THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Jackson Webber - It's Only Fools

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO

What It Is CD - £9.99

WALLY MEET LED ZEPPELIN

Well, actually, it is Roy Webber meeting Robert Plant, and it was four years ago so it hardly counts as up-to-the-minute news. But for some reason Google News Alerts flagged it up as a new story (which as there are no words is also an oxymoron). But it is a very good picture (from Bob Harris' website) and deserves to be cross-linked to as I shamelessly promote the Gonzo artist pages for:

Wally
Jackson Webber

WALLY: A great review

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=12989

Wally is a progressive rock band based out of Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK, who created interesting music back in the early 1970s. Montepellier is a re-release CD from 2010, available now to help generate sales.

The original band was made up of Roy Webber, on vocals and guitar; Pete Cosker, on lead guitar, bass, and vocals; Paul Middleton, steel guitar and bass; Roger Narraway, on drums and percussion; and Nick Glennie-Smith, on keyboards and vocals.

Montepellier is full of six to over eight minute progressive songs full of masterful production and excellent music. The keyboard work with piano, along with Webber's unique vocal sound really help create a defining and unique sound. This 2010 release would have fit perfectly with some of my favorites from that year, had I known about them then.

"Sailor" is incredible with its keyboard and piano work. Took me right back to some of Steve Miller's work on a similar titled album. "Surfing", one of the longer tracks on the album was also a favorite. "In the Night" has some great vocal harmonies and excellent lead guitar work. "Human" is also full of some unique sounding guitar work and good vocals. The closer, "Giving" is the best track on the album, and took me right back to some of my favorite music of 2010, from the Black Crowes double album.

Wally is a great mix of progressive and straight ahead rock n roll. This disc should have been heard by a larger audience. Maybe this re-release will help give the album the coverage it deserved.

Track Listing:

1. Sailor
2. Sister Moon
3. Thrill Is Gone
4. Surfing
5. In The Night
6. Human
7. She Said
8. Giving

And check out their Gonzo Artist page C'mon. You know you want to...

WALLY: Sister Moon live in Harrogate

And check out their Gonzo Artist page C'mon. You know you want to...

EXCLUSIVE: Roy Webber (Jackson Webber, Wally) interview (Part Three)

Today we present the third and final part of our interview with Roy Webber, front man of Wally and the sublime Jackson Webber.

Part One

Part Two

We continue with a discussion about the superb album by Jackson Webber:

JON: The thing that impressed me most about the Jackson Webber album, I remember reading an interview with Ronnie Lane years ago, thirty odd years ago, when he said that what he was trying to do was English country music. He didn’t like the fact that so many people even though they were English sounded American. Which you don’t.

ROY: My heroes are Gram Parsons and people like that. But you can’t be those people. In England it’s hard to write songs about places in England. You need to write songs about places in America ‘cos it seems to flow and work, and you can’t. But all my songs are very you know...I can’t write a song that’s just about nothing. It has to mean something to me, so there’s always a story behind what I do or what I write.

But I’m very fortunate, as not being a very good musician, that I’m surrounded by people like Frank Mizen and Will Jackson that on the one hand are brilliant musicians, but don’t write songs. It’s strange. So we’re doing this album now between Will Jackson, myself and Frank Mizen and the instruments that we’re using are all very acoustic, like pedal steel and acoustic piano and acoustic guitars and mandolins and stuff, and it’s got a very nice feel.

JON: When is it coming out?

ROY: Well we’re about half way through it at the moment. It’s slow moving because, you know, I’m all over the world at the moment with my business, Will is very busy with his studios so we just get together when we can, but I’ll happily send you a couple of tracks for you to have a listen to.

JON: Oh yes please because I really am a fan. Because I’m a Gram Parsons fan as well and I can feel Gram Parsons’ influence in your musical DNA

ROY: What he did, he fused it all together didn’t he?

JON: He described what he did as cosmic American music and I was wondering if I could get away with what I write about you as cosmic Yorkshire music.

ROY: Well I grew up listening to Gram Parsons, and the Byrds and very early Crosby, Stills and Nash. Personally my favourite song writer is David Crosby because my favourite all time album is If Only I Could Remember My Name by David Crosby

JON: That’s fairly close to the top of mine. I think the second Gram Parsons album and the first Flying Burrito Brothers album are mine

ROY: Yes, and it’s hard to find musicians that feel that sort of music. It’s heavily directed by myself because I feel that sort of music, and that whole influence in Wally was .. that whole sort of country side of Wally comes from.

But sometimes it just got out of hand because on Valley Gardens, our second album we did a piece of music that I had nothing to do with, but I had to go along with it, which took up almost one whole side of the album and it was contrived. And half of the band were into people like Yes and Genesis, you know that whole complex stuff of how many guitar notes you can play in a second, you know, and it was so complex that when we actually played it live, there was only about one in five times that we actually got it right and I thought to myself, why are we doing this? Music is all about feeling and just being relaxed, and letting it flow and the pressure of can we deliver this or not? So that was one of the fall outs that we had.

JON: Is there still a schism between the country side and the proggie side of the band?

ROY: No, I think we gelled it quite well. If you listen to the live album, what we’ve just done To The Urban Man and if you listen to the live version of 'To The Urban Man' which last about 15 or 16 minutes, it’s the shortened version ; but if you listen to that it’s classic. It’s absolutely classic prog rock played really well and I love that. I love that song and you could play that at any festival to any audience to any crowd, and it would go down a bomb. So all that stuff I think I love it. It’s the real deal. But there is other stuff that we did that you know, I’m not too proud of because to me it didn’t flow naturally, it was contrived.

JON: How much stuff have you got written for the next Wally studio album?

ROY: Not a lot to be honest. There’s probably one or two tracks that we’ve got that we could dig out from the past. I mean it happens fairly quickly because somebody comes along with an idea and it develops. Whether or not we would do another Wally studio album or not I don’t know. Certainly another Jackson Webber one is on the way. We will certainly play some more Wally gigs and I suppose if anything came from that we would definitely do it. We’ve had opportunities to play places, it’s just pulling everybody together.

It’s not easy because the fiddle player, Pete Sage, this is a lovely story, after the last reunion gig, he went home, he had a fall-out with his wife who kicked him out. He had all his kit, his amplifiers and all his instruments and he had nowhere to put them, so he went – he lives in a place called Freburg in Germany – to a local recording studio and he said ‘Look I’m a musician and I‘ve got all this gear and I’ve got nowhere to put it. Would you mind storing it for me? You’re welcome to use it – it will just be for a short while until I get myself sorted out,’ so they said to him, ‘what do you play?’ and he said ‘I play fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, you know.’ And they said, ‘we’re working on a project at the moment, would you like to get involved? We’d like to audition you,’ so of course he did, and of course he‘s an absolutely brilliant musician so they took him on and they made this album and this album has gone gold – it’s knocked Madonna off the top of the charts in Germany, it’s now gone platinum, he’s a superstar in Germany where he’s doing TV shows, his made countless videos, he’s booked up for the next two or three years and he’s just gone ‘woosh’ .

..and that is just about it. Roy was an eloquent and entertaining interviewee, and I very much look forward to talking to him again in the future. In the meantime HERE is the Gonzo artist page for Wally, and HERE is the page for Jackson Webber. Enjoy.

EXCLUSIVE: Roy Webber (Jackson Webber, Wally) interview (Part Two)

Yesterday we posted Part One of an interview with Roy Webber frontman of the legendary Wally, and also of a new collaboration - Jackson Webber.

We continue with the story of how the band refored after three decades:

ROY: So I started chasing everybody up and the strange thing was that while I was chasing the co-founder of the band, a guy called Paul Garrett, I was trying to locate him and I rang his ex-wife and she said, ‘Oh have you not heard? He died two days ago.’

JON: Oh wow

ROY: In Thailand. So all of a sudden, we had to do the gig for him. So we had a proper reason, and of course everybody ... we found the drummer who hadn’t actually touched a drum kit for 16 years, and we had a meeting and the drummer said ‘Look I can’t do this, I’ve not played for so long’, and we all said, look we’ll do it together, or we don’t do it. And we persuaded him to do it and we had a week and a half’s rehearsal before the first gig, and the first gig sold out at the Royal Hall, Harrogate and it was a mega success, so everybody wanted us to do another one the next year, so we did and in the meantime we made the new album, which was Montpelier, which was quite interesting because getting together to make that album made us realise why we all split up . But I am sure that that is a familiar story.

JON: Yeah, I was actually going to ask you about that. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

ROY: So we made the album Montpelier and then we did the next gig which we recorded, which is the Live double album, but I have to say that the response worldwide is quite something. People from... I mean we’re not talking hundreds of thousands here by any means, but there are a lot of fans that have appeared out of the woodwork that really appreciated the band, and love the band, and love the music. We tried to make Montpelier true to the original sound of the band, but also move it forward slightly to have a bit more of what is going on now, and I think we’ve achieved that, and I think it’s had some very good reviews.

JON: The songs on Montepelier. Were they new ones that you had written?

ROY: A couple were taken – Sailor and Sister Moon – were written right back in those days. We’ve changed them slightly, but they were conceived back in the days of the original band. And all the rest is new material, but played – I mean we’re all just stuck in that zone really and the only person that’s actually working new music is Will Jackson who produced the album. He’s working with bands like the Kaiser Chiefs, Pigeon Detectives, Embrace...so he’s working with bands that are sort of happening now, and he tried to inject a few of those flavours and sounds but that’s where the conflict was, the drummer in particular wasn’t happy.

Overall, it’s like any album. You never want to stop because, you know, you record something you take it away and listen then you can always think of things you would like to change, but at some point you’ve got to stop. Otherwise you’d carry on forever. And we had to stop, you know we didn’t have a huge budget to make the album and we kept going back and changing things.

For me, I like to think that when you ... there was only two songs on the album that we were all in the same room at the same time recording it, the rest were done and sent over to Germany for the fiddle player to add his bit, then sent over to America for Nick to do his bit and then it would all come back, you know. So it’s not very organic. It’s a bit mechanical. There’s a song on the album called Giving, which is my favourite track, where we were all in the room playing at the same time, and it was basically one take – we got that in one take and there are just a couple of overdubs on that, so for me that’s very pure and I love it.

JON: Will there be another one?

ROY: Yes, I think so.

JON: Have you got more songs written?

ROY: Yes. Well I have another project. I write with a guy called Will Jackson.

JON: Oh I love that album, I think it’s smashing

ROY: Well, we’re working on a new album and it’s going so well. So I am working on that with Will, but the whole Wally thing, we’d all come together again to make it happen

JON: The sound of the two projects is very different. Do you find yourself, when you’re writing songs, do you find yourself thinking, ‘Right I’m going to sit down and write a Jackson Webber song’ rather than ‘I’m going to sit down and write a Wally song?’

ROY: Nope, I write the song, and I write the melody line, and I write the chord sequences, and if I sit down with Will it can become an acoustic track, if I sit down with the other guys it can become a monster

That’s just the way it goes. Sister Moon, which is a track on Montpelier, is – would you believe it – an acoustic song. And now when Wally get hold of it, they turn it into this great big epic, but that’s what Wally is all about, you know, it’s a massive sound. But the new Jackson Webber album is going to be very acoustic, very simple because a very, very good friend of mine, Bob Harris, you know the Whispering Bob, he’s very involved in everything I do, and he gives me advice ‘cos he’s involved in the whole Americana movement that goes on in America and his show, and he likes things very pure and very clean. So we’ll try and keep in clear and clean.

And so we reach the end of Part Two. We will be back tomorrow with the third and final part..

EXCLUSIVE: Roy Webber (Jackson Webber, Wally) interview (Part One)

Wally were the first Gonzo Multimedia artistes that I heard back in March when Sir Robin of Aylingshire first asked me whether I would do the blog which metamorphosed into the Gonzo Daily.

I was captivated both by the band and their music; the subtle blending of prog with what Gram Parsons called 'Cosmic American music' was irresistible.

I started trying to set up an interview with the band in late March, but every time that I was just about to speak to their head honcho Roy Webber, something would happen (either to him or to me) and it actually took three months before I (with a mug of tea by my side, and the orange cat on my lap) sat down to talk to him:

JON: What a palaver we have had trying to contact each other

ROY: Not your fault mine. We are launching our new business in Brazil on 3rd July and it’s just absolute chaos here.

JON: What is it you do?

ROY: We are a creative agency. We brand major sporting events – we’ve branded the whole of the World Cup in Brazil for 2014 and I’ve travelled over there about 15 times in the last 15 months. We’ve identified masses of business so I’ve got Brazilian investment and we open Works Brazil on July 3rd so obviously we are creating everything here and it has to go over there and get translated to Portuguese then come back here to be ...it’s a nightmare. We are running behind so I am actually all over the place at the moment, but I’m here now.

JON: It sounds absolutely horrific.

ROY: Well this is why I need my music It’s a great leveller. It is, it’s one of those things that keeps your sane I think.

JON: I have to admit that until I had started working for Gonzo a few months ago I had only vaguely heard of Wally and then you guys made such an amazing comeback – I think that’s really good.

ROY: To be honest, we came from nowhere because we hadn’t done our apprenticeship. Wally was formed by myself and one other guy in the basement of my house in Harrogate and over a period of six months we ... the way it all came together was like it was always meant to be.

We met the pedal steel player, we met the fiddler player, and when we gelled all the sounds of the instruments, I mean going back to those days when everything was experimental and very hippie like, and everything lasted half an hour, we created the most fantastic sound – then totally unique – and even now is fairly unique.

And so when it actually happened we didn’t actually travel up and down the country playing gigs to earn our stars as it were, we just went from doing one gig in London, being seen by Rick Wakeman, supporting him at Crystal Palace Open Air Bowl, being signed to Atlantic Records and going on tour. So we didn’t really have the grounding that most bands have so we didn’t actually appreciate what was happening to us.

Without sounding really blasé, that is what happened. So when we signed with Atlantic Records, we signed a two album deal and we made the first album, which was catastrophic because we’d never been in recording studios before, Bob Harris had never produced an album before. Rick Wakeman was the only guy who knew what he was doing, but he had a heart attack half way through it so we released the first album, and then went off on tour, which was very successful. Then we had a meeting with Atlantic Records and they said, well how is the second album coming along? And we didn’t realise until then that we should have been half way through the second album.

That’s how naive we were. Really, to be honest.

JON: Then you had a break of 30-odd years before the third album...

ROY: Well yes. The breakdown came quite naturally because we actually signed to Atlantic Records with the Average White Band, and the Average White Band had done everything properly. They had earned their stripes by touring up and down for years and becoming known, and had a good following, so we when we signed to Atlantic they signed three bands. There was Wally, a band called the Heavy Metal Kids – I don’t know if you remember them, a guy called Gary Holton...

JON: Yes...he was the guy who was in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet..

ROY: They signed his band, Wally and the Average White Band, and we all had a choice. We could wait three months and then sign to Atlantic America or we could sign immediately to Atlantic UK, and the deal with Atlantic UK was they would pick us up in a limousine, they’d drive us to the same office in London where The Beatles signed their contract – they made it glamorous. So, of course, being very naive, we went for the quick easy option and signed to Atlantic UK, whereas the Average White Band were much shrewder and they waited and signed to Atlantic America.

So, of course, when things went wrong for Atlantic Records, they closed down their UK operation. That meant that the Heavy Metal Kids and Wally were dropped by Atlantic Records, and of course the Average White Band who were signed to Atlantic America continued. So we continued for a while after we dropped by Atlantic, and we were supported actually by the Average White Band and the money that was invested in them. In the end it all faded away, and it was hard work. So we ended up calling it a day.

And then a very strange thing happened. Nick Glennie-Smith, who is the keyboard player in the band – he’s become a very successful writer for movie scores – was taken under the wing of Hans Zimmer – he’s the most prolific writer of music scores - and Nick was taken under his wing, and then within a couple of years was writing movie scores for the most amazing movies. You would have heard of them all. So Nick became very, very successful and he was over in London about three or four years ago and he just called on us. I hadn’t seen him for years. We went out for dinner and he said why don’t we get together again. And I said well that’s easy Nick, you live in Los Angeles so if you give me three days, I’ll put it all together but if you commit to it. And he said no I will, I would just love to do it.

And this seems like an appropriate place to break off for today. We will be back tomorrow with part two. However in the meantime check out their Gonzo artist page:

http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/artists/6764/Wally

WALLY: Golly this band are good, and this is quite possibly my favourite of their songs..

What a band! I really cannot make up my mind whether I prefer the original albums, or the new one. You decide. Check out the Gronzo Artist Page for Wally

WALLY: Vintage video of them on the James Whale show..

Obscure bits of Wally video keep on turning up all over the place. Check this out...


What a band! I really cannot make up my mind whether I prefer the original albums, or the new one. You decide. Check out the Gronzo Artist Page for Wally

LINK: New Wally album dissected

http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/index_cdreviews_display.cfm?id=103496

Wally: Montpellier

Review by G. W. Hill
The most likely candidates for comparison here are Pink Floyd and David Bowie. That said, there are other influences heard, too. In addition, the blend of sounds is really quite unique. However you slice it, this is a cool disc.

Track by Track Review

Sailor

There’s a pretty and sedate introductory section. Then it shifts to a piano based ballad approach. It builds out from there with sort of a David Bowie meets Pink Floyd kind of texture. This is melodic and powerful with some great harmonic vocals. It powers out around the two minute mark into a soaring number that is very much classic progressive rock. Eventually it drops back down from there. There’s an even harder rocking iteration of the more powerful section after that. The continuing cycle of mellower movement followed by more powered up stays with the song through the end, with some minor changes.

Sister Moon
This cut starts rather tentatively and works out to a melodic number that’s fairly basic in terms of song construction, but also quite accessible and rather catchy. It does a great job of combining a progressive rock element with a psychedelic rock and classic rock styling. There’s some smoking hot guitar soloing on the top of this and the vocal arrangement is great.

Thrill is Gone
This one’s really not all that prog-like. It’s got a great classic rock riff driving it and some smoking hot bluesy guitar soloing. There’s a little bridge section that brings some prog to the proceedings, but overall this doesn’t really fit well in that heading. There’s also a cool climbing guitar based jam later that’s more like Pink Floyd meets Led Zeppelin.

Surfing
A rather bizarre song, in a lot of ways this is probably closest to the poet era of David Bowie. The vocals, often spoken, certainly call that to mind. Musically this powers up to some more energized rock at times, but also includes some stripped down percussive-dominated mellow music and even has some world music in the mix. It’s a cool tune that’s a bit of a change, but it’s perhaps less progressive rock (at least in a direct way) than a lot of the stuff here. That said, there is a cool proggy instrumental section midtrack that includes some killer guitar work and some nicely odd changes. There is also a violin solo in the midst of that segment. After some time back in the song proper mode, it works out to some spacey weirdness that, with some modifications, takes this out.

In the Night
Starting tentatively, there’s some bluesy guitar sound early and then keyboards come over the top in a killer retro fashion. It gives way to a mellow, rather Pink Floyd like sound for the first vocals and builds from there. While mellow and progressive rock oriented, there’s definitely a groove to this. When it powers out later there’s even a soulful air to it. From there we get treated to a smoking hot guitar solo that definitely calls to mind David Gilmour. The song follows a pretty standard pattern of verse and chorus alternating with another instrumental movement, but it’s decidedly AOR progressive rock.

Human
Coming in with mellow, melodic bits of muted guitar, the first vocals are spoken and again call to mind Bowie. This cut gets build out into a harder rocking, but still melodic motif and continues by alternating between the basic musical concepts. It has some passionate vocal work and really has a lot of classic rock in the arrangement. It works out to more of that melodic muted guitar sounds in a spacey pattern at the end.

She Said
Combining a classic rock singer/songwriter style with some country and even a little Pink Floyd, this song follows a pretty standard musical concept. It’s got some rocking motifs and some interesting soloing. It also has some nice female vocals as icing on the cake. The keyboard sounds are nice, too.

Giving
That country element is present on this track, too. It’s mellow and ballad-like with hints of dream pop. Of course, there’s also plenty of classic rock in the mix, too. There’s a fairly intense instrumental section later that brings more progressive rock to the table and a symphonic treatment takes it out.

WALLY: More OGWT 1974

Yesterday's post of Wally from 1974 OGWT was so succesful, that here's some more...

WALLY ON 'THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST'

What a band! I really cannot make up my mind whether I prefer the original albums, or the new one. You decide. Check out the Gronzo Artist Page for Wally

LINK: Wally review

http://blog.billkopp.com/?p=789

Album Review: Wally - Montpellier

With a sound that falls somewhere between Dire Straits and Pink Floyd, the goofily-named Wallycreates a musical ambience that is rooted in classic rock styles, yet vaguely contemporary-feeling. On their latest,Montpellier, they go lots of places, and it’s an engaging ride.

“Sailor” opens with keyboard textures straight out of Meddle– complete with “seagull” guitar work, but then quickly shifts gears into a piano-based melody that owes more to Supertramp or Harry Nilsson. There are a lot of appealing qualities to Wally’ music, but their not-so-secret weapons are steel and pedal steel guitar. Not sinceDavid Gilmour, Steve Howe and Glenn Ross Campbell (The Misunderstood) has steel guitar been used so effectively in this sort of music. Soaring, dive-bombing guitar runs are joined by female-chorus vocals (more shades of Pink Floyd, but with less of a space-rock bent) as the lengthy-but-never-boring “Sailor” unwinds.

As the liner notes explain, Wally had been working on what would have been their third album for Atlantic around 1975, when something happened. The notes don’t make it clear what that something was exactly, but it’s safe to assume that either the band broke up, Atlantic dropped them, or both. In any event, the songs on Montpellier thus have a pleasantly timeless quality that is firmly built on a foundation of that album-rock era.

Wally is a big band with a big sound: Montpellier credits seven musicians (plus a guest guitarist on one track, and those three female auxiliary vocalists). But the song arrangements – “Thrill is Gone” being one of many good examples – aren’t fussy and overwrought; the band crafts a sound that is halfway between meat’n'potatoes rock and more subtle and finessed styles.

“Surfing” edges closer to a progressive approach, and is reminiscent in places of Roy Harper or Jethro Tull, albeit with a subtle reggae flavor. Like most of the songs on Montpellier, it’s a longish number, running in excess (but not excessively so!) of seven minutes. Pete Sage’s violin – the other sharp weapon in Wally’s arsenal – is central to the appeal of the track, adding color to the song’s spoken/sung lyrical approach.

The initially understated “In the Night” sounds a bit like Sting’s 90s work, but a delightfully long instrumental break with loads of stratospheric guitar lines give it more texture before returning to earth. The country-flavored “She Said” is based on a familiar melodic approach, but as with all the other songs on the set, the effective use of pedal steel and other slightly outside-the-box sounds help take it somewhere more interesting. A ghostly, melancholy violin solo opens “Giving,” continuing the Americana vibe (Wally’s a British group, by the way), but again employs a well-worn but effective arrangement approach: halfway through, the song opens up, goes instrumental and really takes off. The band is adept at conveying emotion wordlessly, and “Giving” is an exemplar of their skill at doing so.

Interested listeners will come to Montpellier for the guitars and fiddle. They’ll stay for Wally’s well-written, -arranged and -played songs.

WALLY/JACKSON WEBBER: Dutch interview

Many thanks to André Steijns and those jolly nice people at http://www.paperlate.nl/ for letting us repost this smashing interview with Roy Webber from Jackson Webber and the mighty Wally.

Check it out dudes and dudettes:


http://www.mijnbestand.nl/Uitnodiging-RJYRQODFBXUO.mp3

WALLY NEWSLETTER

Hi folks, gosh it seems like a long time since we sent a news letter.

Various bits of news for you. Firstly the Montpellier album has been successfully released on the Gonzo label, other albums and the DVD to follow in the coming months. The original Atlantic albums Wally and Valley Gardens will have extra tracks and sleeve notes by Bob Harris and are due for release any day now. The DVD will include a video interview with the band.

You can now Twitter with Wally @wallymusic and on @jacksonwebberuk

Roy Webber and Will Jackson are busy in the studio working on a new Jackson Webber album for release either late this year or early in the new year. Their first album 'What it Is' has also been released on Gonzo with two extra hidden tracks at the end, including their version of the classic Wally track 'Your Own Way'.

Check into http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/ for details of releases and how to purchase.

Origional albums are still available on iTunes or from the website www.wallymusic.co.uk


Happy listening

Stuart (on behalf of Wally and Jackson Webber)

LINK: Another Wally Review

http://palaceofrock.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-my-stereo-wally-montpellier.html%20%20

In my stereo : Wally - Montpellier (2012)

Wally is a British progressive rock band formed by singer song writer Roy Webber in Harrogate in the early seventies. The band was signed to Atlantic Records in 1974 after entering a contest organised by the music paper Melody Maker. Unfortunately the band did not win the competition but they did catch the eye of One of the judges at the competition, presenter of the Old Grey Whistle Test Bob Harris who oversaw their prize which was to record a session for his Radio 1 programme. Through Bob the band were signed to Atlantic Records and Bob subsequently produced the band’s debut self titled album alongside Rick Wakeman. The band also enjoyed a number of high profile concerts including an appearance at the 1974 Crystal Palace garden Party which was headlined by Rick Wakeman and after being managed briefly by the manager of Yes Brian Lane would support Yes also at a number of high profile concerts.

A second album emerged in 1975 again produced by Bob Harris entitled Valley Gardens the band now joined by keyboardist Nick Glennie-Smith who would go onto a successful production and composing career after Wally split in the late seventies just before the band could record their third album Montpelier is the result of a reformation of the band and includes material that would possibly have featured on the bands third album in the seventies alongside new material. The band have performed annual concerts in their home town of Harrogate for the last three years but Montpelier is the first studio album since Valley gardens in 1975. The band does have a large cult following and this album will certainly be welcomed by that substantial following. Release date : March 12th

• Edit Posts

Tracks: 1. Sailor , 2. Sister Moon , 3. Thrill Is Gone , 4. Surfing , 5. In The Night , 6. Human , 7. She Said , 8. Giving.
For fans of Manfred Mann´s Earth Band, John Miles, Camel
http://www.wallymusic.co.uk/

LINK: Wally review

http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/reviewwally.htm
Wally – Montpellier

Gonzo Multimedia

www.wallymusic.co.uk
Rating: B

Wally originated in England in the early 1970’s. In 1974, they released their debut album, which, interestingly was recorded at Morgan Recording Studios, the same place that Black Sabbath and Yes had recorded. The album was co-produced by Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman.

The album ended up being one of those releases that was heralded by musicians but failed to capture the ears of the general public.

The band went their separate ways for thirty years but then, unexpectedly, in 2009 they reunited. Led by original members Roy Webber, Paul Middleton, Pete Sage, Roger Narraway and Nick Glennie-Smith, the band added Frank Mizen on pedal steel and Will Jackson on guitar.

The band sold out a gig in their hometown and recorded a DVD of the show. They discovered they still had the spark and went back into the studio.

Montpellier is part Wally, part Pink Floyd and part Grateful Dead. These diverse styles lead to one heck of an enjoyable listening experience. From the opening track of “Sailor” to the final notes of the emotional “Giving” Wally proves they were a great band who deserved much more than the business of music gave them.

This is a band, and a release, that is ripe for the picking by those ultimate Rock Nerds who search for every interesting note ever played. In Wally, they will find a treasure trove.

By Jeb Wright

WALLY: The Reason Why (At The Royal Hall, Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Saturday 17th April 2010)

Roy Webber, Paul Middleton, Pete Sage, Nick Glennie-Smith, Roger Narraway, Frank Mizen, Will Jackson, Phil Dean & The Wallettes

Check out the Wally Page on Gonzo

http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/artists/6764/Wally

WALLY/JACKSON WEBBER: Roy Webber interview on Paperlate Radio

This interview appears courtesy of André Steijns and all at Paperlate
http://home.concepts.nl/~paperlte/index.htm

WALLY DOWN UNDER

OK, that headline is a little misleading. Wally are not actually in The Antipodes at the moment (OK, they might be, but if they are, nobody told me). What I actually meant to say in my own bumbling fashion is that those jolly nice chaps and chapesses at the Australian music website, Glory Days Music, have posted a couple of really nice, complimentary articles about the band.

They have a system whereby you have to join before you can read ow't, and so that I can't actually nick any of their content, but it is a mighty fine website and well worth joining, so go ahead and check them out...

http://www.glorydazemusic.com/articles.php?article_id=4722
http://www.glorydazemusic.com/articles.php?article_id=1788

When you join up, tell George Hatcher that Jon from Gonzo Daily sent ya...