To Third Man Records on Marshall Street in Soho, to hear Pete Townshend talk about Thunderclap Newman alongside Mark Ian Wilkerson, author of Hollywood Dream, a biography of the band that I reviewed on Just Backdated in August.
It’s a fairly exclusive event, limited to 40, all of whom have some connection with the author or the trio that hit number one in June 1969 with that wonderful single ‘Something In The Air’, which Pete produced. We are gathered in a small basement, sat on ten rows of bench seats, four to a row, and at 7.30pm last night Mark and Pete took their places at the front of the room, sat down and spoke to us as we listened in hushed contemplation.
Pete Townshend might look a bit older these days, with what remains of his hair now silver, but his eyes are as bright blue and piercing as ever and that mind of his shows no signs of stagnating. As was the case all those years ago when I interviewed him more than once for Melody Maker, ask him a question and he’s away, riffing on the answer, spreading out his thoughts, veering off into areas only tangentially connected with the issue and chucking in a tale of two, often amusing, sometimes harsh, occasionally giving the impression that he has a bone to pick and here’s an opportunity to gnaw it dry.
His memory is still top-top. He recalled how when Track Records was launched it was his role to find acts for the label, preferably oddities like Tiny Tim, whom he failed to sign, and Arthur Brown, whom he did. Pianist Andy Newman was certainly an oddity and he teamed him up with John ‘Speedy’ Keen, who’d been working as his driver and become, in his words, “his best friend” in those days, which was 1967, and Jimmy McCulloch, a pint-sized guitarist he’d encountered at a Who concert in Greenock in 1965. McCulloch was 12 at the time.
A year passed before this unlikely trip assembled in London, specifically at Pete’s Thames-side house in Twickenham where they recorded the LP Hollywood Dream which included that hit single. Pete was voluminous in his praise for Keen whom he regarded as an excellent drummer, a bit like Charlie Watts in that he played a fraction of a second behind the beat, thus giving the group an edge that he found inspiring. Under the pseudonym Bijou Drains, he became Thunderclap Newman’s bass player, of course, but it was the camaraderie within the group that he enjoyed the most.
“I felt I was just part of a group,” he said, or words to that effect (I didn’t take notes). “Even more so than The Who which I was the leader of, in a way, because I wrote all the songs and made those demos that they copied. I didn’t write for Thunderclap Newman. I was just their bassist and producer. Speedy did and he was a great songwriter, though he was better at coming up with titles than actual songs.”.jpeg)
Oddly, Pete spoke far more about Keen than he did about Newman and McCulloch, revealing that Keen played drums on some of his Who demos. Also, he seemed to have hardened his position with regard to the nefarious behaviour of Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp who, as well as managing The Who, were the businessmen behind Track Records. “I never saw a penny from ‘Something In The Air’,” he told everyone. “Neither did the band. The Who and Track were managed by crooks, and one of them bought a palace in Venice with the money they should have passed on to us. We – The Who – were supposed to have shares in Track but we didn’t see a penny.”
Such sentiments were delivered with a degree of passion but, as ever, Pete was able to switch gears quickly and return to the subject in hand. He regretted the collapse of the Newman band, and felt that when Keen stopped playing drums and became their front man, singing and playing guitar, the unique characteristics of the group were lost and they became “just another band”. In any case, he had too many other things on his plate.
Alongside Pete, Mark Wilkerson had the easiest job in the world as an interviewer. Still, he was fulsome in his praise for the time Pete gave him during his research on the book and Pete, in turn, was magnanimous about the book which, it has to be said, is extraordinary comprehensive, as I point out on my review. (https://justbackdated.blogspot.com/2024/08/hollywood-dream-thunderclap-newman.html)
At the end of the evening Pete and Ian signed books and though I’d left mine at home I joined the queue – behind Pete’s Ealing Art College mate Richard Barnes as it happened – and when I reached the front I asked Pete about something that was on my mind regarding Speedy Keen. “Tell me Pete,” I asked. “That song Speedy wrote for Sell Out. Is it ‘Armenia City In The Sky’ or ‘I’m An Ear, Sitting In The Sky’?”
“The second choice,” he replied. “I’m An Ear, Siting In The Sky’.”
Not sure whether I believe him but it’s always nice to spend an hour in the company of Pete Townshend.
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