The
All
Night
Decorators
The Story So Far.............
Part Five - Getting it together in the
country
So, did 1988 see the end of the legend? Only for a while.
With Boardman’s return from his low-profile Mediterranean time-share odyssey,
he called the boys up. We’re talking 1993, right? More than they realised,
they had missed each other’s company and personality voids. Tentatively, they
gathered in Boardman’s Rosemount flat, willing to see if the magic was still
there. Of course, David Nixon had performed the final disappearing act some
years before, but this did not daunt the by now mature(ish) Decorators. GB’s
customs-defying stash of duty free was also an extrinsic motivator.
Whilst Stephen had taken care of most of the vocal duties in the Decs’ earlier
period – really by default since Innes’ voice sounds like a goose breaking
wind in the fog and GB “jist didna wint tae dae it” – the lads found
nascent country troubadour Paul Henderson, lurking in the pastoral heaven of
Cluny. He was unknown to Stephen, but was an old friend of the others, having
attended Keith Grammar School and been the principal source of information on
West Coast rock. A sort of old head boy.
Henderson’s experience of
singing was limited to his bath, his car and a sadly-unrecorded Elvis stint at
his own 21st birthday party, but his knowledge of country rock was
vast. Alas, this knowledge did not extend to knowing more than three lines of
each song and not always in any helpful order, this memory deficiency
purportedly caused by over-imbibence of clearic in his student distillery
labourer days. Nevertheless, the boy had a set of pipes that caught the other
three’s imagination immediately. To ease the trialist into the gig, he was
first weaned on the familiar, stripped from the back catalogue of Tom Russell
and Guy Clark, with occasional forays into what had previously been forbidden
territory – Wichita Lineman, the Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell song.
Stephen had invested and had taken delivery of a Yamaha electro-acoustic guitar.
Innes, likewise, had shelled out on a similar spec Washburn. GB was still the
owner of the Westone bass and the incontinent-sounding amp combo which sounded
as good as it was ever likely to get,
although a Gibson electric had also found its way into the Boardman hardware
investment portfolio. Another recent acquistion to the Dec's armoury was the
soon to be famous Fender Telecaster, rescued by Stephen from some cowebbed
emporium at the cost of some beads and shiny trinkets, OK £200, but a steal all
the same. A finely battered and bruised example of Leo's finest from around
1975, this guitar proved to be the catalyst for the next major lurch in the
Decorator's progress.
A sudden share price crash hit
the Boardman Millionsä
hard. Arguments in world financial circles have variously blamed Norman
Lamont’s ill-advised entry of a market-driven UK economy to the European
Exchange Rate Mechanism, or the inevitability of the last throes of capitalism
in so-called western democracies. Eschewing the world economic view, or the
Marxist dialectic reading of the crash, Innes and Stephen decided it was due to
an unexpectedly savage Boardman
Visa bill after a particularly drunken New Year.
GB had two options – live on the streets or return to his parental home in
Fochabers. Not surprisingly, option 2 was the more attractive, and he began life
as a commuter, bussing it daily from Speyside to Aberdeen, making rehearsals
difficult, although Stephen’s brainwave of a 4.8m kilowatt stack through which
GB could have heard him from Fochabers was abandoned. Trials upset the residents
of several rural dwellings as far as the slopes of Tap O Noth near Rhynie, and
Maitland Mackie’s prize herd, near Oldmeldrum, went dry for several days. Then
there were three, luckily none of them being Phil Collins.
Stephen and Innes were writing again, however, and Henderson’s place in the
act was sealed when he declared that he “liked” some of the original
material that was being pushed his way. Mrs Henderson, the ever-enthusiastic
Muriel, also declared that she enjoyed the Decorators’ repertoire, which was a
relief, since it was regurgitated time and again in the conservatory of the
Henderson rural idyll, where Stephen and Innes often found it hard to leave the
cosy fireside, a endless supply of tea and biscuits and the novelty of a
receptive and appreciative audience
It was on the divine Muriel’s 40th birthday (she’s never…she IS
you know), that another future piece of the jigsaw was to turn up. To
commemorate the event, and as a double celebration to declare the Broomhead
conservatory officially open, the boys took their instruments and families
along. Despite the attractions of a testing kickaround with the two
supremely-fit and muscular Henderson teenagers, Gavin and Bruce, the Decorators
sat around long enough to partake in a jamming session. Little did Ian Rae,
wizard of the six-string D-G ceilidh progression know that he was to be a future
part of this chronicle.
Training is all very well, but reserve team stuff was no good to the Decs at the
advanced stage of their years. First team action was needed. And where better
for our heroes to road test the throbbing V8 that was their ‘set’ than the
Concertgeboeuw of the Garioch, Insch Folk Club? Armed with Wichita Lineman –
the ace up their sleeves - and Stephen’s melodic Absence of Angels, with more
than likely Innes’ stream of consciousness anti-US rant Memphis, the All Night
Decorators’ debut performance was witnessed by a small band of midweek folkies,
two of whom managed to doze their way through half the set, beardy bastards.
Despite Henderson’s nerves, he sang beautifully, and the mini-repertoire was
received politely by the bagpipe and fiddle ballad brigade.
Appetites had been whetted. Quick question – has anything OTHER than an
appetite ever been whetted? (Surely your whistle, or is that wetted-Ed?)
The lads were desperate for more, but gigs for an unplugged three-piece, playing
original songs of no poor quality, were scarce.
They did what they could. An opportunity presented itself to the singer, whose
confidence was growing. A gathering of Community Education workers, over whom
Henderson has denied having any blackmail holds, was to take place at Clinterty,
a rural retreat just outside Aberdeen. Ever alert to the opportunity to showcase
the band’s talent, Paul offered the Decorators’ services as entertainment to
the collective. In the hazy sunshine of a summer evening, under a canopy of
verdant deciduous trees, The All Night Decorators gave their all for their art,
for their audience, but (as usual) for no money. Clintstock, as it was to be
dubbed by Innes, was proof to the Decorators that they could finger a chord,
hold a tune and occasionally hit a resonant harmony. Boardman, taking the
opportunity to crash on the floor of yet another friend somewhere, attended the
show, and expressed regret at his enforced exile in the Laich O Moray. Was that
a green folder to be seen sticking out of his carpet bag?
Paul and Graham ventured forth to Insch once more. The pair also made an
ill-advised appearance at a singers’ night at Aberdeen’s legendary Blue
Lamp, “making their excuses and leaving” as requests for Stephen to turn
down the volume of his unamplified acoustic guitar rang in their defiantly-unfingered
ears, beardy bastards. Scott Skinner’s Loft also resounded to all three
boys’ melodic racket on one occasion, later to feature in Stephen's song in
praise of the Henderson vocal chords, Someone Singing In Sauchen.
Genre-busters as always were the Decorators, and the Banchory Folk and Blues
Club was unable to pin them down to either category.
The repertoire was expanding too. Stephen had always been a prolific writer,
with an ear for melody and a Goffinesque gift for the subtlety of the unexpected
chord progression, as long as it visited C#m7 on the way of course. Innes,
whilst less productive, owed more to Bacchus and Back Three than Bacharach and
wore his influences on his sleeve, just above the stains from where he had wiped
his nose. He continued to write the same song again and again, even altering the
chords and words on occasion, a ply that always seems to work for Van (the Man).
He even made the concession to include a minor chord more than once. Henderson
too, dabbled in the craft, producing efforts including the credible Polarities
– immediately christened Paularities in the Stephen-Innes juvenile manner.
Adding in cover versions such as Tom Russell’s Home Before (The) Dark,
and perennial Henderson favourite Brown Eyed Girl, a couple of Jimmy Reed
songs to pacify Innes (and allow him to play semi-competent blues harp) The All
Night Decorators felt that the incessant rehearsals really had to lead
somewhere. And that somewhere was Stonehaven. Not for them, however, a return to
the North Sea-lashed Beach Pavilion with its eerie coldness, even at the peak of
Summer. This time, the trio was giving it some to a real audience.
The PA, which had been festering in AE Parker’s King Street store room,
(www.aeparker.co.uk bubblewrap
fans) was dug out de-cobwebbed, plugged in gingerly, blue touch paper lit
and a series of 1-2s tentatively whispered into the microphones. To the surprise
of our original two protagonists, it still worked. Sound coming from both
speakers. No major electric shocks. Still only the one dodgy channel. This was
relief to them, but to Henderson it was epiphany. Suddenly he realised he was a
real singer, and even louder. That sound, in the midst of the pops, crackles and
taxi cab radios coming from both right and left was HIM.
And it sounded good. And it was good.
So, in mid-July 1994, the Decorators gathered on a Friday night at The Lark
Club, Stonehaven, to provide the floor show for the Club’s weekly gathering.
The Club’s membership is made up of people of all ages who have learning
difficulties to a greater or lesser degree. At first apprehensive as the
Decorators ripped into their repertoire, inhibitions gave way to enjoyment and
enthusiasm as the set unfolded, with dancing and audience call and response
singing breaking out – and the Club members enjoyed it too. There was even
room for an unrehearsed solo spot from Henderson, crooning Carrickfergus as
Innes and Stephen showed rare professionalism by tuning up for the second half
of their act.
Would this to be the highlight
of their career... I wonder
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The All Night Decorators Story 4
The All
Night Decorators Story 6