I initially joined the internet only to visit The Band site (theband.hiof.no) on the advice of Lee Gabites. Lee had started a Band fanzine, Jawbone, and I’d written a couple of articles. Lee said, ‘you have to get on this new internet thing. There’s a site from Norway with people just talking about The Band, and a lot of them know them.’ Jan Hoiberg had started the site, which is still, in frozen form, one of the best music sites I have seen.
I ended up writing articles on songs and other stuff, and joined discussions daily for years. I miss it. I made cyber friends in Canada, Norway, the USA, UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Algeria, Japan, Australia and South Africa, and I’m still in touch with some of them.
1999. After playing on Mercury Rev’s album, Deserters Songs, Garth Hudson was invited to support Mercury Rev at their first London gig, at The Forum. Lee arranged for us to meet at their hotel in Lancaster Gate: Garth Hudson, Randy Ciarlante from The Band, Aaron Hurwitz, the Band’s producer and Marie Spinoza. Garth was still in his room, but we chatted with Randy and Aaron. I was gratified that as well as knowing Lee, they knew who I was. It was clear that Randy was organizing everything. I knew from the Cambridge The Band gig in 1996, that there was a strict divide. The original members, Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson did not soundcheck. That was down to the 1990s new guys, Richard Bell on keyboards, Jim Weider on guitars and Randy Ciarlante on drums and vocals. Levon needed a second drummer, partly after shooting himself in the foot on a film set, partly because it allowed him to play mandolin, guitar, bass guitar and harmonica on songs. In the 90s Band, Randy was the one with physical power on the bass drum pedals. Randy Ciarlante was also the necessary third vocalist. Aaron as their producer functioned as musical director for this trip, and would play a second keyboard, the source of the bass lines as well as other stuff. Miss Marie was what they called Marie Spinoza who would be vocalist and percussion. Randy always called Garth ‘Brother Garth.’
The rented van was a problem. It had three seats in the front and that was it: Randy, Aaron and Marie. Randy asked if anyone had a car there, I said I had and he asked me if I’d mind driving Garth and Tom, the Head of Woodstock Records, to the Forum. We went upstairs to get Garth, who had the curtains pulled tight shut. First impression was shock that he was so much smaller than I’d imagined. With his bushy beard and tales of him skinning roadkill deer, I expected a giant backwoods man.
I had my short spell as a roadie in 1970, and so it was a thrill to help carry the cases with THE BAND still stencilled on the side. Garth had several large cases with computer modules and his saxophones. The modules went in the van. The saxophones? No way. They only travelled with Garth. We went to the car, at that time I had an E Class Mercedes. I had a five minute conversation with Garth on the best car he ever had, a Mercedes 600 stretch limo, and the effects of bronze coloured car paintwork on mine. He spent a minute stroking the paint and commenting. This was a guy who had knowledge of any possible subject. I opened the boot. Garth carefully wrapped one sax case in his coat, then asked if he could have my coat for the other. He spent a long time wrapping them.
Tom said they wondered if it would be out of our way to look at the Royal Albert Hall and the Abbey Road crossing. Garth agreed. Abbey Road? We are all fans. Randy took me on one side. He explained that Garth had narcolepsy. He said when I got to between 20 and 30 mph Garth would fall asleep mid-sentence, but not to worry about it. He told me that when they played BBC Radio London (the morning after the Cambridge show) – an event which was terminated because Levon and Rick were so heavily stoned, and there is a circulating bootleg cassette of the broadcast and their dismissal – they set off for Heathrow for the flight to Dublin. When they got there they realised they had lost Garth. Randy was dispatched back to the BBC and found Garth fast asleep on a sofa in an office near the studio.
We set off. Garth was in the back chatting happily about cars. I hit 25 mph, he zonked until we got to the Albert Hall where he woke and told Tom (who of course knew) that they had played there with ‘Bobby’ in 1966, but that they played much better on their own in 1971 (an event which is now on a box set). We set off for Abbey Road and Garth zonked at 25 mph. The route became embarrassing. My girlfriend for four years at university lived in the Kilburn end of Belsize Road, just around the corner. Then for years we did ELT audio recordings at a studio just off Abbey Road. I got totally lost. One way systems had changed. At last I found the fabled zebra crossing. I asked if they wanted to walk across, but no. These were pre-selfie days when we could experience an event without enshrining it digitally. So we went to The Forum.
Garth started setting up his bank of computer modules in a rack. Randy told them that I was their transport guy and Lee Gabites was their official photographer. We didn’t have to pay. We got backstage passes.
At last the rented Roland keyboard was ready. Mercury Rev’s roadies had loaded a net above the stage with some kind of confetti for their finale. They decided to test it while Garth was playing. The keyboard disappeared under a sea of confetti. Garth totally lost his temper and made an impassioned speech about respecting musical instruments … there were pieces stuck between the keys. As I now seemed part of the team by default, I went to the woman using a vacuum cleaner at the back of the hall and asked to borrow it. I took it on stage and started hoovering the keyboard. I was gratified to hear my name when Garth said, ‘Thank you, Peter.’
So we got to watch the soundcheck. Aaron invited us to eat with them, in a spread set out by the venue. I was at the Mercury Rev end of the table, as was Marie Spinoza. They were just off to Japan, which I’d visited several times. It was their first visit and we had a happy conversation. I now buy all their records, a most rewarding thing.
I reviewed the gig for The Band site. Mercury Rev watched the whole set from the wings, and when it reached its allotted time, waved for them to carry on as long as they wanted.
We ended up in Garth’s dressing room with Lee and Jan, and he talked for an hour. Utterly fascinating but there was no way you could direct the conversation. He told us about a studio and live album he recorded with Gabor Szabo in Budapest (and we’ve never found out which ones they are). Then Bulgarian folk song. Accordion jokes, and why accordion jokes and banjo jokes are a change of one word. Nothing on The Band. Garth never let himself be drawn into any leading questions on the alleged Levon Helm-Robbie Robertson feud.
At some point in the day, I can’t remember when, we had a conversation with Aaron, Marie and Randy about the 90s Band. Garth was sitting with us. They told us about the final album, Jubilation. Aaron had spent months on post-production, crafting everything, often with Garth. Then they said ‘the boss’ Levon Helm had come in when it was all finished, and remixed everything in an afternoon, did it badly and haphazardly, and said that was how it would be. They both said the result sounded horrible but that was always the way Levon ran things. It was not a democracy. Randy said he wished we could hear the album how it was before Levon, “the boss,” touched it. They knew that reviews had criticized the sound and they wanted to get their view across. They also said Levon never forgave Rick Danko for getting busted in Japan, causing a lucrative tour to be cancelled. That was the end of The Band. These were ‘tales out of school.’ Garth was present. He was listening. He did not contradict them.
I saw Garth with Maud Hudson in 2007.
REVIEWS:
Garth Hudson, Oxford Brookes, 2007
The Band, Vogue Theatre, Vancouver 21 July 1994
Peter Viney's Blog 
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