So, what have you been listening to lately?

[uwe]

UFO! Live at the BBC!

I was surprised to hear a second guitarist on this, seemingly 'Tonka' Chapman. He takes the second half of the guitar solo in a more modal, fusion-y direction than Schenker.


I find live UFO a bit tricksy to listen to. Sometimes you get a nice twin guitar assault, sometimes you get a Wurlitzer piano banging away like an unconvincing rhythm guitar.

A bit like the Sensational Alex Harvey Band live. A second guitarist would have thickened stuff up, but instead you get a Farfisa organ through a wah pedal. Not the same!

That is because my deutscher countryman could never make up his friggin' mind what he wanted! Initially, coming from a twin guitar band like the Scorpions, Michael wanted a Wishbone Ash'y sound with a second lead guitarist to help him replicate all those harmony lines he liked to do in the studio. Enter Paul "Tonka" Chapman. That didn't last long, however, with sensitive Michael finding that a second lead guitarist inhibited him live. (Still helpful though because Paul would know a lot of UFO songs when he replaced the Mad German Axeman after the latter had gone AWOL one more time years later.)

So Danny Peyronel came in - from the Heavy Metal Kids with which UFO had been touring together. He's probably the guy whose hammering piano you don't like, but I thought he was part of the best UFO line-up, the No Heavy Petting one (where Peyronel also contributed great songs)

But Schenker doesn't really want a full-fledged keyboard player like Peyronel was, so he had to go too.

And then it was time for Paul Raymond, ex-Savoy Brown:

Paul played simplistic keyboards (i.e. not in a Jon lord way that might have stepped on Michael Schenker's toes) AND rhythm guitar, often changing what he played form part to part within one and the same song. An added benefit was that Paul played lefty strung righty (because he had learned to play on righty guitars played lefty without restringing) and that made everything he played sound a little different and according to Schenker very complimentary and idiosyncratic to what the German Meister did.

One of the most beautiful UFO songs was penned by Dany Peyronel and is a love ode to his home country of Argentina which for the purpose of the song he changed to Mars.



It must be my DP upbringing, but I very much prefer a prominent (!) keyboarder to a second lead guitarist or rhythm guitarist. There are exceptions to the rule like Wishbone Ash (two lead guitars) or Status Quo (Parfitt's idiosyncratic rhythm guitar of downstrokes only and the way it meshed with Francis Rossi's rhythm up & downstrokes created the Quo sound people laugh about, but hardly anyone can copy).

That is the UFO you don't like, right Alan? Too Elton John'y, huh? 

I love that sound, it's for the same reason that I like Elf.

To me, there is something intrinsically rock'n'roll to tinkling ivories. Puts me in an immediate good mood. Very hard to find people like that on an amateur level that can actually play a rocking piano.

[uwe]

How can one not like piano playing like this?

Or the lovely bass playing at 02:40? Except Rob of course who thinks that Jim Lea is an unfunky know-nothing and doesn't like melodic bass playing, period, just mock-funky/bluesy root notes, fifths, major sixths, minor sevenths & octaves, anything else is verboten, especially walking bass melodic lines (only Phil Lynott gets a free pass sometimes)! 

[Basvarken]

I know the Slade fanclub resides here.
But I just don't hear it. I did try. But it doesn't work for me.

[Basvarken]

The tall guy (Jon Amor) in The Hoax went solo after the band took an hiatus for the first time.

He played a modern version of Blues rock, with lots of samples and repetitive grooves.
But the Blues rock world being the most conservative audience you can imagine did not appreciate Jon's efforts. Which is really a shame because I think it was a very exciting new direction he was taking the Blues.

The drummer is Wayne Proctor, who became a respected producer

[Alanko]

It is more the case of hearing Force It-era tracks like Let it Roll. No piano on the studio cut, but multitracked guitars. Some live cuts have an overdriven Wurlitzer piano clanking away, which reduces the Hard Rock element, slightly.

I hear a lot of Leslie West in Herr Schenker's early playing.

[Basvarken]

Schenker has always mentioned Leslie West as an influence

[gearHed289]

I will take keyboards over a second guitar any day.    Even a Wurlitzer.

[uwe]

A good keyboarder in a band can spoil you for life. It makes everything sound more accomplished. And there basically isn't a keyboard sound I don't like: Hammond (of course ...), piano (Elton John & Billy Joel), synth layers (Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode), synth riffs (Van Halen) and monophonic solos à la Emerson or Wakeman or that Tony Carey intro on the ARP synth to Rainbow's Tarot Woman, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Vox, Farifisa, Hohner Clavinet (that to die for sound in Nutbush City Limits or Superstition). Even accordion!

Or that melodica thing that gave the Hooters their name.

If you've been brought up in the DP family realm with its multitude of prominent keyboard players (Jon Lord, Don Airey, Mickey Lee Soule, Tony Carey, David Stone, David Rosenthal, Colin Towns and Neil Carter) it's nigh impossible to not view keyboards as an instrument in a lead role approaching that of the guitar. Keyboards that are not just background are basically a given there, the blueprint of my musical tastes:

Let's not even talk about my gulity pleasures keyboard-wise!

[uwe]

The tall guy (Jon Amor) in The Hoax went solo after the band took an hiatus for the first time.

He played a modern version of Blues rock, with lots of samples and repetitive grooves.
But the Blues rock world being the most conservative audience you can imagine did not appreciate Jon's efforts. Which is really a shame because I think it was a very exciting new direction he was taking the Blues.

I find that less retrogressive than SRV and a lot of things that followed in his wake. But you're right, Blues audiences are difficult.

[Basvarken]

Drummer/producer Wayne Proctor later produced the Scottish band King King of Alan Nimmo.
And he also was behind the drumkit of the band for a while.
Also in the band was Dutch keyboard player Bob Fridzema (who now tours with Glenn Hughes).


Alan Nimmo is a great guitar player, but also an excellent singer. His voice reminds me (a lot) of Paul Rodgers

[Alanko]

Drummer/producer Wayne Proctor later produced the Scottish band King King of Alan Nimmo.
And he also was behind the drumkit of the band for a while.
Also in the band was Dutch keyboard player Bob Fridzema (who now tours with Glenn Hughes).


Alan Nimmo is a great guitar player, but also an excellent singer. His voice reminds me (a lot) of Paul Rodgers

I know King King's (former?) drummer, not that Scotland is a small place or anything.

From speaking to him, Alan Nimmo puts unbelievable energy and effort into making the band work. It sounds exhausting, but their success is down to endless hard graft. You can make a band like this work in 2025, but you have to put in maximum effort on all fronts; logistics, promotion, finances... just to make your songs heard. Covid, Brexit and all that have just made it exponentially more difficult as well.

All a bit of a shame that it has to be this hard for working artists. There's a BBC documentary on Mike Oldfield and, goodness me, what a precocious and privileged dude he was in the '70s. Definitely the product of a different era. He didn't want to play gigs, he didn't want to do interviews and he wanted to play with model aircraft rather than record albums. Despite all this, he had full support from the record company. Imagine any artist trying to be this gauche and feckless now. No label is going to tolerate that.

[Basvarken]

Yeah making a living as a musician in a (Blues) Rock band is not easy.
If you see what a super talented dude like Jon Amor has to do to keep his head above the water is incredible.
Performing in small clubs and bars that even amateur bands would turn down.

I spoke to keyboard player Bob Fridzema last year and asked him why he left Kind King. He said he thought Alan Nimmo made some "not so wise" business decisions, which led him to leave the band.

[Dave W]

Wilko

Gypie

[Dave W]

I just discovered Sandbox, a 90s Canadian band.

The guitarist playing the offset body guitar is Mike Smith, better known today as Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys.

Bubbles has impressive friends.

[uwe]

Wilko

Gypie

I know it's Dr Feelgood heresy, but I preferred Gypie to Wilko. Wilko was idiosyncratic, yes, but incredibly limited. They do have one trick ponies on Canvey Island. Gypie was more fluid in his playing without being anywhere near glib.