GRaND dRIVE
choose a
little road music
Welcome...Danny, Julian and
Ed..Where's the others?
What others? Well this is
essentially it. It was basically us three for years
and on the album we had three drummers.
Why three drummers?
Three is better than one.
We're friends with most of our ex-drummers but we
wouldn't necessarily get married to any of them
again. We have the drummer who did the last recording
on the album is still with us now. So he's sort of in
it but he's in Bristol now.
I must ask you. How was
Glastonbury this year?
It was excellent, the sun was
shining actually so it was amazing.
I knew it would be the case,
the first year in four years I don't go down to
Glastonbury.
Yeah it was three years in a
row when it was wet. It was gorgeous. Mind you we
thought it was gorgeous last year because it was the
first year we played so we were determined to have a
good time.
You've brought some CD's that
I've just been having a little nose through and we'll
be hearing some songs selected by Grand Drive along
with some live material.[plays 'Tell it like it' is
off 'Road Music'] It's the 1st of July
1999 and I was picking my five favourite albums of
the year so far and your one is in the top five. Has
the reaction to the album surprised you a little bit
maybe?
I wouldn't say surprised us as
the album is largely a compilation of some
independently, limited-release singles or whatever
which basically means they were on small labels and
they couldn't afford to press many. They were very
well received and we thought it would be fairly well
received although it's been received as a bona-fide
first album and everyone said them lovely things
about it but after they said some nice things about
the singles we'd have been a bit hacked off if they'd
said it sounded rubbish together. It's a bit like
they'd said nice tank-top, nice shorts, nice socks
and they said they all look nice together- it's a
nice outfit.
There's a band in Texas called
The Damnations and they 've done pretty much the same
thing as you really - in releasing their own singles
for a period of time then they got a record deal.
Then they put the album together – like
yourselves as a compilation. But you guys have been
around for quite a while?
Yeah, us three have been
playing together for a good few years.
I want to delve into the CD
collection that you brought down between the three of
you. A lot of these names I've never heard of before
so this is a great introduction for me. Matt
Keating...tell me a bit more about this guy.
I don't know if he's from New
York but he's based in New York and he's basically a
bit of a folky there but we came across him two or
three years ago – brilliant songwriter basically
– some of these songs I can't believe why we
haven't heard more about him. There is some fantastic
stuff on this –we could have picked one of
several on this album. We haven't really heard of him
before or since. He has played at the twelve-bar in
London. [Plays 'Way to go' –Matt Keating off
'Scary Area']
We were doing the Steve Earle
and Del McCoury post-mortem and how did we all feel
when Emmylou came on? I was talking about this on the
show last week with Gail. She had hyperventilation. I
had the hairs on the back of my neck go up, Julian
started smoking again..what a reaction! Ed fell
over...and Danny ..
I was in bed...gutted
basically!
She did three songs in the end
so it wasn't like a fleeting visit to the stage.
You know how they were round
one microphone and all beautifully choreographed well
she messed it up a bit she kept getting in everyone's
way because she didn't know when to step forward and
when to..
But she's so graceful though..
the way she just smiled all the way....
Oh she's terrific.
Let's here a live song from
you.. Grand Drive..live here on a Thursday
evening..The Bob Paterson Alternative Experience.
It's very rare we have live music down here..what's
the first song to be guys?
This song's untitled as yet
but I don't know if any of your listeners are aware
of the first Loose album 'Sounds of the Old West'
album which came out – there's another one
coming out later this year which this song will be on
and there should be a title on there! We actually
call it 'Liquid Moss' which is an invention of Ed's.
I think he's gonna try and market Liquid
Moss...there's a lyric in the song that says 'thick
with moss' and when we wrote it Ed asked me what
liquid moss was so it has become 'Liquid Moss'.
....It's a working title. ['Liquid Moss' live
acoustic]
We have another CD here 'The
Very Best of Bobby Womack'. Which track do you want
me to play?
'Across 110th
Street' I think. Probably the best choice. ...track
12. [Plays]
There's a track on the new
Grand Drive album called 'Jukebox' and that's
precisely what we're doing here tonight – Grand
Drive putting the money in the machine..let's here
another live song..
Danny's actually wearing a red
leather jumpsuit like Bobby Womack wears on the front
of 'The Poet'.. you might hear it squeak live..
You guys were jamming along to
that on your acoustic guitars ..
You can fade us up next time
'cos it's generally wrong.
What's the second song to be?
We're gonna play a song off
the album called 'On a good day'.[Plays]
The whole album- because
you're from South London – don't you feel it's a
very American rooted album. Your influences are they
mainly American?
I would say they come from all
over the place but lyrically the album is pretty
universal themes but pretty well rooted in South
London. Sort of suburban dream sort of thing. I wanna
get out ..all forms of transport ..you look at them
as you're going to work or school and they look like
a way out.. people / kids in every town in the world
think like that. Musically we were brought up on
Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan and that type of
thing and a lot of soul music as well. It's one of
those things where the world's a small place these
days isn't it. A lot of it is American but we're as
likely to have grown up with Dylan and Springsteen as
Terry in Arizona is.
Music categorisation in any
shape or form I don't like. Doing a programme on
Country Music Radio tends to mean .. "Oh you
play country music do you". But the music I play
is predominantly roots music whether it be British,
Swedish, Norwegian or even American ..it's all coming
from the people in the country. What you been
listening to recently then? We've got some Sandy
Denny coming up in the next hour.
On the tour we've been doing a
cover of 'Who knows where the time goes' which was
cool. A sort of soul version of the song with real
harmonies..almost like The Band.
Which tour was this?
This was the tour for the
'Wrong Note' single. We've had a tour since round
Britain for the album. The 'Wrong Note' was a strange
anti-radio seven minute single.
You played the Embassy Rooms?
We did the Embassy Rooms which
is a wonderful venue.
Bit of a step up from the old
12-Bar?
It is yeah. Quite odd really.
What other festivals you got
lined up?
Guildford, Reading and
Leeds...Lizard Festival.
How about further afield,
outside the UK for our European audience?
The album's out in Europe
through Rykodisc. When someone wants to book us over
there we'll come and play. In the next six months
we'll be going to Germany and all those sorts of
places. We might even the three of us jump in a car
and do what we're doing today –an acoustic few
things.
You never know until you try.
Yeah..it'd be great though,
we're really looking forward to playing in Europe. We
can turn up anywhere with any old thing really ..
Three guys with three acoustic
guitars and not much baggage. Maybe a few CD's?
Emotional baggage...[laughter]
We've only got through two out
of the pile of CD's they brought down and we're
delving into those.
Finally we get to Sandy Denny
and 'Who knows where the time goes' followed by Low
'Weight of water' off 'Secret Name' on Tugboat
Records of South London.
Julian you were telling me a
little about the font cover of 'Unhalfbricking' by
Fairport Convention.
Yeah that's a picture taken in
Arthur or Arthur's Road which is in Wimbledon Village
which is not half a mile from the actual road Grand
Drive itself. We're actually named after a road in
Merton. It sounds like a big old romantic highway but
it's actually a road in Merton with a kebab shop and
a cafe.
Just as well you're not named
after the M25!
If it had been anything to do
with our old drummer from years ago we'd have been
named after the A3 which for some obscure reason was
his favourite road. It had something to do with the
fact that it was the road to Guilford and he
harboured dreams of being in the Eric Clapton /Phil
Collins cricket team and he could imagine himself
driving down the (hope he's not listening!) A3 –
sort of social climbing –but rock aristocracy as
opposed to Tamara's and all those sort of toffs.
[Falling Out –live
acoustic]
It's about our Uncle Lucky? He
was in a fruit crate. Sat in a fruit crate when he
was younger in Australia and our Grandad drove. He
was sat in a fruit crate in the back of the truck and
our Grandad did a right and he flew out the back in
the crate and he's got the scars to show for it. It's
not really what it's about but our cousin Cameron's
over from Australia at the moment so it's for him.
Final song from your CDs ?
It's 'Sad Songs and Waltzes'
by Cake from the 1996 'Fashion Nugget'.
Thanks to Grand Drive
Cheers Bob.
