About three weeks ago, I posted the first part of my interview with Bill Fay, where the respected artist spoke of his early childhood and how he first began to play the piano. You can check that out here. Now, we will go a bit further into Bill's life, seeing his first connections with the Deram/Decca label, which would first release his amazing music.After the jump, Bill tells the story of writing his first song and getting label attention, thanking each and every person who helped him along the way. It's truly a joy to read Bill tell his story in his own words. This is only the second chapter in a story that continues to unfold, as Bill Fay was kind enough to answer these questions I e-mailed to him with such care and consideration... so there will be more on the horizon. Check it out after the jump.
Your first single, "Some Good Advice / Screams In The Ears" was released by Deram Records in 1967. How did you come to work with the company?
A friend who shared the cottage wrote the lyrics to the song written on the harmonium. I hadn't reached a 'lyrical' stage yet. Although an avid reader from about 16 years old, starting I think with all of John Steinbeck's, George Orwell's, that kind of thing, and about that time, Samuel Beckett's. I hadn't 'voiced' anything myself, or had the 'impetus' to do so.
I think the times I was at the piano, the emphasis was more on learning musically from the instrument, discovering more, and only once all kinds of different chords in different keys were totally familiar to me, did it 'free me up', or lead on to the 'singer-songwriter' stage. It wasn't to be long before that happened, and when it did, mysteriously, words would just come, that were 'tied in' to the 'feel' of the music 'discovered', as you sang the song. Often, within about 10 minutes, a song would be finished. Later on, the lyrics would kind of reflect where you were at inside.
But, back to the harmonium song. The important thing about it, in regard to a subsequent chain of events, was that it came to be heard at the time by a local group in North Wales. how they got to hear it, I really can't recall. It's a blank. I wouldn't have 'hawked' it around. Maybe they got to hear about it, and came round the cottage and I played it to them, but the main thing is they started playing it at gigs. It wasn't a startling song, a kind of ballad with simple words. The kind of song a '64 group would do maybe. It had a nice feel, and a nice intro, and when I went to a gig where they performed it, it was great to hear the intro played on electric guitar. As if that wasn't enough feedback, they said they were going to travel to a studio in Manchester to record an EP demo that they were going to include the song on, and asked if would we like to go along.
We did go with them, and after the session they gave me an acetate copy of the EP.This would have been around early '65. When, in mid '65 I left bangor and returned home to North London, I played the acetate to a bass player who lived down our street, whose own group then started playing the song at local gigs. Not too long after this, there was a knock on the door, and one, John Boden, stood there, his little mini-van parked in the street. He said he'd heard that I wrote songs, and would I like to use his mobile 4track recording desk that he'd made, which was in the back of his van. I told him I had no money, but he still wanted to do it. It wasn't John's profession. He was a music and recording enthusiast, who sometimes recorded bands live at their gigs, more as a side-project for him. He'd heard the song performed by the local group at a gig, and asked them where I lived.
We became good friends, and for the remainder of '65, and through all of '66, John would come round regularly with his desk and record songs of mine, that by now were being written quite frequently. He also recorded my brother singing his own songs, which he'd written on guitar, sometimes with myself accompanying him on piano, the bottom string of an acoustic guitar 'doctored' by John on his desk so that it sounded like a bass, and the top string of an acoustic guitar 'doctored' so that it resembled lead guitar. Drums was a packet of polos tapped on the skin of a tambourine, and 'heavily doctored'. All of this was music and friendship based, with no money changing hands.
By chance and circumstance again, John Boden's brother-in-law was one, John Barker, who managed Unit 4+2, who had chart success with 'Concrete and Clay'. I recall a demo session being set up in a local hall by John Barker, where John Boden recorded 4 songs of mine, with half of Unit 4+2 and half of The Roulettes, as backing group,with myself on electric piano and vocal. john barker, I believe, tried to do something with this tape, and others recorded at the house, In the way of finding a recording outlet, but nothing came of it. The tapes remained on John's shelf.
Some months later, I had a letter, from one, Terry Noon, asking if we could meet up. He said that he could obtain a recording contract with Decca Records, and wanted to act as my manager. For me, this wasn't an expected outcome. I was mostly interested in the next 'song'. I hadn't sent tapes to terry. He'd actually heard them on a visit to John Barker's office. I met terry and felt comfortable with him on a personal level, and signed a management contract with him, and soon after, signed the recording contract.
Given this very circumstantial route to my obtaining a contract, looking back, I can see that if Terry Noon wasn't at the particular stage in life that he was, there wouldn't have been a contract at all. Terry had been a drummer, with Gene Vincent, and then, Them. After the success of 'Here Comes the Night', Van Morrisson wanted to go to america and kind of 'relocate' the group there. Terry didn't want to go. He'd toured extensively as a drummer and wanted to move more into the realms of the music industry itself, which he did. The group, Them, were on the Decca label. Terry would have known people there. When I first met him, he also managed Honeybus, who were signed to Decca, and had already released a worthy single, 'Do I Still Figure in Your Life?', which was covered by Joe Cocker.
Terry was in a respected position to do with Decca then, and at a time when I don't think the major labels really knew what was going to sell or not, with so many bands and progressive things going on, there were probably 'vacancies' at Deram. Somebody told me at the time, that their policy was to throw as many pieces of mud as possible at the wall, and hope that some would stick. How true that was, I don't know, but I think there was certainly 'uncertainty', and Terry, who at the time also ran the publishing company belonging to Larry Page, who managed the Troggs and co-discovered the Kinks, may have been able to approach them with some 'conviction' regarding myself.
Although Terry Noon very importantly obtained the contract, indirectly, so did the group in Wales, the bass player down my street's group, John Boden, and John Barker, I'll speak of one more person who I believe was important. Terry Noon knew Peter Eden, a producer at Decca at the time. He later came to produce the single and first album. Like Terry, Peter had been a drummer, and had served his time in the back of transit vans up and down the motorway.
Though I didn't know it at the time, he had co-managed the very early Donovan, and produced 'Catch the Wind' at Pye. At a time when he was just about to get the Newport Folk festival for him, Donovan wanted a completely different direction, more commercial. Micky Most, producer, and I believe Alan Klein, manager, were lurking in the wings, and Peter, not being the kind of person to pursue lawsuits, magnanimously let him go. His history also included telling EMI, who I believe he did some producing for, at the time, that they should sign the very early Pink Floyd, that he'd just seen perform a gig. They declined, but a mere few months later, approached by someone else, they signed them, and had to pay a massive amount of money in advance, to do so.
In a phone call with Peter awhile back, he told me that prior to myself obtaining the recording contract all that time ago, he and Terry used to listen to new "left of centre" songs, and that they were both struck by 'Camille'. I tend to think then, that Peter was also encouraging, prior to terry approaching me. Either way, both of these likable, good-natured people, who were musicians as well, I remain extremely grateful to, given, to me, how well musically used, that contract was. Peter left the music business quite early, saying, 'it was too much business and not enough music', and ran a record and book shop, in his home town by the sea. Terry went on to run Andrew Lloyd Weber's 'Really Useful Music', before leaving himself, to become a hypnotherapist. Me, I just carried on writing songs, as I'd always done, which is second nature and purposeful enough in itself, to me.
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