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In 2011 Prog organized for snooker icon Steve Davis to interview Caravan members Pye Hastings and Geoffrey Richardson. To the backdrop of a fireplace alarm going off, the musicians informed the fan about an epic bout of meals poisoning, the Components 1 legend who wished to affix the band, and the second they drunkenly spooled the tape of their new album onto a studio ground.
Laughter. That’s the soundtrack to this assembly of a sporting nice and a prog legend. The very concept that Steve Davis and Caravan can be something apart from sedate is completely ludicrous. How is it attainable that the snooker champion with a repute for being boring, and the Canterbury band who’ve all the time been low key could possibly be something apart from uninteresting collectively? You need to have been there…
The actual fact is that huge Caravan fan Davis interviewing Pye Hastings and Geoffrey Richardson ended up being vastly entertaining. Simply 10 minutes into this relaxed chat, an alarm goes off within the constructing, prompting Davis to inform everybody: “I’m not transferring till I’ve completed my espresso. It value me good cash!”
The alarm carried on sounding all through a lot of what adopted. A lot in order that when it stopped, all of us felt that one thing treasured had been taken away. It additionally prompted Davis to ask about how years of enjoying had affected the Caravan pair’s listening to, which we’ll come to a little bit later.
So, to understand what’s about to comply with, you will have to remember that, regardless of what most individuals would have anticipated, this was a totally satisfying hour. Oh, and the giggles flowed like a torrent of water gushing out of a burst pipe.
DAVIS: I do know it’s the fortieth anniversary of the album In The Land Of Grey And Pink, however can I admit that my favorite Caravan album is For Ladies Who Develop Plump In The Evening?
HASTINGS: You’re a buddy now for all times!
DAVIS: If I ever wish to introduce somebody to the type of unusual music that I favour, then this could be how I’d begin. Each time I play it within the automotive, my foot instantly pumps the accelerator pedal more durable.
RICHARDSON: It was not solely my first album with Caravan, however my first expertise of being in a studio.
HASTINGS: It was a little bit of a departure for us. We had a bassist [Richard Sinclair] who wished to take us in a extra jazz oriented course. He’d left by the point we did For Ladies… and I took the prospect to information the band right into a extra rock type. So lots modified. We really recorded the album, then went out and toured, and after we got here again we re-recorded it. The truth is, second time round we did the entire thing in a single take.
RICHARDSON: I keep in mind we did the unique recordings at Blue Horizon Studios in Chipping Norton. It was the primary time I’d ever been in a studio, and two issues struck me. One was being amazed in any respect the gear, and the second was not fairly believing how a lot this band may drink!
DAVIS: We’re two years off the fortieth anniversary of that album. Are there any recordings round which by no means made it onto the unique that may floor on a reissue?
HASTINGS: There are all the unique recordings we did. The second time we did the album, it was at Decca Studios in London, they usually may nonetheless have the primary tapes there. I do keep in mind one time at Blue Horizon, when all of the engineers had been upstairs consuming. We had been all a bit pissed, and thought it could be enjoyable to attempt to combine the tapes ourselves.
What a large number! We obtained the gear began, and the entire tape simply flew off – whoosh! All around the studio ground. Hundreds of kilos simply mendacity there. We frantically tried to get all of it again collectively earlier than anybody discovered what we’d accomplished.
Really, that jogs my memory of one thing. Richard Sinclair informed me that he met you, Steve, some time again, and when he discovered you had been a Caravan fan, he requested you what your favorite album was. You informed him that it was For Ladies… and he was upset as a result of he’s not on it. When he informed me, I simply thought: ‘Sure. That’s one within the eye for you, Richard!’. He and I all the time had a rivalry.
DAVIS: I don’t keep in mind that in any respect. However then my reminiscence’s actually dangerous. Within the snooker world, individuals all the time ask what I recall concerning the 1985 World Championship last with Dennis Taylor, the one the place it went right down to the black on the final body. I’ve no recollections of it in any respect. Come on, it was 26 years in the past. So much’s occurred since.
RICHARDSON: I’ve met three individuals who performed at Woodstock, they usually don’t keep in mind even being there! It’s been stated that should you keep in mind Woodstock then you definitely couldn’t have been there.
DAVIS: What kind of music had been you listening to within the early 70s?
RICHARDSON: Oh, the likes of Steely Dan, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa and The Beatles.
DAVIS: Do you take heed to younger bands nowadays?
HASTINGS: I’m a magpie; I take heed to every little thing. And all of it impacts on what I write…
RICHARDSON: I’ve to say a very good younger band from Canterbury referred to as Syd Arthur. They’re quirky, however undoubtedly within the Canterbury custom. A few years in the past, I used to be on the Lounge In The Farm Competition in Canterbury, which the Syd Arthurs organise. I had my viola with me, and Radio Kent requested if I’d do A Looking We Shall Go dwell on air.
I didn’t really feel that might work simply with a viola, so I requested this bunch of younger musicians hanging round if any of them knew some Caravan songs. The band had been Syd Arthur. Raven Bush (who’s Kate Bush’s nephew) had his mandolin with him, and stated he knew a great deal of Caravan songs, so we duetted on the spot. And it was good.
DAVIS: If Caravan followers requested you to recreate the sound you had again then, may you do it formulaically?
HASTINGS: If it was an fascinating venture, then we may do it. However I feel it could be a mistake. When you’ve accomplished one thing and it labored, then it’s time to maneuver on. A band ought to lead the followers, not the reverse. In any other case you find yourself going spherical and spherical in circles.
DAVIS: On the same be aware, you will need to all the time face the issue of attempting to introduce new songs into your dwell set, when followers need the outdated favourites. I don’t have the same drawback in snooker, as you by no means repeat something, however how will you cope with this for the Excessive Voltage competition set?
HASTINGS: We discover that when you have favourites at the beginning and finish, then within the center followers will help you fuck round and check out new songs. In order that’s what we’ll do.
DAVIS: I feel you’ll actually get pleasure from Excessive Voltage. I went final yr and there was nice crowd on the Prog stage. It was actually blended as effectively. A variety of younger individuals, which was nice to see.
RICHARDSON: We did a present in Tel Aviv just lately, and there have been a great deal of youngsters within the viewers. That they had all our CDs and knew the phrases to each tune. It was astonishing.
DAVIS: Sure, there appears to be a brand new era moving into your music. You’ve given pleasure to tens of millions of individuals over time, and it carries on.
HASTINGS: You play an instrument, Steve?
DAVIS: Me? No. However my son is an excellent pianist.
HASTINGS: Properly, do you fancy getting up onstage anyway, and enjoying together with us at Excessive Voltage? You possibly can simply stand and appear like you’re strumming a guitar.
DAVIS: Good grief, no! That will be terrible. I’d be so scared. Even simply standing round onstage. I additionally assume the true anoraks within the crowd can be unimpressed and possibly stroll off.
RICHARDSON: Really, we do have one well-known fan who does play. Eddie Jordan, who’s closely concerned in Components 1, in fact. Our reserving agent is aware of him rather well. He referred to as me sooner or later and stated, ‘I’ve obtained your new drummer. Eddie Jordan. He’s a superb drummer. Is aware of all of your songs and is able to go.’
HASTINGS: How about introducing us onstage at Excessive Voltage, Steve?
DAVIS: That I may do, though what I’d say… who is aware of?
RICHARDSON: Possibly you can are available with a snooker cue! Really we’ve had a couple of fascinating individuals introduce us over time…
HASTING: The oddest was Choose Dread, an enormous reggae star within the 70s. He requested if he may introduce us on the Fairfield Halls in Croydon!
DAVIS: Speaking of strange, have there ever been events once you’ve been someplace like a restaurant, and heard one among your songs?
RICHARDSON: That occurred to me at a grocery store in France not so way back. They began enjoying a tune from the Algerian singer Rachid Taha, who’s massive on the market, I stated to my girlfriend: ‘I did all of the string preparations on this.’ She wasn’t in any respect impressed, and informed me to get the buying record out!
DAVIS: You’ve all the time been a working musician, Geoffrey. However you gave up for some time, didn’t you Pye? What occurred?
HASTINGS: In 1980 we obtained hit with tax and VAT payments that our former supervisor hadn’t paid. I used to be so skint that I couldn’t pay up. So I obtained a job as a labourer with a building firm. A number of months later they moved me into the workplace. After which I started my very own plant rent firm referred to as Molequip. We handled large mechanical moles for tunnelling. Then sooner or later, I picked up a guitar once more, and realised that I wished to play.
DAVIS: Did anybody recognise you when you away from the band?
HASTINGS: A man working with one among these moles in a gap requested me my title. It took 20 minutes to get him to know that Pye was my title, and he stated: ‘What type fucking title is that?’ He then requested me what I accomplished prior to now. So I informed him I’d been in a band referred to as Caravan and he stated: ‘By no means heard of them!’ However you want that form of comedown typically to maintain your ego in examine.
DAVIS: You’ve by no means been mainstream…
HASTINGS: I’d prefer to have been mainstream.
RICHARDSON: Really, I feel it’s labored in our favour. As a result of our spirit comes from the fortitude we’ve had from being various.
DAVIS: This may sound bizarre, however in snooker you’ll be able to go for a bathroom break on the finish of every body. Even within the center should you’re caught brief. Have you ever ever had an issue like that onstage?
RICHARDSON: One event involves thoughts. It was years in the past. We’d simply come from a profitable American tour, and we needed to drive up from Canterbury to do a present at Birmingham City Corridor. We stopped off at a pub in North London. I stayed within the van, however the others went in to have a pint and a few cottage pie.
HASTINGS: All of us obtained meals poisoning from the pie, and went onstage feeling actually ailing. Richard Coughlan was throwing up right into a bucket by his drumkit.
RICHARDSON: A few songs into the set I needed to inform the bought out crowd that we could not stick with it, as a result of I used to be the one one nonetheless okay.
HASTINGS: What we learnt that day was that we should always all have completely different meals, to keep away from the identical factor taking place once more!
DAVIS: I had a repute for being boring, and one factor I considered was attempting to make myself extra mysterious by sporting a wrestler’s masks, and never doing interviews. I puzzled: should you may do all of it once more, what would you do otherwise and who would you do it over?
HASTINGS: The tune If I Might Do It All Over Once more, I’d Do It All Over You really has two meanings. The apparent one, and ‘over you’ can even imply ‘due to you.’ The fantastic thing about our language…
RICHARDSON: I’d prefer to have had an older head on younger shoulders. The cash we obtained via and the cash we by no means noticed is ridiculous. However with out what we went via a few of the songs Pye wrote about particular incidents and other people would by no means have occurred.
Caravan had been all the time floaty and disorganised. That’s what we had been meant to be. We had a bassist at one time referred to as John Perry, who was very collectively and all the time walked round with a briefcase. He used to wind individuals up terribly resulting from his enterprise sense. Properly, he’s now doing effectively in company finance. Nevertheless it was all the time written that Caravan must be victims of dangerous enterprise selections.
DAVIS: One yr when the draw for the primary spherical of the World Championship was dwell on TV, I used to be there with Ray Reardon, one other outdated champion. And there was a younger man who’d certified the earlier night. He obtained Jimmy White or Stephen Hendry within the first spherical, somebody excellent, and stated he was gonna flip up in a limo sporting a shiny waistcoat.
I informed him that the strain he’d be below was so intense that he must be low key. He agreed, but nonetheless got here in a limo sporting a waistcoat made out of mirrors. He obtained slaughtered. My level is that he was younger sufficient to easily ignore any recommendation. Do you assume you’d have listened to older and wiser individuals within the Nineteen Seventies?
HASTINGS: No method. You by no means do, as a result of it’s like taking recommendation out of your dad. My spouse would commonly inform me that this deal or that deal was flawed, and I’d ignore her. what? She was proper each time. I’ve to carry my palms up and make an apology.
DAVIS: Have you ever gone deaf via enjoying dwell for thus lengthy?
HASTINGS: Pardon? Ha ha! My listening to has deteriorated, however extra resulting from age than anything.
RICHARDSON: I had a listening to check very just lately and my ears are high-quality.
DAVIS: Is it loud onstage?
HASTINGS: Really, you’re listening to music via amps that are about 100 watts every. The PA system blasting out to the followers may be as much as 35,000 watts, so the viewers must be extra deaf than the band.
DAVIS: What does the longer term maintain for Caravan?
HASTINGS: Much more touring; I actually love doing that.
DAVIS: Fuelled by Sanatogen?
RICHARDSON: Nah. By high-quality wine…
HASTINGS: And tea.
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