So, here we go with a second blog of the day. Unheard maybe? I'm not really sure. In truth I don't really know how this blogging thing works. I'm just chucking any willy nilly thoughts that I might have down on here, in an effort to stem off the inevitable. At least when that happens, my life is sort of all there online for me to check on and remind myself when I have absolutely no memory at all. ;) lol
Still a bloody long time until that happens I'm sure.
I will go back to chatting about Broughton House again I'm sure. I'll maybe even get onto the subject of the school I went to after that, but that is a really tough subject that is also incredibly painful. It all depends on how I feel when I'm writing or typing my blog out.
Carry on with music maybe? Yes, why not.
I will apologise to everyone right now for the fact that the narrative in these blogs isn't chronological. It's sort of like a Tarantino film, where time is all over and not linear ("It is not linear" - Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Episode one 'Emissary').
You'll come to realise, if you haven't already, that I am a super big fan of the Star Trek franchise. I don't even mind the latest reboot. Sometimes reboots can be a good thing. Not sure if I've ever seen any reboots before though, so that's a pretty stupid comment there.
I remember being introduced to the music of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers by Tim Betts, who was a drummer for Shadowplay at one point. He was into all sorts of stuff, and around that time I was also getting interested in Prince from somewhere or other. Strange how these things happen sometimes.
I have always had a love of hard rock and heavy metal since the introduction to Iron Maiden that I mentioned in a previous blog. Tim also introduced me to Rage Against The Machine, and that was a biggy.
I'd already been introduced to hip hop, rap, or whatever it is, while I was at the school after Broughton House. I sort of got, but it took a long time for me to grasp it. I suppose in truth the crossover of Walk This Way by Run DMC helped with that. I'd actually not heard of Aerosmith before then if I'm being honest. That was my introduction to them.
Ooh, must mention that in 1983, in the South Wing of Broughton House, we saw Top Of The Pops, and videos featuring that year were Billy Joel's Uptown Girl and ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin' - awesome.
Anyway, Rage Against The Machine. That first album was an absolute beauty of an album. All raw power and emotion that mixed so many things that I absolutely loved. There wer the absolute killer rhythms, and bone crunching riffs and licks on the guitar - that album is pure bliss to me. A lot of incredibly foul language as well. Cool. I know that playing their songs helped to get a band I was in stopped from ever playing another gig at The Bowl In Hand in Mansfield, because of all the swear words. That plus Paul kept swearing between songs as well, which didn't help. Memories hey.
Shadowplay were a band that started one way, and completely changed while they went along. By the time of that particular gig we had changed so much that we were now called Jewel. We split almost at the same time as the singer/songwriter of the same name came about.
That band started as a band I wasn't even in. I just tried to write songs with them while they practiced in the baptist church in Mansfield. I'd sort of formed them in a way, but I wasn't a member.
Actually, me and Stephen Clark started writing Waiting For You at that time, which I finished many years later and included on my solo set A New World Order.
The line-up at the beginning of Jim Annison, Paul McLaughlin, Stephen Clark, James Kemp, Eric Bexon, and Phil Mollatt basically did covers of a lot of classic songs, such as All Right Now, Sunshine Of Your Love, and things like that.
Whenever Phil wasn't around, I'd try to take over on drums. Me and Paul were always jamming out things like Enter Sandman, One Vision, and some other stuff with him on guitar, and me on drums.
To make this story a bit quicker, this then basically turned into just me and Paul, while I learned guitar. We were then added to by Tim on drums and Andy Coppin on bass. He couldn't actually play bass as such, and that was left to Paul and me to get him to play easy bass parts mainly using the open strings. This was interesting for me, because I wasn't even up to speed on guitar, having not long started playing, but I seemed to have a knack for bass very quickly.
Obviously it was decided to get rid of Andy, rather unceremoniously I suppose, but you look back on your younger self and realise these things don't you. It was for the best though I hate to say.
From there we gigged for a bit. Andy Mason joined us in the studio to play some guitar on a song I wrote with Jim Annison called Hope. Basic chords and structure really, but I still like it.
We didn't really have any gigs for a few months then, and Tim decided he wanted out. Andy Mason took over on drums, and this carried on for a while.
While they were both at University, I was doing a course at West Notts College in Popular Music, and was being introduced to more and more styles of music, and was playing all sorts of music, and everyone on the course played together. Ray Peskett got me more interested in folk styles, and was also an absolute genius on bass. Ben was an incredible metal vocalist, and still is :-)
Jamie Thackeray is a great drummer, with a naughty and brilliant sense of humour. Craig was a lovely guy, very young, as were a lot of them there. Ben's then bandmate Steve was the one who introduced me to Ozric Tentacles, and liked that side of music. There were others there, such as Richard Hughes, and Stu the rapper.
Matt Jones started later than the rest of us for some reason. I ended up working a lot with Matt, and we formed a sort of duo called Cornerstone, which was added to by other musicians. We wrote absolutely tons of material during our very short time together, and he always said "so long as you like the song, it doesn't matter what style it is". Something that was very influencial to me. He also introduced me to the idea of playing more than bass in the studio. We added instrument parts ourselves, rather than have other people in to play them. Again that is something that has carried on now, and pretty much turned me into an obsessive when it comes to instruments I have and try to play. Back then even, I played keyboards in the studio, and played percussion. In fact, as Jamie was the only actual drummer on the course, I was often in other pupil's sessions playing drums for them, and sometimes Ben played drums too - such as for a session for Cornerstone on a jazzy instrumental piece of mine called Dreamstate #1
Anyway, I think that's enough for now. I've sort of introduced my history music wise in a way. I did ask to join D-Elz when Dayle left, but that didn't happen. Missed opportunities and all that. There are other stories to go with bands and stuff, but this is the second of two blogs for the day, and I'd hate to keep going on and on and eating into your days.
Back tomorrow I think for more ramblings.
Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn't too boring.
Marv - 3rd February 2011 (40 years, 2 months, and 8 days old)
(Just looked at preview of this and it's an incredibly long one)
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