Interviews and articles on forgotten vintage bands c.1965-1980. Proto-metal, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock and heavy metal acts. Email: aftersabbath@live.co.uk
Welcome to another TDATS artist interview! I first came across the band "ID" and their 1977 LP release "Where Are We Going" a few years ago during my general searches and in this case, ID was a band I read about in Denis Meyer's "The Hard Rock Anthology 1968-1980" (link). I have since featured ID in volume 145 (link), and during the making of that it was hard to find more information on the band. After putting on my investigation hat I was lucky enough to receive a response from Maryland USA resident and original ID bass player, Kevin Orsie, and the results of his kind cooperation are here before you.
The album immediately got my attention on first listen, with its long atmospheric compositions that soar and retreat through various moods and sonic landscapes....an easy comparison is Pink Floyd's more extended works like Echoes, but it's a fair comparison as Kevin himself has stated Floyd as a major influence. In a modern context, I think this will go together well with bands that specialise in long jam-based songs like Earthless, and in the realms of TDATS another good comparison is the stunning P₂O₅ track that I included way back in Volume 33 (link). The centerpiece of the album is "Where Are We Going" parts 1 & 2, but this blog being called "The Day After The Sabbath", ID also delves into the heavier side of rock at times and Where Are We Going Part 2 navigates almost 14 minutes of satisfyingly dark waters.
INTERVIEW
Kevin on-stage in recent times
Q1. Hi Kevin, firstly thanks very much for doing this! What
sparked the formation of ID, and why did you decide to specialise in bass?
I started as a drummer and switched to bass at the age of
14. I joined a band that needed a bass player, so that was the beginning.....I
knew Dave and Gary (the Oickle brothers) from the neighborhood, they lived the next street over from
me.... Dave asked me over one day, I went down to the basement and they were set
up to practice, I didn't even know they were musicians. I soon came over to jam, and that sparked the beginning of ID. We rehearsed almost every day. We
soon moved practices to an old church auditorium and we rehearsed there for the
next several years.
Q2. What inspired the name “ID”?
Gary Oickle the guitar player came up with the name, ID
stands for the ego / subconscious.
Q3. What musical scenes and artists were the newly-formed ID
enjoying and listening to?
We listened to a lot of Pink Floyd, I was into Chris Squire
from Yes, and Greg Ridley from Humble Pie. Also I was big into Black Sabbath, and
Geezer Butler had a big influence on my playing. Geezer and I are both Lakland Bass Artists.
EDITOR: Lakland is an American guitar & bass manufacturer (link).
Q4. Did ID play any gigs or festivals that you can tell us
about?
We played a lot of shows, one of the most memorable was a concert
in Central Park, New York City... I was 17 years old, it was a bit overwhelming
but I have such great memories....
Q6. How did ID get recorded on the Aura Records label? I
noticed (On Discogs at least) that there are no other bands on the label.
It is a label created by ID, just an independent label....
Q7. Could you please confirm if this band / producer
information is correct?
ID - Where Are We Going back cover (re-arranged for improved readability)
Bass Guitar, Vocals – Kevin Orsie
Drums, Vocals – Ralph Jenkins
Guitar, Lead Vocals, Mellotron, Written-By, Producer – David Oickle
Lead Guitar, Written-By – Gary Oickle
Mastered By – Sam Feldman
Mellotron, Engineer – Bob Halsal
Producer – Ed Slade
Slide Guitar, Producer – James Albert
This is all correct...
Q8. I noticed that the production staff (Bob, James) also played instruments.
Can you elaborate on this?
Bob was the recording engineer at the studio where we
recorded the album. The studio had a Mellotron
so Bob somehow or another played it on the album. James Albert just added a
little slide guitar here and there, not really sure how that happened...
Here's a cut from Kevin's latest band, "Vista Sky". You can check out his Soundcloud here.
Q9. When and where did you record the ID album?
What are your memories of recording the album?
We Recorded at Sound Dimensional Studios, 54th Street in
New York City. It was owned by Jimi Hendrix's first producer. It was so surreal
for me since I was really still a teenager, it was fun and I think I did all
the bass in one take. We had rehearsed so much, it was like a freeing journey.
Kevin playing his Rickenbacker bass in ID at around age 17
Q10. What was the creative process? Your songs have a jam orientated sound, did you improvise much during recording?
Dave wrote most of the guitars and arrangements, then we
would start playing until I would create the bass parts, and Gary was very creative and very much a
free-form player, though the songs were always well rehearsed but we could jam out, just on the fly…
Q11. ID’s music is great. I particularly like Where Are We
Going...Part 2 which is heavy and trippy with a driving bass line from yourself.
Yes, that was an amazing piece, we could play the whole song
almost note for note, but always had the space to add and jam out some...
Q12. Do you have any favourite ID songs?
Can you tell us about any of them in particular, like which were easiest
or most fun to play?
I always enjoyed playing Sunrise (A New Day), it had this vibe
to it, always a very positive sound...Though there are two unreleased songs that
were recorded in the same sessions, The Mountain Song, and Go All The Way.....
I loved performing The Mountain song live...
Q13. What inspired the apocalyptic LP cover art, was it
chosen by the band?
Gary Oickle came up with that, I just think seeing the way
things were heading, brought a lot of Questions, and we see even more so right
now…
Q14. What happened after the album was released? Was it
widely released by Aura or only in limited numbers?
It was, it went to Europe, and to California, and to this
day we still have a big cult following in Europe, California and Texas....
Q15. Do you remember what the public’s reception was like? Was it played on radio
or reviewed in magazines etc?
The reception seemed to be better in some places than
others, but it seemed to be well-received within progressive music listeners.
Q16. Can you describe the band’s activities after the album
came out, how much longer did ID exist? Were there any plans or recordings for
more records?
After the album came out ID went on for at least another 2
or 3 years, I left about a year and a half after the album's release, I had a
drive to do more....
Still recording in 2023 !
Q17. What happened after ID broke up?
As of now 2023 I am the only surviving member of ID. As far as I know, I am the only one who went on
to pursue and write original music. I recorded a lot, and had some airplay on
98 Rock in Baltimore. When I lived in Myrtle Beach a lot happened for me, I got
to play live with some amazing musicians,
Alan Thorton from North Carolina's Nantucket (link) and South Carolina's Steve Senes (link). Steve was such an amazing
guitar player. After I moved back to Maryland I started playing with my brother
Paul in Fuzz, the singer was my nephew, we did originals and covers, played
some great places, and did shows with some great bands.
I still write and record, I put out a lot of music over the years. Last year I
released An EP, it is on iTunes and Spotify. My band's name is As The Night
Goes, and “Annapolis” is the album name. I am currently recording another album,
which should be out this year. I am also planning on remastering and
re-releasing ID’s Where Are We Going.
Q18. I found some other bands that you were in after ID; "Viridian Blew", "Blind", "Fuzz" and "Swamp Ash". Can you tell us something about these?
Viridian Blew was right after ID and I did have a single out with that band that was played on 98 Rock. Blind and Fuzz were really good bands that I played-in with my brother Paul, we did originals and put CDs out. We played together for a long time and it was a great experience. My nephew Josiah was a singer for Fuzz. He was 17 years old and he went on to form "Tears of Mars" with his four brothers, all my nephews. He is the recording engineer who records me now. Swamp Ash is my project but I changed the name because there are two other bands with that name, so now it's called "Vista Sky". I am going back into the studio next month (May 2023) to finish up everything for my next album. It'll be a while before they are mixed and mastered. You can follow Vista Sky on Facebook (link).
Q19. Do you have any prevailing memories or stories of ID that you’d like to add?
Ha, I have so many, but I will share one....We were supposed
to play at the Point Pleasant Beach Bar, and Midnight Landing (Hendrix Tribute
band). They were playing, I just got there, and the place was a mad house, out
of control, LOL. Then the Police came and shut it down....we never got to play
that day.
I will leave you with this, It was such a journey and an honour to write and
share the stage with the Oickle brothers, they were the real deal, creative and
innovative. We were a bunch of guys that got together to break the mold of the normal hit-making mentality that was around during the '70s, in other words we wanted to create more of a free-form, spontaneous kind of music that was creative......so Peace and Love, Cheers....Kevin Orsie
When researching French bands for the recent TDATS volume 141 (link), I discovered a number of good late-'70s bands that fused hard rock, garage rock and a little new-wave punk attitude. Many of these bands originated in Lyon and the surrounding area, and one of the best was Arsenic, who made a single album that had intriguing cover art. Judging by the name of the band and the album cover, I had a gut-feeling I was going to like this record. There was very little useful information that I could find about Arsenic aside from the printed album details, so after purchasing the album and making some investigations, I made contact with original guitarist and singer of the band, Bertrand Repellin.
He has very kindly answered a few questions about Arsenic, with help from the rest of the band including guitarist Jérôme Savy, and I am very happy to post them here for volume 143. The story is an interesting one with ups and downs, one of which I found quite shocking regarding the band's manager, the real stuff of rock n' roll lore indeed!
Arsenic in 1980
The album and band is simply named Arsenic, and was released on a small French label called Verseau, about which more will be revealed below. The album has a good variety of sounds, ranging from the hard rock of the opening and closing tracks, a great come-down ballad in Three Days With The Flip, to some rocking n' rolling blues with Sweet Mary and even a few touches of electronica in Emergency Exit and Mister X's Dream. I particularly like the way the album succeeds in using a wide variety of different instrumentation, tone and mood, from one song to the next. Heavy guitar, Moog, bottle slide guitar, acoustic guitar, blues piano & harmonica, multiple forms of percussion, it all works and keeps the album sounding fresh right up until the end.
Front and Back LP cover
Track list and timestamps
00:00 - A1 - Nameless 02:35 - A2 - Going To London 05:32 - A3 - I Feel So Happy 08:17 - A4 - Tipsy Girl 10:59 - A5 - Emergency Exit
14:12 - B6 - Mister X's Dream 16:58 - B7 - Sweet Mary 20:32 - B8 - Three Days With The Flip 24:27 - B9 - Never More
Interview with Bertrand Repellin
Bertrand in 2022
Q1. Hi Bertrand, firstly thanks very much for doing this! What sparked the formation of Arsenic, and why did you decide to specialise in guitar?
Bertrand: The history of the group Arsenic is unusual because we met at the age of 12 (1972/73) in the same class in a school in Lyon. We came from middle class families, not all of us particularly music lovers, but we quickly shared our taste for the pop-rock music of those years. Our friendship and our beginnings as musicians were practically built together, and the idea of forming a music group came quickly, almost before we learned any instruments.
Arsenic in 1977
I decided to learn the guitar, an emblematic but also practical instrument, another (Jérôme) also turned to the guitar. Another (Christophe-Pierre) who had tried the snare drum, chose the drums, another (Pascal) whose father played the organ in church, chose the keyboards. Another (Thierry) offered to play the bass, and here was Arsenic. It's worth noting, when recalling the genesis of the group, that our strong musical identity was forged thanks to this. The music, the spirit of Arsenic, that of a "real" band, is the fruit of this early meeting, this common learning, and this great friendship which has linked us, and still does today.
Arsenic in 1977
Q2. What inspired the name “Arsenic”?
The name was found quite quickly for what it represents, its sound, its simplicity, and its international readability.
Q3. What musical scenes and artists were the newly-formed Arsenic enjoying and listening to?
We were still children at the beginning of our meeting, each one had varying culture & musical tastes. For some of us, it was the records of our big sisters and brothers. Pop, rock, rhythm 'n blues, mainly English and American. In addition to the "old" rock & roll classics, our references were the main big bands of the time such as: The Stones, Beatles & The Who, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Creedence and Led Zeppelin....and all the bands present at the Woodstock festival. We had to wait until we were a bit older to get parental permission to go and see these bands live! Our musical tastes and influences grew over time, and as we matured, each of us developed our own preferences in rock, pop, progressive rock, blues and country rock...
Arsenic on stage
Q4. Did Arsenic play any gigs or festivals that you can tell us about?
For the anecdote, our first public performance at 14 years old was a concert for an association of deaf and hard of hearing people, where we were asked to turn down the volume that was judged too loud! Then, we really started to perform at the age of 15 (1976) in various venues in Lyon with mainly a repertoire of covers (Stones, Beatles, Chuck Berry, classic rock...) and some early original compositions. We quickly moved-on to only playing original titles.
Q5. Which bands were playing along with Arsenic at these shows?
Between 1977 and 1980 we played in larger venues in the Lyon region, notably in front of a university amphitheatre full of 1200 spectators for the release of our record. Otherwise, we often shared stages with important French bands, Rock or New Wave, when the city of Lyon was named "Capital of Rock" by the press. For example, a night concert in an ephemeral but mythical club, the Rock and Roll Mops (link), with the leading French bands of the time, like Téléphone, Bijoux, Ganafoul, Jacques Higelin, Starshooter....
[Editor: Here's a few quotes regarding the Rock and Roll Mops club in Lyon. "...a group of enthusiasts led by the Demonet brothers tried to create a place dedicated to rock: this would be the mythical adventure of Rock'n'Roll Mops, which opened its doors in the spring of 1978."
"The Rock'n'roll Mops will consist of three rooms: one with 800 seats, another with 250 and the last one which will be able to accommodate a hundred people, all spread over three floors with lots of nooks everywhere […] It will be the sanctuary of hard and soft rock, the home of blues and country, the haven of new wave and blues rhythm. Other music will certainly find its place there, it's up to them […] Local groups, refine your riffs, check your balance, polish your brass, the Lyon scene awaits you”."
"Two months of intense and memorable concerts saw Jacques Higelin, Telephone and the Lyon groups Starshooter, Electric Callas and Marie et les Garçons take to the stage. The place is transformed into a temple of rock and new-wave and attracts a young and numerous audience."
Facing administrative closure the same year it opened, Electric Callas, Marie et les Garçons, Bijou, Starshooter, Telephone, Ganafoul and many others took the stage for the final show at the Mops.]
Q6. How did Arsenic get recorded by the Verseau label?
We were able to make this album thanks to a meeting with Farid ZaÏche, a personality from the Lyon artistic scene. He noticed us and became our manager, and quickly proposed to record and release an album by creating his Label, “Verseau”.
The band with Farid ZaÏche (on right)
Q7. Could you please confirm the band members of Arsenic who recorded your self-titled album, and tell us about the guest musicians like Noel and Antoine, mentioned on the album?
Images from rear cover
Arsenic core band were:
Guitar, Vocals - Bertrand Repellin
Guitar - Jérôme Savy
Bass - Thierry Monod
Drums - Christophe-Pierre Dupraz
Keyboards - Pascal Viscardi
Our guest musicians for the LP recording were:
Bongos, Maracas - Noel Kapoudjian
Bottleneck slide guitar - Antoine Stacchetti
Harmonica - Jean-Yves Astier
Noël Kapoudjian, playing in 'Slaughter and the Dogs' at UK Rebellion Punk fest c.2014
Noël Kapoudjian was a professional drummer and percussionist of the highest level. He played with various musicians or groups of different styles, rock or jazz. He came to bring his percussions on several titles. He unfortunately passed away a few years ago. Antoine Stacchetti is a guitarist, specialised in baroque folk and blues. He brought acoustic rhythm and bottleneck parts. Jean-Yves Astier was the bassist of the band Ganafoul (link), he played the harmonica part on Never More. These three experienced musicians, older than us, were and are also friends.
They brought a complementary touch on some songs, but never played with us in concert. And we thank them and other relatives for their valuable support, because they had driving licences and cars and often accompanied us and carried the instruments to the studio sessions and concert halls! Some of these older friends, whom we were particularly close to, visual artists, former students of the fine arts, also brought us a rich artistic opening beyond rock and roll...
Arsenic in 1977
Q8. Could you explain "also brought us a rich artistic opening beyond rock and roll" further?
The recording of the album was enriched by the contribution of experienced musicians: Antoine Stacchetti and Geni Detto for the acoustic guitars and their arrangements, Noël Kapoudjian with the percussions... But apart from recording the disc, we often were with friends who were a decade older than us, who were jazz musicians, folk musicians, avant-garde visual artists or both. They liked our youth and our talent, and they introduced us to styles of expression other than rock and roll. Contemporary art in painting, Frank Zappa or John Renbourn in music, for example. It didn't influence our pop rock music directly, but it opened us up intellectually. In fact, even if we were mostly part of the "classic" rock scene in Lyon at the end of the 1970s, more so than the punks and other "new waves", we didn't belong to any fashion or chapel.
Bertrand, 1978
Q9. When and where did you record the Arsenic album? What are your memories of recording the album, and the equipment you used?
Thanks to Farid Zaïche who managed the whole project, we recorded this album during the summer of 1978 at the Cybernis studio. A 16-track analogue studio isolated in the countryside in the Rhône Alpes region. The electric guitars were two beautiful Fender Stratocasters and a Fender Music Master plugged into a Hiwatt 50W amplifier, with no intermediate effects pedal other than distortion, sometimes, and plugged directly into the console for the clean sounds. The bass was a Fender Precision bass, plugged directly into the console. Orange (?) drums. Keyboards: Grand piano, Würlitzer electric piano and Moog synthesizer. Various percussion instruments by Noël K.
Geny Detto, sound engineer
Q10. What are your memories of other people involved, like producers, engineers etc?
A lot of arrangement work took place during these recordings. Our songs, which were quite "raw", were reworked under the influence of Geny Detto, the sound engineer, and Farid. This careful production gave our songs a more "mainstream" dimension. We improved in precision, melodic and harmonic details, and structures. Were the original interpretations as on the pre-record demo more authentic and representative of pure and raw Arsenic? Perhaps. But our demo tape won't tell us, it has disappeared...
Geny Detto was an "old-fashioned" sound engineer, guitarist and arranger, having collaborated with Graeme Allwright among others. But we can say that he did a very good job.
1979
Q11. What was the creative process for writing songs?
Our creative process was quite classic. The start of a new song was based on an idea of riffs, a sequence of chords, a theme from one of the two guitarists. The rest was built together in rehearsal. It was up to the singer to find his melodies, the keyboardist, bassist and drummer their parts, the guitarists their solos and their respective interventions always complementary and balanced. A rich alchemy operated thanks to this musical and human connivance that linked us. As a singer, I (Bertrand) wrote the lyrics. We were teenagers, so the themes were either the problems of a young person in society, at school, everywhere. The abstract desire for somewhere else, for an absolute love. The refusal to be ensconced in the reality of society. In the form of poetry that sometimes flirts with the romantic-fantasy (Nameless, Mister X's dream, Never More, Emergency exit).
1979
Q12. Arsenic’s music is very good. "Nameless" is fast and heavy. Did you really want to go to London, like the lyrics in "Going to London", and who was the "Tipsy Girl"?
Tipsy Girl is nobody in particular, probably a girl drunk with the chaotic world around her. The idea for “Going to London” came from our vision of this city as the place for music as we loved it, where it comes from and lives, where the "real" bands are. Like a desire to escape to an elsewhere that we imagine to be better. “Three Days With The Flip” simply tells the story of one of us having a bad trip after consuming "hallucinogenic" substances. Knowing that we weren’t very wise in this respect compared to other bands we knew. Drugs and groupies were not part of our daily life!
Q13. Why did you choose to sing in English?
The English language was a given for rock bands at that time, with its sound that fits so well with the style. Writing and singing "well" in French is not gifted to everyone, few bands dared to do it, at the risk of "doing french variety".
Jérôme Savy in 2022
Q14. Do you have any favourite Arsenic songs? Can you remember anything about playing any of them, ones which were hard to play, or most fun to play for instance?Bertrand: I don't have a favourite song. I really see this album as a whole where each song has its own atmosphere, its own quality and its own reason to exist. Difficult or fun? I would say neither, but I don't know anymore, it's far away...
Jérôme Savy: I particularly like “Mister X's Dream” for its guitar parts, the crazy notes and sound of the Moog synthetiser, and the title of this track.
1979
Q15. What inspired the LP cover art? I see that it's attributed to Nicole Besacier and Sophie Dargacha. Did you know these people?
Farid Zaïche was in charge of making the album cover. Once again, we trusted him, as we had no idea on the matter (the idea was still to show something else than five guys in the street...). Nicole Besacier and Sophie Dargacha were two beginner graphic designer friends of his. We didn't really know them. The first project was based on a beautiful female face taken from a magazine, but it could not be retained because of a lack of authorization. The final result earned us some mockery from our artist friends who found it a bit childish. But personally, I like it and I think it fits well with our music, and it makes me think of the title Mister X's dream... But I have to admit that the back cover looks very amateurish!
Q16. What happened after the album was released? Was it widely released or just in limited numbers?
The album was released in September 1978, with a rather small print run, a few thousand copies? We don't know the exact number that were sold. It was very well-received by the public and the press, but unfortunately only at a local level, as it was not released internationally.
It lacked the next step of wider distribution and promotion with a major company. In fact, we were 17 years old, still at school, a bit too naive, we trusted our manager Farid, without worrying enough about the details of things and the accounts. When one day we asked him for explanations, he didn't really answer, and then shortly afterwards disappeared... It was through the newspaper, with an article and his photo between two Italian policemen, that we learned that he had tried unsuccessfully to hijack a plane from Rome to Tunis, demanding the release of Tunisian political prisoners!
1980
Q17. How much longer did the Arsenic band exist?
After some contacts between us and Farid from his prison in Palermo, we knew that he had been extradited to Tunisia. Then, silence. It is assumed that he was eliminated there... This event broke our momentum a bit, we had trouble bouncing back. We continued until 1981; without Pascal Viscardi, the keyboard player having left the band sometime after the release of the record, but we started again with French compositions, because in the meantime, the record companies had begun to only sign French songs, after the success of the groups like Téléphone and others. But, in spite of the ever-present concert successes, a good evolution of our songs, promising new titles and demos; the absence of a manager, a certain disillusionment and wear and tear took the group's toll.
1980
Q18. What happened after the demise of Arsenic?
When Arsenic broke up, Jérôme joined the group Carte de Séjour (link1, link2). [Editor: Carte de Séjour had success throughout the 1980s]
I (Bertrand) put together a group that didn't last, with Thierry, Christophe-Pierre and a female singer. Then I had various musical adventures and am now a TV sound engineer. Thierry Monod became a lawyer, Christophe-Pierre a show manager. Jérôme is a teacher of modern music. Our strong friendship never wavered throughout the years that followed Arsenic, seeing each other regularly, each having kept the love of our instruments and of music. Unfortunately, Christophe-Pierre has left us, he passed away in January 2019
So that wraps it up for volume 143, I would like to extend thanks to Bertrand and the rest of the band for their time and effort in making this volume possible.
See you on the next one! Rich
Some more Arsenic commentary can be found at these places:
Happy new year. TDATS is in its ninth year now, and still going, so thanks to all those who have shown support and welcome to the first post of 2017!
The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump was a prime psychedelic band from around Walpole and Boston in Massachusetts. They released one LP during their peak in 1969 and it's been a steady grower for me ever since I heard it a few years ago. A rich and varied LP which has something to offer everyone into vintage rock sounds.
As was typical at the time, there were less genre constraints and expectations back then and you'll hear blues, folk, country and hard rock sounds mingling happily, with male and female vocals from various members of the band. These were David Amaral [bass], Jim Deptula [drums], Caroline Stratton [vocals], Danny Keady [guitar, vocals] and Rick Clerici [guitar, vocals]. Interestingly, comedian and actor Martin Mull (Roseanne, Mrs. Doubtfire, Veep) made a small contribution to the LP too.
As is often the case when I am looking into bands to include in mixes (Fort Mudge has appeared in three so far: Vol95, Vol97 and Vol117), there was a surprising lack of general information about the band and their album, so I attempted to track down a few key members, eventually getting in touch with founding guitarist Dan Keady. He still plays and at the time of writing this, is in South West Florida's Deb & The Dynamics, where he now lives (link). He's kindly agreed to answer a few questions!
Interview with Dan Keady
Dan in a recent show
Hi Dan! Can you give us some background about how you originally became a musician and some key events leading up to being in Fort Mudge?
Dan: I started playing guitar at age 14 and sucked at it for a year or two but eventually put a band together made up of neighbourhood kids playing instrumental guitar music like the Ventures and surf groups. I used to go to see Rick play at the local record hops and he was doing the same kind of music. All that changed when the Beatles arrived and we all had to learn how to sing [and buy mics and vocal amps etc]. I ended up in a band that my older brother left for a gig in Boston. This was Walpole Massachusetts big time band Little John's Nocturnes.
How did you and Rick get together with David, Jim and Caroline to start The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump, and where did that colourful name come from?
While in Little John's Nocturnes playing soul music hits I met Caroline who was doing a folk jam with Rick. We decided that a folk rock band might get us an audience so we added drums and bass. David [bass] was younger than us and playing with a garage band down the street when we recruited him. The first drummer Al Barnicote just wanted to jam and recommended we replace him if we were going to rehearse and write every Tuesday night at my parents house.
Jim "Chicky" Deptula was my drummer in earlier bands and could play well had great hair but was a troubled kid. We spent about a year just jamming and playing Rick and Caroline's varied compositions until they morphed into the crazy mess that is Fort Mudge. The name came from Walt Kelly's comic "Pogo". If the band had been more successful we probably would have had to change the name as it was used without permission.
Excerpt from Wikipedia (link): "Pogo [Comic, est 1913] is set in the Georgia section of the Okefenokee Swamp; [the Georgia locales of] Fort Mudge and Waycross are occasionally mentioned. The characters live, for the most part, in hollow trees amidst lushly rendered backdrops of North American wetlands, bayous, lagoons and backwoods. Fictitious local landmarks — such as "Miggle’s General Store and Emporium" and the "Fort Mudge Memorial Dump," are occasionally featured."
Can you tell us some things about life in the band? Where did you play shows?
We heard about free concerts on Sunday afternoons at Cambridge Commons near Harvard University and went to check them out. The guys running it said we were welcome to come and play our own material for their crowd [not the standard thing in those days]. We played every Sunday that summer [1968 I think]. At the end they offered to manage us and make us stars. One was eliminated when he started messing with the money [we were playing colleges and high schools by then] and Ron Beaton became our manager with the agreement that he wouldn't get paid until we got signed with a record company.
He formed Moonstone management and went to New York bringing our demo to everyone that would listen. I guess the "Boston sound" had attracted some attention and bands were getting signed and selling records. A few reps came up to see us but the summer of 69 saw a great increase in our audience at the free concerts in Cambridge. So we got a rep from Mercury to come up for a weekend to see us play for a thousand people at a university followed by our headlining the Sunday concert for 8000 or more.
Fort Mudge in front of a home crowd at Walpole Mass.
How did the recording of the album come about, and how did comedian/actor Martin Mull get involved and what did he contribute on the album?
The Mercury rep reported back to NY that we were extremely popular and should be signed. Of course it took months to get the deal done and the rep was long gone by the time we recorded a note. We recorded in Boston in what would later become The Cars' studio [Petrucci & Atwell Sound Studios]. Martin Mull was a struggling musician and house guitar player at the studio. He lent me his Gibson ES-335 for 'blues tune' and entertained us between takes. Once the basic tracks were laid down half of the band just hung out in the front office with Martin while others did overdubs and vocals. Rick Clerici played all the acoustic guitar parts as well as electric on his songs. Most of the noisy stuff is me. Did the producer Michael Tschudin and engineer William Wolf have significant input in the record?
The producer Michael Tschudin played all keyboard tracks including picked piano and other odd sounds. Bill Wolf was a bass player and insisted that David use his old Fender bass because it sounded better than David's Gibson EB3. That was his opinion but he insisted like it was fact. I felt bad for David who was very young but accomplished on his instrument and he clearly didn't like the Fender's high action and dead sound but in the end it sounded great.
(l-r) David Amaral [bass], Jim Deptula [drums], Caroline Stratton [vocals] Danny Keady [guitar, vocals] Rick Clerici [guitar,vocals]
The album is ambitious and diverse, there’s some heavy fuzz guitar on tracks like 'The Seventh Is Death' and 'The Singer', there's blues like 'Blue's Tune' and there's mellow orchestrated songs like 'Actions Of A Man' and 'What Good Is Spring'. No two songs are really alike. Can you explain how such a diverse mixture of styles and instrumentation came to be included?
The songs were written by very different people and we were intentionally not listening to any other music so that we could develop an original sound. I'm told my leadership and arranging were very heavy handed and led to the demise of this version of the band but it was successful and I felt that the band needed a direction.
What equipment did you use to get your sound on the LP?
I was mostly using a Gibson SG special running into a fuzz and wah wah pedal [only on sometimes] then into a Marshall 100W Plexi Superlead amp. I did use Martin Mull's Gibson ES-335 for Blue's Tune and possibly other overdub solos.
Is it you singing on 'Blue's Tune' (which is credited to you)?
Yeah that's me trying to sound blackish. I'm still the blues singer these days, and was also the 'B' in Southwest Fla.'s The R&B Connection in the 90's (the CD is probably on youtube), as the bass player used to say. I am featured doing blues songs on all the latest releases from Deb & The Dynamics.
Front cover
The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump - S/T
Mercury – SR 61256 (1969)
Tracks:
A] Mr. Man / Crystal Forms / Actions Of A Man / Blue's Tune
B] The Seventh Is Death / What Good Is Spring? / Tomorrow / Know Today / Questionable Answer / The Singer Are you able to give any personal insight into the meaning of “The Singer”? It’s a heavy and foreboding sound that I really dig, along with all your (as always) inventive guitar parts!
If I recall, Rick said The Singer represented good. Like Jesus or Martin Luther King preaching non-violence and, as in the last verse, parents can create hateful children who can grow up to be The Singer's executioners.
Do you have any favourite tunes from the LP?
I still like 'The Singer'. Both musically and lyrically it still holds up today, although my guitar tone has improved quite a bit. I also like 'Tomorrow' for the lyrics and the sounds ...a lot went into the background to get that done.
What was the public/critical reception of the record on release? From what you've said previously, I presume the LP lineup didn't last long after it was made?
In the Boston area we were an instant success. I remember Caroline and I going to a big record outlet and seeing boxes of our LPs stacked up. They were just cutting them open and stacking them. They said sales were so good that they couldn't bother loading into the bins like other records.
Unfortunately Mercury provided no display stands or posters to make us look like a successful band. I do remember hearing that the same brisk sales were reported on the west coast. Mercury blew the promo money on full page trade magazine ads which made us feel great but didn't do the band any real good. They also didn't have any successful acts to put us on tour with so most of the world had no knowledge of us. This led to bad bookings in clubs and such that had no interest in an original act with no hits on the radio. Rick and Dave left to form Brother Ralph a 'Kansas' like lineup of guitars, saxophones and violins. They were great and I did record a demo of them but they were never signed
Fort Mudge's album has been re-released by Mercury and there is a lot of buzz online from all over the world. My daughter recently found a band doing covers of these songs selling downloads online. I had several different versions of Fort Mudge, one even did another never-released album. We eventually morphed into 'FM'. then 'Madeinusa' and finally 'Love Lace' [featuring Mudge's Caroline Stratton and Chicky Deptula]. There's plenty about all that online.
Thanks Dan! And thanks for the music. It would be great to hear the un-released Fort Mudge album one day...
The Netherlands was surely home to many rocking pop bands back in the early days, and Blue Planet was one of the best. Presented here is all the music they recorded. Something of a TDATS tradition now, we have another focus on a Dutch band that only made a few 45s. Blue Planet was cultivated in The Hague, a European rock mecca to rival London and Hamburg in its heyday. Their singles possess heaviness, deceptively wrapped in a hook-laden glam/pop disguise, a talent that many other Dutch bands of the time had. One major quality of BP which jumps out is the vocals of Ron Bausch. They have an emotive strength, but also vulnerability, that gets you straight away. Reminding maybe of Rod Stewart, minus the whiskey-soaked gravel.
Included below is an interview I conducted with the drummer of Blue Planet, Art Bausch. He was really helpful and more than happy to answer anything I asked. He has great enthusiasm for the times and says that he really enjoyed every minute of Blue Planet, even though after the big break of touring with Golden Earring, the band didn't realise its potential in the end, and there were a few sad consequences of the rock n roll life style. He still plays today. I also got a few answers regarding the early days from bassist Peter Wassenaar. Peter in particular painted a picture of the The Hague and Scheveningen being exciting and heady places to be for players and fans, with happening clubs like The Scala, Club 192 and The Flying Dutchman.
As is the case with other talented Dutch singles bands that have appeared here before, including Cobra (Vol111) and Panda (Vol119), some Blue Planet members are associated with Dutch bands that had greater success, and made albums. Guitarist Aad van der Kreeft was in InCrowd, The George Cash band, Big Wheel, Twelve O'Clock and later, Think Tank. He currently plays in Electric Blues (link). Drummer Art Bausch was in Barrelhouse, Trail, later in Livin' Blues, and still plays with The Oscar Benton Band. Bassist Peter Wassenaar was later in Galaxy Lin. All these guys have played in many other bands and musical projects up to the current day. Aad in particular, is an admired guitarist, and you only have to hear his understated, fluid ability, adding to every one of BP's songs, to see why.
I must say many thanks to Marc Emmerik of Dutch band Vitamin X (fb), who has always been a great help with this blog and in this case pointed me to some great newspaper articles and translations! Alex Gitlin's Nederpop Files (link) were also very useful as usual.
Blue Planet Discography
1970
I'm Going Man I'm Going / Nothing in the World
Philips 6075 105
'I'm Going Man I'm Going' was the band's first release and it was their most successful one too, reaching no 16 in the charts. It is grinding, melodic and memorable, Ron Bausch's vocals are immediately arresting and invoke sympathy. Flipside 'Nothing in the World' is heavier, starting out with a stomping riff and great guitar hooks from Aad.
Boy / Climb the Mountain
Philips 6075 110
'Boy' is another memorable track which has a story to tell of a young guy learning the ways of the world. Flipside 'Climb the Mountain' is a slower pensive tune which again highlights Aad's great double-tracked electric and acoustic guitar skills.
1971 Times and Changes / Please Don't Shake Me Baby
Philips 6075 128
The final Blue Planet single goes in a different direction and contains two upbeat country-flavoured tracks, with 'Please Don't Shake Me Baby' having the most grit. US Country rock had an influence in The Netherlands around this time.
Cinderella
From Town to Town / The Love That We've Got
Imperial 5C 006-24448
All the music on this unique single was played by Art, Aad and Peter of Blue Planet. It was written by Betty Raatgever who started the band Cinderella. Both sides are fantastic, including a richly-shimmering folk ballad with a stella closing solo from Aad and a heavy glam stomper which could be mistaken for one of Blondie's heavier tracks.
Interview with Blue Planet drummer, Art Bausch
Following is a phone interview I took with Art about six months ago. Since then he has come back from a successful international run of shows with the Oscar Benton Band.
Art Bausch in recent times
Me: Hi Art.
Art: First I want to say it’s very nice that you from England are so interested in this period of music and Dutch bands. Back then in the ‘70s we were in our twenties and we learnt it from the old guys.
Me: It was all still relatively close to the days of the beginning of Rock n’ Roll in the 40s and 50s. Things hadn’t changed too much at that point. I’ve always been drawn towards the sound of the ‘70s, no digital technology in those days, you had valves and organic-sounding instruments and production.
Art: Yes, and it was very loud. Next to me I had 400watts bass equipment and on the other side I had 400watts guitar. The old Marshal amps. And my brother the singer had a 600 watt installation, we didn’t have a PA system at that time, but the drummer (myself) wasn’t mic’d up. Because it cost a fortune for drum heads and sticks and foot pedals, cymbals, because I just ruined them competing with the sound next to me, but, it worked haha.
Me: I noticed the BP singer had the same surname as you but I wasn’t completely sure that you were related.
Art: Ron Bausch was my older brother.
Me: How did you get into being a musician in the first place?
Art: Ah well, I can speak for my brother too. My father was a military man. He was an airplane mechanic. He was also a very talented young man, he came from Indonesia, from a family with money. He played classical violin. He came to Holland just before the war broke out in 1939. Just before he came to Holland at the age of fifteen, he had a scholarship arranged to study violin in the Hague but a week before he arrived by boat in Holland he fell with his left hand through a window and hurt it so badly that violin was no option anymore. So he signed up for the army, pretending to be older than fifteen. So he went from playing music in to the army; he never spoke about that time very much but it wasn’t a very nice time.
So he came through the army first to Scotland, he was on a boat to protect the transport on the ocean from Murmansk in Russia to Scotland and then all those Indonesian guys came to Holland after the war, they still were in the army, so that’s how my father met my mother because she was a nurse somewhere where all those guys were, and they got married and this is the result. In the army he played guitar, piano, he sang and he had a big band. There was always music from all kinds of sources in the house where I grew up, from classical to Elvis. It comes from my father. When I was thirteen I had my first amateur band.
Jan Frederik Bausch, second from left, 1947
Me: So you started out as a drummer originally?
Art: Yes. As a small boy I was sitting next to the drummer from my father’s big band, we were in the Dutch part of New Guinea. My father rehearsed with his big band every Sunday in an airplane hangar, I was sitting next to the drummer with my sticks at 5 or 6 years of age.
Me: Were you in bands with your brother at the age of thirteen?
Art: No, my brother was a couple of years older than me, he was a very talented guy, he discovered for me Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Otis Reading and the old blues guys, that’s what I learnt from him. That was my start, which was a good one. Blue Planet was my first proper band, when I was just eighteen. Peter the bass player was seventeen. My brother and the guitar player met and they had a thing going while I was just playing at an amateur level. They were already rehearsing and working on the heavy stuff, Zeppelin, Free, and then one Sunday evening they came while I was playing with my band at that time in a very small venue in Leiden, I was still living with my mother at the time, and suddenly I saw Peter and my brother and Art the guitar player there on the side of the stage and then I knew they were going to ask me. That was exciting.
I was not the first choice of drummer. They were not happy with the first guy, Jack Wolf. He wasn’t in to their groove, I met him shortly afterwards and he was very angry. Ron and Aad had a very clear idea of what they wanted by did not always agree with each other, they were both very talented guys and both had big egos which often came into conflict with each other. But it worked for a short while, we only existed for two years, three months.
Me: What clubs/gigs were you going to back then? What was the life like then?
Peter: The Hague was rock city #1 in the '60s (link) , with clubs and bars were everybody met after gigs, like The Scala, Club 192, The Factory and De Drie Stoepen [The Three Sidewalks].
In The Scala, drummers, bass players and guitarist all had their own corners. In Scheveningen (link) there was The Flying Dutchman, you could see the bands playing by looking through the upper windows, the club was below street level. On the beach in Scheveningen were lots of people playing all kinds of instruments, mostly blues, I started playing the blues harp in 1966.
It was all great fun, we were young, and there were lots of things to do both in The Hague and Scheveningen. The well-known bands from The Hague were The Motions (Rudy Bennet and Robbie van Leeuwen later in Galaxy-Lin with me), Golden Earring, The Tielman Brothers, Shocking Blue.
I saw Fleetwood Mack playing in Club 192 back in 1968 even got their autographs in the dressing room, Jerremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood etc.
Blue Planet all rehearsed in a place called "Het Kraajenest" in de Jan Vossensteeg in Leiden, among other local bands from Leiden. The reason for forming this band, was the first album of Led Zeppelin, in a week we played all the songs from the album. Also of inspiration were J Geils band and Love, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape.
Me: Why the name "Blue Planet"?
Peter: During that period we all watched rockets go into space and, also to the moon (Bowie sang it; "planet earth is blue, and there's nothing"….in Space Oddity, later that year). It was a catchy and short name. Here in Holland bands changed their names; The Golden Earrings became Golden Earring etc.
Art: We started as opening band for Golden Earring. Their first appearance after their first American tour, and they had just changed from being a commercial band to what they are nowdays. They were getting very heavy, and our manager at that time arranged their homecoming gig in The Hague which was sold out of course, and we were the opening act. We played only for 35-40 minutes, to an audience of 2000 people. Bearing in mind that I had just come from playing gigs in Leiden to only 50 people. When we finished our set, George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen from Earring asked us to play their whole tour which was in 1970, it was 36 gigs in a row, with one evening off, at that time I learnt much.
Being professional is what I learnt from those guys. They were big and they had hits. Me and Peter were just enjoying the hard work. We had no money at all. My mother kept the band alive by feeding us and buying us equipment, we got a loan from my mother for a drum kit, that’s the way it was. The start of Blue Planet was just like a fairy tale, Golden Earring’s manager was also their producer, he said that BP was special, we had a sound, and he recorded "I’m going Man I’m Going" and produced our three singles. This guy was so big in the music world, he knew “This is gonna work”, and it worked, we went into the hit parade, and we had work.
Me: How did you get the gig with Golden Earring in the first place? That’s quite an achievement for a young new band.
Art: Because our manager at that time, Henk van Leeuwen, came from The Hague and he knew all those guys. He was very smart and he had a view. We played all weekend, Monday was our day off and Tuesday until Thursday we rehearsed, starting each day at 9am and leaving at 5pm. He told us we have to work hard. So after the Golden Earring tour we went to the studio and recorded “I’m Going Man” and “Nothing In The World”. The machine started working from Fred Haayen’s side (Earring manager) and the booking agency, and we had at that time the pirate music stations out at sea.
Freddy told us “this single is too long” and we said “this is what we have, we are not going to make a sale from two minutes and twenty seconds”. In the end everybody on the radio stations was playing I’m Going Man I’m Going haha. I still meet people when i’m out playing who ask me about my past and what my first band was, and I tell them I was in Blue Planet and they say “woo man, that was the first single I bought” haha.
Me: Was one of those pirate stations Radio Veronica?
Art: Yes, and the Red Bullet agency, Freddy Haayen, they had all kinds of business connections, and they were also rebels, who understood the need to get this music out there. They were very smart, they made a lot of money but also gave a lot of bands the chance to be on the air.
Me: Was it Freddy that negotiated Blue Planet signing to the Philips label? Many other Dutch bands I like were also on Philips.
Art: Yes at that time they were very progressive.
Me: Did Fred have a lot of input in your recording of the singles?
Art: Yes. First you give in a tape with the number and you say this is what we’re gonna do. Fred was very good in feeling the energy of the band and he didn’t want to change too much, he was very good.
Me: Did he suggest things in the studio to improve songs or did he come up with original ideas?
Art: He added the mellotron in I’m Going Man I’m Going. We were the first band with a mellotron as it was a new thing then. It was in the studio and he suggested using it.
Me: Who was playing the mellotron?
Art: It was a well known jazz pianist Cees Schrama.
Me: Did you talk to Cees much or did he just come in and do his own thing?
Art: It was different at those times, when those guys came in there was more animosity. He was not a studio player, you know, “Let me hear the number”, “OK, I think I do this, maybe that”. And we were all there, yeah it was quite an experience. We were living as rebels in hippy times, Rock n’ Roll...
Me: And he was from the more old-fashioned way of doing things?
Art: You could think at the time “You work in an office”, that’s what we thought, everybody with a suit was an office guy haha.
Me: Can you tell me about the 1970 TV clip of "I'm Going Man I'm Going"?
Art: It was late 1970, this was a promotion project named "Beat Behind The Dikes" to help Dutch groups to go international, directed by Bob Rooyens. It was recorded in Hilversum, and also outside on lake IJsselmeer.
After looking into "Beat Behind The Dikes", I found that other bands appearing included Golden Earring, Shocking Blue and Earth & Fire.
Me: So we have spoken quite a lot about your first single, do you have any favourite songs, like Boy or Climb The Mountain?
Art: Climb The Mountain is my favourite, of the ones we recorded. My brother came up with the lyrics, and he sings it very nice.
Me: Yes I do like your brother’s emotive singing on all the tracks, and his lyrical stories, one of the great things about the band. Who was the main song writer?
Art: My brother came with the rough guitar parts, then Aad would come in with suggestions. After that it would go to the rehearsal room where the whole band would have equal say in finishing it off. Everybody was at that time equal. Like I’m Going Man I’m Going, the first two chords are mine. And then the rest came, Pete had ideas....It was the new era, “We are all equal, and we are gonna change the world” and all that bullshit haha.
Me: Well, it worked for a while at least I guess!
Art: Yes, it worked for two years, don’t forget at that age there was a lot of dope going on, it was almost free, a couple of guys in the band enjoyed it very much...
Me: A bit too much?
Art: Yeah, Yeah and they went on to LSD, and speed, and blow. Everyone was going to change the world on LSD. I’ve been there once but I left, I thought “This is a crazy world, this is not my thing”.
Me: Yes abusing drugs usually ends badly.
Art: At that time, for example in Holland, Golden Earring was a totally clean band, they didn’t even get drunk. It was all healthy. And look at them now, they are on top of the world.
Me: Yes it’s respectable to be able to do that really. It’s very easy to give in to these temptations, especially when you’re in that atmosphere, of clubs and groupies and what have you.
Art: Yeah, and a lot of people come up to you “Eh, Eh do you want a pill, do you want a sniff?”. Not for me. That was that time you know, it was total anarchy.
Me: Sure, much more so than now.
Art: It’s also important for our story, as especially my brother and Aad, were doing a lot of speed which is a lot of fun when you are young and you can go for a day or four or five but it wears you out you know, and then they were finished, but there was drive in the band, we thought we were the best in the world you know. “We’re gonna make it”, but reality says we didn’t play sixteen times a month, we played four or five times.
Me: You think that's one of the reasons you didn’t last very long in the end was you weren’t playing enough?
Art: Yeah there was a lack of money, and those two egos of Ron and Aad were too big. They were quite arrogant.
Me: They used to argue?
Art: Yes. Later when the band was finished, years later, then you realise, talking to people, even now, going to my home town, people talk about “Do you remember that concert in the park? Beautiful weather, and you started at twelve o’clock in the night and you ended at three”. People remember. It had something special as a band, we gave a lot from the stage, there was energy.
Me: Can you tell us about the last single, 1971’s Times and Changes?
Art: It was our last record, it didn’t make an impression, nobody was interested. At that time there was no work, little money, our manager wasn’t getting things going. I called everybody together and said “This is the end, this is not what I want”, at that time I was very busy and I didn’t see a future. Aad was starting to get interest from other bands, and that was the moment it was finished.
1971 newspaper article, the band are quoted as saying their third (and ultimately final) single "Times and Changes" is to be in a less heavy style, with the goal of reaching a wider audience. It also says that the band got good responses playing in both France and Germany.
Me: I consider their final single to have a slight country influence, further away from hard rock than the previous two, but both the sides are great and really grow on you. American country rock was popular in Holland at the time. Bands such as Normaal and Dizzy Man's Bandwere introducing it into their songs. Mailer Mackenzie Band (listen) made two albums and were actually signed to US label Ampex, with reviewers comparing them to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Members of the band had a couple of links with Aad and Peter W. of Blue Planet, via The InCrowd, Big Wheel and The Motions.
Marc Joseph says of this style. "Southern/country rock was really popular in Holland in the late '60s/early '70s. Bands who were virtually unknown in the rest of the world were playing to sold out venues in Holland. Flying Burrito Brothers even received a gold album while in the US they were playing for 100-200 people."
Did Aad play on your last single single or did you have a replacement at the end?
Art: No, it was Aad. All three singles are with the same, original lineup.
Me: I read that a new guitarist came in at the end of the band's life, is that correct?
Art: Yes that is correct, our manager brought in Peter Dingemans to replace Aad. Very good player, at the time he was 22 with a wife and child, trying to decide if wanted to be a professional musician, but the magic was gone. The energy and the drive was gone.
Me: So Aad was the first guy to leave?
Art: Yes. He was a little bit older, he had played in Germany in night clubs and he had become a well respected guitarist in the Hague scene. He was also a guy who wanted to drive sports cars, and I found out years later that our manager was paying him a separate weekly wage that the rest of us did not know about. It was a dark side to Aad.
Me: Did he leave Blue Planet to go and play for another band?
Art: Yes, he played in a group who was from a record company, called Think Tank. And those guys were on the payroll. The record company had a lot of money for Think Tank, and those guys had nothing to do with Blue Planet, it was a commercial thing to make money. It was a different style of music as well, not as appealing to me.
Me: How long did the band last after Peter Dingemans joined?
Art: Around five or six months, and then it was over. It was a marriage which was doomed along with the band. A nice guy and a good player but from a different musical background.
Me: What background was he from?
Art: He was from a more hippy “be nice to each other” way of thinking and we were more arrogant. In Holland we had the nickname “the Dutch Zep”, the looks, the appearance on stage, we were the boss.
Me: So you decided that you were going to leave before the band broke up?
Art: I called everyone together and we had a meeting in a restaurant with the manager, I said “Boys it is over and I quit, I don’t see any future any more” and that was the end.
Me: Did you have songs that were never released or never recorded?
Art: No
Me: Why didn’t you make an album?
Art: We got off to a great start with the I’m Going Man I’m Going single but didn’t keep the momentum. But of the lack of playing and lack of money, and the two egos who were in conflict all the time, we just never got to that point.
Me: Can you tell us about the equipment that you used?
Art: I had a West End hand-made drum kit which I couldn’t afford, my mother lent me the money. The drummer from Golden Earring drummer, Jaap Eggermont, who became a big producer, had a West End while we were opening for them. I went to the Hague and “West End” is the name of the street in English. There was a man who makes drum kits, a lot of Dutch drummers at that time played on a hand-made West End kit, they were beautiful, and very collectible now. I don’t have it any more.
Me: And the other guys?
Art: Peter Wassenaar had a Fender bass with an Orange combo. Aad played on a Marshal 200W double stack, he started with a Strat and then changed to a Gibson SG, a hard rock icon at the time.
Me: You mentioned Fred Haayen, he produced another band that I like called Cobra (see Vol111).
Art: Yes, same era, Cobra had this English singer, Winston Gawk. He was a very outgoing person on stage, while my brother Ron was a very introvert person, he didn’t move much, he just stood there and sang beautiful, his appearance was important to him. We played together on a few gigs, which definitely would have been at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, at least once. A big venue where you had to play.
Peter Wassenaar - Art Bausch - Ron Bausch - Aad Van Der Kreeft
The Leidsch Dagblad newspaper printed a story that on 10th July 1971 Blue Planet played a festival in Meerlo, with Cobra, Livin' Blues, Brainbox, Focus and Jug Session Group among others. All great bands, showing what circles Blue Planet were mixing in.
Me: Do you remember Big Wheel? I ask because their music reminds me a little of Blue Planet.
Art: Yes, Rob van der Zwan the guitarist was a very big fan of my brother, and at the same time as we had I’m Going... they had the single "If I Stay Too Long". The story on that single was that the producer sang on that single, not the singer Cyril Havermans.
Me: Cyril Havermans sang in Focus later on.
Art: Yes, that’s the circuit Blue Planet were into at that time, we did festivals with Focus, Cuby + Blizzards, Golden Earring. Are you interested in a Dutch group called the Shoes? They had 26 hits! They were older than us, they started off as young guys going to Germany when they were all around sixteen years of age, they did all the hard work you know? It’s so different now days, I was talking to a professional drummer in his thirties and he plays with whoever calls, you know, but in the early days you had a band, it was not done to play with other guys.
Me: I guess you have to be adaptable to make some money, play with a few different bands.
Art: Yes, but you lose your identity.
Me: Are you aware of a split single that Philips released with Big Wheel and Blue Planet?
Art: No, not at all! Someone clever obviously put that one out. I know the drummer Shell Schellekens a little, at that time we admired each other’s drumming.
Me: I’m Going... reached position sixteen in the Dutch hit parade, was that your biggest success?
Art: Yes, but we could have come higher up. But because of the long time it took for I’m Going to reach a high position, Philips decided not to press any more copies. In that week we could have entered the top ten, but It was not available any more.
Me: So it sold-out basically? Why would the label let that happen to a successful song?
Art: It happened because the labels become impatient, and decide to dedicate resources to newer releases. If they had been more patient with us we would have hit the top ten and things could have been very different for us...
Ron Bausch c.1976
Art: Another story also, my brother’s appetite for drugs was large and he had developed addictions. After Blue Planet he didn’t do anything. We tried to get him back on his feet, the family you know.
Me: So he was burnt out? He never worked in music again?
Art: He had plans, but he was going down and down. He never got out of it and he died at age 36 in 1983.
Me: I’m sorry to hear that Art, a cautionary tale.
Bassist Peter had this to say regarding Ron at the time they met: "Ron Bausch was a photo model and a singer with an extremely high vocal range. he was very thin and tall and drove an Austin mini cooper, he was what they then called a 'dandy', and always very sharply dressed"
The Leidsch Dagblad newspaper in 6th Februari 1976 had an article saying that Ron Bausch was in contact with record labels and had arranged a BP reunion LP. Clearly this never came to anything before he died.
Cinderella in 1971
Have you heard of the band Cinderella, that made a single in 1971?
Art: Yes, I did studio work with them on their first single, together with Aad and Peter. That was while Blue Planet was still going. I’ve been seen it on Youtube.
Me: Did you guys write the single or were you just brought it to the session?
Art: The main girl, Betty Raadgever wrote it. Their producer, Gerrit Jan Leenders, I did other work for him too. That’s how that started. My memory is good, especially of that period. Everything was so intense and every day was a party.
We take a brief diversion here to read some responses that Cinderella's Betty Raadgever kindly gave for this article.
Betty Raadgever
Me: Hi Betty, did Cinderella make any more music other than the single?
Betty: Cinderella did make more songs, but they are not recorded on a album, unfortunately. And of course I wrote a lot of songs after Cinderella for my other bands: Eyeliner and The Betty Ray Experience.
Me: I spoke to Art Bausch. I asked him about your Cinderella single and he confirmed that he, Peter and Aad Kreeft played on it. Did Blue Planet play on both sides?
Betty: Blue Planet played on both sides of the single, but I wrote the lyrics and music. Aad was a good friend of mine and we knew the other guys from Leiden/Oegstgeest, where we all came from. A very good band, Blue Planet!
Me: Did the other guys in Cinderella play or sing on it too (Renee, Bernardien, Nico)?
Betty; The singers on the record are Betty, Bernardien and Renee in the chorus. I am singing the lead, and the b-side, "The Love That We've Go", Bernardien sings. The guys from BP played all the music.
Me: Did Cinderella break up for any reason or did it change into a different band?
Betty: After four years I choose to switch bands and became lead singer of a hard rock band called "For Shame". Cinderella was over... After the hard rock period I had four other female groups: Trevira 2000, Eyeliner, Nasty Girls and The Betty Ray Experience. The other Cinderella members stopped playing in bands.
Me: Thanks Betty!
And back to Art...
Me: You were in the Oscar Benton Blues band after Blue Planet?
Art: Yes, straight after Blue Planet. We leave for Istanbul on the 9th of June 2015 and play on the 10th. Then we have a day sight-seeing and come back on the 12th. The youngest in that band is sixty three and the oldest is sixty eight haha. Can you imagine? This man made one major hit called "Bensonhurst Blues (1973)", used in French movie Pour la Peau d'un Flic (link) in 1981. He sold eleven million singles in Eastern Europe and Italy and France. But the man is not very healthy now, he is only 65. Three years ago came a German agency, saying hey, we want Oscar in Bucharest, and in Russia. Next we play in Istanbul. We will play an hour and fifteen minutes then an encore and that’s it. We are payed in advance and everything is payed for, we are very pampered. They only think we have to do is play well. It’s really fun. I originally played with those guys from 1972 to 1975, they are real friends, we kept in touch. Three years ago we got together again to play Bucharest, it would have been nice to be taken care of like that back in 1970!
I stopped being professional in 1990. The year before I was working from Monday to Friday in bands.
Me: can you name any other important bands you were in while you were a pro musician?
Art: Living Blues from 86 until 1990. I have also had my own bands, I had an old fashioned 12 piece soul band and we played the old stuff, the singer in this band was the singer in my first band from 1963, a guy from Indonesia. We did the old soul stuff you know; Otis Reading, which is the music I grew up with, is in my heart, this is what I want to do. So at the moment I am with Oscar Benton, I have another band called Johnny Feelgood (link). This is a band that consists of six guys of similar ages who are all in other bands. My third band is called The Blues Factory (link), I am the oldest in that band with the rest aged down to 35, which makes it interesting. I am still ambitious but not to play 17 times a month.
Me: Did you ever stop playing to start a different career?
Art: Yes, in the early ‘80s I stopped because I was fed up with the whole thing, I sold my kits. But after 3-4 years I felt the urge to play again.
Me: What work did you do then?
Art: Since the late ‘80s to this day I have been a self-employed handy man. I have a van and a lot of experience by now, so I am very busy with that.
Me: Do you have any more Blue Planet stories to tell?
Art: Blue Planet was playing in Germany in the ‘70s. We all had long hair. During the day when we were just walking around we got a lot of shouts at us about being gay, and being weak. It did not happen while playing in the venues but it was from the general public, away from the scene. We were bullied on the streets.
Me: I guess it no different to anti-hippy sentiment that you could have experienced in any country back then. German, the UK, America, anywhere. Ironically German had many great rock bands back then, with long hair too haha!
Art: Our attitude was that we were going to change the world, no more politicians, we will look after ourselves. What happened?
Me: That dream didn’t work out in the end did, unfortunately.
Art: You can’t change the mechanism, you can’t change the system.
Me: You can’t change human nature. I guess things will always come back down to the same greed and self-preservation, it’s easy to see what’s wrong with that but I guess it’s also survival instinct that will always be there to some degree.
Art: I do what I can to make the world a better place and help people, that’s all you can do!
Well, many thanks to Art, Peter and Betty for making this article possible. Enjoy the music of these great musicians of the golden age of rock...
Rich
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