If all goes to plan, I'll be recording the first Lollipod Minds Podcast this weekend.
My first guest will be the principal songwriter for the band, Dee Christopholus.
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Complete Ashall, Part 2: The Bass-ic Facts
THE LAWRENCE ST. JAMES BAND
NEXT UP FOR BARRIE was a stint in the 3-piece Lawrence St. James Band (organ, bass, drums), a slightly jazzier concoction he describes as a "bluesy, heavy, fresh sound." Although a "good, tight unit," the band failed to develop an original voice, and splintered after keyboardist Mike Parks left to join a post- "& the Mindbenders" Wayne Fontana.
BARRATTS OF MANCHESTER
B.B. King has his string of Lucille(s); Eric Clapton's had his beloved Blackie.
A musician's devotion to his/her instrument may seem ridiculous to a non-player, but the truth of the matter is musicians court their instruments, chase them, hunger and lust for them.
Here's Barrie's story of finding his one true four-stringed love, the GIBSON EB-3, on Oxford Street in Barratts of Manchester :
"Worraninstrument! Neck smooth as silk -- low frets, double pick-up (one special) medium length, hardly had to press on the strings to get a real connection, just pure percussion. Tried it through a 200-watt Marshall amp and I guarantee that every instrument in that store vibrated when I started a mean slap on them thar strings -- better than any woman, sex, booze or drug -- that bass alone drugged me."
Notwithstanding the presumed (and, well, rather understandable) response of Barrie's spouse to this remark, I must say that as a musician myself, I understand the allure, the devotion to one's instrument. I am moved by the fact Barrie's recollections of this event are so clear to him over forty years later.
It's not for nothing instruments are often named after women.
But while I do understand the allure, the devotion, the romantic myth-making that surrounds legendary instruments, as a drummer it's a little more difficult to experience first-hand the same passion---there are simply too many parts.
The idea of naming a snare stand or a stick bag "Maisie" just wouldn't cut it.
JUST FORMIN' JUST FOUR MEN
The visit to Barratts would become fateful for another reason. Barrie's volume-heavy snogging session with his new love drew the attention of Adrian Barratt himself, who threatened to eject Barrie from the store. He was recognized, however, from one of his appearances and Barratt told him Just Four Men were looking for a fourth---"Just Three Men" wasn't nearly as clever-sounding.
JUST FOUR SCRUFFY GETS
Oddly enough, that same night Just Four Men were making an appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars.
"I thought they were SHIT!" says Barrie. "Really commercial--glittering suits and all."
Barrie was awoken by his father the next afternoon who said, "Four scruffy gets at the door; sound like bleedin' Scousers to me."
Now that's a rude awakening for any Mancunian!
But after a brief audition, Barrie was in.
NEXT UP FOR BARRIE was a stint in the 3-piece Lawrence St. James Band (organ, bass, drums), a slightly jazzier concoction he describes as a "bluesy, heavy, fresh sound." Although a "good, tight unit," the band failed to develop an original voice, and splintered after keyboardist Mike Parks left to join a post- "& the Mindbenders" Wayne Fontana.
BARRATTS OF MANCHESTER
B.B. King has his string of Lucille(s); Eric Clapton's had his beloved Blackie.
A musician's devotion to his/her instrument may seem ridiculous to a non-player, but the truth of the matter is musicians court their instruments, chase them, hunger and lust for them.
Here's Barrie's story of finding his one true four-stringed love, the GIBSON EB-3, on Oxford Street in Barratts of Manchester :
"Worraninstrument! Neck smooth as silk -- low frets, double pick-up (one special) medium length, hardly had to press on the strings to get a real connection, just pure percussion. Tried it through a 200-watt Marshall amp and I guarantee that every instrument in that store vibrated when I started a mean slap on them thar strings -- better than any woman, sex, booze or drug -- that bass alone drugged me."
Notwithstanding the presumed (and, well, rather understandable) response of Barrie's spouse to this remark, I must say that as a musician myself, I understand the allure, the devotion to one's instrument. I am moved by the fact Barrie's recollections of this event are so clear to him over forty years later.
It's not for nothing instruments are often named after women.
But while I do understand the allure, the devotion, the romantic myth-making that surrounds legendary instruments, as a drummer it's a little more difficult to experience first-hand the same passion---there are simply too many parts.
The idea of naming a snare stand or a stick bag "Maisie" just wouldn't cut it.
JUST FORMIN' JUST FOUR MEN
The visit to Barratts would become fateful for another reason. Barrie's volume-heavy snogging session with his new love drew the attention of Adrian Barratt himself, who threatened to eject Barrie from the store. He was recognized, however, from one of his appearances and Barratt told him Just Four Men were looking for a fourth---"Just Three Men" wasn't nearly as clever-sounding.
JUST FOUR SCRUFFY GETS
Oddly enough, that same night Just Four Men were making an appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars.
"I thought they were SHIT!" says Barrie. "Really commercial--glittering suits and all."
Barrie was awoken by his father the next afternoon who said, "Four scruffy gets at the door; sound like bleedin' Scousers to me."
Now that's a rude awakening for any Mancunian!
But after a brief audition, Barrie was in.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
New Podcast Feature Coming Soon- Send in your questions for the band!
In the very near future I intend to create a downloadable podcast featuring interviews with the members of Wimple Winch.
Entitled Lollipod Minds: The Sinking Ship Resurfaces, it will essentially be a continuing series of fifteen-minute shows dedicated to answering any questions you and I want to ask of the members of the band.
Send all questions to me in the "Comments" section, and they will be forwarded to the band.
Entitled Lollipod Minds: The Sinking Ship Resurfaces, it will essentially be a continuing series of fifteen-minute shows dedicated to answering any questions you and I want to ask of the members of the band.
Send all questions to me in the "Comments" section, and they will be forwarded to the band.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Barrie: A Complete Ashall, Part 1
Barrie Ashall
One of the unexpected joys to emerge from my involvement with the lads from Wimple Winch has been the ongoing correspondence between Barrie Ashall and myself. He’s a consummate jokester, our Barrie, a relentless punster and entertaining raconteur, who possesses, much like Dee, a fine memory for specific details from over forty years ago.
When I sat down to write the Shindig piece I had no appreciable biographical information about Barrie to incorporate into the piece. I had gleaned, however, from my conversations with Dee, and from listening to the select tracks on which he played, that his contributions to WW were an essential element in upping the group’s collective ante.
Barrie Ashall began playing music at the age of 10. As often is the case with adolescent boys, it eventually boiled down to a tossup between music and sports. Music would eventually triumph over football, of course, as it would eventually take precedence over the more practical career choice of electro-mechanical engineering. *
Barrie’s first band was The Resounds (terrific name!), a trio formed for the specific intention of playing a Christmas party. A chap named Albert Massey played lead guitar, with Barrie on bass. The also band featured an asthmatic drummer who sang lead vocals (!). According to Barrie, he was an “Archie Andrews lookalike,” who left an indelible impression in his mind:
“The room stank of inhaler and his eyes spun round their sockets uncontrollably every time he played a roll (looked really cool as well as hilarious).”
Next installment: The Lawrence St. James Band
* (Incidentally, for those who are interested in my particular music-sports dilemma, music triumphed over basketball. Seeing The Who’s anarchic bio/concert-pic The Kids Are Alright in 1979 was the revelatory game-changer; one of the defining points in my life.)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Freakbeat Manifesto, by Brian Neavyn
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Below I present the full, unexpurgated text of The Freakbeat Manifesto, as recited by Dee Christopholus on that rainy evening in September, 2009.
Now go live it.
The “Freakbeat Manifesto” Sep 1966
Beat Music has served us well as entertainment but it is now some time since the heyday of Merseybeat , BrumBeat, Mancbeat and all other scenes.
R’n’B too has passed its highpoint in these Islands .
Beat and R’n’B must evolve , mature, grow up and change structure. Innocent boyhood is over
This is Sep 1966. Wimple Winch have recently released ‘Save my Soul’ , the second in a trilogy of 7” singles that will be seen to define a new musical genre ……called Freakbeat.
I hereby state the “Freakbeat Manifesto”
1. Freakbeat is futuristic and yet it is about the present as seen from the future.
2. Freakbeat is the liberation of the machine known as the instrument in the hands of road -hardened and newly informed musicians.
3. No longer will guitars strum along benignly behind the voice. The Freakbeat guitarist will be the main instrumentalist like John Kelman of Wimple Winch. Such is their dominance in a song that they will take equal standing with the vocalist. Such is their creativity that their composition will match for importance the vocal melody. The guitarist must invent riffs or chunky chords that paint a raw sound and will issue on occasion short biting solos. Guitars may increase their presence by the use of effects like distortion, fuzz or tremolo. This will deepen the musical picture. Second guitars will have purpose to chop alternative rhythms into the melee.
4. No longer will bass be a melodic support holding root notes to strumming guitars. The Freakbeat bassist like Barrie Ashall of Wimple Winch will be the catalyst to map out the transformation. Bass will challenge the lead guitar for prominence. It will direct an alternative path that will stand alone, will introduce hooks and riffs that will lift the song whilst agitating for its own space. Together with drums it will create a rhythm section that has a new dynamic like a powerful engine.
5. No longer will a drummer simply be a time keeper. No longer will the metronome sit at the back of the stage quietly counting and tapping out beats. The Freakbeat drummer like Larry King of Wimple Winch will control the songs, the ebb and flow, will temper the song with rhythms that shift and compliment, will drive the song towards frenzy but will drag the band back from overkill. The Freakbeat drummer will emerge as a key component of the new genre and will impose personality on the song.
6. No longer will the vocalist use the band as a backing for their vocal performance. The Freakbeat Vocalist like Dee Christopholus of Wimple Winch must establish a style that has the power to survive the maelstrom being created by the instruments. The singer must deliver the song with a level of passion that befits the lyric, at times dispassionate, at times emotional. The singer must exist as part of the freakbeat experience and not be a detached limb. Backing vocals are not limited as sweeteners of harmony but may be thrown as independent entities at the main vocal.
7. No longer will songs be structured in the limited format of recent years. Freakbeat songs like those of Wimple Winch are encouraged to abandon middle eights that are inserted for pop enhancement. They are best avoided unless they shift the dynamic to allow new tensions to emerge.
8. The recorded performances in freakbeat will not have a glossy over produced glare. We must continue to record live, to capture the moment when music machines and humans connect in a deeply spontaneous event.
9. Freakbeat will have at its core a dynamic tension created by the instruments and voice challenging each other. This tension may be enhanced by the punctuation of sudden stops or by the drama of quiet/ loud volume shifts.
10. Pure Freakbeat as described in this manifesto will never change, it is a new root, its origins are not obvious. However if it grafts with other musical styles then sub-genres may emerge with hybrids like Mod Freakbeat, Soul Freakbeat, Psychedelic Freakbeat. The new root that is Pure Freakbeat will always exist to inspire originality; adventure + ‘outside the box’ thinking.
Do not be afraid to ignore/challenge so-called rules, which restrict or dampen creativity.
* *(Written by: Brian Neavyn).
*******************************THE END****************************************
@Copywrite: Brian Neavyn + Dee Christopholus
23 September 2009
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Statement of Intent
As discussed in my first post, this blog was specifically designed to function as an ever-evolving-- and long overdue---conduit between Wimple Winch, a band that broke up over 40 years ago, and its formidable cult fanbase scattered throughout the world.
It is necessary.
After all, there is no "Official Wimple Winch Website." There is zero extant footage of the band, onstage or otherwise, and only few treasured photographs. In the digital realm, it's next to impossible to learn anything of consequence about the band's history, apart from rudimentary, often inaccurate write-ups strewn about the net; many of which are simply copied verbatim from the serviceable AllMusic entry.
It was for precisely this reason I began the search for Dee Christopholus and the other members; a search that culminated in the piece for Shindig!.
In its original conception, this blog was created as a nexus for both the people who love the music they made and the band members themselves: a meeting place for fan and artist. I wanted the blog to be mindful of the band's past achievements, yet firmly focused upon their present lives as well.
I wanted to create a living, breathing textual history of the first and finest of the British Freakbeat bands.
It occurred to me that it might be mutually advantageous for myself, as host, and for those who stumble upon this labour of love in their digital travels, to focus upon one specific song this blog to reflect upon specific songs recorded by Wimple Winch/Dee Christopholus. My reasoning is twofold: first, it's an opportunity for me to stretch out and perhaps communicate the underlying motivation for this blog's existence; and second, I wanted to reach out to anyone with a curiosity about mid-to-late '60s music in the hope of exposing them to some fantastic material.
Accordingly, I've decided to intersperse my regular posts and updates with discussions of my favourite songs.
Stay tuned.
But I'll give you a hint of what's coming...
It is necessary.
After all, there is no "Official Wimple Winch Website." There is zero extant footage of the band, onstage or otherwise, and only few treasured photographs. In the digital realm, it's next to impossible to learn anything of consequence about the band's history, apart from rudimentary, often inaccurate write-ups strewn about the net; many of which are simply copied verbatim from the serviceable AllMusic entry.
It was for precisely this reason I began the search for Dee Christopholus and the other members; a search that culminated in the piece for Shindig!.
In its original conception, this blog was created as a nexus for both the people who love the music they made and the band members themselves: a meeting place for fan and artist. I wanted the blog to be mindful of the band's past achievements, yet firmly focused upon their present lives as well.
I wanted to create a living, breathing textual history of the first and finest of the British Freakbeat bands.
It occurred to me that it might be mutually advantageous for myself, as host, and for those who stumble upon this labour of love in their digital travels, to focus upon one specific song this blog to reflect upon specific songs recorded by Wimple Winch/Dee Christopholus. My reasoning is twofold: first, it's an opportunity for me to stretch out and perhaps communicate the underlying motivation for this blog's existence; and second, I wanted to reach out to anyone with a curiosity about mid-to-late '60s music in the hope of exposing them to some fantastic material.
Accordingly, I've decided to intersperse my regular posts and updates with discussions of my favourite songs.
Stay tuned.
But I'll give you a hint of what's coming...
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Rumble in Trafalgar Square
It was an extraordinary event.On Wednesday, September 23, 2009, a tall, eminently distinguished-looking gentleman climbed atop the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in the rain. He was among 2400 persons who took part in a 100-day continuous art project entitled One & Other. As envisioned and created by sculptor Antony Gormley, the project quite literally provided a platform from which individuals could sing, dance, rant---do whatever they wished---with a view to establishing greater contact with those around them.
As Dee Christopholus dragged his cart, containing a single chair and two sandwich boards (one that read "Wimple Winch"; the other "Freakbeat 1966"), across the plinth, a smattering of applause was heard from below. Dee chuckled at this and began to set up his stage. (Here is a link to the September portion of the event; look for "Deemo" at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday the 23rd)
Some moments later, the imposing 6'3" figure, with the stentorian urgency of a Scouse town cryer, launched into an unashamed declaration of love and pride for the music he had made some 43 years before.
He then proceeded to play his music and flip through the issue of Shindig! which contains the article I wrote about him and the band. Occasionally he would sing along with himself. In those moments one caught a brief glimpse into what it must have been like to see him on stage with Wimple Winch (sadly, all we can do, since there is no known extant footage of the band).
He played 'What's Been Done', 'Save My Soul,' 'Atmosphere' and the incomparable mini-opera, 'Rumble on Mersey Square South.' All of them masterpieces of the genre.
And then he read the Freakbeat Manifesto.
To some, the idea of a man proclaiming past glories over forty years after their occurrence may seem sad. But such was not the case here. Far from it.
It was magnificent.
The Mighty Winch, inexplicably ignored during their existence, had been cruelly denied their moment of glory. They never had the chance to acquire the widespread exposure they so deserved. The legendary TV performance on Ed Sullivan, the #1 single, the myth-making performances at rock festivals like Monterey and the Isle of Wight---none of these things were to be. They lacked that one crucial, pivotal moment atop a pedestal from which they could impart the Freakbeat Manifesto as its very embodiment.
And so what occurred on the fourth plinth that rainy evening in September 2009 could never alter the facts as they unfolded from 1966 through 1968. But it gave a pedestal from which a man could broadcast to Trafalgar Square---and ultimately the world over, thanks to the internet---his visions and hopes for music. A small measure of redemption, perhaps, but redemption nonetheless.
Plus he got to prove to the world they got it wrong the first time around.
As Dee Christopholus dragged his cart, containing a single chair and two sandwich boards (one that read "Wimple Winch"; the other "Freakbeat 1966"), across the plinth, a smattering of applause was heard from below. Dee chuckled at this and began to set up his stage. (Here is a link to the September portion of the event; look for "Deemo" at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday the 23rd)
Some moments later, the imposing 6'3" figure, with the stentorian urgency of a Scouse town cryer, launched into an unashamed declaration of love and pride for the music he had made some 43 years before.
He then proceeded to play his music and flip through the issue of Shindig! which contains the article I wrote about him and the band. Occasionally he would sing along with himself. In those moments one caught a brief glimpse into what it must have been like to see him on stage with Wimple Winch (sadly, all we can do, since there is no known extant footage of the band).
He played 'What's Been Done', 'Save My Soul,' 'Atmosphere' and the incomparable mini-opera, 'Rumble on Mersey Square South.' All of them masterpieces of the genre.
And then he read the Freakbeat Manifesto.
To some, the idea of a man proclaiming past glories over forty years after their occurrence may seem sad. But such was not the case here. Far from it.
It was magnificent.
The Mighty Winch, inexplicably ignored during their existence, had been cruelly denied their moment of glory. They never had the chance to acquire the widespread exposure they so deserved. The legendary TV performance on Ed Sullivan, the #1 single, the myth-making performances at rock festivals like Monterey and the Isle of Wight---none of these things were to be. They lacked that one crucial, pivotal moment atop a pedestal from which they could impart the Freakbeat Manifesto as its very embodiment.
And so what occurred on the fourth plinth that rainy evening in September 2009 could never alter the facts as they unfolded from 1966 through 1968. But it gave a pedestal from which a man could broadcast to Trafalgar Square---and ultimately the world over, thanks to the internet---his visions and hopes for music. A small measure of redemption, perhaps, but redemption nonetheless.
Plus he got to prove to the world they got it wrong the first time around.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Sinking Ship Resurfaces
In 2009 I wrote an extensive history of Wimple Winch for Shindig! Magazine (Sept./Oct. issue). While the band only released a handful of singles in their time, they are now widely regarded as having been at the forefront of an exciting sub-genre of rock music dubbed Freakbeat.
Ostensibly the band's story ended in April, 1967, when fire destroyed The Sinking Ship, a club in Stockport which served as their home base.
But as it sometimes happens, historical wrongs are occasionally righted. Wimple Winch's cachet has grown significantly over the years, and they are now recognized as the brilliant pioneers they were. A film documentary about them is currently in production, and the members, some of them now grandfathers, find themselves basking in new-found celebrity, receiving fanmail, requests for appearances, band merchandise and autographs...some 43 years after the fire that destroyed their equipment, their home and their vision.
This blog will chronicle both the band's activities in the 1960's and my interaction with them in the present, with special attention paid to the classic lineup:
Dee Christopholus
(Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar)
Larry Arends (King)
(Drums)
Barrie Ashall
(Bass)
John Kelman
(Lead Guitar)
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