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BLONDES 'AVE MORE FUN TOUR - 1978/79
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this year's best-seller:
"Blondes Have More Fun"
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"The first dumb question journalists, and everyone else for
that matter, ask me these days is if it's true blondes have
more fun. How the hell do I know? Rock'n Roll isn't supposed
to be taken seriously. Rock never changed the face of history,
it's only a reflection of life. Frankly, one of the best numbers
on my album is 'Scarred And Scared', a story song about a man
on Death Row. Some of the more ridiculous rock critics and writers
took it quite literally. It's absurd. Does Sir Laurence Olivier
have to apologise for not being Richard III every time he plays
the role? I think I'm getting to the point in my career where
I should go back to recording other people's material like I
did in the beginning. I can't win, first they complain and say
'Why don't you do something new?'. So I did 'Da' Ya' Think I'm
Sexy?' which is not about me but reflects my sense of humour
towards disco. Then they crucify me for going disco. What rubbish!
I love dance music. I've played, performed and recorded rock
songs people can dance to since I started singing 15 years ago.
My disco entry, if you can call it that, wasn't a calculated
move".
(Rod Stewart to "Cue") |
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The
set contains:
- Hot
Legs
- Born
Loose
- Tonight's
The Night
- Wild
Side Of Life
- Get
Back
- You're
In My Heart
- I Don't
Want To Talk About It
- Blondes
Have More Fun
- Da'
Ya' Think I'm Sexy?
- If
Loving You Is Wrong
- The
Killing Of Georgie
- Maggie
May
- (I
Know) I'm Losing You
- Sweet
Little Rock'n Roller
- Sailing
- Twistin'
The Night Away
- You
Wear It Well
- I Just
Want To Make Love To You
- Stay
With Me
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Tourbook 1978
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January
1979
31 Perth, Australia
February
1979
01 Perth, Australia
02 Perth, Australia
05 Adelaide, Australia
09 Melbourne, Australia
12 Sydney, Australia
13 Sydney, Australia
16 Brisbane, Australia
17 Brisbane, Australia
18 Brisbane, Australia
23 Auckland, New Zealand
27 Christchurch, New Zealand
March
1979
06 Tokyo, Japan
07 Tokyo, Japan
08 Fukuoka, Japan
10 Nagoya, Japan
11 Osaka, Japan
12 Osaka, Japan
14 Tokyo, Japan
15 Tokyo, Japan
18 Honolulu, HI, USA
19 Honolulu, HI, USA
20 Honolulu, HI, USA
April
1979
12 Edmonton, Canada
14 Vancouver, Canada
15 Vancouver, Canada
17 Denver, CO, USA
19 San Antonio, TX, USA
21 Houston, TX, USA
22 Houston, TX, USA
24 Birmingham, AL, USA
25 Atlanta, GA, USA
27 Lousville, KY, USA
28 Indianapolis, IN, USA
29 Cincinnati, OH, USA
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November
1978
20 Paris, France
21 Bruxelles, Belgium
22 Rotterdam, Netherlands
24 Göteborg, Sweden
25 Stockholm, Sweden
27 Oslo, Norway
28 Köbenhavn, Denmark
December
1978
02 Manchester, UK
03 Manchester, UK
05 Manchester, UK
06 Manchester, UK
08 Leicester, UK
09 Leicester, UK
11 Brighton, UK
12 Brighton, UK
13 Brighton, UK
16 Birmingham, UK
17 Birmingham, UK
21 London, Olympia, UK
22 London, Olympia, UK
23 London, Olympia, UK
28 London, Olympia, UK
29 London, Olympia, UK
30 London, Olympia, UK
May
1979
01 Chicago, IL, USA
02 Chicago, IL, USA
03 Cleveland, OH, USA
05 Cleveland, OH, USA
06 Toronto, Canada
07 Toronto, Canada
09 Montréal, Canada
11 Detroit, MI, USA
12 Detroit, MI, USA
13 Detroit, MI, USA
29 Pittsburgh, PA, USA
30 Landover, MD, USA
June
1979
01 Providence, RI, USA
02 Boston, MA, USA
04 Philadelphia, PA, USA
05 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden, USA
07 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden, USA
08 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden, USA
09 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden, USA
11 Kansas City, MO, USA
15 San Francisco, CA, USA
17 San Francisco, CA, USA
19 San Diego, CA, USA
21 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
22 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
24 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
25 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
26 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
28 Los Angeles, CA, The Forum, USA
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MMMM |
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Carmine
APPICE - drums
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Carmine (pronounced CAR-mine) has been breaking new ground
in drumming for nigh on one decade. Maybe it's the way they're
tucked behind a kit at the back of the stage, but only a handful
of rock drummers have achieved the kind of prominence accorded
to a whole legion of guitar artists. Carmine Appice is one
of those few. Towards the end of teenage years spent tapping
out the right rhythms in bar mitzvah bands, he joined the
Pigeons, al local Long Island group that turned progressive
as Vanilla Fudge and broke through with a grandiose slow motion
reworking of a Supremes hit, 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', which
made the British top ten in 1967 and eventually reached No
6 in America almost a year later. They tried the formula again
with everything from Donovan's 'Season Of The Witch' to 'The
Windmills Of Your Mind', but by 1969 Carmine and bassist Tim
Bogert were making plans for a band with Jeff Beck and his
vocalist, Rod Stewart.
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Rod joined the Faces and Beck almost wrote himself off in a
car smash, so the pair formed Cactus instead, before finally
getting together with Beck in 1972 for a two-year stint as an
explosive strong-arm trio, Beck, Bogert & Appice. Between BBA
and the Rod Stewart Group he had a spell with short-lived KGB.
An immensly accomplished technician who spends his time off
from the group conducting drum clinics for Ludwig coast to coast,
he still found he had lessons of his own to learn from Rod.
"Most Americans play rock'n'roll right on the beat", he explains,
"and it was really weird to jump into the English way of playing.
I'd studied for years, taught, written books, done clinics and
everything was bam! right on the beat, and Rod kept saying,
'Look, you've got to lay behind the beat a little', and it's
almost like playing in a very slight difference in tempo to
the guitars and the bass". |
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A horn
player who's solos have sent listeners searching through the
sleeve credits on some of the most succesfull albums of the
seventies, Phil Kenzie first blew tenor sax in the Liverpool
clubs. Of the Merseybeat boom, but moved to London in 1965
where fat brass sections florished on the soul scene. By 1968
he was leading his own 10piece band, Sweetwater Canal, who's
horns he took with him a year later to join the amitious Manfred
Mann chapter three. A reunion with former Liverpool pal George
Harrison led to sessions for the Beatles' swan song, Let
It Be, and Harrison's own All Things Must Pass,
as well as for Apple proteges such as Billy Preston and Doris
Troy.
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Phil
KENZIE - horns
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He co-arranged the music for Jack Good's rock Othello, Catch
My Soul, and played in the pit band of the London stage
production, then began to capitalise on the reputation he had
earned on the Apple sessions as a studio soloist. His contributions
to albums like Wings' Band On The Run, David Bowie's
Diamond Dogs and Roger Daltrey's Ride A Rock Horse
may not have made him a household name, but they kept his bank
manager smiling and his calendar full, while his immaculate
work on all Stewart's major american success, Year Of The
Cat, prompted Rod Stewart to hire him for Foot Loose
& Fancy Free. Further sessions followed for Blondes Have
More Fun, then the invitation to join the band. |
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Kevin
doesn't mind having a briefer biog than the rest of the group,
not because he's the new boy, but simply because at twenty
one, and only two years out of music school, he doesn't have
that much past to write about. Music school was Trinity Music
College, London, where he studied classical piano. The ink
was hardly dry on his diploma when he stepped into session
work, mostly tinkling throught TV jingles; evenings and matinees
he spent in the orchestra pits of West End shows. He joined
Easy Street and recorded two albums with the group before
it folded in 1977, then gigged and recorded with the Surprise
Sisters.
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Kevin
SAVIGAR - keyboards
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joining the Rod Stewart Group in mid 1978 he was working with
Steeleye Span's former singer Maddy Prior. Kevin's name was
suggested by a friend of a friend of a friend, and after getting
the thumbs up from the group's British contingent, who handled
the auditions in London he flew to Los Angeles for Rod's final
approval, which followed a rehearsal with the full line-up.
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Jim
CREGAN - guitars
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If the
term English can be applied to so universal a music as rock
and roll, Jim Cregan is the essence of that Englishness. Unfailingly
tasteful, his purity of touch and technical agility beg another
word: finesse. Blossom Toes was where he began to take his
music seriously, one of a score or so of fashionably progressive
groups that hovered on the fringes of success. Jim moved on
to Stud with Rory Gallagher's stranded sidemen from Taste,
then switched from guitar to bass to replace John Wetton in
the last of the legendary Family line-ups, whose erratic unpredictable
career ground to a premature halt in 1973. Working either
side of the control room window he produced and recorded with
Linda Lewis, and accompanied her on a world tour with Cat
Stevens, playing back-up for both.
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Then back
to band life with Steve Harley's revised Cockney Rebel, a
gig that got off to a shining start with a breathtaking acoustic
solo - first time in the studio - that blew "Make Me Smile
(Come Up And See Me)" to No. 1.
He was
playing with Harley in LA when Rod gave him the once over
in 1976, but it was a matter of months before Rod came clean
and asked to play butterfly to Gary Grainger's bee.
"I never
played in a real serious rock'n'roll band before", he says,
"only bands that thought they could play rock'n'roll. And
it wasn't until I joined this one that I discovered I hadn't
really been getting anywhere near it
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A native
of Kingston, Jamaica, with the look and lithe athleticism
of a black belt, Phil left for London in 1965 as guitarist
with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, a band as much remembered
for their bermuda shorts as the fervent following that sweated
to their pioneering blend of soul and ska. (When he joined
the Rod Stewart Group he found himself relearning and old
Vagabond's crowd pleaser, 'This Old Heart Of Mine'. Phil swapped
from guitar to bass and stayed with the band until 1970, whe
he left to build a career as a session player.
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Phil
CHEN - bass
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success of that move is underlined by the variety of his studio
credits, which include work for Cleo Laine, Linda Lewis (with
whom he also toured), Jimmy Witherspoon, Gary Boyle, Jeff Bleck
('Blow By Blow') and the 'Tommy' soundtrack. He missed his first
opportunity to work with Rod in 1973, when Ronnie Lane quit
the Faces, because he was stuck with the short-lived Butts Band
in a Jamaican recording studio, but he was a natural choice
when Stewart got around to forming his own group three years
later, a second chance that offered the twin satisfactions of
a challenge that sesson work now rarely provided and playing
with an artist he really admired. "Playing with someone like
Rod", he says, "and being part of a band, a team, who all got
on well and played various types of music, that's what really
attracted me. I really liked Rod's direction and I've always
wanted to be in a group that was doing a mixture of music which
was like sort of soul-based rock and roll. And I'd always done
support gigs, so it was nice to have reached here and play to
all these big audiences." |
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Billy
PEEK - guitars
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When
the spotlight turns on Billy Peek, it's no surprise he likes
to do the duckwalk, that eccentric strut trademarked by Chuck
Berry two decades ago, because Billy's spent more than half
a dozen years reelin' and rockin' with the man himself! Brought
up in Berry's home town of St. Louis, Missouri, he picked up
guitar from his father and played in local bands until he joined
Berry in 1969. As Billy puts it, "I was just lucky. I met Chuck
Berry and he taught me how to play those things - and who else
is a better teacher than the man who did them in the first place?"
In fact, the pupil proved such a good learner that after a while
the teacher admitted he could play better Berry than Chuck could.
Rod wouldn't argue with that. He saw Billy with Berry on a television
show and recruited him for the sessions that led to 'A Night
On The Town', work Billy handled well enough to make himself
a cert for the group Rod was planning to form. The Berry technique,
according to Billy, is simple: all you have to do is hit everything
on the down stroke. But try telling his guitar partners in the
Rod Stewart Group it's that simple and they'll tell you otherwise,
because it wasn't until they played with him that they realised
what they'd thought were Chuck Berry rhythms were nothing like
the real thing. Jim Cregan, who still finds it hard keeping
up with him, says enviously, "Billy's only got tiny hands, but
I'm sure he could crush telephones. He must have such strong
wrists, because it's a murderous thing to have to play". |
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lad with London running right through him the way Brighton does
through seaside rock, Gary started out behind a drum kit, but
shifted to the front line under the Stratocaster spell of Buddy
Holly and the Shadows' Hank B. Marvin. By 1973 he had joined
Strider, a hard working, hard playing outfit that clocked up
more time in midnight motorway cafes than recording studios.
Two albums came out, but the boys were always at their best
on stage, where Gary would throw everything but the kitchen
sink into solos that he played as if each night might be his
last. |
Gary
GRAINGER - guitars
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Laid back were Strider not! Soon after supporting the Faces
on that group's final European tour, Strider themselves ran
out of momentum and Gary was out of a job. He tried a bread
round a was driving lorryloads of bananas from A-Z when Rod
said would he? and he said not half! In the Rod Stewart Group
he's learned to pace his playing throughout a set and added
control to his unstoppable energy, though it took him a while
to adjust to playing with instead of opening for Rod. "At first
it seemed like we were on stage a long time, and I can remember
me thinking 'Bugger me, what comes next?' because I was so conscious
of not making a mistake and messing it up. But now all of a
sudden we're playing the last number and I'm wondering where
the night's gone, I'm enjoying myself so much". 'Foot Loose
& Fancy Free' revealed his immediate impact in the recording
studio, where he collaborated in the writing of four tracks
as well as contributing his unerringly mature guitar work, a
vital and original influence reaffirmed on 'Blondes Have More
Fun'. |
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