Q & A with Maart, September/October 2014

[maddogfagin]

Maartin Allcock has kindly agreed to a question and answer session with us here on The JT Forum. 

I'll give it about 2 - 3 weeks and then send them off.

[nonrabbit]

Sept 12, 2014 16:12:51 GMT maddogfagin said:

Maartin Allcock has kindly agreed to a question and answer session with us here on The JT Forum. 

I'll give it about 2 - 3 weeks and then send them off.

Thinking as I type.

[maddogfagin]

Hi Maart

1. Who were your early musical influences as a youth and what was the very first record you ever bought? I'll allow reference to first records bought by family members

2. When did you first come into contact with the music of Ian Anderson ?

3. Glenn Cornick said in an interview here on The Forum back in 2009

"I have always thought of bass playing as the glue between melody and rhythm so many of my bass lines are like little tunes (countermelodies, I suppose) that fit in between the other parts of the song."

Would that also be how you regard playing bass and how does that statement fit in with the different styles of playing bass such as the style used by Dave Pegg and the style that you play ?

Regards

GM/MD

[nonrabbit]

Hi Maart,

Care to share memories of your time with Tull -best/worst gig etc .

Is it more liberating being freelance rather than attached to a particular band or musician?

You've lived all over the UK - I have to ask in this particular week re across the Scottish border - Yes or No?


Thanks

Patti - exiled Scot.

[jackinthegreen]

Is there any instrument you can't play...........

What do you have the most fun playing, and is there a musician you would like to meet or share a stage with that hasn't happened already.

Thanks for the music Maart.

Tom.

[steelmonkey]

Thanks for joining us Maart...your reputation as exceptional musician, nice guy and rennaissance man endures. Remind us...How did you do it? From Fairport fan to onstage with the guys a half generation older than you. A plan ? Good luck? Chutzpah at critical moments ?

[rredmond]

The interview gets posted here, or it get's a new thread?
I have no questions, but I love these threads!!
--Ron--

[maddogfagin]

Sept 16, 2014 17:16:16 GMT rredmond said:

The interview gets posted here, or it get's a new thread?
I have no questions, but I love these threads!!
--Ron--

Ron

I'll be sending the questions to Maart at the end of this month and I'll post the answers on this thread.

MD

[rredmond]

Sweet. Thanks!
--Ron--

[dominic]

really enjoyed your time with Tull & Fairport - many good memories - rock version of Matty &promo gig at HMV on London's Oxford st yousigned set list for me & referred to it as an Artie Fudkin special ! - do you have any favourite tull or fairport songs - is there anyone that you haven't worked with that you would like to & now Martin Barre has his own band i reckon you would be a great fit into the band - any chance ? dominic

[bunkerfan]

Hello Maart,

As a fan of Jethro Tull what was it like when you were asked to join the band on keyboards? Were you surprised, shocked, excited, or maybe all three?

What's your opinion of Thick as a Brick 2 and Homo Erraticus?

Have you been to any of Ian's or Martin's concerts lately and if so what did you think?

What's your all time favourite Tull track and why?

Cheers

John/bunkerfan

[steelmonkey]

Great questions John... I look forward to the responses.

[maddogfagin]

Thanks for the response to this thread. I'll be sending the questions off to Maart later today and will post his replies when I receive them.

[steelmonkey]

Please encourage him to let us know what he is up to, where he might be performing and what's on offer via his or related websites !

[maart]

Sept 14, 2014 9:57:57 GMT maddogfagin said:

Hi Maart

1. Who were your early musical influences as a youth and what was the very first record you ever bought? I'll allow reference to first records bought by family members

I saw The Beatles on TV when I was six years old and I decided I didn’t want to be a train driver any more. Me dad bought a couple of second hand Beatles EPs which were my joy. I remember that on the second hand single of Can’t Buy Me Love, there was a bit of green tape which was never removed. I have no idea why it was there in the first place. Early memories. The first full price single I bought was Paranoid by Black Sabbath and the first full-price album I bought was Deep Purple In Rock.

Then there was a lad who lived next door, Steve Innes, who was a couple of years older than me. He turned me on to so much great music, that important two years earlier than me school chums were finding stuff, which gave me a head start. He took me to me first ever gigs too, at the Manchester Free Trade Hall. The first was Third Ear Band supporting The Keef Hartley Band featuring Miller Anderson, and the next night we went to see bottom of the bill Genesis supporting Lindisfarne and Van der Graaf Generator. 6/- (30p)

2. When did you first come into contact with the music of Ian Anderson ?

The very first album I ever bought was an Island Records sampler, You Can All Join In. It had A Song For Jeffrey on it. Funnily enough I got to play with many acts on that album over the years! Steve took me to see the Thick As A Brick tour. We queued up overnight. Amazing. 28th March 1972. I was fifteen.

3. Glenn Cornick said in an interview here on The Forum back in 2009
"I have always thought of bass playing as the glue between melody and rhythm so many of my bass lines are like little tunes (countermelodies, I suppose) that fit in between the other parts of the song."
Would that also be how you regard playing bass and how does that statement fit in with the different styles of playing bass such as the style used by Dave Pegg and the style that you play ?

It’s true that being a bass player is halfway between being a musician and a drummer, but the way I see it is that it’s the bass player’s job to help get the groove going and also put up all the road signs for the other guys. “We are now going to the chord of G. I will tell you when it’s going back to Bm.”

I studied double bass and played with the Lancashire Schools Symphony Orchestra as a teenager before going to music college in Huddersfield Polytechnic (one of the best music colleges in the country). There my tutor Peter Leah, principal bassist with the Hallé Orchestra for 25 years, taught me how to love playing scales. “Martin, scales are your friends. Get to know them. They will help you. Play a scale as though it were a beautiful tune, try to make someone feel emotional when you play it.”

Thing is, I’m from a council estate in north Manchester, and when I miraculously got into the grammar school, I was sitting next to the son of a Polish scientist. We did the standard sleepover thing and at his (much bigger) house in East Manchester, he had a telescope, and we looked at Saturn’s Rings and galaxies and the like. So me dad asked me what I wanted for Xmas. “A telescope!” “I’m sorry, me son, I can’t afford it. There’s a guy at work got a bass guitar for sale. Will you have that?” “Oh alright then... ”

Then as luck would have it, three of the best ever bassists turned up on my radar. Dave Pegg, Rod Clements and my absolute hero Lee Sklar. I learned how to play from their records, and I got to work with Peggy for many years, Rod became a friend and just this year I met Lee for the first time and hit it off.

So the big answer to this question would be that I like to think that I know what kind of bassline the song requires. I’ve made quite a few records now and people seem to like what I do. If you are careful, you can be very creative down there but the song is king.

Regards
GM/MD

[maart]

Sept 15, 2014 17:36:06 GMT nonrabbit said:

Hi Maart,

Care to share memories of your time with Tull -best/worst gig etc .

Best gig – all of them. Worst gig – the one in Austria where someone kept turning the stage electricity off and on. Digital equipment doesn’t like that. The one in Brazil where the stage was live and my tech got blown across the stage, the fluctuating voltage (40-460v) punched a hole in the cast iron stage mains distribution box,and we were issued with wellies before we went on.

Is it more liberating being freelance rather than attached to a particular band or musician?

Yes indeed. I was in Fairport for eleven years. That’s too long to be with the same guys all the time. The music can stale and personal niggles can escalate. Variety is the spice of my life. So far this year I’ve played with Nashville songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman (and played on a track with Duane Eddy! How cool is that?), I’ve recorded in Brussels with Yusuf Cat Stevens, gigged with Roman erstwhile Tull tribute band OAK (now moving more to their own and my own music), gigged with Welsh songwriter Huw Williams (who wrote for Fairport when I was in the van), produced the third album for young Welsh traditional band Calan, and done email sessions for Belfast band RunawayGO! And The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican.

You've lived all over the UK - I have to ask in this particular week re across the Scottish border - Yes or No?

I liked the idea but it hadn’t been thought through properly. Next time the result will be different.

Thanks

Patti - exiled Scot.

[maart]

Sept 15, 2014 20:08:17 GMT jackinthegreen said:

Is there any instrument you can't play...........

I don’t play anything that you have to blow or hit, although I usually sneak a hit of vibraslap onto every record that I’m involved with.

What do you have the most fun playing, and is there a musician you would like to meet or share a stage with that hasn't happened already.

I have the most fun playing music, but I’m a fretless bass player really. That’s who I am. It’s the only instrument I know how to play. I get away with murder on everything else.

I would dearly love to work with Dónal Lunny, but I would be made redundant by his presence. I’ve met him, and I like to kid myself that he knows who I am. I would love to play with Paul Brady, who is amazing. I have really enjoyed working with Yusuf Cat Stevens, and would love to play live with him. Natalie Imbruglia can call anytime she likes and I’m sure we could turn out something which would surprise everyone. Most of my heroes have gone to the great gig in the sky, but of all of them, Rory Gallagher has the most special place in my heart.


Thanks for the music Maart.

Tom.

[maart]

Sept 16, 2014 16:12:34 GMT steelmonkey said:

Thanks for joining us Maart...your reputation as exceptional musician, nice guy and rennaissance man endures. Remind us...How did you do it? From Fairport fan to onstage with the guys a half generation older than you. A plan ? Good luck? Chutzpah at critical moments ?

A succession of happy accidents, really. Just the fan who joined the band, the Ronnie Wood of nearly every band I’ve been involved with. Peggy and I hit it off when I was still a teenager and we were close neighbours for 13 years. We were in Tull and Fairport together. I’ve played more gigs with him than anyone else in my life. The big brother I never really had. But yes I was still the baby of the band at 37. I enjoyed playing with The Mission in 1991. Daft Northern lads me own age.

[maart]

Sept 17, 2014 12:01:24 GMT dominic said:

really enjoyed your time with Tull & Fairport - many good memories - rock version of Matty &promo gig at HMV on London's Oxford st yousigned set list for me & referred to it as an Artie Fufkin special ! - do you have any favourite tull or fairport songs - is there anyone that you haven't worked with that you would like to & now Martin Barre has his own band i reckon you would be a great fit into the band - any chance ? dominic

Thank you. I enjoyed Metal Matty too. The only recorded version is from Cropredy 92 I think. I remember everyone was just holding off when I was expecting them to come in. So what do you do? I just kept going for it. A proud moment indeed Martin has his band all sorted and very good it is too. He doesn't need me cluttering it up

Otherwise, I was very proud of The Wounded Whale, Archie Fisher’s fantastic song about whale hunting, and also The Islands, a song I persuaded Ralph McTell to write when the MV Braer ran aground off Shetland on my birthday in 1993. I had lived in Shetland, which is still very dear to my heart.

There was a very nice Tull song to which I contributed a lot of stuff but it didn’t make the cut. I don’t remember anything about it except that it was in C# minor and was quite rocky. I was very proud of Part Of The Machine, where I played cittern and actually got to tag lead guitar with Marty Barre! Dream come true or what?

My other proudest musical moment was working with Robert Plant on his solo album The Fate Of Nations, on a track called Colours Of A Shade, where I played all the instruments (except for the vocal obviously and a drum towards the end). Robert is so gracious and lovely and gave me a co-writer credit on the track too.

[maart]

Sept 22, 2014 18:50:40 GMT bunkerfan said:

Hello Maart,

As a fan of Jethro Tull what was it like when you were asked to join the band on keyboards? Were you surprised, shocked, excited, or maybe all three?

In 1987, Fairport supported JT on a tour of Europe and USA. Fairport was very happy at the time and I think Ian decided that he wanted some of this folk-rock camaraderie around Tull. So I was asked to join the band, as were our PA and lighting guys. I met Peggy in the local pub. We lived about 300 yards apart, with the pub in the middle. New Year’s Day 1988, having a pint, Peggy says, “Here’s Ian’s number, he wants you to call him.” So I did. “I’d like you to play with the band.” Gob truly smacked. “Doing what? You play all the acoustic stuff already, Marty Barre is one of my fave guitarists, Dave Pegg is a hero and I don’t play drums.” “Keyboards. And mandolin and some acoustic guitar when Martin’s on electric and I’m on flute.” “But I don’t play keys and I haven’t even got one.” “Then buy one and get learning. First gig’s in a few months.”

So they sent me a whole set of Tull albums on vinyl and I learned all the pieces on the list. I practiced for about 18 hours every day for months. They sent me a technician to explain MIDI and so on. The first gig was at Concord Pavilion near San Francisco in front of about 25000 people. As I was peering out from behind the curtain, I saw my old friend Fergus Feely take his seat...

What's your opinion of Thick as a Brick 2 and Homo Erraticus?

I can’t comment as I don’t have them.

Have you been to any of Ian's or Martin's concerts lately and if so what did you think?

I didn’t get to see any of Ian’s recent concerts. I saw Martin’s band at Cropredy and Dan Crisp is a great vocalist. However I feel that Martin should play some music that isn’t JT stuff. He’s an awesome guitarist and can play anything.

What's your all time favourite Tull track and why?

Thick As A Brick (version 1) because it’s perfect. My chums OAK in Rome play it in its entirety sometimes and I swear it’s better than the original. They do Passion Play too, but I’m not so familiar with that...

Cheers

John/bunkerfan

[maddogfagin]

A very warm welcome to Maartin Allcock who has joined us here on the JT Forum and will answer your questions about his time with Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, The Bully Wee Band, the many other performers he has collaborated with, his session work and anything else you'd like to ask him.

I first met Maart in person in the room above the music area in the Half Moon in Putney very many years ago where I interviewed him for part of a radio programme (which must date it to around 1988 or '89), and subsequently backstage at the UK Tull Conventions, especially 1989 in Hounslow and memorably in 1990 in Milton Keynes where he played bass in an ad hoc group which also included Clive Bunker, Mick Abrahams and Ian Anderson. His performance at that convention is on our youtube page as are many other concerts that he has performed in.

Thanks for joining us Maart, a pleasure to have you here.

[nonrabbit]

A big WELCOME to the Forum Maart

Lovely to see you here and thanks for the prompt answers - I'm sure there'll be more on the way!

Cheers

Patti

[nonrabbit]

Maart

I have a hunch that there's more fun to be had on the road with the Fairport's rather than the Tull's.

I just imagine that the Fairport family are one big group of mad uncle's whereas the Tull's have a rather stern headmaster keeping an eye on proceedings. Am I wrong?



Patti

[rredmond]

Wow, thank you so much for the information and for allowing us to grill you.
Real cool of you!
--Ron--

[steelmonkey]

Thank you so much for climbing into out treehouse...though 'Tull' is on the signpost, I assure you we have plenty of time and interest for all of the music you make and all the bands and projects touched by your talents. Concord Pavilion was your second night as a Tullist...Your debut came the day before in Mountain View, California...an excellent, memorable gig which featured a number of firsts....probably close to 20 thousand in the audience. By Concord, the next night, you were a confident veteran. Tell more on the topic: 'Close calls with David Pegg'....I mean, stories where the statute of limitations have lapsed and not too many innocents will be injured.

[Equus]

Wellcome Maartin Allcock!! Thank you!!

[maart]

Sept 29, 2014 14:51:48 GMT nonrabbit said:

Maart

I have a hunch that there's more fun to be had on the road with the Fairport's rather than the Tull's.

I just imagine that the Fairport family are one big group of mad uncle's whereas the Tull's have a rather stern headmaster keeping an eye on proceedings. Am I wrong?



Patti

I had a great time with both bands. They are very different in that Fairport was more democratic but Tull worked the way it did because Ian was the bandleader, so we did it his way. Tull was also a much bigger concern with a big crew and discipline is necessary to maintain a smooth running ship.

[bunkerfan]

Hello Maart and a huge welcome to The Jethro Tull Forum. It's a real pleasure to have you as a member here.






I'm sure you still enjoy a pint or two of this lovely drink. So cheers!

[maddogfagin]

Maart

One group that hasn't been mentioned so far are The Bad Shepherds which you were involved with originally. I sadly never got to see the original line up but it must have been fascinating to have performed with Adrian Edmundson, of the Young Ones, playing punk/new wave songs with traditional music.

This web page from 2009 ( www.egigs.co.uk/reviews/?a=12994 ) describes a fairly eclectic set list comprising of:

I Fought The Law / Cockers At Pockers
Up Against The Wall
The Model
Rise (PiL)
Whole Wide World / Hag With The Money
Down The Tube Station At Midnight
Humours Of Tullah / Teenage kicks / Whiskey In The Jar / The Merry Blacksmith
Once In a Lifetime / Pinch Of Snuff
No More Heroes
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding
London Calling / Manchester Calling / The Monaghan Jig
All Around My Hat
Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!
Shock Treatment / Blitzkrieg Bop / Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
Up The Junction
God Save The Queen
White Riot / Hurry Up Harry

I would guess you had a great time playing such a variety of material and mixing the different genres of music.

[maart]

Sept 30, 2014 12:03:11 GMT maddogfagin said:

Maart

One group that hasn't been mentioned so far are The Bad Shepherds which you were involved with originally. I sadly never got to see the original line up but it must have been fascinating to have performed with Adrian Edmondson, of the Young Ones, playing punk/new wave songs with traditional music.

This web page from 2009 ( www.egigs.co.uk/reviews/?a=12994 ) describes a fairly eclectic set list comprising of:

I Fought The Law / Cockers At Pockers
Up Against The Wall
The Model
Rise (PiL)
Whole Wide World / Hag With The Money
Down The Tube Station At Midnight
Humours Of Tullah / Teenage kicks / Whiskey In The Jar / The Merry Blacksmith
Once In a Lifetime / Pinch Of Snuff
No More Heroes
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding
London Calling / Manchester Calling / The Monaghan Jig
All Around My Hat
Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!
Shock Treatment / Blitzkrieg Bop / Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
Up The Junction
God Save The Queen
White Riot / Hurry Up Harry

I would guess you had a great time playing such a variety of material and mixing the different genres of music.

I don't talk about The Bad Shepherds. Next...