Thursday, 26 June 2025

Rock and Roll Stories #37 - The art of re-invention

Last night, I went to see Stereophonic, a West End play (not very) loosely based on the story of the recording of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. 


This series is not about reviews, it's about my experiences of being in The False Dots since 1979, and the stories that sprang up over the years from the band. It might seem very strange to anyone who has just recently learned about the band and I am sure it will come as a shock to many to learn of the pivotal influence of Fleetwood Mac on the band! Let me explain.......

Cast you mind back to July 1982 (if you can remember that far back). The band had just parted company with our drummer Mark Barnett. Myself, Paul Hircombe and Craig Withecombe were trying to work out a way forward. Music was in a rather strange, post punk state. One of my punk heroes, Captain Sensible of The Damned was No 1 in the charts. Vindication? Not at all. He had recorded a version of Happy Talk, from the musical South Pacific. It had always been one of my Dad's favourite songs. Watching The Captain perform it on Top of The Pops, with my parents telling me "We love Captain Sensible, he knows a good song when he hears one and knows how to have fun!". My Dad, to my absolute horror, suggested that it was time for The False Dots to do a similar re-invention. He told us about how he'd seen Oklahoma on Broadway in 1942, when he'd been in New York and suggested that there were some banging tunes to check out. Reinvention.... 

I went for a beer with Paul to discuss the future. We went to a pub in Maida Vale, then around the corner to visit his mate Shawn, who had a Squat near there. A cup of tea and smoke ensured. As often happened, a hippy guitarist joined us. He was ten years older and treated us with disdain. We were not proper musicians. Proper music was the blues. Shawns girlfriend then put Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on the turntable. She exclaimed that this was the best album ever recorded. The Hippy turned his ire on her. "That is not Fleetwood Mac!". All of us young whippersnappers were rather surprised. It clearly was, it was the best selling album of all time, and was a monster of a record. I didn't really like it, but you can't really argue with the fact that it was Fleetwood Mac. She retorted "Yes it is, here's the cover, it says Fleetwood Mac on it". The hippy retorted "Without Peter Green, it is not Fleetwood Mac!". None of us had a clue what he was on about. So he gave us a lecture on how legendary blues guitarist Peter Green had been a member and they'd been the best band ever. Then he left and these horrible whiny girls and some Americans had joined and completely ruined the band. Shawn's girlfriend retorted "But no one had ever heard of them before and now they are the biggest band in the world". This was too much for the Hippy. He just said "Albatross!". This was an instrumental that had been a number one in 1968. I knew the track. It is pleasant enough, He then listed a few other tracks, such as Black Magic Woman (I knew the Santana cover) and a couple of other numbers that I'd never heard of. The guy was getting on my nerves. He was a very passive-aggressive bully and I didn't like the way he was patronisingly attacking Shawns girlfriend, talking to her like an idiot and being utterly condescending.

I was an avid reader of the music press and I knew my mustard. I said "Rumours has been acknowledged as one of the best produced albums of all time and structurally, the songs have been recognised as absolute masterpieces. Are you seriously saying that a track such as Albatross is technically better as a recording than The Chain and the ending is even used as the Formula 1 music". As with many bullies, when faced with someone standing up to them, they back down. He simply said "You like punk rock, what do you know?". I replied "Is that all you can say to defend your position? Explain why Albatross is better than the Chain technically, if you can". At that he hurrumphed and walked off. We all just laughed. Shawn said "I didn't know you even liked Fleetwood Mac", I  replied "I don't really but he was getting on my nerves". However, I knew that Mr Dippy Hippy would come back at me next time I saw him, so I borrowed a copy of Rumours and had a proper listen to it. My sisters boyfriend also had a copy of an early Fleetwood Mac album with Peter Green. I listened to both several times. There is no denying that the early incarnation of the band are a brilliant blues band. There is also absolutely no doubt that the band that recorded Rumours was a total re-invention of the band that recorded Black Magic Woman. Re-invention.....

I never saw the hippy again. Paul told me that he'd told Shawn and his girlfriend that I was a 'heavy dude' and he'd be giving me a wide berth. At the next False Dots rehearsal, we were discussing the way forward for the band. I mentioned how I'd been listening to Fleetwood Mac and was intrigued by how they'd reinvented their sound. Craig got really excited by this. Paul then interjected that his mum had a friend, who had a daughter who was looking to join a band. Craig suggested that she could do backing vocals on some of the numbers and lead on others. He suggested that this would give us a massive step up musically, as none of us were great singers. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea, especially Craigs enthusiasm. After Craig departed the rehearsal, I had a long chat with Paul about it. He said "Rog, since the Sweden tour, we've been going nowhere. We are better musicians now and we need something to spark us off again". He added "Look, if she's no good, we'll just chuck her out and do something else". Paul never really said much, but when he spoke, he was always spot on. 

For Craig, the ideal of working with the new singer was super exciting. He wrote a couple of rather catchy pop songs (that I hated), which she sung rather well. He then came up with a master stroke. When Pete Conway had been in the band, we had a dull, gloomy dirge of a song called "Suburban Dance". It was our 'psychedelic number'. Craig had been listening to Nial Rodgers and suggested we put a funk beat and  Nial Rogers guitar feel to it. I was sceptical, but Paul liked the idea of funky bassline. We had just recruited a new drummer, Bill Lucas, who was a technically brilliant Jazz drummer. We played it and it was one of those moments where we all just looked at each other and knew it worked. It seemed we were lumbered with the singer, as it was clear it could work. I then wrote a song called A memory for you, after my sister Val had a terrible accident and nearly died. I had listened to Rumours to try and get some ideas. The song was slow and meant to be haunting. Technically, it was one of the most complicated songs the False Dots had ever performed. We went to a studio in Sydenham and recorded the two songs as a demo, in an all night session. We were well rehearsed and when we got home and listened to the demo, there was no argument. It was brilliant.

I played it to a few friends. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. It really was a very different sound. We presented it to a company called 101 Records. They said they loved "A memory for you". They said they were putting a compilation record together and it was the best track they'd heard. If we gave them £500 (which was a small fortune), they'd put it on. I said I'd discuss it with the band. I didn't. A week later, I rang them up and said "Look, we've not got £500 so we can't do it". After much haggling, they agreed £100 and we'd get five copies of the album (one each). The band all liked the idea of owning a record they'd played on, So we signed up. Then we waited. The album didn't come out. The band relations became more and more strained. The singer decided that Craig was a genius and I was an idiot. A band meeting was called. I had tired of the singer by this point. She was extrememly difficult to work with. When Craig presented a new song, she embraced it enthusiastically. When I introduced one, she'd dismiss it, out of hand. If Craig made a suggestion, it was the work of a genius, if I did, it was not to be entertained. Occasionally, Craig would agree with me and then it became a brilliant idea. At the meeting, she announced "Look, you are simply not good enough to play in this band". That was that. 

My reply "Well it's my band, you are sacked, who is staying". It was no surprise to me that Craig and Bill said "We are leaving". Paul said "I'm staying" The singer was shocked. She had assumed Paul would join them. She said "But he's rubbish, why would you want to stay with him". Paul just replied "See you all later" to them. As this was going on, my then girlfriend, who I'd met through the singer, she was the singers sisters best mate, handed me a note. It simply said "******* is a complete c**t". After they left, Paul was a little bit dejected. He turned to me and said "What now?". I am not stupid. I'd seen it coming. I replied "Don't worry mate, I've got a new singer lined up. I'd heard Venessa Sagoe singing with another band. Whereas with our just departed singer, we could only really do very run of the mill pop, with Venessa, we could do anything. Absolutely anything. Anything except any of the numbers I'd co-written with the ex members that is. The False Dots were about to have another Reinvention. 

A week after the split, I got a phone call to say the album was coming out with a Memory for you on it. I was sent five copies and I bought another one at the Virgin Megastore, just for the hell of buying my own record. I've no idea if the ex members ever knew it came out. I've not spoken to Craig since. I saw Bill in a gym ten years later and the singer actually worked at a company I had an IT contract at. We met in the lift. She said "Are you Roger Tichborne". I simply said "Yes". She said "Oh" and looked at her feet. 

Anyway, here for your delectation, here is a Memory for You. It has actually become a minor cult classic and was included in a CD of Female lead bands of the early 1980's, released by a US radio station last year (without my knowledge).


And here is what we morphed into, within three month of the re-invention!


This morning, my mind went back to that chat with the hippy in Maida Vale. I thought he was wrong then and I think he's wrong now. Bands can and should re-invent themselves when there are line up changes. By all means, it's fine to prefer one line up over the other, but bands need to move on, develop etc. It is widely reported how much the members of Fleetwood Mac argued. The line up with that singer was really the only one where we had the experience of hating each other after the split (at least on my part). The whole thing with that line up was in my mind, for a very long time, an abberation that I wished to forget completely. I can only really remember the two songs we recorded. I can listen to the now, without immediately switching them off, but I don't think I'll ever remember that period with warmth. 

A slightly more potted, entire history of THE FALSE DOTS CAN BE READ IF YOU CLICK HERE

You can see our current line up here on July 5th for free




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