Band Of Joy Issue Notes:
Original BBC Recordings
The BBC tradition of inviting artists into BBC studios to perform and record sessions exclusively for broadcast has created a Music archive unique to the world.
Band of Joy is privileged to have been granted the opportunity to present this remarkable series of recording sessions featuring internationally acclaimed artists 'In session'. Informed fans and collectors world wide are indebted to the BBC programme producers, studio producers, engineers and, of course, to the artists who kindly gave permission for their work to appear.
The first time I met Stan Webb we were stepping over sleeping bags and supine bodies at the Windsor Jazz Festival. Chicken Shack had just made a very impressive debut but neither he nor his bass player, Andy Sylvester, had a bed to sleep in that night. That's how the three of us ended up spending a very flatulent night in a friend's car, the frequent evacuation of which resulted in four flat tyres the following morning. Of such epic sagas are friendships made.
Chicken Shack were the second major signing for Mike Vernon's infant Blue Horizon label and totally different from Fleetwood Mac. Stan was a hot-shot guitarist who punctuated lyrical blues lines with percussive chords and fretboard abuse. The band was unique for the time in having Christine Perfect as their pianist and more-than-part-time vocalist. She was as undemonstrative on stage as Stan was extrovert and the contrast lent tension to their performances. Underpinning them were Andy and drummer Dave Bidwell who was almost the first of his kind to perfect the Fred Below backbeat shuffle.
It was Christine that brought the band its biggest chart success, 'I'd Rather Go Blind', a live version of which appears on this compilation. She left to become Mrs McVie and Paul Raymonde took over on keyboards. The band moved into wider musical realms and rather lost its direction. By the time our paths crossed again, I'd become a record producer and Stan had a power blues trio with John Glascock on bass and Paul Hancox on drums. We made two albums for Decca, 'Imagination Lady' and 'Unlucky Boy'. 'Telling Your Fortune' was on the first one and served as a sandwich for a grandstand drum solo; the BBC version was much more compact.
Stan played the wild man for a number of years but eventually the extrovertion wore out its welcome, both for him and us. Since then, he's been getting on with what he knows best and his band is currently one of the better kept secrets around the clubs. Stan thinks he deserves another crack at the big time - and I agree with him.
NEIL SLAVEN
"Stan would like to add that while he remembers these old days and recordings with fondness, both he and his music have moved on. He suggests you might also check out his new album CHANGES"
(P) 1991 BBC Enterprises Ltd.
(C) 1991 Band Of Joy Music Limited
BBC Radio One 97-99 FM
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Released by arrangement with BBC Enterprises Ltd. Manufactured in Great Britain.
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Made in UK
Comopact Disc Digital Audio
5 017644 9 26
On Air (1991) - 