NICE AS PIE

I’ve always said that “You can’t teach experience”…and that the only way to acquire it is to put in the time, which usually amounts to many years of passion, practice and dedication.
And when a bunch of musicians with this wealth of experience get together and play for the first time, (which is exactly what happened a couple of years ago at Lundgaard studio in Denmark)…you know SOMETHING is going to happen.
The thing is…getting a bunch of guys that are all great individual players, then sticking them in a recording studio together and say 1,2,3,4,GO….doesn’t  guarantee that what’s coming out of the 2 control room monitors will sound anything like a band, …. More often than not, it will just sound like a bunch of guys all trying to be first to fight their way out of the speaker.
There are some very talented musicians out there that can play a million notes a minute flawlessly, but in the end the questions are ”Does it say anything to you?” “Does it make you smile because it’s SO good?” “Do the words that are being sung strike a chord in you? …Make you laugh...Make you cry…or just make you feel alive when you hear it” and more importantly, make you feel the same way on your 100th listen.

Something DID happen in that studio…it was the formation of a BAND…not just individual musicians trying to outdo each other…it was a bunch of guys that from the very first notes we played together knew that this recipe was something special.
 It was the simplicity of knowing when to shine, and when to ease back to let someone else shine.
When the playing of just a couple of notes means a thousand times more than trying to show everyone how fast and tricky you can play…THAT’S what I mean about experience…and to find 5 musicians like that who can melt together into one unit, is what makes a band world class, and shine above the vast majority.

A couple of the guy’s I’ve known for many years, Martin York and I go way back to when we were kids. At the age of 9 or 10 we formed our first ever band called “The Curb Stones” playing cover versions of the music that was around at the time…The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, The shadows, all that kind of stuff…I wish Video cameras where around at that time..It would have been fun to take a look back at that…although on second thoughts, considering our enthusiastic but limited musicianship at the time, a photo might have been better.
One day while rehearsing at one the guy’s parents house (who had decided to go out for the day…I wonder why!)...A guy with long black hair and a big black beard banged on the window and beckoned me outside.
To a young 10 year old he looked as though he was 50….but turned out to be an 18 year old local musician whose band was looking for a drummer…I agreed to meet up with them that evening for an audition, my dad drove me and my kit to his parents house (who had also gone out…of earshot) and we all set up in the front room.
After playing through ( and without a doubt mutilating) a few tunes, they decided they would like me to join, and so began the task of finding a name for the new band…I mentioned that my current bands name was “The Curb Stones”…so one of them suggested that we should call ourselves “The Pavement”…which we did.
So you could say that I went from “The Curb stones” to “The Pavement”…which was a definite step up for me… (Boom Boom!!)
A 10 year old kid...playing in a band of 18-20 year olds….travelling about in the back of a transit van with them and their 18 year old girlfriends who made a constant fuss of me because they thought I was cute….stories of the guy’s sexual exploits..constant questions from me, asking what bits go where and what to do with them…I tell you, I went from a 10 year old boy to an adult in a few months….this priceless knowledge of the female anatomy made me very popular at junior school with all my mates (and quite a few of the girls…bless ‘em)…who’s otherwise highlight of conversation was what happened in the latest episode of Batman on TV last night….ahhhh “The Pavement”…wonderful memories.

This carried me through to my early teens when I met Gary (Bruv) Draper, who played all the wonderful acoustic work for me on the “Stand Well Back” album…we formed a couple of bands...”Vehicle” was the first, then later witling it down to a 3 piece that we renamed “Trilogy”….these years playing with Gary where an integral part of my learning and growing as a progressing musician.

I got head hunted from that band by my old “Pavement” guitarist and close friend Dave Blackman, a guy who I’ve probably known the longest than any of my mates, going way back to when we used to play football together as 5 year olds…… I Joined up with his band that we named “Harlow” (after the town that we lived in)…with Steve Freeman on vocals and acoustic, and who was the main song writer for the band…and who in later years I co-wrote 3 songs on the “Stand Well Back” album with…”One below zero – Like children – and Funny what money can do”…He is a star that never got to shine, a great mate, and a great inspiration to me as a song writer…
This is the band that got me my first ever record deal when I was 18.

All these years later, and I hooked up with Martin again for the recording session…still the same old bone dry sense of humor, although his playing skills have improved quite a bit since those days, and is now one the best bass players on planet earth…and I’m sure that there are other musicians around that would even debate THOSE boundary’s (check him out on Whams “Club Tropicana” and Boney M)

Back in 1978 Martin introduced me to the bubbly curly headed Scotsman Dave Graham…because I was getting a band together to work on a cruise ship between England and Denmark….We became instant friends, and along with my old mate Steve Broughton on Hammond ( now with the band ACE ) our unit was complete.
We spent 4 fun packed...Partying...Practical joking...Debauched years on that boat, and chalked up some fantastic memories and an unbreakable bond of friendship between us 4 guy’s that will last our lifetimes.

Dave’s voice just seems to improve with the years…it’s so wonderful in the studio listening to his vocals making my songs come to life.
He often (SEMI jokingly) remarks on how rough and picky I am on him as a producer…but I wouldn’t ask him to do anything that I didn’t think he was capable of…I don’t think even HE knows what he’s REALLY capable of.
I tell you, when Davey delivers the goods, EVERYONE sits up and pays attention...His vocals are, without a doubt, one in a million…and so is our friendship ….. (He also works as front man for “The Tornados” which were the first ever British band to have a number one hit in America back in the sixties with “Telstar”)

At The studio, Leo Sayer was recording his new album “Voice in my head” in studio 2….one day he popped his head in studio 1, had a listen to what we were doing…liked it…and kindly offered to add some harp on a couple of tracks…one of them ending up on the album “I won’t let you down”…… my good mate, Engineer and co producer on the album Dave Hyatt was also Engineering Leo’s album at the time…so between us, we were keeping him very busy.
We all spent a lot of time together every day…stuck out in the middle of the country side at Lundgaard studios, as I was also at the studio for 3 months before that doing all the wiring for the 3 new studio’s ( a job that Dave and I have done for many years aside from our other studio work) So we all got to know each other very well…sharing the breakfast and dinner table…along with a lot of laughs…Leo is definitely a fun guy to hang out with.
Todd Sharpville ( ex Fabulous Thunderbirds) was over playing on Leo’s album…As soon as I heard him, and his unique style, I knew that I wanted him on my songs…I got to know him over a period of time ….we became good mates …. I got him back over for a session a couple of months later, bringing with him Paddy Milner on keyboards, another incredible and well respected player, who also instantly fit in with us all and our crazy humour……when these 2 guys showed up and started playing with us, It pushed the band up to a whole different level,
I remember Martin saying “I couldn’t hear it before…but I do now”………and he was right.

I was sitting mixing one day with Dave Hyatt, when the legendary Charlie McCoy popped in to say hello…( he’s played on many Elvis albums…Simon & Garfunkel…Roy Orbison..any many more)…I cracked some joke about him going to get his harp as I was ready to record….and without hesitation…he left…came back moments later with his box full of harmonicas…and Proceeded to lay down his magic on “Drunk,Stoned,Stupid…What goes around…and Hair of the dog”
Elvis was a close friend of his, so sitting next to him at the dinner table, and listening to his life stories was a memorable experience…and what he brought to the album was truly invaluable.

Then there’s the songs,
I have no control over my song writing, I just start strumming the guitar, and sing the very first words that pop into my head that fit to the melody line I’ve found…for example, I don’t say “I think I’ll sit down and write a romantic song today”…because every time I start to play, a sudden idea will spin me off in a completely different direction, which is why I have a catalog of songs that are not PIE material.
Not so long ago I sat down and started writing a song called “I’m just a girl” because those where the first words that came out of my mouth that fitted perfectly to the melody line I was singing …A real punchy rock song that I wrote in a girls key, Which of course, having a voice like a frog in a dustbin, I had to sing in a high falsetto…Not a pretty sight I must admit, a 6 foot 4, 110 kilo, black belt in karate…singing in a high squeaky voice “I’m just a girl”…I am SOOO glad that was never videoed by anyone.

Every member of the band has a thousand and one stories to tell…probably way more interesting than mine… Maybe I can get them to share a few with you.

The mixture of the well crafted meaningful songs, the outstanding musicianship, the different, but highly compatible personalities of the band members, right down to the production and the mixing of it all, makes the CD “Stand well back” a valuable part of any true music loving Blues/Rock fans collection,
And with 6 more albums already written, you can be sure that you will be hearing a lot more from Nice As Pie.

Steve Porter