| 1. What are you currently up
to? |
At the moment I am finishing my album "South of Winter" for a spring
release (Hopefully), my good friend from Renaissance John Tout has
added piano and Betty (Thatcher) Newsinger has contributed with
some of the lyrics, I'm hopeful this will be the first of many
projects together.
As for touring I haven't been on the road since
the short Renaissance tour of Japan in March 2002, which is sad
because I just love LIVE gigs. But on the positive side it has given
me the time to get reaquainted with the spirit of my drums, as I take
a couple of hours each morning to play them...(better than jogging)
I'm also involved with Batts music in the creation of soundtracks for
anything from radio jingles to cinematic productions,we recently
finished a documentary called Shangri la for Australian TV great and
great fun.
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| 2. What has been the highlight(s) and lowpoints(s) of your career to
date?
|
Well I think the lowest I felt in my career to date was definitely
the break up of Renaissance, we had been together ten years and
worked hard against all sorts of odds to achieve the level of success
we had attained by 1980 , still there are worse things in life Ha
ha......
As for the High points ,in my heart I feel that they are still to
come.
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3. How did you first get into the music business? Who have been your
main influences on your career to date?
|
From the drummers point of view and being a child of the sixties I
would say that my main influences were, Ringo Starr for his ability
to support a band in the most creative ways and yet never get in the
way of a song.
Keith Moon, for his energy and Mitch Mitchell, for the delicate vet
Jazzy feel he could turn on whenever the song required it, and that's
just pop I haven't started on the many great players in soul, blues,
jazz etc !!!!!!!!
. |
| 4. The last Renaissance album 'Tuscany' featured Roy Wood as a guest.
How did you get him involved, given that he very rarely appears on
other people's albums? How has the 'Tuscany' album been recieved by
fans?
|
Roy has been a very close friend of mine since the 70's, we all met
at De lane lea studios, he was working in studio 3. I've always been
a big fan of his and he's everything you would expect. he later went
on to co write and produce Annie's first solo album "Annie in
Wonderland" ,so when we found that we couldn't get all the original
members of Renaissance together for "Tuscany", he being multi
instrumental was for us the obvious choice, Annie rang him and he
kindly agreed, he's a great guy.
As for Tuscany there were moments of pure magic and to be honest some
things we could have improved but the logistics of putting it
together proved very difficult with the many constraints and a change
of personnel in the band half way through recording.I think the fans
recognise the difficulties we had and have been very kind. Its a
shame we didn't carry on as I think we had a lot more music in us.
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| 5.What is the current situation with Renaissance? Could there be
further music from the band in the future? Did the band tour to
support 'Tuscany' at all?
|
Well Annie is living in the United States and has decide to
concentrate on her solo career, she is also an artist and I think she
is very happy, you can check out her website at Annie Haslam
Michael is concentrating on finishing his musical " Scherazade".
John Tout and I have been working together and we did hear from Jon
Camp that he is interested in getting together with us to discuss
future projects.
As I mentioned earlier, Annie Mike and I did a tour of Japan , While
we were there we recorded an album "In The Land of the Rising Sun"
GEP CD 1032
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| 6. Going back to the 70's...when 'Northern Lights' became a hit did
that put more pressure on the band at all? (ie did the record label
want more hit singles) Which venues/countries did the band enjoy
touring most in the 70's?
|
Northern Lights was a big success for us, our main concern in those
days was to make an album that would stand the test of time, and the
single market wasn't our thing at all, there was a bit of pressure to
repeat the single thing but then along came punk and none of it
mattered anyway!
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| 7. What did you do after leaving the band in the early 80's? (Just to
update people whon may not know!) Would you ever join a band again or
would you prefer the solo/session route?
|
When I left the band I actually felt quite burnt out. I had a young
family so I did a Lennon for a couple of years,. I then hooked up
with a real bunch of n'r do wells "The Good 'Ol Boys" all ex rock
names , so we rocked for about five years, just a good fun thing
bringing me back to my roots, then I did some demo things for Billy
Idol at Surrey Sound Studios and very others projects came and went.
I'm quite happy now recording my solo album and getting calls from
friends to help out with gigs or recording, I love music and working
with musicians and I think I will always be involved one way or another.
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| 8. Last book that you read...
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1984 George Orwell
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| 9. What do you do in your spare time outside of music?
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Worry about the world.
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| 10. Message for your
fans... |
I'd like to thank everyone who has supported us over the years,
hopefully there are more exciting projects to come. Many Thanks and Best Wishes to you All..............
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