..(as represented on the For Pete’s Sake compilation
CD that was produced to help raise funds for the second of Pete’s major
Parkinson’s operations), Dragon, Thorpie, Russell Morris, John Farnham,
Slim Dusty, Air Supply, Matt Finish, Australian Crawl, Mi-Sex, Pseudo Echo
and Glenn Shorrock. No mention of any of my bands you’ll notice. Jamaican
Farewell had been mooted for inclusion but was ultimately rejected and
I remember Pete was quite upset about that on my behalf. His response was
to have me flown up to Sydney to perform a couple of Ariel numbers with Tim
Gaze at the CD launch.
Incidentally, I think I might’ve been responsible for bringing Dragon
to his attention in the first place and it’s a matter of regret I never
saw Pete and Dragon working in the studio together. Pete was quite a short
bloke and the Hunter brothers, like most of the Dragon band members now that
I think of it, were dauntingly tall – it may well have been a band requirement.
Pete was a quietly insistent producer and the Hunter brothers were equally
but perhaps not so quietly determined so I’m sure there must’ve
been some interesting confrontations.
Not that Pete was unaware of the difficulties of working in a rock band, having
been a drummer in a couple of widely travelled NZ bands himself, (the ironically
named The New Nadir being one), but the recording studio was his place of
business and he knew exactly what he wanted to achieve at the office.
Having said that, Pete was quite relaxed with me and my bands in the studio.
We had an efficient working relationship and I got on famously with both him
and his wife Penny and even stayed with them on two or three occasions. That’s
not to say that all the sessions went totally smoothly, like when we were
mixing the first Ariel album in particular and tensions were beginning to
surface within the band, but I went along with the rather drastic solution
for the sake of expediency.
In any case, Spectrum, Murtceps and Ariel all recorded quickly as we had sorted
out the songs on the road and consequently our recording costs weren’t
that exorbitant and Pete could justify the project to the accounts dept. when
objections were raised – as I’m pretty sure they were.
It’s true to say that none of the recordings we did with Pete were massive
hits and I think that it was to a large extent down to Pete’s loyalty
that we remained contracted to EMI for as long as we did. It’s also
possible that without Peter Dawkins’ enthusiasm for things Rudd that
Ariel’s albums A Strange Fantastic Dream and Rock &
Roll Scars (recorded at Abbey Road studios) might never have been recorded.
Wikipedia doesn’t include Ariel’s CBS album, Goodnight Fiona
in its inventory of albums produced by Peter Dawkins, so my debt to Peter
Dawkins’ is actually greater than the unofficial history at least records.
During Pete’s sojourn with EMI he asked me if I would be interested
in being involved with a personal project, a sort of hybrid of Tubular
Bells and Holst’s The Planets called The Star Suite.
I ended up writing and playing on a couple of tracks and the album was eventually
released in 1973 or thereabouts. I hadn’t thought about it for years
until recently when I got an email from Pete suggesting that there were some
unpaid royalties to be had and he was going to negotiate with EMI’s
successor Universal Music to get them released. He got them too and I was
very grateful but now it’s only a matter of weeks later that I receive
the fateful call from Penny.
Apart from the professional aspect, Peter Dawkins was one of the gamest little
buggers I’ve met and my love and sympathy go out to his wife Penny who’s
shared all the twists of fate suffered by Pete and supported him with fortitude
and characteristic cheerfulness.
As Maria and I were walking down to the Valley Reserve the other day for our
irregular bout of exercise I wondered out loud if any of it meant anything
in the overall scheme of things, but particularly as regards longevity. It
seems that every second person we know that’s contracted some terminal
condition has led a blameless life of self-denial with absolutely no drinking
or smoking or bad eating habits.
Then again I wondered how bits of gravel were getting into my walking shoes.
What are the odds of a piece of gravel being flung up into the back of my
shoe and working its way down to my heel and eventually accumulating in the
toe with its gravelly mates? Well, I reckon the odds must be pretty good,
because I always arrive home with an annoying quota of gravel in my stumpy
walking shoes. All in all I’m not encouraged. Time for another cup of
tea and a gingernut biscuit..