The Pete Haycock Band - Livin' It - 1992 - Bellaphon/L+R Records
Born in the Midlands of England, Pete was playing harmonica aged nine and guitar at the age of eleven. His first band The Mason Dixon Line, played mainly clubs and school concerts. Pete became far better known with the formation of the great Climax Blues Band who rode on the crest of the 60s blues revival in Britain and were also hugely popular in the US. The CBB released over twelve albums and had a US/UK top ten hit with “Couldn’t Get It Right”. The original CBB split up in the early 80s. Pete made a few solo albums and worked on several TV and film scores including “One False Move” and “Filofax”. Hans Zimmer used Pete's guitar talents on the soundtrack of the Thelma & Louise movie. ELO Part Two also employed Pete when they began and touring and recording with The Moscow Symphony Orchestra.
"Livin' It" is an obscure but very good live album recorded at “Die Neue Kulisse”, Pirmasens, Germany in June 1992. Pete Haycock may not be an instantly recognizable name, but he is a great guitarist, and this relatively unknown album will give you a good idea of how this guy can play Rock 'n' Roll, and the Blues. Try and listen to Pete's "Bikers' Dozen" album, and check this blog for related releases
[All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 139 Mb]
TRACKS / COMPOSERS
1 Liberty - Pete Haycock
2 So Many Roads - Paul Marshall
3 Communication - Pete Haycock
4 Medley:
Come On In My Kitchen - Robert Johnson
Country Hat - Pete Haycock
Slide Solo - Pete Haycock
5 The Thrill Is Gone - Roy Hawkins, Rick Darnell
6 Lucienne - Pete Haycock
7 Dr. Brown, I Presume - Pete Haycock
8 Blackjack And Me - Pete Haycock
BAND
Pete Haycock - Guitar, Vocals
Livingston Brown - Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Mike Stevens - Keyboards, Alto Sax, Flute
Clive Mayuyu - Drums, Percussion: Vocal on Track 3
BIO (WIKI)
Pete Haycock (born Peter John Haycock, 4 March 1951, Stafford, Staffordshire, England) is a musician and composer of film scores, who started his career as lead guitarist, vocalist, and founding member of the Climax Chicago Blues Band. Formed in Stafford in 1968, the band changed their name from the Climax Chicago Blues Band to the Climax Blues Band in 1970. The original band line-up consisted of Haycock (lead guitar, vocals), Derek Holt (guitar, vocals), Richard Jones (bass), Arthur Wood (keyboards), George Newsome (drums), and Colin Cooper (harmonica/vocals). The Climax Blues Band went through a few personnel changes during the early 1970s before arriving at their most stable, creative, and successful, line-up, which consisted of Haycock, Holt (switched to bass guitar), Cooper, and drummer John Cuffley. The band, featuring these players, toured heavily in the 1970s and 1980s. During much of this period, Haycock played concerts with his rare trademark instrument, a gold-plated Veleno guitar, which also graced the cover (and was the namesake) of Climax's Gold Plated album.In May, 2012, the Major League Productions Ltd record label released an until-then unknown vault recording of a 1976 live performance, featuring the Climax Blues Band at the top of their game: Climax Blues Band / World Tour 1976. Haycock provided some insightful liner notes for the CD's insert, and the recording further demonstrates the tight musicianship that was found in the band's lineup at that time. The band produced more than 15 successful albums in their heyday. Though another group of musicians, which at one time was led by late former bandmate, Colin Cooper, is currently calling themselves "Climax Blues Band", their lineup does not consist of any founding members, and has not found the commercial success or following that the original, "true" Climax Blues Band enjoyed during Haycock's years with the band. After he and the original Climax bandmates went their separate ways in 1988, Haycock went on to record an instrumental album for I.R.S. No Speak entitled Guitar and Son, as well as the Night of the Guitars live album (from the tour of the same name). After that tour, Haycock teamed up with fellow guitarist Steve Hunter and former Climax Blues bandmate, Derek Holt, to record an album under the name, H Factor. In 1990, Haycock was approached by Bev Bevan, formerly of Electric Light Orchestra, to join the newly-formed Electric Light Orchestra Part II. The group toured and recorded with Haycock in the early 1990s, releasing both a live CD and video of their performance with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. In the early 1990s Haycock began scoring music for films. He was asked by Hans Zimmer to collaborate on several projects, including K2 and Drop Zone, among others, and it was on the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise that Haycock performed the Thunderbird theme music on slide guitar. Haycock was asked by Zimmer to recreate his performance, with a live symphony orchestra, for the recording of Wings of a Film, which was a compilation album of Zimmer's successful film scores. Other work with Zimmer led to Haycock to begin composing music of his own for film and television. One False Move, (1992) found Haycock collaborating with Derek Holt. More scores would follow, and Haycock helped produce recordings for other artists. Haycock collaborated with Zimmer again in 2011, and played guitar on Ron Howard's soundtrack for The Dilemma, (starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James). In 2005, Haycock supplied all the music for the Hollister Independence Motorcycle Rally DVD charity project, for producer Jeff Byler, with proceeds benefiting Emmaus House, a shelter for battered women and children. When the DVD's producer suggested a follow-up soundtrack to the project, Haycock went back into the studio to complete the album that became Bikers' Dozen, which featured a vocal performance by John Fiddler (Medicine Head). No stranger to charity work, Pete Haycock signed on as a major contributor to the forthcoming Damage Limitation charity CD project in 2009, which was spearheaded by fellow musician Robin George, and was built around Robin's hit song, "LovePower and Peace". Pete contributed many trademark slide guitar tracks and donated studio time to the project, a charity effort to benefit children with cancer and other terminal diseases. This collaboration, which includes the donated talents of scores of veteran musicians , not only resulted in a dynamic album of music, with proceeds benefiting charity, but has resulted in the forming a "super group" called The LovePower Band, which has landed a major record deal and completed its first album, which was released in 2011. There is also talk of a potential LovePower Band tour in the future. After an absence from the stage and live performances, Haycock formed a new band, Pete Haycock's True Blues (featuring Glen Turner). In 2008, they toured Europe and released their first recording together: Pete Haycock's True Blues Live (featuring Glen Turner). In April 2009, Pete Haycock, in an interview, talked about the early days with the Climax Blues Band, the transition to studio work (with and without Hans Zimmer), and his return to the stage with his new band, after an absence from live performances of fourteen years. Pete Haycock continues to record, and perform live, and has been a featured guest performer with the Siggi Schwarz' band, and was on the same bill with ZZ Top and Johnny Winter in 2012.
MORE
Peter John Haycock was born 4th March 1951 at 63, Tixall Road, Stafford, England. He went to St.John's Primary School then King Edward VI School in Stafford.When he tried to join the recorder class the music teacher said he would never become a musician. Eat your heart out Mrs.Barrett! Pete taught himself to play harmonica at the age of 9 and then started to play guitar at the age of 11 with the help of the Bert Weedon instruction book. The big acoustic guitar was bought by Pete's Uncle Bill. He was told it would be ideal for a beginner because it had "plenty of daylight between the strings and the neck"! Pete was very impressed ( as were so many other young English kids at the time ) by Cliff Richard's backing group "The Shadows", who were the first successful British group to feature electric guitars. Hank Marvin's solos were an inspiration and Pete would play them on the stairs of the family home to get extra 'reverb' from the bare walls. He played his first electric guitar (A "Broadway")at a gig aged 12 in a miners' club in Rugeley, Staffordshire.Pete's guitar playing on the stairs had been heard by a couple of local lads with an interest in Blues and they formed "The Mason - Dixon Line", playing not only covers of the current blues - flavoured hits but performing their own versions of lesser - known U.S. Blues recordings. The line - up of the band also included local Stafford musicians Maldwyn Hawkesworth ( vocals, percussion ) Roger Peet ( Rhythm Guitar ) Paul " Flick" Taylor ( Bass) ......and one George Newsome ( Drums ) who would later be invited by Pete to join a certain other local band.....and since the subject has been broached ....it is also worth mentioning that during his time at King Edward VI School he was guest guitarist with a school band called the Velvet Chords gigging at school and college dances ........with Richard Jones on bass............. and Geoff and Tony Nicholls on drums and rhythm guitars respectively. A similar lineup made up the imaginatively named band -'The General Erection' ! Pete remembers.... " The lad who played bass in my first band Mason Dixon Line, Paul "Flick" Taylor, played lefty but with "normal" strings I seem ro recall, or maybe the other way around, it was hard to tell because he seemed determined to "out-Wyman" Bill himself by playing as "vertically" as possible. I recall him resting the guitar neck on his nose for most of the set. His bass was actually a masterpiece of confusion too. It was basically a Burns copy (made by his father who was a qualified "French Polisher" by trade... so he certainly didn't rub the French up the wrong way..sorry...anyway, you can imagine how immaculate the woodworking and finishing was) but the "tracing" of the Burns shape must have been done only on the back of the original and then transferred directly to the "face" of the new timber, so it looked like a mirror image when finished. To complicate matters further the only chunk of plastic "scratchplate" they could get was non-laminated and of an awfully bright orangey red hue.....a weird beast that was. It sounded OK though, despite the two cheap Vox pick-ups, through the old Linear amp! "Flick's Dad" built all of the cabs for our first guitar amps too by the way...again bright red for some reason. What a tolerant chap he must have been Mr.Taylor, bless him, despite perhaps being somewhat colour blind. Albert King played with "upside down" stings too apparently, which helps to explain the major third (4....yes, 4 semitone) bends he could make on that Flying V with heavy strings....whilst Clapton (and myself) could only attempt them using ultra light or banjo strings at first. If you think about it, or better still try it on a lefty guitar, you drag the strings downwards with as many fingers as you like to support the effort as opposed to pushing upwards with only the third finger, it says 'ere. I remember playing gigs in the States and jamming with Hendrix's ex-drummer from the "The Band Of Gypsies"...Buddy.......erm......huge black chap, ex-convict type attitude.."don't mess wiv me you Muvvas".....he actually sat on Luke O'Reilly's head (our short-lived tour manager) when he moaned at him about summat.......that certainly shut him up in a hurry too......sorry, second name escapes me for the moment...NO.....hang on... GOT IT! Buddy Miles! Anyway Buddy obviously learned guitar by playing on Jimi's spare axes whilst posing in the mirror or something equally strange, 'cos he jammed quite effortlessly with me on guitar, and was a useful player indeed (for a drummer) on my spare axe, simply turned over the wrong way - left handed....weird. It reminds me of that Red Dwarf episode where they end up, or rather begin, in Nodnol in the backwards Universe....know that one? A classic. " In 1967 he met up with Colin Cooper who asked him to join the newly - formed soul band "The Gospel Truth" along with some musicians from the Stoke - on Trent area. Despite some local successes the band never progressed beyond playing the odd college gig ( albeit as far afield as Durham and Scotland ) so after this line - up fizzled out the following year Pete initiated the formation of The Climax Chicago Blues Band whose original line-up was Pete Haycock ( lead guitar) Derek Holt ( piano ) Colin Cooper ( vocals, harmonica ) and at Pete's suggestion, Richard Jones ( Bass) and George Newsome ( Drums ). The band was soon augmented by pianist Arthur Wood, leaving Derek Holt free to switch to rhythm guitar.After a few gigs Colin also started to play saxophone with the band. Their first album " The Climax Chicago Blues Band" was on Parlophone and in all honesty it only came about because of the upsurge in the popularity of the Blues in the U.K. during the late 60's . Their friend and "manager" Peter Riley fortunately approached Beatles' Producer George Martin's people at A.I.R. London, then a brand new Production company, at exactly the right time. As fate would have it they were looking for a Blues - based band to record, especially since their strong connections happened to be with E.M.I. - who just happened to be lagging behind a little in the field. The Producer of the first couple of albums at E.M.I.'s Abbey Road Studios was a young lad ( who, oddly enough, had some Stafford family connections ) called Chris Thomas. Chris was officially little more than a " Tea Boy " .....or " Gofer "..for our American readers....when he was given the chance to record this obscure little band from Stafford. He has gone on to become one of the greatest Record Producers of the last quarter of the 20thcentury and continues into the 21st. It is also noteworthy that the Recording Engineer at Abbey Road was none other than Geoff Emerick. Any true Beatles fan will be pleased to tell you about his pedigree..... The debut album was mostly just a studio recording of the Band's favourite songs from the "live" set, completed in 2 days with very few overdubs. But even at this early stage Chris Thomas's slightly zany influence could already be heard. "And Lonely" or the deliberately ancient - sounding version of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" were not exactly your typical "British Blues Band" output - although the barely 17 year old guitarist was also encouraged to... "just jam a 12-bar blues and see what happens..." the result being the Freddie King / Clapton influenced instrumental "Twenty Past One". A willingness to experiment was undoubtedly one of the trade marks of the whole A.I.R. London set -up, a trait no doubt fostered by their association with the Beatles, and this had a positive effect on the band's progress for several years in that they were no longer content to simply churn out cover versions of their Chicago Blues heroes' records. By the time the second album " Plays On" came along this slightly oddball approach to making a "Blues" album had progressed to the point where it was now quite acceptable to mix the styles of the likes of Wilburt Harrison and Otis Rush with Jazz, Cuban and even Classical influences ( indeed the beginning of " Mum's The Word" bears more than a passing resemblance to " Also Sprach Zarathustra" although the bands motivations may have been slightly more focussed on Kubrick rather than Strauss...) and then you chuck in a bit of guitar jamming ( "Twenty Past Two"......yes you guessed it ...another guitar instrumental...) and a pinch of Ragtime for good measure ( "Temptation Rag" ) courtesy of Arthur Wood's nimble fingers . Unlike the first album none of these tracks were truly rehearsed before the band entered the hallowed gates of Abbey Road, which may sound extremely risky especially now that we live in in the age of computer music, deliberately crafted images and truly manufactured Pop. If you bear in mind the fact that the second album, complete with its experimental elements, was recorded in less than a week, it's no wonder that Pete's memories of the session are best summed up as " a blur of activity and creative madness, more or less instigated by Chris Thomas .Although we only had a few days to record an album nobody had made any real plans, unless Chris managed to fool us all, which I don't believe for one second." " But it was a wonderful experience and it's sad that nobody makes records like that any more. It's not a question of youth and fervour either, because even if they have the artistic freedom to try their ideas many "modern" musicians seem content to judge the results of their labours by the standards of their peers, instead of just going for it and trusting in their individuality. Of course you have to be sure of your abilities, whether it be as a player or a singer or whatever - that's your own responsibility - but I've since made those same mistakes myself from time to time and the inevitable conclusion that I reach after 30 odd years of recording is that I can only enjoy listening to those older recordings if they were made with genuine creativity or emotion, even naivety, or better still, all of these elements accompanied by a good dose of chaos. Unfortunately, from the band's point of view, Richard Jones had left before this recording to study for his M.A. in Cambridge, and considering the success Richard had with the musically and theatrically impressive band "Principal Edwards Magic Theatre" a few years later, Pete is of the opinion that it would have been interesting to hear what would have happened to "Plays On" had Richard still been around to enjoy the ride." This is only the first part of Pete's Biography, there is more to follow as the site develops. © http://www.petehaycock.com/biography.htm
