The blues-rock band Vinegar Joe was formed in 1971. They
took their name from the nickname of the caustic US General Joseph Stilwell.
The band recorded three albums for Island Records; Vinegar Joe (1972), Rock n
Roll Gypsies (1972), and Six Star General (1973).
At various times three of the band lived in West
Hampstead: Robert Palmer, Steve York and
Pete Gage. Many musicians lived in West
Hampstead before the neighbourhood
was ‘gentrified’ and the supply of cheap rented accommodation dried up.
Pete Gage
Pete Gage, guitarist, composer and producer, is the link in
the formation of the bands that led up to Vinegar Joe. He was born in Lewisham
in 1947 and married Pauline Newman in 1966. Pete worked in several London
bands before forming the Ram Jam Band in 1964 using a number of different
singers. He met Geno Washington who was with the US Air Force and asked him to
be the singer with his band. Pete said his mother paid to get Geno demobbed,
and the band became Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band in April 1965. They
played in blues clubs across the country, including 16 times at West
Hampstead’s Klooks Kleek, and had two best-selling live albums in
1965 and 1966. In January 1967 Pete’s wife tragically died in a car crash on
the M1 when they were returning from the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.
The band broke up in late 1969. For more details about the
band see Nick Warburton’s excellent
article on his website:
Kevin Rowland and Dexy’s Midnight Runners big 1980 hit
‘Geno’ was based on hearing the band at gigs where the fans shouted ‘Geno!
Geno! Geno!’
In 1983 Geno Washington
co-owned a basement restaurant at 212 West End Lane
in West Hampstead. Most nights about 10.30, he would
arrive and sing blues songs such as ‘Little Red Rooster’ and ‘Got My Mojo
Working’ to the diners.
In 1970 Pete Gage formed Dada, a short lived 12-piece jazz-fusion
band, with three vocalists, Elkie Brooks, (whom Pete married in 1971), Jimmy
Chambers, and initially Paul Korda who was replaced by Robert Palmer. The band
was Stax-influenced with a horn section, and were signed by Ahmet Ertegun, the
head of Atlantic Records. They released one album called Dada (1970).
Steve York takes up the story:
‘I joined Dada shortly before
their US tour. When we returned to London Ahmet Ertegun flew out to
see us play at Ronnie Scott’s. Shortly after Pete Gage, Elkie, Robert, and I
were summoned to a meeting with Ahmet and Chris Blackwell (head of Island
Records), at the Park Lane Hilton. They wanted to reduce the size of the band
and become more rock oriented, and we became Vinegar Joe in late 1971'.
‘Ahmet asked us to find a new
drummer & keyboard player and told us that he wanted the band on Atlantic
Records for the US, and Chris would have the band on Island for the rest of the
world’.
 |
| Cover for the first Vinegar Joe album. Artwork by Hipgnosis (Getty) |
‘We recorded the first album with
Dave Thompson and Tim Hinkley on keyboards, and Conrad Isidore and Rob Tait,
drums, playing on a session basis. The final line up of the band was Robert,
Elkie, Pete, Steve, with Pete Gavin drums and Mike Deacon keys. Guitarist Jim
Mullen joined the band for their second album “Rock & Roll Gypsies” and for
their US tour’.
Here they are performing on The
Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973:
They were an incredible live band who performed on the club
and university circuit. However, Pete did not think their albums were well
produced and they did not sell very well.
Vinegar Joe broke up in March 1974.
Chris Blackwell wanted Robert as a solo act for Island. The
band recorded a single featuring Elkie (without Robert) of ‘Sweet Nothin’s’ and ‘Rescue Me’. This was briefly released by Island but
withdrawn immediately by Chris Blackwell. You can hear it here:
Steve said:
‘Elkie remained under contract to Island but
was unable to record for about two years. She subsequently signed with A&M
records. Her first album for A&M was recorded in LA and flopped, but her
second album was recorded in London with veteran producers/songwriters Leiber & Stoller
and yielded the hits ‘Pearl’s A Singer’ and ‘Sunshine after the Rain’. I played bass
on the record.’
Pete Gage was very angry about how badly he was ripped off
and treated by the music industry. After his divorce from Elkie, he lived briefly
in Compayne Gardens
in the 1980s (he can’t remember the address). Pete married the singer Ruby
James and they emigrated to Sydney Australia in 1999, where he lives today.
(There is another Pete Gage, not to be confused with the
above, who sang with the Jet Harris Band and with Dr Feelgood after Lee
Brilleaux’s death in 1994).
Robert Palmer
Singer Robert Palmer was born in January 1949 in Batley West
Yorkshire. He grew up in Malta
where his father worked as a civilian for the Royal Navy as a code breaker
during the Cold War. Robert went to Scarborough
High School for Boys, and age 15 he
joined a band called the Mandrakes. In 1969 Pete Gage recommended Robert to
Alan Bown, and he came to London to
replace vocalist Jess Roden in the Alan Bown Set. Pete Gage persuaded Robert to
join Dada when they had a US
tour lined up.
Robert lived in the basement flat of 35
Dennington Park Road West Hampstead from about
1970. Pete Gage told Dick Weindling that he remembers writing the songs ‘See
the World’ and ‘Never Met a Dog’ from the first Vinegar Joe album, sitting
cross-legged on the floor of Robert’s flat.
Robert married designer Sue Thatcher in 1970, after a chance
meeting on Slough Station in 1968. In later interview he said: ‘I was taken by her
style. Silver boots and silver mini-dress. The Sixties, y’know? She was reading
a science fiction book, and I’m a sci-fi fan.’
They had a son James, and a daughter called Jane. He left
the Dennington Park Road flat
after it was flooded, destroying most of his belongings.
(Dick: This seems to be before the notorious August 1975
flood in West Hampstead).
Robert and Sue moved to Greenwich Village
in New York where he became
friends with members of the band Talking Heads. About 1976 Robert relocated to Nassau in the Bahamas
just across the street from Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios. Robert left
the States for Lugano in Switzerland
in 1987, and he and Sue were divorced in 1993.
His first solo album, Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley
(1974), was recorded in New York with
members of Stuff, Cornell Dupree and Bernard Purdie, and at Sea-Saint Studio in
New Orleans with Lowell George, Allen
Toussaint, Art Neville and other members of the Meters. Robert Palmer had a
successful career and a number of major hits. In the 1980s he was in the Power
Station, with Andy Taylor and John Taylor of Duran Duran and Tony Thompson of Chic.
His iconic music videos for ‘Addicted to Love’ (1985)
and ‘Simply Irresistible’ (1988) featured identically dressed women with pale
faces, dark eye makeup and bright red lipstick. The videos were directed by
photographer Terence Donovan. There is another West Hampstead
link here as Donovan had lived in a flat in Douglas Mansions (now called Douglas Court), on the corner of West End Lane and Quex Road in the 1960s.
Robert’s last album was Drive
(2003) which was very blues based. In September 2003 he had just recorded a
programme for Yorkshire Television called ‘My Kinda of People’, which looked at
the musicians who had influenced him. He was taking a short break in Paris with his American partner Mary Ambrose before they
returned to Switzerland, when he suddenly died of a heart attack in the Warwick
Hotel.
Steve York
Bass and harmonica player, Steve York was born in London
in 1948. His father was a Chief Petty Officer, and Steve first lived on the
Gosport Naval Base before moving to Temple
Fortune in North London.
The West Hampstead connection is that Steve lived above
a shop at 55 Mill Lane West
Hampstead from 1972 to 1977.
Steve has had a long career playing with many well-known
musicians and recording numerous records. Beginning with blues bands in the 60s
including Graham Bond and Manfred Mann, in 1971 he joined Pete Gage in Dada and
then Vinegar Joe.
Steve told me:
‘The first Vinegar Joe album was released about nine months
after we recorded it. In the meantime I toured the US
with the American band Climax who had a huge hit with the song “Precious &
Few”. I moved to Mill Lane
a few months after returning to the UK
and rejoined Vinegar Joe. I let Graham Bond stay in my flat in Mill
Lane while I was on tour with VJ in 1973. He was
homeless after his marriage broke up.’
Steve has recorded with Marianne
Faithful on her albums Broken English and Dangerous Acquaintances, also with Eric
Clapton, Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Chicken Shack, Elkie Brooks, Joan Armatrading, Dr John, Chuck Berry and many others.
He played harmonica, or as he wonderfully
calls it ‘the tin sandwich’, on Robert Palmer’s albums, Sneakin’ Sally Through
The Alley, and Pressure Drop.
The list of the numerous bands
Steve has played with can be found here:
Today Steve lives in Mexico. See his website for more details:
With special thanks to
Steve York and Pete Gage for their help with this article.
Comments
Post a Comment