John RJ Wilson
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 14 Oct 2013 9:32 pm |
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Whoosh, you have taken me right back to tremulous and emotive time in my life, and a lot of it involves my father. I had to sit and think a lot about this, and download the first 2 albums from Spotify, and then the memories came back.
I need to fill you in on some background, father born 1926, saved up for a saxophone when he was early teens, learned, joined jazz bands on alto saxophone and clarinet after the war, tuberculosis 1951 saxophone days over, tried bass, married , I came along in 1957, brought up in a Jazz household, Coleman hawkins, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Ella etc etc, the sixties, I was allowed to like Cliff Richard, the Shadows, The Beatles, but the Rolling Stones and Kinks were louts and vagabonds lol. Piano lessons from 5 years old, The 70s prog rock, Floyd, Yes, Genesis etc etc. I discover girls, golf and ten pin bowling, give up piano, and have first aborted attemps at learning guitar. The mid to late 70s we both get into HiFi, if you know it that means Linn Sondek, Naim, Sugden etc etc.
First miracle father discovers classical music,whilst auditioning hifi equipment, then he discovers 2 albums. Andrew LLoyd Webber Variations and Sky 1. He bought them I borrowed them
He also learns to like Eric Clapton.
So the concerts... Twice in 1979 a few months apart. I went with my dad and my best friend.My dad was 53 by this time, and I was 22 fresh out of university with a degree in Pharmacy. A bit like like me taking my son to his first concert a few years ago. Joe Satriani, he was a bit younger though 15.
Venue, The Usher Hall in Edinburgh, which at the time was the premier venue,in Scotland for classical to Rock, a proper concert hall,Scotland's Albert hall, not a barn like Earls court in London.
There had been a lot of hype about John Williams, good from papers like Melody Maker and NME saying the fusion was great, and negative from the stuffed shirts, saying that Williams was degrading himself and would ruin his classical techique, which was of course BS. The other guys in the band were geniuses in there own areas, and Flowers played on Variations.
Williams had just had a hit with Cavatina, which had opened him up to non classical people.
The actual gig was an eclectic mix of people. Classical buffs, prog rockers, Mike Oldfield fans, (Peeks guitar sounds so like him), young and old, all sitting mixed together. The pre show atmosphere was a mixture of gin and tonic and beer, classical concert meets rock concert.
The stage set up if I remember was pretty sparse apart from the huge drum kit. I know the exact running order of the concert, because I still have the program. Basically 2 halves,with an interval. First half, all of the first album except where opposites meet, plus Cavatina. Toccata, Vivaldi which pleased the Curved Air fans.
The second half was split into sections by the band members,each doing there own thing, Williams played together with Peek.
Then they finished with Where Opposites Meet.
Great concert.
The second concert a few months later concentrated more on the second album, with most of the first if I remember, but I can't remember the whole thing, except Tuba Smarties made its way in, and there was quite a bit of straight playing. Some of the stuff ended up on Sky 3.
Just to complete the circle, I moved on to Dire Straits, some of the synth bands and even The Clash and Sex Pistols, the got bored with the late 80s stuff, so more or less trapped in a 70-85 time warp, not altogether because of wide musical tastes.
Father moved on to Dave Gruisin,The Crusaders, Dave valentin, Chic Corea, herbie Hancock, george benson(when he played guitar),Al DiMiola, Joan Armatrading, lots more classical and Jazz.
So there you have it, you could say that the 1st Sky album changed my father's life with regards to music.
I hope this is what you wanted, and thanks for jogging my memory of a great part of my life.
As for follow up bands, well Rick Wakeman was close and still is. I would have liked to have seen him play with Sky in 1984. Dream Theatre could be said to be in a similar vein, but no band with a classical guitar lead really. Jeff Beck maybe, Muse, Glass Hammer, Steve Howe.
My son is very interesting in fusing classical and prog metal (music that should probably stay out of this forum. (Periphery !!)
Enough.
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Guyatone HG-91, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Ernie Ball Jr volume pedal. |
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