FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET PRE-ORDERED MY AUTOBIOGRAPY AND DOUBLE CD – AND FOR THOSE THAT ALREADY HAVE. Here is another snippet from my book. It describes what was happening in 1979 at Bernie Proctor’s TMC Studios in Tooting, after my band, Limmie Funk Ltd (band members Nick Straker, Phil Towner, Andy Gierus and me) split from singer Limmie Frank Snell (formerly of the American band Limmie and the family cooking). The snippet mentions Tony Mansfield, who had been our part time roady and good mate. I’m sure the closed group; The New Musik Discussion Group will appreciate this snippet. Note…We were able to record in downtime at TMC as reward for my maintenance services at the studio… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At more or less the same time that we were recording Nick’s Straker’s first hit, “A walk in the park,” I was also laying down some tracks with Tony Mansfield. Tony was a short, slightly chubby guy, who was prematurely balding. He had a roundish face, with a gap in between his two front teeth. Tony was a very creative guitarist and writer, his main influence being Peter Gabriel and Genesis. Just like Bernie - who normally started a sentence with, “Ah well, ah mean t’say the ole point is this…” Tony started almost every statement he made with, “Not being funny but…” and he used the phrase, “You know,” more than anybody I had ever met! Although Mansfield (as we called him) was the most unlikely pop star, he was writing some very good original material. Once we had a few tracks recorded Tony made some A&R appointments with various labels and went off to try and get a record deal. GTO Record’s, Dave Novik, liked what he heard and wanted to sign Tony…but as a solo artist. However, Tony insisted on a “Band” signing (I always felt that Tony was quite insecure, and I suspected that the band signing made him feel more comfortable by drawing attention away from himself). Eventually Tony got his way, and his new band, named, “New Musik,” was launched. The band’s line up was: Tony Mansfield on guitar and vocals, Phil Towner (Maggot) on drums, Tony Hibbert on the bass, and Clive Gates on keyboards. Now that GTO Records was paying Bernie for sessions we set about recording some new songs - ironically, the songs that got Tony his initial deal with GTO never got released! New Musik’s first release entitled, “Straight lines,” (one of my personal favourites) struggled to make number 55 in the UK chart. However, the second, “Living by numbers,” entered the top 20 at number 13. The record was made all the more memorable because of the end section of the record, where there were a succession of voices - featuring everybody and anybody (even including me, and passer’s by on the street) repeatedly saying; “They don’t want your name, just your number.” Every voice was different, not one was repeated. The almost simultaneous success of both the Nick Straker Band and Tony’s New Musik, caused us some serious worries when both new bands were booked to appeared on Top of the Pops. Nick and his band were on one week - featuring Tony Mansfield, Tony Hibbert and Phil Towner - and the following week Tony and his band, were on featuring the very same musicians! Everyone was a bit worried about record company repercussions, but we managed to get away with it. As time went on, other musicians were brought for Nick’s TV appearances. There is still time to pre-order at: pledgemusic/projects/petemixmasterhammond
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 09:17:11 +0000
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