CD Reissue (1997)
- Spunk Rock
- Angel Easy
CD Reissue (1997) Recorded at the Roundhouse, 13th of Feb. 1972, on the Pye Mobile
Unit
Mixed at Command Studios
Recording and Mixing Engineer Vic Maile
All proceeds from this Album from both record company and artists go to the Greasy Trucker Funds
GREASY TRUCKERS
(liner notes from the CD Reissue)Integral to their performance was 'Spunk Rock', their own 'Dark Star' if you like. Originally a four minute track entitled 'Spunk Box' on their second album, 1969's 'Two Ounces Of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle', it had mutated into a sweeping soundscape where the electric guitars of Leonard and Micky Jones chattered and interacted: the powerhouse drumming of Terry Williams pushed the beat along for a punishing 20 minute plus, while bassist Martin Ace kept everything nailed down with some simple yet sympathetic bass lines.
The band was a late addition to the bill of the Greasy Truckers Party, held at London's Roundhouse, on Sunday 13th February 1972. Hawkwind were the stars of the show, with Man, hot off a two month nation wide tour, a late addition to a bill that included Brinsley Schwarz and Magic Michael.
Andrew Lauder, United Artists label manager, recalls the Greasy Truckers as 'a loose organisation of individuals whose ideals were based on those of the Diggers in San Francisco, recycling money into worthwhile causes.' This first of two concerts to be recorded for the cause (the second, cut mostly up the road at Dingwalls Dancehall, featured Camel, Henry Cow, Gong and the Global Village Trucking Co who'd later supply Man with bassist John Mckenzie), featured mostly UA acts, though Byzantium (on A&M) were unable to play because of a power cut.
Man, who kicked off proceedings in the afternoon because they had another gig that night, were as Lauder clearly recalls 'blistering...somewhere in orbit.' Yet amazingly, when the group heard the tapes a couple of days later they were disappointed. 'We didn't think it was particularly good,' reveals Deke, 'but time has put us in our place.'
Man had adopted their extended 'jamming' approach through necessity, having hit Germany a decade after the Beatles and found themselves just as well received. 'In Britain we were expected to play for two hours, but Germany expected five. We didn't have enough material for a five hour set so we stretched what we had.' Additionally the predeliction for extended instrumental explorations enjoyed by Kraut rockers like Can, Amon Duul II and expatriates Nektar had no doubt rubbed off when Man had shared bills with these bands during their forces tenures in West Germany during this period. The space for the guitars to weave their magic was increased by the departure of organist Clive John just a couple of months before this recording. 'We carried on as a fourpiece,' Deke recalls. 'No rehearsals were required...we'd had enough practice.'
The band's other contribution to the Greasy Truckers Party, 'Angel Easy', had been a highlight of the previous year's album 'so You Like It Here Now, Are You Settling In Alright?' Not that the band was into promoting their fastest record, believing applause to be 'a bourgeois concept'. With Andrew Lauder impressed by this effort, their next LP would be another concert, 'Live At The Padget Rooms Penarth', released to mark a wholesale lineup change as Leonard and Ace both left to pursue solo projects.
These two tracks still stand as one of the creative peaks of a band who aim to scale the musical heights every time they plug in. Amazingly, the lineup in 1997 is the same as the one you hear here 25 years earlier, everyone bar Micky Jones having left to do their own thing and returned to the mothership.
Deke Leonard sums up Greasy Truckers experience in his autobiography Rhinos Winos and Lunatics. 'The album, when released, was a double selling at 1.50 with monies going to the Greasy Truckers. We had a side and a bit. Side one was taken up by "Spunk Rock", which had developed into an epic: it was 22 minutes long on the record but, when it faded in it had already been going for baout ten...it's one of the best things we've ever done.'
For further Man information and details of forthcoming gigs, send SAE/IRC
to:
The Welsh Connection, PO Box 49 (VP), Bordon, Hants, GU35 OAF. England
Commentary
(written some time ago)As for the image of the cover on this page, I was able to scan a postage stamp sized picture on the liner notes for the Japanese release of "Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics" (soon I'll get e-mail from Japan about how everybody who's anybody in Japan has a copy of this too), I was able to grey scale (the liner sheet was printed on dark orange paper which resulted in a very low contrast scan), blow it up, tweek the brightness and contrast and get an image that, although blury, is a fair representation of the original cover.
I plan on pressuring Griffin Music to pressure EMI to allow them to release this in the states. After all it's another Hawkwind record, and they did release "Call Down the Moon" and "Early Years". As for the album itself, the recordings are all excellent, "Spunk Box" has finally evolved into the 20 minute plus jam "Spunk Rock" which would become the centerpiece of Man concerts for years to come. It's played with a full tilt intensity which is lacking from the later version on "Back Into the Future" (which is excellent for different reasons). "Angel Easy" leads off the B-side, this song would later appear on "Do You Like It Here Now" in a slightly different arrangement. Although the lyrics are somewhat tentative, as befits a work in progress, there is plenty of room to stretch out and jam. This is followed by a few words from one of the organizers warning of a power cut, then the power cut.
Brinsley Schwarz an excellent band in the pub-rock mold featuring Nick Lowe at his most creative period follows with a very tight five song set. Magic Michael is one of those reasons I sometimes look back at the early seventies with a slight touch of embarassment, but I guess if you were really, really stoned this guy would have seemed cool. Hawkwind fill out Side Four with an extended space rock jam. Man would continue it's association with Hawkwind through the 1999 Space Party tour of America, and I think this is one of the reasons Griffin Music showed an interest in the band.
Greasy Truckers was a group of people, and British Bands who organized free concerts throughout England, and the proceeds from this album went to furthering this work. A second album "Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwell's Dancehall" was released a few years later through Virgin and featured Gong, Camel, Global Village Trucking Company, and Henry Cow.
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