Outlook


To Earby, via India and South London


IF Gary Boyle isn’t our most popular local musician, he’ll do until that genius comes along. Though “local” may be the wrong word, because he came to Earby via India, South London and Ladbroke Grove, which is where I first met him some 20 years ago. And it doesn't seem a day too much. Although I ’ve known him for so long, I sometimes


i»fk«|a ■ m , ■ Gary Boyle •• ••


D EC EM B E R will see audiences rocking in the aisles at Colne Municipal Hall.


Albert Lee and Dr Feel­


good are set to continue this season’s famous faces line-up. Rock and country fans will need no introduction to


the talents of Albert Lee. He is touring with backing band Hogan’s Heroes for the fifth time in two years due to popular demand.


The guitar picking super-


star, who lists Emmylou Harris and Eric Clapton amonst his musical col­ leagues, will be raising the


Wrought Ironsmiths of Distinction


wonder whether I know him at all. Certainly if I were to compose a piece in his honour it would be an Enigma Variation, because there is about him a puzzling inscru­ tability. He’ll hate me for saying that because it makes him sound pretentious, which he isn’t. But he has a depth and maturity of understanding which, when coupled with an almost childlike enthusiasm and gentleness, fascinates and intrigues. And like all great musicians, it’s exactly this mixture that comes across when he plays. Gary was born in Patna in 1941," moving to London


at the age of eight. His birthplace and his soulful-yet-fero- cious brand of jazz-rock would suggest that his earliest influences were something far-out and esoteric. They were in fact the same as everyone else’s — the Shadows and Lonnie Donegan. When will our Lonnie get the credit due to him, I wonder. But I digress.


Caught up in the furious and ubiquitious skiffle boom,


Gary wrung lessons from a guitar-playing uncle and entered the fray. Skiffle turned to rock ‘n’ roll, and 1962 found our man in Hamburg. The Beatles and the Big 3 were up the road at the Star Club.


TOP STARS COME TO COLNE


rafters on December 12th. Dr Feelgood started their


R and B ca re e r in the seventies, and hits like “Milk and Alchohol” and “She’s a Windup” took the band th rou g h to th e eighties. Gravel-voiced front man


Lee Brilleaux will be lead­ ing a new line-up at the


“Muni” on December 15th, and a night of great music is assured.


F u r th e r d e ta i ls and


tickets can be obtained from Pendle Leisure Services at the Box O ffice , Bank House, 61 Albert Road,


Colne. Telephone Colne 864721.


TONY THOPE introduces a friend who is known in musical circles around the world


Boyley: “The Hamburg clubs were called ‘beat’ clubs, but


that belied the variety of the bands that played in them. I was at the Top Ten with a band called ‘Brian Bentley and the something-or-others’. We had a couple of horns and played B. Bumble/Junior Walker-type stuff. The band we took over from played Shadows music, and over at the Star Club it was gut-raw R and B. I saw the Beatles and the Big 3 there. Excellent.”


None of the members of the ‘something-or-others’ played


any jazz but they listened to jazz records all the time. Gary: “Funny, that, ’cause when I started playing jazz, all I bought was rock records. Weird, isn’t it”. But jazz it was that captured him: “I found in it an almost spiritual thing. In jazz musicians you felt this incredible individual spirit sort of burning away. It was almost as if you could tell their whole life story just by listening to one track. Nowa­ days you listen to records and play “Guess the Producer”! Knowing Gary’s love of jazz musicians like Miles Davis


and John McLaughlin, I was again surprised when I asked him about more influences, because the next name he men­ tioned was Dusty Springfield. “I was playing with Dusty’s band but listening to jazz, and I ’d become a bit of a musical snob, quite unconsciously. So when she asked me to sing some falsetto harmony I felt affronted. She could have told me to push off, but instead she played me some of the 4 Tops’ early jazzy things and took me to see James Brown. Slowly I began to realise that the jazz I was listening to and this black soul stuff were both just parts of the same black American tradition. Brian Anger completed this education, because the Trinity was more or less a soul band with jazz solos.


Through Brian, Gary became friendly with a shy but


charismatic genius called Jimi Hendrix. “He and I got on so well because we played so differently. That was typical of Jimi, one night he’d be jamming with a country band, next night he’d be playing jazz. He’d come and sit in with Brian’s band, just take my spare guitar, put it on up­


side-down and play fantastic music. He affected me spiri­ tually very deeply”. “Spiritual” is a word that Gary uses a lot, probably


because he’s a very spiritual man himself. Not that he goes to any church, but then maybe truly spiritual people don’t need to. He communicates with God — and his neighbours — through music, which is why you won’t catch him behind a wall of sound in a stadium. “If someone offered me the same money for one night in a stadium or three in a club, I ’d take the club. Music’s for sharing, not grabbing. I f I can’t share with other musicians, it’s a waste of time taking the guitar out of its case.” That just about says it all. □


§


Dr Feelgood


Chance to meet orchestra players


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IF you’ve ever wondered what makes a viola player tick, or wanted to ask a harpsichordist how he keeps his fingers nimble, you’ll get your chance soon.


Internationally applauded


chamber orchestra the Man­ chester Camerata is visiting the area again this month. And you can chat to them


after the performance in a special “meet the players” session. Continuing the series of concerts at Colne’s Munici­


pal Hall, the orchestra will be presenting a varied pro­ gramme which includes music by Telemann, Handel and Vivaldi. Harpsichordist David


Francis will be displaying his talents in Bach’s D minor Harpsichord Con- certo.The performance will take place on Wednesday, December 13th. Further details and tickets can be obtained from Mid-Pennine Arts Association and a- gents,telephone Burnley 21986.


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