In 2011 Prog organized for snooker icon Steve Davis to interview Caravan members Pye Hastings and Geoffrey Richardson. To the backdrop of a hearth alarm going off, the musicians instructed the fan about an epic bout of meals poisoning, the Method 1 legend who wished to hitch the band, and the second they drunkenly spooled the tape of their new album onto a studio flooring.
Laughter. That’s the soundtrack to this assembly of a sporting nice and a prog legend. The very concept that Steve Davis and Caravan can be something aside from sedate is totally ludicrous. How is it doable that the snooker champion with a popularity for being boring, and the Canterbury band who’ve at all times been low key might be something aside from boring collectively? It is best to have been there…
The very fact is that huge Caravan fan Davis interviewing Pye Hastings and Geoffrey Richardson ended up being massively entertaining. Simply 10 minutes into this relaxed chat, an alarm goes off within the constructing, prompting Davis to inform everybody: “I’m not transferring till I’ve completed my espresso. It value me good cash!”
The alarm carried on sounding all through a lot of what adopted. A lot in order that when it stopped, all of us felt that one thing treasured had been taken away. It additionally prompted Davis to ask about how years of taking part in had affected the Caravan pair’s listening to, which we’ll come to somewhat later.
So, to understand what’s about to observe, you’ve to keep in mind that, regardless of what most individuals would have anticipated, this was a completely satisfying hour. Oh, and the giggles flowed like a torrent of water gushing out of a burst pipe.
DAVIS: I do know it’s the fortieth anniversary of the album In The Land Of Grey And Pink, however can I admit that my favorite Caravan album is For Ladies Who Develop Plump In The Evening?
HASTINGS: You’re a pal now for all times!
DAVIS: If I ever need to introduce somebody to the form of unusual music that I favour, then this might be how I’d begin. Every time I play it within the automotive, my foot instantly pumps the accelerator pedal tougher.
RICHARDSON: It was not solely my first album with Caravan, however my first expertise of being in a studio.
HASTINGS: It was a little bit of a departure for us. We had a bassist [Richard Sinclair] who wished to take us in a extra jazz oriented course. He’d left by the point we did For Ladies… and I took the prospect to information the band right into a extra rock type. So so much modified. We truly recorded the album, then went out and toured, and once we got here again we re-recorded it. Actually, second time round we did the entire thing in a single take.
RICHARDSON: I bear in mind we did the unique recordings at Blue Horizon Studios in Chipping Norton. It was the primary time I’d ever been in a studio, and two issues struck me. One was being amazed in any respect the gear, and the second was not fairly believing how a lot this band may drink!
DAVIS: We’re two years off the fortieth anniversary of that album. Are there any recordings round which by no means made it onto the unique which may floor on a reissue?
HASTINGS: There are all the unique recordings we did. The second time we did the album, it was at Decca Studios in London, they usually may nonetheless have the primary tapes there. I do bear in mind one time at Blue Horizon, when all of the engineers had been upstairs consuming. We had been all a bit pissed, and thought it might be enjoyable to attempt to combine the tapes ourselves.
What a large number! We received the gear began, and the entire tape simply flew off – whoosh! All around the studio flooring. Hundreds of kilos simply mendacity there. We frantically tried to get all of it again collectively earlier than anybody discovered what we’d performed.
Really, that jogs my memory of one thing. Richard Sinclair instructed me that he met you, Steve, some time again, and when he discovered you had been a Caravan fan, he requested you what your favorite album was. You instructed him that it was For Ladies… and he was disillusioned as a result of he’s not on it. When he instructed me, I simply thought: ‘Sure. That’s one within the eye for you, Richard!’. He and I at all times had a rivalry.
DAVIS: I don’t keep in mind that in any respect. However then my reminiscence’s actually dangerous. Within the snooker world, folks at all times ask what I recall concerning the 1985 World Championship last with Dennis Taylor, the one the place it went all the way down to the black on the final body. I’ve no recollections of it in any respect. Come on, it was 26 years in the past. Rather a lot’s occurred since.
RICHARDSON: I’ve met three individuals who performed at Woodstock, they usually don’t bear in mind even being there! It’s been stated that should you bear in mind Woodstock then you definately couldn’t have been there.
DAVIS: What kind of music had been you listening to within the early 70s?
RICHARDSON: Oh, the likes of Steely Dan, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa and The Beatles.
DAVIS: Do you take heed to younger bands today?
HASTINGS: I’m a magpie; I take heed to every little thing. And all of it impacts on what I write…
RICHARDSON: I’ve to say a very good younger band from Canterbury referred to as Syd Arthur. They’re quirky, however undoubtedly within the Canterbury custom. A few years in the past, I used to be on the Lounge In The Farm Pageant in Canterbury, which the Syd Arthurs organise. I had my viola with me, and Radio Kent requested if I’d do A Looking We Shall Go stay on air.
I didn’t really feel that may work simply with a viola, so I requested this bunch of younger musicians hanging round if any of them knew some Caravan songs. The band had been Syd Arthur. Raven Bush (who’s Kate Bush’s nephew) had his mandolin with him, and stated he knew a great deal of Caravan songs, so we duetted on the spot. And it was good.
DAVIS: If Caravan followers requested you to recreate the sound you had again then, may you do it formulaically?
HASTINGS: If it was an attention-grabbing undertaking, then we may do it. However I believe it might be a mistake. When you’ve performed one thing and it labored, then it’s time to maneuver on. A band ought to lead the followers, not the reverse. In any other case you find yourself going spherical and spherical in circles.
DAVIS: On the same word, you should at all times face the issue of making an attempt to introduce new songs into your stay set, when followers need the outdated favourites. I don’t have the same drawback in snooker, as you by no means repeat something, however how will you take care of this for the Excessive Voltage competition set?
HASTINGS: We discover that you probably have favourites at first and finish, then within the center followers will can help you fuck round and check out new songs. In order that’s what we’ll do.
DAVIS: I believe you’ll actually get pleasure from Excessive Voltage. I went final 12 months and there was nice crowd on the Prog stage. It was actually blended as nicely. Plenty of younger folks, which was nice to see.
RICHARDSON: We did a present in Tel Aviv lately, and there have been a great deal of youngsters within the viewers. They’d all our CDs and knew the phrases to each track. It was astonishing.
DAVIS: Sure, there appears to be a brand new era entering into your music. You’ve given pleasure to thousands and thousands of individuals over time, and it carries on.
HASTINGS: You play an instrument, Steve?
DAVIS: Me? No. However my son is an excellent pianist.
HASTINGS: Properly, do you fancy getting up onstage anyway, and taking part in together with us at Excessive Voltage? You’ll be able to simply stand and appear to be you’re strumming a guitar.
DAVIS: Good grief, no! That may be terrible. I’d be so scared. Even simply standing round onstage. I additionally assume the actual anoraks within the crowd can be unimpressed and possibly stroll off.
RICHARDSON: Really, we do have one well-known fan who does play. Eddie Jordan, who’s closely concerned in Method 1, after all. Our reserving agent is aware of him rather well. He referred to as me sooner or later and stated, ‘I’ve received your new drummer. Eddie Jordan. He’s a superb drummer. Is aware of all of your songs and is able to go.’
HASTINGS: How about introducing us onstage at Excessive Voltage, Steve?
DAVIS: That I may do, though what I’d say… who is aware of?
RICHARDSON: Possibly you possibly can are available with a snooker cue! Really we’ve had just a few attention-grabbing folks introduce us over time…
HASTING: The oddest was Choose Dread, a giant reggae star within the 70s. He requested if he may introduce us on the Fairfield Halls in Croydon!
DAVIS: Speaking of wierd, have there ever been events if you’ve been someplace like a restaurant, and heard one among your songs?
RICHARDSON: That occurred to me at a grocery store in France not so way back. They began taking part in a track from the Algerian singer Rachid Taha, who’s large on the market, I stated to my girlfriend: ‘I did all of the string preparations on this.’ She wasn’t in any respect impressed, and instructed me to get the purchasing checklist out!
DAVIS: You’ve at all times been a working musician, Geoffrey. However you gave up for some time, didn’t you Pye? What occurred?
HASTINGS: In 1980 we received hit with tax and VAT payments that our former supervisor hadn’t paid. I used to be so skint that I couldn’t pay up. So I received a job as a labourer with a building firm. A number of months later they moved me into the workplace. After which I started my very own plant rent firm referred to as Molequip. We handled big mechanical moles for tunnelling. Then sooner or later, I picked up a guitar once more, and realised that I wished to play.
DAVIS: Did anybody recognise you whilst you away from the band?
HASTINGS: A man working with one among these moles in a gap requested me my identify. It took 20 minutes to get him to grasp that Pye was my identify, and he stated: ‘What kind fucking identify is that?’ He then requested me what I performed prior to now. So I instructed him I’d been in a band referred to as Caravan and he stated: ‘By no means heard of them!’ However you want that kind of comedown typically to maintain your ego in verify.
DAVIS: You’ve by no means been mainstream…
HASTINGS: I’d wish to have been mainstream.
RICHARDSON: Really, I believe it’s labored in our favour. As a result of our spirit comes from the fortitude we’ve had from being different.
DAVIS: This may sound bizarre, however in snooker you may go for a bathroom break on the finish of every body. Even within the center should you’re caught quick. Have you ever ever had an issue like that onstage?
RICHARDSON: One event involves thoughts. It was years in the past. We’d simply come from a profitable American tour, and we needed to drive up from Canterbury to do a present at Birmingham City Corridor. We stopped off at a pub in North London. I stayed within the van, however the others went in to have a pint and a few cottage pie.
HASTINGS: All of us received meals poisoning from the pie, and went onstage feeling actually ailing. Richard Coughlan was throwing up right into a bucket by his drumkit.
RICHARDSON: A few songs into the set I needed to inform the bought out crowd that we could not keep it up, as a result of I used to be the one one nonetheless okay.
HASTINGS: What we learnt that day was that we must always all have completely different meals, to keep away from the identical factor taking place once more!
DAVIS: I had a popularity for being boring, and one factor I thought of was making an attempt to make myself extra mysterious by carrying a wrestler’s masks, and never doing interviews. I questioned: should you may do all of it once more, what would you do otherwise and who would you do it over?
HASTINGS: The track If I May Do It All Over Once more, I’d Do It All Over You truly has two meanings. The apparent one, and ‘over you’ can even imply ‘due to you.’ The fantastic thing about our language…
RICHARDSON: I’d wish to have had an older head on younger shoulders. The cash we received via and the cash we by no means noticed is ridiculous. However with out what we went via a number of the songs Pye wrote about particular incidents and folks would by no means have occurred.
Caravan had been at all times floaty and disorganised. That’s what we had been meant to be. We had a bassist at one time referred to as John Perry, who was very collectively and at all times walked round with a briefcase. He used to wind folks up terribly resulting from his enterprise sense. Properly, he’s now doing nicely in company finance. Nevertheless it was at all times written that Caravan ought to be victims of dangerous enterprise selections.
DAVIS: One 12 months when the draw for the primary spherical of the World Championship was stay on TV, I used to be there with Ray Reardon, one other outdated champion. And there was a younger man who’d certified the earlier night. He received Jimmy White or Stephen Hendry within the first spherical, somebody superb, and stated he was gonna flip up in a limo carrying a glittery waistcoat.
I instructed him that the stress he’d be beneath was so intense that he ought to be low key. He agreed, but nonetheless got here in a limo carrying a waistcoat made out of mirrors. He received slaughtered. My level is that he was younger sufficient to easily ignore any recommendation. Do you assume you’d have listened to older and wiser folks within the Seventies?
HASTINGS: No means. You by no means do, as a result of it’s like taking recommendation out of your dad. My spouse would recurrently inform me that this deal or that deal was fallacious, and I’d ignore her. You recognize what? She was proper each time. I’ve to carry my arms up and ask for forgiveness.
DAVIS: Have you ever gone deaf via taking part in stay for thus lengthy?
HASTINGS: Pardon? Ha ha! My listening to has deteriorated, however extra resulting from age than the rest.
RICHARDSON: I had a listening to check very lately and my ears are fantastic.
DAVIS: Is it loud onstage?
HASTINGS: Really, you’re listening to music via amps that are about 100 watts every. The PA system blasting out to the followers will be as much as 35,000 watts, so the viewers ought to be extra deaf than the band.
DAVIS: What does the long run maintain for Caravan?
HASTINGS: Much more touring; I actually love doing that.
DAVIS: Fuelled by Sanatogen?
RICHARDSON: Nah. By fantastic wine…
HASTINGS: And tea.