What is the most common reason for bands breaking up? It has to be 'musical differences'. But what does this mean? As somoene who has played in a band for 46 years, run a successful music studio for the same period and knows a whole stack of musicians, some of whom are household names, one thing I learned early on, is that it almost never means as disagreement about music. The early history of the False Dots was littered with people leaving, getting fired, splits and arguements. When we got back together in 2000, I don't think anyone has left due to 'musical differences'. People moved on, moved away or couldn't get to rehearsals or gigs. It has all been extremely civilised. One of the greatest myths is that bands are all mates, sometimes the opposite is true. The Ramones branded themselves as brothers, but Joey and Johnny didn't speak for decades due to Johnny stealing Joey's girflriend. However, they still played together, doing thousands of gigs, while nursing a deep personal enmity. Joey even wrote a song called "The KKK took my baby away" as a dig at Johnny, which Johnny was quite happy to play. There clearly were no 'musical differences' in The Ramones. Or maybe, their lack of commercial success meant they were just lumbered with each other.
I've heard all manner of stories from the stars who use our studios, as to exactly what the "musical differences" really were. Sadly it would be highly unprofessional to share these. What sometimes strikes me as odd, is that when there have been massive fallouts, especially where the band was together for a long time, is an almost shizophrenic view of the other party. There is often a huge sense of betrayal, but when you dig deeper and talk about incidents in the distant past, they are invariably recalled with a degree of love. Anyone who has ever formed a band with someone as a kid, will understand this. When I was getting The False Dots together with Pete Conway, it was a hugely intense relationship. This was not in anyway sexual, but writing songs, going to gigs together, learning to play instruments together, recruiting other members, rehearsing were all very intense experiences. The first song we wrote that really worked was Not All She Seems. The feeling we got as we played it with a drummer for the first time, was intoxicating, a hugely spiritual experience. I am not entirely sure that we liked each other as people though. We were just passengers on a musical journey. When Pete jumped off unexpectedly, I felt hugely betrayed. The fact he has never really given me a satisfactory explanation for not turning up for our first gig, didn't help. His excuse? He went to the pub and lost track of time? I am sure if anyone ever asked him, he'd say "musical differences".
In 1983, we had another big break up. This was probably the nearest thing to musical differences. Three of the members of the band, Craig, Bill and Eleanor felt that I was not up to it musically and that they were far too good for me. For my part, I felt that they were not 'rock and roll'. I felt that I was doing them a favour letting them be in my wonderful band. Craig (guitar) and Bill (drums) were great musicians, but neither had a single original idea between them. They did a wonderful job of interpreting the songs I wrote, but I felt that if they didn't have direction, they'd be as dull as dishwater. Our bassplayer, Paul agreed with me. I know that sounds terribly arrogant, but it was honestly how I felt. Their failure to do anything with their 'new band' after they left, for me, at the time vindicated my stance. Within three months, we had a new band and were back, better than ever. I would have been intrigued to hear what they came up with. The sad truth for them was that none of them had the drive to kick people's asses, get rehearsals together, book gigs, take tough decisions on how songs should be put together or even what songs to do. Craig was a fantastic guitarist, a good musical arranger and a passable singer. In fairness to him, he was a real asset in the time he was in the band. Oddly, when it actually came to getting songs together, he was great, hugely enthusiastic. I suspect that it was Eleanor who convinced him that he was "too good for the False Dots". As for Bill, he was an easy going chap who clearly recognised that Criag was a better guitarist and didn't really didn't get all of the other things needed to be in a band.
The next big break up happened about 18 months later. That most definitely wasn't musical differences. It was because I'd made a sully decision to share a flat with two other band members and I am probably the worst person on the planet to share a flat with! That is the best way to discover 'musical differences'. What is interesting talking to some of our higher profile clients, who have been through 'musical differences' is that when you get down to it, it is very hard to hang around in close proximity with a bunch of people for long periods, without them irritating you intensely. You also, sometimes, see them behave badly. Sometimes you see them be beastly to partners and when you console the partner, this develops into something that causes a ll sorts of rifts. Usually these are irrepairable, but some bands manage to put these grudges aside, so as to not shoot the goose that lays the golden egg. The 1960's relationship between Mick Jagger/KeithRichards/Marriane Faithful/Anita Pallenberg is a good example of this.
It must be mentioned that being involved with some musicians is rather like being in a toxic relationship. I have one mate who played for decades with a globally recognised artist of some repute. His efforts were never appreciated and some of the acts of spite directed towards him were truly unbelieveable. My friend put up with it as he was relatively well paid and was given a degree of creative independence. When the parting of the ways did come, it was almost like a liberation for my friend. To this day, the star still strings him along a little bit, as an insurance policy. Fortunately, my friend still gets decent royalty cheques. I was discussing the situation with another mate, who happens to play with Marc Almond. He was telling me how lovely Marc is an how the contrast couldn't be bigger. It is not a given that a superstar will be a nasty person.
Of course, there are times when a musician wants to move on and do something different. Perhaps Paul Weller is the best example of this. He split the Jam up at the height of their powers, to form The Syle Council. It was immediately clear that Style Council was not The Jam MkII. Apparently, when Rick Buckler heard the demos of what Weller was doing with The Style Council, his response was "You split up the Jam for this?". Rumour has it that this was the end of any prospect of them working together.
Often bands evolve and their true musical preferences emerge, sometimes you wonder how they ever collaborated in the first place! A good exampe is The Small Faces were one of the iconic 1960's mod bands. Steve Marriott was fed up with the direction they were taken, so quit to play heavier and more serious blues rock, in Humble Pie. He was replaced by Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and the band morphed into The Faces. As Rod Stewart had a separate solo contract, this fuelled a degree of resentment. The band became Rod Stewart and The Faces, with Stewart then going solo. Rod Stewart became a fully fledged pop star, Ronnie Wood joined The Rolling Stones as a hired hand, Ronnie Lane kept the neckerchief rock flag flying with Slim Chance, a brilliant band. Kenny Jones returned to his Mod roots, joining The Who and Ian MacLagan, who's keyboard work defined the sound of the 1960's for many Mods worked as a session player mainly. In my humble opinion (pardon the pun), The Small Faces and The Faces are two of the most important British bands, The Small Faces defining the sound of Mod London and the Faces almost inventing Neckechief Rock and exemplifying early 1970's British rock and roll at it's best. Not bombastic, tuneful, melodious, but most of all great fun.
What is clear to me, looking at The Small Faces/Faces, is that when you get a group of talented and diverse musicians, with deep musical differences, it can make something absolutely brilliant. I personally don't think any of the musicians listed above has done anything better. So perhaps, if you are an impressario out there and you want to make the perfect band, get five people who don't particularly like each other, but are hugely creative talented musicians and lock them in the studio for six months. It will end in tears, but before it does, it may well make some of the best music you'll ever hear.
-----
I thought I'd end this episode with the one recording The False Dots made with Eleanor, Craig, Bill Paul and myself. This was released on a compilation called Directions, released by 101 records in 1983. By the time the album came out, this line up was long gone. It was a very strange period for the False Dots. This was an attempt to make a Blondie-esque pop song. I hadn't quite got the nack of writing cheerful lyrics at the time! There was a degree of dark humour in making such a miserable song sound so flowery. It worked for The Smiths, but not so well for us! As we said, we didn't think Craig or Eleanor were rock and roll. Paul lent Craig (2nd left) his jumper and I lent Eleanor my leather jacket for the photo shoot.
No comments:
Post a Comment