On trots Beth Orton, I’m looking forward to this. I especially
liked the first couple of albums, Trailer Park& Central Reservation. I
eventually got hold of Daybreakermainly because of the Adams
collaboration, ‘Concrete Sky’. Most of the Albert Hall had probably hoped to
hear that tonight, but maybe with their romantic history & Beth’s husband guesting
in her band, it was never was going to happen. Orton has a mixed bag of songs
in her back catalogue, some folk rock, some mixed with loops, some barely
audible & others that soar, liberally sprinkled with vibrato and sandpaper. Tonight, her
voice occasionally sounded strained & threatened to crack, but it was a good
solid support set. I quite enjoyed that. Time for a vodka.
Curator this year of the Teenage Cancer Trust Gigs, is Noel
Gallagher. He introduces the band as “A Supergroup, except for the drummer,
he’s a nobody”. We find out shortly that it’s Noel’s tub-thumper, Jeremy Stacy
from his High Flying Birds. The rest of the stellar band is made up of, (wait
for it) Benmont Tench, (Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers) on keyboards, Don Was (Was
Not Was), who is without doubt the coolest bass player I have ever seen (apart
from Rick Danko of course). On the double eight, Cindy Cashdollar & finally
virtuoso musician, & go-to Americana
producer, Ethan Johns on guitar.
I have seen Adams play live in
various line up’s since Heartbreaker was released, so I’ll get this out the way now. The set
was absolutely crying out for harmonies. I could hear Neal Casal's sweet
harmony lines in my head, & the lady sat to my immediate right, heard mine in her left
ear for longer than she probably wanted to. Ethan Johns had a vocal mike in front of him and never used it. Shame,
that.
I got the feeling from the band they had obviously rehearsed
for tonight, but the lack of wringing the songs out beforehand in the practice room gave them space & room
to breathe. Arrangements sat back in a groove and it enabled the sheer
quality of musicianship to shine through. The lack of flashiness added to the overall feel for the set,
in fact I think I only remember a couple of guitar solos, and one lead line
from Cindy.
The set is a live return to form with a more relaxed Adams
bantering with various shout outs from the crowd. At one point he improv’s an entire song
out from a misheard heckle about baked goods, Loaf Of Bread. The two new songs had
a bluesier feel to them, almost like a mid 60s Dylan album cut. It will be interesting to
hear the record he is currently working on with the legendary Glyn Johns
(Ethan’s father.)
The band takes a break and Ryan plays a short solo set with
his marvellous Buck Owens acoustic. Sweet Carolina’s whispered, controlled vocal
is amazing in this setting and the solo segment gets the thunderous applause it
deserves.
Towards the end of the gig, with everyone locked together like they had been touring this set for 18 months, Ryan looked at
his band, & beamed “I have never heard these songs sound so good”
With the 112th
Us Open Championship being contested at The Olympic Club, San Francisco,
California this year, top sports tipster & tweeter (Betting Zone & Sky Sports)
@DaveTindallgolf asked me to compile a list of West Coast bands from the
golden age of rock, the 60’s. I thought this was a great idea, and so below, is
a compilation of 10 iconic West Coast bands. (In no particular order & yes I
know, you may have other artists/tracks in mind!) & a further list of a few
more obscure bands & Californian heavyweights, just in case you wanted to dig a little
deeper into those heady daze of Laurel Canyon & Haight-Ashbury.
The Byrds -
Eight Miles High
The Byrds
started out playing standard folk rock, graduating to the big league with
Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man in 1965. Just weeks after recording another
folk song “He Was A Friend Of Mine” in 1966, the Byrds started to find their feet & made their mark in the burgeoning flower power scene with the acid tinged 'Eight Miles High'. It was one of the earliest known sonic attempts to recreate an LSD trip. Gene Clark’s
lyrics coupled with McGuinn’s free form jazz style improvisations gave the listener a metaphor for an LSD trip into outer-space.
The Beach
Boys – Good Vibrations
Recorded
over a six month period, the final version of Good Vibrations highlights Brian
Wilson’s genius in the production booth. Wilson’s micro symphony begins simply with a lone vocal and organ motif, but then transforms into a full
blown theremin psych-out. It topped the charts in December 1966, & for a while John & Paul looked over their shoulders as Brian & The Beach Boys raised the bar even higher. For further listening, check out the Lp's Pet Sounds, Smile, Sunflower & Surf's Up.
Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth
A band that had in its ranks, not only Neil Young
but also Stephen Stills. With it’s instantly recognisable opening riff, this
track has been a stalwart in every Vietnam war film and just about every
documentary on the late 60's ever since. Often mistaken for an anti-war song,
it was actually about the "Sunset Strip riots" of the mid 60's which
inspired Stephen Stills to write "For What It's Worth". Wrongly
interpreted as a protest song, it's actually a reflection on the futility of
the protest era. Not just flying the freak flag for protesters, Stills is
encouraging everyone to "Stop, look around" to see what’s really going
on, a whispered cry for some self examination & rationale.
"There's battle lines being drawn; Nobody's
right if everybody's wrong"
White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
Lewis Carroll set to a dark Latino beat. Grace Slick transferred this
over from her previous band The Great Society, to the more psychedelic
Jefferson Airplane in 1967. “When logic and proportion have
fallen sloppy dead, And the white knight is talking backwards, And the red
queen is off with her head, Remember what the dormouse said, Feed your head!,
Feed your head!” Blatant drug propaganda lyrics misses all the censors to get in the
Billboard top 10.
Love 7 And & 7 Is
L.A’s underground Sun Gods before The Doors popped up in late 66’ and signed to the
same record label (Elektra) on Arthur Lee’s recommendation. Acid fuelled angst,
proto punk garage. Love’s only top 40 hit smashes you in the teeth and leaves a
splinter of blues under your fingernail. Their seminal record ‘Forever Changes’
was released a year later.
Janis Joplin – Ball & Chain (Monterey Pop Festival)
The first two albums by Janis’s band ‘Big Brother & The Holding
Company’ were mostly demo’s and a major label botch job. The live cut of
this track from The Monterey Pop Festival (studio version is on Cheap Thrills)
captures the band at their peak & made them superstars overnight. Janis was
the Queen of San Francisco right until her death in 1970 aged 27. Check out
her final record ‘Pearl’ or posthumous live
recordings to get a sense of where Janis was really coming from. She also
famously smashed a quart bottle of Jack Daniels over Jim Morrison’s head.
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
L.A’s hippest garage band for one heady summer in 1966. The Seeds had the perfect blend of the West Coast punk/psych/garage sound until late 67, when they recorded their acid fuelled 3rd lp, ‘Future’. Sky Saxon (great
name) wrote hit "Pushin' Too Hard" in under 15 minutes sitting alone in a car, while he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish the weekly food shop. The lyrics can be interpreted about his girlfriend wanting to control him, or as a rant against 'The Establishment'.
The Grateful Dead – That’s It For The Other
One
You can’t have an iconic West Coast list without
Jerry Garcia’s band in there. The Dead were always the furthest ones out there ,
but you never heard how far until 68’s Anthem Of The Sun. Recorded over a 6
month period, with Bob Weir even asking producers to record the illusion of
‘thick air’. This track shows the development of their live sound recorded onto
a studio record and is a barometer for future live adventures. Dark Star pts 1
and 2 off Live Dead from 69’ were the two tracks
that got me into buying their records. But the seminal duo of records from 1970,
‘Workingmans Dead & ‘American Beauty’ are by far my favourite Dead albums.
The Doors – When The Music’s Over
Another shoe-in for the LA icons list. The Door’s
first two albums each had one lengthy track on them. (The End on ‘The Doors’ début) These extended song structures were
formed by playing & jamming them out live during late 65 & early 1966 at The
London Fog & The Whiskey-A-Go-Go on La's strip. This particular track didn't actually appear until a year later on the Strange Days Lp. Jim
Morrison was the Golden God or ‘Lizard King’ in L.A from the Summer of 67' (after the
smash #1 Light My Fire) until the Spring of 69’ when he decided to
throw off his Lizard King/Electric Shaman shackles, & get his John Thomas out in
Miami in order to be taken more seriously as a poet. After being barred from almost every live concert hall & arena in the US, Jim morphed into my
favourite Morrison period ‘The Bearded Drunk Blues Singer’. Subsequent albums, Morrison Hotel & L.A Woman were a refreshing turn of events after the
plasticity of The Soft Parade, & the cobbled together nature of the Waiting
For The Sun album.
Crosby, Stills Nash & Young – You Don’t
Have To Cry
A trio that formed after David Crosby had been
kicked out The Byrds, & the disintegration of Buffalo Springfield had left
Stephen Stills unemployed. Crosby, Stills & Nash got together at a party in Mama Cass’s house after
they realised they had a unique vocal harmony sound. Crosby was the ‘Lord of the
Laurel Canyon’ community, as Nash put it, “He always had the best girls, the
best drugs, the best parties, of course I was gonna join them” Their first Lp
was an immediate hit with 2 smash singles. But with Stills being the prominent
musician in the trio, they needed more personnel to undertake a tour. Neil Young
joined in mid 69’ to make it a
super-super-group. CSN&Y’s blend of harmonies & country melodies unwittingly
paved the way for the next phase of Californian music, AOR Soft Country,
with The Eagles picking up the L.A reigns.
Movers & shakers from the West Coast to click on & check
out. Includes one or two more heavyweights and some classic garage/psych bands. Enjoy
& explore.
I
discovered The Zombies by accident in the Summer of 1990, lurking somewhere on the B side of
a 1970’s ‘Best Of The Sixties’ compilation, sandwiched awkwardly between Engelbert Humperdinck & The Tremeloes. The track was ‘Time Of The Season’. It sounded like nothing else on that trashy compilation & even today, in a blues club in the West Midlands, it still sounds fresh.
Time Of The Season
The Zombies formed 1961 in St Albans, the two main protagonists being Rod Argent (piano, organ,
and vocals) and Colin Blunstone (vocals). The group surprisingly had
minimal chart success in the 60’s, but had a few more hits over in the USA on the back of the British Invasion,
even reaching the Billboard number 3 spot in 1968 with Time Of The Season. Their first UK LP, Begin Here (1965),
was the typical mix of original songs & R&B covers as was the norm at the time, and it showed great promise for future original compositions. The band continued to record throughout 1965-66 trying to achieve chart success, but the hits didn't come. Even though Argent & White amassed enough material for a follow-up album, the lack of chart success
kept most of those tracks from ever being issued.
In
1967, The Zombies signed to CBS
Records, for whom they recorded the album Odessey and Oracle. (The word odyssey was
misspelled by cover designers.) By the time Odessey and Oracle got released in April 1968, the group had disbanded. The LP had twelve songs which showcased the
group's two main songwriters, Argent and Chris White, with tracks such as 'Care Of Cell 44', 'A Rose For Emily' & 'Beechwood Park'. The album ranked Number 80 on Rolling
Stone magazine's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time', and regularly gets into 'essential' list's top 25.
Tonight however, The Zombies freight train pulls into The Robin 2, Bilston, West Midlands. It's a good sized venue for bands, both past & present, always booking good credible artists. (Terry Reid for instance, in 10 days time)
The last group I came to see here was The Pretty Things, who totally tore it up with hard R&B from their early years. Unfortunately no material post 67’ from them that night, I would have loved to hear some tracks off their 1970 record, Parachute. Phil May nearly dropped his maracas when I requested some.
There
are quite a few bands from yesteryear on the touring treadmill who basically, are in it for the money, and fill a gap in the market that a lot of fans (me included) crave for.
I can’t blame them, a lot of great groups got ripped off during the 60’s & throughout the 70’s
with many other people getting rich off their talent and the songwriters not seeing a single penny. I hasten to
add, The Zombies are ‘not’ going through the treadmill of a cabaret/tribute show. They
rock it out, & look like they are loving every second of their decade long reformation. The positive media reaction has given The Zombies the respect they deserve, starting with the successful 40th anniversary tour of the Odessey album, and bookending it with great reviews for the new album and recent live shows.
Although only
2 of the original members are on stage, the bass player, Jim Rodford (who looks
a bit like David Jason circa ‘A Touch Of Frost’) was actually a founding member of
Argent & also took Rod to his first Zombies audition in the early 60’s. Jim’s son Steve is on drums, and he is a great player in his own right, recording with many artists all over the world. The
guitarist Tom Toomey (great name) is a very talented guy who according to Rod
got the gig by being an amazing acoustic as well as electric player. He
didn’t, I fancy, get the gig by having more than a passing resemblance to Harry
Enfield’s character DJ Mike Smash, right down to the leather trousers. I like
to think he keeps a faux silk Bachman Turner Overdrive tour jacket hanging up in
the dressing room.
The
set list tonight comprised of material from both of their careers post
Zombies, (Argent, Alan Parsons & other assorted solo works) with a large chunk (5-6 songs) dedicated to
their new album ‘Breathe Out, Breathe In’. The latest songs surprised
me on two levels, the first mainly being that I didn’t realise that they were new,
and secondly how easily they fitted into the eclectic nature of tonight's set. Only one new song that I heard had a poor chorus lyric & was pretty throwaway, compared with how the
other new tracks sat with ease in the back catalogue.
Rod’s
mike falls off midway & guitarist Tom Toomey steps in to perform a great, impromptu
version of Classical Gas to show us that Rod was right, he is indeed a great
acoustic player. Another highlight was a section from the band’s seminal ‘Odyssey
and Oracle’ album, with Time Of The Season an instant crowd pleaser from the first 2 bars.
Colin
Blunstone’s voice is a force of nature. A man of his age and profession just shouldn't be able to still sing like that. From breathy lows to soaring highs,
he still has them all, and hits them without breaking sweat. Unbelievable. I
mean, just unbelievable.
Colin Blunstone
At
the end of the set, Argent’s ‘Hold Your Head Up’, all 8.30secs of it, is a
floorstomping crowd pleaser with Blunstone stepping up, & easily delivering the lead vocal. The set closer, 1964’s She’s Not There is a
classic slice of Zombies history that almost everyone knows, even reaching the
giddy heights of number 2 in the USA. Santana also had a hit with it in the late 70's, taking it into the realms of Black Magic Woman territory. You can hear it on their 1977 Moonflower album.
The
band stay on stage for the encore and go straight into Argent’s ‘God Gave Rock Gave
Rock And Roll To You’. Rod encourages the crowd to join in for the breakdown
acapella refrain, and surprisingly the crowd is quiet & subdued apart from one man
with a massive gob, belting the chorus out above everyone. (Sorry about
that) The night surprisingly climaxes
with ‘Just Out of Reach’, a formulaic R&B single from 65’ which had minor chart success. On the evidence of tonight's tight, crafted set, if you have the chance, go and see The Zombies.
The merchandise stand was also awesome. Yes, the usual cd’s, singles,
dvds, posters and so on were on sale. But mainly because there was also vinyl. Not new 180gm vinyl but
original vinyl. (Goes giddy) In all fairness they did look they had come out of
the sellers own collection, but I like to think of Colin & Rod scouring rare record shops buying up their own Lp's to sell at gigs. I purchased two solo albums, Blunstone’s
Ennismore (1972) & Journey (1974).
One
minor criticism of a near flawless evening is that Rod Argent likes to talk. A
lot. I like the brief snatches of ‘where & how the band evolved' etc, but
he tends to go on a just bit too much. “The new album reviews have really
knocked us out, we had four star reviews in this, in that…”and so on. It especially drags when
telling the crowd about newer bands & artists who are fans, ”Dave Grohl
this, The Vaselines that, Paul Weller…..etc”.
Rod
& Colin don’t need to justify themselves still being here, playing &
making new music, or try to make themselves seem relevant in today's market. They are after all,
The Zombies.
The Belfry Hotel & Golf Complex. Stag golf. First up was the The Derby course, the chunkier, sweatier, less attractive sibling of the Brabazon & PGA National courses. The kind you see nervously fidgeting on the edge of a late 80's nightclub dance floor, fingers secretly crossed, praying for a slow dance to Luther Vandross's latest generic chart hit.
If you have never played it, you actually have. Every mid range municipal in your area ticks all the boxes the Derby has to offer. A series of bland holes, a good hole thrown in here and there, average fairways & greens marked like a Ray Liotta skin condition. Don't get me wrong, it's not awful for this time of year, but if you have one of those £99 overnight Winter deals and you play the PGA course next day, the difference in quality is huge. (there are less electricity pylons for a start). Some of my group could have played off the more satisfying PGA turf if their second shot wasn't already deemed out of bounds. The PGA preened itself every hour or so, lifting it's head over the boundary hedges, taunting us with it's winding fairways, deep bunkers & superior emerald green fairways. Almost wanting to sound-track itself, this time by a heavy set man in a buggy shouting to his group, "IT IS MY F**KIN BALL DAVE, I F**KIN TOLD YA". Then much softer, to himself, as he disappeared back below the tree line, "I f**kin told him it was my ball"
I played pretty good, even though the Stag's consigliere had put various bottles of spirits on at least 4 tee boxes. I scored 42pts. Which is amazing considering I have played this course at least 4 times, and played poorly on every outing. I put it down to a hot putter and a quart of Jack Daniels washed down with some kind of powerful rum.
A warning to golfers, "Don't drink & drive.....don't even putt"
The on site Bel Air night club is basically an ill judged time capsule. It's like someone has eaten the 80's and then thrown up on themselves. Me to DJ. "Can you play some Stones, Beatles or...anything like that?" DJ "Yeah no probs mate" as he ignored all requests & looped 'Now That's What I Call Music Vol's 1-8'. My friend the stag, got asked "to leave" around 12.30 ish, I'm still unsure why. Was it because he was last seen crawling around on the floor looking for a lost camera battery, or was it because he was wearing my massive collared shirt and a fur waistcoat?
I missed the next days golf on the PGA. A work commitment probably did me a huge favour from a golfing point of view. Half of the group apparently didn't last the next day on The PGA National, it beat them up and then spat them out. A reminder to all stag/golfers, that dancing at 2.30am to 'Alexander O' Neal's Criticize' is not the best way to prepare for one of the toughest tests an amateur golfer will have to face.
Peter Alliss once held the record of being the heaviest baby in Europe, weighing in at 14lbs & 11 ounces. His father, Percy, head pro at a German golf club, gave a few Nazi's some lessons, purposely leaving them with a 'wicked incurable slice'. Between 1954 & 1969 Peter won 21 tournaments, including three British PGA championships - and was twice winner of the Vardon Trophy. He has a 43% Ryder Cup winning record. On occasion he still wears his 2004 Oakland Hills Ryder Cup bomber jacket.
‘An Evening With Alliss’ is pretty much what you would expect (and want) from a man who has earned his living for over 50 years playing & talking about his life passion. The above paragraph is pretty much a condensed version of the first 15 minutes of the show, apart from the bomber jacket bit. That one’s mine. (I bumped into Peter at Woburn Abbey a couple of years ago, just as he walked into the bar rocking that jacket like an octogenarian P Diddy)
Like Dave Allen, all he has onstage is a stool, a jug of water and unfortunately a pretty crap quality microphone. The timbre of his dulcet tones are reduced to a shadow of its BBC HD audio counterpart. That aside, Alliss is a great raconteur, expanding on stories that he may have told a thousand times, but I fancy he recounts them with a wicked freshness to every new audience. (Tonight's is the 41st on this tour)He has clearly enjoyed his life in golf, and maintains that golfers from yesteryear were the best technical players to have ever played the game, (& when he explains why, it’s hard to disagree with him). He does however hold some of the modern players in high regard. Seve, for instance is dearly loved by Alliss, & when someone in the Q+A section of the evening asks about Tiger’s shenanigans, he simply replies “Tiger was like a celibate monk compared to Seve”
As my friend Tom & I were racking our brains to try and think of good, provoking questions to ask, Tom pondered “Is it possible to be a truly great player & a gentleman?” Peter was already kind of answering that one, as he was currently waxing lyrical about the great Jack Nicklaus. I wanted to ask him, “Who in the current crop of commentators or pundits, from either the BBC or Sky, did he think could fill his off the cuff, meandering, tan moccasins when he finally retires?”
After tonight’s show, I didn't need to ask. No-one can. Who else could come out with one of my favourite ‘Allissisms’ from last years Open Championship at Royal St Georges;
“Oooh, what a wonderful old clubhouse, I could just imagine looking through the windows and watching the Colonel bash one off”
For one fleeting moment, probably only half a second, I shared a knowing nodwith another late thirty something male. Under normal social circumstances, we would never acknowledge each other, & from experience, this guy would want to cave my feather cut head in. Probably just after the five Jägerbombshe had downed in 10 minutes at The Dog & Pond as a dare from his mates. This brief bond was fuelled by a gaunt hollow cheeked locking of eyes through the rails of dangerously combustible dresses in a generic shopping mall. The last time he saw lapels & trouser bottoms as wide as mine, was possibly on his Mum & Dad's 1973 wedding photo. The last time I saw trousers & espadrilles like his, was when Crockett slid across the bonnet of his Porsche in a 'rolled up sleeve' trouser suit. But we both knew outside the boundaries of the ladies section at Primark & New Look, back in the jungle they call The Slug & Lettuce, it was going to be every man for himself.
