Arc of the curve

The wife is under the assumption that when I worked in the music biz that it was glamorous, and fun all the time and although it could be, most of the time it was hard slog and lots of travel. I worked at the bottom end of the market dealing with people who were just getting there start in the game or people who had no chance but kept plugging away anyway. Most of the time I kept my head down and just got on with it.

I got a lot of commissions through my friends and the odd referral (and yes if somebody referred me they were definitely odd) it was hard work sometimes, especially when the people who you were working with for the first time found out that you couldn’t play an instrument or even sing hahahaha! sometimes I played that card just to see the reaction on their faces. But I had a good reputation for my work ethic and I will proudly admit to never failing on a job, I might have done some crap work but I never failed.

One of those commissions was for a friend Steve Ridley who was producing a demo for a liverpudlian band who at the time went by the name of China (now for legal reasons I do not intend to name individuals or even what the band changed its name to at a later date for what should be obvious reasons further on down the line) they had got seven days booked at a studio and although the initial interviews were not overly promising, Steve thought he could do something with them. from the time of him agreeing to the time of the actual sessions one of the guitarists had left and took the best two songs with him and the remaining guitarist had turned into an ego maniac, Steve got in touch with me and asked if I could help him come up with some suitable material otherwise his reputation could take a hit so I jumped on a train and headed north, my publisher had agreed a small advance from the record label (RCA) and I was to get per diems, a hotel had been agreed on and I was over the moon when I discovered it was one I had used before so I would give the doorman some money and he would give me a bill for my stay (oops busted) in reality this was the best for me because it would have been wasted time travelling backwards and forwards to the hotel. While I stayed in the studio eating the food there and crashing where ever I could. This wasn’t going to be too bad as over a third of the songs I have ever written were written with Steve.

I got to the studio and found the place in chaos! the bands manager fancied the guitarist and that was why his ego was being allowed to run riot, but at the cost of the band disintegrating as I walked through the door. For some reason the manager managed to salvage the situation with the record company and the run went ahead, all the while me and Steve were trying to cherry pick some of our previously written songs to fit with the description (a poppier version of John Parr) we had five that suited the bill and so the band (or what was left of them) started recording, Steve was able to bring in a friend to sing for them a well known and respected (again I won’t name name’s for legal reasons) singer and a person who I was a big fan of, he turned up and sang ten songs in two days the man was a star but as always I’m getting ahead of myself, normally Steve would have walked at this point but he wouldn’t have got paid and it was his reputation on the line so we did what we did best we knuckled down and cracked on.

Soon we were a keyboard player and bass player down, this just left the guitarist and drummer so it became a total vanity project, but at least with Steve doing everything else the guy couldn’t argue, these are your parts fuck off and learn them or else was the theme of the day! We still had to come up with more songs but me and Steve had a very relaxed way of working and we trusted each other so there wasn’t ever any conflict in fact I don’t think we ever had a crossed word while working, one or two when I was pissed, but never while we were working. So we set about doing our thing and I have to admit it was a bit of a blur and to this day I don’t know how Steve did what he did, we both stayed in the studio 24/7 and with the exception of the odd bout of blinking we did ok, and by the Thursday we had the structure of the demo sorted but what we didn’t have was a ballad and we had nothing up our sleeves  that would fit, we were a screwed goose and it looked like we were going to have to find a cover version to do the job. It was also at this time that Steve admitted defeat and threw his hands up producing, writing, playing bass and keyboards were taking their toll on him (although on the last day he did throw in a saxophone solo on one of the songs) and at short notice Simon Fox one of our Keyboard playing friends agreed to turn up on the last day to do any covering work that we thought might be required, Simon is an awesome player who has backed many famous recording artists right up to now.

We were due to finish on the Friday night and on the Thursday “Dave” the vocalist turned up and ripped through the songs like the true pro that he was, and had seven of the nine backing tracks completed by ten at night he bade us farewell and headed to a nice warm bed. Then me and Steve struggled on as best we could although at around midnight I had had enough and curled up asleep under the mixing desk as it was the warmest place in the studio using my combat jacket as a pillow I was soon off in the land of nod. Well actually not quite I dozed but I was annoyed by the fact we didn’t have a ballad I hated being beat, but we had nothing and it was affecting me going to sleep, well it did until I heard a whispered conversation between Steve and his girlfriend on the telephone, now I didn’t want to eavesdrop and if it had been anything really personal I would have coughed and made him aware, but the conversation was simply “ballad” gold I lay under the mixing desk scribbling notes, I then sleep the sleep of the righteous well up till about eight the next morning, when Simon walked through the door and I walked him through what I had, Steve was out like a light he had kept mixing well into the early hours. We did a quick run through and though it was rough around the edges it was good (it’s still in my top five of songs that I have written) “Dave” made some suggestions and it was a winner with even the ego maniac agreeing that he liked it we then poked Steve with a big stick to wake him up and he insisted that he have a shower before continuing and we all made a song and dance about being short of time and all the costs but we were really just teasing him, while he was in the shower we did a quick run through of the ballad and were satisfied with the arrangement, Steve came back and rattled through the remaining songs with “Dave” then after lunch we had to decide upon a cover version when Simon said he had an idea and with “Dave” they ran through it, it was at the chorus point I had to make a run for it as he realised that all the key phrases of the song were in fact of all of the key phrases of  his conversation with his girlfriend, but he soon calmed down when he realised that the song was in fact the best of the ten recorded although even if I say it myself they were the best songs I have ever written never mind had recorded.

Because of all the turmoil we were given an added day for extra mixing and the A&R guys from RCA came down to the studio and it was thumbs up all around, I didn’t get to see that as I had all ready moved onto my next project a band called “Indian Dawn” which again paid well but wasn’t my cup of tea, although I’m told by my PRS royalties that it did all right in France which was good as it came in handy when the time was right! We all moved on and did loads of work and some of us forgot all about it, some of us had problems and ended up getting proper jobs (ok that would be me and hopefully that will be another chapter) indeed it was over eighteen months before the project would raise its head once again. Although I had left the “business” I still got free tickets and promo’s the things that generally go with the trappings of the trade and I had a tendency to throw them in the corner if I didn’t know or care who they are! That was until one morning when a certain irate person turned up with a record in his hands ranting and raving like a lunatic (erm that would be Steve).

The upshot of it was that although the record company liked the songs and they weren’t aware that the ego maniac hadn’t any written of the songs that survived on the demo, “Dave” became a paid lead vocalist for the length of the project and they secured a support for Meatloaf and they were playing a venue close to us that very night, what was suspicious the record he held in his hand did look familiar although the name of the group didn’t, they had been “remodelled” with shorter hair and more modern clothes as opposed to leather jackets and jeans! Upon closer look of the credits our names were nowhere to be found not even in the writing credits although the songs that “Dave” had made some suggestions on and we had offered credits his name was there alongside the ego maniacs, this was going to get messy!

We arrived at the city hall as the load in was taking place and although we had tickets we didn’t have any passes so we had to wait until we saw somebody we knew in the crew or in the band and low and behold who walks in but Simon who was being a roadie for Meatloaf’s keyboard player and Steve went into rant mode which put Simon in a happy mood as he would have been liable for better studio fees! Just then “Dave” walked in and was happy to see us at first, and he got us in and then listened to our gripes although we had promo copies of the album, the album wasn’t out until the end of the month although the ballad had been released as a single. “Dave” was shocked when we pointed out the credits and said he would have a word, just as the manager walked through the door saw us and did a u turn and did a runner with Simon in hot pursuit and then about two minutes later the ego maniac walked in and got the full brunt of a rather large Steve who was annoyed! The ego maniac looked at us with contempt and when he turned around and said we had done nothing they were his songs! I believe it’s the first time I ever saw a guitar player walk on stage with a huge black eye, we were ejected two songs in for abusing said guitar player!

They just about managed to get to the end of the tour but where served with several writs and once RCA realised what the actual truth were they dropped them as quick as they could. to give “Dave” credit he had wanted to leave on the day of finding out but legal obligations meant he had to stay as long as the tour was going, although the initial pressings of vinyl and Cd’s were released I soon saw them in bargain bins I wish I had bought a CD copy but I still have my vinyl version. The album was an exact copy of the demo’s with no extra polish and allegedly the record label had paid a shed load for the album to be recorded, I’m reliably informed that the ego maniac and the manager got married and bought a lovely house on what was left (as in all of it because they didn’t rerecord anything) and the court case ran on for a few years until I couldn’t afford to continue and right up until Steve died in 1991.

The moral of the story is that over the years I have worked with loads of people who at the time couldn’t kiss my arse enough to help save their “project” but after the fact they left me and the others like me in the dust it’s why in the end I opted for the greater fee rather than have to fight for my credit and any monies owed because most people in the game have a tendency to be a bunch of robbing lying bastards which is why I got the hell out of dodge when I did, I loved my time doing what I did but to be honest there were some dodgy times let’s hope I can try and dredge the sludge of my brain and come up with some more!