The All Night Decorators
The Story So Far.............
Part Two: Enter C#min 7th
In the later months of 1984, The All Night Decorators strummed furiously, learning nearly all the chords and a few of the words to songs by Curtis Mayfield, Percy Mayfield, Knutsov Mayfield, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Frankie Miller among others.
The equipment list, with the arrival of the diminutive chordsmith Stephen, (still claiming to be two inches taller than your average Small Face), was now augmented, or was that diminished? A Yamaha acoustic, a black Les Paul copy of indeterminate make and vintage, an Akai reel-to-reel tape deck and a range of bells, rattles, whistles, shakers belonging to Stephen's two infant children made regular appearances on his sporadic early recordings. Among these spare room gems is to be found The All Night Decorators, a samba/salsa-influenced calypsular (© L Percival) theme song for the duo. Also from this period the Stephen trilogy of Powder Curse (originally out of Bo Diddley), Secret Life and Endless Night was born.
An almost telepathic misunderstanding
developed between the Phil and Don of the northern suburbs.
Instinctively each knew when light had to applied, and shade, in
the very competitively priced form of an A E Parker golf brolly,
was required. More importantly, each knew when the other was
going to play the C#min7th chord, a feature they invested in
every song, regardless of key or melodic structure.
Both men, having been bassists in previous bands, realised the importance of "putting some bottom" in their output. With this bottom in place, it surely follows that ass could be kicked. Take one step forward, George Boardman .
GB, or The Argumentative Old Bleeder as he became affectionately known, put his marker down. A failed early attempt to put in the foundations of Stephen's house, as well as the Decorators' sound, using a borrowed Vox Teardrop bass was forgiven. Fortified by Linda Stephen's skills with Typhoo's finest and packets of Club biscuits (being paid up at a shilling per week), the boys having now graduated to full chocolate coatings, the band's unique sound began to develop. Did Tom Waits' "Heartattack and Vine" or Bruce Springsteen's "Working On A Highway" ever sound better? Don't answer....
The ante was upped and Stephen dipped his right shoulder, took the taxman on the left with the deftest of bodyswerves and bought a Tokai Strat and a Marshall 75 wattamp. (NB for any of you nice Inland Revenue people out there Mr Stephen would like to state for the record that this is entirely untrue as he was in the Seychelles at the time consulting his bank manager). Innes, not to be outdone, celebrated the birth of his first child by buying a 90 watt amp combo. Stephen worked feverishly and long into the night with his abacus and emerged in the morning clutching a notebook muttering, "That's a possible 15 watts output advantage. Grrr. But I'll teach him. I'll write songs with major 7ths in them. Ha, ha, ha, ha, and indeed..ha!"
GB was up for it too, in rare moments when he was in fact awake, to the extent of lashing out a miniscule proportion of the alleged, but famous Boardman Millions™ on a Westone Thunder 1A bass guitar and a 60 watt amp the speaker of which was manufactured by the now-defunct audio conglomerate Duff & Dodgy. A unique feature was the inbuilt fuzz effect which was activated whenever a note was played below fret 12 on the third string.
The ageing and dilapidated Beach Pavilion at Stonehaven was procured for Tuesday evening rehearsals, irs proximity to the North Sea making it the ideal venue for the band to perform Quadrophenia end to end without the need for sound effects tapes. A Laney/WEM/Massey Ferguson PA appeared from somewhere, as did a drum machine. The latter piece of equipment was discarded very quickly when its precision was found to interfere with Boardman's Independent Sense Of What Should Be The Bloody Rhythm Of This Song Anyway. And who needs a drummer that you can't abuse?
Rehearsal went on................and on.
The All Night Decorators Story 3