Chris Wilson - Flamin' Groovies

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NEWS UPDATES

2010...

16 May: Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher to guest on album

After the recent email exchanges with another of our special guests I think it’s safe to reveal their identity – a true 60s keyboards icon, Procol Harum’s Matthew Fisher, will be adding some Hammond to the album.

Matthew and I are currently working out the finer points of where and when his contribution will be recorded and once that has been finalised well be edging very near to the finishing line for the album… although there may just be a couple more names to add to our guest list before then.

20 April: Another studio session completed

Another session in the studio, another step closer to finishing the next album.

Last weekend saw Chris return to Panther Studios where five lead vocals were banked along with some additional touches to the songs already nearing completion including Semaphore Signals and Love Over Money.

The new songs tackled included Lose My Voice, Fading Away, Cold Dark Night and Gambling Man – no, not the Magic Christian track of the same name, but very ‘old school’ Groovies nonetheless.

As a result of the hard work we’re very close to getting things wrapped up. Most of what remains is instrumental overdubs – some of which we’re hoping will be done by some special guests who’ll join Mike Wilhelm and George Alexander on what could turn out to be a very groovy set of songs.

25 March: James Ferrell to play on new album

We’re in a position to reveal the name of our third guest contributor to the new album – ex-Groovies guitarist James Ferrell. James, who recently joined Chris on stage in France, will be adding guitar to a song that Chris describes as an “old school Groovies number – something that could have come off Flamingo or Teenage Head”.

We’re still in negotiation with some other ‘name’ musicians who we hope to be in a position to announce very soon. If everything works out as we hope the new album will be a truly star studded affair.

15 March: Mike Wilhelm to play on new album

Chris is back in France later this week for a couple of gigs. The first to be announced will be at Les Combustibles, 14 Rue Abel, Paris [Metro: Ledru-Rollin or Gare De Lyon] on 27 March. Doors open at 20:30 and support will be provided by Delaney Blue. Sadly I’ll not be able to make it along so I’ll just say ‘hi!’ to everyone in advance – see you all soon.

Work on the album is slowly moving forward. Brass and keyboard parts have been added to the mix and I’ve just got an email from Mike Wilhelm promising a slide guitar part for the track Bad Dreams. So that’s two ex-Groovies for the new album… so far.

18 January: George Alexander to play on new album

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We can finally announce the first of the special guests that will be appearing on the next album – former Flamin’ Groovies bass player George Alexander. George will be adding a guitar part to Semaphore Signals, one of the batch of songs currently being finished up, and some harmonica to Can't Let Go.

We’ll hopefully be in a position to reveal a couple more names in the coming weeks so check back soon for an update.

2009...

22 November: Work continues on the new album

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Work resumed on the album last weekend with a vocal session. Chris recorded his main vocal for six tracks – Love Over Money, Bad Dreams, Can’t Let Go, Poor Law Blues, Twice as Wise, and Semaphore Signals.

And next weekend Anthony has a day booked to lay down some guitar and bass on five tracks written by the band’s resident keyboard player, Andy Thomas. After that we’ll be taking a break for Christmas before returning for a series of session in the New Year that will hopefully see everything finished by March.

We’re very close to being able to announce a couple of special guests for the album – big names!

A special thanks to Anne for taking some really great photos.

"The Groovies only ever had one run-in with the police. We'd just come back from France - the middle of November 1972 - and we were in this big Ford Transit. We were going to see Flaming Star, the Elvis movie at a cinema on the Kings Road, so we pulled up this little side street and started spinning up a couple of joints when this copper comes walking up. Johnny, our tour manager, spotted him and yelled back 'Stash it!'.
"He looked inside the van at these blokes with long hair and velvet suits and said 'Stay where you are', went off to call for backup and returned with a squad car full off coppers who started going over our van. Fortunately, Johnny had screwed up the gear and had thrown it on the floor along with all the crisp packets and sweet wrappers.

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   "Earlier in the day we'd been to Granny Takes a Trip and Cyril had got a load of clothes which were all stashed in a bag along with a bloody great flick knife which he'd brought back from France. It was about ten inches long!
   "The coppers took one look at the floor of the van and decided not to search it but they picked up Cyril's bag and started going through it. One of them found the knife and asked whose bag it was. Cyril said 'It's mine', forgetting about the knife.
   "They grabbed Cyril by the collar and dragged him off to the local nick so we all rushed over to our record company's lawyer, who lived not far away, and he went down and bailed him out for 50 quid.
   "He was up in court the next morning for having an offensive weapon and the magistrate said it was either a Ł100 fine or three months in prison. It was a bit of a stretch but we came up with the money.
   "Cyril wasn't looking too good."