No Stars (Completely in the dark)
Butchered by Mott the Dog
Carved up by Ella Crew
Sometimes
when you break up a Family, you get Streetwalkers. The same thing would appear
to happen in rock ‘n’ roll, when Family finally decided to call it a day
after seven highly acclaimed psychedelic/progressive rock albums and four top
thirty hits.
The two mainstays and the writing partnership of both Roger
Chapman, he of the gravel throated vocals and a penchant for shattering
tambourines and smashing his mike stand through the stage (always popular with
concert hall owners), and Charlie Whitney, perhaps one of the finest slide
guitarists of his era, decided to stay together and give it another go. They
soon released one album aptly named Streetwalkers as a duo backed by session
musicians, ditching Family’s layered progressive sound in favor of a far more
gritty forceful rock. Needing to take the music out on to the road, a new band
was put together.
The first recruit was a strange one; they enlisted the
extremely talented singer/guitarist Bobby Tench. Although Bobby Tench is a
seriously great musician (this Dog feels he has never really scaled the heights
that his obvious talents deserve), both positions, the vocalist and lead
guitar, were already filled by the founding members of the band. But then
suppose it’s always better to have plenty of ammunition in reserve.
Next, two young musicians were brought in to give the band
real enthusiasm in the rhythm section. Jonathan ‘Jon’ Plotel, who was
enticed away from ‘Casablanca’ and an unknown young drummer named Nicko
McBain. After a quick tour of clubs and colleges they retired to the studio to
record the first proper Streetwalkers album, a nice little album. It was not
exactly breathtaking, but nonetheless a noble effort and enough to get them
booked on a short headline tour of Europe, and appearances to great critical
acclaim at many of Europe’s major rock festivals.
So, upon arrival back in the studio the band was ready to
get down to business. The results were released in June of 1976. Red Card,
which was a bit of a naff title, and so was the album’s artwork, but the
important bit, the music inside, was classic mid seventies rock ‘n’ roll.
Red Card went Top Twenty across Europe, reaching number sixteen in Britain.
Fame and fortune were beckoning, the door was open, all they had to do was walk
through, just a few steps. Did they? Of course not, life just isn’t like that
in rock ‘n’ roll.
For some unfounded reason, probably not even knowing why
themselves now, within three weeks of Red Card’s release, the trio of
Chapman, Whitney, and Tench decided to fire Plotel and McBain. (It certainly
could not have been on musical inability in Nicko’s position as he later went
and worked with the demanding Pat Travers before going back to his homeland and
drumming for French rockers ‘Trust’. While he was still with ‘Trust’,
he was asked to sit behind the drums for heavy metal giants ‘Iron Maiden’,
where he has been for the last twenty five years.)
The remaining trio then expanded the lineup to a six piece,
adding Mickey Feat on bass, Dave Dowle on drums and Brian Johnson on keyboards.
If Plotel and McBain were punk, then their three replacements were jazz/funk.
It was a bit like replacing your Ferrari with a nice sedate sedan. The band
went back into the studio to record another album, ‘Vicious But Fair’. A
great title and great sleeve artwork, but the music inside was abysmal. The
music press murdered them. Their loyal audience, many of whom had been carried
over from the Family days, spoke with their feet and the tour to promote the
album was a dismal affair.
The band members went their own ways on its completion. The
record company, though, still owed one more album. So, posthumously, that old
stalwart of the seventies, a double live album was put out and this is it. How
six so relatively talented musicians can sound so poor is beyond me. You get a
smattering of tracks from each of the four studio albums that had come out
under the Streetwalkers’ banner, including the butchering of two from Red
Card, ‘Me An’ Me Horse An’ Me Rum’ and the suitably titled ‘Crazy
Charade’. Then, possibly to try and appease the fans, two of the classic
tracks from probably Family’s finest album ‘Bandstand’ are taken out and
given an airing. It’s a crying shame though to hear them treated with such
little respect. ‘My Friend The Sun’ sounds as though the band has never
even rehearsed it before, whilst during the mundane version of Burlesque they
sound positively bored. A sad case of “If Only”. If you want to hear
Chapman/Whitney at their best, get ‘Red Card’ or ‘Bandstand’, but avoid
this one.
Musicians
Roger Chapman - Lead Vocals
Charlie Whitney - Lead and Slide Guitar
Bob Tench - Guitar and Vocals
Dave Dowle - Drums and Percussion
Michael Feat - Bass and Vocals
Brian Johnstone – Keyboards
Songs
Chilli Con Carne
Crazy Charade
Walking On Water
Toenail Draggin
Mama Was Mad
Me An’ Me Horse
An’ Me Rum
Dice Man
My Friend The Sun
Run For Cover
Burlesque
Can’t Come In
To contact Mott the Dog email:
shenang@ptty2.loxinfo.co.th
I
am attracted to good coffee table books. I have to also admit that I am
attracted to classical Thai decor. My final admission for today is that I stand
in awe of the superb photography of Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, so with all three
admissions rolled into one, I was very interested in the book Contemporary Thai
(published by Asia Books ISBN 962-8734-60-1).