Alan Merrill
Alan Merrill is an American vocalist, songwriter and model. In the early 1970s Merrill was the first westerner to achieve pop star status in Japan, he is the lead singer of the first released version and author of the song "I Love Rock'n' Roll" by the Arrows in 1975. Merrill is best known as a vocalist and songwriter but plays the guitar, bass guitar and keyboards. Merrill was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs, he went to Aiglon College in Switzerland from age 9 to a British boarding school. On returning to the USA he attended various schools in New York and Los Angeles, at Sophia University.. He started his semi-pro career in New York City aged 14 when he began playing in Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? with the bands The Kaleidoscope, The Rayne, Watertower West. The groups played the club during the 1966-1968 period. In 1968, Merrill auditioned for the Left Banke; the audition was successful. Shortly thereafter, he left to reside in Japan, started his professional career there with the band The Lead, on RCA Victor Records.
The band was a foreign Tokyo-based act. The Lead had one hit single, "Akuma ga kureta Aoi Bara", but the project soon fell apart when two American members of the group were deported. In 1969 Merrill signed a solo management deal with Watanabe Productions, who contracted him to Atlantic Records, changed his professional surname from Sachs to Merrill because "Merrill" sounded less lascivious and was more commercially viable when spoken by young Japanese pop music fans, he recorded one album with Atlantic Records, "Alone in Tokyo" which yielded one hit single, "Namida" and he became the first foreign domestic market pop star in the Japanese Group Sounds. Merrill acted on the popular TV soap opera Jikan Desu Yo and had his own corner as a regular on the TBS's Young 720, a morning show for teens, he was the featured principal as a model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, AnnAnn, Non-no, GT Jeans. In 1971 he released an LP of his own compositions titled Merrill 1 in Japan for Denon/Columbia record label produced by Mickey Curtis.
At the peak of his fame Tiny Tim covered an Alan Merrill composition from the Merrill 1 album, a song titled "Movies", in 1972 on Scepter Records. He formed the band Vodka Collins, which became Japan's top glam rock act; the band included Japanese superstars Hiroshi Oguchi. Vodka Collins recorded one LP in 1972-1973 titled Tokyo – New York, on the EMI Toshiba label, still available today in CD re-issues; the band are best known for recording and releasing the first popular glam rock songs in Japanese in 1972. The double A-sided single "Sands Of Time" and "Automatic Pilot". In 1974 in London Merrill formed the band Arrows, with drummer Paul Varley and guitarist Jake Hooker. Peter Meaden was the Arrows' first manager, but they signed with Mickie Most's RAK Records. In March 1974 the Arrows were in the top 10 in the UK charts with the song "Touch Too Much". Arrows became a popular band with teens, once again Merrill had slid back into the teen market he had fought hard to get out of in Japan. Arrows had another hit single with "My Last Night With You" which made the UK top 30 in 1975, but the band's single releases were few and far between as a result of their producer Mickie Most's winding down his own career momentum.
Recorded at Morgan studio in London 1974 Alan Merrill played bass guitar on drummer Cozy Powell's chart hit single "The Man In Black" and the b-side "After Dark" produced by Mickie Most on RAK records. The recording made a peak position of #18 in the British charts. With Arrows Merrill sang three chart hit records as the band's lead singer, all produced by Mickie Most, "Touch Too Much" "Toughen Up" and "My Last Night With You", they made one more single. "I Love Rock'n' Roll", a song that started out as a b-side to the 45 rpm Arrows single "Broken Down Heart". The song "I Love Rock'N Roll" was composed by Arrows bandmate Jake Hooker; the record was flipped to a-side status, the band got only one TV performance with the song. The show's producer Muriel Young was so impressed with Arrows that she made a pitch to Granada ITV for them to have their own television series. Arrows got their own weekly TV series Arrows in 1976, taking over the Bay City Rollers Granada TV series Shang-a-Lang; the band Arrows signed with MAM Management.
Their producer Mickie Most was so angry at the band for signing the management deal, that he vowed to never release another Arrows record. So it came to pass that Arrows had their own weekly TV series and no records released during that time, their ratings were so good that they got a second weekly series, but they released no new recordings. Arrows disbanded shortly after the end of the second series. In 1977, Merrill married fashion model Cathee Dahmen, formed a new group, the album-oriented rock act Runner, with Steve Gould, Mick Feat, Dave Dowle; the Runner album charted in the Billboard top 100 in the United States. In 1980 Merrill joined forces with Rick Derringer as a guitarist/vocalist in New York City, they recorded three albums, Good Dirty Fun, Live at The Ritz, Rick Derringer and Friends, a film, "The Rick Derringer Rock Spectacular." Alan Merrill wrote three songs on the Rick Derringer Good Dirty Fun album, "White Heat", "Shake Me" and "Lesson Learned" (Alan Merri
Clapham
Clapham is a district of south-west London lying within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. The present day Clapham High Street is an ancient "diversion" of the Roman military road Stane Street, which ran from London to Chichester; this followed the line of Clapham Road and onward along the line of Abbeville Road. The ancient status of that military road is recorded on a Roman stone now placed by the entrance of the former Clapham Library in the Old Town, discovered during building operations at Clapham Common South Side in 1912. Erected by Vitus Ticinius Ascanius according to its inscription, it is estimated to date from the 1st century. According to the history of the Clapham family, maintained by the College of Heralds, in 965 King Edgar of England gave a grant of land at Clapham to Jonas, son of the Duke of Lorraine, Jonas was thenceforth known as Jonas "de Clapham"; the family remained in possession of the land until Jonas's great-great grandson Arthur sided against William the Conqueror during the Norman invasion of 1066 and, losing the land, fled to the north.
Clapham appears in Domesday Book as Clopeham. It was held by Goisfrid de Mandeville, its domesday assets were 3 hides, it rendered £7 10s 0d, was located in Brixton hundred. The parish comprised 4.99 square kilometres. The benefice remains to this day a rectory, in the 19th century was in the patronage of the Atkins family: the tithes were commuted for £488 14s. In the early 19th century, so the remaining glebe comprised only 11 acres in 1848; the church, which belonged to Merton Priory was, with the exception of the north aisle, left standing for the performance of the burial service, taken down under an act of parliament in 1774, a new church erected in the following year at an expense of £11,000, on the north side of the common. In the late 17th century, large country houses began to be built there, throughout the 18th and early 19th century it was favoured by the wealthier merchant classes of the City of London, who built many large and gracious houses and villas around Clapham Common and in the Old Town.
Samuel Pepys spent the last two years of his life in Clapham, living with his friend, protégé at the Admiralty and former servant William Hewer, until his death in 1703. Clapham Common was home to Elizabeth Cook, the widow of Captain James Cook the explorer, she lived in a house on the common for many years following the death of her husband. Other notable residents of Clapham Common include Palace of Westminster architect Sir Charles Barry, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and 20th century novelist Graham Greene. John Francis Bentley, architect of Westminster Cathedral, lived in the adjacent Old Town. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Clapham Sect were a group of wealthy City merchants social reformers who lived around the Common, they included William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton and Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian Thomas Macaulay, as well as William Smith MP, the Dissenter and Unitarian. They were prominent in campaigns for the abolition of slavery and child labour, for prison reform.
They promoted missionary activities in Britain's colonies. The Society for Missions to Africa and the East was founded on 12 April 1799 at a meeting of the Eclectic Society, supported by members of the Clapham Sect, who met under the guidance of John Venn, the Rector of Clapham. By contrast, an opponent of Wilberforce and slave-trader George Hibbert lived at Clapham Common, worshipping in the same church, Holy Trinity. After the coming of the railways, Clapham developed as a suburb for commuters into central London, by 1900 it had fallen from favour with the upper classes. Many of their grand houses had been demolished by the middle of the 20th century, though a number remain around the Common and in the Old Town, as do a substantial number of fine late 18th- and early 19th-century houses. Today's Clapham is an area of varied housing, from the large Queen Anne-, Regency- and Georgian-era homes of the Old Town and Clapham Common, to the grids of Victorian housing in the Abbeville area; as in much of London, the area has its fair share of council-owned social housing on estates dating from the 1930s and 1960s.
In the early 20th century, Clapham was seen as an ordinary commuter suburb cited as representing ordinary people: hence the familiar "man on the Clapham omnibus". By the 1980s, the area had undergone a further transformation, becoming the centre for the gentrification of most of the surrounding area. Clapham's relative proximity to traditionally expensive areas of central London led to an increase in the number of middle-class people living in Clapham. Today the area is an affluent place, although many of its professional residents live close to significant pockets of social housing. Clapham was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. For poor law purposes the parish became part of the Wandsworth and Clapham Union in 1836; the parish was added to the Registrar General London Metropolis area in 1844 and it came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855. The population of 16,290 in 1851 was considered too small for the Clapham vestry to be a viable sanitary authority and the parish was grouped into the Wandsworth District, electing 18 members to the Wandsworth District Board of Works.
In 1889 the parish was transferred to the County of London and in 1900 it became p
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was shown every Thursday evening on BBC One, except for a short period on Fridays in mid-1973 before being again moved to Fridays at 7:30 pm in 1996 and to Sundays on BBC Two in 2005; each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart. Additionally, there was a special edition of the programme on Christmas Day, featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year. With its high viewing figures, the show became a significant part of British popular culture. Although the weekly show was cancelled in 2006, the Christmas special has continued. In recent years, end-of-year round-up editions have been broadcast on BBC1 on or around New Year's Eve, albeit featuring the same acts and tracks as the Christmas Day shows, it survives as Top of the Pops 2, which began in 1994 and features vintage performances from the Top of the Pops archives.
In the 1990s, the show's format was sold to several foreign broadcasters in the form of a franchise package, at one point various versions of the show were shown in nearly 100 countries. Editions of the programme from the 1970s are being repeated on most Thursday and Friday evenings on BBC Four, although episodes featuring disgraced presenters and artists such as Jimmy Savile, Dave Lee Travis and Gary Glitter are not repeated. BBC Four aren't showing any episodes with Mike Smith presenting, either, as he decided not to sign the licence extension that would allow the BBC to repeat the Top of the Pops episodes that he presented. Top of the Pops was created by BBC producer Johnnie Stewart, inspired by the popular Teen and Twenty Disc Club which aired on Radio Luxembourg, it was first aired in 1964 and was based on the Top 20. By 1970 the Top 30 was being used and the show was extended from 30 to 45 minutes duration; the show was now shown in colour following the BBC1 upgrade in November 1969. A switch to the Top 40 was made in 1984..
The show saw many changes through the decades, in style, design and taste. It periodically had some aspect of its title sequence and theme tune, format, or set design altered in some way, keeping the show looking modern despite its age; the programme had several executive producers during its run, in charge of the overall production of the show, although specific content on individual shows was sometimes decided by other producers. When Stewart left the show in 1973, after nearly 10 years in charge, he was replaced by Robin Nash. Both Stewart and Nash made brief returns to the show as producer after they left, in 1976 and 1981 respectively. Stewart devised the rules which governed how the show would operate: the programme would always end with the number one record, the only record that could appear in consecutive weeks; the show would include the highest new entry and the highest climber on the charts, omit any song going down in the chart. Tracks could be featured in consecutive weeks in different formats.
For example, if a song was played over the chart countdown or the closing credits it was acceptable for the act to appear in the studio the following week. These rules were sometimes interpreted flexibly and were more formally relaxed from 1997 when records descending the charts were featured more possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40; when the programme's format changed in November 2003, it concentrated on the top 10. During the BBC Two era, the top 20 was regarded as the main cut-off point, with the exception made for up and coming bands below the top 20. Singles from below the top 40 were shown if the band were up and coming or had a strong selling album. If a single being performed was below the top 40, just the words "New Entry" were shown and not the chart position; the show was intended to run for only a few programmes but lasted over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 in the years 1973, 1983, 1992 and 2002 respectively. Top of the Pops was first broadcast on 1 January 1964 at 6:35 pm.
It was produced in Studio A on Dickenson Road in Manchester. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show live from the Manchester studio, which featured Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to Be with You", the Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", the Hollies with "Stay", the Swinging Blue Jeans with "Hippy Hippy Shake" and the Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one – throughout its history, the programme proper always finished with the best-selling single of the week, although there was a separate play-out track. In 1964, the broadcast time was moved to one hour at 7:35 pm, the show moved from Wednesdays to what became its regular Thursday slot. Additionally its length was extended by 5 minutes to 30 minutes. For the first three years Alan Freeman, David Jacobs, Pete Murray and Jimmy Savile rotated presenting duties, with the following week's presenter appearing at the end of each show, although this practice ceased from October 1964 onwards.
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The Big Express
The Big Express is the seventh studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 15 October 1984 on Virgin Records. It is an autobiographical concept album inspired by the band's hometown of Swindon and its railway system, the Swindon Works. In comparison to its predecessor Mummer, which had a modest, pastoral approach to production, the album features a bright, uptempo sound marked by studio experimentation and denser arrangements, setting a template that they would develop on subsequent albums. XTC produced the album with Crescent Studios owner David Lord on a budget exceeding £75,000. Like Mummer, the Glitter Band's Pete Phipps was hired as a session drummer for the band, they continued extending their use of exotic colors, incorporating instruments such as LinnDrum, E-mu Emulator for the first time in their work. Much of the album showcased the band's psychedelic influences through its reliance on Mellotron, a tape-based sampling keyboard popular in the 1960s and 1970s, effects such as backwards echo and phasing.
The title was chosen as a double entendre referring to express artistic expression. Lead single "All You Pretty Girls" peaked at number 55 on the UK Singles Chart and its music video cost £33,000 to produce; the Big Express sold fewer copies than Mummer. It reached number 38 on the UK Albums Chart and number 178 on the US Billboard 200; some critics suggested that its music suffered from a lack of dynamics. In years, the record has been described as "hugely influential". Japanese rock band Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her derived their name from the album track of similar title. XTC's previous album Mummer was their first work after resigning from live performances in 1982, it was released in August 1983 after several months of delays due to the band's creative difference with producer Steve Nye and Virgin Records and became the group's lowest-charting album to date. Every contemporary review of the album accused the band of falling out of touch with the contemporary music climate. Bassist Colin Moulding thought that "when we came back from America after our aborted tour of 1982... people like Spandau Ballet had moved onto the scene.
Dissatisfied with the downturn in their career, drummer Terry Chambers quit the group early in the Mummer sessions to take care of his wife and newborn child and wife in Australia. In the meantime and principal songwriter Andy Partridge produced Peter Blegvad's album The Naked Shakespeare. Partridge said Blegvad requested his services because of a rumour that he had died in 1982, he summarized his feelings at the time: "We're about to make another that won't sell well, Virgin are getting fed up with us and starting to grumble about not carrying on with us... I was confused about what I was supposed to be doing." After Mummer, he stated that he thought the next album would have a more R&B sound and that the band were "conscious of wanting to get away from the" style of their previous two albums, that "I don't think you'll hear any acoustic guitars this time, or any multilayered things." Years he reflected that "Funk Pop a Roll" from Mummer could be considered "the first Big Express track". In late 1983, XTC released the holiday single "Thanks for Christmas" under the pseudonym Three Wise Men.
It was produced by David Lord, owner of Crescent Studios in Bath, who impressed the band with the story that he had turned down an offer to arrange the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home". He met Partridge while working as an engineer on The Naked Shakespeare. According to biographer Neville Farmer, Lord was "a world's away from XTC", having turned down the Beatles offer because he believed the Beatles were not serious musicians, "made a deep impression on Andy, he hadn't had a musical guru before now. David Lord could hold his own in any musical conversation and piqued Andy's interests in unexplored musical areas." Moulding said he was unable to relate to Lord on a musical level. XTC subsequently negotiated a deal that allowed them to work as much as they want on their next album at his studio. In April 1984, about a month into the new album sessions, the group learned that ex-manager Ian Reid had incurred them an outstanding value-added tax bill of several hundred thousand pounds, they pursued litigation that would last for the next five years.
The intention for The Big Express was to "let the music have a more boisterous feel" and for the lyrics to be more worldly. For the album title, Partridge wanting something, reminiscent of his hometown Swindon, well-known for its railways, the Swindon Works. Working titles included Coalface, Head of Steam, Shaking Skin House, Bastard Son of Hard Blue Rayhead, The Known World, Bull with the Golden Guts, Mindless Sax and Violins, Under the Rusting North Star; the Big Express was chosen as a double entendre referring to express artistic expression. Partridge envisioned the record as "industrial pop. We come from a railway town, I was like,'Well, let's wallow in that. Let's make an album that's riveted together and a bit rusty around the edges and is sort of like broken Victorian massive machinery.'" He said that the record "might be a concept album by stealth" since most, if not all of the songs he and Moulding wrote were autobiographical to some extent. Two were of a political bent; the majority of Partridge's songs were composed on an open E-tuned guitar with a broken E string.
The Big Express was recorded on a budget of £75,000 or £90,000 (equivalent to £240,00
Mummers play
Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers. It refers to a play in which a number of characters are called on stage, two of whom engage in a combat, the loser being revived by a doctor character; this play is sometimes found associated with a sword dance though both exist in Britain independently. Mumming spread from the British Isles to a number of former British colonies, it is sometimes performed in the street but more during visits to houses and pubs. It is performed seasonally or annually at Christmas, Easter or on Plough Monday, more on Hallowe'en or All Souls' Day, with a collection of money, in which the practice may be compared with other customs such as those of Halloween, Bonfire Night, pace egging and first-footing at new year. Although the term mummers has been in use since the Middle Ages, no scripts or details survive from that era and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds.
The earliest evidence of mummers' plays as they are known today is from the mid- to late 18th century. Mummers' plays should not be confused with the earlier mystery plays; the word mummer is sometimes explained to derive from Middle English mum or Greek mommo, but is more to be associated with Early New High German mummer and vermummen, which itself is derived from or came to be associated with mummen and mumschanz, these latter words referring to a game or throw of dice. Ingrid Brainard argues that the English word "mummer" is derived from the Greek name Momus, a god of mockery and scoff. Mummers' and guisers' plays were performed throughout much of English-speaking Great Britain and Ireland, spreading to other English-speaking parts of the world including Newfoundland and Saint Kitts and Nevis. There are a few surviving traditional teams of mummers in England and Ireland, but there have been many revivals of mumming associated nowadays with morris and sword dance groups; these performances are comparable in some respects with others throughout Europe.
On 4 November 2017, following a similar announcement from the Lewes Bonfire Council, the Association of Mummers in England and Wales announced that Mummers would cease the practice of "black-facing" or "blacking-up". Broadly comic performances, the most common type features a doctor who has a magic potion able to resuscitate the vanquished character. Early scholars of folk drama, influenced by James Frazer's The Golden Bough, tended to view these plays as desecendants of pre-Christian fertility ritual, but modern researchers have subjected this interpretation to criticism; the characters may be introduced in a series of short speeches or they may introduce themselves in the course of the play's action. The principal characters, presented in a wide variety of manners, are a hero, most Saint George, King George, or Prince George, his chief opponent, named Slasher elsewhere, a quack Doctor who comes to restore the dead man to life. Other characters include: Old Father Christmas, who introduces some plays, the Fool and Beelzebub or Little Devil Doubt.
In Ynysmeudwy near Swansea groups of four boys dressed as Crwmpyn John, Indian Dark, Robin Hood and Doctor Brown took the play from house to house on Bonfire Night and were rewarded with money. Despite the frequent presence of Saint George, the Dragon appears although it is mentioned. A dragon seems to have appeared in the Revesby Ploughboys' Play in 1779, along with a "wild worm", but it had no words. In the few instances where the dragon appears and speaks its words can be traced back to a Cornish script published by William Sandys in 1833. Mumming groups wear face-obscuring hats or other kinds of headgear and masks, some mummers' faces are blackened or painted. In 1418 a law was passed forbidding "mumming, interludes or any other disguisings with any feigned beards, painted visors, deformed or coloured visages in any wise, upon pain of imprisonment". Many mummers and guisers, have no facial disguise at all. Mumming was a way of raising money and the play was taken round the big houses. Most Southern English versions end with the entrance of "Little Johnny Jack his wife and family on his back".
Johnny, traditionally played by the youngest mummer in the group, first asks for food and more urgently for money. Johnny Jack's wife and family were either dolls in sometimes a picture. Mummers and "guisers" can be traced back at least to 1296, when the festivities for the marriage of Edward I's daughter at Christmas included "mummers of the court" along with "fiddlers and minstrels"; these "revels" and "guisings" may have been an early form of masque and the early use of the term "mumming" appears to refer to a performance of dicing with the host for costly jewels, after which the mummers would join the guests for dancing, an event recorded in 1377 when 130 men on horseback went "mumming" to the Prince of Wales Richard II. According to German and Austrian sources dating from the 16th century, during carnival persons wearing masks used to make house-to-house visits offering a mum(e
Mike Rutherford
Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford is an English guitarist and singer who co-founded the rock band Genesis in 1967. He is one of the group's two continuous members along with keyboardist Tony Banks. Serving as Genesis's bass guitarist and backing vocalist, Rutherford performed most of the band's rhythm guitar parts—frequently on twelve-string guitar—in collaboration with successive Genesis lead guitarists Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett. Following Hackett's departure from Genesis in 1977, Rutherford assumed the additional role of lead guitarist on the band's studio albums. Rutherford was one of the main Genesis songwriters throughout their career and wrote the lyrics for some of the band's biggest international hits, such as "Follow You Follow Me", "Turn It On Again", "Land of Confusion" and "Throwing It All Away", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. In addition to his work with Genesis, Rutherford released two solo albums in the early 1980s.
In 1985, he formed the highly-successful band Mike and the Mechanics, which became a chart-topping act and significant live draw in its own right, earned Rutherford an Ivor Novello Award for the 1988 single "The Living Years". Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford was born on 2 October 1950 in Surrey, his father, William Rutherford, was a Royal Navy Captain who became a manager in industry upon his retirement from the service and married his mother Anne. He has Nicolette. Rutherford received his first guitar at the age of 8, played in his first band, The Chesters, named because by they lived near Chester, in the following year, he attended The Leas, a preparatory school in Hoylake, Merseyside before he moved to Charterhouse, a private school in Godalming, Surrey in September 1964. He co-formed the school band Anon with guitarist Anthony Phillips in 1965, after which they split and formed Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse pupils, keyboardist Tony Banks, vocalist Peter Gabriel, Chris Stewart.
Rutherford disliked his time at Charterhouse, was expelled for instances of minor misconduct. Rutherford's playing style has been shaped by his unorthodox performance requirements within Genesis, which from a early date required frequent shifts between instruments. Though his work with bass and guitar has been praised by some critics, he has described his playing as average and said that he considers himself a songwriter first and foremost. Rutherford's bass guitar playing involved the use of a pick and a high-treble setting, he would sometimes employ a harsh, horn-like distortion setting to differentiate the instrument's tone from the rest of the ensemble. In the mid-1970s he would begin to play fretless bass guitar on Genesis songs and would experiment with 8-string bass guitar. Rutherford's rhythm guitar playing was characterised by his use of electric and acoustic 12-string guitars. A distinctive sound of early Genesis recordings was Rutherford's double acoustic 12-string playing intertwined with that of Anthony Phillips or Steve Hackett.
As a rhythm guitar player and writer, Rutherford has favoured melodic, minimalist chords or progressions of single notes, as in Genesis songs "Follow You Follow Me", "Turn It On Again" and "Invisible Touch", or the Mike and the Mechanics song "The Living Years". Rutherford assumed lead guitar duties for Genesis in 1977, he had made occasional lead guitar contributions to Genesis music if they were best played by him, but following the departure of Hackett and the band's decision not to replace him with a new guitarist, despite toying with auditioning new guitarists or using a studio guitarist on... And Then There Were Three... Rutherford assumed all guitarist roles in the recording studio, having felt confident enough to double up on lead guitar as well as bass; as a lead player he has favoured long, melodic tones, bending the notes into plaintive vocal lines. This results in "singable" solos or the creation of sonic atmospheres rather than showy displays of technical prowess. Post-Hackett, he has diversified his rhythm guitar approach beyond his initial twelve-string-based approach.
From an early date, Rutherford played bass pedals both live and in the studio playing simultaneous twelve-string guitar and bass pedal parts in order to cover rhythm and bass parts at the same time. Using a Dewtron "Mister Bassman" bass pedal synthesiser, he had moved onto Moog Taurus bass pedals by the 1976 Trick of the Tail Tour. Rutherford's bass guitar, 12-string guitar, bass pedal playing have featured in different sections of a single Genesis song, "Supper's Ready", "Firth of Fifth" and "The Cinema Show" being good examples of this. Sometimes Rutherford's bass pedals are used to set up a steady drone as the basis for an individual song. In concerts during the first half of the 1970s, Rutherford played a double-necked instrument, custom built from a separate Rickenbacker hollowbody 12-string and 4001 bass. Rickenbacker issued double neck bass/guitar combinations with 4080/6 and 4080/12 models. However, Rutherford assigned the guitar neck to the top position rather than the 4080's stock guitar on bottom.
He had a custom Shergold double-neck made, with the body modified so that each neck could be detached and played as a standard single-neck instrument, or swapped out in favour of alternate halves (allowing the 12-string half to be switched to
Roger Chapman
Roger Maxwell Chapman known as Chappo, is an English rock vocalist. He is best known as a member of the progressive rock band Family, which he joined along with Charlie Whitney, in 1966 and the rock, R&B band Streetwalkers formed in 1974, his idiosyncratic brand of showmanship when performing and vocal vibrato led him to become a cult figure on the British rock scene. Chapman is claimed to have said that he was trying to sing like both Little Richard and his idol Ray Charles. Since the early 1980s he has spent much of his time in Germany and has made occasional appearances there and elsewhere. In Germany, he was awarded an Artist of the Year award during the 1980s, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Chapman was the vocalist for Farinas, who released the single "You'd Better Stop" b/w "I Like It Like That" in August 1964, he moved on to join The Roaring Sixties and were renamed Family in 1966. In 1967 the first single was released, "Scene Through The Eye of a Lens", something of a psychedelic classic.
Chapman wrote most of Family's songs with Charlie Whitney and their debut album Music in a Doll's House was released in 1968. Their bluesy, experimental rock music gained them a reputation as a progressive underground band; the release of Family Entertainment, A Song for Me and Anyway established Family as a fast and loud rock band capable of producing the most intense acoustic music, in the British underground music scene, at that time. Their single The Weaver's Answer from the Family Entertainment album was a hit in 1969. On 28 August 1970 they appeared at the third Isle of Wight Festival. Although the band was popular in UK and Europe, success in the US eluded them and in 1973 they broke up. Chapman formed Chapman-Whitney with Whitney, late in 1973, they signed to the Vertigo label and recorded an album Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers, with a line-up including other members of Family and King Crimson, as well as Nicko McBrain, now with Iron Maiden. Chapman and Whitney morphed their band into Streetwalkers, who were a polished album-oriented rock band who used more white soul than Family had.
They released Downtown Flyers, moving on to record the groove heavy album Red Card, released in the UK in 1976 and remains a much respected album by music fans and the music press. Two more albums followed before the band broke up in 1977, ending eleven years of the Whitney-Chapman musical partnership. In 1979 Chapman recorded his first solo album Chappo, his backing band became known as The Shortlist at this time and he toured Europe extensively. Mike Oldfield's song "Shadow on the Wall" from the album Crises featured Chapman on vocals and became a big hit, he appeared as a guest artist on the second Box of Frogs album Strange Land singing lead vocals on two songs. Chapman went on to record Walking Hybrid and Low Down. Since Chapman has released eleven albums of new and live recordings, his album Hide Go Seek was produced by former Family bassist Jim Cregan and released during May 2009. His appearance on Saturday 21 August 2010 at the Rhythm Festival was billed as: "The farewell performance from Roger Chapman & The Shortlist".
Streetwalkers Reprise K 54017 Downtown Flyers Vertigo 6360 123, Mercury LP SRM-1-1060 Red Card Vertigo 9102 010, Mercury SMR-1-1083, Repertoire REP 47-WP Vicious But Fair Vertigo 9102 012, Mercury LP SRM-1-1135 Streetwalkers Live Vertigo 6641-703 Best of Streetwalkers CD, CA, LP Vertigo 846-661 BBC Radio One Live CD Windsong "Roxianna" b/w "The Crack" Reprise K 14357 - released as Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers "Raingame" b/w "Miller" Vertigo 6059 130 "Daddy Rolling Stone" b/w "Hole in Your Pocket" Vertigo 6059 144 "Chilli Con Carne" b/w "But You're Beautiful" Vertigo 6059 169 Chappo Live in Hamburg Mail Order Magic Hyenas Only Laugh For Fun The Riffburglar Album He Was... She Was... You Was... We Was... Swag Mango Crazy The Shadow Knows Zipper Techno Prisoners Live in Berlin Walking The Cat Strong Songs – The Best Of... Hybrid and Lowdown Kick It Back Under No Obligation King of the Shouters Kiss My Soul A Turn Unstoned? Anthology 1979–98 In My Own Time Rollin' & Tumblin Mystic Chappo-The Loft Tapes, Volume 1: Manchester University 10.3.1979 Mystic Chappo-The Loft Tapes, Volume 2: Rostock 1983 Mystic Chappo-The Loft Tapes, Volume 3: London Dingwalls 15 April 1996 Mystic Chappo-The Loft Tapes, Volume 4: Live at Unca Po's Hamburg 5.3.1982 Mystic One More Time For Peace Mystic Hide Go Seek Hypertension Records First Cut: Chapman-Whitney Streetwalkers, digital rerelease Mystic Records Maybe the last time "Shadow on the Wall" Mike Oldfield with Roger Chapman "How How How" At Rockpalast Wienerworld Family & Friends Angel Air Roger Chapman NME 2009 Roger Chapman Official Appreciation Society Interview on the Leicester Bands website Roger Chapman discography with tracks "Albums by Roger Chapman – Rate Your Music".
Rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved 19 April 2009
