No. 1: John Ingham, Sounds
To buy the new complete 801 Live album click here
Featuring Phil Manzanera, Eno, Francis Monkman, Simon Phillips,
Bill MacCormick and Lloyd Watson
'This one won't run and run'
Screenplay by Jonh Ingham, Sounds
But of course I'm going to mention the others, Phil old bean. Like so: In the hard white light of the sauna-like video room at Island Records, the Phil Manzanera Band are engaged in that musical discussion and argument humorously called a rehearsal. They are ranged in a rough ellipse, Francis Monkman's electric piano and Simon Phillip's Babel like tower of drums at either end. Between them stand the guitarists. Facing them, like a conductor behind his synthesiser and Farfisa organ podium, Eno - directs the shape of 'Baby's on Fire'. Periodically his slim, dark brown cigar goes out.
"This will be the third time it's been on record," he says as they attempt different ways of improving it. "I want it to still retain some interest." He is quickly clarified; there is only a chance that 'Baby's on Fire' will see the light of record. Francis begins with an almost random beep. Eno's fingers dance a Morse code from the Farfisa. Then the rest of the ensemble crash into life. The rhythm is slower, Bill MacCormick's bass dirty and greasy, Phillips holding down a funk strewn rhythm. Manzanera sticks to a tight rhythm while Lloyd Watson makes loud whoops. Eno sings with one hand on his hip, the other lazily running over the keys. Phil takes the first solo, precise and clean, overtaken by Watson's stinging slide. Falling back into the song the band build to an impossible din, Eno's burbling Farfisa insistently crunch to a somewhat ungainly halt.
They discuss the imperfect sections, play it again. MacCormick studies the ceiling in deep concentration as he vigorously fingers a one note bass run. "When I stop - -" Eno demonstrates a sequence "- it sounds like l/2 time. I'm on 16."
"Or 15," ripostes Francis quietly. There are a few chuckles at this musical bon mot. "Yeah," smiles Phil, "We should all play 10/16 for a bit just there."
Although its billed as the Phil Manzanera Band that's quite erroneous," asserts Phil. "It's much more of a group, even though it's only for four concerts. So when I put it together I bore that in mind. I wanted to have the feel side of music and the ideas side, which is basically Eno and Lloyd as an axis on one side and then Francis and Simon, who are super technical, and then Bill and me, who have a bit of both. So I wanted to combine these two extremes in a group, rather than these guys standing up there playing 'Diamond Head'. That's why it's 'Phil Manzanera Featuring All These People'. Everybody has been involved with the arrangements and all the material is from Quiet Sun albums, Eno albums, 'Diamond Head' and they're all joined together and chopped around and changed around. It's almost like new music."
The reward of all this conceptualisation and preparation is four concerts. The original plan had been to only play Continental festivals this being the Year of The Festival in Europe. "I thought it would be interesting to play my music live, and also to play festivals. I haven't played a lot of festivals . . . yet. I thought it would be nice in summer to get outside, play outdoors. It's a totally different feel." The imagery of the Roxy Music guitarist fronting his own ensemble was so enticing that two festivals advertised his imminent presence on their respective stages in the French rock magazine 'Rock et Folk' when neither had contacted the artiste, and still haven't. There is also the legendary Continental efficiency; festivals were cancelled or were unsatisfactory, until finally Phil was reduced to a paltry five gigs, three of them - Reading, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and a warm-up somewhere in Norfolk- in Britain. Then another festival collapsed, leaving him with only one European appearance at Corbieres.
And afterwards, pfoot. Finished. Business as usual. Phillips and Monkman are much in demand for sessions, it's been hard to get Phillips just for rehearsals. "We're lucky to have Lloyd Watson at all. He was badly electrocuted on stage a month ago. He was stuck to this hot microphone, jerking, and because he always leaps about everybody thought he was doing Elvis impersonations! It's miraculous he's as unhurt as he is." Veterans of the Roxy 'For Your Pleasure' tour may remember the energetic Watson's blitzkrieg solo guitar opening sets, which invariably brought the house down. There are those of you who may also remember Mr. Watson's antics in Italy where he lost his glasses hanging out of the car on the autostrada, and Paris, where he climaxed a drunken dinner by dancing down the length of the table and out the window. His sole contribution to recorded music an exquisite multi-tracked solo on Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets', Lloyd now spends Sundays playing in a local Peterborough pub with Back Door bassist Tim Hodgkinson.
And the timely appearance of Brian Eno, just as it seemed he was going to vanish from the modern world. A move on Manzanera's part to return The Refreshing Experience to his rightful prominence? "Yeah . . . To a certain extent I think he's gotten too highbrow, though he would never admit to that."
In keeping with his attitude of a group, all involved are acting as investors. I put the venture to them and they said alright. Everybody gets an equal share of any profits and everyone pays an equal share of the cost. It's only fair. Otherwise, the two people who always have sessions would be paid as session musicians. I can't afford that, so it's either get into it or forget it." At this juncture the tour manager enters. "I've got some good news for you," he says to Phil. "Corbieres has been cancelled." The Phil Manzanera Band Featuring All These People is reduced to three appearances. The accounts take on a reddish hue.
But even without other commitments or financial juggling, there is the appeal of planned obsolescence, of a group whose short existence turns each appearance into an Event. "I never went to the ACNE June 1 thing, but the people who did must have enjoyed it, and they'll never see that again, ever. It's an event and it's over and that's that. I like that." But what's an Event if it can't be recalled in future times? Ergo, record the Royal Festival Hall appearance for a live album. If only because . . . "The songs are now in collages and medleys, things like that. We've been quite ruthless with the songs. Anything that wasn't good or didn't fit in we've just chucked out, so some of them are barely recognisable."
And all this feverish activity is but one facet of Phil Manzanera, musician. "This period that Roxy is supposed to be having off is, as far as I'm concerned, a time for doing as many different projects as possible. When I finished doing the live Roxy album I went straight into producing the Split Enz album, and now this, and when this is finished I have another solo album. I just want to utilise all the time. Also, last year I decided, having done a lot of work in the studio, to concentrate on live performing. And this year, with all the Roxy tours and two tours of America, which is a hell of a lot of live playing, and then GO, and now this. I enjoyed some of GO; I enjoyed working with Stevie Winwood . . . It was just very badly organised. But it was worth it to meet the people involved." Split Enz are a quirky, complex, highly original New Zealand group Manzanera discovered on television in Australia. "I didn't expect to really hear any of the music that interests me at all while I was out there. They didn't mention their name at all, so I didn't know who they were, but I was very interested. Then we did a gig in Sydney, arrived halfway through the opening act, and it was Split Enz. I mentioned to their manager that I wouldn't mind getting involved and helping in any way. The group came over in March, we made the album and then sold it. They're so entertaining. The record doesn't really make sense until you've seen them."
Manzanera is quite interested in producing other bands, providing of course that he likes the music. In any case, there is his solo album. Two solo albums, actually. "The first part will come out in the new year and will have nine songs on it, mostly singing, perhaps no instrumentals at all. Part two will come out about six months later, and be all instrumental. I'm not going to be singing, obviously. My first idea was to build up a sound using three or four voices and doing it throughout the album, or else use just one singer. At the moment it's in the balance. The songs are much more 'feel' songs than the last album. Songs with strange structures to them. Hopefully, there will be much more unity to them." All in all, a busy schedule any way you slice it.
"You see, whereas people like Eno or Bryan (Ferry) or most of the people I know who work in a similar direction, music isn't the only thing they can do. They can go off and become graphic designers or artists or painters or whatever. I've got only one alternative, which is music." How important is it, then to establish the Manzanera monicker as an entity in its own right? "Not that important, because I like working with people. I like to be in a group but I wouldn't really like to be in the Phil Manzanera Band full time. I like being in Roxy I like being in a group, but I like doing these other things as well. I want the best of everything. As it turned out the Roxy sabbatical was a natural thing. We discussed not making an album this summer because we've made an album every summer for the past four years. Apart from missing all the good weather," he laughs, "You get into a sterile routine. For us, at this stage, I it's not very productive for us. You take a risk, a terrible risk really, in taking all this I time off. I've always been struck by John Entwistle saying two years off the road and the Who almost didn't get back together again. That's obviously a risk you take, but you have to take them, otherwise you stop coming up with ideas that are fresh. It's a way of carrying on longer . . . if it works."
And if it doesn't work? "I'd probably join a band, if someone offered me a gig." You wouldn't assemble one yourself? "I might, if I had the right people. But I don't know, it depends, I'd have to see at the time. I hope it doesn't happen because I like playing with Bryan and I like playing with Paul, and I hope that Eddie doesn't decide that he likes playing with Zappa full time, because I enjoy playing onstage with them and I respect their capabilities. Because I've played with quite a lot of different people in the past few years and I really do like playing with Roxy, otherwise I wouldn't carry on playing with them. I'm going to do my best to make sure it doesn't, you know . . . But what the other people decide is an entirely different matter. The last time I spoke to Bryan we were still carrying on with our Master Plan."
Back to 801 Live mainpage
