Southern FM Interviews (Part-2)

Copyright (c) Southern FM / Bonnet Rocks

Ted Kealy: Good morning, Graham. How are you doing? You're well?

Graham Bonnet: Oh good morning, is it?

TK: It's morning here. I think it's afternoon over there in the United States?

GB: It is afternoon. I mean it's 5 o'clock.

TK: First of all I have to say thank you very much for the autograph & it's taken "pride of place" at home. I'd like to start off by saying that you epitomize the old saying "age shall not weary thee".

GB: (laugh) I appreciate that.

TK: You received the fax that I sent you during the week?

GB: Yeah.

TK: I said that I was 2 years older that you but it's actually 3 years. Now is your birthday December 12th or December 23rd?

GB: The 23rd.

TK: You have been associated through your career with 3 prominent guitarists. They are my 3 favourites. I saw Ritchie Blackmore only once here in Melbourne some 32 years ago, would you believe, in 1971 when he came here with the Mark II version of Deep Purple. I saw Yngwie Malmsteen, what a man, about 3 years ago. He absolutely blew me away. He has not had the commercial success, we could say, in Australia like Ritchie has. He's more for the community radio stations, the ones who specialise in pro-games in community radio stations. Then we've got Michael Schenker, who has, dare I say it, not a large degree of sales success in Australia. Would you say it's not because of the man but because of the distribution of his material or because his style of guitar playing might be not as acceptable in Australia? What would you say that?

GB: I don't know. I think Michael has always been one of my favourite guitar players. He is not as kind of obvious as a lot of the other guitar players are. You can see with like princes Ritchie or Yngwie, they are "over the top" type of players. They have obvious techniques & everything. Michael is a much more subtle player. He is not as pushy as some of those guys. Yngwie is a very pushy person, as he wants everybody to see him & Ritchie as the same. We all are I guess, that's why we are all in this so-called "show business", so everyone can see us. But Michael is not much show-biz-oriented. I think he' just a little bit more obscure than most I think. His songs & the way he arranges songs aren't as obvious as a lot of other guitar player-writers make because a lot of these things, when I worked with him, we had to edit them down from being 2.5 hours long to 5 minutes. He would ramble onto different things. Sometimes when cutting songs down, we lost some impact of what he was trying to do but I think he's a little bit different from the other 2 guys in that way.

GB: No, it was supposed to be a permanent job but after I'd done that one album, it seemed that the rest of the band was dissatisfied with what was happening with the band itself, so it kind of rubbed off on me. I decided to leave after 2 years, which everybody said "Don't do it" because it was in fact supposed to be a permanent job & Ritchie & I got on very well. What they wanted was to change the whole image of the band to get more into the charts. Rainbow had never had a hit in the charts so they wanted some sort of new blood to give it a new image. Obviously I didn't have the long hair & that kind of stuff, which was kind of a problem in the beginning (laugh) but people got used to it. So I was supposed to stay around & when I did leave, my manager gave me a hard time about it & everybody else & I think it was probably a mistake to leave when I did leave because I think if I would have stayed maybe my career would have been a bit more successful than it is now. I don't know. I just think I could have carried on for another 2 or 3 years or whatever but as I said, the other guys in the band were threatening to leave. Cozy Powell for one & Don Airey the keyboard player. Cozy left first after the last show we did in England, the Monsters of Rock at Castle Donnington in England, then Don was going to leave but I left instead. I went back to Los Angeles & they called me up & asked what's happening & I just didn't go back.

TK: So you left off your own accord?

GB: Yeah. I know there was a story that I was fired. I've heard that. I don't know where that came from. But I left & Bruce Paine, the manager, called me up when I went back home to LA & said "I heard you don't like what's happening within the band, music & etc. etc. How would feel if we got another singer in to sing the songs you don't like & you can do the songs you do like?" I said "No, that's not going to work, 2 singers in the band, I can't see that working out, it would be just like silly competition time". When we started to record the next album, there was nothing really happening in rehearsals & it got very very boring & everybody was fed up. We were rehearsing in Copenhagen & it just got depressing & nobody really wanted to be there, so I left during the recording of the next album that Joe Lynn Turner did.

TK: Just getting on to Joe Lynn Turner, is he still singing & active?

GB: I mean he does clubs once in a while here, I think. I don't know really. He's still around but obviously neither of us are in the charts at the moment. I mean it's a whole different era. That time has gone, whatever it was, that kind of music, for a lot of people, only because of radio stations only playing what's current & what's very young. If you're 18 years old & you have got something that's really obnoxious & your parents won't like it, it'll be on radio.

TK: Just getting back to the album "Down To Earth" which was your one & only album with Rainbow. Can I just say mate that I bought the album brand new in 1979 & I still have got it 24 years.years later. I love the album. May I say it's not my favourite Rainbow album but there is a song on it that's absolutely got to be one of my 2 Rainbow favourite songs. That's the song called "Eyes of The World". Tell us something about the song. Do I detect a religious fervour in it?

GB: That's apparently was something to do with President Nixon at the time. I didn't make up the words. I had a hand in the melody slightly but for the whole album I was never credited with doing any writing, which is my fault. I was a new kid on the block & I didn't realise what I was getting into or getting out of. Roger Glover wrote the words for it & it was something to do with President Nixon very vaguely. I think it was one of the first tracks we recorded.

TK: I don't mean to sound patronising but you delivered it well.

GB: Thank you. I was playing in England with Don Airey from Rainbow last year & we went over there & we did a little tour for a month or two & that's our opening tune. It's a great show opener. It's so powerful, that keyboard part. We'd been playing that before Don got back into Deep Purple when John Lord left. Don & I were working together & we used that tune. Now Don has taken the place of John Lord, which is another story. But I am hoping to go back to England to play with Don again. We will play "Eyes of the World" in July, going to England to do a show.

TK: Would you say Rainbow was an inventive band in their own right? I bought their first album "Rainbow Rising" in 1974. I have still got it in mint condition. Would you say that Ritchie set out to have them as a band in their own right or he was looking to make say, like a Deep Purple offshoot?

GB: I think he wanted it to be Deep Purple but probably better or more commercial in a way. I am not sure exactly. I mean you'll have to ask him, really. Ritchie really wanted to be Jethro Tull. If he had the option which way the music should go, I think he would have done something like Ian Anderson used to do or probably still does but of course that never happened because everyone was going "you want to do what?!". He was one of his idols & Jimi Hendrix. So he wanted to play like Jimi Hendrix but he also wanted to involve cello into the band. He had a cello at home when he lived in Long Island. When we would go over to his house, the cello was in the corner & he played it once in a while. But now he has gone to his Renaissance music or whatever it's called, medieval music with his wife. He's doing completely different things now. I haven't even heard his stuff so I can't comment on it. But I think he wanted Rainbow to be more popular than Deep Purple & eventually that's what it became. That's why the music was slightly different.

TK: Graham I'm going to take a short cut here & use you as kind of lever to find out what ever happened to 2 people I have tried to trace. Ritchie's first family The Outlaws was Mike Berry & The Outlaws, was it?

GB: I'm not sure but I think you're right.

TK: I have a couple of singles of Mike Berry & The Outlaws, which I bought in 1962, 41 years ago. I have still got them & they're still brand new.

GB: What was the song?

TK: One was called "Tribute To Buddy Holy". It's a semi-recitation: "Buddy Holy died in a plane crash in 1957...." The other one was called "Don't You Think It's Time".

GB: I don't know but I remember the Buddy Holy thing. As far as I know he's still around doing all the seaside places in England. I think he's played in my home town Skegness in Lincolnshire in England, which is....have you heard of Butlins Holiday Camps? Have you heard of the place?

TK: No, I have not.

GB: They are all seaside places with fun fairs & I think he still does his stuff on his own around those kind of small venues in the summer time. I'm not sure but I know Day Berry. He's another guy that does that kind of thing too. I mean all are out there still there....Gerry & the Pacemakers & all those guys, Billy J. Kramer, all of that era. They are all kind of knocking around & still doing same things but probably not as to as big a crowd.

TK: You just raised another name here. You said Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. The Dakotas was the band Russ Ballard was with. Is that correct?

GB: He was with The Roulettes.

TK: The Roulettes. Adam Faith & The Roulettes.

GB: Yes, Adam Faith died not so long ago.

TK: Did he really?

GB: Yeah. I saw it on TV about 3 months ago or more, which was a shock.

TK: I am terribly sorry. I didn't know.

GB: Yeah, he was also with The Roulettes. They had a big disaster when Adam Faith & The Roulettes were together. They had a terrible van crash in England somewhere & all in the band was killed except for Russ Ballard. He was the only survivor. Then Russ Ballard became "Russ Ballard".

TK: Yeah. Getting back to another one that I am trying to track down, Michael Schenker's first band UFO. What ever happened to Phillip Mogg? Because he fell out with Phillip Mogg. He was fighting so the stories go. What happened to Phillip Mogg?

GB: As far as I know they got together not so long ago.

TK: In 1994 they did a come-back album, yes but they faded.

GB: They played on the road. In fact Don Airey from Rainbow told me about it & they had another argument on stage. It was a punchup basically. This is about a year or so ago.

TK: The final name, mate. What ever happened to David Coverdale?

GB: He lives out here somewhere. The last thing I saw him do was Whitesnake, which again Don Airey was involved with. I think he might have played on their album or maybe he just did live gigs I am not sure.

TK: On the album you recorded the CD 4 years ago, "The Day I Went Mad", track number 2, "Don't Look Down". I take it that you've heard the version by Joe Elliot & Mick Ronson? GB: Yeah. That was a mistake. What happened was Viv Campbell, who played on the album, also played with Joe Elliot. He played on that track. He went down to the studio & he said "would you like to listen to some of my songs?" So I said "OK, give me a tape" & on the tape were a couple of songs that he made up. At the end of the tape was this "Don't Look Down" thing. I said "I'm not sure about the first 2 songs but I liked the third one." So it was a complete accident that I heard that song. I had never heard of it before obviously & I thought what I could do was my kind of own idea on this, so that's how that came about & Viv played the guitar on it. TK: Both versions are absolutely fabulous.

TK: In 1989 the album "Forcefield III, To Oz & Back". A couple of names. Danny Laine. He's still in the business. He's written the song called "Stay Away". Do you still have association with him because I love him in his early days with The Moody Blues? There's also your version of "Who'll Be the Next In Line" which I'm sure Ray Davies would've approved of. I have had the Kinks version since 1964 too. I have it in my pride of place at home. I love your version of that, Graham. GB: I recorded that stuff obviously in Australia. I recorded all the vocals in Australia in Adelaide because I was living there for 4 years. "Who'll Be the Next in Line", my dad didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. Well it had a different arrangement because it was very tricky at the beginning & really kind of funny timing & everything. But I've always loved The Kinks. They have always been one of my favourite bands because they were so raw & Ray Davies wrote storylines to his words. I thought it was great. Very unusual & very anti-rock but their actual playing was really raw, like a garage band if you know what I mean. So I always loved them. That was a song that I remember Cozy had a problem getting the thing right because it was really a tricky time signature, I think, at the beginning of that one. I think it was the one, isn't it?

TK: I think it is, mate.

GB: It's really all over the place. It sounds really strange. When I was doing the vocal, you could hear the producer counting & counting for Cozy like "one 2 two two, one NOW!" You can hear him cueing him in. So he kind of cued me at the beginning of the song because it started in the weird place.

TK: His brother was Donald?

GB: Yeah.

TK: In the band Alcatrazz we can say it was a star-studded line-up. 2 of my favourite guitarists: I speak of Yngwie Malmsteen & also Steve Vai. I have most of his CDs at home. The band seemed to be a real jumping off point off for the 3 of you: for yourself, Steve & Yngwie. GB: Yeah, I mean the first album we did with Yngwie was a kind of test. I wanted it to be kind of like Rainbow, obviously. Just coming out of Rainbow & all that stuff. I thought that it's got to be a style. We rehearsed all loads of guitar players. One from Paul McCartney's band Wings. Anyway we rehearsed a load of people & Yngwie I thought, seemed like Ritchie Blackmore because he was in black suits & white boots. At least he looks like it (laugh)! He also played like Ritchie, so I said "OK, that's enough." We all said "That's the guy." He was young & 19, I guess, at the time when he joined the band. So he eventually took over the whole thing & became very famous & the rest of the band went down the shit (laugh) basically. But he was a great asset to the group. We needed somebody who was young & "alive", & he certainly had it. So I think those two would make up some good songs together. Then he went on his own way with the manager whom we got rid of after the second album. Then we looked for more guitar players again & we found someone the drummer knew. Jan Uvena was with Alice Cooper one time & I think he knew Steve Vai. I can't remember exactly who knew him, anyway but I went to meet Steve. He was very different again & he was a different kind of player. A bit like what I said about Michael Schenker, he wasn't the obvious kind of heavy guitar player type. He had something very, very different. The second album we made with Alcatrazz for me personally is the best one we did.

TK: Coming back to a present day: System X, being your last CD. What's in the pipeline now? Is there anything in the machine going through now to come out?

GB: Recording-wise? There are a couple of things. But I'm not sure if they are going to happen now or in about 200 years I am not sure. I have got some songs on tape from a guy who is working with the show called "Rasputin", which is starring Ted Neeley. Do you  know Ted Neeley? He was in "Jesus Christ Superstar". Do you know the film "Jesus Christ"? He played Jesus in it. Ted Neeley also used to work with Meat Loaf. He was one of his backing singers. He's got a really good voice. He is leading the show, so the show has been presented to backers. I'm not quite sure what city they did but they want me to be a part of this show doing what, I am not quite sure. But it is a story of Rasputin. It is a 3-hour long show & the guitar player from that show wants to do some recording with me. Again he is another shit hot guitar player that you'd probably really love. But at the moment nothing happens because I am getting ready to go to England. I hope to get to Australia, probably getting something happening there too, if I could get some kind of an agency to be interested in me coming over there. So at the moment that's only what's happening. I would like to play live more. I am not so worried about recording because right now, to sell this music to any kind of real record company is almost impossible. Nobody wants to know.

TK: You have just anticipated my question but we have got to see you in Australia in the foreseeable future. That's in the lap of the Gods, you're saying?

GB: Yeah. I was just saying it to Mark before. I have a lady here who is going to look after my management. I haven't had a manager for 3,000 years because I don't trust them & all the rest of it. This girl I have known for a long time. When "Baby Blue" came out, she was working with me then. In fact her dad did all the string arrangements for the BeeGees. His name was Bill Sheppard. Bill was an Australian & he died of cancer apparently 12 years ago. He was smoking cigars all the time. He arranged "Only One Woman" & he did the arrangement for my cousin & me when we were The Marbles because basically the BeeGees played on all of our records & Bill did all the arranging. So I sent a facsimile to her yesterday but she did not turn up. I want her to get in touch with all the agencies in Australia. I've got a list of agents here to see if I can get something happening. I would love to get over there & I know it would be nice for my wife because she hasn't seen her mom for a while.

TK: We would love to see you, too, mate.

TK: Whenever you are recording any CDs, how much do you contribute to the songs? Do you play any instrument at all on any of the current materials? Did you do any of the arranging or any of the production yourself?

GB: Yes, the arrangements are usually my idea. I go through them with whomever is playing whatever, guitar usually. I say "this is my idea" & they embellish on it & give it their own things. I have played on some things. Yeah. I can't remember what but I know what it was acoustic guitar on something, like a rhythm thing. I have not done that for years. But I do play on stage sometimes. Most of the arranging ideas are mine obviously because the melodies are & everything. So I have something in my head & just pass it on to someone who is more professional in guitar playing than I am.

TK: Look mate, we've just had the signal given to us here which is unfortunate. I was hoping something would eventually make you tell us when you'll come back here because I have really wanted to see you since I first bought your albums in early 80's. I have got 3 of your earlier albums & a bunch of CDs that you sent over here, which has increased my Graham Bonnet collection astronomically.

GB: Yeah. I wish I had better news because I really want to do it, too. I really want to get out & do something. As I said before, the recording side of it now, I am not so worried about it. It's just nice to play in front of people, who will give you some feedback. It's nice to be out.

TK: We have got to leave the studio in a minute or so. I appreciate the interview very much. Can I also say "well done, my friend."

GB: Thank you very much. Thank you.

TK: I look forward to hopefully seeing you sometime. Bye-bye.

GB: Bye-bye.