String Driven Thing - A probably inaccurate account of early events.
I had seen them (SDT) many times, on my brother’s recommendation. He was driving them about in a Ross’s Carpet van at the time. I was playing the Glasgow ‘folk scene’ but being too young, and looking it, was refused entry to many of the venues where it all actually happened.
I thought they (SDT) were great. John Mannion’s jokes had me falling off chairs, the dialogue between Chris & John, in between songs, was definitely worthy of the current ‘Comedy Scene’. This was new to me, being a seriously committed musician, (or so I thought). Harmonies! I could not sing and anyone that could was viewed with envy.
Anyway: After a bizarre introduction with Chris in East Kilbryde, (where my brother nearly got killed by an ex SAS soldier for nicking his girlfriend), I trundled down to Chris’s flat and we tried out some stuff. Chris had borrowed a primitive Burns bass and we recorded some songs on an old Phillips reel to reel, bouncing one track onto another, with significant degradation on each ‘bounce’. That’s why the demo of ‘Let Me Down’ didn’t have a guitar solo. The dilithium crystals couldn’t take it.
I subsequently joined them and for the first few months, live performances were a dream. They told so many (long) jokes and did so much chat between songs that I was virtually redundant. Getting paid for free!
A strange thing: somebody had seen us and used a photograph of us as an advertisement in the pink Financial Times for British Steel? I recall being paid for it but if I was the creative director I would have sacked the sucker who instigated it. See below for evidence.
‘GROUP’ INDEED.
By that time we were calling ourselves BANDS fuxache. The BBC was still calling us ‘beat combos’ or some such.
Many days were spent in young Chris’ bedroom working out the elder Chris’ songs. Pauline was not always happy about this. Either was I, it was a fucking trek to get there. I was, (or should have been), totally committed by this time and was hugely excited that these were original songs that I could have influence upon.
Chris had loads of songs at that time, mostly discarded as they didn’t fit ‘band criteria’, that I remember being honestly charmed by. The only one of these that got through was ‘Fairground’ which was subsequently thoroughly screwed up in the recording process. Ask him to play them sometimes. Particularly, Jamaica Bridge, Strange Summer Enchantment and It’s So Easy (To Take Your Love For Granted). The latter song I worked out a nice acoustic arrangement for. Incidentally, the original breaks on the demo of Argyle Street were on my Aunty’s antique, round backed, mandolin that I used to carry about in a duffel bag. I still have it, the mandolin that is. This was before Graham.
I met Graham doing an ‘Arts School Gig’ where he was with an experimental group playing self indulgent crap, performed by people of obvious talent and skills but without any clue about rock & roll. Graham had just discovered the ‘Wah Wah’ pedal and with a rudimentary pickup, was using it to the full on his violin. Every time he picked up the bow, everyone in the audience went waaa, waaa. I was (stand in) playing with a great band called Hobo, who’s principal mover and shaker was a guy called Harry Barry, a terrific songwriter, drummer and pianist. After ‘The Gig’, we went back to Graham and Claire’s flat @ Gt Western Rd and I said (in all innocence), do you fancy doing some overdubs? The rest is documented elsewhere. This may conflict with other accounts however.
After we got the contract, we were able to rent a room ‘just down the road in some kinda community centre’ where we could rehearse, with volume and equipment. This was good, we knew it was, and we were expecting universal approbation when we released it to the world. At about this time Arnie and big Jamie had arrived from who knows where, and were doing the roadie thing. A blessing; I am not built for moving heavy kit and will be forever grateful to all the roadies in all the world, a sadly neglected breed. Jamie stayed in Scotland and was replaced by Rob.
We all moved to London and whilst recording and settling in, did lots of little gigs, mostly Student Unions and small clubs. As an unknown band we got very little money for these but I was happiest at this time, complacent in the knowledge that we would get recognition when the album was released. Despite some incredulity with our unusual line up, reactions on the whole were very positive and the receptions good.
To give you an idea of our activities at this time, refer to the itinery sheet reproduced below. Typewritten for goodness sake, this was before computers. I distinctly remember the one in Newport as the stage had a very low ceiling with lights just above our heads. Attracted to these lights was a very large angry hornet which had me leaping about like a demented dervish trying to avoid the bloody thing. Durham, I remember for a great student pub called ‘The Three Tuns’ and a very, very, strange (but eye opening) night. Remember, I was 22, very naive and I suppose, provincial. Cardiff; we drove back by torchlight because the electrics failed on Chris’ old Volvo. We were stopped by the police, but somehow Chris charmed our way out of it.
OK, OK I know.. trivial stuff and not very ‘Rock n Roll’ but that was what it was like. The mechanical and mundane, occasionally interrupted by ecstatic, exhilarating performances.
Things changed. See below. My apologies for the quality but this was probably the fourth (at least) carbon copy from the mechanical typewriter.
And so it went, on and on.
I HAD to keep these things, Graham would immediately lose them and I became his ‘minder/babysitter’?