THE HISTORY OF

R00

A MONTHLY TRIP THROUGH MUSIC'S
GOLDEN YEARS iHIS ISSUE:1970

4.

STARRING...
114

BLACK SABBATHj"I'm not trying to say we're angels"

PINK FLOYDDEREK & THE DOMINOSLEONARD COHENJONI MITCHELLSANDY DENNY

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Welcometo 1 70
ANEW DECADE brings re-evaluation for the stars of the
1960s. It says much about their qualities that they knew
when moods were changing and their influence might bechanging with them. Pete Townshend this year is humble.
Mick Jagger wants to keep on the move. Paul McCartney,
meanwhile, breaks up The Beatles.
Jimi Hendrix prefaces his performance at the summer's Isle Of Wight festivalwith a Melody Maker interview. In it he states that one musical era "started by
The Beatles" is over, and that he is working on new music that will play a part inthe coming era. "Jimi Hendrixwill be there," he says.

As much as it is about endings, though, 1970 has some startling new
beginnings. The spectacular rise of our cover stars Black Sabbath is one such.
The massive impact made by Free another. Both bands take blues purism andrewire it - along the way finding completely new audiences.
Making sense of the changing times were the writers of the New MusicalExpress and Melody Maker. This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly
magazine which reaps the benefits of their extraordinary journalism for thereader decades later, one year at a time. In the pages of this sixth issue, dedicatedto 1970, you will find verbatim articles from frontline staffers, compiled intolong and illuminating reads. Missed one? You can find out how to rectify that on
page 144.

What will still surprise the modern reader is the access to, and the sheer
volume of, material supplied by the artists who are now the giants of popular
culture. Now, a combination of wealth, fear and lifestyle would conspire to keep
reporters at a rathergreater length from the lives of musicians.

Sadly, Jimi Hendrix didn't make it much further into the new decade.
Otherwise, representatives fromNew Musical Express and Melody Maker are
where it matters. Tea with Leonard Cohen. Tomato sandwiches with Mick
Jagger. Under canvas at the Isle Of Wight.
Join them there. There's anew day dawning.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 13

1970

MOW MONTH

6News
Introducing David Bowie's newgroup, Hype, and a meeting with
Love's Arthur Lee. Meanwhile:where is Paul McCartney?

Joni Mitchell

10 The Canadian songwriter

34

visits London to blow minds
in concert. Discussion includes
folk music, new songs, evenA pleasant sojourn with Jimmy
Page. A tour of the boathouse, thensteaks in the village before Roger
Daltrey drops in for tea.

new instruments.
Soft Machine
4.1 The charming Robert Wyattdiscusses the undergroundgroup's journeys to jazz clubs andtheAlbert Hall.

1g

Led Zeppelin

eivitahn MsoonAa

40K.

"What ho! We've just been fora spot of punting..." The Who

20 rstbitYoung

drummer enters the hotel trade- and other misadventures in
the company of the former
Bonzos frontman.

With a supergroup comes somesuperego. Frank and amusing
chat from the generally
harmonious group.

46

Singles88Fleetwood
Mac
Charting the existential crisis
of Peter Green, who wants to givehis money away.

30

L28 Roger Waters from Pink
Floyd reviews the new records.

Num

The German chanteuse plays
London, and talks Warhol, The
Velvet Underground and thefuture. Producer John Cale joinsin the startling story.

5n Black
1.1 Sabbath
The heavy rockband begin theirimpressiveyear. But
what, wonders the
public, will be thecost to their manysacrificial victims?

54

MelodyS&aPod&eripennngyay

The former Fairport singer debuts
a new band with boyfriend Trevor
Lucas. And how are her former
colleagues in Fairport faring?

Maker

=RIM

BOTH SIDES OF JUDY COU

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BIRO

4 4.11110

60

The Beatles
George and Ringo meet the pressat theApple office. Will it turnout to be for the last time?

Letters65
Who are the real prospects for theyearahead?And other missives
from the MMmailbag...

66

News
Dr John brings the rain to theBath Festival. Paul McCartney
delivers a solo album and somemajor news. Brinsley Schwarz hit
NewYork.

In

Elton JohnlAr The widelytipped former
sessioneer enjoys a breakthroughyear. Watch as the singer's
great humility adapts toshowbusiness success.

7A The Kinks
mr Return to form! Ray Davies
unveils a hit single, "Lola", anda conceptual new album about
the music business to back it up.

LPs LIKELY TO CO

NM MI NUIMANI GOOOMANPIGA IMNT. . vowwk.

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2;+ 4.7411*"..=-77:::

News
Eric Burdon returns fromthe psychedelic battlefield with
WAR. The Stones form their own
label. Ginger Baker reports on
Fela Kuti and Afrobeat.

86

Free

92 Longtime blues triers
strike it bigwith All Right Now".
Freemania rapidly ensues. "People
were climbing on the roof to hearus," says Paul Rodgers from theeye of the storm.

911 Singles
MSinglesRoger Daltrey flexes his criticalthinking on the new releases.

80

Pink Floyd
Roger Waters invites us in fora chat about money, conscienceand boredom with Pink Floyd
material.Also: Syd Barrett
emerges from deep cover.

ti Paul Rodgers and Ray
Davies, who would know a thingor two about them, review the
singles in Blind Date.
Of Wight

1 0 0Jimi'e Hendrix andLeonard Cohen chat in advanceof their festival appearances.
MelodyMakergets stuck in undercanvas to report.

%Iv

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Black Sabbath
The band enjoy theirsuccesses, post- "Paranoid". MMgoes on the road fora chaotic
one-nighter in Newcastle.

106

Derek And

124 [he Dominos

112 Charming, talented andEric Clapton enjoys
a pseudonymous rebirth as
Derek, while bandmates Bobby

generally pissed... Introducing
the other band to rise from theWhitlock and DuaneAllman
explain their involvement.

The Faces

FREEshould live out of suitcases," headvises, "not country houses."

138The Who

132 Jelin' lull
An in-depth interviewwith

Small Faces.
The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger reflects on thedemise of The Beatles, what he118

does in bed, and the importanceof performing live. "MusiciansPete Townshend confesses
to a wealth of musical and personal
insecurities in this searching"man and music" interview.

the opaque, difficult -to -like

IanAnderson.

128 News

John Peel as Housewives'
145 Letters

RIP Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
Tony Blackburn vs John Peel. The
Rolling Stones have no plans tolive abroad.

136 Albums
Jimmy Page talks us throughLed Zeppelin IR

Choice. RememberingJimi
Hendrix. And, while we're at it,
what does Paul McCartney think
he's playing at?

05E1(
Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, 8th Floor, Blue Fin Building, no Southwark St, London SE1 OSU I EDITOR John Mulvey, whose favourite song from1970 is Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield DEPUTY EDITOR John Robinson Fairies Wear Boots by Black Sabbath ART EDITOR Lora Findlay
Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan PRODUCTION EDITOR Mike Johnson Oh I Wept by Free ART DIRECTOR Marc Jones Patches by Clarence
Carter DESIGNER Becky Redman Sugar Magnolia by The Grateful Dead PICTURE EDITOR Kimberly Kriete Winterlude by Bob Dylan
COVER PHOTO Chris Walter THANKS TO Helen Spivak MARKETING Charlotte Treadaway
SUBSCRIPTIONS Sonia Zeven PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Ed Beale COVERS PRINTED BY Polestar Wheatons°recycle
TEXT PRINTED BY Polestar Chantry I WWW.UNCUT.CO.UK

Time Inc.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 15I

Ip
JA$JM(1-*kW

NICO, SOFT MACHINE,
BLACK SABBATH, CSNY,

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LED ZEPPELIN AND MORE

"I can't see it
as permanent"
MM MARCH 28 David Bowie begins

10 get into character(s).
HYPE HAS BEEN kindly defined by a wisefriend as being 90 per cent hyperbole and10 per cent hypocrisy. With that clearly in
mind, who would ever think of giving the title
to their own group?
David Bowie would and has, partly as a protest
against the pretentiousness and insincerity insome quarters of the music business. ExplainedDavid last week over the almost overwhelming
din of a lunchtime ale house:"I deliberatelychose the name in favour ofsomething that sounded perhaps heavybecause
now no one can say they're being conned.
Especially nowadays, there's a lot of narrowmindedness among groups, or at least behind theorganisers who claim to be presenting free music
for free people, but I don't see how they canbecause they're so hypocritical in everythingelse. I suppose you could say I chose Hypedeliberatelywith tongue in cheek."
David's last record was the ultra -dramatic"Space Oddity", which was a good reflection of
the extent to which his imagination will stretch.
In some ways the conception of the songwas so

simple (dealingwith the disastrous
shortcomings of an astronaut) that you wonder
why it hadn't been done before. It is more thanprobable that five orsixyears ago "Space Oddity"
would have been given an icy reception and evenbanned as being sick. The disc was in fact bannedin the States. "I was pleased that the record was a
success, but getting a hit wasn't so very importantand I honestly can't see why it was so popular."
The last statement could only be put down tomodesty and David is a very modest character.
He has refused to allow himself the easyway outof becoming bitter towards the business. "Space
Oddity" at last brought him deserved recognition
after several attempts at getting a hit, but now thecharts hold little attention for him.
What then does the future hold for his newrelease with Hype, "Pretty Star"? x.
8I

HISTORY 0

ROCK 1970

March 11,1970: the Hype-(1-r) David Bowie, Tony

Visconti,JohnC ambridge
and Mick Ronson (outof shot) -appear at theAtomic Sunrise Festival
at London's Roundhouse

1970
J4 N utm" With the aid of a glamorous
assistant,B lack Widow
frontman Kip Trevor gets
down tosummoning thespirit of demon -wrangling
goddess Lady Astaroth

MARCH"I think a lot of people are expecting another'Space Oddity'," said David, "and 'PrettyStar'
is nothing like it. I'm sure this is why the BBC

aren't plugging it. Everyone wanted anothersongwith the same feel as 'Space Oddity', but as
I'd done it I didn't see the point of doing it again.
The song served its purpose but I hope I'm notgoing to be expected to write and record a whole
lot of stuff that is so obvious as 'Space Oddity'."
I remarked that it had taken some time for"Space Oddity" to start making an impression
on the charts -a statement which had David
noddingvigorously. "Yes," he agreed, "it took
about three or fourmonths to catch on and therelease had been held back about three months
before that. The only reason I can think of is thatthe record companywere waiting to cash in on
theAmerican moon landing. It was banned in
the States because theythought it was in bad
taste and even might upset some people."
This is somethingwhich David stoicallymakes
no apologies for. "All mysongsareverypersonaland I combine this with an exaggeration so themeaning is clearly brought home to the listener.
A lot of my compositions are very much fantasy
tales. I like Marc Bolan's songs verymuch
because ! think he obviouslyfeels the sameway."
The conversation then swung once moreto the intriguing Hype. "I'm very happywith
the band," says David. "I have Tony Visconti,
who has played bass on nearly all my records,
John Cambridge, who used to be with Junior's
Eyes, and Mick Ronson on guitar and I play
12 -string guitar.
"Although we're
all happywith the"We'veset-up, I can't see it
becoming a really
had these

costumes
made byvariouspermanent thing.

I want to retain Hypeand myself as two
separate working
units whereby we
can retain our own
identities.
"The gigs we've
done so far havegone better than ! expected. We played theRoundhouse recentlyand it was great. The
Roundhouse audiences seem to be something
apart from the usual blasé London audiences.
"We've had these costumes made byvarious
girlfriends which make us look like Dr Strangeor the Incredible Hulk. I was a bit apprehensive
about wearing them at the Roundhouse gig
because! didn't know how the audience would
react. If they think it's a huge put-on the wholething will backfire, but they seemed to accept
it, which was nice.
"The best audiences! know of are up north,where they really appreciate you. In London
the audiences are very aware that they areliving in the place where it's all supposed to behappening, so inevitably they have this cool
attitude they'll try and sell you anything from a

girlfriends"

pair of trousers to your own car." Raymond Telford

Hype and David,

Bowie's future
11 14

bud.' &ars WM

HAS

been

...amail/1111111

Tr' mon Z .,=4.1"The act includes a seduction conjuration"
MM MARCH 28

occult biarx widow. "We had quite a tew calls tram witches."
MAGIC IN M U SIC. Is it a big hype or isthere something in the ancient art thata number of groups are utilising bothon stage and on record? Black Widow area Leicester -based band formed last summer
from the remnants of five Midlands groups.
They developed their individual interest in
witchcraft into a group stage act that involves
sacrificial and demon -raising scenes.
Fact or fiction, is there an element of theunknown in what many think, notsurprisingly, is just another pop groupgimmick? Clive Box, drummer withBlack Widow, gave his views:

power that something could materialise,
and Mr Saunders has advised us what to do
if LadyAstaroth did.Apparently she could
possess the girl who portrays her on stage.
"I don't really think there's anything to fear,
but Mr Saunders is making us a talisman tooffer us protection. We've been a bit worried
recently as there have been one or two things
that have been a bit unusual. There are little
things like all the windows in the flat being
open and we found two of the three bolts
holding the steering box in the van weresnapped, and yet the van is checked
every month and they're so
robust. Can you imagine
travelling hundreds of miles
on the motorwaywith only
one bolt holding thesteering box?
"On another occasion
I was drivingwith my"Personally, I've beeninterested in witchcraft for
about three years. When
we started as Black
Widowwe were looking
around fora stage act
and I suggested thatwitchcraft would be a
girlfriend on a road I use
basis of a tremendous
two or three times a week
act, which is what we
nearmyhome and we went
have perfected today.
round a right-hand bend
"The act includes aand the steering suddenly
seduction conjuration andlocked and I ended up
sacrificial ceremony.
in the ditch. I called the"With so much
Everythingis authentic
AA and asked them toand we attempt to raise
check the steering andaudience mind
LadyAstaroth, who isthey could find nothing
played by ayoung girl. Lady
We've had a lot of
power, something wrong.
Astaroth is not a demon;
threats to the office andshe's a goddess with a lot of
it's a bit worrying."
demons under her control.
Musically, the group"Whenwe started doing
Zoot Taylor (organ), Clive
this we had quite a few phone calls from
Box (drums), Jim Gannon (guitar), Kip Trevor
witches who were against what we were doing.
(vocals), Geoff Griffiths (bass) and CliveJones
There are two classes of witches- hereditary(sax and flute) -listen to a lot of people andand gardenarian. It is the gardenarian witches
incorporate different feels into what they play,
who have telephoned us, because theybelieve
which is basicallythe work ofJim Gannon.
that the ceremonies should not be held in"The seduction scene is based on the bossa
public as they feel you are giving away secrets.
nova, for instance, the conjuration scene is"Since then we have had help from Alexvery heavy and the seduction is really a rock
Saunders, the leading authority in Europe on
number," continued Box.
witchcraft. He is a hereditarywitch and was
Devils, demons, evil spirits and witchcraft
worried in case something did happen in ourapart, it is on music that Black Widow have toact. We get the audience involved in ouract
be judged. It needs a lot ormagic" to convince
and with all those minds, there's so muchthe cynical public... Royston Eldridge-

could materialise"Paul and Linda McCartneywith sheepdog Martha on

theirremotefarmnear
CampbeltownontheKintyre
peninsula, early 1970

"I shall try andhustle them out"
NME JAN10

5.4
utzite.I,suit WWI endatleitc.,se"Paul's fine"
NME FEB 21

IIGI G is "the her iiiiL Lir St John's Wood"?

J

is that we may be on a run of solo Beatle tracks
released as sing les.John next, maybe.Thena Ringo swingalong?
To my mind the saddest part of the wholestate of Beatles music at the moment is that allof it is being written in isolation. Of course it's
good, and a great deal of it is brilliant. But think

pinpoint the moment when he lost interest inApple, plus Lennon's peace crusade, andbegan to wonder if The Beatles still existed
any more. At the same time, it takes little
imagination to understand the ease with which
he decided to "switch off" some time last year.
There were problems and arguments as aresult of the Northern Songs takeover bid;further disagreements, about other businessaffairs; and a general air of sourness over there
at Apple's Savile Row HQ.
Having turned off thecharm, however, I now
suspect that Paul would findit something of a personal
discomfort to begin
interviews again, even if hewanted to. It's a bit tricky
when you've kicked thehabit. Until such time as hechooses to jump into the limelight again,
though, Paul's firm -minded wife Linda seems
to have taken over as a kind of barrier between
him and the rest of the world.
Callers to their St John's Wood house either
meet Linda or a member of the staff,and Paulis "not available", or "out", or "busy". Students
of astrology may well recognise a typicalGemini reaction in this McCartney mystique...
outward and sociable at one minute; a hermit
the next; good friendly guy one minute;distant guy the next.
Personally, I can only wish him peace andquiet for as long as he wants, following those
years of Beatlemania and Being Nice. I respect
his ability as a musician, and providing heregularly comes up with the goods -for his
own sake as much as anyone else's -then let'sof the possibility and the potential of thesetalents if they were combined today, both incomposition and sound, and the fact that they
are not working together comes somewhere
near to pop music tragedy.
As for Paul, who still prefers to express his
mind exclusively in his music, it's difficult tomake it a case of Let It Be, Let It Be. As Ringoputs it: "Paul's fine. Maureen and I went over todinner with him last week and we had a goodtime. He's writing songs and he's doing things.
He's happy. He's just fed up doing interviews,
that's all. I don't think he'd care if he never did
another interview in all his life." AlanSmith

AMES PAUL MCCARTNEY is homeand baby and Linda and ballad androck'n'roll ravers, and Fair Isle sweaters
and dad and brother and the Friday train toLime Street. John Lennon is Yoko and peace
and Plastic fantastic; X and Sex; and bang thegong for right and wrong. The new Beatles
single,"Let It Be", is released within the next
fortnight, and in the light of these differences
it would have been a personal pleasure toreport an imminent "ComeTogether" between theworlds of old Fair Isle
McCartney and Plastic
Lennon fantastic!
Sadly, no such luck. The
void between them seems

Paul's wife Linda
seems to havetaken over as a

as wide as ever. And a closekind of barrier

look at the label credit forJohn's own new single,"Instant Karma", seems to be evidence thateven the Lennon -McCartney songwriting
partnership may now be about to be dropped.
The publishing line plays it straight:"Composed: Lennon".The new "Let It Be"
single does carry a Lennon -McCartney credit,
but in reality it's one of those beautiful andexclusively McCartney songs in which hedevelops the soft, tight pain of a number like
"Yesterday" or "Fool On The Hill". After
George's "Something" solo, another thought

jOHNAND YOKO Lennon are planninga massive Peace Festival to be staged atToronto's Mosport Park in Canada forthree days from July3. John is hoping tosecure The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob
Dylan and Elvis Presley for the event- andhe envisages all these superstars on stage
together to climax three days of music,
poetry and peace propaganda.
Among those who have already agreed totake part- according to Lennon - are Led
Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, The Who, Eric
Clapton, King Crimson, Joe Cocker, The
Band and Peter Sellers.Asked how
confident he was of securing The Beatles
for the event, John said, "I can't speak for all
The Beatles, but I shall tryand hustle themout -maybe I'll get one ortwo of the others."
The Lennons have already had a meetingwith Canadian prime minister Pierre
Trudeau and health min isterJohn Munro,
both of whom approve plans for the festival.
Said John, "We chose Canada in preference
to any other countrybecause it has the right
political climate." He added that he would
like also to take the festival to Moscow.
Dick Gregory has accepted an invitation
to be part of the Lennons' peace council,
which will administer a Peace Fund. One
quarter of the gross proceeds from thefestival will go to the Peace Fund. Lennon
also announced a network of peace radio
stations, which will broadcast his peace
jingles and a regular report by the Lennons
on peace- and already 35 Canadianstations have joined the movement.
John and Yoko are to purchase 70 acres ofland in isolated Hanherred in Northern
Denmark. They plan to live there for several
months every year in contemplation.

February 11,1970:
John and Yokobackstage at Top
Of The Pops

r
L

1970

JANUARY 41411

Mott The Hoople in the Jack
Tar Hotel in San Francisco,

August 1970:(1-r)Verden
Allen, Ian Hunter,Dale"Buffin"Griffin, Pete
Overend Watts, Mick Ralphske'd like to o a Traffic"
MM JAN17 Introducing... Mott The Hoople, "a shy bunch" from the Hereford ares
pOP MUSIC IN Britain has, more often
than not, taken its lead from America.
Changing styles there have beenreflected by the mirror of our own scene,
although of late that tendency has been
reversed by bands from The Beatles to Led
Zeppelin. The most important American trendof1969,though, has scarcely caused a ripple on
the rather over -smooth waters of British pop.
I refer to that most excellent development
country -rock, which has spawned groups ofthe calibre of The Burrito Brothers, The
Dillards, The Youngbloods and Area Code 615.
Perhaps it is because country -rock derives
from the twin streams of country & westernmusic that it has not been seized on in Britain.
However, recently I heard an album bya British group which seemed to me tohave some of the characteristics of country rock: a certain relaxed, open feeling whichappears to derive from a rural rather thanurban environment.
The band is called Mott The Hoople,and
although their debut album was generally
kindly received, several reviewers noted agreat similarity was intended or coincidental.
"Completely unintentional," they cried inunison ("they" being singer and pianist Ian
Hunter, organist Verden Allen, guitarist Mick
Ralphs, bassist Overend Watts and drummer
Buffin).
"Seriously though, it just came out that way
by accident," said Ian."We use organ andpiano, which must make the sound similar fora
start, and the studios we cut the album in had
a lot to do with the vocals sounding like Dylan."
r5

to

than

The
dehut
iv re tled a
theAs I mentioned earlier, the group have akind of rural feeling,which could possibly be
attributed to the fact that they all come fromthe green and pleasant hills of Hereford,
except Ian who comes from Shrewsbury. The
four from Hereford spent many moons
playing in rival groups around the town.
A few months ago they decided to try andbreak into what is fondly known as the "bigtime", and after due consideration theyplumped for Island as the place to go.
Mick came down to London six months ago
with some rather average demo tapes andplayed them for Guy Stevens, who wasinterested in the songs but not really in theband. They had no singer at the time, so Ian
joined -"it was a fluke" -and, as he had been
writing songs and making demos in London,
he began to write songs for the band with
Mick. However, Stevens wasinterested enough to hire astudio for the group, and hewent away raving.The next
day they all trooped intoanother studio to see how
they'd sound on record, andcut some rough tapes whichfurther excited Stevens.
Plans were made for theirfirst album, and after two weeks' rehearsal they
cut their tracks. At this time they had still toperform in public, but the sound on the LP
gives the impression that they are a live rather
than a studio group.
"Nowthat we've played some live gigs"
including the Country Club,the Lyceum, theSpeakeasy and Aylesbury's Friars club -"we'rea different band," says Mick.
"Mind you, we were never really influenced
by anyone -there weren't many bands to go
and hear in Hereford, and in fact there wasn't
much to do except play our own music."
They're a shy bunch, amazingly pleasant
to be around after a surfeit of hard, blase
Londoners, and they tend to come off thestand exclaiming how they've enjoyed eachother's playing. It will be interesting to see how
they fare in the rugged climes of America,
where they tour in May.The album is set for
release in the States in February or March on
the Atlantic label, who have, says Mick, "given
us a really fantastic advance".
"We'd really like to do a Traffic and live ina country cottage, but circumstances dictate
living in London," says Mick.
lan:"It would be reallygreat to get into a position
where we could go back andlive at home, while still being
part of the scene. That may
even happen one day, theway the scene is going."
As I got up to leave, Micksaid,"Would you please putin that we'd like to thank
Guy Stevens, who's our aide, mentor and sixthman, and also Andy Johns, our engineer. We
must be the luckiest band in the world forrecording. Everybody's so great- it's not a
drag like some sessions."
I think Mott The Hoople are too good for
London. Not musically, but as people they'rejust too bloody nice. I just hope that theconcrete jungle doesn't change their"Atlantic havegiven us areally fantastic

Happy Hoople

advance"admirably placed heads much. Richard Williams

"Jagger opene
my eyes a lot"
NME MARCH 21
a IIGYY,115111G1

LUVG.

ALMOST CERTAINLYSEVERAL years toolate to cash in on the fantastic build-up
and superlatives that were being heapedon the West Coast rock group back in 1966
and '67, Love has been and gone. But when
the boss is Arthur Lee, singer and guitarist,and only once previously has he been known
to take Love outside a three-mile radius of
Los Angeles, I guess we're pretty lucky tohave had them here at all.
Arthur Lee, 26, from Memphis, is a very
strange guy, inviting rumour and myth inabundance. He is said to be the on lyblack
singer everto have watched MickJaggerin
action to learn something. He sacks his bandwith alarming regularity, so much so that he is
the only remaining member of the groupwhich recorded their first LP, Love.
Hailed as it was, even Lee was hard put to callthe album an object lesson in originality:"Jagger opened myeyes a lot," he freelyadmits.
"The first time I ever saw the Rolling Stones
was on The Red Skelton Show in America. It wasthat 'I'm not going to let this lot screw me up'
attitude that came on so strong, I realised thatyou could always... you should always do yourown thing.
At that time, even The Beatles were wearing
suits, and they all looked alike, but not Jagger.
He's only singing rhythm and blues, but he's
doing it in his own way. It's his interpretation,and that's what I'm trying to do. The song may
be the same, but the singing is different. It's likethe candle and the light bulb. You get the sameoutcome, but one's got electricity."
luagger influenced Lee stage -wise, it was
The Byrds who gave him a musical direction.
"Before I saw The Byrds at a place called Ciro's,

they reallyripped me out. Their music wasn't
rhythm and blues like everybodyelse wasplaying, it reallygot to the heart. Theywere
singing theirown material,and it was like the songs
I was writing myself. So

again, I figured that ! could
do myown thing and get
accepted. That's what went
into Love, the first album.
Me doing my own thing forthe first time."
Previously, Lee, whorebelled against theaccordion at grammar
school, had taken up theorgan in a bid to be another
Booker T. He went throughgroups with such unlikely
names as Arthur Lee &The
LAGS, The VIPs and The

American Four. It was in

March 1970: Arthur
Lee in a London hotel
room as Love play];dates during theirfirst tour of the UK

the latter group that yet another name had aprofound influence on Arthur. "I had written
a tune for this little chick, and !wanted somereal funky guitar on it, like Curtis Mayfield got
on 'People Get Ready'. Anyway, I heard there
was this cat playingwith Little Richard, and hereally knocked me out. Yeah, Jimi Hendrix. He
was the first black guy I had everseen with long
hair... really freaked out. Right there and then,!went out and got myself a longwig. That wassome trip.
"Hendrix sure impressed me, playing guitar
with his left hand. He was wearing a suit and tie,
but that hair, man, wow. I just had to get awig."
He was hardly Mr Originality in those days,

butArthurgraduallypulled himself round andsoon Love were playing and recording only
their own material. Fora while theywere
known as The Grass Roots, but he forgot toregisterthe name, and when another group
showed up using the same tag, Arthur
renamed his group Love,and from then until now,the name and the leader isjust about all that hasn'tchanged.
"What could I do if mymanager rang me up andsaid, 'Hey your group justwalked out on you?' People
get uptight for different
reasons, but usually
because theyweren't
making any bread.
Anyway, that was just after
the latest album, Out Here,and I figured thatparticulartrip had gone as
far as it could have done,
and I wasn't happy.

"It was mainly
my fault that wehaven't travelleduntil now"t.

"I've been altering the group looking for thesound ! wanted, and sometimes they've let me.
Now I've got Frank Fayad on bass, George
Suranovich on drums and recently Gary
Rowles on lead. I don't know about adding
more members at the moment, but if the music
needs a change of lineup, I'll do it at anytime.
I'm aware now, perhaps for the first time, of thedirection, and I look back on the early times
and see that most of it was necessary forus tobe where we are now."
With so manyAmerican bands doing so wellin Britain just as theJethros and Macs andZeppelin are massive Stateside -Arthur
wonders why Love haven't achieved too muchas yet. One answeris that British music fanslike to see as well as hear. "It was mainly myfault," he explained, "that we haven't travelleduntil now. I was always afraid of doing thewrong thing, and blowing the whole scene. We
were too loose, fartoo loose, but things aretighternow."
Then, of course, there is the question ofcancelled tours and onlyintermittent record
releases: "That's tied up together. We recorded
the albums at regular intervals, and normally
theywould have been issued at regularintervals, but twice albums were held up tocoincide with tours which neverhappened."Or there's the old cliche about the music
being too farahead of its time, too heavy for themass market, and I guess Love is one of the very
few groups of whom this could well be true.
All I want is a good time," saidArthur inconclusion. "It's all gotten a bit intellectual,and a lot of people who should see don't seethat all we are doing is our own thing, justbeing free. What I hope is that they might seeme having a good time, and they decide to havea good time too. That's all." GordonCoxhill

False Start
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 111

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"It's noteasy todo this"- MELODY MAKER JANUARY 10 -But when she

ANADIAN FOLK SINGER Joni Mitchell this week

arrives in London,

denied rumours that she would be retiring after
her Royal Festival I tall concert on January 17. But
Joni, who can scarcely be described as a folk singer

JONI MITCHELL wows

everyone she meets.
Easy definition (asfolk singer, celebrity

girlfriend) issomething she seeks
to elude. Her song_and performance dojust that with ease.
"I want my music to
get more involved
and sophisticated,"
she says.

12 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

any more and has no current connections with
Canada either, will be a good deal more withdrawn

in the future.
She flew to London from LosAngeles last week, and at aWarner
Reprise reception she told MM, "It's true I've postponed all bookings
indefinitely, but that's just to catch mybreath. I reallyneed to getsome new material together, and I also want to learn to play more
instruments, and find time to do some painting."
So Joni, far from taking things easy, is going to have her time cut out
in the next few months. Shemadeit quiteapparent that she is going
through a transitional stage in hercareer, expressing herself througha wider rangeof media, but at thesametimedelvingdeeper into her
own distinctive musical bag.
"I'vegot a harcicore of fans who follow me around from one concert
to another, and it's for them I feel I ought to produce some newsongs.
I come from Saskatoon, Canada originally, and Iii probably move backthere, but at this point in my life I would rather live in Los Angeles as it's
right in the middle ofchange, and therefore far more stimulating. There
area lot of a rtists in LA at the moment, and the exchange between
artists is tremendous."
Joni took a trip back to her previous two visits to England. The first she
remembers spedfically as her first taste of English folk dubs, and thesecond for her appearance at the Festival Of Contemporary Song in
September 1968, w ith AI Stewart, Jackson C Frank and The Joh nstons. It
was thisconcert that reallyestablished her as a major artist in Britain,
and she is still more than enthusiastic about that concert. "I'd sure liketo meet The Johnstons again while I'm here," she added.
But songs like "Chelsea Morning", "Marcie" and "Both Sides Now",
which acted as her springboard, have now made way for slightly more *

fl

1970

JANUARY -MARCH

3.
-

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-

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#.#
'414
Ae

gie#Asp" AIt 7.

41,4,94-10, "I'vehadtoworic

1-.7; mywayup":Joni r,dp Mitchellinino

complex numbers, perhaps brought
about bythe change of environment.
"I want my music to get more involved
and more sophisticated. Right now I'mlearning how to playa lot of new
instruments. In the last month I've
managed to write three new songs,
including a couple of Christmas songs. I've
also written a song fora film score that hasn't
been used, and 'Woodstock', which is the next
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young single."
Joni emphasised that she will not be playing any folk clubs while in

Britain. She will make only one concert
appearance, and will be tele-recording a guest
spot on the Tom Jones show. "I shall then takea couple of weeks' holiday in Britain before
returning. I want to get out into the country,
and in particular to Scotland."Countryand citylife both playprominent
but entirely different roles in Joni Mitchell's life.
And it is the latterthat is currentlyinfluencing
her writing. "I've a feeling thatAmerica may
suddenlyget verystrange. In LosAngeles the air
is very bad, and it's not good to breathe city air all
the time. But it's not just this environment that
influences me. Anykind of music that moves mein anywayhas some effect on mywriting."
14 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

Joni is more than enthusiastic about her next album, which is almost
completed. A couple of tunes she picked out for special attention: "They
Paved ParadiseAnd Put UpA Parking Lot" and "He Played Real Good For
Free", the latter being about a sidewalk musician.

- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 19 SCENE IN A television studio: girl in a long pink shift, whichcatches at her ankles when she walks, picks hesitantly at a few
bars on the piano, reluctantly gives up, and asks for a glass ofsomething hot, maybe tea.
Her manager, looking like a thinner, less ebullient version of Dave
Crosby, brings her a drink, and she tells theaudience sitting out there in the darkness ofthe television theatre that she must have picked
up a cold in London, she always gets colds
when she is in England; does everybody getcolds when they go toAmerica? Gives a nervous
little giggle.
She resumes the song, unfolds it carefully
like a love letter written on finest paper, pouring
out its lines with a peculiar little sob in her voice,as if she cannot bearto let the words slip away.
And theyare deep, genuine words, about thelover who "whenheisgone,thebed'stoobigand
the pan's too wide", which says it all so simply"There isa certain
amount of
my life in all
my songs"

yet so fully.

JONI MITCHELL

Big I_elloW

Taxi

A Raft tilg ht HouseROYAL FESTIVAL

HALL

LONDON

Still in the same low key,
she moves into the lyrics of"Woodstock" and the line
about the "bombers in thesky turninginto butterflies
above the nation", which istremendous imagery, andthen "Willy": "He is my child,
he is myfather/I would be hislady all mylift".
No other contemporary

The walls
were shaking

JANUARY17,ni is captivating at tne
moaernist concert hall beside the Thine.
MM JAN 24

JONI MITCHELL MUST love England tothe same extent that
England loves Joni Mitchell.Thisfact was implicit throughout
the whole of her two-hour concert at the Festival Hall on
Saturday. The walls were still shaking to minutes after Joni hadtaken her second encore. Such was the greed and expectation,that hardly a person had left
the hall when she finally
Harold Davison presents
THE ONLY CONCERT APPEARANCE
returned fora farewell)
IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
acknowledgement,and thesongwritercould compose
lyrics the equal of these intenderness and innocence,a sweet combination. She plucks at a couple of tunes on a dulcimer,
which she has onlybeen playing since February, and then picks up
her guitar to sing "BigYellow Taxi", which gets great applause, ofcourse, as does "Clouds". She falters a bit on it, and cannot quite
reach the pitch at times, but it is the final number and she has madeit through alright.
Short pause while she stands timidly in the centre of the stage,
looking vulnerable and dreamy, then fade-out.
Cut to the dressing room, and a typical dressing room scene,with a few friends, one or two press, a lot of record company
representatives, and the usual well-known visitor. In appearance,
she seems rather severe in an attractive sort ofwaywith her fineblonde hair scraped back from her tanned face, which has largebones around the cheeks and forehead, and a wide, generous
mouth. It's a pleasant, open face that sits on top of a bodywhose
seeming fragility inspires a feeling of instinctive protectiveness.
Joni Mitchell is not her real name. At Fort McCloud inAlberta, Canada,
she is known as Roberta Joan Anderson, but in 1965 she got married to
one Chuck Mitchell, a marriage dissolved about 12 months later. Herfirstalbum, Song To A Seagull, reflects the sadness of this marital split, andindeed, the motions that have inspired many of her songs are always
tangible, beating like veins near the surface of her work.
"Willy", for instance, refers to her association with Graham Nash, now
ended, while the impetus for writing "For Free" came from a clarinettist
she saw playing on a London stre et -"Nobody stopped to hearhim, though
he played so sweet andhigh", one line goes wistfully.
"There is a certain amount of my life in all my songs," she told me softly.
"They are honest and personal, and based on truth, but I exercise awriter's licence to change details. Honesty is important tome. If I haveany personal philosophyit is that I like the truth. I like to be straight withpeople and them with me. But it is not easyto do this all the time,
especially in this business where there is so much falsity."
Her first album was not released until late 1968, but she had been
singing forfive years then in clubs and bars, while hername was

LIVE!

Apt

JONI

audience rose en masse.

MITCHELLLONDON, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17th,at 8 p.m.
Only 26, tockt. left sva..ble fromRoyal F.,11/110 Hall B. Othc

With great warmth andpresence, the Canadiansongstress appeared forthe first set in a long red
dress, her voice soaring
and plummeting overthat aggressive andcharacteristically open -tuned guitar. After threenumbers Joni moved to the
piano and captured theaudience completely by thenature of "He Played Real
Good For Free", a recent
composition, which reflects
her environmental change.
She closed a well-balanced
first half repertoire with thefamous "Both Sides Now".
Next Joni appeared in blue and embarked on a much longer
set which included "Galleries","Marcie" and "Michael From
Mountains", and with each song she drew the audience further into
her. An outstanding Richard Farina -style rock number, "They
Paved Paradise And Put Up A Parking Lot",and the next Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young single, "Woodstock", prefaced the finale,
which was an event in itself - Dino Valente's great song about"Her voicesoaring andplummetingover that open -tuned guitar"brotherhood. Jeremy Gilbert

attracting public attention through otherartists' interpretations ofher songs: Judy Collins' version of 'Both Sides Now' is probably thebest example.
More recently, too, Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young cut their interpretationof her lovely, floating song "Woodstock", whipping it up in the process
love
tent
into something fierce and pounding, far removed from the originaltell.
in tone and execution.
Agh161111'"I liked their performance too, in its way," she said. "Theywere seeingon
Woodstock from the point ofview of the performers, while myversion istine
hadconcerned with the spirit of the festival. I never did actually get touth
Woodstock itself, you see, because the traffic jams to the site were nine
ton,
lett
miles long, so I sat in my New York hotel room and saw it on television."
raOarIf anyone has helped her, though, in popularising her work it has been
rice
the cowboy rock'n'roll singer Tom Rush, who she said had got her to leaveandMichigan, where she was doing the round of folk clubs, and securing her
set
a gig at the Gaslight in New York. This was not a total success, but Rush put
riceout aversion of her "Urge For Going" after it had been turned down by
IVer
ter Judy Collins, and this became a favourite on the club circuits, openingtar.
doors for her in consequence.
"Yes, he was the first to help. Until he played that and 'Circle Game'
nobody really wanted to know; theywould time me when I went on as an
opening act, so you can see that I have had to work myway up. It has all
been verygradual. Tom helped me as well in that period, because I was
unsure about mywriting and didn't think it was very good. But there havebeen a lot of people who have been good to me." Michael watts

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16 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

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SOFT MACHINE"It's very
elastic"
That's life in the OFT MACHINE, on a tightrope
between songs and improvisation. The engaging,
freeform Robert Wyatt and circumspect,ir

classically trained Mike Ratledge discuss recent
engagements at Ronnie Scott's and the Proms.
- MELODY MAKER

Soft Machine outside

theAlbert Hall before
their Proms appearance
there,August12,1970:(I -r) MikeRatledge,
Hugh Hopper, Robert
Wyatt and Elton DeanJHUARY 14 _ROBERTWYATT IS the member of the Soft Machine you're most
likely to be watching while you listen to their music. Tousle haired and athletic behind his drum kit, he has the kind of natural
showmanship which does not compromise the quality of themusic he's a part of.
Reviewing their recent Fairfield Hall concert, I commented that it
seemed paradoxical that, while the group are progressing rapidly, the audience isstill managing to catch up with them.
"Perhaps there's an element of flattery involved," says Robert, "in that we expect
them to follow anything we feel we want to do. But we can never really gauge forourselves what the audience is feeling, because we don't stop for applause.
"Now that even the break in the middle has gone, we'll play fora minimum of one and -a -half hours and come straight off. So we only feel any sort of reaction when
we're changing afterwards. Our sort of progression is the kind in which themusicians improve as they play, gaining more control over their instruments andpacing themselves better. This is something that everyone has to learn, and that's
what's happening to us.
"I never knowwhat people think of us. It's quite satisfying. We can come off stage
and Mike'll be quite depressed, while I'm turning cart wheels. We're not an
intellectual group- if we were, we wouldn't get anywhere. We don't even talk about
it anymore, and it just happens in a subconscious sort of way. Because Mike ismusically highlyeducated doesn't mean we aren't intuitive.
"We don't spend enough time in rehearsals for Mike, and we spend too much time
there forme, because I can only discover things in the act of playing the piece, in a
performing situation. It's like painting in a way. Some painters do sketches first, but
often the whole thing is the work itself. I use time like a painter, putting layers on; thefirst set starts out casually, and then! build it up as I get into it. It's reallyvery elastic.
"The basic thing is to find the right people to workwith, and after that you commit
yourself to working round whatever they're doing. If I thought there was anybody
playing something really fantastic, I'd want to work with them -and forme that'sMike, Hugh, Elton and Lyn.
"Hugh's bass playing isthe most interesting new thing for me. He's doing things tothe bass that I've always wanted people to do at this level. When he solos he mightplay high and fast, but he always keeps the kind of weight and authority that the bass
should have. When he races up to the top he doesn't leave a gap at the bottom."
About audiences, Robert comments: "I've always found British audiences to be theleast idealistic of all. The French and the Dutch kids reallywant something else to x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 117

1970

am -go"listen to, and theydon't want to feel they're being hyped. The wholeatmosphere in Britain, when you're dashing up and down the MI, isdifferent. For instance, if the PA goes wrong, there's less urgency to get it
fixed. Maybe this is because Britain is home, and we don't feel the sense ofoccasion that we get abroad. That's probably our own fault, because somegroups are veryconscientious about everygig.
"The university audiences and the militant Left have little to do withwhat I've got to say. In West Berlin... people ask us whyour songs aren't
more politicallycomm itted, and whywe charge entrance fees, and'Whose side are you on anyway?' The best audiences are primarily
interested in the music."
Robert's singing is an interesting feature of the group, and about this sideof his performance he says, "I'm completelya child of the pop scene. Whenit comes to drawing inspiration forone of Mike's time signatures, I go andlisten to Sly orJames Brown. That's more poppy than most pop people
listen to. The voice came from a need fora particularsound. I can't pitch
accuratelylow because of the nature of the instruments, so I sing high. It's
also better to keep totally blank and let the clear note come through.
"It's also a slightly social thing, in that it's the closest! can get to talking
to the audience. I haven't got Lyn's thing about the voice being the sourceof all sound, and it took a longtime to figure out how to use it. Singing
songs was obviouslyout with this band, and Syd (Barrett] has been a big
influence. It's an unaffected thing, just straight words really.
"But what I was saying about the pop thing: if there has been any grafting
onto our music, pop music was the last thing to be grafted on. Neverthelessin ways we're completelyopposed towhat happens in jazz, where people
extend themselves all the time. We all feel the pressure to the drums. It
clears the overall conscious of the editingaspect of performance."
Among the changes which Robert is making in his playing is the use ofsnare drum with the snares off, making the drum into a third tom-tom
pitched higher than the others.
"I've been doing that and playing nearer the rim of the drum, to get aringing sound. This changes the whole nature of the kit, and removes thecymbals from their usual relationship to the drums. It clears the overallsound and makes a more space, because the sound with cymbals andsnare going with the other instruments can be very muddy."
Robert's technique fascinated me the first time! saw him. He plays not
so much like a conventional kit drummer, but more like a timpanist, withthat fluid movement around the drums whichcomes from the arms rather than the wrists.
"I learned from a jazz drummer, who taught
me to playwith my elbows in, using mywrists
like PhillyJoe Jones. But I never really masteredit, and anywayyou can't get the volume orintensity that way, so I rather let it go and started
using myforearms more.
"I'm seriously considering taking the snare
drum away from the centre of the kit and putting
it more to one side, so that! can get away from the
Buddy Rich thing and use it more for accents.

organic and readily identifiable style. Mike Ratledge is their organist,a rather saturnine man who wears 1965 McGuinn shades and hovers
over his twin keyboards, producing sounds which have the suddenness
and intensity of lightning. The week at Scott's was obviously an unusual
and instructive experience for them. After all, how many of theircontemporaries get the chance to sit down and play in one place for six
nights, with all the opportunity for detailed exploration that it implies?
"It was useful mainly for that reason," says Mike. "The way it stretched
our repertoire was verychallenging, and we had to push ourselves, into
areas of freedom where we wouldn't normally need to go. We had to
improvise more than we usually do, because we didn't have enoughmaterial. In that sense it certainly taught us something."
In terms of audience reaction, the weekwas not a success. Ronnie's
regular patrons were unsympathetic, and few of the Softs' fans could
afford the necessarily high prices. "I thinkwe left the audiences prettymuch as we found them, except for those who came specifically to hearus, and theywere spread out over the week. I can't see that it had muchvalue as far as exposure to a different audience goes."
The group have now played three London concerts -two at the Fairfield
Halls and one at the Queen Elizabeth Hall within a comparatively shortspace of time. Mike says that this was purelycoincidence, and comments,"My ideal is to playa set of repertoire twice, in the same place, and thencome back later with new material. That's whywe're resting at the
moment: it's in order to write some new stuff, and I think we'll be playing
in London again soon."Mike and bassist Hugh Hopperwrite roughly an equal amount of therepertoire. Drummer Robert Wyatt composed early in the band's life, andwrote several of the tracks on their second Probe album (Volume/Ivo),
but now it's fairly divided between Mike and Hugh. Ratledge doesn't findit easy to talk about the difference in their writing.
"Ourdifferent backgrounds don't come over. There's as muchdifference between two of my pieces as there is between one of m ine andone of Hugh's. Hugh tends to write a theme, have a blowing section in the
middle, and then return to the theme at the end... but then I've written
things like that too.
"I tend to write things with a given concept. I'm very lazy and don't havemuch confidence, so I need something -like a progression or a time
signature- to get to compose. These conceptual elements are reallysomething! use to con myself into believing inwhat I'm writing. I'm very interested in unusual
time signatures, but at the moment I'm writinga piece in 6/4, which isn't exactly far out. But interms of a general direction my music isheading for more complex structures.
"Our sets are an amalgamation of different
tunes by different people, and when you string
them together into a 45 -minute entity there's
bound to be a somewhat ad hoc quality about
the arrangement. You try to make thetransitions as organic as possible, but it's not
the total piece of music that I'd like it to be at the
moment. The sudden switches that people
criticise aren't inside each piece, they comewhen we go from one piece into another."
Unorthodox time signatures are becoming more commonplace, partly
because young musicians are growing up around them and thus can"feel" them much more easily than their elders, to whom playing 7/4 waslike going to the moon.
"I've been aware of them since! started writing," says Mike, "and I guess
it was with Messaien (the 20th -century classical composer] that! firstcame up against them, although of course they've been used throughout
musical historyin so-called primitive music as well as so-called classicalmusic. But Messaien was the first person I'd come across who'd obviously
spent a lot of time getting into it."Mike uses a Lowrey organ, in contrast to the almost ubiquitous use of
the Hammond, but it wasn't originally a voluntary decision. "I bought itwhen we hadn't got the money fora Hammond, and I got to know what I
could do with it. It's worked out well because the majority of organists use
Hammonds, so the Lowrey's characteristics stand out a bit. I supposethat a large number of my stylistic idiosyncrasies are due to the inherent
peculiarities of the Lowrey."
For the future, the Softs plan to remain as a quartet, with altoist Elton
Dean, but may add other musicians for selected performances. One"I don't think
we're a bridge building band.
We're very
narrow, really""The kit I use was given to me by Mitch(Mitchell], who had it custom-built in the Statesout of maplewood. When! sit down behind it, it's
like being in a little room, it's very comfortable. If
jazz drumming has had anyinfluence on me, it's been teaching me what
not to do- although I hope that doesn't sound arrogant. Some drummers
have all this jazz training andjust do it all wrong. Forme, it's really all
down to James Brown's rhythm
section." RichardWilliams- MELODY MAKER JUNE 6 HE SOFT MACHINE areeprobably the only non -jazzgroup in Britain who could
command a week in the hallowed
precincts of Ronnie Scott's FrithStreet emporium in London. In
great measure that's a tribute to theway they've synthesised elementsfrom many diverse musical sources,
grafting them onto their own welldefined personalities to form an

SOFT MACHINE

Robert gyattin
1970:-Thedensity

ofrockbandscan
beverycrudeandunrewarding""We played alright, I suppose, and Elton particularlyrose
above the circumstances to play some excellent solos. In termsof the occasion, I'd say that all music grows up in a certain
environment, and ours is loads of people lying around gettingstoned, and we spend the first half-hour sorting out the soundbalance so that the evening gradually opens out.
At the Albert Hall, of course, that wasn't possible. There
was also the whole thing of playing to a deadline. It was
frustrating having to finish at exactlyfour minutes before
12 o'clock, because ifyou run overthat the engineers will pullout the plugs."
How did Robert view the motives of the BBC people who put
the Softs on the Proms? "I don't honestly think the BBC had too
much say in it. It was down to Tim Souster, who managed to get
into the sort of position of respect where he was allowed topresent his own evening, and as he was interested in our music
he asked us to be part of it. I don't suppose the powers -that -be
SOFT MACHINE
at the BBC knew what theywere getting at all.
"Oh dear, I reallydon't want to sound sour and bitter about it
IRO PINK FLOY
at all. What I'm saying is that we've done a lot of gigs and theProms doesn't stand out as one of the important ones.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE"But! can also see that it seems to have been important interms of public reaction... Fora start, the little old ladies rounden vele Indere loppepen
our way used to think that we were a load of nasty, dirty hairies,
op 26,27 en 28 juni in het
but now they all say 'Good morning, Robert' very nicely.
"In the end, though, I can't honestly say that I feel it's
important. Bridge -building isn't something that you can do
KRALINGSE BO ROTTERDAM
consciously, it happens by accident, but it's nice that people
can listen to and like something that theywouldn't normallyinnovation will certainlybe the use ofcome across. Anyway! don't consider that we're a bridge pre-recorded tapes.
building band. We're verynarrow really, pursuing one train"The tapes will mean difficulties likeof thought. Elton's writing should make it a little different -but
keeping the pitch content throughout the electronic fluctuations, butthen, oh well, everything seems to go through the sausage mill and cometheywon't be tied down to anythingvery specific and the musicians willout sounding like the Soft Machine."be fairly free on top of it. It won't be like laying down specific drum or
Now that Robert is safely back inside the group, does he still harbour
piano tracks- it'll be loops and things like that."desires to get into other areas? "Well, one thing I'm doing right now is
The group's new album, Third, will be out soon afteryou read this, andplaying with my own quartet, which has Elton, Mark Charig on comet,
Mike is very pleased with the speed and care with which CBS haveand Neville Whitehead on string bass.
handled it.
"We've already recorded a long, free version of Gil Evans' Las Vegas"My feelings about the music on it change constantly. I liked it while
Tango' for my own album on CBS, and it's reallya totally free thing.
we were making it, of course, but listening to it now I'm aware of theMaybe we'll get into doing our own versions of Soft Machine numbers mistakes, while assuming a disproportionate importance. None of us
that would be nice, getting another angle on them with a flowing string
can be objective about it now, but I think that each of our albums has
bassline instead of the fuzz bass guitar. With this band I'm trying to getbeen better than the last, although none is as good as it should havesome space back into my music.Arrangements, freedom, and all thosebeen." RichardWilliams
different procedures can make satisfying music, which is very hard to
define, but the actual effect is a certain kind of density.
"I admire the sense of space you get from MilesSmiles untie Miroslav- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 5 Vitous album; the density of rock bands can be very crude and
IT'S NOT LONG since Robert Wyatt announced that he wasunrewarding. So manythings are happening in the quartet; I'mvacating the drum stool with Soft Machine in order to pursue
constantly playing things that I've always wanted to play but never been
a career with Kevin Ayers' band and various other friends.
able to, and that's a result of the more fluid situation.""I should know better by now," said Robert last week, shaking his head
The experiment of workingwith Ayers and the Whole World was nothalf in sorrow and half in happiness. "I say these things and I really mean
a success, although Robert still has great admiration for the band.
them at the time, but a week later I'm feeling something else entirely. In"I did two orthree things with them in England, including the Hydeall fairness to the Softs, they're still auditioning drummers, which isPark 'free' concert and a week in Holland. I tried it, but I have thissomething! suggested because! thought they might find somethingtendency to change my mind completely about everything. I still thinkbetter than me, someone who can read music for one thing. Not reading
it's one of the most amazing bands in the world... Oh dear, I'm unhappy
is my thing... primitive music, y'know.
about this interview -I'm saying all the things! mean.
"But !really intended to leave the band, and I suppose I had to get"Kevin's band does tend to be a little ramshackle in its approach, andoutside to find or what I reallywanted. We had a few fights inside theperhaps I've been spoilt by being part of a comparatively slick
band, but it's all back together now, and I don't want anything to breakorganisation for quite a long time. I really dig David Bedford, though."that very fine balance we've regained."
Robert's own album, which is nearing the mixing stage, is "hours
The Softs' recent Henry Wood Promenade Concert at theAlbert Hallof completely free things in various combinations, with all thecreated controversy among the critics, who seemed to be expecting
unfashionable sound tricks that Zappa discarded five years ago andsomething the group were never prepared to give. Robert looks back on it
which I'm toyingwith right now. Hugh wants to get the Soft Machine intowith very mixed feelings.
the studios to record verysoon, and one of the best aspects of the band at"The whole business of surfacing fora couple of hours in thatthe moment is the way Elton's got so involved in the music.
environment was to be heard bypeople who normallywouldn't listen to"He's even getting us to do things that we stopped trying to do to each
us in our normal context- and it was unnatural.
otheryears ago, like getting me to read parts. The others completely"I enjoyed parts of it, and the audience was certainly the biggest we've
accept that I'll never do it, but Elton keeps plugging away. It's really niceever had in Britain. It was a very nice evening, socially speaking, and it
to see Mike and Hugh strugglingwith someone else's compositions forwas good that the audience seemed to enjoy the Terry Riley and Tima change, instead of grinning evillywhile I try and struggle throughSouster pieces just as much as our stuff.
theirs." RichardWilliams
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

19

Iu

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"We build
it, and IE
polish it
Films. Music. "Themovement" CROSBY,STILLS, NASH & YOUNG

talk (and talk) a goodgame, but ambition isat the heart of theirgroup. What they
achieve together is
one thing; what they
achieve on their own
is important also.
Says Neil Young of

his solo music: "Itboosts my ego to therequired dimension."

20 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

like ajewel"

1970JANUARY -MARCH- NME JANUARY 10-

I'd recognised Dave Crosby in the street outside -could it be anyone but
him behind that so perfectly trimmed moustache that looks like a prop

HAD I INTERVIEWED any of The Hollies this year,
Graham Nash wanted to know? "Yes, Tony Hicks.""How did you get on?" "Quite well, I thought: I liked
him." "You should, they're nice people." He said he'dbeen to see Tony the day before. "It was a bit strange
at first, like walking on thin ice, but once we realised

we were the same two Northern lads who came down from Stockport
everything was OK."
Ayear since it was not so much formed as drifted together above afrom a joke Western? - and he led me up to a living room all a -buzz withactivity. Steve Stills, the fair-haired ex -Buffalo Springfield, whose birthday
was the following day, Saturday, sat on the floor proclaiming: "Englandis the most advanced, cultured country in the world -yet it's so far behind
it's frightening."
Said Graham Nash, taking a place on the settee, "Every level of my life at
the moment is verygood and satisfying. The musical level, the financial

level -which is important to allow me to pursue the music- and the private
level too."

The dapper Mr Crosbyexpressed a desire for the ladyjoumalist present
ratherthan me, and Graham and I left the seated, talking group for thequieter end of the room. I hadn't met Graham before, but I was struck by
the difference between the one I remembered from television images andphotographs during Hollies days. He was much slighter than I expected;
his face more gaunt and his hair lighter, possiblydue to the sun of his new
tube.
Californian home. "Do I miss England? Yes, a great deal. There is abeautiful atmosphere in England; I have got a bit paranoid about thepolice in Los Angeles. Here theyare wonderful; I was upset about the
ROYAL ALBERT HALL
- LONDON two that got shot in Glasgow."
Living inAmerica, he says, has made him more aware of thesocial ills of the world. "The States seems to be a focal point forwhat is going down. The situation is right out on the streets there.
I used to be really naive about that sort of thing. !wasn't used to- JANUARY
watching every passing police car wondering if theywere goingto stop me; or having the threat of police pulling you out ofyour
bed. All that shocked me; it straightened me out."
MM JAN 17 :SN1 ruuK, perhaps
But although it's shaken his head, America has failed topenetrate Nash's Northern accent nor, accordingto Dallas Taylor
CROSBY,STILLS, NASH, YoungBlue Eyes", they moved on to "Triad"
when he came overtojoin us, his English sense of humour. "He has
and Old gavea lengthy and often
by Dave Crosby and "Our House" bycertainly brought some humourinto the band," offered Dallas.
enjoyable concert at London's
our old mate Graham Nash on piano.
"The lighter parts of the album areal' his. There is not much
Royal Albert Hall last week. "TheSteve Stills' piano solo received anhumour going down in the States amongAmericans these days."Old" was the age-old problem ofovation, although he had difficulty
The humour strain aside, Graham also fills a role as the group's
untutored musicians having tokeeping time and seemed restricteddiplomat -valuable carry-overfrom his days as a Hollie. Says
devote much time to tuning their
to approximately three chords. After
Dave Crosby, "Graham is probably the coolest of all of us and he's
instruments on stage.
this bring -down, the electrification
dapper and debonair and extremely intelligent... and he fights
Chinese laundry in London's Moscow Road, the Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young group -now swollen to sixwith bassist Greg Reeves and drummer
Dallas Taylor -is back in the town of its birth. Iliesdaysaw their first, andonly, British concert before a sell-out audience at theAlbert Hall. They'dlogged up three days in London when I saw them on Friday and wereencamped in five flats above a shop near South Kensington

Lengthy andoften enjoyable

But while Neil Young emerged as
an exceptional talent with superb
compositions and the only voice ofdistinction, and Dallas Taylor rocked
up a storm on drums, the two-hourshow often verged dangerously into
the realms of tedium.
Dave Crosby brightened theintermissions between numberswith dry and droll remarks, but thesilence which often prevailed was so
intense I could distinctly hear a man
scratch the stubble on his chin and at
one point I dozed off, having spenta hectic night before digging

LIVE
6-

of the rhythm section was a welcome
relief, and Dallas Taylor leaping about
on drums brightened proceedings
considerably. Undoubtedly, Neil
Young's haunted lonesome voice,with just the right amount of vibrato
on the "The Loner" and "Down By
The River", was the high spot.
While CSN & Y did not deserve
the critical pasting they received insome quarters, they could improve
themselves by being a little lessself-indulgent, and knowing whento stop. Chris Welch

Roland Kirk, now in a season
at Ronnie Scott's Club.
The first half was devoted
to gentle acoustic music,
which was agreeable
enough,and each member
had a chance to take a solo
spot or work with thepartner of his choice.
Opening with "Suite: Judyaught in the act
Introduced

the104 reception
ening
numbernildtempo and
e

ten

.nd

outstanding

was

lea

intiervoice and guitar.
Confuted

including royalty -which he has done.""My musical training," says Graham "is from a different
heritage from the others. The effect is to give the group a muchwider scope in which to work. When we did the album the others
had neverworked with an Englishman before. I record in adifferent way to them, but theywere willing to listen and watch
and I was willing to do the same for them. There is a great
openness within the group."
Greg Reeves and Neil Young, a tall, talented Canadian withstraight black hair and features that suggest Red Indian blood,
are recent additions to the group since the first album. "Why?
Because we had a lot of electric music we wanted to play on stage.
So we found two more brothers," said Graham.
Further talk on those lines was curtailed byDave
AMMO
Crosby's attention -snatching imitation of a US cop,illustrating a point he was making. "Dave's reallyrapping hard today," said Graham to Neil, as theirpartner slipped into the guise of an old lady
launching a tirade against long hair. "Dave's got thisthing about The Beatles at the moment," Grahamcontinued. "He reallywants to see The Beatles
performing live again, so at every opportunity hereally lays into them and says what a lousy groupthey are, hoping it will pressure them into playing
again." He got up to take a phone call, calling backenthusiastically, "Hey, we might be doing a gig in
Manchester. Wouldn't that be great?"
I'd had the impression that CSN and Y had beenworking pretty solidlyin the States since theirformation, but I was assured this wasn't so and inGraham Nashgroup

,uncing his hopes that
ice were all " happily
fortunately this wasfor us verywell. He is able to deal with any level up to and

CSN & YCROSOY, Stills. Nash, Youngand Old have a lengthy
and often enjoyable concert
alLondon's Royal Albert Hall lastweek. " The Old
was the age-

meets Joni Mitchellat London Airport.
December 1969

fact they'd done only 15 or so gigs in all.
"It isn't necessary," explained Graham on his
return, "because it is impossible for everybodyto see

us- that's whywe make albums."

CSNY"HelplesslyHoping" and beyond. Ex -Buffalo
Springfield. Graham Nash: thin, bearded andenergetic; contented and free at last to write"Pre -Road Downs" and "Lady Of The Island",Ex-Hollies. Neil Young: genius. A broken voice
now finding the true path, which is working
with CSN&Yand also with Crazy Horse. Twostatements: "The Loner" and "Cowgirl In The
Sand". Also ex -Springfield.
Greg Reeves (the absent) and Dallas Taylor:the rhythm section, and a damn good one it
has to be to workwith this band, Reeves is
ex -Motown; Taylor is a beautiful open person ina wild Western shirt. Posing fora photograph,
Crosby calls a halt because "we're a six -manband and Greg ain't here yet". That's how close
they are. Listening to Steve picking on his

guitar and Neil hammering country/gospel
cadences on the piano, you can see that, forthem, playing music is where it's at. It's fun all
the way in sunny Topanga Canyon, even when
it's almost snowing outside in Knightsbridge.
Neil Young's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even
Sing" was far and away the standout of theotherwise undistinguished first album fromthe late Buffalo Springfield, and through"Broken Arrow" to "The Old Laughing Lady",
one has watched the growth of a very

individual talent.
Young, a Canadian whose father is one of his
country's most respected political columnists,
was a member of the Springfields, that mostunderrated of groups which broke up mainly
because of the unhealthy atmosphere ofcompetition which existed within the band.
While Steve Stills joined Graham Nash andCrosby, Stills, Nash &Young

woo

ock

David Crosby, Neilwent deeper into
his own music,
producing two
albums under his
own name forWarner/Reprise
before becoming thefourth part of Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young.

"What I'm doing now is
what! wanted for The

Hollies":Nashbeing
interviewed in London,
October28,1970

To date their recording score is just the one

album, but when theyleft LAtheywerewithinfour days of completing their second. Title is DejaVu, which roughly means a feelingof having
been somewhere or done something before.

- MELODY MAKER JANUARY 10 ilOPANGA CANYON, SW7... As Stephen
Stills and Neil Young break up in fits

"I needed that time
in-between to get mybearings, to get myhead in the rightplace," he told me.
"When the Springfields broke up I felt ! couldn't
work in a group context -and I certainly neverrealised I'd be in a group with Steve again, eventhough! guessed that we'd probably be playing
together sometime.
"Now I think I've reached just about the perfectstate. I'm part of the group, which I reallydig,
and I can also express myself as an individual
through myown things. And I need very badly tomake myown music, partlybecause it boosts
myego to the required dimension."
Neil's first solo album was almost completely
ruined by modem technology. The pressing
plant at the record company managed, insome mysterious way, to press the record sothat the vocals were almost completely lost in the complex textures ofthe backings.
"I've remixed it and its being remastered and reissued so that people
will be able to hearit properly," he said. "And I'm working out some
sort of deal with the record company so that the people who bought it
originallywill be able to take it into a record shop and exchange it for"I have got a

bit paranoid
about thepolice in Los
Angeles"of glee after playing some "telepathic
bluegrass music" on a couple of guitars
in a sumptuous flat high above theconcrete buttes and asphalt scrubland of
Knightsbridge. Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and
Taylor are in town, with Reeves The Bass, having missed three planes
from America, expected at any moment. They're happy to talk, happy
to sit around and play, just like they do in their California homes.
Dave Crosby: moustachioed and hilarious, persuadingYoung to teachhim the secret art of eating a boiled egg with a sliver of toast. Ex -Byrd.
Steve Stills: a son of the South in everyway except his mind, blond -haired,clear -blue-eyed, soft -speaking, creator of songs from "Bluebird" toa new copy. ")HISTORY OF ROCK 197023

CRC6BY, STU, NA.1-1 8,YOUNC,

teach your children

wri"Most certainly. It took me and Jack
Nitzsche a month to put down the
tracks for 'Old Laughing Lady'. !write inspasms -I did most of the songs for thesecond album in one month, and aftersomething like that I won't write
anything for weeks and weeks, maybe.
"We did a lot of work on the first album
country girl- everythingwas overdubbed to get thatbreadth of sound. But really! like torecord naturally, I'd rather put the voice
down at the same time as the backing tracks."
Neil is currentlyworkingwith Crazy Horse, a group formerly called The
Rockets, with whom he made his second album, EverybodyKnows This Is
Nowhere, and he is in the process of completing another album with themwhich will, he says, contain elements of both previous records.After thisweek's concert he flies back to the States to work on the scores for twomovies, The Landlord and StrawberryStatement, both apparently products of
Hollywood's new "low budget" thinking.
Neil plans to record at least one of the scoreson his new 16 -track recording unit, which iscurrently being installed in his Topanga
Canyon home.
His final words: "Listen, if you're everaround LA, come around and hear how that firstalbum's REALLY supposed to sound. It'll knock
you out."
I'm certain that Neil Youngwill continue
to knock more and more people out with his
unique songs of despairand alienation - and,once in everywhile, happiness.

-

MELODY MAKER JANUARY10 -CCDON'T BUILD ME up into a pop star. I'm no different fromyou or anybody else. It's just that, because I'm a musician,
I can put music to people's thoughts."
Stephen Stills, talking about his position in society. Like manyof his
generation growing up inside the terror of the GreatAmerican Dreamgone broke, Stills talks music and politico-sociologywith equal ease. Tohim, they are indivisible.
"But music is not the be-all and end-all," he says. "It's a fulcrum aroundwhich the movement exists, because it sets people's heads to music andperhaps sometimes says things that they feel inside but can't articulate.
It's very scary in the States at the moment. Did you read that the cops
busted into a couple of houses in Chicago and Los Angeles a few days ago
and mowed down the Black Panthers? Wow...
"That's why I want to stay in England for a while. It's more... civilised,plus there area few people !want to playwith. I stood up in front of a lotof people during the Vietnam Moratorium in
San Francisco recently and read a poem. So if
there's a list, I'm on it."
Can he see the seeds of an alternative culture
emerging in America?
"Yeah, it's going through its birth -pains. The
young people have got to find a newway to live,"Music isa fulcrumaround which
the movement
exists"24 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

and they're getting there because historyshowsthat no revolution that has come from thepeople has ever failed, even if it's had to takea couple of generations to get through. Rightfrom the time of Alexander The Great, that's
been a fact. Of course, people are in varying
stages of preparing for it. The leaders... well,
we're not getting quite as high these days."

CSNY

This situation will be reflected in Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young's first movie, a fullfeature-length picture to be called Wooden
Ships, and based loosely on the words ofthat song from theirfirst album.
"We're getting Theodore Sturgeon towrite the screenplay-, he's a science -fiction
writer and I'm pretty sure that it's suitablefor him. That should be ready pretty soon."
Briefly, the story centres round thesurvivors of a nuclear holocaust, who meetup with a South American tribe (I think)and sail off in wooden ships in search of an
uncontaminated area where they can
begin to build a new civilisation. Steve saysthat they're trying to get Stanley Kubrick (of2001 fame) to direct the film.
"It won't be anArthurC Clarke screenplay,
so it won't have the same cold feeling as
2001-I hope it will be more like Kubrick's
earlier films, with the characters laid out sowell. It's got to be done properly. If it's too
serious you blow it, and if it's too funnyyou
blow it. You've got to strike a balance."
Perhaps we in Britain don't realise justhow big CSNY are in America. They've
already done 25 concerts in cities which
include Chicago (twice), Houston, New
York, Dallas, LosAngeles, Salt Lake Cityand San Francisco.

"'never realised I'd be ina group with Steve again":
Neil Young andStephen
Stills during the CSNY
interview in London,
October 28,1970"We've averaged 14,000 people aconcert," says Steve. "Some of theconcerts have been in the open air,in football parks, but we're notdoing anymore of those. You get somany people there it's ridiculous.
That essential intimate feeling islost in a football park, and we'regoingto concentrate on playing
halls with a capacitybetween
10,000-14,000."

mixes as long as the engineer'll staywith me. Our new album DéjàVu
took weeks to record, in San Francisco and LosAngeles. In San Francisco
I'd get up at five in the afternoon, have breakfast, go to the studios andstaythere till noon the next day, and then go home and collapse. Thatwent on for three weeks.
"Sometimes! have to work to persuade the other guys to do that too. On
one of Dave's songs from the new album, I made him playit over and overagain until he was dropping asleep over his guitar -then he played it intime, and that was it... finished as far as the playingwent.
"Neil's songs, too, don't sound the same as the stuff he's done on his
own. I worked hard at those, because although that album with Crazy
Horse was groovy, you can tell it was cut quickly, with not too much time
taken overthe sweetening.
"We managed to cut the first album fairly quickly, though, in abouta month, because it was still a new experience then and everybody
was amenable to suggestions and didn't mind working hard at it. But
something like 'Suite: JudyBlue Eyes' still took a lot of time, because we
did all the parts separatelyand there was a lot of splicing and overdubbing.
I spent manyhours on the guitar part of 'Marrakesh Express' finding theright harmonies to go alongwith the lead line on the guitar."
Stills is in England at the moment because the group are having a short
break after six months of touring. During this break theyare all due torecord solo albums, and Stills has found it impossible to get studio time in
the States. "I've been looking around here, and if I can get some time in
Island's new studios I'll cut it there. The situation with time in the studios
is really ridiculous -all the places !want to work in the States are booked
up through the summer, like Wally Heider's. He's got some sort of deal
now with Bones Howe, and Bones gets most of the time at Heider's. This
album'll onlytake me a month, because I've been juggling the ideas
around for some time.
"Maybe I'll onlyneed a drummer, anddo all the other parts myself, but I knowthat if I do need somebody else, there area lot of heavy people around here -like
Eric, who'll be back soon."
There's also a chance that Steve might
use Ringo Starr on drums, to return thefavour that Steve has done him in the past
week by playing on Ringo's most recent
session. "That was a gas. There was
Ringo, me, George Harrison and Klaus *Possibly a large percentage of their success can be ascribed to
the variety they project throughout their concerts, with four
such diverse talents to call on. "We play for two hours, the firsthouracoustic and the second half with electronic equipment.
Just as people think they're listening to a folk concert, we plug in and
WHAM! We're a rock band!"
When I put forward my pet theory, that country -rock hasn't broken big
overhere because basically country music is a particularlyAmerican
form, Steve replied, "Well, it all goes back to Elizabethan music and soforth. It may not have been this year's music, but next year.Anyway,
I couldn't restrict myself to country music, just as I couldn't restrict
myself to the blues. I want to be able to cover it all, to play it all, andI don't see why I shouldn't."- MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 28 GENIUS, SAYS THE old adage, is an infinite capacity for taking
pains. If that's so, then Stephen Stills must be pretty close to it.
Because Steve is a very painstaking guy, much more so than
the general run of pop musicians, who like to get it down on tape andget off home. "This approach is the basis of a lot of success," he told mein his London hotel the other day.
"There are people, like the Memphis bands and the Nashville bands,
who just do it because theyknow it all in front. They're past the need towork it all out in detail. But forme, it's very different, and it's a matter ofvery hard work. Like the guywith Creedence Clearwater, for example their records sound just like they've cut it quick and split, but he spends
hours cutting tiny bits out of 16 -track tape where the drummer's been
dragging, because he knows that it's the beat that sells his records.
"That's how Sgt Pepperwas made, and I like to take a lot of time to makesure something's just right. I've got more of a capacity for that thananybody else in our band, and sometimes I staybehind working on theflews

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kis unusua h the

hostof TVshow
This Is Tom Jones

sings"Long Time
Gone" with CSNY,
September 1969

Woormanb plus George Martin. George said the session was for Ringo's'surprise single', and I guess that could be right. Ringo came in with thislittle tune -that is, he sat down and played eight bars and said, 'That's it.'
So we all made suggestions, like how about adding a bridge here, andplaying this little intro, and this little tag, and it came alongvery.
nicely.
"I could see why George Martin has been so important to The Beatles particularly in the form of the songs, in the more sophisticated elements.
I thought he was tremendous, and I'd love to have him doing my own
album, but I guess I'll use Bill Halverson, because he's so relaxed and hedoesn't mind me taking mytime. I can say to him,
'Look, can you switch track 15 to track 7, mix in tracks
9 and 12, and put the guitar through the board,' andhe doesn't turn a hair. He just does it.
"To get back to the session, though, I suggested thisthing where we should use a major 7th chord and it
sounded strange at first and the other guys couldn't
hear it - but Martin could, and he made anothersuggestion which made it work perfectly. I guess he's
had a lot of effect on them, particularlyPaul. I started
28 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

listening to them at the time ofBeatlesForSale-that's still where I'm at,incidentally, and so is everybody else- and maybe at that time theywere
at their biggest and most isolated, and thus at their closest. So many times
John would come in with some intuitive idea fora song, and Paul andGeorge Martin would kick it around, and the finished product would
come out really neat.
"The whole scene is getting a lot looser. In a little while there'll be maybe
15 guys who can all playtogether in any combination, which is a real
antidote to staleness. It's not just a question of the same old faces; it'll justbe a lot freer and less competitiveness, because
whether somebody's better than somebodyelse
doesn't count for anything any more.
Competitiveness is what kills music."
Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Taylor and Reeves'recent Albert Hall concert came in for some of themost mixed criticism everreceived by a rockconcert, with no two critics seemingly able to agree.
Stills confirmed the impression that the band, too,
had mixed feelings.

7ViDo3D,Fe riNICKEL
CSNY"That was the first time we've
ever really been affected bynerves," he said. "We've played
to audiences who've beenmuch more unfriendly at theoutset, but they've given usa standing ovation after the
first number.
"At theAlbert Hall we
felt somehow as ifwe wereon trial, as if they'd come tojudge us rather than to enjoy ourmusic. The people in front werefriendly, and the people above
were friendly, but all around the boxes were full- of bands.
"There's nowhere else in England I'd rather play than there, but people
do seem to go to a concert at theAlbert Hall in a set frame of mind. Oh,
I can't intellectualise about that. I only knowwhat I feel about it. We got
criticised for spending a longtime tuning up, which is partlyjustified
because! like to tune up while I'm playing a little
bit of music, so that it doesn't sound unpleasant.
But when Neil gets nervous he plays very hardand puts his guitar out of tune and then has totune it back again." RichardWilliams- NME MAKER NOVEMBER 7 -Kelloggs. I loved it, man. I mean, that show was so f---- jive that it's
incredible. Man, we f----- jumped at the chance. In another respect
it was really groovy, though, because! have a tape of the show mixed
the way I would have done it. I tell you something, though- that show
was two years old; it was the first TVwe did; and we stopped doing
television as a direct result.
"How much of mytime is spent doing nothing? As much as! canget, man - because when I'm doing nothing, I'm re -energising anddevoting time to myself, giving myself the same energythat I put into
other people."He sits back on the settee, the eyes of his lived-in face closed fora
moment, and I asked him about conceit. I tell him that at one time there
were those who thought his ego over -dominant. Were theywrong?
"Er, well, myego was larger then. So how's that for an ego statement?
Phew! The fact is that I suddenly discovered I was writing the only musicthat was turning me on. I guess I just felt lwas writing more real songs,
and not contrived songs. The music that I felt in my head wasn't reallygetting onto the tape and I was really p---- off because I knew theability off he Hollies could do it. But the same energywasn't going in that
I was putting in. If it had been, we could have
had tapes that were five times as good.
"As far as ego goes, though, every artist needs
it. It's the thing that wants to make his art better.
There are different levels of ego, anyway- mineis the one that wants me to improve myself."
I asked him how he felt about the current
Crosby, Stills &Nash bootleg album, Wooden
Nickel. "I'm obviously concerned. It's bad
s-- they're putting out. If theywere putting"At the Albert
Hall we felt
somehow as
if we wereon trial"

IT IS AN autumn afternoon and there is
the smell of new paint and the air is hot
and dry in the elegant space of the Chelsea
apartment blockwhere Mr Graham Nash
has taken rooms during his current visit tothis country. He peppers his conversation
with the perennial cliches of pop - "goodvibrations", "groovy, man" - and from time totime the roundness of his Salford accent is no match for theAmericanisation of his dialogue.

One knows from his words, and music, however, that behind Nash's
over -jived pose and prose there is a real human beingwaiting to get out.
And the man who gave us Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young has to be worth
listening to. With one exception, this is his first return to England in two
years... and the fact is that he revels in the changes the months havebrought him.
Listen to him talk about the person he's become since those frustrated
days with The Hollies; the direction he's headed; and the things thatmake his music tick...
"I work best inAmerica because I'm surrounded by people who inspireme, man. They're the people with whom I wanna make music. David,
David Crosby, has just gone back to New York on some business. We wereapproached to do a tour together, and maybe we will. Until then -well, I'll
just stay here in England till! feel like moving on, I guess.
"An incredible amount has happened to me in two years, man.
December the 8th, 1968, I played with The Hollies, and December the
10th I was rehearsin' with David and Stephen.
"I'm not where I want to be in life, no. I'm never exactlywhere I want tobe; I'm just getting closer. Only fora matter of hours can you experience
total happiness -and then it goes away, and you're on a bummer again.
"What lam doing now is what ! wanted for The Hollies. This, now, isexactlywhat I was looking for.And I just can't believe how easy it is to workwith the people I'm with. There are just no doors with them, man. You goin the studio and everyone will listen to what everyone else has got to say,and we all build it, and hold it down, and polish it like a jewel.
"With The Hollies I just came across too many psychological doors.
They probablywon't even understand what I'm saying, but I felt very
restricted. I really did, man -although the waywe made records wasprettyloose. But I just felt restricted. It's not that it came down to people in
the end. It was just the preconceptions The Hollies had been conditioned
to... their ability to take a look at themselves."
I mentioned the Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young appearance on the recent
Tom Jones TVshow, and said there were those who thought theirinvolvement somewhat, er, unexpected.
Laughter. "Are you kiddin'? The opportunity to play up to Tom Jones how could anybody miss that?! thought it was the funniest thing since

decent s- out then I wouldn't worrytoomuch. It's all negative, because they're making
money for nothing and they'll get what's
coming sooner or later.
"For something recorded out of one
microphone in front of one of the PA
speakers... for that to have my name on infuriates me. That's why I'm
angry.And we're losing a lot of money, too, y'know. And that concerns
me to a certain extent."
We talked about Apple: "The original concept, to help people, that
was a fine idea. It's working, too, in that in a sense there are now millions
ofApples working all over the place. For instance, there are artistic
friends of mine whose art I respect and who I am helping. When I got
to New York recently! called my office -and they said that someone on
Paul McCartney's behalf had called, so I called him and I spoke to Linda
for 10 minutes. Not Paul -just Mrs McCartney!
"I think that what happened with Paul McCartney is what happens
with most creators. They try and help worldwide, and then find that's
impossible and that they have to go the other way, just to sort themselves
out. Most of us are like that. You sort yourself out, and then your foot starts
tapping again. I find it incrediblyeasyto love- incredibly.
"I love people. I love things. That suit you're wearing now is doing
incredible things for me, doing
wonderful things for my eyes.As far as
loving the ladies goes, I can't spend
time with ladies who don't make me
feel good. And when! commit myself tospending time with one particular lady,
she's got to be really special."
Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young's next
album will be a double live one, Four
WayStreet, says Nash, and then a seriesof solo albums will follow. "For myown," he tells me, "I have five basic
tracks. Would you like to hear them?"
I say I would, and on the record player
he plays five beautiful songs, all withan air of melancholy entwined withquiet eroticism. Nash The Man
remains, still, a little bumptious
around the edges.
But inside his mind there are sensitive
images and a fine, consistent talent.
And that's what matters. Alan Smith

GNASH

and
his

EGO

It's essential

IT le en autumn afternoon and there isPlant end the air le hot arid dry

1

1970

J4NUARI-0"

harmonies on the vocals. It's
all a bit sunshine-is-golden-ish
for me. I can't believe the lyrics
were written seriously, there
must be a bit of tongue-incheek going on. It's very
contrived. To be fair, I suppose
it was a sincere attempt to aim
something at an imagined publicstate of mind which doesn't infact exist. All that pastoral stuff
gleaned from things that havecome out over the past five years
and stuck together!
New York Rock & Roll Ensemble
I'm TL
FROM TH E POLYDOR"4°/ COLUMBIA

ALBUM FLATTERINGFOE

Is this at

the right
speed?
Well, er,well, er,Ina
DB 8651pwell, er...
They nearly
A, FOR AS IONG AS YOU NEED ME
got the bassline from The
Righteous

MO
4
id

.

'Sr

Brothers "Lovin'Feelin- right at the beginning.

JAN10 Pink Floyd's Roger Waters reviews the singles. r

Heat because I saw the label
when we were trying to mend
the record player -but I admit
I wouldn't have sussed it out. I
quite like this- in fact, I like thissort of blues record -although
I feel that most of it has been
done better before. I mean I
don't think this says it any betterthat it was said 30 years ago. It
has an optimistic lyric.

SINGLES
Canned Heat
LIBERTY

It's got some quite nice slide
guitar on it. It reminds me a bit ofLeadbelly. I know it's Canned
`,4

'COIF

ion

The Rascals
Hold OnATLANTIC

Well I never! When I listen tothings like that and don't know
who they are, I start to wonder ifthey are black or white or grey.

understudy for Jimi Hendrix
coming through a Selmer Little
Giant. With all that alliteration,
the lyric sounds like something
Pete Townshend might havewritten -when he was four. It'svery weedy.
The Art Movement
F

COLUMBIA

There's the old Ray Charles
piano, or pianette, in there andthe drums at the front in themodern mode. I have neverseen Delaney & Bonnie but I
imagine this is rather how theysound. It's not really the kind ofthing I'm interested in.
Flaming YouthROGER WATERS °FloPyi:ktirliate Mil Dow

earkartal

216,

Te ft. I aldit Ye Ow

y,1 1 014. W

wo, OR,

Then it sounded like an

FONTANA

Good lord! What alaugh! I think that sums
that up, without wishing
to be glib. Fora start,
I didn't like theI've no idea who it is but it could
be any one of five million groups.
It's the old conception of taking
an Artist, with a capital A, and aSong, with a capital S, written by
Pop, with a capital P, Song
Writers, with a capital S and W,
and a Tune, with a capital T, andmix them all together. And what
do you get? A load of rubbish.
That is the other path of pop
music. That really is the otherside from all the performers whoare staggering about making
sounds they think are good,making sounds for reasons. This

SINGLES & ALBUMS

also magnificent, saying morein one bent note than athousand other guitarists can
say in a finger -busting run.

seems to be reasonless. It's notreally worth talking about.
Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland
Big Bandtif in,Sol,
FROM THE POLYDOR LP FACES

That second section soundedvery Ellington-ish, though therest didn't. I do like that sort ofmusic though, I don't know what
I can say about it. It's the kind ofthing that if we heard it on theway up the MI it would get us all
miming, if you know what I mean.

.0.A

ALBUMS
Robin Gibb Robin's Reigi POLYDOR

record. Bob Dawbarn, MM Jan,37

Royston Eldridge, MM Jan 17

Kevin Ayers Joy 01 A To j HARVEST

Syd Barrett
FROM THE HARVEST LP THE MADCAPLAUGHS, PART OF WHICH WAS
PRODUCED BY ROGER(Laughs) This is a track I didn't

produce because it didn't needanything doing to it. This song
makes everything else you haveplayed me look completely sickand silly. I think this is very
beautiful. Don't take it off, I'm
going to listen to it all the way
through. I think this is a greatsong. In fact, all the songs on thisalbum are great. No, some ofthem on it are great - in capitalletters -and all of them are good.

Joy, beauty and mystery abound in this album by
the former Soft Machine guitarist. His songs are
simple but fascinating, with the warm, hazy andsometimes sinister feel of songs half -rememberedfrom distant childhood. The arrangements,
featuring the Soft Machine on some tracks,

capture the spirit of the thing perfectly- subtle,
mysterious, richly textured and delicately funky.
There really hasn't been an LP quite like it. Harvest
deserve praise for allowing Mr Ayers to do histhing; he's come up with a gem. AlanLewis, MMJanDavid Ackles

ELEKTRABlack Sabbath

A second beautiful album by singer/writer/pianist
David Ackles, composer of "Road To Cairo". His isa distinctive voice in an overcrowded field, warm
and mature but touched with the sadness andoccasional bitterness of a loner who has spentyears on the road. He avoids the facile
philosophising and obscure imagery of many of his
contemporaries. Production is up to Elektra's
usual high standard, but some superfluous string
and woodwind arrangements intrude on some

L.II 111U1110.1.

tracks. AlanLewis,MMJan17

Syd is a genius.

FONTANA

There you go! Well, well,well! I'm
speechless -well almost. It's got
that kind of Dragnet, Peter Gunn,
and American detective series
beginning. You keep thinking it's
going to start. You think that for
the first minute, but then, if you
are really perceptive, you realise
it isn't going to start and that's
all there is.

Miles Davis

COLUMBIA

Something new again from Miles and in its own
gentle, low-key, lyrical genre it's absolutely
perfect. Any doubts raised by a look at the lineup
can be dispelled at once; electric pianos, guitar andorgan dovetail into slabs of beautiful andconstantly changing sound. The discipline
displayed all round is quite remarkable. Essentially,
the shifting textures are what this record is allabout, but there are many individual gems
glittering in there too. Miles is at his mostrestrained, yet conveys complete authority withevery note placed in exactly the right place andlasting exactly theright length of time.
Shorter is superb on
soprano - utterly
individual in both tone
and approach... You
never heard such puresound from a soprano
before. McLaughlin is

the organ most intelligently
to fill out against theelectric pianos andguitar. Tony Williams is
unbelievably subtle,while
Dave Holland keeps hishead up in the most exalted
company in jazz. A beautiful

This is the first album from Robin since he left the
now defunct Bee Gees. He composed all r! tracks,
produced the whole lot and took the choir's part aswell. He writes excellent, interesting songs spoilt
only for me by his rather forced vocal style whichtends to make some of his songs sound contrived
and similar. But he undoubtedly has talent, and for
Gibb fans this album will not be a disappointment.
It includes his single hit "Saved By The Bell".

a.

Zawinul contributes a delightful
theme and uses

tCaiNk Are
A14,61.E. ref -A 444%47

Laura Nyro
COLUMBIA

Laura Nyro is a member ofthat select band of female
singers who can do nothing
but express their own
truths. That, perhaps, ispart of the reason why she
is not yet a superstar;because she hides behind
no masks, erects nobarriers between herself
and the music, she can easily frighten off the timid
listener. Invariably, one has the feeling when
listening to her that she sings because she has to,because she must express her own innermost
fears and lusts. She never appears to be singing
for anyone but herself,and her words are drawn
out, the vowels distorted and the consonantsslurred. But it doesn't matter, because theemotions are unmistakeably clear. Her songs are
immediately identifiable: their contours are herown, and behind the happiest is a longing, bittersweet quality which reeks of desperation. She
constantly unsettles the listener with abrupt halts,
tempo changes, and high held notes which grate on
the brain. Like Billie Holiday, Laura Nyro looks into
her own soul - through a glass, darkly. The vision, if
not lovely, is at least unique. Richard Williams, MIN Jan37

Rod Stewart
VERTIGORod "The Mod" Stewart commands a lot of respectamong pop people for his unusual blues voice, andthis album does him full justice. He has gathered
a bunch of well-known musicianstoaccompany
him on eight songs, five of which are his own
compositions. His version of the Stones' "Street
Fighting Man" is a real rocker, with Small Face Ian
McLagan (piano) and guitarists Martin Pugh andRonnie Wood (another Face) in great form. The
treatment the song is given highlights Rod's vocal
power. Mike D'Abo's splendid song "Handbags
And Gladrags" has been altered to suit Rod's styleand it is without the frenzy of Chris Farlow's hit, butwith a lot of emotion and some nice woodwinds.
"Cindy's Lament" is one of Rod's own numbers andmainly an instrumental; it's forceful and includes
good drum work by Micky Waller. Ewan McColl's"Dirty Old Town"
is a good blues
number that
Rod handles very
well to round off avery worthy album
which deservesto do well. Richard
Green, NME Feb 21

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 129

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"I am areligious
nutcase"Peter Green

increasingly looks
more like he belongsin the Bible, not
FLEETWOOD MAIL

While the bandreturns from a
profitable American
tour, the guitarist
plans to give away
his money. "I knowwhat it's like on £5
a week," he says.

«y

NME EBRUARY 28 OU DON'T THINK it's too
expensive, do you?" asked Peter

Green earnestly as he reversed his£700 white Jaguar out of a car parkin Richmond park. "If you lookaround, most of the other cars
here... that one and even that one... would cost more than£700, and Mick and John's cost a lot more than that."

Looking every day more like a character out of the massive
bound Bible that sits on a shelf in the middle of his extensive
stereo collection, the heavily hairy Fleetwood Mac leader ishome after the group's three-month stretch inAmerica
wanting to give his money away. Not all of it, but all that hefeels is in excess of his share. His passing obsession with theprice of his car -he would have liked an AC Cobra but thatwould have cost at least twice as much -comes from attitudes
that have grown to fruition during his spell in the States.

Peterwants to help- financially- the starving and those thatfail to get a good education and opportunities, and had been
explaining earlier, "My parents and I have got our house. I've
got mycar, which isn't really expensive, and, and I'm happy
with that. I've also got my stereo and most of the records!
want. All in all it's a very good helping, if you look at it in termsof each person's share, so I am satisfied with what I've got. And
there are so many people who haven't got anything at all, I feelthe least! can do is give away my excess.""Not that ! have millions and millions, but there are going tobe some big chunks coming in compared to what the average
man earns. I haven't had any of my song writing moneyyet x.
30 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

.41

"I feelthe least I cando isgive away my excess":

Fleetwood Mac's Peter
Green onstage in Barnet,
North London intg70

HISTORY OF ROCK1970

JANUARY -MARCH

and there's all that to give. Then there's my share of the advance from
Reprise Records, £18,000. That's money to give. I've had these ideas fora
longtime; now I'm going to act on them. There must be no starvation. Just
because somebody is born on the other side of the world that is no reason
why theyshould be starving for it.
"I am not going into povertywith them, although! did think of doing
that. It would perhaps have made me feel better. This way the moremoney I earn the more I can give away. Doing that is easy- maybe one day
I will put myself to work as well- but at the moment I think that by goinground and playing to and meeting people I can do much in that way.
"What other people do with their moneyis none of mybusiness, but
I know what it is like to earn £5 a week and have a good laugh and to earn
£500. I can be just as happy... like when lwas a butcher earning a fiver a
week. I do feel guilty about squandering money on myself, but I am now
going to be careful. I have felt that a lot... even when I eat sometimes. Thevery least I can do is give away that money I don't need, and anyone who
thinks money is going to make them happy is so wrong.
"I would love to go yachting. I love cars. !would like to buy an AC Cobra,
but the thing is that before! do that !would like to know that everyone isgetting their bowlful of rice everyday."Peter also hopes to do charity shows with the group -"That would bebetter, because then I won't have to touch the money" -and the first isa Fleetwood Mac performance at the London Lyceum onApril 12 in aid
ofJewish old people. There will of course be sceptics who question thereasons behind his benevolence, but they get a typical Green retort: "It'smybusiness what! do. Anyone who's sceptical can go and get... !"We'd driven out from Peter's New Malden home with Jane, the group's
fan club secretary, and were sitting next to the window in some terribly,
terribly English tea rooms watching the squirrels hop around the park. It
was a far cry from the Holiday Inn, turnpike, airport and hamburger trailthat had been the group's lot for the past three months"What's John Lennon been doingwhile we've been away?" asked Peter,
and, after he'd been regaled with up-to-date Lennonisms, professed a
deep admiration for the Beatle's work for peace.
"I really enjoyed the tour," he said later. "OurAmerican agent who books
lots of British bands like Jethrollill, Ten YearsAfter, etc, said that in terms
F eetwood Mac photographedin LosAngelesinig69:(I-r)
John McVie, Danny Kirwan,
Mick Fleetwood, Peter Greenand Jeremy Spencer

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

of a group leaping upwards in status it was one of the most successful he'dbeen associated with. We felt we'd made an important foothold. Of course
there were lots of ups and downs and times when we got under eachother's feet, but the feeling on the plane coming home was so good that if
we'd been asked to turn around and go back again I think we all would."
Like most of our group visitors, he finds theAmerican situation
depressing but sees the good side even in areas like the Deep South if
there is at least one "nice" person to meet.
"In some places it is just a talkative taxi driver, like the fellow in
Maryland who knew England. But we did make a lot of new friends there."
Was there anything in rumours of Danny Kirwan planning to leave thegroup? "I would say no, but obviouslyyou'd have to ask Danny that,
because I've walked offstage before thinking I've had enough. And
obviously there are going to be times like that with all groups on tour.
I'd say that, like the last time we came back from America, the band iscloser than it has everbeen and Danny and I are now working andplaying together, which we haven't done before."Peter went on to disclose that Dannyand he are planning an album
together based round their two lead guitars and that he is to record a solo
album for release at Christmas: "One of the songs on it I wrote in Chicago
when it was snowing... it's a sort of poem set to music... and I'd like it to beheard in that sort of atmosphere."
The group has also brought back tapes of three shows they did at the
Boston Tea Party, and these will be edited fora live album "when we get
the time. We've got about 20 new numbers as well and we should reallybe recording now. But we've got so much touring to do."Contraryto reports, "The Green
Manalishi" has not been chosen as theirnext single. It is, says Peter, just one froma batch of tracks they'll record and thenpick from. We got back onto our earlier
subject and through that onto the needfor opportunity, Peter's peace of mind
and skinheads. "I come from that kind of
background [from Bethnal Green in East
London] and I know the skinhead feeling

FLEETWOOD MAC

of trying to prove yourself because
you have nothing else. You just want
to be someone. Now I feel myself to be
more or less someone, I can look at itfrom both sides.
"I had the feelings ! have now
when I was a kid in the East End, but
I couldn't walkup to people there
and be friendly because theywould
beat your brains out. I think of life asa long pipe you're looking into. When
you're born the pipe is open and theinside smooth. Things like a badfamily foundation, poverty and lackof opportunity start to corrode theinside until it begins to close up.
"I came from a working-class homeand had a good family background,but things around me started to rustthe pipe up. That's what happens forlots of people. For me it has now
opened up to like it was when I wasa little kid. I feel a great brotherlinesstowards people and I'm not ashamed
to feel it."

- NME APRIL 11 pETER GREEN HAD just got up; coming down to meet me in themusic room of his Surrey home, stretching, smiling abundantly
and singing the "sympathy and understanding" verse from
"Aquarius" before sitting down amongst the mounting bric-a-brac,
records, letters, books, amplifiers and bird cages to tell me why he isleaving Fleetwood Mac.
"There are manyreasons: the main thing being that I feel it is time fora change. I want to change mywhole life really, because ! don't want to
be at all a part of the conditioned world and as much as possible lam
getting out of it. I am always concerned with what is right with God
and what God would have me do... that is the most important thing
to me... that dominates every thought in my head. I don't feel I want tobe a part of Fleetwood Mac anymore... no longer frustrated, free to dowhat I like."
His mother brought tea and Peter continued, "As you know, there isa whole big movement going on like a revolution. I want to be a part ofthat, so that whatever! do -whether I form
anothergroup or not -I need to be with people
who feel exactly the same as I do: that is, they
don't worry about security in terms of money.
We will be doing a lot of free concerts as long as
they are not being promoted for private gain.
"I want to get 100 per cent into music. !want
to do lots of jamming with different groups
and musicians. I want to do all I can to bringpeople to God and peace... full time, not justnow and again. I want to be completely free todo what I like."
He had, he said, been thinking of leaving for"It's become abusiness, andI don't want
to be part of abusiness"some time and had broken the news to the restof the band in Munich a few weeks ago.
"I was cut down," he went on, "bybeing a thirdof the group's front line. That was quite fun when it started, but after
a while I felt ! couldn't get into anything because aftera couple ofnumbers I would have to step back to let the others have their chance.
Theywere disturbed when I told them and shook up a bit.
"The thing about Fleetwood Mac was that people may think I was themain person in the group because the singles were my songs, but onstage all of us have always been only parts of the group. In Germany,for instance, Jeremy has always been the one they've centred on.
The rest of theband will definitely

carryon as
Fleetwood Mac, put
in manager Clifford

Davis, who had joined us,
although it hadn't been decided
whether to take on a replacement.
Theywould take a rest afterPeter's
last date with them on May25 todecide which way to go, and hethought it likely there would bea new guitarist.
I asked Peter why he can't
do what he wants within theframework of Fleetwood Mac.
"I could try but I know it wouldn't
work out... I want to do my own
things and do them at length.
I want to do them with people
who think like me, who want to
be into it full time. I know theywould be willing to play them, but
the kind of music I want demands
that it is a personal thing felt
within everyone's heart and notjust a piece of music to be played.
It has to be 100 percent.
"You see, I am not happywith theway mylife is being run. There is
no rest. No time to do anything, todevelop my character. It is like lam a nine -to -five worker, but it is worse
because at least they get evenings off. Always pounding away on stage,
I don't have anytime to be me.
"It's not enough just to be successful... It has become a business, andI don't want to be a part of a business. I never did a deliberate hit record...
I can say that... I never got into it to that extent.
"I want out of the cut-and-dried business angle... the feeling that it's
good ifwe and the promoter make a good screw and go down well at thesame time... I don't want to be a part of that. I want it to be a good freething for people... just to play music and give it to people.
"In other word s I am a religious nutcase," he laughed.
I put it back to him that although he might be laughing, isn't that whata great many people would think... that he is a crank?
"It will be funny if theydo," he replied. "But only the business people
will, because they think anyone who doesn't want to be rich is a nutcase.
I am no more religious than the average Christian."
Apart from jamming and playing, Peter's plans include firstly recording
a solo album that's likely to end up a double set. He thinks it would benice if the record company agree forhim towaive his royalties so it can be sold as cheaplyas possible.
"I don't want any money," he says, echoing
his feelings from the last interviewwe did
when he announced his intention of giving his
excess earnings to charities. "Just enough to
buy tapes, equipment, keep the house and havefood to eat."
He says he wants to make his music forthe"peaceful young"... "those for whom listening
to music is like a religion... but to others as well
who want to listen."
He feels his leavingwill bring more out of
Jeremy and says, "I have become the speaker
for the band, but Jerry used to do that.As I foundmyfeet and confidence, Jerry has sunk back. In my opinion he is a genius,
but because there are three of us at the front he cannot get fully into it. He
is the funniest person! have ever met- he's incredible- and he also has somuch to offer musically."
And finally: "You see, it's been a great thing for me to be brought up in
the East End with all the violence there and to manage to live through thatkind of upbringing and find God and people who think the same way.
I want to give that feeling to as manypeople as I can..." NickLogan

WHY PETER GREEN QUITLEETW 0 OD MAC

1111.1.11: rOl.ln of lb..

down to meet me ,r1 thePETER GRI IN had just got up. coming
abundantly and singing the sympathy and unSurrey home. stretching, <ntilingtalloresitting down amongst the mounting
Aquarius 'dersanding verseand bird cages to tett me why he iss.
books.
asopleists
bric abrac. records. *Settlhanie I
leaving Fleetwood Mac.
['tall..al/It I feel it is time lath
the tr.r. rt.the COndllione,
at

(see
k

centrlipages

But it doesn't mean the end

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"There is a
powerfulastrologicalforce"MELODY MAKER"G

IT YOUR HAIR CUT." A

battered Vauxhall rattled
through the village of
Pangbourne and a grinning
passenger desperately wound
down his window to delivera crushing blow of invective.
"We've made his day," observed Jimmy Page brightly,
as the car disappeared 10 -year testilyround a bend andthe passenger twisted round in his seat to observe theeffects of his perfunctorycondemnation of the longhaired stranger daring to venture abroad.
Prejudice and ignorance always overpower me. My
response and ignorance always overpower me. My
response to the minor incident was to give an impotent
vee-sign and suppress a desire to throw a brick. But likedwarfs and long-distance runners in baggy shorts, those
who chose to wear their hair in its natural state develop
a philosophical urbanity towards men who express
xenophobia byjeering.

How else to accountfor the success of
LLD ZEPPtu. ? An

in-depth encounter
with
.
rnAL.
reveals plenty about
the band's wealth,motivations andremarkable rise. "It'sbeen quite a year...""I've been asking myself
if we were progressive":
Jimmy Page at a press

3

conference before Led
Zeppelin'sshow at theLos Angeles Forum on

September 4,1970

434 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

e

1

IP

Small children escaping from school
tittered as we continued our progress insearch of food.
"He's one offHEM," gasped one, daringly.
"Even kids don't like me," pondered the
young guitarist idolised by several million
young people throughout Western Europe,
the NorthAmerican continent andAustralasia. "It's the waytheir parents
bring them up, I suppose. It must be thelonghair they don't like. Oh no -it's thetrousers. That's what's doing it." Hemuttered to himself without appearing
undulyworried.
In a newsagents, where a weekly bill had
to be paid, the proprietor burst out with abluff and jovial greeting, and held up a copyof a magazine with the Page featuresemblazoned on the cover.
"Ah, you're doingwell then?" he quizzed,
hoping for personal confirmation of
Jimmy's status. He was politely proffered
payment but withheld anyintimate chat.
Our eyes were on an Olde Tea Shoppe
which, even at 3pm, looked as if it might
have something more than tea available.
A little old ladypeered at the hairy
invasion with fear. "Yes?" she asked,
tight-lipped and unsmiling. Gently, Jimmy
asked if steaks were still available, andwhen it became apparent our conversation
was not to be loud and spiced with oaths
and we would not demolish the glassware
or furniture, she relaxed and a nod of
acceptance showed her heart had
stopped pounding.
Jum28,1970:
L.dZ.ppelin
It is a strong and fragile world that Jimmy
onstageattheand his fellow elite of successful groupdom
Bathiestivalin
SheptonMallet,
inhabit. An object of suspicion, envy andSomerset
exaggerated idolatry, it requires
intelligence and tact to cope with thesituation. Jimmy has money. He also has
charm, wit and a lot of talent. The Led
Zeppelin success story is probably the mostwell -adjusted and certainly the happiest among groups to have captured
the imagination of rock -hungry audiences. Much stems from Jimmy's
drive and purposeful common sense often smoke -screened by a soft
voice and diffident manner. One should not fail to note the hard edge thatoccasionally creeps into his voice or the glint in the eyes.
American fans have often expressed surprise at the numberof fine
guitarists who emerged in Britain during the '60s group boom. While Eric
Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, Alvin Lee and more were building theirreputations at home, Jimmywas regarded as rather an obscure if
legendary figure. He was known as the Guv'nor among guitarists. As abrilliant young session player, he was unknown to fans jamming theblues clubs. When he emerged from the studios to join The Yardbirds they practically emigrated to America. He was to remain a mystery tomost at home until November 1968, when Led Zeppelin was born.
At that time, Cream, who had pioneered the heavy instrumental rockband, were in their death throes. Zeppelin were not consciously createdto fill their role. But that is what happened with a startling swiftness. As
often happens, the home countrywas the last to hear about it. America
loved them.
"The biggest happening since The Beatles," was the crywhen I went to
NewYork with the band for their Carnegie Hall debut last autumn. And
while aware of the extent of their album sales, the tumultuous reception
NewYork gave Jimmy, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham
still came as a mild case of amazement.
Both their albums have gained Gold and Platinum Awards forsomething in excess of four million sales. They have never issued a single- officiallyat least. The Board of Trade recently honoured them at the
Savoy Hotel, London for their contribution towards exports and industry.
Git your hair cut.
30 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

After steak, coffee and toasted scones with home-made jam, we tiptoedfrom the old lady's tiny tea shoppe, strolled back in the chill but bracing
wintersunshine to Jimmy's ramblingwooden boat house beside theThames. The Paganini of the '70s, who makes audiences scream byscraping a violin bow across the screeching guitarstrings, like so many
heroes of rock culture, seeks onlypeace and isolation when away fromthe bellowing, lucrative uproar of stadiums and concert halls. If thecomparison with Paganini comes as a surprise, it must be said that asa young man, the violinist wore tight trousers, hypnotised women andmade them faint, while men said he must be possessed by the Devil, such
was the effect of his playing.
It was an oddly magical experience to escape from a London office andjoin Jimmy at his Berkshire home fora day. Although there is a telephone
to maintain contact with business, a railway station on his doorstep, andthe threat of motorway development, the emphasis is on tranquility, easeand a return to an almost Edwardian lifestyle. The Thames flows outside
his rear porch, rather fast and muddy in February. Swans and ducks poke
about. Cows lurch in the fields on the opposite bank. A large whitetelescope has pride of place in the living room.
He reclined on the arm of a settee, one elegantlyfashioned trouser leg
crossing the other, hairflowing backwards. Girlfriend Charlotte floatedghost -like to make tea in the kitchen. "I'm changing my telephone
number," he revealed. "They tell me I should have done it long ago. We getabout 30 or 40 calls a day. I was editing tapes yesterday forthe next LP and
you need your wits about you for that. There were interruptions all thetime, which made it a day -long job. I'm not ex-directoryand you can't tellpeople you really are busy. Theythinkyou are just trying to get rid of them.
All this started within the last six months. I bought the house about
two-and-a-halfyears ago when I was with The Yardbirds. There hasn't

LED ZEPPELIN

ANTIC

WEL

been much time todecorate, being awayin
the States so much, but
you wouldn't havebelieved the scene when I
moved in. The previous
owner had great garlands ofplastic flowers everywhere. Sheeven had a barrow in the cornerdecorated with plastic flowers. It
was like a Norseman's funeral when wethrew all the flowers onto the river."Wandering around the interior revealed asurprising number of oddly shaped rooms andpassages, and down below the ground floor wasa huge room housing the central heating, adismantled antique bed, considerable quantities
of junk and a motor launch bobbing about in an
inlet, waiting for summer. "This is the tub. It's outof action at the moment, but it has a cassette tapemachine. You can cruise down the river, switch
off the motor and dig all the sounds. I can't wait
for the summer. Once the sun comes out, we all
go on the river and every day is a holiday."
We continued a tour of the low-ceilinged
rooms with sloping floors and muddled pilesof valuable paintings, records, model trains
and books. Copies of Man, Myth & Magic lay
around and a huge volume of the works ofmystic Aleister Crowley. In one room was a

Mutoscope, a hand -cranked seaside peepshow
featuring "a gentleman's downfall", involving alissom lass wearing not unsexy 1926 underwear
and a healthy smile.
Parts of the house were freezing cold where
central heating has not yet been deployed tocombat the creeping river air. But all held thewarmth of personality- and a welcome return totraditional English eccentricity. To complete theatmosphere came the visitors. Equally young,rich and eccentric - Roger Daltreyof The Who,and his companion, Heather, swept into theforecourt in a rakish grey Stringray, doubtlesscapable of appallingly high speeds.
Theywere out for an afternoon drive, and like good neighbours -theylive some six miles away -had dropped by for tea and chat. Roger put up
his boots, slightlysplashed with mud as befitsa landowner, and chatted with Jimmy about thepressing subjects of the day like the shortage ofgood convertible boat -houses, the ever -rising
price of art treasures and the difficulty in sellinghorse-drawn gipsycaravans. "It was beautiful,
made of wood and with two fullyfitted rooms.
But could I sell the bloody thing? No chance."
Jimmy nodded sympathetically and, after
regards had been extended from The Who
towards Robert Plant, now recovering at his
Kidderminster farm from a recent car accident,
Roger and Heather drove home across the shire,'ere the winter evening drew in.
"Stevie Winwood lives not faraway," said
Jimmy. "We often get friends dropping in. We
don't exactly take part in village life, but it's likethe New Renaissance of B erkshire, I suppose. A baronial life in ourpalatial country retreats," Jimmy laughed.

new trends and groups, there is a tendency towards cynicism,
especially among those who interest themselves in progressive rock.
They have learned the meaning of the slangword "hype", which hints at
hyperbole and hypocrisy, and neatly sums up the process of falsely
exaggerating the popularity and earning powerof an artist. The situation
has been largely brought upon pop by the policy of management inbuilding up groups with advance publicitywhich later fails to fulfil its
promise- rather like General Election campaigns.
Fans eagerlyawait a performance or album and are disappointed bya display of careless indifference. "Hype" - goes up the cry. Now there iscynical backlash where groups, teenybop or underground, are suspect ifthey gain too much BREAD and publicity.
Zeppelin are one of the groups who have experienced sniping, at home
and abroad. Says Jimmy Page, "Before theysaw us in America there wasa blast of publicity and they heard all about the money being advanced to
us by the record company. So the reaction was- Ah, a capitalist group.'
Theyrealised we weren't when they saw us playing a three-hour non-stopshow every night.
And the reason whywe played that longwas because when we started
a year ago we had worked out a one -hour set and onstage this naturally
expanded to an hour and a half. As we put in other numbers, this became
two hours. In America theywanted encores and it expanded to threehours with the extra material from the second album.
"We enjoy ourselves and that shows in our playing. If somebodywants
to hype a group, theyonly suffer in the end because people understandthe economics of bands, especially in the States where it is the fashion to
ask who is getting what out of what.
"I'm sure that when Hendrix played a West Coast festival, people knew
he was being paid 100,000 dollars. There were a lot of snide remarks, andafterwards he seemed to drop in popularity. If we play at a university, kids
say, 'Hey, you're getting £1,000 tonight.' So what?They think £1,000 is a lotof money, but it's not in relation to the expenses of a band with roadmanagers, airfares and hotel bills. But really, money has nothing to dowith it. You can tell when a band is being hyped, bytheir manner. You cantell from the vibrations. I can tell, so I'm sure everyone else can."Have Zeppelin received much criticism of their music?
"The onlycriticism came after ourAlbert Hall concert in London,
recently. One reviewer said we got off to a slow start. Well, I don't know if
the guy had seen us before, but the idea is to start off with recognisable
Zeppelin things, then go much quieter and use acoustic guitar, which isalways well received. Then we build it up again.
"You can't possiblyhave a climax all the way. We like to playa crosssection of styles. We're not a rabble -rousing group. We are trying to playsome music. One has to remember, at the Royal Albert Hall concerts, all
the tickets were sold out in a day, so they must have been Zeppelin people
in the audience who knew what we play."
Did Jimmy think there was a danger of too much beingwritten and said
about the "rock revolution"? Isn't it all gettingout of hand?
"There shouldn't be a lot more written aboutit, because pop is going through a very
revolutionarystage at the moment. I saw theJack Bruce film on TVand I was quite amazed.
He was tremendous. The whole message was just listen to the music. That's what it's all about.
"Many classical people listen to pop music.
They realise pop is not just a joke. Critics like
TonyPalmer in the Sunday newspapers havehelped it all to an incredible extent. It's strange,
but I never saw the Cream and I had never seen
Jack Bruce until his Lyceum concert. I've
started going to concerts because! never saw
anywhen I was working so hard touring. You
have to be quick these days to see a group before they split up. I never saw
Hendrix or the Cream while we were working in the States, or any othergroups unless theywere on the same bill as us.
"This has been my first real break in years, although we are working on
the third album. We have to keep working all the time. We are working ona film. I don't know if it will ever be shown, really, but we filmed theAlbert
Hall concert and it will be a documentary on what has been going on with"We're not a
rabble -rousinggroup. We'retrying to playsome music "Git your hair cut. Chris Welch- MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 21 WHEN A BAND achieves the Led Zeppelin's kind of successin such a short time, there are bound to be whispered
accusations in the corridors of pop. In recent years, fanshave become more aware of "The Business". Far from blindly accepting

the band.
"Everything's been slowed up with Robert's accident. That was ahorrific scene. The police came banging at the door with flashlights and
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 137

cece

asked me if I knew a Mr Robert Plant. When they advised
me to call him at Kidderminster Hospital I knew it had got
to be serious. I was reallyworried, wondering if he had thebaby in the car. He's still in a bad way and we had to cancel
some work, although he said he would appear on stage ina wheelchair. He can't lift his arm above his shoulder andhe has a cut overhis eye.
"We've got a lot of recording to do. On the first album wewere finding out about each other. On the second, I reallythought John Paul Jones came through strongly. We canfeel each other much more.
"I've prepared a lot of acoustic stuff for the next album.
It's just a matterof getting into a studio. Theyare all fully
booked -it's incredible. We all do a bit ofwriting in the groupand make tape recording of ideas forsongs. I like to get abasic construction together and a numbergrows from that."
What did Jimmy think of the trend towards jazz-rock?
"I don't like it, personally. I never liked Blood, Sweat &Tears. I'm all fora fusion of ideas, but this is just not my cupof tea, and has not been as well accepted as classical rock.
Jazz-rock all rests on the brass players waiting for the
chance to playas fast as possible at 78rpm. Tome, it
represents cacophony. I like and understand Eric Dolphy
and John Coltrane. But when you get Fred Bloggs blowing
away- it doesn't come off.
"The things Dick Heckstall-Smith plays with Colosseum
are good and valid, and they make sense. When it doesn't
make sense -I can't be bothered. I was never convincedby Blood, Sweat & Tears, yet lots of people think it's the
epitome of pop today. What didn't I like about them? The
arrangements and the singer. I couldn't believe that singer.
Everything sounds so false after one or two listens. The
most progressive groups todayare the Pink Floyd andMoody Blues."
Are Led Zeppelin a progressive group?
"I've been asking myself if we were progressive. In fact I've
been waiting forsomebody to ask me that. I don't know.
-Stevie Win wood lives
What we have done is to present rock in a different package.
not faraway -:Jimmy
We are not a band like the Floyd, who are really progressive.
Pageat his Thamesidehome in Berkshire,
Maybe our next album will be progressive -for us. People
Januar y1970
tend to sayPink Floyd are still just a 1967 flower -powergroup, but they are not. They sound fresh and beautiful."
Toward off the effects of heavy rock interviewing, Jimmy tottered off in
England shall be destroyed by fire.
search of a few aspirins.
Fly, Zeppelin!""It's been quite a year," he said on his return. "I can hardly believe how
On October 13, 1915 the Zeppelin 12 15 commanded byJoachim
much has happened - fourtours of the States and two platinum albums.
Briethaupt, in a raid on London, bombed the Lyceum Theatre in
It sounds like a lot of old bull, but I can't really believe it sometimes. It's
the Strand.
like looking at somebody else's career.
On October 12,1969, 54 years later almost to the day, the all -British Led"There is a very powerful astrological force at workwithin the band
Zeppelin blew a triumphant fanfare of free, peaceful and democratic
which! am sure had a lot to do with our success. Robert is a Leo, which
rock'n'roll in the same Lyceum, a building which escaped onslaughts bymakes him a perfect leader, with two Capricorns on either side and amachines more deadly still than the old Count's gas bags.
Gemini behind. Leo is always a leader, like Ginger Baker, Keith Moon andJimmy Page reacted with little surprise and considerable amusement
MickJagger. I'm a Capricorn, which speaks for itself - very stubbom withwhen told of the new German threat this week. "Then we shall calla split personality." Chris Welch
ourselves the Nobs when we go to Copenhagen," he announced. "Thewhole thing is absurd. The first time we played in Copenhagen she turned
up and tried to stop a TVshow. She couldn't, of course, but we invited her- MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 28 _to meet us to show we were nice young lads. We calmed her down, but on
EVA VON ZEPPELIN, a relative of the German airship designer,leaving the studio, she saw our LP cover of an airship in flames andwas "considering legal action if the British pop group Led
exploded!! had to run and hide. She just blew her top. So -it's shrieking
Zeppelin play in Copenhagen on Saturday", it was reportedmonkeys now! But she is quite a nice person.
last week. "They may be world famous," she said, "but a couple of"Theywanted us to fly in an airship over Montreux, Switzerland once.
shrieking monkeys are not going to use a privileged family nameThat's tempting fate, isn't it? I told them to flywithout us and saywe
without permission."were inside.""Zeppelin,flieg!
Apart from legal threats, newspapers have made unsolicited
Hilfuns im Krieg,
suggestions fora new name for Britain's most popular group. One Scottish
Fliege nach England,national called them "Ned Zeppelin". Hearty laughterfrom Mr Page. "On
England wird abgebrannt.
ournext LP sleeve we were planning to print all the weird comments that
Zeppelin, flieg!"
have been about us. That would have been great -Ned Zeppelin!"
Thus sang German children marching to school during the Great War.
On my second visit to his Thameside boat -house, Jim was in cheery
A rough translation goes:mood. The group had just completed some highlysuccessful concerts.
"Fly, Zeppelin,
Builders were forging ahead with some cunning alterations to hearth
Help us in the war,and home. His manager had presented him with a Bentley, and just to
Fly to England,brighten up the day, the ancient penny peepshow installed in his

38 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

LED ZEPPELIN

bedroom had decided to work.
As gales beat about the wooden
walls and a rowing eight

struggled manfully upstream
past the living -room windows,
Jimmy strummed a merry
guitar. "I've been practising
three hours a day.

Unfortunately, there has beena great lack of practice in thelast yearor so. I playa long
improvised solo to get fluency
and then attempt a difficult
phrase to see if I can pull it off.
I'd like to be able to play
piano. It sounds strange. I can
playguitar with finger -styleindependence, but I can't play
piano. I'd like to playviolin, but
that's not as easy as it looks.

When! use violin bow on
guitar, it's not just a gimmick as
people think. It's because somegreat sounds come out. You canemploy legitimate bowing
techniques and gain new scopeand depth. The only drawback
is that a guitar has a flat neck,
opposed to a violin's curved
neck, which is a bit limiting."
Jimmy's career has differedfrom many musicians in that
he has worked backwards.
Musicians who start out inbands often end up as session
players. More lucrative. Less
itinerate. Yet Jimmybegan as a
top man in a field regarded as aclosed shop. How did it happen?
"Everyone likes to playaround with different people,
and it can be stimulating to do
sessions with othergroups. But the kind of work I was doing before proved
completely stifling. Never being involved with the artist, it was like being
a computer.
"Originally I used to jam with a group at the old
Marquee when Cyril Davies was still alive. One
day someone asked me if I wanted to play on arock session -and that's how it started. At thattime, only BigJim Sullivan was around and if
there were three sessions, he could only do one,and the others would end up with -well, nonames mentioned. Without Jim theywere
desperate. From then on, work for me escalated.
"I was at art school and had to leave because I

when! started session work, I had to teach myself on a crash course.
There was no individuality involved at all. The arranger said, 'This is what
you play,' and that's what I played.
"I got fed up. It began to be a pain in the neck. When The Yardbirds cameup -that was it. I was a good friend ofJeff Beck, who had replaced Eric
Clapton. I was there when Paul Samwell-Smith had a great row and left
the group, so I had to take over on bass. I had never played one before.
Then Chris Dreja swapped from rhythm guitarto bass and the idea wasfor me and Jeff to get a stereo guitar sound.
"With two lead guitars it worked reallywell. Lots of people have done it
since, but I thinkwe must have been the first. When we went over to theStates we took them by storm. The funny thingwas, The Yardbirds didn't
mean anything as a group in England. There was no magic attached to
the name. In America it was different.
"The mystique formed because they liked Jeff and knew Eric had beenin the group. There was the whole raver thing, as well. English bands liked

to loon and Hollywood went wild.Anyway- it was an exciting group.
"'The Yardbirds appeared with their cacophony of sound.' That's what
an English paper said when they reviewed a showwe did at the Royal
Albert Hall. But in those days, groups used theAlbert Hall PA system andyou know what that's like. The guitars were really loud -and bad!
"Eric had always used a little amp and that was always Keith Relfs
complaint about Jeff and me: 'Eric used to play through anAC30 andyou've got 300 watts each!' He got more and more reticent, but nobody
was trying to drown him out. Obviously there was a lot of tension andthat's why he made two solo records. I've heard Renaissance are great andI'm pleased Keith is doingwell."Was Jimmy surprised at the news ofTraffic reforming? "Not reallya surprise, is it? He was always happierwith them. I always thought of
Jim Capaldi as Steve Winwood's drummer, and Chris Wood can playanything. They are a good combination.
"You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Eric didn't go back to the blues
and form a little group. I'd like the Stones to -theywent through a lot ofchanges and came up with lumpin' Jack Flash' and The Beatles went
through SgtPepperand 'Get Back'. Theywant to go back to their roots."
While manygroups burble about "getting it together," and in fact spend
most of their time falling about in a fog of indecision, Led Zeppelin work
hard at living up to theirreputation. Next week theywill be satisfying
Zeppelin addicts in Europe before returning to their millions ofAmerican fans. And for British fans?
"We want to do some free concerts this year. We maybe doing one at
Glastonbury at the time of the Summer Solstice. But I'm not so sure about
Hyde Park. I know in the States they can't have anymore because of theStones thing atAltamont. Theywon't grant licences, because everybody
is frightened. It's a shame, because this type ofconcert is valuable and legitimate."
OK -so when are JimmyPage, Robert Plant,
John Paul Jones and John Bonham going to
split up? "There is no reason to split up.

"Everybody
plays
something toknock eachother out"

There is nothing inherent musicallyin Led
Zeppelin to harm or destroy it. There is variety,great freedom and no restrictions on theplayers whatsoever.
"It's good from a head point ofview. In
our band, everybody respects each other.
Everybodyplays something to knock each other

couldn't do both. When! first joined a group, theout. I can't see any split coming. People say to us,
scene had become completelystagnant, and I'Nowyou are established, when are you going tolost all faith in music and myself. It was about
breakup?' That's a terrible attitude.
the time The Beatles were beginning to break.
"I heard recentlythat Crosby, Stills & Nash are"I reallywanted to be a fine art painter. I wasgoing to split up. Fans develop loyalty to a group and that becomes
sincere in that aim and when !went to college! kept quiet that! played
impossible when groups break up so often. We'll carryon and stick
guitar or else theywould expect me to play in the lunch hour.A conflict
together -like The Beatles and Stones." Chris Welch
between music and art arose and it came to the point where I had to makea decision.""I enjoyed playing and the R&B revival restored my
iN!rMAISMAAANii.
faith in music. The Rolling Stones were playing a lot of
EVA VON Z1 PEI -11%, a relative ofMuddy Waters numbers and The Beatles were doing
the German Airship designer. seas
things by The Marvelettes and The Shirelles."considering kgal action if the British
pop group Lad Jeppe.tin play in CopenDid Jimmy take lessons? "Just picked it up. When!
Saturday, h was reported
hageo
last week. " they may be world
was at school, I had my guitar confiscated everyday.
famous." she said. "but a oouple of
Slarktdng soolleys are not going to
They handed it back to me at 4pm. I didn't have any
MB a pivIlliaprta fondly osme without
guitar lessons because there was nobodyto teach me,
p $111116111101."and I couldn't get up to London. I couldn't read at all
ines.
HIV
=ilia &gland
SEM ahsr

=Eke
11.as

lelea

CHRIS WELCH CONCLUDESTHIS EXCLUSIVE SERIESHISTORY OF ROCK 1970 I 39

,7

1970

ANUAR1-4"1"I'mgettingamicrowave
cooker to provide hot steaks

atthebar":(1-r)landlord
KeithMoonhostspalsRonnie
LaneandVivianStanshall,alongwithMMwriter Chris
Welch,attheCrown&
CushioninChippingNorton,
Oxfordshire,June1970

40 1 H1STOR

sF ROCK 1970.

f

I.

1970

JANUARY -MARCH

Viv is in the process of organising. "TheGrunt will be the next band, but I want tomake solo singles as well with different
musicians under various silly names. The
next single will be a ballad and I'd like to use
lots of really ugly choristers."
Did Viv shave his hair to tie in with
Sean Head?"No, I'm not that dedicated. It
would be like forming The Leg -Off Bandand having a leg amputated. Improve yourbody -have a leg off!"
Viv seemed to release the single in super quick time after the Bonzo split, I observed,
toyingwith a cold damp sausage. He
replied in slow measured tones, "Wegreased the corridors. It made everything
go so much quicker. Also - everybody on
the session was bullet -shaped."
How did he manage to obtain the servicesof our Eric for the session? "Shanghaied
him. I can't rememberhow it came about.
Oh, I sent him some lyrics which he liked,
so he came over. We recorded the number
March 26,1970:Keith ip
at about three in the morning.
Moon andThe Who"The Big Grunt is coming along nicely.
perform "The Seeker"
on Top Of The Pop s
We intend to concentrate on the physicalfitness aspect and we will have a bit of roadtraining before we actually get on the road. We discussed going to a
Turkish bath where some of the boys could sport with each other. Dennis
Cowan and I have been planning to do some weight lifting -a bit ofpushing and pulling.
"The band will be getting it together in the country- under canvas. We
are just waiting for the Fat Boy to fly in from Sweden. He is Bubs White,
on guitar, and he used to playwith The Committee." Will the band havea regular drummer as well? "Well, Roger Spear is making a robot to lay it
down, but we are trying out a few boys."More drinks were ordered, but the lights were being switched off andthe barman began pointedlyemptying ash trays and removing the seaof bottles from our table. "Aren't you Viv Stanshall of the Bonzos?" asked
the barman curiously. "What are you doing these days?""I'm sellingwigs.""No, really...""No, seriously," said Viv and opening his satchel produced what looked
like a large blonde tea cosy. "Only5s 1 Id and absolutely undetectable.
Now to don London's most unconvincingwig..." He put the tea cosy on
his head at a rakish angle and winked.
Outside the pub we hailed a cab and forgetting nonsense about coffee
sped post-haste to an afternoon drinking club not far from Tin Pan Alley.
"I'm very excited about the new band," he continued, ordering the firstof an endless stream oflarge Scotches. "We won't scrap all our oldmaterial, like the Brain Opera. That might well be recorded in the future.
The Big Grunt should be more musical than the Bonzos and have morecharacter. The gags will be in a more rhythmic sequence and tie in withthe music. We haven't started recordingyet because we have been
waiting for Bubs to be catapulted in.
"I want things to be more entertaining. Forexample, I don't thinkyou
can make serious singles. Theyshould be for enjoyment and to makeradio fun listening. The single doesn't really lend itself to a beautiful
production in stereo.""Borneo Fred Munt, our old roadie, will be in the Grunt to contributematerial. Fred wrote about 100 songs while he was with the Bonzos allabout aggro in cages on the M I, situations with jobsworths andequipment problems. They are all roadie songs and they are so good weare going to do an album of them called KeepOnRuckingwith Fredsinging and playing saxophone. It's good to give the lads a chance, said
he, slapping his wellingtons and riding off into the sunset."
Viv lurched towards the jukebox and managed to insert a coin. A
particularly unpleasant Black &White Minstrel song came blaring

through the speakers.
"Most embarrassing, I didn't put that one on. Suddenly myback runs
cold with sweat. Good heavens, the record is speeding up and getting
louder. Some kind of foam is coming out of the machine!I'll put a Dean
Martin on to get rid of it."
42 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

We downed another large Scotch and stared vacantly at the floor. "Saw
Jimmy Page the other week," I began weakly. "He's been readingAleister
Crowley. He asked me to give you a message. Come to PangbourneAbbey
where the law is enforced."
Viv lifted his lolling head and peered blearily. "Tell Jimmy the creamof the owl will be poured on the bishop's trouser leg. Would you mind
getting me another drink, dear boy?"
Tottering back from the bar, I found the following inscribed in mynotebook:"During this interview 'Welchy' has made constant references toleather and on several occasions tried to put his raincoat over my knees.
Naturally I have been repelling him, but what can I do? But I must stop...
he's coming back."
When will Grunt start operations? "The new band will work forlimited
periods. I want to pace it so when we got out fora few months at a time
there will be totally different stuff.
"You have no idea how refreshing it is to be able to sit at home and read
fora bit, or watch telly. I think the first gigwill be at Aston Universityon
March 25. In the meantime ! have been makingwardrobes and shelvesand getting back to normal. Reading back some of the stuff I wrote lastyear, a lot of it seems completelyincomprehensible. The whole group
scene makes you insular and cut off from normal things. That's why
lyrics become so obscure and why people in groups begin to lose theirreal friends.
"I am going through a complete purgatorial metamorphosis. I go
through periods of terrific elation and work like stink, and then I feel deep
depression and want to go to the lavatory and screw a hook in the ceiling."
It was time for another round. On myretum from the barbearing large
Scotches, once again therewas evidence of tampering with my notes:"Well just before I was so rudelyinterrupted I was going to say that while
he plies me with drinks I still have enough moral fibre to err... oh lummer
It was by now 5.10pm and the boozers were open. Viv peered throughhis glasses. "Do you fancy going to the scrumpy bar, Waterloo?" A thought
struck him and the tea cosy slipped over his brow: "Got to go to the BBC.
Got an interview withAnne Nightingale of theDailySketch."
Somehow the stairs were navigated to street level and a cab hailed
between procuring bags of chestnuts and shouting strange cries at
Barry Ryan, who fled at our approach. At Broadcasting House we wereconfronted by the amazing sight of two 1920 London General Omnibusesin immaculate trim about to depart fortheArlo Guthrie reception. To myhorror, Stanshall, now speechless, began to mount the stairs and sat
upon the top deck, peering disdainfully around.
"'Ere, what's that bloke doing?" demanded the conductor testily. "It's
OK, he's a famous artist," I explained. "Oi, Viv- come down!"
Miss Nightingale blanched at the somewhat terrifying sight of the silent
skinhead and we hastilywheeled him to the Qualitylnn, where old ladies

VIVIAN STANSHALL & KEITH MOON

sat drinking tea and Hungarian waiters scurried attheir duties. "Would you like your coffee black orwhite, sir?""Greyish brown. Ha -you artist!" exclaimed Viv,
as the startled waiter juggled with his pots. Later
we escorted ourchum to a cab and directed thedriver to takeViv to his East Finchley home.
"Did you get home alright?" I asked Vivthe nextmorning.
"No -the swine took me to HeathrowAirport."
Chris Welch- NME JUNE 13-

WHEN KEITH MOON WALKS- perhaps"bounds" is more accurate - into aroom you almost expect to hear Little
Richard's "a-wop-bop-a-loo-bob-a-wop-bamboom" war cry ring out from above. Keith has thatsort of effect on people. He generates enthusiasm
and radiates happiness even when he's being
serious, which, these days, is more frequently
than before.
He's been through a lot latelywith a fatal accident
and a couple of court appearances, but somehow
all the tension and fatigue hasn't visibly affected
him. He still manages his maniacal laugh every sooften and is unguardedly outspoken as ever. Keith and I met fora drinka few days ago and he was pleased that I'd liked The Who's new "live"
album, which must be about the most exciting rock album of its kind evermade. It wasn't by any stretch of the imagination a rush job.
"Pete's had it on his mind foryears but we've never had a real chance to
do it before," Keith explained, settling himself with his customary large
brandy and ginger. "We got the mics and sound balance and things
sorted out during theAmerican tour, moving
mics backwards a bit and forward and so on
until the recordings sounded OK.
"Bob Pridden [a Who roadie] is getting a bit old"It takes so long to do an album with tours," he went on. "You spend two
weeks preparing forAmerica, a month there, and then it takes a month to
get over it when you get back. Then there are shows to do and you neverget round to recording. This is what happened before... now we're goingto do more albums."
A fewyears ago, Keith was very into all things American and was often
compared to a comic -strip character. His opinion of the land of milk andmace has changed somewhat. He certainlydoesn't believe anymore that
American bands are far superiorto British groups.
"Too manyof them are protesting and bringing people down," hecommented. "To me, the theatre is an escape, you don't go to be mademiserable, you go to escape from reality.
"Abbie Hoffman jumped on the stage at Woodstock and started
protesting and the kids didn't cheer until Pete whacked him with his
guitar. If he wants to preach, let him do it on a soap box -not on our stage."
The Who's public relations man arrived with a large female alsatiancalled Sheba in tow. This was the signal for a verbal free-for-all bringing inall our friends in the business and frightening the life out of the bar staff
who, being new, hadn't experience a Moon and Green laugh -in before.
When a little bit of calm settled again, I asked Keith if he thought
drummers were playing a more important role in groups than before.
"I think they are," he agreed. "In the jazz days, people like Gene Krupa
and Buddy Rich would have theirparts written down and all thearrangements done. Later on, the rock'n'roll drummers didn't reallyhave to use their imagination, they just played, but groups nowadays

area unit.
"We're four individuals who all fit into the group on a level- say a sea
level. You have to find your place and settle on that level. The Beatles havegone right through and hit rock bottom: they're on the sea bed. I don't
think theyever had a real image, not latelyanyway. Not since theywere
loveable fluffy moptops with those collars, and that was Brian Epstein's
idea anyway."
It's plainly obvious that The Who rely a lot on excitement for theirappeal and Keith had something to sayabout how that is being dealt
with right now. "It's taken us five years to getthings really sorted out," he admitted. "Werealised that where I'd be waving my arms

"I always said
we'd end up
coming onstage in ourwheelchairs"

now, so we had to give him a desk job -we sat
him at the control panel on stage and left him toget on with the balance. We did two recordings
here, one in Hull and one in Leeds. The Hull one
was quite good but the Leeds one was really
good. Bob worked well that night, bless him!"
Keith is satisfied with the way the album hasturned out but is now workingwith Roger, Peteand John on yet another. It won't be out fora few
months, though. "We're recording at Pete's andit's about half done," Keith revealed.
"It's great working there; we can start at lunch
time and have a track finished by about five. Ifwe record every day fora month or two we'll have enough albums for the next 30 years!I always
said we'd finish up coming on stage in our wheelchairs. By that timeJohn'll be about 20 stone and he'll have to be hauled on stage like a pieceof equipment. His arms will be all puffed up, with two mandibles on theend that will clamp his guitar. Roger's hair will be down to his feet like acurtain and it'll be shaped like the curtain at West Ham Odeon; it'll go up
to reveal an old cracked face."
It doesn't take Keith longs to lapse into his world of humour, as you see.
But he did, on a serious note, add that the next album will be finished off

when The Who return from theirAmerican tour sometime in Julyand
it will be out around September.

"We won't work to a set pattern; we play it
by ear. AfterAmerica you'll notice a lot ofdifference in the act. We'll do the odd number
from Tommylike "Pinball Wizard" and "I'm
Free", but that's all, and slot in some of thenumbers we do now and some new ones."
After telling me that The Who were rehearsing
all week from 1.30pm, Keith looked at his watch
and discovered it was already a quarter to two.
"Oh, that's alright, it'll onlytake five minutes to get there," he said
with relief. "Where are you rehearsing, round the corner?" I asked.
"No, Wandsworth!"
Good old Moon, he'll never change that much.
Before he left, Keith told me one of his customarytales, this time
involving the phantom nude and the Scottish police. Be warned.
"I bought a pair of inflatable legs and stuck stockings and a suspender
belt on them, and then ! hid on the floor in the back of the Bentleyand put
the legs out of the window," he gleamed. "I was yelling, 'Stop it', 'Let mego', 'Rape' through the car's PA and outside a station a policewoman saw
it and wrote the number down and phoned the police. All forces werealerted and they followed us to
Scotland, where we were going
fora Small Faces tour.
"When we got to the hotel,
I put the legs in the bath anddraped a sheet over it. The
police came in and I said, 'It'sin there', and this copper wentin and nearly passed out andhad to be held up by his mate.
One of them pulled a leg and *LIVE ALBUM
WHO REHEARSEDAMERICAN TOUR
WHIP

KOlth

boon&

1000.

- perhaps

4 mom sccarsts - 0 20

room you Moos? expect to hot Lolls
Rooksrits - swap bop up bob woo barn
Wont " war ory nog out from above. Keelhas that sort of effect on people Ile pow
Ass enIttosiirsir end rsdstes happnirss

even when he's bigno ser4ous orlfkk thes

din is more frequently tfuri Wore.
fsfif no,oss L. utev""'
11Lal ae.c.tent mod rob.

KEITH MOON, a little

more serious these days,

about [a short demonstration sent three people
scuttling to the wall for safety], I could play
better on the drums. What we'll be giving isquality not quantity, though the act won't reallybe any shorter.

DURING

talks to RICHARD GREEN.-anst.14:"4....

are.. sr
111.e

1.111111-100111_

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 I 43

1970

JANUPRI-0"

it came away in his hand. By this time The Faces had arrived and they
were falling about all over the floor. The police just got embarrassed,
told me off and left!"
Well, if the law don't know by now to forget everythingwhen Moon's
about they've only got themselves to blame! Richard Green- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 19 KEITH MOON AND VIV STANSHALL caused uproar when they
visited a London hospital recently. Theywent to call upon Who
publicist Brian Somerville, recovering from an operation onfour fractures of his leg received after falling from a horse in Hyde Park.
They arrived late and were escorted off the premises by a jobsworth.
Undaunted, our heroes slipped back into the casualtyward. Keithremoved his shoes and socks, rolled up a trouser leg, and sat in awheelchair, to be pushed around the wards by Stanshall clad in full
surgeon's drag.
Says Sommerville: "They came into myward and caused uproar- complete hysterics among all the patients. They carried out fake
operations, then left -undetected." It was later discovered all patients
have increased temperature, blood and pulse rates.

- MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 10 ACROSS EACH MEMBER OF A GROUP has to bear is the threatof being refused service in a pub. Keith Moon has taken theobvious step to combat this deterioration in service in the innsof old England. He has bought his own pub- and ALL are welcome. In
fact, he has become one third of a dedicated partnership, who havetaken the lease on a superb hotel, parts of which date back to the 12th
century, in the picturesque town of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
It might seem a highly dangerous proposition for the explosive Mr
Moon to become a landlord. "He'll drink awaythe profits, that young
gentleman will, mark mywords," was the cry in the Barrow &litrnip the
day the news came out."There'll be comings and goings, and a decent
man won't be able to hold a pint of bitter in peace." One can easily
imagine the grumbling among locals.
But in fact, there has been no grumbling, onlya four -fold increasein takings. And the atmosphere at the Crown &Cushion isunderstandably a jolly one. It was my pleasure to spend a convivial
Sunday evening at the Moon hostelry, andI must pronounce it a splendid watering -holeand the host a capital fellow.
In the company of MM's photographer
Barrie Wentzell, we drove byall-British Roverat a steady 110mph through the autumnal
countryside. On arrival we met Keith's partners
Ron and Yvonne Mears and Tony Hales -Tooke,
the manager. Any half -formed suspicions that
the Crown &Cushion might prove a hotbed of
riotous debauch along the lines of certain

London discotheques were instantly
extinguished. We were ushered into a lounge
where white-haired ladies drank tea in perfectsafety and a gentleman in a green kilt watched
Malcolm Muggeridge talking about Jews andArabs in colour, without any overt sign ofvulgar partnership.
"Keith is out ridingjust now," said Yvonne,
ordering us tea. At 7pm the bar opened andbefore we had time to snort a lagerand white
wine, Keith appeared in our midst, in company
with Vivian Stanshall and Ronald Lane, thewell-known musicians.
"What -ho," said Keith. "We've just been fora spotof punting." Apparently it had been too late to hire
horses, but it was not too late to imbibe ale andvast quantities were consumed, not to mention
brandy, and champagne.
Keith looked in fine shape, and not muchdifferent from the white tee-shirted tornado
who first changed the rockworld's concept ofdrumming back at the birth of The Who.
44 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

Keith is fairly notorious as a loonerand practical joker. Stories of
his exploits, particularly in America, are legion. And his violence asa percussionist is legendary.
But there is another Keith Moon, who likes to enjoy life and help others
enjoy themselves. And he does this with a surprising mixture of rather
old-fashioned good manners and genuine geniality.
And his hotel venture is deadly serious. "I've spent most of my life inhotels, and I know the difference between a good one and a bad one."
Organising a brief tour round the outhouses and grounds, he explained
how he moved into the bed, steaks and vino belt.
"Part of the hotel dates back to the 12th century. There are some of theoriginal beams. We are near to Stratford -On -Avon and Oxford, so we getplenty of tourists, especiallyAmericans "doing" the Cotswolds.
"My partners Ron and Yvonne were looking fora hotel and we hada bit of a session one day, and I thought I'd like to go in with them. It's
important the waywe run the hotel. So many hotels today make theguests feel as if they are imposing by their presence. I like people -and wewant everybodywho comes to feel as if theyknow us. We have instigatedquite a few changes here. I'm really enjoying it, although as you know I'm
not really a one for socialising."
Was this some indication that Keith might be retiring?
"Certainly not. I'm not going to hide myself away in seclusion. That's not
mystyle."Was there any upset in the town at the new regime?
"No -quite the opposite. I think theyare quite relieved, because
we are taking an interest in them and the hotel and we want to makeit successful."
In the background chat in the bar, I could hear an elderly couple
discussing the pop scene, perhaps unaware of theirhost's full-time
occupation. "...and he came from a good background, I can't
understand what happens to them. That awful MickJagger- isn't herepulsive! Repulsive!""We've kept most of the original staff," Keith was saying. "We thinkof ideas and they saywhether we can do them or not. I'm getting a
microwave cooker to provide hot steaks at the bar. We're also runninga folk club at the back, and we'd like your folk chap to come down."
He proudly pointed out the gardens, which produce their own fresh
vegetables, the immaculate kitchens and wine cellars, new bedrooms
and the candle -lit restaurant, all grouped Italian style around a central
courtway. While we waited for supper, Keith chatted at the bar a little
about his drumming role with The Who and theirforthcoming tour.
Tony Williams, one of the world's greatest jazz
drummers, told me last week that his favourite
English drummer was Keith. "A drummer thatreally impresses me is Keith Moon with The
Who," he said. "He has a very fluid style and hereally makes that band.""I neverdid worrymuch about a style when
I started," explained Keith. "All! wanted to do
was playmusic the wayl felt it should be played.
And as it happened the instrument I felt beston was the drums. I didn't spend a lot of time
studying drums in an attic with a bottle ofcheap red wine. I could express myself best by
playing the drums.
"That's what drumming is to me -a complete
outlet. I just go on stage and when the curtain
comes up -zonk. Playing hard isn't an ordeal forme. I don't think of it as a marathon.
"Five years ago, The Who was like a nucleus ofbasic energy. We plumbed each other's depths,
and learned how to get it right. Now what will we
be doing on the tour?Do you know -I really can't
remember, old chap. To be quite honest, the wholethingwas booked while we were away, so I don't
even know where we are playing or when. But themachinery has been set in operation.
"We'll be taking ourspotlights with us, which weused on the Isle Of Wight. So it's all in hand. We'regoing to have three days of rehearsals. I expect the
programme will be much the same as usual. We"They cameinto my ward
in hospitaland caused
uproar"mayfeature a spot of euthanasia -and present themercy killing of Tommy." Chris Welch

VIVIAN STANSHALL & KEITH MOON

think I have any politics.
I have so many opinions
about things that it is likehaving no opinion. It's thesame thing. The Don't Know
Party wins hands down.

"A dreadful bore"
MM DEC 19 dill Stanshall takes theMaker "Reaction" questionnaire.

Pop festivals Good value.
We are a nation ofwatchers, and pop festivals
can be joined in. Groups
should turn their speakers
round and invite everybody
to be one of the band. One
night at the Marquee wegave out 300 whistles.

Power cuts Bloody outrage. Who arethey hurting? I don't know what they want,
but whatever it is I will give it to them.
I spend half my time massaging my turtles
and the other half putting candles underneath my fish tanks. But like the rubbish
thing the other week, I rather enjoy being
blacked out. It's rather jolly and gives you
a sense of reality.

Monty Python's Flying
Circus Derivative. I am glad
it is receiving acclaim.

Bonzos A good try. We were all a bit surprised that Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse was so utterly ignored. The musicalaspect was not really up to scratch, andwe gradually lost direction. It was good tooutrage people for so long and to make aprofession out of being rudeand putting your tongueout at people. I can't
think of a better way of
spending five years. It
was a good laugh withmy chums. A unique andunforgettable experience.

"If it gives agreater insight
into things, thenthe use of drugs isa good thing"

addicted is not. I think it
ought to remain illegal
because I like the ceremony
attached to taking drugs.
It would be dreadful to buy
joints in a jolly pack withwashing powder names.

Keith Moon I rescued him
Radio One It is all part offrom the gutter. I was goinga gigantic plan to subdue
O'Rtiottdown Wardour Street one
us. I think it is part of a newevening for a coffee when I saw thissociety where we all have to listen
dreadful man calling to me fromto certain noises. Does anybody
the gutter. I threw myreally listen to it? Is it there
overcoat over him and gave him
genuinely to entertain?
2s for a cup of tea. We became
engaged in conversation and I took
Beatles A dreadful nuisance. It alhim to a sauna bath to clean him up.
ways appears that they have hinted about
I was surprised to see a young prince
something you are about to do
beneath the dirt when I wiped him down
yourself. They make magic. Many of theirwith a man-sized tissue, and he promised tosongs will become classics, with Shirley
repay me some day. Now we are chums.
Bassey and Matt Monro singing them in 20
years' time. They never seem to have pimples.
Rupert Bear I enjoy Rupert Bear because heis so innocent. I enjoy the cleanliness of it andNazi uniforms Jolly smart. I think they havethe hygiene. When Rupert and his daddy geta similar effect to green peppers. Keith and
off a train I am always astonished to see that
I hired them from a theatrical shop justthey are bears and everyone else is a person.
for a laugh. The idea was to confront theuniforms of the Speakeasy with another
Being interviewed by the MM Very
uniform. Both uniforms are really ridiculous.
interesting, because I don't suppose I would
ask myself the same questions. Sometimes
Politics Everything is politics. I am not reallyit's a dreadful bore. I am put on a spot like thisinterested in the green -grocery of politics.
by having to give specific answers.
Which is the preferable monster? I don't
Drugs I think any kindof experience is valid
provided one understands
what you are putting
yourself through. I am
most interested to see
how I would react under
any kind of situation,
because life is usually very
boring. If it gives a greater
insight into things, thenthe use of drugs is a goodthing, but to becomerage rs-WIELOPT MAW. lasonawr

Ma

njoy
104.

EACTION
This week:
V_ iv Stanshall

DOW£S CUTS:
BloodyWho ore they hurting'?
don't know what they
hot whatever it is

tws I...write., In

sererwell 04.6111 VW an ,414w
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on.

Roger Spear He is in theprocess of proving what hehas always said and that isthat machines can be just asentertaining as real people. I have seen hisshow four or five times and it is getting
better. He will win in the end.

Pope's attempted assassination
I thought it was very romantic. I loved it
when they asked the guy why he didn't use
a gun and he said he couldn't afford one.
The Pope is responsible fora lot of misery in
the world but I don't think the answer is to kill
him. If you did away with the Pope there would
be no Private Eye.

TV commercials In the main, a darn sight
more interesting than the programmes.
Hair I have had it outrageously long since
I was about 16. It was good to outrage people
with it. I had it chopped off because I wasdoing a lot of fibreglass work and it was a
nuisance, I was sticking to the glue.

boning It's like inflation. I can't intellectualiseon it. Everything is so dull and predictablethat it's interesting to see how you would
react if someone suddenly vomited on you.
I don't like the expression looning. I hopesomeone thinks of an alternative.
America I like it. We are a bit administeredover here. Things are happening much fasterover there, so it seems. I have never been toa place where there were so many people
being so rude to me.

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"Nobodyknows me"NICO is a woman alone. On a visit to London, she explains her relationshipwith music ("I wanted to be an opera singer") and with Andy Worhol("He could never get me to take my clothes off"). Later, JOHN CALE
explores her mystique, and their mutual roots in The Velvet unuerground.

- MELODY MAKER MARCH 21 _THE SLEEVE OF The Velvet Underground's first album was dead tightwhen it read "Nico: chanteuse". Not just "singer", because Nico is morethan that, and the word "chanteuse" contains just the right registrationsof the European tradition of cha nson. Forme, she is a logical extensionof Marlene Dietrich singing "Falling In Love Again" in the Blue Angelbar; and yet, while her singing has that feeling of age and tradition
behind it, it is also beyond tomorrow, way ahead of all those other lady singers whoare still into "interpretation".
Those who have her Elektra album The Marble Indexwill already know what I'm saying.
The LP is a jou rney through a landscape not unlike Berlin, where she lived as a child:desolate and wind-blown, scarred yet futuristic.
She is in London just now, attempting to make another LP, but has met only
disillusionment and loneliness. Her friends from the old days - Keith Richards a nd Anita
Pallenberg, Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman -were too busy with their new lives tohelp her, and record companyexecutives were uniformly uncooperative. She played one
gig, an implosion night at the Roundhouse, but when I asked her ifshe had been invited to46

I

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

1970JANUARY -MARCH

do anymore she replied, in the deep Wagnerian accent, "No, who should
ask me?! have a reputation for not turning up to sing. It's something!
want verybadly to get rid of."But to get back to the beginning, a brief history: Nico, born of a Polishmother and a fatherwho died in the concentration camps, was a top
Parisian cover girl before she met the Stones.
About fouryears ago Brian Jones took her toAndy Warhol's Factory in NewYork, and shejoined The Velvet Underground, the group thatwas part ofWarhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable-the pioneering multi -media troupewhich used
dancers plus the first -ever light show.
With them she sang at the Dom in NewYork,cut an album for Verve, travelled across theStates to Los Angeles in a bus (she and Sterling
Morrison took turns driving), and played theFillmore West to the accompaniment of somebad scenes with Bill Graham.After about a year
she left the group to sing on her own, starting at
the Balloon Farm (upstairs from the Dom). Her
accompanists changed everyweek, but themain ones were Lou Reed and John Cale from the Velvets and Jackson
Browne, a young guitarist and singer from Orange County.
The upshot was that three of Browne's songs were on her first, badly
produced album (for Verve), alongside Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With
Mine", which legend says the master wrote for Nico, but of which she
simply declares, "I don't know about that. He just gave it to me."That album, Chelsea Girl, was titled after a Warhol movie in which she
appeared. She made another one with him, which he has never shown "Maybe it wasn't dirty enough forold New York. He could neverget me totake my clothes off."
There followed a long silence, broken a year ago by the appearance of
The Marblelndex, which is one of those records which just might, in 10 or
20 years' time, be regarded as some sort of milestone.
Since then she's spent a lot of time in Italy, and has made part of a film
called LaCicatriceInterieurewith the French director Philippe Garelle "He's really one of the best movie -makers. He's directed five films, but
he's never let them be released. This new one is very important tome. It'sso powerful. We did part of it in theAmerican desert and partof it in the Egyptian desert... I don't knowwhen we'll
finish it. It doesn't matter; there's no hurry because
it's a very timeless thing."
But the most vital thing at the moment is to makea record, a task which amazingly defeated her in

London. She accompanies herself on a verysmall Indian harmonium, and has 15 or 20 songsof her own that she wants to record. She started
composing a couple of years ago, and bought
the harmonium at just about the same time.
She had no lessons("Just singing lessons I wanted to be an opera
singer since I was a very
little girl") and plays
the instrument in auniquely delicate style,based on modes rather
than chords.
"I don't want to playin anymore clubs,"
she says. "I'd like to doconcerts, and maybe
colleges would be good.
But I don't have amanager, and nobody
knows me here. In New York all theyoung people
know me... I have a lot of friends... but I hate New
York. Maybe ! should get a manager. I wouldn't
mind all the hassling if somebody else could go
through it forme."
She was planning to fly to NewYork later the day
that! saw her, possiblyto take up the option on
herElektra contract. But a couple of hours after
we'd parted she rang to say that she'd changed her
mind. "I can't stand the thought of going to New
York, so I'm flying to Ibiza. It's my favourite place,and I think I'll die there."
So perhaps those 15 beautiful songs will never
be heard. But somehow ! think there's hope yet, even if London isn't ready"I can't standthe thought ofgoing to New

York, so I'm
flying to Ibiza"

Difficult, desolate- MARCH 21 -MM MARCH 28 qirn's rinital concert.
11 THOUGHT THIS was a rockand roll place," said Nico,
smiling between numbers at
the Roundhouse last Sunday.
She was right, but she contrived
to transcend barriers of taste
and finally left the stage towarm applause.
Hers is difficult music. It's tonal
range circumscribed by thesound of the harmonium she
played and her intensely
personal, desolate delivery.
The emotional range of theseinterior monologues is, however,unlimited, and among the mostmemorable of the songs were
"My Empty Pages","No-one
Is There" and a new song,"In Her Native German".
Richard Williams

48 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

for it. RichardWilliams- MELODY MAKER JULY 25 THEVELVET UNDERGROUND AREALMOST a myth

to their fans. Up until now they have been a minority appeal band, but those who have discovered them areinvariably completely hung up on the quartet's bizarre
originality. John Cale was the Welsh voice who intoned Lou
Reed's story of Marsha Bronson and Waldo Jeffers on "TheGift", and also the fingers behind the nerve -grating electric
viola on "Venus In Furs".
He left the band after its second album, and is currentlyin
London to produce the final stages of Nico's new album forJoe Boyd,which was begun a couple of months ago in New York. "Nico's sopowerful... very Germanic, very European," he told me. "I'm going to use
a string orchestra on some tracks, and possibly a rock band on one cut.
I'm making her singwithout her harmonium."John produced Nico's last LP, the mindshatteringMarblelndex, which he told me wasrecorded in two days- one forthe vocals andharmonium, and one for the backings, which John
overdubbed himself. One song left off that record,he says, sounded just like Jerry Lee Lewis.
More importantly for Cale's own point of view is
the recent release in America of his own Columbia
album, Vintage Violence, an extraordinary
compilation which, typically, is not at all what
you'd expect. John says that some of the songs are"British" and some are "American" in tone, andcertainly the most exciting is the brilliantly
arranged "Big White Cloud".
Welsh by birth, upbringing, and accent,John spent three years in London, notably atGoldsmiths College, before the famous AmericancomposerAaron Copeland got him a summer
scholarship toAmerica'sTanglewood music school
through Leonard Bernstein.

Nico, thelonelychanteuseppm suaveJof the Velvet Undergroundalbum. wiz aced rued{ When it rmail s bratchanesuse." Not jug
bocaus Nice It
Mere than Inst. And I.inger.h* word.

Nico and Sterling Morrison

on stagewithTheVelvet
Underground atthe N ew York
SocietyFor Clinical Psychiatry
annual dinner, Delmonico Hotel,
New York, January 13, 196 6"I was thrown out of Goldsmiths at just the right time to take thescholarship," he says. "That was in 1963, and I had two days of working
and studyingwith La Monte Young in The Dream Syndicate. That wasvery avant-garde music -we were holding chords for two hours at a time,and it was based on a system of intonation. We had electric violin andviola and two voices, and it was very loud and solid and hard."
It was then that he met Lou Reed, who was under contract to a music publishing company as a songwriter. Lou
played John some songs that the company
wouldn't use, and among them were the famous"Heroin" and "Venus In Furs" from the first
Velvets album, which Lou had written when 15
years old in high school at Syracuse, New York.
Sterling Morrison was a guitarist friend of
Reed's, so the three of them got together andeventually added Maureenlitcker on drums.
She had been a computer operator. The rest of
the story -the meeting with Andy Warhol, gigs
at the Dom in Greenwich Village, the abortive
West Coast tour, and Nico- is too well known toneed repeating in detail, but for the record Johnsays that the name of the band came froman American paperback.
John became a little warywhen
I asked him about the group's attitude
as reflected in some of its more horrificmaterial, and commented, "I do carethat people believe the songs represented
our attitudes. The main attitude wasfear, and people believed that because
we wrote and performed a song like
'Heroin' it meant that we condoned
the drug thing. In fact it's about someone
who doesn't like himself, and heroin
is the vehicle through which Lou
expressed this.
"Lou is a very gifted writer -he must be
to have written those things when he was
15. 'The Gift' was my idea, because I'dread his story and I thought it would sound good to back it with a separate
instrumental piece called 'Booker T'."
Event uallyJohn left the group, at about the same time that Nico split,
and they added DougYule instead. He signed with Columbia and started
to work in the studios with a group called Grinder's Switch, who he says
sound like The Band. A friend of his had put the band together, and hespent three months working on songs with them before he left because"I wasn't reallyinterested in The Band's styleof music."
Apart from his own record, John has also beenworking on Terry Riley's new Columbia album,
Church OfAnthrax, on which Riley plays organand piano.
"Rock'n'roll has had a stunning effect onmodem classical music," he says. "Those guys
have got a lot to learn, and Stockhausen's
electronic things didn't affect rock a bit, apartfrom maybe the four singles Jim Guercio did
with The Buckinghams. And Guercio hada classical training. But all the exciting things
are in rock'n'roll."
John has an unusual day job atColumbia now, remixing all thecompany's best albums for
quadraphonic stereo, which is likestereo but with fourspeakers, one
in each cornerof the room. His plansforhimself include the writing andrecording of a symphonic work, ona grand scale, and he says that he iscurrently interested in the lavish
Spector style.
"It almost came off with The Velvet
Underground," he says, "and it's
hovering around right now. It may havesomething to do with TheMarblelndex
kind of overdubbing techniques. But
basicallyI'm having a good time writing
songs."Richard Williams"I do care thatpeople believe
the songs

represented
our attitudes"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 149

Black Sabbath in1970:(I-r)Geezer Butler, Bil I
Ward, Ozzy Osbourne
and Tony lommi

I/50

i,RY OF HOCKBLACK SABBATH`A promoter

sent return

tickets for us,
and a onea sacrificial
victim"BLACK SABBATH area great new heavy
blues band, popularwith John Peel. Trouble- MELODY MAKER MARCH 14_

BLACK SABBATH, FOUR unknown rock musiciansfrom Birmingham, have emerged from obscurity withwhat is probably the first true underground successsince the days of Pink Floyd and UFO. Without mass
media exposure, the Birmingham band now findthemselves with a best-selling first album, sold on thestrength of their hard -rock sound, which has built them a fanaticalfollowing in isolated areas. As Black Sabbath, the group have worked
steadily both in Britain and on the Continent, building up an increasing
following wherever they appear. At Birmingham's Henry's Blues House
recently, they broke Jethro Ilill's attendance record, which had lasted
for over a year. It's in Birmingham that the group are the biggest draw.
Their reputation has spread from there through their live appearances
and a solitary Top Gearsession they did before Christmas and therelease of their Vertigo album, still making progress in the chart.
The album is an accurate reflection of their music, hard, driving andblues -based, with lyrics that have been influenced byblack magic, x.

is, everyone thinks
they dabble in theoccult. "People seemto expect somethingout of the ordinary
when we appear."

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 151

1970
a subject theyhave become interested in since changing theirname.
Theirenvironment, they believe, is reflected in their music.
"Aston is a bit of a tough area in Birmingham and a lot of our music could
really be put together in this way. The black magic thing came about when
we changed our name. We just looked into it a little bit out of interest;
Geezer is the most interested in it. We were playing the blues thing andjust became interested in the supernatural through changing the name."
The group have been together in various forms forthe past 18 months,
but atone time theylost lead guitarist and flute playerTonylommi, wholeft to join Jethro RIB when MickAbrahams left to form Blodwyn Pig. "Tonywas with Jethro for about aweek and he did the Rolling Stones'RockAnd
Roll[Circus] show but he came back to the nest, I'm glad to say," said Ward.
lommi's return strengthened the group's writing talent. They all sharein the writing of their material that forms the basis of their act, which is all
original apart from two numbers.
Black Sabbath spent six months of last year on the Continent, theywere
rebooked at Hamburg's famous Star Club five times during the year, andhave built up a big following in Germany. With theirfirst album still
selling tremendouslywell and moving into the higher reaches of thechart, the group have now started on their second album, which should
consolidate their surprising first success, watched closely by the group.
"It sold over 500 copies on Monday. We've been checking the sales
figures and watching the album charts. It was No 5 on the undergroundchart." In Black Sabbath's case "underground" is probably used in its
right context. Their success has been built on their own un-hyped appeal.
Royston Eldridge

groups who are re allygood, but people don't give them a chance. There's
a group called Hot Spring Water in Cumberland who are great, but they
don't get the breaks.
"If people would listen to more groups they'd realise the talent that's
about. It's hard getting the breaks and we're lucky they've started
happening for us. We couldn't do a thing at first."
Tonyis very interested in jazz and he has a liking for some of the brasssounds of Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. He hopes to see them bothduring the group's forthcomingAmerican tour.
"We're worried about this 'black magic group' bit in America; people
might take us seriously," he said. "We might change some of the words ofthe songs so that we don't have any trouble!lfwe get the time I'd like to see
Joe Pass; he's a fine guitarist and one of my earlyinfluences. It's people
like him andAlvin Lee that I like, they've got a style of their own. You canlisten to them and think, 'I've never heard that before.' They have theirown thing going without having all these Clapton things creeping in."On stage, Black Sabbath do a 25 -minute version of their number"Warning". It features a 15 -minute solo by Tony, who admits that heoften plays whatevercomes into his head, the others picking up theirinstruments and following him as best they can, though there are someset patterns.
Black Sabbath are already booked fora few festivals this year, so thebreaks theywanted are becoming reality. So fearnot when going to see
them; you won't have to take hammers, stakes and crosses to ward off evil
spirits, you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the wholesome music. If they
let you relax. Richard Green- NME APRIL 4 _- MELODY MAKER JULY 11

ANUMBER OF POP groups seem to have decided that it's thein -thing these days to meddle in black magic and present theirversion of some of its rites on stage. So when I came across agroup called Black Sabbath I naturally thought this was another touchof the things that go bump in the night. Not so. Despite the group's
name, members Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill
Ward want nothing to do with the spooks- at least, in their music.
Lead guitarist Tony told me: "Everybody thinks we're a black magicgroup, but we just picked the name because we like it. I agree some of thenumbers on the LP are about supernatural things, but that's as far as it
goes. We don't make a habit of playing numbers like that. I thin k it was
because we're interested in the supernatural as people but not asmusicians. The next album will feature more
instrumental work."
Black Sabbath have been togethersince theend of 1967, just afterTony left Jethro TU. The
other three were members of various groups
and they all came together to playwhat they felt.
"I was with Jethrolltll fora few weeks," said
Tony. "Musicallythey're really good, but where
we treat the music as a personal thing, they treat
it as a job. We all mix together, theydon't. Ian isvery to himself, he doesn't mix. When I joined
Jethrolitll theywere already pretty big; withBlack Sabbath! feel it's betterbecause I'm partof a group that's trying to make it."
Tony describes Black Sabbath's music as heavyrock. The first time I heard it was on a Saturday
afternoon when I was doing a bit of trendy posingwith dark glasses and alarge vodka in the Chelsea Drugstore. It's not an exaggeration to saythat
over half the people in the place stopped camping it up to listen to thealbum. There are all sorts of good things on the LP, and unlike somegroups, no one member has it all his own way. Things are shared out
evenly and the overall result is one of compactness and imagination.
When I asked Tony if he thought underground music had begun to levelout now, he replied, "There's a lot more to come, things are going to getbetter. People are learning things all the time. There are a lot of amateur-C'

E HAVE NEVER practised black magic on stage. In fact,
we're anti -black magic," said Bill Ward, drummer withBlack Sabbath this week.
Sabbath, whose first LP, called Black Sabbath, has been in the MMLP
chart for 13 weeks, have been put in a bag that theydo not fit. "Since webecame known it has been a complete mix-up; we have continuallybeen
put in the same bracket as Black Widow. They practise black magic onstage, with ritual killings and things.
"But," added Bill, "we are completely anti -black magic. Some stage
numbers we do are against black magic. One song in particularcalled'Black Sabbath' is against black magic and all its implications."
When the group -John Osboume (vocal and harmonica), Tonylommi(guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Bill Ward
(drums) - changed theirname to Black
Sabbath, their troubles began. If you havea "black" in your group name these days you
immediately become an occult rock group.
"It was very difficult in the beginning,"
explained Bill. "But we're graduallyclearing
this mistake up.As we get better known thebarriers break down."
Black Sabbath started off its life as Earth. "We
used to be called Earth- after earth blues. Then
we came back from a trip to Germany andheard a record by Earth, and as it wasn't us wechanged our name to Black Sabbath."
The group started life as four friends who
jammed together. And during a period when
theywere all out of work they decided to form a group. "Tonylommi andI had been playing together, and sometimes we would jam with theothers. Then one daywhen Tonyand I returned from a trip to Carlisle,
he and Geezer said let's form a group. So we started getting it together ina Birmingham cellar."
Ayear ago, the group had its biggest hang-up to date. At that time they
were going through a particularly bad period with few gigs. And during
this time lead guitarist Tony lommi was offered a job as lead guitar withJethro Rill, who had just lost MickAbrahams.

"We're worried
about this`black magicgroup' bit inAmerica"TO DO
NOTHINGHAVEBLACK SABBATH
WITH SPOOKS!

King 5,4 shared"evenly
WaYanA theoverall result

one Mcompactness and mathton
anted Tony if I
When
mime
thought l;ndergrourn he repll
bantun to level out now. to col
There's a lot more1

are going ro petellpeople &T. learning %Porgyaural
Titer.
are a lot or
time
good
thongslead guitar TONY

them awho are mall)"°uP1 don t give
Sol
There'. a group called Not
whv

chatpeople

"The new LP ismuch, heavier": recording
second album Paranoid
at Regent Sound Studio s,
London, Juno 17,1970

But Tonywas soon back with his friends. "I only stayed with Jethro Tullfor two weeks. It was just like doing a nine -to -five job. The group would
meet, playa gig and then split. Whereas with our group we are all goodfriends; we not onlywork as a group but we all live together," said Tony.
The group have just finished their second LP which will be released in
September and a single which is released in three weeks. "This LP is muchbetter than the last one. We have put a lot of hours into it. The trouble withthe first LP was that we only had two days to record it in; most of the songs
were recorded in one take. The new LP is much heavier, I like it better thatway," said Tony.
"The single, 'Paranoid', we wrote ourselves mucking around in thestudio. We taped it for the LP, but decided to release it as a single."
The band, who work extremely hard doing as many as seven gigs a week,
are taking things a bit easier now and cutting down on dates. "Our money
has been trebled due to the success of the LP. This is giving us a chance torest a little. I thinkwe shall cut down on gigs," said Tony.
The group was due to go to the States soon, but with student unrest in
the States theyhave become a victim of many clubs closing down. "We
were hoping to play the Fillmores, but both of them are closed for thesummer. So now we have to wait until September when the colleges open
again," said Tony.
Then, saying goodbye, the group loaded themselves into their van readyfor another longjourney. MarkPlummer- NME JULY 13-

BLACK SABBATH ARE just about fed up with being continually

mistaken for other groups with similar -sounding names who
dabble in black magic. The fact that they now have a best-sellingalbum firmly secured in the charts hasn't eased the situation; it's got
worse. As their lead singer Ozzy Osbourne told me over nothingstronger than coffee.

i

sln4
RS -

he
%ad

ea
rive.

"It's got so bad that recently a German promoter who had booked us
sent return airfares for the group -and if need be a one-way ticket if we
decided on using a sacrificial victim."
As if to protect themselves from the unseen powersof darkness, hobgoblins and bogeymen, theywere
each wearing a large silver antique crucifix aroundtheir necks. Even the fact that there was a black catplaying happily at ourfeet wasn't looked upon as anomen. Ozzy, whose name is tattooed 'OZZY' on thefingers of one of his hands, continued:"Black magic is a thing that we're trying to help
stamp out. There has always been an interest inthese primeval black arts, but it was such magazines

like Man, Myth & Magic, helped along by the press, that blew it all up outof proportion.
"With our name Black Sabbath, people therefore assumed that this was
our scene. Forsome unknown reasons, people seem to expect somethingout of the ordinarywhen we appear."
Guitarist Tonylommi, (he's the one with the longest, blackest andbushiest coiffure of the quartet) interrupted. "We want to excite ouraudiences, but onlywith our music, which is mainly based on simple riffs
and a heavy beat. Some people have put us down for this, but we like what
we play, and it seems that everyone else does... so that's it."Even after four months on the best-selling album chart, theyare still
totally amazed at their success, especially after the negative response thealbum received on its release.
With an almost naive innocence, they rushed out to buy all the music
papers on that memorable day, only to find that they had been savagely
attacked byvirtuallyall the critics.
"It completely threw us," Tony commented. "What had gone wrong?
Were we as bad as they made us out to be? It reallymade us stop and think."
Recalling those days, bassist Geezer Butler reflected, "Then just when
our spirits seemed at their lowest, the album suddenlymade its surpriseappearance in the charts."
Breaking his silence, Sabbath's drummer Bill Ward quipped, "It
made the 18 months leading up to the making of this album all seem
worthwhile."
So how does a virtuallyunknown group from Birmingham witha handful of bad reviews suddenly become such a big success? Ozzy
again seemed to have the answer.
"In about the space of six months before our album came out, we hadbuilt up loyal pockets of fans all over the country. When it was eventually
released they all went out and bought it, and that was sufficient enough to
put it in the charts and create a demand. Also it would be the same oldstory of whatever the critics put down, the public usually digs."
Terry, or Geezer as he is now known, threw in, "They even slammed Led
Zeppelin's first album. We've already started on our next album, which
we hope to complete in New York. I can tell you that two of the tracks will
be 'War Pigs' and 'Fairies Wear Boots'."
Ina final effort to define Black Sabbath's policy
towards the black magic cult in pop music, Ozzyconcluded: "We are trying to get away on the
sheer merits of our music. We don't need to have
naked birds leaping all over the stage or tryand
conjure up the devil. But the way things are at
the moment, some people will expect flames
to shoot out of the cover of our next album."Roy Carr

ter.
the
CST

bUt
RCN

are

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 I 53

-

1970

JANUARY -MARCH"Christ,I sounddifferent"
SANDY DENNY makes

a fresh start with
FOTHERINGAY, a new

folk-rock band. Still, thisforthright, poll -winning
singer faces accusationsof careerism. "People
have been really nasty,"
she says. Meanwhile, how

are the "mother band"
FAIRPOR uuilVEN1 iN
coping without her?

54 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

- NME MARCH 14 isANDYDENNY, BRITAIN'S best girl singer if

we judge by ears and not polls, emerges later
this month in concert with her new group
Fotheringay after an association with
Fairport Convention that produced three
good to great to excellent albums and saw
the group grow likewise.
When she left Fairport towards the end of last year, alongwith founder member guitarist Tyger Hutchings, it cameas a shattering blow to devotees of a group whose following
is one of the most loyal there is. The loss of Tyger, as an

instrumentalist, could be absorbed as other losses had
been, but Sandy, as focal point and voice, would be
another matter.
And due to a lack of facts as to why Sandydid decide to go,

public sympathyhasn't been completely on her side.
"I kept reading in the papers about mygoing solo," shesaid, talking for the first time about the split on Monday.
"And it was just not true. It made out like I was doing a big

star solo thing and leaving to get more moneyand status.
A couple of people have come up to me and have beenreally nasty about it."
Recognising that what went in the papers was what was
put out by her and Fairport's office, she went on, "I wanted
to tell people what the circumstances were but it seemed
too difficult to go into the reasons. It was fora lot of reasons
really. Forone I didn't want to go to America with them inJanuary, and theywere frightened I might let them down. x.

'y I

.

'

,

I

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41

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''''4'")? 'li ft.

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fik:a=,., hh.400(:.

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v-4

Sandy Dennyintg7o:"Everybody'straits
arecomingoutabit,
andthemusic isgettinga lot louder"

ION

1970
JgNUAP,Y

I had already let them down once when we were going to Copenhagen.
I didn't turn up for the plane. Theywere very keen aboutAmerica and I
was getting more and more neurotic about the idea because! have neverbeen keen on flying and travelling. They thought I would freak out onthem at the last minute, so theysaid it would be better if I left. I was
already coming to the same decision."
Sandy's problems were the same most girls face in a gigging group.
"I used to love performing but hate travelling. Travelling around in thevan for hours on end, though it wasn't the van so much really, it's that you
miss home comforts.Always getting stuck in some terrible boarding
house with a bed as hard as rock. I think theywill be much happier now
I won't have to do that. Theyare great company; I am really fond of"I can't see the point of
doing this"1970 -

of a song she wrote for Fairport's What We Did On Our
HolidaysLP along with her boyfriend Trevor Lucas,
Jerry Donahue and Pat Donaldson, both from Poet
&The One Man Band, and Gerry Conway, who
was with Trevor in Eclection until their groupbroke up about the same time Sandy quit
Fairport. Aftershe left, Sandy spent two months
thinking out herfuture but had had the idea "forages of getting a group together with Trevor".

MM FEB 14 dandiiitte: goesDatenewsingles.

Simon & Garfunkel

Johnny Cash & June Carter
CBS

CBS

That's Paul Simon and it's a great record.
I don't believe Art comes in until right at
the end. Are you going to give me theserecords afterwards? I didn't know he had
so much power in his voice (Sandy singsalong). The record has been fantastically
produced, like all their more recent records.
Oh! Art didn't come in at the end.
Strawbs Josephine For Better Or For Worse
FROM THE A&M LP DRAGONFLY

It's the Strawbs, and the record's called"Josephine For Better Or For Worse". I wish
them all the best of luck as they never seemto have much luck. It's a great record which
I'm sure will give a lot of people a lot ofenjoyment. Dave Cousins sings very wellon this track.
Dionne Warwick

Johnny Cash, and that's June Carter. I really
don't like it. Please take it off. The song's
been so overdone.
John Maya!!

FROM THE

DECCA LP THE WORLD OF JOHN MAYALL

What label's it on? I'm very confused by this,but I think its John Mayall. Is it a new record?
Oh, it's a reissue, that's a bit of a nasty trick.
He really sticks to it, doesn't he? He sings
well on this track, too.
Johnny WinterCBS

I like the song very much. Is it an American?
It could even be Chuck Berry. I don't know
Johnny Winter and I can't see the point of
doing this. I guess the bloke really enjoyedrecording this, though.
Young Tradition P

WAND

It sounds like Dionne Warwick. I prefer
this to the Bobby Gentry version, it's muchbetter. She's great - I love her voice, but
I wouldn't buy the record. It's a superb
version, though.
High Level Rantersthem, but the business situation always arises somewhere, along the line.
Theyweren't musical reasons at all. The reason Tyger lef t was because hewanted to do traditional stuff. I think it's the best thing he could havedone. I hear he is really happy now. I look upon Fairport as the mothergroup. They've had a lot of people dropping out but they still go on andwill be a popular unit fora long time to come."
So Sandyand hertalent now emerge in Fotheringay, taken from the title. FROM

THETRAILERS LP THE LADS OF NORTHUMBRIA

Is it Tom Gilfellon? Yes, and that's Johnny
Handle playing in the High Level Ranters.
They're absolutely incredible. One night wewere sitting around in Newcastle and they
played for absolutely hours. I like Gilfellon's
little bass runs.

'

FROM THE TRANSATLANTIC LP YOUNGTRADIT1ONSAMPLER

I can't say anything except the Young
Tradition were absolutely superb and it'sa dreadful shame they've broken up. I went
to their farewell performance at Cecil Sharp
House, which was a knockout. I believe Pete
Bellamy's doing a solothing now. This reallyis super.
Sly & The Family Stonek You Falettinme

DIRECTION

It's really incredibly like a machine; I'm just
waiting for the steam to come out. It reallymakes me nervous listening to it. It's not got
much tune, has it? Sly? Yes, I don't mind
them. A lot of work must have gone into this,and I can't say I'm keen. But I think there'll bean awful lot of people who'll buy it.
Steamhammer Turn Around
FROM THE CBS LPMK II

Is it The Liverpool Scene? I thought that was
Adrian Henri talking. Don't tell me, I must
try and guess this. I'm trying to think of theflute player. Steamhammer? It's quite
pleasant but I'm not particularly impressedby this track. In fact it's becoming

monotonously boring.

They've been rehearsing in a soundproof
room at Sandy's Fulham home -although
they've had to stagnate for the past fortnight
while Jerry fulfils dates in Germanywith his
old band. Fotheringaymakes its London
concert debut at the Festival Hall on March 30.
Sandywon't have so much travelling roundwith the new band as the size of their PA systemand the type of sound theywant will require
the use of large halls.
"We wanted to do a lot of acoustic stuff andwe went to see Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young at
theAlbert Hall and they do a lot of acoustic andit was so good. But in England there isn't somuch chance to get a good acoustic soundbecause of the PA. It has to be brought overfrom
America, which costs a fortune, or you have tobuild it yourself. So Trevor designed it andCharlie Watkins at WEM made it up. I haven't
seen it yet but I've heard they're like hugecoffins on end. We're going to tryit out tonight."
The group will be playing electric numbers
as well, but Sandywill playonly acoustic, withsinging, of course, and "a bit of lame piano"
thrown in. Trevor will also play guitar, withPat on bass, Jerry Donahue on lead and Gerry
Conway on drums. Most of their repertoire will
be new material- Sandy's writing quite a lot with a few traditional songs. But nothing of
Fairport's: "What's the point?"
Their first album is scheduled forApril/May
and a start has been made with a couple ofnumbers. She's very nervous about their debut
but not too worried about the inevitablecomparisons with her old outfit.
"Unless they sayl should have stayed with
Fairport. That would really do me in." And as
a parting note: "I feel very nostalgic when I see
Fairport, especially live, but I don't regret it atall." NickLogan- MM SEPTEMBER 19 THE TAXI DRIVER knew exactly where
she lived. "Oh, it's the singers you
want, is it? It's exactly five miles away,"
he said over his shoulder, as we drove awayfrom Chichester station, the sixpences
clicking away on his meter like the gobblingof an implacable fruit machine.
He was not unduly impressed about theirpresence in the neighbourhood. After all, he
had often driven MickJagger to Keith Richards'
house, Redlands, which was a mile beyond
our destination.And Chichester was full of
famous people at this time of year, with thetheatre festival on.

CITY HALL.

IIIWCSTIA . ON TIM

SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 14th. at 7.30

March 30,1970: Fotheringay-(1-r)Jerry Donahue, Trevor
Lucas,GerryConway,Sandy
Denny,Pat Donaldson -at theRoyal Festival Hall, London

FOTHERINGAY/JO

SPECIAL GUEST ARTISTS

Chaffinches Farm lay att he end of a long gravel drive-a neat brick buildingwith agrove of shrubs and trees on its
right. SandyDennyrents it,
and spends most of the time
therewith the rest of
Fotheringay and their chicks"Both. If the lyric was good and the tune bad I wouldn't sing the song,and vice versa. But if I wrote it then I would hope that both were as good aseach other. If you write something it should be a complete piece of work,
and ifyou are not happy surelyyou don't play it until you are. As long as
the lyrics go together fromA to Zyou should be quite happywith it."Do you think general lyrics in folk and folk rock are better than in pure
pop? Do you think that the people who write them have more interesting
things to say?
"Yes! do, I really do, but you are not picking out anybody in particular,
so I can't really saywhether I agree or disagree. But ifyou
are just generalising, !would say that on the whole thepeople who write folk... but, you see, it is difficult
because what do you term as being pop? Ifyou
mean, like, the ones in the Top 10 that don't
appeal tome, that would be, say, seven out of 10, )0in a mode of life that fits snugly into the conventional idea of getting it
together in the country. She still keeps her flat in a large house where
Fairport Convention have the top floor.
So we all sit in the large kitchen: Sandy, Pat Donaldson, the bassist,
Gerry Conway, the drummer, a couple of girls who flit in and out, and twolittle sisters who keep coming in with potatoes they have dug up in thegarden. The conversation drifts as languidlyas the smoke of ourcigarettes. The most important topic, it seems, is the discovery of
shelves for storing apples in an adjoining shed; they can have apple
pie all winter, they coo. Sandy is a chatterer, always nattering
away, like the big black mynah bird, Coco, that is conducting
a monologue in its cage in the corner of the kitchen. Herconversation suddenly flies off at tangents to embrace the merits
ofa Lord Buckley album, or a track on a Bill Crosbyalbum; it veers
MM JUNE 27 Fotheringay's "magnificent" debut.
like a sailing ship at the mercy ofa fickle wind.
FOTHERINGAY EMBODYTHE parts of the Fairports that I liked best:
She is a small but heavily built young lady, with a noticeably large
the drawn-out traditional songs, plus that light funky quality derived
bosom and a face that defies anysuggestions of showbiz glamour.
from Dylan and The Band. Their first album is well up to theirIt's a real honest -to -god English folk singer's face; there is no trace
capabilities, particularly an eight -minute version of the anti -war balladof that saintly purity of feature thatAmerican girl singers, like Joan
"Banks Of The Nile", which sounds just as relevant now as it must haveBaez and Judy Collins always have. It belongs to the small, baredone in Thomas Hardy's day.
upstairs rooms of English pubs, where everyone is downing pints
But apart from that, the music on this track is perfectly stunning. Sandy
and the person in the seat at your elbow suddenly gets up and sings
stretches the line, hanging and suspending it,as only she
unaccompanied a 20 -verse
can do, while the guitars and drums play perfectly
traditional. It's a wholesome,synchronised riffs behind."Banks Of The Nile" is probably
country barmaid's face thatthe best rock arrangement I've ever heard, simple as that,makes you feel at home.
and the rest of the album isn't far behind, particularly their
She was pleased she hadversion of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Way I Feel".
won the MMpoll, but not in
Their success lies in the fact that as well as having apersonal terms. She knows
wonderful front -lady, they also have four musicians who
she is not the conventional
are completely in sympathy and are able to subjugate theidea of a female singer, so
power of their playing with the kind of reticence which
she figures her success is
can produce great music. All of them - Trevor Lucasa victory for music.
(rhythm guitar, vocals), Jerry Donahue (lead guitar), Pat
I am positive she is right.
Donaldson (bass), and Gerry Conway (drums) -are
What is the most importantmagnificent and their album is likewise. This is what
in a song to you -the lyric or
British music must aspire to. Richard Williams
the melody?

Reticent but funky

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 157

1970
JANUARY

pApRCNwas excellent on that, too. Very thicktextures, and very precise. Dave Mattacks
has got a really precise way of drumming."
How did Fotheringay come about?
"I knew Gerry Conway and Trevor Lucas
well before, both from the Eclection. The
group has been going about six months; it started in March. We did our
first gig at Birmingham Town Hall in March.
"That was incredible. We had onlybeen together a month -no, two
weeks. But I'm glad we did it because it got us started, like, realising how
terrible we were to start with earlier than we would have done if it had
lasted a few more months. We were a bit ragged, but what can you expect?
We weren't really ready for it, but it doesn't matter now, of course. Things
have gone great, fantastic."
Do you see the group moving in a very different direction from
Fairport Convention?
people wouldn't find wrongwith mysinging, that! think personallyare"We are rapidly changing. What we did first was an initial bunch ofwrong. The notes may not be wrong, but how I sang it came out a little bitmaterial to get us started; now it has got hardly anything to do with that.
differentlyfrom howl really intended it to be. I think that Liege& Liefwas
As you work together more and more you begin to understand what
technicallythe best record I made with them. But I wasn't reallyvery
people in the group are really like and what their music is like, and things
happywith the vocal sound I got on that, frankly.
are really changing because of that. It is not a conscious change; it's
"Liege& Lief has my favourite Fairport track on it- 'Tam Lin'. Yes,
because we have all got ideas within ourselves that we did not
it's great, do you like that?! do like that one myself, I must say.
know each otherwell enough in the beginning to bring out in
It's a great song.
the open in case one of us did not agree. At that point it would"That bit that Dave Swarbrick does (hums a fiddle
have been very bad to have a riff right at the beginning. But I
passage) is, like, the favourite bit on the album. Very
thinkwe have developed our own sound now."
Romanian sound that had, I thought. The drumming
Well, how are Fotheringaygoing to progress?
"Pat is a rock bass more than a folk bass -he is reallydeveloping a good style now, but until now he has basicallyplayed sort of heavy music, like loud rock, and Gerry Conway-- AUGUST
has also played very heavy up until now. When we first got thegroup together it was much quieter because of the actual conceptof the group being mainly acoustic, and using the big PA, we had
to promote a better acoustic sound, which nobodyseems to havebeen doing until then. But as we have got older as a group,
everybody's traits are coming out a bit, and the music is getting
a lot louder."CATEGORIES ASIDE, FOTHERINGAY have to be one of the best
Is this your own wish as well?
music bands in the country. At their best, they play wonderfully"Sure. From now on what the group does is fine. What theydo
thoughtful, finely balanced music with particular attention towith my songs, which mayhave been written in a completely
arrangement and detail.
different mood, is great. I like what theydo, so I am not going toThis never degenerates into fussiness, however, and they put their songs
turn round and say, 'Oh, I want quiet music because! am a girl,over with the sort of quiet guts and drive which has too often been
I am all gentle and sweet."
ignored. At the Lyceum on Sunday night they played a typically lovely set,Will this affect at all your singing style, which! always associate
divided between the funky Band -like songs which Trevor Lucas sings andwith a clear, limpid sound?
Sandy Denny's flawless, elastic ballads.
"No... well, anythingwill affect my singing style because I am
Her voice is incredible. She seems to let the lines uncurl themselves,changing all the time, and I can sing veryloud, really loud, but...
rather than forcing them out, and her timing - particularly on the touching
you know, these questions are very difficult forme to answer,"Silver Threads And Golden Needles"- was exquisite. The instrumental
because it is like asking me what I am going to be doing on
work throughout was a model of discreet inventiveness, each player
March 20 next year."seeming to float like a soloist
What I mean is, will you change the tone ofyourvoice
and yet all coming together
if the band becomes heavier?
to produce the most
1Y70
"No, whyshould I? I can only sing a certain way. I could
homogenous of backings.
STRAND. w.C.2
probably do some imitations of people, but it wouldn't beHigh Tide were a
7.30
p.m.
THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 19111. amvery good because it wouldn't be the original. And
disappointment. At times
GRAHAME CORBYN withanyway, I prefer to... I mean, I can't tell you if I will
they are capable of
ENTERPRISES
20th CENTURY
because the next time you hear us I might be really
recreating the sound andPresents on Evening withblasting out with some incredible tone in myvoice that I
style of that most underrated
did not discover until the day before. But as it is now, I amof American bands, Seaa lot more versatile, myvoice is incrediblymore versatile
Train, with violin to the fore,
SANDY DENNY. TREVOR LUCASJERRY DONAHUE. PAT DONALDSON andthan when! first started singing. I did not know that I
and yet mostly they seem to
GERRY CONWAY
could do what I am doing now. I am not saying that is goodconcentrate on stale,or anything, but I am saying that experience is the only
predictable improvisation
BR INSILEY SCHWARZAND SPECAL GUESTS
thing that will tell you howyourvoice changes. The only
over a leaden beat. Their use
wayl can tell is by listening to old records I made andof an inverted Bo Diddley riff
noticing that, Christ, I sound different." Michael Watts
in 5/4 was not as interesting

but there might be three that I like; forwhat reasons, I don't know. It isdifferent for me because I can enjoy things for the sound of them.
"I can enjoysomething like The Jackson Five, forinstance, because theproduction and way it has been done is amazing. I can't hearthe words
that little kid is singing, but I think the sound is amazing. I can really dig
that, but I couldn't do it myself."
Which of the albums did you like best that you did with the Fairports?
"I liked Unhalfbrickingvery much, but Liege & Liefwas very good -yes,
I do think that I like that one best of all. But I don't playrecords very much
-I don't play Fotheringaymuch, anyway -because when you are making
the album you hear enough of it. But occasionally! will sit down andlisten to one of the tracks just to see if I enjoy it still."
Don't you thinkwhen you listen to an old album that you could havedone certain parts better?
"Oh yes, it is always the same. I mean, I find things naturally that otherSongs with guts

and drive !!.A.Trt:aTur.

THE LYCEUM

FOTHERINGAYHERITAGE

as it sounds.

Bronco were considerably
livelier, with Jess Rodensinging fiercely and the bandplaying well on "House Of
The Rising Sun". They'll bear
watching. Richard Williams.

DOORS OPEN 7 a.m.
TICKETS (12/6) FROM LYCEUM OR COMPUTICKET
CornputickI COntf111.:
14.414.

VII T....W... C..

te.,Io. 101 0.1.4/0 .0. 1444444. low*. 111 New 114/4

U. W. 10 210 06444 Sm.,V..

4.111......7
Mho.. bora, )51 Kw...toMt. OW,.

ISCC1. 71.4.44444 44441%. M1441.71444.4

58 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

a. a. 111
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Mode

V.

it to the States. It seems incredible that a groupof such long standing should have to wait solong, but tours in the past have been thwarted, first byt,
FAIRPORT

Thepost-Denny/Hutchings
FairportConvention posein May two, on theirfirst
UStour:(I-r) Dave Mattocks(front), Dave Pegg, Simon
Nicol, Richard Thompson
and Dave Swarbrick (front)

the tragic incident which killed Martin Lamble, and later byrecording commitments.
The all -English folk-rock group had been awaytwo weeks when
I phoned guitarist Simon Nicol at Fairports' LosAngeles hotel.
"Right now we're halfway through a week with Rick Nelson, and last
weekwe were working with Jethro Rill. We decided to take our own
football along, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of places left to play
football as all the open spaces are being built on."On the face of things, Fairports' belated visit has also seen a change ofstyle, as they have moved right awayfrom theAmerican-influenced music
theywere producing in the earlydays to the now exclusive traditional
English songs placed in a rock setting.
Simon confessed that the group didn't reallyknowwhat to expect. "People seem to think
we're prettyweird, and they either like it a lot,or it's leaving them cold. It's easy to tell we're
playing toAmerican audiences, but they knowwhat we're like as they've been getting all our
albums. The trouble is that the albums have all
been a bit behind and Liege & Liefhas only justcome out, which is unfortunate because they'refinding that we're nowwithout a girl singer.
The funny thing is that the kids seem to know
a lot of these old traditional things."

When ! spoke to Simon, the band were contemplating whether to attend
a mass open-air convention at one of the universities in LA. "It's all rather
frightening and reallya case of taking a chance, because you don't know
how many people will turn up. Things have gone pretty smoothly,
generally. We've not met with anyviolence, although you can't speak toanyone without the university massacre or the Cambodia thing beingbrought up. Every time you pickup a newspaper or switch on the radio,
they're talking about it, and I haven't heard a good word spoken about
either issue. Everyone seems to be holding a double hate campaign andit's getting exasperating.
"So far, we've just played the West Coast. We spent two days in NewYort
at the beginningof the tour, but didn't actuallyplay there; we were puttingthe finishing touches
to the album which comes out in a fewweeks'time. Dave Swarbrick had to go to the dentist in
NewYork, which proved to be prettyunnerving
because apart from the expense, he had to havesome kind of new gas. He's OK now though.
"The tour ends in the middle of June, bywhich time we'll have worked coast to coast.
Next week we move on to Detroit, and at the
moment it's proving to be prettyhectic, but you
tend to make it hectic simplybecause there's somuch to see and do." JeremyGilbert"People in
America seemto think we'repretty weird"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 I 59

"People think
we know theanswers.
We don't"
So what of THE BEATLES? John is abroad. Paul

communicates only by letter. George and Ringo areon hand to talk, but their collaborators Pete Drakeand George Martin also have their views. Have they

split? Or are they, as Ringo says, just "unlimited"?

- NME MARCH 14-

ABEATLE TALICED TO the NME this week about the pop soundsof the '70s. According to George Harrison, "I'm glad people are

dropping this word progressive, because most music is progressive
anyway! In my own case I've always tried to improve and not got
over the same ground again and again.
"Today's music is getting better all the time, but the tag ofunderground and progressive in the terms of John Peel- and all those groups he plugs
and has on his record label- that's just a load of c
!There's no more progression in thatthan in God -knows -what. There area lot of good bands who do get put in that bag, butthere's also a lot of pretentiousness. I remember that when The Beatles and Stones
became popular, it became the slick thing to then become 'underground'. But what isunderground? It's like playing electric guitar like Eric Clapton played five years ago,
and all that screechy guitar scene. That's the joke. I'll say this. If anybody's in anunderground group and really thinks theyare underground, that's a tragedy!
"I like Jethro Rill, and Blodwyn Pig are good. Both of them have got a good measure oforiginality- and that's what we want. Originality. So-called underground groups are no
more underground than The Beatles are pop."
Good, guarded and now and again knife -edged vibrations filled the air at theApple
offices a day or so ago. An afternoon of "Govinda" and the Radha Krishna Temple hadturned to dusk in the friendship of the press office. Now it was earlyevening, with music
and conversation, George Harrison on the guitar and the defensive Ringo on ad-lib andstompingYeti boots. And for the company and warmth of us all, there sat a hot, snug fire x.
00 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

G eorge H arrison in

NewYorkCity,Maynno:"Wehadtofindourselves,individually, one day"HISTORY OF ROCK 197061

at the top of the echoing emptyroom. As time passed byweheard the sound of music and a singing McCartney creeping
through from next door, and we jumped up as one and raced
across the floor and through the door to the TV, to watch theyear -old film of a united Beatles performing "Let It Be" on

May 20,1970i none of
The Beatles will attend, but
crowds still gather forthe

LetltBe premiere atthe
London Pavillion (now the
Trocadero), Piccadill Circus

Top OfThe Pops.

Then it was back to the hearth and a seat and a view of
Ringo's toe -tapping feet, colourfully clad in furry, hairyknee-high boots that bumped up and down to the beat ofGeorge Harrison singing a pointedly cynical version of
Doris Troy's "Ain't That Cute". Ringo also played tracks
from his forthcoming album of golden oldies, among them
"Bye Bye Blackbird" and a smooth "Whispering Grass" that
could well stand up as a commercial single. Next, guitarpluckin' George gave a short rendition of a memorable song
Ringo has just written called "It Don't Come Easy".
I am happy to report that the LeatBeTVfilm waswarmly received by both George and Ringo, andthat both of them remain aggressivelyloyal to thecontinuation off he Beatles as a unit and as
individuals. According to Ringo, "Everything's fine.
But I've got things to do, and George has got things
to do, and Paul has his solo album to come, and Johnhas his peace thing. We can't do everything at once.
Time will tell."According to George, "Saywe've got unity throughdiversity, because that's what it is -unity throughdiversity. We still see each other, still make contact.
But we had to find ourselves, individually, one day.
It was the natural course of events.
"The thingis that so manypeople thinkwe know all theanswers about The Beatles, and we don't. Who arewe tosay? We can't give the answer, and I forone can't definethat special somethingthat made us aswe are. I knowit
wasn't just the records orourconcerts. You tell me."He's a deep and complex person, this George
Harrison, and as long as I've known him and as much as I like him, I find
it difficult to define the man beneath. The balance within him is fine
between love and good and bad and some kind of bitter mistrust of somepeople, among them members of the press.
George's interest in the principles of the Radha Krishna Temple goconsiderably further than that of record producer of the temple's
mantras, and his obsession with finding himself still never fails tosurprise those who expect on ly a Beatle and a ready quip.
"If there's a God," he told me, "I want to see him. It's pointless to believe
in somethingwithout proof, and with Krishna, here is a method where
you can actually obtain 'God perception'. You can actually see God, andhear Him, playwith Him. It might sound crazy, but He is actually there
actuallyw ith you."
Of his present and future career, George told me, "I think I'll take a breaksoon, and probably go back to India. Out of the new records, from Apple,
I've done: "Let It Be" with Paul; "Instant Karma" with John; "Ain't That
Cute" forDoris Troy; the record with Jackie Lomax; an album with Billy
Preston; the records with Radha Krishna Temple; and now possiblya
single with Ringo.And maybe, if I get a chance, I'll get round to doing
something for myself!I've almost become a full-timeApple record
producer, but I'm going to have to stop. I don't want to be a producer oranything in particular. I don't want to die as 'George Harrison record
producer', or 'George Harrison lead guitarist' or even just a Beatle.
They're all me, but they're not really me. The moment people start typecasting, then it's time to move on. I'm unlimited. We're all unlimited!"
Alan Smith- MELODY MAKER MAY 2 HO DOES PAUL McCartney think he is? We don't see
anything of him fora year, and then out he pops from his
mysterious hermit -like existence, advertising his newrecord in a publicity -crazed manner. Does he really think we'll believethat he played all the instruments? Let's face it, Mailbag, we're notsuckers. It's obvious George Martin had a lot to do with it. In fact if you
listen carefully to the end of the third track played backwards, you canalmost hear him whistling. Paul McCartney
82 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

- MELODY MAKER AUGUST 29N0 DOUBT THERE were plenty of scoffs

when it was announced that Ringo Starr
was going to Nashville to record acountry album. Remembering that wheezy voice
intoning "They'regonna put me in the movies"
and the very real horror of his ballad album,
music -lovers around the globe must havesquirmed at the thought of another helping of
the same. I know I did.
Well, I have news for everybody. Ringo's country album is finished, andit's a solid gas -thanks to Pete Drake, steel -guitarist extraordinary. I met
Pete in Nashville, where, at 37 years old, he is the top exponent of thepedal steel, working through some 600 recording sessions a yearas well
as being in charge of his own record label (Stop Records) and his own
publishing company, Window Music.
Ringo met up with Pete in London earlier this year, while Drake was ona flying visit to play on George Harrison's solo album. Drake and his
sidekick Chuck Nevard persuaded Ringo to go to Nashville to cut his
country record, instead of doing it in London with imported musicians,
and Starr readily agreed. "I gave him a hundred songs to choose from,"says Pete, "and he took them to his hotel room and listened to every last
one of them. Eventually he managed to whittle them down to a dozen,
which we arranged and recorded in the studios here."
Drake, with immodest humour, claims responsibility for the highquality (really!) of Ringo's singing: "I made him go over the songs again
and again until he had some confidence in himself.Afterwe'd recorded
them he kept ringing me up and saying that he'd been listening to thetapes and he couldn't believe it was him. I guess no one had taken thatmuch trouble with him before. But we did the sessions very quickly. We
used only 12 people -including Jerry Reed on guitar -and had all thetunes down in three days."
Pete played me the finished tapes of the album, and it would be anunderstatement to say that I was stunned. Ringo sings with terrificconfidence, sometimes adopting a hilarious quasi -Tennessee accent,and the backing musicians (with much steel guitar and Dobro inevidence) play beautifully.
It's likelyto be called BeaucoupDe Blues, which in prime Nashvillian
becomes "Boocoud Blues", afterone of the tracks, and a single is likelyto
be picked from one of two songs: "Love Don't Last Long", a pretty ballad
written byNevard, and "Without Her", not the Harry Nilsson song but anice pop-countrytune with beautiful chorus work at the end.
Drake is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, and came to Nashville in
1959. It's worth recording that in Atlanta he had a regular working band
which included, simultaneously, Joe South, Roger Miller, Doug Kershaw
and Jerry Reed. In Nashville he "almost starved to death" before landinga gigwith Don Gibson, of "Sea Of Heartbreak" fame. He began recording

THE BEATLES

around 1960 /61, and since then has averaged three
sessions a daywith country favourites like Jim
Reeves, TammyWynette, Porter Waggoner and
Roy Drusky, as well as playing on many of Elvis
Presley's sessions. Other pop stars who've had thebenefit of his back-up have been Perry Como,
Bobby Vinton and Joan Baez.
Pete had a m illion-selling single, "Forever", on
the Smash label, in 1964, which gained popularity
through his use of the "talking steel guitar", anextraordinary invention which uses rubber piping
to produce the sound of the human voice throughthe instrument. But it was his association with Bob
Dylan which brought him to the attention of ayounger generation of listeners.
"Bob was in town recording theJohnWesley
Hardingalbum," Pete remembers "and he and Bob
Johnston, his producer, decided theywanted to use
a steel on two or three tracks. So I went in andplayed on 'DownAlong The Cove' and 'I'll Be Your
Baby Tonight'.
"Dylan and I hit it off so well that he decided touse me on all his things. Musically, we think quite
a lot alike, and tome he's the Jimmie Rodgers- theold Jimmie Rodgers -of today. He's fantastic, hewrites such fine melodies. I like his lyrics too, but
being a musician, I dig his tunes. I really love 'Lay Lady Lay' and I told himthat would be a good single. In fact! did a single of it myself later, on myown label, that went up to 16 or 17 in the national country charts. I'm now

planning two instrumental albums- one of Dylan tunes and another ofBeatles numbers."
Does Pete think that the Nashville sound has hipped up rock, or has
rock hipped up Nashville? "It works both ways. The kids are getting more
lyric -conscious, so that there's not so much noise and the songs have tomean something. Countrymusic has always been that way. George's
album is fantastic, too. Dylan recommended me to George, and hewanted me to come to London fora month, but I told him I could only
spare four or five days because ! have so much business to take care of.
"His album is fantastic- it's not country, but his songs are so good. He'sa tough writer. I got on real well with Phil Spector he's a hell of a producer
and he's got a track record you can't question. But George knocked meout. He lives 40 miles outside of London, yet he came to the airport to seeme off. It seemed that ! could do no wrong and he's the kind of person I'dwork my tail off for.
"Dylan is another cat you'd kill yourself for -he lets you playwhat you
want to play. People are screaming that he shouldn't have recorded 'Blue
Moon', but he did it because it was one of his favourite tunes, and heshouldn't let anybody tie him down. I really love workingwith all theseyounger guys. It's very rewarding, because Ringo, forinstance, knows
more about country music than most Nashvillemusicians!" Richard Williams- MM AUGUST 29 DEAR MAILBAG,
In order to put out of its misery thelimping dog of a news storywhich has
been dragging itself across your pages for the
past year, my answer to the question, "Will the
Beatles get together again?"... is no.
Paul McCartney- NME OCTOBER 17 IT IS NOW almost 100 per cent certainthat The Beatles will never, ever record
together again! Though individual
members of the group - if it can any longer
be called a group -will undoubtedly choose
to make solo albums and record otherartists, the likelihood of the four getting
together is as remote as the possibility of
The Who recording "Silent Night".

All the stories, tales, whispers and rumours of an irrevocable split
between John Lennon and Paul McCartneywere as good as concretely
confirmed by George Martin, The Beatles' record producer, when we
spoke in his new studios. "It all depends on Paul and John," he replied,
when! asked him about the possibilityof further Beatles recording
sessions. "If theywant to work together again."John continues to use EMI'sAbbey Road studios, where almost all thegroup's work was done. George Harrison frequents the Trident studios in
Soho. Paul does much of his recording at home and Ringo has recently
been at George Martin's newA!R studios at Oxford Circus.
Showing me round the vast £400,000 complex, George commented,"I thinkThe Beatles would have liked these studios. Theywould have
liked a place of their own, but it never came about for various reasons.
That is a pity. The formation ofApple was an example of putting thewrong people in the wrong jobs."
When ! suggested that with all their money The Beatles probably didn't
worrytoo much aboutApple's decline and not having their own studio,
George replied, "That's a pity, too."
A genuinely nice person, with a softly spoken manner, non-smoker
George revealed that "HeyJude" was recorded at Trident and not, as mostpeople assumed, at EMI. Besides confessing to a high regard for Trident,
he offered no further explanation.
"Even iff he Beatles did decide to record together again, they may find it
hard to do so when they choose to. They're the sort of people who decidein the morning that they want to make a record that night," he said, witha small smile. "With all the demand for studio time at the moment, theywould probablyfind it difficult to be able to record in that way. They neverreally made set plans for recording. It was all done on the spur of the
moment. They'd ring me and say, 'We want to go into the studio today.'"
George broke off to have a word with Bern Calvert off he Hollies,
who was doing some mixing, then he continued his guided tour of the
10,000 -square -foot studios and offices.
"I first thought of having my own studio five years ago," he told me.
"I always wanted one when I could afford it. This is a dream come true ina way. I was going to have a small studio, but ! realised there were a rash ofsmall studios going up."With his fellow producers Ron Richards, John Burgess and Peter
Sullivan, all of whom areAIR directors, George has equipped threestudios, the largest capable of accommodating 70 musicians. Closedcircuit TVenables Studio 3 -the smallest -to be linked to anyother studioor room.
A tape library and cutting room, a dubbing theatre, canteen, vending
machines and even a room where producers can sleep the night are only
part of a most impressive and highly technical layout that is even now a week after opening -fullybooked for some time.
Equipment and furniture has been shipped in from all over the world
and there are several gadgets -"I love playingwith them," George admits- to change air conditioning and lighting shades and colours. Costs are
not cheap (£35 an hour in Studio 1 for 16 -track).
Stated George "The swing to multi -track
began at about the time ofSergeantPepper.
That cost £15,000 in studio costs alone, butwith an album like that that sells millions
and millions it is well worth all the expenseand effort involved."
He added, "If the premises were empty, it
would cost £5,000 a month in overheads alone."
He is modestly confident that the studios aregoing to be a success and a look through thebooking list shows that the rush has alreadystarted -The Hollies, Ringo, Cilia, The Pipkins,
Procol Harum, Harmony Grass and Vince
Melouneywere a few of the names! spotted.
As a reward for years and years of extremely
hard work duringwhich he received an"My answer

to, Will The
Beatles get
togetheragain?'... is no"

AcademyAward Nomination, three Grammy
Awards, nine GrammyAward nominations
and the Ivor NovelloAward for services tomusic, MR and its undoubted subsequent
success is fitting fora man like George
Martin. But what a pity the man they called
the Fifth Beatle may neverget together withthe otherfour again. RichardGreenHISTORY OF ROCK 1970 183

THE HISTORY OF

Introducing The History Of Rock, a brand-new monthly magazinecelebrating 50 years of the music that changed the world.
Month by month, it will build up into an unprecedentedly detailed
chronicle of the music and musicians we love.

Rio

THE HISTORY OF

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GOLDEN YEAR S THIS ISSUE:1 970

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Readers' letters

MM JAN -MAR airports split, Bonzos bow out and all hail The Who's top roadie...
SOFTLY SOFTLY

Why no mention of Soft Machine
in your selection of probable New
Year successes? 1969 was theiryear for gainingwider publicattention, but still they seem sadly
underrated by the majority of"progressive" listeners. This isparticularly amazing when one
considers the presence of Mike
Ratledge, who (with apologies toother remarkable group organists-Emerson, Greenslade, Wright,etc) is probably the most originalorganist in Britain, and iscertainly the most distinctive.
Alternating cool "wa-wa" waves
with screeching pinpoints ofsound, he is a wonderfully driving
and melodic improviser of quite
staggering solos. Perhaps in 1970
more people will listen. B ELEY,
Havering, Essex (MMJan17)
In last week's Caught In The Act
Richard Williams did say this might
be Soft Machine's year- Ed.

SPLIT DECISIONS

Fairport, on thelookout for original
material, have set the
beautiful Robert Bums poem Tam
Lin to music. It is one of the finest

tracks on their current album
Liege & Lief I now read that a film
version has been made of Tam Lin

and that the Pentangle have beencommissioned to write the musicscore. I am not questioning
Pentangle's competence. They
write and play some very goodmusic, but I do consider it rather acheek. Fairport conceived the ideaof setting Tam Lin to music, and it
is only natural that they should beallowed to compose the full musicscore as well. C DRINK WATER,
Harrow, M iddlasex (Mm Jant7)

May I say how sorry lwas to readthat Sandy Denny and Tyger
Hutchings have left Fairport
Convention . I considered Sandy's"Who knows Where The Time
Goes?" to be a standout attraction

on their UnhalJbrickingalbum.
However, I hope the music of
this fine band will continue toprogress and I know I sp eak fora great many Fairport fans inwishing Sandy and Tyger every
success in their future careers.
SPHILLIPS, Borehamwood,
Harts(MMJan 17)

I was shocked to hearVivian
Stanshall say that the Bonzo Dog

Band is splitting up, at the
Lyceum. I am sure that suchoriginal, talented and versatileentertainers will not easilybe
swept underthe carpet as Vivian
implied theywould. Please tellthem that they have been verymuch appreciated and will bevery much missed. MARIONMcCONNELL, Romford, Essex(MMJant7)

about nothing. Their set at theRoundhouse was not better thanthat of any of the British "heavies".
D WHITE, London SW5 (MM Mar 21)

KING ARTHUR

Last 1 hursdaywe had the honourof playingwith US bluesman
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. Without
men like Crudup rock'n'roll could
never have been what it was in the'50s or even become what it has
today. Elvis Presley has recorded
two of his songs, "My Baby Left
Me" and "That's All Right Mama",
and these songs have sold a lot ofrecords. SHAKIN' STEVENS &WEDNEcOAY, TS FEBRUARYTERRY LIGHTFOOT
of theBIRDCAGE HARLOWc1ft

HubblePipe'
18Bubble
40. *Id
P&P

THE SUNSETS (MM Fab 28)

TURN THE PAGEFUSION CONFUSION

I am getting rathertired of peopleraving overAmerican bands who
suddenly seem to arrive fromnowhere, are hailed as the mostsubtle jazz-rock fusion ever, andare then quickly forgotten as a new
jazz-rock band emerges who are
regarded as an even better fusionof the two. At one time you could
not open a music paper without
reading of Blood, Sweat &Tears.
With the emergence of Chicago
TransitAuthority, BS&Twere

almost forgotten and the trendy
in -crowd and the music papers
had new darlings. Now CTA look
like being replaced by The Flock.
I am not saying people should
not like these bands, but at times it

appears that the musical press isgeared to finding us new heroes toserve fora couple of weeks as jazzrock kings and then be replaced.
If we must be bombarded witharticles on jazz-rock bands, howabout more publicity for Britishgroups doing the same thing suchas The Battered Ornaments andthe very fine Heaven?BILL FORD,
Bath, Somerset (MMJan 24)

Recent tours by the American
bands Chicago, Love and Spirit
were eagerly awaited and,
unfortunately, except for Spirit,
were disappointing. Chicago
seem to be highly overrated as
their music is nothing special.
Love, who in Arthur Lee's own
words, were the "first heavyband", certainly are much ado

I read the article on Jimmy Page
and I don't see whyyou waste somuch space on such a trite
guitarist. Just listen to the LP Led
Zeppelin IL Nothing but flashy
guitar all through it. Even a goodblues track- "Bringing It On

001%0 WITH TI41

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Home" -cannot last without theshow-offyfuzzbox guitar Page
uses on every track. If you have somuch space in your paper, why
not do a write-up on blues
guitarists. You get more feelingfrom one Muddy Waters, Earl
Hooker or BB King than a hundred
Jimmy Pages. FSHUSTER,

SCARF RING
Sol toMei
leLondon NW 8 (MMFb 28)

tdAdueCongratulations, MM! Yet another"bleep bleep" reader is converted.
Your splendid article on Jimmy
Page was a refreshing change fromthe formalityof its forerunners,
and I hope that this sets thepattern for the series. It highlights
the pleasant personality of one of
the world's greatest guitarists andgives his massive following someall -too -rare worthwhile reading

Ileyo

WM* leria )ke

W ig meI

XI 1:1111111111W

JOIN Tilt FUN CROWD IN

OR WO

Dal

Darr MISS YOUR COPY

90.

material. Keep it up! K SKIPP,
Chashunt, Harts (MM Feb 28)

BOB WHO

There has recently been plenty ofpraise for The Who concerning
their performances on "live" gigs.
This is, of course, fully justified,but I feel that some of this praise isalso commanded by their roadie-Bob Pridden. Bob sets up the PA
wiring, tunes all the amplifiers
and mixers to produce the perfect
acoustics heard wherever The
Who play. The Who area greatgroup, but they also have (andneed) this great roadie.
J HUBBARD, Hull, Yorks (MM Mar 7)

CarnabyMarketHISTORY OF ROCK 1970 165

NJAGGER AND THE AUJJItS- HE TRUTH''i:.; (010RHIAI
0110Idinwk

FATHEROr MIN ow kr Mr

ELTON JOHN, PINKFLOYD, SYD BARRETT,

THE KINKS AND MORE

OF ROCo's

Polythene plan:fans
try to stay dry at theBath Festival Of Blues& Progressive Music,
June 25-28,1970, Bath& WestShowground,
Shepton Mallet"I always bring

the rain with me"
MM JULY 4

bayb Ut du1111, wiiu uUeS

juaL 1.11411.tt,tdie Bath Festival, featuringhimself, Led Zep, Canned Heat and more.
POWERFUL MAGICAL FORCES seemed to be atwork when Dr John The Nite Tripper arrived in
Britain last week for his Bath day. A somewhat
incoherent gent, he proved a friendly cove, however,and claimed, "I always bring the rain with me."Right! - In a few hours a heatwave and days ofsunshine were replaced by black storm clouds andfrequent downpours, as the Doc shook a grinning skull
at the heavens. He shared a voodoo chant with Aynsley
Dunbar, now drummer with The Mothers Of Invention,and MM's Chris Welch, known as The Grinning Fool
wherever witch doctors meet. Theywere in conference
on the power of the sea at Clymping-On-Sea, Sussex
until rain stopped spells.
Videotape of the Bath Festival will be shown by TVX
at London's Arts Lab in 1 Robert Street, NW1 today(Thursday), Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8pm. x.

1970
APR

SO

Q. Is Lennon/McCartney

still a partnership? A. "No"NME APRIL 18

3 solo debut is out, so Paul McCartney

Alf - and breaks up The Beatles.
PAUL MCCARTNEYSPEAKS... or rather sends out his words via
a printed sheet which we reproduce below, just as he sent it out.
That way we cannot get anything wrong, something Paul accuses
the press of doing from time to time! Paul has used the time-honoured
NME Question -Time format to put his message over, writing thequestions and giving the answers himself.
You'll find what he thinks of Lennon; and Allen Klein; how he madehis new album; who gets the composing credits; if he missed otherBeatles and George Martin on the sessions; and what he wants to doin the future. Here is what he has to say...
QUESTION: Why did you decide
to make a solo album?
ANSWER: Because I got a Studer
four -track recording machineat home - practised on it (playing

all instruments) -liked theresult, and decided to make itinto an album.
Q: Were you influenced by John's
adventures with the Plastic Ono
Band and Ringo's solo LP?A: Sortof but not really.
Q: Are all the songs by Paul
McCartney alone? A: Yes sir.

Q: Will they be so credited:
McCartney? A: It's a bit daft forthem to be Lennon/McCartney
credited, so "McCartney" it is.
Q: Did you enjoy working as asolo? A: Very much. I only had me
to ask for a decision, and I agreed
with me. Remember Linda's on it
too, so it's really a double act.

Q: What is Linda's contribution?
A: Strictly speaking she
harmonises, but of course, it's
more than that because she isa shoulder to lean on, a second
opinion, and a photographer ofrenown. More than all this, shebelieves in me- constantly.

A: Studer four -track machine.
I only had, however, one mic, and,as Mr Pender, Mr Sweatenham
and others only managed to takesix months or so (slight delay)
I worked without VU meters ora mixer, which meant thateverything had to be listened to
first (for distortion, etc...) thenrecorded. So the Answer:
STUDER. ONE MIC. And nerve.
Q: Why did you choose to work inthe studios you chose?A: They
were available. EMI is technically
good, and Morgan is cosy.

Q: The album was not known
about until it was nearlycompleted. Was this deliberate?
A: Yes, because normally analbum is old before it comes out.

A: From just before (I think)
Xmas, until now. "The Lovely
Linda" was the first thing!
recorded at home, and was
originally to test the equipment.
That was around Xmas.

Q: Will Paul and Linda becomea John and Yoko? A: No, theywill
become Paul and Linda.

Q: Assuming all the songs are
new to the public, how new are
they to you?A re they recent?

Q: Will the other Beatles receive
the first copies? A: Wait and see.

A: One was 1959 ("Hot As Sun").
Two from India, "Junk", "Teddy

Q: What has recording along
taught you?A: That to make yourown decisions about what you do
is easy, and playing with yourself
is difficult, but satisfying.

Boy", and the rest are pretty
recent. "Valentine Day","Momma Miss America" and "OoYou" were ad-libbed on the spot.

Q: Which instruments haveyou played on the album?
A: Bass, drums, acoustic guitar,(Aside) Witness Get Back.
lead guitar, piano and organmellotron, toy
Q: Why? A: I've
xylophone,always wanted
bow and"Is the breakto buy a Beatles
arrow.
album likepermanent?
Q: Have"people" doyou played
and be as
I don't know"
all thesesurprised as
instruments
they must be.
on earlier recordingsTA: Yes,
So this was the next best thing.
Linda and I are the only two who
drums being the one that I
will be sick of it by the releasewouldn't normally do.
Q: Why did you do all the

Q: Areyou able to describe thetexture or feel or the theme of thealbum in a few words? A: Home,

instruments yourself?A: I think
I'm pretty good.

Studios (WILLESDEN!)

Family, Love.

Q: What is your homeequipment? (in some detail).

Q: How long did it take to

Q: WillLinda be heard on all
future records? A: Could be; welove singing together, and haveplenty of opportunity for practice.

complete -from when to when?

QUESTION-TIME WITH PAUL
sends out his

ing from

work? A: Yes.

Q: Who has done the artwork?
A: Linda has taken all the photos,
and she and I designed the
package.
Q: Is it true that neither Allen
Klein nor ABKCO have been nor
will be in any way involved withthe production, manufacturing,
distribution or promotion of thisnew album?A: Not if I can help it.

Q: Did you miss the other Beatles
and George Martin? Was therea moment, eg, when you
thought: "Wish Ringo was here
for this break?" A: No.

date. We love it really.

Q: Where was the album
recorded?A: At home, at EMI(No2 studio) and at Morgan

below,
t get anythingof

Q: Are you pleased with yourCONDUCTED BY PAUL ! !

IIIwith John

Q: Assuming this is a very big
album, will you do another?
A: Even if it isn't, I will continue todo what t want -when I want to.
Q :A re you planning a new
album or single with The
Beatles? A: No.

Q: Is this album a rest awayfrom Beatles, or start of solo
career?A: Time will tell.
Being a solo album means
it's "the start of a solo
career"... and not being doneBrinsleySchwarz:(I-r)BillyRankin,
BobAndrews,Nick
Lowe.Brinsley
Schwarz.lanGomm

with The Beatles
means it's a rest.
So, it's both.

Q: Is your breakwith The Beatles

temporary or permanent; due topersonal differences or musicalones?A: Personal differences,business differences, musicaldifferences, but most of all
because I have a better timewith my family. Temporary or
permanent? I don't know.
Q: Do you foresee a time when
Lennon -McCartney becomes anactive songwriting partnershipagain? A: No.

Q: Does it please you to hearviews on John's possible band
names? The Plastic Ono Band?
Giving Back The MBE? Yoko's
Influence? Yoko? A: I love Johnand respect what he does -it
doesn't give me any pleasure.
Q: Were any of the songs on thealbum originally written withThe Beatles in mind? A: The older
ones were. "Junk" was intended for
Abbey Road, but something
happened. "Teddy Boy" was for
Get Backbut somethinghappened.

Q: Were you pleased with Abbey
Road? Was it musically
restricting? A: It was a good
album (No 1 for along time).

Q: What is your relationship with
Klein? A: It isn't. I am not in

contact with him, and he does not
represent me in ANY way.

Q: What is your relationshipwith Apple? A: It is the office ofa company which I part own withthe other three Beatles. I don't go
there because I don't like offices
or businesses, especially when I'm
on holiday.
Q : I lave you any plans to set up

an Independent Production
Company? A: McCartney
Productions.
Q: What sort of music has
influenced you on this album?
A: Light and loose.

Q :Are you writing more
prolifically now? Or less so?
A: About the same. I have a queue
waiting to be recorded.
Q: What are your plans now?
A holiday? A musical? A movie?
Retirement?A: My only plan is to
grow up.

APRIL 17 Brinsley Schwarz spend £30,000 flying the press to NYC to witness
illmore East. "We wer9n't screaming with paranoi " they say.

their Ad at th

BRINSLEY SCHWARZ,THE band bornout of the small-time frustrations of the
Kippington Lodge band, are the outfit thewhole of the rock media were taken to see in New
York last weekend. Because of the expense
involved in the whole junket, both the band andFamepushers, the company behind the £30,000
promotion, have been accused of perpetrating thebiggest hype of all time. It's an accusation to which
the group themselves plead not guilty, as Brinsley
Schwarz, leader of the group since its inception,
explained after their Fillmore experience.
"What we've done, or what the management
have done, is to put us at a gig and say, 'Come andsee this band.' All they've done is by the nature ofas Kippington Lodge."Nicky has been on our
sessions. The first two records we did were youractual session musicians -but -don't -tell -anyone.

We were a pop group called Kippington Lodge forabout two years and we had about five singles out
and we had all the promises of being pop stars. It
got to the stage where we just wanted to be cut
off from all that when we saw this little ad in
Melody Maker which said 'Young Progressive
Management require Young Progressive Group'
and we thought why not? For about six months
we'd been earning between three and five pounds
each a week, so we didn't have anything to lose."
The group - Bob Andrews (organ), Bill Rankin(drums), Nick Lowe (bass) and Brinsley-started
writing their own material a year ago. They'dlistened to jazz-rock outfits like Chicago andcountry -rock bands like Area Code 615, James
Gang, Allman Brothers and The Band."We started
off with the aim of doing country -rock and thengradually realised that because of our individual
styles it was going somewhere else. Bob theorganist obviously has a more jazz influence thananything else, which has really brought the organ
into the fore, but then again he's

the gig,and the nature of the whole junket ensured
we'd get the maximum of coverage, which is what
promotion is all about. Everybody is bound to saythat it's a hype, but it doesn't worry us in the least.
It would be a hype had we really flopped at theFillmore, but we really enjoyed the whole thing.
American audiences are really weird comparedwith English audiences, because they groove on
completely different things, but it wentwell.
"All the pressures were on usthat first time and nonewhatsoever the second time.
We weren't screaming witha hype had weparanoia, but naturally it
affected the play the first time,
but after we'd finished wethought it's over, it's finished,
let's go out and get it together,and it went better."
The group had problems even
before that first gig,at the Fillmore.
They couldn't get visas and flewto
QUICKSILVER
Toronto first to come into the
MESSENGER SERVICE
States that way. It meant that they
VAN MORRISON
arrived with only an hour to spare
BRINSLEY SCHWARZ
before their opening show.
Brinsley Schwarz were on the
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOWsame Fillmore bill as Van Morrisonand Quicksilver Messenger
TOM PAXTON
Service, who feature pianist Nicky
Hopkins who worked with the
FRASER & DIBOLI
group when they were still known"It would bereally flopped at
the Fillmore"

not a jazz -oriented organist. I
think because Nicky writes all
the songs and they each have a

different feel, it's impossible tosay exactly what we play."
The British public will begiven a chance to hear Brinsleyin concert. The group hope tomake their first appearance at
the Albert Hall, either on their own
or with one or two big name bands,
before starting a British tour.
Whatever the criticisms of
their musical ability, Brinsley
Schwarz have overnight reacheda stage which takes many rockbands twice as long to attain.
They have got to American andBritish publics alike through one
performance. From here on in
it's all down to the music.
Royston Eldridge

kri
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970
fillIaOlif EAST

I

69

1970
4PRIl -

ANNE

"I hatethe showbiz

thin "- MELODY MAKEE, APRIL 17 MY WEEKLY shot of masochism heavily
disguised as Top Of The Pops as week or two back,something happened which managed to drag mythoughts away from the low -angle shots up thedollies' skirts and stopped me reciting the usual
litany of"rubbish... banal... trite codswallop".
The something was a slight youth seated at a grand piano singing
and playing an amazing God Rock ballad which quite put the insipid"Let It Be" into true perspective. The song was called "The BorderSong" and thesinger was Elton John, known mainly for his previous
songs "Skyline Pigeon" and "Lady Samantha".
IIe's rapidly becominga name in his own right, but many willremember him as the chubby organist with that underrated soul bandBluesology a few years ago. In the band with him were altoist Elton
Dean and cornetist Mark Charig, both now with Keith Tippett and theSoft Machine, and many others whose faces are now rather better
known than they were then.
Elton studied piano in his youth, and joined Mills Music as a tea boy
three weeks before he was due to take his A -levels. Then came four
years with Bluesology, during which they did the usual round ofclubs up and down the country, often backing American soul artists.
"We used to work for Roy Tempest," says Elton,"backing his artists.
I remember that we once did four gigs in a day, and we never thought
anyt hing of it. That was with Billy Stewart, who was a great guy. I
shudder to think of that now, and we didn't even have a roadie then.
Groups today don't know how lucky they are!"Heleft the band fora variety of reasons: he was fed up with the soulformat, the band wouldn't let him sing, and "I wasn't a very competentorganist anyway". Not knowing quite what he wanted to do, heanswered an advertisement asking for young talent. That got him
together with Bernie Taupin, who now writes the lyrics to Elton's tunes.
"We really bombed out to start with. It was terrible, but eventually we
ended up at Dick James Music, and we're still there. That was nearly
three years ago, and the fl rst thing we did was to write and record acomplete demo album of songs we thought would be commercial.
"We were pretty pleased with it, but nothing happened andeventually Steve Brown, who joined DJM from EMI, came in and told
70 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

1970 brings a oreakthrough
ELTON JOHN a hard -sessioneer.

Acclaimed albums. Hit
singles. "Pandemonium"
on his American debut.
It's enough to turn a young
man's head. He's even got
a gold lame suit, he
confesses. "I might havesausages sewn on it!"4

E Iton John in

1970:"I know
how good I am,
and what I'mcapable of"us how awful it was. That was when I made up mymind to write what I
really felt and not to manufacture songs I didn't feel. So practicallythe
first thing I did after that was to write 'Skyline' and 'Samantha', and we'vebeen writing for ourselves ever since."
The result, apart from Elton's own recordings, has been that his songs
have been recorded by Spoolry Tooth, Three Dog Night, Toe Fat and manyothers. In New Zealand and Italytheir songs have been big hits when
covered by local artists. "At that time I wanted to be someone like
Leonard Cohen, who could disappear forlong periods, surface with analbum, and then disappear again. I'm financiallysecure because of all
the sessions I've done and still do, so it's not impossible.
"Bernie always writes the words of a song first and then gives them tome and I write the tune. It always works perfectly, and I thinkwe gainfrom doing it that way. I can't write lyrics, and I know what Bernie wants,
so it always comes out right. We don't write a lot... it generallycomes inspasms, when we feel like it.
"I don't reallywant to be labelled as a songwriter, because peoplewould
immediatelyput us in the same bag as TonyMacaulayand
Bacharach & David. That's not to put them down in anyway; it's

just not what I want. Bluesology
would neverlet me sing, so I only
really started when we were doing thefirst demos, and myvoice improved-I hope -as ! did more and more.
"I don't reallyhave any conscious
influences, but I listen to a lot ofmusic and there are so many people that
I admire and who must have an effect on me...
The Band, Van Morrison, Neil Young... people

MM APRIL/OCT Elton's 1910 albums
DJ M

It's nice to see Cat Stevens andElton John providing the British
answer to Neil Young and Van
Morrison. And make no mistake;
Elton is up in that class.This is his
second album,and is considerably
meatier and more substantial than
the first. He and Bernie Taupin craft
superb songs, strong in every
department (words, music, sounds),
and Paul Buckmaster's sumptuous
arrangements and Gus Dudgeon's
brilliant production help the result
almost beyond words.
If Elton has a fault, it's that hesometimes sounds rather too much
like Feliciano in the way he a turns
and ornaments phrases, but once
you get past that its beauty all theway. The rhythm section is as solid
as can be, the strings are useddiscreetly and imaginatively, and it
must be significant that "The
Border Song", his current single, is
not among the best tracks. My own
favourites are "The King Is Dead",an atmospheric piece with a hairraising finale, and "Sixty Years On",
which features delicious Spanish
guitar by Colin Green. A truly greatrecord. Richard Williams, MM Apr 25

write lyrics I'd want to do it like Jagger, and on
our albums we always dedicate one track to theStones. They're my favourite band -on record,
anyway, because they don't get it
together at all on stage."
Elton has been booked toappear at the Pop Proms in
the Roundhouse onApril 21,
and is currently finding abass player and drummer toaccompanyhim. "I hope to
get Dean Murray, who was
Spencer Davis' last bassist, but I can't say about the

All sorts of influence
Elton John

like Zappa and Jagger, who don't give a s-.
Zappa -well, I don't believe he exists, andJagger is the most underrated lyricist. If I could

Elton John
DJM

If "Take Me To The Pilot" was yourfavourite cut from Elton John's
lastalbum, then Tumbleweed
Connection is sure to be yourfavourite Elton John album. For
most of the way it has Elton provingthat he's MrSuperfunk, and hesucceeds better than people like
Cocker and the Bramletts because

he's funky without copping off blackmusic exclusively; there are all sorts
of influence at work in his music.
Whereas the last album dealt
mainly in "down" atmosphere, thenew one rocks and rolls a lot, withplenty of machine-gun piano andgospel choruses. It begins with
"Ballad Of A Well Known Gun",a stomper with good guitar, soulchorus and typical Nigel Olsson
drums, right on top of the beat but
giving the impression of laying
back. "Country Comfort" is theofficial version of the song Rod
Stewart did on Gasoline Alley, andElton's has prettier harmonies on
the chorus."Love Song", by Lesley
Duncan, is a little too much of CSNY
to convince; "Amoreena" is a greatsuperfunk again, with insanely
tumbling piano, in contrast to'Talking Old Soldiers, whichfeatures Elton alone at the piano,
singing one of Bernie's best lyrics,
about the loneliness of old age.
The album ends with "Burn
Down The Mission", which begins
gently but evolves into the all-timetear -up. Paul Buckmaster and Gus
Dudgeon's arrangements top off
a finely executed project, and if
I find it a little less intriguing than
Elton's last, then maybe that's myproblem. Richard Williams, MM Oct 24

drums yet. I'd really like to do a couple of gigs a week,
because that's how you sell yourself to people. Top OfThePops doesn't really give anybody an idea of what you can do...
in fact it gives them a totallywrong impression." Richard Williams- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 26 _AL KOOPER, TALKING about Elton John's last album:"That album's really got me screwed up. It's just theperfect album, and I carry it around everywhere withme in my briefcase."Those words prettywell sun up the reaction of many musicians
to John, who returned this week from a trip on which he conquered
the States almost from scratch in a month flat. Elton is as amazedas anybody bythe phenomenal success that greeted him.
"We went overto play the Troubadourin LA, and the moneywas
really bad. DickJames put up the bread forit, because the record
company in the States said that the time was right, and Dick musthave lost a bomb on it. Before we got the offerto go, I was on the
point of packing it all in and join i ngJeff Beck, believe it or not. Butthat fell through, and we went to the States expecting nothing at all.

"From the moment we arrived, it was just pandemonium all
the way. The first night at the Troubadour was hype night, withall the record companypeople and the press, and the first set
was incredible and it stayed that way. We got unbelievable reviews-I didn't see one bad one."The response was so strong that a LosAngeles radio station took
a full -page ad in the LA Free Pressto thank him for coming over.
Gordon Lightfoot was there most nights, The Beach Boys andBread were in a lot, and Quincy Jones brought his entire family
down to hearElton. One of the most rewarding things for Elton
was when Leon Russell came in, and was completely knocked out.
"He's my idol as far as piano playing, and there he was sitting in
the front row. My legs turned to jelly... I mean, to compare myplayingwith his is sacrilege. He'd eat me for breakfast. But he said
that he wants to record with us, and he told me that he'd written'Delta Lady' after hearing one of our songs, which was a gas. Reallyit's worth five million good reviews if someone you respect as amusician comes up and tells you they like what you're doing."
Truly fantastic acclaim, then, but does Elton feel that he's being
overrated? "Of course, some of the reviews have been ridiculous.
But I know how good I am, and what I'm capable of. You simply
can't sit back and believe everything people say about you, or
you'd get terrible ego problems. I do believe that we write goodsongs, but I get embarrassed when people say so."With Elton to the States went the two members of his band,
drummer Nigel Olsson and bass guitarist Dee Murray. They played

ELTON JOHN

"hallways comes out

righetsongwriting
partners Bernie
Taupin and Elton
John in N ew York CIty,
November 1970

every performance for the last three months.
His rendezvous with The Band came in New
York recently, when he and his lyricist Bernie
Taupin were invited across the road to meetthem in their hotel.
"Bernie was shaking with fear," Elton told meover the transatlantic telephone, "but they
were really sweet and we talked together for
about three hours. Then came the mostincredible thing, because the day after we said
goodbye to them and set off forPhiladelphia,
while theywent in the opposite direction,
north to upstate NewYork.

15 gigs in Britain, including the Krumlin Festival, a couple of
Implosions, Leeds university, Mothers and the Speakeasy
before theywent to the States and the response was staggering then. "It'sa real band now," says Elton, "and the boys have helped me a lot. It's so tightnow, but in a year's time it'll be unbelievable. America did our confidence
a lot of good, and I don't ever have to tell them what to do, becausewe allknow what we're doing. There are some songs with very broken rhythms,
but they just play them without having it explained to them."
Elton was on the bill at the Troubadour with David Ackles. "He's muchbigger over here than he is inAmerica. But it's the same with Tom Paxton
and Tim Buckley -they're not so big in their own country as in othercountries. But as a whole the kids are much more aware in the States, andthere's much less backbiting among the musicians. Over there they all go
to each other's houses and play, it's so much more relaxed and tolerant.
There's none of the 'Ten YearsAfter are crap' rubbish.
Elton's new LP, due out in mid -October, is "so different from the last one. I
wanted to get away from the orchestral thing and one cut is just me and the
piano, recorded live. There's a LesleyDuncan song I've always wanted todo, and there's one of ours called 'Bum Down The Mission' which I think isthe best thing I've everrecorded. It's all much simpler, much funkier."
For the next fortnight, Elton and his two extremely heavyfriends will berecording the music for a new Lewis Gilbert
movie, Friends. "It'll come out as a soundtrack
album, and I think there'll be a single from it,either the title song or 'Michelle's Song'. I don't
want them to pull a single off my next proper
album -there are no singles on it anyway."
Despite the sombre quality of manyof his
recorded works, Elton is nothing if not a raver onstage. He's playing a RoyalAlbert Hall concert
with Fotheringay on October 2, and he'splanning to wear a gold lame tail -suit, which
was given to him in America. "It's from a '30s
Busby Berkeley musical...I might sew somesausages on it for the occasion," he commented
cryptically. "The outrageousness is verymuch a part of me, which is why
I admire people like Jagger and Zappa so much. It's not just doing it forthe sake of it, and I wouldn't do it every night. It depends on how you're"Anyway, we played a fantastic gig in
Philly and when we got into our dressing
room afterwards the whole Band wasthere. They'd put their show forward
a couple of hours, and flew down in theirprivate plane to see our act. We played'Tumbleweed Connection' to them, andtheywent berserk. It was such a compliment
that! couldn't believe it. They asked us togo up to Woodstock to record at their place,and when Robbie Robertson asked us towrite a song for them... Well, I think Bernie
was a bit embarrassed, because Robbie's
his current idol."
Naturally, Elton is in "incredibly high spirits". He went to the States firstfora holiday before starting concerts, and he's met a lot of influential
people, all of whom have, to say the least, enthused about his work. Al
Kooper, forinstance, who described his second album as "the perfectrecord" in the MMrecently, went up to Boston to see them, and hired alimousine to take them out for the day.
Leon Russell wants a song from them to complete his next album, but
Elton and Bernie haven't had much time to compose, although their
management bought an electric piano for Elton to lug round hotels withhim. "I've neverwritten anything specifically for another singer before,"he says, "and we're playing the Fillmore East tonight with Leon. He's hurt
his ribs so he's a bit immobile, but he's got a good band with a couple ofchick singers. We're planning to do a thing in which we do our respective
acts and then Igo on stage and we playthe piano together."
Their second album has sold close on a quarter of a million copies in
the States, and will have a Gold album award by the end of the year.
Thousands of British copies of the first album Empty*/ are still being
imported and Tlimbleweed Connection, released in Britain this week, will
be delayed until January for theAmerican market. Theyalso made a little
bit of historyby doing a live radio show in New
York, the first time it's been done for ages.
"We recorded it in eight -track stereo, and weshould get a good live album out of it. Mind you,it went overthe airin good two -track, so there
were probablymillions of people sitting at
home taping it for bootlegs. But it's a fantastic
tape, the best playingwe've ever done."In Santa Monica their performance wasrecorded for television, partly fora Henry
Mancini spectacular and partly for a 30 -minute
Elton John Show, which will be shown in theStates soon and sold all over the world.
"We played for nearly two hours there," Elton
remembers. "We seem to go on longerinAmerica than in Britain, because
the audiences are so incredible. Theydon't vary at all, and since weplayed the Troubadour in LA on the first trip we've had a standing ovation
at every gig, including the ones in England in-between.
"San Francisco audiences are a little cool at first, like those in London,
because they've seen everything, and one night it was like pushing overa brick wall very slowly, but theywent in the end. LosAngeles is like homefor us, and Philly and Boston are great too. Every audience is good ifyou
get at them the right way.
"There's one thing, though- I'm a bit homesick. We don't seem to haveseen England at all this year, and I'm looking forward to getting home on
December 12. But even so, we haven't got a free day right through January,
February and March." Richard Williams

cou

write lyrics I'dwant to do it
like J a(50'erbbfeeling." Richard Williams- MELODY MAKER NOVEMBER 28 sURELYONE OF the highest accolades in rock music must be arequest to write a song for The Band. It's like being asked to lead
the Ferrari Formula One team or displacing Pele in the Brazilian
XI. And it's happened to Elton John.
Elton is currently in the middle of a longAmerican tour, his second, andhe's being received with the standing ovations which have greeted his

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 173

1970
APR

StIt

After the commercial disappointmentof Arthur, THE KINKS deliver the massive
hit single "Lola" and a new album about
the music industry. Having been spurned-

by England, they spend much of theyear wowing America with a new

piano player, John The Baptist.

"The storyof thisbusiness"- MELODY MAKER JUNE 6 CHRIS WELCH, WHO likes football about as much as

the Kremlin digs incense, would never understand it- but Ray Davies flew 3,000 miles for a game of soccerthat didn't even happen. Kink Ray, in the middle of thegroup's third tour of America in six months, took timeout last week to jet into London Airport. "I wanted toget a connection to Jersey, where I hoped to play in a charity match,"says Ray. "But I couldn't get a flight. So I just sat at the airport for twohours. Then I went to sleep."
Twelve hours later, he was on his way back to the States. Actually, thetrip wasn't entirely for the football. Ray also took time to balance thetapes of his forthcoming single. It's another Davies composition, titled"Lola".Ask Ray if the title was inspired by any person, and he replies
mysteriously, "Just hear it, man." But he did add that it was a "slowrock'n'roll number". It was made specifically as a single, but it will be
included on the next Kinks album. Naturally, Ray is hoping fora hit, as
the last Kinks single to hit the chart was "Days" and that was some one and -a -half years ago.
Did he feel that the group's absence from Britain had hampered theirhit -making potential?"It's possible. It always helps ifyou're playing
dates in the countrywhen a single is released." Why, then, spend somuch time in the States? "Theyseem to appreciate us there a lot," says
Ray. "The place is so vast; we haven't played all major cities yet. But x.
74 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

"We haven't played
London for about
th ree years-: Ray

Daviesphotographedon January 29,1970

audiences definitely like us. They
seemed to appreciate our Arthur
album more than Britain."
Unlike some groups who
seem to spend more time in therecording studios than on theroad, The Kinks are happiest
when they are appearing before
live audiences. "We like to play.
That's what a group is all about,"says Ray. "I don't think it's a very
good policy not to be out playing.
There's nothing like playing for
an audience. I can't exactly say
why the Americans appreciate
us so much. It's just a fact, that'sall. We haven't toured America
for three -and -a -half years;
now we're doing our third tourin six months.
"After the tour, which ends
in about six weeks, we plan toplayLondon- dates in two
nice places. But nothing as
grand as the Festival Hall.
We haven't played London forabout three years.
"We do get requests from a lotof fans to play dates in Britain,
and I think there is a little danger
in being away too much. People
tend to forget about you. They
Ls
like to be able to see you on tour.
HOIST
FAUX
IXIS0CRSAT
14.1...tses
It must help record sales. At
ppm
present, I'm trying to do as muchto promote 'Lola' as ! can."A piano had been added to the group for theAmerican tour. "It helps
when we do numbers from the albums on stage," he added. "We mayadd
a piano when we play in London. Usually if any piano is played, it's by me.
But I find it a bit restricting."
One instrument Raywon't be adding to the Kinks lineup is an organ.
"I don't like organs," he says firmly. "They're too stodgy."
Somewhile ago, Raywas reported to bewritinga book. Eversince, Kinks
admirers have been askingwhen it would appear. "I'm still working on it,"he said. "But you know how it is when you start writing a book. You keep
making changes. Then when you come back to it, you make more changes."
But Ray promises one thing: he will definitelywrite that book. Even
though it is going to take time. And time certainly presses when a man
can't even get a game of football. LaurieHenshaw- NME JULY 11 THE KINKS SPENT a long time in the British hit wilderness "Days" was the group's last decent hit exactly two years ago when
it reached No 14- and Dave Davies at least hopes that "Lola" will
enable the group to work more in England. At present, The Kinks arebarnstormingAmerica and Canada with a series of concerts that are
mostly sell-outs and are producing what used to be called fan -mania.
Dave flew back to London this week during a break from the tourand
explained, "When you're not workingyou don't miss it, but when you get
the fans yelling again you like it. I enjoyplaying, myself."
Dave is keen to play in Britain again, although he thinks the Kinks will
only do an average of two gigs a week. "We haven't worked here for quitea while. The actual working thing slowed down quite a bit for everyone.""Lola" has provided the Kinks with a much -needed hit, and while itbears a resemblance to other RayDavies songs only in that it tells a story,
Dave commented, "All his songs wander on about their own ego. His
songs are down to earth and involved with reality. People can attach
themselves to that rather than to songs people write about themselves."
The Kinks recorded "Lola" about two months ago, but Ray, the man you
I can't understand unless you happen to be Ray, hasn't told anyone what
8 made him write it in the first place. "There maybe a story behind it, but
he hasn't told us," Dave admitted. "It's not someone in the group. I don't
78 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

The KinksonJuly 21,
1970: (l -r) John "TheBaptist" Gosling, Mick
Avory,John Dalton,
Daveand Ray Davies

knowwho he was actually directing it at, probablysomeone he met." He
let out one of his frequent high-pitched chuckles. Maybe that implied
more than he was letting on.
Dave flew back toAmerica yesterday (Thursday) to get on with the restof the tour, which he says is being split up into parts. "It's scheduled tofinish on Monday, and then we're coming back for three weeks, after
which we'll probablygo back toAmerica again," he told me in his
manager's Mayfair offices one sweltering London daywhen most people
were feeling lethargic, but when Dave seemed singularly keen to get
down to some serious work.
"The reaction in America is really good. It's fantastic. We played in
Canada, where we'd never been before, and in Vancouver the people
almost tore the place apart. Some people went there out of loyalty andsome out of curiosity. The people in one town in America didn't knowwhat to expect. I think they expected us to arrive in suits and be very, very
smart people. Theywere quite surprised to find we weren't. A lot of people
thought we didn't exist."Those of us who have met solely Dave will testify to the undeniable factthat The Kinks are verymuch alive and well and living in an amalgam ofchanging emotions -most of them Ray's. Knowing Ray, I don't expect
having another hit here will make him any different to his usual self. And
it is this effect that he seems to have on the others that virtually dictates
The Kinks' moods, if not their careers as well.
A hit record apart, The Kinks' music is satisfying them a lot more than in
the past.As Dave explained, "During the last six months, we've beenworking a lot better together. Musicallywe're a lot more together. Ray's
writing a lot better now; it goes through phases, like everything, and thislooks like being the beginning of a big thing again for us."
Maybe it has something to do with the inclusion of pianist John Gosling,
who reminds me of a Roy Wood with shades. "Our manager, Grenville,
met him. He was a music teacher or something," Dave said. "We've
christened him John The Baptist 'cos that's what we think John The
Baptist looked like."
InAmerica, The Kinks sell a lot more albums than they do singles,
according to Dave, and they need to get another LP out over there as soon
as possible. "We'll start work on that as soon as we're back," Dave said.
"We've got a couple of tracks in the can, but we want to do a possible
follow-up to 'Lola'. We don't go into the studios fora week and get enoughstuff to last us a year."
And with that he was gone. Off on some errand to do with work and,hopefully, keeping The Kinks back in the charts where their residency
came close to being terminated with a fans' notice to quit. "Lola" has paid
the rent up, so they look to be around for a while yet. RichardGreen

THE KINKS- NME AUGUST 25 WITH "LOLA" HAVING reached No 1 in the NMEchart, it

would be natural to expect to see Dave Davies jumping withjoy and generally feeling pleased with himself, but this isn't
exactly the case. Though he is pretty happy about the record's success,he is more concerned with the fate of earlier Kinks releases.
The failure of the albumArthurand the single taken from it, 'ShangriLa', puzzles him, and he conducted an inquest into the non-event when
we met last week. He arrived hotfoot from a recording session in darkest
Willesden to take a drink in Soho- not cherry cola, bythe way.
In reply to my question about a follow-up to "Lola", Dave said, "We don't
really think in terms of follow-ups, we haven't for some time now. We've
had some good records out and they just haven't made it, so we've got tothe stage where we release the best thingwe
have and hope it'll sell.
"Do you remember 'Shangri-La'? I think it was
the best single we ever did, but it was a miss. And'Wonder Boy' - that was another good one that
got nowhere. I haven't any idea why; if we knew
why records flop we'd make hits all the time.
I suppose 'Lola' did well because people candance to it and the story's a bit unusual."
And of Arthur, Dave commented, "I wasdisappointed that it didn't make it. We all
thought it was a good album. The next one
won't follow a complete theme like that one
did, but there will be something to link all thesongs. I don't want to saytoo much about it incase people steal the idea.
"When we told people about doing a pop opera, a couple of small groups
did one, and then whenArthurcame out, we got accused of jumping on
the bandwagon though it was our idea in the first place."
Having just returned from anAmerican tour which proved to The Kinks
that they still have a lot of fans and that their music is appreciated, thegroup is feeling more confident than for some time.
"We're going to work more here now, but mainlyplaces like universities,"
Dave revealed. "We've got a new act and we're playing music that we likepersonally. We've done a few dates and the reaction has been good. If wegot a poorreception for three nights I'd feel like leaving off fora couple ofweeks and thinking about it."
Before he left, I asked what would have happened if "Lola" had beena miss and he admitted, "I suppose we'd have gone on making records for

American tour this year. "It's still as great as ever it always is to me,"said Ray. "We decided to stop over in Hollywood fora couple of days
before we move to Colorado and then Illinois. The tour is going down
tremendously well. We've done the West, and now we're working overtowards the East."
I asked Ray if he noticed anychange in audience between coasts. "No,not visibly, but it's such a damned big countrythat you can trip acrossinto states where they have still never heard of you, although Kinks are
becoming known throughout each state now. How did HenryCooper geton? Great, it's really p---- down with rain here."With the new Kinks album, Lola Versus Powerman And The
Moneygoround, on the verge of release, I asked Raywhat he thought of thealbum. Were the references to Melody Maker and other items from the
pop business a deliberate dig at the music world?
"Well, you were after me for an interview at
the time of recording. The album is not reallymeant to be a dig. It's more a story about some of
the things that happen in this business. I don't
think people are aware ofwhat really goes on,
especially on the business side. The album,
I suppose, tells the tale of us on two planes -one
as businessmen, the otheras people."
What stage did Ray think The Kinks were atnow? "I don't know, I just don't know. I'd be able
to answer that when ! look back at the album
in maybe a year's time. I mean we've just done
the soundtrack to the film Percy. It was a nicething to do.".. .Moneygoroundisn't a wild change in the
Kinks sound; in fact, on tracks like "Top Off hePops" it virtuallywent back to the chunkiness of"You Really Got Me".
Did Raythink that The Kinks were progressing at all musically? "Notmuch, not much at all. But let's put it this way: I wouldn't have written
a track like 'Top Of The Pops' two years ago; it was deliberately meant tobe chunky, and in that style. It ain't progressive or anything like that.
What I thinkwe have achieved during the year is dwelling more on lyrics,
and not musical progression."
How did Raylook upon the progression in today's music? "I see itfrom here inAmerica as lots of people sitting in their own little cubicles,
making their own records for themselves. To me everybodylooks like,and acts like, an individual.
"A couple of years ago you had unknown bands pumping out otherpeople's material; now we have many unknowns doing completely theirown stuff. I think that's onlyfor the good."
What was in line for The Kinks in the near future? "I don't know -at the
moment it's just to finish this tour. We've actually started work on anotheralbum, which I feel maypossibly come over as a big change. It will be an
extension of the last; it's coming off well at the moment.
"Actually, this tour is just settling down now. We follow quite a general
pattern on tour. Forthe first couple of weeks we don't talk to each other;
now Dave's finallygetting round to talking tome, and me to him -so
we've got over that period. It's like being in the army,
I think, although! don't really knowwhat the army's(U ,......,Vlike -but I imagine it must be like this."With four tours in the States this year, did Ray feelthey were neglecting Britain?
"No, not at all. There just aren't enough places toplay in England -it's as simple as that. I'd like to doa concert as soon as we come back from the States.
It doesn't payoff to have a rest after a tour ofAmerica.
I mean, you're into playing, so you should carry it on.
Maybe England, Germany and Europe would be OK."

"I can't exactly
say why theAmericansappreciate us
so much"anotheryear ors° and then drifted apart."
A fewweeks ago, Pye hosted a reception for The Kinks to celebrate thesuccess of "Lola" and welcome them home from their tour. Surprisingly,
they all turned up (quite a feat if you know their habits) and I spoke toJohn Dalton, who was laughing and joking with a waitress.
He too had a word to say aboutArthur, agreeingwith what Dave was totell me later.
"We got lots of people thinking we were copying The Who because
they'd had Tommyout, but the thingwas, Ray
had been writing it for two years before it wasrecorded, so we can hardly be accused of copying,"
he explained reasonably.
How did he find theAmerican trip?
"Oh, well, it's OK in some places, but there's a lot of
travelling to be done," he told me. "But the crowds
have been so fantastic that! don't really mind."
He's looking forward to the next album, which willprobablybe a double set, and hopes that "Lola" willtend to make people listen to the LP. That's what The
Kinks are really after now -album chart success.

the Km5

RichardGreen- MELODY MAKER DECEMBER 5-

RAY DAVIES OF The Kinks and Britain waswatching The Lucille Ball Show. It was justafter 3am in Los Angeles. In another half-hour
it would be The Adventures Of The Cisco Kid, timeenough for a few words on the transatlantic line. The
Kinks are at present in the middle of their fourthI'the West was wonow
Kinks
RoyHollingworth

R AN DAVIES of the Kinks and- Britain was watching The

It was just
Lucille Ball Show.
alter 3 S.M. in Los Angeles. In another half-hour it would be The
Adventures of the Cisco Kid. time
Illinois
enough for a few and thenwords on the transatlantic line.

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POMO
"ALL RIGHT NOW

guitar sound, but getsa much better recording
sound. I like that "Mississippi
Queen" number.
Stone The CrowsAND
FROM THE LPSTONETHECROWS,PO LY DOR

MAY 16 Roger Daltrey picks the winners
among the new singles and album tracks.

Aretha Franklin

ATLANTIC

Only one person it could be...
and I ain't trying to guess. It's no
improvement on The Beatles.
It's Aretha Franklin. I heard someof her album tracks recently andthey were a lot better than this.
The tenor solo was a downer- it just doesn't get off theground. Not one of her best
performances. Can I hear it
again? Definitely not a single- it doesn't come up enough.
Free All Right No \ ISLAND

Are you sure this is the A -side? Ha
ha! Good voice, though the tune isa bit meaningless. It sounds likea B-side. Haven't a clue who it is.

Liberace? I can't imagine anybody
releasing that as an A -side. Let'sturn it over. It must be Fleetwood
Mac. Oh dear, I'm really notinterested and I don't care!

Arrival i
DECCA
The Arrival? It's the sort of group
you see on the box.They arerefreshing, but definitely nota hit. It just wanders all over theplace. They are good at what they
do and have a nice, easy listening
image. Can I listen tothe B-side?
That's better- the chick is a goodsinger. This is what they are allabout. For an English band they
have an incredible sound.
Ben E King

Elvis Presley

RCA

Horrible. Presley, ennit? Nothingmuch to say about that. I thought
he had it in the bag, and he goesThree Dog Nightback to this kind of stuff. But it
will probably be a hit. If he'd put
out a good old funky rock'n'roll
record I'd buy it.

AND

ye My Old Girl

CREWE

Jesus Christ - it's Mario Lanza!
No thoughts on that one. It'll bea Nol in the Darby & Joan clubs.
I'm not going to ask who it is - I'm
not interested. That must bea record company thing where
they had to put something out.
It may have been alright for1959,
but not for today. I'll play you one
of Towshend's new songs tocheer you up!

Ginger Baker's Air Force
AND load
FROM THE LPAIR FORCE, POLYDOR

Don't like it. It's that Atlantic/
Motown soul sound, and definitely
not a good song, although he's

Well it's Air Force. That voice
could only be Ginger. Who's onorgan - Stevie? Really good. The
tracks are really long aren't they?
I don't like the recording, even if
it is live. I'd have to listen to thisfor about two hours before I
could comment properly. It
probably grows on you. I'm notgoing to say a thing about it
unless you want to play it for twohours. I haven't see Air Force yet,but this is definitely an album I'll
have to get. One thing - the solos
sound like a lot ofjazz riffs.

a good singer. What can you say
about a rubbish song? I can't see
the guy singing liking it even.

Mountain Mississippi Queen AND
An Imaginary Western

Mary Johnson So C

' You

TAM LA MOTOWNFROM THE LPCLIMBING, BELL

This is nice. It sounds likethat Nowlin' Wolf electric

ROGER DALTREY
reviews the new singles in

I really like the sound of thatelectric piano. Simone - it mustbe. It's not? Jesus! It reallysounds like her. Hey that voicesounds like Janis Joplin. Jesus,
who is it? Yeah, it's good. Archie
Andrews? It sounds like an
American record, but I dare say
it's English. Not Bob & Marcia?
Well it's nice anyway. She reallysounds like Janis. What a goodgroup, I really like it. Yes -theonly thing is so many groups are
already into this bag. Look, it's
nice and sunny in the garden. Are
there any more records?

album. This is a bloody goodgroup. Is it Felix Pappalardi
on bass? A dirty sound - it
could have been recorded
better. Have you heard the
Nowlin' Wolf album? It's
better than this. I'll play you
a track. He uses the same

FROM TH E LP CAPTUREDLIVEATTHEFORUM, STATESIDE(Announcer says, "Three Dog
Night")I wonder who it is! Ha ha!
It's a good live recording. They
have never had a hit album here
yet, but they are an extremely
good band. Although some putthem down, I rather like themmyself. They are not doing

anything different on this fromtheir other albums. "Chest
Fever" should be interesting. The
only thing I don't like is they are
rather over -rehearsed. This has ahorrible intro. Hurry up! Theysound a bit untogether on this.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
FROM THE LP E:I.JA VU, ATLANTIC

Crosby, Stills & Nash - oh, andYoung, of course. What can you
say? It's incredible. This is reallya big improvement on their lastalbum. This is what albums are allabout. They have a completely
new approach. This could only
be Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young!
I hear this album was supposed

to cost $120,000 to produce.
They area super-duper group...
what more can I say? You aregoing to leave this one behind,aren't you? I'll swap you fora
Who "live" album!

"I'm out of my depth!"
MM JUNE 27 7rin 111.111+nn reviews the IP+ne+
Fred McDowellAND

FROM THE LP WHENILAY MY

BURDEN DOWN, BIOGRAPH

Is that LP called /Ain't
Gonna Play No RockAnd Roll? Yeah - Fred
McDowell. He's fantastic.
He's using a slide guitar,probably tuned open, but
not down too much. I've
never seen him "live" but I'd love to. I thought
it might be Son House
fora minute. It sounds
like it might be recordedin the '50s. [MM: It wasrecorded at Fred's homein Mississippi in1969.]
It almost sounds likean electric guitar,doesn't it? He's from
Mississippi -great.

St

doing some of his
in country fashion.
I liked this a lot.
Lord Buckley
FROM THE LP THE

Bill Evans and Jim HallFROM THE LP UNDERCURRENT,WORLD RECORD CLUB(Sings along) Are they young
musicians? Is it Kenny Burrell?
It sounds ageless.' would havethought it's Larry Coryell, but
I've no idea, I'll guess Barney
Kessel. Tal Farlow.Joe Pass?
Who is it? -Jim Hall? You realise
I am out of my depth. What doyou mean "yes"!
I liked this very much.
I would have beenanti -jazz, a few
years ago. It'sa special kindof school, andMiles Davis

BESTOFLORDBUCKLEY, ELEKTRAFROM THE LPBITCHESBREW, CBS

Lord Buckley! He's fantastic. It's
"The Nazz"- sweet, wailing cats!
(Laughs, and remembers thelines) I don't know much abouthim, but I guess he started all that
hip language. "Here comes the
Nazz." The blackest white man
alive- a lesson in soul.

It's either Miles Davis or Dr John!
Is this "Bitches Brew"? I like this- no, I haven't heard it before, I've
been waiting to hear it. Who's the
drummer? Tony Williams? Can
I see the cover? I'd like to have agoat playing with Miles- it would
be an incredible challenge. But
I have tried to back out of it acouple of times, because I don't
know if I am up to it. I don't think
I'm good enough. It's the kind ofmusic that avoids the obvious,and I've had a few plays
like that with Stevewhen we wereLforming Blind
Faith. We

played forfive hours
at a timesomething
I wish 1

X541111

could...youknow (plays
imaginary
guitar). Have
you got any
records byCharlie Christian?
This one is beautiful.

,SS-absolutemadness.
Not Fee Selo

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME

Canned Heat
FROM THE LP

SMILEY LEWIS

Smiley Lewis
FROM THE LPSHAME SHAME, SHAME,

D. ilea

Yeah (sings along and claps). I've
heard it before. It's a great song.

Delaney& Bonnie made a recordof this you would not believe. I
remember Dave making this in
LA at the same time I was doingmine. Dave hates the cover -he
can't stand it! You're supposed tohang it on the wall. I imagine
these are all Dave's songs. He's agreat guitarist, singer and writer.
I think Tim Hardin has been agreat influence on him. It looks
like I like everything you play me!
FamousJug Band

CONCERT, LIBERTY

FROMTHE LP CHAMELEON,

BB? I'll have to try and guess by
the accents - Canned Heat? It's

LIBERTY

not fair -you're not giving me

limited that guitara bit more; it's not
cutting throughenough. Well, that's

enough volume. This is a Big Boy

Arthur Crudup number -have

It's very familiar -Joe Turner?
Beautiful -is it Ray Charles'
band backing the singer? Whothey given him a credit on thealbum? That's good. Alan Wilson
flattens me the most. This track
sounds pretty hairy. Our band
will be getting more into theblues on our club dates, I expect.
I'm split half down the middle.
Half of me is black and half iswhite. I started out digging
Buddy Holly songs, and we'll be

When I was first buying records
this would have been too jazzy
for me. It's not now, but I used to
be a purist.

FROM THE LP A LONE

TOGETHER, BLUE THUMB IMPORTCANNEDHEAT 70

LIBERTY

is it? Smiley Lewis? You're
kidding. Can I see the cover?
Sounds back to the '50s again.

Dave Mason

They could have

English, I'll say that.
I don't know who it is,but anyone who canstrum a guitar isalright with me. Ah,
that's not a bass
drum, that's a jug.
I heard this number
on the radio. I know,AND

it's the Famous Jug Band.
[MM: No, it's the DedicatedMe.] I AM right! It's the Famous
Jug Band! [MM: Oh, er- sorry.]Jugs Henry won't tell anybody
his second name - right?
They've got a unique sound,and they are good songs.
They've recorded it exactly as
they probably play in the fromroom, which is nice.
Trevor Gordon
FROM THE LPALPHABET, POLYDORThis is like a more sophisticatedversion of that other group. Is it
The Marbles? Only half of them?
The voice reminded me of The
Marbles. I remember they used
to sound like the Bee Gees. This
is too middle-of-the-road. The
song is nice, but it should bedone in a more convincing way.
I couldn't criticise it because
I'm sure thousands of people
will like this.
Delaney & Bonnie
ATLANTIC

Ha ha! Noll Yeah -fantastic band.
!think it's the Florida musiciansbacking. This was done at the
new Atlantic studios in Florida.
Yeah -it should be a hit
everywhere. It's a different
feeling from their usual records.

1970

APRIL- JNNE

October 25,190:Frank
Zappajoins Pink Floyd for"Interstellar Overdrive" atthe Actuel Pop& Jazz
Festi yak Amougies, Belgium

80 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

PINK FLOYD

An incredible
feeling ofmower"
Ballet, touring, wealth,even football cause concern
for PINK FLOYD. With Atom

414 Heart Mother ready to go,%ger Waters discusses theahead for 1" hand
SYD BARRETT Back at

start of the year, Sydhimself is optimistic about
his new album. "There's
no gloom or depression
for me," he says.

- MELODY MAKER JUNE 5 mgPm ICK MASON AND Roger Waters of Pink

Floyd always remind me of the deadly duo
in Easy Rider, except that Roger and Nickare extremely British in their cool lifestyle.
Always amusing, well-spoken and together,
their aplomb was slightly shaken by theintake of large quantities of ale, forced between their lips by
the MM this week.
They recently returned from a tour of the States where they
achieved considerable success, without causing w idespreadrioting, and had all their equipment stolen -and rescued -by theFBI. They were both laughing about their memories of the Fats
Domino band they chanced upon in a nightclub during theirtravels, when they entered the MM boozer. »HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 181

"They had the greatest brass section in the world -until they
played together," said Nick.
And it got better," said Roger, "to the accompaniment ofclinking glasses and bottles from the crowd. The band wereplaying instrumentals in their tuxedos. Then Fats Domino
came on and he was great. We found that New Orleans was theworst music scene in the world. It's just full of strip joints andthere was no jazz at all, just drunks. All the jazzmen have split.
"We spent about seven weeks in the States and it was a good
trip, for what it was meant to achieve in terms of promotion.
We did Fillmore in the mid -week -and considering that, theattendance was very good. Generally in the States it's like it wasfor us here a couple of years ago. But all the audiences said they
had neverseen anything like us before.""We got good reviews everywhere," agreed Nick. And we
certainly didn't feel depressed. But we're glad to be back! We'rea home -orientated group."
What is theirfuture at home?
"Oh, we'll be recording and boring things like that -you wouldn't wantto know about. Let's talk about football. Everybodyelse does."
There followed a long discourse in which it was agreed the recent burstof football mania was the most intense displayof nationalism since 1914.
It seemed logical for the conversation to drift back to the States, and said
Roger "We did a concert at the UniversityOf California just after all thecampus violence. The administration had closed the school, but we did
our concert, which was very nice. It was sad to note that the students had
really got themselves organised in readiness fortrouble. There were field
dressing posts available for casualties.""Students here attempt to live out a situation that doesn't exist. I feelstrongly about English students who wreck debates when they should
accept it as a medium of communication."
What happened when all of the group's equipment was stolen?
"That was nearly a total disaster. We sat down at our hotel thinking,'Well that's it. It's all over.' We were pouring out ourtroubles to a girl who
worked at the hotel and she said her fatherworked for the FBI. The police
hadn't helped us much, but the FBI got to work and four hours later it was
found -£15,000 worth. Next time we go back to the States we play at the
Lincoln Centre in NewYork, which is like moving up from UFO to theAlbert Hall." Chris Welch- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 26-

rrHOSE WHO WRITE about rock music as a serious art form
always place themselves in a precarious position: theexponents of this type of music, who are actually working fromvalid concepts, are so small in number that the rock critic may findhimself intellectualising generally in an effort to justify the extent of
his own involvement in his subject.
This point is made with particular reference to the Pink Floyd.
Excepting The Beatles, no English rock band has been the subject of morelearned dissertations on rock than the Floyd. Comparisons have been
made between them and Beethoven; their music had been described
as a "sustained attempt to harness in sound our crazed, demented,
agonised ambitions".
Very often their work has served as the fulcrum of the writer's argumentthat rock is the onlyform of contemporary music that is saying anything.
This theorising has, in t urn, put the band on the defensive about its own
merits: "We are just fourmusicians playing music,
using a lot of things fromrock, and then bits fromother media," says Richard
Wright, their organist. "It isjust good and bad music;
we do not care about being
intellectual."
The truth about theirimportance to the wholerock scene probably lies
midway between thesetwo polarised attitudes.
The harmonic repetitionof their music, despite its

powerand menace and occasional
telling brilliance, is a drawback inlistening to them from a personal
point of view. But who can deny theirworth as innovators?
Theywere the first musicians in
England to exploit the visual aid ofa light show; the first band to

experiment successfullywith
hi-fi equipment on stage; and theinitiators of the free concert here. Theirconcepts of how contemporary
music can be betterexploited and presented are unsurpassed. The latest
accolade, of course, is their commission by Roland Petit, the French balletproducer, to write fora ballet featuring Nureyev, in which the group will
also playwith a 108 -piece orchestra from June 1 to June 10 at the Grand
Palais in the Champs Elysees.
Wright said it was too earlyyet to talk about what concrete form theballet would take, but they had several ideas from which theywould beworking. Improvisation, on which most of their successful music has
been founded in the past, would necessarily be curtailed, inasmuch as
theywould have to work to a score, but the ballet would probably be bothmore melodic and rhythmic than previous sustained works of theirs.
A greater emphasis on melody, he explained, would also be moreevident on their new album, Atom Heart Mother, to be released on
October 1. The album, one side of which was taped live with an orchestra
and choir at their summer Hyde Park concert, is all melodic, apparently,
as opposed to Ummagumma."Ummagumma had more emphasis on
pure sound. This one is much simpler to listen to; it is more emotional,
a sort of epic music, in fact, because we have added brass and a choir. This
will sell more than the last, I think."
In view of their association with an orchestra, both on the album and forthe projected ballet, what was his attitude toward the current attempts toamalgamate rock and the classical approach to music?
"The onlyway I believe this can work to achieve a valid partnership is forsomeone to write for the electric guitar, organ, bass and drums as part ofthe orchestra, and not separately as a rock group playingwith anorchestra. It requires someone who can understand all the instruments.
At present, rock groups and orchestras are performing together, and it
does not work at all, because people are trying to combine rock andclassical music. The two go together like oil and water. Jon Lord has
written for an orchestra, and this was the closest thing so far, but it still
did not work. It was very clever, it was an odd mixture of music, a lot of it,that was strongly romantic, but then you had the rock group come in and,crash! He tried and failed, and he will always fail, because he has not got
the right approach."
Referring back to the question of their attempts to mix other media inwith rock music, Wright agreed that the days of the light show and strobes
to make an effective visual point were over. The Floyd were now intent, hesaid, on producing a much more theatrical show, the embryo of which
emerged on their last British concert tour when their performance of"The Journey" included such effects as the appearance in the audienceof a man in a gorilla skin.
"We also want to make our own film. We have done three or four film
scores in the past (PeterWhitehead's Tonite Let's All Make Love In London,
the Paul Jones vehicle, The Committee, and parts of the backgroundPINK FLOYD

November12,1970:
Rick Wright on stage
with Pink Floydat
Copenhagen's

FalkonerTeatretmusic forAntonioni'sZabriskiePoint-a score
which had been mostlyabsorbed when the filmtransport cafes. It's a bit of a depressing area, and one wonders
why a pop star like Roger Waters would want to live there.
Maybe it's the anonymity of it that appeals to him, thedeliberate contrast it presents to all the tinsel and trendinessof the showbiz world. Anyhow, apart from the clean white painton the outside, there is little to distinguish it from the other
Victorian buildings that tire the eyes with their uniformity as
one drives down from Shoreditch.
Inside, though, all is modernity, that fashionable Spartan kind,with bare polished wooden floors and the Scandinavian furniturethat immediately hits the eye because of its clean, spare lines. Mr
Waters used to studyarchitecture and he has got taste, you see. He
opens the white front door himself and immediately launches intoa monologue about how he has just bought the wrong part forsome piece of equipment he is building in his studio.
Incidentally, would we like to see the studio, he interrupts
himself? Indeed we would, and he leads the wayto the top of hisback garden where a garage -cum -tool -shed has been converted
forthe purpose. Actually, it has not been completely re -done yet,and one half of it is full of the most amazing jumble of objects bike tyres and tins of paint, dried pods, a pottery kiln andnumerous unglazed earthenware vessels, which are there
because his wife, who is a teacher, practises pottery.
So backwe go to the house, and we sit around the table by thewindow and talk, while his Burmese cats prowl along the window
ledge and stare narrow -eyed at the starlings on the lawn outside.
How is the work on the ballet for Roland Petit progressing?
"We haven't started work on it yet."
But you've got basic ideas for it?
"No. None at all. I'm madlyreading all Proust,because that's the basic idea, so they tell me.
That's Roland's idea, the choreographerandproducer of the thing. It's based on the 20
volumes of hisA La Recherche Du Temps Perdu.
Roland thinks there's some good gear in that,which there undoubtedly is, so very loosely theballet will be based on certain episodes."How difficult do you think it will be for theband to do the score, inasmuch as the Floyd's
music does not often have a broad theme, but
contains large areas of improvisation?
"You see, they don't really rely to a large extent
on improvisation, but I know what you mean. In
fact, it won't necessarily have to be note for note, as long as the timing is
the same every night. The melodyisn't as important as the timing of thething, because theyall dance to counts, right?! can't see that it should
provide any problem, really, because people who play music without
reading do it constantly all the time. All rock'n'roll groups do it; it's justthat we tend to do it less than most.
"And all this thing about improvisation is a bit of a joke, anyway,
because people tend to have certain riffs and phrases and ideas which
they use, and they string them together."
When you first began playing, the music was broadly melodic, whatwith numbers like "Arnold
Layne" and "See Emily
Play", but now the emphasis
is on streams of musical"In terms ofcame out on general release]. We have turned as
many offers down, in fact, but there was somedefinite talk about us doing a film and thenwriting the music around it."
The group is still concerned, he said, to get aflawless, hi-fi sound, both on live appearancesand on record. Atom Heart Mother, parts ofwhich have been written by Ron Geesin, theelectronics experimenter, represents anattempt to further this goal.
"Wewant to reallyperfect the sound live, andthen release it on a four -track tape, and hopefully
get EMI to sell four -track tape recorders for homeuse. This might not be so farin the future as you might think, because in
America it is happening now. In terms of playing live on stage, all of us
want to get a superb hi-fi sound, although we do not have those thousandsof boxes of tricks people fondly imagine we do. Essentially, with us, it is nota question of volume, but of the qualityof the sound. Up to now groups
have just added equipment to become louder, but they have not tried to getthat hi -quality. I don't thinkThe Who, forinstance, who get excellent
volume, have everachieved that qualityof sound.
"We really feel happy playing at festivals, but I think concerts suit us
better because you can never get a good sound at festivals and a lot of
people can often not only not hear, but cannot see. The point about
festivals is that they are events. If you are a group and you go out on stage
and see that number of people, it is an incredible feeling of power- in thesense that it is the audience which is giving out the power.
"Hyde Park, tome, when it started, was a beautiful idea, but promoters
are killing off festivals generally because they are finding theydo notalways make money. We have had a lot of trouble with festival crowds inFrance, where we were supposed to play atAix-en-Provence, and thereason these riots develop is that a lot of people believe theyshould get infor nothing. There is nothing wrong in that -it is good, but only if they canoffer a way of paying for the groups. We say, if you want to come in fornothing, you should pass around the hats, because we need the money
to live. We cannot afford to playfor free all the time." Michael Watts

playing live,
all of us wantto get a superb
hi-fi sound"- MELODY MAKER DECEMBER 5 NEW NORTH ROAD is a long, busy thoroughfare stretchingfrom London's Islington to Shoreditch - one of those drab,
treeless roads where the heavy lorries and the commercial

vans trundle past the bright, faceless laundrettes and the greasy

consciousness.
"Originally, you see,
I wasn't doing anything
apart from being a studentof architecture andspending money on buying
bass guitars, but in terms ofmusic ! wasn't doing
anything at all.
"'See Emily Play' andArnold Layne' are Syd
Barrett's songs, right, and it
wouldn't matterwho it was
who played the bass or did
this or that, it's irrelevant.
They're very strong songs

JulyP3,1970:Rogel
Waters and Pink
Floydplay a second

freeconcert in HydePark twoyearsaf ter
thefirst event thereand you just do it, it's nothing to do with music, playing that stuff, it has to
do with writing songs, and that was Syd who wrote those songs. I don't
thinkwe were doing anything, then, if you see what I mean."
It was Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd?
"Right. But I wasn't thinking about musical policy in those days -notthat! think much about it now. Most of the stuff on the first album was
Syd's. The onlything on that album that was much like what the group
was going to do later was the thing that we all did together -'Interstellar
Overdrive', which we don't like playing much now."
Are you bored with it? "Yeah, I'm bored with most of the stuffwe've
done. I'm bored with most of the stuff we play."
Even the new stuff? "Well, there isn't very much new stuff, is there, if you
look at it?I'm not bored with doingAtomHeartMotherwhen we get thebrass and choir together, because it's so weird doing it. It always comesout as so odd because of the problems of rehearsing musicians; it's likeeverybodythrowing their lump of clayat the wall and seeingwhat it looks
like when it's happened.
"It depends on so many otherthings as well. It depends on how it mixes,
you know, and we're workingwith this ludicrous
situation where we don't have somebody out
mixing the sound in the audience, which we
obviouslyought to. It's ludicrous to mix the PA
from the side of the stage when you are mixing
brass and a choir and a group. But it would costa bloody fortune to get it together in anotherway. But I thinkwe ought to. I'm beginning tocome to a position nowwhere I don't think weought to play any more on a kind of Heath
Robinson level -go and do it, play the numbers,
do the stuff, get the moneyand go home.
"We should not go along and playa whole loadof numbers, most of them old and some of themnew, with things patentlywrong, like with somepeople balancing from the side of the stage.
I think we, and a hell of a lot of other groups, are in a position now to startraising standards a bit, but we don't -well, we haven't but we're always
intending to. The reason that they haven't is that the money's there, andpeople are prepared to spend it on them doing what they're doing now, sothey go on schlepping around the country, doing it all, and maybe they
get a new and wonderful buzz out of it, communicatingwith the audience
every night, but I don't believe it.
"It's a job, with all the ego -boosting stuff and everything, and I think it
becomes verymechanical. I'm going on a 10-daytour tomorrow night Frankfurt, Vienna and Montreux -but why am I going? To spread thegospel, to make people happy by playing them wonderful music? No, it's
not true. I'm going to make bread. I'm going because I'm caught up in thewhole pop machinery business and so are the majority."
The band, therefore, does not exist totally for the music? In fact, I
understand that at one time you all possessed E -Type Jaguars.
"Yes, but some of us are trying to fight it. I had mine for two months andI've just got a Mini now. But I think there's a great dangerin getting intothat sports car bit, it's all very, very, very tricky and hard, and we had greatarguments in the band about it, because!
proclaim vaguely socialist principles, and I sit
there spouting a lot of crap about how having
a lot of bread worries me- and we are earning a lotof bread now. I couldn't feel happy in an E -TypeJaguar, because it just seems all wrong somehow.
I mean, who needs four -point -two litres, and a big
shiny bonnet, and whatever else it is!
"I know the answers to all the questions -like,
who needs hi-fi and just look at your house, withall the tapestries on the wall. OK, I take the point,
but I have all these feelings. I do f- all about it;

I don't rush around helping people desperately, and I don't give away all
mybread to everybody, but the argument we are constantly coming up
against is that you can't have the luxury of socialist principles andcompassionate feelings about people who are less well off than you are,you can't sincerely have feelings for them, and you can't sincerely feel thesystem's wrong, and wish there was some kind of socialist system, here
and elsewhere, and still have five grand in the bank, or whatever, which isan argument we're constantly having."
Then why don't you give all your bread away, apart from what you
needed to make ends meet?
"Because I'm the same as everybody else. Everybody, except for Christand Gandhi and one or two others, has got the acquisitive instinct to acertain extent. The tragedy of the whole thing is that it's multiplied. Theinteresting thing is ifwe are born with it. If we're not born with it, thatmeans that it's foisted upon us by the system and that by the time we growup and start leaving home, orget pocket money, we have developed it.
"The possibilityexists -even if it's only a possibility -that we're not bornwith it, and that, given a different environment, the kids might grow up
into people who get theirkicks in another way.
I mean, it's impossible in our society, because
you're pumped full of personal acquisitions."
Do you intend to intensifythe theatricalelement in the group's performances?
"This is what I was saying earlier on. !want
to stop going out and playing the numbers.
I personallywould like to stop doing that now,
today. I would like to be creating tapes, songs,
material writing, and sketches of sets whatever is necessary to put on a complete
theatrical show in a theatre in London...
sometime, and see if the people dig it. They may
not. They may come on and say, 'Well, it'salright, but it's not rock'n'roll, is it?' Theywon't
do that, because they're all terriblywell-spoken
students, all our fans, so theytell me.
"But it's quite possible that the whole thing could fail horribly. I don't
think it will. I have great faith in giving the audiences more than music.
There is just so much more that you can do to make it a complete
experience than watching four long-haired youths leaping up and down
beating their banjos. Not that I'm saying that's wrong, but why not try andpush yourself a bit further; why just go on doing the same thing night afternight?And believe me, groups are bored with it, whether they'll admit itor not. It is boring to them. It's not quite as boring to the audience, because
the audience probably only see it once a year." Michael Watts"I spout a lot ofcrap about

how having a
lot of breadworries me"

TROUBLED
WATERS II"I'm bored...:LL

_

and

a,.

at.

II

the nand, thorofore, do., not.1stfor U,. matte lawrung.

fw..

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6'47474%1

yourself a bit further?":(I -r) Roger Waters,Nick
Mason, David Gilmour
and Rick Wright in1970

p..9,

nd a r,; Om,

Atonnet, and whalove.

sYD BARRETT IS a happy, creative, if somewhat confused youngman, who gave the Pink Floyd hits and headaches when still in
the group of his own creation and after many months of slightly
mysterious obscurity, has returned with an extraordinary solo albumof odd, eccentric songs. Looking like a younger edition of Patrick"Why not try and push

LIM.: ht.

nerd.

- MELODY MAKER JANUARY 31 -

J

THE
MADCA

y23,1970iSyd

Barrettin theoffice of

LAUGH

managers Peter Jenner
and Andrew King'sBlackhill Enterprises

Moore, Britain's secret weapon in the space race, Syd has gaunt good
looks and the same gentle humour common to his old compatriots.
Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour of the Floyd have been helping toreintroduce Syd to the pop world and produced The Madcap Laughs, an
LP rich in "Octopus" -type songs -which particular track has beenreleased as a single.
In fact many friends have been anxious to help Barrett, who seemed to
succumb to the pressures of pop success in more drastic fashion thanmost. He wrote "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne", which weremilestones in group history. They symbolised the breakthrough in '67 of
the kind of progressive groups called "underground" when the phrase
had some meaning.
He has a song writing talent that should not be wasted and a mostoriginal lyrical concept. When the Floyd first emerged from UFO andbecame guests of Top OfThe Pops, it swiftly became apparent tointerviewers earnestly seeking to communicate with their leader that
Sydneywas not entirely together.
This confusion led him to part from the group nearly two years ago.
How is he today? Is he ready to embark on a solo career with all the worries
and responsibilities of touring, making appearances and copingwith thepress? He seemed happy enough to talk this week, and while it was easy
enough to detect a mood of mild elation and surprise at the interest being
shown in him, it was not always so easy to understand his erratic train ofthought. But he was eager to be helpful and I suspect onlyas confused as
he wanted to be. How well was the single doing, I inquired through theclouds of cigarette smoke we blew at each other in his manager's office?
"I haven't noticed," said Syd, pondering but not wholly disturbed.
"I don't think it was necessarily a good idea to do a single, but it was done.
It's a track off the album. I've spent a long time doing it -since I left thegroup. But it was done at a reasonable pace. Yes, my time has been fairly
well spent since leaving. I haven't had a particularly hard time and I was
OK for money. I've heard of a few plans for me to do some appearances,
but there is nothing positive enough to talk about. There are vague ideas
about a group as well.
"I've just spent my time writing fairly regularly. I've certainly not beenbored and there are still a lot of things to do. When I was with the Floyd,
the form of the music played on stage was mainly governed by therecords. Now I seem to have got back to my previous state of mind. Withthe volume used, theyinclined to push me a little. Yes there were hangups when I was with them, although it was not due to the travelling or
anything, which you just put in the category of being a regular activity inthat kind of job."lib SMUT

Does Syd like themusic industry?
"It's beautiful here.
I nevergo anywhere
else. Top OfThe Popsis alright! You meet
-41:111111111111111111.11"111111111111.41MIO
interesting people andthere are always
people around! know
and are prepared tolike me. That's very
nice. There's no gloom
ordepression forme.
It's been very exciting,especiallywhen I went
toAmerica for twoweeks before the split-up. Then we came back andplayed at theAlbert Hall and it was verymuch a crescendo and I felt good.
I miss playing to audiences, although I haven't missed it so much recently."

Was Syd satisfied with the LP?
"Well -no. I always find recording difficult. I can only think in terms of,well, I'm pleased with 40 minutes of sound, but I can't in terms of the pop
industry. It's only a beginning- I've written a lot more stuff."
Syd occasionallylaughed, seemed agitated or trailed away into silence

during our conversation.Anything that seemed uninteresting or
irrelevant merely provoked strained and disordered replies. A reference
to the unusual phrasing and choppy lyrics of "Octopus" drew a smile.
-Octopus' is a particular example of a recording being discussed as
something exceptional because it takes an unusual metre. I don't readmuch, but I think ! picked up Shakespeare as a book that just happened
to be lying there to read. It was meant to be verse. I like to have reallyexciting, colourful songs. I can't really sing. But I enjoywriting fromexperiences. Some are so powerful they are ridiculous. The straightscene is best.
"What happened in Tottenham Court Road when we started was a
microcosm of what happened later. I think pop today is a bit difficult totake in some ways -but its fine. I've never felt I have been left behind. I'dlike to play sometime on the scene. Got to do something. It would be asplendid thing to get a band together."
Meanwhile Syd is getting Syd together, and those with a taste for any
unusual talent on a supposedlywide-open scene, that is often oddlyconservative, will find much to intrigue them on his strained, halting,but often beautiful set of songs. Laugh on, madcap. Michael Watts
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 I 85

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THE FACES AND MOREMP'r
" I was a

drunken egotist"
MM JULY 18 LI it DUITIon prebuillb... IlVd1, IIIJ plain for films
and thoughts on The Beatles. "I look at my psychedelic

experience as my war," he says. "With myself."
HICH UPON the sixth floor of the plush Londonderry Hotel, Mayfair, Eric
Burdon was sitting with his feet, clad in pumps, tucked beneath him;
looking for all the world like an urchin guru. Chrissie Shrimpton once
referred to him as "that sexy little singer", but we needn't go into all that.
Certainly, Burdon himself doesn't give a damn any more about pop stardom.
Like he's serious now, man, but serious. In an age of pop politicos he is rightup there with the Country Joes, the Lennons and the rest of the hot politicalgospellers. If the world has not changed appreciably by 1984 it will assuredly
not be for want of trying on the part of Mr Burdon.
Once upon a time he used to singwithTheAnimals, and he could knockback
the Newcastle Brown with the best of 'em. Then, as the hippy philosophy offlower powerembraced the pop establishment with its overpowering scent, heturned to acid, and the image of the hard -boozing blues singer slipped. Simply,
he went soft. Well, it's all changed again now, apparently. He has spent the past
two years in the States, trying unsuccessfully to break into the movies and,almost incidentally, forming a new band. Which he has called -wait for it -WAR.
Burdon does not see the title as implying a contradiction in all his paststatements on love and peace. The way he sees it, they go hand in hand like loveand marriage. "I believe in war and hatred, too, you see?" he declared earnestly.
"You cannot go to war unless you know what peace is as well. I spent the first halfof my life learning about one thing, now I am back and can judge both sides
objectively. I would agree that acid softened me, but I was a drunken egotist andI'm still egotistical -when ! get drunk.
"Sure! have changed. You know, there is a term that is disappearing andthat's the word 'gentleman', which means to be gentle and to be a man at thesame time."
So flower power was not just a media -inspired trend on the lines of reggae, say?
"Oh, to those who did not drop the dope it was, but to those who did, it was a newlife. It enabled me to separate my mind from my body, which I shall continue to
do. It was an invaluable learning period forme and for manypeople."His view is that those whose minds became involved in a losing battle withacid during that period were part of a process of sorting the wheat from thechaff. "There are strong people and there are weak people," he explained firmly,"and some of them did not make it through to the other side. That is the crux ofthe game. It is sad, but war and life are sad, too: there are casualties and people
die. Look at it like this. Your father and mine were involved in wars, and I look at
my psychedelic period as mywar, a war with myself." x.
86 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

a.

"cs

1970

CANT TARE
AWAY OUR MUSKJULY - SEPIMER

His stay in America,
flicks, if realised, will palealthough he admits it has
in comparison. He envisages
not been entirely happy, hasa series of audio-visual trips,
been exciting because of theorhallucinations, of an evenelement of uncertainty in life
greater plotless nature. Burdon
there. Violence interests him
is no fool, though, however obscure.
deeply, to the extent that he has
He realises that you just cannot
a collection of guns and weapons. This aspectcommandeerthe movie business with a snapof American society fascinates him, but he isof your fingers. He has, he says, thousands ofquick to point out that also it exists here.
things to learn about films from the people"It's a different violence in England. Look atwith the skills before he can start making themthe establishment here, it split up The Beatles.
himself. And not everybody is rooting for him,
I suspect it has forced Lennon to withdraw into
apparently. "A lot of people do not want me tohis own thing because he was not getting the
get to say anything, because ! threaten whatright understanding and help, and McCartneytheyare and stand for."has become totally establishment.
Originally, he declares, MGM offered him"They could have become this generation'sa part in Blow Up as a beginning in films, but heRodgers and Hart, but Rodgers wanted it andcould not do it because he was more interested
Hart did not. Their personalities were reflected
in his music at the time and the vibes were notin the establishment. To me, that is violence;right between Antonioni and himself. Whenthat is the same as a pig cop hitting a black over
the two did finally get to grips with each other's
the head."beliefs he was asked to play in ZabriskiePoint.
He intends to visuallyrealise his views in
Bythen, however, Eric did not like what hethe months ahead through several movies
understood, so that was that.
he has planned. He has six "treatments", orThen again there was the sad saga of Peterlooselywritten scripts, prepared so far, all of
Watkins' movie, Privilege, in which he was firstwhich sound highly complicated, to say theconsidered for the role of the tame political pop
least. In Burdon's words, the first to be
star. Alas, states Burdon, Watkins wanted
produced, from a script by Steve Gold, a former
someone tall, slim and handsome, "not short,vice-president of Universal Productions,fat and ugly". Enter Paul Jones, who got theconcerns two men "who are one man, brothers,
part. At least he knows what he likes, thoughreally, but not realising it".
-Ken Russell's Women In Love, forinstance.
One is a cop, representing the straight"That movie is reallywhere I am at," he said
establishment, and the other is conversely
flatly. "It is a total statement of every experiencea rock'n'roller in the States, a pillar of the young,oflove. I realised after seeing the movie why
pop -orientated
I had never read a DH
establishment, which
Lawrence boolc it's because
is composed of "those
I already knewwhat he was"Look at the
kids who take the rightsaying. I could feel in mydope, wearthe rightfingers the texture of whatestablishment
clothes and hang out withthe director was putting
here
split upthe right chicks."
together. I knew those faces
The dramatic incident
in the film; theywere the
The Beatles"
revolves around theface of the people where
subsequent clash of their
I was born and raised in
respective personalities.
Newcastle - the people who
The essence of the movie, he declares, iswork all the year round from nine to five with"finding the edge of the coin".
two weeks at the sea -virtually pit ponies. The"American society does not allow a man topityis that theystill exist. When you havemake a mistake. When he does, he is judged
escaped from that scene, like me, you feel you
and put down for that mistake, although he has
want to pass on what you have learned."already been
He feels that through his projected movies
put in thehe can do his bit for these people and help toposition ofknock down the establishment. Certainly, hehaving to makesays, politicians can do nothing. "Not as theyit." The movie,
are now. I mean, look at TimothyLeary, whom
he adds, tries
the kids started off by idolising. Whatto makehappened to him? He got involved in his own
this point.
performance, and went and ran for theIt all sounds
governorship of California."
involved, hisWith all this talk of the iniquitous
subsequentestablishment still hovering in the air, I left
Burdon, to be collared as I got outof the lift on the ground floor by
two of the hotel's liveried flunkeys,
who promptly subjected me ton711114114
detailed questioning about who- it"We took in a tape...
Apple decided torelease it!"
MM AUG 29

did a reggae
version of 'Give Peace A Chance"
HOT CHOCOLATE, THE newest groupto the charts, is at present made up of
two professional and four semi -promusicians. But soon that is to change,
for with the success of "Love Is Life" thegroup will be playing gigs full time in amonth or so.
Last weekthe two professionals, Errol
Brown, who has shaved his head fora
gimmick, and Tony Wilson, talked about
the group. "The group used to play in theBrixton area," said bass guitarist Tony.
"Before Errol and I met them they did the
odd gigand things.Afterwe had played withthem fora whilewe decided to do a reggae
version of 'Give PeaceAChance'. We took atape toApple, and theydecided to release it."A girl in theApple office thought of thename Hot Chocolate, and John Lennon
added "band" to their name for the single.
"I think he thought it suited the record,"
said vocalist Errol, adding "probably
because of the Plastic Ono Band".
The record was not a success in sales, but
it did get their name known. They took.

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I was and what did I think I wasdoing using their lift. Eventually,
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Burdon has got a point, after all.
Michael Watts

some tapes to Mickie Most, who gave their"Bet Your Life I Do" to Herman's Hermits.
"Mickie asked us if we had anything else, so
we took him along some tapes. Julie Felix isrecording one of our songs forher next
single. Another is going to Mary Hopkin,
and Mickie asked us to record 'Love Is Life',"said Tony.
The group have played three big gigs so
far and the idea of going on the roadappeals to both the musicians: "The idea isgreat nowwe are known," said Tony, who
has played with countless groups before.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 188

September -13,197o:on tour in Europeaf ter
announcing a deal with
Marshall Chess(right),
theStoneshold a press
call in Hamburg harbour

Connections with
Chess label
MM AUG15 .IIG OLUIIGJ gcL

blUJUI LU lneir R&B heroes.
AROLLING STONES MOVE to Chess

Without a label
NME AUG 8 The Stones leave Decca (and Allen Klein), and employ Marshall
ICJ& "There comes a time for a change," says Mick Jagger.
As of this moment,the Rolling Stones
are without record label! Their
contract with Decca -which has
grossed over £60 million in the past sevenyears -expired last weekend, and anannouncement is still
awaited regarding thegroup's future plans. It
seems unlikely that theStones will re-sign with
Decca,and the giant
Atlantic company is strongly
tipped as the group's newoutlet.The Stones arecertain to insist upon fullartistic and material control
over their future product, and with this inview, could well launch their own label -for
distribution by Atlantic, or whichevercompany signs them. US sources suggest thatthe company which captures the Stones will
have to come up with a guaranteed advance ofover two -and -a -half -million dollars! This week,
Mick Jagger would only restrict himself to thecomment, "There comes a time fora change!"
The new Rolling Stones album, Get Yer
Ya-Ya's Out- recorded during their concert at
New York Madison Square Garden lastNovember -will be issued in America in latesummer, as the final release under their deal
with London Records.This seems to suggestthat the LP,which has already been hanging
fire for several months, could be issued here
by Decca even though their contract has

terminated. In the States, it will be issued as a
double album, incorporating the acts of Ike &Tina Turner and BB King, who also took part in
the New York concert. But the British release
will be confined to the Stones alone, and it will
be a single album here. If
Decca does issue an LP, thefirst release on the Stones'
new label is expected to be
drawn from material
recorded last winter in
Muscle Shoals, Alabama,

The giant Atlantic
company isstrongly tipped as
their new outlet

together with tracks onwhich the group is currently
working in London.
The Rolling Stones havebroken away from their business manager,
Allen Klein, and have told him that he no longer
has authority to negotiate recording contracts

on their behalf. In astatement issued thisweek Klein accepts

this situation, but
claims that he retains
his "existing rights to
manufacture Rolling
Stones recordings in
the future". And theStones answered thisby saying that they"are not aware of
any contractual
commitments
after July 31".

label man Marshall Chess on the expiryof their Decca contract means thegroup will be nearer the source of themusic that originally inspired theirformation. The Stones began six years ago
as one of Britain's protagonists of therhythm and blues revival.
And theywere influenced by Chess
recording artists like Chuck Berry, Bo
Diddley, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf.
Chess was the pre-eminent blues label ofthe '50s. Now the group are expected toform theirown label- to be headed by
Marshall Chess. Mr Chess (27) has severed
his connections with the original Chesslabel, and is to run the Stones' label, as yet
untitled, from New York, while Trevor
Churchill will run it from London. At press
time there was no official confirmation of
the signing, or details of distribution.
Chris Blackwell of Island Records told theMM: "I had talks with the Stones about
distribution some months ago, but I have
not heard anything since." And Polydor
Records in London said they had not heard
yet whether theywould distribute Chess Stones product. But the Stones are
expected to start a search for new groups tojoin their label.

Link with blues heroes

STONES SIGN'

Elirgg CHIEF

1970

JULY -sEPIENKR"Afro beatis heavy!"
MM AUG 29 Ginger Baker returns
II L/III Africa, via car crashes, newcollaborations and new rivalries.

GINGER BAKER KNOWS what they
say about him -and he'll drink a toast
in vodka, wink and war dance on his
tom-toms in defiance. Air Force a hype? He's
got an answer for that. A feud with Elvin
Jones? He'll take Elvin on anytime. Beneatha bragging exterior, a modest man... keeps
fairly quiet. Ginger ain't a monster, but he's
honest and forthright, which canearn him the dislike of those who
can't forgive the brash and brave.
If Ginger wasn't the way he was he couldn't play drums the way hedoes. And he wouldn't have beensuch an inspiration for so many of
today's rock players. An English

writer with a talent for upsettingrock artists recently described

had a ball. It'sa beautiful
town. Youwant to know

Ginger Baker as a "cult figure" in an

apparently uncomplimentaryarticle.
"If I ever see him again, I'll punch him
in the face," promised Mr Baker.
But if there are dissenting voices
raised against him in England andAmerica, there is one country he can beassured a warm welcome - Nigeria. Ginger has

just returned from an extraordinary safari
across Africa, and declares he is in love withthe country. At a 31st -birthday drink at his
London home last week, he waxed
enthusiastic about his adventures, and inpassing promised that Air Force would keepon flying, whoever tried to shoot him down.
He relaxed in an armchair, strumming a
guitar."Eric taught me how to play," he said,
patting the heads of his three children, andoccasionally swearing at them when theylocked in deadly combat.
"I've always wanted to go to Africa," heexplained, pushing an Algerian hat over eyes
recovering from mosquito bites."I stayed in
Ghana and Lagos with Guy Warren and saw
Remi Kabaka and Fela Ransome-Kuti,who isa trumpet player, singer and dancer. He's got
a club and a band with three saxes and a conga
drummer which plays a thing called Afro -beat.
And it's heavy! Peter King the alto player isgetting an incredible band together in Lagos
as well.

"Afro -beat makes Motown look sick. I playedwith Fela's band and a group called the
Hikkers. I was about two weeks in Lagos,and

how it all

started?
Wel1,1 was in

Bilbao in northern Spain in my Jensen, anddrove to southern Spain in a day; I did the last
.L;to kilometres in 50 minutes between one andtwo in the morning.That's moving some.
"I took the car across to Africa and put myfaith in God. I was in Marrakesh for five days,
and then I got the feeling I had to get out anddrove 24 hours to Fez and the border. All thepeople laughed because my Moroccan money
couldn't be changed. From there I went toOran in Algeria.That was HOT, but the roads
were great -as far as I went.There wasn't any
good petrol a couple of times.
"I got as far as the last stop, with the car fullof Sahara sand, when I did the crash. It wasn't
as bad as it could have been.
I was lucky. I'm still not surewhat happened. Jensen arechecking over the car. I
remember catching a tree.
It wasn't in the desert, it wasin hilly country. I got out,
without a scratch. I knew
what I was doing -I'm goodat crashing cars.
"The people there were marvellous.
Nobody knew who I was - they just thought
I was peculiar. I had my hair tied back like an
Arab woman, and all the kids
called me 'Madame Messieur'
and ran away screaming withlaughter. It was really quite
funny. I left the car with arespectable citizen and caught
an aeroplane to Ghana. I
walked out of the airport andm back to Africa

for Ginger

It

N

HB

got arrested for not having a passport
stamped.Then they let me go and I stayed at
Guy Warren's house. I knew Guy from1960
when he came to Britain. He's a complete
madman, but a good guy.
"I tried to get a Nigerian visa, and in the end
I just flew into Lagos without one and they gavemean extension. I had an incredibly good time
there. There were a lot of mosquitos, which is
why the white man is thin on the ground in theWest Coast. The second day I got knocked flaton my back with bites, but I took some tablets,
after swelling up like a balloon.
"Nigeria is an unspoilt country which keeps
its African culture. It will be rich and powerful
one day. They were all so pleased to see me,
yet when Remi Kabaka comes here he getsturned away.
"They are a more cultured and civilised
people than many people in Britain. And
Nigeria is where the musicians come from."
Did Ginger pick up much from the African
drummers?
"Oh man! There was adrum choir playing pieces
of wood that wereincredible. I had a play withthem, and there were two
kids, who frightened the life
out of me,and two old men."
Ginger had to race backfrom his Africa high life to
the disastrous Krumlin Festival, fora nonexistent gig with Air Force. But he didn't seemtoo upset. "We got a phone call that it wascalled off. I hear the stage got washed away
and there was no point in our going up, except
to help with the rescue work. It seems to me
that Air Force is doomed. People don't want
Air Force to happen!"
What did he want to do in the future?
"I want to get out to the States and see
Elvin Jones.""The Nigerians area more cultured
people than many
people in Britain"

"A question I cannot answer"
MM AUG 15
How long is it since The Beatles -all fourof them -actuallyplayed together?
Apple: The last time was during therecording of theAbbeyRoad album, which
was in the late summerof 1969. Various
members of the group have since recorded
together on individual sessions. George
has been on Ringo's sessions and viceversa,
but all fourhave never actually played
together since summer 1969. That's abouta year ago.

What, if any, plans do the individual
membersof the group have for thefuture?
Apple:I don't think anyof them have any
long-term plans. This isn't unusual because
they have never made long-term plans, evenin their touring days. George is increasing his
success at writing his own songs. He hasdeveloped as a composerand will probably
continue this. Ringo is exploring different
things. He may do more films and may domore comedy, singing and acting.

Is thereanyrecorded material
still unreleased?

Ginger Baker:
having "a ball"with Fela Kuti'sband in Lagos

In recent interviews Ginger and Elvin had
been exchanging verbal fisticuffs, Elvinexpressing the view that Baker can't play.
Ginger determined to challenge him toa drum duel.
"It's just a needle match," smiled Ginger.
"I've asked for all the knocks I get from thestatements I make. In a recent jazz poll I put
Max Roach first, me second and Tony Williams
third. All I want to do is play in front of people,
and if Elvin is game, soam I. Max Roach plays
better than anybody anyway, and Elvin isn't
playing as well as he did five years ago.
"If you can't have a laugh about it...well,what's it all about? If I played alongside Elvin,
he would make me play good, and I'd makehim play good. Half the people would be on
his side to come and see me make a ---- ofmyself, we'd play together and make ---- of allof them."Would Air Force reduce toa smaller lineup?
"That's what people keep saying to me. I'm
thinking about it. I'm not over -sorry about thepeople who have left, but I like to have horns in
the lineup. Harold McNair isn't in the band any
more, and I don't want him back. He's a good
player- but he was coming on strong a bit.
"I'm all for carrying on the band, but it needs
a lot of work. I prefer people to be flexible, butsome of them were set on their rails. That was
Harold's trouble. The second LP is done, but
I'm not too sure about some of the numbers.
I don't doa solo -maybe I will take one of the
tracks off and put on a solo.
"They say life begins at .40, but at 30 it goeshaywire. I fancy doing one more tour, and thenI'm going back to Africa. I'm getting a thing
together there with some friends."
The "thing" is secret but Ginger wants to
help the music scene in Nigeria. Quite when
Air Force take off again is not known. But the
Baker drums will thunder on, and the spirit
won't be grounded. Chris Welch

Have The Beatles finished as agroup?
Apple:That is a question! cannot answer.
Apple: No. Even if there was it would never be
There is no harm in anyone discussing it, butissued. The group are always very conscious
it is a futile discussion for people who are notof keeping up with the
involved in it. I don't thinkcurrent tastes.
they will ever lose their"There are no
Beatles tag, even though
Are any of the individual
they mayneverwork
plans for any
members working on solo
together again.
albums at present?
Was LetltBethe lastApple:Ringo has
Beatles album, as itcompleted his country
album in Nashville and it will probably beappeared to be from thewayitwaspackaged?
released in September. George is nearing theApple:That wayit was packaged did not mean
completion of his new album but we don't
it was the final album. The art workwas
knowwhen it will be released. This will beplanned long before all the publicityabout
very different from his solo albums. The otherthe group breaking up. It mayhave looked like
two have not been in the recording studiosthat but it wasn't meant to.
but I would presume they have not been idle
during the summer. It is not their nature to sit
Does thefact that thereareno plans fortheand do nothing.
future mean there is no futureforThe Beatles?
Apple: No. The fact that there are no plans
Why has John Lennon been in Los Angeles
doesn't mean anything. The group have never
all this year?
planned things much. It is not essential toApple:He is living very quietly over there.
make plans with the Beatles.
There have been no press
reports about his activities,

shows or tours"

so I assume he is living quietly.
He has rented a house there.
There is a lot of building
going on at his house inAscot.
I have no idea when hewill
be back.

Where are the other three
Beatles at the moment?
Apple: Paul is at his farm in
Scotland. I have no idea when
he will return to London.
George and Ringo are bothat theirhomes.
Are there any plans forany kind of performance
whatsoever?
Apple: None at all. There are noplans for anyshows ortours.

ERIS
the facts

Apri110,1970:Beatl esfans gatheroutside
Apple'sofficeonSavile
Row in central London

ior

af.

0"'"

1970
JULY

"We livefor thenext

FREE are longtime triers - but a hit sing''
suddenly makes them a household n "All Right Now" reaches a huge a'
the band shyly enjoy the acclaim,
half look to their next triumph. "P'
the roof," smiles singer Paul Rod;0

- MELODYFEBRUARY 7 -NE OF THE good things to have emerged from the blues boomof 18 months ago has been Free. Their music contains a punchy
simplicity which comes as a refreshing change from thebands who seem intent on confusing minds with gross over elaboration. They have it on a formula which will grab people inmuch the same way as Jethro Tull or Family have done, and I am
not alone when I predict that in the next 12 months they will have made a lasting
mark on the British music scene.
Free are completely aware of their music, they know exactly where they are goingand pretentiousness within the group is nonexistent. The group comprises: Paul
Rodgers, vocals; Andy Fraser, bass; Paul Kossoff, guitar; and Simon Kirke, drums.
Free were born about a year and a half ago at the very height of the blues boom.
These were the times when blues groups lurked round every corner. When I
interviewed Simon Kirke and Paul Rodgers in his I lolborn flat last week they were
the first to admit that they had been in on the boom but there the similarity
between them and a hundred other groups ended.
"We really loved the blues then and we still do," said Paul."We always tried to playwith the utmost feelingand we tried to swingall the time. It's so easyto playthe
blues badly and still fool a lot of people, but there's no satisfaction in that. The »92

I

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

Paul Rodgers

October23,1970:

performing with
Freeat Imperial
College, London

1970
JULY-SEP

Slow, deliberate
NME JULY 11 Paul Rodgers talks

de's breakthrough third
I M' "This nne has more feel_--"FREE HAVE THE top -selling single this week
and the fastest -selling new album. Coupledwith their abilityto virtually outdraw mostother groups in the country, they have much tobe pleased about. One morning last week,lead singer Paul Rodgers and myself got
together over coffee to do a "track -by -track"of Free's new album Fire And Water (Islandstereo, I LPS 9120, 37s 5d).

Prior to actually listening to the album, Paul
had this to say."When you just work the clubs
you are entirely wrapped up in the music, thenwhen you suddenly get a record high in thecharts the pressures upon you increase. Now
that it's all happening, you really do have toconcentrate and remember that you are in it
for the music. For single success can bring youout of the group unit. But we're still enjoying
things and having a good time.
"The success of 'All Right Now' has given us
a wider audience,and at many places people
have been climbing on the roof in an effort
to get to hear us. Singles are not really
representative of Free; what we are all about iswhen we are on stage...we prefer an audience."
Having stated the group's position, we thengot down to the job in hand...that of listening
to the newalbum.

Fire And Water- FIRE AND WATER

-

TRACK
* BY *TRACK
FREE

for having no bread.To be truthful, I had to do amoonlight flit. As I had nowhere to stay I moved
in with Andy in Roehampton. During this time
we wrote an incredible amount of songs
together, at least 10 a week. This song comesfrom that period. I like Kirky's bongo playing on
this track. We like to keep a form to our work.
There has to be a basis, like we take it in turns to
put one instrument into prominence. I don't
believe in this freeform music.
"Now I'll write a song, and it'll be a very roughthing, but Andy will take it and rearrange it for
the group. When Andy writes, he just does thebacking and I put the lyrics to it."
RC: An excellent songwhich could easily appear
on other people's albums.
You could imagine it being
sung by Otis Redding or
Wilson Pickett, completewith Stax brass. The whole
production has a good feelto it with a powerful vocal
from Paul, while Paul Mk 2
plays good guitar solo
which benefits from his
minimal use of notes instead of the "how many
notes can I cram into a stanza" usually adopted
by unimaginative players.

"We like to keepa form to our

Don't Say You Love Me
PR: "This comes from the time that Andyand
I wrote 'Remember. We recorded it late atnight when everyone was feeling a little tired
and slow. That's why there's such a nice andvery relaxed feel to it."
RC: A slow and very quiet song which builds toa very soulful crescendo.

work... I don't

All Right Now (long version)

believe in thisPR: "We really got into this album, but first we
had to get used to the fact that we didn't havean audience. It's quite interesting as to how 'All
Right Now' came about. We were all sitting in
the dressing room before a gig in Manchester
and we were talking about the need for us to
do a number where everyone could join in andclap. So we decided to work it out there andthen, with everyone just clapping their hands
while I tried to fit in some words.
"It's a very happy and easy-going type ofsong. It took about 16 hours to record. When
we'd finished, everyone liked it, but Chris
Blackwell said it was far too long for a single.
"Originally we didn't want him to mess about
with it, for we weren't sure how it would turnout if he edited it. But Chris did a good job andit turned out OK. All I hope is that people who
buy the album enjoy it."
RC:The only real uptempo song on the entire
album, which everyone is already very familiar
with, and a fine closer to an album which willconsolidate Free's position on the scene.

PAUL RODG ERS: "This song was buzzing
around in my mind for months when we toured
the States with Blind Faith.There's a whole
new soul sound emerging in
the States, it's much stronger
and cleaner than before.
James Brown and Sly& The
Family Stone are very muchinto it. Genuine soul, as
opposed to the sock -it -to -me
type, does have a genuine andsincere feeling for the music.
You know,we all really enjoyedmaking this album. When wecut our very first long -player,
Tons Of Sobs, we were very nervous andweren't really pleased with it, while I felt thesecond one was far too clean. This one has
more feel and sound about it. I like it."
ROY CARR: A medium -paced opener basedon a simple riff and heavily accentuated beat.
N ice vocal and a slow, deliberate guitar solo.

freeform music"

Oh I Wept
PR: "This is more Paul Kossof's song thanmine.' just wrote lyrics to it. As usual, I write
about my personal experiences."
RC: This song starts off very slowly and very
quietly, with echoey drums. Maintains thismood throughout.
Remember
PR: "About two years ago I had a little bedsitter in West Hampstead, but I got kicked out
94 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

that I felt that it was only right everyone got
a credit. Both this and 'Fire And Water' areamong our most popular numbers on stage. I
really like Andy's bass solo on this one. He reallygets going on it - he's a remarkable player."
RC: Another good medium -paced number,with accentuated guitar on the offbeat andinterweaving basslines. Andy's solo is firstrate, with his bass guitar sounding like abassoon at times.

Heavy Load

PR:"Ah,this is my favourite song on the album.
Andy worked the piano part out and I think it's
wonderful.The very first time I heard it, I
thought it was truly beautiful. We only decided
to do it on the spot in the studio. It's a goodtrack, but I think it needs a few listens to."
RC:Solo piano intro by Andy Fraser which
predominates throughout and leads into a
simple solo which keeps very close to the basic
chord structure.

Mr Big
PR:"This is a mean one. Originally `Mr Big' was
my song, but everyone worked so hard on it

Roy Carr

1.1111 r 111 Won..

SAT. JET Tab

Sox 01111CC NOW 0I1N

r AT Uft SiG
CAVGIIIIboom did do a lot of good though, in thatmusicians had a better chance of getting together.
In the States there neverhas been a sudden mass
liking for blues. It's always been there and it's
really weird when BB King is known as the 'ace
supporting ace.""Ourfirst gig on theAmerican tour was very
frightening," says Simon. "We went over therewith Blind Faith and played one gigwith them at
Madison Square Gardens. In Britain the largest
crowds we have ever played to have been two to

FREE

/Ka

"We didn't ask fora hit, but now that it has
happened we are most thankful for it," Simon
declared when not only!, but what seemed
TM RUE
like representatives from all the mass medias
BRNO & NMI ad ROOS
descended on Free's recording company's offices..1..p 100 00 100 MO CA -1144 640t
MSC II
one lunch time."
MADISON SQUARE GARDENv,
Stating the group's policy towards singles,
he continued, "We are not going to sit down
and say, 'Right, let's write a single.' Paul Rodgers
andAndy Fraser have got a lot of good songs
together, most of which will ultimately go
three thousand, but that time twenty thousand
to make up our fourth album. If there's
showed up and this scared us which meant wesomething amongst that lot which we feelplayed badly. After that gigwe split and did a
has a single's potential, then naturallywe'll
tour on ourown which went much better.
release it. But we won't be pressurised into
"Nowadays theAmerican kids won't accept
writing songs especially for the singles market,"any old rubbish that is given them. At one time
he assured me.
if a group had the British tag it was taken thatTo the uninformed observer, Free's doublethey must be good whether theywere or not.
barrelled assault on the public makes it appear
Things have improved a lot now because mostas though theyare an overnight success.
of the British bands who go over there are
Making the transition from obscurity togood and have earned their reputation in thisacceptance in one very swift and easy step. It's
country. In Britain you have to be good to survive because of all thetrue to saythat now everyone wants to know Free. But it's also true tofree competition."state, if onlyfor the record, that prior to attaining these trophies ofFree have had two albums released in Britain, although theyweren't too
success theywere held in the very highest of esteem by thousands of Freesatisfied with the first. In April they are off again to the States. "We will befans throughout England and Europe.
mentally prepared for the trip this time," said Simon. "America takes a lot
Aside from the accolades, they now have to contend with suchof getting used to socially.
occupational hazards as "the knockers". For in certain dark corners the"When you're in Britain you thinkyou hate the policemen, until you goratherover-loud beeryvoices of the Johnny -know-alls have been heard to
overthere and find them all walking about as if theywere cowboys. In
expound, "They've sold out."
fact, they look exactlylike cowboys with the guns and all the gear. They
"Anyway, what is the definition of selling out?" Simon queried as hehad a good knock at the Madison Square Gardens concert when some of
pondered over a glass of Spanish red wine. "I would hope that people who
the kids rushed the stage.
know us would appreciate the position that we are in," he said, trying to"America is very rewarding financially," says Paul, "but I could neverdefine a self -asked question that doesn't really apply to Free.
live there. There are so manybad vices. The money that theAmerican"We don't pander to anything or anyone. It's just that we came up withkids have is incredible. A bird will pick YOU up in a Mustang, but to get
the right formula at the right time. Basicallywe have the same stage act
the Mustang she will have paid for it with three nervous breakdowns
that we had last year.All that's really changed is the material. Of course,
and an abortion."since the record clicked we do find ourselves playing to a lot more people."
Fora group who write virtually all their own material, Paul and Andy
How theyget in to see Free must be amazing, because the group were
Fraser being responsible for most numbers, the unavoidable question ofplaying to packed houses a longtime before they made the charts.
influence cropped up.
"That's the onlything that bothers me," Simon admitted. "Manyof ourSimon: "Obviously most of the blues greats have influenced us,
most staunchest and long-standing fans are having to endure standing in
especially the three Kings, and probablyJohn Mayan. We all admire him
queues and a lot of aggravation in order to get into see us. Unfortunately
for what he has done for the music and consequently for the musicians."
this is beyond ourcontrol."On the current British groups who have found favour, Paul says:
At this point in our conversation we were joined bythe group's publicist,"People like Jethro Tull have been pushed a bit too hard and as a result
young Bill Harry, and Free's vocalist Paul Rodgers. It was Paul who took it
their singles have suffered, and none of the youngwhiteAmerican bands
upon himself to replenish our emptywine glasses, muttering andreally move me." Raymond Telford
laughing to himself that it was like theywere still on tour. For they had
just returned from a whirlwind jaunt around some of the capitals ofEurope with Traffic.
- NME AUGUST 1To call Free a funky little band brings a smile to
THINK THATALL Right Now' has theSimon's face, because that's exactly how he feels *FREEperfect ingredients for a big hit." Without
showing any trace of egotism, this is thevery honest and factual opinion of Simon Kirke,-We all loveplaying
1111111811111111.611ECN

voTt, $oZ.C.,AL G.J1.S7 S71...Qs`At one gig

with Blind
Faith, 20,000
showed up. It
scared us"

ccFree's slightly introverted drummer. The reasonsfor this self -analytical statement are: "The song
has a good and instant hookline, plus a strong beatto dance and rave about to." He added, "If you
listen to the longer version on the album you'll
hear that it also has a very good storyline."on stage together-:Free drummer
Simon Kirke in 1970

Success didn't come easy to Free; it took closeon three years of gruelling one-nighters, threealbums and an instantly accepted single. When it
arrived, it struckwith all the furore of a force -10
hurricane. The devastating impact of which has
been duly felt at the very summit of both the singles
and albums charts.
Not since the touring heydayof The Beatles andthe Stones have an album and single chased eachother up the best-selling list with such speed, and indoing so ignited the fuse for the biggest explosion of
genuine fan -mania in years.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

95

1970
JULY-SEP

about their music. As Paul sat grinning at Mr Kirke being
interviewed, he nodded in agreement to what Simon was saying.
"We all admire the sound that comes out of the Stax studios. It's soright, with everything being kept simple yet totallyeffective. If it's
straightforward and simple then more people are going to dig it."With this statement he summed up the magic essence of Free's
overwhelming popularity.
"I was once asked whyl never took a solo. It's because I like to keep
everything tight. I dig people like Booker T's drummer, Al Jackson,
and that great guywho appears on many of theAtlantic albums,
Roger Hawkins. Now those guys really knowwhat to play and, mostimportant, when to play it.A drummer should just make you want to
nod along in time with the music. On the other hand, I enjoy Buddy
Rich, because of his virtuosity and I accept him for that."
It was not time forus to return to the Island offices as there was stillmuch answering of questions and clicking of cameras to be done
before the boys were due to leave for that evening's gig. On ourway
back, Simon drove the point home when he revealed, "We live for the
next gig, and you can't beat it. We all love playing on stage together
it's not self-indulgent, because ouraudiences reallydigwhat we
enjoy, so we're all happy.
"It's all a question of getting on with people before you can makeany headway. We always want to evoke a good reaction ratherthana bad one. In the music game, there are so many pressures thatpeople outside of the business never encounter or think exist. If you
want to be realistic about it, then it's a rat race."
Free have gone through their period of internal strain, petty
arguments and worry, in the early days of formulating their career.
"Today, we really dig each other, and everyone." Forthem everything is on the up -and -up, oryou could
say irsAll Right Now. Roy Carr

- NME AUGUST 29 ELL THEN... HOW did that one
sound?" yelled Simon Kirke fromthe studio floor, suddenly breaking
the few seconds of silence. "Alright," came theimmediate reply from Paul Rodgers in the control
room. "But I think that we can get it much better."
As if reacting to some invisible force, the rest of
the group automatically got up from their resting
places and trundled off back into the studio torejoin their drummer in putting down yet
another "take".
It was now fast approaching lam and Free
were getting down to the all-important task ofrecording backing tracks for their next album.
Now a recording session can either prove to be
the most boring and tedious of spectator sport,
or on the other hand it can provide an evening's(or in this particularcase an earlymorning's )entertainment. The demanding pressures of
their current success haven't diminished Free's
enthusiasm or dulled their creative ability. Ifanything it's heightened their senses. Having
enjoyed the rarityof a chart double -top, theyare
determined to sustain their now enviable
position, but not to the point of overtaxing their talent in one mad effort tocash in on the many tempting and lucrative rewards within their grasp.
When I arrived at Island Records just after the bewitching hour, Paul
Kossoff (hereafter referred to byhis group nickname of PK), Andy Fraser,
Paul and Simon seemed very pleased with the way things were
progressing. With his usual friendlysmile, Paul of the famous
appearing and disappearing beard informed me, "You know, we'vemanaged to laydown three songs in three nights." Which is good goingby anyone's standard.

Apart from these studio sessions, Free intend
to record their contribution at this weekend's
Isle Of Wight bash and at a forthcoming concert
at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon. Should theresulting tapes come up to their expectations
and personal satisfaction, then theywill
probablyprovide one complete side of theirforthcoming album.
Looking out of the panoramic double -glazed
observation windows of Island Records' new
Number I studio, it's sometimes hard to believethat you're not in the control centre of someinterplanetary spacecraft. It was only the sightof the four familiar figures of Free in the gloom
and the playback coming from the four large
overhead speakers that made me realise that it was indeed a studio. The
banks of highly sophisticated electronic devices, multi -coloured lights
and predominant control board give the impression of2001.
"Can I have a bit morevolume on mycans," Simon requested, referring to
the headphones he was wearing. Surrounded bya barricade of baffle boards, hewas layingdown a Staxish backbeat to the latest Fraser -Rodgers
composition, "Highroad" -a nice chunkofrockin' down-home funk.
Satisfied with thevolume on his cans and followinga false start, heremarked, "It's a strange feeling playingwithout the bass", forbassistAndy"The Stax
sound is soright... simple
yet totallyeffective"

Fraserwasputtinga

NME'S ROY CARR SITS IN ON
A FREEALBUM SESSIpNi

rolling piano part on
the number.
"Not to worry, it'll be
OK when I track on thebass part lateron,"FREE

As he started to sing the lyrics to "Highroad" which he had
scribbled on a couple of pages from my notebook, it all took on an
entirely new dimension.
With complete spontaneity, he added some effective falsetto
hollers and whoops, to the sheer delight of PK, who again was
visually digging it all between bites of a sandwich. Meanwhile,
Simon, who was sat right next tome, rocked gently from side toside with his eyes closed to the beat he'd helped to lay down earlier.
Still slightly overwhelmed by the success of "All Right Now", hesuddenlyremarked, "It's just great... the world sales have now
passed a million. A lot of people take such figures for granted, but it
just knocks me out.
"Not only has it made all the major European charts, but it's
starting to breakvery big in the States," he added with what can
only be described as personal relief.
As the sound faded away, Paul reappeared to give his verdict
to the playback. Though it sounded quite acceptable and vital,
he was most dissatisfied. "I can do that a whole lot better," heinformed everyone, screwing his face up. "First of all I just want toalter a couple ofwords so that it'll flow better" -and it did.
With the big hand on mywatch at 12 and the small one on 5,
I decided to retire gracefully before flaking out on the oh -so tempting control -room couch. However, as it was alreadyoccupied by the now horizontal form of PK, I again decided tobrave the elements once more and return to Chez Carr. Roy Carr

- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 19-

IT WAS INEVITABLE that Free should figure somewhere in
the MMpoll - 1970 has been their year. After two years ofgradual building up, the London blues outfit have at lastearned the recognition they deserve.
AndyFraser, the group's bass guitarist, can be excused for feelinga little more pleased than his three colleagues, for he has made thesixth slot in the bass guitarist section, topping -would you believe-Paul McCartney and Bill Wyman. And he co -wrote "All Right
Now" with singer Paul Rodgers, which topped the British Single Of
Free inI970:(I-r)
Andy Fraser,Paul
Rodgers, Paul

Kossoff,SimonKirke

Andyreassured him from the other end of the studio. And he was as goodas his word.
After yet another false start, a good take was safely in the can, and theessential ritual of listening to the playback was conducted. As the"Mickey Mouse" sounds of the sped -up tape rewind whirled around thecontrol room, Jimmy Cliff quietly slipped in fora preview after spending
some hours mixing the tapes which he recently cut in Muscle Shoals forhis next album, in Island's Number 2 studio.
As the track came thundering through the bank of playback speakers,
PK enthused most energetically to all he heard.
"Hey Rodgers," he chortled, "it's the first time you've played on a disc,
isn't it," referring to the fact that his namesake had been laying downsome strong chunky block chords on a Gibson. Paul just grinned inacknowledgement.
"It could do with something in the middle -eight, don't you think?"
queriedAndyJohns, who was engineering the session, toAndy Fraser.
"I suppose so," was the reply. "We've been trying out some interestingcombinations on the mellotron," he informed Andy as they both
wondered off into the studio.
Alreadythe pangs of hunger were being experienced by one and all, so
as part of the Roy CarrSurvival Course, I slipped out of the studios
into the pouring rain, returning 15 minutes later laden withmuch nosh. Amidst much cheering and grunts it was
rapidly devoured. By this time all the backing tracks had
been completed and it was now time for Paul Rodgers to
put on the vocals.
After loosening up his vocal cords in one mad frenzyin the studio, Paul donned a pair of cans andpositioned himself in front of a mic as the backing
track was played over forhim.

The Year class.
"Yes, I must admit it feels very nice to think I have written the top
single," he said this week. "It really gives me a buzz to think somany thought it was the best record."
Andytook up the piano at five and his keyboard talents will beevident with the release of Free's fourth album in November. At 11,
he took up guitar and switched to bass a year later because nobody in his
school group could play bass.
"I went to college and met Alexis Korner and started getting some gigs
with him. Then aftera few months John Mayall phoned up Alexis andasked him if he knew a bassist and he told him about me. I went to meet
John and we played fora bit and I joined him.
"The band in those days had MickTaylor, Keef Hartley, Dick HeckstallSmith, Chris Mercer, Henry Lowtherand, of course, John. It lasted forabout a few months and broke up after I left. It wasn't really happening for
us and I wanted to write. It was obvious to John and me that we were goingin different directions.
"Then someone put me in touch with Paul Kossoff, who was looking fora bass player to form a band. I met him and he introduced me to Paul
Rodgers and Simon Kirke and we auditioned each other. I remember wewrote two numbers on the first night, which was very inspiring."
The group have just one more track to do on their new album, which- saysAndy-will be their best ever. Three numbers on it- "Riding On
A Pony", "Be My Friend" and "The Stealer" - have been regularly featured
live in recent weeks. Whether or not there will be another single depends
on Island, their recording company, but the group themselves are notworried about a follow-up.
The story behind "All Right Now" is worth telling. It was
written after a "bad" gig in Manchester. Andy started a riffon guitar and Paul came in with some obscene vo cals.
The words were censored a bit for the record, which was
originally an LP track. "We had released two singles
before which sold about two copies each, and thoughtthat was it. Then at the last minute we decided to put
out 'All Right Now' as a third attempt."
It was definitely a case of third time lucky.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 197

a

qt.

"oo

"(.

1970

".

721e,t--P4. toll7
1

JULY - sEPIENKRThe chords were drastic-the changes - it didn't
bother me too much - as it
was light it seemed to flow.
The lyrics were funny - but thevoice was another instrument.
Obviously it's not meant to be
judged as a song.
Audience
Moonshine
CHARISMA

It's a rocking Rex beginning it's Rex again. I know therecord, I've heard it
before. I know what
they mean bychanging it in the"What are you trying to do0
to MU;

UPf 5 I
Ito

0 19;0

WIND OF CHANGE

row B040

reaci-s io -the

1:neess. Par,&THE

OLA" HITMAKER RAY Davies returns to thesingles fray. Ray Davies, a happy man at the
moment, with The Kinks' latest single, "Lola", highin the charts, sat through Blind Date puffing alarge
cigar. "I don't smoke, so I puff at these things," he said.
He seemed to enjoy most of the records, and insisted
that mono records were played through one speaker,
and stereo played stereo.
Ii

middle- I personallywould have liked to
do something morewith the saxes.
Basically it's good -I
like it. I don't know why
they had to do the middle;
I suppose it makes people
stand up and listen. I don't mind
listening to the same sort ofbacking for three minutes.The
trouble is that records have to bemade to be played on Radio One.
Joyce BondUP FRONT

She's got a nice voice - is thisDeep Feeling
III rigUun PAGE ONE

why he sells. As
soon as I heard

It's hard to say really. It weaves in

this, it soundedso many different directions andpatterns. I'm not going to say I
don't like it -it might sound niceon the radio. But nothing very
good has happened to me - it
hasn't knocked me over- butthen I suppose it's not meant to.

produced -it

Mike d'Abo=

CaliforniaL
UNI
Sounds like someone trying tosing like Bob Dylan. Obviously
it's made for an album. It's an
English production -a Bob Dylan
London special. It's a weird
change. The thing with Bob Dylan
is when he sings low anyone cansing like it - maybe that's

had an echo on

mouth organ.
Brian Auger& The Trinity

Traffic

I Wanna Take You Higher

Freedom Rider

FROM THE LPBEFOUR , RCA

FROM THE LPJOHNBARLEYCORN

It's an English record again the group is probably good live.
Are there two organists? No, itsounds like double tracking.
There's a Joe Tex riff- I'm notsaying it is Joe Tex, but that's
a riff he uses, Sly & The Family
Stone type of thing. If you walk
into a nightclub - it's the sort ofthing you hear when you walk in.

MUSTDIE, ISLANDi think it's an English record.
It's a flute, isn't it? Yeah,that's
nice- quite nice. Sounds like hedoubles on saxes - does he singas well? No, it's Stevie Winwood
singing -must be Jim Capaldi
on drums. Traffic -yes this issimilar to their first album they surprise me -when theyused to makesingles theyRAY DAVIES in Blind DateOr
Lerpoor, wow",..

or row, MOM rorrOor tatMOO TUN-.1 rear
111,111.
rope no, 1

Ira 41.

Illoo

Irr

109a. Irmo rro
Iors.
arr.ro.
4Arriki- I ragor ornor.1
r. or pryerr!. rro -Yew

oro Orrtr

were totallydifferent totheir albums.

reggae? I like the double lyric- I don't know whether it's trad,
blue beat, reggae or what. I've
heard the voice before - I knowthat person -the rest of it
doesn't help the voice at all.
Doesn't sound like the musicians
are at all interested; this happens
when you cut a track in threehours - probably put the backtrack down first. What are you
trying to do to me!
May Blitz
flay Come
FROM THE LP MAYBLITZ,VERTIGO

Is it an album -The Walker
Brothers? It's quite restful really- quite hypnotic. There are a lotof long words- I'll have to get
my dictionary out. Obviously
more concerned with lyric
than music- poetry really ultraviolet and things. It would
be interesting to see them live.
There's nothing too obvious in it.

SINGLES & ALBUMS

Templeton Twins
LIBERTY

Bullshit - real bullshit - Paul
McCartney's demo. With any
luck it'll go to Not and Sunday
Night At The Palladium will
come back on the telly. What
are you trying to do tome?
Yes
FROM THE LP TIME AND

A WORD, ATLANTICGood -I like the strings at
the beginning. It's very hardto get that sound. Sounds like
Cleo Laine- probably meant
to sound like that chap fromThe Zombies. If it goes backinto the song I'll kill him it's like atomic fallout -is
ita soundtrack? You can't
condemn people - it's good
actually. It's the second recordthat changed suddenly likethat. It's good, that one.

the same as Diana
Ross. I don't think

the sound sticks out
enough, though.
It seems a bit quiet
and afraid.
Ray Stevens
I Love You
MONUMENT"I don't know
anything about hits"
MM AUG 1 )0 says tree fronfinan raui mongers it
this week's Blind Date, though he does really.
WITH HIS GROUP'S record flying high at the top of the charts,
Paul Rodgers is a happy man at the moment- although he is a

bit scared that too much publicity m ight harm the undergroundimage that Free have built up in the last 18 months. He's a big Joni
Mitchell fan, and was a bit disappointed that the selection we played
didn't include any Joni songs. He raves over anything that swings.

This isn't really as strong as
the music I like to listen to. I likea strong beat. This seems a bit
insipid. The Sweet Inspirations
have done this and their version
was much more powerful. Take

it off.
Clancy Eccles & The Dynamites
CLAN DISC

Oh no! Take it off, please. I don't
like the harmonies. I don't hate
all reggae; some of it has got
a nice beat. But this is badly

performed and badly recorded.
Black Sabbath

Max Romeo

VERTIGOUNITY

Desmond Dekker- it's good.
Good hi -hat - hi -hats are very

difficult to play like that.' like
ita lot.
Fotheringay
FROM THE LP FOTHERINGAY,ISLAND

I've heard this before - it sounds
like "The Weight" -it's not The
Band. Same feel as The Band- but the guitar's better than
The Band. Very tight - I like thechorus because it's not double
tracked - if you want a hundred
voices you should get a hundred
singers. Very good - I like the girlsingers in groups.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
ATLANTICLE ZSA2tir.:..
IIIE UWE 11111' SLIVEThis is very nice; beautiful infact. It must be Eric Clapton onthat guitar. I don't know who
they are but they make a really
good sound. They're probably
American, but the song is

don't seem very together andneither does the guitarist really.
Maybe they are better on stage.
I like things to sound heavy but
melodic at the same time, as
well as tight together.

recorded beautifully. (On beingtold) Don't ask me if it's going
to be a hit, because I don't know
anything about hits. I don't likeeverything they do because
I like a hard lead voice, butthat song is really nice.
Eric Burdon & War

Richard Harriswork. I don't think it is as catchy
as their other two. I can't hear
the words, so I don't know what
he is singing about.

STATESIDE

I like that washboard sound. Is it
Frank Zappa? It's a good songwith a nice swing and I like thesinger's voice. (On being told)
His voice has changed a lot
since The Animals' day. I think
it's a lot better now.

Gulliver
ELEKTRAThis has a nice beat and I like it.

!think the key is a bit high forthe singer, though.

It's a Jackson 5. Is this their
new single? I liked their othersingles. It's unbelievably tightand there is some good cymbal

This is nice and peaceful, andthere's a beautiful guitar sound.
Is it Tim Rose? It doesn't soundlike a young singer. I think I likethe intro better than the song.
It's too smooth for me, but thebacking is lovely. The drumming
is very good.

UNITED ARTISTS+l of The Right To LoveTAM LA MOTOWN

TAM LA MOTOWNn Called Horse
STATESIDE

Jimmy McGriff
Supremes

Jackson 5

This is a heavy sound, but I don't
know who it is. It's very wellrecorded but I feel I have heard
so many things like this before.
The bass and the drummer

This is quite a record. It must
be Diana Ross. (MM: It's The
Supremes without Diana Ross.)
Paul: It sounds just like her.
Whoever is singing sings justThis is nice, the drumming isgreat. Oh yes, I like this one.
Leave it here when you go.
It really jumps out of the
speakers. Is it Jimmy McGriff?
It must be. That drumming is
too much.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 199

1970

Jto -SEPTEMBER

The third Isle Of Wight
Festival, August 26-31,
1970: anestimated600,000 gather to see
acts ranging from prog

supergroupJudusJump,
Wednesday's openers,toRichie Havens,playing as
dawn breakson Monday2.

come to Britain to play the third
MM doesn't only draw deep insight from the twomusicians it despatches a writer to rough it with "the kids". "I suspected
my colleagues' commiserations were not genuine," he reports.
JIMI HENDRIXLEONARD CO-"Ready for the
next trip"

1970
JULY

- VOW
- MM SEPT 5 tojInn HENDRIX, THE

man with the misleading
reputation that had
mothers locking away
young daughters when he
was in town, is talking again.
After six months of hiding in corners,
crawling into cracks when people werearound, and generally locking himself
away from the world, our Jimi is back inbusiness, and his mind is six months

pregnant with ideas.
ForJimi, the first long trip has come toan end. It's time to go back home, feed
himself until he's fat again, and then set
out on trip number two, which will bea longer trip, and intrepid exploration,and for Jimi a new experience.
"It's all turned full circle, I'm back right
now to where I started. I've given this eraof music everything. I still sound thesame, my music's the same, and I can't
think of anything new to add to it in its
present state," Jimi told me as he sat
tending an English cold in a lavish London
Park Lane hotel.
"When the last American.
tour finished earlier thisyear, I just wanted to go
away a while, and forget
everything. I wanted to justdo recording, and see if
I could write something.

Tiredand beset bytechnical hitches,
Jimi Hendrix playsin the ear ly hours
of August 31,1970

Then! started thinking.
Thinking about the future.
Thinking that this era ofmusic - sparked off by The
Beatles -had come to an
end. Something new has got
to come, and Jimi Hendrix
will be there.
"I want a big band; I don't
mean three harps and 14
violins. I mean a big band
full of competent musiciansthat I can conduct and writefor. And with the music wewill paint pictures of Earthand space, so that thelistener can be taken somewhere. It's going to be something that will
open up a new sense in people's minds. They are getting their minds
ready now. Like me, they are going back home, getting fat, and making
themselves ready for the next trip.""You see, music is so important. I don't any longer dig the pop andpolitics crap. That's old fashioned. It was somebody's personal opinion.
But politics is old hat. Anyone can go round shaking babies by the hand,
and kissing the mothers, and saying that it wasgroovy. But you see, you can't do this in music.
Music doesn't lie. I agree it can bemisinterpreted, but it cannot lie.
"When there are vast changes in the way theworld goes, it's usually something like art andmusic that changes it. Music is going to change
the world next time."
Jimi couldn't fully explain what his new music
would be like, but he put forward his visions of
how the next music form would be born.
"We are going to stand still for a while, andgather everything we've learned musically inthe last 30 years, and we are going to blend all
the ideas that worked into a new form ofclassical music. It's going to take some doing to figure out
all the things that worked, but it's going to be done.
"I dig Strauss and Wagner -those cats are good, and I thinkthat they are going to form the background of my music.
Floating in the sky about it will be blues -I've still got plenty ofblues -and then there will be Western sky music, and sweet
opium music [you'll have to bring your own opium] and thesewill be mixed together to form one.
"You know the drug scene came to a big head. It was opening
up things in people's minds, giving them things that they justcouldn't handle. Well, music can do that, you know, and you
don't need any drugs.
"The term 'blowing someone's mind' is valid. People like
you to blow their minds, but then we are going to give themsomething that will blow their mind, and while it's blown there
will be something there to fill the gap. It's going to be a complete
form of music. It will be really druggy music. Yes, I agree it could besomething on similar lines to what Pink Floyd are tackling. They don't
know it, you know, but people like Pink Floyd are the mad scientists ofthis day and age.
"While I was doing myvanishing act in the States I got this feeling that
I was completely blown out of England. I thought that they had forgotten
me over here. I'd given them everything I'd got, I thought maybe they
didn't want me anymore, because they had
a nice set of bands. Maybe they were saying,'Oh, we've had Hendrix, yeah he was OK.' I
really thought I was completely through here."
About his future big band Jimi had talked alot. But he was also eager to talk about thoughtson the three-piece outfit, which he believed
could go on forever. "It was fun, it was thegreatest fun. It was good, exciting and I enjoyedit. But the main thing that used to bug me wasthat people wanted too manyvisual thingsfrom me. I neverwanted it to be so much of avisual thing. When I didn't do it, people thought
I was being moody, but I can only freak when
I really feel like doing so. I can't do it just for the"We will paintpictures ofEarth andspace. It will
open minds"

102 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

ISLE OF WIGHT

sake of it. I wanted the music to get across, so that people could just sit
back and close their eyes, and know exactlywhat was going on, without
caring a damn what we were doingwhile we were on stage."
Could Ji mi give any indication when he would start to form thebig band? "I don't know, but it won't be very long. Isle of Wight might be
the last, or second to last. But if the kids really enjoyed it, then it might
carryon a little longer. But I will only carry on that way if I am useful; youknow you have got to have a purpose in life."
His hair is a little tamer now. Did he feel he
was a tamer person, a changing person?
"No, I don't think so, although! feel as though
I get little sparks of maturity every now andthen. I think of tunes, I think of riffs. I can hum
them. Then there's another melody comes into
my head, and then a bass melody, and thenanother one. On guitar! just can't get them out.
"I think I'm a better guitarist than I was. I've
learned a lot. But I've got to learn more aboutmusic, because there's a lot in this hair of minethat's got to get out.
"With the bigger band, I don't want to beplaying as much guitar I want other musicians
to play my stuff. I want to be a good writer. I still
can't figure out what direction mywriting is going at the moment, but
it'll find a way.
"I won't be doing many live gigs, because I'm going to develop thesound, and then put a film out with it. It's so exciting, it's going to be
an audio-visual thing that you sit down and plug into and really takein through your ears and eyes. I'm happy, it's gonna be good."

He is a lot smaller than you might expect, dressed simply in a bushjacket and ordinary trousers. His face holds very little expression, themuscles in it rarely move, but his eyes are dark and sparkling, andfriendly. He is also blessed with an incredible sense of modesty. "So glad
you like mywork; it's difficult to get it into your mind that people actually
like it. It's such a good feeling. I look on it as a conquest.
"I could never really describe myself. If I looked at myself in the third
person, I don't think I'd recognise what I saw.
I hope you can understand that. The best thingforyou to do is to simply make up your opinionof me; it's easier foryou to do it than me."His voice is deep, and a little broken. We
walked around the suite, and admired theselection of colourful goodies that lay onplates. "Please eat something, they look sogood, but I'm not hungry."We talked about his songs.
"I really hope you can understand this. WhenI write a song, and it becomes a finished pieceof work, to me it becomes an incredible
achievement. Each one of my songs is above
me. When I say above me, I mean almost as
though it was better than me.
"With the books and the poems it's a different feeling. My God, to doa song is a total mental success. Possibly people may not understandfullywhat the songs are about. But it's just me singing about what I see,and how I see it. Just telling of experiences.
"I mean, let's take 'Sisters Of Mercy'. I was in Edmonton, Canada one
evening, and I ran into these two girls. The three of us had a fineevening. They caressed my body, and touched me gently, and kissed
me, and touched me and it was so fine. They made me feel good, andtheywere soft."
His eyebrows raised a little, and he smiled: "How did you read the song,
I'd like to know that?" I told him that my first impressions was that thesong was about a brothel.
"I'm pleased about that, because that's possiblywhat it reallywas. So
there was a success, and you read the right things into it. That's good.
Those girls were very tender."He was a little nervous about the Isle Of Wight festival.
"There are so many people on, and so many that I want to see. I'm nota top -rank staryou know. No, I'm not a top ranker."
The conversation, beautifully casual, floated in various directions,but stayed for some while on the question of the generation gap.
"This is something that has been on my mind fora longtime recently.
I have thought much about it. You know what the greatest thing would
be. It would be to playa concert in front of 50,000 middle-aged people.
God, that would be so great.
"I fwe could only get together. We could share things. God, theseolder people really do know what they are talking about. They havewisdom. Young ideas could be mixed with them. Older people could
add mature things. Oh yes, if we could get together. We must, you know,
we really must."
Leonard smiled again, and went andfetched me another drink. Through thewhole period his eyes had been burning
into mine, giving me that feeling that
he was truly intereste d. It had been aremarkable talk. While he was walking
back with the drinks I noticed how frail
his body looked. Like his face, he
restricted his limbs to minimum use.
"It's nice just having a little party
like this. I didn't want to beinterviewed; I just wanted to meet
the writers over here."
Several more people drifted into theroom, and the whole party became
totally relaxed as Leonard met everyone
with a warmth and friendliness. He
held swift conversations and smiled
for most of the time.
"Maybe it wasn't such an ordeal," hesaid later. RoyHollingworth"Each of mysongs is above
me... as though
it was better

than me"

RoyHollingworth- MELODY MAKER SEPTEMBER 5 LEONARD COHEN- man or myth, or what? He's a dreamer, but
as he says, his dreams are only products of real things, and fact.
Basically, Leonard is a darned nice guy, shy, slow -talking, andmore eager to ask you questions and listen to you than hear himself.
Talking to Leonard was a joy, because this man in not deep to the pointof being far out. Obviously he's deep ifyou want him to be -in your eyesthat is -but if you get deepness out of your mind and just talk, then that's
good. Leonard went through what he termed an "ordeal" when hearrived in London last week. He has never been one to hold press
receptions, but he agreed to attend an exceptionally small and informal
party, at a Mayfair hotel, where there were no notebooks to be seen,
where he just talked, and gave legitimate answers to only a few
questions, and preferred to hold conversations. He survived the ordeal.
Arriving early, simply because the taxi travelled at tyre -scorching
speeds, I struck good fortune, was the first to arrive in the Monte Carlo
Suite, and caught Leonard completely alone.
He held his hand out, smiled, and offered me a drink, and then wetalked, and talked and talked.
FollowingHendrixonstage,
LeonardCohenandhis band
the Army -backing singers
CorlynnHanneyandSusan

Musmannopictured-calm
therestivelOWcrowd

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1103

1970

- ISLE OF WIGHT _JULY - SEPIMER

Toy figures

L

E!

- AUGUST 26-30 -in the distance
MM SEPTEMBER 5 4 Maker scribe
piLuilua IllslUr a punter's -eyeview of the third IOW Festival.
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Thursday.
IARRIVED HERE earlythis morning,and lam
surprised to admit I am happier than I felt on
Monday morning. I can still recall that sense ofoutrage and frustration as the editor told me(with a touch of quiet glee, I thought) that forme this year's Isle Of Wight Festival would bea groundsheet and primus stove affair, and nota hotel bed and room service as I had been
fervently hoping.The idea, he explained,
would be to get out and mingle with the crowd,"live their life, and soak up the atmosphere. See
what it is really like to be one of the kids who
have had to payto get in," he said with relish.
Since I caught flu after the wog festival, I think
I could have done this perfectlywell without
having to gothrough all the motions, but I didn't
think he would have appreciated this line ofargument, which I have to admit was rather
subjective, so I went out immediatelyandbought a tent, an airbed and a sleeping bag.
The shopkeeper assured me that with all his
gear there was little chance of getting wet if itrained, and I brightened a little, then sunk backinto a gloomy cynicism as I contemplated fivedays of sitting snuffling in a tent while the rain
beat a military tattoo on the flysheet andMungoJerry banged Coke tins and sang "In
The Summertime".
At the risk of sounding
disloyal, I had suspicions toothat the commiseration of
my colleagues was notentirely genuine."I think

I follow suit, and make myway past the hotdog stands,
the corncob stalls, thegriddle bars and all the otherparaphernalia of modern
catering, to the foot of The
Hill, where I pitch the tent.
It's not a good position, as I find out later thatnight because I have not allowed for the slopeof the hill and when I turn over in my sleeping
bag I nearly roll out under the tent sides.
No matter, the view is good: a wide panoramaof the tented communitythat minute by minutespreads and thickens, plugging up all the green
spaces with canvas shapes, nestling together
fora bit of warmth and companionship. Sheetsof black -and -white polythene are being
stretched out over holes burrowed in thehedgerows, and right up against the main
arena itself a Desolation Row is being createdout of bales of straw constructed like igloos by
the hippy elite, which is out to assert its
superior status in this instant society.
And once you have staked your claim to a few
square feet of land, then your thoughts turn tofood. If you have brought a little stove then tinsof beans can be heated, but most people line

Friday
IAM WOKEN at 8am by a babble of voicesaround the tent. I conclude there have been
newarrivals in the night while I have been
sleeping snug as a bug in a rug on my airbed,
which nearly cost me a lung to blow up thenight before. I get smugger by the minute. Ina short while I pick up my towel, soap andtoothpaste and go down to the toilets, which
are primitive but functional - deep trenches
dug in the earth -with a notice at the entrance
instructing everyone to avoid making a flood.
The queues to use the water taps are full of
shuffling bleary-eyeds with bits of grass

open by his tent.
He is always there
and never moves

if you are going to do it
properly you ought to take as
little money as possible withyou, a few coppers maybe,"said one, sipping judiciously at
the pint I had just bought him.
But that was Monday... Today, everything hasgone smoothly. I had an uneventful boat trip
over from Portsmouth to Ryde, and thencaught a special bus to take me the 20 miles
to the festival site, which is right out in the
country, with the nearest village, Freshwater,
lying two miles away. It really is quite an
impressive scene to the eye as the bus
trundles near in the hot morning sun,
spattering dust and pebbles on the young
migrants who are marching along the roads
like the vanguard of some invading force.
The spectator arena is a huge rectangle
enclosed by corrugated sheeting, with a blue and -white -striped stage at one end. Risinghigh above one flank of the arena is the slopeof East Afton Down, which later achieves somenotoriety as "Devastation Hill". It resembles
a huge natural grandstand,and already a highproportion of the human influx is making use
104 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

of its position overlooking
the stage by pitching theirtents and establishingsquatters' rights.

up in the queues for the fish and chips,whichcost three shillings, or hotdogs, two bob, if
they want some warm food. The prices arequite reasonable: tea and soup are nine penceand a shilling respectively,and it is evenpossible to buy mutton biryani for five -and sixpence. Everyone is filling his belly while themoney is there. Tomorrow never knows.
It is fascinating to watch the proliferating
hippy township. The cow towns in the Wild
West or the gold -mining towns in theAustralian Outback would have sprung up like
this, rough and rude, with the smell of frying
food mingling with the smoke from thecampfires, and the sound of people knocking
together their makeshift homes.

A young man
sleeps out in the

'

741

ISLE OF WIGHT"The biggest nonconformist here would

beaGentinaCity
bowler"ifestival-goers
have a little stretch

sticking out of their hair. No one can resist
having a peek at himself in the crude mirrors
nailed on the walls of iron sheeting, looking tosee if any pimples have come up overnight or
rubbing a hand across a stubbly chin. We lookrather a sorry lot -we who were founding atown only last night.
Outside,an alarming incident is going on in
full view of everybody. A tall bearded guy, in
his thirties, naked but fora pair of pale -blue
briefs, says he is from the Manchester
Guardian and he wants to liberate the festival.
"Form a circle around me and we will march on
Fiery Creations," he tells onlookers.
Everybody is merely amused until he knocks
a drink out of someone's hand and then slaps ayoung black man in the face. The young black
man is not amused,and they end up rollingaround fighting in the rutted road.The
onlookers gather thick and fast: love andpeace is OK, but who can resist a good fight?
The two are dragged apart, eventually, but
Manchester Guardian still insists on his
liberation tactics. "You're nuts," he is told.
The gates to the arena are opened at slam,and straight awaythose who have elected to
pay to get in -most of the dwellers on
Devastation Hill did not bother because one
could see and hear perfectly from up there bore down on the entrance, loaded up with theprovisions they will need for the long day andnight ahead. Once inside thearena, everyone races like madacross the field to the end by thestage, hoping to get a plum spot
just behind the press enclosure.
Latecomers and the unlucky
ones have to worm their way
towards the front, keeping aneagle eye open for two or threefeet of ground that is notcovered by a sleeping bag, and inthat bag a bodyfighting to retainthat strip of precious earth.
Looking around,the whole
field is planted with flags andpennants of various countries
and varieties, from the threelegged design of the Isle Of Man
to the Angels' swastika. They
flutter bravely in the wind,resembling a scene from anancient field of battle, a knights'
tournament, except that chivalry
does not enter into it. Maidens
have to fight for their strip ofground like everyone else.
In-between the music laid on
bythe artists, there are records
and announcements by thecomperes, Rikki Farr, Jeff
Dexter and Andy Dunkley. An
American girl has lost a brownshoulder bag containing £250
and her passport -will anybody
who finds it bring it to the back of
the stage; or Elizabeth X please
go to the Release tent, where
Dave Y is waiting.
Farr and Dexter - particularly
Farr -adopt a sort of elder
brother style, scolding thecrowd when it gets a bit out ofline, giving everyone a verbal
pat on the head when they have done as they
have been told - "You're beautiful, you know
that," Farr tells them. He is fair-haired, heavily
built,with a spreading paunch that belies thefact he is still in his twenties, while Dexter has
a furry, pinched face, with rimless spectacles
and thin blond hair that he keeps deadstraight. Curiously, he used to sing "The Twist"
with Cyril Stapleton.

Saturday
IHEAR THAT135 people have been busted
for drug possession and that this hugeaudience which is here now -600,000 - hasraised £2,000 to get them out of prison. In
relation to its size, there are no more drugs at
this festival than at any other that has been
held in Britain.
Maybe drugs explain the condition of theyoung man who sleeps out in the open beside
his tent. He is always there, never moves, andhuddled in his thinblanket and coat,which
he wraps around him
even at the height of the
midday sun. The only
noise he ever makes is apeculiar grunting sound.
He is a bedraggled -looking wretch, but thenmost of us seem to be

showing signs of wear and tear -the hairgreasier, more lank, signs of tiredness showing
under the eyes, the clothes scruffier. It is
curious, though, despite the hip clothes, thefringed coats and the weird hats, how alike weall look.The biggest non -conformist here
would be a Gent in a City bowler.
There are a lot of stories going around about
how the Free Festival Movement, together
with French and Algerian agitators, are trying
to break up the festival. They have pulled
down part of the fencing at the entrance, andthere have been unsuccessful attempts tospike the water supply.

SundayHE LAST DAY, and I cannot say I am sorry,
although musically it has been excellent,with my only criticism on this score beingthat on the Thursday and Friday the sound was
muzzy and distorted,and often could not beheard at the back of the arena.
No, it is to do more with festivals as events.
To spend nearly an entire 2ct hours sitting in
the middle of a field produces an amalgam ofboredom, discomfort and a sense of esprit decorps. It is boring and uncomfortable because
festivals are such passive exercises, andenforced passivity at that. If you are hemmedin by all those people, with the artists on thestage just toy figures in the distance,thefeeling of restriction is all -engulfing.
Conversely, it is an imprisonment that brings
with it a sense of togetherness, with music as
the common denominator, to which we can all
relate. But then perhaps we put too
intellectual a significance on these festivals,
and particularly those at the Isle Of Wight,
seeing them as sort of spiritual reunions,annual gatherings at which the batteries canbe recharged for the year ahead and all thebusiness of student protest, political demos,
etc. It might be getting nearer the mark if theIsle Of Wight Festival was regarded lesspiously, more as the younger generation's
equivalent ofa mass outing to Butlin's.
It does not seem to me, anyhow, that there issuch a fervent atmosphere this year as last.
Festivals then were something ofa novelty;
now they are finding their level as a form of
mass communication. By midday, indeed,
thousands are queueing for the buses totransport them to the boats back to themainland,although the day's music has hardly
begun.To be honest, some are frightened
they will be stranded on the island without any
money, but there is a general air of shut -down.
But if the festival is closing down, there arestill enough of us left to sit through Jimi
Hendrix, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen and Richie
Havens in the chill night before we pick up our
bedrolls and head back to where we all camefrom. And what better wayto spend an autumn
evening than in such company. Michael Watts

Isle never be
the same again

1970
JULY

"The

violence
is justin us"
Occult-2-dthem, BLACK SABBATH

concentrate on
becoming the year's
rock phenomenon.
Written in five minutes,
their single "Paranoid"
is a massive hit. As
chaos mounts on a UK

SEPTEMBER 19 BLACK SABBATH ARE, and always will remain,in the public's eye a dark, satanic band, for theirmusic is dark and heavy to the point of being
morbid. Yet they have a name, a name that isgetting big headlines, and a name that is selling
LPs and singles at a fast rate.
Paranoid, an LP released last week without the band knowing it,
is, as the name suggests, a heavy, riff -ridden noise that appeals tothe already cauliflowered ears of many a person. Like the satanic
mills of yesteryear, Sabbath are churning out heavy material by
the yard- in fact, by the mile. In these days -days that are being
described as thestart of the turning point in pop music -what
future exists fora totally heavy outfit?
As far as Sabbath are concerned, everything exists for them, ina heavy sort of way. Sabbath speak seemingly through one mouth,
owned by the four oft hem -John Osbourne (vocals andharmonica), Tony lommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill
Ward (drums). Every question is answered by all four; there is noreal spokesman, although lommi is the easiest to understand.
"We all like heavy music, and we feel that it's going to go on for
ever and ever. You can drive a lot home with heavy stuff, get into »106 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

tour, Ozzy Osbourne(and his brother) keep
track of business.

"We'd better sort themoney before we goon," says Ozzy. "Canyou pay us in cash?"December 12,197o:

OzzyOsbourneon
stage attheKBHallen,
Denmark during the
Paranoidtour

1970

JULY - $91E.NOR

Speed and force

TRACK
BY
TRACK

zzy Osbourne talks,..6th Sabbath's second LP.

NME SEPT 26

BLACK SABBATH TURN out
a gutsy, "sock 'em all thetime" type of music which isnever pretentious and thealbum is a good example ofwhat they're doing on stage.
The speed and force of themusic is sustained throughout,
Terry Butler's bass and Tonylommi's lead guitar forcing thenumbers along while drummer
Bill Ward puts down a solid
foundation. Ozzy played me
their new Vertigo album (42s6d) and talked about the tracks.
Here's what he had to say:through space and seeing stars
and things."

Iron Man"This is about a guy whoinvented a time machine and hegoes through time and finds theworld is going to end. Coming
back, he turns to iron andpeople won't listen to him, they
think he's not real. He goes a bit
barmy and decides to get his
revenge by killing people. He
tries to do good but in the end itturns into bad."Electric Funeral
War Pigs"It's about VIP people whoare sitting there saying `Goout and fight' and all theeveryday people are forced
to, but the VIPs never do.
We're not a political group,
it's just that most of our songs
have messages."
Paranoid"This is about a guy who has
a hang-up with chicks. It's got
a heavy riff. We're not a single

group and after the first single,
which we didn't like, we justwrote this in the studio andnow it's starting to sell."Planet Caravan"We wrote this in the studio as
well. We decided to vary thealbum more by having a soft

"In years to come, the way
things are going, there's going
to bea nuclear war, which iswhat this track's about. There's
a lot of evil in the world today."

Hand Of Doom"It's about people on drugs andwhat happens to them -theirskin turning green and things.
There's a lot of gory words, but
we've seen a lot of people likethat and it's getting out of all
proportion. If you can frighten
people with words it's better
than letting them find out bytrying drugs. I'm not trying to
say we're angels, I've indulged
to a certain extent, but I'd nevertry any of the hard drugs or trips
or anything."

number. It's a smoky jazz club

Fairies Wear Boots"Again, it's a warning about the

number about someone goinguse of drugs." Richard Green

what you mean to say and we are totallysatisfied with the way thesound is going," drawled lommi.
Sabbath do not plan their music. They prepare very little. Theirmusic comes from the immediate mood on them at that time -it must
be a sad world they live in- but nevertheless, they just start playing, andgoon. Paranoid was an album that took only a matter of hours to produce.
"It was all just an instant thing, spontaneous, ifyou like; there was little
written down. It was all in our heads, and came out as one," he continued.
A dark, satanic coffee arrived, the atmosphere became just a little
lighter, but it was still all too uncomfortable. "Audience reaction getsbetter and better, and we get more excited with the success that seems to
be coming. Yet people still expect us to sacrifice virgins, and occultthings like that, which if we say it once, we say it a thousand times, wasnever anything to do with us."
While I was with them, the band were told that a Black Sabbath parade
had recently been held in the States, with thousands of people taking
part, and apparently hyping the band to no small extent. Large sectionsofAmerica had met the news that Sabbath were doing an October tour
with wild cries of "great". The band took it all in a rather cool, heavyway.
"We haven't done the States before, and we are looking forward to it withinterest," said Tony -and the rest of the group. Theyare also looking
forward to a large European tour. They have done good business acrossthe Channel, and know theycan do more. RoyHollingworth- NME SEPTEMBER 26 BECAUSE OF TH E nature of the group's name, people tend

to associate Black Sabbath with witchcraft. This is anunderstandable misconception, but one which should be put
straight- the Birmingham quartet has nothing whatsoever to do withslaying cockerels and goats. Making their NME chart debut this week
at No 26 with "Paranoid" - the title track of their new album - Black
Sabbath are pretty fed up with the tag and lead singer Ozzy Osbourne
met me at his manager's office to set the record straight.
"A lot of people have a grudge against us because of this black magic
thing, but it has got out of all proportion. At one time we got so confusedwith Black Widow it was unbelievable, though ! understand that Black
Widow are getting out of black magic now. We're two completelydifferent
bands in music and everything," he began.
"All the tracks on the first album were a warning against black magic.
You get old business tycoons wanting to go with young chicks, so they goalong to black magic rituals and get themselves involved... things like
that, they're sick. I believe in black magic but I've not tried it and I won't."
The black magic thing caused a lot of worries for Black Sabbath whengoing toAmerica was mentioned. Ozzy explained, "It frightened us
because of the Sharon Tate murder and we got very uptight that people
would expect us to go on stage and turn people into frogs and things."
He laughs about it now but at the time it wasn't funny. Ozzy finds thatpeople realise what the group are once they've seen them and he's morethan pleased that they're starting to break big at last. "We used to becalled Earth," he revealed. "We were just bumming round the country for
two years like a lot of other groups and when things started happening wethought maybe it was our turn.All that sweat has now paid off. As long as
people want to listen to Black Sabbath we'll be around.
"It's unbelievable on the Continent. We've just finished a tour and every
night we were getting two or three ovations. Up until the last tour we weregoing down well but there was a thing that just wasn't there. At one time
I just wanted to get a record in the charts and when we did it was amazing.
It's not changed any of us; we just want to go on playing good music andmaking people happy."
Ozzy sat chain smoking and not holding back on his language, much ofwhich was fruity. He makes use of expletives to emphasise points, most ofwhich are good sense, and he has strongviews on things like drugs andgroups who have no time for other people when they've made the big time.
When he talks about Black Sabbath's music, he is just as enthusiastic but
he tends to get worked up in a quieter way: "We got so fed up hearing stories
about love that we decided towrite about what's going on in life aroundpeople. Ifwe start writing now for the next album, bythe time it comes up
we mayhave a lot of good tracks or we mayhave a load of numbers we don't
like, sowe leave it till the last moment. We're prettyquick at writing. Tony
thinks of a riff or a melodyand we write round that usually. We tryto blend
our music instead of getting the same monotonous riff. We like a lot of
tempo changes so that it doesn't get on people's nerves."

"It frightened us
because of the
Sharon Tate murder":Ozzyontheband's
apprehension whena UStourwasmootedom- NME OCTOBER 24 -WNILE BLACK SABBATH have always hoped that they would

someday achieve the measure of success that they now
have, things happened so quickly just lately that they were
almost taken by surprise. Their second album swept to the top of thechart very quickly and the single hasn't lost any time making No 4.
Lead guitarist Tonylommi and drummer Bill Ward were
understandably happywhen I took them the news of the album reaching
No 1, but theyadmitted that theyhadn't been sure it would happen.
"We've always wanted this," Tony said, "but we had no publicityto talkof afterthe first album and I think people who bought it may have bought
the second to see what it was like. It's hard to explain what has made us
popular. I suppose people have heard us and talked about us, it's been
word of mouth."
The album was rehearsed in a small studio in a farm in Wales and somerough takes of various tracks were recorded there so that the group could
get an idea of what theywould sound like later. "We did 'Iron Man' and'Funeral' there," Bill revealed. "Quite a few
groups use the place and now there's talk ofbuilding an airstrip so that groups can flyin."
Tonypointed out that most of the group's songs
are written in the same way. "We get the heavy
riff and things and Geezerwrites the words to gowith the backing. He writes raw words to go withraw music. We were just messing about with thetapes after dinner and thought 'Paranoid' would
be a good single. It wasn't written as a single, we
never intend to do that. We thought we weren't
going to do anotherafter the first flop. It only
took five minutes to write 'Paranoid'.
"It's amazing how the album's going, really.
We did a John Peel show and started getting gigs

black

after that. He helped us a lot, but he seems to be against us now. I don't
knowwhat we've done. He keeps having digs at us. Some of the tracks on
the album are definite put-downs of things. 'War Pigs' is anti the people
who cause wars and then don't fight themselves and 'Hand Of Doom'warns about the use of drugs."
Despite this, the group don't consider themselves to be any sort ofgurus. "One of the biggest problems with the music scene today is the kidsthat try and read things into songs; they always tryand interpret lyrics
and they often create things that aren't there," Tony explained. "Ourmusic is simple, basic stuff; the lyrics are plain, laid on a plate, and you

can't misunderstand them.
"With those kids it's like a big battle with the mind trying to sort thingsout. We haven't got the powerto tryand direct people in politics or anythingelse," added BilL "'WarPigs' and the drug songs arejust ouropinions. We're
not tryingto influence people. We don't know if people take it all in."
The second album is quite a change from the first and there maybe
anotherswitch before the third. "I don't know what we'll get into in thenext six months," Tonyadmitted. "That's
something you can't say. When we did the firstalbum we didn't knowwhat the second wasgoing to be like. When we have to go into thestudio we'll work something out."
Tony used to be a memberofJethroT I1, so
I asked him how he regarded showmanshipin groups. Did he think it was ever used as a
substitute for good music orwas it just a thingthat various artists found necessary to do?
"It is used to get people to look," he replied.
"We couldn't do it. Ozzyleaps about a bit andpeople remember him forhis head going up
8and down like the clappers but that's all. It's
8entertainment really. Groups go on and smash *"John Peelhelped us a lot,
but he seems
to be against
us now "HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1109

1970
JUIY

NUR

equipment up, people like to see violence onstage. I've only done it out ofannoyance when something's gone wrong. I wouldn't do it as an act."
Bill recalled a gigin Colognewhen the powerwas cut off in the middle of anumber"probablybecause a caretakerwanted to go home" and gave thatas an example of the sort of thingthat upsets the group and sometimes
makes them violent. "I was going to put my guitar through the cabinet,"
Tony said. "They put the lights on in the middle of a numberas well. But
generally! don't think playing loud and raw music makes the audience
violent. The onlyviolencewe get at shows is when we start it on stage.
"Sometimes the audiences get stirred up, and that's great. We get
excited on some numbers, I do a classical bit and if someone talks loudI get annoyed and we all get annoyed, the violence is just in us."Black Sabbath have pretty much the same type of audience
whenever they play and they've never really experienced
the teenybopper bit, though having a hit single broughtthem close to it recently. "The onlyaudience we see are about 16 to 25,"
Tonytold me. "When we got a single in the charts we thought we'd meet up
with a lot of people who came along because of that. We did a Top Rank
place in Cardiff and we were a bit dubious about it, but it was OK. Seventyfive per cent were our normal audience, but we got about four giggling
girls hanging about like we were a teens -type group!"
The group used to be called Earth and the music was nothing like it isnow. A change had to be made and Tonywent through what led up to it
and what happened next. "We kept that name for six months but there
was another band with the same name and we had to change," he began.
"We wrote a numbercalled Black Sabbath and Geezersaid it would be agood name fora group, so we thought about it and agreed with him. We
had started coming out with mad names like Joe Leg!""We couldn't keep playing 12 bars; we just got fed up with Earthmusic. It was jazz -blues stuff. It was good for practice but
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
nothing else; a lot of other groups were playing the same thing.
-- LONDON
When we changed thewhole thingjust snowballed. We wanted
something loud that people would listen to.
"We'd got to the stage where we couldn't even afford a bus; we
had to walk to each other's houses. It's the usual hard -luck story
but true. We started recording the first album about four months
OCTOBER 26
NME OCT 31 "Unprecedented scenes"
afterwe changed the name and things picked up from there."
The first London gig the group did was at the Marquee and theylc Rahhath ctnrm I nnrinn'c Smith Ranh
all felt nervous. Tony says that London scared them at first. He
pAGANINI WOULD TURN in his grave if he even thought that a group
thought it was so big that you could die and nobodywould evenlike Black Sabbath were playing at the Royal Festival Hall, and if his
notice. Then there were a few festivals, which helped matters.
ghost was lurking there on Monday night it was probably exorcised"But festivals have so many backstage hassles to put up with asat the sight of thousands of young people going berserk. Such was thewell- all the groups are fighting to get their equipment on and off
fervour of the fans that the stewards gave up and let them dance in thestage at the same time. In Germany they seem to have festivals
aisles and rush the stage.
everyweek. People just go along and sit there, not enjoying
After Monday's spectacle there can be absolutely no doubt that Sabbath isthemselves. It's better playing here because if people learn theamong Britain's top groups. Forced by hordes of stamping, clapping, yellingwords they can take part in the songs."
fans who had no intention of leaving without an encore, the group returned
Tony and Bill had to leave then and they admitted that the bigfor "Fairies Wear Boots" and created unprecedented scenes. The best partcity had got them again and they hadn't a clue how to get to whereof the audience was on its feet clapping its hands in the air; a goodly crowd
theywere going. "We have to take taxis everywhere; we'll go broke
was dancing at the front of the stage. Peace signs were being given all overat this rate!" Bill joked. RichardGreen
the place and even a real live teddy boy was bopping in best '50stradition. In

Stamping, yellingLIVE!

the end, the house lights had to be turned on to stop the show.
Strangely, Sabbath began with "Paranoid" and worked through to "WarPigs", when Ozzy Osbourne freaked out and Tony lommi played a splendid
lead guitar solo."Iron Man" had the audience clapping in time and saw the
emergence of the first dancers, then it was into the number from which
the group took its name. It began in a style quite out of character with
Sabbath's music with lommi playing classical electric guitar, then all hell
breaks loose and a Quatermass-like rhythm takes over -at anytime you
expect to see horrible demons crawl over the top of the amps.
The penultimate number, "Wicked World", is a complete raver taken ata furious pace, drummer Bill Ward having a field day. The full house loved
it and sent waves of ecstatic appreciation flowing round the hall. No group
could have wished for a better send-off for an American tour which begins
this weekend. RichardGreenRoyal Festival Hall
Monday October 26 at 615pm- MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 31 _BLACK SABBATH MANIA has broken out, and the result isfar from what the group want. Since "Paranoid" madethe hit parade they have become a victim of fan worship,
and whereas once their audiences came to listen, now most ofthem go to look and hope that they will be lucky enough totouch one of their newly won idols, or maybe collect a broken
guitar string or drumstick to add to their collection of group

paraphernalia.
I spent the daywith Black Sabbath on Friday, and saw the effectsof fan worship on a group that were not prepared forit and don't,
forthat matter, want it. Theywere playing at the Mayfair Ballroom
in Newcastle, a 200 -mile five -hour car drive from Birmingham,
where the group is based. The road to the hall was swarmingwith
young people, queuing to get in. The driver jumped out of the car
to find out where the stage doorwas, and the car was soon lost in
the midst of a crowd of teenagers, while another section of thecrowd were having a whale of a time kicking a policeman's face in.
Inside the hall, the audience turned out to be on the young side,and for the most part horribly drunk. Talking to a girl in theballroom later, she informed me that there is not much to do in
Newcastle and consequentlythe kids spend most of their leisuretime getting drunk or stoned. The changing room turned out to be
the committee room, with a large table and chairs, a cocktail
cabinet and coat stand, but nothing useful like a washbasin or amirror. The promoter turns out to be all smiles, telling us that beer
is on the way, but with sore throats and runny noses, orange juice
and cokes are more in demand and he promises those too.
"How many people are you expecting?" asks Sabbath's Ozzy,a shrewd businessman, thinking of their 63 per cent of the gate
money. The promoter explains that there will be only2,100 in thehall: "1,800 have tickets, and we will allow 300 in from the street tosave a riot out there."
Performance time draws near, and Geezer, Tony and Bill decideto change into their stage clothes, when Ozzy's brother arrives inthe changing room with two chicks to announce that
2,575 people have filtered into the hall, according to hishand counter. Ozzywonders what to do, and suggeststhat they ring their manager in London to find out how
much they should be getting.
"We had better find the promoter and sort out themoney before we go on," says Ozzy and the others nod
their heads in approval. The promoter comes back, andthe hassles begin. He promises to pay them for 2,100
people that night and send the remainder on by cheque.
"Can you payus in cash?" asks Geezer. The promoter
says no, but promises that his cheque will not bounce.
"We even give you a three-year guarantee," he jokes.
Outside, communications have broken down, andthe stage has been taken over bya large section of thecrowd. "Will you say I'm your wife, so I can stand byyou," a young lady asks Geezer.
Ozzy is pleadingwith the crowd to leave the stage
and get off the equipment. His voice is angry and his

language unprintable, but you can understand how hefeels. The group give up the hope of clearing the stage,and kick offwith "Paranoid". Excitement is mounting
and more kids are trying to get on the stage.
Out front, the excitement has got the betterof one
crowd of kids and a nastyfight starts just on the right ofthe stage, bouncers quicklymove in and the offenders areejected. The rest of the floor is movingwith unbelievablezest, and I move again to a peaceful patch at the back of
the moving stage.Afteran hourand 10 minutes the show
is over. BlackSabbath go back on forone more encore,and disappearbackinto the changing room.
The group look shattered. They looked ill enough(with 'flu) before theywent on stage, and now they look
as if a week in bed would be a welcome break. The scenes
outside have left them dazed and frustrated. "We only
want to play music, not go through that every timewe go
on stage," says Bill. Ozzy sees I have my notebook out,
and with no prompting he starts talking. "It's like since
the single we are getting a load of teenyboppers. I likepeople to come and listen and act properly. I felt reallysorry for the people at the back; I'm certain theywanted to listen. If it means us having to give up
putting out singles, then we will. We want people
to listen to us, not try to touch us. I was reallyterrified, shocked out of mymind."During the chaos on stage a fan put a footthrough one of the PA speakers, causing about£70 worth of damage and the inconvenience of
having to get a replacement column. Most ofBill's drumsticks and a cymbal were stolen, and" We get excited on

somenumbers":
Geezer But ler(left)
and Bill Wardon
stage in Manchester"We want
people tolisten, not try
to touch us. I
was terrified"the bass drum mic was crushed underfoot.
Outside in the hall the cleaners are busily
clearing the floor of broken glass, while
Sabbath's two roadies are putting theequipment away. We say goodbye and walk to
the lift, and on the waywe meetAudience's
roadie, in a furious mood too, because someone had nicked two of theircabinets. I find a bag bythe door and look inside to see if there is anaddress, but there isn't -just an enormous bottle of "bennies".
The drive back is dreadful, and everyone except Geezer falls asleep.
Halfway back to Birmingham we stop at a transport cafe fora terrible
cup of coffee, and Tonytakes over the wheel for the rest of the drive to
Birmingham. One byone they disembark at theirhomes and eventually
I'm dropped at the station to catch the 7.15am train back to London.

and now the promoters are seeking analternative London venue for that date. If thisis not possible, a London date will be fixed tofollow the remainder of the tour, which isscheduled to end at Leeds University on
January 23. None of the other dates in
Sabbath's schedule have been banned, andthey remain as printed in last week's NME.

The ban first came to the knowledge of
the NME on Tuesdayof last week but, at thetime was vehementlydenied by a Sabbath
spokesman. On investigating the NME's report,
however, he had to admit that it was correct.
Group manager Pat Meehan commented:"It's a ridiculous decision. People who like
Sabbath's music are both adult and intelligent, and to deny Londoners
an opportunityof seeing the group at a major venue is very upsetting."
What is even more surprising is the fact that, in Sabbath's case, theAlbert Hall has no precedent to follow -for the group has not previously
appeared there. But a spokesman for the venue told the NME: "It is ourpolicyto avoid the risk of possible inflammatory situations."
As previously reported, the Black Sabbath tour also features Curved Air

8

and Freedom.

Mark Plummer- NME DECEMBER 12 BLACK SABBATH IS the latest group to have its concert

plans disrupted by the management of London'sRoyal Albert Hall, which has banned its projected
appearance at the venue on January 5. This was to have been
the opening date of Sabbath's British concert tour next month,

TEN YEARS AFTER CONCERTREJECTED .

. NOW

Sabbath: Albert Hall ban

manot% otmcurt pliiss disrupted by thetai
I A< K Sabbath 'i. the latest grOttit to u .11,.Lich hay banned Its pruiected APPgar-

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- MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 21 ASOUND NOT UNLIKE a braying mountain goatechoed across the West End of London this week.
The Faces - no longer Small -were back in town.
Full of boundless energy, the group have heightened
their appeal with the addition of Long Rod Stewart
and Rocky Ronnie Wood.
Since the split with Steve Marriott, who went ligging off with Humble
Pie, there has been a confused silence from the lads. KennyJones wasdoing sessions, Ian McLagan was blowing up his Mini and Ronnie Lane
was busybopping. This much we knew. But in semi -secrecy theyhave
been -wait for it -getting it together! And a fine new album and single
they have produced, too; if"Flying", their new single, is any indication,
The Faces will be a heavy live injection into the scene. And listening tosome of theiralbum tracks this week showed they have retained a lot of
the old group's feel for grooving and humour. One of the best rhythm
sections in British rock is the drum, bass and organ sound of Mac, Ronnie
and Kenny, and with the addition ofwonder vocalist Rod, late of Jeff Beck,and the guitar wizardryof Ronnie Wood, the band are looking good.
The goatlike noises frequently emitted by the entire group were a little
unnerving as Mac drove across London in a hired Cortina from boozer torecord company office to hear the album. The record companywere
prettyunnerved when the master tape mysteriously snapped as they
were about to play it back.
"Oh vee," said Ronnie Lane, or words to that effect.
While we waited fora ruffled technician to complete a tape surgery
operation, Rod and the lads chatted, groaned and yelled about theirreturn to active pop life.
"I just got back from the States," said Rod. "But ! did my solo album herewith people like Keith Emerson, Mac and Ronnie Wood. After Jeff Beck'sLPs you couldn't get any heavier than that, so I have done a few softer
things. It's been out in the States about two months and got good reviews."

How about the Faces LP? "We've finished it and there should be a releaseon February 27," said Kenny. "The new group has done about six gigs so
far and theywere really good. The band is nothing like the old Faces. Only
the name is the same. The music is completely different. Some of us
wanted to change the name of the group completely, so we all agreed tokeep it as The Faces, without the Small bit. At the gigs the kids have been
expecting old material. They don't reallyknow what to expect. We've got
to get together a bit more, but gigs have been really exciting."
Said Rod, "The first couple of gigs were a bit rough, but you can't expect
anything else really. Led Zeppelin on their first gigs were bad. We justneed a bit of time."
Said Ken, "We've been rehearsing five or six hours a night in awarehouse in South London. In a wayl'm glad the old group split, because
it gave us all a chance to do something new. I miss a few things here andthere, but we're not complaining.
What will their new image be? "Well," said Mac, "it's going to be
more of a blues and psychedelic jazz-rock and folk image with a bit ofa classical beat.""We'll be playing for the kind of people who go to the Speak," said
R Lane, tapping his baseball boots to a boogaloo beat. "And the Crom,
Bag, Revand Blay." These, it should be explained, are the names of certain
discotheques. "We have been playing the colleges, but as nobody has
heard the album yet, they are not sure of the numbers. I think they expect
we'll play 'Sha La La La Lee'.
"But don't worry. We'll get the band going alright. Me dad is going to run
us down to the bookings in his van. And we're going to get some cards
printed.And we are going to put an ad in the MMunder 'An Able Band
Available'. We were thinking of calling the band Slim Chance, or Blind
Drunk. Super group? No! We're just a group of duds."
The album, with tracks like "PineappleAnd The Monkey"- a mostgrooving instrumental -and "Around The Plynth" by Ronnie Wood andRod, have a happybut funky sound. The Faces may send themselves up
quite cheerfully, but they can also be proud of a fine new band that takes
music, at least, very seriously. Chris Welch- MELODY MAKER JULY 4 ORRY IT'S NOT a lim," apologised Ronald Lane, Faceand bass player. He was referring to his battered
Volkswagen as he drove up and down Fleet Street
looking for somewhere to park. Limousines don't always comeeasy, even if one has been a pop star for six years. Ronnie Lane at
24 has a flat in Richmond, a motor and a gig. "And I'm very lucky."When the Small Faces were at their peak in happy teenybop days,
Ronnie rivalled Steve Marriott forpopularity. He has experienced
the unreality of a kind of stardom. He has worked hard and accepted
setbacks.As a youngveteran he can look at the music scene withamused irreverence. The phrase "underground" will draw a groan
and hearty laughter, and more apologies for appearing cynical.
Ronnie is from the East End of London, where duffings up are notinfrequent. He has quaint memories of trolley buses emptying theirused -ticket boxes into the streets and losing contact with theoverhead wires.And he remembers being attacked and threatened,
byfellow captives of the environment from which he was finally
sprung by the phenomenon of the group. He retains his naturalenergyand humour, always a hallmark of the old Faces, so often
mistaken for arrogance by the humourless and dull.
The Faces, which now feature Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Kenny
Jones and Ian McLagan, recently retumed from their first trip to theUSA, where they did considerably better than they have -so far -at
home. "The tour didn't half go on a longwhole," said Ron, allowing
himself the luxury of a cigar. "Ten weeks -it was too long. But it wasa great experience."
What were yourimpressions...?"No- it's all been said before about
the States. It IS quite an uptight place, and the audienceARE bloody
good. And that's all been said before."
Was the trip worthwhi le?"Oh yeah- you're joking. Rod has got two
solo albums in the chart in the States at the moment and out LP is
doing quite nicely thankyou. The tourdid us a lot of good in different
ways. We found out we could all live together for 10 weeks -which
was a bit of a killer.And all the regular playing made us much tighter.
"We wrote a lot of songs and started to record a couple of tracks on
the West Coast. We've settled down as a band now, and I think our
CC

Face

to
Face

with
RonnieRonnie Lane:"I suppose ourroots are in the

oldStax and

OtisRedding
records-

RodStewartand
RonnieWood:intunemusicallyand tonsoriallynext LP will be much fresher than the last one. On the other one, we had
had spent six months rehearsing all the songs. That was all we had to do
beforehand, so we knew all the numbers backwards, which made themsound a bit stale. That was a major fault of the first album. But it's done
well in the States, and so has oursingle 'Around The Plynth'."What's a plinth? "Oh, it's just a word. We like to say stupid words -yousay it 'plynth'." Er -plinth.
"You see- it's a very thin word. The single wasn't a hit but it did OK. It waseasier for us in the States than here. We did some really good gigs, and justa couple of bad ones. We don't like to put on a lot of front -we just like to go
on and ball. I think that surprised them. We've done some really dud gigs
since we got back. We were used to using some great gear in the States andwhen we got back we had to use ourrotten old stuff -all loaded into my
dad's Zephyr.
"We did one really dud show... Oh dear, how embarrassing... It's justthat the spirit had gone out of us, so we didn't enjoyit anymore. It's nota case of being nervous -not with that lot around you.
"We are out to enjoy ourselves, but a lot of groups and audiences takethemselves far too seriously. Everybody is trying to be so cool. Even thestudents are duds sometimes - 'Oh yeah, entertain us.' It's heart-rending
when all the lads get specially drunk and we go onstage and it's likewalking into a fridge. Really the band isn't going in England, is it? It willtake a bit of hardwork, I suppose. We seem to beslipping up."
Do the group have a publicist?
"No. Could do, I suppose... but I can't see thelads walking down Carnaby Street leading
alligators anymore."
Could their lack of home impact be caused bysome state of laissez-faire? "What does thatmean?" Er- laziness.
"Not really. I suppose we are lazyaboutbusiness things, like kids at school not doing
their homework, but we are not lazywhen it
comes to writing songs and playing. No laziness.
We like to play. Most of our numbers are
originals, except for the odd tune. How can you

describe it? I suppose
it's heavy psychedelic."
Mr Lane peered at mewith a deadly earnest
expression. "Basically it's rock'n'roll- course it is. I suppose our roots arein the old Stax and Otis Redding records. They are still guv'nor sounds.
Those were exciting times, when Motown and Staxwere happening, andthe Stones and The Who came along."
The Faces have been through quite a few hectic scenes in their time, notthe least being the Great Trip of '67. They can be forgiven, when latterday"hippies" put them down, forfeelingwryly amused.
All those people still believe in that. We came out of it years ago andknowwhat a load of crap it all is. We were getting a bit boisterous in a
dressing room with an 'underground' group recently- clowning abouta bit, I suppose.As we were going somebody head them say, 'What a lot of
East End tarts- theydon't knowwhere it's at.' But I dig being really gross
now and then."
As Ronald rescued hisVWfrom a side street, he discovered a ticket on
the windscreen, thoughtfully provided by the City Fathers in their "MakeLife Hell For Motorists" campaign.
"Try not to put us down -we're only East End tarts who don't know
where it's at." Ronnie smiled and drove home. Chris Welch"The band
isn't going in
England, is it?
We seem to beslipping up"- NME OCTOBER 3 KNOWN WHEREVER MUSICIANS

gather as an outstanding talent and averitable character too, Rod Stewart's
has been a chequered if, as yet, not totally
satisfying career. First stretching his lungs
with Jimmy Powell & The Dimensions, thento lurk in the shadows of Driscoll and Baldry
with Steam Packet, followed by Shotgun
Express and a promising episode with thehighly chequered Jeff Beck, Stewart as viewed
by Britain has always seemed to be hoveringon the fringes of greatness, often looking 30
HISTORY OF ROCK 19701115

likely to but never quite receiving his just desserts. 1970 sees him
pursuing a double -sided career of equal promise, with the re-formed
Faces and as a recording solo singer, and if this year does any good at all
it might just be welling up to thrust that long -overdue greatness upon
Rod Still Very Much The Mod. Having matured immensely as a vocalist
and songwriter since his early days, Stewart is today singing better than
he's ever done; his second solo LP, GasolineAlley, being without doubt
a landmark in his career.
"The album's done a quarter of a million in the States," reported Stewart
gleefullywhen we met at his publicist's Denmark Street offices, his
unmistakeable face being on view, as I arrived, peering from a top -floor
window at the towing away of his illegally parked white sports car.
Undercontract as a soloist to do three albums a year for Mercury "but they'll settle fortwo" -and three with the Faces forWarner-Reprise- "they'll settle for two too" - Stewart is adamant that the group comes
first but adds that the solo work "really is a welcome outlet. It wouldn't
work if it was a chore, because if it was something! had to do I would juststick anything on it to fill it up and get it out of the way."
In contrast to The Faces' First Step album, which involved a good deal oflabouring and recording, GasolineAlleywas a rushed job; Rod puttingthat down as one of the reasons whyit worked out so well. "The wholealbum was written, conceived and recorded in two weeks, just before weleft for the first Faces tour of the States. I finished mixing it at two o'clock
on a Tuesday morning and was off toAmerica at eight the next day."Of the sessions, he points out, "With The Faces it's five guys who haveequal say, but on my own it's just myresponsibility. On a group album
I couldn't tell Mac what to play, but I can when it's my own album. That isprobablywhy I got my album done so quicklyand the first Faces album
took so long. I think Mac and Ronnie Wood playbetter together on
GasolineAlley. On First Step theywere too fussy; theywanted to do things

overand over again."
The back-up musicians on Gasoline
Alleydo indeed play incrediblywell, andStewart is only fair in according them
the praise that it is as much their album
as his. Yet it needs to be pointed out, as
the British sleeve is so woefully short of
information, that in fact the bulk of thework on the LP was done by Ronnie
Wood, from Beck's group and nowwith
Stewart in The Faces, guitarist Martin
Quittenton, formerly of Steamhamm er,
and Rod's old pal drum merMickyWaller. Ian McLagan, Kenny Jones andRonnie Laine playon only two of the
tracks, "My Way Of Giving" and "I Don't
Want To Discuss It".
Full of praise forQuittenton, Stewart
says, "He has the most incredible
collection of chords; he'd just knock

America: "Everybody said that Beck disbanded. The press said that, but
we didn't disband. Ronnie Wood had been sacked by Beck and re -joined.
One night, CarmineAppice and Tim Bogert from the Fudge phoned andsaid theywanted to get a group togetherwith us. It was going to be the two
Fudge, Beck and me. The press got it the wrongway round, but they did
help us towards the end because! kept reading stories about what Beck
was up to and theywere all wrong."
It was the opportunity to join The Faces that forestalled the Fudge
liaison. "That was a challenge, The Faces. I couldn't resist it," Stewart
recalls. "Beck is still looking fora bass player and singer. He was silly,
because he had a great band there. He's never going to find a better bass
player than Ronnie Wood, for instance."
Things might have been drastically different had the Beck group playedwhat was due to be their last gig, the Woodstock Festival. "We blew it andnever went," remembers Stewart ruefully. "We'd been doing two festivals
a week there at that time and we just thought, 'Oh, another festival.' We
blew it because we must have made the film -we were bigger than Cocker.
That must be one of the biggest regrets of my life -and Beck's."
As a singer, Stewart puts his influences down to a combination ofRamblingJack Elliott and Sam Cooke, and admits, "When I was 19/20,
I was trying to sound like a black guy- I must own up. But I am not now,
because! do not know anyother way to sing. I never really felt at home asa blues singer... with the things Beckwas doing. With The Faces I do. Thisis really the best move I ever made.
"In The Faces we can tell each other when things are wrong. If Ronnie
Wood is playing too loud we can tell him. You couldn't say that with Beck-you'd get your throat cut." NickLogan- NME DECEMBER 19 CC

AUG

DANCE CONCERTODELE,E, 7.1u72,N withEQDDD<-%Ais,NTIEVRE111

Po co

everybodyout in the studio with what
he'd come up with. It's sad, because
I think he's selling ice-cream in
Bournemouth at the moment."
Rod agrees that when he left Beck he
50150 AT IX X111
%Plat:1'1MM ti
might have found it easiergoing it alonesnot) IN ADVANCE,
with his own band than joining The
Faces and beginningwhat all concerned
recognised would be an uphill struggle in Britain to live down Small
Faces associations.
"When! did the first solo album, Ronnie Wood and I could have got
a band together with Micky Waller, but it couldn't happen. I am very lazy,
I wouldn't like the responsibility of myown group. I am pressurised by
the record company to get a band together but I never will.
As for The Faces, I always thought they could do well in the States -and
we have- because they had never been there before. I thought we could
make it there as a fivesome and then it would take a bit longerin thiscountry. But we've just done three London gigs and they've all brought us
up. I think we're playing now to a different generation from when theFaces were doing 'Lazy Sunday'.And apart from all that, Ronnie, Mac and
Kenny are such great guys. Theyreallyare."
Stewart retains mixed memories of his former guvnor, Jeff Beck,although he recognises the debt he owes his band, particularlyin
118 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

AD MEA Real Good Time", apart frombeing a rollickingly good single, could
almost be a kind of policy statement orworking maxim for The Faces. Though their British
gigs to date can be counted on two hands, they have

mog. A*1TH

built for themselves an enviable reputation as a hotly unpretentious
band disposed to spreading smiles wherever they play.
Even the most ardently dedicated head, into the doomy delights
of socio-political-rock or whatever, has been known to succumb agrudginglytapping boot to their downhome rock'n'roll. That in theprocess The Faces themselves have a real good time too, and are seen to
be doing so on stage, is part of their success.
"It developed from when we first started in the States," says Rod Stewart,
The Faces' much -travelled vocalist. "We were naturally anxious about
howwe might go down, but we thought, f-- it!Let's go out and do ourbest. It's natural with us. If it wasn't I would be worried. That's the waywe
work and it's the onlywaywe can play.
"But we relyon the audience a lot. If theyare going to give us a hard time it
can be difficult, but we always seem to win them round in the end. I've notknown a gig here or inAmerica where, so far, we haven't had an encore."
Natural to them it maybe, but in some of the more remote andunfriendly territories the group is called upon to play, it isn't always soeasy to summon up theirrenowned geniality. In such circumstances,a heavier than normal burden is placed on The Faces' secret weapon,
which Rod Stewart and the NMEcan now reveal is the booze order that
goes out with their roadie before every gig.
Wine keeps KennyJones and Ronnie Wood's
spirits up, bourbon works the same for Ian
MacLagan, brandyensures Ronnie Lane has areal good time and Rod himself puts his faith intwo bottles per gig of StanleyMatthews, orMateus wine as it is known in the trade.
Yet despite all that liquid confidence, Stewart
still confesses to fears about how The Faces will
be accepted in Britain. When we met, the group

had done only nine British gigs in aover,year,
and had yet to venture into the provinces.
"Well, forgetting theAmerican tours we've
done and the fact that the band and I have to
make so many albums, I thinkwe were just"Everybody'sgoingforusat
the moment": The Faces: (I -r)

KenneyJones,RodStewart,
Ian McLagan,RonnieLane
andRonnieWood

CeS

ROD STEWART

PI:.ii:,. ROXY .. Miss Rita Coolidge
bloody scared to go to places
Santa ILIsnlea Clrla
like the Marquee and the
Lyceum. When we did go, we
All sec, ttuhK u, so 5 50 4 50
Sysitybk at III TKIttree e.tiets. *3110.1144K
got 1,100 at the Marquee -theCity Stotts
1.1,Wil helloes IM S M CivoC hi (Pine 1119961
biggest crowd they'd had -andentducnI b CA IMA R I Avylumly_...
the second time at the Lyceum
just knocked everybody out
because it went so well.
"The papers have helped us a lot really, particularlyon the Continent,
where people read the English music papers. In the last weekwe have
had tours come in forGermanyand Switzerland, partly because all thepapers gave the single such good reviews. Groups still need the press
here, whereas in the States the lifeblood of the industryis FM radio.
"It's really nice that everybody's going for us at the moment, but the test
will come when we go up north. Tomorrowwill be the first time we haveventured up the motorway."
Despite their growing reputation, The Faces are currently better known
in the States than they are here, and have just returned from a second
American tour which byall accounts was an outstanding success. "My
GasolineAlleyalbum had gone to Number 23 in the charts while we were
there," said Rod, "and the tour was the best I've
known, including those with Jeff Beck."
One not so enjoyable side effect, though, isthat flying tends to make the Stewart ankles
swell up, so hindering his weekend footballing
activities, and he affirms, "Tours do you in abit. We usually all come back spotty. I thinkthat Free album, FireAnd Water, must have
kept us together over there. We had it on
cassette and played it all the time; it's such agreat album. Next tour, though, we'll split into
two three-week parts, with a week home in the
middle. It makes it easier. With Beck we used to
do 13 weeks on the trot."
In some of theAmerican press reviews thatcame into the NMEoffice, I'd noticed the groupbilled as Rod Stewart &The Small Faces and put down the latteras an error. With Stewart's solo albums sellingwell in the States, I
could understand the first part of the bill but not the second.
"No, it wasn't a mistake," declared Rod. "Ronnie Wood and
I are dead against the Small Faces name used in this country,
but we don't object to it inAmerica. The Small Faces are only
known there through 'Itchycoo Park', which was a big single, but
no one ever shouts out for it. And they don't know too much else
about the band.
"On the other hand, people sayin this country that we have tolive down the old image, as if it was something terrible. But thatgroup made bloody good records. I respect them for that."
One of the later gigs on the tour was topping over Black
Sabbath at NewYork's Fillmore East, where, from a live
recording made of The Faces' set, two numbers were used on
the group's second album: Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm
Amazed" and theiradaptation of the old Broonzynumber they
feature as an encore, "Feel So Good".
The rest of the album will comprise nine new group numbers
and, according to Stewart, will be more like GasolineAlleythan
The Faces' First Step. It should be released around February, totie in with a short British concert tour.
FirstStepwas a longwhile being recorded and, on the newalbum, Rod had hoped fora GasolineAlley, a two week in -and out job. The four months they've taken so far, though, has forced
Rod to resign himself to the fact that The Faces need a longtime
for recording.
His attention will shortly be needed, too, on another solo
album for Vertigo. He has a few songs in mind: The Who's "The
Seeker," Chris Farlowe's "Out Of Time" and "Bob Dylan'sDream" from the Freewheelin'... LP -although "that maybe too
personal to him".
As an album high point he'd had the traditional "Amazing
Grace" in mind forsome time, having been treasuring tohimself an old recording by Doc Watson he's discovered inColletts a year ago. "Now bloodyJudy Collins has gone anddone it," swore our hero ungallantly. NickLogan

FRI. OCT. 30"The test will
come when wego up north.
Tomorrow's
the first time"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1 117

1970

MickJagger livein
like toget
further out in music,
but you have to do
whatyou do best -118 I HISTORY OF RO

1970

ROLLING STONES"You

have to
go to theROLLINGSTONESMICK
JAGGER

Beatles, his neibel and the band's
exciting nei"Musicians should
live out of suitcases
not counthouses," he says,
while packing his

people"-feathers for the trip.

-

AUGUST 29 -AFTER SLUMBERING FOR upwards of half a year, theiStones came a honky-tonking back to life again at
the weekend, following what is by now a familiar
pattern. It goes like this: months of silence pass by,spasmodic and none -too -hopeful requests fora
Rolling Stone to interview fall on stony ground,while the group's Maddox Street offices might for all you know havegone to the moon.
Then one day out of the blue comes a communique that they will beavailable for interviews the following day at 12.15 prompt and you scootround to Maddox Street, bump into a melee ofjournalists as you open thedoor, and d iscover inside an industrious collage of wandering Stones,
staff temporarily evicted from offices and, on this particular occasion,an equipment team getting themselves together under pop art posters
for the forthcoming European tour.
The European tour, of course. 1 f I'd remembered that, I could havepredicted the sudden burst of activity. "Everyone's being nice to eachother today," announced Jo Bergman, of Stones adm in, while I waited for
Mick Jagger, my turn coming round as the local church bell struck 1pm
and rang on, jammed in its insaneclangingandsoundingominously likea death knell. »HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

119

1970

JULY _ vyAFV,EU

Mr aggerdeclined to bite, looked fit if a little grey -faced in velvet jacket
and cap, and said how enthusiastic he was about getting back on the road.
He'd been getting things together, he volunteered, muttering darkly
about packing his feathers. Feathers? "Yeah, feathers," confirmed Mick,
meaning the house decoration kind which apparently he takes with him,alongwith other favourite items from his Chelsea home, to lessen theimpersonal feel of hotel rooms. "If you can throw around a few colourful
rugs and things it makes all the difference," quoth Mick, displaying a newfacet of his personality.
Since theirAmerican tour ended in December last year, the Stones,
according to Mick, have been writing andmessing around. "We have read a lot and beenvery lazy. I think that is maybe whywe keep
together, because we don't work all the time butwhen we do we work veryhard forconcentrated
periods of time."
I'd wondered if, after sixyears of it, therenowned Jagger enthusiasm might be slowing
down, but Mick confirmed what he'd said
earlier with, "It wanes in and out, like the moon.
But I am usually interested in what is going on.
Everybody is, but there do of course comeperiods when you don't dig it. I mean! really dig
it most of the time, but when !don't! go off anddo something else and when! come back! am
more enthusiastic than ever.
"I have dug it more in the last two years and since we went toAmerica it
has been reallystrong. I think I have driven everyone crazyby my over enthusiasm and I cannot wait to get back on the road, not necessarily fordoing my little bit on stage, but because! just like being on the road. I thinkmusicians should live out of suitcases and not out of country houses."
As Mick intimates, not all the Stones share his amount of enthusiasm,
and on the question of conflicting attitudes he says, "You should ask
Charlie what he feels, because he thinks totallydifferent. I think Mickfeels the same as I do. But because I think that, it doesn't mean that we
don't get on. I love Charlie and understand him and he understands me.
We can have our own lives within the framework of what we do, which isvery fortunate."
And referring to The Beatles, who we had touched on earlier. "I guessthat is something that John and Paul found they could not do."If they'd followed his maxim of "suitcases and not country houses", did
he thinkThe Beatles might still be together today?
"I think if they had stayed on the road a little bit more and got into
playing... I mean they can sing. I respect their point of view. Whydon't
they play on stage... but they should be able to get out of that actual thingof being idolised. Paul could do it. He could say 'this is my solo thing' inconcert. 'I am going to sing all my own
songs with a guitar.' He could do it and it
wouldn't be screaming kids throwing
jellybabies. Theywould just sit up andlisten. The other doesn't happen any
A IIRA
more, but I think they believe it does.

I've seen Eric's new band (Derek& The Dominos!, but I don't go out every
night. Maybe I should. InAmerica I do. Maybe it's because I'm at home or
go round to someone else's house to sing or something."
Mick Jagger the home -loving boyyet. What is the "something else" hedoes when he fails to digit?
"When I'm not playing! listen to records; when ! don't listen I read;
when! don't read ! sleep; and when ! don't sleep I f-."
"To anyone in particular recently?" (meaning record listening).

"You mean anyone I've f-ed," enquired Mick, laughing.
"I listened to the new Steve Stills solo album, which I like very much.
And Miles Davis. I like Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young verymuch, particularly the Neil Youngsong ('Helpless') on the second album. Steve
Stills' solo is very funky, but generally theydon't
play enough funk for me. I like funky things.
I still like black music a lot, but I don't like it
exclusively. I like country music, and Cajun."
Earlier we talked about the record company
the Stones plan to start now their recording
contract with Decca has ended and Mick had
volunteered, "It's a time for change. A time tochange everything... your life, your sex, yourattitudes, your music. You have to change,change your way of life. Otherwise you get into
a rut. We change the music all the time.
"We decided in a very loose way that we weregoing to have a second company. We wanted to employ a few people tolook after the Stones records - some work that we were doing and some
thatAllen Klein was doing. It is partly forthe people we employ here- they
don't have that much to do when we're not working.
"So when it is running efficientlyand when we are sure the services are
good, then other people can use the services we have to offer. We are notgoing to run around looking for groups to sign up until we are sure they
will get good treatment."
Of the group's break with Klein, Jagger would saylittle except thatthe reasons would not be printable - "You can just say it was time forachange" -and of Marshall Chess, American former head of the Chess R&B
label and now employed to run the Stones' record company, he states, "He
knows a lot about the record industryand he also likes good music."
Did Mick think the Stones had any lessons to learn from The Beatles'
handling ofApple and also from the reasons behind the Beatles break-up?
"Well, I have tried to see from the beginning that we have someone who
is experienced and professional and who knows the industry. That is themain lesson. There won't be any Stones involved in that field. We'll also
keep the staff small and efficient and dedicated and not dressed up in
weird clothes and all that, though I'm not saying that you can't be efficientin weird clothes.
"Obviously all that costs a lot of money,
but if we can get really good artists to join
us we are not bothered whether they are
new or established. But if it is not working
14
we are not going to sign any artists at all toTAthe label."
And what of the apparent Beatles split?
"Theydon't exist; that's it. Bands do breakup... I just wish theywould all get new
bands together. I wish Paul McCartney
would get a band or something together.
It is disappointing that they don't write
together, but nothing can go on forever."Couldn't the same be said of the Stones?
"Yeah, of course. I think Keith could writeon his own. He is really strong as a
songwriter. He writes funkysongs andpretty songs. But I don't take that muchinterest in what they (The Beatles! do. We
just get on on our own. I follow what they
do, like people who read the NMEdo, but
that's all. As for lessons. Well, there arelessons to be learnt from Blind Faith andCream, I suppose, but I haven't studied
them. As for us, as long as the band swings,
we will stay together.""It's time for achange... yourlife, your sex,
your attitudes,
your music"

TNt ROLLIN fir ST0141

illILOPIAMI TO

You have to go to the people."Is his interest in the wider music scene
still as strong as it was? "Yeah," said
Mick, "for the whole music scene,F

although it's stronger when I'm abroad.
I don't hang out here much at all. Here

Jaggertalks tot

NM E
"1 thisk musicians should Nedout of tottosaes and mot out ofcountry &mese."

At Mid Intimates, not all

Stonesshareh.

'motto(theofattostatm and on the question ofAs we'd touched
upon solo albums-Steve Stills' andGeorge Harrison's I asked ifJaggerhad
ever felt a need to dosomething awayfrom the Stones. "I don't want to do a solo
album," replied Mick, leaving his seat andpacing the room. "The group gives us the
freedom to do more orless what we want bothcollectivelyand individually.
"If we want to make a track that's produced,
then we can. If we want to do a blues, we can.

There's no one particular thingwe can't get
into, although we couldn't get into certain pop
things or the poppy songs we used to do.
"There are a lot of songs we used to do that we
couldn't get into now. We tried to play'Paint It
Black' the other daywhile working out an act,
but we couldn't get behind it. We can still do theold rock'n'roll things we did and can get behindmost kinds of music, but we couldn't do'Gimme Dat Ding' or something like that."
Taking his seat again, Mick mentioned thatthe previous interviewer had asked him if theStones shouldn't have been more progressive,
like Led Zeppelin.
"Led Zeppelin- progressive?" boomed
Jagger, and we got into discussing groups thatare tagged progressive yet get their best
audience reactions from the selection of oldrock standards they close with.
"Tome, that's alright," said Mick. "The biggest
reactions we get are usually for the rock things,
like 'Satisfaction' and 'Little Queenies'. If agroup can play simple rock things well it showsthey are a good progressive band. To be able toplaythat and make it swing shows that a groupknows where its base is, because that is thebasic cake on top of which the progression isbuilt. Play that well and you can be confident oftackling anyth ing else.
"We are progressive in our own way. Ifyou runback through the albums, I don't thinkyou'll
find that we have repeated ourselves.And thatis progression. We have cut tracks latelywhichhave been experimental, and that's progression
for us. It is also progression for the Stones to playa good country song, or give a countrysong a
new twist, ora rock song a new life.
"I would like to get further out in music, but
you have to do what you do best. It would be nogood us trying to do a Soft Machine. I don't likeit, but I can dig that that is what they do best."
After the six -week European trip, Mick hopes
the group will be able to do some British gigs,
possibly in clubs because, "We can experiment
more in clubs. We want to be a bit moreexperimental, and in clubs it is easier to know
how the group is sounding."
The appearance of Miss Bergman brought ourchat to an end. "That must be about 10 interviews
I've done today," sighed Mick, smiling sweetly.
SMILING SWEETLY! HOME LOVING! Pigs
might yet fly. NickLogan

Mick Taylor and Keith
Richards backstage

during the Stones tourof Europe, autumn 1970

"There are a
lot of songs weused to do thatvisionary pronouncements. It reminded oneof ex -Premier Harold Wilson's 100 days of gritty

and abrasive dynamism and the white heat of
the technological revolution.
"What story do you want to hear?" asked Mick
Jagger, toyingwith a beaker of tea. "They're alldifferent. Oh, it's such a bore.""Have you seen Gene Krupa?" asked Charlie
Watts, relaxing in a wicker chair.
"What are the dressing rooms like thesedays?" asked Bill Wyman anxiously. "Are they
as bad as ever?! don't know... we haven't toured
England for three years. When did we last tour
England?" Bill turned to Charlie.
"You know, I saw Krupa at that place- theMetropole in NewYork. Nobody plays like that anymore. I was listening
to some of the old Benny Goodman Quartet records -and he used to playso fast." Charlie munched a sandwich with an expansive gesture.
All the Stones, with the exception of Keith Richards, had gathered attheir palatial London office to launch Phase Five of the Rolling Stonessaga. There was plentyof tea and chat, although one sensed from theever -amiable Mick that everyone should both own up and get it over. ")we couldn't
get into now"

- MELODY MAKER AUGUST 29 STAND BY FOR action! The Rolling Stones are roaring back intobusiness! A giant Euro-rock tour, their own label, a new LP, hints ofBritish dates- a wave of dynamic energy is to be unleashed! And
this week the Stones poured out their plans in a torrent of fierywords and

HISTORY OF ROCK 19701121

1970
Journalists queued for their "exclusive" interviews, looking as worriedas patients awaiting tooth extraction. Americans probed andEnglishmen dithered. When the Stones meet the press it can be fun. The
most important point about the good old Stones is that theyare still good
as well as being old -the world's oldest surviving rock band.
They have been through so many scenes and misunderstood on such auniversal scale, it is a tribute to Jagger, Wyman, Watts, Richards and new
boy Mick Taylor that they have retained their sanity and stuck together. It
comes as quite a surprise to find there are still people living on the planet,eating, drinking, washing and carrying out normal, day-to-dayduties,
who believe the Stones are rogues capable of nameless sin.
A cab driver, on hearing mention of the name
Stones, Rolling, immediately launched intoa diatribe concludingwith the belief that they
were "horrible".
Now it can be revealed -the Stones areharmless chaps, kind to dumb animals, keen
on music, photography and the arts. They teeter
between mild bouts of obscurity and flares ofcreativity. We are now upon such a lattercourse.
And their European tour, which starts next
week, promises to be a time of much rejoicing
and merriment, enhanced by the addition of awonderful new invention -the Giant Gantry.
Martin Francis, an assistant to Mr Chip
Moncke, "the voice of Woodstock", explained
their plans. "We are taking on the tour a rig
structure which will form a backstage proscenium arch to support
drapes and spotlights. The supporting towers will be 43 feet high andaround the stage will be sound towers for the amplification.
"It is a totally new concept which is being specially built in England.
Constructed entirely of aluminium, the individual tubes, ladders andframes clip togetherand it can be stripped down in two hours. It isestimated that it will take five hours to setup. Two trucks and a forklift
truckwill be used in transportation."
Martin began to sound rather like Isambard Kingdom Brunel
announcing his planes for the construction of the Great Western Railway.
"There will be six super trooper spotlights and six focal cannon spotlights
and brand-new Gladiator spotlights. It will be moved 300 to 400 miles
a day and will place an onus of responsibility on the individual
venues..." One might say that again... "Will place an onus of
responsibility on the individual venues."
Meanwhile, Charlie was still chatting. "Of course James Foxwas
fantastic in Performance, although I was verydisappointed with theperformance of mymate. Hello, he's got his notebook out."
What have the lads been up to, one wondered? "We've been in
the studios for three months for the new LP and rehearsing in
Wimbledon," said Mick Taylor, keen to get down to business.
"I sawAir Force at the Albert Hall," interrupted Charlie. "Theywere
BEAUTIFUL- and I thought they must completely revolutionise pop.

"I like to play our albums once to make sure we've done them right, thenforget about them. I never play our records. We've always had to buy ourown records anyway," Charlie complained.
Was he slightly amazed that the Stones were still going? "Not amazedthat the band is still going, just amazed they get anything together. That's
our claim to fame. We're a terrible band, but the oldest. I feel like George
Lewis. Yes, I know he's dead. Thanks. You know -1 never got into George
Lewis much. Ed Hall, now he was my favourite on the liquorice. Do you
know, I haven't bought a record since 1958? I think! should get a new one."
What kind of musical programme will the Stones offer us in the
future? "A few of the old favourites and a lot of new songs," said Micky T.
"Although we won't put in too many new songs,
as they don't always go down too well. We mighttake Bobby Keys the sax player with us. I didn't
know what to expect when I joined the Stones,
but I suppose! thought we would be playing a lot
more than we have. I don't feel 'left on the shelf,though. We all contribute to the group sound-Mick and Keith write the songs, which areusuallyvery sketchy, and we build them up.
Sometimes they turn out to be completely
different from the original idea. Keith writes
some beautiful songs."
Why haven't the Stones done any singles
lately? "We've been recording," said Charlie,"but we haven't done a single. We got the horrors
after 'HonkyTonk Women' about picking afollow-up. 'HonkyTonk' wasn't done as a single anyway. It was an LP trackthat got overdubbed. It started out with a country sound. There are no
definite plans fora new single, although one or two are being considered."
MrJagger, wearing a jauntyhat, took a seat, inspected the sandwiches
with some disdain, and looked suitablybored. What are the Stones' plans
for the future? What did Mick think of his role as Ned Kelly? What was thetruth about his relationship with Princess Margaret? Will the group split
up? Penetrating questions formed on the tip of my tongue.
"These sandwiches have got tomato in them," he announced. "Is there
any tea?"
Finallywe came to the hub of the matter. The Rolling Stones' own
record label. What news?

"We want tocontrol prices
and seek new
ways ofdistribution"

Theywere really excellent and of course they have a lot of people I likein the band. I just liked the whole scene. Ginger can play- he was really
lovely and Remi Kabaka was great."
Undeterred, MickTaylor assembled his thoughts about the Rolling
Stones. "We haven't done too much of the new album yet - we'll get mostof it done afterthe tour. After the lastAmerican tourthe band was a lot
tighter. No -I haven't been doing any writing...""That lastAmerican tour was lovely," said Charlie. "We hadn't been
there for quite awhile and I was scared of going. You talk about it to people
who have been a lot, but when we got there, we found a lot of genuine
excitement. It wasn't hysterical- like the first time.
"Altamont was a different thing altogether. That was nothing to do withthe tour anyway. It came after. It was a gesture that got f- up. We've
been through that a lot of times since and there is nothing more that can besaid. Somebodyhad to be made the scapegoats and we were the nearest.
The Lyceum in London was abuzz, but the Saville Theatrewas a drag.""That was a flop for everybody," agreed Mick. "But we may do somemore dates in London, after this tour.""You know what we are like," said Charlie. "Stop and start. We arealways actuallydoing something although we haven't performed forsix months.""There's no title yet forthe next LP," said Mick helpfully. "But we've only
just got the 'live' album out."
122 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

"Which storydo you want?" Mickwas
determined to put across the full facts, with theminimum of bad language. "We want to be as
independent as possible. So we decided to getsome people to do the services for us, services
which will successfully combine effort with hard
work and sincerity. We want to keep ouroverheads low. We want to release the odd blues
record and Charlie wants to do some jazz. We
want to control prices and stop the prices ofrecords going up, and I'd like to seek newways of
distribution that haven't been tried before.
"A lot of people think we have signed with Chess
Records, especially after yourreport." He gave apenetrating look. "It's all a bit of a bore. The label
won't have any particular policy. But we're not
too intent on bubblegum material. I'm not going
to run it anyway. Ask Marshall Chess. I'm just an
artist on the label; I don't want to do any
production. And we haven't got a name yet."
Mick was looking forward to the tour, he revealed, and smiled toindicate a thawing process. "We want to put on a good showvisually.
Most stages look like a bicycle shop with guitar leads everywhere- really
messy. The trouble with England is that there aren't enough places where
we can stage anything like this. Yes, I'm really looking forward to Europe.
I'm getting my suitcases packed. Is that it?" And he whisked away,
possibly in search of tomato -less sandwiches.
"I don't know where we are playing," I heard Charlie remark as thePhase Five Launch Probe de -accelerated. "Where are we playing?"
How about the RailwayHotel, Richmond, lads? Chris Welch- NME NOVEMBER 7C-

ELL I MEAN, I don't wanna be a solo star or anythingat all like that," Mick Jagger began in his slow and yet
precise lethargic drawl. "If it had been left up to me,
I just wouldn't have put out "Memo From Turner" as a single," hecontinued, referring to this week's rather mysterious rush -release of
his first solo disc. "OK, so it's quite a nice little record," he deliberated,

October 1970:Keith
Richards with his son
Marlon and Charlie
Watts at Schiphol

Airport,Netherlands"but it's just not commercial enough. It was done strictly as part of thesoundtrack for Performance -and that's all."So please don't expect to see Mick's sartoriallyattired presence on yourtelevision screens, cavort ingabout in his most outrageous and flamboyant
manner. For, as far as Mick is concerned, Decca needn't have bothered torelease it. He confirmed that he has absolutely no intentions whatsoeverof
promoting it. Disenchanted, but not to the point of anger, with the logic of
its release, he revealed rather nonchalantly, "You know, at first theywere
onlygoing to put it out as a Rolling Stones single. That was until I pointed
out that none of the others were on it. If theywere gonna bring it out at all,theyshould have at least done it to coincidewith the release of the film."
Then, with tongue in cheek, he elaborated: "But you know me... I
wouldn't dream of telling all those big businessmen what they should do.
'Cos as we all know, they are so professional and know exactlywhat they
are doing all the time."
When ! dutifully enquired as to exactlywhen Performancewould go on
release, his replywas: "No one can seem to get an answer to that one."
It's not everyday that Michael Phillip Jagger rings you up for a quick chat.
However, it wasn't to be a peaceful tete-a-tete, foron two occasions wewere joined by a mysterious third party. Thankfully, this unknown
American female quickly obeyed Mick's request-and got off the line. Recapping as towhyMick
had in fact decided to cut "Memo From Turner"
without the rest of the Stones, he told me, "TheyKeith, MickandCharlie
just weren't around at the time. Sol did it within the studio listening
toStickyFingers, theSteve Winwood and Jim Capaldi. But when thefirst LP to be re leased
tape was flown over to the States, the original
ontheStones'own labelbacking trackwas erased and a new one, using
American session men, was substituted
instead. In fact, !wasn't there when they did it."
The rush -release ofJagger's solo effort could
probably be Decca's last big fling before theStones emerge with their veryown label. At thistime Mickwas understandably evasive about
revealing both the title of the Stones' debut
single or for that matter the name of the label.
But he did disclose that we could expect a new
single from the Stones before Christmas.
"We would have liked to have had the album
out at the same time, but honestly! don't thinkthat it will be ready in time. So we'll keep thatfor the New Year."Trying to extract some more information,
I enquired if the new Stones' single would be asong called "Wild Horses", which they recordedwith a couple of members of the Flying Burrito
Brothers in Muscle Shoals, and which at one
time was on the shortlist as a possible single.
"No... we decided to re -cut it again over here.
And it is included on the new album."At that precise moment we were againinterrupted by our mysteriousAmerican
intruder.And with a final "Thanks forlistening,
I'll see ya around," Jagger was gone. RoyCarr
HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1123

JULY

1970
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.,

`A band ofrenown"ERIC CLAPTON lnts to be loved for his playing,
not the celebrity that killed Blind Faith. His answE

is the anonymous DEREK AND THE DOMINOS, a bandwith former Delaney & Bonnie 'musicians. Can henersuade another hot guitarist to join? Says
DUANE ALLMAN "I've got my own fish to fry."- NM I. AUGUST 22 SUMMER SINCE THE last one, a new Eric Clapton band was again

causing hold-ups in the London traffic on its touring debut in thecapital last week. But any similarity between that and the last tinertek.
our hero stepped out with a new group ends there.
Last time, you will recall, absolutely no one was permitted to remain

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"We hope to work up to bigger things later," explained Eric in a masterly
understatement. "This way provides good experience without too much
exposure and is the best way to get a group band together. We can all
stretch out more and get a better idea of what we sound like in a club. In
a concert, the sound is difficult to judge. And also it's a lot more satisfying
musically. The audiences are a lot more responsive than! rememberedfrom the past."
In a crowded room containing, among others, Dominos Gordon and
Whitlock, Eric was his usual amiable self, rattling off honest, brisk andto -the -point answers between jokes with the assembled company. It was
hard to reconcile this with the popular representation of Clapton as the"lost soul" forever in search for his musical niche.
"Haven't ! always seemed like that?" he replied when! put it to him.
"Lots of people and the press have tried to pin that on me as an image, but
it is no more true of me than of anyone else. I mean, I could turn that backon you and ask if all musicians aren't like that in one way or another."
He is, all the same, still trying to dodge the personality cult. "I thought
I had with Blind Faith. That was the object. I thought the best way to do
it was not to contribute too much and let the others set the pace anddirection. Maybe that didn't work. I didn't get very far
either with Delaney & Bonnie, because someTight, compact
MM AUG 22 EC shrugs off his
6lub date in Sohr

- AUGUST 11 -RIC IS DEREK" proclaimed a badge on one of Derek And The
Dominos roadies' lapels. And with his new group Eric Clapton
seems to have found the happiness that has escaped him fora long time, and become the leader of a very tight band.
Eric led his band on to the stage to two packed houses at London's
Marquee on Tuesday night last week, and received acclaim from theaudience at both,and the calls for old Cream numbers that havebugged him at some of the group's earlier dates did not materialise.
Basically the group play a form of white soul, and it is obvious that
Eric learnt a lot during his short liaison with Delaney & Bonnie. Carl
Radle and Jim Gordon lay down a firm beat on bass and drums
behind the lead work of Bobby Whitlock and Eric.
Eric used to look unhappy on stage, but not with this group. Not
only does he smile, but his
guitar playing smiles, too. A
lot of criticism has been laid at
Eric because he has left theblues behind. But if Tuesday at

iI"Not only does hesmile, his guitar
playing smiles"

the Marquee was anything to
go by, it's just as well he has.

His playing now is far tighterand more compact, and his voice was good.
The choice of material was a trifle narrow. Songs Eric wrote with
Delaney Bramlett tended to be rockers, and the others written andsung by Bobby Whitlock lean more towards ballads,and have a little
more power. It was nice to see a big name group playing in a club,where the big names start, but then desert when fame strikes.
Funnily enough, on the way to the Marquee, I noticed an old faded"Clapton is God" scrawl on a bus -stop, and talking to him in the tiny
dressing room during the break between sets reminded me of theold Yardbirds days. The excitement in his playing then, which waslacking for so long, is back again. Mark Plummer
Word
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people in the audiences seemed to think that it was my band and wereshouting out song titles and getting nasty because I wasn't playing more.
The wayl see it now is to change the name to something like DerekAnd
The Dominos and get into it more."
To minimise the ever-present danger that the band will find acceptancepurely because it is his band, a clause has been inserted in the group's
contracts which stipulates billing as "DerekAnd The Dominos" and nooveruse of Clapton's name as a crowd -puller. The band got started twomonths ago. "I had just come back fromAmerica after the Delaney&
Bonnie tour," said Eric, "and sat down in a state of confusion forsome timewith no particular plans orwhatever. Bobby [Whitlock] had left Delaney&
Bonnie and came to England as an instinctive move, and it all started
rolling from there. It amazes me how much work we have got through,considering that we were rehearsing for onlya month of that time."
They played their first gig at the London Lyceum, then went off into
hibernation. It was TonyAshton, ofAshton, Gardner &Dyke, who cameup with the joke name as Clapton's band were sitting backstage at the
Lyceum wonderingwhat to call themselves. Dave Mason was in thelineup then, but has since left. His album was doingwell in the States,
explained Eric, and he wanted to go over and follow it up with a tour.
Since the Lyceum the band has made enormous strides, and those who
felt that Clapton's solo album- released this week- bears a destructively
heavy influence of Delaney & Bonnie will be gladdened to hear that with
the Dominos on the road Eric is, without doubt, the physical andmusical leader.
The night after the Marquee they played the smaller Speakeasyand
woke up the blasé, star -packed audience with a dynamic set. It was nice tohearEric spreading out more on guitar than he has oflate, and if his voice
had to strain on occasions, there was adequate compensation in the factthat it came over far more natural and unforced than it did on the record.
For material, the band picked the best of Clapton's album- "Bad Boy", "Blues Power", "Bottle Of Red Wine" -but delivered with far
more satisfaction, plus newer compositions by Clapton and Whitlock,including a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The album had been a rushed job,
although Eric says he is satisfied with all the performances except his. He
would have liked to have done all the vocals over again.
"Some of the songs were made up in the studio," he revealed. "We did all
the tracks in a week and put the voices on a month later, again in a week.
You can do an album in a day and it needn't be rushed, but when you go inwith nothing prepared then you are rushed."
The group, states Eric emphatically, is taking all his present time. He
sees it very much as a long-term prospect and adds, "Nothing else crosses
mymind. What we want is to make it into a band... a band of renown."
And he smiles. NickLogan- MELODY MAKER AUGUST 8-BOBBYWHITLOCK FIRST came to this country with Delaney &Bonnie when they toured with Eric Clapton, playing organ with
the Friends. Now he is living here, and playing with Eric's newband, DerekAnd The Dominos. Last week the MM spoke to Bobby atLondon's Revolution club, where the band was rehearsing to go on theroad. Whitlock comes from just outside Memphis and started his owngroup, which played clubs in the area, about five years ago. But it
wasn't until Delaney & Bonnie went to Memphis, and became the firstwhite band to record there, that his talent was spotted.
"I met Delaney& Bonnie in Memphis about three years ago, and they
asked me to join them and form the Friends. It wasn't until I met Delaney
that! reallystarted getting into music. He helped me to learn to playwell,and bring out my talents forwriting and singing," said Bobby. But Delaney
and Bonnie's Friends split up soon after theybecame well known. So I
suggested maybe theywere hard to get on with, but Bobby disagreed.
"Well, being man and wife, sometimes it was difficult; you kind of
become veryinvolved.Anytime I was with them and something
happened, I became part of it. But they are not hard to get on with;in fact, it's just the opposite. I was really close to them, and I still am.
I reallylove them both.
"But everyone left us, and went off with Joe Cocker, and the threeof us started to get something together. Then finally! felt! neededa split. I felt I was being suppressed, not being able to sing and things,
but the split was accepted by them."
Afterleaving Delaney& Bonnie, Bobbycame to this country to getaway from America. "I came over here for a holiday or something, andwent to see Eric,

who suggested
forming a band.
So we made a few

telephone calls andgot it together.And

retift"44
TELL THE TRUTH

omit it THE.DOMINOS
saw

1114

now I like it so muchoverhere. It's so relaxed
and tension -free that I am
going to get a place in the country
and set up home here. In the States

there are so many different scenes,
and I never wanted to get involved.
But over here you can doas you wish."
Does he miss anything about theStates? "No, nothing at all, all myfriends are over here -well, almost
all of them. Although it will be niceto tour there later this year. The
thing with the States was that I was
living in LA, which is like a beehive
after living like I had."

Bobby is enjoying playingwith
DerekAnd The Dominos and cannot
wait to get back on the road,especially playing the smaller clubs.
"It will be really great getting to thepeople again. When you are playing concerts in
big halls all the time, you lose contact withpeople. But we want to get back to the people
again; you really see the audience and get
sweatyand hot with them. A group really gets
together that way, that's where you get tight.
After playing the smaller clubs you get to feeleach other so much better."
What sort of material will the band be doing
live?"We're going to do some things off thealbum we did with Delaney, plus some newthings Eric and I have written. We're trying
to get our own sound -something unique to
DerekAnd The Dominos, and it's heading ina really good direction."
Like many of today's musicians Bobby cannot read orwrite music andplays completely by ear. "I am trying to get into the piano. We will beusing the piano a lot more now, and I expect we will use one on the tour."
Bobby hopes to record a solo album sometime in the future, and has
already begun one. "Before the split from Delaney& Bonnie, I started
one which Delaneywas producing, but I shall scrap that now. At the
moment ! don't have the time to do too much on my own; in fact, we havebeen rehearsingvery hard for the last month -and -a -half, and even harderfor the last five days.
"I feel verytired now; these last few days at the Revolution have been
hard going. But it will be worth every minute of it when we are back on theroad seeing and meeting people again. That's when we prove the band."DuaneAllman in hishotel
room beforean Allman
B rot hersshow at The Sitar
in Spartanburg,South
Carolina, October -17,197oa sort of Laurel and Hardy singing the blues.
But right now we have each got our own things
going and wanted to keep it that way.
"I am going to join up with Eric's band fora few
dates towards the end of his tour, but I am sobusywith my own band that it's very difficult.
I can't even get over to see Eric because my own
band is working its ass off at the moment."
Duane's own band -theAllman Brothers -is
a six -piece unit featuring two lead guitars, two
drummers, bass and organ. GregAllman singsand plays organ.
"We haven't got any big stars in theAllman
Brothers, but they are all just great players. It'sdifficult to describe the sounds we are getting
together, like free -form things with a rock format. It's blues, jazz and rockall mixed up."Duane started out playing guitarwith a band on the West Coast before
he got into the Muscle Shoals session scene. "I got really fed up withplaying with the band in California, so I went home and bummed arounddrinking for a while. Finally! got the chance to go to Muscle Shoals to do
a Wilson Pickett session. He had four guitar players there and I was the
fourth. It was like sitting at the back of a football game watching
everything else.
"I was sitting around and thinking about 'HeyJude', so I suggested it.
Wilson let me play lead on that one because! thought of the idea. Anyway,
I stayed in Muscle Shoals for about eight months and really had a goodtime. !worked with Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Arthur Conley, James Carr,
King Curtis, Laura Nyro and Ronnie Hawkins.
"I had a good place to live, but there is no liquor or women there andnothing to do apart from play. The nature trip wore me out, so I went
down to Florida and got the band together. After a while it started getting
really good and we recorded an album. Nowwe are getting more andmore gigs and our second album is in about No 60 in the charts."
Duane is full of admiration for Eric as a guitarist. "He came to one of our"We get on
well, like a sortof Laurel andHardy singing
the blues"- MELODY MAKER NOVEMBER 7-

DUANEALLMAN, AMERICAN super -session guitarist, will not
be joining DerekAnd The Dominos - but there's a chance heand Eric Clapton may team up as an acoustic duo sometime in
the future. Duane, speaking from Nashville at the weekend, told me hehad been working with Eric on an album and had been
invited to join the Dominos. "I have got my own fish to fry
at the moment, but maybe sometime we might get
together," he drawled acrossthe transatlantic line. "It
could be just Eric and me
paying acoustic guitars.
We were playing together
and singing a lot
acoustically and we geton very well together, like

1-T.

gigs and that is how I got to know him," he said.
"He is the only guitarist in London that seems toknow what he is doing, and he freaked out when
he heard our band. He invited us to go to the studioto play around and that's where it started."
Duane wants to bring his band to Britain at theearliest opportunity. "I have never been to Englandand I have heard so much about it," he said. "Wewant to come as soon as we can get a tour lined up.
I'm reallyanxious to come, but we are so busy at the
moment that it's impossible." ChrisC,harlesworth

CUR
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HISTORY OF ROCK 19701127

EMalik TREMS
rAND

MAC

kir4

ME

1970

OCTOBER -DECEMBERJETHRO TULL, JANISJOPLIN, THE WHO, LEDZEPPELIN AND MORE

Phenomenal
NME SEPT 26 RIP, Jimi.
JI MI HENDRIX WAS known as

the wild man of pop and hecertainly earned that reputation
on stage. But in private life, among
his close friends, he had a polite,
almost shy, manner. The oppositeof the impression he gave on stage.
4 The immense loss that his sad,
untimely death will mean to music
is beyond doubt and his legion of
devoted fans throughout the world
r. have been joined in sadness and& mourning by legions of musicians=
who respected Jimi's work. 30
128 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

1970OCTOBER-DECEMBER

He was a brilliant, perhaps phenomenal,
guitarist and his writingwas extremely
original. His songs are immediately
identifiable with the writer; nobody else could
quite capture the essence of excitement andperception that Jimi had. Jim's rise to fame wasmeteoric. FormerAnimal Chas Chandler found
him playing in a NewYork nightclub andbrought him to London. It took onlya few shortweeks for Jimi to become the idol of millions.
His stage act was talked about as being
obscene, but this as all part of his music raw and alive, filled with the problems that
confront everyone and, at the same time,

sympathetic and releasing.
When Jimi signed with Track records, I
worked for him during a period of about threemonths. It was difficult to get to know him
personally as he rarely spoke of anything but
his music. He was devoted to it and spent longhours without sleep composing. That, plus thestresses and strains of the hard-working lifethat had been forced upon him, eventually led
to nervous tension. Even when he wanted to bealone, he was rarely allowed to relax.
A series of hit records and massive sell-out
concert tours made Jimi the subject ofadulation almost everywhere. The Jimi
Hendrix Experience became one of the world's
highest -paid groups. Jimi, Noel Redding and
Mitch Mitchell lived in style. Noel suffereda series of breakdowns before he eventuallyquit the group to form Fat Mattress, and Mitch
was often taken ill too, owing to the demanding
schedules of playing and travelling. But it was
Jimi who felt the effects most. He sought a
release of a kind through drugs, but it is uselessto pretend that this is anything new formusicians. Jimi just seemed to be the one who
got the most publicity.
Just as plans were being made to re-form theoriginal trio, Jimi died at the ridiculously early
age of 24 (sic: in fact 27]. His bodyis being flown
back to Seattle for burial within the next few
days. All those who knewJimi are still sad andnumb. They have lost a friend.
It is hard, too, forthe fans who will never beable to see him again. Only his memoryand
his music live on as an everlasting monument
to a truly great man of music and person.
Richard Green

August 6, two:Janis
Joplinat the Festival
For Peace, an anti -war

fundraiser held at New
York'sSheaStadium

A life lived to the full
NME OCT 10'. Janis Jaunt), a cnaracter with "an aura as solid as gold".

THOUGH SHE PROBABLYfelta needto live up to the Barnum & Bailey
image that grewto envelope her, Janis
Joplin did undoubtedly carry with her an aurathat was as solid as gold.

Her thing was for living every minute of herlife and for draining every precious ounce ofenjoyment out of it -and when you met her, if
only temporarily, it became your thing too.
News of her death from a drug overdose in
Hollywood this week brought one of her mostquoted statements immediately to mind:"Man," she was reported assaying, "I'd rather have toyears of super -hyper -most living
than live to be 70
sitting in somegoddam chair
watching TY."

Arthur, Texas, where she became the town's
beatnik rebel, the girl from the Deep Southwho mixed with the blacks, who became
known as "mad, sillyJanis"and adopted thecredo "Get stoned, stay happy and have agood time". For five years she drifted in thefolk -beat world of Texas and New York, andfinally made San Francisco at the time when
Haight-Ashbury was at the beginnings ofachieving global renown. Eventually finding
her way into Big Brother & The Holding
Company, the legend started from the day
Janis unleashed her vocal
power with the band at the
19 64 Monterey Festival.
Her best recordings weremade with Big Brother on
the CBS album Cheap
Thrills but a split became
inevitable. Reviewers would
praise Janis consistently
and just as consistently put down her band.
But the new band she formed never got it
together either, and when that too went thesame way as Big Brother, the Janis Joplin Full
Tilt Boogie Band, not yet heard on record,came into being -Janis had, in fact, been in
Hollywood recording an album with the new
band under producer Paul Rothschild.
She used to say of her kind of living: "Youmustn't compromise,and I'm living example
that you don't have to. People aren't supposed
to be like me, live like me, drink like me; but
now they're paying me5O,000 dollars a night"People aren't

supposed to be likeme, drink like me"

Janis was alegendary character, and as withany of that kind, it was always

difficult to separate the fact fromthe fiction. Stories abound about
her infamous exploits, hercapacityfor drink and her earlyyears. In London last year, she
told me that she first becameaware of the power of her voiceat the age of 17, demonstrating todisbelieving friends that she could

better Odetta.
The eldest child of a refinery
executive, she was born in Portfor me to be like me." Nick Logan

"No desire to

Kinks leader Ray
Davies stars in his

awl"

live anywhere

JohnPeel:norecognition

fromtliBBC
forhispollstoppingshow

but Britain"
NME OCT 10 The Rolling Stones

deny rumours that they areplanning to become tax exiles.
AREPORT IN A London evening

newspaper, suggesting that the
Rolling Stones are discussing a plan
to emigrate to France, was denied by thegroup's financial advisers this week.
The report intimated that the move wasinitiated by Prince Rupert Lowenstein,
who is a member of the banking firm of
Leopold Joseph & Sons Ltd. And the Stones
were alleged to be seriously considering
the idea of settling in France.
This week it became known that Leopold
Joseph's are, in fact, advising the Stones

on financial matters -although thecompanystresses that it should in noway
be considered to be the group's business
manager. However, despite Prince Rupert's
involvement with the Stones, Leopold
Joseph issued this comeback to the press
report: "As far as we know, the Rolling Stones
have no present intention of taking up
residence abroad, and they have notexpressed any desire to live anywhereother than in Britain.""Tony Blackburn has been
slamming my programmes"

Play For Today.
The play will bescreened -in colour-on Octoberisat
9.20 pm on BBC'. In
the play Ray takes
the part of a young
man setting a newi saia anytning anout his snow, ra get
a very stilt memo," says Radio One DJ John Peel.

world record for

AN EXTRAORDINARY"ACCOLADE" for Tony Blackburn on Radio
One this week left award -winning disc jockey John Peel, who"Marathon" andMM NOV 28

1piano playing. Ray
has composed two
new songscalled"Got To Be Free",comperes Top Gear, "bemused" and disheartened. Last Sunday,
Radio One devoted an hour's programme entitled Pick of theDist°coverage of a poll conducted by Reveille magazine. In the poll, Tony
Blackburn won the top Radio One DJ award and Michael Aspel won
the Radio Two award.
In recent years both Top Gearand John Peel have won numerous
awards, but their success has never been recognised bythe BBC. John
Peel told the MMthis week, "Since Top Gearstarted there have been 14
polls run byvarious papers which have had a category for top Radio
Show. Thirteen of these have been won by Top Gear. In spite of this,neither! nor the producers of the programme have ever received any
acknowledgement from any of the controllers at the BBC. Not one word...
"In the last fewweeks TonyBlackburn has been publicly slamming
myprogrammes, but if I said anything about the Tony Blackburn show,
I would get a very stiff memo. It seems extraordinary to me that the BBC
refuses to acknowledge the success of Top Gearin spite of winning allthese polls."
A spokesman for the BBC told the MMthis week, "This was aspecial programme which split Pick OfThe Pops and which was toannounce the results of the poll conducted by Reveille. This poll
was purely and simply for Radio One DJs. I don't think an unfair
proportion of the programme was given to TonyBlackburn."

EMIGRATING'
rinim their advisers

STONES

first acting role in a
new television playcalled The LongDistance Piano
Player, which isthe
first of the BBC's
new autumn series

Revolutionary
MM DEC 12
ALBERT AYLER,THE revolutionary jazz tenor saxophonist,
is dead at the age of 34. His body wastaken out of New
York's East River. His body is still in the morgue of KingsCounty Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, pending a post mortem andcoroner's report to determine cause of death.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in1936, Ayler was one of the mostcontroversial figures jazz has produced. After playing in New Yorkand Europe with Cecil Taylor in the early '60s, he made a series ofrecordings for the ESP label which had a profound effect on
younger musicians.
Invariably surrounded by critical argument and frequent derision,
Ayler continued to plough his own furrow until, last year, he issued
an album called New Grass, on which he sang and played in a stylewhich mixed his old approach with commercial rhythm & blues.
His career had been comparatively quiet for the last couple ofyears, and his personal appearances had grown infrequent. His lastalbum, Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe (Impulse),
appeared last summer, but was not released in Britain. It featured
Ayler playing bagpipes for the first time on record, and also Henry
Vestine, guitarist with Canned Heat.

and will also beheard playing Kinks

tunes during the
piano -playing
marathon. MM OCT10> Suggestions
that The Beatles
are considering
re -forming -without
Paul McCartney,
who would be
replaced by anotherbassist -werediscounted by anApple spokesman
this week. The
rumours stemmed
from a nationalpress report, inwhich- in answer toa question about
The Beatles playing
together again George Harrison
had replied,"Maybe, but we'dhave to get a new
bass player."
Dismissing thepossibility, Apple
said that it had been
intended asa joke!
He added that

there isnonewsor
comment on The
Beatlesat thepresent time.
NME OCT 18

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1131

1970

OCTOBER -a..

"I amdifficultto like"
IAN ANDERSON's vision for JETHRO TULL nas

piloted the group to stardom. But who is heshowman, musician or simply a pragmatic
businessman? A plain -speaking person, hedoesn't mind who he offends. "A lot of people
think I am just a crud," he says.

-- NME OCTOBER 31 THERE CAN BE little doubt that Ian Anderson is Jethro Tull's
greatest asset, yet paradoxically it might also be true to say that
he's the group's and his own worst enemy. Much of the criticism
that has been levelled at Jethro Tull -and that's a lot- can be
indirectly traced back to a lack of audience understanding of theAnderson thought process, and that, in itself, is due as much to a
failure on Ian's part to communicate as it is to the public to comprehend.
Whatever the reasons, the fact is that Ian Anderson, on stage the Great Entertainer,
detracts from Ian A nderson, the Musician. And although the group has gone out of
its way in the past to avoid being dismissed as a"jokeband"-cutting down the stage
theatricals, adding keyboard player John Evan -there are still many who, whilemaybe liking their act, refuse to take the music seriously.
It all comes down to this. If you turn in a good and exciting stage show thatentertains, then there is a process of t hin king that says it must bean act. If it's an act
then it's rehearsed. If it's rehearsed it's mechanical. If it's mechanical it's sterile, andif the act is sterile then the music must be too.
Ian, whose cont radictory behaviour offstage and on furt her confuses the issue,
recognises the problem and agrees that the group's stage presentation can rub offagainst its music:"Led Zeppelin get the same thing from the same people. Their crit ics are ourcritics. The people who putdown Zeppelin are the same people who put down Jethro
Tull. The people who think Zeppelin are contrived will think that we are contrived,
while those who think they are exciting and relevant to today's society will accept us
as relevant and exciting too. Maybe not in the same way -I like to think we area little
more controlled -but I hope it still has the same immediacy." »132 I HISTORY OF ROCK 19704

1970OCTOBER -DECEMBER

songs were veryblues-influenced - "jazzyblues". But
a collision betweenAnderson and Abrahams was on.
Mick didn't like Ian's songs and Ian didn't like his, thatbeing one of the reasons whythe guitarist left andconceived Blodwyn Pig.
From then on the unchallenged providerofJethro
material, Ian sat down to transcribe songs that had
been flying around his head since months before.
For the first time he was free to write as he wished "There was no longer a necessity forthem to be either
bluesyorjazzy."
The result was Stand Up, and a set of compact,
concise little songs that left Jethro Tull with anunmistakeable and original style.
But although Ian accepts this, he sees the sound
F ALSTAFF BRE HING CORPORATION
and the treatment as more responsible for the
distinctive qualitythan the actual songs.
"They are linked by the fact that theyuse the sameelements," he maintains, "but arranged in different
way." And the elements? "Simplicity -like that of theblues orR&B era. Simplicityof the forthrightJethro Tullinnno:
approach, with variation of intensityfrom the simple.A
11" 00.h(clockwise from left)
song to the heaviest and rawest."
Ian Anderson,G lenn
Owl klks
Cornick, Clive BunkeryWith a zest for knowledge in virtually every sphereand Martin Barre
1 fuliali'lh° f 4 ikdS"'"Aankimof human activity, in music this has taken him deepoc.....s,....eoabet:: In'
into the intricacies of the subject. "I want to bebpolutumiswAnos hrs., s, x
conversant in all the techniques involved in writing,toss cia::=N.sw. tost,....,..owt-a.smoszt
Anderson quotes as typical of the problem
arranging, producing, the whole bit," says Ian.
1/11641117-WaINA11010-12414101.1
0.0.11-1Ik Ole. 011104Sli
an American Underground paper's review of
He talks music in terms of tone colours -there's a further analogywith
Benefit which described the music as
art in the miniaturist quality of his songs -and feels that recorded works
artificial, likened Ian's songs to washingneed to be a little deeper and more subtle.
machines and accused him of dictatorially"Whereas on stage you can get that colourby the visual effect of actually
stamping out solos at the very first signs.
being there creating the music.""People see you on stage," he comments, "and think that you must have
He had recentlybought a trumpet when ! met him, never having played
rehearsed it to make it that way, and that it all must be a bit of an act. And,
one before. "I wrote a song on it the first day! had it," he told me proudly.
you're right; they do look on your records in the same light. If theydon't
He regards Stand Up in retrospect as being a little too contrived as far as
like your stage act and think it is theatrical then theyare going to look on
the performance went and feels that Benefitwas too much of a rushed job
yourrecords and think they are contrived and mechanical too.
- although disagreeing with the previously mentioned review on the"I personally don't like to think of what we do on stage as an act because
question of solos.
the word 'act' conjures up ideas of contrivances to gain applause... it
When we last met, Ian told me that he kept his lyrics to simple themes suggests something worked out for applause and appreciation. The fact ishimself, his friends, his work, Jennie -because he didn't consider himselfthat everything! do or say on stage has been spontaneous at one time andqualified to comment on anything else. But on the next album he seems
if there is one movement I do every night it is because it is like conducting
to be moving towards more involved themes. "Many of the songs," hethe music... it is part of the arrangement. Like the first time we do a newsays, "will have a relationship with each other, theywill be able to besong nothing happens, apart from maybe I tap my foot, but as the songtaken on two levels."develops something will grow out of it."Switching on the tape to play me a track called "The Passenger", Ian
Ian's style of songwriting doesn't abate the critics either, being a stylerummaged through a pile of songbooks to find and read the lyrics. "Youthat flies directly in the face of his contemporaries' moves into freer,see, this one is about a man on a train but it can also be seen as drawing
longer and improvised compositions. He, in contrast, writes songs
analogies between a passenger on a train and a passenger through life..."that are concise and often short, with a simple unpretentious lyric line,
And as if toward off any suspicions I might be forming: "...But it's nota beginning, middle and end. In short, he writes songs.
pretentious; at least I don't think it will sound pretentious when you hear
At his new London home, after a meal prepared byJennieAnderson,
it. It's not like The Kinks making their potted little statements about men
Ian and I sat down in the lounge -cum -bedroom to talk about his
in bowler hats. It will also be a little more humorous as an album. There's
introduction to, and thoughts about, music. A trumpet, violin and guitara song called 'The Pool' (reads lyrics), which is about Blackpool and thewere lying on the bed.
sort of thing Ringo might sing. And then there are still the personal songs
It was a guitar, in fact, an electric one, that was Ian's first instrument,
about me, like 'WonderingAloud', which is a love song."
played in a group formed at school with John Evan, then a drummer, and
Often dissatisfied in the past, Ian feels that the new songs will be better
Jeffrey Hammond (of "A Song ForJeffrey", etc) on bass.
for the group because for the first time since he started writing he no
He wrote spasmodically in those early days, material to supplement thelonger has to work to deadlines. The new songs he has been able to live
group's mainlysecond-hand repertoire drawn from the least known
with, to playback and listen to numerous times, and be sure of.
Liverpool groups- "the underground of their day" -and blues tracks"I don't now have to say, 'Oh Christ, I've got to write something to finish
found on records. Laterthey played Rolling Stones -type numbers andoff the album.' Working that way I've sometimes written songs andthen switched to a Ray Charles/Jimmy Smith bag when John Evan left therecorded them quickly and then afterwards wondered if theywere thedrum seat to take up organ.
right songs for the group. Nowadays it is more relaxing. I also find it a lot
When Jethro "MI started, they played "other people's music...
easier to write inAmerica now that Jennie can be with me."predictable blues stuff, things MickAbrahams said we should play".
The important thing to him, says Ian, is that people buy their records for
There hadn't been time either for original material to be stocked up,
the reasons theywere made- "because we like the songs and enjoyedbecause although Abrahams and Clive Bunker still had day jobs, Ian
making it. It seems a bit silly to say it, but if the next album sold only 200
and Glenn Cornick, who had come to London from Blackpool together,copies and those 200 people were still playing that record in five years'
were professional.
time, that would really knock me out. That is what I reallywant to do...
Playing "variations of 'Dust My Broom'", it wasn't until the band wasto play music that people will remember. Music that will still have thea good few months old that the situation eased enough to allow them tosame feel in the years to come and not just be the biggest thing of its
write their own songs. At the time of the first album, This Was, thoseparticularyear." Nick Logan
41'1

r`'_3lialli r
IMNI11111 a NI

134 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

JETHRO TULLTEACJETHROoil- NNE NOVEMBER 7 -CPPPiPi t

Yvve

.tea

ADMITTING THAT YOU don't know your14 45
subject may seem a strange way to open
a profile article. But I must admit straight
off that I don't know, or to be more specific don't
understand, Ian Anderson. I know a good deal of whatgoes on on the surface, but any deeper than that is anarea Anderson appears to reserve exclusively for a very small
and long-standing circle of friends.

Chrysalis

Because of this, and the fact that he rarely cares about being rude topeople, he is an easy person to dislike. But, even if repulsion is the result, it
is difficult not to be fascinated by the bewildering complexity of one of
the ablest minds to devote itself to rock music.
Ayear ago I spent 11 days on the road with Jethro Tull inAmerica andwatched Ian at work under a varietyof testing conditions; time andopportunityenough to allow insight into most personalities. But not his.
Although richly informative as to how theAnderson mind acts, the tour
revealed little or nothing as to how it works. He is an enigmatic character,a 23 -year -old rich in contradictions. The wild stage extrovert who on tour
shuts himself off behind locked doors. The performer who will talk to andentertain with alarming confidence upwards to 18,000 people yet
offstage will feign illness rather than get involved in arguments, whodoesn't go to parties or clubs, who doesn't mixwith other musicians andwho has no time for either drugs or alcohol.
A few days before Jethro Tull left for their currentAmerican tour, wetalked at theAndersons' new London home, a two -storey modem house
which Ian and Jennie have crammed full of old, and often bizarre, curios
and furnishings.
He countered my question as to whether he thought he was difficult
to understand with: "I am difficult to be absolutely sure of, probably
a difficult person to like because ! don't mind offending people.
"If someone comes up and says, 'Do you want some hash?' or'Do you
want to come along to a party?' for example, it
doesn't matter howyou tell them that you are
not interested, it will be a big blow to them. I
offend people like that at the rate of one a day."Most of this arises from people who see Ian
Anderson on stage and fix preconceived ideas ofwhat he should be like offstage. To journalistsof life as an escape route if he failed his exams- but
he didn't get going until the sixth form when he andJeffreywent to a youth club and were amazed to see
the local beat group surrounded by girls.
"There theywere, all these fantastic birds, longhair,
made up, false eyelashes and things, crowding roundthis group of scabby, spotty teenagers called Johnny
Breeze & TheAtlantics."
Ian and Jeffrey, their minds boggling at this glimpse intoa world of glamour, set off home to hatch their plans. "Jeffrey had
never had a girlfriend in his life," remembers Ian, "and saw this as his
introduction to some kind of feminine attachment. He bought a bass

guitar, a reallypathetic £12 thingwith an amp that came wrapped ina cardboard box. I had had a guitar since I was about 11. We started off as

this three-piece Johnny Kidd -type group playing in front rooms. Little
girls came to see us."
Ian's ambitions after he left art college were split between the musicbusiness, not necessarily performing but possiblyworking in a
manager's or agent's office, and journalism. He approached theBlackpoolEveningHeraldto no avail. His recollections at the time were
ofwanting a job with some kind of freedom- "to be one's own boss toa certain extent, to be able to meet people".
Instead he stuck with the group, which had by then lost Jeffreyto theart world and at seven strong had become The John Evan Band, with Ian
as singer and second-rate guitarist. Feeling the need to playanother
instrument, he bought the flute a few months before the band came
down to London, selling the guitar to a local music shop. Refused cash forit, he settled fora flute and a microphone in exchange.
So The John Evan Band descended on London. "It was winter and very
cold and dismal in Blackpool," remembers Ian, "and the way things wereat home, the only thing I had to look forward to was sitting in the bedroom
listening to the radio. And as things got more dismal and colder! decided
it was time! moved off, feeling that some kind of move might at least bringsome change of spirit."
Apart from Ian and Glenn Cornick, the band
lasted two weeks before theywent home.
Regroupingwith MickAbrahams and Clive
Bunker, the newly named Jethro Tull got
themselves signed with Chrysalis bosses
Terry Ellis and Chris Wright, who, fora time,
were under the impression they still had aseven -piece band on their hands.
Glenn Cornick remembers how they used
to turn up for gigs and make excuses about
the three-man brass section getting delayedin accidents. Right from the beginnings,
even when the band was playing unoriginal
material, Ian's personalitycame through themusic. At the start it was the floor -length
woollen overcoat, a parting present form his father when he left
Blackpool, and his antics with the flute.
Strangely, he reasons away the "props" as a justification for him being
on stage, and says he regarded his singing as "not enough". When friends
then began to point out that his character on stage was becoming avaluable commodity, and suggesting he should play more into the role,
Anderson says he found it quite frightening and dropped any kind of
extrovert behaviour for some time.
"After that stage it crept back," he says "and when it did it had nothing
to do with confidence. It had begun to be a personal expression of themusic, something that amplified the music to me and I hope to theaudience as well. It was a visual extension of the music... as are theclothes I wore, and still do, the swirling coats and that. I express myself
through these clothes. It is like a miner putting on overalls because it is
the right gear for the job."
The phrase "right gear for the job" is worth pondering on. One may
wonder when Ian Anderson takes off the "right gear forthe job" and, if it isa front, what lies behind it. Is it a facade to a shrewd young man who hasrecognised and used his assets to theirutmost or the window on a rare"This is a very

mentally
maiming life.

he realises he cannot communicate throughand kids who come backstage to talk to theband, to give two examples, he finds it difficult
to explain that he is not what they expect.
And he refuses to live a lie. "It does happen
that people come backstage with the idea that
I should be very friendly and open to them anda nice guyand they go away thinking I am notfriendly and am a nasty guy, because unlessI put on an act I have no wayof getting through to them.
"I would rather hurt people in that waythan offend them in a much more
serious way bypretending that we have some area of communication
between us when we haven't.A lot of people think lam just a crud, andI just have to live with it."This refusal to live a lie raises one of the most obvious sides of theAnderson character, his unpretentiousness and his honesty. On thelatter, he maintains: "In some ways this is a very mentally maiming life.
You have to keep looking at yourself to see how honest you are, but inother ways it does tend to get easier rather than harder."He is his own and the band's greatest critic, to a point where he will bend
overbackwards to avoid the impression of pretension. Mainly by choice,
his is an isolated life; his friends can be counted on one hand. These tend
to be acquaintances of a very longstanding. Apart from Jennie, who was
working at Chrysalis' London officewhen theymet, they include John Evan,
the Jethro organist and pianist, and thefamous Jeffrey, who Ian grew up with.
Both were in his first group.
Ian tells the story of that group in his
own inimitable style, part truth, partcolourful exaggeration. He'd had aninterest in pop before -seeing that kind

But it tends toget easier"heir greatest
but
asset

is tie also
Jethro Tuffs

7
enemy
worst

and brilliant mind?
Jeffrey, when! gave him a lift home after the interview, agreed with methat Ian had changed little or nothing since Jethro Rill, but on the other
hand, registered surprise when I said that! still didn't understand him.
NickLogan

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1135

- LED ZEPPELIN

-

TRACK
* BY *TRACK- LED ZEPPELIN III -in pitch to the voice. It waseither that or leave the track out

altogether. Why "Celebration?"
It's saying,"I'm happy", that's all.
Since I've Been Loving You

strings. The string players
were not Indian, however, and"We'll never stop doing

we had to make some on -the -spot changes. John Paul Jones
wrote an incredible stringarrangement for this andRobert shows his great range- incredibly high. He's got a lotof different sides to his voice,which comes across here. It
has a menacing atmosphere.
A friend came into the studioduring the recording and it was
bloody loud and he had to leave.
He said, "You've really done
something evil!" Moog
synthesizer at the end, andthat's a bottleneck string bass,
with John Paul playing.

the heavy things"
MM OCT 24 a/1110y rct6u goes traurk Liy track through

Lou Leppelin's III. "You've really done something evil!"
JIMMY PAGE ISN'T disturbed at any adverse criticism of Led
Zeppelin ///because he hasn't read any reviews. But he is awarethat a number of Zeppelin fans would appreciate somebackgrounding to the tracks of an album that has been greeted aseither "their best yet" or "weaker rock".
At Jimmy's wooden boathouse home beside the Thames he spenta pleasant Saturday evening last weekend, listening to albums by theCream, Jody Grind, Tony Williams and Don Ellis before getting roundto a track -by -track review of his group's third endeavour to relate theirmusical feelings. He explained the origin of the songs and occasional
quirks between tracks. And he hinted at the future, and the content of
Led Zeppelin /V, already on the drawing board.
ImmigrantSong
That's a voice at the beginning,
incidentally, which somebody
said was a wailing guitar. On
stage this number has alreadydeveloped into a much longer
thing, with a full instrumental
passage. The hiss at the
beginning is a tape build-up,
and then John Bonham comes
136 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

Celebration Day

The reason the voice is alone is

the tape got crinkled in thestudio and wouldn't go throughthe heads, so the end got
ruined, but it worked out all
right by using the idea ofbringing the synthesizer downin. It's not really tape hiss, it'secho feedback. Robert wrote
the lyrics to this one.

This was a "live" track. John Paulplays organ and foot bass pedals
at the same time. My guitar
solo? It could have been better- but y'know. You are neversatisfied with a performance,
although of course there arethose lucky musicians who canplay it perfect every time. On
these types of numbers John
decides his own drumbeat toplay. We might occasionallysuggest the use of conga drums
on a particular number, but healways fixes his own beat.
Out On The Tiles

This is Bonzo's riff [JohnBonham]. Originally we had a setof lyrics to go with this relating
to a night going out on the tiles.
Gallows PoleA traditional song which stems
from Lead Belly. I first found it
by Fred Gerlach. He was one of
the first white people on
Folkways Records to get
involved in Lead Belly. We havecompletely rearranged it andchanged the verse. Robertwrote a set of new lyrics. That's
John Paul Jones on mandolin
and bass, and I'm playing thebanjo, six -string and electric

Friends

Again, Robert wrote thewords. He did them all
except on "Tangerine".
The idea was to get an

Indian style with thePage on Zeppelin III.
JIMMI PAC! 1.,C1 disturbed at n) athante critkitm
of Led teppelon III because taa hatol road any re.

tiros.

,.11xotr'*7

Hats Off To (Roy) Harper

There's that freaky echo. The
voice sounds like that because it
went through a vibrato amp.
This came about from a jam
Robert and I had one night.
There is a whole tape of us
hashing different blues things.
Robert had been playing
harmonica through the amp,
then he used it to sing through.
It's supposed to be a sincere
hats off to Roy, because he's
really a talented bloke who's had
a lot of problems.

Which was Jimmy's favourite
track?"' like 'Gallows Pole'. But
there are others -the point is we
had 17 tracks to choose from to
put on the album. Some were

guitar. The bloke swinging
on the gallows pole is saying wait
for his relatives to arrive. The
drumming builds nicely.
Tangerine

That's commonly known as afalse start. It was a tempo guide,
and it seemed like a good idea toleave it in - at the time. I wastrying to keep the tempo downa bit. I'm not so sure now it wasa good idea - everybody asks
what the hell is going on. I did
the pedal steel guitar and that's
Robert doing the harmonies aswell as lead.

written out at the cottage. Someshow different stages ofdevelopment. There was a lot
like our early stuff- pretty
powerful. And John Paul Jones
wrote a piece that was all piano,
which would have related towhat's coming up in the future.
"This album was to get acrossmore versatility and use morecombinations of instruments.
The next one will be just one
long track on one side with these
combinations of instruments,
mandolin, and banjo and soon. It
would last about 25 minutes with
instrumental sections. It's still in
the planning stages.
"We'll never stop doing theheavy things, because thatcomes out of us naturally when
we play. But there is anotherside to us. The new album istotally different from the others
That's The Way

Ah, this was written in Wales,
where Robert and I stayed at a
cottage. It was one of those days
after a long walk and we weresetting back to the cottage.
We had a guitar with us. It wasa tiring walk coming down aravine, and we stopped and sat
down. I played the tune andRobert sang a verse straight off.
We had a tape recorder with us- that sounds a bit strange, but it
was part of the kit -and we got
the tune down. This wasn't
recorded in Wales, if I gave that
impression. The Los Paraguayos
bit is the mandolin.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp

That's an acoustic bass, not adouble bass. It's like an acoustic
guitar with a reasonable body.
John Paul took the frets out andhe plays it acoustically. This has

got the rattling of the kitchensink - we've got everything in it!
We overdubbed Bonham on
castanets, and spoons.

and I see that it's obviously a new
direction. The fourth album
should be our best, and if it isn't,
well, we might as well give up
and retire with red faces. I
haven't read any of the reviews,
but people have got to give the
LP a reasonable hearing.
"Everybody in the band isgoing through some changes.
There are changes in theplaying and in the lyrics. Robert
is really getting involved in his

lyric writing."
Where did the cover idea comefrom? "It was my idea to have arevolving wheel. I rememberedthose old gardening catalogues.
You'd turn it to 'roses' and findout what kind of manure to use.
"There's a lot more to see on
the wheel. When you get fed up
with the LP there is the added
pleasure of ripping up the cover
to find out
what's on
the rest of
the wheel."

ALBUMS
Derek And The Dominos
POLYDOR

Well, not a bad little rockband. But wait, this is Eric
Clapton and surely it
should be considereddifferently? Why? Yes,
why? Anyway, here we have a double
album of songs that ranges from themagnificent to a few lengths of completeboredom. We have Hendrix's "Little Wing"
played with such spreading beauty that Jimi
would surely have clapped till his hands bled,and then we have
"I Am Yours", a bossa that novas in pitiful directions.
Clapton and the Dominos have laid down an assortment ofpatterns so varied that it would easily take a small pamphlet towrite an account of what has happened. Entertainment, certainly,and Eric and Duane Allman give about every superb essay possibleon the playing of the electric guitar. Eric spits and licks, pumps andgrinds in seven -minute strutting boogies (eg, the Billy Myles
spread "Have You Ever Loved A Woman"), and then dawdles into
love songs and lengths of pretty atrocious vocal work.
Title track "Layla" is by far the busiest screaming item, whichburns to nearly eight minutes of brilliance, with rogue playing fromall and some of the best Clapton you could ever wish to hear. One
thing is certain -these are assorted love songs. Eric is into the love licks, and you don't have to give this much of a hearing to know that
he loves every damned minute of it. Roy Hollingworth, MN Dec 72

Peter GreenREPRISEIf Rudyard Kipling could have played in a rock band, then he'd haveplayed with Pete Green, for this is jungle rock. It's spooky, and likea jungle it pulsates. Pete is joined by a splendid array of excellent
musicians -Zoot Money (piano), Godfrey Maclean (percussion),
Nick Buck (electric pianoand organ)and Alex Dmochowski (bass),
to create what can only be described as a lion of an album.
Many people must have wondered what had happened to Green,
but wonder no more, for this is twice as good as anything he didwith Fleetwood Mac. There are six tracks of pure, heady rock - no
vocals but each instrument has words. There's parakeet guitar,
screeching with much emphasis on wah-wah; there's Zulu warrior
drumming, hunting, biting and nibbling. Dmochowski's bass sucks,
slumps, steams and pumps into magnificent python riffs, and Zoot's
piano is the playful but neurotic monkey that freaks in the trees.
In the title track the band paint a terrifying jungle scrap between
animals and a lion - which is Pete's sabre -tooth guitar? It reaches
such turmoil that it almost upsets the mind -this is dangerous
music, at times you can't correctly absorb what is going on. Afterthe five tracks ofjungle tension, there's a Pete Green clearing in"Timeless Time", another of his spaghetti -western soundtracks.
Certainly one of the most worrying albums of the year,and it's adelight to hear Pete's excellent playing again. Roy Hollingworth,MM Nov Li

Kinks

PYE

Raymond Douglas Davies, taking a cheeky nibble at capitalism andthe hurdy-hurdy pop playground. The songs of Davies are without
doubt one of the best things to happen in straight fun andentertainment music this decade. You can't beat this man's hilarity,
spiked with cunning, and here areu more of his Kinky ditties."TopOf The Pops" is for me the ultimate track on the album. It tells a tale
we all know of the pop fracas, but listen to Ray tell it in "You Really
Got Me" Kink heavy prose. It's followed by "The Moneygoround",a barrel -organ slam at money distribution. There's also a slamming
funk of an item from Dave Davies, the excellent mirth of "Apeman"and "Lola", which must surely rate as the funniest song of the year
- give those lyrics another close hearing! Davies sings with a dimple
in his jaw,a gap in his teeth, and maybe a tongue in his cheek. To
quote his lyrics, given half the chance he'd rip off his clothes andlive in the jungle, which would
surely be a terrible waste. The
music's pure Kink simplicity -but
it works. Roy Hollingworth, MM Nov28

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1137

1970

OCTOBER-4-6"ER

PeteTownshendturns
Pearly Kingfora renditionof TommyattheBBC
Television Centre, London,
5

December 3ciand 31,1970

13S I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

"We'llnever
be theultimate
coup"

After Tommy, THE WHO embrace raw

rock'n'roll with Live At Leeds. For PETETOWNSHEND, however, 1970's successes

prompt critical examination of himself
and his band. "It was only since Creambroke up that we started making it..."HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1139

1970
OCTOBER -DECEMBER- NME APRIL 18 cc'iMt aTliRttYIle reGssTeOars-orepnhdistigc.aItfewoeutr

aunndddaoliatntlyeih. makeg

clever-clever it could be a mistake." Not the sort ofthing one would expect to hear from Pete Townshend,
but obviously a change is in store for The Who.

only get half -full houses. We waited three or fouryears for the new Beatles
but they never came, so we said, 'We'll have to make do with what we've
got but make it better.'"We've always been influenced veryhighly by groups like the Stones
and The Beatles and have made good use of it. Have you heard the Stones''live' album? It's influenced me a great deal. We used to tour and comeback broke. We'd drink it awayand use it up in broken instruments. We
behaved so desperately that promoters thought it was only right and justto the public to steal these boys' money.
"It was nice to discover that you can make money out of pop music...
we couldn't believe it when we came back fromAmerica with money inour pockets. Writing is very good for money, that's why a lot of groups
insist on writing their own material. With the Stones you have to wait
until they're going through a good period of songwriting before theybring out a record. Speedy (Keen) is a writer, a very good writer, and that's
what spurred me to form Thunderclap Newman.
"Behind every teenybopper group there's a
person like me who says, 'You, you, you and you
will get together and form a group and record
this and have a hit.' It takes a longtime to learn
to write songs. I don't know why! started; I wasjust always writing things when we wereplaying all the pubs and terrible places."
We adjourned to the recording studio along
the passage and Pete played me a couple ofnumbers, one of which is almost destined to
become Thunderclap's next single. So,
contrary to many rumours, the group will behaving more records out. An album awaits
release as well.
"They really make a very, very, verynicerecorded sound and the other two that werebrought in were just to allow them to appear on stage, but theyweren't in
the group proper. JimmyMcCulloch has a group together to play'live'.
Speedy is constantlywriting- he is the one who has the group most atheart -and Andy is recording his own music, which is eccentric."
Speedy appeared through the door on cue and we discussed which
number we all thought most suited for the next single. Then Pete had togo and eat his Cornish pastie before it got cold and I had a nice walk along
the embankment in the rain. What an exciting pop world we live in.

"The loudest part of the Who is the PA these days. We
haven't got any louder. OurPA is fifteen hundred watts and it just chucks it
all out, that is what's deafening people."
Pete was talking to me at his home, opposite Eel Pie Island, where acommune is firmlyensconced. As he talked, two dogs chased about theroom alternately leaping on one another and investigating mytea. The
main talking point was LiveAtLeeds, the group's upcoming "live" album
which was recorded in that Northern town at the university.
"I've been planning a 'live' album forages," Pete began, "and werecorded all the shows on the last American
tour thinking that would be where we would get
the best material. When we got backwe had 80
hours of tape and, well, we couldn't sort that lotout, so we booked the Pye mobile studio andtook it to Leeds. It turned out to be one of thebest and most enjoyable gigs we've ever done.
"People always talk about The Who being
good on stage. We're all about visual pop flash,and in the past when we've recorded shows,tapes have sounded very grotty at the best.
When! should have been playing guitar I'd havebeen waving my arms about like a windmill or
when Keith should have been playing he'd havebeen yelling 'ooh-ya ooh-ya' at the top of his
voice like Lennie Hastings.
"So what I want to do is sophisticate the sound a little. One of thetroubles is Moon -he's so deafening. If we do a two -and -a -half-hour show
he just starts playing like a machine. I'm sure he puts out more watts than
the rest of us put together!"First warning me "crackles courtesy of Pye", Pete played me some of thealbum, including MoseAllison's "Young Man Blues", which can easily bedescribed as dynamic. He then spoke about Tommy, which has been
hailed almost as the Messiah of records by many people.
"It was highly overrated because it was rated where it shouldn't have
RichardGreen
been and it wasn't rated where it should have been," he commented. "Itshould be rated as a successful attempt to tell a story in rock music. I don't- NME NOVEMBER 7 listen to it. I enjoyed making it very, verymuch. We were going down thedrain -we needed challenging after putting out corny singles like 'Magic
WHEN YOU COME to consider the amazing success story ofBus' and 'Dogs'. Making Tommyreally united the group and that was the
The Who, the glittering superstar aura that surrounds thegood thing about it. The problem is that it has elevated The Who togroup and the adulation in which the four West Londoners
heights they haven't attained."
are held by millions of fans throughout the world, it would seem safe toPete speaks about The Who sometimes as though the group hasn't yet
assume that Pete Townshend, their accepted leader, is a supremely
realised its full potential, and he obviously believes that he, Moon The
confident man. But this is an unsound assumption.
Wonder Boy, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle need a pillar to lean on.
When talking about his music, and his guitar playing in particular,"We all need the group and to be in flux," he explained. "It's been a long
Pete often reveals a degree of bewilderment and sometimes chagrin.
partnership and we lean on it a lot. We need people to get at and argue
He openlyadmits that groups like Led Zeppelin can hold The Who's
with. It's nice to have a set of individuals calledadvance back and he speaks with an air of
The Who to write for. I got myself a problem
hopelessness when on the subject of the latewith Tommy, something to get down to. The
Jimi Hendrix. As we sat in the lounge of his
SHOCK
FOR
BRITISHCHRISTIEBAN
Now PI a.
Who will always respond to a challenge.
riverside house at Twickenham, Pete recalled
1. GROUPS IN GERMANY
A group like us always needs as much prestige
Irkat
the days when The Who were still trying to
NASH'S ORIGINAL
M.
as it can get and at the moment that's pop
find themselves. "I couldn't find a model
31prol: SONG MANUSCRIPT laSTEVE.111181100ft
opera. On the Continent, Tommy was very
guitarist ! could focus on," he told me. "I used
EU 4?
successful and it brought a lot of kids who
to like John Lee Hooker and Steve Cropper.
hadn't seen us."
I thought George Harrison was verylame.
During the brief spell that I worked for The
Keith Richards couldn't tune his guitar -he
Who as their publicist I visited Germanywith
still can't! Somehow we became aware of The
them and learned the rigours of touring. At
Yardbirds and we incorporated the things
about that time each member of the group had
theywere doing in our act without ever seeing
frequent moans about it and swore to pack up
them; it was done byword of mouth."touring. The pledge has been broken.
"I incorporated something into mystyle"It could have beenAmerica that changed ourwhich Clapton hadn't discovered -this wasmind about touring," Pete considered. "But all
feedback. I discovered it by accident becauseof a sudden people's demand began to get!wanted my amps to be bigger than I was, thishigher. It used to be that if you had a hit record
was image consciousness again. I was the first
you'd get a full house and if you didn't you'dperson to put two Marshalls on top of one"T'", 2406 001"Tommy has
elevated The
Who to heights

they haven't
attained".1

140 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

Nice Lowrey Berkshire
Deluxe TE10-1 organ and
EMS VCS 3 Mkt synthesizer

combo, sin Townshend's
home recording studio inwi
7

anotherand this, to my mind, originated the stack. Because the amps
were directly opposite the stack, when I turned round! got feedback.
"After that I never looked at anotherguitarist and worried; I wasn't
intimidated any more. I was a guitarist and a songwriter and I could
swing myarm, so I was confident."
When The Kinks and later The Beatles used feedback, Pete was morethan pleased but his feeling of well-beingwasn't to last long. Just when
he believed that he was all set as a guitarist, Jimi Hendrix marched onto
the scene.
"The first time I saw Eric with Cream was at a gig in a theatre
somewhere. Verysoon afterwards came Hendrix and I don't thinkanyone directly influenced me more. He was the first man to come in andwalk all over my territory. I felt incredibly
intimidated by that."
It didn't only happen once; there were several
occasions when Jimi shook Pete.
"We had our own show on at the Saville andwe were feeling very, very, very nervous about
it," he admitted. "Kit Lambert made the terrible
mistake of putting Hendrix on before us andwhen he ended byusing feedback and dropping
his guitar on the floor I was terribly hurt by
nobody saying that he was copyingwhat I'dbeen doing. Myguitar smashing was anextension of feedback and arm swinging;
Hendrix incorporated it in a very silky
movement and the blues."
The next time Pete felt put out byJimi was at
one of the first mammothAmerican pop festivals. "Monterey -more
Hendrix intimidation for me personally," he sighed. "It was right in the
middle of the psychedelic era and we brought the place down with thesmash-up routine. We went on before Jimi and he went on and did thesame thing; again we felt cheated because our impact had been halved.
"It was only since Jimi stopped working a lot in the States and Creambroke up that we started making it. There's always been a hidden

audience for the
guitarist; I think it's
mainlyyounger boys
tt PEW tntl In NUS it nifthat could make111r
a guitarist a starovernight."
Of the period when
Jimi suddenly happened, Pete says: "It was about that time that we reallybegan to change. I became conscious of myself as a guitarist and started
to write in a way that would allow myself more expression. We playeda Murray The K show in the States with the Cream and we both had
10 -minute spots in which to show ourselves. We made a far bigger impact
because of our smoke bombs and guitarsmashing and things. There was a fantastic
amount of paranoia; I was always consciousof myself as a guitarist when Eric was around.
I made myself much, much more positive andused it as an expression.
"The news spread like wildfire about The Who
but we didn't steam back in quick enough. By
the time we went back to the States the Creamwere superstars and we had to fight where we
felt we didn't have to fight? We were always
reviewed in the light of the Cream."
Just lately, Pete has begun to feel moresatisfaction with the direction in which The
Who is heading. He has witnessed a large
number of changes during the group's career,
but now feels that if the rainbow's end is ever to be reached it may not be amuch longer journey.
"We were so hyped up on our image that we couldn't see what wasgoing on," he stated. "It's only since LiveAtLeeds and Tommythat we'vebalanced up our music. The reason why a Who performance is an
exciting thing is that there is a lot of history there. You know that Keith isgoing to be excited, but you don't know in what way. ")"I was hurt by
nobody saying
Jimi wascopying what
I'd been doing"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1141

1970

OCTOBER -DECEMBER"The Who have moved up the rungs of theladderof success at an incrediblyslow rate.
There's an evolution in the group going on andnow there's an evolution in the music- now we
can hold our own against groups like Zeppelin
who are completely musically based. We'rebreaking up the jinx of being a guitarist group.
"The first time! sawZeppelin it seemed they
were regurgitating all the musical cliches ofpop. They are a group's group and now The
Who are being accepted as a group's group. But
we'll neverbe the ultimate group while there
are groups like Zep around."OccasionallyPete's train of thought seems toramble a bit and he switches subjects about
before the listener has had time to take in one
thing at a time. When seen as the printed word,
however, one of his rambles can give the reader
an insight into Pete's complex mind and theway in which he likes to speak on a variety ofsubjects concerned with his music.
For example: "It was the image around thegroup and everything about it that enabled
me to find myself as a guitarist and songwriter.
I think about the Small Faces in the same way.
None of them were particularly brilliant on
their own but theywere a very together group,
they knew good music when they heard it. They
didn't try to make individual statements.
"Eric always talks about his guitarand I
always talk about rock and the ethics of rockand why it's lasted so long and what people getout of it. Eric had the stage act and I had theIns Seeker WImusic and Jimi was all that rolled into one.
"Jimi doesn't need musical obituaries. It wasleireekerTleewe The seam
either going to be a bomb dropping orJimi
Hendrix happening- people knew, they felt,
somethingwas going to happen. The impact
he made was enormous. He was there; youdidn't have to see him or hear him to knowthat it was a point in musical history.
"Keith Moon is so defined in what he does andthe way he does it that he was never consciousof what he does and the way he does it that hewas neverconscious of anything until hestarted to figure in drummers' charts with people like GingerBaker. He's
four members, one has to travel back in time several years to the days
never been a drummer's drummer, but today people say, 'Technically,
before The Who had even been conceived.
I don't know what he does or the waythat he does it, but it works.'
Pete's parents were both musical, his fatherplaying saxophone in The"The Who will probably last longerthan most groups but will probably
Squadronaires and his mother singingwith the band fora while before
never reach the status that these other groups have reached. Ifwe go on atPete was bom.
this rate we will be the biggest group in the world because slowlywe're"My father was essentially a pop musician in his day," Pete pointed out.
realising all ourambitions. We're a group that can pull it out of the hat yet"I dread to thinkwhat would have happened if I had been brought up in
again. I'd like it to reach the stage where Sinatra and Ella get 'Are They Stilla classical family."Stars?' features written about them because theirlatest record wasn't a
He recalled the time when he was only 13 months old and had tohit. We had that said about us." RichardGreenpretend to be two so that he could get in to Butlins ballroom at Filey to see
his father play and how he met a Texan cowboy there.
"He promised me a harmonica, which! nevergot, and in the end I think- NME NOVEMBER 14 I had to shoplift one a couple of years later," he admitted.
E KNEW WE were going to be stars. We entered thePete sang in a church choir in Acton, "but I didn't have enoughCCbusiness to become stars, not to make a day-to-day
projection ora posh enough accent to get leads", but he still had no realbusiness out of it. That was what was so exciting about
outlet for his musical talents.
the business about sixyears ago - everyone wanted to be as big as the"There was a period when I was terribly negative. I didn't knowwhat toStones or Beatles."do," he said. "I was proud of my father but I didn't 1 i ke listening to his
Pete Townshend almost always achieves his ambitions and there is nomusic on the radio, second-hand in away. One of the things that
doubt about the outcome of his bid for stardom. It has been a long, hardfashioned the musical frustration for me was that my parents didn't haveslog for The Who, with various other groups sometimes standing in theira piano ora record player, which is incredible for two musicians.
way. One of the most important factors in The Who's success is the length"They still only have a record player, which the kids playold Whoof time that Pete, Roger, Keith and John have been together. Not just as The
records on and jump all over. An auntie on the Isle of Mann had a piano,
Who or The High Numbers, but before then as school friends inActon.
but all the time I was searching for an instrument."
Because they know one another so well, they are able to makeThrough his father's connections Pete used to go along to press
allowances foreach other's mistakes and faults and the type of squabble
previews of films with his friend Graham Beard, and on one suchthat mayhave broken up a lessergroup has been smoothed over by The
excursion something happened that was to shape Pete's musical career.
Who whenever it has occurred. To understand the closeness between the
RockAroundTheClockdid it for me," he revealed. "I hadn't been intotRE WHO142 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

THE WHO

Uptemb117,197os
Roger Daltrey and

Pt Townshnclon
stage in Amstrclannisrock'n'roll before that, Beard got
into Elvis Presley, who I had never
liked. He got into the guitar andused to look in the mirror to act
p up. After a while, I decided theguitar was what ! wanted.
"My granny got me my firstguitar and it was a very, very, very
bad one indeed, though it cost her
a lot of money. It's important to
get a good instrument for kids.
I fought tooth and nail with
it fora year and finally gave
up because it was too bad."
He got a mandolin banjo
from a friend of his father's,
started to playtrad jazz ofall things and decided
eventually that he could
playwith other musicians.
John Entwistle and a chapcalled Phil Rhodes had agroup going and they asked
Pete to join. "I was 13 at(z110111EWHONIE

mods," Pete went on. "The product of that era was'I'm The Face' and 'Zoot Suit', both lifted from R&B
records with the words changed. They sold about
three copies; Philips could make a fortune byissuing them in the States today.
"We had a music that other groups hadn't
discovered yet. The Beatles and the Stones
impressed us, but they had such a defined image
that we thought there was a gap there. We were after
a slightly more sophisticated sound.
"We did an EMI audition and I was compromised
into writing, which was a thing! wasn't keen todo. I was very much into an image thing -I lived
and breathed image. That was the keyword in
those days. Then ! heard 'You Really Got Me' on
the radio and instantly I knew that The Kinks
had filled the hole we wanted to fill. That sortof music always came from over the water;
I thought that if you want the heavy stuff you
could write it yourself.
"I wrote 'I Can't Explain' just forThe Who andit remains one of the best things I've ever done.
It was based on 'You Really Got Me'; it just didn't
have the modulations. I was influenced moreby The Kinks than anygroup; we weren't fans of
theirs, we just liked them.
"Shel Talmy signed us and it was then! really
got into writing. I felt I was intimidating the group bywriting for them.
I rowed Roger in on 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere', revising the lyrics, butthat didn't last; he started believing he'd actuallywritten it.
"The next positive thingwas 'My Generation' to showwhat was goingon. It was as much defiance to the group as a public thing. I felt I was the
onlyperson in the group that knew about dope. Keith was on pills, but I
had heard about pot. I alienated myself from the group and this gave me
a pivot point to stand back and write and then join them in playing.
"Lo and behold, Lambert started producing our records. He spentincredible amounts of time with us and he changed my life fantastically.
He'd listen to my demos and I'd make alterations. When we met, I was the
young dropout and Lambert was the complete opposite, an ex -publicschoolboyand very respectable- nowwe've completely switched roles.
"A lot of people would think I'm terribly square sitting here in my
comfortable suburban house with mywife and a baby. There had got to bea point where Lambert and I come together in ouridentities again soon."
Returning to his recollections of the build-up of The Who, Peteremarked, "When we had a hit with 'HappyJack', which was a very
different sound for us, it became obvious that the musical direction of thegroup was going to change. I'd gone back to being influenced bythe
Stones again. On our second LP, which is still about our best, we really
discovered The Who's music for the first time, that you could be funny ona record. Entwistle wrote for the first time; he wrote 'Whisky Man' and'Boris The Spider'. My reign set aside as an individual from the rest of thegroup was overand the group was becoming a group. It was only then we
started to work musically together."Things snowballed until The Who reached the envious position they
are in today. The outlook isrosy and everyone concernedISwith the group is perfectly
happy. What, then, does Petesee for the future?
"I'd like The Who tocontinue writing and playing
hard rock," he replied.
"There's not another groupthat is as complete a group as
The Who in every respect.
There's no question, I think,of the group ever being

SUIVERINEBUIES"From thetime we found
Keith it was
a complete
turning point"

the time and I'd been
buggering about for two
years on guitar without
getting anywhere," Pete recalled with a smile.
"I knew they expected me to play, so I rushed out andgot a chord book. Theywere fairly impressed, which
I couldn't workout. Perhaps they thought if you
could play three chords you could play the rest."
The group had a variety of names, like The
Aristocrats, The Scorpions and the Confederates
Jazz Band, and they used to go along and seeAcker
Bilk playa lot. Pete got a £3 Czechoslovakian guitar
from his mother's antique shop and finally decided
that the guitar was the instrument for him. By thistime, John had made himself an electric bass guitar
from a plank of wood and he and Pete formed a groupwith two boys from Acton CountySchool.
"We played Shadows numbers, which must be thecliche story, but that's the way it was," Pete told me.
"There just weren't any other groups around. I was
terribly happywith it, people quite liked us and it
was incredibly exciting when we appeared in front of an audience. It gave
me a new confidence- I hadn't made it verywell with chicks and at thetime when my mates started to get it together with chicks I was getting
into the guitar and it became an obsession."John left the group and joined Daltrey's Detours and then Pete joined
as rhythm guitarist at John's suggestion. "It became a good social thing,
the drummer's father ran us about in his Dormobile and we got a lot ofseaside gigs. We did an audition at Peckham Paradise Club for £7 a night,
which we thought was very good. Event uallywe chucked out thedrummer and his father manager."
Roger dropped the guitar and started singing, so Pete switched to lead
guitar, "but I couldn't play properly and I built up a style around chords.
My favourite group was Johnny Kidd & The Pirates with Mick Green on
guitar. That's where we first heard R&B second-hand."After a period with a manager who thought of the group as his pets andbelieved he could make them stars overnight, a recording audition with
Philips cropped up. "Chris Parminter, who ran the audition, didn't likethe drummer, so we kicked him out. From the point we found Keith it was
a complete turning point. He was assertive and confident. Before then we
had just been fooling about."
Through PeterMeaden and Guy Stevens, Pete got to hear Tamla
Motown music and theyplayed "Got To Dance To Keep From Crying"at the Scene Club near PiccadillyCircus. Pete wrote his first song, called"It Was You", which the foremost put on a B-side, but he still wasn't doing
anything positive, he felt.
Kit Lambert became the group's manager and taught them about stage
makeup and dyeing their hair- "slightly tarty at the time", as Pete puts it.
"I'd alreadygot into the arm -swinging bit and we were all dressed like

`When my mates

started to get
it together
with chicks
I was getting
into the guitar
it became an

happier doing anythingelse. If the group stopped
I just don't know what I'ddo. I could make a living
and be happy, but not so
exhilarated." RichardGreenobsession'
sten Wei enlomd t.

IAK ..1.

WE KNEW ore went swop to bemn
to wake dopy to -day eventont
tad tO be in .9 e.
Wetness ebote ma years i.e.
I.Q.

4.

THE HISTORY OF

CKMissed any of our previous issues?
Get them at www.uncut.co.uk/store
THE HISTORY OF
A MONTHLY TRIPHROUGH MUSIC'S
GOLDEN YEARSTHIS ISSUE: 1968

A MONTHLY TRIP
THROUGH MUSIC'S
GOLDEN YEARSTHIS ISSUE:1969"I'm interested in the
regression of pop"

THE ROLLING STONESTHE BEATLESCROSBY, STILLS & NASH
SIMON & GARFUNKEL
THE BEATLESLED ZEPPELINFRANK ZAPPADAVID BOWIE
THE WHO uh
BOB DYLAN/oLED ZEPPELIN

CREAMTHE DOORS

f. Rirw-Ns

BOB DYLAN
PLUS!

PLUS!

NK FLOYD I HENDRI

THE HISTORY OF

LEE PER Y B

THE HISTORY OF

THE BEATLES

001111,11All
den .ent to I. to ,c.o--We r growitm up!"SOS DYLA141.6.

BEACIIIKINSIH CREEBEICLEt

NIN-AiTHE HISTORY OF

THE MAIMS

THE MOS \ 1L4 diarnawomen

TRAFFICTONS

111OUJIN ATONES4.

/OWN COLTRANE
WALKER BROTHERS

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ROLLING

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THE WHO \111140NIEGARFUNKEL

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1:1.11Z TAMEN SOW & CHER KINKS ANIMALSSORT BACNARACH

PLUS! RAVI SMAKKAR NANCY SINATRA THE KINKS THE IRONS

0RADIO 1 FLOWERR

WWW.UNCUT.CO.UK/STORE

Readers' letters

MM OCT-DEC

Jul 114 Hendrix, bemoaning McCartney and other heavy scenes.

COME UNTOGETHER
I once thought Paul McCartney
was God. My! How things havechanged, though! have yet to
discover whetherit is myself who
has outgrown him or he who has
become so conceited that he reallythinks the average pop fan is reallyconcerned with whether he andthe other Beatles will everplay
together again.
No, we've all grown out of that

into the beginning of what was

PEEL: HOUSEWIFE'S CHOICE

to be the cause of the end.
He was a "child of God," aI am a humble housewife. "A great
hit among housewives," writes
Chris Welch. Does he imagine weare all JimmyYoung lovers, readyto fall into paroxysm of delight at
anyslushy ballad? Lots of us aren't.
In fact I've never met anyone who

by now, the heartache we once felt
has gone, leaving only a little scar
which reminds us that one Beatle
broke away, leaving the others to

Jimi was undoubtedly the mostinventive rock guitarist in theworld, with a tremendous
potential which will never now
be realised.
Hendrix mayhave beenmusically mixed up of late, but his
playing could show a beautiful
fluidity and sensitivity, as on thehighly underrated "Up From The
Skies" off theAxis... LP and "RedHouse" from the first album.
There's no point in squabblingover who is the best rock guitarist
now, we've just lost him. And
who can take his place?TONYNEALE,29 Kensington Gardens

wonderwhy.
Paul is obviouslytoo bound up in
his own self-importance to noticethat no one cares anymore. MISSSSAPWORTH , 38 Stafford Place,Peterlee, Co Durham (MMSepti2)"Dear Mailbag", wrote the great
McCartney. I agree, being a fansince '63, he is brilliant. But as aperson with feelings and someone
who shows consideration he issadly lacking.
He's become terribly arrogant
since all his beloved fans helped
him grab his millions. He hasn't
thought about those who realisethat no other group can ever hope
to replace The Beatles.
Paul, the one who's taking thepart of the spoiled brat and the one
who wants everything his way.

minstrel of our time. The world
won't miss him, but we will. I shallnever forget him. P IVES,
2a Tyndall's, H indhad, Surrey(MMSept 26)
The death of Jimi Hendrix isa great shock to me and a hugeloss to the Music World!

Square, Queensway, London W2(MM Sept 26)

TURN IT UP!
The increasing trend
among groups like
Led Zeppelin or the
Flying Burrito Bros towards quiet,

Newcastle UponTyn*(MMSeptl2)

imperfect world.
If, however, Paul is not to be
persuaded, then perhaps get

together with BillyPreston, withwhom theyhave made beautiful
music in the past. C ALEXANDER
BROWN, Darums Capricornus
Musicus Company,113 Valley Woods
Road, Townhouse, 93 Don Mills 401,
Ontario, Canada (MMSept 12)

BEYOND REPLACEMENT
It is perhaps just that Timi Hendrix
should die in England. We took
him into ourheads, and our hearts-and probablylaunched him

VlignnNOW IN READING
HARLEQUIN RECORD SHOPSRUSSIAAV's"

DALWOOD, Greenleigh, Pen -y B ryn, Brecon (NM Oct 3)

S SELK I RK,136 Colston Street,

So, once again Paul McCartney
has roared. It's a pity. A great
manypeople had hoped that hewould have put aside his anger,
or disenchantment, or whatever,and say that, yes, he would cometogether with the other Beatles to
put out some more music into thisnot -too -happy and altogether

actually admits to even liking
Jimmy Young. The millions of us
that the BBC really reliably
informs us listen to him every
morning? Well, perhaps we haven't
much choice. It's eitherthat,
school broadcasts, or switch off.
That leaves us up to our apron
strings in JimmyYoungwhether
we like it or not. I've switched off
for months now (and been a new
woman!) Why not put John Peelon in the mornings? Well, I don't
think his "selective" audiencewould relish listening alongside
us ballad -loving housewives.
He'd probablylose his musicalsnob value.
And the housewives might
actuallylike it if given a choice.
Then we'd all be able to quibble
about who is the best guitarist,
etc, wouldn't we?Anyway, I know
Chris Welch enjoys making
sweeping generalisations. It'spart of his charm- but give thehousewives a rest fora bit. JANET

stFL,leat
CanneNEW

Jimi Hendrix, who crashed his
way to fame in 1966 with "HeyJoe",
has departed just as suddenly.
Music just can't be the same, he isbeyond replacement.
The only three-piece ever tocompete with Noel, Mitch andJimi was Cream, and all that's
left of both is records -sadly notenough. His plans fora new music,
which neverreached maturity, I'msure, would have resulted infurtherproof of his supremacy.
He said that when he died hewanted everyone to canyon
listening to his records andremember him. So please all goout and buyBand0fGypsysand
say 'Farewell' as we said "Hello"by making him No 1. GEOFF
BULL, 2 Church Hill Street(MMSept 26)

NM MEM IR

acoustic music is a bad one. Manyof these groups say rock is getting
stale and stereotyped, and is also
too loud: and that their music
offers a fresh alternative. However,acoustic guitar means, almost
inevitably, folk -style music.
Howeverpleasant and "easy on
the ear" this is, it is a verylimited
medium which is a cul-de-sac as
far as musical development goes;admittedly many rock groups
are stale and stereotyped, butthere is, in the long run, far morepotential for progression in rockmusic than in folk.
It lies with the rock and jazz-rockgroups to get music out of its

present stagnant pool -not the
acoustic groups, who are trying
much too hard just to be different.
N MAYFIELD, 5 Pytte House West,
Clyst St George, Exeter, Devon(MM Nov 7)

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HISTORY OF ROCK 1970 1145

New poP
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TOP POP
NEVIS

ILComing next...
in 1971!
SO THAT WAS 1970... Hope you found some good vibes.
But that's far from it from our reporters on the beat. The
staffers of NME and Melody Maker enjoyed unrivalled
access to the biggest stars of the time, and cultivated a feelfor the rhythms of a diversifying scene; as the times
changed, so did they. While in pursuit of the truth, they
unearthed stories that have come to assume mythical status.
That's very much the territory of this monthly magazine. Each month,
The History Of Rock will be bringing you verbatim reports from thepivotal events in pop culture, one year a month, one year at a time. Next
up, 1971!

JOHN LENNON"IMAGINE WILL SHOW 'em." It's a confident and garrulous Lennon who
returns to the public eye in 1971. As happy as he is with Yoko and with hismusic, he also takes the time to write an open letter expressing his
bitterness over Paul McCartney's role in ending The Beatles. "Who took
us to court and shat over us in public?"
THE FACES

THE FACES ARE one of the best British bands, but they can't seem to sell
any records. Does it worry them, when they can please a crowd the way
they do? No it doesn't. "There's been nights when we've gone on sober,"says Ian McLagan. "But there's not much chance of it happening..."
ELTON JOHN

MAN AND MYTH. Entertainer and songwriter. Rock'n'roller and morose

poet. Can the star hope to reconcile his conflicts? A series of frankinterviews get to the bottom of Reginald Kenneth Dwight, and uncover
the working of the John-Taupin partnership.
PLUS
LED ZEPPELIN!

MARC BOLAN!
MONTY PYTHON!

146 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1970

FROM THE MAKERS OF UNCUTTHE HISTORY OF

Every month, we revisit long -lost NME and Melody Maker interviews and piece
together The History Of Rock. This month: 1970 the year where things went-

dark and heavy. "I tellyou to enjoy Veil wish I could/But it's too late..."lh MO TO COST KC

Relive the

THE WORLD WENT MAD OVER
BLACK SABBATH'S PARANOID
THE WHO WERE LIVE AT LEEDSTHE BEATLES WENT THEIR SEPARATE WAYS...and JONI MITCHELL, NICO, THE WHO, THE KINKS,ROLLING STONES, LED ZEP and many more sharedeverything with NME and MELODYMAKER

More from UNCUT...
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