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Leamington Letters #54: keeping music live (-ish)

7/10/2013

17 Comments

 
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Clayton from the cover of his new album. My pictures of the evening are less than sharp.
The late Tony Wilson once told me about booking some mega-American band for the Haçienda. Actually, he told loads of people, because I think he repeated the story in his book, 24 Hour Party People; but he told me first over a glass of wine (me) and a pint of lager and a joint (him).

Tony was my best man at my first wedding - Chris Dark had turned me down - and his taste in music was still developing in parallel with his self-regard. At this stage, he had moved on from  Carol King’s Tapestry, his regular listening while the rest of us were focused on the Dead, and the Airplane, and Bob, and the Velvets; but his obsession with punk and rave was more opportunistic than instinctive. (One would never use the word ‘genuine’ in the same sentence as ‘Tony Wilson’.)

Anyway, the one thing that was constant in Tony's life was his hatred of jazz in all its manifestations. And this mega-American band who were costing Tony (or rather, New Order) “mega-bucks”, took to the stage more stoned than the audience, and played ... jazz! Tony told me he was so disgusted that he pulled the plug on them, though he doesn't mention this in the book. 

The point of all this is that we had an analogous situation in Wilde's on Sunday night, the occasion being the 37th birthday of the bar. Several months ago, my wonderfully generous friend John Myers had arranged for “Mick n Keef” from the cover band Stones to perform a greatest hits set appropriate for the Wilde's demographic. It his birthday present to Wilde's - and it was keenly anticipated, to say the least.

Except that ten minutes before we were due to open, John called to say that they were not coming. No reason. They had just decided not to come.

Shanade Morrow, singer, song-writer and waitress extraordinaire, went to work on the phones. Within half an hour, the best and the brightest of the Leamington music scene, including Clayton Denwood who played with The Band in Woodstock and Thom Kirkpatrick, who has played with everyone else, were on their way.

Meanwhile, Geof, the embarrassed manager of the Stones, had also been on the phone. And, unbeknown to us and at short notice, he managed to acquire the services of a crooner of a certain age who marketed himself as a Billy Fury sound-alike. What's more, Billy Fury arrived first and set up his karaoke machine of backing tracks and proceeded to belt out a Herman's Hermits song. Which was kinda fun. Until the next one and the next one and the next one.

With a dozen musicians (defined for these purposes as people who play their own instruments and write original material) hanging around having given up their evening to help us, it rapidly became something of an issue. Some people left, many complained, and others, including myself, took to drink and, for the first time in months, tobacco. It took Jill - who is less timid than am I – to take action and request that he cut his act short to give others a chance.

The others took their chance. They jammed, sang and played a series of excellent sets which kept a hundred of us on the dance floor and in awe.

This is not musical snobbery. ’Billy Fury’ knows what he is doing and does it well. But it is not what Wilde's is about. It is the very antithesis of the live music which Wilde's wishes to promote.

Fortunately, the last few hours of the evening developed in the right spirit with some superb acoustic guitar work from Jason and Clayton, plus some great vocals, some great sax from Ono, and - at the end - some brilliant Stones covers from Thom Kirkpatrick, the 21st century one-man-band.

So us oldies eventually got our Stones. As well as our Dead, our Dylan, and our Herman's Hermits!

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.

Our thanks to all the musicians, to Myers, to Geof, to Shanade, to Ollie and Rachel, and to Richard for his canapés. And to all those who came out on a school night to help us celebrate, especially Pinky and James for their great card.

Today from the everysmith vault: Clayton's new album, To Whom It May Concern. It's new to the vault and, on first listening, it's more than worthy of its place in it.

17 Comments
David
7/10/2013 09:42:08

Ha ha! Sounds like quite a night. Happy birthday, Wilde's. I'll make it there one day.

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Max
9/10/2013 02:57:32

You will be very welcome. Please make yourself known to me.

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Allan
7/10/2013 10:14:09

Jeez. You and Tony Wilson must have been a post-modernist's nightmare. The issue of music is pretty topical at this time of year. Sounds as if your Billy Fury was doing an X Factor act. The staple of pubs throughout the land. And in that context, nothing wrong with it. What is weird is Billy fury doing Herman's hermits!

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Max
9/10/2013 03:00:50

I think the X Factor parallel is right. And one can understand why so many musicians loathe the programme. I don't - loathe it, I mean. But I do prefer to see live music. Which is remarkably rare on TV. I remember our friends Luke and John (Nizlopi) causing a stir on Top of the Pops when they insisted on playing their JCB Song live rather than miming!

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MichaelMac
7/10/2013 10:40:42

I'm in the bad live music is better than piped music camp but there is an issue about these karaoke acts taking space and gigs from the real live musicians, especially the kid who cannot get anywhere to play. Personally, it's the decks which I hate. Your mate famously praised the DJ. Not the music but the medium. It was a message I guess, but not a welcome one.

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Anders
7/10/2013 11:21:21

The political issue here is that decks democratised music. There was no need for recording contracts, agents, musical skills, talent. Anyone could do it and anyone did. And as in so many spheres, there were occasional serendipitous moments to punctuate the hours of tedium. Equally, I get the fact that there are great singers out there who can't play an instrument and why shouldn't they rely on backing tracks rather than hire an expensive band to eat up the paltry sums that venues pay them? I think, Max, that there is an element of musical snobbery here, despite your protestations.

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Max
9/10/2013 03:05:51

No, really. It's not to my taste, but that is not about being a musical snob. And it is true that I think backing tracks are lazy and sloppy forms of music-making. Like over-oaking a wine. I take the point about opening up the musical field to all. As someone who deliberately gave up my poor attempts at music-making as soon as I realised I was rubbish, I'm not always sure that this is a good thing in practice, however appealing it is in theory.

Ann P Wood
7/10/2013 11:25:00

flipping heck Max Smith - what a drama:-) Love Billy Fury and Herman's Hermits - but love the live music more xx

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Max
9/10/2013 03:06:53

Always amazed at your catholic, eclectic tastes! Yep, we managed to make a drama out of a crisis!

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Phil
7/10/2013 13:46:09

Backing tracks usually means background tracks. This is the thing about music in pubs, bars, restaurants. Are people there for the music or the food (and drink)?
Bet you no-one ate at Dylan's sets at The Supper Club in 1993. They were there for the music. How does your Mondays unplugged stuff go? Do people get the eating and music vibe? It's very jazz. Very Ronnie Scott's.

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Max
9/10/2013 03:10:37

This is a good point. Mondays Unplugged is up and down, and a lot depends on the act. More standing at the bar than full-on meals most of the time. I don't think I could have eaten had I been at The Supper Club. Or drank for that matter. I suspect jazz noodling is more appropriate for eating than a band which entertains and challenges.

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Mark
8/10/2013 01:44:35

Are these the guys playing the Assembly in the spring? £17 a ticket!

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Max
9/10/2013 03:11:58

I think so, but The Assembly gig is the full band playing electric rather than Mick n Keef playing 'stripped'.

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Friend of Wilde's
8/10/2013 03:56:07

It's Myers I feel sorry for.

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Max
9/10/2013 03:13:21

Me too. It is a very generous - one would expect nothing less of the man - gesture and I would be surprised if he didn't feel very let down.

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Rick H
9/10/2013 02:47:33

From reading your account of the event, it seems like there might be a cinematic opportunity here.

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Max
9/10/2013 03:15:09

As I said, I am working on a script - or rather, trying to get down on paper what was going on - and will write in a cameo role for you!

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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