Graeme Thomson
Omnibus Press
What a relief to read a music biography written by an author who has some passion for his subject. Thomson’s first edition was published in 2010 to a positive reception from both reviewers and fans. This new version updates and builds, with Bush’s return to live music last year especially well documented. Some thematic unity is provided by Thomson’s repeated asking Who Is She?, although he is unable to answer his own question. Clearly “Never explain, never complain” applies to Kate Bush just as much as to her namesake Kate Moss. So whilst Thomson never interviews his subject he talks to most of the right people, elevating this book considerably from a cut and paste cuttings job. I still don’t get Kate Bush but clearly a lot of people do, and to them I recommend this book.
Brian Sweet (Omnibus Press)
The style in which this book is written is a remarkably good fit for its subject matter. Comprehensive, obsessed with detail, slow-moving and a bit dull: the description applies equally well to both book and band. Brian Sweet does well to detail the labyrinthine sessions which eventually give birth to Steely Dan’s nine studio LPs plus assorted solo records . If you want to find out who played what, when and why then this is the book for you.
What is missing is any sense of context. Steely Dan first hit in the UK during the fallow period between the end of prog and the start of punk and made a considerable impact through the pages of NME where their wit and economy were lauded as an example of classy pop. Sweet makes no attempt at explaining why the songs of Becker and Fagen offered such stark relief against the then all-pervading wall-to-wall denim-clad World Of Rawk. It was genuinely innovative in 1973 for a rock band to take its cues from Ellington, Monk and Parker and seemingly show no awareness of anything that had happened since the Beatles made their debut on Ed Sullivan. For that Steely Dan offer a fascinating (if scary) alternative vision of how rock’n’roll could have developed.
Becker and Fagen’s sleeve notes for the re-issue of Katy Lied apparently refer to an earlier version of this book as “controversial and critical”. Having read all 378 pages I can detect no trace of either.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here's an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.
This is a charming artefact with which to end the year. Hozac Records of Chicago have released the England’s Glory version of City Of Fun on 7” vinyl in a spiffy picture sleeve, billing it as “the single that never was.” The recording is familiar from the Legendary Lost Album and plods along in an endearingly VU / Transformer fashion, the piano breakdown in the middle works well. Compared to the more familiar Only Ones double-time version it sounds a bit pedestrian, but in 1971 it would certainly have stood out from the moribund UK rock ‘scene’ if anyone had actually heard it. B side is Shattered Illusions, recorded at a later England’s Glory session. Both tracks sound great and there are some enthusiastic sleeve notes enclosed. I am delighted to add it to my 7” vinyl collection, cool hipster that I am.
After a lengthy musical career that has included playing bass in The Beatstalkers and in The Only Ones Alan is preparing to release his debut single Four Winds, which comes out on his own IKA Records on December 19tth 2014. Alan’s strong voice is a revelation – singing with Peter Perrett for so long has clearly left its mark and there’s some Bowie in the mix. Keyboards feature prominently, as do the guitars of Zal Clemlinson, a friend of Alan’s from way back.
Alan has been playing music since 1962 so it has taken him a while to get round to a solo career: why now? “A solo career has been at the back of my mind for a long time. It was the Beatstalkers reunion at Barrowlands in 2005 that triggered my desire to get the Only Ones back together. Until then I’d never missed playing bass, because I was always doing stuff in my own studio, Field Studio. I spent a lot of 2006 going to and fro, first Mike Kellie said he would do it, then John Perry said he would do it. I saw Peter three times, finally he said yes in September but he was still using drugs at that point and now he can’t even remember me coming to his house to ask him. Sony offered to put some money up because they were putting out the best-of CD. I had been thinking about doing something on my own but the Only Ones took over full on for the next five years.”
“Then things went a bit flat and I was tired of running everything – merchandising, signing contracts, dealing with promoters and then going onstage. So I thought it was time for me to put all this effort into my own material. I have always written and this seemed so long overdue. I’ve got fifty or sixty songs, some recently written and some stockpiled over the years. On the single I’m playing bass, I did most of the drums, little bit of keyboards and all the production. The album will be called Field Of One. Releasing the single is the first step to create an interest in the songs that I do. I’ve already got the next single “Stairway To Hell” planned, using Ted McKenna on drums and Zal on guitar.”
We are talking over the kitchen table in Alan’s Camden cottage a few days after his return from Tokyo, where the Only Ones played three dates with the Flamin’ Groovies. “Japan went really well – the Groovies were great guys. We talked about playing some more co-headlining dates together in the States, and some here in the UK.”
“It was very strange physically going to Japan without Kellie and a bit sad. I was apprehensive at the first couple of rehearsals with Jake from Strange Fruit playing drums but he is such a good, solid drummer and he was very quick to pick up the full set, we probably only had three rehearsals as a full band. We also had Jamie Perrett on rhythm guitar. Peter can run out of energy on stage so if he stops playing Jamie can pick up those rhythms. I always stand on the right onstage, but we decided it would be better for Peter and Jamie to be together so they could hear each other so I moved over to between John and Jake. It felt different playing besides John and he seemed to play differently with fuller chords. I just loved the way he was playing, sort of a more Towshend-y Vibroking sound. Suddenly it felt like a real powerhouse rock band, without blasting out Peter. It went from being one of the worst soundchecks I’ve ever done to one of the best gigs”
The hiatus in Only Ones activity dates back to some unsuccessful recording sessions from 2009-2011 held at at the London studio Fortress and at Wincraft, Steve Winwood’s studio in Gloucestershire. Alan likens the situation to a marriage. “If people who used to be married try to get back together again sooner or later they get to ‘she’s still doing that’. Suddenly it felt like an extension of the third album – we went from doing fantastic gigs to being very uninspiring in the studio. Most of the blame was put on Kellie for the studio not working but it wasn’t all his fault. Then we just drifted apart. When we did the first two Only Ones albums and the Peel sessions we were so on fire – four tracks in three hours, but we can’t do that anymore. But Peter’s new songs are great.”
“We did think about releasing ‘Transfixed’ from Wincraft as a single because that is a recording that kind of works, ‘C Voyageur’ is another possible one. I did a lot of work on Transfixed here in my studio, editing and checking bits and pieces. I’ve always loved Transfixed as a song, plus me and John do the backing vocals onstage, more so than on any other song.”
Alan is now more optimistic about the Only Ones future. “Something had to change. Now there is definitely a renewed appetite to go back into the studio.. Initially there was no suggestion that we would take Jake and Jamie on tour it was going to be just the studio, but then we got the offer from Japan.”
Another exciting project on the horizon is the possibility of releasing the legendary 1979 Only Ones gig from Minneapolis on DVD. Apparently two fans who didn’t know each other recorded the gig, one filming on Super 8mm film and the other recording on tape. Alan has now managed to synchronise the images and the sound which means that for the first time we may get to see a complete Only Ones gig from their first time around, if a suitable means of distribution can be identified. Also on the horizon is an update of Nina Antonia’s book on the Only Ones, to include their more recent activities.
And there might even be some Alan Mair solo gigs. “If I do some dates I might do My Way Out Of Here” This song, written and sung by Alan, closed the Only Ones third album but was never played live. “We recorded My Way Out Of Here and one of John’s songs because at the time Peter wasn’t coming to the studio much. I just got tired of being in the studio, sitting around. Producer Colin Thurston played bass and I played guitar. I was going to keep it for myself but once it was finished Muff Winwood and Howard Thompson from CBS came down and they really liked it. We took a vote as to whether it should go on the album and everyone voted Yes except Peter.” Ironically due to a CBS cock-up the track was mistakenly credited to Peter on the first 20,000 copies of the LP and only now, thanks to the Sony remasters, is Alan getting due credit. He is philosophical about such matters and retains a remarkably positive outlook as he looks forward to releasing more solo material and working with a re-energised Only Ones in 2015.
Omnivore Recordings
Now this is an unexpected delight. The only live Big Star DVD I have ever seen is a grainy lo-fi souvenir of the debut performance of this line up from Columbia University in April 1993, worth watching for Alex Chilton’s masterful non-interview with MTV and a spirited encore of Jeepster. Live In Memphis is a huge advance. Original Big Star members Chilton (guitar, vocals) and Jody Stephens (drums, vocals) had been playing regularly with new recruits Jon Auer (guitar, vocals) and Ken Stringfellow (bass, vocals) for a further 18 months by the time this concert took place at the funky New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street in downtown Memphis. As a result they play with the relaxed ease of a band that knows its songs and knows itself.
The concert was recorded on four cameras, some extremely close to the action giving rise to the sleeve notes claim “this show is better than front row”. Producer is Danny Graflund, who first entered Chilton’s erratic orbit during the making of Big Star Third when he was hired as bodyguard and drinking buddy. Somehow he has charmed a warm and relatively outgoing performance from Chilton, including the world’s lamest version of the Roger Daltrey Microphone Lasso. By contrast Chilton’s guitar playing is effective and economical, exchanging leads and rhythm parts with Jon throughout.
Picture quality is crisp, despite the tapes languishing in a cupboard for twenty years. The music gets off to a slightly murky start with opener In The Street as the desk was not ready and so the song was recorded on video camera microphones. From second track Don’t Lie To Me all is well – Jody sounds almost Bonzoid, the guitars of Alex and Jon intertwine and Ken’s Hofner Violin bass underpins it all. There are some goofs but this just makes the concert warmer and more human. Musical highlights are the harmonies on I Am The Cosmos, Jody’s vocal on Way Out West and a rocking Baby Strange. Intriguingly the CD and LP versions of this concert list a performance of Fire (Springsteen rather than Hendrix): it turns out to be a 35 second fragment which is not included on the DVD for licensing reasons. The band get such a strong reaction that after an impromptu Girl From Ipanema and a sturdy Patty Girl they are persuaded back onstage a third time. Sadly it is to perform Todd Rundgren’s Slut, a grubby tune of which Alex was inexplicably fond.
Alex’s death means that we will never again be able to enjoy these songs sung by him. So it is wonderful to have a permanent record of the band in action, recorded professionally in front of an enthusiastic hometown crowd. Thank you, friends.
Only Rock 'n' Roll 