Peter Viney's Blog

The palmer james group
51st Anniversary 

Original 1967 business card

The Cellar at The Blue Boar
Poole

Sunday 1st December 2019

The palmer-james group 2019: L to R Alec James, John Hutcheson, Richard Palmer-James, John ‘Andy’ Andrews, Bob Jenkins

Richard Palmer-James – electric and acoustic guitar, vocal
Alec James – vocal
John ‘Hutch’ Hutcheson – keyboards, vocal
John “Andy” Andrews – bass guitar, vocal
Bob Jenkins- drums

with guests
Lisa Wetton, drums, vocal
and
Geoff Barwell – piano

This is highly biased as I was effectively “the promoter.”

This all started with serendipity. We usually have an informal reunion lunch with the lads in my school year from Bournemouth School For Boys about this time of year. It’s for those who would never attend an official reunion. Rick Palmer was coming over from Bavaria for it. Hutch (John Hutcheson) coincidentally decided to come over from Southern California at the same time so we could meet up. We’d done a gig (the 49th Anniversary) in the garden for my 70th Birthday Party (LINKED) two years ago, and the thought came, ‘Hey! We could do it again!’

I’ve known Rick Palmer since we started at Hill View Infants, Ensbury Park, Bournemouth,  together when we were four years old.

A brief history …

The Corvettes: Richard Palmer, Paul Mead, Alec James, John Wetton

Rick Palmer and Alec James were founder members of The Corvettes in 1962, and their very first gig was at St Thomas’ Youth Club in Ensbury Park. I was there. Alec played drums, and Rick was lead guitar.

A year or so later, John Wetton joined on bass guitar and vocal, along with Paul Mead on lead vocals, and early in 1965 they became The palmer-james group (No capital letters, like e.e. cummings or k.d. lang). They soon added John “Hutch” Hutcheson on organ. Rick left to go to university and guitar was replaced by a horn section (Derek Power and Dave Till) as they moved from R&B to soul. Rick joined them in holidays on guitar, and one summer John Wetton was away and Rick was the bass player for a couple of months.

The palmer-james group roamed from Southampton to Bristol as a soul band, with regular Friday slots at Dorchester Steering Wheel, and Sunday at Weymouth Steering Wheel. We used to travel out to see them. In those days, a good semi-pro soul band could pack in 400 people at those clubs. The Pavilion Ballroom in Bournemouth was a regular venue, perhaps on a three band bill, supporting the likes of Davy Jones & The Lower Third (David Bowie) who were in turn supporting headliners. The Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe (now the O2 Academy) was another regular venue.

Tetrad 1968: Richard Palmer, Bob Jenkins, John Hutcheson, John Wetton

When Rick left university, they formed Tetrad with John Wetton, John Hutcheson and Rick Palmer. John Wetton had just done his first full professional job, backing Helen Shapiro on a tour of Romania, and John recruited drummer Bob Jenkins from that tour as the fourth member of Tetrad. (SEE JOHN WETTON TRIBUTE on this blog for more). So tonight’s gig was the 51st Anniversary of the ending of the palmer james group with Alec OR the 51st Anniversary of the founding of Tetrad with Bob.

Ginger Man 1969: Richard Palmer, John Wetton, Bob Jenkins, John Hutcheson. A year on the road and some hair growth.

Tetrad switched names to Ginger Man in early 1969, and stuttered to a halt in July 1969. They weren’t making any money.

A week or so before the end: Ginger Man at Spurn Head, Hull. Bob Jenkins. John Wetton, Hutch.

They all went in different directions but remained close friends. John Wetton formed Splinter with Ed Bicknell (later Dire Straits manager), then on to Jim Litherland’s Brotherhood, Mogul Thrash, Family, King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, UK and Asia. John passed away in January 2017. Rick went on to form Supertramp, then to German bands Munich and Emergency. He reunited with John as King Crimson lyricist in 1973-1974. He played with Italian disco kings, La Bionda and as a duo as Blues Meets Classical.

Bob Jenkins joined Room, who won the New Musical Express Beat Contest. Their Deram album Pre Flight  is one of the most collectable Deram prog LPs. The album had strings, so they recruited Hutch on organ directly they finished it. Bob went on to a stellar session career and touring career, and is now with Be Sharp. (LINKED) Hutch took a doctorate in control engineering and moved to the USA.

Alec had moved from drums to singing long ago. John Wetton was the missing one, deeply felt by all. Step forward John “Andy” Andrews on bass and vocal.

Andy was the leader of John Andrews & The Lonely Ones, whose Parlophone 45 It’s Just Love from 1966 became a Norther Soul classic … a copy recently changed hands for £700. Andy remembers The Lonely Ones playing on the same bill as The palmer james group at Bournemouth Pavilion. That band was followed by The Joint with Rick Davies, later of Supertramp. Supertramp was formed around Rick Davies, and Andy was in charge of auditioning and setting up the band. That’s where he first met Rick Palmer. Hutch and I cut Supertramp’s Hammond organ in half (that first saw cut is really nerve-wracking!)  for transportation which is when we met Andy. I later worked with Andy on the road for Supertramp. I think they hoped I’d know how to re-solder broken wires on the multiple connectors which clipped together to re-unite the halves.  I noticed tonight he shook his head in despair at the untidy way I was rolling up the PA cables. He had taught me to do it properly. Rick Palmer and Andy both moved to Munich and made an unreleased album together in 1972. John Wetton dropped in to play piano on a couple of songs.

No reunion would be complete without a Wetton, and John’s widow, Lisa Wetton, is a percussionist, drummer and all round musician. As Hutch is now a US citizen, we had two Americans in the band.

How we put it together

The Cellar at The Blue Boar was an ideal venue for a private gig. It reminded everyone of the 60s, though in fact the R&B years in church youth clubs or The Wheelhouse in Bournemouth were larger rooms. The soul band days in much larger halls like the Pavilion Ballroom. The tiny club feel was much more the early prog days of Tetrad.

Saturday rehearsals: Andy, Richard, Hutch

We did a potential set list by e-mail. Hutch arrived from California on Friday morning. Saturday we picked up the PA and keyboard from Absolute Music which took a while as the Roland we’d booked was out on hire, and the Korg they presented us with looked like (in Hutch’s words) the cockpit of an F16 fighter.  With just a couple of hours rehearsal, there was no way of finding settings in a dark corner of the cellar. They very kindly found us a brand new Yamaha Stage Piano, with much clearer switches for its three areas … piano, electric piano and organ. Fabulous and helpful service. Andy arrived Saturday afternoon, and Rick, Hutch, Andy and Lisa went through noting keys and roughly figuring out arrangements at my house on Saturday afternoon, then it was belated Thanksgiving dinner in honour of Hutch and Lisa. We didn’t manage to record any American football for afterwards.

Alec and Lisa – Sunday afternoon rehearsal photo

We met Alec and Bob on Sunday afternoon at The Cellar. We set up by about 3 pm, and did rough run throughs from 3 to 6. Not every song even got a run through. For me and people I spoke with, this was the joy of the show- highly accomplished musicians creating on the spot.

We even had a merchandise table. Big time! as Ronnie Hawkins used to say.

The sets

At Alec’s inspired suggestion this show started with the first number they ever learned together, Walk Don’t Run by The Ventures as performed at St Thomas’s Youth Club in 1962. I had hoped to persuade them to do a Shadows walk, but the answer was two words, and the second one was “off.”

Richard Palmer-James and Bob Jenkins

I Heard It Through The Grapevine was a palmer james group soul staple, a classic from the very end of the group’s existence to top and tail with Walk Don’t Run.  Alec sang lead.  Lisa Wetton joined in on backing vocal and tambourine. It’s an important song for me … our best-selling English Teaching textbook and video series was called Grapevine, and I talked about it all over the world introduced by a specially recorded instrumental version of the song.

We had decided that it wasn’t to be a re-creation of the original band’s repertoire. As the T-shirts said, this was palmer james group 2019. So we followed with Steely Dan’s Do It Again with Andy taking lead vocal.

Next up was my favourite Chuck Berry song (and lyric) Nadine, which I still have on original Pye International 45. This was shared vocal with Alec and Andy taking it turn about. Chuck Berry was definitely late Corvettes / early palmer james group material.

Hold On I’m Coming: Alec James and John ‘Andy’ Andrews

Sam and Dave covers were some of the best numbers from the soul band years, mainly because Paul and John Wetton shared lead vocal. We all knew at the time that John was the outstanding vocalist in the group, and usually he played backing to Paul, but on Sam & Dave songs his voice always soared above. So twin lead vocal on Hold On I’m Coming with Alec and Andy swapping vocal. We had roughly arranged what to do, but in fact their interaction on vocals was spur of the moment. In the interval, a friend said to me, ‘It’s obvious those two lead vocalists spent years working together.’ It looked like it to me too, but what we got was their first ever full run through of the song.

Nearly Nashville CD: Alec James

The next one was my suggestion. It’s the catchy title track of one of Alec’s CDs, Nearly Nashville. It’s a great country & western song with outstanding and funny lyrics on the perils of being a wannabe Nashville singer down in “deepest Dorset.” The contrast of doing country & western right after soul appealed too. Written and performed by Alec.

It’s A Long Road.

It’s A Long Road is a Richard Palmer co-composition with Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies from the first Supertramp album. It’s hugely familiar to Andy and to me because it was the opening song for every Supertramp live set in 1970. Rick sang it tonight.

Supertramp: first album 1970

Like A Rolling Stone was an Andy lead vocal, and one we hadn’t rehearsed at all, because it was done in the 2017 show. Another all time favourite song, but when we watched the video afterwards both Hutch and I agreed that if we ever do this again, we’d add backing vocals as on the 1966 Dylan / Band tour. In the 2017 show I suggested adding the Bob Dylan exhortation “Play fucking LOUD,” from Manchester Free Trade Hall, but I was over-ruled.

Spooky. John ‘Hutch’ Hutcheson

Hutch took over lead vocal for Spooky. That was a massive American hit for Classics IV in 1968, and Hutch took his interpretation from the later Atlanta Rhythm Section version. Great song. Years ago there was a poll in the USA on the songs you most want a band to play in a bar, and it was third after The Weight and Proud Mary.

Unchain My Heart: John ‘Andy’ Andrews

We’d toyed with the idea of doing Andy’s single It’s Just Love from 1966, but it was tried and we realized it really needed three female backing vocalists and a great deal of time to put it together (which was not available), so it was dropped in favour of Andy doing Ray Charles’ Unchain My Heart. I don’t remember the palmer james group doing it, but I’m sure we all stood and watched Zoot Money doing it back at the Pavilion, Bournemouth on Tuesday evenings. Watching the video back, it was one of the best songs of the night.

Maybe I’m A Beggar: Andy, Richard, Alec, Bob and Lisa. 

Maybe I’m A Beggar was Andy’s idea. It was a major song from that first Supertramp LP, co-written by Rick, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, though the soaring melody is trademark Roger. As on the original, Richard sang the first vocal part, with Andy taking Roger’s part on the alternating verses. Lisa Wetton joined the band on drums for this one. As the drums are only used in parts of the song, we rehearsed it on the Saturday afternoon. We used my son’s 25 year old starter drum kit, rescued from the attic for the rehearsal (I brushed off most of the spiders webs) but fortunately Lisa was able to use Bob’s drum kit on the night! It’s an earworm too. Alec joined in with tambourine, augmenting the rhythm as on the original.

We took an interval here.

Richard Palmer-James: solo set

The second part opened with Richard’s solo set, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He opened with Takeaway, the title track of his 2017 album. It’s a great song and the official video is on YouTube:

TAKEAWAY on YouTube linked here

Next up was the sublime Book of Love. Richard knows it’s Karen’s favourite song, as performed at our son’s wedding. The lyrics get people the first time they hear them.

Larks Tongues in Aspic, King Crimson, 1973

Easy Money was a Richard Palmer co-write with John Wetton and Robert Fripp. It first appeared on  Lark’s Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson in 1973. John Wetton sang it every time he went on stage just about. The solo acoustic version is fascinating in stripping arrangement and presenting the lyric and melody. Rick pointed out in his introduction that three of the five members of 1973 King Crimson (and all the co-composers) were from Dorset, so he was taking it back to the ‘Dorset folk song version.’

The Jazz Trio: Geoff Barwell piano with Andy and Bob.

We asked Karen’s uncle, Geoff Barwell to perform a piano link back into the main set, given that The Cellar is a jazz venue. We were still deciding on what to play as he came on stage, and the surprise choice for me was Pink Champagne, performed as a jazz trio with Andy on bass and Bob on drums. Andy added lead vocal. Great piano playing. As it happens, the song was a major early palmer james group favourite in their ‘Georgie Fame / Mose Allison’ period as a R&B quintet.

Alec James

My Girl exists on a 1967 home recording of the band (and no, you can’t have a copy) with John Wetton playing the Hofner bass which he borrowed from me when I went to university. It was a Hofner President I hasten to add, not the horrible violin bass. This was one for Alec and Andy. Alec introduced it as a Temptations number with Lisa Wetton adding backing vocal, though when we ran through on Saturday we’d veered to the Otis Redding version. An amalgamation then. It was always a Sophie’s Choice between the two 60s hit versions.

Hoochie Coochie Man was another one from the R&B days, sung by Andy with Alec again. You can’t go wrong!

We stayed in the R&B era with Eyesight To The Blind sung by Alec in the Mose Alison version. That was definitely in the mid-60s repertoire, and also re-recorded in 1979 in Munich by Jack-knife on I Wish You Would. Jack-knife was John Wetton, Richard Palmer, John Hutcheson uniting for a one-off album recreating mainly their 1965 act, with Curt Cress on drums.

In the 2017 show everyone loved Alec’s Elvis set so we repeated it. He started with Hound Dog and went on to Jailhouse Rock. Alec is a terrific entertainer on stage and a dose of good old rock and roll was ideal.

Andy took lead vocal for Heed The Signs which was a song written by Andy and Rick Palmer from the abortive 1972 LP sessions for Confessions (the title song was later done by Jack-knife). It’s instantly memorable. I wish they would put out those 1972 sessions one day. They include early prototypes of The Night Watch and Lament, both later adapted by King Crimson.

Andy followed with Bill Withers Ain’t No Sunshine one which he does with his current band, so ideal.

We were keeping our eyes on the time for a 10 o’clock curfew so You Can’t Judge A Book and Baby Please Don’t Go had to be skipped … both from the 1964-65 days. We had decided that come what may, they would start The Weight at 9.45. So that’s what happened … Alec on verse one, Andy verse two, Hutch verse three, Richard verse four, Andy and Richard verse five. Everyone’s favourite song.

We had decided to skip the pantomime of going off and coming on for an encore.

In The End: Lisa Wetton and Richard Palmer-James

In The End was a tribute to John Wetton. It’s from the first Icon album, melody by John, lyrics by Richard. John always sang it with a female vocalist (Annie Haslam on the original) and the vocal was shared by Richard Palmer and Lisa Wetton. For all of the band, this was highly emotionally charged, most of all for Lisa. It’s a beautiful melody line.

After the emotion, we needed to rock it up with the final song, Alec James leading on Johnny B. Goode. Yes, obviously they used to do it, as did every other band. Alec’s version segues into Bye Bye Johnny.

Johnny B. Goode

So that was it. A great band playing in a small room, shouting out keys and changes, watching signals from Alec and Andy for endings … yes, as we said afterwards, another day’s rehearsal would improve it hugely, but I think the fun was hearing it in the raw, being created right in front of us.

My “Best concert of 2019”