Brush with Greatness (or, "Hey, I once played a gig with him!")

[bassbiscuits]

The chap who ran our local guitar shop when I was a teenage bassist in Swansea was John Ham, whose brother Peter Ham was one of the main guys in the group Badfinger. 

[EliasMooseblaster]

On 20/03/2024 at 09:02, Huge Hands said:

In the late 00's, the band I was in turned up to a regular monthly gig on a Saturday night in Central London.  As we got there, a van pulled up and another band started getting stuff out.

 

The bar owner came running out an apologised profusely, saying that Amy Winehouse's friends had booked the whole bar for a birthday bash for her and that he forgot to cancel us...

 

This bar wouldn't be Jazz After Dark, in Soho, would it?

[Huge Hands]

2 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

 

This bar wouldn't be Jazz After Dark, in Soho, would it?

It sure would.  Smallest venue ever!

[scalpy]

Whilst doing a session replacing an existing bassline by someone else I remarked to the client, the guitars sound great by the way. ‘They should do’ he said, ‘It’s Dominic Miller.’

 

’Aha’ I said suitably chastened. Struggling for a reply I went ‘and as ever Tom sounds great on drums’ thinking it was the producers regular skins man, Tom Hooper. The producer leaned over and said quietly ‘That’s Dave Weckl’ 

 

It won’t be a surprise to learn I was eventually replaced on the session by Pino Palladino. The client was on a huge ego spending trip and had no interest in a Hereford Hillbillies’ input into his project. I thought Pino did a decent impression of me as it turns out 🤣

[StingRayBoy42]

The drummer in my Jazz band stood in on a gig with Noel Redding.

So I've played with someone who played with someone who played with Hendrix.

How's that for tenuous?!

[EliasMooseblaster]

2 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

It sure would.  Smallest venue ever!

Yeah, probably the smallest I've ever played! I had a run of gigs there a few years ago myself - this must have been around 2011-ish. I think by that point the owner was really leaning on his connection to Amy Winehouse, as the walls were covered in paintings of her, with portraits of one or two other famous musicians tucked into the corners. Pretty good portraits, to be fair, but it was a bit unsettling having her face staring back at you from every angle!

[EliasMooseblaster]

54 minutes ago, scalpy said:

It won’t be a surprise to learn I was eventually replaced on the session by Pino Palladino. The client was on a huge ego spending trip and had no interest in a Hereford Hillbillies’ input into his project. I thought Pino did a decent impression of me as it turns out 🤣

Good grief, what was this guy's budget like?

 

(It wasn't Tommy Wiseau, was it?)

[BassTractor]

3 hours ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

The drummer in my Jazz band stood in on a gig with Noel Redding.

So I've played with someone who played with someone who played with Hendrix.

How's that for tenuous?!

 

Cool!
... and also reminds me of the glorious Tenuous Claim to Fame threads we've had  -  IMS several of them.
Some comedy gold in those.

 

Edited March 21 by BassTractor

[scalpy]

37 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Good grief, what was this guy's budget like?

 

(It wasn't Tommy Wiseau, was it?)

No, it was called the unidentified flying object project by Simon Harris I think. The budget was crazy, when they recorded Dominic Miller’s parts they had AIR’s lyndhurst hall- just for the guitar. Opulent to say the least. 

[peteb]

2 hours ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

The drummer in my Jazz band stood in on a gig with Noel Redding.

So I've played with someone who played with someone who played with Hendrix.

How's that for tenuous?!

 

Tenuous maybe, but still pretty cool...! 

 

[steantval]

On 17/03/2024 at 11:57, SteveXFR said:

Jimmy Page stroked my lurcher.

 

[SteveXFR]

9 minutes ago, steantval said:

 

 

He did ask if it was OK first. He didn't touch my collie

[chris_b]

4 hours ago, scalpy said:

Whilst doing a session replacing an existing bassline by someone else I remarked to the client, the guitars sound great by the way. ‘They should do’ he said, ‘It’s Dominic Miller.’

 

 

A drumming friend set himself up as an online drummer and one of his first jobs had Chuck Rainey on bass.

[Huge Hands]

12 hours ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

The drummer in my Jazz band stood in on a gig with Noel Redding.

So I've played with someone who played with someone who played with Hendrix.

How's that for tenuous?!

Equally tenuous, I did sound for a gig with Noel Redding not long before he died.  I walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder to get his attention and ask him to give me a line check.

 

It felt like I nearly broke him - he seemed really frail.  My memory is of him not saying much backstage and when he did, it wasn't very coherent. 

 

It was supposed to be a "super trio" with Noel, Eric Bell from Thin Lizzy and John Coughlan from Status Quo.  It wasn't so super that evening,IMHO, but as you say, I still got to meet someone who was there with Jimi!

[Huge Hands]

13 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Yeah, probably the smallest I've ever played! I had a run of gigs there a few years ago myself - this must have been around 2011-ish. I think by that point the owner was really leaning on his connection to Amy Winehouse, as the walls were covered in paintings of her, with portraits of one or two other famous musicians tucked into the corners. Pretty good portraits, to be fair, but it was a bit unsettling having her face staring back at you from every angle!

I was told it was her favourite bar and she was always in there, but it in the 5 or 6 years we played there regularly before she died, I never saw her, other than the paintings.  Someone told me it was the bar owner himself that painted them, but I don't know if that was true.

 

Her dad Mitch was in there one night and asked to get up and sing with us.  He wanted to do Sinatra type stuff and I think we did "That's Life" as we did that as part of our set anyway.  He seemed a nice guy, but he didn't appear to have his daughter's talents, or not on that evening anyway....    

 

I later realised it was all a setup, as there "just happened" to be a paparazzi in there and a photo of him singing with us made it into the Monday paper.  It was only a tight shot of him and not us though! I used to sit sideways on a tall stool so that I could fit in the tiny stage area beside the drummer - I think my knee just made it into that shot! 

[borntohang]

On 20/03/2024 at 09:02, Huge Hands said:

In the late 00's, the band I was in turned up to a regular monthly gig on a Saturday night in Central London.  As we got there, a van pulled up and another band started getting stuff out.

 

The bar owner came running out an apologised profusely, saying that Amy Winehouse's friends had booked the whole bar for a birthday bash for her and that he forgot to cancel us.

 

After a bit of frustrated grumbling, we found out the other band was her godchildren/nieces or something (I later found out they are quite famous themselves, but I can't remember the name - basically two girls and a boy with their mother on double bass - Daisy, someone and someone?).  We were told that they would only do about 40 mins when Amy arrived, so could we hang around and do the rest of the night as we were there?

 

 

Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis. We played with those guys too - their mum wasn't still out with them on that point but they were nice and veteran tourers at the ripe age of 25 or so. Played about 15 instruments between them.

[borntohang]

edit: accidental double post!

Edited March 22 by borntohang

[Linus27]

14 minutes ago, borntohang said:

 

Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis. We played with those guys too - their mum wasn't still out with them on that point but they were nice and veteran tourers at the ripe age of 25 or so. Played about 15 instruments between them.

 

I really like those guys, great music.

[casapete]

Back in the mid 90's I used to play a Friday lunchtime gig with some friends in a cafe bar in Hull.

It was always a great time, especially if some or all of the guys playing didn't have an evening gig afterwards!

One of the band knew Albert Lee, so when he was in town he persuaded him to sit in with us. Needless to 

say he was wonderful, and yes we did play 'Country Boy' with him too. Over the years I've been to many gigs

where Albert was playing, including Eric Clapton, The Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings

and of course with his own band Hogan's Heroes, so I was a bit starstruck. He's a lovely guy, and now 80 years

old and currently touring the UK!

 

(Tahnia was the name of the ladieswear shop next to the cafe bar, not the band!)

 

 

Edited March 23 by casapete
Grammar

[chriswareham]

13 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

I was told it was her favourite bar ...

 

She would most often be in the Hawley Arms, Camden.

 

Which reminds me of another Camden pub, The Good Mixer. For a large part of the 1990s it was a popular haunt for bands from the NME and Melody Maker invented genres such as the "scene that celebrated itself", "new wave of new wave" and "Britpop". A lot of the bands that finally made it big with Britpop, such as Blur and Elastica, were part of that mileu. On the occasions I was dragged there by mates I could never understand the appeal of the place, since it was a grotty dive with toilets most often ankle deep in overflow from the urinal. Then I discovered it was where a lot of people from those bands could easily score smack. Why the police never raided it I don't know, but I spotted a fair few people there from bands that were feted by the music press.

[rmorris]

2 minutes ago, chriswareham said:

 

She would most often be in the Hawley Arms, Camden.

 

Which reminds me of another Camden pub, The Good Mixer.

 

Had a drink in the Hawley some years ago before going to see the legendary Young Marble Giants at Dingwalls.

And as it happens had a drink in the Good Mixer on Saturday. Sports on the TV but a nice crowd tbf. Toilets are indeed an afterthought 🙄 Good staff though whenever I've popped in when in Camden. And conveniently near the Bass Gallery emporium.

[chriswareham]

1 hour ago, rmorris said:

 

Had a drink in the Hawley some years ago before going to see the legendary Young Marble Giants at Dingwalls.

And as it happens had a drink in the Good Mixer on Saturday. Sports on the TV but a nice crowd tbf. Toilets are indeed an afterthought 🙄 Good staff though whenever I've popped in when in Camden. And conveniently near the Bass Gallery emporium.

 

The Hawley Arms burned down in 2008 along with a bunch of other nearby buildings - not sure how similar the rebuilt place is to the one that Amy Winehouse hung out in. I've not been near The Good Mixer since the late 1990s, but glad to hear it's got a decent crowd in it now as the regulars back then had a very seedy vibe to them.

[chris_b]

4 minutes ago, chriswareham said:

 

The Hawley Arms burned down in 2008 along with a bunch of other nearby buildings

 

The Caernarvon Castle also burnt down in that fire, although I don't think it was a pub at the time.

 

In the 80's and 90's the CC was a great music pub. My band had a weekly residency on Sunday lunch time and then Friday evening for about 4 years.

[dmccombe7]

Went to school with Doogie White (ex-Rainbow vocalist)

 

While rehearsing in studios we had a guy put his head in the door and say the band were amazing and he was loving all the Glam rock songs. He was the sound guy for Steely Dan who were in testing their PA gear prior to the start of their tour in Glasgow. They were in the studios for a week and on that day some of the musicians from Steely Dan arrived. Our guitarist at the time was a huge fan and new their names but i had no idea who they were.

 

Also got a good morning from Justin Currie of  Del Amitri in same studios while we were arriving he turned up at door on his mountain bike. 

 

Played pool with Phil Lynott in our local venue The Heathery Bar. He even bought his fair share of rounds. Really liked big Phil, an absolute gent and such a nice big guy.

 

Phil Collins bought me lunch (coffee and sandwiches) while we were waiting for autographs back in 82. When he came over he said that the staff in the hotel thought we were with the band and didn't ask us to leave so he bought us coffee and sannies in the lounge area just to keep up appearances. Offered us free tickets for the show but we had ours already. Such a true gent. 

 

Our drummer who played in Glitter Band during the 90's was brought up in same street as Steve Priest from Sweet and even got some drum lessons from Mick Tucker. He even got a lift home from the pub in Steve's RR. When he first knew Steve he was just the older kid in the street that played bass in a band. He has some great stories from the Sweet early years.

 

Dave

Edited March 23 by dmccombe7

[chriswareham]

15 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

The Caernarvon Castle also burnt down in that fire, although I don't think it was a pub at the time.

 

I think it was still open as a pub up to the fire. There was a covers band called something like "Metalworks" who played there every Sunday evening. Unfortunately the fire was an opportunity for more gentrification of the area - Camden council don't seem to have a clue when it comes to what makes the area special, which is the non-chain store shops and the market.