H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WAILERS ALBIE DONNELLY Tenor
Sax/Vocals
ANDY PARKER - Tenor Sax/Vocals
KENNY SHEARER IX - Bass Guitar/Vocals
DAVE YARWOOD HORNBREY - Drums, Large Brndy, Two Carly Specials,
Four Loaves, 2IB Sausages, Piece of Black Pudding, Eight Beefburgers,
a Rancid Fowl, 5ib Brussel Sprouts, a Jar of Pickled Onions, and
a Boiled Sweet.
MIKE 'KING RAT' CRANE - Trumpet, shapes
STEVE 'MAN IN A PLASTIC BAG'' CRANE - Trombone
PETE (THE KING) WINGFIELD - All Keyboards
CD LINER NOTES
ANDY PARKER IN CONVERSATION WITH BOB HARDY
Andy Parker first joined Supercharge in 1976, taking part in the
recording of the second half of their Virgin album 'Horizontal Refreshment'
and also the subsequent UK promotional tour immediately following.
As soon as this tour finished however, Virgin dropped the entire band
except for Albie Donnelly!
In 1977, while Albie was touring Australia, he sent Andy (who had
joined another band by the time) a postcard asking him was he interested
in putting a new Supercharge together. Soon after Albie returned home,
they met up for a drink in the Masonic Pub, located in Berry Street,
Liverpool, and Andy eventually agreed to join as long as Albie lent
him £5! Andy was to stay with Supercharge until New Years Eve
1983, almost seven years. All in all, he was a member of Supercharge
for over ten years, making him the band's longest serving member after
Albie Donnelly.
BOB
During this particular seven years with Supercharge, did you see many
musicians come and go, or was it reasonably stable?
ANDY
Well, there was a core of us: Albie; Dave Hornbry the drummer; and
myself …. All the rest were pretty fluid…. guitar players,
bass players, keyboard players, and horn players.
BOB
What sort of gigs did you play during this time?
ANDY
Up until 1979 the 'university circuit' was still in good shape, and
we were doing as many as four of them every week …. And they
paid very good money.
BOB
When did Supercharge start to work abroad again, and more specifically
how was it that you started touring in West Germany?
ANDY
By 1979, when we were doing gigs in Holland, we got a phone call from
this English guy called Richard Jeffereys who was running a gig in
Berlin called 'Joe's Beer House' and he offered us some work. So after
one of our Holland 'tours' we drove all the way to Berlin, which was
at that time in the middle of communist East Germany. The journey
was something of a nightmare, as the East German police wouldn't let
you drive faster than 60 kms per hour there, and they stopped us a
few times … To show you how weird it all was, Dave Hornbrey,
had a copy of 'The Death Of Adolph Hitler' with him, which was confiscated
by the East German Stassi. …We all thought we'd be thrown in
jail. …
Anyway we got a brilliant newspaper review after the gig in Berlin,
and it was this break that got us playing in Germany … This was
very late in the seventies/early eighties …We also had a real
stroke of luck because the film 'The Blues Brothers' (which was a
big flop in America), was a big 'smash' in Holland and West Germany…And
as there were no bands there with horn sections, we became a sort
of 'live Blues Brothers' and began to get lots of work.
BOB
You made a number of records early on in the eighties didn't you?
ANDY
Yes. The first album that we cut was called 'Now Jump', which got
us some good TV work. …. At one TV gig in Munich, called the
'Joachim 'Blackie' Fuchsberger Show', we met this bloke called Memo
Rhein. … He was so impressed with us that he asked us to do a
gig at his club, 'The Drehlier', in Munich when we returned to West
Germany later on to do a Bavarian TV show called 'Rock Pop'.
On our first night there we played our material so quickly that we
were finished in 40 minutes. They said, "When are you going to
do your second set?" And we said, "What second set?"
…. After the gig we needed some money, so Albie went to the manager
and asked for the 'bread', …. The manager returned with a plate
of sandwiches! …. Then we went off and did a short tour of Germany,
having arranged with Memo to come back to the 'Drehlier' and do a
further two weeks there. … We ended up doing four weeks ….
And it was packed-out every night.
BOB
So you were really 'hot' by now?
ANDY
Yes, and from that moment on, Memo Rhein began to do the organising
BOB
Have you ever known anyone like him for getting so much live work?
ANDY
No. He was phenomenal! Quite often it by the 'skin of his teeth',
but he always got those gigs!
BOB
Yeah. I still can't figure out how he did it! … What about the
line-up for the albums 'Now Jump' and 'King Size'?
ANDY
The keyboard player Tony Judge had left us by the time we were ready
to do 'King Size'. But we still had the two brothers, Mike and Steve
Crane, on trumpet and trombone.
BOB
Everybody was calling them the 'Snow Twins' when I first met them.
I believe you can tell me why.
ANDY
Yes I can… When they joined us I was reading a book describing
the Tom Browning film, 'Freaks'. … One of the photos in it was
of a pair of twins with small pinheads called the 'Snow Twins'. I
called the Crane brothers by the same name, and it stuck!
BOB
Can you give me a typical 'Supercharge' story from this period?
ANDY
Many stories! But most of them you couldn't print. …. Here's
one about the rehearsals. We rehearsed for the 'Now Jump' album over
a garage in Roscoe Street, Liverpool, opposite the 'Roscoe Head' pub.
… So we'd all meet in the pub, have a few drinks, and when it
closed at 3 o'clock (as they all used to then) we'd go over to this
garage to rehearse. It was owned by this mate of Albie's called Pete,
who had a make-shift bar in there … so during rehearsal, we could
grab a few beers at the same time. … This was OK for a few hours
before the pub opened again at five o'clock, except for two things.
… One was when they wanted to spray a car in the garage below,
and we would have to get out because we were choking on the fumes.
…. But far worse than that, Pete had this huge chemical toilet
in an outhouse, which was fine as long as nobody used it!… There
was this sort of crust on the top of it, and if this was broken then
the smell was indescribable! …. Worse than the paint fumes! ….
And so we always had to get out …. Normally before 5 o'clock
'opening time'! …
As a consequence of all this, our rehearsals were not going too well,
so our tour manager, Tony Henderson, managed to get us a farmhouse
in Carnarvonshire, Wales, as he thought that the tranquillity and
solitude there would provide a more creative environment. … We
arrived there one Sunday afternoon, planning to drop the equipment
off and go straight to the nearest pub for some 'inspiration'. But
Carnarvonshire in those days was a 'dry' county; and there were no
pubs open there on Sunday. … Wales as you know is quite backward!
…. So we got in the van and drove 20 miles to try and enrol as
members of the local British Legion by claiming that our fathers were
all ex-servicemen! … But they wouldn't let us join and so we
ended up stone cold sober. … This mistake was not repeated, and
for the rest of the week we stocked up on ale.
Steve and Colin from 'Criminal Records' joined us to supervise the
rehearsals, but of course they both ended up in the pub with us as
well!
BOB
This was the 'Now Jump' album?
ANDY
Yes, but 'King-size' was just as crazy. … The studio that we
worked in for this album was owned by a guy who used to be in Ian
Gillan's band, whose bass player was the spitting image of Albie.
So much so, that when we went to the pub nearby they would mistake
Albie for this bloke, and so they'd let us stay after closing time
for the 'stay-behinds'!
While we were recording this album, the drummer, Dave Hornbry., who
was easily fooled, came into the control room. … We were editing
the master tape, and as a result there was a pile of discarded material
lying in the corner. "Dave", I said, "I've got some
bad news for you, there's been an accident and you see that pile of
tape in the corner? Well its all your drum stuff for the album. …
I'm sorry but you're going to have to do it all again." ….
"All again!" Said Dave. " Oh fuck!… No!…
OK! … Well, we'd better get started!"
BOB
Was it the same when you were on the road?
ANDY
Yeah! We always seemed to be getting into crazy situations….
Even doing simple things like hiring a van . … As you know it
was impossible in Liverpool at that time to get anyone to rent you
a vehicle if they knew that you were a musician. So we came up with
the brilliant idea of claiming to be an amateur fishing club! ….
Unfortunately the person we hired our van from had a mechanic who
was also a very keen fisherman! … And he started asking us some
very technical questions about rods and fishing-line strengths. Luckily
for us Phil Lochran, our guitarist, was also a fisherman, so he was
able to convince them that we were the real thing. But it was 'touch
and go' for a few minutes, …. Phil's expertise with the rod and
line did have its downside though, as he would often go fishing if
we were staying in the same hotel for a few days. … And it was
not unusual to come back to the hotel room late at night after a few
drinks to find a dead fish stashed in the hand-basin! …..
Even in Germany later on, we always seemed to be involved in bizarre
incidents. For instance, we did an early morning gig up by Kiel one
Sunday morning, and had driven up from Munich over-night in order
to do it. … Which is a very long way! …. We all got totally
pissed at the gig, and on the way back down to Munich that afternoon
we were unable to get any sleep in the bus as the driver was playing
very loud music tapes in order to stay awake…. So we all decided
to hold a nude, gay, disco party! It must have been quite a sight
for the German Sunday afternoon motoring public as we drove past!
….. ……
FOR MORE INFORMATION - SEE SUPERCHARGE, THE EARLY 80'S - VOLUME I
BOB HARDY
Bob Hardy has an MA in Popular Music Studies from
the Institute of Popular Music at Liverpool University, and is currently
working on a book about the music scene in Liverpool called, 'Speak
For Yourself!'. He played keyboards with 'Supercharge' during 1984
and part of 1985, and appears on the album ''Groovers In Paris' -
Supercharge Live At Tina Onasis's Wedding.'
