Underground – Overground

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Last night one of the songs we rehearsed was “Paris By Air” which was a hit single for the Tygers of Pan Tang and also on the top 20 album “The Cage”. The signature guitar intro is gone because we’re doing a new arrangement in a different key to work for Lorraine Crosby. Now not many people may know but the song was written originally for a girl – Toni Haliday (Curve). However, that’s another story and there are many stories around that song.

The one I’ll tell you today is this: About a year ago Guido Russo posted a picture on Facebook and said the following:

“I was near Hamburg, Tygers Of Pan Tang were performing their show. I took this picture while the band was playing a beautiful song called Paris By Air. The audience goes crazy but all of a sudden my mind goes to Steve Thompson, the man who wrote this song so many years ago. Many thanks, Steve!”

Now, I happened to be in Hamburg at roughly the same time so I wondered if perhaps I’d been in the same City at the time my song was being performed. I checked my diary and found that at the time the Tygers were ON stage in Germany I was actually UNDER a stage in Stockton On Tees setting up for the Fringe Festival.

under-stage3

Don’t Pity Me

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This week I posted this picture containing three elements on Facebook and asked what the connections were. Nobody got it so here are the answers. Left to right the three elements are Charlotte Black, The Pity Me Village Sign and Celine Dion.

pity-me-connection

Connection 1) In 1981 I went to Pity Me where there was a recording studio called Guardian. I recorded 4 song demos which my old mate, Dave Black, Charlotte’s dad sang for me. One of the songs “Please Don’t Sympathise” was recorded by Sheena Easton for her top 20 “Madness Money and Music” album. Then Celine Dion did a recording of the same song in French so the title became “Ne Me Plaignez Pas”. Celine’s version was both an album track and a single. The single was a massive hit (cert Gold) in Canada and France.

Connection 2) – spooky alert here …… The literal translation of the title of Celine’s version is “Don’t PITY ME” !

Connection 3) When my new band hits the road Charlotte will sing “Please Don’t Sympathise” 37 years after her dad sang it for me !

Another Guest Artist: Steve Lamb

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I posted this video in Facebook yesterday under the heading “THE PERFECT GUITAR SOLO” – The upshot is that the conversations that followed mean that Steve Lamb with be appearing as another guest artist when the band hits the road.

Back in the ’80’s my house in Whitley Bay was like the world famous Brill Building with people dropping in and adding their talent to my tracks. Steve was in the Tygers of Pan Tang and must have called round and so I asked him to put a solo on this track. I love how he comes in after Lorraine Crosby’s vocal like another singer and then drops down into her final chorus. A consummate musician. I guess we’ll get Steve to join us on Paris by Air too.

Another Guest Vocalist: Phil Caffrey

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philI’m pleased to announce that Phil Caffrey will be joining our bevy of guest vocalists. Phil and I go back quite a ways. From the days when I used him and his brothers, Peter and Paul: The Wallsend Beach Boys as backing vocalists on all my productions at Impulse studios, through a deal with Phonogram records, with the legendary Gus Dudgeon Producing, to playing keyboards in the band he and his brothers formed, The Lions Share. (I don’t know why people keep asking me to play keyboards, I play like a bag of spanners). We even tried to turn him into a Rock God with a recording we made at Amazon Studios in Liverpool. I came across that recording again when I compiled the limited edition “Songs with Smithy Vol2”. George Lamb was in that band and I then had Phil and George join the backing vocalists for my 1987 Eurovision entry.

So you see there is a broad range of material in our history. The most recent  thing we did was the album “Sleepless Nights” by Caffrey, Morrison, Thompson. Dear old Tommy Morrison persuaded me to dig out all the demos we cut in the 90’s and this is the result. You can download the tracks or just listen in Bandcamp (see below). The album features “One of A Kind” and “The Last Teardrop” both record by Elkie Brooks on her Pearls iii album, the former a single in Germany, the latter a single in the UK and Europe. Phil sings the originals and they’re well worth a listen.

 

Down To The River

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Well as the Band has been in existence for a month or so, time for a solo album I think !

“Down To The River” is Tom Kelly’s poem which I’m set to a series of soundscapes. You can purchase the CD at  http://stmedia.org/shop/ or download it from Bandcamp or just listen to it. (cover image Kev Howard)

This body of work is centred on the North-east of England but could well be Chicago or Glasgow the impact is equally devastating and is all too soon forgotten by the powers that be. ‘Down to the River’ gives a voice to those made mute by history.

Sarah Brightman Releases Hurry Home

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brightmanA new release by a major artist of one of my songs  has become less common these days so I’m delighted to see that Sarah Brightman has released “Hurry Home”

It is the second track on CD 1 of her triple CD set “Rarities”.

Coincidentally, my band were discussing the arrangement of this song in rehearsals just last night. I’d like to do it a bit more “up” than any of the recorded versions.

I wasn’t aware of this release until this morning when a YouTube comment on the Wavelength version alerted me to Sarah’s December 2015 release.

Amazon

iTunes

iTunes Wavelength Version

 

 

First Rehearsal Dramas

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Our second rehearsal takes place tomorrow and I’ve just had these Kev Howard pictures in from rehearsal one (more to come)

It was a good rehearsal but not without mishaps. On our next rehearsal Les Watts will be joining us on keyboards but for the first rehearsal I wanted to strip it right back to drums, bass and guitar. I’ll explain the reasons for that in a moment.

The rehearsals are taking place at MyPlace in Middlesbrough. Richards satnav plonked him at the Transporter Bridge where he patiently awaited the next transfer over the Tees. Luckily it never arrived otherwise he would have been “transported” over to Haverton Hill where I’m pretty sure he would not have found a rehearsal room. I can imagine what would have happened next: He would have called me and told me he was in Haverton Hill and asked for directions. “Turn left and join the A19 and travel South until you hit Middlesbrough”. Whereupon his satnav would plonk him once again at the Transporter and he would once again make the trip to Haverton Hill. This would put him into a perpetual loop from which he would never escape. Knowing Richard, he would have settled down into this routine and quite enjoyed it. However, we would not have a bass player.

Smithy, on the other hand did end up in the wrong town. Stockton actually. He called us up and I explained where he was supposed to be. He then started describing his journey to Stockton and started analysing in great detail the post code that had took him there. Riveting stuff but I know from experience that when Smithy gets into one he could be talking for days. I recall he once called me up and talked for two hours. When he hung up I fell into a heap on the floor. Thirty seconds later the phone rang again. It was Smithy, “hello its Paul again, I forgot to tell you, I’m on Top Of The Pops Tonight. This was the late 70’s and a really big deal. He’d talked utter crap for two hours and the one momentous thing he could have told me, he’d forgotten.

Anyway eventually, as you can see from the pictures we were all there. I had my own mishap, my new amp blew up and I had to use a tiny studio thing. This threw me somewhat. I said I was rehearsing a 3 piece and the reason is this: I’d not played in 15 years and I need to get match fit. There is so much that is new about this adventure. I’ve never “gigged” the songs that I wrote for Elkie, Sheena and Celine. In our repertoire we have the top 20 ballad Hurry Home and rock songs I wrote for the likes Tygers of Pan Tang (Heavy Metal?), the Searchers and Chris Farlowe. We needed a common thread and I figured we’d get this by starting with a song from my very first band Bullfrog. (Jimmy McKenna has discovered some rare bullfrog footage Ian Penman had – more on that later) So we started with the B side from our 1973 single “In The City” and then progressed to the song Celine Dion and Sheena Easton recorded using the 1973 template. Honestly it doesn’t sound retro at all and perhaps you’ll get a chance to check this out for yourself at a venue near you.

There are several departures in this for me. I sold my trust amp three years ago never planning to gig again. Richard and Smithy have colluded to drag me nervously out of retirement. I’ve also laid down my trusty red Stratocaster that I’ve had nearly 40 years. Instead I’m using the Epiphone Sheraton I intended to use to while away my dotage. To cap it all, as we’ll be having several guest vocalist’s we have to routine many of the songs in a number of keys. It’s tough for an old rocker.

However, as you can probably see from the pictures we had a blast. I’ll get there eventually.

A New Guest Vocalist Announced

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I’m delighted to announce that Mick Whitaker will appear at some shows as guest vocalist when we hit the road. Mick is regarded as one of the finest vocalists the North of England ever produced. He and I go back years and have a huge catalogue of material to draw upon. Maybe we’ll pull something from our latest release The Brazil Bootlegs. Other releases are planned so maybe we’ll pull material from one of those. Or we may do this song that I wrote for Mick when he was with State Records. We cut the record with me on Guitar Simon Philips on drums and Mo Foster on Bass but the version below is the demo with Paul Smith (of the ST Band) on drums, me on Guitar and it sounds like Barrie Spence on Bass. Enjoy!!

 

 

Bullfrog Resurrected

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"The Day the Music Died - And So Did Bullfrog" the article declares. Well get ready for a resurrectionThis article in the Newcastle Journal from 2005 is interesting.

“The Day the Music Died – And So Did Bullfrog” the article declares. Well get ready for a resurrection ! Tomorrow my new band starts rehearsal and the first number we’ll play is the song mentioned in the article “In The City”

We’re purposely starting out with just Drums, Bass and Guitar in order to give the song a Bullfrog 2016 feel. Then we’ll apply that template to the other songs as if I’d written them for the band and not Sheena, Elkie or Celine. I sense another adventure coming on.

The Disco Years

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Here’s one definitely going into the set even though I had a hit with it. What I’m even more proud of is that it earned us a BBC ban. My first and only. Halfway though this kicks into my demo featuring Lorraine Crosby on BV’s

Going Solo – The Lost Song

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going-soloHere is the second part of the story I promised. You can read the first part here. Actually, Gus came back to my mind this week with the passing of David Bowie. Gus was one hell of a story teller and story he recounted to me many times was how he produced Bowies’s “Space Oddity”. Not the same story over and over you understand but different facets of it. I recall he told me how he brought in Rick Wakeman, one of the few, if not the only guy who owned a Melatron at the time. Gus explained how they created colour coded charts for the parts Rick was to play. Another story Gus told me that I’ve not seen or heard anywhere else is how he came to be producing “Space Oddity” in the first place. Apparently Tony Visconti was producing the album but called Gus to ask if he wanted to do one track that he (Visconti) was not wild about. He sent Gus the demo and when it arrived he was sure there had been a mistake. Gus called Tony and asked had he sent the wrong demo. No, Visconti said, that’s the one. Gus said, are your crazy, this is fantastic! However, Visconti wasn’t wild about the song so Gus produced it and the rest, as they say is history.

However, I digress. We had finished the marathon writing sessions that produced “Going Solo” which I hoped would make it to the next Elkie Brooks album. I think there were three demos in all. A rough with just me and a drum machine and then a more involved one made in a small studio. The third demo was cut in Lynx studios, Shieldfield Newcastle and Gus declared he would come to Newcastle to produce it. I assembled a team: Maureen Harold Vocals, Paul Smith Drums, John Cook Keboards, Frankie Gibbon Bass and I played guitar. The session was great but there were a few occasions where Gus forgot he was not on some big budget Elton John album or something. At one point he wanted to edit the 24 track  multitrack tape which is unheard of when making demos. Two-inch tape costs so much and anyway the studio did not have a 2 inch editing block. Anyway, we got the job done and it turned out pretty good.

The next task was to play it to Elkie Brooks. Gus had produced Pearls and Pearls ii with Elkie. Both were collections of well know songs by big writers. However when Gus went to visit Elkie disaster struck. Elkie declared she wanted to do her own material and not another album of covers so that was me out. However, it was still quite an adventure to write and record the song so I don’t regret it at all. Here for the first time ever you can hear the song and imagine how it may have been as an Elkie song.

A few years later I did get a couple of songs on an Elkie Brooks album. Gus was no longer producing her records but he did help me squeeze a whole lot more out of one of the songs. He called me up and went through some suggestions. This was totally a favour as he wasn’t producing me at that time either and the publishing deal we’d had was over. It was just an act of generosity. As it happens the Elkie album I got a  couple of songs on ended up being called Pearls iii so I made the cut anyhow !