(the albums not the tv show!!)
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Ken Gold
became the voice of Gilbert O’Sullivan and
Elton John, “and tonight Matthew, I’m
going to be, ‘Gilbert O’Gold!!!!!” Maybe we
were the first ‘tribute acts’????
No, I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.
John Perry
always did a great job on the, Donny Osmond/
Osmonds / Stylistics and of course some of the Freddy
Mercury lead vocals. I usually got the
‘naff’ covers like, Chicory Tip/ Sweet/ Mud/
Sex Pistols, although I did get to do the occasional 10.cc
cover, and some of the great Simon and Garfunkel
stuff with John Perry, on the ‘Best Of Simon
and Garfunkel’. This I enjoyed, because we
sang it ‘live’, having rehearsed it to
perfection. If you hear this album, I think it’s
clear which tracks we sing, because they also used
some tracks which were laid down a couple of years
earlier (before our time)!
Saving money again!
Stu Calver
was on some of the
albums, although usually it was John, Ken and me. He did
sing on the ‘Sweet’ tracks, such as ‘Little
Willie’, ‘Blockbuster’, ‘Ballroom
Blitz’ etc. He was the only one who could hit
those top notes!
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Tony Rivers with Ken Gold
John Perry and the late Stu Calver
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All four of us
sang on ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’(vol. 49).
Stu Calver can be heard hitting the absolutely amazing
high parts. This was recorded at De Lane Lea studios,
right next to Wembley Stadium. We usually took a
day to lay down lead and backing vocal tracks, and would
be on our way home by 11pm. Not this time!
As usual, I had the job of sorting out the vocal
arrangement. Normally this wouldn’t be too big a
deal, but with this song, I had to sit for hours at home
listening and making notes, and writing notes and
memorising vocal lines, apart from the other tracks we
had to do that day!!!
The time consuming job of, layering track after track of
vocals, ‘til we got the sound, and the voicing
right, seemed to take forever, but in the end, it had
been a great opportunity to find out how that song was
put together. What was quite amazing too, was the fact
that, when this album came out, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
was actually talked about on tv, by Michael Barratt (6 o’clock
news-round programme) and ‘Kenny Everett’
played it on his radio show. He played our version and
Queens’, cutting between the two, and asking “can
you tell which one’s the ‘ten bob’
version, and which one cost 6 million squid to make?”
I have nothing but admiration for the man who created it--------!
Freddy Mercury!!! WOW!!! What a record.
A bit different from ‘Little Willie’!
Apart from my ‘team’, some of the other
singers were,
George Chandler and Jimmy Chambers
(who were two of the singers Paul Young would use, many
years later, on hits such as ‘Everything Must Change’)
they would take care of the ‘soul’ tracks
Tina Charles
did all the ‘girlie’
stuff like maybe, Donna Summer/the Nolans, until she got
her own ‘hit’ with ‘I Love To Love’.
Ken Barry
(is a great singer with a
voice like Mel Torme. There wasn’t much call for
that sort of voice on these albums, so he ended up doing
‘jokey’ things like ‘Convoy’ and
‘On The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine’!!!).
He also got some success, as the voice behind the kids tv
show theme tune, ‘Postman Pat’.
I used to watch and listen to Ken singing, with the
‘Phil Tait Orchestra’, at the Ilford Palais, in
the East End of London.
They used to do a great ‘Four Freshmen’
type arrangement of ‘Moonlight In Vermont’,
and every week I’d drive them mad, requesting it.
This was before I had any idea I’d do this for a
living.
Martha Smith
A girl who had a
great voice, from Manchester. She did a lot
of the girl ‘soul covers’ for a while.
All in all, a great team. I think some of these singers
were as good as, and in some cases maybe even better than
the ‘original artists’ who they were covering.
continue
Photographs © copyright Tony Rivers
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Mojo article, September 2000
see above
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