| Vinyl
Vulture: John, how did you first become involved with The Harry
Roche Constellation and Pye Records ?? |
| John Didlock: In the early
70's, I met a guy called Alan Peters, I expressed an interest in
finding a recording project and he introduced me to Ken Barnes [producer
of the LP's]. In turn, Ken introduced me to Harry Roche and we decided
to cut the "Sometimes" album using some extra cash I had available.
"Spindrift" was recorded by EMI but they were not interested in
any further albums - therefore giving me my chance. I was never
strictly speaking "involved" in the music industry as such, but
I sold things like tape recorders to studios - I was, at the time
of the recordings European Sales Manager for a US manufacturer called
Scully-Metrotech. |
 |
| I was very well paid
- hence the extra cash! To our eternal regret, we got Pye interested
and were contracted with them to produce 6 albums. "Sometimes" was
released followed shortly after by "Spiral" but sales were zilch
and although we cut a third album with content "adjusted" to meet
Pye's insistence, it was never issued. |
| VV: Who
is that dolly-bird on Harry's Roller on the cover of "Sometimes"
? What is the story behind the shoot ? It looks like it was taken
on the local tip !!! |
| JD: I have no idea what
the story is, definitely something Harry produced from his bottom
drawer ! |
| VV: The
"Spiral" album is now widely regarded as a classic. What do you
recall of the recording sessions that yielded this album ?? |
 |
JD: In
retrospect, the most interesting thing about these discs was the
personnel Harry pulled in. They were all session musicians of the
highest calibre - we laid down the tracks so quickly that we completed
the recording of each album in three 3-hour sessions. They were
all done on 16 track and later mixed down. Such was the skill of
the session men that in some cases, one run through and one take
were all that was necessary. |
| We went to a little electronic
studio in Putney to get the effects at the beginning and end of
the track "Spiral" and Clare Torry [session vocalist most famous
for her contributions to "Dark Side Of The Moon"] overdubbed the
vocals after some lady that a golfing mate of Harry's was 'friendly'
with turned out to be useless. Clare was Harry's girlfriend and
a first rate session singer, for a start, she could actually read
music ! |
| VV: The
cover of "Spiral" is great…it looks like a Brigit Riley Op-Art masterpiece.
Any idea where the image came from ?? |
| JD: Courtesy of the Pye
Art Department ! |
|
Harry Roche with his valve trombone
|
| VV: The
title-track of "Spiral" is a 10-minute, funky, Shaft-esque epic,
credited to Pete Moore and so very different compared to the other
tracks from the recording session that eventually became the "Spiral"
album. How did the idea for the title-track evolve ?? |
| JD: It
was my idea. I said to Ken Barnes that I'd like to get away from
the 3 minute "78" tracks and he approached Pete who composed and
arranged what you now hear. One of my friends was so impressed that
he wrote a "treatment" for a dance company, but it never reached
the stage. |
| VV: You
might well know that we also hold Pete Moore in very high regard.
Any tales to tell of your association with him ?? |
| JD: Pete
was a very odd character - intensely musical, really made a study
of it, especially orchestration - I have a feeling he had studied
with a French composer, but I can't recall which one and it may
have been that Pete only briefly spoke of him. |
|
Don Lusher
|
| VV: To
our young selves, the most familiar name on the list of session
men is Don Lusher. He crops up on a lot of tracks that we hold dear
and indeed penned "Carnaby Chick". Do you have any stories concerning
Don ?? |
| JD: Not
many - I simply touched this side of the business briefly. A lot
of the guys in the Constellation (which was never a regular band,
it was just a pick up group of session players) had been with Ted
Heath and some (including Harry) had been military bandsmen. I met
Don casually a couple of times after the sessions - once in a railway
station where we took coffee together and later that same week I
came across him in the reception of BBC TV centre. I felt quite
the guy when he strode up to me and shook me warmly by the hand
! Don was a superb technician but some felt that he was all technique
and no heart ! He always got the complicated little codas at the
end of pieces - so much better than the cop-out fade ! |
|
B Geldard
|
VV: You
mentioned that you were originally contracted to Pye to record six
albums. What
happened after "Sometimes" and "Spiral" ?? |
| JD: "Sometimes"
and "Spiral" were released in quick succession but sales were poor
and although we cut the third album it was never issued. One of
the problems was that Pye (or the bit of Pye we were involved in)
were pushing one of the 3 competing Quadraphonic systems and this
became the focal selling point for the album. All three Quad systems
were a total flop and so the albums sunk with them. |
|
B Lamb
|
| VV: What
was the nature of your deal with Pye ?? Please feel free to vent
your spleen about how bad they were. |
JD: Pye did cough up £500
for each album and actually paid £3K up front which helped. The
deal was 10% on 90% - why they didn't just say 9% is just one the
oddities of the record business. I looked through the books to come
up with an idea of royalties received, but they were minimal. I
wasn't privy to the discussions and although Pye had no say in the
first two albums, they seemed to want vocals on subsequent albums
and so Clare and another session singer called Joan Baxter were
called in.
The whole thing was a financial disaster, Pye totally failed to
get behind the albums and they both disappeared without trace. As
Ken Barnes, the producer, said at the time, "You don't get releases
with Pye, you get escapes!" One of the blockages to sales was that
they were done in Quad with the result that in places like the HMV
Shop, they were put in the Quad rack and since Quad was a total
non-starter, no sales !
In my opinion, record companies should never get their hands on
music ! The people we dealt with at Pye, with the exception of one
guy whose name escapes me, were total idiots. We were intent on
producing "Big Band Jazz" tracks but by the third disc, they were
watering us down and then dumped us anyway. |
|
J Mudele
|
| VV: Could
you possibly discuss the third, 'unissued' Roche album with us ?? |
| JD: I'll get the tapes
out of the garage and list the tracks ! I do recall that the version
of "Solitaire" was utterly awful - plod, plod, plod ! There was
a good track called "Genius". No vinyl was ever released. During
the sessions for the third album, Johnny Mercer [founder of Capitol
Records, writer of standards like "Lazy Bones" and crooner of some
note] cut two tracks that Pye bought the rights to (if my memory
serves me, these were "Little Ingenue" and "Little Ol' Tune") and
we cut a dozen more as contractors [to make up Mercer's 'Huckleberry
Friend' LP]. A further Mercer album was cut but not with the Constellation
although most of the personnel took part - it had strings and so
on - and both albums were arranged by Pete Moore. After that, nothing.
Ken went his way and I was left with the bills ! |
|
J Proctor
|
| VV: Did
Harry continue to record after the breakdown of the Pye deal ?? |
| JD: The
Constellation continued to record sessions for the BBC. The Mercer
albums were a jumping off point for the producer Ken Barnes to go
on and do stuff with Crosby and Astaire, but I'd run out of cash
by then. He did insist that any royalties I got I should keep, at
least until I got my money back, but that never happened. Harry
died in the 80's and although I saw Clare Torry around the studios
from time to time, I bet I haven't seen her in a dozen years. |
|
K Christie
|
| VV: We
have a Bruce Forsyth LP of dubious merit from 1975 on Warners, on
which the Constellation provides the backing...do you think that
this would be from the BBC session work you mentioned ?? |
| JD: Never
heard of this one ! It will not be from any of the BBC sessions,
they were just the band. |
|
K Goldie
|
| VV: Finally,
did it ever cross your mind whilst being involved with the recordings,
that in 30 years time you would be talking about those albums in
terms of them containing absolute classics of their genre ?? |
| JD: At
the time I thought I'd make a million - it wasn't long before I
became disenchanted ! But now, you're right, I thought they were
dead and buried. If you do a "Google" search on the internet for
Harry Roche, it's amazing how many references to "Spiral" particularly
you find. I found you chaps by using Google. I even found an MP3
stream on one site. The trouble is that most of the references are
to a compilation CD pirated by a company that I am trying to track
down - they owe me royalties ! |
|
John, seated, pays the session men
their dues !
|
| VV: Thank
you very much for your time, John. |
| JD: Thank
you !! |
