Just to let you know that the U.K. record Company “Gonzo Media” has released a few of my old solo albums, “Watchfire” (1988), “The Long Haul” (2000), and “Millennium” (2001).
They also just released the recordings of my first pro band “The Sons of Fred” from 1965…we recorded the tracks at several London studios, including E.M.I. Studios…later known as Abbey Road. We used the same studio, recording equipment, and engineers that captured the early “Please, Please Me” period of the Beatles…but without George Martin of course. I remember the staff engineers wore white lab coats, and the studio had a built in factory type cafeteria.
I was on the road at a very young age…it was all very exciting and slightly bewildering. We constantly toured all over the British Isles six or seven nights a week, and played several popular British TV shows including ‘Ready Steady Go” (after it had become truly a live show) and “Thank Your Lucky Stars”.
Anyway, I was surprised and glad the recordings surfaced after all these years. Our live shows were mostly R&B but the original material was a little more pop with the exception of our one recorded cover, the blues classic, “Baby What You Want Me To Do” which we performed on TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars. The song even have a very short bass break through a classic slightly distorted tube (valve in the U.K.) Selmer bass amp. The recording world today has special digital plug-ins specially designed to try and reproduce that 1960’s overdriven bass sound.
Anyway, here’s how to order a CD if anyone’s interested, click here for USA and click here for UK.
(‘Watchfire” 1988, is about human rights and environmental issues, and “The Long Haul” is largely rooted in the Americana blues tradition. I have many cool guest artists joining me… like Jerry Garcia on Watchfire, and John Lee Hooker on The Long Haul. “Millennium”is a very weird solo piano album I once did…just made it up as I went along, had to get it out of my system. The site also has a CD of a live recording of a much later version of Jefferson Starship from the UFO Festival at Roswell, New Mexico. Paul Kantner flew me down as a special guest for it. I haven’t listened to the album yet, not sure why it’s on my page. I was in the original band during its heyday of the 1970’s and early 80’s)
