INTERVIEW WITH TIM BARNES OF STONEGROUND
(Pete played in the first version of Stoneground)
ROCK&ROLL.com: Tell me about how you met George Harrison.
Timmy Barnes: We were playing and recording in London. George was recording All Things Must Pass. He was recording upstairs and we were recording downstairs. He came downstairs to meet us. He had a full beard, pony tail, sweatshirt, holy pants, the grunge look. He and Phil Spector walked in and shook our hands, but didn't say anything for 3 hours. We were playing a big ballroom gig at "The Lyceum" later on. George came and heard our set and came backstage. After the gig I headed back to our place in Kent on the train with Pete Sears. There's a knock on our door at about 3 AM. I'm thinking, who could knocking at my door at 3 AM. I open the door and there's George Harrison to see if we want to party. We all went upstairs to this dark room and rapped about Ringo (Starr) and seeing ghosts at an old English hotel. George wanted to find Wavy Gravy, a.k.a. Hugh Romney. George kept saying, "How can I meet Wavy Gravy?" Wavy used to come to all of our gigs, but had already gone back to the U.S. George continued working on "All Things Must Pass" upstairs. Justin Heyworth (Moody Blues) and their drummer started to come to our Warner Sessions and gigs. They'd bring the beer and watch. They were really down home. George and Ringo had just gone on vacation and would go out at night. They had checked into an old English hotel on the coast that was supposed to be haunted. George said that Ringo heard pounding on the walls and that he (George) was out cold. George thought that it was funny. I remember that at the time, George planned to promote All Things Must Pass with radio interviews. It was a very wonderful time. George had a thing for Lydia from our group. Al Kooper (of Super Session, Blues Project, and Blood, Sweat & Tears fame) also met us at Trident Studios.
ROCK&ROLL.COM: Tell me about Winterland.
Timmy Barnes: We played New Year's Eve with the Grateful Dead and Ryders of the Purple Sage at Winterland. We had gotten back from our European Tour around Christmas. It was a great show. I rolled my Austin Healy in a rainstorm about two weeks before the gig. It was a typical Dead show. The girls were taking off their tops. I remember watching a guy fall out of the upper balcony at the beginning of the set. He must have fallen 30 feet and landed on bunch of people below. Bill Graham was in rare form and there must have been over 7,000 people packed into Winterland. It was wall-to-wall people.