid sixties alongside future
Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. David went on to co write
a couple of tracks (Sweet Dreams and Time And A
Word) on the second Yes album Time And A Word.
But hang on we’re getting ahead of our self here.
David does indeed have the correct credentials in
more ways than one. Although the Warriors wee
considered more Lancashire Beat than Merseybeat
David did actually qualify as a Merseybeat musician
having been born in Liverpool he did however grow
up in Accrington where his family had subsequently
moved hence the connection with Jon Anderson.
The truth of the matter however is that at the time
any band within fifty miles of Merseyside in those
days found themselves riding the coat tails of the
Beatles and no one was actually checking anyone’s
birth certificates. The band did however manage to
play the Cavern quite a few times. David was the
bass player with the Warriors who were fronted by
the Anderson brothers Jon and Tony. Keeping it
all together at the back was drummer Ian Wallace
who would go onto bigger and better things in the
seventies with the likes of King Crimson and Bob
Dylan.
The Warriors managed top secure a deal with Decca
Records who in the aftermath of losing the Beatles
but signing the Rolling Stones signed up many other
northern beat groups in the hope that something
might stick. The Warriors however did manage to
come close with one of their singles. You Came Along
was typical of many pop records of the time although
the Warriors did manage to perform it on a few TV
shows at the time. Unfortunately they missed out on
the chance to record the song Juliet which would go
on to reach number one for the Four Pennies. Ah
well, C’est La Vie. The Warriors split in 1967 during
a German tour. In Frankfurt to be precise when Jon
Anderson left the band and subsequently enjoyed
an extremely brief solo career as Hans Christian
Anderson before moving on to a few other bands
one of which Mabel Greer’s Toyshop eventually
metamorphosed into Yes.
David Foster’s next port of call would be a couple
of short-lived bands, The Big Sound who toured
Scandinavia extensively and also featured Ian
Wallace and on his return to London in 1968 Sleepy
Hill with Rod Hill. In 1969 however David once
again met up with Jon Anderson. At this point Jon
had formed Yes and had released one album the
eponymous Yes Album for Atlantic Records. The
band were about to record their second album which
is where David Foster and Yes come together. David
co wrote the two stand out tracks on the next Yes
album including the title track Time And A Word. The
an open road ahead
One Live Badger
other track was the song Sweet Dreams a rather
commercial effort which saw Yes performing once
again live on their thirty-fifth anniversary tour in
2003. Whilst David was never considered for a full
time role in Yes he did sing backing vocals on Sweet
Dreams and played acoustic guitar on Time and a
Word and his contribution remains an important one. Bolton Club ‘65
The connection with Yes however would be even
further cemented with his next project.
Badger was a decidedly progressive rock band. Not
only that alongside David was former Yes keyboardist
to the original arrangement but adds a few twists of
Tony Kaye. Their debut album One Live Badger was
his own. David actually thinks that this version of the
an unusual one even in the seventies. The band
song is more like he originally envisioned the song
supported Yes on an important date at London’s
Rainbow Theatre. It was here that the band were to
and I am sure there will be a few Yes fans that will
argue the fact but by and large it is a good version.
be recorded for their debut album with Jon Anderson
co producing the album the result being an exciting This album isn’t however a one-song affair and the
debut that made quite a splash with the critics and remainder of the material here is all pretty strong
music fans alike it didn’t do any harm either when and includes a contribution from Martin Stephenson
the album was released with a Roger Dean designed who also plays on the album. David’s voice is not
sleeve further cementing the Yes connection. The quite what you would imagine although comparisons
band also won over many fans when they opened will undoubtedly be made on Time And A Word the
for the then massive Black Sabbath. Sales for the comparison is not a detrimental. The album is not
album however weren’t earth shattering despite the merely a one song album the song writing is of a
quality of the performance and the material on offer high calibre and the title track would be considered
and by the time of the bands second album David by many just as good as anything David contributed
Foster had left. The music had also changed moving to Yes.
in a more soulful direction. In effect it was a totally As a stand alone album Open Road is a more
different beast to the Badger that recorded the debut than worthwhile effort and one that bears repeated
album. listening? Of course the Yes connection won’t do
David Foster any harm but Open Road deserves to
It would appear that after leaving Badger David
be heard away from any illustrious connections and
disappeared to consider his options. He eventually
as such is a rather fine album.
turned up in the Highlands of Scotland and was
producing local Celtic musicians and bands. He
hadn’t been idle however as during this period he had
also written his biography and of course continued
to write songs and when he felt he had enough he David Foster
decided to record his own debut solo album entitled
Open Road (VP291CD)
Open Road
Albums featuring David Foster from Voiceprint
Open Road despite being David’s first solo album
The Warriors
and away from the obvious Yes connections will no
Warriors 65 (VP268CD)
doubt be of interest to many Yes fans and with good
reason. Opening with his own version of the Yes Badger
song Time And A Word David sticks pretty closely One Live Badger (VP275CD)
Jan Akkerman
a master in a class of his own
W T
hat is a guitar hero? An interesting
question perhaps but to some a strange
way to introduce an article on a guitarist
that many consider to be just that, a guitar hero.
Guitar heroes come in many shapes and forms
and of course perform their work in many different
genres. As to what makes a guitar hero who
knows? The title is at best subjective and for many
completely irrelevant. It has to be said however that
Jan Akkerman is to many people an extremely gifted
guitarist or if you like a guitar hero.
Jan Akkerman has perfected his trade and no doubt
considers he is still refining his talent for over forty
years beginning his career in a number of sixties
beat groups in his native Holland and while the
names Johnny and His Cellar Rockers and The
Hunters may have a decidedly sixties and altogether
nostalgic sound to them it was here that Jan gained
his first professional musical experience. In fact
as a member of Johnny and His Cellar Rockers
Jan released his first single at the age of twelve, a
precocious talent indeed. Coming from a family that
was in itself a musical family (Jan’s father played
guitar) Jan became interested in music at a very
early age and can remember as a very young child
sitting by a toy piano and hammering on the keys in
order to get music from the instrument.
Jan would progress through his early groups until
he joined the Dutch rock band Brainbox in 1968.
Incidentally 1968 saw the release of Jan’s first solo
album Talent For Sale that in hindsight was an
altogether appropriate title. During the seventies at
the height of acclaim for Jan and Focus the album
was re released as Guitar For Sale
Brainbox were one of the biggest bands on the
burgeoning Dutch rock scene in the late sixties
and even managed to make the journey across the
North Sea in order to play dates in England at the
legendary Marquee club in London amongst others
whilst securing a Cash Box Award in the USA.
By the dawn of the 1970’s Jan Akkerman was seen
as the best guitarist in Holland and considered the
main talent in Brainbox. He was actually fired by the
band and the reason given at the time was that he
had been rehearsing with Thijs van Leer. Jan would
however work with Brainbox vocalist Kaz Lux later
in the seventies on a number of projects including
the album Eli – the first Gold disc for the newly
established Warner Brothers Records operation in
Holland.
With the formation of Focus in 1971 Jan found
himself in altogether more progressive environment
and in Thijs Van Leer a musician with whom he was
to have a fruitful musical relationship. Focus very
quickly became world renowned – recording and
releasing albums like the massively selling Moving
Waves, Focus III, Hamburger Concerto and Mother
Focus. In 1973 Jan won the title Best Guitarist in
the annual Melody Maker poll. In order to win the
accolade Jan knocked Eric Clapton from the poll
position that Clapton had held for a number of years,
numero uno. There was a new sheriff in town and he
was about to show everyone just what he could do.
Focus toured Britain extensively in 1973 on the back
of the albums Moving Waves and Focus III both of
which were to enter the British albums chart at the
end of 1972. As a result of a well-timed appearance
on The Old Grey Whistle Test, Focus also scored
two hit singles with Sylvia and Hocus Pocus both
of which featured Jan Akkerman’s incendiary guitar
playing. The hit singles and the profile of Focus was
as Jan explained, helped by the appearance on the
well respected British Rock television programme
The Old Grey Whistle Test which was broadcast
by the BBC. (Some of the classic footage from that
appearance appears within the interview section of
Jan’s latest DVD) but the timing was right for the
band and of course Focus also had immense talent
to back up the critical plaudits that were by now
becoming commonplace.
From success in Europe Focus moved on to America
and made headway in the hardest of markets to
crack. Even a line up change with drummer Colin
Allen replacing Pierre van der Linden couldn’t slow
down the pace and momentum of the band until that
is Jan Akkerman left Focus suddenly in 1976 on the
eve of a British tour. The band continued for a short
while with a superb replacement, guitarist Phillip
Catherine, but the game was up and Focus split
shortly after one further album and a tour.
Jan Akkerman on the other hand was far from idle.
He renewed his acquaintance with Kaz Lux formerly
the vocalist with Brainbox. Initially the project was
to have been a solo album by Kaz Lux although
the resulting album became more a joint project.
Former Brainbox and Focus drummer Pierre van
der Linden also joined the two main protagonists in
what was to become the album Eli. Following this
album Jan Akkerman, Kaz Lux and Pierre van der
Linden formed the basis of a band that toured the
UK although the tour was short-lived and the band
split up shortly after.
Jan did however go on to work again with Kaz Lux
on an album in 1980 entitled Transparental and even
following the release of that album once again on the
album From The Basement where Kaz is featured on
the track Dark Rose as a co writer. From here apart
from a reunion with Thijs van Leer in the mid eighties
and a full blown Focus reunion for a one off television
performance in the early nineties Jan Akkerman was
to remain a solo artist either appearing solo or with
musicians that became the basis of a number of
different “Jan Akkerman” bands.
By the early eighties the music scene had moved on
– with progressive rock no longer in the ascendancy.
Musicianship such as that displayed by Jan Akkerman
however was still in demand with audiences despite
what the press might have had you believe and
Jan was luckier than most having managed to hold
on to his dedicated audience. Throughout the late
70s Akkerman had enjoyed a fruitful artistic period
under the supervision of Atlantic Records and
producer Richard de Bois, occasionally using strings
to augment his jazz-rock compositions alongside
classically flavoured acoustic performances which
won favour with his core audience and also drew
newer fans.
By the early eighties Jan Akkerman like Eric Clapton
and Jeff Beck was releasing albums to a definite
and appreciative fan base and Jan’s fan base were
treated to the album many still regard to this day the
critically acclaimed Aranjuez which was recorded
with Claus Ogerman. The music being decidedly
classical and a marked change from the jazz rock
direction Akkerman seemed to be moving in at the
time. Jan Akkerman had of course flirted with the
sub classical genre with albums like Tabernakel
and would return to it sporadically in the future most
notably with the album Passion in the late nineties.
During the early eighties however Jan decided to
spend time in Denmark for reasons both personal
and professionally. The resultant time in Denmark
found Jan experimenting with the new guitar
synthesizer that was launched onto the market
in the late seventies and early eighties. For many
guitarists this latest jump in technology was viewed
A Touch of Class
with suspicion. Jan Akkerman however embraced
the new technology and sought to integrate the
guitar synthesizer into his own unique style without
sacrificing his own personality. By and large he
succeeded and albums such as Can’t Stand Noise,
From The Basement and It Could Happen To You
reflect Jan’s interest in using this new technology.
In 1983 Jan Akkerman’s most recent album was
Can’t Stand Noise, which was released by CBS /
Sony. British Television Company Channel Four
commissioned a one-hour television special
that would include interview footage and a live
performance specially set up at short notice at The
Venue in London for the TV special.
At this time Jan presented the most recent edition of
the Jan Akkerman band. Jan had recruited the highly
regarded Hans Waterman on drums previously
a member of Dutch band Solution, bassist Dino
Walcott and Mark van der Greer on keyboards. The
music featured in the live performance is principally
from Jan’s then current album Can’t Stand Noise
and some location footage which featured Jan on
location in a church playing the lute and featuring
older material from possibly his most satisfying
album Tabernakel.
The other side of the coin finds Jan experimenting
with the then new guitar synthesizer. Whilst many
musicians were more than keen to utilise this new toy
(Notably Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page) Jan Akkerman
had an immense understanding and empathy with
new technology unlike many artists who used
the guitar synthesizer Watching the performance
contained on the DVD A Touch Of Class you can
tell that it is Jan driving the band on during the
performance and completely at ease and in control
of the technology making it work for him rather than
being a slave to it. The performances of Pietons and
Heavy Treasure both from the then recent Can’t
Stand Noise bearing testimony to his overall control
and mastery of a notoriously difficult instrument.
As an aside at the time of the filming of this
documentary Jan was actually recording a new
Focus album with Thijs van Leer, which would
appear the following year in 1985 and marked the
first time that Jan and Thijs had played together
since Jan left Focus in 1976. The subsequent release
of the reunion album also paved the way for the re
mastering and reissue of the Focus back catalogue
on CD which saw the band reaching out to a new
generation of fans
Subsequent to the filming of the television
documentary which is now available to watch again
and again Jan Akkerman worked again briefly with
Thijs van Leer in a reformed Focus at a one off live
performance for Dutch television and save for a
serious car accident in 1992 which almost cost him
his life he continues as a solo artist enthralling live
audiences and the album buying public the world
over with his unique and personal style, which covers
rock, jazz blues and classical music all of which bear
that unmistakable Jan Akkerman quality… A Touch
Of Class.
Jan Akkerman
A Touch Of Class (VPDVD17)
A Family of MAN
interview with
George Jones April 2006
here are many bands over the years who
have claimed legendary status but none
more worthy that Welsh band Man. The band
formed in the late sixties and save for a period
between 1976 and 1983 have continued to record
albums and play an amazing amount of live gigs.
The Man sound is very much the West Coast
sound as popularised by sixties bands such as
Quicksilver Messenger Service with whom the
band have been compared favourably. In fact
John Cippolina from Quicksilver Messenger
Service briefly joined the band and was featured
on the album Maximum Darkness.
More recently the band has changed the line up,
something that happens regularly if you know the
history of the band. Deke Leonard has once again
left the band to forge a solo career once more and
Mickey Jones has had to stand down due to health
issues There is new blood within the band however
and the latest recruits are closer to home than you
might think Josh Ace and George Jones are the
sons of Martin Ace and Mickey Jones respectively/
Jon Kirkman spoke to George Jones about the
prospect of making his recording debut with the
band and also how he saw the band moving on.
Back into the future.
Jon Kirkman Have you got a title for the album
yet?
George Jones The proposed title for the album is
Diamonds and Coal.
JK This will be your first studio album with them
won’t it?
GJ It will, it will be my first studio album with them,
it has been four years in the making. I have been
looking forward to this coming weekend for a long
time as we start to record the album.
JK You have been with the band now for four years;
I can’t believe it has been that long. How is your dad
by the way?
GJ He’s ok, at the moment he is receiving
radiotherapy and is in one of the hospitals in
Swansea. It tires him out but we are just taking it
day by day.
JK Well I hope he is feeling better very soon.
Looking at a new album and indeed your first it must
be pretty daunting. How much input do you hope to
have into this album?
GJ I think the input has been very evenly spread,
unfortunately losing Deke we lost a huge songwriter.
It could have been a devastating impact on the band
but we lost him, dad came back and we did try to
write a few new songs but he got ill again. I have
never been the greatest songwriter but he is the man
of the moment my father.
JK I think your dad was a very steadying influence
on the band actually. He was always felt if not
always seen.
GJ Yeah, and probably the greatest improvisational
guitar player bar none. I don’t think there was
anyone to touch him. He would play things and you
think that he must have rehearsed it but there is no
way he did. He took things out of the air.
JK I saw the Man band loads of times in the
seventies and was always impressed.
GJ As far as I am concerned in the early eighties my
dad lost a bit of his creative edge. Once the band
started getting a little bit more progressive it came
back. Call Down The Moon was a big turning point
for my dad as a player.
JK This will be the first album since Endangered
Species. What is the current line up?
GJ The line up is Bob Richards on drums, Martin Ace
bass and vocals, Josh Ace guitar and vocals, Gareth
Farrington on keyboards and myself on guitar.
JK With both yourself and Josh on board the Man
Band is kind of becoming like a family business
isn’t it?
GJ I think it was a much better idea to get Josh; we
could have carried on with another guitar player but
that is when I think that the twin guitar playing is
quite pivotal to the Man sound. Ironically the band’s
two biggest selling albums didn’t have the twin guitar
thing going.
tracks done as possible and get Bob to do that.
JK Which are they? Then we will start working on all the other bits with
GJ Be Good to Yourself was quite big but Back Into the guitars and stuff. We like to do that separately
the Future was the band’s biggest charting album you know.
and Deke wasn’t on that. We had to look at it like JK I presume then the thing to do will be to tour the
this – ok we have lost a big songwriter like Deke but
back out of it, which is a Man tradition isn’t it?
we gained Josh who is a very good songwriter. He is
GJ Not forgetting, although it is a little while away, but
17 years old and I think recently he has written more
the fortieth anniversary of the band is approaching us.
songs than in the time he or I have been playing. He
I have been looking to getting us on in Glastonbury
is a very prolific songwriter.
in 2008 and the Freedom Rock Festival. I think it
JK The Man Band has always seemed to be a very is about time the band played Glastonbury again
stoic band if you like – through thick and thin. There
especially considering this fortieth anniversary. That
have been some troubles in terms of line ups over
is really bizarre considering Josh is 17 and I am 24
the years. There was a point in the seventies when and we’re celebrating going for forty years!
it became a little bit tenuous didn’t it but the band
JK That is great. You have the benefit of the
still came through.
collective experience of the band and yet you two
GJ I think the band was on the edge of breaking into guys are really the way forward. It is a nice mix.
the premier league of bands and every time they got Have you got any rough titles for tracks yet?
close they broke up!
GJ We have got a few rough titles – one that I sing
JK Having said that, here we are in 2006 and I am called Man of Misery and a title track for the album
talking to the son of one of the founder members called Diamonds and Coal which is one that Josh
and the band is still continuing so that bodes well for wrote. Man of Misery is a step into the very early
the future I think. Man, the sixties stuff and Josh has come up with
GJ It does bode well for the future and I think things some very far out stuff. It is really weird and they
are looking much healthier then they have for a have their own twist but still have that Man sound.
long time. It is not just me saying that but people
The new Man album will be released by Voiceprint
like Clive John and Deke and Will Youatt They have
I the summer of 2006 and extensive touring is likely
come up to me and said how healthy they think the
to follow the release. In the meantime the cover
band is at the moment and how great they think that
mounted CD contains an exclusive demo track of
is that it has been passed down to the son. It is the one of the songs that appear o the new album
only band that you can say has a future like we have
and who can keep going like that. We are obviously
not as big as Yes and bands like that perhaps
JK But you probably play more live gigs than Yes
these days.
GJ Probably yeah!
JK I hate to ask this question but I must – you are not
thinking of retiring Martin yet are you?
GJ No, not yet but as soon as he is too stupid and
too old we will!(Laughs) No seriously Martin is a sixty
something with a twenty one year old trying to break
out. There is no holding the guy back.
JK He has got one of the driest wits I have ever met.
I am really happy you are about to start the album.
When do you think we can expect to see it?
GJ You can expect to see it in late August. Basically
what we are going to do is to get as many backing Diamonds And Coal (PNTVP134CD)
Annie Haslam
a renaissance woman
D
uring 1999 Annie Haslam was in the UK
to record a new Renaissance album
with Mike Dunford, John Tout and Terry
Sullivan. During this time Annie also undertook
a promotional tour to promote her most recent
live album Under Brazilian Skies. She was eager
to talk not just about the live album but also
about her time with Renaissance and her hopes
for the new Renaissance album. The hour we
spent talking about her life and here career went
very quickly and although there was much more
we could talk about, we could have carried on
forever, we decided a one-hour radio special
would be enough. This interview was broadcast
in June 1999 and has not been heard since the
initial broadcast so here for the first time is the
transcript of that radio programme which was
dubbed “Annie Haslam Renaissance Woman”
Jon Kirkman Here we are in May 1999 and there is
a new live album from Annie Haslam Under Brazilian
Skies, which is a live album. It’s been out for a short
time in America. How did the album come about?
Annie Haslam I went to Brazil in 1997 and I just took
my keyboard player but I was taken down there by
two fans. It was incredible how it happened and what
I decide to do was spend the money I got recording
it and I formed my own record label White Dove
records and put it out on the internet and I thought
I’d do that and hope that I’d get a deal elsewhere.
I could have carried on and done it through the
Internet but its so much work, it’s unbelievable.
So I did all that as much as I could and now it’s
coming out in Japan next month (June 1999) and it’s
out here and in Europe and in America and Canada
which is great. It’s done way more than I thought
it would and it came out really well and I’m really
proud of it.
JK Well the fact that it has done better than you
thought it would do must be pretty promising
AH Yes it is. When I said I’d do it myself and I started
doing it I thought blimey there’s so much work to do
but yeah it’s definitely worth it.
JK Let’s go back over your career and of course we
have to start with Renaissance. A strange band in
the sense that they had a huge amount of success
without any of the original members. So how did you
come to be involved with Renaissance?
AH I was singing in a cabaret group called The
Gentle People In the Showboat in the Strand and
I’d been there for six months. That was my first
professional job singing and a guy came up to me
and said I’ve seen an advert in the Melody Maker
and you’re wasted here you should be in a rock
band or something because your voice is different.
You shouldn’t be doing cabaret. So I went for the job
and I got the job on New Years Day 1971 and the
rest is history.
JK It was a very slow build particularly in this country
but certain parts of America really took to the band
didn’t they?
AH Yeah, I think though in the early days we took
a lot of flack from the music papers just because it
wasn’t the original band. They wouldn’t look beyond
that; they wouldn’t look at the music. The thing was
that the band never actually broke up. Somebody
would leave and then somebody would be there
to take their place so it never actually folded. We
were managed by Miles Copeland at that time and
that’s how we got to America in the early days, as
obviously he’s American.
JK It’s been quite some time since Renaissance
split up and yet there was a period around the late
seventies when everyone had heard of renaissance
because of the hit single (Northern Lights). That
must have been quite a surprise for the band?
AH Yes it was. In fact we were in America. We were
doing an American tour and we got this phone call
to say that Dave Lee Travis was playing Northern
Lights and we thought “What!” you know. Then we
got a phone call saying, “You’re on Top Of The Pops”
and it was very exciting. We were very surprised.
One of the reasons I’m over here is we have just
recorded a new Renaissance album and we’re
hoping to get a deal and I think it would be silly not
to re release that song because its still being played
and everybody knows it, because the style of music
is still unique. Its like it used to be but we’ve taken it
into the nineties.
JK The thing I feel about Renaissance is that the
band are at the forefront of a lot of bands who are
becoming popular again because it’s a case of real
musicians playing real music again.
AH Yes it is, you’re right. When we were around in
the seventies there were very few female singers
around. You could count them on one hand really
and not much more than that. We were very unique
and we’re still unique. I guess my voice is part of the
whole thing because it is a different voice but think if
we get this CD out it stands a good chance. I think it
will satisfy a lot of Renaissance fans because it does
have that feel to it you know.
JK Moving back to the mid seventies Renaissance
were one of the first bands to fully utilise an
orchestra.
AH Yes that was very very exciting. It was on
Ashes Are Burning actually and I remember when
the orchestra came in. I remember we’d written the
music and Richard Hewson did the arrangements
and we didn’t hear what he had done until he came
in and did it and we were all stood in the control room
and it was a tears in the eyes job. I was like “Oh God,
that’s our music with an orchestra” it was incredible.
Then of course we did Scherherazade and Carnegie
Hall. The Royal Albert Hall, God that was one of the
highlights of my life
JK The Royal Albert Hall gigs came out, as part of
the King Biscuit Flower Hour series didn’t they?
AH I prefer those to the Carnegie Hall tapes. There’s
a few static things on there and feedback but its got
that really exciting live sound on it and of course it
has the RPO doing Prologue. A version that Louis
Clark arranged and of course I went on to work
with Lou on Still Life, which was another wonderful
experience.
JK Renaissance was known for these beautiful big
orchestrated records and yet live you never noticed
the orchestra wasn’t there the band had a very big
sound.
AH Yeah, considering what you can do nowadays.
I think John used a CS 80, which was this gigantic
thing but the strings on that were really wonderful
and any parts John couldn’t play on that he was
playing piano and I’d sing. My role was to become
an instrument but it did sound really full considering.
Now ideally I’d like two keyboard players if we go
out on the road. We’d have one person that would
concentrate on the grand piano parts and another
concentrate on the synths.
JK Is there a chance that Renaissance may do
some live dates?
AH If we get a deal yeah absolutely. I’m very positive
we will get a deal but it’s got to be somebody that
will give us tour support. Its no use saying just put
it out. It’s got to be supported properly. We’d have
to rehearse because we’d have to do some older
things as well like Mother Russia and things like that
so it’s going to be a lot of rehearsal.
JK When Renaissance finally called it a day in the
early eighties it seemed that the band ended with a
bit of a whimper was that the impression within the
band as well?
AH Yeah, it was very sad we kind of lost our way
when we did an album called Azure D’or. That
was the beginning of the change when we tried to
come up with music that because Northern Lights
was a hit we were under a little bit of pressure to
come up with something that was more commercial
and Azure D’or came out of that and it was ok but
that was the beginning of the change. Jon Camp
was very radical in his thinking. I’m trying not to be
judgemental because we’ve all got our choices and
Mickey as well went along with Jon’s different ideas
with regards to where we should take the music
but it was so radical that we lost our unique sound.
With Camera Camera and Timeline it went out the
window as far as I’m concerned. They didn’t do too
well those albums. Azure D’or was ok but didn’t do
all that much and then Jon left and we kept going to
America and doing these small tours and we kept
writing stuff but it wasn’t right we’d lost it because
the best music at that time was the combination of
Terry, John Tout, Jon Camp me and Mick. It was
magic you know and once John and Terry had left
in 1980 everything was different. It was never the
same again
JK Those two albums you mentioned, Camera
Camera and Timeline were radically different. I
remember hearing them and thinking it was a totally
different band.
AH I know. It was a big mistake
Blessing In Disquise
JK You then moved on and recorded a solo album.
Was that strange doing a solo album as opposed to
a band project although you had done a solo album
in the seventies with Roy Wood entitled Annie In
Wonderland.
AH Yes that was very useful to me because I learnt
a lot from Roy. Different techniques and stuff,
which I still use and when I do them I still, think of
Roy (Laughs). That was an incredible experience
to work with him. You’ve heard the album and its
Roy; it could be nobody else really (Laughs) That
happened because at that time John Tout was sick
for two or three months and that was the ideal time
to do a solo album.
The next one was Still Life and that came about
when I was doing the housework one day and Air
On A G String came on and I started making up
words. At that point I wasn’t a writer of lyrics and
I was just messing around and I called up Betty
(Thatcher) and I said why don’t we see if we can
do an album of classical pieces and you write the
words and that’s when she said I’ll call Lou. So she
called Lou Clark and he put the money up for it and
we went in and did it with the Royal Philharmonic,
which was amazing.
JK There was a time when there were almost three
Renaissance bands on the go. There was the
original Renaissance band that was operating under
the name Illusion then there was Annie Haslam’s
Renaissance and Renaissance with Mick Dunford
and Stephanie Adlington. Were you aware of these
other bands?
AH Well I knew the Illusion thing was happening. The
reason I called mine Annie Haslam’s Renaissance
well it was probably not a very good move but the
reason I did it was because I’d had breast cancer
and I thought it was my re birth so I’d use that in
the double meaning of the word. Michael’s band I
was very upset with the Other Woman thing coming
out because people were buying it and thought
it was me. There was nothing to say on the cover
that it wasn’t me. He could have called it Michael
Dunford’s Renaissance at least people would know
what it was and we had a bit of an argument over
that but there’s nothing you can do now its done.
She’s got a lovely voice.
JK It was a totally different sound particularly the
voice that sounds more suited to the stage
AH She’s very good at it. She was classically trained
I believe
JK But it wasn’t the same
AH No it wasn’t the same.
JK Mike Dunford has written a stage adaptation of
Scherherazade will you be working on that at all?
AH It’s done, in fact they’ve got the backers and all
the money’s in place but they’re just working on the
re writes at the moment. They were hoping to finish
it to be on the stage this year but its probably going
to be the spring now. I’m not in it. I was asked to
be in the showcase last year and I turned it down
because I had too many other things of my own to
do and its not me. I don’t want to be on the stage
Live Under Brazilian Skies The Dawn Of Ananda
JK Your latest album Under Brazilian Skies has
some interesting cover versions on it. Nature Boy I
believe you performed because it was a song your
dad used to sing to you but there is another famous
song on here Mike Oldfield’s Moonlight Shadow.
Why did you decide to do that?
AH Well I did that on my self-titled album that came
out on Epic records which is an album I’m quite
proud of because everyone said I’d never do it. I
didn’t have a manager when I went solo and I went
to America and I toured and contacted everybody
that I’d ever met in the music business and used
all my contacts until I got a record deal and I got
it myself without a manager. Unfortunately it was
at a time when Sony was changing over and Epic
was changing around and I got lost in the shuffle but It Snows In Heaven Too
you’ve been able to buy it for the last ten years in
America and it came out in Japan but it never came
out over here so I’m trying to work on getting that
released.
Anyway the story is the guy Malcolm Caplin who
signed me up like a lot of people thought that it
was me singing on Moonlight Shadow rather than
Maggie Reilly and he said I’d love to hear you do
that song so that’s why we did it.
The above interview was recorded for a radio
programme in May 1999 and following the
interview we talked about Annie’s life in America
and how although she lived in America she still
regarded herself as English. Annie also played
me a song, which she had just written with Mike
Dunford, which would eventually appear, on One Enchanted Evening
Annie’s next solo album The Dawn Of Ananada.
The song was Precious One and it remains one
of my favourite Annie Haslam songs.
The Renaissance album Annie was talking about
in the interview would eventually be released
as Tuscany and the band which included Annie,
Mike Dunford and Terry Sullivan toured in
support of the album and also released a live
album recorded during the Japanese dates of
the tour. Sadly Annie left Renaissance following
the tour and resumed her solo career. At the time
of writing (Summer 2005) Annie has released
another solo album Dawn Of Ananada and a
Christmas album entitled It Snows In Heaven
Too along with a more recent live album One
Enchanted Evening, which features a beautiful ‘Live’ Studio Concert
version of the Beatles song She’s Leaving Home.
In 2005 Annie signed a new distribution deal,
Annie Haslam
which saw the albums Under Brazilian Skies/
Blessing In Disguise (VP354CD)
Blessing In Disguise/ One Enchanted Evening/
Under Brazilian Skies (VP355CD)
and Dawn Of Ananda re released in some cases
Dawn Of Ananda (VP356CD)
with bonus tracks through Voiceprint. Annie’s It Snows In Heaven Too (VP357CD)
classically based album Still Life is due to be re One Enchanted Evening (VP358CD)
issued by Voiceprint in late Spring 2006. ‘Live’ Studio Concert (VPDVD20)
Talking Tolkien
the fellowship in elven lands
ith the Peter Jackson directed Lord Of The
W
Rings film trilogy now universally available
on DVD the time would now seem right for
a music based project inspired by the Tolkien book.
Many might see the Fellowship’s release In Elven
Lands as some sort of cash in, however the truth
is the project was initially started because the film
needed a musical soundtrack.
The main mover behind the project is Carvin
Knowles. It was Carvin who thought that Jon
Anderson might be interested in working on such
a project bearing in mind that some of Jon’s work
with Yes and of course his solo album Olias Of
Sunhillow were fantasy based pieces of work. The
album eventually featured Jon Anderson on just four
songs not because he wasn’t interested in working
on the project but because his commitments with
Yes prevented any further or more involved dealings
with the project
In Elven Lands however is not a rock album and as
Carvin explains some of Jon Anderson’s fans may
be puzzled by his involvement even as the guest
star rather than the major force behind the project
although the story of the album’s creation has almost
as many twists and tales as those stories contained
within the pages of Tolkien’s books.
In Elven Lands began as a series of demo recordings
for consideration by Peter Jackson for his “The
Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy. These demos
used Early Music techniques to reconstruct sounds
from J.R.R.Tolkien’s many civilizations. From the
beginning, we all made a commitment to make an
album that would be at home in the ancient world.
So we left behind our electric guitars, synthesizers
and drum machines in favour of a mixed consort of
ancient and modern instruments.
Jon Anderson was kind enough to agree to record
four songs with us, including two that he wrote for
Andy Ellison
a day at the cornfake zoo
Andy Ellison’s credentials within the rock music
world are well catalogued. Andy was a founder
member of British psychedelic rock band John’s
Children between 1966 and 1968. The band were
also famous for including in their ranks a young
Marc Bolan who was also responsible for writing
some of the bands material including Hippy Gumbo
and the legendary Desdemona. The band also
famously recorded an album with the rather risqué
for the time title of Orgasm. This album was
basically a studio affair which was given a live
sound by overdubbing audience screams allegedly
from a Beatles performance. Unfortunately the
album was shelved at the time and wasn’t released
until the mid eighties.
Following the split of Johns Children in late 1968
Andy Ellison was also involved in a number of
bands including the lesser well known Jook the
Glam super group Jet who managed one album and
a tour supporting Ian Hunter on his first post Mott
The Hoople tour.
Andy Ellison was next sighted leading The Radio
Stars who managed a few minor hit singles and two
albums the first of which was the excellent Songs
For Swinging Lovers.
Since that time Andy Ellison has worked consistently
and occasionally performs with former Radio Stars/
Sparks bassist Martin Gordon performing songs
from the John’s Children, Jet and Radio Stars back
catalogues. To this end he has released a live
album and more recently has overseen the release
of a John’s Children compilation.
the album. We worked by phone and Fed-X most of
the time, since he could only clear out two days from
his schedule to record. It was early 2000, just a few
weeks before Yes began recording Magnification
and he was understandably swamped.
The four songs that Jon sings are Dan Barliman’s
Jig, Elechoi, The Sacred Stones, and Verses to
Elbereth Gilthoniel.
It rained the whole time that we were at Jon’s studio.
Jon recorded track after track of vocals, giving life
and meaning to an artificial language that only exists
in myth. It was eerie. During breaks, he’d be on
the phone setting details for his upcoming orchestral
sessions. Then back to work painting lyrical
landscapes of Tolkien’s first age. Throughout the
recording we all agreed to set aside our egos and
fully commit to the sounds of ancient cultures. In
one song, Elechoi, Jon sings a refrain in pre-chordal
vocal counterpoint. Another has his interpretation of
a hobbit’s Jig.
I think we’re all happy that Jackson chose orchestral
composer Howard Shore to create the magnificent
operatic scores for the films, but we all felt that fans
of Tolkien and fans of Anderson might like to hear
these exercises in Ancient Music.
When Carvin is asked if he thinks he is capitalizing
on the success of the trilogy of films he is honest
but pragmatic.
“Only if we’re lucky, but that wasn’t the point. The
point was that we created a beautiful mediaeval
tapestry inspired by Tolkien’s writings and we want
for those fans who are interested in such a thing to
have it in a nice edition that will fit nicely with your
other Tolkien or Jon Anderson albums.”
With the album appearing so long after the initial
release of the films it is fair to say that while there
will be a heightened awareness of all things Elvish
Cornflake Zoo is a compilation album featuring a
varied array of tracks dating from 1968 through to
the most recent recording on the album from 2005.
Jon Kirkman found Andy Ellison in buoyant mood
over the album that manages to mix the old and the
new with the old providing some real surprises.
Bearing in mind that Marc Bolan was an early
member of John’s Children before he left to form
his own band which turned out to be Tyrannosaurus
Rex it follows that there must be certain Bolan
Ellison tracks in the archives. Indeed there is and
a number of these tracks take pride of place on the
new archive album Cornflake Zoo.
One track in particular will be familiar to Bolan fans
as Jasper C Debussy although on Cornflake Zoo
the song is given a completely different makeover
and retitled Casbah Candy Andy Ellison explains.
“This was an unreleased future solo track using one
of Marc’s songs Jasper. C. Debussy (which we had
played live in John’s Children), as a backing track.
I think Marc later released his version on one of his
early Tyrannosaurus Rex albums.
Having listened to it as an instrumental, Simon and
I retired to a bar just off Bond St, to put down some
new lyrics. One brandy led to another and as the
evening progressed, things got sillier and sillier as
did the words”.
Silly Andy Ellison may think it is but it is an incredibly
rare track and only existed as an old scratchy
acetate. You can also hear Nicky Hopkins here on
piano.
Another Bolan song Hippy Gumbo features on this
In Elven Lands
and the work of Tolkien the work of The Fellowship
is more than capable of standing on its own merits.
Whilst I have already mentioned that this album isn’t
and was never conceived as a rock album there will
no doubt be more than a few rock fans attracted
to this album not least because Jon Anderson is a
special guest and the album also features a version
of Led Zeppelin’s Battle Of Evermore in a radical re-
working and arrangement which is more in keeping
with the Elven Lands vision.
Curiosity will no doubt attract a great many fans
both old and young and of course those with many
different tastes in music However as a piece of work
In Elven Lands deserves the praise that has been
levelled at it and while no rock album a mainstream
audience will no doubt be enthralled by the music
contained on this remarkable album.
With Thanks to Carvin Knowles
The Fellowship
In Elven Lands (VP378CD)
Cornflake Zoo
album albeit in a totally different version from the
well known John’s Children sonic attack to be found
in the bands live set
“This is an unreleased version. The antithesis of
the live, manic, John’s Children rendition. And
features a haunting acoustic guitar, violin, cello and
timpani drum interpretation. It was recorded in a
church in Barnes south London for a possible future
release”.
Every musician has at least one story concerning
the numero uno band of the day and Andy Ellison’s
Beatle story is no less interesting than many others
that seem to be trotted out every time there is a
documentary on the Beatles.
“Simon Napier Bell (Manager of John’s Children)
was working on the music for a new Clive Donner
film, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, (now a
60’s cult classic). He was editing at a studio on Old
Compton St. above a strip joint, opposite where the
old 2i’s coffee bar used to be.
Spencer Davis and Traffic were supplying the music
Gilli Smyth
witches’ tails
Glastonbury Festival Best Of Mother Gong
F
ear of “evil” witches and what they might
do to us is still such a strong element
today, (see the Tales of Narnia, lOI
Dalmatians, a lot of folk tales, “Exorcist” type
TV programmes, etc. etc.,) that one wonders if
these are scapegoats for the many things that
humans don’t like about themselves.
The healing elements of witchcraft, the magical, the
extraordinary, tend to be forgotten. Also why is the
“dark side” so popular.. for example part of a lyric on
the “Eye” CD (VP)
“we are scared of the dark and the cold,
but fear of ourselves is higher,
so we chop off the bits we don’t like,
on broomsticks they fly
from the warm winter’s fire”…
Witches’ “Tails” stretch from the ancient past to
Narnia and modern myths.”Tails” because witches
are often identified with cats, many of whom were
killed during the witch-burnings of the l5th, l6th, l7th
centuries. There are also plenty of drawings and
paintings of half-cat half-woman witches, cats sitting
on broomsticks and so on.
This is like the ancient fear of storms and volcanoes,
uncontrollable events, as our ancestors struggled
across uncharted landscapes, which transmutes to
the modern fear of uncontrollable events, apparent
magics which are scary, supernatural, and generally
hostile.
In the Celtic “Horned Women” story on the Short
Tales and Tall Stories album released recently by
Voiceprint, I found just this element. Witches who
come out of nowhere, who knows why, but with a
for the film. I’d got the job as Simon’s assistant
sound editor, and as I wasn’t doing much at the time
and would turn up every day and learn how to cut
film to music on a Moviola film editing machine.
In the room next door, the Beatles were putting
together the sound track to Magical Mystery Tour.
Paul was the most dedicated and would be there
every day. John would only turn up occasionally and
would spend his time shouting surreal comments
out of the window at a bizarre but very clever,
alcoholic, Soho character, who always paraded Old
Compton St balancing a wine bottle on his head
and singing at the top of his voice whilst passing
people flowers.
There was a single phone in the hallway and Paul
McCartney and I kept getting our phone calls mixed
up as we both had a girlfriend at the time called
Jane.
Clive Donner came in one day and said he still
hadn’t got a love song for the film and Spencer
Davis and Traffic hadn’t come up with one. Much
to Simon’s surprise I suddenly said;”Why don’t we
try ’It’s been a long time’, the song Chris and I had
written for John’s Children and maybe try it slower
with an orchestra”?
Gong Matrices Short Tails & Tall Stories
feeling of indefinable menace, in what they might or
might not do.
Today we can appreciate these stories as stories,
(although modern politics contains plenty of
bogeymen) but a few hundred years ago it was a
terrible reality.
A few million people, children and animals were
burned as witches... now hardly remembered…
But you can “adopt” a witch, as I have on my
website.
www.gillismyth.com
and follow the ink for News…
http://www.geocities.com/witchofsolstice/Adopt.html
I chose a little girl “Alizon Devize” who was executed
(as one of the Pendle Witches) in Lancaster, U.K. in
l6l2 for being “in league with the devil”. She was just
11 years old, and undoubtedly just a naughty little
child, like any of us.
Of course adopting a witch doesn’t make any
difference to the terrible things that happened to
them, but at least it is honouring their memory, and
providing a reason for not treating human beings
like that today. And knowing that if we act in positive
ways towards others and the world, positive magic
really does happen. If you believe in it.
GILLI SMYTH
Glastonbury Festival 1979- 1981 (VP363CD)
The Best Of Mother Gong (BP271CD)
Short Tales & Tall Stories (VP368CD)
Gong Matrices (VP353CD)
“In a small studio deep beneath EMI at Marble
So back off to the Studio with yet another orchestra.
Anyway Clive Donner loved it, and suddenly it was Arch, Marc (Bolan) was putting together a few
in the film. It also came out on Track Records as backing tracks with some session musicians (John
one of my solo singles and I remember going off Paul Jones on bass and big Steve on guitar), Marc
to Swanage, Dorset with Simon, a camera and a was also hoping to start a solo career, managed
model for a long weekend filming and other things!... by Simon who was also there as producer. I came
Most of the filming seemed to be me pretending down towards the end of the session and was just
to fall off cliffs. This may well have ended up as hanging out hoping that the three of us might go
possibly the very first pop video ever, if any body down to the Speakeasy later.
has a copy of it let me know.”
It was as the session was drawing to a close that
One of the outstanding tracks featured on Cornflake Simon reminded me that I needed a B side for You
Zoo is an orchestrated version of the Beatles song Can’t Do That, Marc said,”How about Andy using
You Can’t Do That which was recorded in 1968 that last track, If he’s got any words, because I’m
shortly after John’s Children broke up and was not sure I can do anything with it,”
considered as a solo single release for Andy. Sadly Simon gave me a sheet of paper and a pen and
there was no Beatle help on this track but it certainly said, “See what you can come up with, but make it
stands as an interesting take on a Beatles song and quick as we are running out of studio time”.
is a highlight of the album.
I went into the vocal booth and wrote the words in 5
Well having travelled the mists of time and also
minutes, and sang it in three and five minutes later
the mists of Andy Ellison’s memory what about I was in the Speakeasy”
the title track I hear you say. Well once again it is
So there you have it just a few of the delights that
another undiscovered Andy Ellison and Marc Bolan
can be found when visiting the Cornflake Zoo.
collaboration as Andy says it was considered at one
time as a possible B side for the aforementioned Andy Ellison
Beatles song You Can’t Do That. Cornflake Zoo (VP364CD)
Gentle Giant
B
ootleg recordings have always been
the bane of musicians’ lives and
more importantly the lives of record
company executives who feel that their
artist is being robbed of what is rightfully
theirs. Of course usually what the record
company executive means is his record
company is being robbed of profit that
they themselves could be collecting...
On behalf of their artist of course.
On the other (Free) hand some artists are
reasonably ok with bootlegs with some artists
even going so far as to collect their own bootlegs;
Phil Collins of Genesis and John Lennon being
two high profile examples of this practice.
In the Internet age however there has been
a rise in the practice of sharing files. That is
to say recordings made by fans for other fans
transferred via e-mail in the form of an MP3 file.
A great many artists also have cottoned on to
this practice and some have even gone so far as
to release live CDs through their own website.
Gentle Giant are one such band who have delved
into the bootleg market and whilst the phrase
“Official Bootleg” remains an oxymoron it is the
phrase that sums up the practice best of all.
Gentle Giant has their own imprint for releasing
these albums Glasshouse Records and so far
the label has released nine albums with more
in the pipeline. These range from the earliest
recording in the series, In A Palesport House
which features a recording made in January
1973 in Torino Italy through to The Missing Face
recorded in Cleveland Ohio in November 1977.
But perhaps before we look at these recordings
we should refresh our memory as to just
who Gentle Giant were or indeed still are.
Gentle Giant initially grew out of the band
Simon Dupree and The Big Sound, which
featured the three Shulman brothers Derek
(Simon Dupree), Phil and Ray. The band had
enjoyed a certain amount of success and is
probably best known for the singles Kites
and For Whom The Bell Tolls. Originally the
band were a soul based R’n’B band although
by the time of the hit singles the sound had
become softer and more in keeping with
the prevalent psychedelic trend which was
popular at the time By late 1969 the music
scene was changing and the Shulman
brothers decided to embark on a new direction.
Joining the Schulman’s in Gentle Giant was
multi instrumentalist Kerry Minnear, guitarist
Gary Green and drummer Martin Smith. The
band initially signed to the new progressive
label Vertigo and recorded three albums
including the self titled debut and its follow up
Acquiring The Taste, which sold moderately
well with the third album Three Friends being
a concept album. Gentle Giant however
really hit their stride with their fourth album
Octopus that was also a success in America
in addition to England and mainland Europe.
Like many bands down the years Gentle Giant
underwent changes in line up; the first change
in line up coming just prior to the recording
of the third album when Malcolm Mortimore
replaced drummer Martin Smith. Sadly
Malcolm Mortimore was himself replaced
following a motorcycle accident, which laid
him up and necessitated another change in the
line up when John Weathers in turn replaced
him. This line up again seem settled until
founder member Phil Shulman called it a day
following the release of the album In A Glass
House. In A Glass House was the first album
to be released on the new WWA label and
also provides the title of the imprint on which
the official bootleg series is released Which
brings us to the whole reason for bootlegs
The band was incredibly popular particularly
in a live capacity and around this time tapes
and even bootleg albums started to appear.
As with many bands from the seventies
particularly British progressive rock acts
Gentle Giant were the target of a number
of bootlegs particularly in America and
mainland Europe. The first known of these
recordings to find its way onto the market
was the album Amongst The Darkers that
appeared on a famous bootleg label The
Amazing Korneyfone Record Label (TAKRL)
Incidentally Glasshouse schedules this now
legendary album featuring a performance at
the White Plains Music Hall White Plains in
October 1975 for release sometime in 2005.
Gentle Giant continued throughout the
seventies releasing a number of critically
and commercially well received albums
including the official live album Playing
The Fool, with only a slight change in style
coming towards the late seventies to a
more mainstream rock approach. However
the band finally called it a day following the
release of their final studio album Civilian and
split in 1980 leaving behind a dozen albums
that make for an excellent recorded legacy.
Whilst the band are no more interest in the
band and their recordings more importantly
the unofficial live recordings that started to
come onto the market following the bands
demise meant that the bands profile is almost
as high as when the band were a working
unit. The recordings on the Glasshouse
label are therefore filling a demand within
the fan base and of course the band do
have control of the product that is released
to the market. Whilst the albums are indeed
bootleg quality the performances more than
compensate for the dip in audio quality.
Another early performance from the band in the
Glasshouse series comes from a performance
in Rome in November 1974, which is a reissue
of another bootleg entitled Giant Steps
Forward. The performance stems from the
tour to promote The Power And The Glory
one of the bands most adventurous and most
popular releases. The opening two tracks, an
opening medley of Giant, Cogs In Cogs and
living in a glass house
Live Rome 1974 In A Palesport House
The Missing Face Prologue
Proclamation and Funny Ways are the first
two tracks of the performance and feature
the best known and the most stable line up
of Gentle Giant in the in the months following
Phil Shulman’s departure the previous year.
America was to be a big and popular market
for Gentle Giant in the seventies and the band
regularly toured there to great acclaim.1975
for instance found the band extensively
touring America and the second disc from the
album Prologue features songs lifted from a
performance at the legendary Spectrum in
Philadelphia in October of that year. One of
the tracks, Freehand was the title track from
that year’s album but also featured on this
recording is the Octopus medley performed
at this particular concert. The medley at this
point featured Boys In The Band, Knots and
The Advent Of Panurge, which pleased the
appreciative American audience no end.
It would seem at first glance that Gentle
Giant seemed to be in their live element
in America, which always brought out the
best in the band and while many of the
bootlegs are sourced from performances in
America it is because most of the original
bootlegs were sourced from here although
it is perhaps not surprising considering the
amount of touring the band did in America.
The performances of Two Weeks In Spain,
Memories Of Old Days and Playing The Game
are particularly good coming as they do from
the band’s soundboard archive from a concert
in Cleveland Ohio in November 1977 during the
band’s tour to promote The Missing Piece and
the album The Missing Face is one of the most
popular releases in the Glasshouse series.
Sadly as we have already stated the band
decided to split in 1980 feeling that they had
In’terview An Concert 1974 Artistically Cryme 1974
Playing The Cleveland Endless Life
Santa Monica Freeway Live In New York 1975
done everything that the band had originally
set out to do. A resurgence of interest in the
late eighties and early nineties in the band
however prompted the formation of Glasshouse
Records and the release of the “Official
Bootlegs”. Whilst these recordings are a “fly on
the wall” document of some key performances
the sonic quality is not that of an official record
company release however the quality of the
performance is never in doubt and across this
series of “Official Bootlegs” there are some
incredibly strong performances from the band.
Gentle Giant was always more than capable of
reproducing their sophisticated and sometimes
incredibly intricate songs and arrangements Gentle Giant
on stage away from the recording studio. Live In Rome (GLASS101CD)
If your niche is well written and played In A Palesport House (GLASS102CD)
sophisticated progressive rock the recordings Interview In Concert (GLASS103CD)
contained on the Glasshouse label can Artistically Cryme (GLASS104CD)
be seen as the other side of the coin to The Missing Face (GLASS105CD)
the officially released studio albums from
Playing The Cleveland (GLASS106CD)
Gentle Giant a band who despite having
Prologue (GLASS107CD)
split up twenty five years ago still command
a large and loyal fan base who clamour Endless Life (GLASS108CD)
for more releases of the kind released by Santa Monica Freeway (GLASS109CD)
Glasshouse records... Long may it continue Live In New York (GLASS110CD)
Live In London
A
s the capital city of England London is seen
as a major stopping off point on any rock
bands tour itinerary. During the eighties
a series of specially recorded programmes
proved to be very popular with music fans that
were usually starved of music during the daily
television schedules. Subsequently the concerts
were either repeated during the early hours of
the morning and some of the concerts were even
released on video.
Since the late eighties however the videos have been
deleted and the shows themselves have become a
distant memory for those who actually attended the
show in person or were lucky enough to have seen
the show on the television.
The Live in London series of DVDs has been
released and in its wonderful cross section of artists
and styles there is to be found a wealth of wonderful
music. From the heavy metal of Venom through the
sleazy glam rock of the Cherry Bombz to the New
Country sound of Carlene Carter to the jazz and R n
B sound of Dr. John.
The Live In London DVD series has already received
a positive response from many music fans particularly
the progressive rock fans that considered the shows
by bands like IQ, Twelfth Night and Pallas to be not
only groundbreaking but also a rare chance to see
their favourite band.
In the case of some of the bands such as Dianno
and The Cherry Bombz the performance captured
was to be their only filmed example of their concert
set.
In the case of Girlschool, Twelfth Night, Pallas and
IQ the sets feature a line up of the band that was
either short-lived or is perhaps no longer together.
Whatever the reason the quality of the performances
captured on this series is of a very high standard and
captures the bands in a moment of time before like
many bands the band or artist moves onto another
phase of their career making these performances
important from a historical point of view.
Carlene Carter is of course a member of what many
people would term country royalty with her mother
being June Carter and her stepfather the one and
only Johnny Cash. This performance from Carlene
and her band was filmed in the mid eighties when
Carlene was living in the UK with her then husband
Nick Lowe. Filmed at the Camden Palace Carlene
and her band power their way through a set that that
featured music from her then album C’est C Bon and
other favourites from her critically acclaimed back
catalogue. As one of the leaders of what became
“New Country” this DVD is certainly a rare chance
to see the real deal and finds Carlene and the band
in fine form
The Cherry Bombz was a short-lived but nevertheless
important band to rise from the ashes of Hanoi Rocks.
Former members Andy McCoy, Nasty Suicide and
Terry Chimes joined with vocalist Anita Chellemah
formerly of female pop band Toto Coello. Captured
here in full flight at a concert recorded at the Camden
Palace the Cherry Bombz have all the raunch and
sass of Hanoi Rocks with the sleazeometer turned
up just a touch more. Lasting just over two years
this concert performance is a rarity and captures the
band at the height of their career featuring songs
from their one and only album.
Another trashy glam influenced band with a huge
following in the early eighties was Wrathchild. Hailing
from Evesham Wrathchild was one of the most
over the top bands on the live circuit. They had an
incredible knack however of writing crowd-pleasing
rabble-rousing rock anthems like Cock Rock Shock
which so as not to offend your granny was re titled
Hot Rock Shock. No matter the performance here
from Rocky Shades and the boys was enough to
give anyone palpitations. Glam rock at its finest or
worse depending on your outlook. Whichever side
of the fence you occupy however you can’t ignore
Wrathchild, as one look at this DVD will confirm
At the time of the Girlschool concert filmed at the
Camden Palace in late 1984 the band had gone
through a number of changes and were also
about to release an album with a shift in direction
in terms of music. The subsequent album Running
Wild would be released some six months after this
concert although some of the material to feature
on this DVD would eventually appear on the album
including the songs Running Wild, Love Is A Lie and
Nowhere To Run. Also included here are key songs
from the bands back catalogue including C’mon
Let’s Go, Play Dirty, Hit n Run and Emergency.
More importantly is the line up featured on this
DVD which while lasting just long enough to see
the release of the album would split shortly after
the release making this another historical and rarely
seen performance.
Dr. John needs no introduction, his reputation
stretching back as far as the fifties. In his time Dr.
John has played with many of the greats both as a
session player on other artist’s records or alongside
some of the greats on his own albums. Here he is
featured with the celebrated Chris Barber Jazz band
at the Marquee at a concert that was to form part of
a series of concerts that celebrated the Marquee’s
silver anniversary. Performing a potent mix of Jazz
and blues with a touch of R n B Dr. John puts in a
tremendous performance on songs like Saints and
his own hit In The Right Place.
As has been previously mentioned the spread of this
series is incredibly wide and from the Jazz influence
of Dr. John we move to Heavy Metal. Paul DiAnno
had previously been a member of Iron Maiden who
were at the forefront of the New Wave Of British
Heavy Metal boom in the early eighties. Paul
recorded two best selling albums with Iron Maiden
before leaving to pursue other solo projects.
DiAnno was one of many bands Paul formed
following his departure from Iron Maiden although
once again the line up featured here was a short
lived affair. The material and performance captured
here however is incendiary and while the music
is more American sounding that the music of Iron
Maiden the performance is still an exciting one to
behold and features material from the self titled
DiAnno album (Heartuser, Road Rat and Razor
Age) alongside well chosen covers (You Really Got
Me and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place).
During the mid eighties that particularly English
brand of music Progressive Rock became popular
once again. During the seventies bands like
Genesis, Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer had
perhaps defined the genre. During the early to mid
eighties a new crop of bands began to make a name
for themselves and became part of what became
known as the “Neo Prog Movement”
The three bands featured in the series Live From
London all had a large and dedicated following and
it is for this reason that a decision was made to
capture the bands in a live setting.
Twelfth Night had built up a following through sheer
hard work over the previous six years and this
concert from the Marquee in late 1984 finds the band
on the verge of crossing over to the big league. The
Marquee had virtually become the bands second
home and in this performance the band is at ease in
front of a partisan audience and performs key tracks
such as Creepshow and Fact and Fiction.
Another band then attracting a great deal of interest
was Pallas. Having recently recorded their first
album for the major Harvest records label, which
was produced by Eddie Offord the band, accepted
an offer to tour with Uriah Heep. It was during this
concert tour that Pallas was filmed at The Camden
Palace for the Live In London Series. Despite the
supporting role the band had to play on the tour this
performance captures the band in their early days
and features material from the album The Sentinel
including the track Arrive Alive which was already
an audience favourite alongside material from their
then current release the Knightmoves EP
an ecletic trip back
IQ was another band who had made the move up through
the ranks of the Neo Prog movement to secure a place
among the front runners of the genre like Pallas. Like
Pallas IQ is still a going concern today and release regular
albums and tour to promote those albums that keeps the
ever-expanding fan base happy. At the time the band
recorded this concert at the Marquee vocalist Pete Nicholls
was on the verge of leaving the band. He was subsequently
replaced by vocalist Paul Menel although following Paul’s
departure in 1989 Pete returned to the band where he
remains as front man to this day. The band was promoting
the album The Wake that at the time of filming was on its
way to the top of the Indie album charts. Pete’s departure
following this performance certainly lends it an air of history
and although he did return to the band at a later date this
concert film does have an air of the end of an era.
The Live From London series is if nothing eclectic and
moving on from Progressive Rock we now head on into
the Blues genre. Snowy White had an excellent reputation
as a session guitarist playing with the likes of Al Stewart,
Pink Floyd and even Cliff Richard. He is probably best
remembered for his time with Rock band Thin Lizzy where
he recorded two albums (Chinatown and Renegade)
during the period 1980-1982. Following his departure from
Thin Lizzy Snowy formed his own band the White Flames
and recorded his debut album. Surprisingly the single lifted
from this album became a huge hit. Bird Of Paradise is
still listed as a favourite song for many people who first
saw Snowy on tour to promote the album White Flames.
This is another concert filmed at the popular London venue
the Camden Palace and features Snowy and The White
Flames playing his own brand of tasteful and contemporary
blues to an appreciative audience.
From British Blues we move to America or should I say
an American band. The Fabulous Thunderbirds came from
Texas and had released a number of successful albums
and toured with many bands including the Rolling Stones.
In 1985 the band featuring vocalist Kim Wilson and guitarist
Jimmy Vaughan were in London to record their first album
for Sony. Tuff Enuff would go on to become a best seller
and receive some of the best reviews of the bands career.
While the band was in London they were captured live for
the Live From London series. A surprise feature of this
show was a version of the then unreleased title track of
the bands next album. Tuff Enuff also features alongside
earlier material such as Scratch My Back from the bands
debut album
We move back to rock music and another historical
performance from one of the great British Rock bands of
the last thirty years. At the time of this concert Magnum
had just released the album On A Storytellers Night. This
album was an immensely important album for the band and
its importance was reinforced in 2005 when the expanded
twentieth Anniversary edition was re released once more
to critical acclaim and commercial success. This album
was to catapult Magnum into the rock mainstream and this
concert captured the band just as the album was released
and the set list features many tracks from Story Tellers Live from London
Night including the title track.
The Cherry Bombz (IPDVD001)
As you can see the series is an eclectic one with something Girlschool (IPDVD002)
for everyone. Already the overwhelming response has Di’ Anno (IPDVD003)
been a positive one with more and more people wanting to Magnum (IPDVD004)
delve back into their past and perhaps re live some of their Dr John (IPDVD005)
favourite musical moments. Whatever the reason the Live Fabulous Thunderbirds(IPDVD006)
From London series of DVDs is an excellent series of DVDs IQ (IPDVD007)
that would look just fine sitting on your shelf alongside the Snowy White (IPDVD008)
other DVDs in your collection. Go on enjoy a trip back in Carlene Carter
time to London in the eighties when you could go out and Wrathchild
enjoy yourself at a concert and buy a round of drinks and Twelfth Night (IPDVD011)
still get change out of a twenty pound note… Just! Pallas (IPDVD012)
 the Voiceprint DualDisc
6. Steel Pulse 7. Spear of Destiny 8. Martin Stephenson

Sampler Ku Klux Klan

taken from
Last Man Standing
taken from
Lilac Tree
taken from
Live From The Archives Live At The Fleece Lincoln Cathedral
(RESPECTDVD1) (VPDVD13)

CDside ➦
The selections featured on these two pages all appear on the exclusive Dual Disc that
accompanied the print version of Newsprint 7. This was sent free to anyone who has
9. Mountain
Crossroads
10. Iona
Here I Stand
11. Martin Stephenson
Home
taken from
taken from taken from
ordered any item from our catalogue in the past. These and other titles can be ordered Live In Texas Iona Live at the Roscoe
directly from our website or mail order. For contact details see the contents page of this (VPDVD14) (OPENSKYDVD1) (VPDVD19)
magazine.

13. Gordon Giltrap

1. Patrick Moraz & Rick Wakeman 14. Bill Nelson
Best Years Of 2. Snowy White 3. Martin Stephenson 12. Tangerine Dream Fast Approaching Spinning Planet
Our Lives The Way It Is Wheel Of Fortune Talking To Maddox taken from taken from
taken from taken from taken from taken from Live At Flashlight Dreams
The Story of I The Way It Is Wheel Of Fortune Shepherds Bush Empire The Symphony Hall & Fleeting Shadows
(IVP003CD) (WFVP001CD) (BVCD012) (LCVP160CD) (VPDVD4)

6. Iona
4. Hawkwind 5. The Fellowship Strength 15. Gong 16. Man 17. Dave Bainbridge
Paradox 2005 Dan Barliman’s Jig taken from Est-Ce Que Je Suis 7171551 Encore
taken from the single taken from the forthcoming album taken from taken from taken from
Spirit Of The Age In Elven Lands The Circling Hour Live At The Fridge Live At The Rex The Eye Of The Eagle
(HAWKVP55CD2) (VP378CD) (OPENVP11CD) (VPDVD7) (VPDVD8) (OPENSKYDVD3)

20. The World

Drummers Ensemble
8. David Foster 9. Keith Christmas 18. Patrick Moraz 19. John Shuttleworth Extract
Time And A Word Light Of The Dawn Soul Eternal (promo edit) Trailer taken from
7. Wetton/Downes
taken from taken from taken from taken from A Coat Of
Sole Survivor Open Road Light Of The Dawn PM In Princeton It’s Nice Up North Many Colours
Live exclusive track (VP291CD) (KPC001CD) (CHICKENDVD011) (BBSF015DD)

10. Man 11. Crimson Jazz Trio

Diamonds & Coal 21st Century
Schizoid Man 12. Anthony Phillips 21. Annie Haslam 22. Mountain 23. Bruford/Borstlap
Exclusive radio edit
from the taken from River Of Life Carpet Of The Sun Never In My Life Two Left Shoes
forthcoming album King taken from taken from taken from taken from
Diamonds & Coal Crimson Songbook Field Day Live In Philadelphia 1997 Live In Paris In Concert In Holland
(PNTVP134CD) (VP373CD) (BP362CD) (VPDVD20) (BBSF007DVD)

DVDside 1. Bruford
Beelzbub
2. Iona
Strength
24. John Shuttleworth
Y Reg
25. Gene Loves Jezebel
Gorgeous
26. All About Eve
Every Angel

➥ taken from
Rock Goes To College
(BBWF008DVD)
taken from
Live In London
(OPENSKYDVD2)
taken from
500 Bus Stops
(CHICKENDVD10)
taken from
Live At The Fleece
taken from
Cinemasonic
(AAEDVD1)

4. Pink Floyd
3. Hawkwind & Syd Barrett 5. Jan Akkerman 27. Snowy White 28. Eddie 29. Dave Bainbridge
Utopia (studio 22) Extract Britiania - & the White Flames & the Hot Rods & Troy Donockley
taken from taken from Everything Must Change What I Am Searching For Gloria From Silence part six
Take Me To The Pink Floyd & taken from taken from taken from taken from
Your Future Syd Barrett Story A Touch of Class The Way It Is Live Live From Silence
(HAWKVP38DD) (USD473) (VPDVD17) (VPDVD12) (VPDVD21) (VPDVD15)