Rock and Roll Stories #36 - Great artists inspire you to make better music!

 Two musical icons passed away this week. The first, Sly Stone,  was the man who taught me to groove. Some time around 1980, Paul Hircombe, then bassplayer in the False Dots suggested we all go down to the Scala to watch a late night screening of the documentary film Woodstock. As with many things related to Paul, this was as much to smoke spliffs in peace as it was to watch the film. Paul was still living at home, he was only fifteen or sixteen, but he was already rather partial to smoke. A group of half a dozen went down. The film? It's about three hours long and in parts incredibly boring, punctuated with some moments of sheer brilliance. Santana, Richie Havens, Country Joe & The Fish, Crosby Stills Nash & Young are worth paying the admission fee for. However the real outstanding moment was Sly & The Family Stone performing Higher. In amongst all of the hippy nonsense, you have the worlds greatest ever funksters doing their stuff. I cannot emphasise enough how good that moment was. I was totally blown away. I am not sure it had the same effect on my mates, but for me it altered how I wanted the band to shape. Sly Stone was a force of nature and the more I listened, the more I liked. That, along with the Specials and Prehistoric Sounds by The Saints, made me want to have brass in the band. The False Dots new single Groovetown is my homage to Sly Stone. I wanted to write a song that Sly and The Family Stone might feel comfortable playing. Tom Hammond on trumpet has made such things realiseable. Have a listen. 

The other great loss was Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. I have seen the Beach Boys a couple of times and have a few albums. Whatever you think of the band, there can be no doubting that Wilson was a genius. I read an interview, where he said that when he heard Rubber Soul by The Beatles, he locked himself in a studio and didn't come out until he'd topped it. The result was Pet Sounds. I find it reassuring that even a genius on the level of Wilson could still be inspired by another band to that extent. The Beach Boys are not really my thing musically, but when we saw them, it brought home how good the songs are. 

I was mulling over these two sad passings, and it got me thinking about all of the artsist who inspired me to try and make better music. It is a journey. Where to start? That is easy. June 6th 1977 at The Roundhouse. The Ramones take to the stage and I will never be the same again. I'd not really 'got' music until I saw The Ramones. They were the best live band on the planet. But nothing they did was intricate of difficult. It was just raw power, but they were funny and sharp as well. They played for 32 minutes as I recall and in that short set, I decided that I wanted to form a band. It took two years to come to fruition. 

The next band to have a big impact was The Fall, who I first saw at The Marquee club, which was on September 8th 1978. Mark E. Smith's persona was like nothing I'd ever seen before. He had total belief and confidence in his own performance. Nothing about The Fall should have worked, but they were magnificent. Their debut album Live at The Witch Trials confirmed their genius. Their playing was basic and ramshackle. Smith would insult the audience, insult the band, go off on one. You couldn't keep your eyes off him. To me, he was what a rock and roll singer should be. 

Shortly after, I was having a cup of tea in a cafe in Camden and Ian Dury walked in. As I recall he ordered a cup of tea and a piece of toast and lighting up a cigarette. I decided that as we were getting a band together, there could be no finer mentor than a certain Mr I Dury, so I approached him. I asked if he could help our band out. He asked if we had any demos. I said no. He then asked if we'd done any gigs, I said no. He then asked if we had any instruments. To my eternal humiliation, I replied I was borrowing my sisters guitar. He rolled his eyes and said how can I help you then? I felt like an idiot. Shoulders sloping, I started to walk off, to be greeted by the humiliation of my mates. Then he said "Come here son". He had clearly decided to take pity on me. He said "Look, get yourself your own guitar, get yourself some gigs, make some demos and then I'll see what I can do". He added "Always give it big son, never be scared to shout about your music and you'll be fine". My mates derision stopped. Ian Dury would be our mentor, when we got our act together. Sadly, that was the one time I met him! It did however inspire me and I wrote a song about it!

In February 1979, the False Dots had our first rehearsal. On the 8th April, all our plans got messed up! I saw The Specials supporting the Damned and The UK Subs. Up until then, it was all about Punk. The Specials blew all of that away. They were mesmirising. Pete Conway, who I formed the band with, was mates with Charlie Harper of The Subs, but for me that gig was the day I discovered Ska music. I'd been aware of the sounds from the football terraces and a few bands on  TOTP and at Church discos, but the genre was looked down on by most of the muso types I knew. The Specials opened Pandora's box. I actually think Two Tone was socially more important than punk (excepting the fact that it owed its birth to punk). It stood on the side of right. Rock Against Racism, do it yourself and amazing music. From that second, I wanted a Ska Band, but we could barely play punk, so first things first.

As the band improved, and my tastes evolved, I got a clearer idea of what sort of band I wanted The False Dots to be. This was derailed by the reality of working with other musicians, most of whom were far better players than I was. I've always believed that in a band, all parties should contribute and have a stake. It is creatively better when this happens, but also means I never really realised my own dream of what the False Dots could be until the grand old age of 60 years old in 2022. The departure of Allen Ashley and my decision to sing the songs After a 41 year break from such things, meant I could finally deliver my material as I wanted. The band operated as a three piece for a year, then Tom joined and it all fell it into place. 

I'd spent two years writing songs, mostly in a Ska/Punk style. Some I was able to bolt on a Trumpet arrangement, some already had brass arrangements worked out by Boz Boorer, when we recorded at his studios. However I realised that for us to really benefit from Tom's talents, we should integrate him into the writing process. We've done this and the new material, draws from all of the stages of the bands development. An added bonus is that Tom is now singing some of the songs, ones which didn't suit me.

I still find inspiration. When I was watching the Opera Arias at the Mill Hill Music Festival, it got me wondering about an operatic arrangement of The False Dots track "We all love a party". That's what good musicians do to you. I am sure that Ian Dury forgot our conversation in Camden three seconds after we had it. I doubt that he ever had a clue that he'd given me the faith to push on with the band, when things weren't working. When Sly Stone sang Higher at Woodstock, did he ever imagine that nearly sixty years later, it would be inspiring s Ska/Punk band in North West London to try their luck at writing a song in that style? Mind you, when I started to write the Barnet Eye blog in 2008, it never occurred to me that I'd inspire a bunch of other people to blog and become the famous five Barnet Bloggers. Who knows where the seeds we sow will travel. I believe that every song any artists writes, performs and records is a gift to the Universe and thos reverberations travel further than we couldn possibly imagine. Let me finish with an example of how this works, one that I only found out about last week!

Back in 1982, my beloved eldest sister Valerie had a terrible cycling accident. We were told that she had brain damage and her chances of survival were almost zero. My Mum and Dad took the first plane to Scotland where she was in hospital. We were all in a state of shock. I convinced myself that she'd died and I wrote a song for her, called A memory for you. We had a female singer at the time, who quite liked it. After about three months, Val was out of the woods. I hated the song. I was embarrassed that the world saw a side of me I tried to hide, a weak, vulnerable side. But we recorded it and it found its way onto an album called Directions on 101 records. By the time the record was released, that iteration of the band had split!

I rarely even thought about the song after the singer left, never played it again. But.... I was astonished to learn that it appeared on a compilation CD of tracks by female fronted bands put together WFMU radio, released in 2024! So someone, somewhere must have been moved by it. So there you go. The wind carries seeds far and wide to places you may never know! If nothing else came out of it, surely the fact that an obscure track recorded in 1982 is still making someone, somewhere happy is a thing of great wonder! I still don't particularly like the track, that incarnation of the False Dots was not a happy one but here it is anyway. 

Mark E. Smith RIP

I awoke this morning to the sad news that Mark E. Smith, lead singer of The Fall has passed away. The Fall are one of the biggest influences on my musical career and I've seen the band in many incarnations, from the earliest days in the late 1970's at The Marquee club. Smith operated a revolving door policy with co-musicians and the band saw over 60 members come and go. The first two albums, Live at The Witch Trials and Dragnet are among the finest examples of their work. The Fall summed up everything that was good about the punk era. The songs were dark and humourous. Numbers like "No Xmas for John Quays" show Smith at his acerbic best.

Going to see The Fall was never dull sometimes the band were absolutely brilliant, sometimes they were complete rubbish, sometimes both in the a single song. Sometimes there were fights on stage, sometimes love was in the air such as when Smith married Brix and she joined the band.

In their early years, the band were resolutely anti commercial. When Brix joined, the band, they decided to take a commercial turn. They even started having hit singles, their cover of The Kinks Victoria being a case in point



As a musician and a songwriter, The Fall and Mark Smith were huge influences. The uncompromising risk taking was something that I found intoxicating. Smiths lyrics are at times quite bizarre. At first glance he is a northern miserablist, chronicling the decaying, rotting northern landscape of the end of the millenium. Dig a bit deeper and you find a rich vein of warmth and humour.

One of my favourite albums is "The Wondeful and Frightening world of....". The song Elves, is perhaps one of the most underratted songs of all times. Using the Iggy & The Stooges "Now I wanna be your dog" guitar riff and adding a commentary about a fairy hoax from the 1920's.


The addition of Brix Smith to the band was a masterstroke and added a softer side to the band. Although the band had featured female members such as Una Baines from the start, Brix was hugely influential. She added style and sassiness to the band and ensured Smith made music that was far more accessible. At first, I felt this was heretical, but I soon came to realise that it was still the fall, only a slightly improved version.

I think that Mark E. Smith was an artist who could only ever have thrived and come to prominence in the 1970's punk era. He was the absolute antithesis of the X-Factor & The Voice school of singer. The band played by none of the normal rules of rock and roll but somehow managed to be more Rock and Roll than just about everyone else.

I've always been of the opinion that people who didn't get The Fall didn't get Rock and Roll. They are not always an easy listen, they are a band you have to work at. I recall the first time I saw them at The Marquee in 1977 or 1978. I was totally bemused by them. I loved amphetamine driven fast punk rock and they played slow tunes with attitude. I wasn't sure if they were brilliant or rubbish. I bought Live at The Witch Trials to see if I could make my mind up. I realised that they were both. That was what made them unique. The musicianship was never anything to write home about. The lyrics were often bizarre and very morally ambiguous. Smith wasn't a singer as we know it. Just when you started to feel comfortable with them, Smith would turn the applecart over and start again. If you really want to understand Mark E. Smith, I'd suggest you start by listening to Diceman from Dragnet.


I am the dice man
And I take a chance, huh
Do you take a chance, huh?

Where you two going?
Where you two going?
Is this a branch on the tree of showbusiness?

Do all these musicians
Have a social conscience?
Well, only in their front rooms

But I am the dice man
And I take a chance man
Do you take a chance, huh?

They stay with the masses
Don't take any chances
End up emptying ashtrays

But I push, push, push, push
Throw the bones and the poison dice
No time for small moralists

Cos I am the dice man
And I take a chance, huh
Do you take a chance, fan?


 For me this song is the epitome of the Fall at its best.

Mark E.Smith RIP - Wherever you are, I am sure you'll be causing trouble, starting fights and adding to the general jollity of the place. I fully expect a few Angels on their Harps to get the sack or have beer cans thrown at them. Thank you so much for everything. Whatever Smith is doing, he'd never end up emptying ashtrays!

Frightened

Perhaps the best present I received this Christmas was a new stylus for my turntable. I rather suspect Clare has been sorely regretting her act of kindness. Although our musical tastes collide in some places, she isn't a massive fan of the obscure punk rock which I'd spend my days listening to given half a chance. We all have strange indiosyncricies which drive our partners mad. Mine is that I love music which perhaps 99% of the population finds unfathomable. As I've run a studio for 33 years, played in a band for just as long and know a fair few people of note in the industry as friends, people assume I have an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical. The sad truth is that nothing could be further from the truth. I am a total anorak for certain genres of music and an avid collector of vinyl, especially 70's punk rock and 60's psychedelic music. Sadly most other genres are of passing interest, if any. If I was spend a night spinning my favourite records to my friends I'd very quickly be in a room on my own. People assume I have a love for such acts as The Beatles, Queen and Foreigner. I find them all rather hard work. Give me the Fall, The Heartbreakers and the Lurkers anyday.

At school I had little interest in music at all until I was fourteen. Whilst mates were into heavy rock such as Led Zeppelin and rather dull concept album bands such as Pink Floyd (although I have always loved the Barratt era classics such as See Emily Play), the only bands I really liked were T Rex and Bowie. Most of my friends dismissed Bolan as "pop" and Bowie as a weirdo. Then on the 6th June 1977 I saw the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Saints. All of a sudden it all fell into place and I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Mark Perry published three chords on the front cover of "sniffin glue" magazine and urged everyone to go out and write songs. The Sex Pistols had been on the Bill Grundy show. I instantly associated with them, although I had no clue what their music was like. My schoolmates were still into all the old prog rock on the Old Grey Whistle Test. I discovered the John Peel show. All sorts of bizarre music was played. Peel would think nothing of following a track by the Sex Pistols with one by the Northern Dance Orchestra. I'll never forget when the Buzzcocks released another music in a different kitchen. Peel played eight songs in a row, then declared he'd play the other three tomorrow.

The thing we seem to forget about Punk is that it wasn't just a couple of bands playing a similar type of music. It was also a fashion style which was massively important. The bassplayer of my band, The False Dots had a punch up with the bassplayer of another local band, called the Mojes (by us) over who was the first person in Mill Hill to wear bondage trousers. Sadly for our bassplayer, the Mojes bassplayer was a bit of a hardnut, but he couldn't let the matter pass as a point of principle. Punk also gave birth to a whole crop of independently published magazines, and a new crop of journalists. The three "young turks" of the NME have become national figures. Danny Baker, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons covered the punk scene and built huge reputations. Interestingly they often didn't even bother going to see the bands they had reviewed. I remember Burchill getting pulled up for slagging off a Souixsie & the Banshees performance at Leeds, when the band hadn't played. I personally never forgave Parsons for a dishonest review of the Ramones at the Rainbow at Xmas 1977. Interestingly the gig was captured on video for a film, proving Parsons claim that the audience were bored was rubbish.

What is interesting to me is the state of music in 1976. It was dire. I see many parallels with the current music scene. People had stopped making music for the sheer joy of playing. The whole scene had become bloated, lazy and dull. Over indulgence was the order of the day. There was nothing to get excited about. As I survey the current music scene, I see the same thing. Our studio has seen a big fall off in the number of young people forming bands. This has been compensated by a rise in pop acts aspiring to X factor. What scares me is that there is little creativity in much of the music. People seem to have given up trying to write good songs.

I am usually a good judge of such things. I anticipate a resurgence of creativity in the coming year. All of the factors are ripe. As in 1976, we had a recessive economy, a sudden realisation that "the system" won't deliver jobs and easy money. I believe bad economies are good for music and religion. I expect an upsurge in interest in both. With the Friern Barnet Library occupation, I have detected an awakining that amongst ordinary people that if you sit around and do nothing, you get shafted in such a climate.

I was trying to recall the last time a really top notch protest song got anywhere in the charts. I honestly couldn't remember. Our current crop of teenagers have borne the brunt of the assault by the Tory establishment. The government seems to have singled them out for a good going over. I believe that our Tory masters think that if young people are enslaved to debt, they can be controlled. I suspect that they will find something rather different happens. I alone of all my brothers and sisters did not do any post school education. There are several reasons for this, but one of the main considerations for me was the fact that as my parents were well off I would not receive a full grant. This meant I would have to rely on parents. Instead I left the country at 18 and went to live in Sweden for six months. When I returned, I had to work to pay off my debts. I realised that I'd had my fill of education. I worked as a painter and decorator for a while to pay the bills.

By the time my friends had left University, I had a wealth of work and life experience. I found that if you want something, the way to get it is to work hard. What did I want? I wanted a band, I wanted to play music. Strangely I didn't want to be a famous and rich pop star, I just wanted to play music. I have seen so many people who were talented lose their way because they want music to be a career. I believe that you should make music you like and if you get a career from it, then great. One of the shows I always listen to on the radio is Robert Elms on BBC 94.9. This week he's been playing the best interviews from his show this year. Stand out interviews were Tom Jones and Rod Stewart. Althoug I'm not a massive fan of either, the interviews were top notch. What stood out was the fact that both love the music they make.

I think the problem for many youngsters today is that their lives are racked with fear. Some of this is instilled by paranoid or pushy parents. There's fear of debt, fear of academic failure, fear of walking down the street, fear of "outsiders".  None of these things need to be feared. I've been in serious debt, failed academically, walked down the street and always felt like an outsider. I'm still here and doing ok. Life is only worth living when we take chances. A totally safe life is a totally sterile life. I'm not urging people to take stupid risks, but for heavens sake, we have moved too far towards a culture where we wrap people in cotton wool, both physically and intellectually.

I foresee a backlash against this. If there isn't the country will end up as a place where we all lock ourselves in after 5pm, and have no life at all.  I've been doing a lot of thinking recently. When I started writing this blog, I did it out of sheer frustration that nobody was covering important issues. I've never particularly enjoyed it. I can't see people being thrown to the wolves and stand by. Luckily, there are plenty of bloggers in Barnet now. All of them are better educated and more literary talented than I am. I am not going to "quit blogging", there is too much work to do. I am however going to dedicate less time to writing and researching blogs in 2013 and more time to the things I've neglected for the past four years and especially the last year.

I hope that the shortfall is met by my ever growing army of guest bloggers, who have lit the blog up. Expect more blogs on subjects such as music, local history and the environment in the coming year. I will still be covering One Barnet and all of the other issues, but it is time I delivered on the promise I made when I started writing a blog on the Hendon Times. That was to promote the local music scene. The political blog was an accident of fate, caused by the atrocious Stalinist reaction of the local Conservatives in Barnet Council to some justified criticism I made of their policies and behaviour.

Sadly in Barnet, I've seen some truly atrocious things happen to the way young people are treated by the council. Perhaps the most crass example was the way the Rythmic Project at Canada Villa has been dismembered. This gave local young people an opportunity to make music. A local Conservative councillor asked me what I thought of the project. I responded that I was overjoyed that the council was developing young musicians. He asked if it bothered me that the council were providing facilities for free, that my business charged for. I responded that it was a good thing as young people can't afford a commercial studio anyway, and when they start earning they will step up. He replied rather tersely, "if they knew you felt like that, they'd probably shut it down". When I heard that the staff were under threat last year, I immediately wrote to the council asking that they reconsider and listing reasons. Sadly this award winning project, that received Youth Music funding was not spared.

What frightens me is that if you give young people nothing positive to do, they do negative things. I expect to see vandalism, drug and alcohol abuse, anti social behaviour and petty theft to rise. Music offers a get out of jail card to many young people. That is why it is important. That is why we need to get young people involved. I've read the Mayors strategy. It talks about "elite music". This, in my opinion, is a mistake. Music and sports are the one thing everyone can participate in for little or no cost. Both are healthy and stimulating. Why would any sane person want to steer young people away from such things?

I am working on some new intitatives for the new year. If you notice a few changes here, that is why.

There's no christmas for John Quays

Nearly four years ago, I was discussing starting a blog on the Hendon Times website. I had an agenda that I hadn't really told them about. I wanted to write about the local music scene. I wanted to promote local bands and local musicians. But there were also another couple of subjects that were on the radar. You probably think you know what they might be, if you've read the blog for a while. You are probably wrong.

The subject I wanted to cover was drugs. I happen to believe that the we are all victims of a criminal conspiracy. We are surrounded by drugs, most of us are drug addicts and we don't even realise. Tea and coffee contain caffiene which is a stimulant. If you drink a few cups of either on a daily basis, then the reason you have a headache when you do a detox is because of the withdrawal. But that isn't really the point I am interested in.

What concerns me is the lack of honesty in the information we are given about illegal and legal drugs. The big pharm companies make billions of pounds a year from their products, many of which are simply palliatives for completely avoidable conditions. Do you eat your five portions of vegetables a  day? Do you drink a litre and a half of water a day? Do you thoroughly wash all fruit and vegetables, to remove pesticides before you eat them? Have you had your cholesterol, your PSA level and your liver function checked recently? How many cigarettes did you smoke before you read this blog today? How many pints did you drink last night?

How did I get on with these? 

Do you eat your five portions of vegetables a  day?  Yes, I had nine portions
Do you drink a litre and a half of water a day? Nope, I had about half a litre
Do you thoroughly wash all fruit and vegetables, to remove pesticides before you eat them? I only eat organic
Have you had your cholesterol, your PSA level and your liver function checked recently?Yes
How many cigarettes did you smoke before you read this blog today? Three (which is a once in a blue moon event because I was pissed and stressed - but that is another story)
How many pints did you drink last night? Lost count after seven

So how did I do yesterday? Pretty shite really, but hey when you bump into a friend and they need a chat about serious problems at work, then it can have a bad effect on your good intentions. So I woke up this morning and thought "Why did I do that". The answer is because I was indulging in our favourite legal drug to excess. I don't consider myself to have an issue with alcohol, I drink less days than I abstain. But when I start and I'm in a pub with friends, I tend to stay there until I get chucked out. I'd still be there now, if it hadn't shut. Alcohol causes more social problems in the UK than all of the other drugs put together. Most of us have done things we regret under the influence. I do regularly and I never learn. But then again, I suspect alcohol has given me more than it has taken. I've probably met all of the women I've ever been serious about, since I left school, under the influence. When tragedy has struck me, I've drunk myself through the problems. Alcohol is a constant friend in such times. I work in a homeless shelter as a volunteer one day a week. Most of the people who visit have some sort of issue with drink/drugs or both. Does it scare me? Not really. I think I'm alright. Trouble is we are all alright with things until we are not.

I was discussing another friend at the pub last night. I'd had a few too many and the friend I was talking  to was well past his limit, it was 10pm and he'd been drinking since lunchtime. We were discussing another friend who has serious issues with alcohol and who's life has fallen apart. Can he turn his life around. Sadly, I suspect that often this only happens, when you reach rock bottom and there is no one left to turn to or bail you out. Our friend seems not to have hit this, will he before the drink kills him? He's an adult and he's made his choices. We as friends have no choice but to watch the car crash unfold in front of us.

So what am I really saying? That we need to grow up. We need to have a proper discussion about the pervading wider drug culture in this country. I don't believe that such problems can be legislated away. I believe that they should be managed far better. All that happens at the moment is we put sticking plasters over the symptoms. I'm not an expert.

For some reason I awoke with the classic track about drug abuse and chaotic lifestyles - No Xmas for John Quays by The Fall -  echoing around my head. I was reflecting on the lines in it - There is no Christmas for junky, He thinks he is More interesting Than the world,  Ah but five fags Puts him in a whirl - and that I think is the issue. I believe addiction is linked to vulnerability and insecurity. When we have these campaigns such as TALKTOFRANK, I see nothing about "dealing with vulnerability and insecurity". Sadly I think this is why we are in the mess we find ourselves. Whether it is having a couple of drinks, so we have the courage to ask the person we fancy out, or the bottle of scotch to cope with our partner calling us a dickhead and telling us that they hate us and want to separate, or the lovin' spoonfull of Golden Brown to take away the pain of our abusive childhoods, the root cause is the same. We abuse substances because we don't like what we really are. Have a nice Saturday

No Xmas For John Quays,
By Mark E. Smith

No Christmas for John Quays
Come on get a bit of fucking guts into it
What what Well the powders reach you
And the powders teach you
But when you find they can't reach you
There is no Christmas for junky
He thinks he is
More interesting Than the world
Ah but five fags Puts him in a whirl
I'll have a packet of three-five fives
You fucking [full of money] or something for Christ's sake?
I'll have a packet of three-five fives
I'll have 20 of those over there
I'll have 20 No.6 for a headache
And I've had enough right there,
stop (Why is this)
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
He spits in the sky
It falls in his eye
And then he gets to sitting
Talking to his kitten
Talking about Frankie Lymon
Tell me why is it so?
Tell me why is it so? 
Why did the sky break today?
Why did this happen today?
He gets out of his face with the Idle Race
He gets out of the room with this tune
Although the skins are thin
He knows its up to him
To go out or stay in
I'll stay in I'll stay in
Have a break
You Me X-Mas X-Mas
Well the powders reach you
And the powders teach you
But when you find they can't reach you
There is no Christmas for junky
There is no girls
Just the traffic passing by
Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
Open the room,
there's a cloud of smoke
Will you fucking get it together instead of showing off?
Give me one
Give me B
Give me three Give me D
No X-mas for John Quays