Month: January 2024

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Episode #250 – Dio – Holy Diver

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Lead up to the Album:

  • Dio talks of forming Dio as a band (rather than a solo act) after being released from bands in the past.
  • He says that between Rainbow and Black Sabbath he began looking at starting a band with Mark Nauseef, Craig Gruber, and Mickey Lee Soule.
  • As Dio put it “after both those boots up the arse” he wanted to start his own band and be the one who decides who he was playing with.
  • Martin Popoff talks about the breakup in his book “Born Again: Black Sabbath in the 80s”. Dio says there was a whole incident where the engineer on “Live Evil” was drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels a day but Dio and Appice were accused of going into the studio and turning up the drums and vocals.  As an aside, the engineer in question was Lee DeCarlo who was the brother of Yvonne DeCarlo who played Lily Munster in the tv show “The Munsters.”
  • Dio: “So of course everyone thought, well Mr. Ego’s done it again, he’s called the band after himself because he controls everything and you know he just hires people and away he goes, but that’s not what happened. At that point that’s when we started the search for the musicians to make the Holy Diver album what it was.”
  • Dio claims that Vinny Appice was “unceremoniously booted” from the band along with him so that was the start of forming the band.
  • In his autobiography Dio says that the first person they tried out was Jakey Lou Williams who became known as Jake E. Lee. He played in Rough Cutt.
  • Dio said that they auditioned a few guys in LA for guitar but after playing with Iommi and Blackmore it was hard to be impressed. He decided he wanted an English player.because “I always just liked the attitude.” He said that in LA everyone was just trying to be Eddie Van Halen.
  • Dio talks about turning to Bob Daisley about possibly joining the new band but Bob had just agreed to rejoin Ozzy.
  • Vinny and Dio went to a bunch of clubs in the West End of London looking for players.Dio ended up calling Jimmy Bain and seeing if he knew of anyone.  Jimmy came to see them with two tapes, one was of John Sykes, the other was of Vivian Campbell.
  • Dio said he liked both of them but that there was just something special about what Campbell had. Jimmy ended up coming down to the rehearsal with his bass. Dio wanted to see how it worked out and he said it came together beautifully.
  • Ronnie and Vinny were used to LA and said it was easy to convince Jimmy and Vivian to go there to begin writing and rehearsing for the album.
  • Ronnie said he wanted to produce this album himself because he’d learned so much working with Martin Birch and Roger Glover.
  • Dio says that he wanted the group to be named Dio because he wanted it to be a group rather than a solo project. The label had wanted him to go as “Ronnie James Dio.”
  • At this point Wendy officially became Ronnie’s manager. She’s already been managing the band Rough Cutt.

Core Band:

Technical:

Album Art & Booklet Review

  • Art Direction, Design – Jeri McManus
    • http://www.smogdesign.com/
    • Has done a ton of albums for Rick Ocasek, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Was (Not Was), Gordon Lightfoot, Apollonia, The Time, Madonna, Don Henley, Pink, etc.
  • Art Direction, Design – Simon Levy
  • Artwork [Rendering] – Gene Hunter
    • Only Discogs entry
  • Illustration – Randy Berrett
  • Dio: “Well, we wanted an album cover that was going to be just what it turned out to be, which was fantasy on the fantasy side, but with a little bit of reality chucked in, which was to most people’s eyes a monster drowning a priest, a priest in chains, which was going to be a little bit controversial, of course. Well, good. But I wanted to do that because I wanted it to be controversial so I could explain to them what this was all about. And when they would say…”
  • “Why do you have a monster killing a priest? I could always say, how do you know it’s not a priest killing a monster? And in the day and age that we live in, I think my thoughts were correct. So the whole purpose of all that imagery and being able to say that was, because I wanted to say to people, do not judge this book by its cover. Don’t judge anyone’s life by what you see. You judge them by what’s inside of them. It’s the heart and the soul and the spirit that counts, not what you see. So don’t make those kind of hasty judgments, because that’s always been my philosophy.”
  • “So there’s my philosophy on the cover of this album, perhaps. And it was an album cover that most parents wouldn’t let their kids put up as a poster, which I guess worked pretty well. Because kids want to be rebellious, and as soon as the parents say no, there you go. But we didn’t do it for that reason. But it became an offshoot of that kind of artwork, that parents were very fearful of what kind of evil was going to be father-children if they looked at that poster.”
  • “Caught in the Middle” shares the main guitar riff with Campbell’s previous band Sweet Savage’s song “Straight Through the Heart” (1983), whose title was used for another song in this album.

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Album Tracks:

Side One:

  1. Stand Up and Shout (Dio, Bain)
    • “Not the most amazing thing, but a strange coincidence is that the very first track on this album, Stand Up and Shout, was the last track written. And that track was written only as the backing track”
    • At this point Jimmy was off to Germany to work with Scorpions and Vivian had finished up all his part so Ronnie wrote the lyrics and melody and recorded it.
    • Ronnie says that the riff was written by Jimmy but Vivian said it was simjilar to a Sweet Savage riff he’d written. That riff was stolen from Gary Moore.
  2. Holy Diver (Dio)
    • Critics would point out this riff had similarities to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
  3. Gypsy (Dio, Campbell)
    • Dio described this song as being done in the style of The Rolling Stones.
  4. Caught in the Middle (Dio, Appice, Campbell)
    • “Caught in the Middle was a song that I wrote actually about Angelo [Arcuri]. Angelo’s life always seemed to be that of one caught in the middle of some kind of turmoil. He would always make decisions that were wrong, and he would always come to me and go, Ron, what am I going to do? I said, Oh, what’s happened, Angelo? Caught in the Middle, are you? Yes. Wow, what a great title that is. I became Caught in the Middle and the song was actually written about Angelo.”
    • This song shares the riff with a song from Campbell’s previous band Sweet Savage entitled “Straight Through the Heart.” The title was repurposed for the opening track of side two on Holy Diver.
  5. Don’t Talk to Strangers (Dio)
    • “Don’t Talk to Strangers, again, that was the second song that I had written on my own before finding the band that we were going to use. Wanted something, you know, up tempo. It just became, that song just became a product of my guitar playing. I mean, that’s what it was, you know, not the world’s greatest guitar player, but I think a lot of the things that I’ve written, riffs and songs that I’ve written on my own have been more acceptable because I play like every man. I don’t play like Richie, I don’t play like Tony, I don’t play like Craig, I don’t play like all these guitar players that know how to do it. So what I play, anybody can pick up and do. And that’s always appealed to me, I mean because I think that’s music is for the masses. I don’t want to be Joe Satriani. All I want to do is write a good song, but I think that because my method is that of everyone, that I think it made things a lot more approachable.”

Side Two:

  1. Straight Through the Heart (Dio, Bain)
    • Dio:”The next song on the album, Straight Through the Heart, there are some of these songs on this album that I think reflect my own trauma at the time as well. I mean, as a writer, I think you’re always going to draw upon what’s happened to you, either good or bad experiences, that’s where it comes from. And during the making of this album, I had some personal things that were going on that were… that bothered me quite a bit. And I think some of the songs that are on this album reflect that, one of them being Straight Through the Heart.”
    • “The song itself is, here it comes again, straight through the heart. And the worst pain on the face of the planet when you’re in love with someone or that kind of a thing. So I just use that as an example of something very hurtful. But I think, again, they reflect some of my feelings at the time. Invisible, I just love the idea of what we were going to do to the song. I thought it was a clever title. It was written about three different people: a gay man, a gay young man, an abused girl, and me. It was a triumvirate for you, wasn’t it? Anyway, I wanted to write these songs from the standpoint of someone who had been injured more psychologically.”
    • “And that happened in the case of the young girl and the gay boy. They were always being put upon and kicked and shoved around for not being what people expect them to be. And then included myself in the last part of it, only because I’ve spent all my life on a stage and a lot of trauma involved and a lot of that stuff, too. I thought I deserved to be in that because of what most musicians have had to go through in their lives.”
    • Ronnie says that Jimmy had this riff leftover from his band Wild Horses
  2. Invisible (Dio, Campbell)
    • Dio: “But the whole answer to it was, you can just become invisible. You can escape those kind of things, because you have a mind that’ll let you do that. And I don’t mean escape them forever, but when people do that to you, why do you want to stand there and have the arrows and the stones being thrown at you? Just become invisible. You never see me. So I really, really liked what the attitude of the song was. Again, played really well, just really, really well. Everything on this album was played so well by Jimmy and Viv and Vin.”
    • Ronnie says that the band wrote the riff for Invisible and they recorded it. They had all smoked some very strong pot and the soundman put the tape in backwards. He said they were all laughing but Ronnie told him not to stop it because he liked the way it sounded. They all ended up learning the riff backwards so what you hear is the riff and then the same riff backwards.
  3. Rainbow in the Dark (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)
    • We have Rainbow in the Dark. It’s a song that I really disliked. And when it was finished, I announced to everyone that I was going to take a razor blade and just cut the tape up. So I went for the razor blade and I went, no, no.
    • Don’t, don’t. I said, well, I don’t like it. It’s too poppy for me. To me, for me, it was too poppy for this album. I didn’t want to create a piece of pop because it came from a different space. It came from Black Sabbath already, you know, a band that allowed me to do anything that I wanted to, as dark as I wanted to do it. So I didn’t want those people who had liked what I’d done in Black Sabbath to say, oh, here he goes, now he’s changed, hasn’t he? Now he’s become a pop artist. I didn’t want that to happen. And to me, because of, and only because the rest of the songs weren’t quite as poppy.
    • as that. This one really stood out as being a pop kind of thing. And the riff was poppy and the little keyboard-y thing was poppy. But at the end of the day it worked. So they talked me out of it and I didn’t do that. And I thank them over and over and over again for doing it, which doesn’t mean it’s my favorite song. So I mean I still will always have that feeling of that song, that it was too poppy for me. Luckily…
    • The bands that have played that song now have all gotten the idea that it needs to be a lot heavier. So it is. So it works. But again, I’m very glad that they talked me out of that. But I disliked it so much that I really wanted to destroy the thing. And I believed in the beginning that song that was Viv’s riff and that it was originally called by Viv, I think it was called, A Bottle of Wine. Well, at least we got a better title out of it than that. But that was Rainbow in the Dark.
    • Dio said that Vivian got the idea for the riff from a Sweet Savage song he wrote when he was 16 called “Lady Marion.”
    • Ronnie says they had the whole song down in 10 minutes.
  4. Shame on the Night (Dio, Appice, Bain, Campbell)
    • Dio: “And the last song, Shame on the Night, I think again is probably a reflection of how I felt at the time. Night time is the worst time on earth to have problems. Everything during the day seems like life is going to be okay, but as soon as it gets dark and dreary… and the oppression falls on your shoulders, you start thinking too much. There’s not much you can do at four o’clock in the morning, but think four o’clock in the afternoon, I can go out for a ride or take a walk or whatever, but four o’clock in the morning, I don’t think most people should be out at that time, usually get in trouble doing that. So, you know, I think I equated the night at that time with, you know, having bad dreams and bad things going on. And it was, again, I thought, a clever title, personalizing the night, and saying, shame on you.”
    • “And riff-wise, it worked as well. So much of this works. If I’m not giving enough credit to the other people in the band, please forgive me, because this was a total package that we put together. This was four of us and not Ronnie. Whatever accolades I’ve gotten from it are probably because I’ve carried on with this band and because I have a long history of doing things. But they did such a great job.”
    • Another Bain riff from Wild Horses. Dio suggested the wolf howl at the end.

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Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

Reception and Charts:

  • Originally released on 25 May 1983.
  • The album was recorded in a little over a month.
  • The album was certified gold in the US on September 12, 1984, and platinum on March 21, 1989. It went on to achieve double platinum May 6, 2022.
  • In the UK it attained Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1986, at the same time as The Last in Line.
  • In 2017, it was ranked 16th on Rolling Stone’s list of “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time”
  • In 2005 the album was remastered and re-released by Rock Candy Records.
  • In the UK it attained Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1986, at the same time as The Last in Line.

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  • Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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Episode #249 – The Bodast Tapes

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Lead up to the Album:

  • In the very early days of Roundabout Chris Curtiss from The Searchers teamed up with Tony Edwards and his partners John Coletta and Ron Hire (HEC) to start the group.
  • The idea was that Chris Curtiss would be the singer and they’d have a rotating group of musicians that would jump on and jump off the figurative roundabout.
  • Nick Simper recalls the formation of the group in this interview with Simon Robinson: “Back with the Flowerpot Men, me and Carlo [Little] were saying to Lord that we should do something, let’s get Ritchie over to join us. I think that’s how Jon found about Ritchie ‘cos he didn’t know who he was. We told him he was the greatest guitarist, and I think that when he was asked by Chris Curtiss about a guitarist, he said well I’ve heard about this Ritchie Blackmore – Curtiss obviously knew him – see Jon had come from Leicester but all the Londoners knew Ritchie, he’d lived in Southall like a mile from my house and he’d played with Carlo in Lord Sutch, so we were urging Jon all the time. Somehow Bobby Woodman got involved, I can’t recall how and then Jon said to me Would you give up all the money we’re getting in the Flowerpot Men, a regular 150 pounds or so, for a small wage to do what we want to do and I said give me the chance! He said well I know a couple of businessmen that are willing to put some money up, will you give it a go and I said yeah. I said who’ve you got on drums? I told Carlo I was going to split and form a group with Jon and Carlo was a bit upset, sort of why hadn’t he been asked, so I asked Jon and he said he’d got Bobby Woodman, who was Carlo’s idol, a living legend – the original UK rock’n’roll drummer, first guy to use double bass drums and all that so Carlo couldn’t say much after that!”
  • Bobby Woodman had gotten his start learning from jazz drummer Eric Delaney. Delaney had his own band and released the singles in the 1950s (among others):
    • N.15046 “Cockles and Mussels”/”Say Si Si” (04/56)
    • N.15054 “Oranges and Lemons”/”Delaney’s Delight” (07/56)
  • Woodman was also in a band with Big Jim Sullivan called The Beat Boys which changed their name to Marty Wilde’s Beatboys then back into The Beat Boys as a backing band for Billy Fury.
  • After this Woodman’s band joined Vince and The Playboys as a backing band to tour America arranged by Vince’s brother-in-law Joseph Barbera (of Hanna-Barbera). In 1960 the Kenny Pavell left the band as guitarists and was briefly replaced by Jimmy Page who was 16-years old at the time.
  • He then had a group called The Bobby Woodman Noise before reuniting with Vince Taylor, then leaving and taking the name Bobby Clarke and having the band The Bobby Clarke Noise.
  • Bobby in 1965 went to America to start a career. He filled in on a number of recordings for the drummer of the Band Love (with Arthur Lee). There he played and recorded with Vince Flaherty.  He then went on to play with bandleader Arthur Lee at a club called Bido Lito’s. There he played with Daryl Dragon (better known as “Captain” from Captain and Tenille).
  • Bobby’s run in America was cut short when he became the first UK rock start to be deported because of marijuana possession.
  • In 1966 Clarke played with Frank Zappa and a band called The Elves Themselves which featured Jimi Hendrix on guitar with Vince Flaherty on vocals.
  • After this Bobby went to France for a third run with Vince Taylor Bobby went to America with his new band simply called “The Noise” where he worked with a number of artists including Dave Curtis, the former singer of The Tremors and brother of Chris Curtiss.
  • Nick Simper: “ Dave Curtiss I met at Jon’s flat when Jon moved out of there to my parents, ‘cos we were introduced. I remembered him from Dave curtiss and the Tremors. He was quite a nice singer but not for us. We wanted a guy called Terry Reid but he wasn’t interested, he was an amazing singer. We were sitting in Deeves Hall the four of us, started writing and Bobby clearly just wasn’t interested in our sort of music, he was still living in the Johnny Kidd era – great days, but we’d seen Vanilla Fudge which turned us on and we wanted to create something new, but he wasn’t interested so it just used to be the three of us trying to write things. One night we had a party invited a few friends and Tony Tacon came along. I said we needed a singer and hesaid what about Gillan? And I said yeah, what’s he doing – he was with Episode Six so although I didn’t know him personally, just to say howdo to. He’d always seemed a bit distant when I’d met him at gigs, ‘cos he was usually in the support group supporting the Bergeracs [Nick’s old group] once I remember, and I said to Tony would you ask him, tell him what we’ve got ‘cos you’ve seen it all – he was obviously impressed, banks of Marshalls, nice big house! Tell Gillan what it’s all about ask him if he’s interested in coming down and having a blow.
  • The next night Tony rang me up and said, I can remember almost the exact words, he said I’ve spoken to Gillan and he’s not interested. He says you’ll never get anywhere and Episode Six are gonna make it big. I said oh well, tell him where to stick it! ‘Cos he was flash, came across like that. The others didn’t know who he was and they said what about your mate and I said he’s not interested. I asked Roger Truth to come down and audition as a drummer, he didn’t want to know.”
  • Simper says that they auditioned for about 5 weeks at Deeves Hall in advance of going on tour in April.  “It’s funny because I really hit it off with Bobby, we were great pals, although he wasn’t doing much for us musically and Rod was trying to get Ian Paice in. They called a meeting one night, Tony Edwards and us and I remember Jon Lord saying to me, “tell me Nic, if we got rid of Bobby would you leave?” and I said why and he said we’ve got to get rid of Bob; we want to get Ian Paice in and we don’t want you to leave and I said no, I wouldn’t leave. All I said was that you shouldn’t mess around with the guy, he’s come over from France, uprooted himself from where he’s lived for years, he knows you’re not happy with him why don’t you tell him straight? And they didn’t have the guts to so they had to get Coletta and Edwards to fire him. Tony says “Bobby we want to terminate the contract and we’ll give you twenty pounds” and old Coletta nudges him quietly saying “forty, forty”; “forty pounds expenses”. There was a big silence and Bobby says “I don’t fink that’s very nice at all. Its him innit, it’s Blackmore he don’t like me”, even in those days! Jon’s going “I’m your friend Bobby”… so anyway he packed his bags and Rod and Ian who were with the Maze packed their bags and moved in with us. That was the start of it all.”
  • They were auditioning many singers including Ashley Holt (Warhorse) and as Simper says Rod Stewart, saying they watched him sing, not that it was a formal audition.   “Ritchie had seen him [Paice] in Germany and at the time we were only auditioning singers.”
  • After split Edwards and Coletta backed Clarke to start his own band with Dave Curtis, Clive Skinner, and Steve Howe who’d just left the band Tomorrow.
  • Originally Steve How says, he was working on studio work and that lead him to Deep Purple’s management where he was enticed to form the band.
  • They were originally called Canto and recorded a few demos.
  • The band was named after the first three letters of their names (BObby, DAve, STeve).
  • Steve Howe says, “Not the best method to settle on a group name, particularly as there was no reference to Clive.”
  • The Bodast Tapes back cover states that Clive joined at a later date.
  • In some settings they were also joined by an additional member, Bruce Thomas, who played bass.
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Thomas
    • He would go on to play with Paul Rodgers and Micky Moody in The Roadrunners but is best known for his work as a member of Elvis Costello and The Attractions.
    • The liner notes from the 2000 release say he was just around at the time and never a band member.
  • Howe says they were set up in a house and paid a weekly sala4ry to write songs and try to get gigs. He said he’d never before or since been supported this way.  He describes this time as when The Beatles White Album was released.

When Steve Howe learned of Clive Skinner’s death in 1978 he said that he wanted to remix the old Bodast tapes.  Howe says “Towards Utopia” is the best version of these songs.

Core Band:

  • Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Clive Skinner
    • More commonly known as Clive Maldoon
    • Went on to form the band Curtis Maldoon with Dave Curtis.
    • Their debut album featured Steve Howe and Tony Ashton. The song “Sepheryn” was reworked by Madonna and William Orbit into the song “Ray of Light” which was a huge hit for her.
  • Acoustic Guitar, Lead Guitar, Bass on (1,000 Years) – Steve Howe
    • Began his recording career working with Joe Meek in 1964.
    • Howe was a member of The Syndicats and was later replaced by Ray Fenwick.
  • Bass Guitar, Vocals – Dave Curtis*
    • David Lawrence Atkins
    • Brother of Chris Curtis of The Searchers who along with Dave formed Roundabout with Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore.
  • Drums – Bobby Clarke*

LP release in 1981 on Cherry Red

Recorded at Trident Studios, London, 1969

Engineered for re-release at Sarm Studios, Nov. 1980 (Gary Langan)

Dedicated to the memory of Clive Skinner (D. 1978)

Jim Jag credited with “Sleeve Remix”

Spectral Nether Street:

Notes

Tracks 1-4 original recordings made in 1968

Tracks 6-11, 13-16 original recordings made in 1969

Tracks 5 & 12 original recordings made in 1969

Produced by Keith West

Engineered by Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott at Trident Studios,

London in 1969

Remixed by Steve Howe and Gary Lagan at Sarm East,

London in 1978

Artwork, Design – Phil Smee

Bass, Vocals – Dave Curtiss

Compilation Producer – Mark Stratford

Drums – Bobby Clarke*

Guitar, Vocals – Clive Maldoon, Steve Howe

Liner Notes – Jon Newey

Mixed By [Sound], Remastered By – Paul Aitken

Towards Utopia:

Produced by Keith West

Engineered by Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott at Trident Studios,

London in 1969

Remixed by Steve Howe and Gary Lagan at Sarm East,

London in 1978

Additional Musicians:

  • hh

Technical:

Album Art & Booklet Review

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The Venue:

  • hh

Album Tracks:

Side One:

  1. Do You Remember (Curtis)
    • Beyond Winter (Skinner, Howe)
      • Once In A Lifetime (Skinner)
        • Black Leather Gloves (Skinner)

          A portion of a song from the Bodast album titled 

          Side Two:

          1. Tired Towers (Skinner, Curtis, Howe)
            • Mr. Jones (Curtis)
              • 1,000 Years (Skinner)
                • Bass played by Howe on this track
              • Nether Street (Skinner, Curis, Howe)

              Album Tracks:

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              Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

              Reception and Charts:

              • Between mid 1968 and mid 1969 Bodast recorded a complete self-titled debut album for Tetragrammaton.
              • Their last gig was opening for The Who and Chuck Berry was on July 5, 1969. They were also the backing band for Chuck Berry at The Royal Albert Hall minus Steve Howe. 
                • Howe said he only found out during rehearsals that afternoon when Chuck pointed at him and said “We don’t need you.”
              • In 1969 Clarke was asked to fill in in the Jeff Beck Group. Beck asked him to stay permanently but Clarke was eager to get back to his work with Bodast.
              • When Tetragrammaton folded so did the band and their album was not released until the tapes were remastered by Howe in 1981 and released as “The Bodast Tapes.”
              • Howe says that they were fired after an engineer at Kingsway studios accused them of taking heroin which he denied.
              • Clarke went on to have a fourth run with Vince Taylor among many other acts over the years.
              • Dave Curtis and Clive Skinner (going by Clive Maldoon) formed the duo Curtis Maldoon and released an album on Purple Records featuring Steve Howe on lead guitar and Tony Ashton. Their song Sepheryn was used for the Madonna 1998 hit “Ray of Light” and as a result they have songwriting credits on the single.
              • Steve Howe went on to audition for The Nice. He got the job but left the following day, deciding that the band wasn’t for him.
              • Howe got an audition for Jethro Tull but didn’t take it because he learned the guitar player would not have any songwriting input.
              • He also had a stint with Atomic Rooster with Carl Palmer but didn’t think it was a good fit.
              • Howe was in P.P. Arnold’s backing band along with Tony Ashton and Roy Dyke of Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke.
              • Howe would, of course, go on to replace Peter Banks in Yes.  Howe was in the band The Syndicats and was replaced by Ray Fenwick. Peter Banks joined to replace Ray Fenwick before joining to form Yes and then was replaced by Howe.
              • Howe went on to be in supergroups Asia and GTR.
              • Skinner/Madloon passed away in 1978 from complications of prescription medication.
              • Bobby Woodman/Clarke passed away in 2014.
              • Releases:
                • The Bodast Tapes (1981)
                • Steve Howe With Bodast: The Early Years (1990)
                • Spectral Nether Street (2000)
                • Towards Utopia (2017)
              • They had additional recordings under the name Bodast as well as several tracks under the band name Canto.

              Reviews

              • hh

              Merch, Etc.

              • Hh

              For Further Information:

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              • hh

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              Cockles and mussles

              ASIA!

              Posted on

              Episode #248 – Gary Moore – Back on the Streets (with Rich Shailor)

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              Lead up to the Album:

              • Moore had been in a band called Skid Row. It was in that band he met Phil Lynott and they formed a friendship. They shared an apartment in Ballsbridge, a neighborhood in Dublin at the time.
              • The band was not related to the American band of the same name but there have been refuted claims that Gary Moore sold the name to Sebastian Bach, a claim others deny.
              • Phil left the band to start Thin Lizzy. In 1974 when guitarist Eric Bell left the band Gary Moore joined briefly, recording a few songs.  He left after a few months.
              • Moore went on to work on many other projects but rejoined Thin Lizzy in 1977 when Brian injured his hand in a bar fight. He recorded the album Black Rose: A Rock Legend with Thin Lizzy before leaving again, declining an offer to join permanently.
              • In 1978 Gary got a deal to do a solo album, his second after his 1973 album “Grinding Stone” billed as The Gary Moore Band.  At the same time he was recording with Phil on his solo album “Solo in Soho.”

              Core Band:

              • Bass – John Mole (tracks: A2, A3, A4)
                • Worked with Colosseum II
              • Bass, Vocals – Phil Lynott (tracks: B1, B2, B3, B4)
              • Drums – Brian Downey (tracks: B1, B2, B3, B4)
              • Simon Phillips (tracks: A1, A2, A3, A4)
                • Tsangarides: “Gary asked me if I knew any drummers so I got Simon Phillilps in, who was only a young kid at the time, but who I had worked with on a Jack Bruce album, and we did the bulk of the album in a week, all jazz instrumentals. Then Gary came in with this ghetto blaster and played me a song done with a drum machine, keyboards and a guitar solo. ‘What do you think of this?’”
                • The track he played was “Parisienne Walkways,” and he said Phil and Brian were coming to the studio to record it.
              • Guitar, Vocals – Gary Moore
              • Keyboards, Organ, Piano – Don Airey (tracks: A1, A2 A3, A4)

              Technical:

              SONY DSC

              Album Art & Booklet Review

              • Design [Sleeve] – Cream (7)
                • Huge design firm based in Amsterdam. Did album covers for The Bay City Rollers, Gentle Giant, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Deep Purple (Made in Europe), Uriah Heep, David Coverdale, and many, many more.
              • Photography By – Chalkie Davies
              SONY DSC

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              Album Tracks:

              All songs written by Gary Moore except where noted.

              Side One:

              1. Back on the Streets (Moore)
              2. Don’t Believe a Word (Lynott)
                • Drums – Brian Downey
                • Lead Vocals, Bass – Phil Lynott
                • Lead Vocals, Guitar – Gary Moore
                • Written-By – Lynott*
                • This song was a bit of an issue in Thin Lizzy. It was originally a 12-bar blues song and Brian Downey and Robertson did not like it and added a bit more to the song.  On this version it is simplified and Chris said in Sound on Sound, “I loved the simplicity and emptiness of it . . . it was a sort of Peter Green/Santana “Black Magic Woman”-type vibe.”
              3. Fanatical Fascists (Lynott)
              4. Flight of the Snow Moose (Instrumental) (Moore)

              Side Two:

              1. Hurricane (Instrumental) (Moore)
              2. Song for Donna (Moore)
                • Bass – John Mole
                • Drums – Simon Phillips
                • Keyboards – Don Airey
                • Lead Vocals, Guitar – Gary Moore
                • Written-By – Campbell*, Moore*
                • Donna Campbell was Gary Moore’s girlfriend of about five years. Also romantically linked to Mick Jagger. Jimmy Phantom of the Stray Cats, and even pre-Sharon Ozzy Osbourne. Was even once paid £1,000 to give a lap dance to Sylvester Stallone.
                • https://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/10638845.former-bridgwater-girl-was-model-muse-and-partied-with-mick-jagger-now-she-turns-60/
                • During the mixing of the track Tsangarides said he was at the desk and Ozzy Osbourne walked in with Bill Ward and Geezer Butler.  They were really interested in the track and asked him to play parts back to him.  He said Bill Ward then threw up in the garbage can and Ozzy pulled his pants down and chasing the tape op, Vic, around the room then ran straight into a wall. He went off to the hospital and Tony Iommi called asking what they’d done to Ozzy.  Apparently Ozzy had done so much cocaine that he couldn’t feel anything. He ended up showing back up at the studio later and while Tsangarides was trying to mix the song Ozzy tapped him on the shoulder and when Chris looked over Ozzy’s dick was on it. Tsangarides said that this was a “famous Ozzy trick.”
              3. What Would You Rather Bee or a Wasp (Instrumental) (Moore)
              4. Parisienne Walkways (Lynott, Moore)
                • Double Bass, Bass, Lead Vocals – Phil Lynott
                • Drums – Brian Downey
                • Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer, Mandolin, Accordion, Backing Vocals – Gary Moore
                • Written-By – Lynott*
                • This song had been something Don Airey and Moore had worked on in Colosseum II called “Biscayne Blues” which had been based on a Kenny Dorham song called “Blue Bossa.” a bossa nova style song.
                • The song had been intended to be an instrumental.
                • Tsangarides brought the demo of this to Phil’s house to play for him. Phil said it sounded “really French” and then began writing lyrics to it.
                • The opening line is “I remember Paris in ‘49.” Phil’s father’s name was Parris and Phil was born in 1949.
                • The whole track was recorded live in just a few takes. There was no click track and Gary played the solo in perfect time.  Phil overdubbed an accordion and the upright bass.Gary played a Solina string synth and a 12-string guitar on this track.

              Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

              Reception and Charts:

              • https://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/mcf2853
                • kimbozw
                  • For what the information may be worth, it charted in the UK on 03 Feb 1979 for one week at the princely position of No. 70. His highest album charter was the No. 4 peaked AFTER HOURS from 1992. This is according to the Virgin Books issued HIT ALBUMS covering the period 1956 to 2008 which I acquired on 13 June 2011 on a visit to London Town. The book cost me 6 quid which was a promotional price reduced from the previously priced 16 quid.
                • MicSmith
                  • Although this album is given a 1978 release date I believe it was released in January 1979, with the Back in the Streets single (a faded version of the album track) issued in December 1978.
                  • The single was originally to appear in October 1978 as per its listing on the 45cat page but I believe it was delayed until the December release.(See Martin C. Strong The Great Rock Discography).
                  • I was a big GM fan at this point and was eagerly awaiting the appearance of this record after the dissolution of Colosseum II and my strong recollection of knowing about the release of the album was seeing Gary and his Thin Lizzy friends appear on OGWT early in 1979. My brother bought the album on the back of this appearance and I taped it from his vinyl shortly after but before Parisienne Walkways was issued as a single. Also full page adverts for the album didn’t start to appear in the UK music papers until January 1979 another indication that it appeared that month.
                • Tsangarides says of the album: “It was a strange album . . . Colosseum II, Thin Lizzy and a bit of punk coming in because Paul Cook and Steve Jones shipped up and we did a few songs with them, which never came out.”

              Reviews

              • https://www.allmusic.com/album/back-on-the-streets-mw0000654670
                • Back on the Streets Review by Eduardo Rivadavia
                • 1979 was a busy year for Irish guitarist Gary Moore, who after years of seemingly aimless wandering across the musical landscape (including a flirtation with jazz-rock fusion while fronting G-Force) simultaneously re-launched his long-dormant solo career and became a full-time member of Thin Lizzy. Moore had originally agreed to help his old partner in crime Phil Lynott only temporarily, while longtime Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson recovered from a broken hand incurred in a barroom brawl. But due to Robbo’s increasing unreliability, Moore was persuaded to stay on and record Lizzy’s Black Rose album in exchange for Lynott‘s help in shaping his own solo effort, Back on the Streets. And a good trade it was, too, as with the exception of the title track’s gutsy hard rock, Lynott‘s singing and songwriting contributions wound up providing the album with its most coherent and satisfying moments. These included the highly amusing “Fanatical Fascists,” a mellow reworking of Lizzy’s “Don’t Believe a Word,” a whimsical acoustic ballad called “Spanish Guitar,” and the simply exquisite Moore tour de force “Parisienne Walkways.” Unfortunately, these are rudely interrupted by a number of misplaced instrumental fusion workouts (no doubt G-Force leftovers) and a terribly saccharine ballad called “Song for Donna.” Half winner, half dud, the album would at least serve notice of Moore’s rebirth as a solo artist, and he would show marked improvement on his next album, Corridors of Power.

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              Posted on

              Episode #247 – Whitesnake – Live in Ludwigshafen, Germany (1983)

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              <center></center>

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              Show Information:

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              Full show available on YouTube. Our episode where we TALK about the full show on YouTube? Banned!

              Original : Live Ludwigshafen 1983. 

              Setlist : 

              1. Walking in the Shadow of the Blues
              2. Rough an’ Ready
              3. Ready an’ Willing
              4. Don’t Break My Heart Again
              5. Here I Go Again
              6. Lovehunter
              7. Moody & Hodgkinsonn solo & blues
              8. Crying in the Rain
              9. Soldier of Fortune
              10. Keyboard solo
              11. Before I Forget
              12. Burntwood
              13. Drum solo
              14. 633 squadron
              15. 1812 Overture
              16. Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City
              17. Fool for Your Loving
              18. Thank You Blues
              19. Wine, Women and Song

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              Posted on

              Episode #246 – Colosseum II – Strange New Flesh (with Ian Desrosiers)

              Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84Tb5sTaVQ

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              Lead up to the Album:

              • Jon Hiseman had previously been in a band called Tempest. The band released two albums before breaking up. Out of its ashes arose Colosseum II.
              • Hiseman had previously had a band named Colosseum from 1968 to 1971. Colosseum II was intended to be more jazz-fusion based and as of the breakup of Tempest only Gary Moore was named as a member.
              • Gary had seen Tempest play at the end of April in 1974 at one of their last gigs at the Marquee. He went backstage and suggested that he and Hiseman form a band.
              • They hadn’t solidified working together or a project but met again at the recording of the rock version of Peter and The Wolf that JAck Lancaster and Robin Lumley were working on.
              • There they decided to form a band and they went to Germany to play with the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble (UJRE). This was a group of very highly trained musicians. Gary was nervous about playing with them as he would have been one of the only ones that didn’t read music.
              • Hiseman called Moore a “modern player” rather than a blues player and ranked him higher than Clapton for that reason.  Hiseman defined him as a true original.
              • Gary said in an interview in Sounds magazine: “The first time I played with Jon, I alwmost fell through the floor. He played everything I’ve always heard in my head, everything that I thought a drummer should play and a lot more besides. It was just astonishing.”
              • The goal was to fuse strong songs and vocals with technical jazz rock.  Gary stated that there were bands that had a great jazz-fusion background and bands with great vocalists but no one that was doing both.
              • They got a loan for 7,000 as they didn’t have any gigs or a manager and used that to pay Gary 10 a week.
              • They rehearsed in a studio underneath railway arches in London.  Mark Clarke and Graham Bell were brought in. Mark left shortly thereafter to join Uriah Heep’s keyboardist Ken Hensley and Graham Bell left softly thereafter. Andy Pyle also played with them briefly.
              • Eventually they found a singer, Mike Starrs but they struggled to find a keyboard player.
              • Gary dealt with a lot of fear and anxiety and used alcohol to cope with it.  During this time Gary and his girlfriend donna went to a bar and ran into one of Donna’s ex boyfriends.  They got into an altercation and Gary got his face smashed with a bottle which lead to his signature chin scar.  They went to the hospital but Gary wouldn’t even let the doctor finish stitching it up.
              • In April or May of 1975 Jon and Gary found Don Airey. Airey had been in Cozy Powell’s Hammer with Neil Murray. Neil had been auditioning for bands but had a short scale bass and thought he wasn’t getting gigs because he didn’t look professional.  He said that he was able to get a Precision Bass before auditioning for Colosseum II and that’s what got him the job.
              • Gary said that he and Don didn’t see eye to eye on the composition. Gary would do things on piano and Don would tell him that you couldn’t do that.  They eventually figured out a way to work together and create music and Gary would do a very good job of communicating what he wanted to hear to Don.
              • Mike Starrs said that they music was “completely alien” to him.
              • Hiseman went to Gerry Bron who had financed Tempest to get support for the new project.
              • Up until this point the band was being called Ghosts and Bron said that had to change.  He urged Jon to reprise the name fo Colosseum and they changed their name.  They entered Gerry Bron’s Roundhouse studios to record the album in August of 1975. According to Harry Shapiro in the official Gary Moore biography. It was recorded between August and January.
              • Wikipedia states the album was recorded in the winter of 1975-1976 at Roundhouse Studios.
                • London based recording studio, properly titled “Roundhouse Recording Studios”, established in 1975 by Gerry Bron. It was the studio arm of Bronze Records. Bron formed this studio after producing Uriah Heep’s debut album “Very ‘Eavy Very ‘Umble.”
                • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Bron
              • Jon said Gary never really understood players like John McLaughlin or Larry Coryell. When it finally flicked and he could understand what they were doing is when his playing really took off. Jon had a jazz background and got Gary listening to Coltrane and Roland Kirk.
              • Don Airey said that it was at this time that Gary’s playing reached a peak. Don Airey compared Gary’s peak and how he maintained it to Oscar Peterson.

              Core Band:

              Technical:

              • Engineer – Ashley Howe
                • Worked with Uriah Heep, Snafu, Spencer Davis Group, Babe Ruth, Ken Hensley, David Byron, 
              • Engineer [Assistant] – John Gallen
              • Engineer [Assistant] – Trevor Hallesy
                • Also worked with a lot of the same artists as well as Peter Frampton.

              Album Art & Booklet Review

              • Design – Ian Emes
                • Did album covers for Roger Waters, Duran Duran, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Manfred Mann, 

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              Album Tracks:

              Side One:

              1. Dark Side of the Moog (Airey/Moore)
                • Track is in 13/8 and features the piano, organ, and synthesizers.
              2. Down to You (Joni Mitchell)
                • The album’s title was taken from one of the lyrics in the Joni Mitchell song. Gary was a huge Joni Mitchell fan. Hiseman said, “I get shivers listening to this . . . we took the melody and did it in different ways. From where the piano comes in, it is all arranged by Don and we have used Joni’s song as a piece of musical theatre . . . it develops in an orchestral way and I feel lucky to have the musicians who can play this.”
              3. Gemini and Leo (Moore/Hiseman)

              Side Two:

              1. Secret Places (Moore/Hiseman)
              2. On Second Thoughts (Moore)
              3. Winds (Moore/Hiseman)

              Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

              Reception and Charts:

              • The album was released in April of 1976 but did not chart.

              Reviews

              • Chris Welch called the album “an imaginative and exuberant debut.”
              • Gary and Jon were not thrilled with the album. They referred to it as a studio performance and called it “dead.”

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              For Further Information:

              Listener Mail/Comments

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