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I Hear You Are Singing A Song of the Past……. I See No Tears

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Steely Dan stopped touring in 1974. Halfway through a UK tour, vocalist Donald Fagen was taken ill and the tour was going to be reorganised but it never was. For the next six years, Dan became the consummate studio band …… but they never returned to the stage. After 1980s “Gaucho”, they called it a day and Donald Fagen’s solo career was launched with the very successful “The Nightfly”.

Fast forward to 2009. Steely Dan playing live in Hammersmith, London. These days they spend far more time on the road than they do in the studio. Since Walter Becker and Donald Fagen decided to do it again, they’ve made only 3 albums – 2 studio, 1 live. And tonight, they will feature only 1 song written since the aforementioned Gaucho album. The difference is that now that Becker finds long periods spent in the studio finding the right note a little tedious and both principals are now very comfortable on the stage. And so you go back, Jack,……..

The band minus Becker and Fagen open the show with a mellow reading of Oliver Nelson’s “Teenie’s Blues”. The crowd react as Walter and Donald enter. They’re an ungainly presence. Walter now quite portly. You wouldn’t notice him if you passed him in the street. Donald with that “skeevy look” in his eye. They lead the band into a blues which turns out to be a massively overhauled version of “Reelin’ in the years”. Memories of the recent Dylan tour where the words were the same but the melodies were a distant memory. This one works quite well but it is a very different sound than the original.

Much more faithful to the album is “Time Out of Mind” from the 1980 set. Becker and Fagen have managed to coax their audience into responses which match a jazz performance than a rock show. Solos are politely applauded and professionalism is very much the order of the day.

The live Steely Dan experience depends on a full band to make these songs come alive. Lead guitar duties are shared by Jon Herington and Becker with Herington taking the lion’s share. Keith Carlock has been handling drumming duties with the band for 10 years and he is a crowd favourite. Bass is Freddie Washington. Hidden away from sight on a second keyboard is Jim Beard. In addition, we have a four piece horn section and three backing vocalists. Fagen describes them as the “Left Bank Orchestra” (Left Bank being the chosen name of the tour) and he is not far wrong.

Another reshaped early hit follows with “Showbiz Kids”, driven by a slinky bassline by Washington and a remodelled chorus which is led by the vocals of Tawatha Agee, Janice Pendarvis and Catherine Russell.

1973 is the flavour of the day and we move on to “My Old School” with the horns making a powerful presence. Jim Pugh is on trombone, Roger Rosenberg is on baritone sax with Walt Weiskopf on alto and tenor. Marvin Stamm completes the quartet of wind instruments with his trumpet.

“Bad Sneakers” originally appeared on 1975’s Katy Lied and its jaundiced worldview suit Fagen’s voice well. He looks and sounds world weary. He resembles that Uncle who knows better than we do but is too polite to mention that our optimism and enthusiasm will soon be crushed by the weight of the world we live in.

Carlock’s rhythmic sense is called upon in a vigorous reading of “Two Against Nature” which reminds us that there has been life since “Gaucho”. The album that this was the title track of was lauded by their peers back at the turn of the millennium but the boys mean to pay little regard to it or to its less successful follow-up “Everything Must Go”, this evening. Tonight, we’re stood squarely in the past.

After that momentary wander for perhaps the best performance of the night, it’s back to ’75 for “Black Friday” for a very bluesy version of that track. After that we push forward just a little for 1977’s “Aja”. This is a song with lots of space for the soloists to excel and spread out. Fagen’s Yamaha Melodica leads the melody for the first section before Weiskopf on tenor is spot-lit with accompaniment from the full drums of Keith Carlock. The doubting lilt on Mr Fagen’s voice on “they think I’m okay, or so they s-a-y” is just wonderful before a Carlock solo takes over. All of this adds up to a wonderful moment in time.

 

“Hey Nineteen” is one of the a large number of songs in the Dan repertoire which features the story of an older man hitting on a younger girl. Becker’s guitar work is always clearly thought-out and never uses one note where nine will do. His rap about the wonders of the “Cuervo Gold” in the midst of this song, however, is one he has been perhaps doing for just a few too many years and its perhaps time to give it a rest. Great trombone solo here from Jim Pugh.

The lady vocalists take over the lead in a reading of “Parker’s Band” from Pretzel Logic before the song becomes a work out for the horns. They are more than equal to the task.

A pair from “Gaucho” is next. Prior to the show I’d said to a companion that tonight I would settle for the inclusion of “Glamour Profession” and the exclusion of “Bodhisattva” (perhaps one of the more over-worked Dan live choices). After a perfunctory “Babylon Sisters”, the opening chords of “Glamour Profession” are struck and I’m a happy man. This tale of how extra curricular activities threatens to derail a  West Coast basketball team is well-handled with great keyboards from Fagen and Beard.

Every Steely Dan show features at least one lead vocal from Mr Becker. On his latest solo effort, Circus Money, his voice sounds more confident but singing live still doesn’t seem a comfortable fit. He gives us a passable run through of “Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More” before stepping back to his comfort zone.

Then its back to the Aja album for three tracks: “Deacon Blues”, “Josie” and “Peg” which provide the fullest audience reaction of the night so far. These are divided by the old Supremes hit “Love is like an itching in my heart” which provides the backdrop to the introduction of the various members of the band.

After “Peg” the band leave the stage to tumultuous applause only to return moments later with an extra member. Elliot Randall played the original lead on “Reelin’ in the Years” and because they are in the guy’s hometown and even though it means it’s the second performance of the number tonight, it’s time to revisit that song like it used to sound in 1972. The performance brings the house down.

During the encore, it all became too much for one old gent who leapt to the stage and led Security a merry dance as he sprinted ‘round the band. And the band played on…..

Final encore was “Kid Charlemagne”. Elliot remained on stage but left the major work to Jon Herington who rounded a sterling night for him.

This performance at the Hammersmith Apollo (nee Odeon) recalled some great days gone by. It remains to be seen whether the Dan can grasp the difficult nettle and produce a new album which they can embrace with the same enthusiasm that their audience brings to their old material.

Walter Becker

Freddie Washington and Donald Fagen

Jon Herington

Donald Fagen

Tap into Tap!

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For a band with such a long tenure in music history, the public profile of Spinal Tap is a strange one. They straddle the major eras of rock music like a huge Viking warrior straddling a ….er……. Viking wench, I suppose….. and a huge Viking wench at that……… but they go mostly unacknowledged. When the discussion turns to the greatest bands of the last forty years, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are always mentioned whilst the Tap are overlooked. Cruel.

You’ll remember how they started out in the Sixties in the now almost forgotten London borough of Squatney as the Originals. A name dispute led to them being renamed The New Originals. As they tried to tap in to the Merseybeat boom and overcome coming from the wrong town, they became “The Thamesmen”. Eventually as flower power spread to the British shores, they changed their name to Spinal Tap, once again just a little behind the wave of history. After this they became one of the bands at the forefront of the Original Wave of British Heavy Metal, as it is almost never referred to.

Despite all this activity, it is almost impossible to find in the stores, on ebay or on various collectors websites any of their albums prior to 1984. 1984 is a year that will live in every Tap fan’s mind as a date of infamy. This is not because it is the date that George Orwell chose for his apocalyptic vision of Britain’s future – not many Tap fans are that well read. But rather because it is the date that Marty DiBergi chose to film his infamous Rockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, a film which since its release has haunted the band and which they have found hard to live down.

It is ironic then that because of the curious and continuing unavailability of any of their albums prior to their period with Polymer records, they are left not to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the collapse of the New Originals or some imaginative early highpoint in the musical synthesis of two of the band’s principals, Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins, but rather the twenty-fifth anniversary of the movie. An ill run of fate indeed.

Even their great album of that year “Smell the Glove” seems to have been renamed “This is Spinal Tap” and re-released on Polydor records as the film’s soundtrack. Oh, the irony.

Spinal Tap hate the film with a venom, of course. Try not to mention to them the name of their former manager, Ian Faith, who led them into the debacle and allowed cameras on tour. Avoid reference to Jeanine Pettibone (later Jeanine Pettibone-St. Hubbins according to some sources)-  the New Age wanderings of  that lady is something that David still finds hard to live down. The trappings of the film that led to their ridicule have been cast aside. There will be no “pods” on stage in future performances of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation”. Foam models of Stonehenge’s  triptychs have been eschewed in favour of more reliable inflatable versions.

Unfortunately, Spinal Tap’s bad luck is not able to be isolated to the period of the film. Nor is it entirely in the past – their long history of past bad luck (if that is the word) is perhaps best located in the long list of drummers who have lost their lives in service of the band. Who can forget John "Stumpy" Pepys (bizarre gardening accident), Eric “Stumpy Joe” Childs (choked on someone else’s vomit), Peter “James” Bond (spontaneously combusted), Mick Shrimpton (exploded on stage) or  Joe “Mama” Besser (disappeared in mysterious circumstances)? Many have. No, the run of ill luck has followed them to this date. The enthusiasm for their “Unstoppable” World Tour was sapped when three U.S. actors, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer (sometimes Simpsons voiceover artist) who have apparently a long association with the band, headed out on a tour which featured many of Tap’s songs. As a result the Unstoppable tour was, um, stopped. The band instead played their world tour on one night in one city. Returning to their beloved London, they took over Wembley Arena (only a stones throw from Squatney if you have a good arm and a bad eye) to celebrate the release of the new album “Back From The Dead” even whilst promoters insisted on linking the gig to THAT film. What else could possibly go wrong?

Last time the band made a new album, 1992’s “Break Like The Wind”, Ric Shrimpton (ill-fated brother of ill-fated Mick Shrimpton) (see above on drummers) sat on the stool. Caucasian Jeffrey Vanston was on keyboards. Shrimpton (the younger) has had to pass his stool (not surprisingly) to Gregg Bissonette (for the album) and Skippy Scuffleton (for live performances). Vanston has survived (he is a keyboard player, after all) but prefers to go by simply CJ in these economically-reduced days. More importantly the band’s heart and mainstays, David St Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls are all present although curiously their names have been omitted from the booklet that accompanies their new album – although their signatures are present. Lack of creativity has been a big problem in the band’s current work – most of the tracks on the new album are outtakes from earlier recording sessions or reworkings of their classic hits. How would they fare in the live arena?

Well, things did not begin well. After a laidback if prematurely concluded set from The Folksmen (themselves victims of a music documentary – “A Mighty Wind” – which made light of bassist Shubb’s sexual reorientation, he prefers to be called Martha these days),  – a band who despite their very different musical style seem to spend an awful lot of time with the Tap – if they’re not careful they’ll begin to resemble each other, Spinal Tap were late to the stage. To add to the difficulty a badly placed green room camera was clearly showing that the band were playing video games back stage rather than heading for the stage. Fortunately, the technical team were able to show a video of “Majesty of Rock” to fill the absence. It reminded us that the Majesty of Rock promo clip, was perhaps the cleverest and subtle video ever to be seen on the MTV channel.

When eventually our errant metallers make it to the stage, the entire audience rises to their feet as a man (or as a woman if you prefer, there will be no sexism tonight). The crowd-pleasing “Tonight, I’m gonna rock you tonight” is the opener followed by that hymn to Dog Handling , “Bitch School”. The band are tight and on great form. David St Hubbins in great voice, “Bitch School” brought an excellent solo from Nigel Tufnel. It may seem that Derek Smalls strikes his one fist in the air pose a little too often but to those schooled in Tap, the subtle nuances and meaning of each salute are obvious.

Tufnel changes guitar for the thoughtful “Back From the Dead” which is the title track of the new disc:

“We’re back from the dead

Climbing from the coffin,

We don’t come here often

Or so it is said”

 

(Guest, Shearer, McKean, Vanston, 2009)

Tap have a way of breathing stale old life into even the most timeworn clichés.  It is on this track that Vanston really begins to make his presence felt.

Spinal Tap are a band with a great musical heritage and it would be a waste of an evening to dwell only on the new album (which is after all mainly reworked old songs – there is continuity here). So next they turn to a song from their late sixties debut (which is coincidentally also on the new record in a reggae version) – “(Listen to the) Flower People”. Marvellous harmonies and the spirit of an era captured perfectly.

On the album “Break Like the Wind” the vocal work of Timothy B. Schmit (of the Eagles) and Tommy Funderburk (of Zoe) were featured on the track "Cash on Delivery". No such luminaries are available tonight for the performance of that song but Skippy Scuffleton’s drum intro and a fiery guitar solo from Tufnel raise this above the average.

The age old question of balancing friends and wealth is addressed in the social commentary that is “Hell Hole”. The technical glitch of the early evening doesn’t make the band any more reluctant to revisit “Majesty of Rock” which we have already seen on the video screen, It is only now that we really begin to understand the profundity of this band:

“When we die, do we haunt the sky?

Do we lurk in the murk of the seas?

What then? Are we born again?

Just to sit asking questions like these?

I know, for I told me so,

And I’m sure each of you quite agrees:

The more it stays the same, the less it changes!"

 

(Smalls, St Hubbins, Tufnel © 1992)

 

The barber takes a pole, indeed! In half an hour, we have visited the late Sixties, the Eighties,  the Nineties, and the new album. But what were Tap before they were Tap? They were The Thamesmen. And it is time for “Gimme Some Money” that band’s first single. Is it not clear where the Beatles found their early sound?

During downtime in Tap’s recording history they have often thought of composing a musical about the life of Jack the Ripper. Finally after 28 years the first song of this important concept is complete. This song will be the title track of the whole musical, if it is ever finished! “Saucy Jack” transports us back to a golden age of variety, music hall and late night murder.

New track, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare" is so vivid an experience that you begin to feel that you’re caught up in a whole evening of such trauma. Surely, they cannot continue at this pace…….?

“Cups And Cakes” is a welcome relaxed moment amongst the lyrical and musical activity, as we take a leisurely walk through an English country teatime, led by Vanston’s keyboards. But the aural assault is only momentary. “Sex Farm” has been transformed, on their new album, into a funk number with a little rap thrown in for good measure. If I hadn’t already mentioned the subtle lyrical imagery in this review now would be a good time to do so.

“Clam Caravan” began life as a Tufnel solo track but again the original recording is difficult (if not impossible) to find. The casual listener can hear the band’s version on “Break like the Wind”. The song was going to be called “Calm Caravan” until a spelling mistake saved it from this trite fate. Tufnel’s didgeridoo solo is a high point which would make Rolf Harris blush.

“All the Way Home” is the first song that Tufnel and St Hubbins ever wrote together and this skiffle-blues deserves to be performed again for that reason only. A young talent which has not yet fully developed can be heard.

The Live Earth concerts a few years ago are well remembered for saving the world and transforming our culture completely. Where would we be without Al Gore? Perhaps more significantly they are to be remembered for the live debut of “Hotter Than Hell” which brought the nightmare of rising temperatures home for the first time to so many. Tonight, in sweat-soaked, summertime, London, it all seems so pertinent.

“Diva Fever” is another tribute to the female on a night which is short on that kind of thing. But the band are not only interested in carnal matters but like to dwell on the spiritual too. Cue Stonehenge, suitably accompanied by an inflatable model of part of the historic site and the obligatory small people that are so associated with the Drudic culture. Unfortunately, the inflatable deflates on top of the tiny people – but no concert can be expected to go ahead without the occasional technical hitch.

Festival culture is commemorated in “Stinkin’ Up the Great Outdoors” before we are reminded what the world was like before we screwed it up with “Rock And Roll Creation” and indeed, it was good.

To the delight of the guy at the front of the stage in the ELP t-shirt, Keith Emerson joined the band for “Short and Sweet”. Never try to upstage these guys again, Mr Emerson, it doesn’t work.

More guests for “Big Bottom” but they knew their place. Justin Hawkins, Andy Scott (from Sweet), Freddie Washington (from the current Steely Dan touring band). Oh and about 30 girls hired to wave their posteriors at the audience. They wind up the set with “Heavy Duty” which aptly summarises the content of tonight’s show.

But there is no stopping a good thing and back they come for an encore of “Break Like the Wind”, rich in atmosphere.

So, Spinal Tap. What can you say? Will anybody ever top them? Will anybody’s legacy so accurately sum up the behemoth that is rock music? Only time will tell, but I doubt it!

Nigel Tufnel – Lead Guitar

David St. Hubbins – lead vocals

Derek Smalls – bass

Andy Scott of the Sweet with Spinal Tap

 

Sweet Dreams

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On Friday I was at a birthday party for Andy Scott, who is the guitarist for English glam rock band, Sweet. Andy has reached that milestone of his 60th birthday. There was a time when it would have seemed impossible that you’d still be treading the boards and recording as a rock musician at that age but Andy made it and 60 of us were invited to help him celebrate. The actual birth day isn’t for a couple of weeks but this was a good date for everyone to get together and a great time was had by all.

It got me thinking…….. Sweet are another one of those bands that I’ve been listening to all my life. It takes me back to when I was a kid growing up in a coal mining town in the north of England. Hard times…. didn’t fit in ….. and music became my escape. Now when did I first hear the music of Sweet?

It would have been about 1972, or even 1971. I would have been at infant school then! My dad took me to visit with my Uncle Colin and Auntie Brenda who lived in a place called Kingstone, near Barnsley. I had a cousin (guess I still have) who seemed to find Barnsley an even harder place than I did. He’d heard a song on the radio called "Co Co" which he went round the house singing. It was by a band called The Sweet. I was 6, he was 5. Long time ago.

Then there was "Top of the Pops". Sweet in Indian get-up for "Wig Wam Bam". Sweet in make-up for "Blockbuster". Sweet sounding vaguely rude on "Little Willy" but I wasn’t sure why. I was 7. I was 8.

My Dad had an old reel-to-reel tape recorder that he used to record the songs from the Top 20. 6 o’clock Sunday night. Number 1 at 7. The Sweet’s songs were always my favourites. Ballroom Blitz. For some reason, he didn’t record "Hell Raiser". I didn’t really understand why. Maybe he didn’t like that one. I was 8.

Holidays in Blackpool. Got my parents to buy me a album on cassette each time we went. 1974. The Sweet’s Biggest Hits. Had all the hits up to and including "Wig Wam Bam". I preferred their newer stuff. I was 9.

By the time I started to follow the charts myself, Sweet had moved on. First there was Teenage Rampage. Then there was The Sixteens which didn’t go as high on the "hit parade", as my Mum insisted on calling it, but I thought it was the best single I’d heard them do. I remember seeing an album in the shops and not buying it because there wasn’t any of the singles on it. It was called "Sweet Fanny Adams". Then I remember them being on a Jimmy Saville-hosted edition of TOTP. He stood in front of the staging and said "Sweet are back with a difference…. And what a difference!". The guys, all dressed in denim, no make-up, glitter all gone, launched into "Fox on the Run". Now that was cool. I was 10.

Sometime around then there was a technician’s strike which stopped Top of the Pops being broadcast. The very visual bands like Sweet began to fade. My new favourite band was the Eagles. It was getting difficult at school to be a fan of Alvin Stardust and Sweet. And nobody else of my age had ever heard of the Eagles. I was beyond criticism. Sweet carried on and there were two more hits…… Action and The Lies in Your Eyes. Great, great stuff. The Lies in Your Eyes only got to number 30 but I saw it on Supersonic on TV and it sounded wonderful to me. Supersonic was to be the glam bands’ last stand. Cue Marc Bolan…… riding on a white swan. I was 11.

Kind of lost sight of the Sweet for a little while after that. I’d checked into the "Hotel California" and everything was so grown up. I was the kid at school who was disparaging of the whole punk thing which seemed to lack seriousness …… and song lyrics needed to be serious. Hey, I was 12.

1978. The local record shop had an album called "Sweet’s Golden Greats" which picked up where "Biggest Hits" had left off. Everything from Blockbuster through to…. through to….. some songs I’d never heard before. It included songs like "Lost Angels", "Fever of Love" and "Stairway to the Stars" which sounded like they’d been great singles but no-one had bought them. I couldn’t understand why no-one had bought them. They should have been hits. Maybe if they’d been hits then the Sweet would still be going I thought……. One morning, it was a Saturday, I was laid in bed, late and my Mum had the radio on. There was a song that caught my attention. Great melody and sad lyrics. Something about Oxygen. The DJ said that’s the new one form Sweet. It was a great song……. but no band should be allowed to hijack another band’s name just because they hadn’t had a hit for a couple of years. I was quite put out. Next time I heard it, close up, and I realised that the voice was the same. Brian Connolly. I went down the record store. A place on the corner of Peel Street in Barnsley. Can’t remember it’s name. They had the album. It was called "Level Headed". Andy Scott had a beard. They looked very mature. Just grown up enough for me. Kind of like the Eagles but from England. "Love is Like Oxygen", indeed. I was 13.

Nothing else from the Sweet the rest of the year and when you’re young six months is an awful long time. I’d moved on. Tubeway Army, David Bowie. If punk was a little too raw for me, then this was articulate, alienated and thoughtful. Just like me. The Eagles also brought out an album called "The Long Run". My English teacher seeing the badges on my jacket told me that you couldn’t like both Gary Numan and the Eagles. I thought he was wrong. I was 14.

I was shopping in Casa Disco in Barnsley. Local record shop. Sometimes I still have dreams about Casa Disco where I fret that it is closing down. When I wake up, it has been closed for years. When I go back to Barnsley, which I seldom do, its not there anymore. This day, they had an album by the Sweet that I hadn’t seen before. Just called "The Sweet", it had a live photo on the cover on which they looked like they did on that Level Headed record. Took it home, the songs were recorded prior to "Wig Wam Bam" and were really not me. Strike one on the Sweet. Another day, shopping in Neales Music in the Arcade. They had a section where you could buy singles that had failed to chart for 60p. The new ones were £1-10. I looked through. Found something called "Call Me" by Sweet. Took it home. Sounded okay. It was like being 11 again. Guilty secret. Found out the "Level Headed" album and tried to persuade myself that the last track sounded like Kraftwerk. In reality it probably sounds more like Pink Floyd. I was 15.

Now life was an endless trawl around the record stores. There was one place on Barnsley Market which had loads of singles and a few albums. It was called "Mary’s". Run by a little woman who always looked dirty which matched the condition of the singles she tried to sell. The albums were always in pretty good condition. Found one called "Cut Above The Rest" by Sweet. The inner sleeve had only three guys on the photo. I’d heard the singles off the album – "Call Me", Big Apple Waltz" – and hadn’t noticed the difference but the album confirmed that Brian, the lead vocalist, was no longer in the band. At least, the other guys had always sung on the other records. Found the next album when I went on holiday (Blackpool, again!). Water’s Edge. A little poppy for my tastes. I was 16.

Sometime around then the three-piece Sweet recorded another album, "Identity Crisis". Good record. I got it on a German import from a shop in Manchester. Sweet went out on tour. I was used to being embarrassed about my musical tastes when my mates who liked the latest hits chided me about them. Even for me, defending something as outmoded as Sweet was a bit of a stretch. Music was moving on, the new Genesis and David Bowie albums sounded poor, Steely Dan and the Eagles had called it a day and I needed to find something that was a little less mainstream. I was 17.

By this time, I’d begun to freelance for NME, Sounds and Melody Maker and was combining that with anything I could write about to keep a decent level of income. I don’t know how you can write a whole magazine about double-glazing but I did it – and on a regular basis. Maybe writing about music wasn’t going to be the only thing I would do. Time to think again and a long time since I’d thought about Sweet. I was 20.

Married man (at least for a while). An article in Sounds. "Sweet getting ready to Blockbuster again". Three guys on the photo. Andy Scott, Mick Tucker and a guy called Paul Mario Day. The article said that Stevie Priest would join them in time for the shows. Got a bootleg from a record fair. Turned out that Steve Priest never made that journey. Sweet were a five-piece and the lead vocalist shouted when he couldn’t make the top notes. Seemed like nostalgia. I was 21.

Something must have kept me checking the "S" rack in the cd stores. 1992. Found an album and a video. Didn’t really recognise anybody on the cover but the sleeve said it was by "Andy Scott’s Sweet". Turned out Mick Tucker had gone the way of Connolly and Priest. But the cd made a good sound and I decided to go to some shows. Sweet still made for a good night out. I was somewhere in my late 20s.

Discovered a messageboard on this new thing called the world wide web. A place called "Home Sweet Home". My name is Darren and I am a Sweet fan. Twelve steps group for those who wished rock music was still a little more glam.

Gig in Shepherd’s Bush. Two venues. Not sure which one the Sweet is playing at. Not the coolest question to ask just anyone. Spotted a guy with long hair and a blue denim jacket. Decided to ask him. He turned around and he happened to be Andy Scott.

Some guy from Peterborough organises a Sweet concert and I get to write a couple of articles for the programme. Hey after all it is one of the things I do.

Invited to attend the filming of the band’s new DVD at a studio in London. Interviews and things. Somewhere along the line it all goes pear-shaped and the band and the studio end up fighting each other in court. I end up on the cutting room floor. I’m not surprised.

After all you learn a lot before you get into your late 30s.

Invited to go to Andy’s birthday party and the band will play live too. All in one weekend.

Not a bad time for a Sweet fan who’ll never see 40 again.

                 Darren Hirst and Andy Scott

Threw it All Away

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Leyton Orient 2   Leeds United 2
7th April 2009 @ Brisbane Road, London

Leeds United dominated the first half of both halves of this game so completely but managed to undo their chances of a conclusive win by taking their foot off the pedal the longer both sections of the game went on.

Robert Snodgrass was the star for Leeds and he scored a goal in both halves of the game. The second came from a penalty given when Demetriou handled to keep out a shot from Luciano Becchio.

Becchio, as always, worked tirelessly but there was little contribution from his strike partner, Liam Dickinson (currently on loan from Derby County) who was in the team to cover for the injured Jermaine Beckford. Dickinson seemed over-matched and lightweight against opposition that had little to offer until the closing minutes of the second half. He was eventually replaced by Andy Robinson.

Demetriou’s handball saw him red-carded and this meant that Orient were functioning with 10 men for the last half hour making it even more embarrassing that Leeds did not press home their advantage.

Fabian Delph showed invention and vigour but Howson and Kilkenny, his midfield partners, were very quiet and Leeds missed having Jonathan Douglas in midfield. Douglas has been slotted into the right back role since injury to Frazer Richardson left a vacancy in that role.

Captain Richard Naylor was forceful in defence and well-partnered by Rui Marques who was restored to the team because of injury to Sam Sodje. Marques was firm and showed real class but along with goalkeeper, Casper Ankergren may have been responsible for the first goal Leeds conceded.

Leyton seldom looked like scoring but somehow scrambled a late equaliser and Leeds were left with only themselves to blame. Church’s 85th minute goal sent the Orient fans into surprised ecstasy. They only just out-numbered the visiting fans and it was the home team who had looked like they expected to lose from the beginning – the fans took their lead from the demeanour of the team and were as quiet as a mouse until they crept back in and stole a point against all the odds.
 

New Albums on the Horizon (and an old title just to spice the pot)

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Two of the artists I respect most have new albums coming in the next few weeks.

First up is Bob Dylan whose new album is due on cd and vinyl on the 28th of April. I think the artwork is dreadful but I’m sure the musical content will be better. It’s called "Together Through Life"

Next is John Foxx who, as I’ve mentioned before, has been working with Robin Guthrie. Their album will also be on cd and vinyl and will appear the first week in May. It’s called "Mirrorball".

On a more personal note, I’ve been working on remastering the sound on three albums for a band from the 70s and 80s called Sad Cafe. I now have a provisional release date for the first of these. The album also called Sad Cafe will be on Renaissance Records in the States on the 21st of April.

I mentioned John Foxx. Another album he has been busy on dropped through my letterbox this morning. This time he’s worked with Steve D’Agostino and Steve Jansen (ex-Japan). I’ve not shown the artwork for this one before so here goes:

Mr Foxx is frighteningly prolific.

What other discs would I recommend at the moment?

Walter Becker – Circus Money (not just because I was involved in the release of this one)
Alice Cooper – Along Came A Spider (oh, another one I was involved in)
Mostly Autumn – Glass Shadows
Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs
Revue Noir (Debut EP – featuring Sam Rosenthal from black tape for a blue girl)
Sam Yahel Trio – In the Blink of An Eye
Rubicks – In Miniature
Frankie Valli – Romancing the Sixties (one for the nostalgists – but very good!)
Marie-Juliette Beer – The Garden
Barclay James Harvest – Revolution Days (just happens to feature Ian Wilson and Mike Byron-Hehir from Sad Cafe, did I mention I’ve been remastering for them)
Bob James – Urban Flamingo
Saviour Machine – Legend 1
Son Volt – On Chant and Strum
Danilo Perez – Panama Suite
Richie Furay Band – Alive (Catch my interview with him on Cross Rhythms on the web and in Natural Progressions Magazine in the world of print)

Enough for now………….

 

A Heavy-Handed and Stormy Tempest

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Thursday Night, 12 March 2009
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
RSC Courtyard Theatre, Stratford

Another night with the RSC and another lesson in handling Shakespeare when the director wants to “discover” a flavour of a modern theme in the midst of the script. Janice Honeyman believes that The Tempest will speak powerfully to the world of European Colonialism and African slavery. I believe that her direction and the text’s natural moral direction are at odds with each other and that her insistence on making this idea central to the production may have swamped the play just as badly as Alonso’s ship is swamped by Prospero’s magic.

Continue reading →

…… Mostly Average

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It wasn’t just the promise of tickets waiting for me on the door that drew me back for a second night with Mostly Autumn. I’d enjoyed the first night and I was interested to see how the previous night’s shenanigans would effect the prospect of recording a live album at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (a venue I don’t like but, hey, I live just round the corner). Would Heather’s "scratchiness" (her term) floor the attempt at making a live album? Would the live album be released with a fill-in vocalist or be aborted all-together? Hey, it’s a hard rock soap……… The answers as always fell somewhere in between the obvious guesses.

Tonight, the band have more than adequate space to flex their musical and physical muscles. Unlike in Mancester, they’re not all stood on top of one another, eight musicians on a stage built for three. The audience can actually see Iain Jennings. Not least because he’s lost the top keyboard of the three on his tower. Anne-Marie Helder can get out from behind her keys when she is playing the flute and Andy Smith can wander the stage at will which makes him look just a little more Spinal Tap than he did last night…..

The setlist is the same as last night on the whole with those songs that were dropped because of Heather’s health mostly restored to the line-up. Eye contact between Josh and her is restored and there is even signs of some humour between the pair. Inbetween song comments are kept to a minimum in the spirit of the intention to capture this for a live recording without too many fake fades being required. The band members still have an irritating habit of leaving the stage when the songs do not require them to be there which looks unprofessional but that is their choice, I guess. All is well, the mix is better than the night before and except for one peculiar moment when Ms. Findlay seems to be asking the sound engineer to take her down in the mix (down???) there is none of the problems from the previous night which could have been interpreted as being a little prima-donna-ish……

And then Heather introduces "Above the Blue" from the new album "Glass Shadows". Now this isn’t my favourite song from that set. To these ears, it all sounds a little too much like the Carpenters. But Heather obviously believes in it. She has dedicated it to her baby and her partner and for her it is obvious that this is one of the key moments of the night. Perhaps it all meant a little too much. The band all left the stage except Anne-Marie who plays delicate and sensitive keys and for the first two verses all is well. But Heather has decided that a snare-drum has been left taut and is causing an intrusive echo or click and all of a sudden the song is off and needs to be begun again. There is some yelling and some semi-humorous comments aimed at the drummer who showed no signs of taking it all personally (I think most would have done). The audience are very much on the band’s side and take it in good spirits and the song is started all over again – for the good of the live recording. There is one moment when the security guard at the front of the stage allows his walkie-talkie to go off mid-song second time around and just for a second I think we’re going to have the same problem again but Heather digs down deep and completes her song. Strange.

The rest of the show goes off mostly without incident. The band are tight, energetic and enthusiastic and, most importantly, unphased by what has gone before. Anne-Marie Helder, still battling with her sounds been way too low in the mix, has real talent and charisma. Olivia Sparnenn takes her moment in the spotlight (smaller tonight) with aplomb. And Bryan Josh masters it all, level-headed, thoughtful, talented.

The first encore, Tearing at the Faerytale, which was missing last night is restored and goes very well indeed. The band are all set for "Carpe Diem" from "Storms Over Still Water" which had been a major highlight the night before when Heather shows Bryan "thumbs down" and the song has to be skipped and the bemused band move on to the final encore. The final encore is a cover of Genesis’ "Turn it on Again". The night before with Olivia having to handle lead at short notice and the band overwhelmed by complex timing, they had murdered this. Tonight, with Heather on vocals but the band still a little at sea, it is a little better. It is fun but not the big finish its meant to be.

So over two nights, Mostly Autumn showed themselves capable of scaling "Half the Mountain" but health (and personnel?) issues kept them from any kind of peak. Whether this is a temporary blip or sees the band heading for winter, only time will tell……..  

Anne-Marie Helder

Iain Jennings

Bryan Josh

Andy Smith and Heather Findlay

Goodnight and Thank you


(Combined) Set list for the last two nights

Fading Colours
Caught In A Fold
Flowers For Guns
Unoriginal Sin
Simple Ways
Evergreen
Winter Mountain
Dark Before The Dawn
Answer The Question
Last Bright Light
<<Above The Blue >> second night
Half The Mountain
Close My Eyes
Broken Glass
Never The Rainbow
Pocket Watch
Spirit II
Heroes Never Die

 

<<Tearing at the faerytale>> Second Night

<< Carpe Diem>> first night
Turn It On Again

Moderately Autumn………

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Friday night found me in Manchester, considering another writing gig and checking out the possible subjects – Mostly Autumn. I understood Saturday night’s show in London was to be recorded for a live album and I wanted to catch this band when they weren’t just so – and it proved to be a good decision.
Mostly Autumn. They are the band who really define what it means to be "indie" and internet-driven. "Indie" not in the sense of any contrived musical style – I’m never sure what that label means in that sense. It seems its possible to be "indie" and the slaves of one of the corporate giants although the equally unpleasant term "britpop" seems to be back to the forefront at the moment. And internet driven not in the sense of Lily Allen who had a large budget to ensure she was discovered on "MySpace" and not in the sense of Sandi Thom whose discovery seems to have lasted for approximately one song but in the sense of a band who have independently launched a succession of reasonably successful albums via that medium and who have created a niche audience for themselves who are clearly with them for the longhaul.

Mostly Autumn. Darlings of the prog rock scene who, thankfully, aren’t really prog rock. Mostly Autumn who gather fans who’d rather watch Pink Floyd but have found the Floyd are Mostly not around anymore. Mostly Autumn – who seem to have passed their peak without ever charting an album – can they ever be more than a second division band?

Friday night at the Manchester University Academy. Eight musicians on the smallest stage of three. All busy tonight. Mostly Autumn are (having gone through a number of personnel changes which perhaps hints at their problems) :

Bryan Josh. band leader. lead and rhythm guitar. vocals. old-style rocker and the one they audience feel is their friend.
Heather Findlay. vocals. guitar. whistle. tambourine. Dresses like Stevie Nicks, looks like Christine McVie.
Anne-Marie Helder. Keyboards. flute. harmony vocals. Her sound is too low in the mix.
Olivia Sparnenn. Vocals. Youngest member who finds herself with extra duties tonight.
Iain Jennings. Keyboards. Didn’t play on the most recent album but is back in the touring band.
Andy Smith. Bassist. Looks like and dresses like Bill Nighy when he was a strange fruit.
Liam Davidson. Acoustic guitar, 2nd lead and rhythm guitar. Another returnee to the fold.
Henry Bourne. Drummer. Solid.

The show, on Friday, got off to a solid enough start with "Fading Colours" but it soon becomes evident that all is not well. There is a sharp exchange of words between Heather Findlay and Bryan Josh and then an announcement that Olivia Sparnenn will stand in for Findlay for the bulk of the rest of the show. Now, Olivia is a strong vocalist (some would say stronger than Heather – check out her own band, Breathing Space) but it is Heather that the audience have come to see and this should have been sorted prior to the show with the show perhaps cancelled until all were well. But this show has been rearranged once already and there is a consideration about that live album show tomorrow night (and the income that will generate) and it seems that Heather has unilaterally decided that her voice must be rested. Certainly there is no eye contact between her and Josh for the rest of the night and it seems that there is a tension amongst the camp.

Internal issues aside, this is a tight show and the fill-in vocalist is more than up for it. Highlights? "Unoriginal Sin", "Evergreen", "Broken Glass", "Carpe Diem", the vocal version of "Spirits of Autumn Past", and a number of others. There are one or two moments when the band get bogged down in their own boogie and you’re caused to think that this is what it might have been like if Saxon had hired Stevie Nicks as their vocalist but they transcend that most of the time.

Josh is not quite the vocalist he is in the studio (where his sound reminds me of the late-Genesis and sometime-Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson) but is guitar work is interchangeably forceful and dynamic then thoughtful and provocative. Smith, Davidson and Bourne are a solid backline and rhythm section. Helder is a real talent and Sparnenn handles the change-overs like a pro and excels herself.

All-in-all, a difficult night but a good night. It remains to be seen whether the band can overcome those tensions and these setbacks.

Bryan Josh

Heather Findlay

Olivia Sparnenn

The Pleasures of Electricity

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(Ignoring the snow outside)

One of my favourite arists, John Foxx has come up with three new albums for the first half of 2009

The first on the 23rd of February (just in time for my birthday) will be "My Lost City"

Track Listing:

01. Imperfect Hymn
02. Holywell Lane
03. Magnetic Fields
04. Just Passing Through
05. Barbican Brakhage
06. Hidden Assembly
07. Hawksmoor Orbital
08. Piranesi Motorcade
09. City of Disappearances
10. Umbra Sumus
11. Scene 27 – Intro to The Voice Behind The Wallpaper, Trellick Tower 3am

It will be released on Metamatic Records META21CD

_________________________________________

His second release will be a collaboration with Steve Jansen (brother of David Sylvian and formerly percussionist with Japan) and Steve D’Agostino (who joined Foxx on his recent "Metamatic" tour.

The album entitled A Secret Life will be released on the 23rd of March also on Metamatic META22CD. Track listing:

01. A Secret Life (Part 1)
02. A Secret Life (Part 2)
03. A Secret Life (Part 3)
04. A Secret Life (Part 4)
05. A Secret Life (Part 5)
06. A Secret Life (Part 6)

No artwork yet.

_________________________________________

The third album will be another collaboration, this time with former Cocteau Twin, Robin Guthrie. The album will be on Metamatic and will be distributed by Universal. Released on the 4th of May, it will be entitled "Mirrorball".

Carols at Ravenscourt Park

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As I mentioned last week, we sang Christmas carols to raise money for the homeless at our neighbourhood tube station, Ravenscourt Park, here in Hammersmith. The event went extremely well. The sound was beautiful. Several hundred pounds were raised from kind passers-by.

Last night, the London Paper, one of our local evening freebies, made our event subject of the picture-of-the-day. That’s Sereyna, my daughter, in the foreground, with her collecting bucket.