‘During the ’80s I saw Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult, Play Dead….wore pan stick, took drugs, sniffed glue, learned to cut hair, got drunk, saw bands, had girlfriends, got on with it.

Randomly met Ariel Bender aka Luther Grosvenor (I cut his hair as I had become a hairdresser by then). Became mates. He lent me a guitar and showed me some chords – I took a lot of acid around this time and, sadly, one night, painted the neck board of the guitar in a series of patterns that I thought would help me play better!

Fell out with Ariel Bender. Didn’t play much better. By 1990 became friends again with Ariel. Played better. Wrote early songs’.

Any stories from your early gigs ?

‘In ’92 I formed Gorgeous Space Virus. Played The Marquee in London several times. Supported GWAR & Thin White Rope & Smashing Pumpkins first UK tour. All kinda blurry. Always on the verge of getting that elusive deal, never happened.

One night we drove to Bridlington from London to play a gig. We used to use a lot of smoke machines and this set of the smoke alarms before the end of the first song. The fire brigade and police were called and we were banned from the venue.

Drove home. Got chucked out of GSV. Late ’90s formed cassettes and supported The Fall in 2007 over a five night residency at Croydon Cartoon club. That was weird. And ACE!’

How did cassettes come about ?

’I found myself in 2004 falling out the arse end of another love story, dossing in a mate’s garden shed. I wrote and recorded on a trusty Tascam 4 track what became cassettes (small c, no definitive) first album, Old Vinyl & UFO Kids.

It was initially a way to pass time and exorcise some ghosts.

I was living in Croydon at the time and started playing acoustic gigs with a drum machine and mini disc backing. They were quite drunken affairs.

Sat on the floor, surrounded by fairy lights and a kinda grail of old photos. Plus a three foot, brown plastic rendition of the three wise monkeys that I had bought as a joke in Norfolk some years before. The monkeys stood upon each other’s head and were a bizarre toilet roll holder – a truly hideous thing!

It’s funny the things one saves from broken relationships.

I pressed up 100 copies of Old Vinyl & UFO Kids onto cd, art worked myself and numbered the lot and gave them away at gigs. Over the summer I was offered the chance to play some gigs with noise oiks Ten Foot Nun and lo-fi troubadour Superman Revenge Squad in London so I got an early full version of cassettes together and formed a band around a nucleus of mates’.

When did you first get interested in music ?

’We lived in Dorset during the ’70s and my folks had a radiogram that sat in the front room. One day I peered inside and a whole new world opened up.

My early influences were Sgt.Pepper, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Faces, Getz & Gilberto and Dionne Warwick.

When I was 12 I found a transistor radio on the way home from school and listened to Stuart Henry on Radio Luxemburg under the bed sheets. This would be 76/77. Ramones, Rezillos, Clash, The Flys, Dr.Feelgood, Tyla Gang, Graham Parker, Sex Pistols. This was the defining moment for me. The moment I saw a (no) future.

Hitch hiked to Exeter to see 999. Discovered John Peel…taped furiously! In 1979 the band Martian Schoolgirls’, formed by ex-roadie of The Clash, released a single Life in the 1980s. This, and mail-order music company (COBB Records) sealed the deal for me. This was what I was going to do – if I could’.

‘We moved to Croydon in 1979 after our house burned down. It was as if I’d landed in the future. We had come from a West Country village.

Saw early Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate (met Boy George, lover of Kirk Brandon before he was famous). My folks hung around (somehow…well, they were local) with Status Quo and at 16 I baby sat the Quo kids…and so was allowed to listen to Francis Rossi’s and Bob Young’s record collection (taped furiously!) – discovered Ry Cooder.

Joined some school bands none of which ever got off the ground, although a tape has turned up recently of a dreadful song’. 

Who were (are) your influences ?

‘Ray Davies, Patti Smith, Dylan, Bowie, Lowfeye, Ry Cooder, George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, PIL, Ian Dury, Picasso, Lou Reed, Killing Joke, Graham Greene and, yknaa, all the good folk’.

What you been up to in the last couple of years ?

‘In 2014 moved to South Shields. Recorded a complete version of Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks in the broom cupboard. Then 2017 moved over the river Tyne to Whitley Bay.

Got involved in local Busker scene. Lost my job. Met local legends Mike Waller, Alan McCulloch, Phil Mitchell, Your Casket Or Mine. Recorded Somme Girls at home. Met John E Thornton, Hannah Brown & Brad McVay and formed Clown Electrics.

We’re ganna kick it all around the Bay Area all summer 2018. Play some gigs, record an album and split up so Hannah can go back to university in the autumn, or the Fall as our American cousins would have it.

Over the years cassettes recorded albums – some as solo ventures, some as a band or whoever was around at the time. Some were recorded at home, some studio ventures if money allowed’.

And that’s the story so far…..

Interview by Gary Alikivi    July 2018.

Recommended:

Mond Cowie, Angels of the North, March 12th 2017.

Neil Newton, All the Young Punks, June 4th 2017.

Wavis O’Shave, Felt Nowt, 6th June 2017.

Lowfeye, POW (album review) December 15th 2017.

During the ’90s I was making films on tape editing machines in Stanhope Complex, South Shields. It could take hours to build a couple of minutes sequence of video, audio, narration and music – a process that takes a lot less time today. Those editing machines I used have a link to Sheila Graber….

‘Around 1985 I was asked by David Lumb, Chief Adviser at South Tyneside Education Authority would I like the post of Art/Media Advisor?

I agreed to a part time post as I was heavily involved in animation jobs at the time. It involved helping schools from Nursery to Secondary with any problems.

One large problem at the time – still is – is that some teenagers do no take to reading and writing that well and become bored and disruptive at school.

Knowing how my own students at King George school had responded to working with video in the 1970’s I secured a government grant to hire a a room in Chuter Ede Education Centre, South Shields with a budget for video equipment and staff to run the project. Here schools could send young people to learn video skills and apply them to their lessons.

It was very well attended for a few years  but a change of Government pulled the funding. Then  along came Community Worker Phil Charlton (RIP) who took the gear down to Stanhope Community Complex, it was like passing the baton on. Then YOU used them Gary and now, happily, here we are ! ’.

Looking back to your younger days can you point to any moments which led you to where you are now ? 

‘I had two life changing events in 1960. My Dad, Capt. George Graber, was Pilot Master on the Tyne from 1947, and in 1960 we finally moved into the Pilot Office House on the Lawe Top.

I was lucky enough to have a small room to use as a studio. The views of the river were stunning.

Also that year I went to Birmingham School for Training Art Teachers. On the first day the tutor asked us ’Why are you here’. Somebody spoke up ’To get our Art Teacher’s Diploma’. She quickly replied ’So what is Art’.

During the rest of the course, we discovered the answer for ourselves’…I found that “Everyone is an artist in their own way.” 

It wasn’t a skill passed down from your family or something that only one or two people could do, everybody, if encouraged, could make something to express themselves and feel worthwhile whether it’s painting, knitting, cooking, writing or video making. I’ve tried to follow that all my life’.

Sheila returned to Tyneside teaching Art in schools and also worked on her own projects….

‘I started teaching Art in Stanhope Road Secondary School in 1961. Then onto The Girl’s High School and finally King George Comprehensive. Divorced in 1970 I had extra time in my life.

I bought a super 8 camera for holiday films and found I could bring plasticine letters to life for titles by filming then one frame at a time. Three week later when the film came back I saw them move by themselves MAGIC!

I took the camera into school and the children’s interest was enormous. Their reaction really turned me around. Pupils who had little interest in learning suddenly came alive. Animation is a very good tool for education because everyone can learn and have fun at the same time.

Animation can also be used to show how things work. Like the short I was invited to make by BBC Inside Look North on how their program was put together in 1977. Featuring the late great Mike Neville’. (Check Inside Look North 1977 and over 100 others on “Sheila Graber YouTube” channel).

‘In 1974 my animation Boy and The Cat won the 10 Best film competition run by Movie Maker Magazine. So, it was screened at the National Film Theatre in London.

Later my work was spotted by Nicole Jouve an agent for World TV. She phoned me up and wanted to distribute some of the shorts I’d made.

At first, I thought it was a friend kidding around. But she went ahead and distributed the short 16mm films I’d made, from Mondrian to Evolution, worldwide.

Then Nicole (who was also the agent for The Magic Roundabout) commissioned me to Animate 10 of Rudyard Kipling’s  Just So Stories – she had gained the contract in direct competition with Disney Studios.

In 1980 I gave up my job as a full-time art teacher as the series had to be completed in one year.

Looking back, I have met people who have asked me ‘can you do this for us ? …and I’ve just jumped in and said ‘yes I’ll do that’. You’ve done that too Gary, just gone for it and most times it works out and leads onto other projects’.

What are you working on now ?

‘I still teach animation at University of Sunderland and have some of my prints, cards and DVD’s on sale in Sunderland Museum and at The Word in South Shields.

Currently I am producing more books and fun interactive animated apps. Just finished one on Van Gogh, you can play with it now online on my website. Animation is a magic process but sadly under used. Disney called it the Art of the Future. He was right.

I hope today’s computer games evolve from killing to caring and that iPads and smart phones are used to create images and animation as well as text to help folks of all ages to enjoy learning and creating their view of the world.

I’ll be featuring these ideas, work of people I’ve influenced and in turn work by folks THEY have influenced in my forthcoming exhibition at South Shields Ocean Road Museum & Customs House in 2020 – Life Begins at 80. Look forward to seeing some of YOUR video productions there Gary’. 

Contact Sheila at:

http://www.sheilagraberanimation.com

 Interview by Gary Alikivi    June 2018.

Recommended:

David G. Wilkinson: Waves upon Waves 3rd June 2018.

The blog has hit over 30,000 views, a great way to mark that milestone is with two features in the local newspaper.

In April, the blog included an interview with two founder members of Beckett, Les Tones and Arthur Ramm.

During their time Beckett had played countless gigs around the North East with stand out support slots with Rod Stewart and the Faces. They also notched up dates with Captain Beefheart, Alex Harvey and Slade.

Signed with major labels Warner Bros and CBS, released a single and self-titled album. They also found time to appear on BBC TV music show the Old Grey Whistle Test, and a slot at the Reading Festival.

On Monday June 4th journalist Peter French wrote an article and featured the interview in The Shields Gazette newspaper and on its website – with part two of the story published on June 5th.

Gary Alikivi   June 2018.

David worked for more than thirty years teaching Art & Design in a local college. He has exhibited his work in this country and abroad.

His new exhibition is at The Customs House, South Shields where he took time out and talked about his influences…

‘Very early on in reception class at school we got bits of paper and plasticene and we had to make something for the flower show in South Shields. I made a small dog and ended up with second prize in my age group and got half a crown ha ha.

Art continued through junior school, the seniors at St Josephs in Hebburn and of course being influenced by living next to the sea. In art school I had a step up in learning, where you do something for a while then suddenly you notice that what you are producing starts to look better. It can be an enormous difference and through teaching you can see it in others’. 

How did the mural on Commercial Road in South Shields come about ?

’I went to an interview to be part of the newly formed South Tyneside Community Arts group. I talked about painting murals around the town and the guy interviewing said that sounds great, we’ll employ you to paint a few.

So I got involved with the YTS scheme and was put in charge of some 16–17-year-olds. Then a guy in South Tyneside Planning Department said we’ve got this wall in Commercial Road do you fancy taking that on’.

‘Some of the young people were interested in art, but one left to be a fireman, one joined the RAF, above all they had commitment. Some enrolled-on art courses, that’s when the college asked me to do some part time teaching. That snowballed, but I was still painting and doing my own stuff’. 

What is your latest project and exhibition ?

‘The last two years of my degree I’ve just painted the sea, nothing else. Just the water and sky nothing around the edges. Waves upon waves. Then abstraction became part of what I was doing because the clouds are fairly abstract themselves.

I liked the fact you can look at a picture of Marsden rock and it’ll never change from one day to another, but clouds constantly change, and you see different shapes in them. The changes can happen pretty fast.

Watercolour artists get out there and make the swift changes of colour and light. Plus working outside is quite exciting – something I’ve done quite a lot when I was at Fine Art college. Then bringing it inside to draw big canvases. 

It’s all about the process, these paintings around us are all provisional, they are on their way to somewhere else – the next page in the sketch book. This art is all about the things you can’t freeze.

Within the abstract stuff I try to put in the history of the making. The layering of it. That history begins to have a depth. You can’t put a name on it.

There are maybe some pictures in this room which I can say are complete, they have gone their journey. I don’t want to make any changes to them, but the next one can add something to that’.

Has there been a time when you haven’t painted ?

‘When I don’t paint it feels a bit weird, then something pops in yer head, get quite excited about it and where the next layer is going to go. I really like that. I like making images I suppose.

But when I worked teaching at the college things would sit and gestate at certain times of the year. You might jot down ideas, do drawings, take photographs but then something would bubble, a crack of light in a cloud and you’d work on it.

But there’s never been a time when I’ve said I’m not going to do this anymore – think that would feel very weird’.

Interview by Gary Alikivi  May 2018.

Sea, Sky and River: Fixing the line about its edge. 

Exhibition in The Upper Fusion Gallery, The Customs House, South Shields until 31 August 2018.

Thanks to Julia Northam & Fietscher Fotos, South Shields for the mural photographs.

On the blog in February, Roksnaps featured photos of bands playing live in Newcastle over 30 years ago.

The rare pics were by music fans Ian Coult, Tony Maddison and John Edward Spence – their memories of gigs from the 70’s and early 80’s. Photo’s which capture the atmosphere and excitement at Newcastle Mayfair and City Hall.

On Friday May 18th journalist Dave Morton wrote an article and featured the photos in The Chronicle newspaper and on its website.

The blog is coming up to 30,000 views, so a great way to mark that milestone is with a double page in the local newspaper.

Gary Alikivi May 2018.

Recommended:

Roksnaps #1 18th February 2018.

Roksnaps #2 22nd February 2018.

Roksnaps #3 27th February 2018.

Roksnaps #4  4th April 2018.

1980 The Year Metal was Forged on Tyneside 11th February 2018.

The love for vinyl has always been there and many stories are attached to it. There is whispers in some quarters that vinyl is back, and they are getting louder.

Not in the same numbers that it was in the pre-cd day’s of the 70’s and 80’s, but the records are up on display shelves of record shop’s.

There is hundred’s of reasons why we like a certain song. Vinyl Junkies is looking for the stories behind them.

Jon Dalton has lived in the USA for 20 years as a professional musician. In his early days in England he played in heavy rock band Gold, who were formed in 1979 in Bristol….

‘I moved out to the US in 1999, I have Native American roots so it was like coming home. I also wanted to move my jazz career along. It seems that was a good call.

I got signed to Innervision Records in 2003 and they released my first CD with them The Gift, and it did very well.

For the last several decades I’ve been mostly known as a jazz musician, but that wasn’t always the case. I didn’t start really listening to and consequently end up playing jazz until my late twenties but I was involved in music for many years before that’.

‘Because this piece is about vinyl, I’ve chosen to focus on the period in my life when almost everything we heard was on that medium. For me that would be around 1976 to about 1983.

After that I was on tour a lot so I tended to buy cassettes or, later, CDs. They were much more portable and by then I was buying a lot of music to learn it for work so that previous period was, perhaps, the period I enjoyed actually listening to music the most. Here’s a list of my seven favourite albums from that time’.

1, Steve Hillage: Fish Rising (1975): Starting in the late 1970s, every year the City of Bristol, UK would put on a music festival at an old stately park near the Centre known as the Ashton Court Festival.

It was a hugely popular event eventually drawing tens of thousands. It was also a strictly daytime affair with no overnight camping allowed unless you were a vendor or part of the stage crew.

Of course, being me, I completely ignored all that. I generally crashed under the stage in my sleeping bag. I probably knew a lot of the sound guys so I doubt they cared either.

Anyhow one year, maybe 77 or 79, I was at Ashton Court on a Friday the day before the festival was due to start. That night I went out in a daze looking for a party to crash in the vendor’s section. It was probably around midnight.

All of a sudden, I heard this strangely hypnotic music which stopped me in my tracks. The more I listened the more I reasoned this was likely one of the most cosmic things I’d ever witness and when you’re 17 under a black starlit sky next to a crazy caravan, that’s a moment.

I knocked on the door and a glorious hippy lady invited me in for a drink and a chat. We sat in the candlelight and she told me I was listening to Steve Hillage’s “Fish Rising”. A Rubicon night.

I was already a big Hillage fan but more his later works like ‘L’ and ‘Motivation Radio’. This was something else though: more raw, more psychedelic.

Brilliant guitar riffs, swirling synth solos, tight grooves, wide soundscapes. My all time favourite track is ‘Aftaglid’ a meandering sprawl in space.

The mid section (they’ve all got names but I’m not that good at remembering) has an echoey acoustic guitar part with Miquette Giraudy’s pointy space whispers followed by a tabla grooved delve into the beyond. That’s what I heard outside the caravan.

Don’t buy or even listen to the “extended” version. The original Fish Rising ends on exactly the right note.

2, Yes: ‘Relayer’ (1974): I first heard Yes when I was 10 or 11 years old. I loved the way that none of it made any sense and yet somehow it all made sense.

There was a tone and colour in their music and yet there was also a strange sense of angularity; listen to ‘Long Distance Runaround’ from ‘Fragile’ and you’ll know what a mean.

This album brought the “weird” side of Yes to a whole new level. A lot of Yes fans hate this album but I think it’s one of the best things they ever did. The music is often loud, angry and aggressive.

Maybe they were trying to dump some of the bloat of ‘Topographic Oceans’ but this cuts through like a knife.

Yes pulled in Patrick Moraz on keyboards on this one and while they were some fine musicians, he was obviously giving them a run for their money.

‘Sound Chaser’ is my favourite track. Steve Howe’s Fender Telecaster grinds and spits and yearns. Patrick Moraz’s jazz-synth playout burns on fire.

I saw Yes on this tour. It was the first big gig I ever went to. I went with my Auntie because nobody else would go with me. We both loved it!

“And to know that tempo will continue.”

Yes Mr. Anderson.

3, Gong: ‘You’ (1974): I mentioned Steve Hillage before but you can’t really discuss this era Hillage without telling of the Mothership, the immaculate Gong.

Well, as a young lad, I was a tribal member and I’m not exactly sure if I’ve grown out of it, even since.

Gong, brainchild of Australian space anarchist Daevid Allen (R.I.P.) combined jazz, space, rock and eyebrow raising mirth into a potent package. It probably wasn’t their plan but Gong the anarchists ended up having, pretty much, their own virtual kingdom on the 1970s UK free festival circuit.

The early ’70s are often said to be some of Gong’s best years. They recorded the essential ‘Trilogy’ of albums: ‘Flying Teapot’, ‘Angel’s Egg’ and ‘You’.

I’ve always thought of them as one but I know I have to keep the list short so I’m going with: ‘You’. The band were playing really tight on this one.

‘Master Builder’ is in some ways the musical peak in the trilogy. Based on a simple descending run which tweaks the blues scale to make it sound more space-bound and mystical, it keeps tripping over the beat in a way that makes you feel you are constantly falling forward.

Toward the end it reaches for a sense of community and gets it in the form of Daevid Allen’s deep chants wrapped in Steve Hillage’s twistily psychotic guitar.

Hillage later released a version of this tune under the title: ‘Activation / Glorious Om Riff’ on his 1978 release ‘Green’.

I’ve mentioned Gong related things quite a lot but you have to realize that they weren’t just some some silly hippy band from the 1970s (well, they were). Their influence permeates widely.

The free festival circuit morphed over the 1980s into the 1990s into rave culture. This in turn begat Electronic Dance Music. When I listen to a lot of EDM, including Steve Hillage’s own ‘System 7′ and particularly the trancey end of that spectrum,

I can often hear Gong’s echoes in the sequenced synth lines and eastern flavored melodies. The major difference being that the music is served over a heavy, electronic, 4/4 dance beat rather than a grooving, real life, bass and drums.

There’s another sphere of meditational Electronica where, once again, you hear those Gong sounds but this time the beats are completely removed and we’re left with just the floaty, spatial stuff.

They even made a dent in the pop world. Listen to producer William Orbit’s treatment of Madonna’s 1998 single ‘Ray Of Light’. You could have knocked me sideways when I first heard that one.

For a minute I thought she’d hired the old crew as her backing band. I’m thinking Mr. Orbit probably has a few of the Pot Head Pixies’ finest releases stuffed away somewhere in his listening locker.

Famous lines from “You” include: “Cops at the door………..no cops at the door!”

4, AC/DC: ‘Highway To Hell’ (1979): So, late on a Friday or Saturday night you’d all come back from the pub or club. The venue kept changing but the purpose was always the same. Some metal lovers just can’t help themselves.

Wherever we ended up, I used to like to sit on the kitchen counter next to the fridge and it was always bright fluorescent lights or no lights and a toaster. As soon as the AC/DC came on, everybody was cool. All the barriers went down.

There’s a lot of betrayal and anger in this music but the ultimate lesson is that it can always be cured or, at least: suffered, by the sweet sound of a blues guitar. AC/DC made you feel like a criminal but; that, that was somehow normal.

Bon Scott’s voice hits like a finely tuned weapon. His beautiful primal screaming sounds like he’s getting ready to eat you while, brother cooks, Angus and Malcolm (R.I.P.) Young slice you right up with their guitars. And none of this is rocket science.

AC/DC themselves never claimed to be anything more than a “rock ‘n’ roll” band! Highlights include the beginning and end of the record and everything else in between.

“It was one of those nights when you turn down the lights”.

Now, what on Earth is he talking about?

5, Ozzie Osbourne: ‘Bark At The Moon’ (1983): I first heard Black Sabbath when I was about 12. I remember lying on a chilly bed in my Nan’s prefab, must have been 1974, listening to their first, self-named, album. War Pigs and Iron Man were my usual songs from the crypt before breakfast.

Fast forward to the early ’80s and somebody recommended I listen to this gem. This is a concept album. The concept is to make a record that sounds like a bad horror movie.

This really holds water. Ozzie Osbourne as a poignant intellectual “I’m just a rock and roll rebel….” probably isn’t what you or he expected but he can’t hide it, he’s thought about this from every angle.

“I’ll make you wish that you had never been born”. When Ozzie says that, for a chilling moment you realize that he might actually mean it. How do these people keep going? The energy resources are beyond human.

Although this was the first album to feature with Jake E. Lee on guitar, massive kudos has to go to guitarist Randy Rhodes (once again RIP). He wasn’t just an amazing player in his own right but a dedicated worker who obviously sweated how to make his boss’s dreams come alive, or should that be become un-dead?

He utilized flattened or ‘diminished’ notes to dark and cinematic effect. Sure, Death-Metal players have honed that down to a fine art now but RR was the first, at least as far as I’m aware.

I was always looking forward to where he’d go next. Then he got killed in a plane crash. I was beside myself.

It’s not a flawless offering, there’s a couple of duffers which I think arise from trying too hard to make this a ‘production’ record but when the group are genuinely reaching, such as in the preposterous ‘Centre of Eternity’ you get the feeling that the abyss is, at least, intrigued.

6, Rush: ‘Hemispheres’ (1978): I didn’t start as a huge Rush fan. I’d heard them at friend’s houses but I couldn’t figure out exactly where to place them.

Their Rickenbacker bass sounds and strange Moog synthesizer twirlings reminded me a little of Yes but they were much more of a straight-ahead heavy rock band in other areas.

That all changed when bassist Paul Summerill joined our band Gold in 1980 or so. Paul was a strong Rush fan and he also played a Rickenbacker bass just like Geddy Lee and the late, great Chris Squire.

Paul introduced me to the catalogue and once I’d gotten a chance to appreciate their development through albums like Fly by Night and the classic 2112 I really got a taste for who they were in their own right. Theirs was a clever, thought-provoking metal that started to appeal to the prog nerd in me.

I’m actually listening to Hemispheres for the first time in about 35 years as I write this. It’s all there. Geddy Lee’s piercing vocals, Alex Lifesons chorusy guitar and Neil Pearts precise drumming.

I remember, as an 18 year old kid, learning the guitar parts for the entire side one of this record (which is all one track). I can’t think for the life of me why I did this. I’ve never played it live even once.

Probably one of those ‘I’ve started so I’ll finish’ ventures. Still, I’m sure I picked up some useful tips which crept into my own playing later on.

Favourite tracks are the aforementioned Hemispheres, a mini fantasy novel set to music, and also The Trees from side two, a simple song form that rocks around just nicely.

Of all the bands I went to see live, I probably saw Rush more than any of the others. They toured a lot, the tickets were pretty reasonable, and each of their albums was sufficiently different to make you want go back for more.

This was a very cleanly produced album, just made for late night headphone listening. If I remember rightly, my copy of Hemispheres was on red vinyl. I don’t know what happened to it. I probably gave it away.

7, Nova: Wings of Love (1977): While I was mostly known as a rock guitarist back when all this vinyl listening was going on, I did lead a secret double life as a jazz/rock musician even playing for a while in the band Climax.

This was a decade or so before I started on the path to being, or at least trying to be, a full-on jazz musician.

Jazz fusion was a pretty big phenomenon in the late 1970s. The two biggest forces were probably Return to Forever and The Mahavishnu Orchestra. I tended to tip towards Mahavishnu, probably because it was guitar led?

I don’t know for sure on that one but I can say that Apocalypse by them is probably my all-time favourite fusion album but….I had it on 8 track cartridge so strictly speaking I can’t feature it here.

Now this album: Wings of Love I did have on vinyl, and it got played a lot. It’s actually much more approachable than a lot of fusion records. Some of the tunes have danceable, almost disco like grooves.

That’s not to say that guitarist Corrado Rustici isn’t overlaying them with ridiculously amazing guitar solos, just that you can shake your booty while he does it. Check out You Are Light for a taster.

As an interesting aside, Mr. Rustici often played a fretless guitar; listen to Marshall Dillon.  Killer bass-line too. I was amazed when I first heard about this.

Fretless basses were starting to make inroads into fusion due to the tremendous influence of Jaco Pastorius but I’d never heard of anyone playing fretless guitar.

I was sufficiently moved to take an old guitar and pull all the frets out with pliers, filling in the slots with plastic wood and sanding the whole thing flat.

The conversion itself worked out brilliantly but whenever I played it, it sounded like a drunken person snapping elastic bands. Oh! Well.

This is largely a superb record, populated with world class and sincerely spiritual musicians reaching for the stars. If it has a fault, it can get a bit ‘drippy’ devotional in places.

A lot of jazz fusion players of the era were deeply into eastern philosophy and Guru Sri Chinmoy was a leader in that movement.

That said, when you listen to Beauty Dream Beauty Flame with its evocative Italian mandolin backdrops and stunning guitar, flute and piano interludes, you have to conclude that, maybe, they did open a window into another dimension of the sublime.

Recommended:

Jon Dalton, California Dreaming, 18th October 2017.

VINYL JUNKIES:

Will Binks July 7th 2017

Martin Popoff July 12th 2017

John Heston August 3rd 2017

Neil Armstrong August 11th 2017

Colin Smoult August 29th 2017

Neil Newton September 12th 2017

Tony Higgins October 11th 2017

Vince High December 11th 2017.

Intro by Gary Alikivi.

Andy Rowe used to be a member of NWOBHM band Firebird, who had ex-Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan as a fan…

’In 1979 we spent the day in Ian Gillans studio where we recorded a single with Gillan as producer’.

Andy looked back on his time in music and also brings the story up to date…

‘We are a Melodic Prog band called The Room, and are based west of London in Reading, Berkshire. We wanted to create a band that played very accessible progressive rock.

Martin (vocals) had played in Neo Prog band Grey Lady Down (GLD) and favoured the prog side and I clearly came from a song based background.

From that blend we have created something that a reviewer once called weird…. In a good way…. He couldn’t pigeonhole us! We write damn good songs with great melodies and hooks that are not simplistic in their construction’.

When did you start playing and who were your influences ?

’I started playing music at the age of about 15 when my mum bought me a 6-string guitar for Christmas. I had been taking piano and violin lessons at school and they recognised that music was probably the one thing I was really interested in.

I formed a band in 1977 with a very close friend in the village we lived in and we played our first ever show on 7/7/77!

We didn’t have any backline and there was a guy in the village we knew had contacts. He fixed it and off the van rolled a load of Marshall gear sprayed Koss. The guy had been the manager of Paul Kossoff (Free). What a start to a rock and roll journey for me.

My influences changed as I grew up. As a kid I loved the glam rock scene of Slade and The Sweet. It was great seeing The Sweet opening for Mr Blackmore this year.

You forget what a great rock band they were. As the ’70s moved on I got into more classic rock with Purple and the Sabs and then into the edges of punk with bands like Eddie and the Hot Rods, then the amazing NWOBHM.

I worked as a roadie for a sound company and did a few tours with the likes of April Wine, Samson and Sledgehammer. As time moved on I found myself falling in love with the Doobies, Steve Miller and The Eagles. So I guess overall I have a very very eclectic set of influences’.

What is your experience of recording/studio work ?

’Following the first school band I joined a band in Reading called Firebird. We played around the pubs and clubs in the Reading area and were lucky enough to get the opportunity to spend the day at Ian Gillans studio Kingsway Recorders where we recorded a single released in 1979 with Gillan as producer.

That was an amazing experience and was at the time when he rediscovered success with the Mr Universe album.

We did really well with the single making the Sounds rock charts. Ian Gillan even came to see us playing a show at a youth club on the outskirts of Reading. That was surreal.

The band lasted a couple of years as the two guitarists were not really in love with the NWOBHM label that had been given to us’.

‘I then joined a band in London, Prime Cut with the drummer from ’70s prog band The Nice. We were starting to make a real name for ourselves and I am sure that we were very close to a deal but I then decided to take time away from the business and enjoy family life.

I restarted my career about 2008 when I started playing in a covers band in and around Reading. Then in 2010 I joined Martin Wilson and we started The Room.

The full line up is Martin Wilson (vocals) Steve Anderson (guitar, keys and backing vocals) Steve Checkley (keyboards and backing vocals) Chris York (drums and backing vocals) and me on bass guitar and backing vocals. I am endorsed by Overwater Bass Guitars and Elites Strings’.

What is in the future for The Room ?

’So far we have recorded two studio albums Open Fire released in 2012 on Melodic Revolution Records and Beyond The Gates of Bedlam in 2015 on Bad Elephant Music. Both albums were recorded at Platform Studios in Reading with producer and engineer Damon Sawyer.

In 2017 we released a live DVD of a show that we played at The Robin 2 in Bilston in the West Midlands. We have played some 50 or 60 shows in the last seven years and are very much a live act. We love the thrill of that live environment.

We have opened for bands such as Focus, Wishbone Ash, Inglorious, Lifesigns, Soft Machine etc and play HRH AOR in March 2018. We are now starting to write our next studio album due for release in Autumn 2018’.

Interview by Gary Alikivi November 2017.

The saying goes ‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’. But some stories don’t need any embillishment, if it makes you laugh or even smile its job done. ‘

Have You Heard This One’ is 10 stories that have appeared on this blog since starting in February 2017.

First up is Lou Taylor (Blind Fury, Rock the Knight part one February 26th) ‘When we were rehearsing in London Bridge Studios we were visited by the boys from Metallica and went on a couple of binges with them.

One night our guitarist Russ Tippins went out drinking in London with their guitarist James Hetfield. We received a phone call from the police saying can you come and collect them because they are locked up in West End Central police station.

They had been playing guitar on top of the canopy of Piccadilly Theatre’.

Mond Cowie (ex-Angelic Upstarts, Angels of the North March 12th) ‘In 1981 we went on our first American tour. We got there a few days early to acclimatize and The Clash were staying in the same hotel so we used to meet them every night for the happy hour.

Happy hours are class in America you don’t just get nuts and crisps you get chicken wings and pizzas and all sorts. We used to starve ourselves all day just waiting for the happy hour.

It was a great laugh with them and I remember Joe Strummer saying ‘we’re coming to your gig tonight do you mind if I bring Iggy Pop?’ We said ‘Aye go on then’ haha.

The gig was in New York but I can’t remember if it was Radio City or Civic Hall but we walked on stage, the lights blazed on and Mensi screamed “We’re the Angelic Upstarts, We’re from England, 1,2,3,4” then just as I strummed my guitar there was an almighty bang, it all went dark then nothing!

There was a huge power cut. They couldn’t get it sorted out quickly so we jumped off stage and went to the bar at the back where The Clash were standing and I ordered a Jack and Coke and said to Iggy Pop “It’ll be sorted in a minute, this sort of thing happens to us all the time”.

Neil Wilkinson (Spartan Warrior, Chain Reaction May 21st) ’I remember in 1984 things were really looking up for the band, we had a record deal, and the night we were due to record our second album we had a gig in our hometown at Sunderland Mayfair.

The bands future couldn’t look any brighter. We turned up at the gig, sound checked, and went backstage to get ready.

For stage wear I used to have these tight red spandex pants, looked good I thought. I remember the intro tape playing while I was standing at the side of the stage waiting to go on. You know ready to fuckin’ rock.

The stage bouncer stood next to me, slowly looked me up and down and said ‘what are you playing tonight like ? Fucking Swan Lake’..What can I say ? totally burned on that one’.

Andy Boulton (Tokyo Blade, Under the Blade May 26th) ‘The 1983 European support tour with Mamas Boys had been set up and dates arranged and confirmed.

But we had no money for hotels or food, and only a small amount for diesel. We slept in the van.

The money that we were to receive from the shows would only just cover our diesel to the next show, so our saving grace was to be two boxes of Tokyo Blade T-shirts which our manager said we would need to sell in order to get cash for food.

We eventually got on the road down to Calais where the charming French Customs Officers searched the van finding two cardboard boxes full of T-shirts.

This being pre-EU days we had no license to sell anything in Europe. Oh how we laughed as they deprived us of the T-shirts and they also added a lovely little fine which took care of most of our diesel money.

Anyway we still had all our duty free fags, until that is when we decided to stop and cheer ourselves up with a beer and in the very short time it takes to down one small beer some friend of humanity decided to smash the van window and nick all our duty free and my Sony Walkman which our new singer had conveniently left for them on the front seat’.

Lee Wright (Crashed Out, Guns, Maggotts & Street Punk July 6th) ‘There’s always funny stories when traveling abroad with the band, trouble is it’s always a blur because of the alcohol!

I remember on one of our first trip’s abroad we decided to go by ferry. We got absolutely plastered on the way over and one of the lads passed out drunk on the floor.

Someone decided to pour a carton full of boiled rice down the back of his underpants while he slept. It wasn’t hot by the way.

Anyway, morning came and we forgot about the various antics that had went on the previous night. As we left our cabin we joined the queue of people near the exit waiting to leave the ferry, when suddenly our mate starting screaming and grabbing at his arse.

He was dancing round as if he was on fire, pulling rice out of his pants, he thought he had maggots coming out of his arse. With the added hangover he was really panicking, you should have seen the look on his face. I can still remember it now haha’.

Ged Wolf (Atomkraft, Running with the Pack August 14th) ‘The London Marquee stage was so small I had to arrange the drums with Slayers drummer Dave Lambardo and see what was the best way to do it.

We were supporting them and he played drums facing the side of the stage which was a bit awkward, but we sorted it out.

In the end he said ‘can you lend me a pair of drumsticks I haven’t got any ?’ I said ‘yes it’s the least I can do’.

Well we’re on stage but after only three songs the whole backline goes off. Even though we had 14 roadies not one of them knew what they were doing.

We found it was the guitar that had gone off so me and Tony (bass) played along then after 30 seconds I just smashed my whole drum kit and threw it into the crowd. I’d just bought a new kit so I thought, fuck it, smash this one up !

We went off stage everyone is howling, funnily enough it went down great. We got some great press off it. Anyway stage is cleared and ready for Slayer to go on. Dave Lombardo says to me ‘have you got them drumsticks?’

I’d hoyed everything into the crowd so my drum roadie had to go out and get some back for him !’.

Danny McCormack (The Main Grains, Death or Glory September 8th) ‘For the ‘I Wanna Go Where the People Go’ video we filmed that in New York.

We went there for five days to do the video and ended up living there for a couple of month in a house in Brooklyn it was great fun.

For the first month we were in The Chelsea Hotel. One night after drinking in CBGB’s we jumped in the taxi and told the driver to take us to the nearest drug dealer. ’No problem get in guy’s’.

We shot off and soon the taxi was quickly surrounded by them. The deal was done and we returned to The Chelsea.

We laid the drugs out on the bed and looking through them – we managed to score some salt and some pencil shavings… they must have seen us coming’

Gary Young (Avenger, Young Blood September 17th) ‘Another time playing in Holland when we were young lads. During the terrible winter of 1985 two Dutch girls asked me and one of the lads ‘do you fancy coming back to ours ?’.

Being 18 at the time we said yeah. We got a taxi and ended up in a freezing cold rat-infested basement under the student hall of residence. ‘Wait here we will see if the night Porter is about because we can’t have visitors after 23.00’ they said.

We waited and waited…Ahhhh it was a set up !…they left us in the freezing basement. It was broad daylight when our Dutch friends found us’.

Robb Weir (Tygers of Pan Tang, Doctor Rock November 5th 2017) talking about playing on live UK TV show The Tube… ‘Yes it was Christmas ’82. I remember the crew had just loaded our backline of 18 4×12’s, stacked three high in cages, onto the stage in the tv studio.

We were in our dressing room and in the distance heard our track Gangland, what’s going on here we thought, it was getting louder and louder.

Then all of a sudden our dressing room door burst open and standing in the doorway was this huge, blonde, bare chested monster. We were all shocked. He had a big cassette player on his shoulder playing at full volume…

’You guy’s fuckin’ rock I love you guy’s’. He turned around and walked back out.

We looked at each other… ‘Wasn’t that Dee Snider of Twisted Sister?’ I’ll never forget that.

We talked with the band afterwards and they were fantastic, really brilliant. I got what they were all about, the dressing up and make up you know. Dee was really clever writing those songs, you know the big shouty anthems’.

Bodo Schopf (Pendulum of Fortune, Bodo Swings December 2018) ‘One story I have to tell, because I love the British humour. We were with Michael Schenker Group on tour with Def Leppard, their drummer Rick Allen, who had only one arm left after his car accident asked me if I would go out with him having a beer.

So we went to a pub and drank more than one beer. Rick stared constantly at my jacket, on it I had a drummer made from foam material with a safety pin attaching it to the jacket. It was a gift from a fan.

Rick said ‘Bodo there is something wrong with your jacket’. I looked at my jacket and asked what is wrong.

Rick said ‘Can I have a closer look at the little drummer on your jacket ? I replied ‘yes why not’.

So he tore the drummer’s arm off and said with a grin… ‘Now it`s right’.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their stories and read the blog this year have a Happy Christmas and a successfull 2018.

Gary Alikivi