LHM goes for silver!!
by Bill Richards
From the cover of the 'Crazy Chain' album.
It began with Henry, Terry and me singing songs
in the back of a Ford Cosul bombing down the brand new M1, or
walking home over Richmond Bridge. The first thing we really
tried to harmonise was a spiritual called 'O Moses, in the
Burning Bush' which we learned from an African guy round a
campfire. We added in 'Michael Row the Boat' and 'Nowhere Man'
and we already had a repertoire (or sorts).
I can only recall three concerts, all in the
local church hall, all pretty short, all with very primitive
equipment (I can still visualise the wooden mike-stand), and the
audience had an average age of 79. The real buzz came from making
recordings, firstly in my sitting-room using an old Colorado
Studio which was just about working, thanks to an emergency
repair by Brian's Dad. Then somehow we found out about someone
called Stuart who had a little studio and some contacts with
publishers. He recorded 15 tracks in 2 sessions - (we never hung
about, couldn't afford to) - and 14 of these eventually became
the LP. Stuart tried to get Julie Felix interested in one or two
songs, but in vain. This was a shame because 2 songs had been
played on a folksy religious programme made by the Beeb in
Machester, and we'd been particularly chuffed that Lonnie Donegan's
ex-guitarist had liked them. Undeterred, we "pressed on"
with the LP idea.
By this time, summer 1967, I had discovered
John Frankel via a mutual friend called Helen. Then we came up
with the name; we opened Pear's Encyclopedia at random and found
"Morganic" and then "Left-Handed Marriage".
As I recall, we were thinking of a variant on the Mamas and Papas
and wanted to higlight Jenny as "the pretty bloke" (in
the words of the LP sleeve-note). In fact the effect was just the
opposite because a Morganatic Marriage is just about the worst
option for a woman... allegedly. The LP, naturally enough, was
named 'On the Right Side of the Left-Handed Marriage'. We made
just 50 copies on 10th May and sold them all to friends and
relatives.
The odd bursts of activity coincided with my
vacations (I was trying to get a degree). At some point I
approached Brian to see if he was interested in any of the songs.
Typically, he was very kind and encouraging. There was a chance
that 1984 would do 'A Little Less'. It didn't work out, but Brian
was prepared to help us with our next lot of recordings, although
not quite the way it says in 'Queen As It Began'. At some point
Brian helped us with an EP project: we recorded 4 songs in
another little studio, this time belonging to someone who had
worked for EMI and was really keen on echo-chambers. The numbers
were 'I Need Time', 'She Was Once My Friend', 'Sugar-Lump' and a
weird song called 'Yours Sincerely' which was based on Tatiana's
Letter-Scene (OK, opera buffs?) and had a melody and harmony
recycled from 'I Need Time' (backwards, actually). We did do some
rehearsing with Brian and with Dave Dilloway, and I did manage to
get a sort of songwriting contract. A really cool guy who was in
the original Nirvana helped us a lot and got us a session at
Abbey Road on 28th June, where we did 'I Need Time' and 'She Was
Once My Friend'. The A&R Manager thought it was OK except for
my tambourine (Brian had to give me a basic lesson in music
theory for that), oh and then there were the 'wrong notes' in the
harmony, 'But those are major seconds, we like major seconds'...
'Sorry Richard' (lots of people call me Richard) ' they just
sound wrong...' 'OK, but what about Brian's solo?' 'What solo?'
Now I ask you, can you take such a man seriously??
To be fair, the sound was a bit thin as we had
no drummer. We had only tried one since we started, but there had
been problems. Our minders reminded this for the next session by
hiring Pete Trout. I had come up with a new song durning a trip
to Devon: this was 'Appointment'. The rehearsals were in a fall-out
shelter (or so it seemed). On the day of the seassion at
Regentsound (its 8-track was state-of-the-art in July 1967) Terry's
dad was taken ill, and there was a bit of a panic. Somehow Terry
got Brian and all the gear into his Reliant Regal 3/25, and we
were in business. I think I went a bit OTT when it came to the
triple-tracking: Brian indicated that the engineer was wetting
himself over my antics. There were problems with the harmonies in
'I Need Time' - perhaps I was taking it too seriously. Then Brian
came up with an idea for a little piano riff which John did to
perfection, and the job was done. We felt quite pleased with the
result.
How well do YOU think these wines have aged in
their casks?
Bill Richards
© & ® 1999 Misiaq Ltd.