Leave a scar

So it’s a historical one you want, it’s a historical one you shall have, are you sitting comfortably then I will begin.

I have written many words regarding my brief sojourn in the music industry, within this blog and the last one in books as well, let’s hope I don’t trip over the scars of the written word of old.

I had been writing songs with friends since the age of 14 and I will be naming them over the course of this and many other blogs to come, I had a knack for penning a word or two, I also was pretty good at rewriting other people’s mistakes, some people were pure genius at writing music and melodies but could barely string two words together, I had got my start after witnessing a friends (soon to be my) friends band in Witton Gilbert club and I laughed at the naïve lyrics about a certain Lucinda sitting by a window, the amount of law suits that could have stemmed from that one song would have ham strung the individuals careers for years, the song was originally called The Knight Of La Maar, very Michael Moorcock, simply because he had written stories about said Knight, I thought I was going to get stabbed because I was howling in derision at the faux paus, I was asked if I thought I could do better, “hell yeah” was my reply, 17 sets of different lyrics 7 days later and all of them promptly rejected, however with some discussion bits from various sets soon formed into a 7 minute wonder called Crusader, with a very Diamond Head with Yngwie J Malmsteen on guitar kind of feel, it had something and it’s the one song I wish I had a copy of because it left a scar that remains to this day!

My (musical) friends then realised I could work at a voracious rate, sometimes up to ten sets of lyrics a week, for various people in different styles of rock, although I did do a number of songs in a “pop” style, now I’m not going to say they were all brilliant, they weren’t, simply the amount of songs that came off my assembly line should indicate that quality did sometimes suffer, but for a jobbing writer they were pretty damn good, I always found the longer I worked on the lyric the more I was unhappy with it, I soon wrote for a group of friends, Mainly John Case and Steve Ridley (more of John Case to come in future blogs) we were simply machines mainly writing as a threesome we soon settled into a tried and trusted formula, still the best people who I ever wrote with, we had an understanding and a short hand that only we got, others would just shake their head at the speed we worked, thankfully between the three of us our quality control was always set to the “highest” mark we could attain.

Mike Cooke thought he was Mr Blackmore and was doing Yngwie impersonation’s long before Yngwie had even released anything, a phenomenal talent but couldn’t write a song to save his life, however he could take somebody else’s music and blow it out of the water, he signed to Atlantic records back in 1982, I believe they are still waiting for his debut album, a fantastic musician who has over the years worked with and for millions of known artists who he could out play just about anybody simply by using his thumb, thankfully he learnt humility and ended up working and living for Ibanez and then Yamaha in Japan.

Gary Shaw a great talent who again thought he was Gary Moore and couldn’t write a note by himself but pair him with someone and the tunes flowed from him, he was great to work with and nothing was too precious an idea, all things would soon be worked out. Whistle something at Gary even just a simple melody and he could turn it into just about anything, Gary knew what his limits where and he worked within them, Gary did do an album which was released only in Japan, a great side man again for other artists, we used to call him the Duracell Bunny because he would just keep going and going, sadly he’s no longer with us, I still miss him, many a time we would try and get back to our flat in Hammersmith after a night out, good times!

Simon Fox who was a genius on the keyboard, who was always willing to help me out no matter what time of the day, I remember going to a wedding at a stately home where he was playing and he was ejected for playing on an antique harpsichord, and his party piece of imitating other keyboard players style was hilarious Kraftwerk playing Child in Time was a hoot! All of my big ballads were written with Simon’s help.

Phil Craig who I co-wrote every song he ever wrote (and he never held it against me) and his band Satellite who I loved but they had more line-up changes than Uriah Heep, a band who I auditioned for myself simply to help them out, when their regular singer (and another song writing collaborator Steve Newton) was out with a serious throat operation, I did 4 weeks of rehearsals then a full dress rehearsal (which was videoed and I didn’t know until the lights went up, along with a group of friends sitting quietly as I did my stage raps as though I was playing Madison Square gardens, mortified me you could say that , and they did often) with mini ramps and lights and stuff, (oh dear I hope that never sees the light of day, I’m still cringing to this day) I enjoyed every single minute of it but thankfully Steve Newton returned to save the day, it was at this point I knew I should stick to writing lyrics, although I did try again with several other friends bands, bands who were starting out at the bottom of the ladder to where my particular vocal talents were deserved,  again I can remember some auditions were I would go off into incomprehensible Prog rock lyrics, I should have been horse whipped ah bless, Phil was a great foil to write with, but to me it was simply a poor man’s UFO and he could never see that, mind you he did pay on time so I never complained .

Tom Willis was just a monster on bass but could the best doom laden riffs he developed his own studio in Canterbury after getting turned down by Black Sabbath at the time they were recording the Headless Cross album. I knew so many people who were so talented and made a brilliant living in the music industry they just never made that big step to the next level, mind you some didn’t want to!

These are just some of the friends that I wrote with on a regular basis, these are the people who helped get me my first publishing deal just as I joined the army, they must have realised I was destined for other things as they kept the faith, shepherding me to follow them to down to London and sharing that flat in Hammersmith that was a palace for all who lived(dossed) there with a fab landlord, we knew we had landed on our feet, so we treated the place like a palace and as a consequence lived there very cheaply on and off for three years. We were young lads; well I was, as I was a good three or four years younger than them, many tales of drunkenness and thankfully not many of debauchery, we were well mannered and well liked in the street were we lived, the local restaurants loved us, as we all had expense accounts and we could entertain at least once a week and claim it back, so we were well fed, not like some of the people I know who went to the big smoke and ended up in Croydon and they suffered for their art, do the crime do the time (where I would end eventually), I worked plenty but there was always some down time, sometimes I temped for per diems at record companies, I rarely went hungry, there was always the promo copies that we all used to sell.

The three years were a blur if I’m honest, good times and gigs, an extended kind of family that I wasn’t really used to, these people also bore the brunt of my early dark years after coming out of the army and they held me together with love as opposed to brown paper and string. Very rarely was there a time a time when we didn’t or couldn’t get tickets to go and see who ever we wanted, Bryan Adams supporting Tina Turner, we did all 14 nights and never got to see Tina Turner once, the time I begged for some tickets to see one Stevie Wonder gig, only to be told not to bug this person anymore, only to bug them (like they said I would) for the other 5 nights LOL!

The Jaunts back north were often and I still kept in touch with my friends and family, then the dreaded females crept into the picture and then that’s when some of us started to fragment, my first wife didn’t like my working lifestyle (but loved the lifestyle and the money that came with it) she didn’t stick around too long once my musical life came to a crashing halt, but she only whinged at me and not my friends who individually she liked she thought we were a pack of arseholes when we all got together “I beg your pardon how very dare you! (I resemble that remark) a long time ago and many of the Dawn Patrol have fallen behind away from the streetlights, gone but not forgotten.

Do I miss it hell yeah I do, but thirty years down the line, I wouldn’t have lasted much longer for reasons that I will elaborate in future blogs, my time was done and I was starting to wish that I could write epics in the style of Fish, which I couldn’t, and I was getting frustrated with my inability to write a classic, ho hum me have an ego, no not really, I was simply trying to be cleverer than I thought I was. The amount of distance is bound to make me nostalgic for the good times, but life has moved on, I probably couldn’t write a decent lyric if my life depended on it, you have to know which battles or even wars to fight and win, my day was done, I don’t have the hair or the waistline to contemplate a return, I enjoyed what I did and what I had. Let’s move on gracefully, yes lets!

So this is the basis of the next few blogs I need to do a bit of research so that I simply do not repeat what I have written before (my head is a shed ………..full of shit) in blogs or the books, having said that not everybody got the books so I might recycle depending on the demand from some of the books although they will be altered so as not just to be lifted directly from the original text(sorry Dave) remastered is the term that the record companies use, so I hope that this fits the bill, numbers are roughly the same so there could be another one in about three or four days, so watch the skies, incoming , but until then Toodles!