As Above...So Below

I thought I would share something a bit different with you today. Something that, strictly speaking, doesn't fit in with the vinyl-centric format of my blog, but deserves a wider audience nevertheless. 

Back in 1981, a full year before Marillion released their debut single, a Hertfordshire-based progressive rock band who went by the name of As Above...So Below produced a demo tape and secured a session on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1. When this was later repeated, I recall Tommy Vance commenting that he'd received more requests for a repeat airing of that particular session than any other in the history of the show. It seems a shame then that As Above...So Below weren't able to capitalise on the interest their session garnered and to share in the success that Marillion, Pallas, IQ et al enjoyed as participants in the early 1980s' new wave of progressive rock. I count myself fortunate to have a copy of the aforementioned demo, but my recording of their Friday Rock Show session has long since gone A.W.O.L. I would love a copy if anyone out there has a tape of it lurking in the back of a drawer somewhere.

I am particularly fond of this band as guitarist Robin Hodge, or 'Mr Hodge' as I knew him, was my school teacher when I was nine years old. Undoubtedly he played a role in developing my love of music, introducing me to Harry Nilsson's The Point and playing guitar or classical piano pieces at morning assembly. In the drab 1970s it seemed very cool to have a guitar and piano-playing teacher with long hair, cowboy boots and a side-line in conjuring tricks as a member of the Magic Circle. The band benefited greatly from the experience that Robin's brother, Phil, had acquired as a member of Steve Hillage's band, having played at some of the shows captured on the Live Herald album. To my ears he has a decidedly Tony Banks-like quality to his keyboard playing, whilst Robin's guitar playing is at times reminiscent of Camel's Andy Latimer or Marillion's Steven Rothery. 

Robin Hodge bottom left with brother Phil behind him

 

The band would perhaps have benefited from a stronger vocalist, someone with the charisma and lyrical bite of Fish or Peter Gabriel, but that aside, they had everything going for them. If you can find so much as a mention of As Above...So Below elsewhere on the internet, then I take my hat off to you. The brief flurry of interest that their radio session provoked seems to have been erased from the collective memory of Tommy Vance's listeners. Here's Fade Out, the lead off track from the demo. I hope you enjoy what you hear. I would be delighted to post the other tracks if anyone wants to hear more.

UPDATE: 9th August 2012

Seeing as there has been such interest generated by this post, including a response from As Above...So Below's bass player, Charlie Noble, I thought it was about time I posted the band's demo in its entirety. And, for those of you who haven't found it hidden away in the comments section, here's a link to that Friday Rock Show session:

http://www.zensurweb.com/booksnstuff/as_above_so_below.htm

Enjoy!

Don't Give Up The Day Job...

I have this mental image of branches of McDonalds throughout California being staffed almost exclusively by one-time members of also-ran Hair Metal bands. For every Motley Crue and Ratt there was a Roxx Gang, an Odin, a Hans Naughty, a Tuff or a Pair-A-Dice. 

"Do you want fries with that?"

 

There's a typically uncomfortable scene in Penelope Spheeris' Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, where an emotionally overwrought Randy 'O' insists that Odin will make it, no two ways about it, they will make it. They didn't. Not all would-be rock stars are like Brian May, guitar god and astrophysicist, they don't have a back-up plan if things don't work out. I suppose there's much to be said for the motivating influence afforded by having nothing to lose. An unfinished PhD thesis might act as a distraction to an aspiring rock god, causing him to lose focus. How many years would you want to spend schlepping up and down the M1 in a Transit van between gigs to play to one man and his dog when you know you could be curled up with a book in the university library? Thankfully, the corporate headhunters weren't clamouring to recruit ex-jailbird and abattoir worker Ozzy Osbourne, allowing him to concentrate on fronting Black Sabbath with his beautiful, plaintive bellow.

Some musicians manage to maintain a day job alongside the rock 'n' roll fantasy: Bruce Dickinson flies Jumbo Jets, Coldplay create cures for insomnia, Ronnie Wood has his art, Roger Daltrey has a pond full of trout, and Gary Glitter is always keen to babysit. Ron Chenier of Myofist (known as 'Fist' in their native Canada) has perhaps the most fascinating parallel career of all: he travels back in time to the Middle Ages to work as a blacksmith. I think it's wonderful that back in the Fifteenth Century Ron forges metal and then hops forward to 1980 to do the same thing in a musical context. And, the Medieval togs work beautifully in both situations.

 

 Their rather prosaic attire attests to the fact that Ron's bandmates don't have such exotic extracurricular pastimes. A bit of a shame because, despite having stolen the tassles from the handlebars of a little girl's bike to adorn his wrists, I think he's really onto something here. Clearly Manowar thought so because they stole his look wholesale. And added some baby oil.

More 'Manilow' than 'Manowar'

Revolting Hawaiian shirts and banana-hued leisure suits aside, Myofist are a band for whom I have a real soft spot. Their Hot Spikes LP from 1980 is a particular favourite.

It has a lively, infectious, quirky production which lends the tracks a joyful immediacy that always puts a smile on my face. The production techniques seem to anticipate those that came to dominate the 1980s without making the album sound hopelessly dated like so many records of that era. Containing elements of heavy rock, new wave and powerpop, stylistically, Hot Spikes is a tough one to pin down, but who cares, I want to listen to it, not file it. Having said that, see what you think of the title track: I hear a suggestion of Bachman Turner Overdrive's Not Fragile filtered through ZZ Top's Eliminator.

New & Improved: Because You're Worth It

Two posts in three days: don't say I don't spoil you! The reason for today's missive is just to let you know that I'm taking steps to make visiting my blog a more rewarding experience. To this end I recently acquired a bit of kit to enable me to convert my vinyl to digital. "What a bloody hypocrite," I hear you cry. But not so hasty, I have no plans to cart my records to the knacker's yard and go all 21st Century on you. I'm still the same piss-taking old Luddite that you know and love / have never met and despise. Whatever!

If you look back at my Rio Takes It To The Max post you'll see that there's now a divShare player nestled within the text which will let you listen to the standout track from the Max Demian LP. Enjoy it! Or hate it, just so long as you can hear it! This is all a steep learning curve for me, so let me know if the player isn't working and I'll try to sort it out. If it is working okay, let me know that too. As far as I know, I'm not stepping on anyone's toes in terms of copyright as you can't download the mp3 file and I only plan to post obscure, unusual and out-of-print stuff anyway. If you like what you hear and want more, you're going to have to trawl the second-hand shops and auction sites to buy the vinyl.

I'm hoping that giving you a bit more to get your teeth into will prompt more feedback on what I post here. I would love to hear your comments, suggestions, requests, stories and experiences. Vinyl-related of course: I'm not the bloody Samaritans.

Music Search in Valhalla

It's been a while! Apologies to anyone waiting with baited breath for a new blog post. I like to imagine that there might be a few of you out there who enjoy what you see here. It's been a busy couple of weeks! Things got off to a bad start when the Valhalla power supply in my Linn Sondek gave up the ghost. But, that particular cloud's silver lining came in the form of a new Hercules power supply which enables me to play 45s now as well as LPs. Thanks to Carl at Infidelity in Hampton Wick for working his usual magic on my beloved LP12.

I've not been idle while my turntable's been throwing a sickie though. Oh no, I've been stocking up on loads of lovely vinyl to put it through its surgically enhanced paces. You might recall my mentioning the impending closure of Music Search in Chertsey, Surrey in an earlier post. Well, sadly its demise is now assured and, in fact, has been brought forward. After twelve years' trading, Saturday 2nd July will be your last chance to visit this fantastic little shop. As an incentive, all LPs, CDs and DVDs are just £1.00 each.

Obviously I grabbed everything that took my fancy before imparting this particular nugget of information, but hey, what have you done for me lately? Don't worry, there are still thousands of quality LPs to dig through. I didn't get a chance to so much as glance at the singles, so who knows what gems are lurking there. Incidentally, the 7" singles are just 25 pence a shot.

L-R: Clive (owner), Andy (co-worker) and a man in surgical gloves

I'm assuming that the gentleman on the far right of the above picture is wearing gloves in order to avoid the kind of greasy, filth-encrusted, cracked and bleeding hands that I suffered after a few hours' crate digging. I'm almost certain that he's not a Michael Jackson impersonator.

Get filthy with Madonna on the carpet

If Jazz is your thing, then you should discover a few treats in the depths of those boxes. I added some Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Dave Brubeck releases to my collection. I wish I knew as much about Jazz as I do about Rock because in my ignorance I'm sure I must have passed over some absolute treasures. Similarly, if it's Movie Soundtracks that you collect, you'll find a ton of them here.

So, in a little over a week, when Music Search has shut its doors for the last time, what will be the point of a blog posting entreating you to pay the shop a visit? Well, perhaps these words and pictures will ensure that, in cyberspace at least, Music Search will never die.

Rio Takes It To The Max

I've owned this LP for centuries but still can't quite get a handle on what I'm hearing.

 

Critical evaluation is not aided by the drab-as-putty production that sucks all the energy and dynamism from songs that may otherwise offer up moments of inspiration. We have to wait until the second side, track 2, for the one undeniable diamond in the dirt that is Paradise, a ditty that starts unpromisingly with a Smokie-alike voice and dry-as-toast acoustic guitar combination but quickly morphs into a heavenly chorus with delicious phased guitars and epic, dreamy harmony vocals which create the illusion of listening to a long-lost ELO track.



How I've failed to mention my love of ELO thus far I don't know, but with the paucity of unreleased material and Jeff Lynne's stubborn refusal to give the fans what they want and put the orchestration back into a full-on Electric Light Orchestra reformation, we ELO fans get our jollies where we can, feeding on scraps here and there which remind us of our heroes, whether that means playing Grandaddy's He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot to satisfy our hunger, or gorging on the full-on pastiche of LEO's Alpacas Orgling. 

There are many albums that I prize despite containing just one indispensable track, and Take It To The Max is one of them. To be fair to this LP, the next track, The Lizard Song comes close to maintaining the high standard with the overblown pomp of its squelchy analogue keyboards, but things fizzle out with album closer Hear My Song. However, even if The Max Demian Band hadn't furnished me with the one-and-a-half gems on this LP, there would still be a couple of compelling reasons for me to provide them with permanent residence in my collection. Firstly, as you can see, they possess some impressive and, on the whole, neatly maintained facial topiary. The slide-rule precision of the pudding bowl fringe on the gentleman at top right suggests that he holds down a proper job during the week, but there's no shame in being a weekend warrior. It's only sensible to have a fallback plan.

And secondly, how could I ever part with an LP which, unless I'm much mistaken, features Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand (above, bottom left)? Prior to turning up to give Barcelona some target practice in Saturday's Champions League Final, Rio Ferdinand appears to have had a hitherto hush-hush career in music. If the football doesn't work out, perhaps a Max Demian reunion could be on the cards. It's only sensible to have a fallback plan! The wispy beard and Justin Hayward hair-do are clearly the results of a tentative youthful experiment, a stepping stone to his subsequent chin-muff and cornrow look.

 It strikes me that an appearance of the Face Fungus-Ometer is way overdue, so let's wheel it out, feed in the data and see how The Max Demian Band stands up to scrutiny.

A solid and workmanlike seven

Leotards, Bikini Lines and Stixx Galore

The final item on the lunchtime news today revealed that the Forbes Celebrity 100 List (whatever that might be) is topped this year by Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey having been dumped off pole position. This basically means that Lady G. is the most powerful celebrity on the planet. I'm not sure if that means she could beat Hulk Hogan in an arm wrestling competition, but it certainly suggests that if she wants dwarf Cornish-speaking eunuchs to wax her bikini line backstage, then she'll get them in a choice of colours. What is difficult to fathom though is quite how she got herself into this position. Yes, 35 million sheep follow her on Facebook, whilst 10 million more lap up her tweets, but to be honest, with a public persona like hers, if she spends her time doing anything less interesting than white water rafting in the hollowed-out carcass of Susan Boyle, then there is the potential for disappointment on an epic scale. Do you really want to know what the Lady has for breakfast?

If making mediocre music and dressing in ridiculous clothes is all it takes to achieve world domination, then how come Kingpin have to wax their own sacks and cracks?

Hairy Twats (possibly)

I think it's fair to say that Sweden's Kingpin picked up the prevailing Hollywood Glam Metal look and ran with it...and didn't stop running until they got to their sisters' wardrobes. I always thought that Superman looked decidedly NOT super, largely due to the whole pants over the trousers look. I'm not sure it works any better for Kingpin. The rear sleeve doesn't do anything to alter my opinion.

Definitely

I remember a copy of this album being spun regularly back in the death throes of the 1980s by one of my then flatmates. I distinctly recall conversations about how the band had a Ratt-if-they-had-Steve-Vai-on-guitar sort of a sound, but not once did any of us comment on the fact that 'Stixx Galore' (possibly not his real name) is wearing a pink dayglo leotard over a chain mail-effect pair of tights. God forbid we thought he looked cool! "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." (L.P.Hartley). 

I suspect that the likelihood of world domination for Kingpin is pretty slim in 2011. Perhaps their best chance of entering Lady Gaga's universe would be to embrace their apparent economy of stature, brush up on their waxing skills and trade the contents of those leotards for a Cornish phrase book.

Gerald's Wardrobe Meltdown

With echoes of my earlier post on the unfortunate sartorial differences that guaranteed the untimely demise of Jensen Interceptor, may I present Elton John soundalikes, Flashman.

Hi-De-Hi-Am-Not-An-Animal

With that suit, cane and spectacles, group leader Gerald Watkiss shows what would have happened if Jeff Goldblum and the Bluebottle had been unavailable and The Fly had instead starred Sue Pollard and a Disco-suited John Merrick. With an ill-concealed smirk Nick Walpole (drums) points out to a clearly despairing Chris Hudman (bass) that perhaps it's time to put an ad in Melody Maker. Thank God for their fallback careers as stunt doubles for Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler.