Interview with Brian Howe (Ex-Bad Company) - Summer 2010
Yes, I know what you're all thinking, WHAT! Summer 2010 and you're only posting it now?!
Believe me, it's been a crazy year and Brian and I spoke for a while and we had a great chat.
Brian Howe is a great guy, very passionate about about all things Portsmouth Football Club - I know the feeling! - English football and of course his music and a certain part of the world that he stumbled upon a few years back that is beautiful! - ... and where Brian wrote most of the excellent 'Circus Bar' released earlier this year through Frontiers Records.
He spent time in Bad Company, following a not too long stint with Ted Nugent and then went solo.
Why not? The guy has a great voice, he's written some great material over the years and basically got Bad Company noticed again and back into the charts with their first US hit singles in years including 'If You Needed Somebody,' 'Walk Through Fire' and 'How About That.' Incidentally, at the time the title track of the 'Holy Water' album hit number one on the AOR charts.
This success also got Bad Company back into playing the big arenas again, so the man's voice certainly hit the spot for many people!
Anyway, without any more of my blabber, here's the interview that Brian and I had back in the summer, enjoy!
Sorry, one last thing, the interview took place during the World Cup finals and of course, we both had something to say about that!
Brian: Hello?
AW: Hello, Brian?
Brian: Yes!
AW: How are you it’s Alun Williams?
Brian: What’s up, what’s going on?
AW: You doing alright?
Brian: I’m doing alright me old son, yep!
AW: Good! Excellent! Well I take it you saw the game yesterday? – England World Cup loss.
Brian: Yes, I saw the game yesterday and I’m gutted. You know …
AW: Yeah, I know … I’m bloody disappointed.
Brian: I don’t know why that guy was put in goal over David James. I don’t understand that decision at all. I just don’t get it. That’s not because I’m a Portsmouth supporter by the way, but David James is without question is the best of them three and why he wasn’t in I just don’t understand. Unless he’s got an injury?!
AW: They’re saying he’s carrying a knee injury, so …
Brian: Oh really?
AW: Yeah, so I’m thinking … How long is that going to keep him out, right?
Brian: Yeah right, let’s hope not long …
AW: Right.
Brian: Let’s hope so …
AW: It was disappointing I mean, I’ll tell you what to be honest, before they started I thought we’re going to do typical England, be complacent, go in there and sit back and they’re going to take advantage of us and everything and then when Gerrard scored I thought, ‘Sweet!’ (Laughs) You know?
Brian: Right and then they just switched off!
AW: Yeah and then they switched off! (Laughs)
Brian: Typical! Just f**king typical!
AW: (Laughs) I know mate!
Brian: Oh God! It’s ridiculous man, but what do you do?
AW: I know. I guess the latest news on Pompey … It’s funny I was looking at The News (Portsmouth newspaper) online and it was a story from a couple of days back and apparently there’s only about 15 players contracted to the club at the moment and only probably only 6 will probably be there at the start, you know? Who knows what will happen with the sale of the club, right old mess isn’t it?
Brian: Yeah, that’s right ….
AW: I know, we’ve had some tough times haven’t we mate! Anyway let’s talk about better things mate (Laughing), let’s talk about the album …
Brian: Yeah, yeah, gotcha, right!
AW: Let’s talk about the album. Great job on ‘Circus Bar’ mate, great album, you must be well pleased with it?
Brian: Yeah I am! I’m actually quite over the moon with it! It took a lot of work, but we pulled it out!
AW: Yeah …
Brian: Oh, hold on a minute, I’m just dropping my son off at his Mums, hold on a sec, I’ll be right with you.
AW: Oh right …
Brian: (Talking to his son) Right, they you go mate …, you alright, Michael, you got everything Mike? Oh well done, well done. Pull that gum out for us will you mate would you? There you go mate. You alright? - Exchanges some more with his son …
There we go …
AW: How old’s your boy?
Brian: Twenty four …
AW: (Laughing) I’ve got a stepson back in England who’s twenty two …
Brian: He started his first day of tour management for me last night …
AW: Oh yeah? Kissimmee right?
Brian: He did rather well … Yeah, Kissimmee. He did that and he did alright.
AW: That’s alright isn’t it?
Brian: Yeah, poor boy, he’s alright, good lad …
AW: (Laughing) Poor boy?!
Brian: Yeah, you know … Yeah so Circus Bar, it was a weird whole period because I wasn’t going to make another record right and I was kind of was resigned to the fact that I’d just do live dates and that would be it, you know?
AW: Right.
Brian: No more records, which was fine, I’m quite happy to do my live dates, I quite enjoy doing them you know, but I got this email from a guy called Serifino from Frontiers Records and I’d never heard of them and he said, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of the stuff you did’ and I thought, f**king hell, that’s one in a row! He said, ‘Would you consider making another record?’ I said, ‘No, there’s no way I’m going to make another record.’ He says, ‘I really wish you would, let me give you some money to do it?’ I said, ‘Well, let me think about it …’ I did, I thought about it for a couple of days and I said, ‘Look, what I’m going to do is, let me see if I can still write because I don’t know if I can still write, as I’ve not had to do it in thirteen years. So let me see if I can still write and if I can, then I’ll think about it …’ I wrote a song called … The first song I actually wrote for that record was, ‘What Am I Feeling.’
AW: OK
Brian: So I thought, well I can still write, it might be a bit light but I can still write so maybe I can get a record done. So we put a deal together and I got a new producer because Terry Thomas didn’t seem interested in doing anything, so I sounded out this new guy in Orlando called Brooks Paschal and we met and had a meeting and tried to write a couple of songs which was very successful and so it was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let’s make a record!’ Brooks had his own studio of course, which was great and we made the record! We started writing for it and ended up in Guatemala and writing songs down there … Which was an incredible period because … People don’t believe me when I tell them, that we went down there with no songs and within three days we had six or seven, totally done. Finished!
AW: Really?
Brian: Yeah, from nothing! From absolutely nothing!
AW: Right
Brian: It takes a rare chemistry to do that, so it kind of kicked everything off beautifully and that took all the … I use the word ‘pressure’ but it’s not really pressure, it was like apprehension of if I could still do it you know, because you do get a bit rusty if you’re not in the studio … You kind of forget your mic techniques and how you sing differently, adjusting to the studio against how you do live … How you have to …, but it all sort of came back and it was actually pretty cool.
AW: So you said you did the one song, but you didn’t actually start writing the full album until you got out to Guatemala yeah?
Brian: Yeah, we wrote the bulk of the songs in Guatemala in three days. I had a couple of Bad Company songs that I redid and I had two other songs that I had that they weren’t really finished, so I included those as well, you know? So it’s kind of a little bit of a tapestry but the bulk of the stuff was written in Guatemala and that’s how come the record came to be called the ‘Circus Bar’ because every night after working on this stuff we’d go down to this little bar, that had the best pizza in the world and it’s like an old … Well, it’s like a pub, well it is a pub! It’s a pub / restaurant and it’s real funky and it’s really cool and they have local bands that play you know that play Spanish music and whatever and it’s just really cool. It’s a real archaic building. The rain comes in through the roof during the monsoon and it’s just cool! It’s a really cool place to go! So we’d spend every night in there and that was our social gathering at night and we finished off lyrics in there and worked on stuff and you know, we just had a great time in there. So I was really struggling with a name for the album and after about a week to ten days, I thought …
AW: Why not just call it Circus Bar …?
Brian: Ah, Circus Bar! Why not just call it Circus Bar?! That would be cool and so there it is!
AW: Yeah, that’s cool. So the little place, Lake Atitlan, is that how you pronounce that?
Brian: Yeah, Lake Atitlan – Spells it out!
AW: Yeah I looked it up online and everything and it’s like how did you discover the place in the first place, because you said it’s your favourite place in the whole world …?
Brian: Oh it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to in my life and I’ve been everywhere! I found it initially because I’m a cheap bastard and …. (Laughs) Spirit Airlines out of Fort Lauderdale, they’d just started flying to Guatemala about five years ago and in the first few months of flying there, once every so many weeks, they would do this ridiculous price of like $0.32c roundtrip!
AW: Bloody hell!
Brian: Yeah, into Guatemala city and well … The first time I went, I went to Guatemala city and although it was interesting, I didn’t really like it … It was very smoky and very polluted and very crime ridden shall we say and just dodgy and little too much like Miami for me and you know … So, I went back again after having taken advice of a cab driver and he said, ‘You need to go up to the lakes …’
AW: Right …
Brian: … and have a look around there. He explained it to me beautifully. He said, ‘Guatemala is our New York City, it’s not representative of our country at all. It’s just a city … Sure enough I rented a hotel up on the lakes for my next visit and as soon as I hit the top of the range and looked down on the lake, I was gone! It was like, this is it, this is where I want to be and it is central America of course and it does have it’s downfalls but economically it’s an incredible place to be because the (US) dollar is worth about ten dollars over there.
AW: (Laughs) So, you’re a rich man then?!
Brian: Yeah, I mean suddenly you’re ten times richer and it’s like ‘Wow!’ There’s a lot of Americans that live around the lake. There’s a lot of English.
AW: Really?
Brian: Oh yeah. There’s lots of ex-pat’s gathering in the pub at night and it’s just cool. It’s a beautiful place to go!
AW: Nice touch eh? Yeah I was looking at pictures of the place online and the missus came over and I said check out the pictures of this place where Brian wrote the album and she says, ‘Wow! It’s beautiful! How much would it cost to go there and is it safe?! (Laughing)
Brian: Oh yeah, it’s cheap as nuts, even now. I mean for some reason right now it’s expensive but … From Fort Lauderdale right now, I think it’s about $350 roundtrip …
AW: Bloody hell, that’s changed hasn’t it?
Brian: Yeah, but you can get flights for $39 now and then if you pick the right time of year, you know?
AW: Sure. How many of those volcanoes are still active then?
Brian: None.
AW: Oh really?
Brian: None of those are active. Macaya became active again about three weeks ago and it kind of splattered Guatemala City, but you’re about three hours from there.
AW: Yeah, right.
Brian: Yeah, but you’re also at a decent altitude and the air is just so pure it’s a whole different ball game.
AW: Oh that’s alright then isn’t it?! So, getting back to the album then and Brian Howe gigging and so on …
Brian: Yeah …
AW: So last night was the first date on the tour then, yeah?
Brian: No, no, no … I’m not doing a tour parse, at this point. I’m just doing odd dates. I fly in and fly home and I’ll be home in about half an hour, you know and I drove to this show because it was Kissimmee, but we’ve got Syracuse coming up, we’ve got California and I fly, just fly in, do the show and fly home, so it’s easy, pretty cool. A tour? I mean, I don’t know? I’m being told that there’s a European tour being lined up …. It’s probably going to happen, because the record is …
AW: Taking off isn’t it?
Brian: Yeah, it’s doing well for me, yeah, but we’ll see, because like I say …, people talk and with the economy being like it is right now, it’s tough to do a tour because people don’t want to pay the money and the expense of it has gone up so … The area of me being able to hire the best musicians that I want to hire, it makes life a … A trifle tricky!
AW: Yeah sure, but I guess the interesting thing is, a lot of American bands are actually starting to go to the UK a bit more and play, because the value of the dollar is so weak against the pound and so they can make a few bob (Make some cash) can’t they?
Brian: Umm, I don’t know. I know they were doing that but hasn’t the exchange rate just started to go back the other way now? I don’t know, maybe not?
AW: I think it’s about $1.70 to the pound right now, $1.60 or something, but at one point there it was something like $2 to the pound and when my boy came over here a little while back, a couple of years back he said, ‘This is sweet Al, I can spend loads of dosh (Money),’ so …
Brian: Wow!
AW: Yeah, so he was well chuffed when he came over. Anyway, so the show you did last night, Pat Travers was playing too right?
Brian: Yeah, Pat opened up for us yeah.
AW: Yeah, so that’s a nice touch then isn’t it, as he played on the album too didn’t he?
Brian: Yeah, yeah he did the old bastard! (Laughs). I didn’t get to see him last night which is funny you know, because I got there and he’d just finished and we had a few technical problems so I had to deal with a lot of bullshit last night and I didn’t get to see him after the show, because normally we share a tipple so you know … He’s a good lad.
AW: Yeah I’ve always liked Pat, I must admit even back in the UK when he played on the Crash and Burn tour, went to see him and that was nice.
Brian: Yeah.
AW: So it’s got to be tough to put new songs in a live set I guess, I mean most of the time the crowd just wants to hear a ‘Best of’ set, nine times out of ten …
Brian: Do you know what, you’re the only journalist that’s got the f**king brains to know that, because it’s amazing how I’ve been telling people look I’m not doing … Maybe I’ll do one song from the new album, if I’m lucky because … People are just not interested …
AW: … and it sucks doesn’t it?
Brian: People are telling me, ‘Oh come on man, you’ve got to do the new stuff …’ People just don’t want to hear it … They don’t want to be taught new songs, they want to sing along and have a laugh …
AW: Right …
Brian: … And that’s what I want to do to when I go to a show … You know, unless I’m an absolute, total nut job person like if I wanted to go and see someone like Cat Stevens, I’d love to hear a couple of new songs, but … In my era of music it’s kind of … Two thirds of them are off their face before the show starts … They wanna sing, they wanna shout, they wanna … So just let them do it, it’s easy, it’s great!
AW: Yeah, I guess the only way you can really do it is go to somewhere like Japan where they kind of accept new stuff with open arms don’t they? They tend to don’t they?
Brian: Yeah but I don’t know if that’s true either though because the Japanese just have a history of just sitting there and listening to anything politely and then clapping politely and then stopping and just listening … (Laughing) So I don’t really know if they enjoy hearing new music or whether they just treat every song the same, I don’t know?
AW: I think that might be six of one and half a dozen of the other, because some of the live recordings and some of the DVD live stuff from Japan that I’ve seen, some of it they’re like going out of their minds and then some of it, I don’t know … Did you see the Asia DVD?
Brian: No …
AW: It was like exactly what you’ve just said, they’re all just sitting there and clapping politely … It looked like a conference centre or something, you know?
Brian: Right! Well generally that’s what Japanese audiences do!
AW: Right …
Brian: And it’s very disconcerting as the artist when you go out there and you’re thinking, ‘F**king hell, we’re not winning these people over … You know … Oh my God, we’re dying a death up here and then at the end of the song they go berserk! Then they go to nothing again … It’s very weird and very, very unnerving!
AW: Right, so you’re thinking … Well maybe when you go to Europe, it might be a bit different and you might be able to play a couple more new songs, I mean like you say if the tour comes off right?
Brian: Yeah, well hopefully we’ll do … I’m hoping to do a show in Portsmouth I certainly want to do one in London, ‘cos my mother’s never seen me!
AW: Right …
Brian: You know I don’t think she even believes I do this for a living! (Laughing) I swear to God! She’s always saying to me stuff like, ‘Well you haven’t worked for few weeks have you? You’ll have to get a job. You will, you’ll have to get a job!’ I say, ‘Mum, I’m all right.’ ‘Well, you know we all need money Brian. We all need money.’ I go, ‘Mum, I’m alright, I don’t have to work if I don’t want to …’ ‘Well, people say that but you know …’ It’s like, oh God, I can’t convince her!
AW: (Laughing) It’s that older generation I think mate!
Brian: Yeah, it’s weird.
AW: Yeah, ‘cos my Mum’s just turned 90 actually and we just flew back there for her 90th birthday so …
Brian: Ahh, that’s nice mate …
AW: Yeah, it was good. Anyway, it would be interesting for you then, you’d probably play somewhere like the Wedgwood Rooms then wouldn’t you?
Brian: I’d love to! I would, I’d love to! Actually play Portsmouth Guildhall as it probably holds about as many people as the Wedgwood Rooms right? I mean it holds 1900 people, right?
AW: Well yeah, there you go. It’d be sweet if you were to play Pompey Guildhall wouldn’t it?
Brian: It would, even though it’s a complete shit box! (Both laughing)
AW: I don’t know mate, you know it’s funny, I saw so many … You know a lot of people say it’s a dump, but I saw so many great acts there when I was younger you know, but …
Brian: Yeah …
AW: … or else you have to go down the road to you know where to see gigs and stuff …
Brian: Well, I’m obviously a little bit older than you because I used to go and see shows at South Parade Pier …
AW: Yeah, I saw shows there too …
Brian: It was either there or Kimballs.
AW: Kimballs? I don’t remember Kimballs?
Brian: Kimballs was in Osbourne Road, it was where the casino is now.
AW: OK, OK.
Brian: That used to be a live music venue and I saw … Funnily enough, I saw Black Cat Bones play there with Simon Kirke playing drums (Laughs) and Paul Kossoff was playing guitar. I saw America there … It was a real underground f**king venue, you know? So it was either that or South Parade Pier where I saw everybody! I saw Humble Pie, the Edgar Broughton Band, I saw Bowie, you name it I saw everybody at South Parade Pier.
AW: Right, right …
Brian: But then it got burned down by …
AW: The Who …
Brian: Yeah, well actually it was (Ken) Russell’s film crew burned it down, which funnily enough I mentioned on the second verse of ‘My Town’ on Circus Bar …
AW: Yeah, ‘My Town,’ I was going to say it was a nice touch on the album, nice references to Pompey on ‘My Town’ and then ‘Little George Street’ …
Brian: Yeah …
AW: And I was going to say to you, I know Little George Street is just round the corner from New Road but I don’t know much history on it, was it just a personal thing with you or was it a drinking club or something? (Laughing)
Brian: Yeah … Well, that’s where I was born!
AW: Oh you were actually born in Little George Street, OK!
Brian: Well, I was actually born in St. Mary’s hospital but I spent the first 19 years of my life, living in Little George Street but there’s always … Well I wrote that thing when I was a kid …
AW: There you go …
Brian: And I’ve never really had the chance to do anything with it and I thought f**k it, I’ll stick it on the record you know …
AW: Well it’s just like a little pub sing along thing … (Laughing) It’s funny you know, because my old band was playing in the old Salutation one night and you actually walked in and it was just around the time when you’d just joined Ted (Nugent) and I mean … How was it fronting the Ted Nugent band? That must’ve been interesting mate?
Brian: Erm, that was like a baptism! It was like having to learn my craft, real quick and you had to learn, real, real quick that there was certainly no room for silliness, no drinking and certainly no drugs …
AW: No, not with Ted!
Brian: Which luckily I was never into anyway … I was never into drugs, but I used to like a tipple you know …
AW: Right …
Brian: But with Ted it was a very, very, very strict rule that if you’re late, you’re fired! If you’re drunk, you’re fired! If you’re caught doing anything stupid, you’re fired and I’m thinking, ‘Hang on, this cat’s got the reputation of a madman and he’s running this thing like the army!
AW: Yeah …
Brian: And that’s how he does it, but it’s really good and one day he pulled me aside and he said, ‘Brian, I want to talk to ya. You’ve got the potential to go all the way, but if you want to have a long career, do it my way!’ And I said, ‘Alright, what is that?’ He says, ’Exactly that. Don’t drink before a show, don’t get f**ked up, don’t be stupid, don’t do drugs and keep yourself in reasonable shape so when you hit the stage, you can do a reasonable job.’ So I thought, well that doesn’t seem like a terribly demanding way of life and yet I’ve seen so many people completely get it wrong and I’m sure you have, you know?
AW: Yeah …
Brian: They go onstage f**king drunk and pull off a miserable show you know and it’s just basics …
AW: Yeah, it’s pretty sad mate, but it’s like how many times can you piss on your fans right, you know? Anyway …
Nice touch as well on the album sleeve notes, to the ex-Bad Company well I guess they are still Bad Company guys … That was very professional mate. The little comments at the bottom there …
Brian: Well there are still some issues but ..., it’s like you know, that’s enough guys … I wish you nothing but the best …
AW: Right …
Brian: Go and have a hit, write a good album and enjoy your lives! Let it go. I’m just going out and doing what I do. I was the singer in Bad Company for 10 years. There’s no reason why my name shouldn’t be associated with that name, you know?
AW: Right!
Brian: It’s weird, it’s just really weird?! Very strange you know? Oh, did you hear that … You know Paul is no longer with the Queen scenario right?
AW: Yeah, I heard about that. I mean they did the ‘Cosmos Rocks’ right which I dunno, did you hear it?
Brian: No I haven’t heard it no.
AW: It was a bit of an oddball album to be honest ..
Brian: Was it?
AW: Yeah, I mean I saw them live, which was kind of nice because to be honest with you I’ve seen Paul Rodgers live like a number of times over here and saw him back in England as well before I left a couple of times and I thought he was very good …, but I never got to see Queen with Freddie which was probably one of my biggest regrets …
Brian: Oh I did, I got to see them once in Southampton …, sadly at the Gaumont …
AW: Yeah I saw Paul Rodgers with Queen up here at the Palace of Auburn Hills and it was very good. I really enjoyed it and of course I wasn’t expecting him to sound like Freddie Mercury and I’d heard the CD beforehand, the live CD that they released and you know, I wasn’t expecting it to be that way and so I accepted it for what it was, but then when it comes to writing new material then I guess you’ve got something completely different there right?
Brian: Right, right …
AW: Different style altogether … But the other thing I was going to say was I saw your thing, your piece on … I don’t know if you do your own Facebook or not Brian, but …
Brian: I do, yeah, yeah …
AW: Yeah? I saw your note on there about Robert Hart (Ex Bad Company vocalist after Brian) and the Ex-Bad Company line up and I mean I know that Mick Ralphs, Dave Cowell and even Jaz Locerie who were even playing with Paul Rodgers there a bit …
Brian: Well hold on there! I’m unaware of this, so … There are two Brian Howe sites, but one of them is fake … and I don’t know who does it …
AW: Oh, OK …
Brian: The one … There’s one guy around apparently that has a picture of ‘Circus Bar’ …
AW: Yeah, that’s posted on there.
Brian: OK, well that’s nothing to do with me!
AW: Aha!
Brian: That’s some guy who I think actually, I don’t know who it is, I’m actually trying to get it all traced … He watches my Facebook site like a hawk …
AW: OK
Brian: And he copies some of the stuff that’s on mine and puts it straight on there and this guy is in Detroit somewhere …
AW: Really?!
Brian: Yeah.
AW: Well that’s interesting.
Brian: So what did it say about Robert Hart, ‘cos that wasn’t me.
AW: OK, well he was posting on there, ‘Is there anyone out there that’s heard of this other ex-Bad Company band calling themselves ex-Bad Company or something … I’m not at my computer right now actually …
Brian: Right, right …
AW: And it’s actually saying that on there and a number of people have put on there bad things like, ‘Oh no, I didn’t like Robert Hart’ and a number of people have put ‘I think it’s great’ and you know, ‘Do you know who’s involved in it?’ and that was the question and I was thinking, you if ….
Brian: Really?
AW: And you know the funny thing is Brian, now you tell me this, that it’s not you, because I’m thinking, because of your involvement in Bad Company and obviously everything that’s gone down – And obviously there’s still communication that goes back and forth – I’m sure you you’d know more about this …
Brian: Yeah, that’s right …
AW: And that’s why I’m thinking to myself … I mean you probably knew about the … I trying to think of the other band that was doing it and what they called themselves …
Brian: ‘Ex-Com’ they were called ‘Ex-Com’ …
AW: Yeah right …
Brian: And they went out as Mick Ralphs Bad Company …
AW: Yeah, that’s right but …
Brian: Yeah, but it all got shut down … Paul shut them all down …
AW: Yeah, I know, I heard that … And then Mick went on and joined up and went on tour with Bad Company! (Laughing) It was an ultimatum I think, wasn’t it? You come on tour with us, because you can’t do that! Right? You can go out with your own band or something, but …
Anyway mate … Well I don’t have too many more questions for you mate, but it’s smashing to talk to you Brian!
Brian: Yeah it’s lovely, nice to hear from you.
AW: But yeah, come up to Detroit some time mate, play a show in Detroit it would be good to see you.
Brian: I was in Detroit actually just two weeks ago, just changing planes of course, but I was up in Detroit there for about three hours, just changing planes, changing flights coming back from …. A show we did in Bangor, Maine! Played in Bangor, Maine!
AW: There you go!
Brian: Yeah, that was a cool little gig but … I think we are coming up that way in the summer at some point, I’ll have to let you know.
AW: Yeah, yeah, I mean please do … Excellent!
Brian: No problem. Absolutely no problem! Well if you go back to Pompey, give ‘em my love! Of course there’s nowhere left that I used to go to. The Salutations gone, all the pubs I used to know have been demolished!
AW: Yeah, we used to play down on Fratton Road, what’s it called …? What’s the one by St. Mary’s church there? We used to play in there.
Brian: The Museum Gardens or do you mean the Contented Pig?
AW: The Contented Pig, that’s it! We used to play in the Contented Pig me and my mates.
Brian: Well my very first gig, my very first band ever, we would rehearse behind the Contented Pig in those two little rehearsal rooms they had at the back there?
AW: Yeah
Brian: It was four quid for like a five hour session!
AW: (Laughing) You can’t odds (Beat) it can you?
Brian: Oh it was f**king brilliant! We spent ages in there, slogging and slogging, slogging away, trying to learn shit. It was funny as f**k! F**king great little place, but that’s closed now I think, The Contented Pig?
AW: You know what, last time we over there (Back home), I wasn’t over that way, ‘cos my old Mum lives in Emsworth so we were basically just staying around that area and that neck of the woods and I never got to catch up with any of my old mates at all the last time we went back. It was a bloody fleeting visit you know, but anyway …
Brian: Yeah, yeah, I know … Well take care mate, I’ll speak to you later.
AW: Yeah, take care Brian.
Brian: I’ll see you on Facebook, if you’re on there. My Facebook, the real one, is Facebook/BrianHowe01
AW: OK, I’ll drop you a note, after we hang up, alright?
Brian: Yeah, yeah, no problem. I’ve got to check out that other geezer too and see what he’s up to and what he’s f**king writing! I’ve got no idea what he’s up to! (Laughing) F**king thanks for setting me up on that one, ‘cos I don’t want to get caught up in a f**king Robert Hart discussion! That’s bullshit!
AW: (Laughing) I hear you mate, I hear you!
Brian: Alright Al, nice to speak to ya. Take care mate.
AW: Yep, you too, cheers mate! Bye.
Brian: Cheers. Bye.
It really was a great chat that we had and I can let you know that Brian shared this morning that basically, all the recording of his next album is complete and just need mixing down and the various finishing touches.
He's also gone so far as to say, 'It sounds great and better than Circus Bar!'
Oh boy, I gave 'Circus Bar' five out of five in my review, this one sounds like I'm going to have to be imaginative! LOL!
Hope you all enjoyed the interview.
Cheers,
Al
