Finer Things: A Vinegar Joe Story By Malcom Dome (part I)

Publié le par olivier

Finer Things: A Vinegar Joe Story By Malcom Dome (part I)

Malcom Dome (1955-2021) was a celebrated English music journalist and author of many books. He worked for Record Mirror magazine in the late 1970s and Metal Fury in the early '80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981, Raw music magazine in 1988 and Metal Forces magazine in the '90s. He also co-founded UK's rock radio station TotalRock in 2000. Dome died on October 29, 2021, just a few months after writing liner notes for a Vinegar Joe retrospective box set.

What have an avant-garde art movement from the early 20th century and a United States Army general from the Second World War got in common?

It's quite simple: Vocalists Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer and guitarist / bassist / producer Pete Gage were in a band called Dada (hence the mention of the art movement which emerged in Zurich during the First World War). Formed in 1969, they released one self-titled album a year later (Palmer wasn't on the record, only joining a short time later). The music explored jazz, blues and rock in a fascinating and absorbing manner. However, the ensemble (who had no less than ten members) were soon transformed into a new band with a fresh name.

"My inspiration to form Dada was a combination of Mothers Of Invention / Frank Zappa, Blood Sweat & Tears and the Fifth Dimension," recalls Gage. "Power vocalists plus brass and crazy arrangements. Atlantic Records took us on with the US market in mind (Dada were actually on the label's Atco subsidiary), but as a ten-piece band proved too expensive, Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic, met me and dictated we must cut back the line-up and feature the blues / rock style more than the free form jazz fusion. Atlantic had formed an alliance with Island Records for Europe, so the band would be directed by Island Records when we returned to the UK."

Dada

Dada

Robert Palmer was brought in at the tail end of Dada's existence, as Gage relates. "I'd seen Robert with his college band The Mandrakes. I met him and said when he finished college, he should contact me for a job in a band I was putting together - this being Dada - but the band formed before Rob could leave Hull Art College."

"Meanwhile, an old mate Alan Bown phoned me, saying he urgently needed a vocalist for his band (The Alan Bown Set). I suggested Robert, but warned Alan that one day I might call on Robert to join Dada. Unfortunately, Alan used Rob on his album The Alan Bown! (released in 1969) and Rob signed to Island which caused issues having him eventually join Dada. Luckily, the Atco / Island allegiance meant Vinegar Joe could share record contract ownership."

The Alan Bown featuring Robert Palmer (right)

The Alan Bown featuring Robert Palmer (right)

Palmer's arrival nearly took things in a very different direction, as Brooks reveals. "Robert was brought into Dada towards the end of the band's life. What happened was that we held auditions to find another vocalist, and that's where we found Robert. I think Chris Blackwell may well have recommended him to us, as we were on Island in the UK."

"But the thing was that Chris wanted Robert to be the only vocalist in Vinegar Joe! In fact, he saw this as Robert's project, with everyone else acting as his backing band. So basically, he wanted me to be fired. But it was Robert who fought for me, and insisted that he and I could work together, and that he was happy for me to remain. Had it not been for him, I would have had no future in the band. Basically, Dada turned into Vinegar Joe, with only me, Robert and Pete left from the last days of the former group."

The aforementioned auditions for a singer caught the attention of one person who would go on to become a major star in his own right as Elkie Brooks reveals. "Apparently, one of the people we auditioned at the time we decided to go with Robert was Phil Collins. I don't remember this at all, but Pete told me that he came down in the hope of being our new singer, and I decided that he wasn't any good. That might explain why years later when I met him, Phil was so off with me. I couldn't understand this at all, until Pete explained how I'd basically ruined any chance he may have hazd of being in the band. But yes, he wanted to be considered as a singer with us and not a drummer."

However, Gage remembers it a little differently. "Yes he did want to be in the band. But as our drummer - and I have come across the names of other people we auditioned in the early days of both Dada and later Vinegar Joe. I could be wrong, but I don't think Phil actually auditioned. Final decisisons were largely made on who gelled with Steve on bass, and we were also aware Ertegun wanted rock / blues - that meant a strong shuffle beat was needed. Phil was probably more soul / pop. That's my guess. On the vocal side, we actually turned down Bryan Ferry!"

US Army General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell

US Army General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell

The name Vinegar Joe came from the nickname given to American Second World War General Joseph Stillwell, renowned for his surly reputation. "Dada had too much of a zany stamp, so we proposed scores of new names," relates Gage. "Being a cooperative, we found it hard to agree on a name, or what we liked Island refused. My favourite was 'Pylon', but 'Badger's Crutch' was another contender. Island gave us a 'manager' who was a twit, and within weeks I had worn him down to realise he was out of his depth. He cried when he resigned. Then Chris Blackwell informed us he had decided on Vinegar Joe as the band's new name - no discussions were allowed, that was it."

Steve York had previously been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, East Of eden and Manfred Mann Chapter Three. When the last named split up, the bassist was brought in to the line-up of the new band. He was to become one of only four people who'd stay throughout their brief existence. The others were the trio mentioned earlier. However, the transition from Dada to Vinegar Joe proved to be slightly confusing, as Gage outlines.

"Yes, it was complex - a 'band on the fly', which is why the mix of session musicians and mates guesting on the first album is all pretty random. Dada's drummer Martyn Harryman and keyboard maestro Don Chin didn't come over into Vinegar Joe, neither did the brass section. Some of the material on that debut record - such as See The World, Never Met A Dog and maybe Leg Up - had been written while we were still called Dada but not recorded. I wrote See The World specifically for Robert's range, and we performed that in the final days of Dada. That track is clearly in the Dada style."

"We were almost auditioning drummers and keyboard players while making the album and doing sporadic gigs. Most of the tracks were written, rehearsed and performed for the first time in the studio. And even the musicians chosen for each song rather than for the band. Politically, there was friction between Island and the band. the arrangement was for us to have a retainer while we reformed as Vinegar Joe and auditioned new players, but Island pulled the retainer a week before Christmas 1971. Elkie and I sold our house to finance the band until we could get gigs coming in (Brooks and Gage were married at the time). We could only afford to get people like drummers Conrad Isidore and Keef Hartley along to the sessions in the hopes they'd take a pay cut and join the band seeing the potential."

Drummer Keef Hartley

Drummer Keef Hartley

Vic Smith was drafted in to co-produce the debut album alongside Gage, with recording mostly done at Olympic Studios in West London, as he recalls. "I can't remember how I got asked to work on Vinegar Joe's first album. It might have been through Chris Blackwell at Island. The band were well prepared before going into the studio. They were gigging a lot at the time, but when you get into the studio the details of recording do get more scrutinised. It was great to work with both Elkie and Robert. I loved them both. I can't ever recall any clashes between the pair over who should sing what. There was a creative interaction in the vocal department."

"How did I get on with Pete as a production partner? He was both co-producer and artist basically and although that does not necessarily work with two external producers, when one is in the band and is also a songwriter that generally helps to produce a more realistic picture of the band on disc. I don't recall having any instructions from Island as to how they wanted the album to sound. Usually, it's up to the producer and the band to come up with the goods and try to represent the band as they are live. I think the album turned out OK at the time, but I am a bit of a perfectionist and felt I needed more time. However, this was restricted by the record company budget."

"I'm not sure how Vic got involved," adds Gage. "I think he was dropped on us by Island to keep an eye on the budget. Dada went over the allocated studio time on our one album, and I think Atco wanted to recoup some of that loss. I'd worked at Olympic with Dada and Vic was a house engineer there, so he knew us and was a huge Elkie fan. The first sessions we did with Vic were really good, but then the drugs started showing up and long stoned aesthetic conversations took over from getting on with laying down tracks. I didn't want to judge, maybe this is how the big boys make records?"

 

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