No. 4: Simon Husbands, Way Ahead
or
PHIL MANZANERA ON TOAST
"What? ? Oh! What??
801, that is.
Oh!
Look dumbo, and listen well, Phil Manzanera (Roxy - remember) and Brian Eno (uhh...remember) formed this band see. Just for a few gigs and an album and that's all really. O.K? Good.
What do you mean, what for? I dunno, ask him, you know that geezer Manzanera, go on I dare you! 'Ere, Phil mate, what's with this 801 business?
"801 seemed like a good name or number, because it's so abstract. It was meant to encompass lots of other things as well - I don't know if they'll all come off. It was just a name as a vehicle for lots of different projects, like the 801 Art Show, or something." Or something.
Cut to Phil Manzanera's house in darkest Acton, where our hero sits musing about life in general and especially the aforesaid 801 project. Three gigs and one album recorded at one of the three, is all there is in the offing, at least at the present time, but beggars can't be choosers, as they say, and we all of us, should be glad we have that much. Now the album is out, don't delay, and buy today, if you have any interest in good music at all. Incidentally the idea was formed when ....oh, well, Phil can probably tell you better than. Tell us, Phil.
"We went away to the country with Eno, and Bill MacCormick and his brother Ian and talked about the whole project and we realised we probably weren't going to get to do many gigs, so we decided to make the most of these concerts by recording the set and constructing it so it was an album. So, when we came to rehearsing the set we did it in terms of Side One and Side Two."
The material, as found on the album of the third gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, was taken off five albums - Eno's three solo albums, Phil's solo, 'Diamond Head', and the 'Quiet Sun' album 'Mainstream' (as Phil used to play with them pre-Roxy). Simply called '801 Live' the album covers a wide range of styles and sounds, probably due to the assortment of musicians in the band. Roll credits please - Phil Manzanera and Lloyds Watson on guitars, Bill MacCormick on bass, Francis Monkman (Curved Air's instigator) on keyboards, Simon Phillips on drums, and Brian Eno on vocals, synthesisers and odd swirly noises. Six musicians from a very wide background joining together for a common aim to produce the best music they can. The next voice you hear is Phil's.
"When I thought about the project, those were the musicians l thought of immediately because I wanted to have, on the one hand, two people who are technically brilliant, who are Simon and Francis and who are session musicians, and technically very excellent and on the other hand you have Eno, who isn't technically deficient, but doesn't make any pretensions to technique, but is like an idea's man, and Lloyd Watson who is a bluesy-type person. In the middle you have me and Bill, somewhere between technique and deficient!"
Modest kind of chap, isn't he? Oh, sorry, I interrupted.
"I thought this combination would work well together although we did have teething troubles and at one stage it almost fell through because of the differences between Eno and Francis. They had a long talk and sorted everything at and it was really worth it in the end. There was this tension created, which made for a better set." He's telling the truth you know, you've only got to listen to numbers like 'Baby's On Fire', 'Third Uncle' and the excellent version of the Kink's 'You Really Got Me'. I'll repeat that, 'You Really Got Me' - how many bands do you see playing that kind of music as well as a totally atmospheric piece (sort of) such as 'Sombre Reptiles' off 'Another Green World', and doing the two styles really well, making the change effortlessly? Not the Bay City Rollers probably!
John Peel, that famous (or is it infamous?) person liked the band so much at Reading, that he said they were the best band throughout the Festival: Gasp' "John Peel was fantastic - he was really kind - and that was only the second gig! I've been on lots of tours, Roxy obviously, when it takes at least five gigs before you begin to learn any new material! Also, you aren't allowed sound checks at Reading so we just went on not knowing whether anything was working, and Francis was driving down from Yorkshire and literally arrived one minute before we went on. We'd re-arranged the set to do it without keyboards, so we were relieved when Francis turned up that it didn't really matter what it was like on stage." Real professionals, these boys, you know?
The band doesn't come across as Manzanera playing his greatest hits, but as a six man band putting everything they've got into the performance. MacCormick's playing throughout the album is excellent, working superbly with Phillips' effortless drums. Monkman and Eno combine (!) perfectly (as on 'Baby's On Fire') and both Manzanera and Watson combine their guitars well, especially on a superbly executed 'Diamond Head' with Phil's guitar being treated by Eno's synthesisers very nicely. Eno's vocals, too, sound perfectly in context (refer back to the Quiet Sun track - 'Rongwrong'). In short, to have captured this band for posterity on record is a stroke of genius. It doesn't look as if we're going to get any more for a long time though, as all the musicians have now dispersed to do their own individual projects. Phillips and Monkman return to their sessions, Eno's working with Bowie etc. So grab it whilst it's hot, folks!
Phil doesn't know who's going to buy his album though. "I really don't know who will buy the album, presumably it will be people who are vaguely interested in Eno or myself, or Bill, who was in Robert Wyatt's Matching Mole, I really don't know!" People have said that your best work has been outside Roxy - what do you say to that? "Well .... I don't know what to say really." Come on Phil we want a bit of scandal show us all you can get bitchy too: "One man's meat is another man's poison." Better. "Just because one person-says that, doesn't mean it's true. There have been things I've really been proud of - ideas I've contributed to Roxy, or arrangements I've thought of, or things I've done outside which I've been proud of - so for me it's really all the same thing. There are things in each which are great and others which are terrible!"
Over the past two or three years Phil has done quite a bit of work with Mr. Brian Eno, on his own albums, on John Cale's etc. "We're sort of friends. You go through periods where you get sick of your friends and you don't see them, then you see them a lot in a short period and it's been like that with Eno. As long as we remain friendly we'll probably carry on working together. Maybe every year for the past three years we've worked together for about a month every year. That's probably about the limit we can stand each other." Well!
He's started to talk quite frankly now so perhaps we can get a bit of scandal concerning B. Ferry Esq and his jolly bunch of men, Roxy music. Let's see shall we? Ferry has said that if he enjoys playing with the band he's formed for his solo efforts better than Roxy, he'll call it a day with the aforesaid Roxy. What do you say to that? "Uhmmmmmm, it's difficult to say anything without being bitchy. John Wetton has joined a band with Rick Wakeman, Chris Spedding has his own group now - that leaves Paul Thompson and Bryan, who've always worked together. You see, what we've always done in Roxy is experiment in different areas - we started out as a band with a lot of ideas which was relatively 'bitty' in that you get a lot of ideas in a very short space of time, whereas now we have fewer ideas in a longer space. Over the last two albums we've been trying to get into things to do with feel, which is much more difficult, and something that only comes with time."
What he's saying is that Roxy have still achieved a lot, which is my personal belief as well, so although the words did not actually come, we can assume that 'Roxy To Stay Together' will be the headline when they all meet for a board meeting in the Spring. Pay attention now chaps, a short history lesson ensues. Roxy Music started around 1972, the brainchild of Bryan Ferry and it was obvious, through the stage act and Ferry's press statements that he was in charge. However, over the following four years, the group seems to be now more of a group of musicians rather than a lead singer with a backing band. On the last tour, for example, Phil played 'Diamond Head', and Andy Mackay played 'Wild Weekend', whilst Big Bry slunk off backstage.
"I think you probably underestimate every body if you think it was Bryan's brainchild, but right from the beginning there were lots of people with strong personalities and strong ideas. It's always been a group collaboration, then at a certain point in our career, after the first album, we decided that we needed to have somebody right in the middle of the stage for people to catch onto. (Excuse me, Phil - er Eno used to play stage right and Bryan stage left thank you). So it sort of layered over the years and been encouraged by the press, but it never has been, it's just the way it's been put over."
Mmmm. Well, pressing on with all the dignity of a drugged elephant, we move onto Phil's new solo album which is 60% finished. 'Diamond Head', his first, came out over a year ago and was unusual in that it was more like a bunch musicians taking it in turns to play all each others material, rather than a solo album. Guest list included Robert Wyatt Eno, John Wetton, all of Quiet Sun, plus many others, the total effect being an album of many different styles. One muses whether the second in the series will be of a similar nature, doesn't one?
"No" Oh. ''It's not like 'Diamond Head' at all. It's taking shape now, and I keep changing it every week as there's a lot of material recorded. There's over 67 minutes of material and I don't want to do a double album, so it will be a single album. It's a question of chucking out the stuff you don't want. There will be one vocal sound all the way through and there will be much more unity about it. There have been lots of musicians playing so I don't know who will end up on the album. Bill MacCormick will probably end up doing all the bass, drummers will probably be Bill Bruford (gasp), Simon Phillips and Dave Mattacks, and maybe Kevin Godley of 10cc There'll be one long sunny-type instrumental, with five songs on one side so in that sense there will be a lot of different styles, as on the last album."
When Phil was a short - trousered non-shaver, he was mixed up with Bill the Mac in a band called Quiet Sun (as I've said before, if you'd been listening) who wrote fairly complex music, and practises for a year perfecting their music, till they split up. However seven years later Quiet Sun released an album entitled 'Mainstream'. Why? Who? And even "How could this be so?" "It was really a thing I had to get off my chest, as it were, for it was material we'd written in 1969 and it seemed a pity that we'd spent a year rehearsing and getting a set together that it had never gone down on record. At the time no record company was interested in that kind of music, but because of people like Mahavishnu and King Crimson, record companies took that kind of music to a wider audience so it was possible to record that last year, and for it to do reasonably well which we were all surprised at. We could do another album - we've got the material but it is a question of whether it's worth it - it will require a bit of thought really".
Phil, I'm sure loads of budding musicians out there would like to know whether it's easy to write music, like wot you do? "Some things come easily, others take longer but I write in different ways with different people. I always like to write with someone else - the instrumentals are a different matter - but all he songs with Roxy like "Out of the Blue' and 'Prairie Rose', have been written in the Roxy way of writing." So, children, in detail everything you wanted to know about the 'Roxy Way Of Writing':
"What happened in the past is:- the week before recording an album we've got together and played through a series of chord sequences and then gone into the studio and laid down those sequences and put on solos and everything, the whole feel of the piece in fact. Then Bryan would go away and write, or tried to write, a lyric for it. Most people throw idea around till the song builds in shape. It's hit-or-miss, some songs have turned out like classics, others have disappeared into oblivion. I want to get into the normal way of writing "
If you cast a discerning eye over a lot of new bands coming up you'll find that many seem to be returning to their roots so to speak. Prime examples being Dr Feelgood and Eddie and The Hot Rods, music turning full circle and getting down to basics. Will Manzanera follow this trend? "I think it's fine going back to the roots providing you are writing your own material, and not just playing old numbers. If you take the essence of rock music, which is excitement and enthusiasm and apply it to your own material, it's fine and from that point of view I probably will be going in that direction, but I won't be playing 'Johnny B. Goode! It's nice to do it once or twice, but to base your whole style on that is leading you up a blind alley."
Elsewhere in this fine magazine can be found an article on a New Zealand band Split Enz, who have just had their first album in this country produced by Phil. They have to be seen to be believed, and the music is quite abnormal too but refer back to my colleague's article, else I'll infringe copyright. Parts of the album remind me of early Roxy - is this why Phil produced them do you think? "I saw them briefly on T.V. in Australia and I couldn't believe it! I turned up at a gig and they were our support band. The first thing I liked about them was the music, and I liked the floating-like mood they had afterwards. I found out there was this other side to them, their stage performance, being entertaining on stage, which is a different thing. I enjoy watching them. They're all very intelligent and the writers in the band are capable of writing tiny very interesting melodies and there are elements in the music which remind me of early Soft Machine, and psychedelia. It all makes sense to see them perform, whereas if you see a picture or listen to the album it all seems very bizarre - that's what really appealed to me."
Remember Rock Follies? You do? I am sorry. When it was being slagged off at all counts I wondered what the other members of Roxy thought to Andy Mackays' excursion into the more seedy side of rock, so when this interview came up I decided to ask a few probing questions in the right quarters. "Andy played me a tape on the American tour and I thought 'I don't really like this', but then I came back and saw the series and thought the music fitted the series. I couldn't listen to the music on its own, For the whole sickly Thames T.V. type plays the music fitted perfectly so it was successful, but I personally don't like the music as songs on their own." Tactful of you Phil, - I'm sure Andy wouldn't have it any other way, even if the vast majority of the people would.
As far as future plans go, Phil has a project in mind with Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of 10cc based around the Gizmo, a gadget invented by said gentlemen, which enables a guitarist to get many different sounds out of a guitar. "I was up in Manchester last week learning how to play the Gizmo and I really do think it's going to have a big influence on what I will be playing over the next few years, because you can do so many things with it - you just play chords and it sounds like whole string sections. It will be on the market next June, and it will have a great influence on a lot of guitarists over the next five years, it opens up so many new areas in music" Phil's a very busy man, as you have probably gathered - his solo album will be out early next year, hopefully Roxy will be back soon after that and with this other project with 10cc he should have a very busy year. As I walked off into the sunset I found myself reflecting on all I had just heard and filled with a warm glow, thought casually to myself, "Nice chap, that Manzanera bloke, if he tried hard he could make quite a name for himself. Or something."
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