Wings take Flight
A single mattress lies on the floor of Denny Laine’s
one-roomed flat. That was where he was
sleeping when the phone rang. He
answered it. A voice said, “Hello,
Denny? This is Paul. I’m thinking of forming a band to go out on
the road. Are you interested?”
The voice was Paul McCartney’s. And to people outside music it might be
surprising that he and Denny had not spoken to each other for over five
years. And yet it was Denny Laine whom
Paul asked to join him. Straight
off. No question of an audition or
anything like that.
“I don’t find it surprising,” says Denny. “You see, we’re friends. We know each other: we know how the other
feels and what the other does.”
And yet…
There is so much that’ s surprising. For in those five years Paul and Denny last
spoke to each other, their lives had followed very different turns.
Paul’s had been much publicized. His fortune earned with the Beatles. His marriage to Linda. His homes in London and Scotland. His final break with John, George and Ringo.
Denny on the other hand, had been quietly in pursuit of
himself.
When he and Paul first became friends, Denny was the singer
with the Moody Blues: he split and they
went on to earn a fortune with Justin Hayward in his place. He ran his String Band: made solo records; spent two years planning
the short-lived group Balls—and in between all this vanished to Spain.
There he spent a year living with gypsies in AndalucĂa
learning flamenco guitar.
“I’ve always liked the basic music of the country,” he says,
“I like their folk songs. To me, pub
songs are folk songs and flamenco is the folk music of Spain. It was so cheap living out there. I lived in 12 shillings a day, which included
my rest for a little artist’s shed next to the pig sty. That was my pension, which I shared with an
American, Charles Jackson.
“He came from a wealthy family, and said he was descended from General Jackson, but was running away from the Draft. He wanted to learn flamenco, too. I always go where the musicians are. That’s me. I've always like to feel part of a community of musicians. Those gypsies in AndalucĂa are real musicians, but it’s as hard for them to escape from there as it was for me to get away from Birmingham!”
Denny returned to London two years ago and teamed up with
former Move bass guitarist Trevor Burton and drummer Alan White (who works with
John Lennon on his Plastic Ono Band records).
The three of them lived in a Hampshire cottage as their ideas gelled for
their group.
Sometimes they work on sessions for friends: Denny and Trevor toured with Eric Clapton and
Ginger Baker in Airforce. In between
times, they would work on solo ideas. By early this last summer, Denny felt
that he had enough of his own songs for an album of his own, and he’d been
working all night on that the day Paul McCartney phoned him at his flat.
“Paul told me I’d get a call in a few days’ time, and then
I’d meet him up in Scotland at his farm.”
Denny told me.
As we talked, I glanced around his home: this small home, with its kitchen and
bathroom off. On the walls were
Victorian paintings, some religious in theme.
A glass display cabinet was packed with books on art, poetry and
music. On the floor lay a palette of paints
and beside it spread out on pages from “The Times” an old marble clock, in
piece, which Denny had been repairing and cleaning when I arrived. As we talked, a Bob Dylan album played in
stereo in the background.
“I got the call,” said Denny, “and went up to Scotland via
Birmingham, where I called in to spend a day or so with my family.
“Danny (that’s Danny Siewell, the American drummer in Paul’s band) met me at Glasgow airport, and then we caught a plane to Campbelltown, which is the nearest airport to Paul’s home. We don’t go that route now; Paul always uses a private plane from a hire company and we can fly direct from London to Campbelltown in little more than half an hour.
“That night Danny drove me up to Paul’s farm and we sat
around there, talking and drinking, discussing ideas for the band, and then
recalling the old days. Back in those
days, musicians like the Beatles and the Moody Blues used to go down to the
clubs in the evening not to rave it up, but to relax. After working we’d go down to the clubs like
the Ad Lib just to relax; that was all it was to us. And of course in those days we all used to
know each other, all working in the same business, so there was a lot to talk
about.
“I’d been traveling that day for 16 or 17 hours, so I just fell asleep and Paul and Danny carried me off to bed, tucked me up, and gave me a goodnight kiss. I’d been shattered by the journey.”
Over the next day and weeks, the four of them - Denny and Danny and Paul and Linda McCartney,
settled down to work, working out musical ideas and rehearsing in a barn
adjoining the farmhouse.
“It’s not a studio – it’s a barn.” Said Denny.
Did it have sound proofing?
Recording equipment? Tape decks?
Mixers?
“No.” said Denny,
“It’s just a barn. And then some days
when the sun was shining, we’d go outside and rehearse in the open fields, with
just the fields and the sea around us.
“I bought a Land Rover so that I could drive up to Paul’s
farm, which is really hilly; you have to drive over boulders to get there. My Land Rover is over at the farm nearby
which Danny is renting and where I’ve been staying up there.”
Danny worked on McCartney’s “Ram On” album, and now since
Denny joined them the four musicians have laid down enough material for another
album, too; they record it at Paul’s own studio in Scotland.
“People might get some wrong ideas about this,” said Denny
quietly in answer to one question. “It’s
just a normal farm up there. Paul gets
up in the morning, and goes out on his tractor, growing his vegetables, which
Linda cooks.
“Paul is just a farmer who plays guitar – he’s not a Beatle
any more. He lives off the land. He grows all his own food, and I think
they’re vegetarian. Apart from his
crops, all he’s got up there on the farm is horses and sheep. Paul knows he has to give a lot of his time
to music, but he wants to get away from it sometimes. We all do.
He’s growing his own crops and potatoes and turnips and parsnips, and
it’s all very simple. Every day the food
is fresh, which is what food should be.
“Linda is a real woman:
she’s busy in the house and she’s a good cook – and she looks after
their home, and looks after their children.
And although she’s only recently been working hard at it, everyone’s
going to be very surprised when they find what a good pianist she is.
“She and Paul sing together, and write together, and yet she still finds time for her photography. Yes, she’s a real woman… We all had a break last year, while Linda had her baby. Then we went back to Scotland to record some more music for the Wings album. In the meantime I’m finishing off my own album.”
This will be released on the Wizard label, which is run by
Tony Secunda, who’s Denny’s manager:
they have been friend since the early sixties when Tony was associated
with the Moody Blues. Tony now always
manages T-Rex. Denny leaves all his
problems to Tony – which leaves him free to be a true musician.
“You can’t have ulcers and then play music,” says Denny.
We sit talking about the details and the music: about Denny’s writing and their search for a
name. “We had letter suggesting names to
us, and it took ages to think of Wings.
Paul’s been saying that he’d like me to feature some of my own songs on
stage as well as the ones he and Linda have written. We’re still working everything out: on some tours we may use strings and on
others, brass.
“But at the moment, we’re just working on the basis of the
group, which is the four of us. It’s all very much a family thing, which is the
only way it can work for a group. Any
group has to have this family thing. To
be in a group, you don’t have to be Beethoven—you just have to be capable
person who can work with other musicians.
“And that’s what Linda is:
she’s a capable person, and she’s bound up in everything Paul does. She wouldn’t be married to Paul if she wasn’t
interested in what he did. She’s been
playing the guitar a little bit lately, as well as piano, and she sings really
well. But she’s really a country type of
person, brought up with horses and very down to earth. She’s a very strong woman. A typical farmer’s wife. “
in thinking back, JoJo Laine and Linda actually had a lot in common which is perhaps why Linda didn't like her traveling with them
ReplyDeletetalented man that Denny Laine
ReplyDeleteLOVE DENNY'S *GO NOW* TO THIS DAY
ReplyDeletethis reads like something possibly from an old fanzine
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know the source of this lovely article?
ReplyDeleteLove this guy!!!!
ReplyDelete