The Four Stages In The Life Of A Studio Musician:
- 1. WHO'S
PAUL GRIFFIN?
- 2. GET ME PAUL
GRIFFIN!
- 3. GET ME A YOUNG
PAUL GRIFFIN!
- 4. WHO'S PAUL
GRIFFIN?
In 1973,
I founded a ten piece
band called Force Ten. (A
hybrid of Blood Sweat & Tears/Chicago/Tower
of Power)
It was comprised of studio musicians from the Manchester area.
I met Barry Guard, our producer, when I was performing with Wilma
Reading, an exotically beautiful woman, and a wonderful singer from
Australia. Barry was also a producer for Sir Cliff Richards and so he
managed to secure a
recording contract for us with Decca. They ordered us away to a
marvelous
studio in Oxfordshire called The Manor, owned by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin
Records. 
There,
we were to reside
within its confines for a week; free
from the distractions of those things that tend to distract twenty and
thirty year old guys with horns and other such instruments. Artistry and creativity were free to
conjoin
in an
atmosphere of mutual
expression and aroma
therapy. We followed a group named "Queen"
onto the premises, and while we were considering what aroma therapy had
done for them, I recall how one of the staff members commented
that we were "rather large for rock musicians." I made some snide
remark about, "rock on this! and who were those starving musicians,
anyway?" We
smiled knowingly, as
we tucked into our third helping of Yorkshire Pudding and a flagon of
their best mead. These serving wenches were going to hear some real
music now that we had arrived. What kind of a name is "Queen" anyway.
Force Ten! Now there's a name you can get your teeth into! Let the
royal treatment begin, says we.
The
rhythm section was
first at bat after our night
of debauchery. The red light came on, and a wave of nausea ensued. The
producer yelled, "CUT!" and
the brass section hurled
insults. "Flipping Heck" says I. Oh well, maybe a little game of
football, (soccer) will get the creative juices flowing. Robin sends a
pass in my direction, and I collide into a tree. I'm sure that was
deliberate! More insults, and I spent the next month on crutches. (The
nurses at the hospital agreed that we were "a little large for rock
musicians.")
Now it
was the turn of
the elite, patrician horn section to make their grand debut before the
Neumann U87 microphones.
The red light is turned on and tension fills the air; Eric fouls the
air. This wasn't the aroma therapy we had signed on for. Eric lets out
with one of his robust belly laughs, and the producer
yells, "CUT!" More
insults, and another game of football ensues. By the third day, our
football game had really improved.
The
final product was
something we were all excited
about, but our timing, karma, or whatever, denied us our audience, our
entourage, our----MONEY! Decca went belly-up and we did the
same---belly-up to the bar that is; "more beer! and red meat for our
friends!" Decca refused to release the masters to us and when
asked for a rough mix, they gave us one that was full of bleeps and
other sounds that I'm certain we didn't make. (Except for Eric) I guess
we really were "rather large for rock musicians!"
Ah well,
Robin Hill,
our
guitar player has since gone
on to a successful classical career, having released his eighth cd for
a major
label. With the exception of our second trumpet player,
Eric, who became a commercial airline pilot, (Lord help us all) and who
also holds the record for surviving the longest bungee jump, without a
bungee, when he plummeted off of table mountain in Cape Town, the rest
have all enjoyed successful musical careers. As for me: after twelve years, I returned to
the land of my birth, and...
4. WHO'S PAUL GRIFFIN?
Epilog
I
had written a Jazz-Rock/Fusion arrangement on what was at the time a
relatively obscure piece of classical music: Aaron Copland's, "Fanfare
For The Common Man." Once recorded, and believing that we had something
really special, our producer took it to the "powers that be" at Decca.
A few days later we were told that we couldn't do it since Aaron
Copland wouldn't permit any arrangements on his music. Six months
later,
Emerson, Lake & Palmer had their number one hit with this piece,
earning them millions. It was uncanny how similar an arrangement it was
to mine. (Years later, I wrote a "cross-over" arrangement for trumpets
and trombones. [no rhythm!] Andy Crompton and I tracked up the eight
parts, and it
can be heard on my "Trumpets & Crumpets"
cd.) Fortunately,
I managed to get a "rough mix" of the Force Ten album before Decca
pulled the plug on us.
After years of storage on cassette, and non decoded reproductions of
encoded dubs, the following tracks have managed to survive on my hard
drive.
The
issues of copyright have always amazed me. Evidently,
the fact that
we
wrote and performed this music warrants us absolutely zero entitlement
to the recordings or their disposition. Even though Decca entered into
bankruptcy, their mean-spiritedness lived in perpetuity as they
continued to deny us any acquisition rights to our own creativity. Given the musical climate of the
seventies,
this band definitely
caught a bad break from a despotic
multi national corporation.
Celebration:Our
first
track on the cd energized us
all. This was
one of the many compositions that Robin brought to the project.
Typically, he would lay down a guitar track on my Sony: Reel to Reel
(at my home in Euxton, Chorley) and I would work out the horns from
there.
Listen
To Me:
Portrait Of The
Artist:
Full
Circle:
Come Home Baby:
Moebius
Strip:
Requiem Max:
Nigel
Thomas (Nidge) asked Robin to go
for a pack of cigarettes. Take his car and his dog, Max, and the
Doberman would be happy for the ride. However, Nidge forgot to warn
Robin
that Max was very protective of the car. When Robin arrived at the
shops, Max allowed Robin to get out of the
car, but wouldn't let him back in. Nidge had to take a taxi to the shop
in order to
get Robin back in the car. Robin memorialized Max's ultimate demise
(in 7/8 time) with this track. (It should be noted that Max's
demise was not a consequence of this particular incident.)
Silly
Place For A Zebra: "Zebra Crossings" (Zeh-bra) are
better known as pedestrian crossings in the USA, and they are much more
pervasive in the UK. I regularly complained about the placement of a
particularly heinous one in my "hometown" of Chorley in Lancashire.
Especially at eleven pm when the pubs were just belching out their
final, and most rebellious customers. It seemed a good enough excuse to
write a tune!
Seventh Position:
You:
Skiddleydoo:
Nature: This
track has become a post-script to our collaborative efforts. Robin, and
Maurice Cheatham (drums) visited Irene & I in the Catskill
Mountains. Robin and Maurice laid down the rhythm, and later, I added
some synths and trumpets. The Latin section was performed by Rodgers
Grant on Keyboards and Ron
Fink on flute.
Griffin
House Productions
To
The Griffin House
