We never got a good reception in the two years we were there, except for when we play at the Nashville Club (in London)." So we'd go from one song right into the other, because if there was any space in between, the booing would start.
If we got through all of our songs without booing, we were doing good. "We supported Thin Lizzy on their 'Live and Dangerous' tour, and we did terrible," he said. Lewis laughed as he recalled Clover touring as the opening band for Thin Lizzy, then at the height of its European stardom. But the day we landed was the day (Sex Pistols singer) Johny Rotten spit in the face of reporter, and the (punk-rock) game was on!" "So Jake and Dave conspired to bring Clover to London and we were going to take the country by storm with authentic pub-rock. Clover sold 9 albums in America and 7 in London, and 2 of those 7 were to Brinsley Schwarz and Nick. So he passed our albums around to his pals in Brinsley Schwarz. In fact, Clover was on Fantasy Records, which came out in England on on Liberty Records, where Dave had worked. "And people like Nick Lowe and (his former band) Brinsley Schwarz, and all their pals, were into pub-rock a kind of country-rock thing that Clover had sort of pioneered. "Jake schemed on it, because London was in a lull at the time,"Lewis, 63, recalled. Those artists ranged from Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe and the band City Boy to Thin Lizzy and former model Twiggy, whose 1977 album, "Please Get My Name Right," also featured several other Clover members.īy coincidence, it was Costello's soon-to-be manager, Jake Riviera, and Dave Robinson, who Stiff Records label released Costello's first album, who instigated Clover's move to London from Marin County in the first place. Lewis and lead singer Alex Call were the only Clover members who didn’t play on Elvis Costello’s classic debut album, “My Aim Is True.” Lewis was invited by Costello to play harmonica on a song, but took a vacation in Amsterdam instead.īut Lewis ended up guesting on harmonica on a wide array of albums by other artists during Clover's English sojourn. If Clover doesn’t work out, I’ll surround myself with my favorite musicians and play my favorite music, for the hell of it.’ And that’s what I did.” I didn’t like the music very much, but I loved their stance.
#Thin lizzy singer lynott crossword how to
I got my inspiration from the punks teaching me how to break the rules. We supported Thin Lizzy on their ‘Live and Dangerous’ tour, and (Lizzy leader) Phil Lynott took me under his wings and taught me how to run a band. In the two years we were there, I can only recall one time we didn’t get booed by audiences. “We arrived in England the day (punk ignited). (Clash singer) Joe Strummer was just covered, from head to toe, in saliva from the crowd spitting on him,” recalled Lewis, who performs a sold-out show here at Humphreys Thursday night with the News on their 30th anniversary “Sports” tour.
“We went to the first gig by The Clash at the Roundhouse in London, and it was jaw-dropping. Or it would have fit perfectly, if not for the timing of Clover's arrival. The group’s rootsy American style fit in perfectly with the London pub-rock scene that helped incubate punk. Less documented is the inspiration Lewis got seven years earlier from his friendship with the hard-rocking Irish band Thin Lizzy and from being able to witness the English punk-rock revolution of the mid-1970s up close.īoth factors came into play when he moved to London in 1976 as the harmonica player in the San Francisco country-rock band Clover, which had been signed by Phonogram Records in England. The Bay Area band’s third album, 1983’s “Sports,” sold nearly 10 million copies and yielded four Top 10 singles, including “I Want a New Drug” and the self-defining “The Heart of Rock & Roll.”įueled by constant MTV airplay, "Sports" transformed Lewis and his group into major stars. As the leader of Huey Lewis & The News, the singer born Hugh Anthony Cregg III achieved international fame and fortune in the 1980s.
0 kommentar(er)
