Back in the ’70s, bass player PETER WRIGHT played in a few bands from Wolverhampton. His early bands may not have taken off, but when Glenn Hughes left local favorites TRAPEZE to join DEEP PURPLE, a bass player was needed, and Peter auditioned for and joined TRAPEZE for nearly a decade, and played on the band’s next 3 studio albums. Now retired from music, Peter lives in Texas, but looks back fondly on his Trapeze days and recordings. Enjoy!
Did you have any recording bands before joining Trapeze?
OK, so here’s what happened. Like any good British kid, when the Beatles came out, we wanted to get a band together and one thing led to another and I turned professional. The first band I was in professional was called ASHLEY. And we we recorded, but we didn’t make albums;i t was all canned. And we had a road manager called John Kirby who worked with everybody on the face of the earth, and I told John about going out in the van. We had one van, and he had the van stolen from outside Wolverhampton Civic Hall. And the only thing not in the van was my 62 Fender Jazz Bass, which, I’ve still got to this day.
Anyway, so that was the end of Ashley. So then I was out of work and there was a guy called Johnny Neal, Johnny Neal and The Starliners, and they won Opportunity Knocks. You probably wouldn’t know what that is; It’s like a star search type thing. So John was the main guy and we were the Starliners, and that was great. I was really happy. We’d do like a week in Newcastle, a week in Scotland and Southport and that kind of thing. And I was always friends with the guys from Trapeze. I went up to pick up Terry, who was a sound engineer, and they were auditioning bass players. So Mel says “Are you still playing?” I go, “Yeah”. He says, “Well, bring your guitar up”. So I went up to JB’s in Dudley with my guitar and it was just Mel and Dave, and they were playing and I’d seen them auditioning other bass players. So I played and Tony Perry, who’s a dear friend of mine, he was the manager, Tony Perry, still is the main guy. And they went and had a meeting and I’m sitting there, waiting and Tony and them came out of the meeting and they said, “Pack your bags, you’re in!”
So that meant joining Trapeze, and coming to the States and making albums and everything. And it went great. But then unfortunately what happened was they got involved with Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues. They’d recorded, I think the first album John Lodge produced. Anyway, so everything’s going well. And then they were going to get involved with John Lodge and Justin doing Blue Jays. So originally Trapeze were going to play before them, then the Blue Jays would play. Well, they decided it was too much, so they had a meeting with Tony, me and Kendrick and that was the end of Trapeze for a while.
Then I came over to the States; I got married to an American girl and I’m living in San Antonio and I wasn’t working. She was based in San Antonio. She was a flight attendant and I got a call from Dave saying that Justin was going to be doing a tour and I needed a bass player. So I flew over and we started rehearsing at either Pinewood or Shepperton Studios and rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing. It was great fun. And then that tour never came together. Meanwhile, we put Trapeze back together, just me, Mel and Dave, and that lasted a while and then that’s when Pete Goalby came to see us and then Pete joined. Pete was with us to the bitter end, and we came over to the States, and the last gig we did was in New York City and trying to get a record deal and no record deal so I came back down to Dallas and everybody went their own separate ways and that was the end.
I want to go back. When you joined Trapeze, was Rob Kendrick already there?
No, Rob came in after me. But I’d been with Rob Kendrick in another band. So there was the three of us and I thought it’d be good to have Mel, to have Rob in the band to make the guitar playing a little easier for Mel. But Mel didn’t really like, well he didn’t like Kendrick at all. Mel was a great guy, great guitarist but a little bit finicky. It was all Mel’s band. We had some good times but we were really just a backing band really.
Rob was there and neither of you were doing all the vocals at that point?
Mel was doing all the vocals. Rob didn’t do any vocals. I didn’t do any vocals. It was all Mel.
It’s interesting because in the vocals he has that same sort of style as Glenn.
He does. He used to lose his voice a lot. Mel and Dave, they knew each other from years and years ago in a band called Finders Keepers. They went way back. Mel was a legend and terrible what happened to him; him dying and then Dave Holland dying.
Do you recall Peter’s band Fable? Were they around you guys?
Yeah, Fable. It was Wolverhampton and the agency was called Astra and Pete was with Fable. I saw Fable many times. We all used to congregate. It was called Club Lafayette and Astra, the agency, their office was right above Club Lafayette.
I see on Facebook there’s groups to the Wolverhampton scene from back then. You recorded the first album, the green one. (I hold up Hot Wire) This has got to be one of my favorite album covers. The Sundae. I think that’s great. Mel was writing all the songs pretty much?
Mel and Tom. Mel wrote all the songs. Tom helped out a little bit. You can see all the credits on the album. That is a great album cover – Hot Wire. It actually got in the charts.
I know everybody talks about Glenn being Trapeze in the early days but for me this one and Hold On are the best Trapeze albums. What did you think of this album? Do you have any favorite songs off Hot Wire?
I liked all ofHot Wire. “Midnight Flyer”, of course. That was always a good one. Then we got some live stuff we did. All in all it was great. So lucky to do all that. And come to the States – I still remember to this day the first time we came over to the States, flying over New York and looking down and going “holy fucking shit”. And the first place we played at was Oklahoma City. with Leon Russell and the Beach Boys in a baseball stadium in ’74. And then we flew down to Dallas and the old Texas stadium, which is no longer there, and Crosby Sills and Nash were playing and we were introduced to them. And it went on from there. Kendo lives in San Antonio. He was doing a Trapeze cover band for a while. I’m not sure how that went. But he doesn’t talk to anybody. We don’t talk to him. I’m still good friends with Tony, and Tony Perry’s daughter Susie. She does a great job. She was doing the F1, the motor racing. Now she does the MotoGP. So Susie’s a big star. She’s great. And then Susie bought a house in Wolverhampton right by Tony the dad. Tony’s got to be like 80, 81…something like that now.
I’m amazed. I know Trapeze, and there’s a number of Canadian bands like Moxy, Triumph and a few others, they had such a huge following in Texas, but then we’re much lesser known outside of that.
That’s exactly right.
There’s a Canadian band named Moxy that came out in the mid 70s and they were huge down there. And they still get invited to play down there once in a while.
Well, if you look on Spotify for Trapeze Hot Wire, the viewing figures are stunning. Lots of viewing.
Anyway, it’s great talking to Pete. What a nice guy, Pete Goalby. Me and him together, we’d be in the back of the car laughing and I was saying to Pete the other day that when we had the radio back in the day and if there was a good song that we liked, Mel had instantly changed channels, and me and Goalby used to have a good laugh. We used to play golf together, me and Pete.
I was telling him only the other day “do you remember Myra?” And he said, Yeah. Myra was my ex-wife; she’s the flight attendant. And I said, “Do you remember Myra coming over?” We went to their flat, me and Myra. I don’t know if we’d been smoking pot, but Myra decided to trim, prune this little kind of ornamental tree that they’d got. And by the time Myra had finished, there was nothing left of the tree. And I said, that’s what Pete and Mel did. He says, “Well, it grew back and we tried to smoke whatever it was, but it didn’t work out”. But Myra was smoking pot and then she decided she was going to trim the bush in Pete’s flat and there was nothing left of it. But then it did grow back.
Yeah, he had some stories about golfing with Glenn and that.
Yeah, Glenn didn’t play. I think we had one tournament when Glenn played. But we had a soccer team, the Shelby’s 11, and we played the Birmingham lot, Roy Wood and all them. You know, it was interesting times. But now I’m a big soccer fan and I’m a big F1, Formula 1 fan. And that comes from Austin in October. And it’s nothing to do with the group. So a guy comes in, I work at a restaurant, I’ve been at Cafe Pacific, it’s a seafood restaurant. I’ve been there like 42 years. This guy comes in just before the F1 race in Austin. And I’m talking to him and he says,” I can get you tickets for the Formula 1″. I said, “Sure you can”.
Anyway, so this guy comes up and he’s a home builder, must be, a millionaire. He’s got a mansion in Dallas and a mansion in Austin. So, you know, he’s going to get me tickets. So I get a text from him “Be at my house in Austin, 10 o’clock on Sunday morning”, the race on the Sunday afternoon. I took Annie, that’s a girl who works with us, she’s gorgeous. So me and Annie went down to this guy’s house – there’s 34 people there, two party black party limos with a police escort to the track. I need to tell you. I mean, that was great. We didn’t pay for anything. We didn’t have seats, we had a box, and we sat there, watched the race, went back to his house and then drove back to Dallas. And I’ll tell you something about it, just another day, saw him and I said, “We did this, we did that… ” And the guy says, “Oh, well, we normally use a helicopter”. And I said to him, “You’re not getting me in a helicopter.” At least if we’re in a plane, we may glide, you know. Helicopters don’t glide. So no helicopters for me.
Anyway. I’ve still got my Fender Jazz, and that’s the only thing I’ve got.
Do you still play at all?
No. I pick it up occasionally. But, people say “come and play”. I don’t want to go play in a garage band. I’m quite content, I’m 75.
How old are you? I’m 75. 56. No, you’re just a kid.
I was born in 50. 75. Jesus… I’m happy to still be going. I saw Lady Gaga about a week ago. I’m sure that’s not your cup of tea. But she was sensational. Sensational. Amazing show!
I want to talk about, touch on some of these other albums. The second one was a little bit a little bit more almost rockier, a little more mainstream; a little less funk, I think.
Yeah.
But then you had Glenn on a few songs as well.
Yeah, Glenn, w I think he did sing on a couple. He may have played bass as well.
What do you recall of this album? And then they did a little bit of a reunion with Glenn for a bit?
Yeah, they did. And Tony had a lot of trouble with Glenn. It was difficult, very difficult, and right through the tour, they thought about calling me back in. But it was already promoted that it was Glenn Hughes, otherwise I would have gone back in, but Glenn was very, very difficult.
But Glenn’s great now; I don’t know if you’ve seen what he looks like recently, he’s very thin, and always doing stuff. He got straight, he got off the coke earlier, and as we all do, I mean, I’m totally sober, I don’t even, don’t even drink, but I’m drinking at the moment a non-alcoholic Corona. Cheers.
Was there anything on this album that you particularly liked, or anything that…
Let me have a look…I’ll go get my, I’ve got my album on the wall.
You guys did that cover of “Sunny Side of the Street”, that was an odd choice.
That wasn’t us, that was Mel. I like “Starbreaker”, “It’s Alright”, was that the one that to Glenn sang on(?) “Gimme Good Love”, I think that was, that might have been done live, and then we did “Monkey”, “I Need You”, Soul Stealer”, “Nothin’ for Nothing”….
There’s a few ballads on there too. Did this one get much promotion?
It did, but I don’t think Warner Brothers were too impressed with it. In fact, I think we had to remix it… And that “Monkey” thing, that was a funny one.
So, you guys must have had a break after the whole thing with Glenn, and then this thing came out in Germany. (I hold up the German Running LP)
Yeah, I’m not sure that was all about, but yeah.
It’s the same album as Hold On, only different running order. That came out a good, probably a good almost a year, maybe six months before the other one (?)
I think so. Yeah.
That’s a great album. You guys worked with Jimmy Miller, do you remember much about him?
Yeah (lol). He was a bit of a character. Jimmy Miller, he was cool. He came on a few gigs with us. And then that live one, “Dead Armadillo“, the one that’s in Texas. That was interesting too. When Goalby was with the band, we played at the Armadillo, and there was like some strings on the first thing, it was recorded somehow, and then the drums came in, me and Mel would jump on the drum riser. We jumped on the drum riser, and Mel kicked the drum riser, and fell into the drums! And he (Mel) was always, something was always coming down Mel’s nose, he was like, from coke or doing whatever. And he comes over to me and he says, “Good job me nose was numb”. Oh Mel, what a character.
Was the six songs, was that pretty much all you guys played on that tour, that show?
Yeah, we hadn’t really got many songs, and of course “Medusa”, and one of the others was like 10, 15 minutes, so yeah.
And when we played at the Cotton Bowl with the Stones, I think we only played like, maybe for 45 minutes, and I think we only played four or five songs. But we always did “Medusa”, that was a good song,
You had got in Steve Bray by that point.
Steve, yeah. Dave was gone, and Steve knew all the Trapeze stuff because he’d come around to gigs. So, Steve was a good drummer and a real nice guy.
And then having Goalby in the band, and one of Goalby’s buddies was a sound engineer. So, it worked out pretty good overall, I mean.,Trapeze, the three-piece, Glenn often says, and I was talking to Susie about it, Glenn says he wished he’d stayed with Trapeze, and Susie says “Glenn says a lot”. lol
I find that hard to believe, because I don’t know if he would have had the international success he would have had with Deep Purple, correct!?
That’s right. And of course they played the California Jam, with Ritchie Blackmore. There’s no doubt about it, Glenn is brilliant — voice-wise, playing-wise, everything.
I saw him in 2018 over in Buffalo, and his energy was just unbelievable. He played for an hour and a half, and he could easily play for another hour and a half, I think.
Well, he cancelled his gigs this year for resting, he wants to rest. Well, when he used to come down to Dallas, when he wasn’t playing, he’d come down here for a, you know, a refresher on the drugs. I used to have to go find them for him. And we had a couple of hookers the one night, and me and him finished up talking and the hookers fucked off. Typical.
What’s your take on these two things? (I hold up Trapeze The Lost Tapes LPs)
Oh, interesting. I listen to them, and there’s some subtle changes. It’s good to hear them. Not a great difference, but still good.
I get the impression that some of these tracks weren’t exactly Trapeze tracks, or weren’t intended to be. Maybe they were Phenomenon tracks or something!?
Yeah, I think you’re right. I haven’t listened to them for a while, but I don’t know where I got my copies from. If Tom sent them to me, but I’ve got copies of them and everything.
What do you listen to? Do you just listen to a bit of everything?
Yeah, I do. The old stuff. I go to see the old bands. Well, it’s great to see Robert Plant, you know,he’s coming through. When I was at school, we knew Rob Plant. He was a local, ‘couldn’t get a gig, fucking guy for years’. So Rob Plant, and then I went to a soccer game with him. He was from Stourbridge, and I was a kid, and on a Sunday, the pub didn’t open until like 12 o’clock. And they were rehearsing upstairs in this pub. It wasn’t open, and I used to cycle up there, I was (I don’t know), maybe 16, 17,18, and listen to them, they were called ‘Black Snake Moan’. That was before he made it big, I listened to Planty. And Roy Wood was around; The Move, that was a real cool band. And The Who, I was a big Who fan, of course. They played in Dallas, and I got into the elevator, going to the promoter, up to his room, and who should be in the elevator, but John Entwistle, my hero! And I said to him “Oh, John I’m a big fan”, (or whatever I said). And he used Rotosound Bass Strings, the same as me. Well, I used them, same as him. And I said, “John I can remember when Rotosound Bass String were like $10”, or whatever they were. He looks at me and says “I don’t know mate, I’ve never paid for any!” Lol
*(If anyone can clarify photographers, please message me, thanks)
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