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There are two gold discs on my wall which represent the same achievements (100,000 copies sold) but tell completely different stories. One, the less celebrated of the pair, from which Elvis Costello stares ashen-faced, represents, what seemed at the time to be, the highlight of my commercial music career. The year was 1983 and the album, Punch The Clock.
It seems that EC doesn't hold this album in particularly high regard (as evidenced by his own sleeve notes on the 1995 CD re-release). He was also dismissive of one of its single releases, "Let Them All Talk," in a television interview on Clive Anderson's All Talk show which used it as a signature tune: "As a soul record, it makes a great signature tune for a chat show."
Ironically, before I began working with EC I hadn't really listened to any of his music. I missed out on the late seventies' punk explosion (and its offshoots) altogether, being heavily involved at the time in funk bands around Birmingham. It wasn't until I joined Dexys Midnight Runners, at the end of 1980, that its influence became relevant to the music I was playing.
This was also when I first met Jim Paterson (trombonist, and an original Dexys member) and Brian Brummitt, aka Brian Maurice (alto sax player, a new band member like myself). I was recruited on tenor sax. This three-piece horn section was, after another two years (and that's another story), to become the nucleus of the TKO Horns.
Having broken free from Dexys, our now freelance and anonymous horn section was, in late 1982, touring Britain with the Q-Tips, a soul revival band fronted by Paul Young, and it was partly through their contact with EC that he became interested in recruiting us for his next project. Also, we'd recorded Dexys Too-Rye-Ay album with the production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley who were associates of EC and would be producing his next album.
Brian was ecstatic and insisted that I listen to some tracks from Imperial Bedroom. The two which made the biggest impression on me were "Town Cryer" and "Man Out Of Time," which were a total surprise, with their soaring melodies, lyrics, expansive production and arrangements, and the glorious piano playing of Steve Nieve (I was expecting to be quite underwhelmed by some reasonably good pop/rock material). I, too, became quite excited at what might be in store.
Clocking on
It was late November 1982 when Jim, Brian and I were called to meet EC and his manager, Jake Riviera, at The Jam Studios in North London. He was affable, with a sharp wit, but simultaneously very focused. He outlined some ideas he had for using horns on his new material and rehearsals were booked at Shepperton for 13 December onwards. There was no time to waste — gigs were lined up for the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool on 21 December and the Royal Albert Hall on the 24th and 27th — the horns would be playing a half-hour spot during the set. There would only be five days to arrange, rehearse and memorize all this material. To add to the pressure, he wanted us to record a version of his recent release, "Party Party," for an appearance on Channel 4's Afternoon Plus on the 15th. Fortunately, we were used to picking up new arrangements quickly through our previous work, but all this would be a challenge in the time available and the stakes were high. Oh, and by the way, could we recruit a trumpet player?
To those in the know, it's a bit unusual for a horn section like ours not to include a trumpet. This was a legacy from our Dexys "pedigree" where a fat, rasping sound was the order of the day. Since then, we'd kept the line-up to alto sax, tenor sax and trombone, partly because we felt this sound lent us a particular identity, and also because no one we'd worked with since had insisted on us adding anything else, except the occasional soprano sax part. Anyway, that was all about to change — EC didn't want our horn sound to be too close to the now-famous Dexys and so Dave Plews, a contemporary of Jim's at Leeds College of Music some years before, was brought in. Dave was a considerable player whose experience in jazz and musical shows was rather different to our own, but his powerful tone and aggressive playing lent themselves perfectly to our style. (Sadly, Dave Plews took his own life in November 2000. He was 42.)
We arrived at Shepperton on the first day and attempted to get to grips with all the arrangements that were thrown at us. I very quickly realised that EC was like a big-band arranger without manuscript paper — all the horn lead lines were already in his head and sung or played on the piano to us, from which we'd construct harmony parts where necessary. Steve Nieve also contributed ideas, often taken from his own keyboard parts. We'd frequently worked this way with other artists, but they were never so sure as EC about what they wanted. Gratification was instant on playing back these arrangements with the Attractions, a rhythm section of the highest calibre. Everything seemed to slot together as if we'd been playing as a band for years and the Attractions seemed as fired-up about the sound as we were.
When I received the itinerary for these December gigs, under the title "Party Party," I noticed that our horn section had grown a name, "The Royal Guard Horns" — not something that truly reflected our sound or image — but by the Royal Albert Hall dates this had been changed to "The Imperial Horns," a very slight improvement. Anyway, it showed EC's desire to give us some sort of identity within the band, and that couldn't be bad.
The Liverpool gig came and went, and as far as I can remember, went down well with the crowd. At least our five days' rehearsals had enabled us to "break the ice" without embarrassment before the daunting task of playing two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. One detail I do remember from Liverpool was that EC had developed a prominent scouse accent for the occasion, which was the subject of mild amusement among band and crew.
Christmas Eve arrived. I'm not usually nervous about performing live, however big the venue, but as I waited backstage at the Albert, standing beside the famous conductor's podium, I was soon aware that this occasion would be different. The Hall is steeped in musical history, its grandeur impressive — almost intimidating — and did I really know all the horn parts? For that matter, did Jim, Brian and Dave really know all the horn parts? Would my faithful old Selmer Mark 6 decide, on this auspicious occasion, to throw a wobbler during the set, leaving me with only half the notes working? And why had I never worried about this before?
I needn't have been apprehensive — we gave a good account of ourselves that night and there was a feeling of pride and achievement within the "Imperial Horns" at having pulled it off within the limited time and in such grandiose circumstances. During the final number, "Pump It Up," there was a chance to let loose and really enjoy ourselves, the gig now more or less "in the bag." In the extended chorus near the end we found ourselves using more of the stage area and I was jumping across towards Pete Thomas's drum kit, hammering home the rhythm in a state of mad relief!
There wasn't much time for congratulations afterwards as the horns had to rush off to the Venue, Victoria to play another gig. It was the Q-Tips Christmas bash and, as it turned out, their final gig together. By this time Paul Young's first album, No Parlez, was well in progress and his future career would be as a solo artist.
After a very brief Christmas break, we were back again at the Albert for the 27th. No problems there — by now we felt we'd passed the audition and this was confirmed by the fact that EC had asked us to play on the forthcoming album to be recorded in March and April.
Punching the clock
The next couple of months were to involve working on new material for Punch The Clock at Shepperton. It was around this time that Jim rang me to discuss Brian's future in the horn section and his possible replacement. This was something of a shock as Brian was a good friend and source of wicked Geordie humour when it was needed. Although Jim's reasoning (something I don't wish to discuss here) was sound, I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of Brian's demise one bit. Also, who would replace him and still provide the sort of sax tone we needed? The decision had to be made quickly, before rehearsals commenced, and Brian was replaced by Jeff Blythe.
Jeff was another Dexys player, from its first incarnation, who'd left with four other members to form The Bureau. When this happened I joined Dexys as his replacement. The Bureau had a deal with Warner Brothers but the album hadn't sold that well and, eventually, it all fell apart. Jeff was primarily a tenor sax player but was willing to play alto with us and had no other major commitments at the time. Now, with the difficult decisions behind us, and feeling stronger musically and temperamentally, it was time to move on.
Another addition to the expanding line-up of EC's band was "Afrodiziak" — Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine — two relatively inexperienced, but inventive singers who were to add some very original and off-beat parts to the songs. (Caron Wheeler is probably best known for her later work with Soul-2-Soul, particularly the vocal on "Back to Life, Back to Reality." She has also released her own solo albums since).
During this period, Steve Nieve was also composing and rehearsing solo piano material for his album, Keyboard Jungle. In order to do this he was sleeping at the studio (an ex-film stage the size of an aircraft hangar) on many nights. We'd walk in each day to find his sleeping bag on the floor by the piano. (He didn't say much about this work, but I received a copy on its release and, to this day, still enjoy it. It's strictly in the "classical" tradition and shows the other, more serious side of Steve's talents. Apparently, it was recorded in less than a day).
The horn section had been given a new name. EC had written a song called "TKO (Boxing Day)," with a lot of references to boxing terms, and tagged us with the title. I'm no boxing aficionado but this was a definite improvement: "The TKO Horns."
We commenced recording at Air Studios, London. Most of the rhythm tracks had already been laid down, along with some of EC's vocals. As mentioned earlier, Jim and I had worked with the producers, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, on the second Dexys album (and it was much to their credit that they managed to bring those songs to life in the studio environment where previous producers had struggled), so we were used to their approach and they knew how to get the best from us. Alan was frequently involved with the sound engineering, whereas Clive came up with lots of ideas "on the hoof" for extra (or sometimes less) parts, once the basis was recorded.
The whole horn section was recorded together, as we played tighter that way, but was often "double-tracked" (recorded twice) to fatten-up the sound or add harmonies. Clive would come up with some unexpected parts at times which really added to the size of the arrangements — a particularly good example is in the later choruses of "Let Them All Talk" where, under the main double-tracked horn riff, there's a long note harmony part played by the whole section, making twelve horns in total. Combined with Afrodiziak's (again, double-tracked) rhythmic vocal parts, a throbbing string section, EC's lead vocal and the Attractions' thumping rhythm track, it all adds up to an arrangement of almost orchestral proportions. Such is the skill of Langer & Winstanley.
There's a similar treatment towards the end of "The World And His Wife" where we were presented with a fairly tricky stuttering horn part which we would later have to incorporate in the live version. (Another trumpet player, Stuart Robson, appears on "The World and His Wife." This horn part was recorded later than the others, at Genetic Studios, Reading, during the mixing stage — Dave had other commitments at the time).
I provided the flute part to "The Flirting Kind," which was originally the B-side of the "Let Them All Talk" single. Jeff got to play some clarinet and baritone sax on "The Greatest Thing." (EC credits me with the clarinet on the re-release sleeve notes but my clarinet playing is suitable for comedy purposes only!)
Further evidence of Langer and Winstanley's inventiveness at the board is heard in their 12-inch remix of "Let Them All Talk," where various sections of the song feature particular instruments, overlaid with bizarre vocal babble and digital effects. We first heard this version while touring the USA and it provoked a reaction of horror from one or two of the Attractions. I was inspired by this technical wizardry to get involved in remixing and editing myself later on.
The album completed, the TKO Horns were required for a photo session for the sleeve. Not being the most good-looking or photogenic "popsters," we'd decided to splash out on some matching sharp suits which we had made in the Kings Road — blue silk but each with a different cut. The end result was quite pleasing and made us look mildly like a bunch of protection racketeers, especially in the photo used for the album, taken by Nick Knight.
Clocking in across America
When the tour of America was first mentioned I almost refused to believe it. I'd never been there before, and to be paid to spend two months there, playing at big venues from East to West in this great band, seemed too good to be true.
Anyway, we arrived, slightly bewildered, in Lititz, PA on August 1st for a "dress rehearsal." This was mainly for the crew and band to get accustomed to the rig. Then came our first gig, Allentown, PA. The difference from a British audience was immediately obvious — the response to every number (and even every sentence spoken by EC) was incredible, and I knew that this tour would be different to any I'd done before.
By August 7th we'd arrived in New York where we would stay for five nights while playing two gigs at The Pier and The Arena, Long Island. This gave us some time to do some sightseeing and serious partying!
The bulk of the travel was done in two luxury Greyhound buses — each with its own dining, lounge and sleeping areas — one for EC and the Attractions and the other for the horns. (On some of the longer journeys flights were booked, which could cut the time from twelve hours to one or two).
The tour manager, hardened by years of doing this unenviable job, would charm us with his legendary wake-up phone calls which went something like, "Oi! Aren't you out of bed yet? Bus leaves in ten minutes — if you're not on it, it'll go without ya — and tell the others" (phone hangs up immediately). This is the censored version.
The support band for the tour was Aztec Camera, led by the highly talented Roddy Frame. They had yet to break through to chart success and therefore had their own, more modest travel arrangements, consisting of a fairly small motorized caravan, one driver and a tour manager.
"Let Them All Talk" was to be released as a single from Punch The Clock and a video to be produced when we got to Milwaukee, WI on the 25th August. We were becoming quite tired by this stage of the tour and were looking forward to the scheduled day off, but were taken to a sort of large arts studio for the filming. During the day, the shots involving the whole band were done, and then EC's and the Attractions' close-ups. The horns hung around the studio all day, doing the occasional hour or so for a particular shot. It was around eleven at night — when we were ready to collapse into a heap with fatigue — that we were called for the horns close-ups. We knew this was going to be something of an endurance test!
It had been decided to use black & white film for this promo and we had to wear a particular type of make-up for the best effect. This could loosely be described as a white, powdery foundation with blackish-blue lipstick and some shadowy stuff around the eyes. From eleven till four in the morning, four ghouls were put through their paces before the camera with barely the energy to stand, let alone perform their usually dynamic stage act for this up-tempo tune. (The single didn't chart and I never saw the video until around ten years later. Funnily enough, the make-up had the right effect and we had, somehow, turned in a pretty strong performance).
September 3rd and we arrived in New Orleans ready to record a Yoko Ono song, "Walking On Thin Ice," which EC had been requested by Ms. Ono to cover on the album Every Man Has A Woman. This was to be done at Sea-Saint Studios — the workplace and base of Allen Toussaint, a veteran New Orleans producer and performer. The Attractions' rhythm track, it was reported, was completed very quickly and the horns then arrived at the studio.
We'd previously had a couple of quick run-throughs of the main riffs with EC and Steve but, as is usual, there were a couple of extra new parts added during the session. We were generally pretty quick at getting parts down in studios — a horn section which works together as often, and for as long as us, would be — but there would inevitably be parts to re-do.
One of these became a memorable event on this particular session due to the "cool" of Toussaint. I've heard various diplomatic terms in the studio headphones when the correct take wasn't forthcoming, but on playing one slightly duff phrase, Toussaint's deep resonance commented, "Yeah guys, I think we have a slight flam concept here." A "flam concept"? Jeff, unaccustomed to drumming terms, turned to me quizzically, not wishing to question the terminology of the great man, and I lifted one side of his headphones to respond in a hushed voice, "He means we're not together." Nevertheless, despite this minor hiccup, the whole session was wrapped up in half an hour and EC has commented since that he thinks it's the best he ever heard us play.
This recording venture was to lead to another memorable event towards the end of the USA tour, in San Francisco. As a "thank you" for the recording, Yoko Ono invited EC and the band to her hotel suite for supper and drinks. This took place in a large room with a "top table" at one end, at which sat herself and EC, and a bar and food tables at the other. Bodyguards were obviously present, as was Sean Lennon — a seven or eight-year-old at the time — a combination which led to a slightly uncomfortable moment.
Jeff had a liking for kids and was entertaining the young Lennon rather noisily near one of the balconied french windows, watched by one of the bodyguards. A crescendo of laughter and delight led to Jeff picking up the lad bodily and exclaiming, "That's it — I'm throwing you out of the window — oh yes I am (etc. etc.)" Lennon was enjoying every moment but I thought it might be time for Jeff to put him back on the floor when the bodyguard's hand had slipped into the inside of his jacket while watching him with a steely gaze. "Jeff," — I tried to catch his attention as casually as possible — "can you come here a minute?" We all lived to tell the tale.
As the evening wore on, I became aware that Ms. Ono wasn't moving from the top table. She and EC were chatting continuously and there was no sign of her making any attempt to meet us — a great example of the rock business hierarchy system. I decided that I couldn't return to England, having been to Yoko Ono's party, without at least saying "Hello" — it would be a bit like going to Disneyland and not meeting Mickey Mouse — so I decided to make the move, also enlisting Jeff.
It may appear that I'm blowing this out of proportion, but so seemed the situation — we felt like courtiers in the palace of Queen Elizabeth I. Determined to break the stalemate, we strode up to the top table and I interrupted the conversation with, "Hi! I'm Paul, this is Jeff, and we played saxes on the track." A limp hand was held forward and, for a split second, it wouldn't have seemed out of place to have got down on one knee and kissed it, but as I crushed it with my customary firm handshake. Ms. Ono replied, "Hello, there's plenty of food at the other end if you'd like to help yourselves." Such was the esteem with which we, mere session musicians, were regarded.
The tour ended at the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco on September 24th. My first experience of the USA had been something of a baptism of fire, performing 36 shows in 57 days across most of the country. On returning home there would be only a week or so before the British tour.
Back to good old Blighty
The British Autumn Tour commenced in Newcastle-on-Tyne on October 5th and was for one month with a short trip to Essen, Germany for Rockpalast on the 15th. This was an annual all-day rock event, broadcast over Eurovision networks to most of Northern Europe, attracting an estimated audience of 25 million. I think we gave an appropriate performance!
The tour itself passed without major event, as I remember (it was certainly low-key compared to the scale of the USA), and ended with an appearance on Channel 4's The Tube. We only had to play one number, "Everyday I Write The Book," which had a horn arrangement on live performances.
Clocking in thru Europe
This one month tour began on November 5th without a rest from the British tour. By this stage we were showing signs of fatigue and needed a holiday. Touring is hard work in terms of the relentless travel and performance schedules, without taking into account "leisure activities" which add their own stresses by distracting participants from regular and sufficient sleep. In addition, the European travel frequently consisted of twelve or fourteen-hour journeys and was all accomplished in one bus which, for this purpose, was basic. Winter was also setting in as we hit Scandinavia. By November 29th, our last commitment in Europe, a TV show in Amsterdam, all we could think about was getting home and having a break.
The final bash
EC found the horn section some other recording sessions around this time, most notably the title track on the Madness album Keep Moving (produced again by Langer & Winstanley) and "Actions Speak Faster," a track on Difford & Tilbrook's album. The latter provided my first experience of playing baritone sax, which was hired in for the session by the producer, Tony Visconti. After playing tenor and soprano since I began, the baritone was almost like discovering "the meaning of life" and is, to this day, my main instrument.
The final bash for the TKO Horns, as it turned out, was to be the two Christmas gigs at Hammersmith Odeon, London. It seemed that EC had a change of heart around this time as we'd been given a schedule for February rehearsals and a French tour, and Japan had also been mentioned, but by Christmas this was not to be and we were advised to start looking for our next contract.
The TKO Horns had been voted number 1 in the Miscellaneous category of New Musical Express Readers' Poll for 1983, and gold discs were presented to us by Jake Riviera for Punch The Clock.
Exactly one year after our Albert Hall gigs, we played with Elvis Costello and the Attractions for the last time. It was also the last time TKO played together regularly as a horn section after a total of three years' non-stop work. Dave, as ever, had offers of work lasting well into 1984 and shortly embarked upon a world tour with Eurythmics. I needed a break from the full-time music industry, particularly touring, and took an extended holiday to formulate ideas for the future. However, I did one further bit of work with EC during this time and, ironically, it was far-and-away the most famous of our collaborations.
There's one other little session…
EC mentioned the idea of a protest song to me during December. He would be producing it with Langer & Winstanley and had an idea for a tin whistle part. (My limited tin whistle skills were featured on the opening of a tune from the Dexys album, called "Until I Believe In My Soul," but the part was very slow and involved a grand total of five notes. I was a little concerned about being presented with, for instance, an up-tempo Irish improvisation style on this instrument with only six holes). Anyway I agreed to do the track and thought no more of it.
January 1984 arrived and a rehearsal was booked for the band, The Special AKA, before the session at AIR Studios in Oxford Street, London. The band consisted of Jerry Dammers and John Bradbury from the original Specials, Afrodiziak and various other musicians, and the song was "Free Nelson Mandela." The tin whistle part was easy enough and my session lasted half an hour. Little did any of us realise what an anthem of the eighties this would become! A few more TV appearances sprang from it, including The Tube, Top Of The Pops and some in Europe.
The end of an era
And that was it. I never returned to performing and touring as a full time occupation after 1983. My attention turned towards the recording and production process and I opened a studio in Tamworth, Staffordshire in 1985. Later I got back into playing with various bands and led my own ten-piece dance band for several years.
I've seen EC performing live once since then, at a stadium in California when I was there on holiday in 1994. Seeing and hearing the show from the audience made me realise why the crowds reacted as they did — it was a superb performance.
And the other gold disc? Dexys' Too-Rye-Ay, and that's another story altogether.
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