Saturday, November 19, 2011

Are you Serious?

The first band I joined (in 1973) was a Rock 4-piece by the name of Renegade Jones.  I was the "baby" of the band, being a mere 18 years old.  The rest of the guys were around 25, which (for me at the time) was OLD!  It's all relative, of course!

Adrian Pearce was the lead singer, guitarist, Neil Beshuri on lead guitar & vocals,  and Paul Dunne on bass/vocals. We had a manager: Laurie Jay (ex-drummer of 60's group, The Echos and replaced in that group by a certain Ringo Starr!).  He really fit well into that stereotypical manager image: larger-than-life, effusive, cigar-smoking impresario-type.  A loveable rogue.  But he was also a networker.

One of the first "gigs" he got for us was a residency at Hatchett's, a West-End night club owned by a friend of his (of course).  We played there 6 nights a week for several months - from 9pm until 2am. I can tell you it was an eye-opener for me!

Just an interesting side note: about a block away from Hatchett's was the only place you could get a bite to eat late at night.  It was an American-Style diner - and there was a 1950's cadillac sticking out of the front of the building!  The name of this place?  The Hard Rock Cafe.  Yes,  this was the original Hard Rock. The one that started it all. It was ideally located to serve hungry people on their way from all the theatres & clubs in the West End of London.  What a piece of genius: judge the market and exploit it!

SO, there I was, barely 18 and playing a night club with a rock band.  I must say, I was pretty happy with things.  of course the pay was derisory, but that didn't worry me in the slightest. I was a professional musician!

I must admit, though, the novelty soon wore off (for us all). Hatchett's was one of the many "pick-up" joints in London.  The crowd were not exactly interested in us.  Playing for hours on end to a motley group of people, drinking, talking and ignoring us wasn't what we had in mind when we turned Pro.  We were wallpaper, background, decoration. After a few weeks we got a little lackadaisical about our playing: jaded, tired, slapdash (no more so than the Beatles did at the Star Club in Hamburg, by the way.  If you've heard any of the recordings of their time there, they weren't exactly being serious about their craft, either).

One night, Laurie paid us a visit (for the first time since he'd installed us there).  He sat at the bar & watched a set.  When we got back to the minute dressing room for a break, he burst in, face purple with anger: "Are you serious?" he said.  We laughed, embarrassed and unsure.  We didn't really know how to interpret what he was saying.  He repeated: "Are you SERIOUS?"   "About what?" said one of us.  "About this crappy place?"  Laurie's face turned an even darker shade of purple: "No, you idiots, about being professional musicians! You look like a bunch of jokers out there.  You're not entertaining anyone."  "But they're not interested in us." we said.   Well I thought Laurie was going to burst a blood vessel! "No, you fools! Of course they aren't!  But if YOU are serious about being entertainers, then that's what you must do:  ENTERTAIN!  It's up to them if they listen or not, but at least you could give them something to LISTEN TO!"

At that moment, I got it!  I think we all did.  The next set was a considerable step UP on what we had been doing before.  I watched Laurie at the bar - he gave us the thumbs-up, as if to say "That's what I meant!" We played as if we were at Wembley Arena, performing to packed house of dedicated fans, all there to see us, and only us!

Later that year, we got a tour of American bases in Germany.  In fact we spent Christmas & New Year of 1973/74 in West Germany, playing 6 nights a week, 5 hours a night to American soldiers.  Apart from the van breaking down on the way to the first gig - on the German autobahn in a freezing blizzard (and having to airfreight parts out to fix it), and the roach-infested hotels we were put in, we had an amazing time.  First, the GI's listened.  They "dug" us, they befriended us, and they wined & dined us. We learned a huge number of extra songs they requested, specifically because they'd buy us drinks & burgers to say "thanks" when we did.  They would accompany us to the PX store, where we could buy heavily discounted goods (US military subsidised). Wed been seriously ripped off by the agency that booked us, and our pay wasn't exactly enough to get by on,  so this was really welcome. In fact we would not have made it through those months if it hadn't been for the soldiers' generosity.  And every show we played was fully-committed entertainment.

So... "Are you serious?"  -That stuck with me forever.

Laurie went on to manage a number of artists, including Billy Ocean & Shirley Bassey.
Renegade Jones ended up splitting due to "Musical Differences" (actually more like not being able to make ends meet). We were driven (literally) off the road by mounting gas prices eroding our weekly wage until it was no longer viable for us to tour. But it was an amazing grounding for what was to come - for me anyway. 

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