 |
 |
STEVE ELLIS ANTHOLOGY An Everlasting Soul Alan Robinson ‘Steve Ellis is one of the truly great British vocal talents. Discuss.’ Well, that’s your starter for ten, as they say on ‘University Challenge’. The challenge for any sleeve note writer, however, is to convince you that the collection that you’re clutching is worth several of your hard-earned Entertainment Euros, a task made much easier for yours truly by the overwhelming excellence of this forty-three track, three and a half decades or so of superb listening. The story behind Ellis’ career and the music contained herein is worth a book, but until he decides to commit it to paper, you’ll have to make do with this précis. Steve Ellis was born on April 7, 1950, in Edgware, North West London. In an interview for the UK based Shindig magazine, Spring 2000 edition, he recalled his initial involvement with music thus: “I played drums with two brothers when I was thirteen. I 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, desert boots and three-button long sleeved stripy and hoop top things - mod gear basically.” Ellis, with the encouragement of his friends, successfully
applied for a vocal gig with a band from an ad in the New Musical
Express. The band in question was named The Soul Survivors,
and comprised Morgan Fisher (keyboards) Ian Miller (guitar),
Warwick Downs (bass), and Maurice Bacon (drums). As Ellis recalled:
“Maurice's dad, Sid, was the manager. 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. Initially, we used to gatecrash weddings
and bar mitzvahs, and when we started getting good, we gigged
non-stop at all-nighters such as Tiles, The Flamingo, Speakeasy,
Marquee, coffee bars and mod clubs in Southend, Brighton and
London. We 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!” The single was a number one smash in January of 1968, and hurtled Love Affair into the pages of the teen press of the time. Ellis’ cherubic looks ensured that he was, for a while, many a teenage girls’ pin-up of choice. And the hits kept on coming – another Robert Knight cover, ‘Rainbow Valley’, was top five in April, 1968, and then the ‘A’ sides were provided by British tunesmith Philip Goodhand-Tait. “Phil was the singer/keyboard player in The Stormsville Shakers, an early '60s soul band. 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.” It was a happy, and, indeed, successful liaison, yielding hits in the shape of ‘A Day Without Love’ (number six, September 1968), ‘One Road’ (number sixteen, February 1969), and the wonderful ‘Bringing On Back The Good Times’ (number nine, July 1969), all classics of their time, and all contained on this collection, together with their respective band-penned ‘B’ sides. Love Affair were the quintessential ‘singles act’ of 1968. However, their debut album, ‘The Everlasting Love Affair’, was given little in the way of promotional clout from CBS. “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.” The valedictory Love Affair single, ‘Baby I Know’, failed to chart, and Ellis felt that it was time to quit. “Love Affair was starting to change direction. 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. So, ‘Baby I Know’ was a watershed – it charted briefly, but we knew we were on to a loser.” Ellis then went into the studio, and laid down some tracks that were to form part of a solo album. Utilising his old Edgware mucker Caleb Quaye and his Hookfoot cohorts, and also working with Keith Mansfield, Steve recorded versions of ‘Honky Tonk Women’, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Friends’ (penned by Terry Reid, and later a hit for Arrival), ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ and many others. The tapes remain unreleased to this very day, in various stages of completion, and may well surface at some stage in the future. Love Affair continued without Ellis’ involvement. Meanwhile, Ellis considered other options; a band featuring Zoot Money (ex The Big Roll Band / Dantalian’s Chariot), Jimmy McCulloch (late of Thunderclap Newman), and another great UK vocal talent, Terry Reid, was mooted, but nothing really came of the idea, although the Steve Ellis / Zoot Money orbits would coincide a little later, as we shall see. Ellis did make a contribution to the debut album by keyboard ace Pete Bardens, ‘The Answer’. Steve sings on the title track, included here. “Pete said ‘come and do some vocals’, and it was a good experience - it was such a great crew playing on that record, with Peter Green on guitar, Linda Lewis on backing vocals, Reg Isadore on drums (he was in Robin Trower’s band), and Bruce Thomas on bass (Quiver/The Attractions)”, as Ellis recalls. Ellis also recorded contributions to the soundtrack of the film ‘Loot’, composed by Keith Mansfield, who had arranged the Love Affair hits, the album of which is now quite a collectable item. Steve Ellis comments: “Loot was a great film – the music was a bit jazzy, and I enjoyed doing it, although I have to admit that I’m not a Jazz fan. The single taken from the soundtrack was really a marketing idea to help sell the movie, but I’m glad that it seems to have developed a little of the ‘cult’ following, all these years on. I fondly recall recording with the likes of Madeline Bell, Doris Troy and Sue & Sunny on backing vocals – they were the top session singers of their time, and, from a vocalists’ point of view, I was in heaven. They don’t come any better than that, mate!” CBS retained Ellis’ services as a soloist, and released a marvellous version of the Jim Webb song, ‘Evie’. Ellis has fond recollections of the record: “I loved that song. Hookfoot’s guitarist, Caleb Quaye is on it, and he was top dog guitar-wise, at the time. We had a big orchestra, with Caleb and Clem Cattini – a brilliant drummer. I did an NME Poll Winners’ concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, a complete reversal of the Love Affair, because I went out with and orchestra, Caleb and Sue & Sunny on backing vocals. Great times.” In 1971, Steve Ellis found himself a new manager in the shape of Chas Chandler. The ex-Animals bass player had been instrumental in breaking the career of Jimi Hendrix in the UK, of course, and at this time was working with Slade. Ellis recalled the Chandler hook-up thus: “I bumped into Chas at The Speakeasy, and we got chatting. He made the right noises; I stayed with Chas for a couple of singles, including ‘Take Your Love’. Then I did ‘Have You Seen My Baby (Hold On)’, with Howie Casey and his big brass section, Johnny Steel from The Animals on drums, Jimmy McCulloch on guitar, Zoot Money on keyboards, and a Canadian band, Eggs Over Easy who were touring over here. That was a bloody good band. We did a few gigs.” Obviously, Ellis clearly dug the company of Zoot Money; they’d both worked together as part of the music/poetry/comedy ensemble, Grimms, for a tour, and enjoyed the experience so much that the two collaborated on his next project, a band named simply Ellis (although they did also go under the name of the Ellis Group, a little later). “That was Zoot and two bass players – Jim Leverton (recently of Fat Mattress), who ended up with Steve Marriott, then Nick South (ex-Vinegar Joe / Alexis Korner). We also had a German guitarist, Andy Gröber, alias Andy Gee (ex-Springfield Park), and drummer Davey Lutton, from Eire Apparent, and later T Rex.”
‘El Doomo’ was the first single pulled from the album, a bluesy, achingly soulful and deeply atmospheric ballad, Daltrey frames Ellis’ vocal brilliantly, with some tasteful lead guitar from Andy Gee. The single’s ‘B’ side, ‘Your Game’ nails the band’s hard rock credentials with a swagger and punch to rival The Faces. Of the other singles taken from the album, ‘Good To Be Alive’ has a lot of the rambunctious, ‘neckerchief’ rock style of solo Ronnie Lane. Like its predecessor, ‘El Doomo’, ‘Good To Be Alive’ (co-authored with Zoot Money) got a fair amount of airplay on BBC Radio 1 at the time of its release, and it certainly still brings a smile to the face of the grimmest curmudgeon some thirty-odd years down the line. It also gives an indication of the kind of sweat-soaked, boozy good time ambience of an Ellis live show. Ellis cut a second album, released in 1973, “…Why Not?”, but it lacked the truly great songs of the first album, overall, and in Mike Vernon, found a less sympathetic producer. “It’s got three or four really good tracks, but the rest didn’t work out. Mike was very business-like. I knew him from the early days, and thought he’d be good to work with. But he was matter-of-fact, very formal – ‘right, time to go’ – bad chemistry, I suppose.” However, the best tracks from the second Ellis album were lifted as singles, and feature on this compilation, enshrined in the digital medium for the first time. ‘Loud And Lazy Love Songs’ in particular is a fine track, well up to the very high standards of their debut album. Ellis thought that CBS were investing too much promotional time on other acts. “Zoot was also getting itchy feet, and the band was like a co-operative, run very fairly, and we were beating our head against the door because we were touring non-stop, but we weren’t promoting anything. Then Epic / CBS said, ’we wanna keep you, but you can lose the band’. I was not well pleased, but the band said, ‘get on with a solo career if you want. The choice is yours.’ It was a tragedy for me, as the band was so good.” So, Ellis decided to split the band, but instead of taking the solo route, he opted to chuck in his hand with another combo project, Widowmaker, a band of an entirely different stripe to Ellis, in more of a Free / Bad Company mode. Launched as a kind of putative supergroup, featuring Luther ‘Ariel Bender’ Grosvenor on lead guitar, who had just left Mott The Hoople, Huw Lloyd-Langton (ex Hawkwind), Bob Daisley and Paul Nichols (whose last band of note had been a later version of Geordie Folk-Rockers Lindisfarne), Widowmaker were managed by the notorious Don Arden who also pacted them to his own record label, Jet. “We rehearsed at ELP’s Manticore Studios in Fulham Road, and invited record companies down. Don sent an A&R man along, and then we went up to his house for a meeting. And he did exactly what he said he’d do: promoted us out on tours with a functioning band, with product”. Arden’s reputation may have preceded him, but what he did do was to land them support slots on prestigious gigs with The Who, and a US tour with ELO. Widowmaker certainly presented a formidable onstage sonic assault, and some quarters of the press that Steve Ellis had at last found a band that could add genuine lasting commercial success alongside critical credibility. The reality was, however, that for all the bands’ considerable recorded and onstage clout, offstage Ellis and Grosvenor could fight bitterly (although they remain friends to this very day). Over to Steve: "Initially, it was fine. But you couldn't judge Widowmaker on their records because we were a live band, although the first album had its moments. Live, we used to do stuff you wouldn't associate with a hard rock band - Motown, 'Road Runner', but rocked up, Humble Pie-ish. I've always had this affinity with Marriott and really liked Terry Reid, Frankie Miller, Paul Rodgers - Free were excellent.” Concomitant with this was the emergence of Punk in the UK: "When punk kicked off, I thought, I'm out of this. But I liked the idea - it kicked everybody up the arse. There was no way I was gonna form a punk band because I couldn't relate to it - that would have been really sad! So I sat back for a while to let things roll." Instead, Ellis landed another solo deal, this time with the German-based company, Ariola. This liaison yielded a solo album, ‘The Last Angry Man’. True to Ellis’ bad luck, the album was never released. "That was down to a row between the producers" Ellis recalled, “We taped about twenty tracks - they're Beatley, orchestrated, produced by David Courtney, who’d worked on the first Roger Daltrey solo album.” Two singles did see the light of day, however - the Sam & Dave cover, "Soothe Me", and a ballad, "Rag And Bone", contained here (the whole album got a belated release on the Angel Air record label in the 2001). However, after years of frustration, business ups and downs,
and the boozing and drugging lifestyle of the rock and roll
whirl, Ellis came to a Damascus-like decision: "I had to
take stock of the situation. So I packed it in - I thought,
what am I gonna do? I've got a family. I moved to Brighton and
thought, I wanna get fit. A fella next door said, why don't
you work on the docks? So I became a docker."
|
|
