Abbey Road saved on its 80th Anniversary?

One wonders how long Abbey Road can last as a recording studio? One the one hand, it is great news that its 'mothership', EMI, has been bought back from the bankers by the French-owned, Universal Music Group (tinged with a bit of sadness that there was no British company able to buy the company). On the other hand, what place has a traditional studio in the scheme of things when recordings can now so easily be made in bedrooms and mixed on mobile phones?

To date it has been great to be able to visit the studio (or at least the location as you can't get inside unless using it professionally) and to talk not only about its 80-year history and place in rock's pantheon, but also its current activities. It's a buzz to see the artists wondering in and out, and occasionally to see a real star (hats off to Taylor Swift incidentally, who came out of the studio to meet her fans earlier this year, creating crowd scenes last seen during its Beatle heyday).

But technology is evolving, as it has throughout the history of recording. Abbey Road was arguably the world's first purpose built studio (arguably as there may have been a few already in Italy) but its pre-eminence was constantly challenged by rivals acquring more advanced equipment. EMI artists might have preferred going to other facilities to record (as indeed the Beatles famously did on occasion) had they not been tied by their recording company to using the studios.

The days of a music company tying bands to its own studio are long gone. To survive in the modern world, a studio needs to offer a combination of the greatest technology, affordability, and that certain intangible 'something' that somehow feeds the artistic muse.

Abbey Road can fulfill the last criteria in spades; everyone wants to 'feel' that Beatle or Pink Floyd magic. Kate Bush might be an exception to this ... she liked Abbey Road because it is apparently situated on leylines. So much for technology. Maybe the studio doe shave a future and that would be magic indeed.

Jimmy Saville RIP

So farewell, then, Jimmy.
You fixed it for everybody in your time,
Except me, that is.
I never had a Number One hit.

Of course, being able to sing,
play a guitar, or been a paraplegic might have helped.
My Mother loved you too,
Which shows how old you must have been.

I always wondered why;
you wore track-suits without a Nike badge
you didn't advertise Domestos bleach
and no one knew the brand of cigar you smoked.

I suppose that's why you remained an enigma.
But, batty as you obviously were, we all loved you, anyway.

Apologies to. E J Thribb

Original Band or Tribute Act?

I went to see one of my favourite early ‘70s bands, ‘Canterbury sound’ legends, Caravan, at the Shepherds Bush 02. They don’t tour that much now; getting on a bit I suppose, and only a couple of original members are still in the line-up (though founder Pye Hastings is still the rock on which Caravan park).

Great night of memories; girls growing plump in the land of the grey and pink, so to speak. Musically as strong as ever (though the sound mix left something to be desired) with Hasting managing to get most of the required vocal notes. But if left me wondering; how many changes in line-up can a band perform with and still legitimately call itself the original band? Especially when they make a virtue of playing the band’s ‘seminal’ music made 40-plus years ago.

Sharing the bill with Caravan was another progressive rock legend, Curved Air, stalwarts of the student union, who produced three memorable top-twenty albums (one being the first picture disc issued), and half a dozen stand-out tracks (Back Street Love and It Happened Today). Initially, Sonja Kristina was on vocal, the wonderfully named Florian Pilkinton-Miksa on drums, the amazing Darryl Way on violin, and on guitar, maestro Francis Monkman. The band admittedly had many changes over the years (including soon-to-be Police drummer Stuart Copeland) but the sole survivors at Shepherds Bush were Kristina and Pilkington-Miksa.

OK, you can’t expect to be seeing exactly the same line-up (or even the majority) as those playing in those dim dark day; time and excess inevitably thin the ranks. But when the ‘band’ is down to a single representative surrounded by newly acquired band members young enough to be the survivor’s grandchildren, then claiming the original name is perhaps disingenuous.

Would I have gone to see two newly-named bands, one featuring Hastings and the other Kristina? Probably not. It was the original branding of Caravan and Curved Air that attracted me. On the night I came away happy but was I listening to the originals or superior tribute acts, I wonder?

Did You Experience the Troubadour?

What a great night! Again. The weekend of 17/18 September has turned into an annual commemoration of Jimi Hendrix's impact on London, and London's impact on Hendrix.

The date marks the anniversary of Hendrix's death in the city in 1970. It's truly remarkable that 41-years on Hendrix can still sell out Earls Court's Troubadour Club; at least he can in the guise of Are You Experienced, undoubtedly the UK's top Hendrix tribute band, admirably lead by the incomparable John Campbell.

The Troubadour Club is the ideal venue. It's a small, basement club, not much changed since Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Nick Drake and other folk-rock luminaries launched their careers there. The low ceilings, alcoves and almost claustrophobic atmosphere engendered by 120 or so howling Hendrix acolytes send shivers up (and down!) your spine.

And Campbell knows how to manipulate his audience; with Purple Haze he give just enough pause for 120 voices to get to 'scuse me while I kiss the sky (this guy)' before he does, and everyone gets to 'where you going with that gun in your hand' that planned fraction early. It's a perfect, crowd-pleasing performance. But not just populist; AYE's rendition of Machine Gun is delivered every bit as meaningfully now in these current war-torn times as it was during the Vietnam years. Drummer, Kevin O'Grady, keeps time like an M16, and Mark 'I Blame it on Rio' lays base notes down like well-placed mortar rounds.

A good percentage of the crowd were 'Rhodes Rockers'; guys enjoying a reunion weekend having met at the Lindos Rock Festival (check it out: http://www.classicrocktours.com/). A fair number had gone to the bother of 'fancy dress' and it made for a colourful crowd in more ways than one.

Great night. Nice also to some regular faces, not just the Lindos crowd but 'authentics' like Mouse O'Brien who was a roadie at the gig where Hendrix jammed with Cream at the Regent's Street Poly. 'Good gig', said Mouse. 'Yeah, didn't Clapton walk off stage in tears?'. 'No, not that one. This one.' Praise indeed.

If you were there, please post a photo or two as your blogger was too into the band to take any!

Roll on Sept 17th 2012.

Macca names the day - well almost!

So, we're on watch... sometime over the next couple of weeks Sir Paul is to marry again, with a ceremony at Westminster City Hall in London's Marylebone, where he and Linda tied the knot in 1969.

This latest Beatle bride to be is another American, Nancy Shevell.

The news emerged when Paul posted 'the banns' there. It's a legal neccessity to do so, so it's not something that can be kept quiet. Though the exact date is still unknown, the event has to take place within 16-days of the posting, which was on the 14th. If it does get out we can be sure that there'll be a lot of well-wishers lining the local streets to catch a glimpse of Mrs McCartney's little boy, as there was on the first occasion.

It will actually be the third Beatle marriage to take place there, it was George's preferred venue.

We're not expecting an invitation, but as the morning rock tour passes the City Hall maybe we'll catch a glimse!

The Boys were Back in Town

The boys were back in town last weekend for Dublin’s Phil Lynott exhibition and birthday commemoration. It was a terrific weekend; not too much whiskey in the jar, but a lot of Guinness in the glass! Dublin on a Saturday night can be Live and Dangerous, especially when packed out with visiting French Rugby fans, but thankfully it was a peaceful and respectful commemoration with little need of any Sunday Jailbreak!

Enough of the clichés.

A good exhibition should keep the visitor both entertained and interested with the right balance of visual and audio presentations, and catch the eye with unique, preferably exclusive memorabilia. A visitor should leave with a feeling that they have learned more than they knew, and with a warm glow of affection for the subject. Get it right and the visitor should also leave with some merchandise tucked firmly under the arm, or at least a new tee-shirt. Dublin’s Lynott exhibition successfully fulfilled the above criteria.

Over 10 rooms or so, the exhibition traces Lynott’s story from Manchester birth, Dublin childhood and formative teens, through his glory years of Thin Lizzy success to the climax of his sad all-too-early end in London. Personal early photos and school reports were thankfully kept as a brief introduction to the man, with the bulk of the exhibition material concentrating on his musical career. Set lists, tour accounts, advertising posters, tour programmes, candid photos and personal letters home built up a picture of this complex man, following his rise from teenage band member to international headliner. DVD presentations of concert footage (including his Top of the Pops appearance), the reminisces of fellow-band members, and collections of his personal effects, put flesh on the man.

The ‘wow’ factor was provided by his Fender Precision bass, stage clothing and Manchester United jacket!

The pity is that it was a temporary exhibition as it would have been great addition to Dublin’s more permanent rock-heritage attractions. There was one well-known photo I half-expected to see; it’s of Lynott casually posing with Gary Moore and George Best in a local pub. It wasn’t there, but in a way that was as it should be. When the exhibition is over at least this bit of Dublin’s Lynott will still be there to discover for anyone taking a Guinness at O'Donohue's pub on Merrion Row.


And what did I learn? That Thin Lizzy's first London gig was upstairs at Ronnie Scotts Club; that Phil was a rampant Man Utd fan; that £40 was a considered quite a good fee at the begining of their career; that Tim Booth of Dr Strangely Strange (who I once met and can thank for turning me on to Paul Brady) designed the 'Thin Lizzy' type face; that the same money that bought you a Lizzy LP in 1976 buys you less than a third of a pint of Guinness in Dublin now; and that my mate Geoff, a normally fantastically talented photographer, forgets to activate his flash when over-awed by the presence of the famous! More of the last in my next post...

London's Burning!

We've found ourselves playing some real classic songs as the soundtrack for our recent tours. It's amazing how appropriate lyrics written some 30 years ago are now. The Clash captured the disturbances and civil disobedience of the late 70s and early 80s on their first eponymous album; though the Nottinhghill area which saw the 70s violence was virtually unscathed this time as, thankfully, were all areas covered on our rock tours. Along with the descriptive 'London's Burning', Joe Strummer and his band cohorts also called for a 'White Riot, white riot, a riot of my own'. The classic 'Police and Thieves' (from the same album though originally written by Junior Murvin) contains the lines 'And all the crowd come in, day by day, no one stop it anyway' and this certainly described the early days of the disturbances when an over-whelmed and under-prepared police failed to meet the initial challenge. In truth, we could have done with a few more scenes such as grace the reverse picture from that Clash album; truncheon-weilding police, chasing rioters, ready and willing to dole out a bruising.

One tour client suggested the Stones 'Street Fighting Man' as an appropriate inclusion to our soundtrack. It's not; that was written in response to anti-Vietnam political riots and doesn't apply to the current looting mob. This was a cowardly lot who'd soon disappear if they were really faced with street fighting rather than the softly-softly and measured restraint approach shown by our London Met police.

The Jam's 'Town Called Malice' definitely makes the soundtrack cut though. As does Kaiser Chiefs 'I predict a riot'.

The Beatles inevitably have a comment; 'When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads'. Well, England's famed climate and 16,000 coppers on the streets seems to have dampened looter activity over the past few evenings.

Putting aside our flippancy, the real sadness is the damage and disruption caused, and the impact these events have and will have on so many innocent Londoners. And it could have a real impact on rock music. One event in the last few days was the burning down of Sony's Warehouse in the neighbourhood of Enfield. The fire reportedly destroyed the entire stock of CDs and vinyl of more than 100 small independent labels (including XL Recordings whose office we visit on our tours). Although some of the short-term problems of supplying product from the like of Artic Monkeys and Adele may be overcome, there's talk of the warehouse also having contained masters and and hard drives. If so, that may mean some recordings could be lost forever. It's also going to mean hard times for the indie labels themselves, along with their roster of artists and staff.

Whatever the causes of the misnamed 'riots' - social revolution, unemployed boredom, summertime blues, or simply mindless greed and hooliganism - most Londoners agreed with Lennon's sentiments, 'When you talk about destruction, don't you know you can just count me out'.