Derek Shulman – when Simon Dupree and Gentle Giant were “the darlings of the English Mafia”
Derek Shulman was at the heart of two great transformations – Simon Dupree & the Big Sound switching to psychedelia, and then sensing the prog-rock trade winds and becoming Gentle Giant. One minute he was singing Kites, the next Pantagruel’s Nativity (Gentle Giant’s rebooted ‘Playing The Fool: The Complete Live Experience’ is just out). After which he was a record label president signing Bon Jovi, Slipknot and Nickelback and rebooting AC/DC and Bad Company. It’s a phenomenal story and involves …
… three pieces of advice for any band today.
… playing the ‘64 circuit in his R&B band the Roadrunners.
… the fictitious character he invented as Simon Dupree.
… when Dudley Moore was their session pianist.
… memories of Marc Bolan (“flat on his back playing guitar”), Tony Iommi, Tony Visconti, Don Arden, Gerry Bron and “the English mob”.
… what they borrowed from Traffic in the Great Psychedelic Scare of 1967.
… auditioning for George Martin and the lab-coated sound engineers at Abbey Road.
… being phoned on a ship returning from Sweden to be told ‘Kites’ was Top Twenty and doing Top Of The Pops with Status Quo and the Kinks.
… “cars and bags of jewels”: the advantage of being “the darlings of the Isle of Wight Mafia” (which included the Krays).
… watching Bowie recording The Man Who Sold The World at Trident.
… Elton John’s advice that helped form Gentle Giant.
… the catastrophic US tour with Black Sabbath (on their “chemical romance”) where the audience threw cherry-bombs onstage: “you learnt how to work a crowd!”
… George Underwood’s cover for the first Gentle Giant album.
… what he saw in Slipknot and why he signed them.
You can order GENTLE GIANT – PLAYING THE FOOL: THE COMPLETE LIVE EXPERIENCE here: https://gentlegiantuk.lnk.to/PTF
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Word In Your Ear
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.
Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.
Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.
Get bonus content on PatreonHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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