Facebook can be the most strange of places and, at the same time, the most incredible of places. Where else can you hook up with someone you have never met before and yet can share a small amount of commonality?
I recently became ‘friends’ with a lady called Jackie who has lived the vast majority of her life in New Zealand. But Jackie had actually, been previously, within 100 yards of where I was born in Hipswell Highway. It is a certainty that we were close neighbours for a short while.
My knowledge of New Zealand’s music scene is extremely limited. I remember the obvious Split Enz and more recently Hayley Westenra. And I am aware of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa who once famously sang in Coventry Cathedral. But, other than that, I know little more.
Jackie thought she had left Coventry in 1963. However during a chat about The Rolling Stones - Jackie clearly remembered seeing them play at Coventry Theatre with The Ronettes as support - we established that it must have been during the early part of 1964.
And as it happened, one of the first bands Jackie saw in her newly adopted country was, once again, The Rolling Stones. And this love for The Rolling Stones and music in general,
appears to have paid a pivotal role in how Jackie’s live developed in New Zealand.
After settling in New Zealand Jackie became part of a band called Rodgers Dodgers who, as 13 year old’s, won a local talent quest playing mostly Beatles covers.
Bass player Roger Mclachlan was the founding member and he would join Little River Band as well as develop an impressive worldwide CV working with the likes of Cliff Richard and Shirley Bassey. Jackie would also carry on singing and worked with many other bands in New Zealand.
Rodgers Dodgers reformed for a reunion during 2008. The first time they had performed together in 40 years. And this love for music was certainly in the genes because joining Rodgers Dodgers onstage was Jackie’s daughter.
Shannon Cooper-Garland has been singing since she was 6 years old. She started with Kapa Haka, a Maori culture group, and as she got older moved on to a local covers group called C-Red and then a jazz band called Swing Street.
For several years Shannon was part of a duo with local musician Jason Schmidt. Together they were known as Jaysha who reached the finals of a New Zealand talent show in 1994.
Another band Shannon became associated with for several years were known as Pipeworkz. This highly original pipe band played pop covers and original music but drew it’s inspirations from the individual musicians diverse backgrounds. The result being a blend of Scottish, Maori and Pacific Islands sounds. Not only that but this band got to take their music to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Canada and Germany.
Since gaining international recognition Shannon has become hot property. To demonstrate
this versatility she currently fronts several line up’s. One of these being Studio 54, a 4 piece intimate band who can also transform themselves into an 8 piece if you fancy the full works inclusive of a brass section.
Another band who has just welcomed Shannon aboard is Danger Baby from Christchurch. The announcement on a news flash opened with the words ‘Kia ora koutou!’ which means ‘have life, be healthy’ went on to say ‘I kid you not when I say that this very talented wahine has got some serious pipes to go with her beautiful wairua and stage presence’.
During this extraordinary journey Shannon has taught herself to play Saxophone, lead guitar, bass guitar and keyboard. Occasionally she has got herself behind a drum kit. Not bad for a vocalist whose roots stretch right the way back to Wyken, Coventry.
Another piece from the prolific pen of Pete Clemons - published in The Coventry Telegraph in 2013. The story of Coventry's only Grammy winning musician and record producer - Roger Lomas.
Best known for his work withTwo Tonebut there's a lot more to Roger Lomas - read on...
Stage and Studio Days of a Hit Man
by Pete Clemons
(Typed version of the above article)
WHEN you talk to someone who has won a Grammy award, particularly when you are
talking to the only person from your city to do so, and who has produced more than 50 albums along with 18 hit singles you expect a little brashness or swagger.
But I never saw a hint of it. Yes there is a steely side and immense pride when he talks about his craft but that aside this is a warm, come in, have a cup of tea, make yourself comfortable sort of person.
Roger Lomas will always remain synonymous as a producer for his work with bands like The Selecter and Bad Manners which several gold and silver discs bear testament to. But before all of that he had been a guitarist and songwriter.
Roger was born in Foleshill in 1948. His introduction to music was when a friend of his elder brother Nigel called in on the way to a trip to the tip. He was getting rid of an old acoustic guitar with only two strings. Roger salvaged it, bought a new set of strings, and went about learning chords.
When Roger sets his mind to do something he does it to the best of his abilities. As he rightly says, if you have the will, and are prepared to work hard, then you can make your own luck in life - there lies the benchmark to his success.
Teenage life revolved around his guitar and by 1963/64, and encouraged by his father, he joined his first band George and the Dragons. Alongside Roger were Brian Wilkins on guitar, Rick Bradford on bass and Tom Russell on drums. The band played Foleshill Social and other local pubs.
By early 1966 Roger had joined The Clouds along with his brother Nigel on drums and Tony Lucas (aka Tony Martin and ex of The Echo Four) on bass. An early success included a support slot to The Zombies in Coalville. The Clouds were also very popular on the local pub circuit.
However, June 1966 saw lead singer Don Fardon and bass guitarist Phil Packham leave The Sorrows.
The remaining band members, rhythm guitarist Wez Price, lead guitarist Pip Whitcher and drummer Bruce Finley had been offered work in Italy and urgently required another guitarist. Roger was drafted into the band on lead guitar while Wez switched to bass and Pip took over on lead vocals.
The 'work' was the 5th Cantagiro tour, a massive affair that involved touring Italian stadiums with a dozen or so other bands. Promotion for the tour was huge. Having only known the hit single 'Take a Heart', Roger had to quickly learn the rest of the band's repertoire.
While in Italy The Sorrows had considerable success. Take a Heart was actually re-recorded for the Italian market as 'Mi Si Spezza il Cuore' and reached number eight in their charts. Due to immense demand The Sorrows relocated from the UK to Italy, touring extensively, and such was their popularity other singles such as Pink, Purple, Yellow, & Red also had Italian versions cut - 'Verde, Rosso, Giallo, e Blu'. In fact the popularity of The Sorrows continues to this day in Italy and other areas of Europe.
The following year saw The Sorrows back again alongside bands like The Rokes (hugely successful in Italy yet rarely heard of in the UK) for the 6th Cantagiro tour. By now Roger was making full use of an added Bigsby tremolo arm and had introduced feedback into his playing, which was featured in several feature film sound-tracks working alongside Ennio Morricone.
But, in September 1967, Roger left the band and returned home.
When settled Roger teamed up again with Pip Whitcher, who had already returned to the
Roger and Pip
UK a little earlier, and the pair struck up a song writing team. Over the next few years Rog & Pip recorded several songs including, 'From a Window' c/w 'Warlord' which eventually saw a formal release in 1971. In 1968 and in parallel to his song writing activities with Pip, Roger formed The Eggy along with bass player Bill Campbell, Bill Bates on vocals and brother Nigel on drums. This band would be active up until 1969 gigging when commitments allowed. The Eggy would bear the fruits of those earlier Rog and Pip sessions as the single 'Your Still Mine c/w Hookey' was released during 1969 on the Spark label.
Due to session work commitments with Southern Music Roger also spent several months in London.
While there he built up good contacts like producer Peter Sullivan and opportunities began to open, for example, having access to Air studios and its state-of-theart 24-track recording studio. Also, while in London he teamed up with Virginia Williams (the estranged wife of Danny Williams) who recorded one of Roger's songs 'Loving and Forgiving' c/w 'Never Let Me Go' which was released under the name of Renegade on the Parlophone label in 1973.
After a re-shuffle of band personnel, Renegade saw Roger link up once again with Pip. Mick Eastbury provided bass and again brother Nigel sat in the drummer's seat. And yet again songs would surface from those Rog and Pip sessions. And a second single 'A Little Rock 'n' Roll c/w My Revolution' followed in 1974 which was released on the Dawn label.
The formation of Zips in 1974 saw Rog and Pip in a band that had slimmed down to a three-piece and with Paul Hooper, ex-Indian Summer, on drums. A single was released 'Bye Bye Love' c/w 'Evil Hearted Woman' on Mickey Most's RAK Records. During their short life Zips also released a wonderful version of The Beach Boys song 'You're So Good to Me' c/w 'Gonna Leave the Door Wide Open'. Both singles were produced by Adrian Baker and also featured the vocals of Paul Davinci.
The Dodgers had been formed by Bob Jackson, Tommy Evans (from Badfinger) and John Wilson during 1975. Over a couple of years they had lost several members and first Paul Hooper and then later Roger were drafted into the band. During his period with them several singles and in 1978 an album 'Love on the Rebound' were released on the Polydor label. Both Zips and The Dodgers received considerable airplay on national radio stations.
1977 also saw Roger set up his first recording studio. Almost immediately Neol Davies came to him with a tune. Although not active in the ska or reggae scene in the past Roger instinctively realised that the track 'The Selecter' had a certain magic and so set about recording it. Following a deal while with The Dodgers, he was able to improve on his recording studio by using advance finance from a deal with The Dodgers' management.
February 2003 saw Roger win his Grammy award at the 45th Grammy ceremony held at
New York's Madison Square Garden for his major part in producing and creating what was nominated as the best reggae album of the year. The creation of the album Jamaican ET by Lee 'Scratch' Perry released in 2002 is actually a story in itself. But needless to say that the award was a massive accolade and testament to the fact that Roger has that rare ability of being able to put a band together that will produce a certain sound.
The subsequent years have seen Roger working with his son Kevin, bass player of popular Coventry covers band The Subterraneans. In fact The Subs have been recording their own songs under the name The Subsonixx, including the excellent track 'What If I'.
2013 is also sure to be a memorable year with the re-release of many of those Rog and Pip songs on the Rise Above Record label. Rise Above Records, as some will know, is run by Coventry-born Lee Dorrian who himself fronts bands like Napalm Death and Cathedral.
........................................
ROGER LOMAS HAS AN AMAZING PORTFOLIO AS A PRODUCER, SONGWRITER AND BAND MUSICIAN.
Here are some samples but more can be found on Roger's website -
Roger Lomas The Producer. His work includes - The Selecter, Specials, Modettes, Body Snatchers, Echo and the
Bunnymen, Bert Jansch, Hazel O'Connor, Bad Manners, Lee Scratch Perry, Roy Wood, Reluctant Stereotypes, Desmond Dekkar, Toots and the Maytals, The Tubes, 3 Red Colours, Elkie Brooks, The Country Joe Band, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Ashley Hutchings, The Wildhearts, Jeremy Spencer, The Ripps, China Crisis, The Subterraneans, Happy Mondays, Terrorvison, The Stawbs and more....
Some of the Classic Tracks Produced by or related to Roger Lomas.
The Sorrows Live - You've Got What I Want - No No No No - Take A Heart - Let Me In
Celebrate the Bullet -A Classic Selecter track from their second album written by Neol Davies and produced by Roger Lomas.
The track that launched the Selecter in the singles chart 1979.
The Specials - Too Much Too Young
The song that started it all - The Selecter - (AKA The Kingston Affair) (B side of Gangsters) but written by Neol Davies, played by Neol Davies with John Bradbury on drums and recorded on a 4 track portastudio by Roger Lomas as early as 1977.
Echo and the Bunnymen - Me, I'm all smiles album
Desmond Dekker
Bert Jansch Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning
Bad Manners - Lorraine
The Moo-Dettes - Paint it Black
Hazel O'Connor
The Reluctant Stereotypes
The Selecter Bristol Miami
The Sorrows
The Dodgers - Formed in 1975 by Bob Jackson and Tom Evans after the tragic suicide of Badfinger's Pete Ham.
Roger and Pip - under-rated heavy heavy track!
Roger and Pip
Another Roger Lomas outfit - Renegade as musician - Revolution by Renegrade
...............................
In May 1999 Pauline Black of The Selecter did an interview with Roger Lomas for the Coventry Telegraph, from her column -
The Story So Far… Roger Lomas
I decided that I’d had enough of interviewing pop-stars for a while. So I decided to take a
look at the un-sung heroes of pop; those people who sit behind the mixing desk and try to inject that extra something into a song; the elusive ingredient that makes it a hit. Roger Lomas is such a man. A brilliant producer, live engineer and ex-popstar. He has been recording music and making hits along the way for twenty years or more. The interview took place in Roger’s 24 track custom-built studio at the bottom of his garden in Styvechale. Roger is a classic local maverick. He doesn’t give a damn about what people think of him, liberally uses the word crap to describe things he doesn’t like, and greets most people with a thumbs up sign and a jauntily hurled: ‘hello boy’. He’s hilarious. I love his mercurial personality, but beneath his bluff exterior, lurks a serious and very shrewd businessman. He’s refreshing in the world of the music business. He has no credibility hang-ups, he’s no poseur and is as at home in his local the Open Arms on Daventry Road, as he would be taking tea with the Queen.
Q Where and when were you born?
I was born on 8 October 1948 in Keresley Hospital.
Q Where did you grow up? I come from a working class background and grew up in Foleshill. I went to Edgwick Junior School and Broadheath Secondary Modern.
Q When did you first become interested in music? I had no particular interest in music until one day my brother’s best friend called round the house. He was on his way to the local tip and had a battered acoustic guitar with just two strings on it, which he was going to throw away, but he asked if we wanted it. So we took it off him. I must have been about 14 at the time. I thought why not learn to play it. I went to a music shop bought a set of strings and a chord book and a little set of pitch pipes and started learning the chords. In a matter of weeks I could play it. Before that I never even realized that I was the slightest bit musical. It was one of those lucky things. Some people have dreams, but I didn’t. I had no dreams about music as a life, no other interests outside of fishing or stamp-collecting.
My brother was a drummer in a band. Occasionally I went with him on gigs, but I never thought I wanted to be in a band. After I learnt to play the guitar, I caught the bug and totally lost interest in everything at school. Until then I’d been good at school, but I went downhill, once I found I could play the guitar.
Q When did you first think about making a career out of music?
I’m one of these people who has always wanted the best of everything. So I didn’t want a crappy old acoustic anymore. It had to be a good guitar. After I bought myself a better guitar, it just went on from there. I formed my first band at school, just before I left at 15. I left school at the earliest opportunity and started playing lead guitar professionally in a local band. It was called St George and the Dragons. I played my first gig in public at the Foleshill Social Club. We mostly did pubs, so I’d have to hide out the back till we went on stage, because I was underage.
We did 60’s Beatles songs. People didn’t write their own songs in those days. Even the Beatles didn’t write their own songs in the very early days. We were a covers band. The Beatles were our main influence. It fizzled out after a year.
I had no real intention of working, because in those days wages were so low, that you could easily earn as much being in a band working a couple of nights a week as you could working all week in a regular job from 9-5.
I had a job for a year and 5 months to pay off the HP installment on my musical equipment. I also worked in various other bands. The last proper job I ever had was at Courtaulds as a lab technician for £6 a week. Then there was this job going for £7 a week in an engineering factory across the road, which I took, but I hated it after a week. So I clocked in one Monday morning, thought this is crap and clocked out again. From that day to this, I’ve never worked in a proper job. I’ve just been self-employed.
I was struggling after I stopped working, what with all the HP payments, but I’ve always been enterprising and I was adamant that I wasn’t going to work for anybody. So I would make coffee tables and sell them just to keep my head above water.
Q How did you get your first professional musical break?
I always stood out from the other musicians in town, because I was like a spoiled kid, I had all the best gear. I was 17 when I bought a Gibson guitar and the biggest amp you could buy in the world. It was a Vox amp, designed especially for the Beatles when they played the Shea Stadium gig in America. They used to call them Vox Beatle Cabinets. It was on a big swivel stand. There was a local band in Coventry called The Sorrows, who had had a fairly big hit in England, called ‘Take a Heart’. I think it got to No 19 in the charts. In those days if you had hits abroad it wasn’t instantaneous like now. You tended to get a hit abroad about a year after it was a hit in England. The Sorrows were on the verge of splitting up, there was only three members left out of the original 5. They were only staying together because of contracts for a couple of future gigs. Then out of the blue, they were contacted by RCA in Italy, because the record had gone to No 1 there. RCA wanted to release the track recorded in Italian. The band had to go out and promote it. Their manager was looking for another member.
I put a lot of the things that happen in my life down to fate. I got the job with The Sorrows because I had exactly the same guitar equipment as they had. As far as they were concerned, that’s what clinched the deal. Initially I was asked to join the band just for the tour.
We flew over to Italy and the tour was phenomenal. The Italian version of the record went to No 8 and the work flooded in. We ended up living in Rome for 2 years. We were treated like real pop-stars. However, by June 1966 Italy was flooded by English bands and our edge was eroded. So the band gradually fell apart.
Q What did you do after The Sorrows split up?
I came back to Coventry and set myself up as a session musician. I started dabbling in song writing. I wouldn’t class myself as a natural songwriter, but I’m good at recognizing a good song that somebody else has written.
I joined The Dodgers, a local band that had a deal with Island Records. At the time the original bass player in the band was the bassist from Badfinger. He left and I took over on bass, which I shared with the other guitarist, because I didn’t want to be playing bass all the time. Some of the members were from Coventry and the other half from London. We did an album for Polydor and had a few singles out, but the timing was bad. The band was a cross between the Beatles and Bad Company, which was unfortunate because punk was big then. We recorded another album, but the record company rejected it.
Q When did you decide to start recording other bands?
By 1977, I was more into the recording side of the business. I built a 4 track studio in the garden of my house in Broad Street, Foleshill. Then one day Neol Davies knocked on the door. He said: ‘I’ve got this great song I’ve written and I want to make a demo’. Neol at that time was known as a rock musician around town, so I was surprised to find that it sounded like old ska. But I have a commercial ear, which is necessary if you want to be a successful producer. I recognized that he’d written something good, even though it was not my kind of thing.
We made a proper track and spent a week on it, which was unheard of in those days. It was just an instrumental track featuring a trombone solo, which I put through a flanger and used long delay echoes on it. Everybody was pleased with the results.
I did the rounds with it, because I had a lot of contacts in the music business, but nobody was interested it. I think it was too soon for that sound. It was 18 months before The Specials recorded ‘Gangsters’. I didn’t know The Specials then, because I wasn’t into the punk thing. I knew this song was good though. Eventually it ended up on the B side of The Special’s single ‘Gangsters’. By that time our track was called The Selecter. Initially 2000 pressings were done through Rough Trade. Then of course, 2-Tone happened.
Q How did you start recording at Horizon Studios in Coventry?
Originally Horizon Studios was an 8 track. Barry Thomas, a local businessman had put a lot of money into it after his car number plate business got into difficulties. I got my foot in the door, because he didn’t have any contacts in the music industry and I did. This was in 1976-77. It was 2-Tone that put Horizon Studios on the map. In 1979 the studio upgraded to 16 track and it was a convenient place to record for the emerging 2-Tone bands.
I used it to record Bad Manners, The Selecter and The Modettes. I also recorded The Bodysnatchers single for 2-Tone, ‘Let’s Do Rocksteady/Ruder Than You', but we did it in London.
Q What is your best memory of that time? In 1979, I was definitely flavour of the month, as far as producers were concerned. At one stage I had three singles in the Top 30 and all three bands on Top of the Pops the same night. I was very busy. That was a once in a lifetime thing.
Q Did you enjoy being the producer instead of the pop star? It was very frustrating actually. I was earning lots of money, but I wasn’t in a band anymore. I was just cooped up in a studio all the time. It got to the stage where the money didn’t mean anything anymore. I just had to get out of the studio. So I got into live engineering. I loved being out on the road again, even though I was still behind a mixing desk.
Q How did you get involved with Bad Manners? Magnet Records approached me in 1980 to produce them. They invited me down to a record company Christmas party to have a meeting with them. I met the band and we had such a good time, that I didn’t bother to listen to their demo tapes. Buster Bloodvessel was brilliant. He was larger than life. I knew that the band couldn’t fail, because he had so much charisma.
Q How many hits did you have with Bad Manners? We had a couple of No 3’s with ‘Can Can’ and ‘Special Brew’. We had a total of 14 hits.
Q What’s your best memory of working with Bad Manners? My favourite memory was the story behind recording ‘Can Can’. Buster wanted to do it, but the rest of the band thought it was a crap idea. Buster knew he could sell it and I knew he could sell it. He’d already convinced me. We were booked into the studio for a week, but after 3 days, Bad Manners ran out of things to record. So I suggested trying to record a demo of Can Can. In the absence of anything else, the band eventually agreed to do it. When we played it to the record company, they were knocked out by it. Even the band thought it was good.
The following week we did a proper recording session. Can Can is a classical music piece, which would normally be played by a 50 piece orchestra, so it was a difficult recording task. I had to make the song sound as big as an orchestral piece. I ended up using 40 or 50 tracks on a 24 track tape machine, so I had to bounce lots of tracks together. It took me a day and half to mix it. The day I finished it, I just knew it was going to be a massive hit. Sometimes, you just know. It was perfect Bad Manners.
Q Why were you more attracted as a producer to Bad Manners, than the other 2-Tone bands?
They suited my personality much better than 2 Tone. They were non-serious. I have a serious side, but I don’t let it get in the way of my job. I liked all the rough edges on their albums. It was the imperfections on a Bad Manners record that sold them. Sometimes, if things were too good, I had to make them sound worse. On the second album, Buster had to play a trombone solo, but it was sounding too good in the studio, even though he’d never played a trombone before. So I had to make it sound worse. That track was ‘Fatty Fatty’.
Q What caused your break-up with Bad Manners? I did their last record in 1982. After the fourth album Bad Manners got very serious. They thought their fourth album was the best, but I think it’s the worst, because the character we got in the first album was lost by then. Suddenly they wanted to be taken seriously, because they were fed up with being seen as the 2-Tone joke band. My attitude was to ignore the comments of the other people in those bands. Why worry about the credibility angle, when the public loved them as they were. After all, it was the public who bought the records and they weren’t bothered. That’s always been my attitude. I don’t care what reviewers think. All my worst reviewed records have all been hits and big sellers. Bad Manners weren’t convinced though, so they died a natural death, along with the rest of 2 tone.
Q What did you do after that?Then I built a studio. Being a producer of that kind of music, is like being a Soap star, you get typecast. It made it difficult for me. I didn’t approach anybody, because they used to approach me. I probably turned down too much stuff. I was offered the Undertones by EMI but I passed on it. I was offered the Q tips, with Paul Young, but I couldn’t do it. Look what happened with both those bands. But you do what you think is right at the time.
But production was quite new to me then and I was literally going from one project to another. I wasn’t pacing myself properly. I had no time off at all. I decided that the only way I’d do anything outside of 2-tone would be to stop altogether.
I built a small studio at Horizon for a while with an 8 track set up. I gave studio time away to record local bands, as long as I had an option on their recordings. Some of the bands were rubbish and I got a bit of a reputation for telling bands to split up at that time. Well, why beat about the bush!
Q What are you up to at the moment?
I don’t make plans. I live one day to the next. I don’t operate like a commercial studio. I don’t invest money in studios to get the money back. I want a studio for making good records.
Roy Wood has been a good friend of mine since my days in The Dodgers. We met when we were both recording in the same studio. This was long before Wizard. I mix his live sound, book his gigs and co-produce his recordings with him. I’ve diversified over the years. I’ve toyed with the idea of being a booking agent. I’ve never liked agents at all, but now there is a new breed of younger agent, who’ve been in bands themselves, who know the score. I’ve only been an agent for the past year.
I’ve got my fingers in lots of pies, so who knows what might happen!
This is my small homage to the 7” record and those record shops I, and many others in Coventry used, such as Jill Hanson, Paynes, Cranes, Fennells, Virgin Records in the City Arcade, Spinadisc and many others.
The sale of vinyl records is growing again. In excess of 4 million records were sold last year, the highest sales in a quarter of a century. A new generation of fans appears to be taking an interest in music once again.
I do have a selection of vinyl but I am far from the most ardent of collectors. Records though, must have gotten into my psyche at an early age. So let me ruminate about it all. Maybe you will relate to and recognise some of the symptoms.
The life of the 7” single began on the RCA label during 1948/49. And it soon got into the soul. It had a magic. People that indulged in them can generally remember the first one they bought. You played it to death. You wore it out. We remember joy and pain by the 7”. They had the power to recall times and places. And the song upon it can still give you that same feeling you had when you first heard it.
The record shop felt as if it was full of treasure. You felt part of a community. You could browse through records. You saved your money to buy one. At one time they had booths where you could try before you bought it. You looked at it on the way home. It was a thing of beauty.
The logos on the record, the sleeve, its colour and design were all evocative. The label became a part of the band. You had all the information you needed on those label. The writer of the song, its producer, the publishers, the year of release, it was all there. The label and its sleeve were art and music mixed together.
But we were also guilty of spoiling them by stacking them up on the record player, so that they dropped onto each other. We wrote our names onto them so we knew whose they were at the end of a party. And we put sticky labels on them for reference purposes.
The B sides could be interesting. It could be a throw away tune or something really good. Quite often the song itself was not on an LP. The Beatles 45s were a prime example of this. We also saw 7” EP’s and double A sides.
For the early part of the 1960s the single length was kept to around 3 minutes. That was until artists and writers like Bob Dylan and Jimmy Webb changed all that. After singles such as ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘Macarthur Park’, anything went.
The early 1970s saw the 7” take a back seat to the 12” LP or album. The album generally had a theme and you didn’t have to keep changing it or turning it over. During this period some bands purposefully avoid releasing 7” singles. However Glam Rock and bands like T.Rex, Slade revived the fortunes of the 7”.
From the mid-1970s the 7” single became short and sharp again as they became the perfect medium for the punk rock movement. Not only that but accompanying picture sleeves became the norm, rather than for the odd release. And this period also brought with it coloured vinyl, picture discs or both.
Singles were released on a limited edition 12” format. But then the 12” single had also become the staple of the DJ. For the 1980s and into the 1990s vinyl extended to different versions of the same song, extended dance mixes and much more. And then as time went on they found themselves out of fashion.
Although the 7” single is now maybe a thing of the past let’s hope that the current vinyl revival continues to grow and that records of today hold the same power they had over past generations.
‘The Man and the Journey’ was a suite of music performed by Pink Floyd during their 1969 tour. It was first performed at the Royal Festival Hall under the working title of ‘The Massed Gadgets of Auximines – More Furious Madness from Pink Floyd’. More locally it was definitely performed at Birmingham Town Hall during June and, quite possibly, it was also played in Coventry at The Locarno a month earlier.
Essentially the idea for The Man and the Journey was to segue familiar and not so familiar Pink Floyd tunes into one cohesive piece creating a storyline loosely based around the average twenty four hour day of an average person and the average life of an average person. Apart from the music, the concert’s, were a two set visual concept. On stage construction scenes and afternoon tea were portrayed. Whether it worked or not has been the subject of great debate amongst the various Pink Floyd forums for years.
The suite itself consisted of several early songs included Afternoon (Biding My Time), The Beginning (Green Is the Colour), Nightmare (Cymbaline), Beset by Creatures of The Deep and The End of the Beginning (the last part of A Saucerful of Secrets).
I also believe, at one time ‘The Man and the Journey’ was considered for full release but those plans were shelved. However the music from the suite would end up on future albums like ‘More’ and ‘Ummagumma’. Other tunes like ‘Biding My Time’ would also appear on a compilation album called ‘Relics’. It does seem as if Pink Floyd had many ideas, in those early days, but never really knew the best fit for them. For example a piano sequence that was first heard during the late 1960s studio sessions would eventually appear on Dark side of the Moon.
A Man and the Journey concert performed by Pink Floyd on 17 September 1969 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was bootlegged and for more than forty years this poorly audience recorded gig remained as the only aural evidence that the concerts ever existed. However, all that has recently changed. Firstly a cleaned up version of that Amsterdam gig was included as part of the huge Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972 box set released during November 2016.
But more surprisingly, however, is that a German rock band has also recreated, performed and released a recording of the entire concept. And having heard it I must admit to being totally blown away with it. It’s as if new life has been given to this piece of work. It sounded so fresh and invigorated.
The band that took on this most unlikely of challenges is called RPWL. The band’s name apparently derives from the first letter of each of its member surnames. Rissettio, Postl, Wallner and Lang. Relatively unknown to me, RPWL, from Freising, began life as a Pink Floyd covers band, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. But it is important to stress that RPWL also create original work.
As far as I can tell the RPWL concert was a one off performed at De Cacaofabriek in Helmond, Netherlands. But the gig is available as a CD and DVD. I have been listening heavily to the CD and it is artistically beautiful. It contains some breathtaking playing and virtuoso improvisation. If you do investigate this release then be prepared to be taken on an atmospheric and dynamic journey.
Judy Dyble doesn’t need any introduction. Her musical history is well documented elsewhere. But during 2004 Judy quietly returned to music and has since been involved in some very impressive releases. And occasionally, if you are fortunate enough, you can get to see her live. At least 5 dates have been announced for 2018. With this being the first of those scheduled outings.
Mid 2017 saw the release of an album called ‘Summer Dancing’ in partnership with Andy Lewis. Hands up, I really did think that this was going to be a bit of a miss-match. After all I had last seen Andy Lewis playing bass, in the then, Paul Weller band at the Warwick Arts Centre. Plus the fact that the album was being released on the Acid Jazz label just all seemed, to me at least, to be a bit of an unlikely combination. Being a mere music listener however, what do I know about these things?
Curiosity did get the better of me and I ended up buying a copy of the album. Wow, was I way off the mark, as their resulting release, ‘Summer Dancing’ became one of my favourite listens of 2017. So much so that when I found out that Judy was appearing live, with the musicians that created it all, then the urge to be there to hear it was just too great. With bargain priced rail ticket in hand I made my way to the wonderful, the Union Chapel in London.
I am not entirely certain but this may well have been the debut outing for the band. In addition to Judy and Andy, on stage you had Robert Rotifer guitar, Ian Button guitar and keyboard, Alison Cotton viola and vocals, Pete Twyman drums, Liz Lewis keyboard.
Judy walked on stage confronted by a mic that had been set for a person at least a foot taller. But once it had been reset the band burst into the beautiful ‘A Net of Memories’, from the Summer Dancing album. Aptly enough, a song about the city we were in.
Next up was another from Summer Dancing ‘My Electric Chauffer’ and this was followed by a new song from her Songs in Waiting EP titled ‘See What Your Words Did to Me’, a new song, that affirmed the tone for the afternoon. Summer Dancing was further showcased by ‘A Message’ and ‘Up the Hill’.
Then there was a real step back in time as Judy and the band performed the wonderful ‘Velvet to Atone’ an old Trader Horne song of which Judy had been a member along with Jackie McAuley.
This was followed by an equally delightful version of Nick Drakes ‘Northern Sky’. And, rounding up the proceedings, was ‘The Day They Took the Music Away’ a song that deliberately finishes with a sudden jolt.
With Judy you kind of get what you see really. She is not one of those flamboyant visual singers. One minute her hands are at her side, the next they are in the pockets of her long cardigan, and then back out again. But what she has in abundance is that rare ability to take you to places. The smile on her face was for real and she was clearly enjoying the moment. As, I’m certain, were the rest of the band. During the gig I really had forgotten that I was in the heart of this huge metropolis………until I stepped out onto the street again.
The interview took place in Roger’s 24 track custom-built studio at the bottom of his garden in Styvechale. Roger is a classic local maverick. He doesn’t give a damn about what people think of him, liberally uses the word crap to describe things he doesn’t like, and greets most people with a thumbs up sign and a jauntily hurled: ‘hello boy’. He’s hilarious.
