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a mutual friend Jeff met and started playing in a band with a shit hot guitarist by the
name of Scott Biaggi when after a short while they decided to change the bass player in I
stepped, different players seemed to come and go all the time and if memory serves me
right I think even Jeff was in and out of the band back then. |
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shape of the band really started to take shape when we put an ad in one of the music
papers for a rhythm guitarist and a certain Pete Franklin turned up with his beat up
Telecaster and string for a guitar strap! Thinking about it now even then he was a
control freak! We ended up playing songs he had written, makes me wonder who was
auditioning who his energy, personality and beer drinking ability made sure he got the job
and we set about trying to become Rock Stars. My ambitions as a musician were
fairly simple ones. The first goal that really springs to mind was to play
Hammersmith Odeon , when I was a teenager it seems I was there every week watching Thin
Lizzy, Priest, Sabbath, AC/DC, etc. I would stand there dreaming…one day.
In retrospect our lack of image (remember it was the eighties!) together with the
‘Don’t give a shit’ attitude may have harmed our chances of any real
success. When you came to see Chariot as a
live band what you see is what you get and we really didn’t give a shit! Just
give us the beer and point us to the stage and we were happy we were one of the lucky
ones. |
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Although
that major record deal always seemed to elude us we had one heavyweight fighting our
corner. Mike Shannon was the owner of Shades a fantastic little record shop in the
heart of London’s Soho. Mike came to see us live a few times and decided he
believed in us enough to back us with one of the most important commodity any aspiring
band needs…. Money. Mike set up Shades Records and put us in the studio where
we recorded and released two albums, ‘The Warrior’ and ‘Burning
Ambition’ and a great video entitled ‘Live at the Marquee’. The video
especially portrayed exactly what we were like back then, raw and rockin’ with no
wimpy overdubs! Both albums and the video (DVD) have recently been re-released
through Majestic Rock and have released the fire in all our bellies. |
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It was
fairly soon after that though that I started to get a bit disillusioned with it all, not
with the band but the music scene in general so after a lot of hard thinking and a heavy
heart I got together with the boys and told them my decision to jack it in, not just leave
the band but also hang up the bass completely. They understood and respected my
decision. Chariot carried on the change over and it went fairly smoothly. It
wasn’t long before the bass playing duties ended up with an excellent player by the
name of Tony Newton who formed a strong partnership with Pete over the subsequent years. I wasn’t quite sure how to react when
Pete asked if I fancied playing on a couple of songs on this solo album he was trying to
put together. It was about a year ago and pet and I was at a pub in Romford watching
Jeff play in one of the many bands he’s played in over the years. I think my
initial reaction was something like “You’ve gotta be joking, I have not even
picked up a bass for about ten years!” |
If any of you out there know Mr Franklin then you know how persuasive he
can be, plus he’s one of those mad control freaks and he’s a nightmare if he
doesn’t get his own way! Anyway, as the night wore on and the beer flowed we
watched Jeff up there cranking it out I thought well…how could I say no? So I
dusted off the old Fender Precision I tried to get the fingers on my left hand working
again and you know what, it really is like riding a bike. It was still a daunting
prospect for me I wasn’t sure if I was in the same league as these blokes after all
this time. Pete’s playing and writing has improved immeasurably over the years
(just listen to the last Deeds album ‘Blown’ and sees what I mean).
Jeff is still a
class act, a real Rock drummer and when he said he was bringing Paul Lane to the rehearsal
studio…. Well, Paul is just a great technical player whose talent and hair has never
received the recognition it deserved. Although his hair is getting plenty of
recognition now! (Anita’ it mate? Ha Ha!) The rehearsals went well, better than
well, they were great, we still knew how to rock!
So here we go
again, older and a lot wiser. We have been recording in the studio with a real
top-notch bunch of songs (I think we’re gonna surprise a few people this time!), for
an album titled ‘Behind the Wire.’ In the meantime Mike Shannon has been
working his arse off for the band (just like old times eh’ Mike?), getting together a
couple of compilation albums which can be bought through this website.
Anyway,
that’s it for now; hope to see you all ‘banging’ down the front soon!!!
John |
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