Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

by Pete Clemons

The Woodstock festival held during August 1969 is remembered for so many things. Not least of all for the fact that it produced so many memorable performances. And this, in turn, gave greater rise to so many of the bands and artists who featured in it.

Of course , over here in the UK, the vast majority of music listeners only had the film and the triple LP record set to judge it all by. But some of the most talked about tracks from the album were those by Jimi Hendrix. Of course, what you hear on vinyl, or on celluloid, was only part of a greater performance and of an even stranger and remarkable story.

Earlier, during 1969, Jimi had seemingly wanted to expand the band and explore new options. And this led to Noel Redding leaving the successful Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Several accounts exist over the exact circumstances of Noel Redding’s departure during June 69. Noel Redding, according to an interview, claimed that he had heard, via a third party, on the morning of a festival in Denver that Jimi had wanted to expand the band. Noel also mentioned that after the gig in Denver tear gas was used on the crowd, who were trying to get onto the stage. But, he explained, the wind was blowing into the direction of the stage. After the gig the band were hustled into a van. Suddenly, crowds were all over the van, even on the roof of it, and it began to buckle. Noel simply couldn’t handle it anymore and quit. Witnesses at that same gig claimed that Jimi also announced on stage that this was to be the last ever gig by the Experience. Either way, the original Jimi Hendrix Experience was finished.

With the Woodstock festival looming it was clear that Jimi’s new band had to be put together hastily. Bass player Billy Cox was an old friend for example. Guitarist Larry Lee, another old friend of Jimi’s, then got a call from Billy Cox. Jimi had given Billy the job of tracking down Larry.

Larry Lee hadn’t heard from Billy, who happened to be sat next to Jimi, in years. All this was just a couple of weeks before the gig. They encouraged Larry to join them where they were jamming. This was now ten days before the Woodstock gig itself. The rest of the line-up featured Mitch Mitchell drums, Juma Sultan percussion and congas, Jerry Velez congas.

There then began, apparently, a battle between those who only had commercial interests at heart and who wanted Jimi to continue with money making music of the Experience, and Jimi himself with his artistic ambitions and visions. But for artists, money is not always the prime motivator. Sometimes they need to grow.

For Woodstock, Jimi was down as the headline act. Well actually that’s not strictly true. Festival organiser Michael Lang had actually wanted his childhood hero, western movie star Roy Rogers, to close the show. He wanted Rogers to play a song called Happy Trails which had been used for the TV cowboy programme ‘The Roy Rogers Show’. But Rogers turned down the offer.

The Woodstock festival, notoriously, ran incredibly late. Rain on the Sunday being one of the issues. So late in fact that Jimi didn’t get on stage until 8:30/9am on the Monday morning of the 18 August. Knowing that the whole festival weekend was suffering with timing issues, organiser Michael Land did actually give Hendrix the opportunity of performing earlier at a time where he could take maximum exposure. But Hendrix refused and stuck with the original schedule. However, despite a dwindling crowd there was still a substantial audience to play for.

Having followed Sha-Na-Na on stage Jimi’s band were introduced onto the stage as The Experience although when you check anywhere they seem to be credited as ‘Gypsy Suns and Rainbows’. However, during Voodoo Chile where Jimi introduces the band, he is clearly heard explaining that is their first gig and to call them the ‘Southern Rainbows, but you can call us the Band of Gypsies’. They played uninterrupted for almost 2 hours. You would never have known that this new line up had hardly performed together.

Jimi was a prolific jammer and spent many hours in the studio. This was true particularly after the break-up of the Experience. The core of the Woodstock band was with him through this period as well as drummer Buddy Miles. A lot of Jimi’s gigs were also recorded. And this is why there was so much material, of varying quality, being made available over the years since Jimi’s death. And, of course this brought with it, all the usual questioning of motives behind each release.

Two Whole Quails

Two Whole Quails

by Pete Clemons

A Coventry band that has fascinated me for a while now is ‘Two Whole Quails’. Put very simply, ‘Two Whole Quails - namely Lee and Chris - produce original soundtracks that overlay, to me at least, obscure films. On the occasions I have witnessed ‘Two Whole Quails’ I have found the combined package of film and music score to be incredibly exciting and rather absorbing. Additionally, this whole project is beginning to get noticed as performances are springing up away from the city.

Wanting to know a bit more about the band history and ambitions, I contacted Lee and he kindly replied with the following fascinating overview:

‘We've been playing together, on and off, for nearly 25 years. This has been in several different bands and we've regularly recorded stuff together - for our own amusement- over the years. We became ‘The Quails’ in 2009 & recorded ‘Floyd On Quails’, a CDR that we gave away a few copies of too friends. We made some more recordings in 2010 but these were shelved as ‘The Quails’ were put on ice to make way for our next band, ‘Auntie Greville's Perforated Anvil’ (AGPA). ‘The Quails’ didn't use film, but we were keen on using spoken word, making musical / soundscape backdrops. One track, ‘A Quail’, uses excerpts from an interview with David Hockney; whilst ‘Who Is 'They'?’ features highlights from a Q&A with Hunter S. Thompson. (We have performed an entire set backing Hunter S. Thompson!).

AGPA was where the film thing was born really. We had the idea of making videos to go with each of the numbers in the set & projecting these (along with a couple of screens for oils). We were into grainy, lo-fi, low- res mobile phone footage and made our own films to accompany each of the numbers in the set. For one number, we used a section from a 1924 silent film called ‘Greed’ which, I guess, was our first foray into scoring silent films. In AGPA, the music came first, and the films were made afterwards.

AGPA dissolved & in 2013 we returned to ‘The Quails’, becoming ‘Two Whole Quails’ as we found that 4 other bands called The Quails! We decided to write a score for a silent film. Although not strictly 'silent', Jan Svankmajer's ‘Alice’ was chosen. I'd seen it a year or two before and my wife suggested it when we began to search for films. It took about 12 months to write. We split the film into sections and wrote the music independently of one another. We would meet up each week and play one another the sections we'd worked on until we had the whole thing recorded. We then went back and spent 6 months learning how to play the whole thing together and turn it into a piece suitable for live performance. We were keen for people to watch the film, not the 'band' - the idea being that we fade into the background, there to supplement the images on screen.

We've performed ‘Alice’ in its entirety several times but it weighs in at >80mins so we quickly realised that we needed a more versatile 'set'. We looked at reviving ‘Greed’ and this eventually led to our finding our way to lesser known early 20th century surrealist cinema.

With Maya Deren's ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’, we wrote the whole score together. It's one of our most improvised soundtracks and was written to the film. This is by far our most popular film / score - we're about to hit 100,000 watches on You Tube!

We tend to work on the music together, taking cues from the film as our starting point - what the visual image 'sounds' like. It will usually be that one of us gets a particular idea - either at the time or in-between rehearsals - and we take that on then go from there. As the process goes on, the soundtrack becomes more tightly locked into the film. Sometimes we work on pieces individually, but we tend to refine them together. There is a lot of improvisation in our performances. These improvisations are structured by responding to the film. These eventually form the basis of the soundtrack & we end up with a series of pieces, each of which is triggered by certain visual cues.

Where we make our own films, the process is different again. With ‘Radio New World’, we started with the narrative. This is our friend's story about broadcasting his own pirate radio station from his parents' garden shed in the 1960s. We got him into the studio to tell his tell his tale then put the story to music. The film came last & illustrates the narrative. With our new work in progress, ‘The Chancellor's Dinner’, the music came first. We had to come up with something very quickly for an event that Coventry University had booked us for at the Herbert Art Gallery - the Chancellor's 175th Annual Dinner! This 20-minute piece came out of nowhere and is completely improvised. We have performed it twice without film & we are currently working on a film comprised largely of footage of meals / food that people have sent us.

We are also putting the finishing touches to a soundtrack we were commissioned to write by German author / director, Daniel Hadrovic. The film is called ‘Tote Mich Noch Einmal’ (‘Kill Me Again’). It's scheduled for release Autumn 2019 and will be screened at film festivals in Germany and hopefully in the UK. There may be a small DVD release too. We've yet to see any part of the film and the score has been written to Daniel's extremely brief brief! It will be interesting to see how this turns out and how he edits the music to the film. We have another early 20th century surrealist film that we've 'mapped out' ready to start work on before Christmas and we are looking forward to performing ‘The Chancellor's Dinner’ - with film - early in 2019’.

Huge thanks to Lee for his concise reply. This project is no doubt a labour of love. But it certainly has legs. What ‘Two Whole Quails’ are creating right now is, I think, unique and particularly exciting. I would certainly recommend the ‘TWQ experience to anyone who is remotely interested in vintage footage and musical soundtracks.

Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia

by Pete Clemons

45 years ago saw, in my opinion, the release of one of the finest concept albums ever. It was titled ‘Quadrophenia’ and it was by rock band The Who. Thinking back to when the album was released I remember it was a lavish affair across two LP records with the gatefold sleeve that came complete with a black and white booklet set within it.

At the time of Quadrophenia’s release the UK was in turmoil. We had gas and electricity shortages and everyone seemed to be on a 3 day week. The Who was amongst a plethora of bands that managed to make things, for the youth at least, that little bit more enjoyable. And maybe the dank and grey artwork, used on the albums sleeve, was deliberate to reflect those times.

After the release of the Tommy album, things went relatively quiet for The Who. And this trend continued during the first few years of the 1970s. The individual musicians within the band began to release solo albums or feature in films. Admittedly, The Who did release one of their finest albums ‘Who’s Next’ during this period. But ‘Who’s Next’ had been made up of songs mainly created for a science fiction fantasy project called ‘Lifehouse’ that, disappointingly, hit the buffers and was aborted.

Quadrophenia is the story based around a disillusioned ‘Mod’ called Jimmy. Jimmy is a working class youth who struggles with life. But Jimmy has never moved on with the times and he lived in the past. He created a standard of living for himself as influenced by what he enjoys to hear but has difficulties with those who do not see life in the way he does.

But the character of Jimmy is way deeper than the one portrayed on the record. Jimmy was formed on how guitarist and writer, Pete Townshend, saw the four very different personalities within The Who at that time. Drummer Keith Moon was wild and unpredictable. Bass player John Entwistle was himself, a song writer and was unhappy at his own overall contribution to the band. Roger Daltrey wanted something where he uses his powerful vocal and was able to shake his, then, long hair on the stage.

And, combined, these four individuals came together in Pete’s mind to create Jimmy. To add to Jimmy’s problems he was also bipolar or schizophrenic. But for the purposes of the album, and with the four personalities in mind, Jimmy was quadrophenic. Meanwhile, during the writing of Quadrophenia, Pete Townshend was having his own issues with his perceived failure to deliver on his failed ‘Lifehouse’ project.

During this period of self-doubt, after ‘Lifehouse’, Pete Townshend would have a flashback during 1972, to when he was 19, and a particular gig in Brighton where, afterwards, the band had missed their train back to London and spent the night under Brighton Pier. During this flashback Pete reached for his notebook and scribbled out the story. Pete’s notes were reprinted and are what you can see in the front inside cover of the booklet that came with the original double LP.

1972 was also a turbulent time for The Who, who themselves, had many issues to contend with. It is not unfair to say that The Who was close to splitting up. Things were not helped by the fact that Pete Townshend had to take over production duties at a critical time in the recording process. And one infamous incident, for example, came about during a rehearsal for the album.

The whole album was initially presented as a demo presented by Pete Townshend to the rest of the band. And during its recording Roger would become impatient. He just wanted to get on with it while the rest were larking about. Roger was fairly grounded kind of guy, while Pete was a complicated character and this all came to a head in the studio. This had been going on for years and just seemed to come to the boil. Pete swung his guitar in the direction of Roger, giving him a glancing blow to his shoulder. In retaliation Roger waded in and thumped Pete. Many bands would have folded but it was possibly this creative dynamic that saved them.

A taster track for what was to come, 5:15, was released as a single a month before the album was released. The song captures Jimmy going back to Brighton to try to find what he had lost within himself. On 5:15 a train’s whistle can be heard and throughout the album sounds can be heard such as those of rolling waves. Strings were also used to enhance the songs.

The opening track on the album ‘The Real Me’, is the essence of the story where each of the four personalities of The Who are featured and sets the scene for the rest of the album. Jimmy goes in search of help for his issues.

The distance of what The Who was, back in 1964, and what they had become is captured in the album. Jimmy happens to pass The Who as they were leaving Hammersmith Odeon following a gig. They went straight into a flash car and Jimmy was devastated. This was not The Who he remembered. Another example of the change over time is when Jimmy meets up again with the ‘Ace Face’ from his scootering days. The ‘ace’ has now settled down and is now working as a bell boy in a hotel. 

The Who, by 1973, was the complete antithesis of what they had been ten years previously, and Pete Townshend wanted to demonstrate this within the album. Drowned, has Jimmy beginning to realise this and to start to get a grip on himself - ‘let me get back to the beginning’.

The end of the record concludes with the magnificent ‘Love Reign Over Me’ where eventually Jimmy finally finds himself –. According to Pete Townshend ‘Love Reign’ is a spiritual prayer to nothing and everything. The end of Jimmy’s story is ambiguous however. Whatever happens is in the hands of, you, the listener.

As a whole I think that Quadrophenia, is not so much a huge social statement as such, but instead, captures a series of observations and how serious we interact when we hear our favourite artists.

Toward the end of the 1970s Quadrophenia was given a whole new lease of life when it was turned into a film that starred Phil Daniels. It was an enjoyable film but, for me, the drama of it changed the whole emphasis of the original plot as it concentrated more on the social aspect of life in the mid-1960s. Additionally the film’s release kicked off a whole new ‘Mod’ scene. Even today you don’t have to wait too long before finding a Quadrophenia themed night being advertised. 

Jeff Beck by Pete Clemons

Jeff Beck

by Pete Clemons

Like most youngsters born before the 1960s Jeff Beck grew up with the radio. It was one of the few forms of entertainment and music was all important. Jeff was attracted to the guitar from an early age and he would love to analyse the sound. He has also cited the film ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ and the sounds of Les Paul and Mary Ford as being early influences.

At around the age of 14 Jeff’s sister gave him the phone number of someone whom she thought was a like-minded individual, as they had both built their own homemade guitars. That phone call led to Jeff meeting Jimmy Page at Jimmy’s parents’ house. The pair clicked instantly listening intently to guitar solos on the music of the 1950s. This was the beginning for Jeff as he began searching for that innovative sound.

After leaving school Jeff became an art student at Wimbledon College. At the same time he was gigging in various bands. Jeff loved art school but the music took over.

The Yardbirds had been searching for a new guitarist. It wasn’t that their current guitarist, Eric Clapton, was not good enough. It was that they were after a new direction and looking for a hit record. And it was through Jimmy Page, who had been approached first, that Jeff hooked up with The Yardbirds during early 1965. In fact Eric Clapton went to check Jeff out, who was then playing with his band The Tridents, to ensure they were getting the right man.

At around the same time Jeff and Jimmy had become inspired by Indian music. They were listening intently to a lot of the Ragas of Ravi Shankar. Jeff was convinced he could interpret a version of the sound on his guitar.

Beck’s ‘sitar’ like sound that he got out of his guitar helped transform The Yardbirds and achieve the chart success they desired. Within a month of joining the band Jeff was touring America.

With the money that he earned Jeff invested in a 1963 Corvette. You see, Jeff Beck’s other interest was cars.

After less than two years however Jeff Beck was fired by The Yardbirds. The way Jeff explains it is that the band had been added to a package tour called the ‘Caravan of Stars’. It was an odd tour as it meant a lot of travel and The Yardbirds had a 15 minute slot where they got to play 2 or 3 songs. This was not what Jeff wanted and simply walked away and returned home after 2 gigs.

Jeff Beck was now, in his own words ‘free to dream again’ and back in the U.K. Jeff set about forming his own band.

To begin his quest Jeff visited the Cromwellian Club in London. It was a meeting place for musicians. This particular night it was unusually quiet. In fact the only other person in there was an out of work singer called Rod Stewart. They got chatting and during the conversation Rod mentioned Ronnie Wood. Jeff knew of Ronnie as they had met in Sheffield when Ronnie was touring with his own band The Birds and Jeff with The Yardbirds.

The first year or so saw a succession of musicians joining and leaving the core trio of the new Jeff Beck Group. They also found themselves under the guidance of producer Mickie Most. It was a real miss-match as Mickie was trying to steer the band in the direction of chart success. Jeff loved Rod Stewarts voice and specifically asked for Rod to sing on the hit single ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’. But Mickie didn’t care for it and this was evident during the singles recording. Jeff likened the ‘Hi Ho’ period to wearing a pink frock in Oxford Street. It had all been too uncomfortable for him.

Eventually though the Jeff Beck Group settled with Nick Hopkins on piano and Micky Waller on drums. A gruelling tour of America followed and they were getting rave reviews. It was reported heavily, for example after a gig at Fillmore West, that the band had blown away headline bands such as the Grateful Dead.

Back in the U.K. the band recorded the ground breaking ‘Truth’ album which was released during 1968. Needless to say that ‘Hi Ho’ never made though its B side, the magnificent ‘Becks Bolero’ - actually recorded in 1966 - did. Rock music had not heard anything like this before. Several more U.S. tours followed along with a second album ‘Beck-Ola’ released in 1969. But it was also being reported that a rift had developed within the band. Days before the band were due to fly out for a scheduled slot at the Woodstock Festival, Jeff disappeared and the band disintegrated. During a recent documentary Jeff was still convinced it was the right thing to do. And reluctantly Rod Stewart agreed.

By the end of 1969 Jeff Beck was back at his Mother’s house. Another film that had inspired him as a youngster was called ‘Hot Rod Gang’. Jeff still has a vivid memory of a particular scene showing 2 hot rods, one on either side of the road, with their wheels up on the kerb stones. While Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood were joining up with rock band, The Faces, Jeff lost himself in his cars.

That was until early 1971 when Jeff resurfaced with an all new Jeff Beck Group featuring Max Middleton on piano, Cozy Powell on drums, bass player Clive Chaman and vocalist Alex Ligertwood. By the time this new band recorded the ‘Rough and Ready’ album Ligertwood had been replaced by Bobby Tench. A second album, affectionately known as the Orange album, kind of kicked off from where the previous ones had finished. Although, the albums final track called ‘Definitely Maybe’ kind of set the scene for future and more instrumental, Jeff Beck albums.

Before that though, Jeff had met up with Stevie Wonder when he had been offered some studio work. A collaboration between the pair led to the single ‘Superstition’ written by Stevie but Jeff played on. Jeff then formed the short lived Beck, Bogert and Appice with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice. And this power trio included a heavy version of ‘Superstition’ on their only album release. A writing block apparently prevented this trio developing further.

After this venture Jeff retreated to his workshop once more. He remembers that on one occasion while working on a car he had the radio on and heard this instrumental. It was Miles Davis and John McLaughlin performing on the Jack Johnson tribute album. Immediately a door opened within his mind to a host of new ideas that would lead to the million selling ‘Blow by Blow’ album. The album contained tracks from his association with Stevie Wonder along with collaborations with Max Middleton who Jeff had once again teamed up with and between them came up with tunes like ‘Scatterbrain’. Produced by George Martin the instrumental ‘Blow by Blow’ was an altogether, more jazzier album, and it was clear to hear that new avenues were opening up.

During this time Jeff would see the Mahavishnu Orchestra play live and get to meet up with them. He immediately bonded with the bands keyboard player Jan Hammer. With George Martin unavailable, Jan agreed to help complete Jeff’s next album ‘Wired’. In fact they paired up for one of the albums highlights ‘Blue Wind’. The amazing relationship between Jeff and Jan would continue until the beginning of the 1980s.

The 1980s were was a time that felt alien to Jeff. He has mentioned that it was a push button time, uninspiring and no place for him. So for the majority of that time he was either building cars or guesting on other artist’s album. That said, during the middle of that decade he released an album title ‘Flash’ that seemed to draw on all his previous experiences. And it saw a reunion with Rod Stewart. ‘Flash’ also earned Jeff his first Grammy award.

Another relative period of quiet followed. That was until, out of the blue, he received a picture that would adorn his next album. Jeff took one look at it and thought ‘they hit the bull’s eye - that is me’. Inspired by the painting Jeff set about forming another power trio. This time however, there would be no bass. Its replacement would be keyboards. Together with Tony Hymas, who had worked on ‘Flash’ and Terry Bozzio they created the classic powerhouse album ‘Guitar Shop’ that was chock full of aggression, melody and attack. Released in 1989, ‘Guitar Shop’ earned Jeff his second Grammy award.

Despite gossip to the contrary, whenever I have seen Jeff live or giving interviews on TV, he always seems to come across as a humble kind of guy who simply wants to follow his own path. He has been described as a maverick, a risk taker, he is exciting, and he is out there. And he will say no if he is not happy. Also, and I think most importantly, he doesn’t appear to give a monkeys about the trappings of success.

Yes he has had his moments. George Martin, for example, recalled a time when he witnessed Jeff throw his guitar across the studio in total rage. But don’t we all have our moments? A recent interview showed him totally grateful that he has had been given the chance to have appeared at places as revered and diverse as The Hollywood Bowl and Ronnie Scott’s club.

Nowadays Jeff is, in the main, reflective. He has gone out with band’s that includes singers such as Imelda May, Joss Stone and Beth Hart. The occasional new album is released, Jeff even went right back to his early influences recently, and still finds great success with them. And he even seems to be at peace with ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ – well, the fact that it has given so many people a lot of pleasure. As for Rod Stewart, well he has stated that he has not given up hope of ever performing with Jeff again.