On Friday, I was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, once more, for the Royal Shakespeare company’s latest production of Romeo and Juliet. It has been an interesting year for the RSC with receipts up because of David Tennant’s involvement in Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s lost but some mixed reviews and varying quality and conceptualisation of productions.
No, not the Carson McCullers book, but an English band of the 70s and 80s, who for my money were probably the best live band on the circuit for a period of about five years around that time. I met up with their bassist, Des Tong, again, a few nights ago. I’ll tell you their story.
Sad Cafe rose from the ashes of some long forgotten Manchester-based bands like Gyro and some of their members had served time with progressive rockers Mandalaband. They began to tour in late ’76 and were quickly signed to RCA. Their debut album, Fanx Tara came out on the 1st of September 1977. Their line-up at the time consisted of:
Paul Young (Vocalist and percussion) (most decidedly not the "Wherever I lay My Hat" guy but the one who went on to front Mike & the Mechanics)
Ian Wilson (guitars and backing vocals)
Ashley Mulford (lead guitar)
Vic Emerson (keyboards)
John Stimpson (bass)
Tony Cresswell (drums)
Young had been with the Toggery Five in the Sixties and led a band called "Young & Renshaw" as well as cutting some solo singles in the first part of the Seventies. He had swagger and panache that was natural but was coupled with moves he had swiped from Jagger, and an incredible set of pipes gave him some of the best vocals I’ve ever heard. Mulford was developing into a very under-rated but accomplished lead guitar whilst Wilson had a sweet voice and played six and twelve string acoustic as well rhythm electric with ease and style.
The first album included Black Rose, Hungry Eyes and I Believe (Love Will Survive) which were to be staples of their live show for the rest of their time together. However sales were modest although the album made it to no. 56 in the UK chart.
Second album, Misplaced Ideals, trod a similar path in musical style and sales (peaking at no. 50 on the charts) but the big breakthrough seemed far away. Their reputation as a great live band had begun to spread and one of their performances was filmed for a broadcast entitled "An Evening with Sad Cafe" which mooched around the late night TV schedules for the next few years and was eventually commercially released after Gary Numan and Blondie had made that a viable option.
The album, released in April ’78, contained Restless and On with The Show which also became live favourites. In early ’79, a lesser cut "Run Home Girl" suddenly became a success in the U.S. Billboard charts rising to 71 on the Hot 100 – dragging its mother album on to the top 100 U.S. albums too. The band were surprised to have broken in the States but more significantly it raised their profile in the UK where they were given a prominent slot on the Old Grey Whistle Test and all was set for a big year in ’79. A saxophonist simply known as Lenni became a regular fixture in the live band and by 1980 was a fully-fledged member.
Drummer Cresswell called it a day just as they were about to begin work on their third album and was replaced by the (in my opinion) more accomplished Dave Irving. Eric Stewart of 10cc was drafted into produce and the third album "Facades" was the one to break them big, albeit for a short time. The big hit from the album, Everyday Hurts (which reached number three in the UK charts in September 1979) was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that when ever the band’s sales dipped (which was often) the record company would request another piano ballad. The band became more associated with that song than the swaggering rockers which were their forte.
The album peaked at number 8 in the UK staying on the chart for nearly half a year. The songs were less fusion-orientated and had more catchy riffs of the kind that Eric Stewart’s band had made their mark with. 3 more hits came from the record. Strange Little Girl reached 32; My Oh My peaked at 14; and Nothing Left Toulouse stuttered as far as 62. None of these troubled the singles charts in the U.S. and the album stalled at 146 on the Billboard list.
For their self-titled fourth album, Stewart again filled the producer’s chair but either the band accorded him less space or he was more complacent in his approach. This album was a little more workmanlike. It gave them two UK hits La-di-da (no.41) and I’m in Love Again (no.40) but they were already beginning to fade from the memories of the pop scene whilst the rock crowd continued to lap up their tours. La-Di-Da became their second minor U.S. hit reaching no. 78. The album peaked at 40 and 160 respectively, in the UK and US charts. Attempts to break the band in the Netherlands and West Germany didn’t bear much fruit and the record company began to lose patience.
To add to the problems, this incarnation of the band began the process of breaking apart. Ashley Mulford was spending increasing amounts of time outside the country as a romantic liasion began to deepen. John Stimpson simply didn’t want to be in the band anymore and set out for a career in music management. Des Tong became the new resident bassist and the band began to fret about the situation with its lead guitarist.
The band owed RCA one more album and a live set "Sad Cafe Live in Concert" was released in the Spring of 1981. This was coupled with an appearance on the ITV series Rockstage which emphasised what a potent force they were. Recorded whilst Stimpson was still on bass, the album was a virtual greatest hits allowing the Johnny-Come-Latelys to hear the great songs form the first two albums in their natural environment. It outsold the last studio record in the UK and reached 36 on the album charts. A single led by the live recording of Black Rose failed to make an impact.
In a decision which was to impact the rest of their career, the band ended into a complicated arrangement which saw Polydor become responsible for their future UK releases even though they had already signed a deal with Swansong in the U.S. (who had handled the release of the self-titled album Stateside). Complicated contracts are often a bad idea and this one was to surround the band with litigation for the next 4 years as the labels squabbled about who owned albums by them.
In the Autumn of 81, they released Ole, which was only a minor success in the UK (no. 72) and was ignored in the rest of the world. The singles were Misunderstanding and Follow You Anywhere. The latter got more airplay than the former but nothing sold. Mulford was missing from most of the recording with a number of guest guitarists filling the holes. One of these, Mike Hehir, would become a full member by the time of another hugely successful tour. Great live band who couldn’t sell records was shortly to become great live band who couldn’t release records. The courts decided the band should release no more albums until the ownership of their work was clarified.
Earning their living by touring, they were on the road almost all of 1982. 1983 eventually saw a single release (albums were a no-no) as Charisma released "Keep Us Together" which reached no. 76 in the bubbling under section of the Record Mirror. A young journalist by the name of Darren Hirst was commissioned by Sounds to go and talk to the band for a feature but nothing helped restore the missing sales. By the following year, the baton for single releases passed to Virgin who released "Why Do You Love Me Like You Do". More touring and spots at Reading and Glastonbury Festivals had enhanced their live reputation even further but their sales increased not a jot. The band played some farewell gigs, persuaded RCA to release a "Best of" package and called it a day.
Paul Young, by now, had another problem to deal with. A singer had risen to prominence using the same name – something that couldn’t happen in the acting world because of Equity was entirely permissible in the music world even though Sad Cafe’s Young had recorded solo singles using that name more than a decade before. He recorded a single with Ian Devaney and christened himself Devaney Young. He made another disc as YPY (which he said stood for young Paul Young). Neither sold and he needed the income when he was invited to cut some lead vocals for Mike Rutherford of Genesis’ new side-project. They eventually released an album called Mike & the Mechanics which sold well – particularly in the States – and Young and Paul Carrack were invited to share vocals in the band for the long haul but that’s another story.
Ironically, at the same time, the legal wrangle regarding Sad Cafe’s ability to release albums was settled and Young decided that he should reform the band. Of the four remaining long standing members two declined. Vic Emerson and Dave Irving had had enough for now. Young and Ian Wilson decided to press on regardless and invited Tong and Lenni to record too. Augmented by some sidemen and a new drummer, Jeff Seopardi, the band recorded "Politics of Existing" which gathered in the singles from 83 and 84 and an album’s worth of new material. It was released in late 1985 but made little impact. Two singles – Refugees (written by new man, Seopardi) amd Only Love, were equally unsuccessful. In the States, "Why Do You Love Me Like You Do" was retitled "Heart" and gained some notice as a single.
Working hard was deemed to be a solution to the lack of sales and Ashley Mulford rejoined the lineup for a 1986 tour of the UK. Ex-Grand Prix keyboardist, Phil Lanzon who was currently a member of the Sweet, moonlighted on keyboards. However, the tour wasn’t as commercially successful as their previous outings and the renewed energy was short-lived.
The band was to have one last stab with 1989’s album "Whatever it Takes" and its single "Take Me (Heart and Soul). Whilst once again an album which displayed excellent songwriting and musicianship, it was if anything even more overlooked than its predecessor. For this set, Young, Wilson, Tong and Lenni were augmented by sidemen Steve Pigott (keyboards) and Paul Burgess (drums). Ashley Mulford disappeared as quickly as he’d returned and was once more replaced by Mike Hehir. Vocalist Alistair Gordon who would be helped by Young in his band "Radio Silence" became the band’s first full-time backing vocalist. This band played a couple of home town gigs to promote the record before drifting apart.
That really is the end of the band’s story. Where are they now? After continued success with Mike and the Mechanics, Paul Young died suddenly of a heart attack in July 2000. Ian Wilson and Mike Hehir are now part of Les Holroyd’s latest version of Barclay James Harvest. Des Tong is part of Alvin Stardust’s touring band and was my inspiration for this article. Ashley Mulford plays the blues in Germany. Vic Emerson did some work with 10cc but I lost track of him after that. Dave Irving runs the band’s official website at www.sadcafe.co.uk to which I have contributed as I can. Alistair Gordon produces a number of bands and singers now that his own band, the rather excellent "Radio Silence" seems to have folded. The bands two most commercially successful albums "Facades" and "Misplaced Ideals" have been re-released in the States by Renaissance Records (who I am currently badgering about the rest of the band’s back catalogue). It won’t be as good as seeing them live but as that is no longer possible, you should do yourself a favour and buy them.
I’ve spent the last two weekends in Leeds so now seems as good a time as any to update on the fortunes of my football (soccer, I don’t understand American Football) club, Leeds United. On Saturday, we played Huddersfield Town in Football League One (old third division) in a game which because of the geographical nearness of the two opposing teams drew over 32,000 fans, making it the 5th best attended game in England on the day and 6th best attended in the whole of the UK. Only 4 premiership games , none in the Championship and only Glasgow Rangers’ home game in Scotland, had a larger crowd. Football, then, is very much alive and kicking in Leeds but the team is not what they once were. But the hard times seem to be lifting. Prior to the game, we were third in the division, compared to Huddersfield’s standing in 16th. Despite this apparent advantage and the promise that a win, in this early kick-off, would take Leeds to the top of the division (at least until later in the day), we managed to lose 2-1 as Huddersfield scored in the last minute. Leeds had taken the lead through Snodgrass in the 4th minute but couldn’t hold on to the lead despite having the lion’s share of the quality individual performances.
What did this game reveal about the team?
Goalkeeper
1. Casper Ankergren. Ankergren has been sharing ownership of the goalkeeper’s jersey with David Lucas despite being the hot favourite to be the regular between the posts at the start of the season. His momentous error which led to the first Huddersfield goal undid an otherwise reasonably solid performance and did nothing to guarantee he will be in the side in a week’s time.
Defence
2. Frazer Richardson. Long serving captain, Richardson, looked more confident pressing forward than in his defensive duties. He provided a good overlapping presence on the right side with winger, Robert Snodgrass and the two gave the Huddersfield full-back a torrid time in the first half.
19. Ben Parker. Left back is a problem position for Leeds and Parker is the current incumbent. Again, better going forward than anything else and the Huddersfield attackers could have made more of the Leeds’ lack of enthusiasm to work on the left, particularly in the first half.
6. Lubo Michalik. The Slovakian central defender is good in the air and clears his lines well but doesn’t contribute much more than that. He will do at this level but it is hard to see him continuing in the team if they were promoted to the Championship.
26. Paul Telfer. The 37 year old central defender looked out-paced and wobbly on Saturday. There are more capable defenders in the squad and it is hard to see why McAllister is favouring him.
Midfield.
4. Jonathan Douglas. Douglas looked a class apart from most of the others on the field for most of the game. The manager replaced him and Delph just at the point when we seemed to have Huddersfield pinned in their own half. His maturity and vision were outstanding but he is let down by a suspect temperament. Our hopes of winning disappeared when he was removed.
15. Fabian Delph. Delph has silky skills and is fast developing into a great young player. I’m not sure who was meant to be playing on the leftside of midfield on Saturday but nobody seemed to fancy that role. Delph, particularly, had a tendency to cut inside when he received the ball rather than being tempted to explore the left side of the pitch. Good game otherwise, if a little too easily knocked off the ball and another regrettable substitution in the late stages.
8. Neil Kilkenny. I spent most of half time trying to remember who was the 11th player on the Leeds side (there is no scoreboard at Elland Road at the moment!). Kilkenny was that invisible presence and, thankfully, he was removed early in the second half, having contributed nothing I could remember.
Forwards
18. Andy Robinson. Robinson played wide on the left side of the forward line. He suffered from lack of support and got himself needlessly cautioned. He has a tendency to appear a little lazy when disposessed and didn’t chase back well on Saturday. Having said that going forward, he appeared to be one of the more solid Leeds players and can shoot from distance.
23. Robert Snograss. Wide on the right, Snodgrass was Leeds’ best player on the day. He scored Leeds’ only goal. Skilful, with a good touch and willing to run at opponents with vigour, he was our brightest hope – particularly in the first half.
10. Luciano Becchio. A lone central forward for most of the game, Becchio was persistent and solid. When Beckford was brought on, Becchio had more freedom, showed more flair and might have scored.
Substitutes
9. Jermaine Beckford. Top scorer, Beckford, entered the game very positively, early in the second half. In truth, he might have scored within minutes of his arrival. However, his contribution lessened after a couple of heavy challenges knocked him to the ground and the midfield line behind him was rearranged. The sooner he is fully match-fit and can start every game, the better.
7. David Prutton. Suffered by comparison with the players that he and Howson were required to replace, but in truth did well and looked sparky and bright. A poor free kick from him was our last scoring chance.
14. Jonathan Howson. Like Prutton, he was solid but not spectacular. Tried in difficult circumstances.
Unused substitutes: 12. David Lucas. 21 Enoch Showunmi
So a disappointing result before a large crowd. Danny Cadamarteri had something to prove when he came on as Huddersfield’s last substitute and he was responsible for single-handedly creating the chance which led to the second goal but the changes in midfield ended Leeds’ dominance and it wasn’t only the players on the field who had reason to blush.
This looks like another season when we will make the playoffs – and then anything can happen.
Maybe this lad could do a job for us – Lucas the Kop Kat turns away having slammed in a penalty during the warm-up
Darren & the late Billy Bremner
London
Leeds
Barnsley
Dodworth
Leeds
Whitby
York
London
It has been a week for journeys and more travelling tomorrow. I’m not even sure what day it is.
Love’s Labour’s Lost
RSC
Courtyard Theatre
Stratford-Upon-Avon
30th October 2008
I keep wanting to say that is an ordinary production….. but that isn’t true. In fact, in many ways, the production is extraordinary. The stage design, the colours, the movement are all of a very high standard indeed. I don’t even get to say that David Tennant was either extremely good or extremely bad. His performance as Berowne is run-of-the-mill, no better, no worse, albeit very good in parts.
Natural Progressions is a magazine that I edit and also write for. You won’t see it in your newsagents as it is mail order only. It will appeal to people who like a certain kind of music. Issue 38 is now available.
It features:
Full coverage and reviews of the Eagles on tour.
Coverage of recent interviews with Don Henley and Joe Walsh
An interview with Poco founder and solo artist, Richie Furay
Bernie Leadon of the Eagles and Flying Burrito Brothers writing about the rivalry between his band and Poco
An interview with Michael Georgiades of the Bernie Leadon – Michael Georgiades band and Zoe
44 pages, colour when appropriate.
Drop me a line if you want more details or a subscription.
It’s been a good month for getting to talking to some of my favourite musicians. As I have mentioned before I’ve been working hard on an interview project with Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, solo career etc. etc.) We had just about finished this when I mentioned to Richie, it would be nice to get an alternative view on some of the key periods in his life. We came up with the idea of getting Bernie Leadon (Hearts and Flowers, Flying Burrito Brothers, Eagles, Bernie Leadon-Michael Georgiades Band, solo career etc. etc.) to comment on rivalry and admiration between Poco and the early Eagles. I was expecting a few words, enough to mould into a paragraph of the article. Bernie went to town and has written an article of his own about his admiration of Poco. Great stuff!
I’m also hoping for a contribution from Al Perkins who played a particularly important role in developing Richie’s musical and spiritual life.
Next up to the plate is Michael Georgiades who was Bernie’s partner-in-crime in the aforementioned Bernie Leadon-Michael Georgiades band and in the short-lived spin-off, Zoe. I’m going to be speaking to him next Saturday. His album, Natural Progressions, is a particular favourite of mine and interviewing him is the realisation of a long-held ambition.
Looks likely then that the next stage in the on-going project that I have rolling with Mr Leadon will be in August as we talk about his period with Hearts & Flowers.
These articles will appear in Cross Rhythms magazine and Natural Progressions Magazine. The first of these can be located on the web, subscription information on the second can be obtained from me.
Harold Pinter does strange things with words.
It’s not just the obligatory Pinteresque pause that everyone mentions. He takes them from their normal surroundings and imbues them with a sense of tension which, in his best work, is never resolved. It simply hangs.
A few days ago, I caught the production of his “The Birthday Party” at the Lyric theatre, Hammersmith, London (just down the road from the place I live, which is handy).
I first read the The Birthday Party a long time ago. This was in the early 1980s. I’d started reading Beckett and Brecht and then I stumbled on Pinter. In the town I grew up in, you didn’t get productions of Pinter, Beckett or ANYTHING. It was like living in a cultural vacuum. So if you were young and precocious, you read play scripts and tried to visualise what it would be like. I visualise better than most. I learned earlier. It was about putting a little colour into life – you get so sick of black and white.
So I read everything that Pinter had written that I could lay my hands on. The Homecoming, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska (maybe that was later, it seems that way), Old Times, No Man’s Land were some of the plays I remember reading back then and always in his best plays it was the tension and the transitions that he captured that got me and kept me reading. There was also a screenplay for “A la recherche du temps perdu” by Proust which I loved and admired greatly.
There are many writers whose best work is in the past and, for myself, I regard Pinter in that way. I can’t admire his politics and his recent public pronouncements just simply needed a certain degree of proportion and that is what a writer should have. I think Pinter has lost some of that measure that he had when he was a younger man.
So it was good to see one of his old plays. “The Birthday Party” is, if anything, perhaps a little too early. He is still learning the craft that fired that tension that interested me, at this point. The third act largely exorcises that malevolence that he has spent two acts creating. It resolves some of the issues and if Pinter has a strength it is that he taught the theatre that things don’t have to be resolved.
In The Birthday Party, Meg and Petey, a married couple, live with their guest, Stanley Webber. Nothing much changes in their lives. Lulu, apparently a neighbour, flirts with Stanley but nothing much goes on beyond the routine of daily meals, newspapers, a time for bed and a time to rise. All this changes when Meg is told that two visitors are coming. It is then that all of life’s possibilities break out and things begin to fall apart.
The words are clever and even some times funny. It is the characters’ response to simple words and simple encounters that places them on the rack and stretches them and allows their potentialities to burst open.
Stanley (advancing): They are coming today.
Meg: Who?
Stanley: They are coming in a van.
Meg: Who?
Stanley: And do you know what they’ve got in that van?
Meg: What?
Stanley: They’ve got a wheelbarrow in that van.
Meg (breathlessly): They haven’t.
Stanley: Oh yes, they have.
Meg: You’re a liar
“The Birthday Party” teaches us that those who are fully awake are changed by encounters. Those who prefer not to change (like Petey in the play) can remain that way but only by sleepwalking through life’s experiences.
The play is loaded with possibilities. The fact that McCann and Goldberg (two visitors at what is apparently <perhaps> a coastal boarding house are Irish and Jewish respectively loads their mission <should it exist> with all manner of possibilities – religious, political, cultural. All we know is that this is the twentieth century and their purpose, should they have one, could be sinister. We’re not sure how much of what happens is real or if any of it is dream. The import is not in the action but in the words – what is said and what is not said and how the characters and the audience react to what they hear and what they are not told.
The current production is at a close now. For the record, Nicholas Woodeson and Lloyd Hutchinson as McCann and Goldberg were excellent with the right air of purpose but with so much hidden. Sian Brooke as Lulu had just a little too much class and was a little too pretty (if you’re going to come up short, it’s not a bad way to do it). Sheila Hancock as Meg was a little too aware of herself and the play and her costume in the first act was just a little too stereotyped. She played for laughs sometimes that the play did not need.
Meg’s character is potentially the most mysterious of all in a strange way, if handled well. On the face of it she is almost moronic and easily satisfied. Simple. But she has many layers. She wants to be sexually alluring to the guests (even Stanley). She wants social standing – her dwelling is “on the list” she insists, her guests found her to be the belle of the ball. She wants to mother Stanley. His birthday present from her is a child’s drum. She is made more distraught by its brokenness than by anything else. Petey assures it that it can be easily replaced but then he also assures her that Stanley is still upstairs at the conclusion of the play. Is he or is Stanley broken too? She wants the danger but not the threat of change but most of all she wants things just to stay the same.
It is a thought-provoking play. I’m glad to be still thinking about it.
Well, back from 4 days in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
What can I say? The town is a mess. The unnecessary vigour to tear down the old theatre and replace it with a new one as now spread to the Bancroft Gardens. Every inch seems to have been dug over and turned to mud. Fences and scaffold surround everywhere in sight and I felt sorry for those who had travelled from France and Japan (seemed like the only two kind of tourists in evidence!) who had made a long journey and who were missing the old town at its best.
(This was the original title. When it was published elsewhere, my editor chose to retitle the piece “Bob Dylan: The Spiritual Journey of a 20th Century Icon” which was not what I wanted AND rather seemed to miss my point)
When Leon Patillo was converted in the late seventies, the Christian music industry and its press was full of the news of the conversion of “Santana’s lead singer”. Those who are familiar with the music of Santana will know that the band revolves around and is named for its guitarist and has used a mammoth amount of vocalists over the last 30 years. But the facts don’t always get in the way of Christian reporting and a good story when it sees one.
Patillo may now only merit a footnote in the history of Contemporary Christian music but his launch into the Christian marketplace and its subculture was indicative of something that was going to happen time and time again in the late 70s and early 80s. The church had come to believe that celebrity converts in some ways added to the validity of the gospel. Perhaps if it waved the flag hard enough and high enough and showed that someone famous believed then those who didn’t would be persuaded by celebrity testimony.
Perhaps it was symptomatic of the times. It was the opening of an era in church life which was heavily influenced by the Vineyard fellowship, John Wimber and his teachings. The argument went something like this – if people see marvellous works of God then they would be persuaded of the validity of the gospel and accept Christ. Leaving aside troubling comments of Christ that suggested it was an adulterous generation that looked for a sign and that people would not be persuaded even if someone was raised from the dead, whatever the weaknesses of the theology and the theory of the church, the Vineyard movement would make a lasting impression on the church for the next two decades, until the passing of Wimber, its most persuasive advocate.
Which brings us to Bob Dylan. Not only was Dylan the height of the cult of the celebrity convert, his conversion occurred whilst he was under the auspices of the Vineyard movement. After his conversion, Dylan immediately began to record exclusively gospel songs and began to perform in concert in a way that was out of keeping with the first twenty years of his career. Someone who previously had needed to be encouraged to say “Thank You” between songs and who evaded questions presented by the press, now began to preach sermons about Armageddon and give interviews about his new found faith. Sometimes he was booed and heckled whilst on stage whilst others talked about it all being “a phase”. In 1982, he reverted to type refusing to talk about much of anything once more. He left Vineyard, began to study Scripture, occasionally with the Jewish Lubavitch sect, and declined to host a gospel music awards show. The church that had a use for Dylan’s celebrity now had no use for him. His 1983 album “Infidels” was searched by the Christian press for the expected disowning of the Christian faith and when none came the religious press paid less and less attention to each subsequent Dylan album. The Dylan Christian era was over, it seemed.
