FRENCH LEAVE

Well – true to current form I’ve let an even longer amount of time elapse between postings, despite having promised to be back on course. What’s my excuse this time? To quote the late Harold Macmillan – “Events, dear boy, events…” The first of these events was a couple of weeks spent in France. This was planned. What was not planned was that the place where Mrs Voltarol and I were staying was devoid of Wi-Fi connections. As a consequence I was unable to check my emails, let alone update my blog!

The next event to undermine my good intentions was the arrival at Chez Voltarol of my son, daughter-in-law and 18 month old granddaughter from Brazil, for a stay that encompassed my 65^th birthday and its concomitant celebrations (as any right-thinking person would, I spent the first week’s pension money on a family knees-up). Anyway, I’m back on the case again and thought that an assortment of French music would be the way to go with this posting. Well, it was that or ‘Happy Birthday to You’ and I know which I think is the most interesting…

It is a widely held opinion that French popular music is fairly dire, and I’m not about to disavow that – I cannot abide the histrionic bleatings of Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and the like, nor Johnny Halliday, Francoise Hardy and similar icons (and don’t bother to comment unless you’ve got something interesting to say: mere outrage at the fact that my prejudice is not your prejudice won’t make it on to these pages. If you feel so strongly about it then write your own blog). However, the French do have an appetite for good music generally, and outside of the world of pop have produced many great composers and musicians, as well as giving cultural ‘sanctuary’ to many more. But I don’t propose to try and analyse this subject here, but rather to give my own personal selection of examples.

My first French heroes were of course Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. (Django was in fact born in Belgium but spent most of his life in France and made most of his famous recordings with ‘The Quintette of the Hot Club of France’, so I think he qualifies.) I still rate Django in particular as one of my all-time favourite musicians, and If ever I’m feeling a bit depressed I have only to put on a Hot Club CD to instantly raise my spirits. There is a quality of joy about his playing that is impossible for me to resist. Many have imitated him since – and some have equalled his technical facility – but none have had the same originality and innovativeness about their playing. This fact was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Django only had the use of two of the fingers on his left hand, as can be seen in this clip –

And here's a great rendition of 'Limehouse Blues' - 





One of my more recent finds has been the accordionist Marc Berthoumieux. I don’t know a lot about him except that he is an exceptionally fine musician, but I first was alerted to his work on a Richard Bona DVD and have since sought out more recordings by him. Indeed, he got his first mention in these pages quite early on, in a posting called ‘Accordion Crimes’ which set out my feelings about the accordion generally. Here are a few examples of his work, including a clip with Richard Bona that I also posted on the aforementioned page.

Of course, the popular concept of typical French music is of Musette accordion, and this a sound that, I suspect, contributes in no small way to the general prejudice against accordions amongst music lovers, but I think that you will agree with me that M. Berthoumiex does not fall into this category, anymore than does Richard Galliano – a French/Italian musician who I also mentioned on that accordion posting. He is another person whose music transcends genre – there are elements of jazz, of South American music, of gypsy music, of klezmer even, all to be found within his playing but never actually defining it, and his latest recording is a venture into the world of J. S. Bach! Here are two examples of his work - one a solo rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s composition, ‘Libertango’ and the other a performance of one of his own compositions – ‘Sanfona’ (a sanfona is a Brazilian accordion) – with Tangaria (two Venezuelans and a Dutchman) and the great Brazilian bandolim (the Brazilian mandolin) player, Hamilton De Holanda.

Another great musician of French/Italian stock was the late Michel Petrucciani an incredibly talented and inventive pianist who suffered from a genetic bone disorder that dramatically restricted his growth. He died at the age of 36 from a pulmonary disorder that was linked to his inherited condition. Petrucciani was influenced by both Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett and yet was very much his own man. He worked with many of Jazz’s finest, including Jim Hall and Wayne Shorter, with whom he made a great album (also available on DVD) called ‘The Power of Three’. Here he is playing with Steve Gadd and Miroslav Vitous in 1998.

And here he plays a tune called ‘September 2^nd’ with Gadd and bassist Anthony Jackson.

My final choice for this first French collection is another pianist, composer and arranger Michel Colombier A study of his website will tell you (a) that he is no longer with us and (b) that he had a huge involvement in the world of French pop music at one time, so this choice would seem somewhat at odds with my earlier comments. However, he recorded one album of his compositions in 1979 – simply called ‘Michel Colombier’ – which is one of my favourite albums of all time. The music defies classification, being an unlikely amalgam of funk and classical components with a jazz overtone. The musicians include Michael Brecker, Larry Carlton, Steve Gadd, Herbie Hancock, Lee Ritenour, Tom Scott, Jaco Pastorius, Peter Erskine, and members of the London Symphony Orchestra – oh, and Airto Moreira, Michael Boddicker, Jerry Knight and Ray Parker Junior! Here are two tracks from this great album.

And that's it until the next post, when I'll cover some of my favourite French classical music - hopefully in a few days time rather than a few weeks!

A bonus at the Barbican

The other weekend I made another foray to London, this time for a concert by the great Brazilian singer/songwriter and founder member of the Tropicalia movement, Caetano Veloso. Mrs Voltarol and I were both looking forward to it. We had in fact heard  about the concert when we were in Brazil back in January, when I had received email notification from the Barbican of this forthcoming event. This had produced a flurry of email exchanges with my daughter in London, who promptly secured four tickets (the fourth being for her husband).

Caetano has been recording since the sixties, and although I first became aware of him in about 1992 I have albums of his that span his whole recording career. Like his contemporary, Gilberto Gil, he is a musician who is not content to rest on his laurels, and is constantly experimenting with new approaches and sounds. His latest two albums are a case in point.

On ‘Cê’ (2006) and ‘zii e zie’ (2009) he has been working with a trio of much younger rock musicians, who are now known as ‘banda Cê’. They are Pedro Sá - guitar and backing vocals, Ricardo Dias Gomes - electric bass, Rhodes piano and backing vocals, and Marcelo Callado - drums and backing vocals. Theirs is a very spare and rocky sound which instinct says would clash horribly with the comparative delicacy of Caetano’s voice and the subtlety of his compositions and guitar accompaniments, and yet I find the results on disc extremely pleasing. The quality of the production (by Catetano’s son, Moreno Veloso and Pedro Sá) is such that far from clashing, the contrasting elements enhance the songs. 

So far, so good, you might think – the line up for the concert was that of the last two albums and the material was drawn mostly from the most recent of these. The Barbican is a good venue and Caetano is something of a perfectionist as far as sound is concerned, but for me the whole thing just didn’t work. The band was far too loud and to my mind completely destroyed any possibility of achieving the subtlety of balance of the albums. Caetano’s voice was in good form and the musicians never played a bum note but it didn’t gel. The disparities that made for interesting contrasts on disc just made for irritating clashes in the live performance.

I have to admit that most of the audience were happy with the results but they seemed, by and large to be a comparatively young crowd: certainly the manners of many of them left a lot to be desired. For some reason the Barbican staff let in late-comers as and when they arrived, regardless of whether the band was in mid performance or not - and there were a great many late comers. There was a constant stream of them throughout the first 40 minutes or so of the performance. It also seemed perfectly acceptable for members of the audience to get up and go to the bar and back throughout the proceedings, and on one occasion somebody in the row in front of us decided to get up, walk along the row to where her friend sat, and then engage in a loud and spirited conversation with said friend. This of course required her to shout to be heard over the band. She got quite indignant when my daughter requested her, in no uncertain terms, to SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!

We were none of us happy bunnies when we left the Barbican that night. This had been Mrs Voltarol and my third Caetano concert, my daughter’s fourth and her husband’s first, and for us old hands it had been a disappointment. My son-in-law was not too unhappy with the gig but then he was under the impression that he had just seen Gilberto Gil! (He does not quite share the rest of the family’s enthusiasm for Brazilian music).

So what’s all this about a bonus then? Well, the following afternoon we were all back at the Barbican again to see a performance in the foyer by a unit called Future Band. My 10 year old granddaughter is a part of this group and this is the third time we have seen them perform at the Barbican – once on the main stage, once in The Pit and now this time on the free stage. “OK – I get it”, I hear you cry. “Proud grandparent syndrome if ever I saw it”. And, yes I would be lying if I did not admit to a certain amount of pride, but I have never been one to blind myself to the musical truth for the sake of family loyalty - music is far to important to me for that! But this was a very compelling performance by an incredibly talented and exciting group of youngsters. Who are Future Band? Here’s what it says on the programme –

“Future Band is a creative ensemble made up of 25-30 young musicians from across London. The musical identity of the group reflects the personality and creative voice of every band member, as well as taking inspiration from artists such as Danilo Perez and West African musicians such as Kaw Secca and Outhouse Ruhabi. After a hugely successful performance at the Barbican Centre in July 2009, this year we have been working with musicians from Beit Al-Musica school in Israel, exploring jazz and free improvisation with members of London’s Loop Collective and taken part in an internet link-up with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra project Orchkids among others.

Recently they explored the world of the Gamelan with a visit to LSO Discovery at St Lukes and working with guest musician Aris Daryono, the results of which you will see in today’s performance.

Leaders: Natasha Zielazinski and Detta Danford. Guest leader: Aris Daryono”

The 20 minute performance was absolutely riveting. The young musicians showed such total commitment to the music, and despite the fact that the audience included a high percentage of doting parents I detected no ‘showboating’ at all. The important thing was the music and the group – there was a definite sense of gestalt about it which was a joy to hear and behold. All credit then to the Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning Department for having the vision, and to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama people who have brought this about.

Imagine my dismay then to learn afterwards when talking to Natasha and Detta, that there is a strong probability that funding is to withdrawn from this and similar projects. What an incredibly short-sighted act this would be. Future Band is nurturing and encouraging talent that would not normally get such opportunities and it would be a great shame for those young people to loose this encouragement and tuition. But it’ll be a far, far, greater loss for us all if we are deprived of the potential fruits of this hotbed of incredible talent. You haven’t heard the last of this!

The best laid plans…

I should have known better than to think that the job was finished (see my apologies at the start of my last posting). There were – inevitably – problems to be resolved that actually resulted in the biggest gap in my postings since I started this blog. However, I can say with confidence that no further work will be required on the last project as the book is now published and being well received, so unless another large job looms up to tempt me away again I shall be back to my regular postings. Yes. I know I said that last time.

Anyway, some time back when I wrote the first tranche of postings about The Jugular Vein, I was contacted by an old acquaintance from the heady days of the West London counter-culture scene of the late sixties and early seventies. Writing under the nom de blog of ‘Venlafaxine, AKA Griff’, he provided me with an audience based retrospective of the band, as well as a piece on the little group of guitar builders that emerged at that time and of which he was one. Richard Bartram - co founder of the JV - was another and he went on to become one of the finest luthiers in the country. I now realise it is more than a year since Griff supplied this second article and it’s about time I posted it. I have transcribed it verbatim from the original hand-written document but have taken the liberty of adding a few links where I felt they were appropriate. The photographs and their captions were also supplied by Griff. Here it is. (This follows on from where the previous one finished.)

PLANE SONG AND HARD CASH 

by Venlafaxine, AKA Griff.

Buoyed up by the success of our first guitars, Length and I considered putting the experience to commercial ends. We were joined in this by Mike Hopkins – who made contact via Length’s girlfriend – and of course, Richard.

With No.1. Did I really look like that?

It wasn’t long before I started on No 2. Unlike the small-bodied effort which preceded it, this was to be a jumbo. Richard encouraged me to use more readily available, i.e. cheaper materials, assuring me that he knew someone who had even used driftwood retrieved from the Thames! I had even thought about putting an aluminium top on an old plywood guitar; no steel National, more an ersatz Hayes.

Anyway, the jumbo used regular DIY shop stuff: the top was of Parana pine, a wood lacking the hard and resonant fibres you get in spruce, and soft, but Length had used it successfully on his box. There was no French polish, just polyurethane varnish, but the finished article worked well enough.

Mike produced an ‘early’ instrument I think he called a ‘sarode’, a sort of lute, looking like an outsized flat-back mandolin with 12 strings. Clueless as to how to tune it, Mike set it up like a 12 string guitar – and that was what it sounded like! And when playing, it was difficult to rest on one leg, because its pear-shape encouraged it to slide off! Oh well…Mike had more success with the mandolin he built for John Barron of ‘The Jug Trust’.

We discussed materials a lot. I’m still not convinced of the need for good materials for the back and sides, especially when most folkies use playing positions which make plenty of contact with the (sound deadening) body. Classical musicians, looking for the maximum response from nylon strings, perform in a manner intended to leave the sound box as free as possible, but who plays like that?

Come to think of it, Length did! He spent ages learning Bach’s ‘Gavotte in C major’ and ‘Lute Suite in D’, so the folkies were much impressed and amused when his girlfriend appeared with a pile of books for him to use as a footstool, to facilitate the ‘correct’ playing attitude. Length had plenty of attitude, and this was pure showmanship. I don’t recall noticing any improvements in sound quality, but then folk clubs aren’t the ideal studio.

Richard by now was developing his skills in leaps and bounds. Regardless of the above and clearly looking to the future, he’d been buying expensive ‘instrument quality’ materials from Touchstone – a lot more than he needed for the odd one or two…

I sold the jumbo at the White Bear folk club in Hounslow to a busker, for the amazing (at those times) price of £50. I had expected to wind up with no more than £30. I was embarrassed when he said he knew it wasn’t worth so much, but insisted on paying £50 to encourage me (as if my ego was not already in overdrive!). Months later I saw him playing ‘my’ box at Les Cousins. The guitar looked a mess. Life on the streets is hard, but I felt upset and even more embarrassed over the £50.

No.3 was more properly No. 2½, because it was a joint effort with Mike, who got the order and specification. I think we used my jumbo mould, from which I turned out a complete and assembled back and sides, along with a roughed-out neck. Mike did everything else.

All very encouraging you might think, to make a living at it, but an analysis of our time showed the madness of that. We couldn’t chuck in the full-time salaried jobs we had, especially Mike, married with a child and a big mortgage. Also, I had deeper misgivings about exchanging fun for ‘work’, if you see what I mean.

For Richards it was different. As a bricklayer, he was well paid, and able to suit himself. So he laid bricks when short of guitar work or cash. Richard gradually built up a guitar construction and repair business, becoming more skilled and accumulating labour-saving equipment as he went along. Then came dulcimers and mandolins as well. It was a tremendous achievement, the more so because Richard didn’t stop working on the music.

With Length, Hayes 1970 

Length had a scooter, this was different: Triumph T110 engine, Norton frame, fibre glass petrol/oil tank etc.

The sexy looking front mudguard guaranteed wet legs if it rained. Somewhere inbetween flying and riding a horse.

Like the guitars it got me out of my head.

From 1969 came changes which tugged me away from music and guitars. I started a course in engineering drawing at Croyden. I was seduced into buying a new 350cc Ducati motorcycle. Tony Allen, (now a stand-up comedian and Hyde Park orator) organiser of the Hayes Folk Club, wanted to start a local ‘alternative’ magazine and got me involved in that in a big way. Then in 1970 I met my wife-to-be.

Also, in 1970, Richard left The Jugular Vein and, with the talented John Coverdale, formed the duo ‘Canticle’. They may have fancied my mellow-sounding No.1 to complement Richard’s brighter-sounding instrument. Anyway, John offered to buy No.1, but I preferred handing it over on loan for as long as he wanted it, complete with self-built hard case. I don’t really like taking money from people.

My head had clearly moved on, but when John handed back No.1 I was sufficiently moved to fill the gap where the centre joint at the back had opened, with violin purfling. This had happened because I hadn’t thought it necessary to cross-band the joint; silly boy. More fundamentally, the top had developed a distended area behind the bridge, and become concave around the sound-hole…

It had seemed a good idea (to me!) to make struts in the same material as the top, from the off-cuts, since they should have the same natural frequency. However, 3mm thickness is far too slender, and the depth of the struts was also insufficient. Unimpressed by my theorising, Length had shown far greater nous, groping the sound-holes of other people’s guitars to assess their strut dimensions! Even so, I suspect that my weak front may have been responsible for No.1’s softer sound.

No.4

Our little community of guitar-bashers was at an end. As far as I know, Length and Mike took no further interest in building. At some point in the late 1970’s I dumped No.1. You already know the protracted history of No.4. That leaves only Richard…

The Blue Five at The Load of Hay

Firstly I must apologise for the long gap since my last posting. I have been working on a book-editing/design job for a customer and delivered the finished job to him yesterday…so, where was I? Ah yes, the proposed Blue Five reunion (see previous posting).

I made way up to London a few weeks ago, stayed with my daughter for a few days and then, on Sunday April 18^th, got on the tube to Uxbridge, at the end of the Metropolitan line where I was met by my partner in crime, Leigh Heggarty. Although I spent the first forty two years of my life in that neck of the woods, I haven’t lived there for twenty three years, and last visited (briefly) some twelve years ago. The place had changed beyond all recognition then and it had changed yet again when I stepped out of the tube station on a rather warm and sunny April morning.

I made a quick phone call informing Leigh that he would find me outside the pub opposite the station (the Three Tuns, since you ask), then scurried thither with my guitar and back pack, ordered a pint (Marston’s Pedigree) and settled at a table outside with my book whilst I awaited his arrival. I didn’t have to wait long and was soon going through the usual rituals that you go through when you haven’t met face to face on a regular basis. I got one in for the man and we chewed the fat whilst we finished our drinks, then he led me back to his place by a somewhat circuitous route that took in the location of all my previous music shops in Uxbridge, a shopping mall that hadn’t existed when I was last there and a fine - if distant –view of the new Wembley Stadium. Eventually we arrived at his home where we were greeted by his other half - known to readers of Leigh’s blog as ‘the long-suffering Shirley’. I would just like to take the opportunity of welcoming her to these pages, and to thank her once again for her hospitality. Shirley had prepared a lunch of vegetable samosas for us so after feeding the inner man we repaired to Leigh’s music room where we got down to the interesting business of resurrecting a twenty five year old set in as short a time as possible.

The next few hours put my arthritic fingers severely to the test, as well as straining my memory to breaking point. I had found and sent to Leigh an archive recording of the two of us, made when I still lived in Uxbridge, so that acted as prompt for some of the material. Leigh had also been down to Cornwall around the time of the total eclipse, and had sat in with my then band – Into The Red – when we played the afternoon and evening sessions at Tricky Dickies ( yes – I know it should be ‘Dickey’s’) Wine Bar (now known as ‘Tricky's’) at Tolgus Mount. This fact, coupled with a quick listen to my band’s CD, was enough for his phenomenal musical memory to be note perfect in all of my compositions for that band. By the time we stopped for our pre-gig meal (an excellent vegetable pasta dish prepared - once again by Shirley) we had cobbled together a set list and I was confident that Leigh would have no problems with the tunes or the arrangements although I was by no means as certain about myself!

As we climbed into the car to be driven to the venue, it dawned on me that ‘the long-suffering Shirley’ had not come by her nom-de-blog lightly. She soon delivered us at The Load of Hay and Leigh and I stood for a moment in the car park of that hostelry, staring at the band’s name which was up in chalk (if not lights) by the back entrance.

 Shirley returned home with a promise to collect us when it was all over and we wandered in to the pub. I had not been in there for twenty three years or more but not a lot had changed. I swear that some of the same people were still sitting at the bar drinking as had been there when the Blue Five last played there on the night of the celebrated Uxbridge Ginger Group Buskathon in about 1987.

The PA was rigged and the guitars tuned and sound checked, then we did a ‘meet and greet’ with some of the audience. There were a couple of old friends of mine who I am in regular contact with who had loyally turned out to support me, but I was amazed at the number of people who came over and shook my hand and said that it was good to see me back in Uxbridge. The truth is that I couldn’t remember who half of them were but that’s the nature of shop-keeping I guess. Many of these people had been customers of mine when I ran my music shops. The customer always sees the same face behind the counter. The person behind the counter sees an endless stream of faces every day. They might be memorable at the time but they tend to fade a bit after twenty five years…Nevertheless I was very pleased to see them and flattered that they had turned out to see us.

Then two extremely memorable ‘faces from the past’ strolled through the door – Steve Simpson and his brother Bruce. Steve is professional musician of considerable note and Bruce is also an extremely fine player, although he has never made his main living from music. We would often get together and play – in the sixties it was mainly Steve and in the seventies it was mainly Bruce but we had some great musical evenings together. I found this photo in my archives recently, of Steve, Max Emmons and myself playing together circa 1970.

Eventually the moment of truth arrived and we took to the stage. The first set was pretty good, though I say it myself as shouldn’t, and it was pretty well received (with some particularly spirited heckling from the audience that told me that yet another old acquaintance had arrived – Jim Spicer, still carrying the torch for ‘prog-rock’ with his current band, ‘Release the Peach’). The set included a medley of Jobim’s ‘Waters of March’ and Lennon and McCartney’s ‘Dear Prudence’ that I had sprung on Leigh at rather short notice, as well as a Hermeto Pascoal  tune called ‘Papa Furado’ that was new to him. My faith in his memory was not misplaced and he acquitted himself splendidly on all counts. However, by the end of the first half my fingers were beginning to stiffen up a bit and I realised that, including the long rehearsal in the afternoon, I had been playing for far longer than at any time since arthritis first seriously began to affect me.

The second set was not quite so satisfying for me as the first one, as I was beginning to trip over my fingers a bit, but Leigh carried us through in fine style and we still managed to get an encore, even though the request for ‘Summertime’ was obviously from someone that hadn’t been there at the start of the evening, because that was the first number that we played. Despite this we played it again and then took our bows and headed to the bar. Leigh got there quite a bit before me as I was once again greeted by many faces from the past. By the time I made it to the counter there was just time for one last pint before they closed, and then it was back - courtesy of Shirley’s good offices – to the house, where Leigh and I sat up talking until well gone 2am, agreeing amongst other things that we must do it again soon. Twenty five years between gigs is far too long.


At this point in the proceedings I was to have included a video clip. Leigh's good friend 'East' (another 'nom de blog') videoed the second set and sent me a DVD of the results but my total inability to upload a track from this means that you are now reading this confession of incompetence instead of watching our encore of 'Summertime'. Watch this space...I may conquer the technology in the near future...


PS. I've just realised that I started this blog in May of 2008 so I've just passed my 2 nd anniversary. Happy Birthday to me!


UPDATE
The Admirable East has done the work for me so here is the aforementioned video of 'Summertime'.

Back in the Jug (Band) Agane*

* with apologies to Geoffry Willans and Ronald Searle

Around about the end of 1975 I was working in a music shop in Uxbridge (prior to starting my own music business there) when I received a visit from Max Emmons, who was still playing with the Jugular Vein (new readers can catch up with the JV story here). He informed me that the band – which had increased its strength to four members again with the addition of a fine Welsh double bass player called Tom Edwards – had finally secured a recording deal and had cut an album at Abbey Road studios. In the spirit of the first version of the band the material mixed vintage tunes with originals, including one of mine - The Saki Drag – and several songs by Mike Deighan, who had already had a minor hit with ‘Waterloo Road’. I believe that it was this success that helped the JV get a recording deal in the first place, with Mike’s publishers playing a significant part in securing the deal. (I could be wrong about this. Feel free to correct me if you know better.) They also include some unlikely material such as ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘MacArthur Park’, the latter with some truly inspired lunacy from Mike, who assumed the character of Eddie Waring for the song.

Whoever was responsible for their publicity had done a fairly good job, and when the album – Waterloo Road -  was released on Plastic Fantastic Records (a subsidiary of Pye Records) the band was lined up for an appearance on the then popular ITV children’s programme, Magpie (a slightly funkier version of Blue Peter). A couple of weeks ago Tom Edwards emailed me a link to two YouTube clips of the band in action. Here they are.

Anyway, Max’s mission on this day had been to entice me back into the band again. A number of gigs had been booked to promote the album and then Mike had received an offer of work from The Temperance Seven that he would have been crazy to refuse. The idea was that I would ‘dep’ for Mike but on those occasions that he was available the band would become a five piece. It took me about two seconds to make up my mind. By this time my first wife and I had parted company for the last time and she had custody of our children. I had a new girlfriend (who was eventually to become the Mrs Voltarol known to these pages) but she had no objection to my returning to the gigging world - on the contrary, she positively encouraged it!

So it was that I rejoined the fold and spent a happy year performing with the lads in and around London (an extraordinary number of which gigs were in pubs which sold Young’s bitter). Since my original departure from the band its centre of activities had relocated to Balham, with particular reference to The Duke of Devonshire public house (a Young’s pub needless to say). This was the invariable pre-gig assembly point (just in case we were NOT due to perform in a Young’s house that night), rehearsal room and general watering hole for the rest of the lads.

The band had a residency at the Candlelight Folk Club at The Nags Head, York Road, Battersea (long since demolished). Every Sunday night I would trek over to this most insalubrious of venues and take part in an evening of mayhem. Most of the staged, sub-Bonzo Dog Band, props based humour had gone from the band, only to be replaced by the beer fuelled shenanigans of a truly dedicated bunch of drinkers. My ‘ten pints a night’ days were behind me and Max was a relatively modest beer consumer, but Tom (known as ‘Welsh Tom’, possibly to distinguish him from ‘Belgian Tom’, that well known associate of ‘German Nick’ in an old Goon Show script about POW camps) was a formidable artist, as were messrs Deighan and Murfet. The Candlelight Club was no stranger to the pink nosed trouser-elephant, and constant heckling was positively encouraged by the band and responded to with much glee – the worse the put-down the greater the band’s joy.

I would generally miss out on my dinner so as to make it to the gig on time – I didn’t drive, and the journey from Hayes to Battersea by public transport on a Sunday was a time consuming one. Nobby the Roadie had parted company with the band by this time and Max, with his recently acquired van, was now the driver. But like many a cab driver before him, Max didn’t do ‘that side of the river’, so it was always up to me to make it to ‘The Duke’ as my starting point for all gigs. Unfortunately there was little in the way of edible food to be had at The Nags Head. Indeed, some of the meat pies had been on display behind the bar for long enough to acquire their own names. I can remember one unsuspecting guest performer having a pie snatched from his hands by one of the club regulars with a cry of “You can’t eat Fred!”

It became the band’s habit to congregate after the gig at a rather disreputable Indian worker’s café that had originally been known as ‘Elrazako’ but was now known as the ‘Shalimar’. Mrs Voltarol-to-be accompanied us to the Shalimar on a number of occasions, but only ever ate there once. After that she was strangely never hungry when we went there, and to this day will shudder involuntarily when the place is mentioned. The Shalimar didn’t have a menu as such. It had two or three vats of violently coloured curries and a selection of kebabs. There was also an extremely fiery raita (surely defeating the point of that yoghurt-based dish) on offer. You pointed and you were served. As far as the hotness of the dishes was concerned we employed a scale of two that started with ‘Etna’ and ended with ‘Hiroshima’.

Hygiene in this establishment also left a lot to be desired and it was a great source of entertainment for us whilst waiting for our food to peer through the always-open kitchen door and watch the mice playing amongst the sacks of rice. Indeed, during the period of our regular attendance there, the café was prosecuted for 21 separate offences under the Food Hygiene Act. Alan Swainston Cooper – founder member of the Temperance Seven, mentor of The Jugular Vein and writer of the sleeve-notes to the JV’s ‘Waterloo Road’ album – was also a regular habitué of the Shalimar (and indeed, name checks it in the aforementioned sleeve- notes). To say that he had a voracious appetite would be something of an understatement. Woe betide anyone sitting within a couple of tables of him who paused for more than a moment over their food. ‘You leaving that?’ he would murmur as he deftly transferred the contents of your plate on to his. Mike Deighan claimed that all the dogs in the Battersea area had taken to carrying Cooper bags.

Click to enlarge

Occasionally we did get a ‘trump article’ of a booking. We were approached on one occasion when we were playing at ‘The Nags’ by some one who asked us to to perform at his daughter’s wedding-reception in Sutton. Weddings were not amongst our favourite kinds of gigs for a variety of reasons, and I for one was hoping that we wouldn’t accept the gig because I had tickets to see Ry Cooder (supported by a great band called Meal Ticket that featured another old mate of mine with a jug-band background, Steve Simpson) at the then Hammersmith Odeon ( now the Apollo) on the day in question (which a little internet research reveals to have been in January 1979). None the less, Tom duly got stuck into the negotiations as we never liked to actually turn down a gig. “Well,” said Tom, sounding particularly Welsh on this occasion, “It’ll cost you at least £100.” This was an astronomical fee for us at that time and had been tendered in the hopes of putting the booker off, but to our amazement he accepted that sum quite happily. “…and of course” added Tom, hastily, “It’ll have to be a barrel of Young’s for the Lads”. This too was agreed to and the gig was duly accepted so I reluctantly gave my Ry Cooder ticket to someone else. Tom was somewhat scathing when I bemoaned this fate. “Why in God’s name do you want to see a bloody Country and Western singer?” he enquired (although I believe he has subsequently amended his opinion). The then Mrs Voltarol-in-waiting told me afterwards that I had missed a great gig, and still sometimes refers to that night as one of the best concerts she has been to. I think ‘…she only does it to annoy, because she knows it teases…’

Playing again with the band for that year and a bit was great fun, but I began to tire of the emphasis on the booze and was increasingly frustrated by the frequent lack of professionalism. With hindsight I realise that – with the exception of Mike, who was already catered for by The Temperance Severn - it was only me that aspired to a full time career in music. For the others music was a passion but none the less a hobby that helped pay for the beer. So it was inevitable that there would eventually be a clash that resulted in my re-departure from the band. It came over reluctance by the other members to get down to Battersea Town Hall in time for a sound-check. We were playing support to someone notable (I forget who) and I was keen that we made a good impression. The others wanted to stay on at ‘The Duke’ for one more beer. I threw a strop. Tom accused me of ‘just wanting to be a bloody star’ and I resigned. I played the gig that night and then didn’t see any of the others again for the next thirty years. I did meet up with Muff and Max again one afternoon about five years ago. We had a few drinks and I went back to Max’s for dinner and that was that – until I started writing about the band last year.

Nobby the Roadie had tracked me down a few months before I started writing, and had come down to Cornwall for a flying visit. A great many memories were stirred up and he mentioned the idea of a JV reunion. One thing led to another and – thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to contact many people from the ’glory days’ of the band whilst I was writing its history. I floated the idea of a reunion to the original three – Max, Muff and Richard Bartram – but after some consideration Richard decided against it and the idea was shelved. Then Ron Bartholemew – the man that had introduced us to Nobby the Roadie in the first place – and his partner, Hilary, decided to throw a shindig to celebrate forty years together. Furthermore, as Ron had been a prime mover in the original Freeman Syndicate club at The White Hart in Southall (where the JV played many a gig), he decided that the aforementioned shindig should reflect the spirit of ‘The White Hart Fun Club’ as it became known.

And so, dear readers, the weekend before last I made the journey up to Isleworth from my West Country retreat and played with Muff and Max for the first time in 35 years – and here’s the proof.





The funny thing is, I've got a taste for this reunion lark now, so on the 18th April I shall be doing a gig with Leigh Heggarty at the Load of Hay in Uxbridge, Middlesex. Yes, as frequently threatened over these postings, The Blue Five is all set to ride again!

Voltarol in Brazil 2010, continued – further doings in São Paulo

On the morning preceding the Yamandu / Hamilton de Hollanda concert we had paid another visit to my favourite CD shop. Pops Discos is situated at Shop 4, 763 Rua Teodoro Sampaio in the Pinheiros district of São Paulo. It’s a short walk from Clínicas, the nearest Metro Station, which in turn is only a couple of stops from Avenida Paulista, which is where we were staying.

Rua Teodoro Sampaio is THE street to visit if you are a musician. There are probably thirty or forty music shops there selling guitars, basses keyboards, drums, percussion, PA equipment and printed music. There is, however, only one CD shop as far as I am concerned and that is Pops Discos. I was taken there by Alberto on my very first trip to Brazil in 1994 and I have been back on every subsequent visit – often more than once. It is not a large shop – it’s not much bigger than my living room – but by heck, the stock is unbelievable. Every nook and cranny of the place is stuffed with CDs. They have a wide range of material there including much rock and pop if that is your area of interest. They also have a good jazz and classical selection as well as some second hand material, and a fair selection of DVDs.

But it is their in-depth coverage of all types of Brazilian music that keeps me returning to their premises. That and the fact that despite the apparent hotchpotch nature of the stock – at first glance you don’t know WHERE to start – one soon discovers that the stock is well annotated and that the staff can generally locate any item that they have within a couple of minutes. I have in excess of a thousand Brazilian CDs in my collection and I should think that about 60% of them have come from Pops! So, if you are in São Paulo and looking for recorded music, you know where to go! Incidentally if this looks like an advertisement – it isn’t! This is me giving credit where credit is due. However, I did tell the proprietor that I would be posting something on my blog and that I would also post a Portuguese version so that the Pops people could read it too…so here it is. If you don't read Portuguese (and you're still interested) then just scroll on down. There's more of this stuff

"Na manhã do dia seguinte ao show do Yamandu / Hamilton de Hollanda fomos, mais uma vez, visitar minha loja de CDs favorita. A “Pops Discos” fica na loja 4, 763 Rua Teodoro Sampaio, no bairro de Pinheiros em São Paulo. Descendo na estação Clinicas do Metrô que, por sua vez, encontra se a poucas “paradas” de Avenida Paulista (onde estávamos hospedados), uma caminhada de 5 minutos nós levou ao nosso destino.

Rua Teodoro Sampaio é o melhor lugar para visitar se você é músico. A rua deve ter entre trinta e quarenta lojas vendendo violões, guitarras, contra baixos, teclados, baterias, instrumentos de percussão, amplificadores e partituras. Porém, em minha opinião, há somente uma loja de CDs, a saber, Pops Discos. Conheci o lugar quando Alberto me levou lá na minha primeira visita ao Brasil, em 1994, e ela se tornou uma parada obrigatória em todas as visitas subseqüentes – muitas vezes com múltiplos retornos. A loja não é muito grande – pouco maior que a sala da minha casa – mas o acervo é inacreditável. Cada centímetro de espaço está recheado de CDs. Eles oferecem uma extensa variedade de material, que inclui bastante rock e pop, caso seus interesses estejam em essas áreas. Também possui uma excelente seleção de jazz é música clássica, alguns produtos semi-novos e diversos DVDs.

Entretanto, o que me faz voltar, vez após vez, é seu riquíssimo estoque de todos os tipos de música brasileira. A disposição das mercadorias aparenta ser bem confusa – à primeira vista, a gente não sabe ONDE começar – mas logo descobrimos que o estoque está bem organizado e que os funcionários conseguem, normalmente, localizar qualquer item em poucos minutos. Já tenho pouco mais de mil CDs brasileiros em meu acervo e creio que algo em torno de 60% desse foi comprado na Pops! Portanto, se você estiver em São Paulo à procura de música gravada, você já sabe onde procurar! A propósito, se, por acaso, esse texto tem cheiro de propaganda – nada disso! Trata se de um cliente satisfeito atribuindo o mérito a quem merece. Porém, confesso que disse ao proprietário daquela loja que pretendia postar algo sobre eles no meu blog e que o mesmo teria uma versão em português para que o pessoal da Pops também pudesse ler."


Translated by 'Son of Voltarol'. That's m' boy!

The following day we met up with our ex-daughter in law – but still great friend - Marilia, whose continuing enthusiasm for the arts in general and music in particular has led to a rapidly advancing career in Arts administration. We had lunch together and then, in the evening, went to a new venue –Tom Jazz – to see the great Joyce (voice and guitar) with Andre Mehmari (piano), Rodolfo Stroeter (double bass) and Tutty Moreno (drums). I would have paid good money to see any one of these artists, so to see them all together – and in such an intimate setting - was a real treat. Unfortunately there are no YouTube clips of this line up but I'll compensate by including clips that feature the individual artists.

Joyce (or Joyce Moreno as she now prefers to be known: she is married to drummer Tutty Moreno) is generally recognised as a singer and as a composer and in my opinion should also be recognised as an excellent guitarist. Her rhythmic sense is faultless and her chord voicings put many a jazz guitarist to shame, and yet it all integrates with the voice to become one thing. Like all my favourite singers, she never plays the diva – it’s all about the music and being at one with the rest of the band, and as you would expect given that the drummer is her husband, the rhythm section is as tight as tight can be yet full of subtle nuances.

Andre Mehmari is an astonishing pianist who should be more widely known than he is. At the age of 32 he is a veteran of the Brazilian music scene, having won the first national VISA MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) Competition - the most important award for popular music in Brazil – at the age of 21. He is in fact a multi instrumentalist, composer and arranger but, like Joyce, it seems that his music is not ego driven and he is frequently sought by other singers for his great abilities as an incredibly sympathetic accompanist. In this instance he was able to demonstrate this skill and to be equally dazzling as a soloist, creating memorable choruses but never dominating the proceedings.

Rodolfo Stroeter is a fine double bass player who also plays the electric bass. He is a composer, arranger and record producer who, like Andre Mehmari, is as much in demand with other singers as he is as an improvising musician. His own band, Pau Brasil, has long been a favourite of mine. He locked in with the guitar and drums to complete a most gloriously integrated rhythm section.

Tutty Moreno is a real drummer’s drummer. He never appears to be doing anything so laid back is he, and yet the whole band really motors with him driving. I guess the old analogy of the swan applies – when you see a swan glide past it looks so serene on the surface, but if you were to look beneath the water you would see those big webbed feet paddling away like mad. Except that in this case there is no surface to look beneath. My theory is that he does most of his playing in his head, edits it on the fly and only lets out that which is absolutely essential to propel the beat. Even his solos are minimalist yet great. If only more drummers could dispense with the often unnecessary pyrotechnics that so often find there way into solos. Tutty is probably one of the most ego-free drummers I’ve ever come across and that was the thing that made this a great evening of music – this was another example of a band as a gestalt, where individual egos made way for the collective sound.

After the gig Marilia took us back stage to meet the musicians, who were as assured and yet modest as you would expect in the light of what I have just written. Joyce will be playing in England in November. The last time I saw her in this country her band included her husband (unsurprisingly) and Rodolfo Stroeter, so I’m hoping that they will be coming over with her this time. I’ll keep you posted as and when I have information. Oh, and I have a promise of interviews with Joyce, Andre Mehmari and Rodolfo, so watch this space…

Voltarol in Brazil 2010 continued - Meanwhile, back in São Paulo…

Life is passing incredibly slowly in Voltarol world at the moment, so for those of you who follow these ramblings – I apologise. Pressure of work, preceded by pressure of having a good time, has kept me away from the blogosphere. When one is earning one's crust by writing (as I am at the moment), the last thing one wants to do at the end of the working day is to write some more. However, I have put work to one side for the moment to continue the tale of my recent adventures…

After our stay in Teresópolis we returned to São Paulo briefly and then went on down to the coast to spend time with my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. After several weeks of sun and sea punctuated by joyful raspberry-blowing (for the mutual benefit of myself and my one year old grandchild), we returned to São Paulo for some serious music hunting.

Victor Biglione Trio at SESC Santana

First up was a concert by the guitarist Victor Biglione at SESC Santana which involved Mrs Voltarol and I in an adventurous treck across the city by tube. (I have just mentioned two of the most civilised aspects of São Paulo in one sentence – the underground rail network which, although not as extensive as the London tube, is incredibly efficient, reliable and clean, and the SESC network of venues, which are publicly funded and present an astonishing range of arts events at very reasonable prices.) Biglione, accompanied by double bass and drums, played a set of tunes which he has recently recorded as a Tom Jobim tribute. (This link also contains a more extensive biography of the artist.) He is an extremely fine guitarist and I am a great admirer of his work but on this occasion I came away slightly disappointed. The set was shorter than advertised and Biglione seemed a little detatched from us and the other two members of his trio. I think we must have caught him on a bad night because this clip from one of his gigs at another SESC in 2008 shows him in fine form. It’s certainly the same drummer that we saw but a different the bass player.


The following night we met up with our friend Alberto and his partner for a meal in a superb Uruguayan restaurant called El Tranvia. If you are a dedicated carnivore and you are ever in São Paulo then I recommend a visit. I’ve eaten there three times now and each experience has been better than the last. I shall also wax lyrical about the beer. We drank a Uruguayan brew called ‘Nordestina’ in preference to wine. I am extremely partial to wine – and especially red wine with good beef – but the Nordestina was a great accompaniment to the food. It even came in its own ice bucket!

The next night we set of on another treck – this time on foot – from our hotel just off Avenida Paulista to Parque do Ibirapuera, which is a long walk on a hot evening. We were off to see a performance by Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandu Costa (10 string bandolim (Brazilian Mandolin) and 7 string guitar respectively) at the Oscar Neimeyer – designed Auditório Ibirapuera which is a most extraordinary building and a great venue in all but one respect. So much attention has been paid to the – admittedly stunning - appearance of the foyer, that no provision has been made for a decent bar or restaurant. It might seem like an ungracious observation but there is nowhere within easy walking distance where one can get something to eat, and we were damned hungry by the time we got there.

The foyer of the Auditório Ibirapuera

Despite this it was an absolutely terrific gig. The acoustics, sound reinforcement system and lines of sight within the actual concert hall were excellent and the music was simply superb. The communication and mutual respect between the two players made for some phenomenal musical interplay and we left the venue feeling extremely uplifted. Even the absence of taxis and the long (mostly uphill) walk back to the hotel did not unduly dampen our –by this time - very hungry spirits so we availed ourselves of room service and had club sandwiches and caipirinhas for our late supper.

Here is a clip of them performing at the same venue in 2007.


To be continued…

Late update: Thanks to the comment from 'son of Voltarol' (see below) I can now correct my mistake and confirm that the delicious cerveja (beer) that we drank in El Tranvia is in fact called 'Norteñha', and so that you don't make the same mistake as I did, here's what it looks like. If you are a beer lover and you find it in one of those fancy beer importing emporia, this one is worth the price. Cheers!