“Memoir of a Rascal…From Pelham, NY To The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame” features a forward by famed rock ‘n’ roll deejay Cousin Brucie. The cover is an original photograph by Linda McCartney taken during The Rascals’ New York City’s The Phone Booth concert. Cavaliere’s gregarious writing is enhanced by heartfelt memories of the magic of the Rascals, his spiritual journey and guru Swami Satchidananda’s lifechanging influence, and professional accomplishments like being named to the Musicians Hall of Fame. A bold memoir that touches laughter, loss, lawsuits and love, “Memoir of a Rascal” is a first-hand account of rock ‘n’ roll history from a man recognized as one if its most celebrated artists—but who also sees himself as one of the genre’s biggest fans.
Fans can also expect Cavaliere’s new album, “Then & Now,” to arrive the end of summer 2022.
“I know fans have been asking me for years to finish my autobiography,” Cavaliere said. “This is for the fans. It’s a blessing to revisit memories and hopefully my story can inspire the next generation of singers and songwriters.”
With No. 1 songs like “Good Lovin’”, “Groovin’”, “A Beautiful Morning”, “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long”, “People Got To Be Free” and “How Can I Be Sure”, The Rascals are considered the best ‘blue-eyed soul’ group to come out of the 1960s. For Cavaliere, making people feel good is fundamental to his illustrious career that includes the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriter Hall of Fame, Vocal Group Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame. As a solo artist, Cavaliere connected with a new generation of fans with his hit “Only A Heart Sees” in 1979, and in 2008 Cavaliere worked with Steve Cropper on the Grammy-nominated “Nudge It Up A Notch.” In 2019, Cavaliere was inducted into the Musicians Hall Of Fame. Cavaliere is a 2022 recipient of the Free Speech in Music Award presented by Middle Tennessee University and in April embarks on a Legends Live Tour with Micky Dolenz of The Monkees in select markets.
Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals 2022 Tour
February 26 | The Casino @ Dania Beach | Dania Beach, Fla.
March 28-31 | Flower Power Cruise
April 1 | Southwest Florida Events Center | Bonita Springs, Fla.
April 2 | Center @ Anna Maria Island | Anna Maria Island, Fla.
April 8 | Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino | Niagara Falls, N.Y.
April 9 | Rams Head On Stage | Annapolis, Md.
April 23 | American Music Theatre | Lancaster, Pa.*
April 24 | Keswick Theatre | Glenside, Pa.*
May 12 | Count Basie Center | Red Bank, N.J.*
May 14 | Patchogue Theatre | Patchogue, N.Y.*
June 3 | Palladium Times Square | New York, N.Y.*
June 4 | Lynn Auditorium | Lynn, Mass.*
June 10-12 | Blue Note Hawaii | Honolulu, Hawaii
July 16 | Meadow Brooke Theatre | Rochester, Mich.
More dates being announced soon.
*Legends Live Featuring Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees
Prior to Fable you were in a few local bands. Did you write or record anything then or did none of that happen til Fable?
My first band was the System, I think I must still have been at school. We practiced in a youth club twice a week. When I left school we were offered a gig in Hamburg Germany. I had to pretend to be a roadie as I was under age to work in Germany. So I was there illegally. After the system I was in a band that became Aarons Rod, We did some quite obscure stuff. Kevin Bray Lead guitar introduced us to some great music . I sang “All Along The Watchtower” and stuff from the band Mountain, a lot of American bands from that time. Dave Millington was on Bass – another very good player, and my school friend who had been in the System with me – John Waterfall. John was a very loud drummer, which I loved. I think I started writing around that time with Aarons Rod. We did not get many gigs as some of the material was a bit off the wall but we all loved it and it was all part of the school of rock I suppose LOL
Was your family always supportive of your music career? Did you get help or advice from anyone at home?
I was brought up by my grandparents. I did not get any support. Really, I think they thought it was a fad.
Do you recall the first song you ever wrote?
I can not remember . I can remember I wrote some pretty bad ones though, folky type songs .
In those earlier bands do you recall what types of songs you played ?
Anything that was around at that time. I have sung everything from “My Way” to “Blowing In The Wind”
Fable was already going with a female singer, before you joined, Do you recall how you joined the band and how the band changed then as far as what you played or your goals were?
Yes, I actually said No at first but Lynne, my then girlfriend – now my wife, said I was mad to say no as they were very good musicians. So I changed my mind. It was a great band. We played all sorts of covers of the day, ’70s songs . Great times, lots of harmonies . I was into all that.
Can you tell me about recording the Fable album – how songs were chosen, put together, recorded..? How long did recording the album take and who all was around?
I started the writing. It is funny looking back. We would be playing a gig and I would spot people in the audience. People from record companies, they were looking with a view to signing us . A guy called Peter Shelley came a good few times and would come back stage after the gig. He was very interested . I got on great with Peter . A few other record company A and R men were also looking at us . We decided to sign with Peter at Magnet Records. I think we did the album at Trident studio although I might be wrong . I do remember the engineer Mike Stone. He was doing another band in the night time sessions, He used to play us what they were recording. It was a new band called QUEEN. Freddy and the boys no less. I think we took about 4 weeks to do our album.
While recording Fable did you ever bump in to or meet the members of Queen then?
No not at that stage but I did meet Brian May at the L A Forum when I played there with Heep. I walked into Joe Elliott’s dressing room and there was Brian sitting on a couch with Phil playing his Red Devil guitar.
What sort of gigs did Fable play – mostly local or travel much around the UK or outside?
We were very much in demand . Doing maybe 35 gigs a month. Some nights 2 gigs. Lots of clubs, universities all sorts really, all over the UK We also did the German clubs – The Star club and the top Ten club
Any stories from live shows back then?
One night Fable were playing a gig and the audience were all sitting down, it was a working men’s club . No one was dancing at all , not the best atmosphere. We used to do 2x 45minute spots. When we came on for the second spot Mac Bailey, lead guitarist, had stuck a piece of wood down the front of his leather trousers. I could not sing for laughing . The dance floor was quickly packed with girls dancing .
Any ‘big name’ bands that you shared a bill with?
We played with everyone who was big at that time. ELO, Hot Chocolate Suzie Quatro. Sweet, Mud. Manfred Mann. When we played with Manfred they had a hit single out called “Joybringer”. As we were on first we played that song . Our version sounded better than the Manfreds , as was the case when we opened for all the chart bands of the day
Do you have any favorite songs from that album or stories pertaining to any of your lyrics on it?
I have not played the album in years. We were just learning. I had no real direction . It was a real mixture of styles musically. I was just happy to come up with any idea at that time. We all were .
What do you recall of that album cover and, in particular the band photo by that tree on the inside?
It was a great tree in Kew gardens in London . Great picture but can not really see who is in the band.
You wrote for other acts in the ’70s, in particular The Bump by Alvin Stardust. Can you tell me a bit about how that song came about, what sort of inspired it?
Yes , We used to play in Scotland a lot and at the time the kids started doing this new dance , they were Bumpin’. I had an idea to write a song called ‘The Bump’. I called Peter Shelley and told him . He said great idea . Magnet got a dance group to record it . I had to rehearse them into the song, they were loving it. It was on TV a few times. Then when Alvin did his album Peter produced it and got Alvin to do ‘The Bump’. I have a Gold disc on my wall for that song .
Do you recall any other songs you wrote that other artists recorded back then?
Yes , I wrote a song called ‘Falling Apart’. This was recorded by Smokie on one of their albums. I also got a Diamond Disc for this song . It was a huge hit in Norway , so that’s on my wall also.
You also recorded a few singles as a solo artist. Do you recall much about writing or recording these and if any received any radio play or local interest?
When I left Fable I had a solo deal still with Magnet. We did 2 singles , ‘Ain’t It Funny’ and ‘You Are Day You Are Night’. I did not write the latter, although I did really like the song. It was very much like a Walker Brothers tune.
You obviously were familiar with Trapeze. How did the offer to join the band come about? Or did you audition?
Yes I knew Glen. We used to play golf together. When he got the job with Purple Mel took over lead vocals for a while but kept losing his voice. So I was asked to audition. It was really great stuff from the off. I had 3 new songs – ‘Livin on Love, ‘Don’t Ask Me How I Know’ and ‘When You Get To Heaven’. We rehearsed them and – Wow, it was great!
What do you recall of recording the studio album with Trapeze? Any recall on putting together songs, working with Jimmy Miller, etc…?
All 3 made side one on the Hold On album, I was so chuffed . Jimmy Miller was great. He did not add a lot he just let us play and he recorded it. He did have great feel, nice man. There were no co-writes, I had my songs and Mel had his which he wrote with his brother Tom Galley. Tom did the lyrics for Mel.
What do you recall of the tours and shows you did with Trapeze– as far as who you toured with, biggest venues and crowds, countries you played….?
America was the place for Trapeze, in fact Texas. They were huge in Texas. I could not believe it. They loved Trapeze. I remember doing the Texas Jam . One night in Dallas one night in Houston. Both stadiums. A year later I did the very same 2 gigs with Uriah Heep.
How was response from radio or press to the Hold On album? And what were your favorites on it?
My songs of course but I loved ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ . I sang it really well I hope . I Love that song Not much radio, really . I had to fill the boots belonging to Glen which was quite a task.
Was a 2nd Trapeze album planned or started? And was there a break prior the band playing that final tour?
Mel was being chased by Coverdale. Dave Holland was offered the Judas Priest job Pete Wright wanted to go and live in America. We were hanging on for another record deal.as long as we could. We went to America but before we went I was offered the Heep job . The rest is well written.
photos courtesy of Lynn Everett
Regarding Live In Texas – was there more tracks played and recorded that didn’t make the album?
I think that was the whole show, I think so
Any tales from your very early days or a road tale from Trapeze. . (Re Glenn — did you ever read his book? )
I remember coming back from Hamburg before Trapeze days I was friends with Glenn even then. I had bought a suede coat with tassels like Wild Bill Hickock style. Glenn went crazy over that coat, he loved it. I think he would have killed to own it. I did sell it to him so he let me live. He later wore it on stage with moccasins to match. He looked great.. He looked like an apache Indian with his long hair. I did not know he wrote a book. Am I in it? I should be. Even when he joined Purple he never changed, not with me anyway. He picked me up to play golf one day. I heard this loud music coming around the corner, yes it was him driving a Bentley open top!
Aside from the Texas Jam gigs with Trapeze, do you have any particular favorite memory of that band [and members] ?
A guy that does not get much of a mention is my dear friend Pete Wright, great player to work with. He is nearly as funny as John Sinclair. Pete was always reliable, great bass player, great person to be in a band with. If we were down Pete would cheer everyone up. Very happy all the time. Nothing seemed to upset him apart from when Mel kept changing the radio station in the car. It drove us all mad. For Christ sake Mel!
Prior to joining Heep, what did you know about the band, (aside from all the line up changes)?
I knew of them of course they were a huge band worldwide. I do remember Mel saying to me that my musical career was going backwards by joining Heep . I did prove him very wrong on that one.
Had you ever seen Heep live in the ’70s with David Byron? or know any of the actual songs that you would later sing?
Never saw Heep before I joined . I had heard ‘Easy Livin’ , ‘Gypsy’. ‘The Wizard’. That’s all I think.
Ashley Howe was key to you joining Heep and was great for you and the band as producer. Can you talk a bit about your connection to Ashley and how he got the best out of you and his importance to the band at the time (81-83)?
Ashley I love you . Ashley found my big voice. He was the greatest. Abominog would not have happened without him. Simple. He brings out the best in everyone he works with. I learnt so much from him on that record. Why we did not use him on Equator – God only knows. History may well have been re-written had he produced Equator
Were you happy with Heep’s take on ‘Blood Red Roses’, and do you think (or how) you would’ve done it any differently?
I wrote that song for Mick Box ’cause he asked me for a song for Raging Silence. I think they did a great job and I am glad it was a success for them. They got it nearly spot on . I would have been more laid back and moody in the verses. But I might have been wrong . Bernie did a great job, thank you Bernie.
Obviously you are happy with the response to Easy With The Heartaches. Has the experience (so far), inspired you to want to clean out your vaults of more recordings from your past?
I have been asked for another record , we will have to wait and see.
AND – has it inspired you (at all) to want to pick up a guitar and play – even if for yourself or family members? No
*You can order Pete’s debut solo album Easy With The Heartaches, as well as Leavin’ The Hard Times Behind : The Best Of Trapeze – check out http://www.cherryred.co.uk
*If anyone out there happens to have any photos or stories of the band Fable, please let me know. Would like to revisit this album in the future.
Legendary drummer Carmine Appice really needs no introduction. The guy has done so much from bands VANILLA FUDGE and CACTUS to playing with Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, and hundreds more. For over 50 years he has been one of the busiest, in-demand, and best known drummers in the rock world. More recently he’s seen the release of the latest Cactus studio album (last year) and currently the Cactus live release – The Birth Of Cactus. He’s also working on a number of new projects. I’m sure my conversation does not cover all that he has on the go, so check out the links below.
I want to talk about the new Cactus album. That was your first show – who thought to record it and where was it all these years that it was able to come out now?
Well, basically what it was our manager found that somewhere, I don’t know where the heck he found it. He’s not only our manager, but he’s also a really big Cactus fan. so he finds collectables, and he found that, I guess on a cassette tape that somebody had and he said that he could get that released on Cleopatra, because he said they were interested….So I listened to it initially, and I said ‘wow, the energy on that record is unbelievable’. Ya know, it’s our first gig, but the energy’s flying off that performance like crazy. And it was at a small stadium called Temple Stadium, in Philadelphia, and Jimi Hendrix was the headliner and we were all friends with Jimi, and Grateful Dead – we knew them, and Steve Miller, and you gotta remember The Grateful Dead and Steve Miller weren’t big yet, so the only one that was sort of big was Jimi Hendrix, and even he wasn’t the icon he is today. It was kind of really a cool gig, and we hung out backstage with Jimi. and then we went on and tore it up. … I was 24 years old at that point, and I was just a fireball , ya know… “Parchman Farm” on our record was pretty fast, and this one is faster than that. It was quite an experience. And they remastered it and it actually don’t sound too bad. It doesn’t have to be unbelievable sound, but you can actually hear everything that’s going on. And if you look at it that it’s a collectable classic, and not a polished – ‘go in and re-do…you know like when you do a live album, like BBA – Beck Bogert Appice, we had a live album from 1974 coming out , and we had the 24 track and we went in and fixed the vocal, and a couple of things that needed to be fixed, but with this we didn’t have the opportunity to do that – what you hear is what you got.
Was that everything , was that the full show that’s on the record?
That was the full show, we only had like a 40 minute set. And I think the first song we played titled “One Way Or Another” wasn’t really “One Way Or Another” yet , that became a song on the 2nd album, but it was always a cool jam, so they just titled it “One Way Or Another” because that’s what the song ended up being. out of that riff. It was a brilliant jam on that take. When I was listening I just ‘wow I can’t believe it!’ It’s the “One Way Or Another” riff that started it and then we’d go off jamming on it.
So, was the (first) album out at that time?
I don’t think so, I think it was just coming out or just came out. And my manager was a concert promoter at the time, so it could’ve even been his gig. His company did gigs all around over the east coast of North America. So that could’ve been his show. Again, it’s not like a stadium we have today selling as a stadium that sells out, that’s huge, there could not have been 8000 people there, maybe. We did a tour with Vanilla Fudge we played some stadiums with Hendrix, it was like a 60000 seat stadium or a 30000 seat stadium and we played to like a quarter of it, the rest of it was empty seats. So I think it was like that too. It’s just the fact that it was an outdoor gig and an outdoor gig to maybe 8000 people, maybe a bit more – but not much more.
I want to talk about leading up to that gig. you and Tim had left Vanilla Fudge and you were going to work with Jeff Beck, and that didn’t work out, so..
What happened was we were planning to work with Jeff and Rod Stewart and Rod didn’t want to work with Jeff – OK, that was cool, so we said ‘Jeff you come on over and we’ll figure out a singer later’. And Jeff got in a car wreck just before that, and that put him back 18 months. He couldn’t come over. And we’d just broken up Vanilla Fudge, that was making big money; you know we were drawing, 5,6, 7000 people everywhere we went. So now, I don’t want to do nothing for 18 months – ‘what about you Tim?’ ‘No, I don’t want to do nothing either.’ So, let’s see what else we can put together. We already knew the band name – with Jeff or without Jeff – it was going to be ‘Cactus’! Because we saw that name in Arizona and said ‘Wow’; it was on top of a drive-in theatre – The Cactus Drive-In. So, I said ‘wow – what a cool name for a band.’ It was really strong, the presence of it was strong. So we knew it going to be Cactus. So when Jeff couldn’t make it we had a singer who was __ , we tried him for a couple of weeks and he didn’t work out. Then we had another guitar player named Terry Kelly, he didn’t work out. So, a friend of mine – Duane Hitchings, who was working with a band called Steel, who my manager managed, and we said ‘Look does anyone know where to get ahold of Tim McCarty from Mitch Ryder.. He plays with Buddy Miles now.’ and Duane had played with Buddy Miles, and he said ‘yeah, I know how to get ahold of him.’ So he got ahold of McCarty and so McCarty came up and played and that was great. So we said ‘well now we need a singer’, so McCarty recommended Rusty Day from The Amboy Dukes. So we had sort of a ‘supergroup’ because that’s what we were trying to do. At that time Blind Faith was a supergroup, and West, Bruce & Laing were just getting together, and there was other band’s like that – Crosby, Stills & Nash; so we were trying to do the same kind of thing, because that was the new cool thing to do. So when we got this band together, and we brought Rusty in, and Rusty was great . And the thing I never knew was that “Parchman Song” was a cover song. We were recording it and rehearsing it, and only when the album came out I found out that it was a cover song; I thought it was Rusty’s lyrics because he was great writing lyrics, as we would play stuff he would start singing lyrics and melodies, and that’s how most of our songs were written. So really that song could’ve been our own song because it wasn’t about the lyrics and the fact that it was “Parchman Song”, it was what we played, that double bass – drum shuffle, which was the fastest double bass-drum shuffle recorded at that time, 1970. So, it could’ve been any song, it was the fact that it had so much energy and the way we played that. That groove was what made the song happen. So that’s sort of a weird little story I tell about that first album. And then we put it all together, and we had a deal on Atlantic Records, which was Vanilla Fudge’s label. And we had a really powerful lawyer represent Vanilla Fudge, and Cactus, The Rascals, Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits, all the powerful bands because he was a real powerhouse. He got us an immediate good deal on Atlantic. And it was kind of easy once we got the band together. But we never got the single that we needed to break-through to make it like Led Zeppelin or Grand Funk Railroad…
Where did the ‘American Led Zeppelin’ tag come from and did that put a lot of pressure on you guys?
It didn’t put pressure on us because Led Zeppelin weren’t that big yet, you know they had 1 or 2 albums. It came from the press, somebody labelled it that and then it stuck. Even today they label that. The last album we did with Cactus ‘Tightrope’, on Cleopatra, I think was one of the better albums we’ve ever done. Unfortunately anything coming out today doesn’t sell, nothing because of Spotify and all that.
I thought it was a good album. I think Paul Warren’s a great fit.
Paul’s great. Paul’s from Detroit. Paul played on ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, so that’s why we did it. We did it live first, just for fun, to tell the audience ‘we’re going to play a song Paul played on when he was 17.’ And when we played it they all went crazy and we said ‘we definitely got to record that.’ And it came out fantastic. And we were planning that release for 2020, which was our 50th anniversary, and we went to Europe before that and we dates in America and some dates in Canada, but we never got to do the dates saying ’50th Anniversary’, so the dates we have coming up, we’re going to sell the merch we have from 2020, the t-shirts, the album, and everything.
You guys did the 3, 4 albums in the ’70s, then you broke up and went off to other things.
Me and Tim finally had the opportunity to play with Jeff, and that was what we wanted to do in the first place.
Was that the reason for breaking up or was it more that the band didn’t have that single?
No, that was reason, because that second Cactus band that we put together was more like The Faces, and I think we would’ve eventually had a single because there are some songs on that Hot ‘N Sweaty album that could’ve been hits. But at that point we were already starting to go with Jeff Beck, so the label didn’t want to put money in to it. And then when that broke up we gave the rest of the Cactus name to Duane Hitchings, who was the keyboard player in Cactus, and who later on co-wrote ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ and ‘Young Turks’ with me and Rod. We’d been friends a long time, so gave him and Mike Pinera Cactus and they did an album for Atlantic called ‘Son Of Cactus‘, and they went out on tour and must’ve grossed through the year like 7-800000 thousand in a year, which was big money back in the ’70s. Cactus did quite a few major tours, and were on a lot of good bills… We toured with everybody. We toured with The Faces when they were big doing arenas, we toured with Hendrix, we toured with Uriah Heep, we toured with Badfinger back in the day. And we did a lot of shows where bands opened for us. And big fans of Cactus were people like Eddie and Alex Van Halen. I’ve got cassettes of those guys playing Cactus songs, and on their albums they use some of our stuff, like “Eruption” was the beginning of our song ‘Let Me Swim’, and Alex told me the template for “Hot For Teacher” was “Parchman Farm”, based on that double-bass drum shuffle. They were big Cactus fans, they did a song with Sammy that was a middle section of our song called “Evil”. And King’s X were big Cactus fans, and Ronnie James Dio was a big Cactus fan. We’d go to Memphis and sell-out to 5000 people, and Long Beach Arena we did 5000 people, England we did 3 or 4000 thousand people, so we had a pretty good following worldwide. We went to Europe and do pretty good size crowds in Europe. We played the Isle Of Wight, which is a video that’s going to be coming out at some point. We played in front of 600000 people!
You mentioned Uriah Heep and Badfinger, 2 bands I’m a fan of. Do you have any recall on those tours?
We used to be pretty wild in those days. One time we were on stage on they (Badfinger) hit us with whipped cream pies on our faces, so we retaliated by bringing this – they a 50 gallon metal barrel that they used to put ice in and all our drinks in it – so we filled it up with all kinds of crap, and not realizing we could’ve electrocuted these guys – we just went up and threw it at them on stage, the 3 of us picked it up and threw the whole thing at them, the audience went crazy — that was the same night. Uriah Heep, I don’t remember many stories with Uriah Heep. I can tell you a great story with Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath had just came out, and they had one their first gigs on the east coast at Asbury Park, it was Black Sabbath and Cactus, it was an equal bill thing and we went on first, and just before we went on, we had a very small roadie and somebody stole a bag of pot from him, and I think they punched him in the face, and it was one of the Black Sabbath guys that did it, so just before we went on we were face to face with Black Sabbath and ready to have a rumble backstage, and luckily the promoter broke it up. Those guys were from Birmingham, which is a working class town – like Detroit, and we’re from Brooklyn, New York, and Detroit which is both working class towns that had gangs, I grew up with gangs and stuff. So we were ready to kill each other before either one of us went on. And they broke it up, and so happens that Circus magazine was there that day, so they later on did an interview with us and printed it in Circus magazine about that almost they’re going to hands and fighting with Black Sabbath and Cactus.
You resurrected Cactus in the 2000s, Tightrope is the newest (studio) album, and you’ve got some shows coming up . You and Paul both played with Rod Stewart at different times, so what did you knoew about him that you got him in to the band?
I knew of him playing with Rod, because I went to see Rod a few times. And I had this show called the Rod Experience, which had bandmembers from Rod’s band in it – I had Jimmy Crespo, Phil Chen, myself, and Danny Johnson, all 4 of us out of 5 played with Rod. And we had a guy that looked like Rod, and he sang like Rod. And we went out and did shows, we went to China , Mccow, all over this country. we did 30-40 shows, and then Jimmy Crespo couldn’t play any more and he had to leave, so I was looking for somebody, and somebody said ‘why don’t you get Paul Warren? He played with Rod’ So I got Paul in, and while playing with him in the Rod Experience I realized he’s great player and he’s from Detroit.??.. And we became good friends. So, when Jim McCarty said that he really didn’t want to travel any more, he just wanted to play his own gigs around Detroit, I had a choice of with ?? band, (because Tim was already out of the band) or keeping the band going, and I did, I changed guitar players. So, I started talking to manager, and he said ‘why don’t we do that?’, and I talked to the band, and they said ‘yeah, we want to keep it going’. So we did, we got Paul in, and then I realized Paul was like Jim McCarty on 10. Paul is amazing. He’s a great songwriter, and on stage he is really great. And we went to Europe with him, and at home we did a whole load of gigs there, and people loved him, and even when we went to Detroit JIm McCarty came, and he knew Paul, and Jim got up and played with Paul, it was awesome. So, he’s well respected from the people, well respected from the audience, and well respected from McCarty. So then we got the ?? deal and we started doing Tightrope, and that was the last record I did where we were all a band in one room. That was great because we started writing songs together from scratch, Paul start doing a riff and I’d start playing drums, then we’d say well let’s go somewhere else – let’ go here after these ten bars, something like that. So we wrote the songs as band – mostly me, Paul, and Jimmy Kunes. And I think in the end Jimmy had some sort of problem with that, because Paul was a much more powerful entity in the band than McCarty because McCArty didn’t get involved in production and that, and Paul was involved in the production, the songwriting, and the guitar player. Me and Paul were the co-producers of it, and I don’t know if Jimmy Kunes likes that or not. And Paul was a really good singer too. He sang on “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”, he sang a verse. So after we did all that Covid hit and all that, then we started getting more dates, and we found out Jimmy Kunes didn’t want to do it any more. So as of now we’re just getting a new guy in. He’s an English guy , named Jim, and he played with Jimmy Jones [?] and a few people like that. He plays guitar and he’s a great singer. So Paul is working with him in Nashville. We’ll have a rehearsal in March with the whole band for a couple of days, then we’ll go do 3 shows to warm up, then we’ll do some more shows in June. And you know I haven’t toured yet with this new album, so it keeps us going. And I met with Foghat – Roger Earl, who’s the only original member in Foghat and he’s been going, and they’re doing great! And he said ‘don’t give it up, that’s your advantage, your legendary band Just keep doing it.’
One thing I’m always interested in is the album artwork. So I wanted to know what kind of say and input you’ve had over the years in the albums covers…
We always have influence. The first album was the most notorious because it looked like a penis and testicles erect, it looked just like that. We found this good art guy that was doing shows, and we said that is so cool, it’s so phallic , it’s so manly, and in Cactus – it really tells you what the band is about. So we showed it to Atlantic and they said ‘we can’t release that!’ Back in the day Macy’s and EJ Korvettes, and all the chains like that won’t stock the album if they see that. So we changed it a little bit; it still had the idea but it didn’t look exactly like one. So what we did was we made stickers out of the original one, thousands and thousands of stickers and whenever we went, like on planes – we’d go to the bathroom, pull the seat up and sticker on the cover! So when the stewardess pulls the seat up they see a Cactus sticker. Haha. We used to do crazy, wild things, like bring women out on stage and have them wearing like 5 Cactus stickers! It was pretty crazy days back then, you know – the hippies, the pot smoking generation, the nudity, free sex, all that stuff. I Can’t believe I survived it, to tell you the truth. The 2nd album, One Way Or Another was – one way was the beautiful Grand Canyon with the sunset, another way was a beautiful sunset in the back was a Hawaiian sunset. And inside was to be all other things that were to be not as cool. And then the third one – Restrictions, the cactus breaking through the concrete, with the drawing of a guy, and I believe there was clouds of pot smoke and you couldn’t see the rest of his body. So we were always involved… Hot N Sweaty we recorded live in Puerto Rico, it was a festival, so it was a very tropical type of artwork, because it was Puerto Rico. And the next one was Cactus 5. And then for the artwork for all the different stuff Atlanta put out, they always sent us stuff to approve and we always had our comments and they fixed it. We were always very much involved in the artwork in Cactus.
I had done a piece on Tightrope cover,…
Susan ….and Paul Latimer. We told them what we wanted, because you know Cactus is always been associated with pot smoking and rebellion and restrictions and all that. So we said ‘let’s just incorporate all that and make it like society’s own fuck {?] ‘the government fucked me’, and put a tighrope on there with somebody walking the tightrope. and that’s what they came up with and we immediately like it, we had 2 comments, we did. Then we had it animated so there’s video we did, that’s the title song. And Paul Warren’s not in that video because he was sick as a dog, before Covid, he had a cold and all these other ailments he had going on, but thank God he’s OK now. So the guitar is a young kid from a band I was producing called Kodiak. It’s like a new Van Halen, the kid sounds just like Van Halen. And I asked him to do it, and that’s why you don’t see his face.
Who did the artwork for the new archive live album?
Actually Cleopatra did it. They said do you you guys want to be involved, and I said Let’s see what you come up with. And they came up with that, and I said you know what – we didn’t have a lot to do with recording it, so go for it. I’m the only one, me and McCarty that knew that was coming out. So our manager Bruce just let McCarty knew recently that’s coming out, and sending him a copy ( I haven’t got my copy yet).
Do you keep up on all the vinyl variants and albums colors and stuff? Do you keep a copy of everything you’ve ever done?
I pretty much try to, yeah. I got the Tightrope album on vinyl, I got Cactus V, any one that we did on vinyl – I got. But they didn’t do vinyl of, you know – The Best Of Cactus is a double CD, and they did all that live stuff and studio stuff, and they didn’t do those. But my Guitar Zeus I’ve got all the vinyls now, they’re just released before Christmas a 4-LP, 3-CD, with a booklet Guitar Zeus box-set for the 25th anniversary, which is really good. We put 3 extra (new) tracks on there that were never released. I actually found them on a 24-track, and we actually worked on them, finished them. I put Tommy Thayer from Kiss on one of them, I put Derek Sherinian (keyboard player from Sons Of Apollo and Dream Theater) playing like a guitar solo on his mini-moog. And I had that kid again, (who was in the Cactus video – the guy from Kodiak) on one of the songs, to give him a break. We have 39 tracks, there’s also some tracks with no vocal, no guitar, so people can play along with it and everything. And then there’s a bundle where you can get a Carmine face-logo – like a silver metal, a photo of me, and booklet, and a t-shirt. So, I’ll keep one. If people want to buy it, it’s on my merch list at my website.
Did you have much of a collection growing up? did you buy much?
I have a lot of albums, but right now most of my albums are with my drums in a locker in LA. And I live in Florida now, and I have a locker in New York and a locker in LA, and a small locker here for the house. And I’ve got drums, I try and sell the drums because drums are not made to sit in a dark locker, they’re made to be played. I’m actually going to put a thing on Facebook saying that if anyone is interested in buying a couple of sets of drums I have, that I used on records – go to my website and look for Booking information and let us know. Again, I got rid of a lot of drums, and I’ve got drums I played with in the lockers, and I’ve got some real collectables. They’re all in there, I’ve got boxes on vinyl, and I’ve got boxes of vinyl here.
Do you still have a residence in New York?
We have a place in Manhattan, [?] I lived in LA for fourty years, I lived in Long Island for 2 years, more than 2 years, I have 2 houses on Long Island, one of them I turned in to a drum studio and gave lessons, and had 3 teachers working with me, and that’s when I started writing my drum books and all that and became an educator. I had lots of houses in LA. Then I moved to Florida in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, and I’m so glad I did because I have the studio here, which I’ve recorded the new King Kobra album, I recorded that here. I recorded The Energy Overload record, that’s on Cleopatra also – myself and Fernando Perdomo, who’s a producer and a muti-instrumentalist. We did this instrumental album that’s getting amazing reviews – 5 out of 5 on VintageRock.com and Classic Rock gave it 9 out of 10. So we’re working on a new record, and we’ve got 6 or 7 songs for that all at my studio. I was telling my wife yesterday I’m so glad we moved here and I got the studio, otherwise I would’ve lost my mind during Covid, because I didn’t have anywhere I could play my drums, you know, I had a house in Connecticut and I could just play my drums but no way to record, the room there was like a gym, it was too echoe-ee to record it. So I’ve done so much work here; I’ve produced this singer name Lisa G ee, I did some some stuff for Cleopatra, I played on Arthur Brown’s new single with Brian Auger. I also did a Pink Floyd tribute, I did that with them as well. So I did a lot of recording here. I did a Modern Drummer Festival here, I recorded it live. I recorded Nico McBrain from Iron Maiden, I did his Modern Drummer festival video here and recording here. And I engineered it which I thought was really funny – Carmine Appice the Engineer now, right!? Ha.
So, who is on the new King Kobra?
We did 2 King Kobra records – one in 2010, one in 2012, and I had Johnny Rod, the original 2 guitar players – Mick and Dave, and our original singer Marcie Free didn’t want to do it, so I got Paul Shortino who sang with Quiet Riot and Rough Cutt, so he did those 2 albums. Now we’ve got a new deal on Cleopatra to do a new King Kobra, and the 2 guitar players didn’t want to do it. Mick works as a union painter in LA for movies, and Dave works for Live Nation – he does all the computer tech stuff for them, so he said ‘nah we don’t want to do, it’s so much work and nobody buys it anymore…’ , I said ‘yeah , but your keeping your only legacy going, and you’re creating music’. So I ended up getting Rowan Robertson that played with Dio, and Carlos Cavazo from Quiet Riot. So those are the 2 new guitar players with me, Paul, and Johnny Rod. And I gotta say this album kicks ass! It’s really really good.. It’s kinda leaning more towards that ’80s metal , but it also has 70s hard-heavy rock. It’s really a good record. But still you’ve got a limited audience who buy for sales, you know most people don’t buy records any more they head to Spotify and bands don’t make any money off of Spotify . So we’re just making it and doing it to get new music out, keep the legacy going, and do music – that’s what I do, I love it – that’s my hobby, my wife, you know!? And the album is called “Music Is A Piece Of Art“. Isn’t that a cool title!? And the lyric in that song is “music is a piece of art, through your ears and straight to your heart”. I think that’s really clever.
I like Johnny’s work, I’m very familiar with him in WASP….
Yeah, Johnny is a great bass player! We just finished his bass parts. We actually flew him to Vegas to work with Paul Shortino in Paul’s studio. Me and Carlos worked from our home studios. We flew him [Johnny] there, put him in a hotel, and he spent 4 days with Paul and did all the bass tracks And Paul called me and goes “Johnny Rod is a motherfucker!” He said he was so good, he made the songs come to life even more than they were actually. And that’s why I put him in King Kobra because he’s a great bass player! He’s got the look, he’s got the image, and he’s a wild guy , he fits the band perfect!
Over the years have you had much contact with John Sykes from the Blue Murder project?
I saw him In 2010 he’d left Thin Lizzy to go out and do Blue Murder. We had gigs booked, the management from Thin Lizzy was going to manage it, we had gigs booked in Europe for big money and something happened between him and the management and they cancelled it all. And since they cancelled it all, nothing’s happened for many years, and then maybe 3 years ago, when I still lived in California me and Tony and John got together at John’s house, just screwin’ around – we got together and played, and it sounded amazing. Then we did it again, then we talked ‘let’s go out – let’s get a manager and an agent’, people are dying to hear Blue Murder all over the world. And we were going to do it, and after the last jam we had John wanted to do like a John Sykes history tour combination with Blue Murder, me and Tony. And we said ‘they want to hear Blue Murder, if you want to do a John Sykes tour – we can do my history too, you know, which is pretty strong, and we can do Tony’s history which is pretty strong too.’ People want to hear Blue Murder I don’t care about doing my history, I want to play Blue Murder. So the last time I saw John was 2020, January, at the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, at the NAMM show, and he was there and he had put together a drummer and Tony said he was going to go out and that John history tour. And John said ‘oh my drummer is dying to meet you, can you come and meet him?’. I said ‘sure’, so I met the kid and everything. And we left it at John would go out and do this tour in 2020, and when he’s done with that we’d go out and do Blue Murder. And unfortunately Covid hit, so he never did the tour. And I texted him and never heard back from him, I don’t know if he changed his number, but I haven’t talked him in 3 years now.
I want to touch base on a session you did a long time ago, a band named Ursa Major – Dick Wagner’s band.
Oh my God! I did. I don’t even remember the song, but I remember Ursa Major, and Dick was a good friend, and I saw him the last time about a year before he passed. I did a solo album in ’77 called V8, which Dick played on 2 songs
I want to talk a bit about Vanilla Fudge…
Did you hear that new song we did? It came out last year, and it’s the only song from a band from 1967 come out with all 4 members of the original band. It was done before Tim Bogert passed away, it was called “Stop In The Name Of Love”, it’s on youtube, and it’s pure Vanilla Fudge! It’s really good. Tim was sick as a dog, he had stage 4 cancer, and I got him to do it, and it was great.
Is there any plans to do any more recordings as Vanilla Fudge?
Well, we were supposed to do, this was part of what was going to be an album called Supreme Fudge, which we were going to do 5 Supreme songs, 3 other R n B songs, and 2 originals – something like that. So we recorded this one first in December of 2019, that was about the time we got the deal sorted out. So went in the studio and started recording, even though we didn’t get any money yet, because we didn’t have any budget, but we had a studio and we were in the New York area doing some shows, we had some days off so we said why don’t we go in and put that arrangement down that we had of the song. OK, so we did it. And then in the next month, January, I was going to the NAMM show, I talked to Tim, and I said ‘we got a new deal with Supreme Fudge, can you play on 1, 2 or 3 tracks?’ and he said ‘yeah as long as I’m physically able to I’ll do it.’ So, since we had that track recorded I went to the NAMM show, and I sold my house in LA, and went in and recorded Tim at my friend’s house, that was 2020 just before Covid. And when I got back I realized I had to re-do the drums, because the drums had all kinds of leakage on it, for some stupid reason. So I had to re-do the drums. So I said ‘OK when I go back maybe February or March I’ll re-do the drums and maybe we can get together then and start arranging more stuff.’ I had gigs going in February with my brother so I couldn’t do the Vanilla Fudge then, and then Covid hit and that was the end of that. But I did have Tim on that track, so when I moved to Florida and developed my drum sound, and I thought I was ready I put new drums on it. So I did those drums here too. And the rgeat thing about having the drums here in my studio is I can walk in there any day and today I can go in there and put a drum track down and tomorrow or next week I can go in there and say ‘I don’t like that drum fill, let me fix it’, and I’ll still have the same exact drum sound because the drums are in the same exact place, same room, it didn’t change. But when Covid hot we never got to record any more because the other guys don’t have studios, I’m the only one who has a studio . So our manager said ‘well since you’ve got Tim on that and everything else is done why don’t I just work out a deal for that!?’ So he worked out a deal with the same label that released the Zeppelin record and they released the song on digital. So, the manager made the deal for the digital version of that because they didn’t want to release a real version, which they should’ve, a vinyl version. So that’s what happened, and we never got to do the Supreme Fudge album.
Hopefully there’ll be a way to come back to it…
No. Not unless the business changes. And not unless this Covid thing goes totally away where we can actually go to a studio. I mean, my brother is in the studio right now with Last In Line – all together, in Vegas, so…
You also put out your autobiography a few years ago. I’m curious – you’ve done so much with so many bands, how would you narrow something down in to one book?
It wasn’t easy. There should be a volume 2. The next book is going to be called “Guitar Zeus – The Book“, and I’m going to talk about all the guitar players that I worked with in my life. That’s an interesting concept that ties in to my album. And I’m going to put 2 CDs in the book. And I’m talking to this guy, there’s a new book on Led Zeppelin, a biography that was just released recently; and the guy that wrote that wrote The Beatles biography, and he’s just been contracted to do the Rolling Stones over the next 5 years, and he wants to do this book with me. So, as soon as he gets his contract figured out and he’s able to do it – we’re going to write that book. And he’s going to get me a deal, which will be a big deal, and it’s going to be all of the guitar players, I’ve got a list, it’s pretty impressive, and I’ve got stories of everybody. And I’ve got pictures… I can do a Stick It : Part 2, you know…
American country-rock band Poco have a long history, dating back to 1968. The band ceased touring in 2014 when lone founding member Rusty Young retired (in 2013). This recording from 2004 also featured longtime member Paul Cotton, who’d left a few years previously. Sadly, both Young and Cotton passed away in 2021.
Now available on CD & blue vinyl, from Purple Pyramid Records, One Night In Nashville features the artwork of Angelika “Angel” Ciesniarska . Like a number of Poco covers, this release features a horse, as created by Angel.
About the artist
“I was born in Poland in 1977, I settled in UK in 2005. I am a self taught artist, doing art in my free time. My other big hobby years ago used to be aviation photography as well”.
About the Art Used On One Night In Nashville
“I created this particular watercolor in 2014. It was my attempt to create nice horse tattoo art. It was nice to see imy image being used as this album cover”.
This image would’ve been chosen for the by someone at the record company, and added with the classic Poco logo.
“This painting was always one of my most popular images online so I ended up uploading it on my Alamy account ant that’s how it ended up on Poco’s album”.
Angel’s artwork was used with the famous Poco logo, which first appeared on Poco Seven, from 1974. That cover & design were created by Phil Hartman (RIP, 1998). He had been credited on over 20 album covers throughout his career, including a number of Poco covers. The Canadian artist later became famous as a comedian on Saturday Night Live, and as a voice actor on The Simpsons .
*For more on Angel Ciesniarska’s art, as well as ordering prints check out the links below.
Gifted with a multi-octave vocal range and also a multi-instrumentalist musician, John Sloman is a renaissance man with a singular musical vision brought to mesmeric life on his magnificent new solo album “Two Rivers”. As a personal record, “Two Rivers” documents John’s journey from his childhood home city of Cardiff to treading the well-beaten path to London and his encounters in the music business fronting major headline bands.
Photo by Jeff Moh
“Two Rivers” is a compelling cocktail of songwriting that blends crucial chapters of John’s life in song and verse. In essence, “Two Rivers” is a distillation of Sloman’s eclectic musical progress from Lone Star to Uriah Heep, his adventures with UFO and The Gary Moore Band and his Todd Rundgren produced debut solo album “Disappearances Can Be Deceptive”. Adopting Cardiff’s River Taff and London’s River Thames as metaphors, John’s stream of consciousness observations pour forth from his deep well of memories. Populated with sublime songs wrapped around sharply observed personal postcards of a remarkable life “Two Rivers” simply has to be heard to be believed.
This soundtrack to a life less ordinary begins with the title track’s prophetic opening lines: “Two rivers flow through my mind – the one I see before me and the one I left behind.” As John says: “The River Taff and the River Thames have come to personify this unrelenting tug of love I have experienced for most of my adult life. I left the one with a spring in my youthful step. But with so many of those who once walked beside me now gone to that great river in the sky, I regret all the days I was away. This album is for them – and for those of you still being torn in two by your own two rivers.”
This memorial theme is taken further on the new single “This River Is A Time Machine” that explores the memory bank simile of these constant yet fluid and life-giving channels delivered with a heartfelt passion by John. Revisiting his childhood on the song “Scenes From An Old Biscuit Tin,” John explains the song’s inspiration: “On school mornings, as I ate my porridge, I would lose myself in images of Elizabethan London adorning the family biscuit tin, while dreaming that I might one day go there – London, that is.” And going to London is exactly what John did, which he superbly documents on “Londinium” and “Charing Cross Moon,” and achieving a substantial measure of success in doing so that established him as a major player in the late 70s and 1980s rock music scene and his continuing solo career. There is a pleasant surprise in store for fans of John Sloman with the Avant-Garde nature running right through this record. Think experimental Frank Zappa and late-period Scott Walker meeting the acoustic elements of Led Zeppelin and your imagination will be stoked by the captivating contents of this unique and exceptional album.
Two single releases “This River Is A Time Machine” followed by “The Last Coalminer” have non-album B sides and both are accompanied by videos for each single release.
Release date: March 25, 2022
“Two Rivers” track list:
1-Two Rivers 2-This River Is A Time Machine 3-Caerdydd (City On The River) 4-Scenes From An Old Biscuit Tin 5-From The Taff To The Thames 6-Londinium 7-Blackweir 8-When I Go Home 9-Rest In Peace (For Sylvy) 10-Charing Cross Moon 11-70s Sunday 12-Walking Along The Ta13-The Last Coalminer 14-Farewell To London Town
Norway was (is?) a band from New Jersey. Many years back I received the band’s 2nd album – Arrival (on Frontiers). It was a good disc of AOR/Hard rock featuring excellent cuts like “Givin’ It All”, “One Night Alone”, and “Find My Way Home”.
The band featured Jim Santos (guitar, synth prog), Glenn Pierson (vocals, keyboards), Joe Slattery (bass) & Marty Brasington (drums). In 2006 the band changed singers with Pierson being replaced by Dave Baldwin (ex Voices), and issued Rising Up From The Ashes (MTM). Not sure how this album did at the time, but I was unaware of it til I stumbled on it a few months ago. The songs and performances here are still just as good than the previous 2 albums, though the production and approach comes up a bit more AOR than Arrival. Plenty of appealing radio friendly tracks like “Save Me”, this could’ve been a hit in a slightly different era, But there’s plenty of good pop/rock songs here – “Anything At All”, “The Power of Gold”, as well as ballads like “Haunted”, and “The Only One I Need”
Much of this stuff bordering on Bon Jovi and Journey. type tunes and sound not so much keyboards, but in the backing vocals. Guitarist Jim Santos notes that the album did not turn out as planned- “MTM basically released our demos;-the drums and guitars were supposed to be re-done in a proper studio — didn’t happen.”
Santos is planning to put together a ‘Best of Norway‘ for possible release later this year, and having heard one of his much improved remixes, it sounds like it will be a welcome release for those who dug those Norway albums – “There are 5 songs from Night Dreams and 5 from Arrival, and 2 from Rising Up-that Glenn will redo the lead vocals that were sung by Dave Baldwin, plus we’re thinking of 2-3 brand new tunes and a pile of ‘extra’s’ -demo’s, lost unreleased tracks, and possibly a few special collector editions. Might be two discs. We’ll see what happens.”
Although Santos insists the band never really broke up, the members have gone on to other things, but intend to get back together for the upcoming Best of – “Drummer Marty Brasington had moved to Columbus Ohio shortly after Rising , which made it “difficult”. There were other individual personal matters that each of us had to handle. I moved to California for 5 years which didn’t make it any easier, lol. For my part I stay active playing everyday, recording, songwriting. I wrote lyrics for one song on the forthcoming new Frozen Rain album, and played guitar on a couple of things for Adry A (Mattsonn) and we wrote one song together. I know Marty plays with a classic rock band in Ohio. He has a small recording setup, and will be working on drums for a couple of new songs for the Best Of. Glenn also just writes and plays piano at home. Now he moved to South Carolina only 3 1/2 hours away from me, so we’re planning some catchup sessions. Bassist Joe Slattery, I think still lives in NJ, not sure what he is doing these days.”
CACTUS sprung up following the break up of the legendary VANILLA FUDGE, and drew immediate comparisons to the [fairly new] and mighty Led Zeppelin with their first album of heavy blues rock. This performance is the band’s debut, consisting of mainly tracks from the band’s debut album, plus a couple of tracks from then-future albums (“One Way…Or Another” and Sweet Sixteen”). It’s a great sounding recording, and despite being their first live show, it’s a performance from a well rehearsed band, all well in tune with the material and an energetic performance. A brand new band that was making their mark right off the get-go.
*For more info & ordering, see press release below:
Historic First Ever Live Concert From Classic Rock Legends CACTUS Finally Sees An Official Release!
Los Angeles, CA – This is where it all began for the quartet dubbed “The American Led Zeppelin” – on a 1970 bill that also featured the likes of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Grateful Dead and Steve Miller Band. Vocalist Rusty Day, guitarist Jim McCarty, bassist Tim Bogert, and drummer Carmine Appice, collectively known as Cactus, made their auspicious debut in their very first public performance that night. Fortunately, this stunning and historic show was captured on tape and has now been unearthed from the archives and released on all formats!
The Birth Of Cactus 1970 finds the freshly minted quartet ripping through some of the key tracks from their landmark debut album including “Parchman Farm,” “Feel So Good” and “No Need To Worry” plus some smokin’ hot blues numbers. The performances are not only supremely confident, but also fluid and dynamic as each member locks into the groove and relentlessly rides it.
Drummer Carmine Appice had this to say about the concert recording, “I remember doing that first gig, hanging out with Hendrix who was a friend of Cactus. We got on stage and the energy level was off the charts! All the songs kicked major ass. We were so excited to get Cactus going and this show helped. Crowd was great and we did ROCK!!”
The Birth Of Cactus 1970 will be available on digipak CD and on PURPLE vinyl everywhere on January 21st!
Track List: 1. One Way…Or Another 2. Sweet Sixteen 3. No Need To Worry 4. Medley: Let Me Swim / Big Mama Boogie / Oleo 5. Feel So Good 6. Parchman Farm
Envy Of None, the new band and debut self-titled album from Alex Lifeson (Rush), Andy Curran (Coney Hatch), Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne due for release on Kscope on April 8th
PRE-ORDER HERE(https://eon.lnk.to/EnvyOfNone) Alex Lifeson is no stranger to the concept of evolution. As a founding member of Rush, he’s been able to explore more musical ground than just about any other guitar player out there – taking rock to new progressive heights throughout the decades and always in the most wildly inventive of ways. His influence can be heard on countless bands around the world, from indie shoegaze and math rock to heavy metal and beyond. Over the last few years Lifeson has been focusing on a new project that, no matter how well-acquainted you are with his discography, will undoubtedly shatter all seeds of expectation and blow the mind. That project is Envy Of None.
The new band, also featuring Coney Hatch founder/bassist Andy Curran, accomplished producer and engineer Alfio Annibalini and singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne, will be releasing their self-titled debut album on April 8 via Kscope. Its 11 tracks – which ricochet between various shades of alternative, experimental and synth rock – throw surprises at every turn, twisting dark melodies against contemporary pop hooks. Lifeson himself is proudly aware of how little of it crosses over with the band that made him famous.
However, it was only when singer Maiah Wynne became involved that this truly started to feel like a band destined to go somewhere. Her haunting melodies and soul-baring intensity is – by the admission of her own bandmates – what truly brought this music to life. All things considered; she is a star in the making… “I sent over an early version of the song Shadow,” explains Andy Curran. “When I played what she’d done back to the others they were like, ‘Who is this crazy talented person?!’”
The album’s first single, Liar, is out now. Its industrial beats, driving fuzz bass and atmospheric guitars concoct a seductive swirl indeed – thrilling in ways closer to the darker art rock of Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle than anything these musicians have been known for prior.
“Maiah became my muse,” continues Alex Lifeson. “She was able to bring this whole new ethereal thing through her sense of melody on tracks like Liar and Look Inside. After hearing her vocals on Never Said I Love You, I felt so excited. I’ve never had that kind of inspiration working with another musician. When we say she’s special, it’s because she’s really fucking special!”
“One of my favourite things about these songs is the intimacy of them,” reveals Maiah Wynne. “It makes them feel different and more honest. There are some heavier songs too, like Enemy, and then tracks like Kabul Blues, that sound completely different to anything else.”
The album closer, Western Sunset, which was penned by Alex Lifeson in tribute to his dear friend Neil Peart. It’s a highly emotive piece of music to honour a man deeply missed by the rock community at large, and even more so by those who were lucky enough to know him. “I visited Neil when he was ill,” says Alex Lifeson. “I was on his balcony watching the sunset and found inspiration. There’s a finality about a sunset that kinda stayed with me throughout the whole process. It had meaning. It was the perfect mood to decompress after all these different textures… a nice way to close the book.”
It’s a book you’ll almost certainly want to be reading. Envy Of None’s self-titled album is due for release on April 8 via Kscope.
Envy Of None track listing 1. Never Said I Love You [04:06] 2. Shadow [03:21] 3. Look Inside [04:44] 4. Liar [03:13] 5. Spy House [02:23] 6. Dog`s Life [04:36] 7. Kabul Blues [03:12] 8. Old Strings [05:15] 9. Dumb [04:19] 10. Enemy[04:16] 11. Western Sunset [02:25]
Ltd Edition deluxe version – presented in a gatefold sleeve with a blue coloured vinyl LP, 2 CDs including a 5 track bonus disc, 28 page Booklet with exclusive content CD – includes a 16 page poster booklet LP – on black vinyl / baby blue coloured vinyl (North America exclusive) / white coloured vinyl Digital
Envy Of None are: Alf Annibalini – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming Andy Curran – Bass Guitar, Synthesized Bass, Programming, Guitar, Background Vocals, Stylophone Alex Lifeson- Guitar, Mandola, Banjo, Programming Maiah Wynne – Lead Vocals, Background Vocals, Keyboards
Saxon may not have caught on in North America the way fellow NWOBH leaders Iron Maiden did in the ’80s, but for the past few decades the band has consistently released solid albums, toured regularly, and also released live gems from their archives. Battering Ram [from 2015] got me back on track with the band, and then I saw Saxon in 2017 [w/ UFO] and it was a real eye opener. So, following the excellent Thunderbolt, a few side projects, such as Biff Byford’s solo album, the band’s covers’ album – Inspirations (released earlier this year), a slew of reissues and live releases, we get a brand new album Carpe Diem. By now most Saxon fans would be familiar with the title track issued a while back, a classic heavy riff & anthem based around the song “Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)” and a fine opener to an even better album, Saxon may be a heavy metal band who should’ve peaked decades ago, but here they are still coming up with an album full of songs amongst their best, offering not only their own thundering approach, but enough changes to keep things fresh from their previous records. On Carpe Diem, there is no shortage of tunes that will appeal to the Saxon faithful, from those big dark sounding riff rockers like “Super Nova”, “Black Is The Night”, “Dambusters”, and speedier “Living On The Limit (do I hear a twist on Sabbath’s “NIB” in there?). And Saxon never shy about timely topics and anthems deliver “Remember The Fallen” and “All For One”. Favorites here are the slightly slower “The Pilgrimage” which sits in that same class as “Lionheart”, (for me) and “Age Of Steam”, the best of the heavies here, killer intro and solo, with one of Biff’s historical content tales. Fantastic album from a band who’s still delivering their best. *Available on CD, vinyl (+colored0, cassette, and in Box set form!
*See the press release below for track-listing and more info…
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Life hath no fury like a legend in full roar… and on February 4th, 2022, Saxon will show just that to the world when they release their 23rd studio album, Carpe Diem, through Silver Lining Music, serving notice to anyone who ever felt otherwise that they remain both vanguards and masters of British Metal. Comprised of 10 titanic tracks bristling with steel-clad riffery and proud intent, the Barnsely (UK) born band draw on a variety of ingredients from their career to forge what is their most dynamic release in many a year.
“It all starts with the riff,” says front man and co-founder Biff Byford, “if the riff speaks to me, then we’re on our way. It’s a very intense album, and that’s all down to the fact that the essence of a great metal song is the riff that starts it, and this album has loads of them.”
Unleashing today the title track’s roll-back attack, this is Saxon at their purest and most definitive; aggressively parading the pure metal flag and imploring fans old and new to gather and celebrate the very best of both Saxon and the genre itself.
“In Latin it means ‘seize the day’ and I think it’s a great thing to say;” continues Biff “it’s what the Romans used to say to each other on a regular basis, apparently, never having met one, I wouldn’t know! But we’re gonna do the Seize the Day world tour, the album’s Carpe Diem, this song’s called “Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)” and it’s such a powerful thing to say.”
Produced by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus, Accept and Priest guitarist) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire with Byford and Sneap mixing and mastering, Carpe Diem strikes the ear as one of the most essential British metal statements of the last few years and not lacking in pace or bite, an album which will ignite the joy in stalwart supporters and attract a whole new legion to the Saxon fold.
“We want every album we make to go platinum,” says Biff defiantly. “We never make an album that we don’t expect to be fantastic because there are no laurels around here, and as a band, we’re always trying to do something a little bit new, a little bit daring. I love fast metal like “Princess of the Night” and “20,000 Feet”, and I try and bring that style of Saxon into the music now, but in a more modern style. We don’t sound like an old band on records because we’re not sitting back on our past success, we’re always trying to make a great album.”
The genesis of Carpe Diem’s fierce intensity lies in two extremely significant life events – “It’s been a difficult two years,” offers Biff with considerable understatement, “because I had the heart attack back in September 2019, so things went a bit pear-shaped for the band. And then Covid hit two or three months later, but luckily, we started writing and recording this album before Covid. We did the drums in Germany and we did the guitars in various places. I was doing a lot of writing while I was in the hospital bed, and we spent quite a long time writing and arranging the ideas that we all had. I do think it’s a very intense album, and maybe some of that intensity comes from the frustration of not being able to do anything in the Covid period.”
Carpe Diem Track Listing: Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) Age of Steam The Pilgrimage Dambusters Remember the Fallen Super Nova Lady In Gray All for One Black is the Night Living On the Limit
Produced by Andy Sneap and Biff ByfordAlbum mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap
Guitars recorded by Andy Sneap at Backstage Recording Studios, Derbyshire (UK); Vocals recorded by Seb Byford at Big Silver Barn, York (UK); Drums recorded by Jacky Lehmann (Audiosound) at Velbyproductions, Grünenplan (Germany).
All lyrics by Biff Byford. Backing vocals by Seb Byford
If you’ve seen a few of my recent posts you should know that British rock legend John Verity has been very busy lately with new releases from his ’70s post-Argent band PHOENIX, as wel as a new studio album. I’d also re-posted an interview I did with John back in 2000. So here was my chance to dig a bit more in to John’s career, as he talks about ARGENT, PHOENIX, his solo career, and his new and more more recent releases.
Interested to know how much say / input you had on the 2 ARGENT albums? How were songs brought in and put together?
Recordings for the Circus album were well advanced by the time I joined the band, so material was pretty much decided on.
I didn’t play any guitar on Circus, my contributions were just vocal, as all the basic tracks were completed.
I was involved from day one on Counterpoints but didn’t feel I had anything ready in terms of song material that would fit the project, so I didn’t put anything forward.
I did contribute fully in the recording of the album though, both on guitar, and most of the vocals.
Generally what would happen is prior to the planning of an album everyone in the band could submit demos of songs/material that they felt might fit.
It was clear to me that Counterpoints was going to follow a bit of a Jazz/Rock feel generally and I had nothing that I felt would work.
Of the 2 albums you did, do you have a preference, and what were your favorites off those albums to perform live? Favorite Argent tunes from before your time?
I don’t have a preference, I feel that both albums have their moments, there are some great songs, and some lovely playing from everyone involved.
I wasn’t too familiar with the band before I toured as their opening act. I had been living out of the country for some time, totally focused on my own music and didn’t get to hear Argent stuff until I returned to the UK in 1972. Rod, Russ, and Chris White are amazing writers and their material is great to sing and play so again I have no real favourites as everything in the show was both challenging and satisfying to perform. It was a great time and everyone in the band was as the top of their game.
Did you come to North America with Argent? Any memorable gigs, festivals…?
Yes I toured North America with the band. Always a bit of a whirlwind to be honest with each day melding into the next so it’s hard to remember… I always did prefer the smaller gigs, like the Agora clubs, and the Starwood in LA. I like to see faces!!
With Phoenix, did you guys have a say in the album’s artwork? Very cool cover. Wondering if you’d having any recall on that?
Yes, one of our strict rules on forming the band was that we would have total control.
We usually came up with a concept, then met with a team specializing in album art to bring it to fruition.
The only time this didn’t work was In Full View. We recorded the basic tracks in LA and did a photo shoot for our proposed cover.
On our return to the UK our label, Charisma didn’t like concept and persuaded us to change. It was a mistake!
You had previously told me there was unreleased Argent songs, as well as songs from an aborted reformation. Curious if any of this stuff has ever seen the light of day, or will?
I very much doubt this will resurface. I don’t even know where the tapes are…. Sorry!
That first Phoenix album is a classic guitar rock album, IMO. Can you give me any insight to a few of the songs and the writing & recording of tracks like “Easy”, “Woman Like You”, “From The Ashes” …. ?
Yea, I wrote a lot of the material with live performance in mind. ‘Easy’ for example was meant to be a show opener. I visualized Jim starting with bass line on a darkened stage, then Bob’s big drum fill leading into the main guitar riff. Same with “Woman Like You’, which has dynamics suited to a live show. These two really did worked when we took them on the road. “From the Ashes’ was a song I’d had in my head for while. Jim had been messing around with Rod’s Mellotron and that finally gave me the idea for a mood that would suite the song and then it came together really quickly.
What did the Phoenix set list consist of back then [after debut]? and do any live recordings exist?
You know what? I really can’t remember the setlist. I know we did Easy, Woman Like You, You Got Soul, Are You Ready. I remember we did a drum feature called Dirty Water.
There is a well recorded bootleg from our show in Zurich but I never kept a copy unfortunately.
Can you detail the time and time frame of when the Out Of The Sun album was written and recorded?
We were writing material for Out of the Sun when we were on the road promoting the first Phoenix album. We even did some of the new material in the show.
This was 1977. When we came off the road after touring with Aerosmith we went straight into my home studio to make demos of the songs and pretty soon thereafter into Trident Studios in London to complete the actual album recordings. I asked Rod to play on the album and he has played on a lot of my recordings over the years. We’re still great friends.
Do you recall any clear memories or specifics on the tracks on Out Of The Sun? Any insight in to some of the tracks?
We worked really quickly, meeting each day at my place we would play basic ideas to each other and thrash out arrangements whilst I recorded everything we did.
Next morning we’d start by listening to the previous day’s stuff and choose/reject songs each time until we were happy with enough strong material for an album.
Once I had nice recordings to refer to we’d get our Management to book Trident and we’d start again, fine tuning and laying down the proper album tracks.
How did the making of Out Of The Sun differ from the first Phoenix album? and can you recall how it was put to you that the record company wanted something different?
We worked in the same way as we did the first album. Same studio, same routine except that I wanted to stretch out a bit on a production level. Tying stuff out like real phasing and backwards guitar tracks… I think CBS were worried that what we were doing was out of stride with what was currently happening musically. Record companies tend to follow fashion…
So, where were the tapes for Out Of The Sun for the past 40 years, and can you tell how you came back in to possession of them?
I kept the multi-track tapes for many years. Magnetic tape doesn’t age well, and when I brought the masters out of storage and tried to play them they simply fell apart on the tape machine.
There is a process whereby you bake the tapes and are then able to play them once and copy them but that didn’t work either.
So… I thought they were gone forever…
Then late last year (2021) Steve Rodford (Jim’s Son) called me to say that he’d found some recordings amongst Jim’ stuff. Steve hadn’t looked through everything since Jim had passed, and had spotted a box that looked ‘interesting’. To cut a long story short, I had forgotten that back in the day I had given Jim some mixes of the album when I was working on the tracks at Trident Studios. Jim took them home to listen to and then put them away safely. We all forgot about it. Steve said that in Jim’s writing it said ‘Out Of The Sun’!. So I jumped in my van and drove straight to Steve’s to grab the stuff and check it out. Together with Matthew White I was able to restore the recordings, then bring them to my studio to remaster. You’ve heard the results.
Was there more than just the 8 tracks on the album? Anything left out or any alternate takes?
I’ve used everything…
One thing that’s interesting, is that you joined Argent on Russell’s recommendation [whom you replaced], but over the years you’ve covered some of the songs he wrote, obviously kept in touch, in a distant working relationship. Can you talk a bit about Russell as someone you’ve worked with, a friend or mentor [?]. And Russell as a songwriter, baring in mind all of the classic songs he’s written that ended up being hits for other artists!? I think more people know a few Russ Ballard songs than actually know who Russell is.
I was obviously aware of Russell but didn’t really know him until the late ‘70s when I had a call from his management.
Russ was working in the studio and the engineer had become unwell. Russ had heard about my reputation as an engineer and wondered if I could help him out. That was the beginning of our relationship really and for a time we worked together every day in the studio as Russ wrote and recorded songs. (don’t ask me to list them!! Russ is very prolific.
I learned a lot during that time and have approached Russ for songs when I needed strong material – Phoenix was the first band to record ‘I Surrender’ (That’s another story).
We’re still good friends and talk regularly to put world to rights…
There were a couple of Phoenix resurrections …[or attempts?] over the years. Can you mention a bit about any such shows or attempts to reform?
Bob Henrit was in my band for many years after Phoenix ended, and we did think about doing some Phoenix stuff from time to time.
In 2010 an agency showed an interest in putting some Phoenix dates together and we decided to record an album to fit in with this.
The album ‘Still Burning’ featured Bob & I, with Mark Griffiths on bass and Ian Gibbons on keyboards. We finished it and were preparing to go on the road to promote it when the same agency suddenly announced a tour by ‘Argent – the original line-up’. This came as quite a shock to me of course, so I shelved the Phoenix album and used some of the tracks on my ‘Verity – Rise like the Phoenix’ CD.
Over the last few decades you’ve recoded a lot of albums. Can you touch on some of these more recent ones, such as Zep It Up, My Religion, and Blue To My Soul?
Zep it Up was really just a bit of fun recording a bunch of my favorite Zeppelin tracks.
At the time my studio was in a truck, as I wanted to try recording in different locations/acoustic environments etc.
I was in the Northwest of the UK at the time and was checking out one particular location for rehearsing with my current band – John Clark on drums and Dave Kinley on bass.
It sounded great so I drove the truck there, ran some mic lines in and we spent a few hours messing around recording stuff we liked. In the end we recorded about 14 Zep tracks that day, and I spent another day recording vocals, tidying up and mixing. It became the ‘Zep it Up!’ album.
Soon after that I moved to my current home in the Southeast of England and built my current studio.
I write and record all the time here, with various guests and the guys in my current band lineup, sometimes just by myself.
Every couple of years I put out a new album and tour to promote it.
Over the years my albums have often been a mix of my own material with covers of some of my favourites from other writers.
If I do a cover it is seldom anything like the original…
As of writing, my latest album ‘Passion’ is all originals, it just worked out like that.
I tend to write about the things I care about, such as being in a band, touring and relationships though my stuff can be a little political too – with tongue in cheek…
You released Passion in 2020. I presume this was recorded before the pandemic and lockdowns!?
Yep, my timing is diabolical!
‘Passion’ was released just as the pandemic hit. We were 2 days into the tour and had just played a festival in Scotland when the Lockdown was announced. That was the end of our tour, so we came home.
Passion definitely sounds inspired and energetic. Is making new music now still a labor of love? How happy were/are you with how Passion turned out?
Music is my life. I formed the first John Verity Band in America in 1970 and I had already been playing professional in bands since the early 60s.
Fronting my own band was a big move for me.
I love doing what I do, my whole life from early teens has been about music, to the detriment of everything in my life. I’m very lucky to have found an amazing woman, Carole who’s prepared to put up with it. I sing and play every day, our home is a 300 year old cottage far enough from neighbours for me to make music anytime without interruption. It’s bliss!!
I’m really pleased with ‘Passion’ but like most musicians there are things I would change. A note here, note there…
Can you touch on what inspired some of the tracks [musically] on Passion? [I know there’s details in the liner notes on lyric ideas] ?
My music has swung between blues and rock over the years and I wanted to do an album that reflected that, and touched on some of my influences.
‘Higher’ is much like the stuff I was doing in the 80s and lyrically its about how I feel about my music. My harmonies are typical of stuff from that time, intentionally. It’s time-warp!
‘Get Wise’ it about what was the current political situation in the US. I think it’s sad that kids don’t seem to care about what’s going on around them…
‘Sand In My Pocket’ is a tongue in cheek conversation on what it’s like to be in a band being lied to by promoters/agents time and again. You end up with no money – just sand in your pocket… But we love it so much we do it anyway…
‘Broken Heart’ is about what we’re doing to our planet.
‘Big Stick’ I think it was Franklin D Roosevelt who spoke about Big Stick Diplomacy. The current (at time of writing) President should maybe take a leaf out of this book. The song, again with tongue in cheek refers to Trump and the UK Prime Minister Johnson.
‘Red Devil’ In the style of Cream I wanted to write about one of my musical heroes Ginger Baker.
‘Bad Boy’ I suppose is a really obvious tribute to another one of my heroes, Chuck Berry. He was a very bad boy, but he changed everything musically for me and countless other musicians like me.
‘The Open Road’ was never meant to be released, I just recorded it one day when I was feeling a bit blue. My Wife Carole pushed me to include it on the album.
I see you have vinyl copies of Passion at your website, might we see a vinyl edition of Out Of The Sun?
I don’t have the budget to do this at the moment – but you never know…
I presume you have a home studio [?] Have you spent more time in it during covid? Any extra music projects to keep you busy until live gigs come back fulltime?
I’m in my studio every day. As we speak I’m recording acoustic versions of some of my electric songs.
During pandemic I’ve been streaming weekly to a private group of fans from the studio.
Can you talk a bit about your own guitar playing and singing and who’s sort of influenced you, especially in later years, with more blues stuff?
I was into blues early in my career and the influence has be there throughout but maybe not so obvious.
I started like a lot of kids in the UK in the 60s. Skiffle had just finished and we were listening to Blues & R&B records from America, and of course Rock & Roll plus pop chart stuff.
I joined a group and we would play the easy 3 chord stuff, then as the instrumental groups like the Shadows, Ventures & Duane Eddy came along we’d some of that too.
I wasn’t really interested in anything else so would play whatever I had to play to get gigs. A bit of a musical tart!
I would play R&B and soul, sometimes a little Jazz, and of course Pop hits of the time. My influences by then were the up and coming blues players like Eric Clapton and Peter Green. I was already heavily influenced by BB King & Albert King.
I was in a band playing Soul & Chicago Blues at the end of the 60s when the ‘Underground’ music scene kicked off and we morphed into a band called ‘Tunnel’. We would stretch out musically and that’s when I started writing. By then I was pretty confident to solo on guitar and I think I was getting my own style together. We were living in America by then and doing some pretty amazing shows. When Tunnel came to an end in 1970 I decided to stay in the US and formed my first John Verity Band with drummer Teddy Napoleon and bassist Mark Troisi.
By that time Jimi Hendrix had arrived and scared all of us guitarists to death, and I had the honor of opening for him in Miami, 2 days after my 21st birthday in ’71.
This first JV Band lasted for about a year then my visa ran out and I had to return to the UK.
At home I continued to work on the songs I had started in Miami, and began looking for musicians for the next chapter of the JV Band.
After a few false starts I found a great lineup with Ron Kelly on Drums, Gerry Smith on bass and Geoff Lyth on guitar and keyboards.
I had just negotiated a record deal with Probe/ABC/Dunhill and we set about recording what would be my first album.
My timing once again was dreadful!
There were political problems in the UK resulting in a 3-day working week meaning studio time was scarce, but we managed to get the album finished at last.
With the album finished the label wanted me to tour, and secured an opening slot of the upcoming ‘Argent’ tour.
Outsider Rock 