Wednesday 19 May 2010

Just call me Poirot!

It has been a long week since my last post fraught with the deep pit holes of ‘keeping everybody happy’.

When I last wrote I had received confirmation from my two former band mates regarding the re-release of our old album Straight Talker. However; following a restless night one of them returned to me with his concerns that ALL those that had been involved in making the album should be informed and their blessing sought.

Deep joy!!

Now bear in mind that I touch the big ’five oh’ this year and the last time I had seen at least two of the original recording artistes was when I was 19 years old you can get a sense of the mountain that lay before me.

However; the little grey cells kicked into action and I attacked the internet with the enthusiasm of a starving urban fox in a restaurant’s rubbish bin.

I e-mailed old acquaintances that I still had valid addresses for just in case they might hold vital information, I Googled names and businesses acting upon last known whereabouts, I tracked through old websites and God bless em! Facebook.

By Monday evening I had managed to track down all bar one, a girl that had sung backing vocals on two tracks of the album.

As I said, bless Facebook. I stuck on a standard “does anybody remember Amaziah?” on my profile wall and waited for something to appear.

Last night I received a response from a guy who claimed that he had been to that very same recording of Straight Talker, albeit in his mother’ womb. She had of course been expecting her first child at the time.

Gottum all!!!

With the initial blessing of the whole bunch, including the drummer who I managed to track down in Doncaster, North England, I contacted the Record Company and gave them permission to go ahead and as I speak I am firing the contracts back to them, albeit before somebody has the opportunity to change their minds.

So, we wait to see what happens.

And what of a reunion gig?? Well we face several problems and major hurdles that would need to be traversed before anything as concrete as a venue is booked.

The biggy is what I like to call the Genesis Conundrum (that’s the band incidentally not Darwin’s least favourite read).

When the band Genesis split a few years ago there were calls from all the fans to reunite for a single gig. This was when the conundrum began.

Half the fans called for the original singer Peter Gabriel to take the vocal duties, the other half wanted the most prolific singer Phil Collins to take centre stage.

This is our problem. I was only singer for a short 12 months, previously to that the great Derek Elliott held vocal duties for over 7 years. He is the voice on the album.

However; many who refer to Amaziah came to knowledge of the band in its latter stage and I of course was the tonsil jockey.

Now it could be argued that I was the bass player for a year before I became the singer and shouldn’t I gracefully bow down and take a step to the back? This of course would be the right thing to do.

However;

Like most things of significance you normally find that there is an individual at the back of it all pulling all the strings together and making it happen and I know that all eyes would probably look to me to make it happen. Will my ego, fragile as it is allow me to put all the work to get the band together, source the venue, promote significantly, then to take a stand at the back and give my lead instrument to somebody else?

Like as heck it will, I don’t think I could do it as graciously as I would like to think I would.

Perhaps my options are thus. Let somebody else organise it and do as I am told, and of course enjoy the experience. Or, be a bit of an egotist and say, “right, if I have to do all the work we play it my way or I take my ball home”.

Normally I keep these frail human thoughts and failings to myself and certainly would not voice them to anyone. However; I did promise I would keep you in the loop with all developments, so here it is.

Mind you, it was hard enough getting everybody’s blessing to get the album re-released, trying to get the band back together might just be a nightmare that somebody else might like the honour of taking on.

I don’t do stress!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done that man. Take a gold star and move to the front of the class.

And stop talking nonsense - of course you do stressed - you work for the NHS and I have the privilege of reading you Monday morning emails.

Bass Bin said...

I think you are 100% right. You do the donkey work, you get to make choices. There is a precedent for this of course. At both Live Aid and Live 8, The Boomtown Rats played a set, which would never had happened if it were not for the fact their tonsil jockey was organising the event.

Also, Genesis did reform and play gigs with Phil Collins on vocals. Like you, he was the replacement singer, but ended up front and centre.

In fact, this has happened to many bands and the replacement and many would say more popular singer gets the gig. Think about Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac and Van Halen. They all did their later gigs with the replacement screamers to the fore.

If you are still feeling particularly guilty (I know how you like to do 'guilt') You could have a finale where you bring on previous members of the band to join in, but that should only be as a gesture and not something to fret about.

Another idea. Why don't the Mudheads have an Amaziah evening where you throw in songs from Straight Talker that you can play without a keyboard, which I would think is most, if not all of them. This would be a good halfway house if you can't be arsed with the significant hassle of getting everybody back together.

It also means you stay in charge... and on vocals..!