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Robin Trower interview part 2

"Well, after that album, Song For – the album that Song For A Dreamer was on, which was Broken Barricades, I was writing more and more because that seemed to open the floodgates, you know."

Part two of the long interview with Robin off the new Trower DVD (read part one first).

Typing thanks again to Jill, for words below:

Tell me about the end part of being with Procol Harum. You – there's a track you recorded and I've forgotten the name of it but --

RT
Song For A Dreamer, you're talking about, right? Right, yeah.

Yeah.

RT
Well – well, it was in San Francisco, doing Fillmore and the Winterland over a two-week period, I think it was. So we were staying out somewhere, Sausalito, I think it was. And that's when Hendrix died. So it was around that period anyway. I think maybe he died just before we – we went over to do those shows. But it was in that sort of – certainly in that few weeks there. And Keith Reid, the lyricist of Procol Harum, said he wanted to do a tribute on the next album. And he had come up with this lyric which was kind of sort of Hendrixy, you know, and about him. And so I – I — I put it to music. But to do that, I – I wanted to capture what – what his – kind of the spirit of what he was doing, you know. So I went round a friend of ours in San Francisco's house and listened to all the Hendrix albums.

Cause at the time you'd only had one Hendrix album.

RT
– Yeah, that's right. I had the first album which I liked a lot, but then hadn't sort of travelled with him as he'd gone more pop. And so anyway, I – I listened through to those a couple, three times, and I think that's when I started to really – it really started to seep into my own creativity, if you know what I mean. The stuff I started to write from there on was very influenced by just getting round to doing that one song as a tribute to him because I wanted to make that song sound as much like him as possible, you know. So – so I think more than anything, perhaps his – his – the spirit of his – of his writing, is what—what crept into my thing.

You say – and also you said there's a lot of songs that you wouldn't have written or they wouldn't have sounded like they did if you hadn't have heard of Donny Hathaway and he was a powerful influence on you.

RT
Yeah, I mean it was that – it's hard to put – put into words. But Donny Hathaway brought kind of a depth to stuff which hadn't been quite achieved before. And I think that's – it was the – it was the deepness, you know. I mean, he called it soul power or whatever you like, but he had a – you know there was kind of like a classical – because he was formally trained, Donny Hathaway, a formally trained musician, that I think he brought like a, you know, it's coming together of formal music and free soulful music that he achieved in a lot of his things.

When and why did you leave Procol Harum?

RT
Well, after that album, Song For – the album that Song For A Dreamer was on, which was Broken Barricades, I was writing more and more because that seemed to open the floodgates, you know. And I was writing more and more stuff for the guitar. So – and there wasn't room for it in Procol Harum. And that's – that's basically it. I – I needed to do these songs.

So you decided to take the leap and – and – and you formed before prior to RTB, Robin Trower Band, you formed a band called Jude.

RT
– Yeah.

Quite an interesting line-up.

RT
Well, the first thing I was looking for was what I would call the soulful singer. Frankie Miller and I got together and we co-wrote some things and we – we – we toured a little bit with Jude but it didn't really work. But through Frankie, he brought in as bass and – and background vocals James Dewar. So I came across Jimmy through that, you know, which obviously was perhaps the luckiest day of my life, you know, finding him.

And – and as you say, he came from Stone The Crows, who are quite a legendary band.

RT
- Yeah, that's right.

Jimmy McCulloch came out of that. Maggie Bell?

RT
Maggie Bell, yeah.

Good line-up. It was quite a supergroup.

RT
Serious bunch.

Yeah. And—and you connected with Jimmy Dewar.

RT
Yeah, I mean, when – when Jude didn't really work, I – I decided that it'd be great to have just a three-piece. Then I would be able to have a lot more control and put a lot more guitar ideas into it because you're not always having to tuck under a – a lead singer as such, you know, an out-front singer. So it – it allowed me to shift into where it was much more all about the guitar and the guitar ideas. So – and you know that came together very quickly because Jimmy brought in Reg Isadore on drums who he – he found through Zoot Money, I think it was. So and – and it just worked right – right away. It was one of those things, you know.

When you're recording the albums, do you think of them in terms of playing them live?

RT
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the – the – kind of the whole idea was, I mean, as I mentioned to you earlier, my three – three favourite albums all were live albums, you know. So that's kind of – that's all I'm always trying to create is – is – is that vibe that you can get in front of an audience, you know. And you can't do it in a studio in actual fact but that's what you're shooting for is like – you're always looking for it to be a bit of a happening, so all the songs, well, I mean, pretty much nearly everything for the first couple of albums, were written to be played live.

And you had an --

RT
As a matter of fact, with Bridge of Sighs, it was all played live, most of it.

Bridge of Sighs came – just briefly on that. It was a landmark album. It was immensely and probably still is a successful album.

RT
Yeah.

Firstly, why do you think?

RT
Well, it's definitely because the material is so strong. I mean, it's – it – it's – the material is very, very strong and the vocals are fantastic on it, I mean, James Dewar's vocals, beautiful. And I think the combination of that beautiful voice and sort of the raw guitar combined, I think, is what made it successful.

So next thing that comes of a landmark event, Reg Isadore left --

RT
Yeah.

– and you found Bill Lordan who I feel added a lot to your sound.

RT
Yeah.

And again, is it just talking that sort of connection that you had with Funky Paul and [unintelligible] before? Bill Lordan played with Hendrix at one time, I believe.—

RT – He –

– and Willie Weeks.

RT
I believe he – his story is that he auditioned, him and Willie Weeks auditioned with Hendrix when Hendrix was going into that Band of Gypsies kind of period. So he was also – Hendrix, I think ,was also playing with Buddy Miles at the time.

What was the next sort of --

RT
– Well, the live album came out then, because I think I'm right in saying the live album came out then. Yeah, cause we did – we did – we did the tour of Europe and one of them was a Swedish show which was recorded – it went out live on Swedish radio and it was recorded as well. And they – they sent us, you know, a rough mix of it and it sounded, so good that we thought it's potentially a live album. So what we did, we – we got the tapes off them, I think it was on eight-track, and replaced the vocals cause you couldn't hear the singing cause the guitar player'd been too loud and had to replace the vocals.

But, you know, it's – it was just a magical night. It was one of those nights that you weren't really aware of being recorded because it was just, you know, I'm not sure anybody even mentioned it. It was Swedish radio. We're gonna put it out live and – and it was a great night. You know, it was a happening. And I think it was the first night of the tour as well so there was really a lot of energy in it. So we were very lucky we got – captured that on tape, you know.

And so that was the next album. That was a piece of cake to put together. And then we did Long Misty Days and that was done at Air London in Regent Street and we were lucky enough to get Geoff Emerick to engineer it.

And when did you take – you – you – you took Jimmy off bass or Jimmy came off bass and you got a bass player in. When did that happen?

RT
That was for the album In City Dreams. I decided we needed to move forward a bit more rhythmically and the songs we were coming up with – I'm pretty sure for In City Dreams, Jimmy and I wrote – co-wrote all the songs on that – on that album. And I just wanted to go more down the R&B thing. And we were lucky enough again. We got a great bass player who was – worked with Bill in Sly and The Family Stone. He came over and Rusty Allen and – and also we got in an R&B producer, Don Davis, who was, you know, a pretty big time R&B producer in the – in the States. So he did the – Johnnie Taylor and people like that.

Meanwhile, over in Cambodia

"... demented, twanging guitar solos, eerie electric organ (...) It is seriously psychedelic stuff. It is as if Jimi Hendrix and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd had decamped to Phnom Penh and hooked up with some local singers. (...) Some of the songs are covers, like a retooled version of Procul [sick!] Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale."

There might not be any Procol fans on the Procol Harum Fan Atlas yet, but proof that the band at least had fans there in "Cambodia rocks to an old beat". Read it - or listen to the mp3 file...

For the rest of us...

Well, the lucky few over in Southend are having a ball, without a doubt ... so, for the rest of us, some comfort in the darkness of night: a version of That Song that I think very few have heard before. To listen (or download), follow this link....

More about the artist can be found at these links.

Paramounts at Club Riga: Comments from the after-show celebrations

While early pictures from Gary's Sunday gig in Southend are already coming in, here's a few more from Saturdays Paramounts reunion (from Roland's camera):

Robin Trower: I haven't played those songs for 40 years. I won't get my head around what's happened for a month. We're gonna do this every 40 years.

Gary Brooker: Robin Trower … such marvellous playing … notes full of meaning.

Chris Copping: It's fantastic to play with Rob … all that he's learned in this time. It's like a black bluesman, this surge of electricity comes from him when he's playing.

Mick Brownlee: I've had a pretty terrible year [his illness] and right now I feel great, on top of the world. This was only sorted out less than a week ago. Robin and I got together when he played Dartford. I told him this was happening and said we'll get your Mum and Dad along. And Robin said I'll come along but I won't play. And then he said, “I might get up and play one or two.”

Franky Brooker: Suddenly Robin was ringing us asking what numbers we were doing. Then Gary sent an email! [His first] Chris Copping was very impressed.

Dave Bronze: An unforgettable occasion. Magic, the only word for it. Forty years on and no rehearsal … and they can still play like that.

Southend on Sunday: first photos from One-Eye

Thanks to modern technology - from Allen Edelist's phone directly to this page - first pix from Gary's Sunday Southend Show.

That looks like Dave Bronze on base, doesn't it?

Paramounts reunion: "A fabulous evening"

"It was a fantastic show with superb atmosphere in the very crowded Club Riga (...) We were a brilliantly lucky audience to have been able to hear Procol Harum and the Paramounts in the same year!"

Roland reports, in words and pictures, from the Paramounts gig in Southend last night:

Club Riga, Dec 17 2005:

Steve Cattermole kicked off a fabulous evening, introducing Mick Brownlee, the Paramounts' original drummer: Mick started by thanking everybody who got this fabulous night going. He introduced Len Trower and the Blonde Shirley: Len had raised the mortgage and done the building conversion to create The Shades club and Shirley had served coca-cola and let the clients, and artists, cry on her shoulder about broken romances. There was a bouquet for Shirley and a bottle of champagne for Len to the delight of both Mick Trower and Robin, in the audience. Among the other accolades and acknowledgments there was a round of applause for BJ Wilson.

First up was The Fabulous Rockerfellers … as a lightly-bearded Gary Brooker said, 'the reason we all started playing'. Three-quarters of the original band, who come from nearby Romford, played a great set, with Tony Sumner in conspicuously excellent voice at the piano. Guitarist Dave Barnes ('a more than passing resemblance to Gerard Depardieu' said Chris Copping') played a neglected looking Strat though a Watkins Copycat ('probably still got the original tape in it' said Chris, a great admirer of the band's authenticity and intensity.

It was interesting to see his fan behaviour, standing at the front photographing the band with the same glee and devoted admiration that the Palers would later bestow upon his own performance on a borrowed bass from Dave Bronze.

The piano also was supplied by Dave, since Gary had broken 'at least four' keys on his RD600 during the band's very brief run-through of songs at Mushroom Studios the day before. BtP would happily have lent Gary an RD600 … though not if he busts notes at that rate! In the event Dave's P150 was a useful stand-in until Gary 'saw some pretty coloured lights and pressed on of them' which shut the piano down completely. Bronzie had to be summoned from the audience to re-activate it, which was accomplished thanks to the help of One-Eye's spectacles …

Anyway … more later. It was a fantastic show with superb atmosphere in the very crowded Club Riga. Palers in attendance included Jens and Titti, Jill McMahon, One-Eye and Pat, Linda and Roland, Peter and Ingelise from Denmark, their countrypersons Axel and Juliette Leonhardt who now live in Scotland, Phil and Janette Thomas from Worcester, Gordon Sumner, and no doubt many more. Up front with us was Andrea Trower, photographing her husband's superb endeavours throughout the second set. But did anybody get a photograph of Brooker and Trower embracing at the end of this historic occasion? Time will no doubt tell.

We were a brilliantly lucky audience to have been able to hear Procol Harum and the Paramounts in the same year! As Riga host Steve Cattermole said, 'Southend has about as much culture as a yoghurt … except where it comes to music'

Setlist from the Club Riga concert:

The Fabulous Rockerfeller
Move On Down The Line
You're So Square
Memphis Tennessee
Coquette
My Babe
I'm Feeling Sorry
Honey Don't
Sweet Little 16
Come On Baby Don't You Break Up With Me
Just A Dream
Little Queenie
The Fool
Ubangi Stomp
Let's Talk About Us
One Night With You
Rocking At The High School Hop

The Paramounts
Old Black Joe
Rock Me Baby
Youngblood
Stay Just A Little Bit Longer
Blackjack
Poison Ivy
Oop Boop a Doop
Walking to New Orleans
What'd I Say
St. James Infirmary
Hold Me Closer (for Franky)
Breathless
Lucille
Santa Claus Is Back In Town

Robin Trower Interview, 2005

"- And how did The Paramounts come about, because that was your first ...

- Well, there was a band from Romford that used to come and play in Southend called the Rockerfellas, The Fabulous Rockerfellas. And they were fabulous. They were great."

With Robin Trower busy playing with Gary over in Southend. here's part one of a long interview with Robin Trower, off a recent DVD, proving that tonight's line-up is the original Paramounts first line-up!

(huge thanks, Jill, for the typing!)

Robin Trower interview:

RT:
-The beginning for me was because I had an older brother that used to bring records into the house, obviously, you know. And I was, I suppose, what 9 or 10, something like 11 and started to hear rock'n'roll basically because he would bring in Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Everly Brothers, and stuff like that, so – and started to see pictures of Elvis around that time always playing a guitar. So I think that's it, you know, just the image of that, you think, "Oh, I'd like to play a guitar." And then – and that's it. I asked for a guitar for Christmas and never looked back.

And did you sort of practise a lot now? What – what do you listen to when you're --

RT:
Well, all that kind of stuff was – was – was all there was at the time, you know, and American music mostly my brother was bringing in. And I used to – I don't think I actually tried to play any of those songs but I did seem to have an ability to play the guitar somehow. It was almost like you'd played before or something, you know. It's just like I knew how it worked somehow. So I was playing pretty quickly early on, from about 14, I think it was, 13, 14.

And when did you get your first band together?

RT:
I think that would probably be while I was still at school. And I was at school in Southend – Southend High. And that's where I knew Chris Copping from. And we had a band together. And we only had two guitars so what we did, we tuned down one of the guitars so it would be more like a bass. And that was the first band.

And how did The Paramounts come about, because that was your first --

RT:
Well, there was a band from Romford that used to come and play in Southend called the Rockerfellas, The Fabulous Rockerfellas. And they were fabulous. They were great. And they were doing a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis stuff and lots of other bits and pieces, quite quirky stuff. I remember one of the things they did, was a big favourite of mine, was Hi Ho Silver and Stay by Morris Williams, you know, that – those kind of things which you weren't really hearing that much and I don't know where they were getting it from.

But anyway, their line-up was piano, singer, guitar, bass, and drums. So I decided that that – that was the line-up you had to have because they were so great. And so first off, it was looking for a piano player. And Gary Brooker was playing with another guitar player called Johnny Short, who was local, in a band locally. And I asked him to join.

And first off, we had Mick Brownlee on drums and Chris was on bass, Chris Copping from my school band. And we – we had a couple of out-front singers but they sort of came and went quite quickly. And I asked Gary if he would do the vocals so that we could be more like The Rockerfellas, you know. And – and that's how The Paramounts started.

And – and this was all the swinging '60s. And you supported The Beatles, I understand.

RT:
We did their last – I'm pretty sure it was their last tour that they did. We opened up the show and it was all – I'm pretty sure it was all Brian Epstein's stuff because we were actually with the Epstein agency at the time. I think that's how we got to be on it.

Now I read from a review that you – you weren't that impressed with the Beatles.

RT:
They weren't that good live, no. No, but – but nice guys, really got on very well with them.

And you had a good relationship with the Rolling Stones as well?

RT:
Well, they were great to us, the Rolling Stones. They gave us, you know, we – we just – as they were coming out with their first single, I think it was Come On, we did a support of the – one of their shows. I think it was in Kent, Deal, somewhere. And they liked us. And as they were leaving their club work, you know, what you call the R&B clubs, they were recommending us. And then they used to put us on their tours and, you know, they were a big help.

Was it – do you say – would that be a – did you sort of break your bones playing in that – playing in those days with a lot of concerts, a lot of work?

RT:
Well, from – I think it was pretty much from working with – in – in The Stones, you know, the stuff that they've given us or recommended us for, was how we got our first deal with – with EMI to do the first single So up to that time, it was all just live work.

Did you sort of feel that you'd developed a guitar style by then?

RT:
Oh, no, no, no. I was – I was just sort of messing about then. It was – I didn't really take it seriously, playing the guitar, until after Procol Harum.

So tell me, how did Procol Harum evolve out of The Paramounts?

RT:
Well, I left The Paramounts because I was getting more interested in blues. I was becoming sort of pulled away from popular black music and more into the rootsier kind of stuff. I'm very big on BB King and Howlin' Wolf and people like that.

And so I left The Paramounts. So they carried on for a little while And I formed my own band called The Jam and Gary went off and formed Procol Harum eventually because he started writing a lot more. And he got together with Keith Reid and wrote, obviously, A Whiter Shade of Pale and all that – all those songs, those early songs.

And obviously they had a big hit with A Whiter Shade of Pale. But they weren't really happy with the guitar player or the drummer. So they asked me and BJ Wilson, who was the last drummer in – in The Paramounts to come in. And that's how that unit came together. They already had Dave Knights on bass and Matthew Fisher on organ.

What was it like being in Procol Harum?

RT:
It was great. I – I think about it now as being like my school, you know. It's where I started to learn about recording particularly and also about, you know, proper touring. Up to that stage it had been just playing in pubs, pubs and clubs. But with Procol Harum, we went out to the – to the States and played some of these, you know, these sort of great venues, Winterland and the Fillmore and all the places like that, you know. And it all becomes up to a different level, you know.

It's – you – it's a much, much more thrilling event kind of thing rather than just playing in a pub or a club. It becomes a real high-intensity event. So I learned a tremendous amount about all that, you know, about playing an audience, you know, working an audience and all – and all that kind of thing.

More from this interview to follow!

Paramounts soundcheck

The wonder of modern technology: we bring you pictures from the Paramounts soundcheck at Club Riga in Southend, earlier today - directly from the cameraphone of Allen "One-Eye" Edelist:

We hope to bring you pictures from the concert of Gary Brooker, Robin Trower, Chris Copping and Mick Brownlee very soon ... stay tuned!

Does Procol cling to a rocking Moss?

Procol Harum was not inducted into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" this year either, causing some fans to rather call it a Hall of Shame (and others to say "don't bother").

But this year, besides artists (well, sort of) Black Sabbath and Blondie, a lifetime achievement award was also given to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who founded A&M records in Los Angeles in 1962.

But wait! Have you seen how The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes Alpert's and Moss' credentials?

"Alpert and Moss built one of the most successful independent record labels in the world and signed artists such as Procol Harum, Supertramp, Peter Frampton, the Police, Joe Jackson and John Hiatt."
Press release, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 11.28.05

I'll agree that signing Procol is worth a lifetime achievement award - but what about the stuff then?

Waitress!

Could this kitchen be complete without a waitress? Of course not; but luckily the long-lost Waitress Who Served Procol Harum During The Recording of Procol's Ninth has been found: yes, have a look at "Following a free spirit" from Citytimes/St Peterburg Times.

Welcome back!

Once again, the weekend substitute Swedish Beyond the Pale utility muffin research kitchen is online! (- muffin? - oh, nuffin.)

Our regular BtP web grandmasters, Roland and Jens, will both be in Southend to listen to the Paramounts over the weekend, so this is where you'll find your midnight and irregular servings of all things Procol for the next few days, by your replacement cook...

Admittedly, it's a bit bare around here right now ... but don't worry, we'll bring the carpenters and designers in to make the place a bit more cozy during the weekend.

Pay attention that we're now using the blog format: you can comment on every entry directly on this page - and please do so!