Mr Richland...I Know What You Meant!

Prog Rock, Beatles, Brass Bands, Brian Wilson? Just what is my favourite music? Who is my all-time favourite artist? If I had to choose just one???

I could beg (literally!) not to have to make that choice..but you readers won't let me out of it that easily, will you?

Ok...this will come as no surprise to my closest friends and family but that place of particular honour would go to an artist most music-lovers would claim not to know...yet you sing them one line and they say 'Oh! HIM!'

I speak of the great, late Harry Nilsson...and that's where the title of this blog entry finds its author. Nilsson (for those of you who still might say 'who?' I sing 'Can't live...if living is without you...' - and that's enough for now - you know at least one of his recordings*) wrote a song for his 2nd LP, 'Aerial Ballet' with the title 'Mr Richland's Favorite Song'. It told of a singer, once an 'untouchable hero'...up there on a stage, seemingly a million miles from his fans but, ultimately, a one-hit wonder! As the years passed by his loyal fans stayed for the third show, the second show and, many years later, he became 'the fallen star who works in a bar where yesterday is king' and where he 'calls his fans by name'.

In October 1982 I sat in a full to bursting Wembley Arena to watch the 'supergroup' Asia perform their first ever UK gig. What anticipation! What a thrill! There, tiny figures on the stage in front of me and my friends stood John Wetton (King Crimson, Family, Uriah Heep, Roxy Music UK etc.), Steve Howe and Geoff Downes (once of the great 'Yes'...and 'The Buggles'!) and Carl Palmer (exactly one third of the mighty ELP). They were untouchable, unreachable...like musicians from another realm, another planet even...a lifetime away from mere mortals like us in the audience! They sang and strummed their way through 'Heat of the Moment', 'Only Time Will Tell', 'Sole Survivor' and more of the songs I had already grown to love on the first 'prog' LP I ever bought. The night is as fresh in my memory tonight as it was then. I even recall the support act, a juggler of all things, called Chris Bliss - and he juggled with fluorescent balls and white gloves under an ultra-violet light. Bliss had a particularly blunt and effective way of dealing with hecklers (no doubt well-practised if you juggle habitually as support to rock legends!)...I dare not repeat his 'put down' on here (my mum reads this!) but, suffice to say, the same heckler did not transgess twice!

So, where is this going? Tonight I went with my 2nd son, Lewis, to see one of our favourite bands, 'It Bites' play a gig at Mr Kyps, Poole. I had never visited the venue before but it is a nice, intimate venue for a medium-sized gig (no doubt infinitely better these days as a result of the smoking ban!)

'It Bites' formed in Egremont, Cumbria in 1984. Four boys who went to school with each other, made a name for themselves then earned a record contract with Richard Branson's 'Virgin' Empire - and made the most of it by getting the early career 'hit' so eagerly sought by all new bands (see last night's blog for more info).

I saw 'It Bites' in 1990 in Portsmouth, I'd been a fan from their earliest days...but becoming a member of the band one day never even crossed my mind... Yet it must have been a dream for John Mitchell! John was a fan too...he recalls sneaking out of the house to go to gigs having raided a liquor cabinet to lubricate his enjoyment cells...and, no doubt, he honed his budding guitar skills by sitting - hour after hour, night after night - trying to emulate his hero, Francis Dunnery - lead guitarist and singer with his favourite band!

Tonight, John stood on stage as the front man of 'It Bites' - what a dream come true! John shared with some friends and I a year ago about the surreal situation he now finds himself in! When Dunnery quit the embryo reunion Mitchell took his place...what boots to fill!! Tonight he dominated the stage like 'Asia' did for me in 1982! A fairly small, though vociferous, audience lent him their support as they sang their hearts out through old faves like 'All In Red' and 'Still Too Young To Remember' - but the first half of tonight's show was dominated by a towering tour de force in 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' - a new anthem to stand alongside the old favourites (and from the latest album).

When they retook the stage after a short interval 'It Bites' played the whole of what was almost universally acclaimed as their best album, 'Once Around the World'. Four stonking rockers launched the set in 'Midnight', 'Kiss Like Judas' (what a great track that is!),'Yellow Christian' (anyone out there tried playing in 14/8 time?) and 'Rose Marie'....and, later, the album ends with the band's 'magnum opus' - the epic title track of the CD which has elements of pop, rock, jazz, vaudeville and much, much more! 'Once Around the World', A Day In A Life...A cornucopia of genres that takes you from Caesar to Willie Carson in a quarter of an hour!

We sang our hearts out! We watched wide-eyed as John Mitchell's fingers flew like lightning over his frets, we marvelled at the solid and steady (and oft-times spectacular) drumming of Bob Dalton and wowed in appreciation at how the nimble fingers of keyboard genius John Beck held the sound together with his own personal orchestra of samples and patches...and, perhaps more than all, we wondered how bassist Lee Pomeroy was able to switch with such seemingly effortless ease from the steady 4/4 simplicity of being bassist for 'Take That' to nailing this music of infintely more complexity in his 'day job'!

I came away thrilled and entertained...my son, Lewis, came away inspired to practice and improve!

And what of Mr Richland?

Well, before the gig started tonight, I had the privilege to stand and chat once more with John Wetton...in 1982 that dot on a stage - tonight a friend and fellow 'fan'! Harry Nilsson's song personified...especially for me! If ever I could have wished for a bonus to make my evening this had to be it. This man has sold more records than anyone in this month's pop charts - quite possibly all of them added together!...and I have most of them in my collection! Recordings with 'Mogul Thrash', 'Family', 'Uriah Heep', 'Roxy Music', 'King Crimson', 'UK', 'Asia' as well as his fabulous solo albums have all given me endless hours of joy...and he stoood chatting with me again tonight! John is in better health now than last time we chatted socially! On my web pages at http://www.marcharry.com/ you will find a review of the night we met first of all...a night when John was in the grip of a serious and life-threatening alcohol addiction. That is now behind him...as he told me tonight 'but for the grace of God' he could have gone the way of Keith Floyd..but John still has much more music to make!

What a gift to us all music is! 'Johns' Mitchell and Wetton...I thank you from the depths of my heart! May it continue to flow for a long time to come!


*Note I say 'recordings' NOT compositions! Harry wrote the vast majority of the songs he recorded yet, strangely, his two biggest hits 'Everybody's Talkin' (Fred Neil) and 'Without You' (Pete Ham/Tom Evans) were composed by others. Ham & Evans were from British Beatles acolyte band 'Badfinger' and their sad, story (partly revolving around their battle for recognition as authors of the song) may well be told another day...