03 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Experimental, Progressive Rock
THE FLOOD: BEGGARS OPERA alt.
RGS 9479
The Flood was composed in 1985.
Digitally remastered for Beggars Opera Alt.,in 2008.
Spacey and sonic, Ricky Gardiner combines Guitar Yamaha CX5 and Tape.
THE FLOOD (shrt) by Beggars Opera
03 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Progressive Rock
Cover image by artist Nigel Wood
KUMARA CONFLUENCE: BEGGARS OPERA alt.
KU 9471
01 White Spring
02 Red Spring
03 Influence
04 Confluence
Ricky Gardiner: Guitars
Virginia Scott: Keyboards/Vox
Trevor Stainsby: Programming
‘My idea for Kumara was to bring five different elements together, allow the elements to co-exist simultaneously while not necessarily depending one upon the other. After a reasonable time had elapsed I found one of the elements brought forth nothing and one of the other elements struck me as unsuitable for the project but had a lot to offer for another time and another project. That left three, myself, Virginia Scott and Trevor Stainsby. The process was quite simple.
Virginia recorded seven pads made up mostly of strings. They were very slow moving with no absolute pulse. I selected four of the passages for further work. These four were duplicated and I worked on one lot and Trevor worked on the other. Trevor had the midi information which was driving the original string parts and substituted his own sound as he saw fit. He also added ad lib ‘one of’ sounds. He then added percussion in such as way so as to blend with the synth part. I worked on the original and added guitar.
On White Spring this turned out to be regular electric and I improvised a melody on top of the strings. On the other three pieces I used a sustaining device called an E BOW to elicit the ‘bowed’ effect from the electric guitar After editing the guitars which meant eliminating the redundant sections, Virginia then recorded her voice on top. She paid particular attention to making her voice sound like one of the instruments. Trevor and myself then got together, amalgamated our equipment and started playing back everything together.
By retaining the elements that we agreed worked musically and rejecting everything that did not, we arrived at what became Kumara – Confluence. My choice of the Kumara name comes from Sanat Kumara which translates as the ‘Spirit of the Earth’ or the ‘Inhabitant of the Earth’ Confluence was chosen to reflect the converging of the quite separate streams to form the one entity. Is not all music like this ?’
Ricky Gardiner 2007
“A majestic atmposphere music, wide landscapes drawn by Ricky Gardiner’s guitar. Hardly for those who knows the guitarist by his work with Iggy and Bowie, but those into FLOYD or Ennio Morricone may find this album enjoyable. Thought-provoking it is. Other musicians are Virginia Scott – she played with Gardiner in one of the best early prog bands BEGGARS OPERA – on violin and cello and Trevor Stainsby operating electronics and percussion. One way or another, the primary instrument is the fluid guitar capable of filling the space with divine sound.
There are four pieces, one hour in all, based on the works of Alice Bailey, and they’re enough to turn off you mind and float downstream from the off, “White Spring”. The guitar sound gets as close to cello that the instruments interchange appears seemless, the method Gardiner and Scott later applied to their “Auschwitz” mini-album. And yes, it’s a violin the main inhabitant of the delicate world of “Red Spring”. Once you spot the John Cage concrete drift Virginia lets her crystal voice soar to the sky. Synthesizer paint the ambience picture of the icicles melting, drops and drops around shining in the sun…
If it were an LP, two “Springs” would make Side One lending Side Two to “Influence” and “Confluence”, two sides of another coin. “Influence” is more sparse, anxious and complex with vocals as a guitar stretch continuation and a violin coming from the voice – that’s an influence illustrated the best. Analysis comes naturally followed by synthesis which is “Confluence”. Think of elements here or, better, of people – as we, people, are elements united in the end of the day.”
Dmitry Epstein
02 Friday Dec 2011
Ricky Gardiner was born in Edinburgh in 1948 and is musically self taught.
He used to listen to 78′s of Italian opera and was able to sing famous arias note perfect at the age of 2.
He went to Craigmount School in the Borders and Eastwood School, Glasgow.
Ricky joined his first school band the Vostoks in 1962, where he met Virginia Scott, singer.
Next there was the Kingbees and then the System, where Ricky was to join with Martin Griffiths and Marshall Erskine, later to become members of Beggars Opera.
1969: Ricky formed Beggars Opera, a progressive rock band .
They toured UK and Europe extensively and were signed to Vertigo Records from 1970 to 1974 and recorded 4 albums.
Act One
Waters of Change
Pathfinder
Get Your Dog off Me
1974/1975: A further two Beggars Opera albums for Jupiter Records Germany.
Sagittary
Beggars Can’t be Choosers
Session work on Tony Visconti’s solo album Inventory.
1976: Ricky recorded guitar on the now legendary Low album by David Bowie at the Chateux d’Herouville studio Paris, France.
It was while working on this album that Ricky met Iggy Pop.
1977: Ricky went to Berlin for rehearsals with David Bowie and Iggy Pop. They were joined by Hunt and Tony Sales and they toured the UK and USA to promote Iggy’s Idiot album.
Following this tour the band returned to Berlin and recorded the iconic Lust for Life album.
Ricky wrote the The Passenger with Iggy Pop and Neighborhood Threat and Success with Iggy Pop and David Bowie.
Ricky was once again asked to tour with Iggy Pop on the Lust for Life world tour of 77/78, but fatherhood loomed.
1978: Ricky set up his own recording studio. He started writing music for meditation and exploring the use of computers in music.
1985: The Flood:
Ricky Gardiner: Guitar and Computers.
1987: Precious Life, Symphony for Computer, Clarinet and Voice. Ricky Gardiner, Computers, Alan Cooper, Clarinet and Delme Bryn Jones, Baritone
1994: Kumara Confluence, ambient music developed from keyboard, guitar and vocal improvisations was released.
Ricky Gardiner: Guitar and Computers, Virginia Scott: Keys and Voice, Trevor Stainsby: Programming/Percussion/Synths
1995: Ricky fell ill and developed Electrosensitivity.
Auschwitz: Ricky Gardiner,Guitar and Virginia Scott, Keys and Vox
This piece commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, was to be the last long improvisational piece of music written by Ricky, as, due to Electrosensitivity, he was no longer to be able to spend long periods of time with computing devices.
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Band
Tags
Virginia Scott was born in Cardonald, Glasgow in 1948.
1954: Virginia moved to Moss Heights and went to Craigton School and Bellahouston Academy.
1956: ‘My first powerful musical experience was in 1956, when I improvised on a piano alone in a room. I was overwhelmed by the sound and the room seemed to fill with light’.
1957: First piano lessons from Mary McPherson, Cardonald.
1960: Moved to Giffnock and attended Eastwood school.
1962: Joined school band ‘The Vostoks’ as singer and met Ricky Gardiner.
1963/ 68: Studied Piano with Kathleen Belford at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and qualified in 1968.( DRSAM, DRSAM.)
1969: Scholarship to St Cecilia, Rome, Italy and private pianoforte lessons in Milan with Carlo Vidusso.
1970: Returned to UK in February and was asked by Ricky Gardiner and Martin Griffiths to become Beggars Opera’s composer of original material.
1971: Recorded mellotron, cello and backing vocals on Beggars Opera Waters of Change and toured UK/Europe with Beggars Opera as mellotronist.
1974: Keyboards for the Sagittary Jupiter records album for Beggars Opera.
1975: Keyboards for the Beggars Can’t be Choosers Jupiter Records album for Beggars Opera. Sessions with Tony Visconti.
1977: Tour astrologer for the Iggy Pop Idiot tour of UK/ USA.
Wrote the Iggy Surreal poem.
1978: Motherhood.
1986: Boosey and Hawkes prize including publication of children’s piano piece The Fading Sun.
Rediscovered John Cage.
1989: Welcome Rain after Drought: Free improvisations for Piano Duet with Lucy Lucy, pianist improviser and composer, choreographed at Merton Festival for Women.
Travelling Thru Door for Extended Piano: Virginia Scott, Electric guitar and electronics : Ricky Gardiner.
1993: Performance of Terma for 2 pianos by Rainer Burke and Robert Ruhle at Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary music.
1994: Performance of Celtic Dreams for Oboe, Cor Anglais and Bassoon by ensemble Three Reeds:Jennifer Porcas/ Oboe, Gillian Carter/ Cor anglais, Elizabeth Jacobi/ Bassoon)at BMIC , London.
Release of Kumara Confluence.
1995: Sky Dancer for flute and acoustic guitar, commissioned by Lynne Plowman(flute) and Sally Hillier (acoustic guitar) with funds from the Arts Council of Wales, was performed on 13 October at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff.
Celtic Dreams was also performed a second time at Aberystwyth University by ‘Three Reeds’ in November.
Auschwitz with Ricky Gardiner guitarist.
1996: Infinite Spaces free improvisations for 2 pianos with Rainer Burke.
Produced The Passenger CD for RGS.
1998: Eyes Completely Open, Bowie Transcription no 3 for Solo Oboe, part performance at Breton Hall Yorkshire ( COMA) by Katherine Pluygers (oboist).
2000: Recording of Eyes Completely Open by oboist Jennifer Porcas.
2001: How the Song Grows for solo Oboe d’amore, for Jennifer Porcas oboist.
This is the longest piece ever written for Oboe d’amore.
2003: First performance of How the Song Grows at Ucheldre Arts Centre, Holyhead by oboist Jennifer Porcas.
2004: Performance and recording of How the Song Grows by Jennifer Porcas at Bangor Cathedral.
2005: Performance of How the Song Grows at Cumnor House, Sherborne, Dorset in February and Shaftesbury Underhill Music Festival in June.
Recording of How the Song Grows at St John’s Church Maestilo.
All the above by Jennifer Porcas oboist.
2009: Volcano Diaries Experimental Music for 3 Digital Pianos.
An expressionist collage of free improvisation, tone cluster
and thematic loop pulsing indeterminately in a pantonal landscape.
Inspired by postcards sent to composer Virginia Aurora Scott
by geologist Richard Batchelor (M.Sc., F.G.S.) during his
researches into ancient volcanic rocks of the Western
Highlands of Scotland, 2005-2008.
Expressionist collage of free improvisations in a pantonal landscape.
2010: SCHUMANNTRON:Experimental Music for Digital Piano
Inspiration: the Robert Schumann bicentenary, the importance of communication, the inaudiblity of the technological tide and consequent reverberations in the natural world.
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Band
“It was watching The Beatstalkers in George Square then seeing The Pathfinders at the Flamingo Ballroom that did it for me.
They were pure magic and I knew what I wanted to do
– be a singer in a band !
In 1965 I was singing in a Glasgow school band called The System with Ricky Gardiner on guitar, Marshall Erskine on bass (both later founder members of Beggars Opera) and Graham Diamond on drums.
We did manage to play the Flamingo, supporting The Pathfinders, and took a bus load of school fans with us. We were blown off the stage, but the seed had been sown!
Some years later the three of us got together again and decided to give it a go — professional this time and worked as navies building the new M20 to get cash for equipment. In September 1969, after a lot of trials and tribulations, we moved north to Glasgow.
Marshall knew this organist Allan Park who was playing with a dance band at the Locarno so we were nearly complete we just needed a drummer! We auditioned and eventually found Ray Wilson who was drumming with The Beings and holding down a fitter’s job at Yarrows the ship builders.
We practised day and night for six weeks. Ricky and Marshall had their new white Marshall 200′s (we were the first group in Scotland to have them – they got very dirty very quickly!) My vocal amp and speakers had been delayed so I had to sing against their combined power. It certainly was a good way to strengthen the vocal chords!
We still didn’t have a name and played our first gig at Burns Howff in the October 1969. John Waterson offered us a residency and I finally found the name Beggars Opera in a crossword dictionary —
little did we know then that it would fit perfectly to our future music direction (Ricky’s girlfriend, Virginia Scott, was to join us later in May 1971 to enhance our classical sound on the Mellotron and Gordon Sellar joined on bass when Marshall sadly left after Act One.)
We took over from Stone the Crows in the Howff and played there every night, twice on Saturdays and it got us tight and known.
A memorable night for me was jamming with Maggie Bell on that small stage upstairs and even now when I smell that mix of cigarette smoke, beer and disinfectant it gets my heart a pumping and I’m back there at the Howff!
We soon started gigging all round Scotland and were the first group to work for Brian Adams and his ICE agency. Competition was tough amongst the groups and agencies but that was only to the good and there were plenty places to play. We often met on the road back to
Glasgow and I remember Agatha’s Moment passing us with the usual greeting of bare arses out the window! We’d be on our way to a late gig at the Picasso which would start about three in the morning then to a morning session at the Watermill Hotel in Paisley!
It was while playing the Watermill that Bill Martin of Eurovision Song Contest fame came to see us and we were suddenly with producer and signed to the new Vertigo label for our first LP “Act One”.
Well that was just the start and I went on to sing on another two albums “Waters of Change” and “Pathfinder”. We engaged the services of a young publicist, Max Clifford, who managed to get us into all the music papers of the time and even put around the story of incredible success in Russia! We never visited the USSR but Europe, and especially Germany, had taken to us and we seemed to be always on ferries and motoring down autobahns to festivals.
“Time Machine” on the album “Waters of Change” was a hit in Germany and even now, after all these years, is featured on TV and Radio.
The constant touring took it’s evil way with me and I left the group in 1972 but I couldn’t stop and sang in the Manchester cabaret clubs before moving to Germany where we had been so successful.
I was signed to the Jupiter Record label of Ralph Siegel, another Eurovision Song Contest mogul, and “I’ll be coming home” was my first single which made the BBC play list. Pete Murray slammed it as sounding too Tom Jonesy!!
Then came disco time and my second single was a disco version of “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” (Poor Otis must have turned in his grave) and then “Israelites” which was number three in the German charts. The Discodays were madness and for sanity I toured as support for Brian Auger, Osibisa, Ekseption, Golden Earring, Vinegar Joe, Scorpions and the French group Ange.
And now, over thirty years on, the first three LP’s have been re released for the second time on CD but this time in the new mini sleeve format and I find my self getting mail from Japan, South America and Canada and it feels good to know that the “pub” band from Glasgow who started back in 1969 are still being listened to.
PS: I’m still singing — this time as guest with my son’s band Alias Eye and with the JOB Big Band – the pace is a little slower but I get to wear an evening suit and my passion for singing still remains.”
Martin Griffiths,
Germany
2006
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Glam Rock
In 1974 Beggars Opera songwriting team Virginia Scott and Colin MacFarlane wrote 13 songs for the Beggars Opera Diana Demon project. This was to be a concept album with strong sci-fi leanings. In the end only 6 of the 13 songs were actually recorded in the studio as demos.
RGS 9492: 6 DEMO tracks from the Beggar’s Opera archives, including the 2 interesting productions by Tony Visconti, by kind permission.
Colin MacFarlane, poet and journalist, was also owner of Liberated Lady Boutique King’s Road London and dressed many of the punk stars including Blondie.
Soon after Ricky Gardiner was off to work with David Bowie and Iggy Pop.
PARADISE PATROL
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Band
Tags
Alan Park. organist of Beggars Opera 1969/1981 Biog:
Date of Birth: 10/05/51
Place of Birth: Glasgow, Scotland
Education: Eastwood Primary, Carnwadric Primary,
Shawlands Academy.
Musical Background:10 years classical piano training. Achieved A.L.C.M. in 1969.
Diploma signed by Lloyd-Webber (probably Andrew & Julian’s Dad)
Other employment: After leaving school worked for 2 years in the Scottish Stock Exchange, Glasgow.
BEFORE BEGGARS OPERA:
The Harlem Shuffle (soul), The Vipers, The Jack Anderson Band featuring Joe Egan, Steelers Wheel.
Years later played for him at the Queen Elizabeth hall on
his solo gig.
AFTER BEGGARS OPERA:
Dragonfly: featuring Phil Palmer and Andy
Brown.
Tiger: Jazz Rock featuring Big Jim Sullivan.
The Tony Crane Band.
The Bliss Band: where the 1st album was recorded at Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles.
The album was produced by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who was
playing with the Doobie Brothers at the time.
Guesting on the album was Victor Feldman, Michael McDonald and The Tower of Power horn section.
Les McKeowns Ego Trip. This band was for the Japanese market, had a futuristic image and wore pretty outlandish stage gear.
Great line up: Alan Darby who went on to play with Van Morrison and Eric Clapton, Tony Beard to Go West, Hall and Oates and Gary Barnacle to Eric Clapton, Tina Turner.
Joe Egan Band: Worked with Phil Palmer during Joe’s solo period.
Ronnie Paisley Band: Recorded album and British tour supporting Horselips.
Isla St Clair: Produced and arranged her album “Inheritance” featuring strong Celtic songs.
Jim Davidson: Jim’s tour had the production of a major rock concert.
The Spoilers: Formerly known as
Blackfoot Sue, had a big hit with “Standing In The Road”.
Joe Fagin Band: Recorded and toured after his no. 2 hit from TV show “Auf Wiedersein Pet” “That’s Livin’ Alright.
Cliff Richard: Joined band
in 1981, toured USA & Canada and carried on working for him eventually becoming Musical Director. Tours and work for Cliff included “The Event” Wembley Stadium, Royal Variety Performance, his musical “Heathcliff” which ran for 8 months touring U.K., toured Australia, N.Z, Europe, S.E. Asia, record breaking run of 32 sold out concerts at The Royal Albert Hall.
Cliff & The Shadows Reunion Tour.
Oleta Adams.
10CC: Toured Japan & Europe.
Jimmy Witherspoon: American blues legend: U.K. tour.
Judith Durham (The Seekers): U.K. solo tour as Musical Director.
Olivia Newton- John: Aus & N.Z. with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra & N.Z. Philharmonic.
Uli John Roth: Symphonic Rock for Europe, The Forum Liege,
Belgium with Brussels Symphony Orchestra &Choir Namir conducted by Bernhard De Kaise.
Barry Humphries: Accompanied him as “Dame Edna Everidge in the studio.
Kiki Dee: TV series “Roll Over Beethoven”.
Billy Connolly: Channel 4 TV special “At Last It’s Hogmanay”
with Midge Ure, Maggie Bell, Jim Diamond, Robbie
Coltrane & Gallagher & Lyle.
Ronnie Lane & Band: Sat in on jam with Ronnie, Kenny Jones and Steve Marriot (The Small Faces).
Bucks Fizz.
David Essex.
Hale & Pace: U.K., Aus & N.Z. tour.
AUSTRALIA:
Moved to Australia in 2002 but continued to go back to U.K. to tour with Cliff Richard. Reunited with Rick Fenn from 10CC who has moved to the same part of Oz and formed a band named The Feramones with some great local players playing songs everyone knows from Don Henley, Robert Palmer, Led Zepplin, Toto and more.
Bands in Oz include Harley Smith (great young vocalist)
Dennis Wilson (legendary Oz guitarist).
Odessa
Leigh James:The James Taylor Tribute Show.
Rockpool: This band of legendary players recently travelled to Doha, Qatar to play at the closing ceremony of the Asian games.
Steely Dan Tribute: A band of some of the best musicians in Oz playing 2 hours of Steely Dan from the 1st album up to “Two Against Nature”.
Soul’d: Thirteen piece soul band whom have just played the 18th East Coast Blues & Roots Festival 2007.
OZ ALBUMS:
Have been playing on the following Australian albums.
Subway Bhaktis: “Sita Ram”
Colin Bullock: “Learning Curve”.
Sam & The Circle Cycle:
Bourbon St; “Banned For Life”
Da Capo (As yet unfinished)
Alan Park 2007
www.beggarsopera.co.uk
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Band
Tags
Gordon Sellar: Bass Player Beggars Opera from 1971 /1981.
Born Glasgow, Scotland 13th June 1947
Mother- Peggy Maxwell, professional pianist
Father – Charlie Sellar, The 3 Rhythm Rascals
Maternal Grandmother, Cissie Main and her 3 sisters were all
musicians.
Educated at Hillhead High School 1952-1965
Studied guitar from the age of 13 – private tuition from Ron Moore, Guitar legend with The Tommy Maxwell Quartet (who in Scotland remembers The One ‘O’ Clock Gang?).
1963: The Argonauts formed with Brian Adams who went on to manage Beggars Opera.
1969: The Projection, brief spell with singer Gordon Neville, then moved to London to join the band ‘Kelly’, formed by Dundee guitarist Jim Kelly.
1970: Tony Crane Band residency at the Orchid Ballroom Purley, toured Europe & UK with same.
1971:Returned to Glasgow and was invited to join Beggars Opera (I think the conversation went something like you can play bass can’t you???).
1974: Beggars split. Rejoined Tony Crane at the Empire Leicester Square.
1978/1984 Touring and recording with Alex Harvey Band
and Denny Laine Band
AND Mad Jocks & Englishmen (line up over a period of time included: Denny Laine, Chris Slade, Steve Holley, Rick Wakeman, John Entwhistle, Zak Starkey, Rick Parfitt.
1980: Recorded ‘Lifeline’ Beggars Opera Album with Alan Park & Linnie Patterson.
26 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Electrosensitivity
ELECTROSENSITIVES TALK
Disscusions with Ricky Gardiner Electric Guitarist and Roger Moller Electric Forester 2009
Part One: http://youtu.be/Xq0RjJDDOCE
Roger Moller questions Ricky about how he became Electrosensitive.
Part Two: http://youtu.be/qmGP7aJLPmM
Roger Moller gives some general advice on protection and safety according to his own findings.
These previously unreleased recordings are released in the hope that they may help any one who suspects that they may have reason to believe they want to know more about this most incapacitating of conditions, since, as far as we know at the time of publishing, Electrosensitivty is not recognised by the UK medical establishment.
For more information and support please visit ES-UK
06 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in The Passenger
Ricky Gardiner Interviewed by Dmitry Epstien 2000
1. Who you were primarily influenced by as a guitar player?
” My earliest influence was Italian opera which was regularly played at
home.
Apparently at the age of two, I could sing many of the arias in Italian. As a
result, I tend to play the guitar as if it is speaking. I fact ,unless there
is something to ‘say’ I regard it as irrelevant.
In UK we had a band called The Shadows.
Hank Marvin, their lead guitarist used a Fender Stratocaster.
I was about 11 years old when I first heard this and I loved the sound of
it.
It took me ten years to save the money to buy my own Stratocaster, which I
still use today”
2. One of you first groups was called THE VOSTOKS. Was it time of the space
boom?
“The Vostoks were founded in 1961/2 in response to Yuri Gagarin’s flight in
Vostok 1 in 1961.”
3. Quite a little is known about BEGGARS OPERA. Could you shed some light on
the band?
“I founded Beggars Opera in 1969 with a view to exploring music in an open
minded way.
The development of musical ideas was arrived at through democratic means.
In fact, the whole band experience was , for me, an interesting experiment
in democracy and was a great learning ground, where the operation and
relationship of personalities could be abnormal at close quarters.
The close proximity of the band members during extended periods of time and
under various levels of stress, overwork and sleep deprivation, revealed
interesting patterns of behaviour.
Musically, the band was an interesting mix of influences..
There was a strong classical influence from Alan Park and Virginia Scott
The drummer, Ray Wilson, was like a ‘wild man’ and wore a Scottish kilt, a
long beard , a large hat and nothing else. He was an admirer of Ginger
Baker.
The first bass player, Marshall Erskine, was widely experienced in popular
music as was his successor Gordon Sellar.
Our first singer, Martin Griffiths, admired Frank Sinatra and enjoyed putting
a lot of drama into his singing, to good effect.
He was very theatrical.
His successor Pete Scott had completed many years classical training, but his
big love was ‘blues’ in which he was an expert, having toured the USA with
Savoy Brown.
Linnie Paterson followed Pete and he was a rock singer.
He has since sadly died.
When we started playing in the winter of 1969 we quickly gained success. We
became Scotland’s fastest rising band.
This success was followed in Germany at the Great British Rock meeting in
Speyer and spread through Europe.
We lived in London and when we were not touring Europe we played in London
and enjoyed a strong following.”
4. Why did you choose the name BEGGARS OPERA?
“We all sat at a table.
An open dictionary lay on the table.
Marting Griffiths closed his eyes and stuck a pin in the dictionary.
The pin landed on the name Beggars opera,
This was a opera written by John Gay. From this we took the name.”
5. What other BEGGARS musicians are up to now?
“Alan Park is musical director for Cliff Richard.
Gordon Sellar is a session bass player.
Pete Scott runs his own gardening business and regularly sings the ‘blues’ in
the Manchester area.
Marshall Erskine lives in Amsterdam with his family and regularly plays bass
locally.
Virginia Scott paints.
Our house is stacked with canvases.She composes contemporary scores ,and of
course she and I are a song writing team, the fruit of which we record. She
sings and plays keyboards.
I do not know what Martin Griffiths and Ray Wilson are doing.”
6. Why, on your opinion, the band didn’t hit the big time as GENESIS,
COLOSSEUM and others of the kind?
“For some reason we could not get to the USA and of course our material was
not ‘commercial’, so radio stations did not really play it in UK.”
7. You and Virginia Scott have been working together for some 30 years. What
makes your collaboration so special?
“Mutual respect for musical ability and invention.”
8. Were there many invitations for you to play after BEGGARS OPERA broke up?
“I became a record producer and concentrated on that.”
9. How did you get in touch with David Bowie?
“Virginia was working on a pilot of her Rock/Space opera with Tony Visconti
and I had played some lead guitar on Tony’s solo album, so when Tony went to
Paris to produce what became ‘Low’ for David Bowie, he suggested that I
should play guitar. So David phoned me and invited me over to Paris.”
10. Was it easy for you – to shift from progressive rock to the quite cold
“electronic” Bowie stuff?
“I was well versed in slow material but on the ‘Low’ album the band worked
on the songs on side one,
As far as I know side 2 involved David, Brian Eno and Tony Visconti with a
contribution from Tony’s little son Morgan.”
11. Could you tell some stories from the famous Berlin stint?
” I don’t think so.”
12. How Bowie and Iggy Pop were to work with? Which of them gave you the
most
freedom?
“David and Iggy were very easy to work with and the concept of freedom did
not come into it. We all made our contributions without difficulty.”
13. Did you meet Robert Fripp while working with Bowie?
” No.”
14. “Lust For Life” is considered to be Pop’s masterpiece. Are you proud of
your contribution to it?
” YES, Lust for Life benefited from a lot of spontaneity and was largely
recorded as the moon was waxing towards full. The song “Success” epitomises
this jubilant energy and the album on the whole shows imaginative qualities
consistent with this rising lunar energy.
There is a point of note on the last track of side two..
On this track, I play drums, Tony Sales plays guitar and Hunt Sales plays
bass, David on keyboards. We were taking a break and just jamming and the
machines were recording.”
15. Your famous riff on the “Passengers” – where did it come from?
“The Passenger is a very successful song and I am grateful to the world for
that.
It originated in a very interesting way.
After the Idiot tour of UK and USA was over, I returned home in springtime,
At the time I lived in a house situated in the middle of a walled garden
which had at one time been part of a large country estate.
I was out walking with my guitar in a field near my house, one lovely
morning in May. The apple trees were in bloom and I was doodling on the
guitar as I gazed at the trees.
I was not paying any attention to what I was playing.
I was in a light dream enjoying the glorious spring morning.
At a certain point my ear caught the chord sequence ….which became the
Passenger.
The riff is exactly as I caught it that day.
It was the gift of a glorious spring morning under the apple blossom.”
16. What were Ms Scott’s duties as the Pop’s tour astrologer?
” As the tour astrologer Virginia made herself available to those persons on
the tour who wished to consult her on various topics.”
17. Were you in touch with Pop and Bowie through the years?
” Our people keep in touch over business matters.”
18. What was the main point of the KUMARA project? And surely what is
“Kumara”?
” I had spent some years studying the writings of Alice Bailey and in
parallel with that had been studying composing music which specifically did
not use drum machines. I found the relentless insistent non dynamic beat of
the drum machine of that period very irritating and uncommunicative,
musically speaking.
Interestingly, your great teacher of orchestration Rimsky Korsakov regarded
percussion as the least important of orchestral forces (how things have
changed though)
Anyway. Kumara was an experiment in maintaining a spell, over a considerable
length of time, which would have an underlying intensity together with
moments of release and beauty and no drum machine, Trevor Stainsby did use
the computer and sampler in constructing the percussion which is heard on
the album.
The name ‘Kumara’ comes from the ‘Sanat Kumara’, which is the name of the
Spirit of the world. Sanat Kumara is the Spiritual being who inhabits his
physical body which we call earth.”
19. Why did you decide to re-record “Passengers” on your album?
” We did two different versions of The Passenger for the album,.
There many ways of interpreting the riff and we may do more versions in the
future.”
20. I cannot remember any other musicians exploring the Holocaust subject.
Indeed, the thing is very tragic and serious. How did you come for you to
write “Auszwitz”? Why did you use Dante’s verses?
“The 20th Century was host to the severest agony the world has ever known
and the holocaust was a major part of that.
My teenage years were spent in the suburbs of Glasgow which was also the
home for a considerable number of Glaswegian Jewish families.
At my school around a third of the pupils were from Jewish homes.
Therefore, I grew up with many Jewish friends and was familiar with many of
their customs, humour and stories that made up Jewish life.
Later, when Beggars Opera first travelled Europe, I was driving into Germany
with my long time Jewish friend and when the Autobahn entered the forest,
the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
All the stories we had heard about the 2nd World war took on a vivid
meaning. My father had been a fighter pilot in the RAF, so travelling through
what had recently been enemy territory produced powerful feelings.
I hasten to add ,that playing in Germany has always been a happy experience
and I have a great liking for
Germany.
This sets the background for the piece of music which came to be called
Auschwitz.
One day I was working on some guitar sounds and was running one of
Virginia’s keyboard back tracks.
A little way into the piece I started to realise that something ‘special’
was happening.
I realised this because ,since there was
no rhythm or beat for me to know where the chords were going to change, I
was surprised at the level of synchronicity between the track and what I was
playing.
Bear in mind I had no idea what was coming next.
As the piece proceeded and developed, I was just aware of watching myself
playing and staying out of the way so as not to interfere with the process.
About half way though I became aware of a powerful feeling and a vision
dropped into my mind of thousands of people gathering together from all
over the world.
I concentrated on remaining detached and keeping myself out of the music
until it was finished.
At the end I felt a real sense of peace.
I then went downstairs and heard on the news that Jews from all over the
world were gathering for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of
Ausxhwitz.
I realised the that the piece of music must be called Auschwitz.”
21. What can we expect from you in years to come?
“More songs and whatever musical projects life places in my path.”
