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BRINGING
BACK THE GOOD TIMES
Andy Morten interviews Steve Ellis of the 'kicking band' Love Affair... The Beatles and The Stones were studio-bound and out of the public eye. The Who and The Kinks were still struggling to adjust to the post-psychedelic fall-out. The charts were dominated by the likes of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdink with their big dramatic, and parent-friendly, numbers... British pop was in dire need of an injection of young, sexy stars. The teenagers who had screamed at The Beatles in 1963 were now dropping acid and writing essays on the transcendental depths of Sgt Pepper. For the average 13-year old pop fan buying seven inch singles and the latest edition of Fab 208 on a Saturday morning, 1967 didn't have a great deal to offer. But with the arrival of this wave of new bands in early 1968, pop music temporarily regained its innocence, gave the kids some pretty faces to plaster over their bedroom walls and, almost coincidentally, produced some truly great lasting pop records. Contrary to the popular preconception that most British chart music of this era was manufactured by Tin Pan Alley songwriters and old-school managers, much of it was actually made by genuine bands - finally achieving some success and adulation after years of slogging round the provincial club circuit dreaming of the big time. The Herd cut several mod/beat singles before achieving a string of hits including "From The Underworld" and "I Don't Want Our Loving To Die", establishing the young Peter Frampton as the face of '68 in the process. Amen Corner were Welsh blues boys whose third single, a brass-heavy version of The American Breed's "Bend Me Shape Me", became the first of four smashes during 1968-69 - no doubt aided by the honey-eyed looks of their singer, Andy Fairweather-Low. Marmalade's first hit "Lovin' Things" is possibly the archetypal '68 British pop record but its makers already had almost a decade's experience behind them as well as a string of flop singles including 1967's "I See The Rain" and "Man In A Shop", which are now rightly regarded as pop-psych classics. After five years as a bona-fide R&B act with an almost unbroken run of hits under their belt, Manfred Mann lost Paul Jones, gained Mike D'Abo and continued their regular visits to the top five with the likes of "Ha! Ha! Said The Clown" and "My Name Is Jack". Even as their award-winning Ogden's Nut Gone Flake sat at the top of the album charts during the summer of '68, those bastions of mod cool the Small Faces retained their pin-up image of old and were unable to hear themselves play above the screams of their female fans. "Baby Come Back" by The Equals, "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations, "Jesamine" by The Casuals, "Yesterday Has Gone" by Cupid's Inspiration, the list goes on and on... Love Affair will forever be pigeon-holed alongside these acts - and for good reason. But there was another side to the band which remains less well known. So cast those stereotypes to one side for a moment and let main man Steve Ellis explain the paradox behind this 'kicking band' that were transformed into 'teenybop idols'... SHINDIG!: When and how did you first become involved in pop music? STEVE ELLIS: I played drums with two brothers when I was 13. Started singing when my pal Nigel started playing guitar about '64. We used to play down at the swimming pool. There was about a dozen of us, we went around together dressed in our Levis, deserts and three-button long sleeved stripey and hoop top things - mod gear basically. SD: So how did the members of Love Affair get together? Were you already friends or was the band brought together through music press 'wanted' ads? SE: Nigel saw an ad in NME and said I should go to this audition, after much prompting from all the others. I knew Morgan (keyboards) as he and his brother used to come to the clubs with us in Finchley and Barnet in '66. SD: Is it true that Love Affair got their first break when drummer Maurice Bacon's dad bought you all the equipment you needed so that Maurice could satisfy his ambition of playing in a band? SE: Maurice's dad was the manager. We were just kids out for some fun. I remember Decca Records came to rehearsals and said they loved the band. It was what they were looking for to follow on in a Small Faces vein as, I think, they were leaving Decca. Anyway, they told us if we got rid of the drummer they'd sign us up. Well, Maurice was 14 and not that bad so we rallied and said, 'No!' They still signed us though. Maurice got some extra lessons from his uncle Max who was drummer with Ambrose, he was a top jazz drummer. Anyway, he got better and the band gigged non-stop at all-nighters such as Tiles, The Flamingo, Speakeasy, Marquee, coffee bars and mod clubs in Southend, Brighton and London. We called ourselves The Soul Survivors and were mostly doing Stax, Motown and Atlantic R&B. We had a good following. But then the management wanted us to change our name to Love Affair. I thought it was a crap name but was out-voted! SD: The group's live set was dominated by the kind of soul and R&B covers much-favoured by British mod bands at the time (eg. The Who, The Small Faces, The Move). Were you in turn influenced by these bands or any others you found yourself sharing the bill with? SE: We played the Albert Hall with the Small Faces in '66. When they played you couldn't hear anything for the screaming. We were aged 14 to 16 so we loved The Small Faces and The Who, but were not directly influenced by them. They were just like us (when we became Love Affair) in that they did their hits but the bulk of their sets were R&B and soul orientated. Ironically, a couple of years later we played Belfast when the riots were kicking off in the square. The Small Faces played an open-air festival about 40 miles away. We all ended up staying in an 'olde worlde' hotel in the middle of nowhere. We talked for hours and discovered that we were both doing a few new numbers like "Every Little Bit Hurts" and "Gilded Splinters". They had a temporary brass section and Eddie Tantan and 'Speedy' Aquai on congas. We were quite envious of that. The Small Faces were more mod than The Who. The Move were hippies. But they were lively hippies! SD: After securing a deal with Decca Records, Love Affair's first single (a take of the Jagger/Richards penned "She Smiled Sweetly") was released in mid-1967 but betrayed little of your hard-edged live sound. Decca have acquired a reputation as being 'difficult' to work with. The Small Faces among others left the label around this time. Were you happy with the way they handled you? SE: I was honestly too young to know about any of the goings-on business wise. I hated doing that track. It wasn't us and we were brow-beaten into doing it. SD: Muff Winwood (fresh from The Spencer Davis Group, then in A&R) was blown away by your vocal style and got the band to record a version of SDG's "Back Into My Life Again", which was never released. Were you concerned by this point that the elusive hit single would never happen or did you still consider yourselves primarily a live band? SE: We lived for the day. That track that Mo still has [on acetate] is pretty good as it goes. Muff was a good guy but things shifted from Island to CBS and we got the hit record we wanted and gigged every night. Great! SD: "Everlasting Love" had already been a US hit for Robert Knight in 1967 when Love Affair decided to record a version to be released in the UK before Knight's came out over here. After one attempt with Muff Winwood at the controls was deemed unsatisfactory, the track was re-recorded with CBS hit-makers Mike Smith and Keith Mansfield, who had you sing but employed session musicians to provide a more commercial orchestrated sound. This must have come as a blow to the boys in the band. How did they, and you, react to this manoeuvre? SE: The original version by the band was, as I recall, not bad. The general opinion seemed to be that I should do it with an orchestra and then give it a Phil Spector-type production. Obviously I felt odd without the band being in the studio but it was for the good of all involved. Two takes and it was done. The band were not too concerned about this approach to things. SD: So when the song rocketed to the number one spot a few weeks later, you figured you'd done 'the right thing'? SE: It just seemed like a dream - it was surreal. We had tried so hard for the elusive hit that when we got it we were all in a state of shock. We'd done the clubs for two to three years previously so 'every good boy deserves favour'! SD: Steve, you were just 16 when "Everlasting Love" hit number one. I can barely begin to imagine what it must have been like to be the face in a hugely successful pop band at that age in the late '60s. With all the buzz of the music business, beautiful girls recognising you in the street, the 'devil-may-care' attitude to drink and drugs, the whole 'Swinging London' thing, are there any episodes which you particularly remember? SE: I'm going to write a decent book, hopefully with John Reed, about then up until now. To answer your question: it just felt like the ultimate high. We were playing every night and girls were ripping us apart - which, silly as it may sound, became a real pain as it got in the way of the music and people were getting hurt at concerts. As for drugs, some of us took dexys and some dope after gigs. It just seemed like everyone did. We never took acid, although I did some years later. Overrated, I reckon. Mescaline was good for rehearsing but I grew away from all that. As for cocaine - over-priced, overrated, damaging crap. I had a fling with it but it made me ill. I packed all drink and drugs up in 1978. One story that always makes me laugh was when a hotel we stayed at in Scotland was literally stormed by girls. They were up the drainpipes and across the rooftops. We were hiding some of them in our rooms when the police turned up, big blokes. One of the band was getting a bit carried away in a wardrobe with a girl. This policeman the size of a doorframe opens the wardrobe and said member, stark naked, jumps onto the copper's back, smiling like a loon. I thought, "God, we've had it this time!" However, this copper was brilliant, he just threw him off like a rag doll, and said, "Behave, laddy!" I don't know who was more freaked out, the band member or the copper. Anyway, they said, "Enough, or you're all in big trouble." So the girls were all escorted out. Did we give the (naked) band member some stick the next day. "Like big policemen as well do we, eh?" and similar jibes. All in good fun... Too many funny stories to relay here though. SD: Your image at this point, particularly the crewcut hair with that straight fringe, went against the prevailing trend of flowing locks and kaftans. There was probably only you and Julie Driscoll doing this in 1968. Was this your own style and if so, did you get people trying to change the way you looked? SE: In an interview one time in Record Collector magazine I told them that basically I had an outgrown crew-cut and on tour I just razor-cut the front. Nobody said anything. After the first hit we wore the usual mod-type stuff. I hated all those stupid frilly shirts. I was mod 101%. That's why I had a crew-cut. As for Julie Driscoll, I loved her. She was/is beautiful. But the haircuts were coincidental. SD: Love Affair went on to score another two top ten smash hits in 1968 with "Rainbow Valley" (another Robert Knight cover) and the irresistible "A Day Without Love", (written by Philip Goodhand-Tait). Tait also contributed tracks to the band's debut album at the end of the year and penned the two 1969 hits "One Road" and "Bringing On Back The Good Times". He was a talented songwriter with a knack for coming up with memorable, highly commercial material. Who was he and how did you get involved with him? SE: Phil was the singer/keyboard player in The Stormsville Shakers, an early '60s soul band in the style of Chris Farlowe. He was class. Anyway, we got chatting after a gig he did in London. The upshot was that he turned up at rehearsals one day with our manager. He submitted some songs and he sort of became a sixth member but he didn't tour with us. I loved his voice. He would ask, "What do you think of this song?" It just evolved from that really. SD: The first album, "The Everlasting Love Affair", was released in late 1968 but despite including the first three hits it didn't sell as well as might be expected. This was the era of bands being deemed either 'singles bands' or 'album bands'. (Check The Hollies around this time as an example of a group getting singles in the top five but having excellent albums - like Butterfly - ignored). Do you think this was the case with Love Affair or did CBS just not bother to promote it? SE: I truly don't know what happened. There was no big album campaign and just hardcore supporters bought it. Shame, as in retrospect the live studio tracks like "Hush" captured what we were about without the orchestra. Love Affair were a kicking band but we were labelled teenybop idols and it just stopped people taking us a bit more seriously. Very disheartening for me and the band at the time. SD: Apart from the singles, the group play on the rest of the album and the tightness gained from years of club gigs is in evidence on your rip-roarin' takes of contemporary songs like "Hush", "Sixty Minutes of Your Love" and "Handbags And Gladrags". Your voice is excellent throughout and the whole thing comes across like a hybrid of The Small Faces, Spencer Davis Group and early Deep Purple. Of the 15 tracks, only three are written by band members (including the hilarious cockney sing-a-long "A Tale Of Two Bitters"). How important was the songwriting, or were you happy doing other people's songs? SE: Morgan and I wrote together but it was early days in that department. One of the first songs we wrote together was the b-side of our first Decca single. I remember with some pride playing with Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band at the Starlite, Greenford. Geno came up to me and said, "Did you write that track 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' that you played tonight?" It was unbelievable when Morgan and I said yes. Geno asked if he could record it - it blew us away! Anyway, so Phil became the writer for A-sides and Morgan and I wrote the B-sides, with the band putting in their bits as well. Rex and Mick wrote some good songs. Rex (Brayley) still does. We still write together. Morgan lives in Japan now. I'd love to see him after all these years. SD: There was some controversy when it came out that you hadn't played on your singles. It was (and still is) common practice for record companies to use session musicians to save time and money in the studio. The confident group performances on the album prove that you were more than capable of playing on your records if you'd been allowed. You ended up having to defend yourselves against critics who'd never even bothered to come and see you play live. How did you feel being in that position? SE: The Love Affair recorded "Everlasting Love" at Island with Muff Winwood producing, but nobody thought it was a single. Another session was booked and I did it on my own with a big orchestra, Clem Cattini on drums, Herbie Flowers on bass [please see note - Ed] and Sue and Sunny on vocals. It turned out great and consequently all the A-sides were made in this way and the sort of hybrid soul/pop we achieved became our sound. Unfortunately it didn't marry up live. As I said before we were a kicking band. Morgan could not feasibly achieve the sound of a 40-piece orchestra with a Hammond organ, but we banged them together and rocked them up a bit for gigs. A bit of a paradox that one. SD: It's amazing now to realise just how successful Love Affair were. By the end of 1968 you were outsold only by The Beatles. Most of the group's time was spent in a whirlwind of package tours, TV, radio, press and general '60s pop madness. You must have played with and met many other pop people around that time. Who do you most remember as being great bands/nice guys/nutters? SE: Great bands: Spencer Davis Group, The Who, The Stones, The Move, Geno Washington, Sonny Childe & TNT, Jimmy James, Terry Reid, Small Faces, Zoot Money, Chris Farlowe and loads of US acts. Nice guys: Chris Farlowe, Terry Reid, The Who, Geno, Amen Corner, Status Quo, Barry Gibb, Barry Ryan, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder. Too many to mention. Nutters: We were all nutters! You have to be to get on in the music business, especially in the '60s. Mad as a shit-house queue! SD: By the end of 1969 Love Affair had notched up five big hit singles. Your faces beamed from every pop magazine in the land and adorned the walls of thousands of teenage girls. However, your most recent single "Baby I Know" had faltered and the band seemed doomed to remain in the teenybop domain while all around you your contemporaries were either embracing the progressive trends of the period or simply calling it a day. You quit the band during a live show at the end of the year (as Steve Marriott had done with the Small Faces the previous year). What were the reasons for making the break? SE: Love Affair was trying to change direction. "Baby I Know" was a good single and moved away from the hit formula. We were a good band but we had a lot of trouble adjusting to screamers - I don't mean to knock those fans but we couldn't hear ourselves on stage and it drove a wedge down the middle. The majority of the band had had enough, to be frank. I love music but it was not about music any more. And so "Baby I Know" was a watershed - it charted briefly but we knew we were onto a loser. It was a catch 22 situation. Also some disagreements arose about money owed to us, the usual '60s dilemma. I told the boys, "Newcastle, and I'm gone." So when we finished the set I said, "Goodbye, I enjoyed the trip, so to speak." SD: The first post-Love Affair solo stuff I'm aware of is your contribution to the soundtrack of the 1970 film adaptation of Joe Orton's Loot. The album features some great heavy pop numbers like "Loot's The Root" and "More" (probably arranged by either Keith Mansfield or Alan Hawkshaw - I only have it on tape) which sound like the direction you might have taken had you stuck with Love Affair. How did you get involved and what was your contribution (apart from your great singing of course!)? SE: Loot was a great film. I was asked to sing the soundtrack. Of course the Keith Mansfield link threw the public. It was music for a film and, no, Love Affair would not have gone that direction. It was a bit jazzy. I enjoyed it and that's all there was to it. As for the singles, I personally could not see the point, even though they were okay. It was record company/film company marketing. SD: During the early '70s you formed the band Ellis and subsequently Widowmaker with Luther Grosvenor from Spooky Tooth. Tell us about this period. SE: The first band was Ellis, which I formed with long-time pal Zoot Money. A great band. We toured relentlessly and played to packed universities and so on. I had finally cut the album I wanted to achieve but the record company did not give it the necessary promotion. After two years hard touring we became despondent. Coincidentally, the record company wanted me to drop the band and go solo. The band discussed the dilemma and decided to split. It was a tragedy for me as the band was so good. Sometime later, Luther Grosvenor and Paul Nichols turned up at my house. We went out for a drink and they asked me to be their singer. I went to rehearsal and pulled Huw Lloyd Langton in from Hawkwind. (He's a good pal of mine). We played and it was awesome, so I joined. Widowmaker was seriously hard rock, not heavy metal. We played and toured with ELO, The Who, Little Feat, just about all the great bands of the '70s. We were totally anti-record company business, proper punks in every sense - except we could play! We fought and argued but I'm still pals with Luther. On stage we were great but we started to crack from constant touring and living out of each other's pockets. I came back from the States with Huw (the others stayed in LA) after a three-month tour and we had £5 between us for a cab home. I said, "F**k this, Huw, I'm out of here." Don Arden took me to court but he lost. I was the first person to do that, I think it shocked the pants off him. He had manacled Steve and the Small Faces and Andy and Amen Corner. They warned me about him but it was 'live for the moment'. Widowmaker should have been massive. I will never forgive Don Arden but what goes around comes around. SD: You ended up living at Tara House, Keith Moon's infamous residence, in the early '70s. According to Tony Fletcher's "Dear Boy", you two were quite close for a while. What was your life like around this time? SE: No, not Tara exactly - 'Hippo Hall' we named it. It was similar to Tara but smaller. I wanted to buy it but for reasons left out it transpired that although he had paid for it, it was not in Keith's name. Keith said I could stay there for as long as the paperwork takes to be put in order. Consequently I lived there rent-free as Keith would not take a penny from me. I think those days were very crazy and I loved Keith like a brother. He was a mad sod but he was a great friend. SD: You gave up drink and drugs when Moon died in 1978, didn't you? SE: When he died I cried probably for the first time since I was a kid. It affected me so badly I lost the plot for a while and hit the bottle big time. One day I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, 'Sort yourself out son.' Coming off the booze was hard but it was worth it. I still miss Keith but a lot of the stories are bollocks. Ask Roger Daltrey what Keith was like. Roger is still one of my best pals but he's an actor now so I don't see him so much. SD: What have you been up to since? SE: Shortly after all this I did a solo album with an all-star cast called The Last Angry Man - but it was shelved due to a row between the producers. A real shame. I had a bad accident in 1981 and was out of the business for ten years. Since 1991 I've been back touring as Steve Ellis's Love Affair. SD: You must be excited about getting back on the road with the band and the impending release of your new album. You have one or two star guests appearing with you, I believe. SE: Yep, new band, new album - here we go again! SD: What music do you listen to now and what keeps you motivated? SE: I listen to anything decent. Music motivates me. As do
my friends, of whom I'm fortunate to have quite a few, and my
family.
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