The Group HEROES (1978)
HEROES circa 1977/8
Bassman Ed
Booming Ed Mitchell in typical cloth cap and sheepskin
With the Ludwig tucked nicely in the alcove
"Goat Horn" Like this one.
Where did that guitar come from?
Sat behind me is Paul Burley, responsible for most of these photos, also Shelagh, and Jacqiue Durrant.
Townshend at Questors.
Ooo-er, look at those platforms
Paul Durrant - Gibson 335 - Nils Lofgren T.
"Hunky Dory" One grainy image.
Any music appearing below this point is purely self indugence on my part
A selection of music recorded at the Temple, Goring on Thames, Oxfordshire, all just rough-mix demo stuff. Recording, set up, and operation competently handle by a young Steve Owen studio
"A Sound Man"
Steve Owen keeping an eye on the sound at Wokingham Rock Club. I wonder who that cassette was for not heard it myself.
Maybe Doo-Doe & Dazzle the two Paul's were lip-syncing all that time Ha- ha.
First Recordings at Goring-Temple studios.
Sweet Deceiver (Durrant/Townshend)
Freeway Riding (Durrant/Townshend/Odwyer)
Instrumental
Hard Climb (Makowski)
Instrumental used for live
Mr Smooth (Townshend)
So Help Me Please (Durrant)
Black Sheep of the Family (Durrant)
Sweet Deceiver (phased version)
First recordings at Goring.
We set up the drums in the cottage adjacent the studios.
These were in a converted stable building with a rather out of place brick extension
for the kitchen and store areas.
Micing the kit up took some long leads hung between the buildings.
This was winter time, so spending a few nights sleeping huddled
against a radiator near my drum-kit in one of the downstairs rooms, was very cosy.
Also might explain why the drums have a warm woolly sound. as you can hear.
Shame the drummer was so tense and held back.
At the start most trips to Goring were done in Paul T's SWB (Ambassador Blue) Ford Transit
as a band together, everyone meeting at Woodgrange Ave Ealing Common.
The tranny got wrecked and found us making more indivdual trips later on.
[ pic: Outside the studio and the entrance was the two doors to the far righr in the picture]
(photo showing the studio entrance beyond PT and his Pullman class Merc, cottage out of frame to photographers right.)
My vehicle of choice was mini vans at the time having had three of them.
Nice fit for the drums.
Pubs in Goring were "The Miller of Mansfield" and "The John Barleycorn" thet we frequented.
Some recent Goring notables:
Jon Lord composer, pianist and rock/classical pioneer, lived in Goring in later life.
Pete Townshend musician (the Who)
Pete de Freitas musician (Echo & the Bunnymen), ashes buried in Goring.
George Michael musician, vocalist and producer.
Lived at Mill Cottage close to the river in his later years.
We were called SHY, then we bacame UXB, before settling on HEROES. 1975 saw us in a line up of bands playing The Questors theatre. These tracks from the set recorded by (Pete Makowski) on a Sanyo cassette recorder (C60 not even Chrome). Think we supplied the PA for the event as well. (Bearable when the vocals are not overpowering everything else.)
The Questors Theatre Ealing
Ace Supreme (Silverhead cover)Sweet Deceiver
Back-street Love (Trapeze cover)
Black Sheep of the Family
Acid Queen (The Who cover)
Freeway Riding
UXB passed without a bang, now we find ourselves at Shepperton studios rehearsing in room-60 of the Manor House there (Littleton Park House, as used in The Omen, and The Great St Trinian Train Robbery). These tracks on TDK cassette via a Sharpe machine are passable.
Shepperton Room 60
One Night Stand
(Townshend)
I Dunno (Townshend)
Snake-skin Cowboys (Motorhead cover)
Matter of Time (Townshend)
Substitute (The Who cover)
Television (Durrant/Townshend)
Highway Star (Deep Purple cover)
Things are not so Bad (Makowski)
4 tracks recorded/engineered by Wally Brill at Pathway Studios in Holloway, London. These are lifted from an Acetate that was Cut/Pressed at 'Tape One Studio' a friend of my brother there did me a freebie. I have a cassette recording of a gig at The Nashville rooms, we were supporting The Eurythmics, just another band with a female singer whom at the time I thought had Tourettes. (Anyway the tape was crap).
Pathway Studios with Wally Brill
Out into the Street (Townshend)
Good Old Mum (Townshend)
Television
(Durrant/Townshend)
Nasty Dreams (Durrant)
Nashville Rooms supporting The Eurythmics
Matter of Time
One Night Stand
Mr Smooth
Television
Dancing in the Street
Hard Climb
Substitute
Black Sheep of the Family
Freeway Riding
Ginger Baker's Acorn Studios in Acton, rehearsing with new bass player Tony Ayre. A handful of tracks spread over several sessions, new material etc. Paul Townshends voice appears to have gone all Elvis Costello
Two personal favourite bits of cassette
First from The Half Moon in West Hampstead with Ed Mitchell on the bass, Paul Durrant finishes the set with some solo work. The second is just Jam/Blow time with me, Paul Durrant, and Tony Ayre. The end of an evening at Acorn studios.
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