The Return of the Power Trio

It’s been a long time coming…but the power trio is back with a vengeance. That ‘perfect’ line-up of guitar, bass and drums is a staple of our rock history, just think Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Budgie, Rush, Trapeze, ZZ Top etc.  The flag was flown briefly in later years by the likes of the very wonderful Kings X of course, but in recent years there have been too few of what, to this writer, is the perfect line-up.

There was a hint of what could be on the recent ‘Machine Head’ tribute, when the stellar line-up of Chad Smith, Steve Vai and Glenn Hughes did the unthinkable and blew the already wonderful ‘Highway star’ out of the water. (okay there’s some keys on there but whose counting!) I still nurse a dream that this might become a longer term association, but then…

…I recently bought the superb album by The Winery Dogs, another amazing line up with Mike Portnoy (more gigs than Dave Grohl, anyone?) Billy (I’m going to give up playing bass now) Sheehan and Ritchie (he can sing AND play like a mother!) Kotzen. So often though, the sum of the parts is not greater, but this album is superb, chiefly because (as with Black Country Communion) the songs are SO good. A three piece rock band is an exciting thing to listen to, and to play in, I can attest to that from personal experience, because there is nowhere to hide and you have to be on your game, and it’s probably why these virtuosos are gravitating towards this particular band configuration, because it stretches them and gives them room to shine. So, all this was enough to get me salivating, but then, courtesy of my good Metal buddy Stone over at METAL ODYSSEY  I’ve also been turned onto Pinnick Gales Pridgen, yet another amazing line up of ex-Kings X, Lauryn Hill and Mars Volta musicians that channel Cream and Hendrix and serve it up fresh, new and damn hot. Check out these three videos and tell me the Power Trio isn’t on the rise!!!!

Kev Moore

Alone, yet together….Sippin’ Wine

Phil Hendricks

Kev Moore

Throughout my career, I have collaborated on various projects with different artists over the years, and before the internet age, it usually involved me being in the same room with them.  However the session I’m going to highlight today differs from that.  It is a blues duet (for want of a better term) between me and Phil Hendricks,  Singer and guitarist with UK punk band The Stiffs, who my old mate and Gonads cohort Garry Bushell referred to (in his capacity as a Sounds journalist) as: ” pile driving pop-punk of the first order…a band to be reckoned with I’d wager..”

The project that involved us both was “End of an Era” -the solo album from Saxon’s Graham Oliver, his first release following the acrimonious split of the NWOBHM legends into two camps.  The song that we worked on has a fascinating history. When Graham was touring the States with Saxon, he went to Seattle to visit Jimi Hendrix’s grave, and met Jimi’s father. He gave him an old notebook of Jimi’s containing half-scribbled song ideas and lyrics. One of these was “Sippin’ Wine”. A track Graham fashioned in the way he thought Jimi would have finished it, and some extra lyrics from me.

Phil and I had never met, and put our vocal parts down at different times, and were not sure if we’d contributed to the finished product or not, and then, suddenly it was released, and we could both hear the finished version for the first time.

Over the ensuing years, I found the album in record racks in stores the world over, from Boston to Barcelona.  Then I noticed that later pressings of the disc omitted the track. Apparently, people acting for the Hendrix estate (not Jimi’s Dad) had asked for the track to be removed from the original running order.  The result is that the track is now a bona fide rarity, only to be found on a couple of thousand of the original pressings of the disc.

You can listen to it at the bottom of this entry.

Fast-forward to 2009, and a show I did recently in Germany with BC Sweet.  We were performing at a 70’s festival with The Rubettes and Eric Faulkner’s Bay City Rollers. During the soundcheck, the guitarist came up and introduced himself. It was Phil, and the circle, begun eight years previously, was complete.

LISTEN TO SIPPIN’ WINE:

before Yellow River……

Jeff and psychedelic friends. Use the chart below to identify!

Way back in’ 67, three years before CHRISTIE would hit the heights  with Yellow River around the world, there was, making its way around the U.K, the last of a Sixties phenomenon – The Package Tour.  Previous incarnations had thrown together such unlikely bedfellows as The Beatles, Freddie and the Dreamers and Helen Shapiro, but by the heady days of psychedelia, there was an altogether different musical board of fayre on offer around Britains venues. It would put a young Jeff Christie and his band “The Outer Limits” – signed to his Deram label by the Stones‘ Andrew Loog Oldham  – on the same stage as the fast-rising guitar hero Jimi Hendrix. Oh, and in case anyone was thinking of heading to the bar anytime during the evening, the show included Keith Emerson’s “The Nice” , “The Move” , “Amen Corner ” and “The Pink Floyd“.- a band on the verge of dropping the definitive article, not to mention Syd Barrett. Not a bad line-up for your money!

The Outer Limits, after two singles – the second one banned from the BBC for being called “The Great train Robbery ” (unbelievable but true!) – disintegrated along with the Sixties, but Jeff’s tenacity and songwriting skills won through, and by the summer of 1970, he was Number One.

The tour was the last of its kind for many a year. Though Dave Robinson, founder of Stiff records and the road manager in ’67 for another band on the bill “Eire Apparent“- revived the format to promote Stiff artists over a decade later.

If it seemed like a good idea at the time, it was. Nowadays, bands adopt a similar policy. Earlier this year you could see Whitesnake, Def Leppard and Thunder all under the same roof, on the same night. Similar ventures have been undertaken featuring the bill of Deep Purple, Styx and Thin Lizzy, albeit without the late lamented Lynott.

So if you attend one of these new breed of musical package tours, pay close attention to the new bands further down the bill – they might be tomorrow’s stars!

Naming names. The Nice were absent.

Kev Moore