Following on from my last post about Gary Moore, I was watching the video for 'Out In The Fields' again when I noticed a brief shot of him holding what looked like a vacuum cleaner with strings on; this was in fact an early synthesizer controller (played similarly to a guitar) produced in Britain and known, cunningly enough, as the SynthAxe. As is so often the case with something new, it is always the bigger companies that take the idea, run with it and end up getting their products into the stores. The SynthAxe was prohibitively priced at around £10000, which is steep now let alone for 1985! Consequently only established musicians got the chance to try it out; Moore was one of them but although he was renowned for his willingness to try new things, when he played live that year it was with conventional guitars. It was Allan Holdsworth who became better known for playing the instrument; praising its innovation and declaring that he'd been waiting all his life for a device like that. It certainly opened up a lot of possibilities to guitar players, but rock fans are very conservative creatures and to bring one of those out on stage at a hard rock gig would have invited ridicule - no matter how much it could do!
Guitar synthesizers did get more sophisticated as time went on of course, and Judas Priest introduced them on their 'Turbo' album in 1986. They did, however use them wisely and never let the synths dominate; the guitar synths complemented the music rather than dominate their trademark heavy sound. Iron Maiden soon followed suit with 'Somewhere in Time'; again bringing in the synth sounds carefully. It was however Yes who brought the guitar synth to popular view in 1983, with Trevor Rabin's solo in 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' attracting acclaim and attention. Indeed, Ritchie Blackmore admitted (in an interview with Kerrang!) that he went out and bought one of his own purely on the strength of hearing that solo.
Back to the SynthAxe: because of the high price few were sold and they are now rare. For the time it looked very futuristic; now it appears somewhat dated and the shape of it doesn't really seduce the eye. It isn't what you'd call 'rock and roll'! Maybe it was that as much as the high price which ensured it didn't catch on; it would have taken someone very high-profile like Prince to adopt it for the instrument to have become widely accepted. Perhaps with the 'rock' image in mind, today's guitar synths tend to be in the form of electronic sensors attached to a conventional guitar but which do the same job - control an external synthesizer. There is a company around today however that has taken on the SynthAxe idea and updated it for the 21st century: Starr Labs who produce the ZTar range of guitar/synth controllers. Interestingly, their devices can also be used to control games such as Rock Band!
So, while I remain one of those conservative creatures who firmly believes in the power of nothing more than strings, magnets, wood and electricity, here nonetheless are some video clips of the SynthAxe in action, along with its modern-day equivalent.
Here's Gary Moore/Phil Lynott with 'Out In The Fields' (SynthAxe visible at 2:00)
It's been a few days now since the news broke that guitarist Gary Moore had died while on holiday in Spain. It goes to show how much he was respected by fellow musicians that tributes from so many greats in rock and in the blues scene have been pouring in. Almost consistently overlooked by critics and those who compile '100 Great Guitar Player' lists, his musical contribution both as a solo artist and band member is nonetheless immense.
Hailing from Belfast, Moore learned to play in his teens before moving to Dublin at the tender age of 16. There he met up with Phil Lynott for the first time, joining a band by the name of Skid Row (no relation to the later US band) and the paths of the two would cross many times from then on. In late 1973 Moore replaced Eric Bell in Thin Lizzy in order to complete that band's tour, but did not stick around. He did, however play lead guitar on the original studio version of 'Still In Love With You' which appears on Thin Lizzy's 'Nightlife' album, as well as appearing on two more tracks. He released an album under his own name in 1973 but his solo career really started five years later with the hit 'Parisienne Walkways'. A slow bluesy number showcasing Moore's superb guitar tone, and featuring Lynott on vocal, the song was a hit single in the UK and the album 'Back On The Streets' soon followed. The album also included a slower and vastly different arrangement of the Lizzy song 'Don't Believe A Word' featuring the Lizzy main man. With this collaboration, Moore rejoined Thin Lizzy in 1978 and this time actually stayed with the group long enough to record a full album with them, 1979's 'Black Rose'. However the alliance once again splintered on the road, musical and personal differences between Moore and Lynott saw the former walk out mid-tour, forcing Lynott to hastily recruit Midge Ure on guitar to complete the tour.
Moore went on to form the short-lived G-Force, releasing one album, before resuming his solo career. During this period he would work with the likes of Ian Paice and Neil Murray (both ex-Whitesnake), Don Airey (Rainbow/Ozzy/Deep Purple) and he started to taste success under his own name, in the UK at least. Unsure of his own abilites on lead vocal at first, he recruited John Sloman for the road before electing to step up to the microphone himself full-time. His material during this period was straight-up hard rock with emphasis on his virtuoso lead guitar; many songs had political overtones influenced by the events of the Cold War. Such songs as 'Murder In The Skies' (concerning an incident in which a civilian airliner was shot down by the Soviet air force), 'Nuclear Attack' and 'Victims Of the Future' demonstrated his willingness to go beyond mere boy-meets-girl lyrics. He was unable to maintain a stable backing band however, it seemed that there was a game of musical chairs going on with players drifting between Gary Moore, Ozzy, Whitesnake and Deep Purple and so he would tour with a new line-up in 1984, featuring Elf/Rainbow bassist Craig Gruber and keyboard player Neil Carter, the latter doubling up on rhythm guitar. Moore and his band appeared that year at the Donington Monsters of Rock festival on a strong bill headlined by AC/DC, but his major successes still lay ahead.
In early 1985 he announced he would collaborate with one-time Purple bassist Glenn Hughes, but within weeks this was dissolved amid claims and counter-claims. The outspoken Moore left people in no doubt of Hughes' continuing substance issues (which Hughes denied, but ultimately he would clean up once and for all some years later). He did however use the sessions the two did complete for his next album, 'Run For Cover'. A mixed bag of an album, it featured many different musicians and singers, including once again, Phil Lynott who had by this time dissolved Thin Lizzy. The lead-off single 'Out In The Fields', another politically-charged number dealing with the 'Troubles' in Moore's native Ulster, was a UK hit and put Lynott back in the spotlight, performing live with Moore's band on television. Moore would go on to have another hit, with 'Empty Rooms' - a song he had re-recorded for this album after it had originally appeared on the previous record.
Lynott was meanwhile suffering badly with his own substance problems, and despite appearing on stage with Moore and his band at the Manchester Apollo in late 1985 he lost his battle in early 1986, something that affected Moore deeply. That marred what was a very successful year for Moore, his success with the album and tour led to his winning the 'Best Guitarist' award in Kerrang's readers' poll at the end of 1985. Taking most of 1986 out, he reappeared with the 'Wild Frontier' album in 1987. The record displayed heavy Irish influence and produced another hit with 'Over The Hills and Far Away' (covered many years later by the Finnish band Nightwish). Moore was showing his willingness to try different things at this point; the record used a drum machine rather than a human drummer although for the subsequent tour, Eric Singer joined Moore's live band.
By the end of the 1980s Moore was enjoying great success; he was booked into Wembley Arena for the tour in support of his next album, 'After The War'. This would be his last hard rock album for many years; he was starting to feel constrained by hard rock and began to take more interest in the blues. In 1990 he released the 'Still Got The Blues' album; the title track was reminiscent of 'Parisienne Walkways' but the sudden change in musical direction surprised many of his fans. He threw himself into this new style completely, while gaining many new followers who were impressed by 'this new guy' his old fans felt shut out as he almost totally turned his back on the hard rock material of his previous albums. Moore was however always influenced by the 'blues boom' of the late 1960s; his prized Les Paul guitar was once owned by Peter Green and he went on to make an album dedicated to the Fleetwood Mac founder: 'Blues For Greeny'. The blues direction continued for several years but Moore was never one to shy away from trying something different. 'Dark Days In Paradise' was another complete change of direction, aiming for a more contemporary 1990s sound. He ended the millennium with 'A Different Beat', where he strove to mix rock guitar with dance beats. During this time he was probably turning away his fans by following his muse; rock fans and indeed blues aficionados are notoriously conservative and regard anything that strays from the accepted template with suspicion. Perhaps with this in mind, he returned to his blues style for 'Back To The Blues' and, a brief flirtation with his old hard rock past apart, would stay largely with that direction for the rest of his career. Moore was planning a new album and tour for 2011 when he died; he leaves a diverse and immense body of work behind him and remains a huge influence on many guitar players that followed in his footsteps. He leaves a massive gap; with a guitar sound many other players would have sold their grandmothers for and with a willingness to embrace many musical styles regardless of whether it made commercial sense or not, he was a genuinely creative talent.
It's been a long time since last I saw these guys, so long in fact that original drummer (the late Jon Lee) was still with them then. Though they've been round a few times since I've not really kept up with what they've been doing, and expected this show to be fairly low-key. Wrong! The larger upstairs room at Liverpool's o2 Academy was packed out with an expectant crowd, an excellent turnout for a Monday night. Clearly their fanbase has held up well unlike some other 'alternative' guitar bands from the 1990s, although from what I saw and heard they've not really changed that much in the intervening years.
Frontman Grant Nicholas now has his hair long and straggly, not unlike a certain deceased Grunge icon and the comparisons are compounded by the guitars he chooses to play (Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar, albeit right-handed). Add to that he is singer-guitarist in a power trio that specialises in quiet/loud three-minute power pop anthems, and the link is complete. I haven't even touched on their cover of 'Breed', played in the encore! Bassist Taka Hirose was almost unrecognisable, now sporting long dark hair in place of the cropped peroxide barnet I knew a decade ago.
Once the group came out on stage, they didn't hang about. Short snappy songs came in a relentless barrage, most of which I didn't actually know but it hardly mattered, familiar or not they all fit the same template. Surprisingly, 'Buck Rogers' came mid-set and not at the end as might have been expected, which caused a mass bounce in the packed crowd. Nicholas looked pleased at both the turnout and the reception, many of their songs are made for the live setting and there was much jumping around throughout the set. He kept between-song chatter to a minimum however, the set was only just over the hour mark but in that time they managed twenty songs. Although firmly cast as 'alternative' or even 'indie' (the on-stage keyboard player was sporting a trilby hat, a definite 'indie' trademark!) their songs are very guitar-heavy with powerchords a-plenty. Solos are few and far between though, and many songs end suddenly (BAMM! BAMM! - thank you!) with only a handful given the Big Rock Ending (long-drawn out song ending) treatment - 'Just A Day', played in the encore, was one of these, and their Big Rock Ending segued into the previously mentioned cover of 'Breed'.
I was very impressed with latest drummer Karl Brazil - he joined in 2009 in place of Mark Richardson who has since rejoined Skunk Anansie - he drove along the pounding rock anthems superbly and I often found myself watching him - a definite 'hit 'em and they stay hit' kind of drummer.
For all that, and it was a good gig, I'm not totally sure I really enjoyed it. They played well, they went down great, but something didn't quite hit the mark with me. Maybe it's just that they're the same now as they were in 2001, they've not really done anything different to make me sit up and take notice. Perhaps also it's just that there are still others like them who are still doing this kind of thing, Ash immediately spring to mind, or perhaps they just do come across too much like a British Nirvana as I intimated earlier. I think it's just that as good as they are live, there's little to mark them out as special. I'd see them again if they came back to Liverpool, but if it sold out before I got a ticket I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep.
The Las Vegas-based rockers have played several support slots in the UK before, most notably when opening for KISS last year, but this is the first headlining tour they've done. This tour sees the introduction of new drummer Carlo Mazzone, who replaced previous skinpounder Alan Doucette late last year.
There was a small but very enthusiastic crowd at the smaller University venue, frontman Chris Babbitt had a very easy job getting the hands clapping and fists pumping. The band stand defiantly for old-school heavy rock; with long straggly hair and dressed in regulation denim cutoffs, from first song to last they set out to blast away the notion that only 'alternative' rock should be listened to. So it was up on the monitors for Babbitt and his cohorts, guitarist Mikey Cross and bassist Andrew Cushing, wielding their guitars like weapons and generally coming across like the bastard sons of Guns 'n' Roses, W.A.S.P. and Skid Row. Their material was traditional heavy metal, bordering on thrash in places, with moshpits a regular occurence. The band seemed pleased with the reception they got, even indulging in a little humour when, just before performing a cover of KISS's 'Black Diamond', they got the bassist to introduce it in the style of Paul Stanley. However, according to the frontman, he sounded more like (South Park's) Mr Hankey!
Not content with merely jumping on the monitors, Babbitt actually abandoned the stage when they played their last number, a gonzoid rendition of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain'. Any idea of playing the lead solo went out of the window as he jumped into the crowd, and was lucky still to have his guitar in one piece by the time the song finished! The fast bit was performed essentially as a three-piece; the frontman was so busy being mobbed he couldn't play anything. This band really do not hold back; like Aussie contemporaries Airbourne they are strictly old-school, and that is a welcome sight after years of being force-fed indie and alternative rock. Not that I'm saying all that is bad, it's just that when you've not heard a REAL Heavy Metal band for a long time, you soon realise how much you miss it when one comes along. After their set, they immediately gathered at the merchandise stall (no CD on sale, bummer!) to meet and greet the people they'd just played for. That was a nice touch, all four guys were there as the crowd exited and happily posed for pictures, signed ticket stubs and chatted. It was rude not to have a word, so having spoken briefly to the other guys I got the chance to speak to Chris Babbitt, to say how refreshing it was to have a group like his on the scene again, when all we are usualy subjected to is the aforementioned 'safe' indie music. To my surprise, he told me it was worse in America! To my further surprise, he complimented me on my 'Thunder' T-shirt and praised The Union, the band formed by their former guitarist Luke Morley.
With their incendiary live sound and a great attitude, Taking Dawn will win many friends on this UK tour. Whether or not they can revive the Metal scene and rescue it from sinking deeper into a sea of strictly-defined sub-genres remains to be seen, but they certainly deserve to go a long way. Catch these guys when they come back. http://www.takingdawn.com http://www.facebook.com/Takingdawn http://www.myspace.com/takingdawn
