|
 Tony,
thanks for sparing us a few minutes for these questions.
Firstly, how
is the current tour going?
It’s a bit rushed tonight but, otherwise really good.
What first attracted you
to the blues?
Cyril Davies I think. I used to go and see him at the Marquee Club.
Somebody just said something about this R&B band and they were there
every Thursday, and they were just magic. From there, I just went on to
find out things about other people – Muddy Waters especially and the
numbers they were doing (Howling Wolf stuff) so I went and bought stuff,
especially John Lee Hooker. Although we never did any Hooker because
it’s so difficult to do.
Who impressed you
musically in the early 60s, both in British blues and across the water?
Hooker, absolutely. Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Hubert Sumlin –
amazing, odd style of guitar work which I loved. Playing with Hooker,
who played with a finger saw style, as did Sumlin and from there, that’s
how I did it.
The Groundhogs played
regularly at Mother’s Club in Birmingham. Do you have any amusing tales
to tell of your gigs there?
Well it was always amusing because of that fire escape that you had to
pull down to get in there. One time a truck was backing up the alley
and it got bashed trying to get in. There was a time when I lost a pair
of jeans when they were stolen from the public area at the back there.
There was a pool table round the back area we used to play on – that was
good. They were well worn but they were my favourite pair of jeans.
Alan: They’ll be on
somebody’s wall now!
What was it like playing
with such greats as John Lee Hooker?
Hooker was fantastic. Great fun and a real gentleman. Little Water
however was not much fun, really not a nice man at all. He’d been shot
and somebody finished the job when he went back in. Memphis Slim, I did
a couple of gigs with Memphis Slim. There was one particular gig where
I think he was being shafted and he said “I ain’t no ignorant nigger”
and he went to find the promoter to sort it out. Jack Dupree was
fantastic – a lovely man.
What inspired you to write
the songs for Thank Christ For The Bomb?
Well, the idea for the title of the album came from our manager. He
just had this idea that we needed to show we were getting away from
blues and with Thank Christ For The Bomb, he decided that we
needed a gimmick and John said “Christ” will cause an uproar. The
manager thought, well, let’s mate it with the day’s other big subject
which was the bomb and he said how about calling it “Thank Christ For
The Bomb”. I thought, “No, you’re joking. No way”. But when I got
home and thought about it, I thought it just could work. My original
idea was that if you had your toe or foot blown off in the First World
War, you were sent back home and you wouldn’t go back to the front – so,
thank Christ for the bomb. But then as it worked through, it had to be
the big one for the finish.
And what about inspiration
for the songs for Split?
Split was unfortunately for me a bit of a mental aberration and
it was caused by the only time I ever did any dealings with
drugs. It should have been cheaper than booze, that’s what everybody
told me, but it really had this effect. It really came on after I’d
done a bit with Ken Pustelnik in his flat when he was playing at Earls
Court and nothing happened. But then I worked with this roadie who had
some stuff, and he had a mate, who made joints out of it. I had all the
bad things from LSD and it had been spiked. That wore off and then a
couple of weeks later, I just had this go at scribbling these songs.
And Split happened.
Who are your favourite
blues artists, both old and new?
Robert Johnson, obviously. Son House – when I heard him, I just
thought “Wow”. And Charley Patton – my God! They are all so
different. Of the later ones, Hooker obviously. I always say that
if Johnson had lived, he would have been Hendrix. He would have taken
an electric guitar and done things with it. Because what he did with
acoustic was unbelievable.
Which is your favourite
guitar?
It’s gone. A Gibson. It was nicked in Irvine, in Scotland. But can
I say that whoever’s got it – I’m going to get him one day!
Of all the many albums the
Groundhogs made, what was your favourite?
I think it’s got to be Thank Christ because I wrote all the
songs. Before that they were derived songs.
And what about your
favourite solo album?
Really, I do like listening to The Two Sides of T.S. McPhee
because I said about the hunt and it’s now banned. That was the whole
point of it, that one side. And I made it with the blues solos as
well.
There is a lovely quote
here about you – “he is a blues man with a pedigree as long as your
arm.” What are the high points of your career?
Playing with Hooker has got to be the highlight.
Do you ever regret turning
down the offer to replace Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers?
Initially, yes. But then I learnt later, after we did a gig with them
when Eric had said to me that he was leaving to go on a world trip, he
got as far as Greece and came back. That was when John Mayall asked me
and I thought naa. I didn’t realise that he’d made a pact with John
Mayall that he could have his job back if he came back. So, Peter
Green, who got the job, was kicked out. If I have any regrets, it’s not
joining Chris Barber when he asked me before. If I’d have joined him,
I’d have been round the world 15 times.
How pleased were you with
Martin Hanson’s biography, Hoggin’ the Page?
In the end it turned out okay because we did a lot of input. He used to
come round with this really old cassette machine where the cassettes
used to hum; you could hear the noise of the motor above what he was
saying. He misheard a lot of things when he listened back to them so we
rewrote it.
How healthy do you think
the blues scene is in the UK compared to the US?
Well, when Seasick Steve gets in the charts, it’ll be back. I don’t
know what he’s doing in the US.
How do you see the future
of blues music?
It’ll just keep going. There’s always booms, like the one in the 60s
and then again in the 70s and then you think it’s gone but it’s always
bubbling under somewhere.
I don’t know if you’ve
heard the Ian Siegal Band, who sings Groundhog Blues. Have you ever
fancied a duet with him?
Well, I’d have to listen to it first!
When did you first meet
Joanna?
Ah, it was when I was kicked out of my home by my second wife. She
accused me of being boring. Before that I didn’t go to any gigs because
I liked to be home but then I went to a gig probably with the The
Producers at this place called the Haygate in Wellington. A friend of
mine from the past was there with this Ska band and he took me to a
house (I didn’t know where I was, I just knew I didn’t want to go home –
that was it) which turned out to be Joanna’s house – that was Joanna’s
friend I knew from the past. Next morning I woke up, I didn’t know
where the hell I was and I went upstairs and Joanna was in bed. I
didn’t know it was her at the time because she wasn’t around the night
before. I was taken to the station by a friend of hers and that was how
we met. We later played the Haygate as a band, and I invited her down –
and that was it. The rest is history.
Any album releases in the
pipeline?
Not really, no. People come out with these live things and they get
bunged out, which is okay. But no serious stuff at the moment.
Anything with Joanna,
acoustic wise?
Sometime, yes. I’ve got a lot of songs that I want to put into some
sort of thing.
Finally, what about future
plans?
Ah, there’s a guy called Karl Hyde from Underworld, although they are a
dance band he’s a blues man and he wants to come in with me and do a
blues album, which will be fantastic. I keep saying I’m going to send
these ideas across to him. We’re doing it a bit like Stevie Wonder and
Paul McCartney. I send my guitar parts and he sends me his guitar songs
and we’ll see what happens.
Thank you very much Tony.
Return to
Blues Interviews List
Website, Photos & Text © Copyright 2001-2008 Alan
White. All Rights Reserved.
For further information please email:
alan.white@earlyblues.com
|
