When I think about bands that emerged in a wrong time
the name Lionsheart comes to my mind among the first ones. Their debut album “Lionsheart”
(1992) was such a great collection of top-class songs. It had everything to
become a hit (and it did in certain countries) and should sell in millions of
copies (which it unfortunately didn’t). The band always consisted of great
musicians but there were two gentlemen — Steve Grimmett and Graham Collett — who remained
permanent members of the band during the 90’s and recorded three studio albums.
I guess that the band suffered from those line-up changes as much as they did
from lacking of label support and Grunge invasion.
I contacted Graham to cover the story of Lionsheart
and he turned to be such an incredible storyteller — witty, smart and fun. Have
a good read, folks!
Hello,
Graham! Tell me, please, about your very first steps in music. At what age did
you start playing keyboards and join your first band?
Hi, I'm guessing my first steps in
music are not quite what you expect. Although I played keyboards with Lionsheart
I've always been, and still am, a guitarist. My brother gave me my first guitar
for my 14th birthday, an unbranded acoustic with an action so high
you could drive a bus between the fretboard and strings, but I became totally
obsessed. All my waking hours were spent learning to play it. Around six months
later I had built myself an electric guitar from an old mahogany table — If I’m
honest, it sounded and played like a mahogany table — and joined my first band,
playing bars and clubs that I was too young to be allowed into. Having left
school and somehow bluffing my way into my first job, I blew my first year's
wages on a Gibson Les Paul Custom that I happened to see in a local music shop.
Those things were unheard of in the UK at the time and I had to beg the sales
assistant to let me try it, just so I could tell my friends I’d played a real
Gibson. The sales assistant was reluctant to hand a Les Paul over to a spotty
sixteen-year-old kid who looked like he couldn't afford to buy a coffee, let alone
a Gibson, but as soon as I held it in my sweaty little hands I knew I could
never go back to the mahogany table. The salesman warmed to me considerably
when he realized there was serious commission to be made and I took the bus
home clutching a Gibson Les Paul instead of the set of strings I’d originally
walked into the shop to buy. Owning a decent guitar fueled my obsession even
further and all these years later that Les Paul is still the only proper guitar
I've ever felt the need to own.
Anyway, getting back to the question
you actually asked me --- my involvement with keyboards happened many years
later when a mutual friend introduced me to Mark Owers who, along with his
brother Steve, had just split from Fury, a local band recently signed to Jet Records.
Mark was looking to form a new band and was under the mistaken impression that
I could play keyboards, most likely because he’d heard I was a trained piano
tuner. Everybody assumes piano tuners are accomplished pianists --- NOT true!
Now probably I should have told him I couldn't play keys but something was
telling me I ought to give it a try. Mark left me a tape, (yes this was back in
the days of cassette players), containing two Magnum covers and one original
track and asked me to come up with ideas for the keys. The Magnum covers were
easy because Mark Stanway, (Magnum’s keyboard player if you aren’t familiar
with the band), had already done the hard work and I just needed to copy his
keyboard parts. The original track was a bit more tricky! Luckily, Mark was
busy for a few days and I had a week to work something out. Oh yes --- and to
learn how to play keyboards!!
After borrowing a keyboard, I would
wake up at 6:00 am every morning and practice until well after midnight.
Luckily, I wasn't popular with my neighbours anyway so I wasn't in too much
danger of losing friends. Several days, and as many bottles of Jack Daniels
later, I was able manage a passable imitation of a competent keyboard player.
When Mark called back to see what I had been up to he must have been reasonably
impressed because he gave me the opportunity to become a founding member of
what was later to become Lionsheart. The next couple of years was a pretty
steep learning curve but I applied the same obsessive attitude toward keyboards
as I had the guitar, somehow managing to develop the keyboard skills needed as
I went along, hopefully without anyone realizing I was winging it.
I think you should ask me the next
question before I send your readers into a coma!
As
far as I understand, you and the Owers brothers had a long story before
Lionsheart as you worked with the band After Hours. Is it correct? Tell me a
bit of that stage of your career.
Yes, in fact it goes back even further
than After Hours. I first came across Mark and Steve Owers in the early 80s
when I was playing guitar in a local band. We were playing support to the Owers
brother’s old band Fury. We arrived at the venue to find the doors locked.
After hammering on the door for 15 minutes a friend of the band opened up and
called out, “The support band’s here”. Steve Owers yelled back, “TELL THEM TO
F*** OFF WE’RE NOT READY!!” After that I figured the relationship could only
improve.
It was a couple of years later before
that theory was put to the test and I finally got to team up with a somewhat
more civilized Mark and Steve Owers. We eventually managed to land a recording
deal and began recording under the name Tour-de-Force. Following personality
clashes and disputes over publishing rights the band refused to continue
working with Mark and Steve, a decision I'm pretty sure they came to regret.
They chose the new band name After Hours which was a play on the words After
Owers. I think that was a choice that would come back to haunt them.
The band assumed I would continue to
work with them but it was clear to me that Mark and Steve were the driving
force behind the band. I decided to stay with Mark and Steve even although it
meant walking away from a new recording deal and an upcoming European tour. As
time would tell, it turned out to be the right decision.
How
did you get to know Steve Grimmett and what was your first impression about him
and his musical ideas for Lionsheart? Was it something you wanted to play from
your heart?
A mutual friend had hinted that we should approach
Steve Grimmett but Steve was having huge success in the States with Grim Reaper
so it didn’t seem a likely prospect. We were working with Mark Thompson-Smith
at the time who later went on to sing with Praying Mantis. A change of
direction towards bluesy rock didn't suit Mark Smith's voice but we were
confident Steve Grimmett’s voice would fit perfectly. By this time Steve had
begun working with Onslaught so it looked as though a union was still not to
be. As luck would have it, Onslaught self-destructed towards the end of a tour
and a meeting was hastily arranged between Steve and us.
The first thing that struck me about Steve was his
huge personality. Steve is an incredibly likable character, always great fun to
be with and not the kind of guy you could easily ignore at a party! It soon
became clear that we were all on the same wavelength musically so we arranged
to demo a few songs to get a feel of how things might go. Steve traveled 100
miles back to his hometown in Tewkesbury while the Owers brothers and I put
some backing tracks together for three new songs Mark and Steve Owers had been
working on. They were “Portrait”, “So Cold” and I think “Stealer”.
I couldn’t be there when Steve came along to record
the vocal tracks but the first chance I had, I called in on Mark to check out
the recording. The first up was “So Cold” and the instant I heard the vocal,
the hairs stood up on the back of my neck! When I heard “Portrait” I knew
something magical was happening, the energy created between Steve Grimmett and
Mark and Steve Owers was breath taking. From that moment I had no doubt things
were going to happen for the band.
As for Steve Grimmett’s ideas for Lionsheart, Steve is
a world class singer by any standards with an awesome voice and massive stage
presence, but the song writing and creativity in Lionsheart always came
predominantly from Mark and Steve Owers.
Was it something I wanted to do from the heart? -----
God yes! From that moment on I couldn’t imagine wanting to work with any other
band.
The
band got a deal with Music For Nations. Was it all up to Steve? Did you record
any demos to shop them or play any showcases?
Even before Steve Grimmett joined the
band, (he would probably say "before they became my backing band"),
there had always been a lot of media and record company interest but we never
seemed to get that elusive deal. Yeah, we played endless showcases and we must
have demoed the first album five times over before a deal finally arrived. Music
For Nations was one company that had been showing an interest. What we didn't
realize is that the Japanese company Pony Canyon, — (no, I hadn’t heard of them
either but believe me, they are HUGE!) — had been watching the band ever since
we teamed up with Steve Grimmett and offered MFN a hefty licensing deal to
allow a release in Japan. That made it a no-brainer for MFN as their profit was
guaranteed. No, I don’t believe it was all
up to Steve. His voice and reputation certainly played a major part in it and
we know the Japanese had been keeping a close eye on him since Grim Reaper
split, but for me, a large part of it was down to the chemistry between Steve’s
incredible voice, Mark Owers’ mind-bending technical ability on the guitar and
the Owers brother’s epic song writing.
Tell
me about the songwriting process for the first album. Did you all have a chance
to voice your opinion and offer something to arrangements?
The Owers brothers were extremely
protective over the writing credits. They were aware that publishing, and to a
lesser degree merchandise, is the source of virtually all income in music. They
were undoubtedly responsible for the bulk of the writing but they tended to
forget contributions other members might have made. They seemed happy enough
for others to contribute toward the arrangements, although I suspect that was
because arrangements don’t attract publishing royalties. At least, it never did
in our band. As far as voicing
opinions was concerned, Mark once told us: “This is a very democratic band.
Everyone gives their opinion and then I
tell them what to do”. Often, what Mark “told us to do” was precisely what
we had already suggested but he tended to have a selective memory towards those
things.
It’s worth mentioning that Mark bore a
remarkable resemblance to Ritchie Blackmore. Not only in appearance, but also
in temperament, ego and the fact there was always white Strat hung around his
neck. Maybe you can see how Mark’s bands often suffered ego clashes. Personally,
I didn’t have a great problem with his massive ego. For the most part I enjoyed
working with Mark and Steve Owers and certainly no one could deny their talent.
The
song “Portrait” has very interesting keyboard intro, although you weren’t
credited as a writer. What influenced you to write it?
Nobody mentioned they wanted a
keyboard intro to “Portrait” so I hadn’t prepared one. Mark sprung it on me one
morning in the studio. When Mark asks someone to do something he doesn’t mean
“do it in two minutes time”, he means “do it now!” I don’t know if you
know, but “Portrait” is based on the book, “Picture of Dorian Gray”. The book
has a supernatural theme so I thought the intro should have a slightly ominous,
epic sound to match the feel of the story, perhaps sounding like the trailer for
a movie. In fact, we originally added dialog from the book which, together with
the orchestral samples did make the intro sound very much like a movie trailer.
I was devastated when I discovered later that Mark had removed the voices. You
can still make them out if you listen but those booming, theatrical voices had
been reduced to barely a whisper. Despite that, I think the intro still
introduces a degree of suspense and sets the song up with a slightly ominous,
creepy atmosphere and that’s exactly what I’d hoped to achieve. Maybe not
having much time to prepare helped make the intro more spontaneous. I don’t
think it took more than ten minutes from Mark saying, “Do it NOW”, to laying
down the final track.
Were
you satisfied with your role in the band? Didn’t you want to have more space
for your keyboards or contribute more to the songwriting?
People often ask me that. Lionsheart
was never about the keyboards. I would have more opportunity during live shows
to throw in embellishments and the odd solo. Let’s face it, how was anyone
going to stop me in the middle of a show? But my job in Lionsheart was to add
texture and atmospherics to the tracks and hopefully gel the whole thing
together. I think I managed to do that, so yes, I was happy with my role. If
the others were doing their job well, and they invariably were, I was happy to
let them have the glory they deserved.
I did had a hand in scoring some of
the big block harmonies Lionsheart was known for, but of course, that’s not
something I would expect to be credited for. As far as contributing to the
songwriting is concerned, I don’t think I was pushy enough to force my ideas
through, although I possibly had more influence on many of the songs than the
credits might suggest. Not in a major way, but in subtle ways that I hope made
a difference. But that’s OK, if the job gets done it doesn’t matter who gets
credit for it. I’ve never suffered from an inflated ego. Just as well, I doubt
there would have been room to squeeze another ego into the control room!
Why
did you decide to record Don Nix’s song “Going Down”?
You know what? I was kind of wondering
that myself. The first I knew about it was when I walked into the studio one
day and they had already recorded it. The publishers hated us including covers
in our albums because they wouldn’t profit from it. I think that might be one
of the main reasons we always did it!
What
are your best memories about the recording of the first album? Was it a lot of
fun or was there already a sign of a falling-out between Steve and the Owers
brothers?
No, we were all great friends at that
time. Despite the impression I might have given, Mark and Steve Owers were
always great company and if you’re ever lucky enough to be in the presence of
Steve Grimmett, well, you’re pretty much guaranteed a great time.
To be honest, we had demoed that album
so many times, both at home and in various studios, if we had set up our
instruments in the studio and left the room I think the album would have
recorded itself! Despite that, Mark would always be there pushing to perfect
every tiny detail. Sure, he could be a slave driver but if anything, he was
even more demanding of his own performances. He seemed to hear minuscule
imperfections in his playing that others couldn't detect. It was tough a lot of
the time, but when we left the control room in the evenings, we came out
knowing we had given the best performance we were capable of. Also, we had a
whole night of “cheese eating, wine drinking and bull-shitting” to look forward
to!
The
band did a video for “Can’t Believe” . Don’t you think that
it was quite close to Whitesnake’s “Still Of The Night”? By the way,
was this video instrumental in terms of promotion?
Close to Whitesnake? - Ahh, you noticed!
We were never allowed much input in the planning of
promo videos. I don’t remember the name of the director but apparently, he was
responsible for several big selling movies in Japan --- that’s possibly why I’d
never heard of him before! You would
need to suffer severe hearing problems not to detect a heavy Whitesnake influence
throughout the first Lionsheart album so I suppose the director took that into
account while shooting the “Can’t Believe” vid but I must admit there are some
glaring similarities between the two videos. (Except for the dog at the
beginning of the Lionsheart vid ----no one could ever figure out why there
should be a dog at the beginning of a Lionsheart video!)
I would say the “Can’t Believe” video was definitely
crucial to the promotion of the first album in Japan. It received saturation
airplay on Japanese TV a month before the album was released. The video along
with relentless promotion from Masa Ito, who was almost certainly the biggest
rock DJ/presenter in Japan at that time, probably accounts for the first album
selling out within hours of hitting the shops and keeping the new Bon Jovi album off the number
one spot. That was something none of us had expected. Some years before, Steve
Grimmett had become friends with Richie Sambora while playing the “Texas Jam” and it’s
something Steve always likes to remind Ritchie of whenever the two meet up.
Why
did the Owers brothers leave the band after just a pair of shows with Lillian
Axe?
That’s a difficult one, it wouldn’t be
fair of me to go into too much personal detail. Mark had been suffering a lot
of stress and his health had been badly affected. The first leg of the tour
began in the UK and continued into Europe. I could see Mark was struggling on
the first couple of gigs, not in his performance, that was impeccable as
always, but I knew he was becoming increasingly anxious at the prospect of
touring Europe and I wasn’t sure that he would be able to go through with it.
As it turned out, he didn’t even complete all the UK gigs.
I had a call as I was leaving for the
next show to say that Mark had pulled out of the tour. Steve and Mark Owers had
the strong bond that’s common between identical twins and Steve wasn’t prepared
to continue without his brother so now we were without both a guitarist and a
bass player. As far as I understand, Mark and Steve weren’t intending to
permanently leave the band at that stage. Steve Grimmett, ever the optimist,
said he was hoping to bring in a couple of replacements to get us through the
European leg of the tour. With that being just a couple of days away, me being
in Southampton and the rest of the band 600 miles away at the venue in
Scotland, there didn’t seem much chance of pulling that off. I could feel it
all slipping away. I think that was one of the most depressing nights of my
life.
How
did you manage to finish that tour eventually? I guess that was a very
stressful situation!
Stressful is an understatement! If
finding two musicians able to cover Mark and Steve Owers was going to be tough,
finding musicians of that level who could learn a full set of new material,
along with backing vocals, within 24 hours of beginning a European tour had to
be impossible. Stuck at home in Southampton I’d resigned myself to the fact
that Lionsheart was finally drawing its last breath. I was just breaking out
the bourbon when Steve Grimmett called to say the tour was back on and could I
meet them at the venue in time for the final UK show. It looked like Steve
Grimmett’s eternal optimism had payed off. Of course, I still found time to
drink the bourbon!
Steve had contacted Nick Burr who had
been playing with Paul Di’anno. Nick lived near Steve Grimmett’s home town,
Tewkesbury, and was already familiar with a lot of the Lionsheart material.
Nick suggested a bass player, whose name I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten. I
think it was Simon. He was playing in a funk band and never likely to become a
full member of Lionsheart but Nick was confident he was competent enough to
carry it off. He was certainly right about that.
An hour after the call, I arrived at
the final UK show, played the gig — amazed to hear Nick and Simon breeze
through the entire set faultlessly — climbed into my bunk on the tour bus and,
after days of stress and sleepless nights, lost consciousness, (ok, the bourbon
might have played a part in that), waking up somewhere in Belgium outside the
venue of the first European gig. The tour went amazingly well under the
circumstances. Nick and Simon did a great job and I couldn’t fault them, but
somehow the magic had gone from Lionsheart and the truth is, it was never to
return.
The
addition of Nick Burr and Zak Bajjon should change the chemistry within the
band. So what can you say about the atmosphere in the band during that period?
At that point my hope was that Mark
Owers would be able to continue with Lionsheart. Both Steve and I tried to
contact Mark after the tour in the hope that his condition had improved but,
being in a bad way emotionally, he didn’t feel able to speak to us. We had a
somewhat frosty reception from those who spoke on his behalf, the implication
being that we had been disloyal by continuing the tour without him and his
brother.
Several weeks later our manager called
a meeting to discuss how we might go forward. When we all met up in a
Gloucestershire pub Mark appeared to be much more his old self and the rapport
between band members seemed to have returned to some degree, although I noticed
Steve Grimmett was uncharacteristically quiet. Towards the end of the meeting
things started to look promising when, without warning, Steve announced that he
was no longer prepared to work with Mark and Steve Owers. Lionsheart continued
for several more years after that night but, for me, that night marked the end
of the band.
Nick kind of got the permanent
Lionsheart gig by default after saving us from disaster in Europe. Zak ----
well that’s another story. The first I knew that Zak would replace Steve Owers
was When Steve Grimmett called with details of an upcoming photo shoot and,
“Oh, by the way our new bassist, Zak Bajjon will be there”.
The first meeting with Zak went well
enough but it would be several weeks before we managed to pull together a
rehearsal. Steve lived in Gloucestershire, Antony and I lived 100 miles away in
Southampton and Zak lived 180 miles further north so rehearsals took some
planning. Zak had been given a copy of the first album so he could come
prepared. We launched into one of the easier songs and — well, I came close
to crying. Now, I don’t want to be unkind but THE GUY COULDN’T PLAY BASS!!
He had no sense of timing, he had no pick technique and when one of his strings
slipped horrendously flat, he seemed blissfully unaware. Anthony Christmas (our
drummer — and yes, that is his real
name), and I could see no future working with Zak but Steve, still the eternal
optimist, thought with work maybe things would work out. This time Steve’s
optimism didn’t pay off.
Right, what was the question you
actually asked me? Oh yeah, how did the lineup change affect the chemistry in
the band? Well it didn’t so much change the chemistry as bring it to an end.
Don’t get me wrong, Nick is a great guy to be with, immensely funny and without
question someone you would want with you on tour and in the studio. His
competence as a musician and songwriter was never in question. The problem is,
most guitarists would struggle to live in the shadow of Mark Owers and that’s
exactly what was being asked of Nick. On a personal level Zak could be
entertaining (not always intentionally and almost never for the right reasons)
but having worked with such an amazing bunch of musicians it was hard to find
myself playing alongside someone I felt was just not up to a professional
level.
The
band also supported Magnum. Did you like that experience? Did they treat
Lionsheart well?
Yes, I’ve given a bleak vision of the
future after the split with the Owers brothers but there were plenty of good
times still on the horizon nevertheless. The Magnum tour was one of them for
sure. I always had huge respect for the band and was totally blown away when
news got to me that we would support their UK tour.
From the start we were treated as
equals rather than merely the support act. Tony Clarkin was a lot more down to
earth than I imagined (his songs always suggested he would be an arty, cerebral
sort of person --- man, was I wrong about that!) He kept us all supplied with drinks at the
bar on our first night and refused to take any in return. We were treated
unbelievably well by the band and their management and allowed unrestricted
access to the full sound system and light rig, something almost unheard of on
the rock circuit. We ended the tour as great friends. Of course, the best part
was the privilege of watching Magnum perform each night. No self-indulgent,
screaming guitar or impossible vocal acrobatics, but what an unbelievably
tight, professional band!
The only “downer” on the tour was when
Zak got himself into a fight with one of the caterers and broke two fingers on
his left hand. Life was never dull with Zak Bajjon in the band. When we picked
him up from the hospital Zak decided he would continue with the remaining shows
--- assuming he hadn’t already got us kicked off the tour that is. The only
slight problem being of course, that he had two broken fingers on his fret
playing hand and had to play the bass using only his index finger. Now for most
players that would be a disaster but with Zak’s playing, well, to be honest, it
didn’t make a lot of difference. Now, one of the best pieces of advice I’ve
ever been given is; “Never upset the caterers”. Zak wouldn’t allow another
morsel of food pass his lips for the remainder of that tour for fear of what
the caterer might have done to his food --- (“Special sauce with that
sir?”)
We picked up a lot of followers from
the Magnum tour and that lifted our profile enormously in the UK. We will
always be grateful to the guys in Magnum for that.
Around
that time you toured Japan where the album “Lionsheart” was a number one, so I
guess the band was praised as super-stars there. What are your best memories
about the tour and the country? Any special stories from backstage, hehe?
The tour was our second visit to
Japan. We had traveled to Tokyo three months before to shoot the “Can’t Believe”
video and both trips were pretty amazing experiences. As usual we’d had no
information at all from the record company, other than the fact the album was
to be released in Japan and we were flying to Tokyo to shoot a promo video. The
first clue that something major was happening was when we arrived at Heathrow
airport and a group of Japanese students ran over and asked for autographs. We
obviously assumed they’d mistaken us for another band but we signed anyway and
they seemed happy enough.
When we arrived in Tokyo we began to
suspect the Japanese record company had also mistaken us for another band! We
were expecting to be put up in a dodgy hotel on the outskirts of the city or
maybe one of those “capsule hotels” you only find in Japan, so when were taken
to one of the top Tokyo hotels with a crowd of fans outside waiting for
autographs, we began to realize there was more going on than MFN had been
letting on. I think they were worried we would have negotiated a tougher deal
had we realized the buzz that was being created around Lionsheart in Japan.
They would have been right about that!
When we got to the video shoot the
following morning the set looked like something taken straight out of “Robocop”.
There were cameras swooping down from hydraulic cranes, hospitality trailers,
mobile wardrobe and makeup units and a catering team that could have kept the
population of a small town overfed. It’s a shame we were all fighting massive
hangovers after the record company had taken us for a night out in Tokyo the
day before or we might have been in a state to enjoy it. Speaking of that night
out in Tokyo, after we had got back back to the hotel Steve and Zak decided to
go out and blow the rest of their daily allowance in the Roppongi bars. Three
hours later they came back with more money than they went out with. We never
did get to the bottom of that one!
Japan is an incredible country and you
can expect to be treated like royalty in every shop, restaurant or hotel you
visit. That sort of reception is reserved for everyone, not just some lucky
punks who were lucky enough have an undeserved number one album. Of course if
you do have a number one album it goes a long way with the stunning Japanese
women who have a reputation for being — how can I put this — quite, er,
obliging with Western men.
I might have to disappoint you with
the backstage stories. I met my future wife in the middle of that tour and she
wasn’t letting anybody near me. Mind you, she didn’t travel with us to Osaka.
How
do you view the live album “Rising Sons”? Don’t you think it would be better to
put it on a shelve considering its poor sound quality?
Ah yes, the “Rising Sons” album. I
didn’t even know it existed until some weeks after its release, mostly because
a member of the band — I won’t mention any names here — didn’t think there was
a need to share the royalties with me. Had I known, I would have done all I
could to keep it buried. It was clearly a bootleg and judging by the low level
of the backline I would guess it had been recorded directly from a direct out
on the “front of house” mixer. I’ve a strong suspicion who was responsible for
the recording but, being conscious of libel laws, I’d best leave it at that.
The whole thing was an embarrassment and I can only apologize to anyone who
bought it.
I
used to read that “Pride In Tact” was produced by Steve Harris of Iron Maiden
which is not true, I guess. Tell me please about where the album was recorded
and who produced it. How can you compare the recording of the album “Pride In
Tact” to the first one? Which album out of these two is your favorite in terms
of working process?
We recorded “Pride in Tact” at “The
Manor”, a residential studio near Oxford that I believe was owned by Richard
Branson. You are partly right. “Pride In Tact” was produced by Steve Harris but not the Steve Harris of Iron
Maiden. Steve Harris (or Stephen
Harris as he prefers to be called these days) was a highly regarded, young
engineer who was just breaking into production and has since achieved
considerable success in the production world. — OK, that’s the plug over with
for ‘tephen Harris Productions!
Working on “Pride In Tact” was a very
different experience to the first album. I missed the disciplined structure
that came with working with Mark Owers. Mark always had a strong vision of
where things should go and how best to get there. That could have been annoying
were he not invariably proved right. “Pride in Tact” was a more relaxed process
but the whole project lacked leadership. It seemed to me the album didn’t have
the energy and epic feel of the first album. It felt lazy and safe. We had also
lost Lionsheart’s main song writing talent and the songs on ‘Pride In Tact’
were no match for the material produced by the Owers brothers.
The
band also shot a video for “Déjà Vu”, while my personal favorite out of the
album is “I Believe In Love”. Which song
off the album would be your choice to promote “Pride In Tact”?
I think I would agree that “I Believe In
Love” is a better choice of single than “Déjà vu” although the record company
believed there was no obvious single on that album and I would have to agree.
My favourite song from that album is probably “Who’s The Wise Man” which was
written by Nick Burr for his sister. Great song in my opinion but it was never
likely to be picked as a single.
You
did a tour with Tyketto in support of “Pride In Tact” and by that time rock
scene completely changed. Was the tour well attended? Can you recall anything significant
from that tour?
Surprisingly, the venues were
extremely well attended. Tyketto had recently lost their deal with the mighty Geffen
due to the rock scene becoming decidedly heavier but it seems no one had told
that to the fans in Europe. No one appears to have told the groupies that
either — yes, they still existed in Europe then. Now, Lionsheart were never the
best-looking band in the world so I didn’t expect the attention we were getting
from the women hanging around the venues. It didn’t take too long to realize
that what they were hoping for was a chance to get backstage and be introduced
to Tyketto’s Brooke St. James. Ah well, glad to have been of service.
Now I’ve got to say, we played some dodgy
venues in Germany but none as dodgy as the last show of the tour in Stuttgart.
It was a lot rowdier than the other gigs and the barmaids, all dressed in tight
fitting leather outfits, seemed a lot friendlier than you would expect. After
the show the owner said there were no showers at the venue but he would take us
to his other business where there were bathing facilities. When we arrived, we
realized his other “business” was a brothel. The “girls” were still there although not working. The
band took a shower and headed into the giant jacuzzi to relax. Well, it would
have been relaxing had Steve Grimmett not suddenly thundered out from the
changing room, launched himself into the air and belly flopped into the
jacuzzi. Anyone who has seen Steve close up will know he’s a BIG guy and when
he hit the surface, the pool was pretty much emptied of water. Drinks were free
for the night so my memory of what happened after that is a bit flaky. At
least, that’s the story I gave my wife and I don’t plan to change it now!
After
that tour the band was put on hold. Why was that? What did you do between the
second and the third albums? Did you play with other bands to feed your family?
Well, the delay wasn’t a conscious
decision. Steve and I were keen to use the recording budget for the third album
to build our own studio. That would give us unlimited studio time and leave us
with a permanent recording facility for the future. Incredibly, Music For
Nations agreed to the plan! To Steve and I it seemed an obvious move but the
idea was met with a fair amount of resistance from Nick and Zak. Now Steve and
I were the only original Lionsheart members, consequently we were the only two
signed to MFN so technically we were in control of the advance money. After a
lot of soul searching we decided to pull rank and take on the studio project
ourselves with no involvement from Nick or Zak.
The studio was a huge project for us
with recording facilities on two floors and a large rehearsal/pre-production
studio, taking over a year to complete. With the studio finally operational we
arranged a session to begin writing/demoing new material for the third album.
Thirty minutes into the session Nick left as he had other things to take care
of. This turned out to be a regular occurrence and eventually we took the
difficult decision to replace Nick. Zak’s appearances were becoming
increasingly rare and when he did eventually grace us with his presence, he put
down one unusable bass track, took his share of the record advance and drove
home to Harrogate never to be seen again. So, here we were, already one year
behind schedule before the first song had even been written, and once more
without a guitarist and bass player.
The album did finally get recorded and
our plan to let the studio as a commercial concern is really what helped me
survive financially. Unfortunately, after such a mammoth gap between the second
and third album momentum was lost and Lionsheart’s future was beginning to look
precarious.
Lionsheart
always suffered from line-up changes. Do you agree that stable line-up would
help Lionsheart more that the band really did?
Absolutely! Had we been able to
maintain the original lineup I’m convinced the first album would have been
followed up with at least two more killer albums. Of course, it would have led
to other problems, not least of all, could the Owers brothers ever have been
persuaded to join a world tour? I guess we’ll never know.
By
the way, you were the longest staying member after Steve. What was your secret?
Did you just play keyboards not bothering yourself with anything else?
Yeah, pretty much. I just kept my head
down and got on with it. My lack of ego and the fact I wasn’t constantly
getting into fights over the publishing probably helped. Maybe I didn’t get
fired because the rest of the band hadn’t even realized I was there!
What’s
your opinion about “Under Fire”? How was it to work with Brook St. James?
Well, like I said, the recording of “Under
Fire” was beset with problems from the beginning. First falling a year behind
schedule during the construction of the studio, then finding ourselves short of
two band members. Pulling in Brooke St James from Tyketto seemed the easiest
and quickest solution. We got on well with him on the Tyketto tour and thought
he would slot in effortlessly. Musically he did, but what we hadn’t realized is
that American players tend to be businessmen first and musicians second. The
only way we could finance his financial demands was to name him as the producer
so that he could claim a producer’s fee from MFN. Unfortunately, Brooke took
that to mean that he actually was the
producer and insisted that the completed album be sent to Minneapolis so he
could remix it and oversee the mastering. That should have taken a week to
complete but we began to suspect things were not going well when, after two
months, we still hadn’t received a copy of the final master. I can only assume
that Brooke has had little or no experience of mastering because when it
finally came back to us Steve and I just sat in the control room with our heads
in our hands. Being already hopelessly behind schedule and over budget meant
the album had to be put out as it was.
That’s a great shame because I think
there were some good songs on that album that were destroyed in the re-mix and
disastrous mastering.
What
happened after the release of the third album? Steve mentioned that the band
had some issues with Music For Nations.
We had always had issues with Music
For Nations. There had been barely any promotion in Europe for the first album
and it seemed MFN were happy to sit back and make their profit from the licensing
deal with Pony Canyon in Japan. The Japanese company did an incredible job of
promoting us in Japan and I know they would have liked to sign Lionsheart
directly but we were already tied to a three-album deal with MFN. When the
second album was released our manager, not expecting much action from Music For
Nations, decided to promote it himself in Europe and the UK and that increased
domestic sales significantly. Had MFN put in the resources from the beginning I
think our profile would have been much higher in Europe. There was also some —
how can I put this politely — “creative accountancy” concerning the shooting of
the ‘Déjà Vu’ video but I’d best not go into too much detail about that.
If I’m honest, we weren’t entirely
blameless for the poor relationship. I’ve already spoken of the problems within
the band, our inability to keep a stable lineup and our tendency to run
over-budget on all but the first album. We certainly caused headaches for the
record company although, even if that hadn’t been the case, I doubt they would
have shown any more commitment. When we finished the last album there was never
any likelihood that either Lionsheart or MFN would consider signing up to a new
deal.
Tell
me please about your career after Lionsheart. I know you were in Seven Deadly
Sins with Steve but that’s all. Do you still play with any band? Do you stay in
touch with Steve, The Owers Brothers or Nick Burr?
Once we were free of MFN, Steve and I
decided it was time to bring Lionsheart to an end and a new band, Seven Deadly
Sins was formed. Given that Steve and I still owned the studio we should have
been in a good position to record the album ourselves and search for a
distribution deal.
This is where it all began to fall
apart, for me at least. Steve Grimmett and the new guitarist became strong
friends and I felt myself being pushed out of the decision making and creative
aspects within the band. Being a founder member, not to mention owning fifty
percent of the studio the album was to be recorded in, I wasn’t especially
happy with that. More to the point, I wasn’t happy with the direction the band
was heading and decided to walk away from it.
Having become so disillusioned with
the music business I decided to make a complete break, moved to Tokyo and made
a living through commercial graphics and web design. Since returning to London,
(thanks to the nine-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that tore large swathes of
Japan apart in 2011), I’ve played guitar with a few bands but it’s strictly a
hobby, albeit a reasonably lucrative one. It was a great experience playing two
thousand seat halls and major open-air concerts and I feel privileged to have
had the opportunity to do It but now I’m happy to leave those days behind me.
There were never really any hard
feelings, at least, not on my part. I’ve bumped into Nick Bur a couple of times
and was pleased to see him hear what he’s up to. I’ve had some contact with
Steve Grimmett on Facebook, although, the last time I looked I was no longer on
his friend list so I’m guessing I’ve maybe fallen out of favour.
What
lessons did you learn from your time with Lionsheart?
They
were hard lessons generally! Mostly, lessons about human nature and how quickly
people’s attitudes and actions can be affected when money suddenly enters the
equation. When a band first comes together it’s usually a group of friends just
wanting to make great music and have a good time, (Well — maybe not always in
that order!) Those friendships are soon tested when they find themselves with a
recording deal and a degree of success and unfortunately, too many bands are
torn apart as members get into disputes over publishing rights. Anyone not
credited with writing will have to survive solely on record advances and
merchandise sales which means a single band can consist of both millionaires
and paupers. It’s no coincidence that bands who manage to stay together and
keep a steady lineup are generally those who share the publishing to some
degree, regardless of who was credited with the writing.
Musically,
I learned a lot in the early days of Lionsheart. When you are playing along
side great musicians you begin to absorb the creativity and sense of
professionalism that constantly pervades your environment. I think that’s the
reason I struggled to accept one or two of the later members who lacked those
qualities.
I
also learned a little of how the music business works. When we first landed our
record deal with MFN a lot of local bands would ask me the secret of getting
signed and how should they approach the A&R departments. The “secret” is
easy. It isn’t about how to get your demos heard by record companies, what kind
of demos you should send or how many tracks you should include. The “secret” is
far more simple. The “secret” is; you have to make music people want to hear!
That might seem painfully obvious but it’s THE most important requirement of
landing a deal, yet it’s often the part that’s overlooked by hopeful bands.
Forget the record and publishing companies. Just concentrate on producing great
music that people want. If you can do that, the record companies will find you.
So the ‘secret’ is simple, unfortunately, achieving it is not to simple!
Please
say a few words to your fans and anyone who reads this interview.
I
can probably say it in just two words. “Thank you!”
But
as you’ve probably realized by now, I’m not going to leave it at two words!
Being
a part of Lionsheart was a roller coaster ride from beginning to end, but no
matter how difficult things might have been at times, there was always a hard
core of fans who stuck by us, even although we sometimes made bad decisions and
let you down. For all the difficult times, playing with Lionsheart was an
amazing experience and the fans were the largest part in making that happen.
That’s something I will always appreciate.
Probably
I should have left it with just those two words, so — Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment