Melody Maker, April 20, 1974

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Melody Maker   1974 April 20 1975 November 1 1976 August 14 1977 March 26 1977 June 4 1977 June 25 1977 July 23 1977 August 6 1977 August 13 1977 August 20 1977 September 3 1977 September 17 1977 October 1 1977 October 8 1977 October 15 1977 October 22 1977 November 5 1977 November 12 1977 December 17 1977 December 24 1977 December 31 1978 February 18 1978 February 25 1978 March 4 1978 March 11 1978 March 25 1978 April 15 1978 April 22 1978 April 29 1978 May 6 1978 May 13 1978 May 20 1978 September 30 1978 October 21 1978 October 28 1978 November 11 1978 November 25 1978 December 9 1978 December 23 1978 December 30 1979 January 6 1979 January 13 1979 January 20 1979 February 3 1979 February 10 1979 April 14 1979 May 12 1979 June 2 1979 September 29 1980 January 5 1980 January 19 1980 January 26 1980 February 2 1980 February 23 1980 March 8 1980 March 29 1980 April 5 1980 July 19 1980 August 23 1980 September 6 1980 October 4 1980 October 11 1980 November 22 1980 December 6 1981 January 3 1981 January 17 1981 January 24 1981 February 7 1981 February 14 1981 February 28 1981 March 7 1981 April 4 1981 May 30 1981 July 11 1981 September 5 1981 October 17 1981 October 24 1981 October 31 1981 December 19 1982 January 2 1982 January 9 1982 January 16 1982 March 13 1982 May 15 1982 May 29 1982 June 12 1982 June 26 1982 July 3 1982 July 31 1982 September 18 1983 January 8 1983 May 28 1983 June 4 1983 June 11 1983 July 2 1983 July 9 1983 July 30 1983 August 20 1983 September 10 1983 October 15 1983 October 29 1984 January 7 1984 April 14 1984 April 21 1984 April 28 1984 June 2 1984 June 9 1984 July 28 1984 August 11 1984 August 18 1984 September 1 1984 October 13 1984 October 20 1984 November 17 1984 December 15 1985 March 16 1985 April 13 1985 May 4 1985 June 1 1985 June 8 1985 July 13 1985 July 20 1985 July 27 1986 February 22 1986 March 1 1986 March 22 1986 May 24 1986 July 5 1986 July 12 1986 September 13 1986 November 15 1986 November 22 1986 December 6 1986 December 20 1987 January 31 1987 February 7 1987 May 2 1987 June 27 1987 November 28 1987 December 19 1988 February 20 1988 February 27 1988 May 14 1989 January 28 1989 February 4 1989 February 11 1989 February 18 1989 February 25 1989 May 6 1989 May 13 1989 May 20 1989 June 24 1989 July 15  1989 October 21 1991 April 13 1991 April 27 1991 May 18 1991 June 22 1991 July 13 1991 October 12 1991 October 26 1992 April 18 1992 May 30 1993 January 23 1993 February 6 1993 March 6 1993 August 21 1993 October 9 1994 February 5 1994 February 12 1994 February 19 1994 February 26 1994 April 9 1994 April 23 1994 April 30 1994 July 2 1994 July 9 1994 July 16 1994 November 12 1994 November 19 1995 April 1 1995 April 8 1995 May 27 1995 June 3 1995 June 10 1996 May 18 1996 July 20 1996 August 31 — Brinsley Schwarz Geoff Brown Melody Maker band breakdown compiled by Geoff Brown Brinsley Schwarz started in 1970 from the ashes of a pop group called Kippington Lodge, whose lineup had started with just Brinsley himself. Nick Lowe had joined in 1967-68; Bob Andrews and Billy Rankin joined later. In 1969 Kippington Lodge became Brinsley Schwarz and took three months off for rehearsal. Their managers of the day — Dave Robinson and John Eichner — involved them in a venture called Fame-Pushers, set up a gig at New York's Fillmore East and took over 100 journalists to witness the event. The experiment affected Brinsley Schwarz's outlook on the business and clarified for the group their personal reasons for making music. Nick Lowe described one effect it had on the band, which just about sums up their current attitude. At the start of their career Brinsley had been on Top Of The Pops promoting their single, "Shining Brightly," a Crosby, Stills & Nash type song. Later, still well into country rock, they had another single out. It was called "Country Girl" and Tony Blackburn picked it as his record of the week. (It's been one of the few areas of common ground between Blackburn and John Peel). Anyway, Top Of The Pops contacted Schwarz. Would they do another programme? Brinsleys said no — they'd vowed never to do that show again. They got, says Lowe, really righteous. "What a ghastly hit record to have been labelled with. Straw in our hair. Soon as summer was over we'd have been dead." Since then they've changed their style often. Adding influences to the original, Ian Gomm joined on guitar in 1971 and widened the instrumental combinations they could use on stage. Their set now ranges from Band-style to "Country Girl" to blues to Motown and to R & B — either an oldie played with a deep understanding of the mode or a group original which precisely captures the feeling and spirit of the influence. Brinsley Schwarz play like a live disco. Meet the first — and last — of The Great Eclectics. Bob Andrews Bob Andrews has a serious, thoughtful face. Hair recedes like an ebbing tide. Talks with a strong hint of Northern accent and plays keyboards with Brinsley Schwarz with a strong hint nowadays of Garth Hudson. Bob's been with the guys who formed the basis of the present Brinsley Schwarz for about six years. Before that he was playing with P. P. Arnold. "It didn't last very long. I got it through a friend of mine. I was having, uh, emotional things at the time. I won't go into that." He smiles. He, like Ian Gomm, saw an ad in the MM. Went along to an audition and joined the band. "That was Kippington Lodge. They were just issuing their last single. I just got in to be able to sing on the last single. We did a very Joe Cockerish version of 'In My Life,' John Lennon's number. That didn't do anything at all." Bob started playing in groups when he was 14. Played bass guitar for a year back home in the Leeds area, then he played lead guitar for a year ("I thought I was Chuck Berry.") Then when he started work some of the lads at the office he was in had a group. "They wanted an organist. I'd played piano when I was younger and so I suddenly fancied the idea of playing organ. Then because we were so together in the works we were forever talking about music, eventually it got intolerable. So we thought let's blow it." They turned professional. Andrews leans forward against the table throughout the interview. Recollections well up inside him; he smiles at each remembrance. He speaks quickly, in bursts. "We did one of those auditions 'Groups for continental work,' you know? We did this show with Al Read, a Christmas sort of thing for the Rhine Army. We did the backing. He used to do these sketches where he'd have musical introductions. Like he used to do a football sketch and we'd do the Sports Report theme." He sings it. Bob stayed in Germany for about two years ("twelve hours a night and stuff") and then he returned to England and got the gig with P. P. Arnold, this was, of course, after her first band, The Nice, had left her to go it alone. When he joined Kippington Lodge, Bob says the music was getting away from the singles thing ("like when I joined the organist I replaced went and joined Vanity Fare.") Bob, at the time, was leaning towards jazz "and I was also into, well heavy rock I suppose. I'd gone through all the Cream sort of syndrome. "Then round about the end of 1969 we got the album Crosby, Stills & Nash and I think that was probably one of the biggest things that happened to us before Brinsley Schwarz. That was the sort of thing that changed our way of thinking." They were, says Bob, getting so far into these new ideas that they were getting fewer and fewer gigs. "It ended up that we just weren't a viable proposition. We had a few fans in our local area (Tunbridge Wells) but you can gig your area only so much. Nick Lowe If Brinsley Schwarz have a front man then it's Nick Lowe. A spiky crest of hair, nose of the type referred to in polite circles as "strong," Nick Lowe plays bass and does much of the lead vocalising, left leg pumping up and down like a man blowing up a flat tyre with a foot pump. Nick's also their potential hit man. He does most of the band's writing. Of the many songs he's written so far I guess you'd call at least half-a-dozen very good. Two or three are simply excellent. One day he'll write a big hit, but there's no real hurry. His songs may well be the greatest beneficiaries of Dave Edmunds' production work on the current album. The band's development started with Nick and Brinsley at school in about '63-'64, the time of the Beatles and the Stones. "Then when we left school there was a gap while we were in semi-pro groups." Later Brinsley called Nick one day, said his bass player was leaving and did he want the gig. "This was down in Tunbridge Wells, about '67-'68. I left home and we've been together ever since then." When Nick joined the band, Kippington Lodge, they'd just made "Shy Boy," one of the singles they did for Mark Wirtz, who did the "Teenage Opera" thing. Ahead "He was amazin'. Just way ahead of this time no two ways about it. If he came along nowadays he'd be a Phil Spector sort of character, that's the way I see him." When he first started Nick played banjo. ("I was really into skiffle. In fact I played at one time with Sean Tyla (Ducks de Luxe). I never knew the names of the guys I was with. For some reason in those days you never used to know the names of the guys you were in groups with. I played with Sean in a group called The Four Just Men." When he started playing guitars in a Kingston Trio type group. "The Shadows, even though I liked them, were a bit before my time but when the Beatles came along I got interested in groups. The only reason I played bass was that it was the only instrument I could join Brinsleys group on." Nick's early bands, experiences in music included backing singers. J.J. Jackson was one. Billie Davie was another. Bass playing and singing aside Nick's most important contribution to the band is as songwriter. The first song he recalls writing was a skiffle number. "I'd heard all the songs about 'The Rock Island Line' and 'The Grand Coolie Dam' and all that and so when the Great Train Robbery was done I wrote a hokey skiffle number about that. Most embarrassing." Nick says he has little trouble writing a song. "I can't help but write. It's not clever. I just hear things come into my head and I try to go through with them, play 'em. "What is hard is getting it arranged and constructed in your mind so you can say to somebody 'Look if you play that and I play this I think it's gonna sound like that.' That's the hard part. "I'm really trying to write a Good Song that'll appeal to anyone. I'd like to get a song that won the Eurovision Song Contest cos I'd make it so drek, so crass, so crap that it'd be great. It would be fantastic. "I could really get off on doing that, even though I knew it was crap. Cos, you know, you're competing against people there that really know their business. That's hard to do." Brinsley Schwarz Billy Rankin Ian Gomm Remaining text and scanner-error corrections to come... << >> Melody Maker, April 20, 1974 Geoff Brown profiles Brinsley Schwarz. Images Photos by Barrie Wentzell. Cover.

External links

• Wikipedia: Melody Maker