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Stackridge are true Friars
legends. Seven gigs at Friars Aylesbury alone. Stackridge went their
separate ways after the last Friars gig at the end of 1975. They are
back together in 2009, gigging and have a new album out for good
measure. A UK tour is going to be happening as well.
So, Mr Slater, your
audience awaits you. Let's talk about Stackridge Lemon.
Friars Aylesbury Website:
Mutter, welcome to the Friars Aylesbury website. Let's start with a
great piece of trivia....you were the first ever act at Glastonbury back
in 1970, the days when Michael Eavis gave everyone attending a free pint
of milk...
The whole weekend was a
pound and free milk! (laughs)
Good old Michael Eavis, he
knows how to get the crowds in! And you returned to Glastonbury last
year didn't you?
We were on the acoustic
stage.
And it was pretty much the
original line up from first time round at Glastonbury as well, wasn't
it?
Yes, there were four out
of the six.
Not bad going! Out of
curiosity, where does the name Stackridge come from?
The bass player came up
with the name in 1969. It was originally Stackridge Lemon. It was meant
to sound like it meant nothing but like the psychedelic American west
coast names like Iron Butterfly and that sort of thing.
So that kind of ilk....
Yes, and then in adverts
and interviews, they kept dropping the Lemon and then they would spell
Stackridge wrong. But we shortened the name.
There should have been a
big super gig...Stackridge Lemon, Iron Butterfly, Jethro Tull, Uriah
Heep....
(laughs)
Stackridge Lemon was a
great name. In terms of names, how did you become Mutter and how did
James become Crun? What's the story behind that?
They were both nicknames
we had as mates. Mine was from school. If I was playing football,
someone would shout to pass and it went from Slater to Slutter and then
to Gutter and Mutter. And Mutter stuck even after school. James, for
reasons I do not know, was nicknamed Crunberry (laughs), how you get
from James Walter to Crunberry, I don't know! But that's why he's called
Crun.
Thought there had to be
some reason! So in the early 1970s you were starting to get yourself
noticed. I am fairly certain that a Friars fan recommended you to David
Stopps after seeing you at the 1972 Reading Festival. Your first Friars
appearance was the 1972 Christmas party. I bet you won't remember who
the support band was?!
No!
The Average White Band!
Bloody hell! We were on
the same agency so it was probably one of their first gigs....
and for 75p!
(laughs) The Average White
Band formed out of Forever More and Glencoe. Hamish came from a Scottish
band called Dream Police.
Glencoe appeared at
Friars! By the time you made your second appearance at Friars in 1973,
how about this for a quote...."Stackridge are the happiest band in
Britain...a tranquiliser to make you smile!" - that's from the Friars
flyer from that gig!
I've not heard that
before!
Yes, and it went on to
describe how happy you were! I was listening to stuff like the Galloping
Gaucho recently and there is a feel good factor that pervades your
music.
So in 1974, you were still
on the way up and played Friars again and here's some useless trivia for
you....you played the first and last Friars gig of 1975 as well as the
birthday party - three in the year! Let's talk about the June Friars
sixth birthday party gig, that's the one where Peter Gabriel jumped out
of a cake, what do you recall about that?
We were on stage when it
happened. We stopped playing having been primed when to stop and said we
had a birthday cake to bring on and then Peter sprang out! The crowd's
reaction was amazing.
I got an email from
someone who said they met me at that gig and introduced them to Gabriel
in the bar!
And then the year end
gig....I remember you saying how pleased you were that the bigger hall
was full (compared to the Phase Two gigs) and then sadly you didn't play
Friars again.
Yes, we packed up in April
1976.
What did you do after
that?
I had got married two
years before in 1974. The band packing up meant no income so I had to
get a job. My wife had had enough of me hardly being home - we were
rehearsing and recording n London and gigging as well. Then Andy (Cresswell
Davis) called and suggested we might want to reconvene. I'd been working
a few months at this point. I said, look, I'm 26, we've had a shot at
it, it didn't work, I want to settle down and grow up a bit. I carried
on working. Occasionally I got a band together and played pubs. But for
20 years, I largely ignored music. I had a son and did the married man
bit.
Sounds a bit like Still
Crazy where after splitting, the band put their instruments in the loft
and kept them there until a reunion came along!
I got rid of things, but I
kept the flute....but didn't play it. After 25 years, the first thing I
did was buy a guitar! (laughs)
Not just being out of
Stackridge, but the music business for 20 years, it must have been
strange when you had been striving for mainstream success to see James
and Andy have a huge hit (The Korgis' Everybody's Got To Learn
Sometime')...
They had one minor and one
big hit.
The royalties must have
set them up nicely!
James gets the royalties
from that one, I think that one song set him up for life, especially
with the cover version of it as well. Even Beck has done a version
of it in that film, Beauty of the Spotless Mind.
Beck doing it must be
interesting. I've kept up to speed with a lot of Friars acts and I know
that when Stackridge reformed after a few attempts, there were a number
of issues. It's not for me delve in to or ask for the nitty gritties,
but there were some things going on?
They reformed around 1999
and Mike Evans (original member and violinist) and his wife Jennie were
the ones pushing it really to get it up and running.
They ran the Stackridge
website, certainly at that time?
Yes, they run
stackridge.com and they won't relinquish it, but that's another story.
When Stackridge restarted neither myself nor Andy were in the band. Andy
couldn't get along with it all so pulled out. There were personality
things. If he wasn't doing it, I wasn't interested. That's why I got
involved this time, because Andy was, so I went along with it. I didn't
expect it to last over two years as it has. I expected Andy and James to
have a row in the first six weeks and that would be it! Then we started
gigging and (we thought just) old fans would be interested and that would be that, but
we've got a new album out!
Time has obviously healed
some of the issues....
We're all older and
mellower!
So it's working better
now. With the original attempts....
Jennie brought her
organisational skills but she was a little too forceful...
It's clear from the
outside looking in at your "other" website that something was going on
and it wasn't as good as it could have been!
(laughs) On stackridge.com
it says we aren't gigging which is a bit of a bugger. We're moving on
from it. We're touring the UK in the new year with a new album and we
can move away from all of that.
You're going to pick up
new fans on the way and not just the fans that say saw you at Friars the
first time round. People will be bringing their kids and that...
Yes that has happened at a
few gigs. We have met people's offspring who say to us that they have
heard our music since they were two! We love it! It's refreshing for
everybody.
And it's humorous as well!
I'm looking at that Old Grey Whistle Test clip of you doing Dancing on
Air....what the bloody hell was going on!!! It was a wonderful set with
the palm trees and deckchairs....
We did that ourselves.
There were some props in the BBC studios from another production and we
'borrowed' some. We did a few run throughs and had to stop for lunch
because of union rules. Whilst everyone was out, we got this stuff and
put it on stage. By the time they came back from lunch and saw the
stage, they were apoplectic!
Mutter, thanks for
bringing us up to date in the world of Stackridge. See you soon!
My pleasure!
Stackridge official website
This interview and its
content are © 2009 Mike O'Connor/www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk and may not
be used in whole or in part without permission.
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