Hello everyone, I HAVE A NEW MESSAGE BY ED!!!!
After the firsts posts from Ed, I dared to asked me throught Chris if I can ask him a few "get-a-lifer" questions and he said yes, so I'm gonna try to reproduce it here the best I can, as further than ask my questions he added things here and there, which I thanks Ed for doing it, and I posted him my questions with a little intro, he gave me all his answers straight but he thought it might be better to be posted as a question-answer thing, I'll do my best to put it here the whole thing.
My questions are in italic and his answers in bold, as it's what's really interesting.
His first answer is more like a continue from the last things he said in his previous posts and what we talked consequently, just to put it in perspective:
Hello Ed
I'd like to ask you about two period of time of the MK solo career, that are very interesting not only for me but also for most of the fans. I would start begging your pardon because the questions are going to be elaborated with long introductions, I hope your answers are long too, lolI can confirm that John Illsley played bass on WOL ..I asked him just to check .
I also watched the Neil Jason interview.
I have NO recollection of meeting him but so much of what he said rang bells and he has zero motivation for making it up, that I’m mystified but not so much that I can spend any more time on it. I suppose there is a possibility that he DID play on the tracks he mentions but his stuff wasn’t used. I wasn’t there so that is speculation on my part.
So that it’s definitely John ( who also confirmed Neil did "One World" which I don't think is in dispute )
FIRST QUESTION:
The first period is of the very early years of MK solo career, and it comes from two sources:
- the first one is a tape that a friend of mine bought from a street seller that had some studio recordings of MK playing unreleased songs, one of them titled "No wonder he's confused" which remains unreleased, "Secondary waltz" that many many years after was released although in a very different version (the first one was quite rock and the released one was indeed a waltz), three instrumental tracks that appeared later in the Swan Hunter Documentary for British TV and some demos of songs that ended in Golden Heart. The band of the tracks was unknown further than listening to MK talking with the drummer and telling something like "What happened Bobby?", there was keyboards, a mandolin, a bass and guitar. The instrumentals were just guitar and synths, so we all thought it was Guy playing.
- the second source comes from a magazine from 1994, "Record Collector Magazine January 1994", in that magazine MK talks about playing with different bands those days, an Irish one, a Nashville one and a British one, and about that British one in one of his answers says:
"I wrote a song about shipbuilding in England and you have to do that with a British band”
In other answer he says:"I had a great time in Air Studios a couple of weeks back - with Nick Lowe on bass, Bobby Irwin on drums, Paul Carrack on keyboards, Don Orleano on bouzouki and mandolin, who's on the Irish sessions as well, and Kevin Brown on guitar, and Brian Masterson from Mill Studios in Dublin came over to do the stuff”
That shipbuilding song must be "My claim to fame" that talked about the Swan Hunter shipyard and appeared at that documentary (also in the Darling Pretty cd single) together with those three instrumental tracks on the tape mentioned before, so I guess the band who played in that song are the same musicians that MK mentions in the next answer. I think are the same than the two unreleased songs on that tape as MK says in the interview the drummer was Bobby Irwin, and in one of the songs MK talks to the drummer and says "Bobby". I also guess that the interviewer missunderstood the name of the bouzuki and mandolin player and it's not Don Orleano but Donald Lunny that indeed played also in the Irish sessions.
It was also said that this British band recorded more songs like "Batting for England" which remains unreleased and an early version of "Speedway TO Nazareth" (instead of Speedway at Nazareth).
The question is what do you remember about all these things, about that British band, everything they recorded, why the band songs were discarded for the Golden Heart record and nothing appeared (not even on bootlegs further than that tape with those two songs and the three instrumentals...), only one of those songs saw the light of day, "My claim to fame", as a bonus track in the "Darling pretty” cd single and years later appeared on a Studio Albums Box with the credits wrong as it says it was recorded by the Nashville musicians, and accordingly to that interview mentioned before, it was that British band who recorded it. These period of time seems very interesting as MK was having a band with such people like Nick Lowe and Paul Carrack, but apparently that band was quickly discarded by Mark. Do you remember more songs that they recorded than the one already mentioned? Everything you could tell us about this period would be great as further than that interview, we know nothing.
I started many years ago a thread with song titles that appeared on ASCAP and ISWC sites for that record: https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=6199.0FIRST QUESTION. Ie the question before the SECOND QUESTION.
I do recall MK recording some songs at AIR, London as he says, which were never released but I don't remember the titles or how many.
My memory is that the tapes “ went missing ” ( as in “ stolen ” ) but we never found out by whom or recovered them.
“ Secondary Waltz”… MK has loads of school exercise books going back fuck knows how long full of lyrics and I was leafing through one in an idle moment ( no VIZ copies around ) and saw the lyric to that which I completely identified with since it perfectly described the dreaded school dance our generation were required to go to at Christmas time. .
I asked him what it was and he kind of dismissed it and I made some comment that he should record it and he said he couldn’t remember the tune ( so he wrote another one)!
I’m musing here on how a “street seller” would have got hold of that material …from the thief obviously.
I’ve never heard or even heard OF “ No wonder…” and IF I've heard the instrumentals it will only have been in the context of the SH doc which I’d completely forgotten about until now.
No idea which songs ended up on GH ( if any ).
His quotes re musos etc are correct ( obviously).
It’s DONAL Lunny…google him.
I've no reason to dispute anything you quote here or the events.
My memory….like any musician/writer I think Mark was just trying things out, experimenting with different instrumentations, different musos, and he’s always loved Celtic music ( as I do ) and WHEN you experiment stuff gets dumped, changed, sometimes morphs into something else.
So the live version of “ News “ developed into bits of “ Private Investigations ” and “ Love Over Gold " was originally going to be a double album until I pointed out it was a "good double" but a GREAT single album ( and no…before you ask…I can't remember what songs got left off OR if any were subsequently used ) and it ended up as you all know ( TR being my top top choice for top DS status along with BIA song ).
At that point M was very generous in asking my opinion and I’d usually give him two…what I thought of the songs artistically, and what I thought commercially , not always the same thing eg I thought “ Hand In Hand ” was a hit song but we never released so….
That’s in part what a good manager does ( or should ), and part of the job is sometimes to save the artist from themselves ie from putting out crap, but ultimately it's all subjective and down to personal taste ( I can’t stand ~"Ticket to Heaven'' for instance ..dreary, overlong, doesn’t go anywhere, but I lost that argument…...ha! ) .
I can’t remember us ever disagreeing until OES, nor with John.
I don’t know about “ Batting for England” ( good lyric ) or early “Speedway” …nope the little grey cells haven’t produced anything.
I didn't go to those sessions and I’m 99% I never heard any of it ( because the stuff was stolen which was pretty alarming at the time ).
Just to finish..that “band” was just some mates esp Nick and it's not a question of discarding. M is quite prolific as writers go and ALL writers self edit ( some not enough), so with hindsight I’d almost call those recordings up market demos and I don’t know if his intention was to release with that band, keep, try something else, add, subtract …..it all became academic when the tapes disappeared.
MCTF was def not recorded by the Nashville bunch and I have NO recollection of them or anyone else from Nashville being involved in this but I could be wrong esp if M made ref to it in an interview ( guess what, I didn’t read his interviews! )
Nor do I think anything additional to what you describe was recorded, if so I never heard anything.
I had a look at your thread.
I have a vague memory of Cold Turkey and only the title.
The others I’ve covered.
I think you are looking for material that doesn’t exist and if I’ve confused you even more, apologies.
SECOND QUESTION:
This question is about the STP sessions years, between 1997 and 2000 probably that ended with the record "Sailing to Philadelphia", as far as we know because Terry Kilburn was publishing news on his site MKNEWS about it, a number of 29 songs were recorded during that sessions, 25 to be considered for his record, and the rest maybe covered by other artists (if you remember anything about this, it would be so great)
I did two threads years ago about it:
Chronology: https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=8319.0
Songs that appeared on ASCAP and ISWC: https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=6200.0
Another thread about all those songs: https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=7214.0
The question about it is more related about all the length of time of the sessions and the number of songs recorded, and about the songs that remains unreleased from that sessions, if you remember any of those songs, how they were, how sounded, if any appeared later on other MK records that you remember, anything you remember about those years and all those songs. This period is also very interesting for us as it ended with you leaving your role as MK manager. There is an old story that I don't know from where it came about you and MK arguing in the street, with MK in a motorbike still with his helmet on that ended with you telling him you didn't want to be his manager anymore. Probably it's not a true story but as long as we don't know about the reality, that's the story we have, We also heard that apparently you thought that "Golden Heart" was just MK trying how it would be playing solo, but you thought he would like to go back to Dire Straits after that, and realising MK wanted to keep his solo career with a different approach that the band style was also a reason. Again, rumours that I don't know where they come but are in circulation among fans for years and years.SECOND QUESTION ie being the one after the FIRST but before the THIRD.
Before I get to STP ……a word about movie soundtracks.
I know it’s translation but M didn’t “refuse” to write for certain films, let's just say he “passed” or I did on his behalf because of conflicting schedules.
By this point scripts were literally raining down on us, maybe 30-40 a year, mostly mind boggling CRAP, so the ones he did do combined interest and availability nothing more, ( and I didn't always agree with his choices eg Last Exit, Metroland, Wag the Dog, Shot at Glory all of which failed utterly ( most were rubbish films in my opinion ) especially since he passed on things like Legend, The Last Emperor, Maverick, A River Runs Through It and literally dozens I can’t remember .
I just stopped reading them ( I’m sure he did as well).
It was always that we were SO busy and these things usually came up at very short notice, so there was no possibility to fit in the ones he might have wanted to do anyway, and then it was on to the next thing ( some of the scripts were SO bad the films didn't get made).
Sailing To Portsmouth.
Memory again…29 songs! Really?
If Terry says so then he must have got that info from me.
Incidentally Terry is a stickler for detail, for getting everything right, is completely reliable and for the record you can always believe what he says.
Liz Whatley was the same …did a fantastic job …she got the info from me and then she was on her own until sadly she quit in 1995 out of sheer frustration at what WASN’T going on.
By the way, we are all still in touch, ditto Jean, John Horwood, most of the musicians and many of the crew ( and one or two musicians not ..I don’t need negativity in my life so fuck ‘em).
Again I think a double CD (as it would have been by then) was planned at least by MK in his head, but not communicated to me which was becoming a bit of an issue by then ie his lack of interaction, a kind of studied vagueness.
Your comments in the threads about “rescuing songs” is bang on and I’d say that's true of ALL the acts I've managed or worked with, especially the songwriters eg Gerry Rafferty, Paul Brady ( who has a great interview on Lefsetz’s site), Bryan Ferry ( for sure), Scott Walker ( my hero) and Paul Buchanan ( The Blue Nile who took 7 years to make an album now much loved by Taylor Swift apparently !) .
It's part of the creative process and M has probably dumped way more than he’s used, or just not finished, or changed in the process.
I know it took him over 3 months working every day to write “ Romeo and Juliet”. You get out what you put in, always.
In that long list on the thread are many titles I don’t remember/recognise.
DMG’s comment about my input on album content is pretty close and I’ve alluded to it above re LOG.
The first 3 albums defined themselves, every song that was recorded made it on including a few fillers eg Les Boys and we were always scratching away for “ B ” sides back then.
I do recall hearing a huge number of songs all at one go at the Mews studio, a bit silly in itself because no one can absorb 100 mins plus of music in one play, only to be asked as the last note fades away, “ what do you think?”
I thought and said that we had a good single album ( not a great one) , that alot of previous musical ideas were being recycled and that putting out the whole lot as a double CD was a mistake ( this also involved a dialogue about retail pricing ie too high, cost of paper inserts ( yes ..record co’s tried to claw back everything) and the usual drone about singles ( I didn't think there was one ).
This did not go down well AT ALL but what’s the point of asking for someone’s opinion if you are going to object to the answer ?
And I honestly don’t know the answers to your last set of questions eg were any used subsequently or how long the sessions took etc, sorry, too long ago.
What I can say here is that he and I did not “argue in the street” which is laughable/ridiculous BUT there is an essence of truth to that tale ( and not as per the bonkers rumours I’ve heard).
M is not someone who “argues” , that’s not his personality.
He and I didn't shout at each other EVER that I can remember, it might have been better if we had.
He avoids confrontation ( understandable ) and alot that went down from 1988 post Mandela concert on would have been better dealt with IF he had confronted things, Jack and Terry not being rehired at least for the OES tour which I’m still baffled by, other stuff that’s too personal to get into here.
I will say that all the theorising on your site about me wanting to keep DS going after the BIA tour, returning to DS post GH etc is wholly untrue as is the nonsense about me wanting to “ direct ” his musical development , presumably for money.
As a manager you work with what your artist gives you and if you don’t like it you should quit and get out.
I thought we were done in April 1986 hence the Greatest Hits to wrap it all up ( that was a contractual requirement but WE chose the “when” not the record companies.)
With hindsight I wish it had been.
GH was a first solo album to me, not a precursor to another DS record.
Psychologically I thought the band was done, that we had quit at the top although that was NEVER discussed and I was pretty sick of the “ scale ” it had become, all that “ biggest band in the World " stuff.
Utter rubbish and put out there by lazy journalists who don’t know how to write about music ( that includes most music writers ).
THIRD QUESTION
Let me dare to add another question.... please, would you consider to write that so much expected memoir book? We all know it would be pure gem!, top stories narrated in a great style mixing facts with humour, please!
Thanks for reading this, and if you decide to take some time answering, millions of thanks again!
THIRD QUESTION which comes before the FOURTH you haven’t asked yet.
IF I were to do a book it would be a memoir NOT a book solely about DS/MK and it would be warts and all otherwise why bother ( or worry? )
Looking at some of your threads , for instance ( in Jack Sonni content ) the stuff about me calling the solo band "The Dullards" ( which I absolutely deny and I'd LOVE to know where that came from and the context if there is one, and IF I did that would be my sense of humour ) and, since I’m on that, I have NO chip on my shoulder regarding Mark or Dire Straits ( I quit, I wasn’t “ dumped ” …..I’d likely still be doing it now if I hadn’t ), and I went on to set up and become Managing Director and Senior Vice President of William Morris Endeavour International with 55 staff in London, although I imagine Dust My Broom may not think that’s “doing anything’ post MK. .
Google them, they are the World’s largest and best known talent and sports agency who rep MK in North America.
Best to all
Ed
PS since I wrote the above the second epic Lefsetz interview has come out.
I've read the comments up to page 18.
I may or may not comment on those but i'm travelling right now.
I will say that some folks appear to either be deaf or plain stupid but that’s the human condition.
As Dusty Springfield says “ listen…it’s all there” and the stuff about Clapton v Mark is nonsense. REALLY stupid. THEY ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PLAYER just like Buddy Rich and Keith Moon were different kinds of drummers.
