THE TWO SIDES OF HERO WORSHIP

THE TWO SIDES OF HERO WORSHIP

After reading the `Never Support Your Heroes' article [CR112], I felt compelled to put finger to keyboard regarding two such experiences of a similar nature. About 20 years ago. I bumped into Cozy Powell and his beautiful lady friend at the Marquee in London. We were all at the bar waiting to be served when I struck up a polite but very nervous conversation with this star and personal hero of mine. What a sweet guy: he couldn't have been any more approachable and pleasant to me. So much so I bought them both a drink and was about to leave them when he said to me, "Hold on, don't go, it's my round next!" I nearly fell over. True to his word we continued to drink and had a very pleasant, very funny conversation. I eventually left him and his young lady to rejoin my mates and felt on top of the world. News of his death many years later knocked me for six. A great guy, talented musician and huge loss to the rock world. Rest in peace Cozy, you're still missed. The flip side of this issue: About 10 years ago, I played drums in a local rock band and we were asked to support the Thin Lizzy tribute band, Dizzy Lizzy, at The Railway in Birmingham. "How cool's that?" I thought, knowing that Brian Tatler of Diamond Head fame was playing with them. On the night, I packed my precious gatefold copy of Borrowed Time, hoping to get the lovely Mr Tatler to squiggle on it and say something really cool and memorable to really make the occasion for me. In reality, he turned out to be the grumpiest old cock I've ever met. He told me he was "too busy" (playing with his guitar in the kitchen at The Railway) to give me the time of day. Thanks, mate - you rock. No, not really. If anyone's interested, I've got an . unsigned copy of Borrowed Time for sale. But I have wiped my arse with it. Rich D (Legs Up), Birmingham

Metallica have it covered

Metal giants interrupt recording of new album to play acoustic Nazareth and Garbage songs. Metallica took time out from the recording of their new album and astonished fans with some unlikely cover versions at a recent acoustic benefit show in California. Performing at the 21st annual Bridge school Benefit - a cause founded by Neil Young - the band ran through I Just Want To Celebrate, a 1971 hit from obscure US rock band Rare Earth, before paying homage to Please Don't Judas Me, a song from Scot-rockers Nazareth's 1975 album Hair Of The Dog. Only Happy When It Rains, a more contemporary but equally unexpected choice from Shirley Manson and Garbage, was followed by the title cut of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms. The only other cover in their eight-song performance was Turn The Page by Bob Seger, a song that singer/guitarist James Hetfield and company recorded for their 1998 Garage Inc double-set. Due next spring, Metallica's long-awaited follow-up to 2003's disastrous St Anger is being recorded with celebrated producer Rick Rubin. Drummer Lars Ulrich recently revealed that the album's contents "echo some of our 1980s stuff- long, epic journeys through different musical landscapes; heavier, but a lot more melodic." • In related news, Nazareth celebrate their 40th anniversary with a UK tour in February 2008. Confirmed dates include: Belfast spring & Airbrake February 8, Londonderry Nerve Centre 9, Southampton The Brook 14, Crewe M Club 16, Stourbridge Rock Caf 200017, Aberdeen Lemon Tree 20, Inverness Ironworks 21, Glasgow ABC 22, Newcastle Academy 23, Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 24.

THE SO-CALLED SADDEST VOICE !N THE WORLD IN HIS OWN WORDS AND BY HIS OWN HAND

THE SO-CALLED SADDEST VOICE !N THE WORLD IN HIS OWN WORDS AND BY HIS OWN HAND

I describe myself as... early sixties, British passport, drummerfor 10 years, sing and write songs, live in a small country town, don't shave, married to Alfie, trying to stop drinking. Music changed me... two ways. First of all it gave me something that I could actually enjoy, really absorb and take on as a teenager when nothing around like schoolwork or social interaction really made sense. secondly,to my surprise, for the last 45 years it has provided me with an income. When I'm not making music... Three days a week I like to get down to the market in our town - Stan's there with his van, and I have a sausage in a bun. He runs the teas at a loss because it lures people towards his sausage in a bun. And it works for me, mate. My biggest vice.., is smoking. It's the hardest one to stop. I really go right down into the pits of despair after a couple of days without fags. I саn dо it, but the psychological price is extraordinary. The last time I was embarrassed... а teacher and his pupil from an education institute in Grimsby came to interview mе for а project about the '70s, and I was really unhappyand unhelpful.l just wasn't there for them. They had made а special day journey and it still makes me shiver with shame. My formal qualifications are... I'm officially a member ofthe Petits Fi1s Ubu, designated by the society of 'Pataphysics as а member of the official orchestra of the 'Pataphysica Institute on such occasion when they march through the streets. l was given this in 1967. I last cried... at little moments of tenderness between people. Whenever I see реорlе walkdown the street hand in hand it always makes mу eyes prickle. Vinyl, CD or МРЗ? At the moment, cassettes. Peel sessions, ancient Humphrey Lyttelton jazz programmes, bits of Radio Moscow, а live set by Siouxsie & The Banshees. An anarchic bunch of stuff. Му most treasured possession is... mу handbag. It sits on mу lap, it's the size of a small Labrador. It's like а living thing. l couldn't go anywhere without it. I've got fags in it, old bits of soap, interesting cuttings, matchboxes. The last book I read was... Absolute Friends by John Le Carrё. It's а stunning look at what actually happened at the end of the cold war compared with how people thought it would be. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Oh, half-full, absolutely. l can't believe it when people bang on about what they haven't got and I think, "It's not that bad, look at what you have got." Му greatest regret is... having been а provincial grammar school boy. There is something terminally dreary about that mindset that I'm still trying to throw off like an old snakeskin. When we die.. .Eternal peace. You'll never have to wash your feet again. It's only us; we're very small and most things carry on without us. I'd like to be remembered... as harmless. That seems to те to be quite something to aspire to.

As told to Mike Barnes

www.mojo4music.com

Dizzy Gillespie-Cognac Blues

Dizzy Gillespie-Cognac Blues

Universal/EmArcy

Not exactly Dizzy's most ebullient period, the early 1950s saw him revisiting France without his own band and performing either with locals or, as here, with other passing Americans. On the plus side, the bands are quartets and quintets - sometimes with Byas, а separate plus in his own right - so there's а lot of minimally arranged, informal playing on which the leader works hard to create a mood and sometimes succeeds. Due to the historical vagaries of international licensing, аll this was recorded by France's Blue star label, but includes eight tracks leased to Atlantic for а contemporary Stateside release. Fifty years later, there was no problem in recently reissuing the Atlantic album, which also had four tracks done in NYC (hence its album title At Ноте And Abroad), but the present collection has the complete sessions and four previously unavailable extra takes, yet with some poor remastering. То sum up: Atlantic = 12 songs, quite good sound; Universal = 21 tracks, inferior sound. And it аll pales а bit, compared to the further 1953 material on the Giant Steps reissue Dizzy Digs Paris.

Brian Priestley

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Count Basie-Small Group Studio Recordings Complete 1952-1956

Count Basie-Small Group Studio Recordings Complete 1952-1956

The two Dance session albums, originally released on Norman Granz's Clef imprint and here reissued together, marked the resurrection of the Basie Orchestra after its brief dissolution in 1950. There was a good deal of continuity between the so-called "Old" and New Testament' versions of the band, although the 50s incarnation was less soloist-oriented. Its sound also boasted a new dynamism, with evertighter ensemble work and a host of fresh voicings. But, above all, as the title of these early recordings suggests, propelled by Freddie Green's guitar, the music was intended to be danceable - the mood is accordingly generally serene and stately rather than stomping. This fresh direction was determined by the introduction of new arrangers, notably Neil Hefti, a major contributor to Woody Herman's outfit in the Forties and the реп behind some of the sleeker, more insinuating numbers here. This Jazz Connections reissue also adds two cuts from the Clef album Basie, Blues Backstage' and `Rails'. If Dance Sessions shows the orchestra moving forward - albeit gently - to accommodate the shifting tastes of postwar audiences, there are times on the contemporaneous small Group Studio Recordings when Basie's own playing recalls that of his early hero Fats Waller, especially when his instrument of choice is the organ. Key to the main body of songs here, recorded as а sextet in December 1952, is the spirited interplay between trumpeter Joe Newman and Paul Quinichette, whose insistent Lester Young-isms earned him the nickname `Vice Pres'. Two numbers from an earlier session team the Count (again on organ) with an emergent Oscar Peterson, while the fast swinger `Parry Blues' pairs Ella Fitzgerald with Joe Williams (by this time - 1956- vocalist with the Basie Orchestra) for а goodnatured scatting duet. The last five tracks are from sessions featuring but not led by Basie.

Robert Shore