Posts tagged "Tom"

From Joe Cocker To Memphis Bend

After Dave Edmunds band Love Sculpture disbanded following the success of Sabre Dance. Micky and his mate drummer Tommy Reilly, also from Cardiff, put an advertisement in Melody Maker stating they were both looking for work. A singer, then unknown to them, Joe Cocker answered the ad and before too long Micky and Tom found themselves moving to London. This was actually in the April of 1968, before Sabre Dance had charted in the following November. They were to play with Joe Cocker and The Grease Band. Micky later commented that Joe had a “set that was a real mixture ranging from the Beatles to Chuck Jackson, during which Joe would stand on stage holding his pint and telling jokes between numbers. But what a singer! He was tremendous!” The band quickly established themselves on the hip London scene and in no time at all the band was making a lot of waves. Along with the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix and the Stones. Brian Jones of the Stones, Clapton and Hendrix would even attend their gigs, the best of which was at the Albert Hall supporting The Move and The Byrds.

After weeks of concentrated gigging, Micky and Tommy were given a brief holiday and they nipped home to Wales. But unknown to them studio time had been booked to record a Beatles tune “With A Little Help From My Friends.” This had been a Cocker stage favourite that Micky and Tom had helped to arrange. On finding out about ths Micky and Tommy quit in January 1969. There is a book out about Joe Cocker that states that Micky and Tommy weren’t up to it, which seems hard to believe. Anyway “With A Little Help From My Friends,” now with the now famous Jimmy Page on guitar, became a smash hit in October of 68 and a UK No 1.

Micky now back home in Cardiff started to work with various Cardiff rock n roll bands, musicians and singers, and then in 1970 Micky launced himself into a brand new venture. This ran alongside his other projects, and saw him once again working with his old buddy from the Joe Cocker Grease band days, Tommy Reilly. With Tom on drums and vocals, Lincoln Carr, also from Rumney in Cardiff where Micky grew up, on upright and electric bass, and Micky on lead guitar and harmony. But now in this band Micky would sometimes take the lead vocal. This band was quite successful and the Welsh Rockabilly trio stayed together for the next seven years.

Memphis Bend played local gigs from 1970 to the mid 1970’s and on Wednesdays they played at the Moon Club in Cardiff, which was on the top floor of a fruit and veg warehouse, located on the Hayes. Sometimes they had guests like Dave Edmunds and Geraint Watkins. Usually playing local gigs, Memphis Bend did go to Holland in the early 1970’s. Their set consisted mainly of 1950’s Rock’n’Roll like: “Bird Dog”, “Honey Don’t”, “Queen Of The Hop”, “White Lightning”, and “My Way”. But Micky would also feature in three guitar instrumentals: Santo & Johnny’s “Sleepwalk”, Jeff Beck’s “Jeff’s Boogie” and the Yardbirds’ “Steeled Blues”.

During the mid 1970’s they recorded two singles. The first one was “Louisiana Hoedown” with the flip side “Right String Baby”(1973). “Louisiana Hoedown” is a quite unique Memphis Bend song. Whilst the other stuff that they recorded was Rockabilly or Country music, “Louisiana Hoedown” reminds me of The Band. Micky was really into The Band but he wasn’t so keen on Robbie Robertsons guitar playing, rather it’s the drumming and singing of Levon Helm that he loved. Not just for the way he sung but the whole persona of the man. Although Memphis Bend were only a three piece band, for this song they did a lot of overdubbing. For example, the song’s intro has three different guitars, and the result is a little bit garbled. This “wall of guitars” sound, makes Micky sound like a typical 70’s rock guitarist! Then again on “Right String Baby” Micky’s guitar has a lot of overdubbing. Here there are two lead guitars that trade licks. So the overall sound on this single is much rougher and modern than on other Memphis Bend records. In contrast the second single was “Ubangi Stomp”/”Tennesee”(1976), and the A-side is a good, solid version of Warren Smith’s Rockabilly classic.

By the middle 1970’s Memphis Bend were to back one of Micky’s heroes: Chuck Berry. Memphis Bend, plus a piano player, backed Berry on two gigs: at a festival at Buxton in Derbyshire, England on 21st July 1973 and at The Rainbow Theatre in London on 7th September 1973. However, the Chuck Berry whom Micky admired didn’t exist anymore. During the 1950’s Berry had been an innovator of popular music, wrote great songs and played wicked guitar. But by the 1970’s he had a “couldn’t care less” attitude. Even his recordings were just rehash versions of his old material. Then when he played live gigs his guitar was often out of tune. Another thing was that Berry hadn’t had his own band since the 1950’s, so concert managers provided bands for him. Then Berry often had this habit, during the first few numbers, of giving his backing musicians solos. Chuck would then ask the question to his audience “isn’t he great?” But when he gave Micky, a master of Chuck Berry style solos, who could play Berry riffs like a demon, a solo, there were to be no questions to the audience! Not only that, Chuck never gave Micky another solo. It’s impossible to know what Chuck thought but he acted in a similar way towards Keith Richards in 1972, who was also a disciple of Berry. Keith later told reporters: “Chuck didn’t want to be upstaged.” Micky and the band were going to go to Paris to back him the very next night, but Tommy decided that Chuck was a waste of time, and they pulled out.

Memphis Bend recorded their only LP, “Good Rockin’ Tonite”, in 1977. During their gigs they played all kinds of 1950’s Rock’n’Roll music and country stuff, but with recorded material it was Memphis and Sun Records that was their focus. Sun Records was a legendary Memphis record label where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins started their careers. For “Good Rockin’ Tonite” Memphis Bend recorded five songs that were originally released on Sun Records: “Mystery Train”, “Tennesee”, “Big River”, “Red Hot”, and “Good Rockin’ Tonight” plus the A sides of both their singles, “Right String Baby” and “Ugambi Stomp.” Carl Perkins’ “Tennesee” was in praise of Tennesee itself, and it’s music. Even the graphic on the “Good Rockin’ Tonite” sleeve reminds us of the Sun logo.

To say that the recording sessions of the LP were unusual would be an understatement. Memphis Bend had to record secretly. There was another band in the studio during the daytime, and it was only when this other band went to bed, that Memphis Bend were able to sneak in and record their own LP. So Memphis Bend used this other band’s studio time, and at 4 am. they would put the microphones back in the places where the other band had left them. This routine went on night after night. Who was this other band? Queen!!! Freddie Mercury and the guys! They were recording their legendary LP “A Night At The Opera” right there in Rockfield. This was the LP that included “Bohemian Rhapsody” and I think that even today the Queen guys didn’t have a clue what went on. Memphis Bend had been having problems with their record company so this was probably the reason why they had to record this way.

Micky’s playing is great throughout the album and inspired. He plays a fluid James Burton style ‘chicken pickin’ lick on “Big River.” There is also a great intro on “Settin’ The Woods On Fire.” Here Micky and guest musician, pedal steel player B.J. Cole, play the intro, with Micky playing descending notes and B.J. playing ascending notes. Both these things are happening at once. On the title track’s first solo, there is a great “question – answer” session with phrases, where Micky plays the first lick on the lower strings and then “answers” it on the higher strings. Then later on the song’s second solo there are beautiful Chet Atkins inspired rolls. On “If You Can’t Rock Me” Micky again does some great fingerpicking. At the end of the first solo Micky plays one of my all time favourite guitar licks. The song’s key is C and the first six notes of this lick are part of the C major scale (G,F,E,D,C,H) and the last six notes are part of the C minor scale (Bb,Ab,G,F,Eb,D)!! I remember when I asked Micky about this lick, and he smiled and said something like “that lick don’t make any sense but when you play it fast it sounds great.” After this album Memphis Bend disbanded, a clash of ego’s perhaps, who knows! All in all, although the guitar picking on this album is brilliant, I personally prefer Micky’s later work with Shakin’ Stevens, where even more of Micky’s personality came through.

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(This is another chapter from Ari Niskanen’s biography of Micky Gee and hopefully more chapters will follow together with a complete bibliography and discography – Phil Morgan)

Tom Jones Days

TOM JONES DAYS  -  By Ari Niskanen

In 1964 Micky started to play with a Welsh band Tommy Scott and The Senators. He quit his day job when the band headed to London in the June and he was to be a full time musician from then on. When they reached London they changed their name to Tom Jones and Squires. But in the beginning life in London was rough living in a lousy basement flat in Ladbroke Grove, that the bands manager Gordon Mills had got them. Plus they were only given £1 a day each to live on, and most of the time they were starving.

The band didn’t get much money from gigs either, as they played old 1950′s Rock ‘n’ Roll music and it was difficult to get gigs. Micky: “It wasn’t very hip to be Welsh in those days. If you were Irish or Scottish, or best of all from Liverpool, you had a bit of credibility, but Welsh groups were unfashionable. All the other groups we met used to sneer and put us down, ’oh no, anything but bloody Welsh.’ We were definitely not the in thing. Welsh kids were then so naive, and we were more naive than most. We used to support bands like the Rolling Stones and all the other hairy groups and Tom would come out with his hair slicked back in a DA and wearing tight trousers and a frilly shirt. We would be in our little Marks and Spencers shirts that Gordon had got us, so we hardly looked like we came from the same planet. Worse still we had weird and wild looks so we had to have our hair dyed black to match Tom’s.”

Things changed when Gordon Mills and Les Reed wrote a tune called “It’s No Unusual”.  Originally Mills wrote that song for Sandie Shaw and he wanted Tom and the Squires to make a demo recording of the song for her. Micky: “Gordon played it for me, he was a good musician, and straight away I smelled some interesting chords.   I thought ’Yeah that’s for us. That’s nice, that’s different.’ But Dave Cooper and Vernon, rhythm guitarist and bassist of the Squires, couldn’t get it all. They couldn’t learn it, they were great blokes, but not great musicians.  So we went in and recorded it without Dave and without Vernon, with no bass and no rhythm guitar. Tom sang, Chris Slade the drummer played tambourine, and I played lead and dubbed in some rhythm.”  “After recording it we all went to the  pub and I said loud and clear that I wanted Tom and the Squires to record it.”  Finally Gordon agreed to give the song to Tom if Sandie Shaw turned it down. Fortunately Shaw did reject the offering so the song was handed back to Tom.

But Gordon had not failed to register the Squires’ musical limitations. He made Tom go into the Decca studios and record it again without any of the Squires playing. In fact it was Jimmy Page who played guitar on “It’s No Unusual,” which was released in January 1965, before Tom and the Squires started a nationwide tour with Cilla Black and Tommy Roe in February 1965.  Tom had no promotion organised for the record, but one or two radio shows played it, and he started to get acknowledged both on air and on the tour. Then as he crept into the charts he got moved up another notch on the tour billing.

In March the song reached the number one spot in UK and Tom and the boys could afford a more comfortable life style. They moved away from their Ladbroke Grove flat in Spring 1965, and Tom bought himself a mansion in Shepperton whilst the Squires were rehoused in a modest, rented, semi-detached house in Hounslow.  The Squires can actually be heard, from this time, on a Tom Jones Live EP, which was also released in 1965.

Micky later recalled the days of success: “At first it was great. Most of the times we would just get pissed and knock off birds whenever we could. Even when Tom was number one and we were touring on circuits like the Top Rank, and before we went on, you would find us up in the bar pouring beer down our throats and holding court in our mohair suits.”  “We would have eight, nine or ten pints and then go on, so we were real pissheads. It was a bad habit to get into and I had a real problem for a time, as it got out of hand.  In a way it was not surprising as we were living in Swinging London at its height and we had more booze and girls than we could handle.”  “I remember I was twenty-one and I went to the doctor and he said, ’if you keep drinking at this rate by the time you’re thirty you’ll be twenty stone.’ Even so I was around thirteen stone. But it got worse when we went on tour to Australia, you would buy a round and get a great jug full.”  But his whole time with Tom badly affected him as Micky recalls, “I remember Tom decided that because he had black hair all the rest of us had to have black hair. I’m sure that’s why I’ve gone bald, all that dyeing your hair is not good .”

Back when Tom and the boys lived in poverty, everything was shared equally but now only Tom got the big bucks. That really annoyed his band. Micky: “After the number one I would often complain about our treatment but Gordon would always tell me, ’there are plenty more guitarists in Wales, Micky.’” However, after this first hit the Squires got £10 a week and in 1967 they earned £40 a week.

Following “It’s No Unusual” Tom had many other hits like “What’s New Pussycat” and “Green Green Grass Of Home”.  Micky: “Once Tom was famous I was made musical director and Tom used to fly me out to places like Bermuda to work on routines with him. But I only got the job because none of the others could read music. Tom found his best-known song, ’Green, Green Grass Of Home’ on a Jerry Lee Lewis album, ’Country Songs For City Folks’, and he gave it to me to write out the chords for the boys. Tom said, ’that’s a great song, I want to do that,’ so I just sat in a hotel in Wigan and wrote out the chords and said, ’there you are, lads, we’re doing that tomorrow night’.  When I met Micky in 1990 he told me that he can’t read music, but that it is possible to write out a song without the ability to read.

On one particular Bermuda trip Tom and Micky were supposed to continue to the USA. Micky: “When we got to Bermuda, Tom and I were supposed to be going on to Los Angeles where Tom had some more concerts booked. More than anything in the world it was my ambition to meet Elvis Presley and I kept saying to Tom, ’let’s meet Elvis’ but Tom scoffed. He didn’t think it would be possible. He didn’t think we could get to see Elvis – but I did – and I kept on at him, and telling him that he had had a big hit in the United States. I remember telling him, ’how can you think about just lying on the beach when Elvis is only a few miles away?’ I knew we could fix it.”
“But then Linda, Tom’s wife, said to me quietly one night, she was supposed to be flying back to Heathrow, that she wanted to go with Tom to LA.  She asked if I didn’t mind swapping tickets with her and I could go home? Mind! I minded like hell!  I was devastated but what could I say, I couldn’t refuse her, as she hadn’t seen much of Tom for months.  However, he didn’t seem bothered either way.  Anyway, I flew back to Britain and then I remember a week later I was in the house in Hounslow when Tom came in and proudly showed me a picture of him with Elvis. I was green with envy.”

Today Micky feels that “It was fun while it lasted, but even after all that happened with the boys and that, I would never take away his singing ability.   He had a remarkable voice and even in the van when we were going to a gig he would be singing Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Salomon Burke in that amazing voice.”

Micky played an Epiphone guitar when he was with Tom, and this is one of the few times that he played a different guitar to his trusty old Telecaster.  He bought that guitar from his brother Thomas in the 1960’s. But his Tele is a hard-wearing instrument, and Micky likes that because it will take knocks many times over when he plays gigs on the road, and Micky knows that he can trust his Tele because it won’t break down.
Micky has never been a snob when it comes to equipment and in 1983 when he did a session for Phil Everly and Cliff Richard the lead guitarist was Mark Knopfler. There was Micky with his little Session amp and Telecaster, and on Knopfler’s side of the studio was a full range of guitars, amps and gadgets.  Knopfler went over to Micky and said “Is that all you are going to use?”. Micky just looked at him and said “that’s all I f&#?ing need”!

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(this is just one chapter from Ari Niskanen’s biography of Micky Gee
hopefully more chapters will follow – Phil Morgan)

My earliest memories of Micky

We used to live at 106 Harris avenue Rumney Cardiff and Micky was nine years older than me, so my earliest memory was when I was four, he was thirteen.

One memory was of my Father going nuts because Micky was playing the same record over and over again; picking up the needle, moving it back and forth, trying to learn some Chet Atkins or Chuck Berry lick until either the record broke or my Father (Happy days)

Micky was always doing something else, usually something to do with the guitar whereas with Bob (My other brother) I have stronger memories.

Fast forward seven years. I don’t have any more memories until I was about eleven, apart from knowing Micky went to the states, though many of his friends have numerous stories ; including Dave Timothy, Phil Morgan and many more. I will be adding more stories to this site from them.

Next thing I knew, we were about to move to Caerwent Road, Ely, trouble was, nobody told Micky when; and my mother had a problem contacting him. So, a note was left pinned to the front door telling Micky of our new address.   Shortly afterwards, Tom Jones and the squires turned up and dropped Micky off.  Micky walked to the front door, saw the note and turned around, guitar case in his hand and proceeded to chase after them.

Tom and the rest of the band were pretty peeved, you see, this was Christmas week 1963, they’ve just completed a heavy playing/recording schedule and driven about 250 miles on B roads cooped up in a transit van! (This was before the M4 was built).  All they wanted was to get home for Christmas and now they had to drive across the other side of Cardiff and find our new address.