Now Rob (Edgar) Broughton may not view me as an A star student but,
when younger – and to a degree throughout my life - a lot of what
he and others said made sense to me at an individual level.
Especially when he talked about doing things your way and not being
led. Or at least that was my interpretation of it.
Frontman
Edgar Broughton was a fierce, uncompromising political agitator.
Their raw, aggressive proto-punk style and tracks like the
election-defying single "Up Yours!" aggressively challenged
the social and political establishment.
The Edgar
Broughton Band became notorious for chaotic free concerts,
anti-establishment politics, and incidents of disorder that led
several towns to ban their live shows.
Even today, as with a recent social media post I noticed from Rob, he still has an ability to make me smile 'I think the repetition of tales and anecdotes by some one of my age must be tolerated to some extent especially when a critic has nothing worth telling'.
The recent loss of Edgar's bass player and long time friend, Arthur Grant, had my mind wandering back to when the band made a leap of faith by relocating to London.
1969
If the word 'underground' still
has any meaning on the music scene, then it is typified by Edgar
Broughton a man who passionately believes in social change and that
music is a revolutionary weapon.
On stage the Broughton
band have a remarkable sinister quality, an example being what Edgar
describes as their 'exorcism bit' where they get the audience to
chant out their demons - the atmosphere this built up on the recent
free concerts in Hyde Park and Parliament Hill Fields had to be felt
to be believed.
In person Edgar turned out to be a
dedicated, intelligent and obviously sensitive man who was not the
least offended by the use of the word 'sinister' to describe his
stage presence.
'It's not really an image we are trying
to project, but it is probably what we are' he agreed. 'We do a lot
of stuff that is dramatic and heavy'.
'If we do have this
peculiar, unknown, sinister quality then I feel it helps us to
achieve a genuine participation from audiences. This is our ambition
to involve the whole of Britain in some type of positive action - get
people to do things without saying what they should do. There is a
tremendous void in everything at the moment, a lack of
direction'.
'Music is for people, so it is people, and
people are music. Obviously people identify with a trend in music
which effects their day to day existence and in this way, hope to
really get into them'.
'It's all subversive in a way. As a
genuine underground band we are trying to subvert the old ideas and
start a revolution'.
'This might sound a bit strong, but
we feel strongly about the parent-child relationship. There is this
parent hate of the pop figure and, partly by design and partly by
accident, we seem to arouse it - even if it's only 'what can you see
in a group of long haired violent people?'. The parents are worried
and disturbed by it and that forces them to discuss it with their
children'.
'Any sort of aggression you create between two
parties has to turn into communication between them. People hate you
so much they just have to ask why. It's not a question of age but of
parent-child relationship because that is so important'.
'What
we want is for people to look at themselves, and society, and decide
if this is the way they really want to live. We feel we can help do
this through our music reaching as many people as possible'.
The
band came to London seven months ago after two years of what Edgar
describes as 'total obscurity' in the Midlands - Warwick to be
precise. Edgar had had a guitar from the age of eleven but has only
been playing 'seriously' for the past three years.
'I
suppose, originally, my taste was somewhere between R 'n' B and
blues' he says. 'But there was something about R 'n' B I didn't like
and a lot about the blues I didn't know. Now I listen to most of the
underground things like Captain Beefheart and The Fugs, but also in
classical music and jazz'.
He is most enthusiastic about
his signing with EMI's Harvest label which releases the band's first
album this week.
'I think Harvest will open things up' he
said. 'We had so much freedom with the album, nobody telling us what
music we should play. I had always had this feeling that the big
corporations like EMI or the BBC, in the first place, oppose new
things, but this certainly isn't true at EMI. Maybe things are
changing'.
Footnote: and I do enjoy these anecdotes.....
Tony Cox memories - I think I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. Rockin' Chair Blues Band were good friends with the band. We were all at school with Rob, and later, Steve. When I decided I needed a new drum kit, we piled in my old Morris 1000 traveller and went down to the smoke to visit them. Steve kindly accompanied me to a music shop he used and thanks to him I got a bargain Premier kit. Back at the flat, Vic Unitt, who had joined The Pretty Things from the Broughtons, arrived and played us the newly released Pretty Things album "Parachute" which is still one of my favourite albums to this day.
Joyce Broughton their mum, drove Wandering John a few times when we needed a van to get to gigs.
