the info provider for the soul survivor ISSUE 50 OCT-NOV 2013
Interviews with Leee John Andrew Roachford Carleen Anderson Fred Wesley Dave VJ & Lindsay Wesker and regular features
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Dear Fellow Soul Survivors
MEMBERSHIP Fitzroy talks to LEEE JOHN 10 DARRELL’S FUNK BOX Welcome to Issue 50! Wow, how did we get to this many! I guess it must be bec 12 ANDREW ROACHFORD support so a big TH ause of our reader’s and advertiser’s ANK YOU. Writing the intro is always talks to Fitzroy it is the morning after ou my last job before going to print and 16 RECORD REVIEWS jaded but humbled at ther Awards night so I am feeling a little 20 CARLEEN ANDERSON for the whole process has same time. The turnout and support been surprising but all in been amazing and some results have talks to Fitzroy huge smiles last night as all a great experience. We saw some 23 MERCHANDISE readers for all their har our winners were recognised by our 24 THE AWARDS RESULTS along the way but hav d work. We have had a few hiccups e next year bigger and evelearnt a few lessons and will be back 26 FRED WESLEY n better! Watch this spa ce. Our App is going well wit talks to Fitzroy Why not sign up via ou h downloads growing by the day. r website shop or the Ap 30 DAVE VJ AND ple store. We would like to thank who has supplied a cro David Moran (Soul Survivor Member) LINDSAY WESKER knowledge. Have a go ssword page (38) to test your and see how much you talk to Fitzroy know! We have also teamed up with Wes Berwise who 34 EVENT REVIEWS is making short video interviews with a difference so you can rea 38 WORD UP! d more about that on page 40. 40 WES BERWISE Coincidentally the intervi ew struggles in the music ind s in this issue document various 42 WHAT’S GOIN’ ON? ustry over the years in line October’s Black History with 44 SOUL RADIO Month. We still have lots of new stuff in the pipeline so ver y exciting times again. Thank you for your continued suppo rt and we hope you enjoy the rea d...... Thank you to all those who have contributed Anna (& Fitzroy) x by sending in adverts, The Soul Survivors reviews, photos, CUT OFF DATE FO articles, listings and R emails; we can’t do December 13/Janua ry 14 this without you. is 4th Nove
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LEEE JOHN talks to Fitzroy
From the heart of north London Leee John had ambitions from early on to make it as a performer. Living a dual life as a clubbing teenager and a session vocalist became a way of natural life until he found his own distinctive falsetto voice as the front man of Imagination. He's travelled around the world, had his own TV show, acted in a famous Si Fi series and can still boogie like he used to at Crackers in Wardour Street W1. Talking about Music & Lights..Leee John bares all.
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You were born in 1957 in Hackney, East London, so how was life up until you hit the clubs as a teenager? My parents came from St Lucia and my mother used to do floor shows there where they had dances and my father was an engineer so there was always music and parties in the house. They moved to Highbury, North London and later we were one of the first black families to move to Finsbury Park until I moved to the States in 1968. London in the early 60's evokes memories of Bluebeat, Rocksteady and Ska which I soaked up like a sponge. I sang and was in the school orchestra playing the violin and the recorder and then my parents split. I went to America and joined the glee club and became involved in the choirs. I got my first record deal aged thirteen with Worldwide Records in New York who were like a cartel that had a performing arts side for young kids. This was when the musical Hair and the Jackson 5 were big in the late 1960's so any kids that had spunk would shine. Although I was very shy when it came to performing I'd turn into another person. My period in the USA was very formative as at the time I arrived Martin Luther King and Robert F Kennedy had been assassinated as well as one of the Black Panthers. My mother hadn't even realised I'd gone to America as my father took me illegally out of the country and I remember sending postcards to my mum informing her of seeing so many coloured people, which was the terminology used then. Motown was huge with Shorty Long Here Comes The Judge, Love Child by The Supremes and Psychedelic Shack by The Temptations, being tunes I remember hearing. The Jackson 5 had already done I Want You Back and were now singing ABC and The Love You Save with me and my cousins doing all the moves. I was heavily influenced by Sly & The Family Stone and I listened to Laura Lee, The Persuaders, Denise Lascelle and the acts on Hot Wax Records. Soul Train was on every Saturday morning so I was absorbing all of this. Isaac Hayes won an academy, Ali was fighting Joe Frasier and this was a great time for black people in America around 1970-72.
When I came back to live with my mother it was a completely different scene. My cousin Stephanie was really into reggae and took me to blues parties in Turnpike Lane north London which was a completely different world. Whilst in America I was listening to Lady In Satin by Billie Holliday because at the time when Lady Sings The Blues with Diana Ross came out I couldn't find the soundtrack but discovered Billie instead by default. I loved Eddie Kendrick and bought My People Hold On album with Girl You Need A Change Of Mind and I emulated him because Eddie had such a good tone. Once I was back in London I was buying imports from Contempo Records in Hanway Street and One Stop. I was still singing whilst at school aged fourteen to fifteen and with my friend Russell we went to loads of places including Eddie Grant’s studio in Stoke Newington. Eddie advised me I had something that wasn't quite right but to keep working at it. Around that time I met Roy Fisher who worked at EMI who had Snazz Records around 1974 and we did a track as Russ and Lee with Gonzalez as the backing band and some female vocalist called Thunder Thighs who sang on Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild side. We started going to Tottenham Royal and bunked off school to go to Crackers with George Power Friday lunchtimes. Dancers of the time were Trevor Shakes, Bassey and Dez Parkes. I moved with members from Light Of The World and Nat Augustine whose parents were also from St Lucia. We went to a community drama group called the Huenora Strolling Players which Victor Romero Evans was part of too. Myself, Victor Romeo and Nat Augustine formed a group called The Detonators and then I left. This was just before disco and there was a lot of session work around which became a way of earning for me way before Imagination. I was trying to discover myself and it was an amazing time as the club circuit and the record industry knew me. I was always sending in demos and sometimes doing sessions for Elvis Costello. I was managed by Great Count Music whom the producer Trevor Horn worked for and it was his song called Got To Be Good that got me the deal with Red Bus and Morgan Khan liked it. Got To Be Good had a huge production and this was meant to be the first single for Imagination.
You mentioned upon your return to the UK going to a few clubs and mentioning characters like Trevor Shakes and Dez Parkes. Hearing this during that early period always makes me wish I was there with all the fashion and music and how integral the dancing was. Kenny Wellington also explained this from his budding musician experience but as an aspiring singer how was it for you?
I had a lot of things going on as I was doing theatre on a Thursday and the George Canning pub in Brixton where the Cool Notes played. Friday lunchtime we'd go to Crackers and Saturday night the Birds Nest, who for me had one of the best nights in Waterloo, Paddington and West Hampstead. With your fifty pence ticket admission we’d be all dressed up although I’m not sure how we were able to afford to. There would be convoys of cars and this was all a street thing as there were
no mobiles. Fashion wise we'd wear green or purple trousers, when Kung Fu came in we exaggerated that fashion and the Gatsby era with Zoot suits, plastic sandals and sailor canvas shoes from Laurence Corner for 99p just to dance in. A lot of the clubs were on Sundays as the venues didn't like to have too many blacks in town so the clubs we went to before we hit London’s west end were in north London; Bumbles, Tottenham Royal and Royalty in Southgate. We'd walk in the club dancing, even passing your coat to the cloakroom attendant was a dance move lol. We’d be hearing Crystal Glass-Crystal World or Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds. We were so free and it was fun, even describing it as I speak I'm recalling how colourful and vibrant it was and also the girls who could really dance. There were friendly dance offs and I remember Fitzroy Gaines who was good and I called the mechanic because of how he danced. Everyone had their own moves because we were all characters. The music was always on import like £15 for an album, then the west end wised up when George Power was on the pulse. He had a mixture of black, white, Turkish and Greek kids travelling via word of mouth and again, remember we had no mobiles back then. Clubs like Gilly’s and Billy that changed to Gossip and upstairs at Ronnie Scotts were running these kind of nights. Then you get your Chris Hills and the all dayers thrown in and there was this thriving club scene. When people discovered Greg Edwards with his bathroom call on the radio which hadn't been done before, and then he's djing at the Lyceum, the whole country’s music spectrum changed. Programmers were following Greg’s music formula, which they didn't want to do prior because black became the in thing. Some of us became artists in how we adored the Americans but in our own light because we had the Caribbean, reggae, calypso culture. Groups like Hi Tension, Light Of The World, Midnight Express which Errol Kennedy came from and TFB which Kenny Wellington was part of. This whole north east with a bit of south London collective started to grow, Junior was part of that and David Grant’s cousin (who was always by the till) Joe Gibbs had a shop and he later managed Light Of The World...bloody hell bringing back some memories. I remember we won two dance competitions, one at Tottenham Royal where they gave us 20 albums and the other one was when Philadelphia International was doing a dance competition. That’s the one I had with Dez that he mentioned in his interview 5 years ago. It was at Crackers and at the time Dez Parkes and Trevor Shakes were known by everyone as the kings on the dance floor. I also was just doing my thing and the crowd got into it. When the crowd decided and chose us as the winners we got all the albums. I think the crowd were trying to get different dancers to win and be acknowledged because Dez and Trevor always got everything! We enjoyed winding them up and Dez always reminds me of that when we chat. It was a great time and everybody took pride in how they dressed whether they were a soul or reggae head. Everyone seemed to enjoy it when the parties were mixed with reggae and soul. What was important for me was I’d always look at the album sleeves and read who played on it.
You had a writing partnership with Ashley Ingram just before Imagination and were in a group called Fizz? Oh god yeah we used to do Ronnie Scotts. These were nice guys from Golder’s Green but they couldn't play the funk. I brought Ashley in and he was playing Earl Klugh and George Benson riffs and played bass and guitar. We managed to get a review in Blues and Soul but that’s the beginning and end of it to be honest. Once the British band emerged you could see we had our own thing but the industry wouldn't support us so we had to hit them bam in the face to get their attention. Yeah Morgan said that he had to make an impact with you guys like an American group would, which explains what happened when you appeared on Top Of The Pops. I was prepared to go out there and stroke the piano but Morgan insisted on me showing more leg. I thought oh my god what’s my mum gonna say but I went through with it. I didn't anticipate the impact that performance would have but what it did was open the doors for British acts to be taken seriously. Every label was now signing acts like us and taking the risk after Body Talk. Simon Edward Bell signed Wham as a white Imagination concept. George Michael took over from me in Fizz when I left them singing the songs that I wrote. How did you meet with Errol? I took the track Got To Be Good to Red Bus which was sent to America to be a multitrack and it got lost. When I approached Morgan he wanted to know who’d be in the group or was it gonna be just me as a solo artist; I wasn't sure and was writing with Ashley. Delroy Murray from Total Contrast was around me at the time and he could have been in Imagination but he was more in tune with what he wanted musically than I was. I was asked to replace Patrick Booth in the group Midnight Express and that’s where I met Errol. I decided to have a trio like The Police then get a session musician in because at the time there was always ten people in a group and no one got paid. I got introduced to Tony Swainn who encouraged me to write what was Body Talk in its infancy. I wrote this on my mum’s kitchen table and between the cassette player and my mum’s clock radio I dubbed the music back with an Akai 2 inch equipment to make sure it was right before I took it into the studio with Morgan. Between Ashley, who hadn't recorded before but was very talented and multi instrumental and myself, we learned from each other as an interchangeable team. Errol came in a few months after the deal was signed then Body Talk was being circulated on a white label. Everyone thought we were American and with the help of Steve Walsh the record got exposure. Robbie Vincent, Froggy and various others were instrumental in pushing it and it was one of the slowest tempo records of that year but everyone was into it. Our first PA was at Watford Baileys behind Kelly Marie, which was me and Ashley without Errol. We had reviews in Blues & Soul and Black Echoes and Errol came on board then. We got to number 44 and then someone dropped out of Top Of The Pops. That drop out changed our lives because that’s how we got the call to do that infamous Body Talk performance and not many knew that, but that’s why Morgan said we gotta work the
stage. The next day the papers and the radio were talking about the performance, which to me was like George Clinton’s P Funk ethos being raunchy even though the song was slow. Sometimes the dress image took away from what we did musically because now we had an image to live up to. Tony Swainn, an incredible and underrated producer, listened intently and gave us a good sound. We had so many firsts, like the amount of shows we were on as a black group at the time being on programmes like Ebony and Lenny Henry. We performed for royalty and to my knowledge before any other black group unless you’re talking about Shirley Bassey. Princess Diana asked us what we were wearing as her friends were asking but we were told to tone it down. I was still very close to the club scene and at the time we were going to Monkberry’s and getting tapes to keep up with what was happening and ended up having a studio in my house. I wanted to change the groups dynamics and worked with D Vas since 1986. Between him and Adam Penzay they learnt the craft of my studio stuff with the new synths and drum machines and we worked on it when I came back. Technology was taking over and we no longer needed drummers and other players. What’s this with the Dr Who acting gig? Did you ever see it? (No) It was when Peter Davidson, the youngest Dr Who of the time, was in it and I played a space pirate. My review in the papers said Leee John goes from one costume to the next or does all he really have to do is step into Dr Who and he’s ok ?lol. I did it with Linda Baron and Keith Baron and it was a great experience and I recently did a film called Doman. I’ve done loads of bits and pieces, like a chat show for two years on LWT introducing Mica Paris, Courtney Pine and interviewing Narada Michael Walden. When was this? Remember it’s only recently we have late night TV but this was in 1989 and it was called Leee’s Place. So this was a vital period and I had LGCC on there too. I’m in talks with Sky about doing it again, back then I had Adelaide Hall who sang with Duke Ellington on there too. After Body Talk, even though I bought the album, I only really liked Burnin’ Up. Body Talk came in handy doing mix tapes for girls cause they liked it (Leee burst out laughing). But Burning Up was the one and to be honest it was hearing Dez Parkes spin it that reminded me of its greatness when we both guested at Bobby & Steve’s Club Zoo in 1990. The rest of the album to me was more geared to the commercial appeal of the group’s future pop success. Louie Vega’s excitement a couple of years ago when I gave him the 30 years of Brit Funk Soul Survivor issue was priceless. He asked “Is that Leee John who sang Just An Illusion, Music & Lights and Changes? Wow we used to play them tracks all the time in New York as they were huge.” With that it made me listen to those tracks again and appreciate the songs, moreso now, (Oh I see) when I first saw you live at Middlesex & Herts in 1984. See the full interview in the latest issue.....
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