Interview: Steve Swindells
I think Robert’s lyrical inspiration was more visceral and left-field than mine. I like to think that my words are passionate, poetic and sometimes prophetic. And often angry - about homophobia, racism and injustice.
A couple of years ago Atomhenge released the boxed set Days of the Underground which included a couple of videos of the 1978 Hawklords tour. It reaffirmed to me that the Leicester De Montfort show I had caught had been one of the greatest gigs ever! Robert Calvert is front and centre and to his right is keyboardist Steve Swindells. Turns out Steve is a bit of a Renaissance man; musician, writer, visual artist. His creative career started in the 1970s and included playing alongside Rodney Matthews in rock band Squidd. After recording a couple of solo albums he joined Pilot for the 1977 album Two’s a Crowd. Artists that have recorded his songs are pretty eclectic including Lulu, Roger Daltry and Hawkwind! His involvement with Hawkwind started as the keyboardist on the 1978 Hawklords’ album 25 Years On and associated tour and carried on into a planned follow up that never happened although some of the tracks from those recording sessions came to light as bonus tracks on the Atomhenge CD release of Levitation and his song ‘Shot Down in the Night’ opens the album Live Seventy Nine. His art career has been long and varied and I contacted him to find out more!
You have had a long and varied musical career starting off playing with Squidd and releasing your first solo album Messages in 1974 through to your most recent, DanMingo, and work with The Plastic Surgeons. How did you initially get into music?
Prior to joining Squidd, I used to host jam sessions in the family house in the village of Saltford, between Bristol and Bath. There was an older blues guitarist, who’s name I forget, and the drummer Manny Elias (later to join Bath-based Tears For Fears), I also recall jamming with what was to become Stackridge (then, later, The Korgis) at an empty theatre in Bristol. By then, I’d somehow managed to buy a colourful Farfisa organ, which had great sounds. Maybe my parents bought it for me.
DanMingo was recorded in 2003 in the amazing Christchurch Studio in Bristol, so it’s certainly not my latest album. It’s a double. This classic outing features Jon (Culture Club) Moss on drums, Jerry Richards on guitar and Winston (Massive Attack) Blissett and Dale (Amy Winehouse) Davis on bass. The live debut of the album was my band headlining at the Cafe De Paris in London’s West End in 2007. All seven songs can be found on YouTube, as can my first-ever promo video and film from Messages in 1974, which recently magically resurfaced.
There’s also a magnificent cover version of ‘I Feel No Pain’ (from DanMingo) sung by Daniel Pearce (an X-Factor finalist) with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, no less, and The London Community Gospel Choir (arranged by me), at The Voices For Darfur benefit for UNHCR at a sold-out Albert Hall in 2004. You’ll find the video on Vimeo. One of my proudest moments ever.
The Plastic Sturgeons were an ad hoc, all-star jamming band that did two totally improvised live gigs at two different venues in Brighton in 2012 and 2013. The first one featured Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt and the second one, Amy Winehouse’s bass player Dale Davis.
I’d been classically trained on the piano at school, reaching Grade 5 (which counted as an O level back then). Later on, after RCA records dropped me (because of my manager/producer Mark Edwards’ deranged behaviour), after I’d recorded my second album Swallow, I joined String Driven Thing, in 1975, who then promptly broke up. I loved the singer Kim Beacon’s voice, and he then formed The Kim Beacon Band, featuring me on keyboards, Stackridge (and later The Korgis) guitarist Andrew Davis and Joan Armatrading’s bass player Durban Laverde. We did a few gigs and recorded some tracks in Kim’s hometown of Glasgow, then the band fizzled out, as I recall. I don’t have any tape copies, but Lulu covered my song ‘If You Steal My Heart Away’ (published by Chappell Music) for an obscure charity record.
I also played keyboards on Irish band Skid Row’s first album in the early 70s. Yes, I’ve played with the legendary guitarist Gary Moore (he also played cello). I don’t recall the album’s title.
In 1976, I was friends with Billy Lyall, formerly keyboard player with The Bay City Rollers, and then with the hugely successful Scottish pop band Pilot. He’d co-written their massive, international hit song ‘Magic’ (also a Coca Cola ad). He left the band to go solo and recommended me for the keyboard player job. Thus, I found myself in the famous Abbey Road Studio 2 for several weeks, recording what was to become their swan song album Two’s A Crowd, with Alan Parsons producing.
You recently posted a couple of tracks on Facebook, ‘Figures of Authority’ and ‘Out of Oblivion’ do you feel they have renewed relevance?
Hell yeah! That’s why I posted them! ‘FOA’ is on my third album Fresh Blood and ‘OOO’ is on my home produced album The Hanging Baskets Of Babylon (steveswindells.bandcamp.com) Especially because of the scary rise of fascism, Zionism and Islamic fundamentalism in the world right now.
You were involved in the ad hoc Hawklords lineups for the Robert Calvert and Barney Bubbles memorial concerts around 2010, including appearing on the 2012 album We Are One. That must have brought back lots of memories?
Yes, but I’d played (as the primary keyboard player) at the sold-out Hawkestra reunion show at Brixton Academy in 2000, along with Nik Turner (that was the first time I’d met him) and Lemmy (whom I already knew) and all the surviving members of Hawkwind/lords, apart from my fave drummer Simon King. I’d also rehearsed for six weeks, on and off, at Dave Brock’s farm in Devon, with core Hawkestra band members Brock, Alan Davey and Ron Tree. The show had been conceived by former Hawkwind manager Doug Smith. I sang ‘Shot Down In The Night’ live and Lemmy played on the last seven songs, which was electric! I’d been promised a fee of £1,200 by Dave Brock, as I recall, but ended up with just £150. Having organised the recording and filming (five digital cameras) of the show, I took all the tapes, in my disgust at my treatment. They’re all safe. I recently spoke to the boss of Cherry Red Records about this, but he didn’t seem interested at all. What, Lemmy playing live with Hawkwind in 2000? Madness.
The Robert Calvert Memorial Gig was at The Winter Gardens in Herne Bay – was it 2009? It was totally unrehearsed and shambolic, but actually a lot of fun – and it was packed. The atmosphere was fantastic. The Barney Bubbles show was also packed, and again unrehearsed. Again the atmosphere was positively joyful. There are CDs of both gigs.
I only played keyboards on Hawklords’ We Are One, and I was pissed-off that none of my songs were deemed suitable for the album, so I left the band.
You were part of the original 1978 Hawklords, how did that come about?
My close friend Caroline Guinness was running the Greybray management office (Doug and Eve Smith) who looked after Hawkwind, Motorhead, Girlschool, Joan Jett and even Parliament Funkadelic. She told me that Simon House had left Hawkwind, that they were about to record a new album in the huge barn (using Ronnie Lane’s mobile studio in a vintage Airstream Caravan) of a rented farm in Devon. Could I audition? A roadie picked me up the next day and drove me there. I jammed with the band, we gelled, I got the job on the spot and went straight into recording 25 Years On with them. My keyboards definitely took the band into a more sophisticated soundscape, particularly on my favourite track ‘Freefall’. The vibes in the studio were good and the recording process was effortless.
You worked with Robert Calvert on that original Hawklords album 25 Years On and from all your accounts it sounds like the two of you got on really well. The album as an art piece has a real coherence underpinned by the PTI concept. You mentioned that the album’s framing concept was primarily Robert and Barney Bubbles’ (Abrahams 2017: 130). Were you able to experience much of that creative process, how the ideas evolved? One of the key inspirations seems to have been the Fritz Lang film Metropolis? (Clerk 2006: 195).
The overall concept, as I recall, was pretty much in place, before I arrived. I don’t remember meeting Barney Bubbles, for instance.
As well as informing the album the Metropolis/PTI concept formed the basis for the tour programme and shaped the stage show. I caught the tour at Leicester De Montfort and it was/is one of the most amazing gigs I have ever been to! The recently released videos of the Brunel show are brilliant! ‘25 Years’ includes Calvert ad libbing from a daily newspaper before screwing it up and discarding it, did that segment change frequently?
Initially, Barney had us all (apart from Robert) dressed in artfully paint-spattered overalls, but we soon dispensed with those, as well as the rather pretentious and arty dance troupe. The staging, including the magnificent Metropolis backdrop and the four roadie-operated follow spots on scaffolding towers stayed in place throughout the tour, which was a huge success. The road crew comprised 23 people! Was it 46 dates?
The Hawklords Live 78 CD is fantastic. The energy is very punky and intense, Calvert was on fire vocally, and interaction between me and Dave Brock is magic.
Robert loved improvising live and he repeated the newspaper intro quite a few times, like with a local rag, and sometimes he even read from comics.
You stayed with Hawklords for a planned second album that never happened but your song ‘Shot Down in the Night’ opens the Hawkwind album Live Seventy Nine as well as being on your own 1980 album Fresh Blood. The lyrics seem to continue some of the themes explored in 25 Years On and again remain relevant! What was the song about? Did you and Robert share similar influences and inspirations?
Well, in their rave review for my Fresh Blood album in 1980, Rolling Stone wrote ‘Boy, can this guy write lyrics!’
I think Robert’s lyrical inspiration was more visceral and left-field than mine. I like to think that my words are passionate, poetic and sometimes prophetic. And often angry – about homophobia, racism and injustice. I was always ‘out-gay’, just a man who happened to be homosexual, which was never a problem with any of the bands I played with. Strangely enough ‘Shot Down In The Night’ started out lyrically as a song about a gay club (the queue to get in was ‘camouflaged like a jungle snake’ before ‘the pounding of the great machine’ (the sound system) and the stigma of rejection, then poetically took on a life of its own. The original demo featuring Brock, King, Bainbridge and myself on keys (including a cool solo in the middle) and vocals can be found on http://soundcloud.com/steve-swindells – and there’s also the demo of ‘Turn It On Turn It Off’ (from Fresh Blood) with the same line-up.
You stayed in touch with Robert and as well as playing on ‘Lord of the Hornets’ and ‘The Greenfly and the Rose’ he asked you to star in the stage show of Hype! (Abrahams 2017: 202). Unfortunately you got very ill and it didn’t happen but were you involved in rehearsals, how was it shaping up?
The rehearsals were a bit tense. The other actors were professionals and I think they resented an amateur landing the lead role. I felt very uncomfortable, but then I came down with Double Pneumonia. Working with Robert musically was always a pleasure. We shared a similar sense of humour, it was like silliness therapy.
You have also appeared on a couple of Spirits Burning albums, how did that come about? What was the process like?
Don Falcone emailed me and sent me a couple of backing tracks. So it was all recorded remotely. I wrote the lyrics on both ‘Rocket To The End Of Line’ and ‘One Way Trip’ and sang lead vocals, duetting with Bridget Wishart on the former I recorded my vocals and keyboard parts in my own studio in my flat in NW London, and Bridget recorded hers in her own studio, I guess. Both tracks are on my Soundcloud, as are several tracks recorded with Jerry Richard’s Earthlab, and also by just the two of us.
You’ve spent over fifty years as a musician, visual artist and writer! What’s inspired/enabled you to sustain such a long and varied career?
Desperation, mostly (laughs). You’ll find more sleeve notes (Fresh Blood and The Lost Albums) that tell the background story, on steveswindells.substack.com
You might not know that I became a very successful club promoter and party organiser (Prince, Madonna and The Face, Time Out magazines) after Warners and Trinifold management simultaneously dropped me in 1981. No reason was given.
This was despite Fresh Blood reaching #3 in the US Airplay Chart in its second week of release!
This didn’t stop Roger Daltrey recording four of my songs (with me on keys) in 1983. They are all on YouTube. ‘Bitter And Twisted (over 300,000 plays) and ‘Don’t Wait On The Stairs’ (from Fresh Blood) and ‘Martyrs And Madmen’ and ‘Treachery’ (later to appear on The Lost Albums, which were actually recorded in 1980, but weren’t released until 2012)
In 1996, I re-invented myself as a freelance journalist, writing the internet column, under the name Spyder, for Time Out Magazine, and a column for Attitude Magazine – and in 1997 I was appointed as the editor of the latter’s website.
As Steve’s interview shows his 50 year art career has been a diverse, unpredictable and exciting journey and has involved unforeseen twists, turns and collaborations! The videos of him playing live with Hawklords in 1978 are worth checking out! The album DanMingo and Fresh Blood are available on all streaming platforms including steveswindells.bandcamp.com, along with The Lost Albums, The Hanging Baskets Of Babylon, The Unplanned Obsolescence Of Thom Topham (which is also a multimedia Ebook on steveswindells.substack.com) and Woke Up This Morning.
The Plastic Surgeons shows at www.reverbnation.com/theplasticsturgeons
Two double ambient/improv/instrumental albums: www.reverbnation.com/steveswindellsenigmaelevations and www.reverbnation.com/steveswindellsbamboo
Steve’s online art and photograph shop is at steve-swindells.pixels.com
Hawklords 1978 image courtesy of Steve Swindells. Photographer unknown.
Referenced.
Abrahams. Ian. 2017. Sonic Assassins (Lumoni Press).
Banks, Joe. 2020. Hawkwind. Days of the Underground: Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia (Strange Attractor Press: London).
Clerk, Carol. 2006. The Saga of Hawkwind (Omnibus Press: London)
Squidd – Twice Upon A Time – CD (EP), 2003 [r12152593] | Discogs
Hawklords (2000s band) – Wikipedia
