The friendship that has blossomed between former enemies Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn over the past decade is truly one of the most heart-warming kiss-and-make-up stories of our time. The Oasis leader and Blur frontman were famous foes as their bands blew up big in the 90s and they found themselves embroiled in the Battle Of Britpop.
But as you get older, sometimes you forget whilst you didn’t like people, or remember it was for no reason at all, and since 2012 Albarn and the elder Gallagher have become fast friends and collaborators. A few years ago, Gallagher recalled to Q how it happened.
“We literally bumped into each other at some bar one night,” he explained. “Literally at the bar. I think I was getting served first, I got him a drink and it went from there.”
Gallagher ended up appearing as guest vocalist and guitarist on the 2017 Gorillaz song We Got The Power, also joining the group on the tour to support its parent album Humanz, but he said he couldn’t recall specifically the moment Albarn had approached him about working on music together.
“I don’t remember asking to be on a Gorillaz record,” he stated. “I do remember being at [Clash bassist and sometime-Gorillaz member] Paul Simonon’s one night and “it” being discussed. He was supposed to play on Who Built The Moon? [Gallagher’s third solo album, also released in 2017] but we couldn’t make the timings work. Maybe next time. If you’d told my younger self that he’d one day be singing on a record by Damon Albarn he would have laughed and probably said, ‘If either of you are still going it’ll be a fucking miracle – a sick joke that will fascinate speccy, Guardian-reading journalists for years.’”
Gallagher said he always enjoyed being in the company of Albarn and his crew. “I really love working and hanging out with that mob. Not just Damon, but all his people. It turned out we had a lot of mutual friends and they’re all cool as fuck.”
Watch Gallagher perform We Got The Power live with Albarn, Gorillaz and former Savages singer Jehnny Beth below:
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Gorillaz – We Got The Power / LIVE with Noel Gallagher & Jehnny Beth on The Graham Norton Show – YouTube
Vincent Cavanagh has been quietly operating as The Radicant since 2017, but he’s finally gone public with it three years after the dissolution of his old band, Anathema. Debut EP We Ascend swaps sweeping, guitar-led rock for textured electronics and glitchy experimentalism – although it’s still recognisable as the work of one of the musicians behind albums such as We’re Here Because We’re Here and Distant Satellites. As Cavanagh tells Prog, music is just the tip of the artistic iceberg.
What is The Radicant? Band? Art project? Something else?
The Radicant is my artistic alias, if you like. From a practical standpoint, it’s the name I use for all of my audio-visual output. It started off as an exploration in composing for different media and technology, which allowed me the freedom to work in different, interdisciplinary techniques that were new to me. And at the moment, it’s a commercial music project because I’m releasing records.
You started The Radicant in 2017, before Anathema split, but you kept it under the radar until now. Why?
I’ve been doing work and collaborations since 2017 that have informed the music I eventually put out. In terms of public appearances, I played live in a south London gallery in 2018 – it was the soundtrack to an augmented reality piece combined with sculpture and music.
I recently did a collaboration with Sarah [Derat, artist and Vincent’s partner/collaborator], which was an audio installation at the Castor Gallery in north London.
Not everything that I do is going to get released to the public – I guess to fully understand it, you maybe have to come to some of the future exhibitions.
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What is a ‘radicant’?
It’s a name that was given to me by a friend of ours, an art curator. She described this shift into composition in different media and artistic disciplines as “a radicant move.” ‘Radicant’ itself is a botanical term – it describes organisms that create new roots as they advance, which means they can adapt and grow.
An art curator/critic called Nicolas Bourriaud wrote a book with the same name, and he discussed how individuals and cultures are constantly uprooted and in flux all the time. He used it as a metaphor for how artists can see themselves in a more connected world – there’s no single route that you come from; your origins are always multiple.
THE RADICANT – ZERO BLUE (NSS Mix) – Official Video – YouTube
Anathema ended in 2021, during Covid. What happened?
I chose to leave. The truth is that it had been in the post for a very long time. I’d come to the realisation that I had no other way forward with it, and that I had to set off on my own, as tough a decision as it was.
I felt a huge amount of responsibility for everyone else and the legacy and history of the band – but it was time for me to focus on myself, this project, my plans with Sarah. It was a very difficult, painful, sad time for everyone.
Anathema were a band. This is just you. Liberating or scary?
It’s scary in any walk of life to leave something that’s all you’ve ever known and to take that leap into the unknown. But the actual work itself is completely liberating. I’m able to produce work that there’s no way I would have had any kind of freedom to do in Anathema. People presume the lead singer is responsible for writing the music and is the leader of the band, and none of that was ever true in Anathema. I just fell into it and kept it going.
People presume the lead singer is writing the music and is the leader of the band – none of that was true in Anathema
But now I have the freedom to authentically be myself and put something across that’s exactly how I wish to be perceived, as opposed to being the guy fronting that band with the leather jacket and the guitar. In all honesty, that wasn’t me.
You scrapped a whole album as The Radicant. Why?
This was in 2021. I had the whole thing written. I’d recorded drums with [Anathema’s] Daniel Cardoso in 2019 and I’d recorded the vocals. There weren’t many guitars on it, but it felt like a continuation of what I’d done previously; it was a bit too ‘rock’-ish. I was, like, “I’m not sure this is the right move.” So I scrapped it. Then I met [French co-producer/mixer] Ténèbre and started working with him. I passed him a song and that became We Ascend. I knew it was going to work right away.
There are no guitars on the new EP. Why not? You are a guitarist, after all.
I don’t think I’ve played guitar at home for years. I can’t even remember the last time I did it. I’ve got guitars right in front of me in my studio, but I never reach for them. I don’t know why that is. I’m a guitarist, but maybe I just got bored of it.
You’re working on a full-length album. How does it move things on from the EP?
I think it’s going to be more upbeat. A lot of the tracks on the EP are a slow-burn; they build. The album is a bit more immediate in certain parts. It’ll have clues and callbacks within the tracks, and also callbacks to the EP – people will hear something and say, “Where does that come from?”
If I’m asked to DJ somewhere I can do it, or if there’s a traditional gig I can have as many musicians as I like
But I grew up listening to albums that were designed to be listened to in one sitting – The Beatles, Pink Floyd. The EP is constructed like that, and the album will be the same. Not necessarily a narrative, but something that’s connected musically and emotionally.
Are you going to be playing live?
Yeah. I want it to be a modular setup; if I’m asked to DJ somewhere I can do it, or if there’s a traditional gig I can have as many musicians as I like – even six or seven. But I’d absolutely love to play or tour with a band.
I’ve got an amazing drummer, Ben Brown from [London jazz-experimentalists] Waaju and Charlie Cawood playing upright bass; I’ve got Amy Woods, the classical soprano, who sings on the EP; and Sarah is a brilliant singer, too – she sings on the EP and the album. It feels like anything is possible.
Poison drummer Rikki Rockett has looked back on his band’s classic album Open Up And Say … Ahh!, recalling that Walmart initially refused to carry the LP in its stores.
The issue came down to the album’s cover art, which featured a wild, tribal-like figure with a long tongue. During an appearance on The Motley Croc Show, Rockett revealed how the image came together.
“So my buddy Mark Williams, God rest his soul, built that tongue,” Rockett explained. “And it was a prosthetic, obviously. So we had this model. We did this photo session with this one photographer, and the label said it was too mild. We’re, like, ‘Okay.’ It just kind of looked like this rock girl with his long tongue and her hair pumped up and she had very dramatic makeup on, but it wasn’t shocking enough.”
Poison kept the concept, but went to rock photographer Neil Zlozower to further build on the idea.
“[Bassist] Bobby Dall and I, we got his girlfriend Bambi and we started doing all those stripes on her and did all this stuff. And she had contacts — we had her get the contacts — and then we just kind of did her up, Bobby and I did. And then we did that tongue and everything like that. And everybody loved it, thought it was fricking great.”
Walmart, however, didn’t share the band’s enthusiasm.
Walmart Claimed Poison’s Cover ‘Represented a Demonic Figure’
“Walmart rejected it — Walmart,” Rockett confirmed. “So Wally [Walmart founder Sam Walton], he was alive at the time, said it represented a demonic figure and he didn’t want it.”
Poison and their team were left with a difficult decision.
“So we sat down with management and the label. And, really, at the end of the day, it was like, are we in the album cover business or are we in the music business?” Rockett explained. “Really, we should be able to just make a green cover or a white cover with nothing and put our music out, if that’s what we need to do. Our goal was to get our music out. What’s our percentage of sales at Walmart? Does it matter? Well, it’s 38 percent, sometimes 40 percent of your sales. At that time, man, people were just going through Walmart and going, ‘I’m getting my records here. I’m getting my records here.’ It was cheaper than going to the record store by a certain percentage. So the percentage of people buying records at Walmart was high. And we’re, like, ‘Are we gonna throw away 35 to 40 percent of our market share, getting our music into the hands of fans, or are we gonna gripe about it and fight with Walmart?’ And so it just didn’t make sense.”
A censored cover was eventually agreed upon, allowing Walmart to stock the LP. Released in April 1988, Open Up And Say … Ahh! went on to sell more than 5 million copies in the U.S.A.
Top 100 ’80s Rock Albums
UCR takes a chronological look at the 100 best rock albums of the ’80s.
Matt James and Matt “Catt” Murtis of Blacktop Mojo have shared the following video of their new acoustic jam, “The Matt And Catt New Year’s Spectacular”:
In live news, Shaman’s Harvest and Blacktop Mojo will be coming to The UK next year on a very eagerly anticipated and long awaited tour! Confirmed dates are as follows:
March 5 – Bristol, UK – Fleece 6 – Southampton, UK – The 1865 7 – London, UK – O2 Academy Islington 8 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Institute2 12 – Manchester, UK – Rebellion 13 – Glasgow, UK – Cathouse 14 – Newcastle, UK – Anarchy Brew 15 – Sheffield, UK – Corporation 19 – Belfast, UK – Limelight 2 20 – Dublin, Ireland – The Academy 21 – Cork, Ireland – Cyprus Avenue 23 – Swansea, UK – Sin City 26 – Buckley, UK – The Tivoli 27 – Derby, UK – Hairy Dog 28 – Norwich, UK – The Waterfront 29 – Brighton, UK – The Arch
For further details, visit Blacktop Mojo on Facebook.
Peter Gabriel is among the musicians paying tribute to former US President Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100.
In a post headed “What a man! What a life! What a loss!”, Gabriel says, “President Jimmy Carter was a truly extraordinary man and a rare politician who always stood up and spoke out for idealism, compassion and human rights and particularly for the rights of women and those who suffered real oppression.
“He was always there to support those whose struggles had gone unseen or unheard, a champion for the homeless with yearly visits house building with Habitat for Humanity, he was the flag-bearer for so many minorities.
“He championed those with rare diseases whose cures would never make much money for big pharma. Some killer diseases, like Guinea Worm and River Blindness, the Carter Centre had a critical role in eradicating from many countries.
“He also, endlessly, campaigned for the right to proper representation, to free and fair elections in so many fledgling democracies and, closer to home, he proudly stood behind all Rosalyn’s [Carter’s late wife] work prioritising and bringing mental health out of the shadows.”
Gabriel went on to talk about The Elders, the non-governmental organisation of Global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007. The NGO, which Gabriel and businessman Richard Branson initially drove, benefitted from Carter’s influence and ability to open doors.
“He then became one of the most active and influential Elders since its creation, travelling to Darfur, Israel and Palestine, North Korea, the Cote d’Ivoire and South Sudan,” says Gabriel. “At all the meetings, however many years he had on his belt, he was always one of the first out exercising and retained his extraordinary sharp mind full of facts, experience and history with an engineer’s passion for precision.”
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Other musicians to have paid tribute to Carter include Heart‘s Nancy Wilson, who called him “an incredible bridge between policy and our humanity” and Drive-by Truckers, who said, “All our love and warm thoughts are with the great Jimmy Carter and his wonderful family and all of those who love and admire that greatest of great men. 98+ years of making this world a better place.”
Jimmy Carter love of music was captured in the 2020 documentary Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, which explored how this passion gave him an unlikely edge as a presidential candidate, when he would call on bands like the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, James Brown, Jimmy Buffet and the Charlie Daniels Band to raise campaign funds at benefit shows.
Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Toy Caldwell, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter and Marshall Tucker Band guitarist George McCorkle during a pre-concert reception for the governor at the Stouffer’s Hotel on October 31, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia (Image credit: Tom Hill/WireImage)
“It was The Allman Brothers helped put me in the White House,” said Carter, “by raising money when I didn’t have any money.”
Once elected, Carter regularly invited musicians to the White House to perform, including Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Dolly Parton, Charles Mingus and Willie Nelson – who famously claimed to have smoked marijuana on the roof of the building – as well as Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock.
Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
Ken Mary, a seasoned session drummer with an impressive resume spanning iconic acts like Alice Cooper, Accept, Flotsam And Jetsam, House Of Lords, Bonfire, Impelliterri, Don Dokken, and Fifth Angel – to name a few – has once again proven his dedication to the craft. This time, his work pays homage to one of rock’s greatest drum legends, Neil Peart of Rush, through a remarkable series titled “The Neil Peart Experiment”.
Today, Ken releases a remarkable live rendition of the band’s classic, “Tom Sawyer”. But Ken didn’t envision this as just another drum cover. It’s the culmination of an ambitious experiment, driven by both respect and artistic challenge.
Dubbed “The Neil Peart Experiment”, Mary’s project was born out of a challenge posed by a fellow drummer during the isolating days of the COVID lockdown. The task was deceptively simple in concept: strip the drum tracks from Rush’s recordings, and then recreate them as closely as possible to the original recording. However, there were rules. The performance had to be recorded in a continuous single pass, without any editing, sampling, or post-production fixes. It was an audacious goal, considering the original songs were not laid down to a click track, meaning their tempos naturally shifted — a unique hallmark of Rush’s sound.
Reflecting on the challenge, Mary explains, “I know to people that have not recorded in the studio, this just looks like some guy playing the song. However, trying to duplicate the track as exactly as was more difficult than I imagined. I had to learn the fills and grooves as Neil played them back then, as he did change them slightly over the years. Then I had to know where the band surged or pulled back, so I could lock to the existing guitars and bass seamlessly with no editing, and again in one continuous pass.”
The complexity of this experiment cannot be overstated, as Mary himself notes: “Again, they didn’t use a click track. If anyone else wants to try this experiment, please do! [laughs]. But remember the rules! I have my individual GoPro video and audio to prove this was all recorded in one pass with no editing or enhancement. I hope Neil would have been pleased with this ‘experiment,’ and the fact that another artist would make the effort to record these songs, and to get them as close as possible using the original methods he used at that time.”
Mary is quick to emphasize that his tribute is not about financial gain or self-promotion. “These are purely instructional videos, and they are NOT monetized on YouTube,” he clarifies. Instead, the project is a labor of love and a sincere nod to Peart’s genius.
Watch the previous videos for “YYZ” and “Freewill”:
Starting his professional career at just 15 in Seattle, Washington, Ken Mary has left a lasting mark on rock and metal. He appears six times in the Guinness Book of Who’s Who in Heavy Metal, (second addition), with a variety of artists. Whether behind the drum kit, in the producer’s chair, or working as a writer, Mary’s contributions span decades and genres. His discography and collaborations paint a vivid picture of a musician whose influence transcends his instrument. His drumming has powered acts such as Alice Cooper, The Beach Boys, and Accept, while his session work boasts credits with artists like Don Dokken, Kip Winger, and Jordan Rudess.
His music, collectively, has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Reflecting on his studio work, mega-platinum producer Michael Wagener, known for his work with Metallica and Janet Jackson, notes: “Ken Mary is a brilliant session and live player. Whether it is blazing fast, precise technical playing or just a great sense of groove you need, he’s your guy. One of the best.”
Mary’s approach to drumming is a blend of technical prowess and adaptability. Inspired by legends like Buddy Rich, Neil Peart, and John Bonham, his playing ranges from intricate double bass fills that set a benchmark in metal to smooth grooves suitable for jazz. Early in his career, Mary established himself as a trailblazer, particularly in metal drumming, with his innovative techniques on recordings with Alice Cooper, House of Lords, and Bonfire. A review in Modern Drummer described his impact on the first House of Lords album: “A major reason for their originality, if not the major reason, is Ken Mary’s drumming. Unquestionably, he is the best hard rock drummer in America today. Nobody plays like Ken Mary.”
Even among legends, Mary’s talent has been celebrated. Famed producer Andy Johns, known for his work with Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, praised Mary’s skills during their collaboration on “Can’t Find My Way Home.”
Bassist Chuck Wright recalls: “After Ken recorded a very Bonham-inspired drum track, Andy grabbed Ken, said to him repeatedly, ‘You and Bonham, man, you and Bonham.’” For Mary, such recognition from Johns—who had a reputation for firing high-profile drummers—remains a career highlight.
In addition to his drumming, Mary has excelled as a writer and producer. His experience working alongside music legends like Terry Brown (Rush), Michael Wagener, and Desmond Child has shaped his multifaceted approach to music. In 2003, he founded SonicPhish Productions, a world-class recording studio where he has continued to push creative boundaries. Recent projects include producing Flotsam And Jetsam’s album I Am The Weapon and Fifth Angel’s When Angels Kill, showcasing his enduring relevance in a rapidly evolving industry.
The Dead Daises have released Part 3 of their 2024 recap video series. Watch below.
Says the band: “Following on from the second instalment of our Epic 2024, here’s the final episode featuring the Fab Five on the European leg of our Light ‘Em Up Tour! Check out the fun & antics!!”
Watch Parts 1 & 2 below:
The Dead Daisies’ new album, Light ‘Em Up, lands at #29 on our BravePicks 2024 Top 30. Follow the countdown here. The release is available to order here.
Light ‘Em Up tracklisting:
“Light ‘Em Up” “Times Are Changing” “I Wanna Be Your Bitch” “I’m Gonna Ride” “Back To Zero” “Way Back Home” “Take A Long Line” “My Way And The Highway” “Love That’ll Never Be” “Take My Soul”
As 2024 comes to a close, Royal Hunt discloses the details about their next release and performance schedule for 2025.
According to their statement on Facebook, the band is currently in the final stages of preparing a brand-new EP. The release promises a compelling mix of content. Fans can look forward to unplugged material, live recordings and also new tracks. Moreover, some exclusive surprises yet to be revealed.
To celebrate the upcoming release, Royal Hunt intends to embark on a series of live performances, beginning in late March 2025. Among the dates confirmed is their appearance at Epic Fest (DK). They will announce the additional shows in the coming months.
The band shared: “As we’re approaching the end of this year and welcoming the arrival of the next one, here’s what Royal Hunt have in store for you: We’re on the final stages of preparing our next release: an EP containing some new, some “live” and some unplugged material… with some bonuses… more details will follow.
“We’d also like to support its release with a bunch of live dates, probably starting around late March (Epic Fest has already been announced). All-in-all, there’s definitely something for us to do – and for you to enjoy – in 2025, so here we go again: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”
Royal Hunt is a power / progressive metal band from Denmark. The name Royal Hunt appeared for the first time in 1989; a brainchild of André Andersen (main songwriter in the band) this outfit was created in order to combine basic values of classic rock with progressive, current musical elements. Today, after selling around 1.8 million albums and touring the world numerous times, the band is still going strong.
Lineup:
André Andersen – keyboards DC Cooper – vocals Andreas Passmark – bass Jonas Larsen – guitars Andreas “Habo” Johansson – drums
666 Days With The Beast, the book on the final years of former Iron Maiden singer, Paul Di’Anno, is set to be adapted into a feature film.
Paul’s friend and manager, Stjepan Juras, shared the news via social media, writing, “The first offer to adapt my book about Paul into a feature film arrived.”
In 666 Days With The Beast, Stjepan Juras tells an incredible story about the fight for Paul’s life and his attempt to return him to where he belongs; to a great constellation of musical legends. This story depicts the battle of all of Paul’s friends and fans, who tried in every possible way to give the musical legend a dignified life and who faced many challenges in the process. The story depicts the long journey to Paul’s reunion with Rod Smallwood, Steve Harris and later with many others, including Bruce Dickinson. It also shows the extremely demanding treatments and surgeries, the Beast Resurrection Tour around the world and everything that happened along the way. This hardcover book with a mammoth 416 pages and a large number of photographs is an incredible document of the time, which shows the difficult battle for health, the fight with his own demons, a surprise return to the stage, the recording of the album with Warhorse, the world tour and some of the moments that marked music history.<
The test version of this book was released by a combination of circumstances exactly on the day of Paul’s death, but the final edition includes the author’s obituary for Paul on the last pages of this book. This book, in the form of a trilogy, covers the last three years of Paul’s life and reveals to us a completely new world that has been little or rarely talked about. Paul at the same time desired this book, but at the same time feared its contents, and when you get your hands on it, you will understand why. You will read this book with a heavy heart and you will get a real insight into what it is like to struggle with mental and physical difficulties, with all the ups and downs. There are only a little over a hundred copies of the original edition of the book left for sale, which will be gone very quickly and will no longer be available. All books will be shipped to customers worldwide, starting Wednesday, December 18th.
“I wasn’t fired, they just didn’t call me back. I didn’t even get a note from David saying it’s time to move on”: The unlikely story of George Murray, the David Bowie bassist who became a school superintendent
George Murray onstage with David Bowie on the Thin White Duke tour(Image credit: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images)
George Murray, one of the most enigmatic figures in a David Bowie story that’s been told and retold countless times, was plucked from relative obscurity in September ’75 to apply his singular bass-playing skills to Golden Years.
Providing a pivotal sonic bridge between the slick Philadelphia soul of Young Americans and the harsher rock-literate funk of Station To Station, Golden Years gave Bowie his twelfth UK Top 20 hit single and, over the next four years, Murray was a central cog in Bowie’s rhythm section (the so-called D.A.M. Trio with drummer Dennis Davis and guitarist Carlos Alomar) underpinning Station To Station, its subsequent Low/‘Heroes’/Lodger Berlin Trilogy, Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), ’76 and 1978’s Isolar and Isolar II world tours, and Iggy Pop’s transformative, Bowie-produced ’77 post-Stooges ‘comeback’ album The Idiot.
At this point, Bowie was arguably at his peak, embracing myriad new sounds and new styles, consuming and reconstituting hitherto alien musical genres into visionary, punk-adjacent, future-proof pop. Inveigling – alongside Brian Eno – ambient electronic music into the heart of the mainstream, and making the role of Thomas Jerome Newton his own in Nicolas Roeg’s film The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Nothing appeared to be beyond late-70s Bowie. But, as George Murray found to his ultimate cost, Bowie harboured one crucial character flaw: he was more than a little deficient in the field of human resource management. Specifically, the hiring and firing of staff.
“What drew me to the bass was the magnetic nature of early rock’n’roll,” Murray begins. “I started developing a fascination with music when I was a young teenager. I was infatuated with it. But when I first started out I wanted to be a drummer.”
Murray took drumming lessons but “couldn’t possibly afford the kind of kits the Dave Clark Five and The Beatles were playing on TV. There’s no way that I’d ever be able to get one of those by shovelling snow and cutting grass. So I bought a bass.”
Cobbling together a rig composed of a Hagstrom early issue short-scale bass and a Guild Thunder bass amp “with two twelve-inch speakers and a little head on top that looked like a robot”, George (carted around by his parents), rehearsed and gigged in and around New York City with various band line-ups, gradually honing his craft.
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Eventually, as is so often the case in such stories, destiny came calling. While speaking to a former Western Union work colleague, he was asked: “Do you want a gig?” Soul singer George McCrae (hot from having sold 11 million copies of his ’74 debut single Rock Your Baby), needed a touring band. Murray auditioned, was accepted, and within 48 hours was out on the road. From a Toronto debut, through two European tours in a Volkswagen bus, to South America, Murray, “acting like a brat”, earned his touring spurs before being finally disgorged into the humdrum reality of home.
Back living with his parents in Queens, he decided to go back to school. Following an unsuccessful audition for the Manhattan School of Music on upright bass, he enrolled at Bronx Community College. There, a fellow student recommended he meet Dennis Davis, a drummer of his acquaintance who was apparently “excellent… You’ve gotta play with him”.
“So Dennis and I started playing together,” Murray continues. “And it was through Dennis that I met Carlos [Alomar, guitarist], who I worked with in his band Listen My Brother.”
Listen My Brother were a big deal, early musical regulars on ubiquitous educational kids TV show Sesame Street, and Alomar was connected; he’d been in both The Main Ingredient and the house band at the Harlem Apollo. “I was enamoured of both of these individuals,” Murray remembers of Davis and Alomar. “I liked playing with them, they were good folks and we had fun. I also knew they’d worked with David [Bowie]. This was right around the time of the Young Americans tour [1974].”
When Alomar and Davis returned from the tour (both having played on Bowie’s Young Americans album), “I was playing with them around lower Manhattan and having a grand old time, going to school at Bronx Community College and driving a Yellow cab on the side to make a little extra money. And then, in September ’75, I received a call from Dennis. He said: ‘David Bowie’s looking for a new bass player, are you interested?’ Well, he didn’t have to ask me twice.”
(Image credit: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)
Three days and one long-distance flight later, Murray met Bowie in a rehearsal studio on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles and they immediately set to work on Golden Years.
“It was a live audition. I wasn’t offered anything except to come and do a few recordings, and that was where we started. Golden Years is still one of my favourite songs. There’s a certain feel to it that’s part of its magic, it just takes you and pulls you with it without being obtrusive, it just grooves along.
“The second song we rehearsed was Station To Station, the actual song, which was completely different from Golden Years and constructed of different parts. When he rolled out its first part, he played the piano chords for about eight measures and gave me the rhythm and timing of the bass line.
“When we finally came to record its rhythm track [at LA’s Cherokee Studios] it was Carlos, Dennis and myself, with maybe David on piano.”
Was Earl Slick there?
“I don’t remember… Anyway, we recorded the whole thing as one piece because that’s the way we rehearsed it. It was three or four movements put together as one composition, a ten-minute song that starts slowly and then takes off. It set the tone for the whole album and the 1976 tour, which it also opened.
“I remember watching audiences with their mouths open as David hit his spot. Setting the stage with a long, drawn-out intro, through the second movement – ‘Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high’ – and then, as it hit the ‘It’s not the side-effects of the cocaine’ line, all the white lights hit you. It was an amazing piece of music.”
Guitarist Earl Slick revealed that the use of chemical stimulants was a key element of the creative process of the Station To Station album, so might we say that the song itself was a side-effect of the cocaine?
“My experience with cocaine came a lot later, but in all honesty some of it showed up here and there. I don’t know what anybody else’s experience was, but it did take a long time for David to do those rhythm tracks. My experience with rhythm tracks before I did Station To Station were you’d come in, do them and move on. You’d be on a budget and do as much as you could in the time allotted. So five weeks to do six rhythm tracks? That was unheard of for me.
“So yes, there was some partying going on, where cocaine was readily available, but my problems with cocaine started a little later than that, still within the time that I was working with David, but not while I was performing with him. I don’t recall ever performing while being impaired by drugs or even alcohol. Only because what was required of me, to replicate or to create the things that he needed, required all of my attention and creativity.”
Even as the Station To Station sessions drew to their close, Murray remained on his best behaviour.
“As far as I was concerned I was still involved in a live audition, almost all the way to the end of the album, so I just concentrated on whether the bass parts fit together with how the rhythm worked, keeping David happy. I wasn’t making waves anywhere.”
It seemed that no one was ever going to put him out of his misery as to whether he was actually the new Bowie bassist or simply a convenient session player for a single project.
“It eventually became clear that David was happy with the product, and he started talking about a world tour,” Murray resumes. “He’d spoken to everyone but me. I’d heard nothing, neither directly nor via his business manager, and I’m stressed about this.”
George Murray at Wembley Arena, London 03 May 1976 (Image credit: Ian Dickson/Redferns)
“One evening an opportunity arose for me to ask Carlos. Now, I’d known since before working with David that Carlos was a practising Buddhist, and the sect he followed was Nichiren Buddhism, the ones that chant ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ for happiness, individual and world peace, and he told me: ‘Chant these words – “Nam-myohorenge-kyo” – and something will change.’ So I said okay, and in my solitude later that evening started chanting for a few minutes and it felt better, so I left it at that.
“Nothing happened the next day, but the day after, I’m going in one direction and [Bowie’s day-to-day manager] Pat Gibbons is going in the other, and as we passed he said: ‘George, are you doing anything between January and June next year?’ I said no, and he said: ‘Good, David wants you on the tour. So I’ll see you later.’ I was flabbergasted.
“So I started practising more and more, and I’ve continued over the years. And I’d have to say that of all the benefits I got from my six years of working with David Bowie – two world tours, fabulous albums, critical acclaim, a gold record – the biggest benefit of them all came courtesy of that conversation I had about chanting ‘Nammyoho-renge-kyo’ with Carlos. I’ve continued throughout my life and it’s brought me to this point here.”
How was life on the road on the Isolar tour, at the height of Bowie’s fame? What was it like inside the madness? Possibly not quite as mad as one might expect.
“It was structured; you need to do this today, then get up tomorrow and do it all over again. Doesn’t matter what you do in between, but you need to hit your marks. David didn’t fly at the time, so the highest stress came from everyone wondering if the Thin White Duke was going to make it to the show on time, because David would always tell his driver to stop the car whenever he saw any kind of roadside attraction.”
Murray, meanwhile, embraced the tour as an excellent opportunity to explore the more flamboyant end of his wardrobe, wearing a self-styled stage costume that featured both top hat and stack-heeled snakeskin boots.
“Those were actually my stage clothes from George McCrae,” he admits. And what reaction was elicited in Bowie when he first took sight of this near-seven-foot-tall disco-tastic vision? “He stopped dead in his tracks. It was actually on stage, and he just stopped and looked. He eventually kept going, but yes, I do remember that look.”
David Bowie 1978 05 30 Musikladen Extra Pro Shot, HD 720p, incomplete – YouTube
Following the ‘structured’ excesses of the tour, Bowie’s inner circle (of which Murray was now a fully accepted member) made for Berlin’s Hansa studios, via Château d’Hérouville, France, where work initially commenced on Iggy Pop’s The Idiot.
“We did the trilogy David wanted to do with Brian Eno, which was Low, ‘Heroes’ and Lodger, but, to be honest, I can’t remember recording anything on The Idiot with Iggy Pop. I do remember working with him here and there on some things that David was doing, but I don’t remember that at all.”
One thing that Murray can’t help but remember is the song credit he picked up on Low’s Breaking Glass, which came with certain benefits: “Welcome financial benefits I still get to this day.
“Dennis and I brought the riff to him. It was something that came up during ‘the off season’, which was what we called the time when Dennis and I played together. Dennis thought that rhythm up and said play this, he gave me the riff to perfect, so it was the two of us. Carlos was instrumental, behind the scenes, advocating that Dennis and I should get a credit, so that was Carlos looking out for us.”
Eno arrived into Low’s production process after the backing tracks were recorded, but was present for the entirety of ‘Heroes’, co-writing four songs and employing his infamous ‘oblique strategies’ cards – a pack of instruction cards, which meant creative decisions were occasionally taken more by accident than by design – which would be utilised to an even greater extent for Lodger.
How was working with Eno?
“Whatever the objective was between David and Brian, the direction I took from Brian was challenging, and it took a lot more effort on my part to support it. Not because I didn’t like it, but it was foreign to me. It didn’t come as naturally as direction from David.”
Following 1979’s Lodger and 1980’s New York City sessions for Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Murray’s working relationship with Bowie came to an end, but (in much the same way that an interminable live audition drifted haphazardly into his eventual employment) the manner of his expulsion left a great deal to be desired.
“My last experience with David was playing Saturday Night Live,” says Murray. “As I said earlier, my experience with cocaine came years later in my relationship with David. I moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1979, after the ‘Heroes’ tour and Lodger, just before Scary Monsters, and I came as one of those California dreamers.
“I thought I was going to have the same level of success in Los Angeles as I’d had in New York. But that was not to be. I’d acquired bad habits during the years I’d worked with David, and they continued after. It was not a formal end, I wasn’t fired, they just didn’t call me back. I didn’t even get a note from David saying it’s time to move on… It was difficult.”
Murray persisted with his musical career for a while, playing with a number of bands while delivering flowers for a florist, but his past wouldn’t leave him alone.
“My wife used to work at the Westwood Marquis Hotel, and when David was out here for his Serious Moonlight tour [’83], that’s where the band stayed. Anyway, I had to go see her for some reason, and I ended up sharing an elevator with Carlos and Carmine Rojas, the bass player who’d replaced me. Even though it was a heartbreaking moment, I said okay, nice to meet you, and that’s how it ended. My life in music just sort of dissolved from there.”
In January 1987, George Murray answered an ad in the LA Times for an entry-level full-time supervisory position at the Alhambra Unified School District, because “I can only do one thing well at one time, and I wasn’t making enough money from making music and delivering flowers to do anything of any consequence with my life”.
After 33 years of putting his “whole heart into managing a crew of young individuals, some of whom were as wild as I was”, raising a son, and being steadily promoted, he finally retired as an Assistant Superintendent in December 2022.
As he ultimately reveals that he’ll be returning to the road in the autumn with the D.A.M. Trio, with Carlos Alomar at his side and an undisclosed drummer standing in for the late Dennis Davis, I ask George if he ever heard from David Bowie again. After a long, telling, 10-second pause, he states simply: “I do not recall hearing from David at all, or being in the same space with David after our appearance on Saturday Night Live. And I do not remember actively seeking him out or trying to make an opportunity to meet with him.”
It should be noted at this juncture that the backing tracks for Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), upon which, its sleevenotes insist, George played all of the bass parts, were not actually recorded until two months after Bowie’s Saturday Night Live appearance. The side-effects of the cocaine? Well, it should be further noted that early in our encounter Murray offers the disclaimer: “I’m 72 years old, and what I’m telling you is how I remember stuff.”
Finally, philosophically, he concludes: “Going right back to Station To Station, there were times when I could tell Dennis and Carlos were having conversations about the former bass player, my predecessor, and I overheard Dennis saying to Carlos that so-and-so called him again and ‘What do I tell him?’ So I could tell that that individual was suffering because he just didn’t know. And that one day, and I didn’t know when that day would come, I wouldn’t be there either.”
Classic Rock’s Reviews Editor for the last 20 years, Ian stapled his first fanzine in 1977. Since misspending his youth by way of ‘research’ his work has also appeared in such publications as Metal Hammer, Prog, NME, Uncut, Kerrang!, VOX, The Face, The Guardian, Total Guitar, Guitarist, Electronic Sound, Record Collector and across the internet. Permanently buried under mountains of recorded media, ears ringing from a lifetime of gigs, he enjoys nothing more than recreationally throttling a guitar and following a baptism of punk fire has played in bands for 45 years, releasing recordings via Esoteric Antenna and Cleopatra Records.
