Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)

 

1975 was the year of the Muswell Hillbilly. In The Kinks album some five years earlier Ray Davies, the true poet of the sixties had forecast the Americanisation of English society with his usual astuteness and sure enough London and its environs were full of dudes dressed in checked shirts, cowboy boots and Stetson hats and few of them had ever been farther west than Ealing. There was even a chain of shops in London and maybe elsewhere (I never really went ‘elsewhere’ in those days) called The Westerner which sold mainly cowboy related clobber. Alongside of this was an explosion of country rock music spearheaded by Eagles, but owing it’s recent tradition to The Byrds and related members of that musical family. One of the members of Eagles Bernie Leadon had been a founding member of The Flying Burrito Brothers, the creation of Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, both ex-members of The Byrds. GP had a dream of creating Cosmic American Music, incorporating all the best elements of rock, psychedelia, folk and of course country. As often happens with dreams, the venture came crashing around his head after two brilliant, but commercially unsuccessful albums and Gram jumped ship to team up with Emmylou Harris and achieve his ideals, again with little commercial success in the albums GP and Grievous Angel. Just when the world was beginning to listen Gram Parsons died of a heart attack at the ripe old age of 27 undoubtedly brought on by an excess of drugs, booze and life itself. It came as no surprise then that in the wake of the country-rock phenomenon, the aforementioned Burrito Brothers decided to reform for a European tour, although the line-up bore little resemblance to the original article in terms of personnel and ambition. Nonetheless any tour by an almost bona-fide country-rock group was interesting to me as an early devotee of the genre and as one of a handful of people who’d been familiar with their work in the late sixties/early seventies. The band had signed to CBS and so I called up my friend John Tobler to see if I could fix up an interview with them. He arranged for me to interview them at their hotel in Notting Hill Gate from where I would travel with them to see a live show in Guildford.

 

Unusually when I got to the hotel I was presented with the entire band consisting of original member Chris Ethridge and early cohort, pedal-steel guitar legend ‘Sneaky’ Pete Kleinow. The rest of the band was made up of Joel Scott-Hill, ex-Byrd Gene Parsons and Cajun fiddler Gib Gilbeau. Normally you would have one or maybe two band members who did the interview but it seemed like the reformed brothers were an egalitarian unit!

 

We got down to the task in hand and I realised that things were not quite how they may have seemed. Chris Ethridge was stoned out of his mind which meant that the only person qualified to talk about the more interesting early days was ‘Sneaky’ Pete and he downright refused to answer any questions containing the words Gram or Parsons, excusing his refusal on the basis of that was then, this is now and now is where we’re at man! Joel tried to inject a bit of colour an humour but I quickly realised that a non-interview or one without any real substance was the best I could hope for.  We went through the motions extremely politely but I got nothing that was remotely usable for a freelance, as the sort of piece I could write would be bland and could easily be done by any staff-journalist, so why would an editor buy in a piece from me? I decided I would make the most of things by just hanging out, in the hope that I may be able to pick up enough scandal by the day’s end to make the venture worthwhile. We had a few drinks and smoked a bit of grass before jumping on the band bus and heading for Guildford. En-route I chatted more to Joel who it turned out was an extremely nice guy and also met Gene Parsons’ wife Shirley who was also very friendly and personable. When we got to Guildford I headed off for a local hostelry whilst the band did their sound-check. After an hour or so I was joined by some of the crew and bass player Ethridge who immediately headed for the fruit machine and commenced pumping money into it with seemingly little interest in whether he won or lost. Sometime after this we were joined by someone who was introduced to me as Phil and whom I soon realised was the legendary Gram Parsons road manager Phil ‘Lefty’ Kauffman. Phil had achieved rock infamy when he had snatched the deceased Parsons from an airport and taken his body for a ritual ‘cremation’ at their favourite hang-out, Joshua Tree Inn, in Arizona. It turned out that the two had a pact which stated that whoever died first agreed to that particular end for their mortal remains. Phil had been subsequently arrested and given a substantial fine which he paid by using the proceeds of a paying wake for Gram, where the attendees bought and array of Gram Parsons Wake memorabilia, including such exotica as Old Gram Bourbon and ‘original’ Flying Burritos souvenirs which had been quickly produced a couple of days before the Wake. All of the above events were eventually documented in the film Grand Theft Parsons which was ironically a far bigger commercial success than any of Parsons’ musical outpourings.

 

Phil was an extremely charismatic character who talked like a machine-gun and was always the centre of attention. Not particularly tall but quite portly, he sported an enormous handlebar moustache which was more than slightly attention grabbing. He told me story after story about anybody who was anyone on the LA music scene and I spent the entire time just wishing I’d had the foresight to bring my tape recorder to the pub instead of leaving it in the dressing-room. It was getting towards showtime so we all went back to the venue and were about to enter the auditorium when one of the road crew enquired if anyone had seen Chris, as he seemed to have gone missing. I told them I had an idea where he might be and raced back to the pub where I found the zombie-like Ethridge still pumping money into the one-armed bandit. I explained the situation and set about dragging him back to the venue, when I noticed a rather large bulge in his jacket pocket. Having heard about these whacko LA types I was worried that he may be packing a rod so I politely asked him what it was. He told me it was nothing man, just a little hash, upon which he pulled out what must have been at least half a kilo of Lebanon’s finest. I told him to put it away quickly and explained that the authorities over here weren’t particularly open-minded about such things and made sure he gave it to a member of the road-crew when we got back to the theatre.

 

The gig itself was pretty lacklustre and only made bearable by the fact that Shirley Parsons continually fed me on smuggled-in orange juice which had been heavily laced with brandy and Kauffman continued to bedazzle us with colourful tales from his even more colourful past.

 

When the gig was over I faced the rather daunting prospect  of a trip back to mega-city one on the band bus. Suddenly Kauffman piped up and asked me if I fancied a lift back on his Harley. The reason he was in London was that as an ardent motorcyclist, he had somehow managed to wangle a job doing PR for Harley Davidson motorcycles and part of the deal was that they gave him one of their awesome machines for his personal use. I didn’t need asking twice and enjoyed one of the most exhilarating pillion rides I’ve ever experienced feeling, for the most part like I was an extra in the film Easy Rider. When we got back to Phil’s apartment in Bayswater we had a few drinks and he asked me if  I felt like hitting the town. I said why not but there was, it turned out, a small problem. Phil was temporarily without funds as he waited for the month end and his ship to come in. As we had never met before, he told me that he wouldn’t dream of asking me for a loan but knowing I was a GP fan, would I be interested in purchasing a unique artefact of Parsons memorabilia? He then produced the t shirt ‘which Gram died in’. it was a red t shirt with ‘Flying Burrito Bros’ emblazoned across the chest in sequins. It was a bit faded but I recognised it immediately as I had seen Gram wearing the same t shirt in several press photos. Phil asked for £20.00 and I offered £10.00 as £20.00 was all I had on me. We settled on £10.00, which we then proceeded to spend in various bars around Notting Hill (£10.00 went quite a long way in those days!), before I headed home with my much prized acquisition.

 

Over then ensuing years I found I was one of at least five people I knew who owned ‘the t shirt which Gram died  in’ but to be honest I’d guessed as much immediately. Although we vowed to stay in touch I’ve never seen Phil Kauffman again but he’s not the sort of guy you ever forget.

 

 

Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf was featured in the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider and is one of the most evocative records from the whole of the late sixties rock canon and is one of the reputed sources of the term Heavy Metal.

Girl Don’t Come (Sandie Shaw)

 

Probably the biggest coup of my career in the world of entertainment was persuading Dionne Warwick to appear on

 

 

Pebble Mill at One. I had been given an advance copy of the album Heartbreaker and was convinced it was going to

 

 

catapult Dionne right back there into the big time. Record company Arista’s regional promotions man Mike Perry had

 

 

told me that Dionne was coming into Europe, so I asked him if he could get her for the show. He  

 

 

was back within twenty-four hours with an imperative no! I asked him if he would ask again and he said he would but I

 

 

didn’t hear back from him for about a week and this time it was still an imperative 

 

 

No!

 

I asked Mike if he could arrange for me to speak to her direct at which point he seemed to get a bit annoyed and asked

 

 

if I was of the impression that he hadn’t really tried to get her. I told him that of course I believed him but I just wanted

 

 

one last try. He said he would see what he could do. I later got a call from Arista UK chairman David Simone who

 

 

assured me that they had tried to get Dionne but she was adamant that she was only doing radio promotion whilst she

 

 

was over and would not be doing any performances. He said he would try and arrange for me to speak to her in her

 

 

agent’s office but he didn’t see that it would do any good. A couple of days later I got some good news. Well sort of

 

 

good news! Dionne would speak to me but was still adamant that she would not be appearing on the show.

 

 

I called at the appointed time and when her agent answered, I explained who I was and got passed over to Dionne. We exchanged pleasantries and I asked her if she knew why I was calling. She explained that she did and Arista had asked her twice, but she was just coming into Europe to do some radio promotion and some shopping and wouldn’t have time for any performances. I pleaded with her but she said she would be coming back for a tour if the album was successful and would certainly consider doing the show then. I thanked Dionne and asked her if she thought I’d done my job properly. She seemed rather bemused and asked what I meant. I asked her if she felt that in my role as a music producer, I had conducted myself properly and tried my best to get her on the show. She said yes but was clearly a little puzzled by my behaviour. I then asked her if she had any idea as to why I really wanted her on the show. She said well no! I then explained that as a child of just turned nine, I had been on holiday in Scotland with my parents in 1964. My step-father worked as a salesman at a Mercedes concession and we were touring around in a big black saloon. I was still small enough to be able to stretch out along the entire back seat and frequently did this as I started to get tired after jaunts all over the Cairngorms and the like. After a particularly tiring day I was stretching out when a record came on the radio with which I immediately fell in love. I pestered my step-father the next day until he bought me a copy of the record and couldn’t wait until we got back home so I could wear it out!! I further explained that I had bought every subsequent record that artiste had released (and it was true!) and did Dionne have any idea what the record was. She told me she had a sneaking suspicion it may have been her version of the Bacharach & David song Walk on By. I advised her that she was correct and that quite simply the real reasons why I wanted her on the show were purely selfish. I wanted her on the show because I believed she had the greatest female voice in the history of pop music and it had been  a lifetime’s ambition to work with her. Dionne unusually, seemed lost for words and then gathering herself together said

“Richard you are obviously one of my biggest fans and my fans mean more to me than any TV producer  I’ll do your show”

 She then went on to explain that when she said she would do the show she meant live with an orchestra and no lip-synching!

 

Lip-synching is the technical phrase for miming and Dionne explained that unlike many artistes she would not entertain the idea of conning her fans in that way. She told me she had been offered £10,000 each by the peak-time shows ‘Wogan’ and ‘The Late Late Breakfast Show’ presented by Noel Edmonds, but she’s turned them down for the same reason she had originally given me and because of the fact they wanted her to lip-synch to a backing-track. I told her the orchestra would be no trouble and the fee would be nothing like £10,000. She laughed and said that didn’t matter. I told her she would definitely be singing live with not a track in sight. It was the policy of the show to be live wherever possible and I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to hear my favourite singer performing live about ten feet away from me! It was at this point that the enormity of what I’d achieved started to sink in. I went to inform Pebble Mill Editor Peter Hercombe of the good news, but he was sceptical from the word go. Dionne had a fearsome reputation for being ‘difficult’ and it was well-known she would walk out of a recording for any given number of reasons. At that point it was about ten years since she’d appeared on UK TV, although she had NOT appeared on a number of occasions during that time, if you know what I mean. 

 

As the date of the performance approached I liaised with Dionne through Arista over line-ups and repertoire etc. Dionne would be bringing her own five-piece band which I was augmenting with nine other musicians to make a small studio orchestra. Pebble Mill MD Harold Rich had the job of copying parts for the musicians I was providing. I had decided with Dionne that she would sing Take the Short Way Home, Yours and the title track from the Heartbreaker album together with a special request for me in Walk On By.

 

During this period I had to constantly reassure Peter Hercombe that the show was still very much on, but he remained convinced that she wouldn’t turn up. At the production meeting the day before the show, he announced that we would have standby music on VT (videotape) to back-up the expected no-show. This was the only time such a measure was taken during my tenure at Pebble Mill. I can’t say I was exactly inspired by his lack of belief in me, but possibly it was a lack of belief in Dionne.

 

 

Dionne had requested that I had dinner with her the night before the show, so that we could discuss the mechanics of the her appearance, so after I had finished in the office I headed off for the Holiday Inn, where she was staying. I was met by David Simone and Mike Perry who took me up to Dionne’s suite. David knocked on the door and it was opened by a butler or similar, who was sorting out the dinner. He invited us in and David introduced me to Dionne. Realising that she was open to flattery, I had taken the step of arriving with a massive bunch of roses, which went down a treat. David announced that he and Mike would be leaving. I must have looked startled because he then explained that Dionne had expressly stated that she wanted to meet with me and just me. I turned to the table and sure enough there were just two places laid. It was Deborah Harry all over again (see Up All Night) but this time it was even better, I was going to have dinner with my favourite female artiste of all-time and it was just me and her.

 

We chatted whilst Dionne finished ‘getting ready’ and then were seated by the butler who proceeded to serve dinner. We chatted about what would happen the next day and enjoyed an extremely good dinner although I can’t remember what we had as I wasn’t really wasn’t concentrating on the food. Although Dionne was technically old enough to be my mother, she was extremely attractive and I’m absolutely sure she knew that I thought so. Once dinner was over, the butler left us with the wine and Dionne became a bit less formal in his absence. She thanked me again for the

 

 flowers and told me that if she’d not been a married woman then she may have been tempted into asking me to stay

  

 the night, as she described me as one of the most charming men she’d ever met. I’m sure this was just flattery but you

 

 never know! I told her about Peter Hercombe’s resignation that she would walk out or even just not turn up. She told

 

 me she couldn’t give a hoot (well not her exact words) about my editor but she would not be walking out whatever

 

happened, because she wouldn’t do that to me. Did I feel good?

 

 

 We finally said our goodbyes which included a slightly overlong hug and I went back to my flat, but I slept little that

 

 

night. Dionne turned up about five minutes late for a ten o’clock call, but she turned up. For most of the rehearsal,

 

 

which went ok, Hercombe was pacing up and down the catwalk at the back of the studio area, still convinced she was

 

 

 going to do a runner. At one point my heart was in my mouth and I thought he may be right. Dionne had been

 

 

rehearsing Take the Short Way Home and not happy with the foldback, she had screamed into her mic

 

 

“The sound sucks!”

 

 

She was absolutely right, the sound often did suck, but I was not allowed to say things like that because

 

 

although I had an excellent pair of ears and knew a lot about sound-mixing, the only way I could complain was by way

 

 

of line-mangers and forms in triplicate. Being a live programme, you could safely say the moment would be long gone

 

 

before anything was done about it. When I’d worked in radio, some of the sound people who normally worked on talk

 

 

programmes would admit their failings on the musical front and let you rig and balance the sound yourself, but this

 

 

never happened in television where people were far more conservative and quite frankly precious. When an artiste like

 

Dionne says something like that though, sound-men tend to listen and within seconds the sound improved dramatically.

 

 

Dionne simply turned and smiled in my direction, by way of reassurance. Hercombe was still having doubts to the

 

 

level that he actually rehearsed the VT standby music, something I never recall being done when we had anyone else

 

 

on the programme. As Dionne promised me though, she did not walk out. She gave an amazing performance of the

 

 

four songs and a fifteen minute interview during which she positively sparkled. In the green room after the show,

 

Peter Hercombe thanked her for doing the show. Without hesitation she told him that he should be thanking me

 

 

because had it not been for me, she would not have been there. Aw shucks!

 

 

 

 

 

Heartbreaker went on to be a massive success going double platinum and spawning several hit singles. Dionne was

 

 

right back there at the top of the tree. She came back a few months later to tour and I went to see her at the Coventry

 

 

Apollo. When I went backstage, with the customary bouquet, I was asked to wait at the back of the room as she was

 

 

being ‘presented’ to the BBC regional top brass who were there in their droves, monkey suits and wives attached.

 

 

 I was extremely low in that particular pecking-order. I must admit to feeling a bit pissed off at being so far down the

 

 

line as I felt partly responsible for helping create the whole thing. Suddenly with a whoop  Dionne screamed

 

 

“Richard”,

 

 

 

completely  ignored the next in line and came running over and flung her arms around me. She turned to the gathered

 

 

throng and told them that I was her favourite Englishman and that I was so sweet and always brought her flowers. You

 

 

could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. Dionne knows who matters and couldn’t give a fig for the faceless ‘suits’.

 

 

Ttheir appreciation of protocol though was deeply ingrained and I got the distinct impression they weren’t impressed

 

with me.

 

 

 

 This was confirmed when former Editor and now Network TV Editor, Jim Dumighan pulled me aside the next day. He

 

 

told me that my ‘little escapade’ hadn’t gone down at all well and he wouldn’t be surprised if there were

 

‘repercussions’. I told him it was not ‘my little escapade’ and that Dionne had simply preferred to greet someone she

 

 

knew and felt had played a part in revitalising her career, rather than  bunch of people she’d never met before nor was

 

 

likely to meet again. I told him that he could hardly blame me for that, but I felt he thought that somehow I had stage-

 

 

managed the entire event.

 

 

 

 

 

I also went to the show at The Apollo, Victoria in London and to the party afterwards at Maunkberry’s club near

 

 

Piccadilly, where years earlier I’d had an encounter with Grace Jones! At the party Dionne introduced me to another

 

 

hero of mine, Isaac Hayes. I’d always imagined Isaac to be about eight foot thirteen and built like a battleship. I’d also

 

expected him to be mean, moody and magnificent. When he came over he was maybe a half-inch taller than me and

 

 

 was grinning his face off. He turned out to be a really nice guy. We got on extremely well and met up several more

 

times after he settled in Notting Hill Gate for a while. I was extremely saddened when I heard of his death last year.

 

Although he will be remembered by a whole generation as the voice of Chef in South Park, I and many others will

 

always regard him as one of soul music’s major innovators. I can also thank Isaac for helping me get the odd young

 

lady ‘in the mood’ on dark winter nights! I celebrated our meeting the next day by having a t shirt printed with the

 

legend ‘I’ve Rapped With Black Moses’ (Hayes aficionados will understand!).

 

Last time I saw Isaac was when we met in a completely random manner, on the front in Cannes where I think he was a

 

guest at The Festival for the South Park film.

 

 

 

 

I worked with Dionne again a couple of years later but I hope for reasons that are obvious, this was the encounter I

 

remember best. Her appearance that first time cost me just £175.00 as I managed to dig out an old contract for an

 

‘illustrated talk’ which of course it was after a fashion. The producers of the other two shows who tried to book her

 

must have wondered where we found the budget to book her, bearing in mind their superior offers plus their having

 

audiences about ten times the size of ours; well now they know!!!

 

 

 

 

Girl Don’t Come was one of many top ten hits for another great singer Sandie Shaw. Sandie and I were good friends

 

for a while (I am still friendly with her ex-husband, designer Jeff Banks). Unfortunately I got horrendously drunk at an

aftershow party for her (there were genuinly mitigating circumstances) and behaved obnoxiously putting the mockers

on our friendship. Any chance of being forgiven Sandie?