A Long Gig in 1976 (continued)

Why I'm going back 37 years in my life I'm not sure. Maybe I'm trying to convince myself that playing with all those different musicians was character building.

After being fired from "The Top of The Carlton" on New Year's Eve 1976, I spent the next couple of days contemplating what the future may hold for an unemployed musician with numerous accounts at the local music shops.
I had a Hohner Electric Piano on appro', my dream synth Arp Odyssey was at that stage still a dream, the Hammond L100 wasn't paid for yet,and neither was my Marshall 100 Watt Lead Amp that I used to power my two home built "Leslie" cabinets.
Home built sounds so much better than home made...

In those days you could buy a "Leslie" kit from a company called Polliacks in Johannesburg.
At that stage I hadn't had the opportunity to learn to drive, let alone own a car, so you can picture this: I take the bus from Hillbrow to town; the next bus will drop me near Polliacks.
I then walk to the company, buy the "Leslie" kit which comprised of a polystyrene drum, drive belt, motor etc. and was subsequently quite a handful. Then walk back to the bus stop, wait for the bus to town, catch the connecting bus to Hillbrow and then walk back to the flat, only to be in time for the four o'clock argument.

This of course was another way to build character...

I've always been very handy with woodwork and as a result made this brilliant "Leslie" speaker cabinet that ultimately had two revolving drums - one at the top and one at the bottom. The sound was amazing!
The only problem was that I'd built it in the flat and had failed to measure the width of the flat's front door.
I, nor anybody else could get the speaker cabinet out of the flat!
With my woodworking skills in those days, I didn't glue and screw everything together (luckily), so I managed to take it all to bits, remeasure, and landed up with two smaller and much more manageable cabinets.

I've become a bit side tracked here talking about my gear from the 70's.

The "Carlton" contract was due to finish end of January 1977.
My dear friend Anton and I had decided to form a trio which we thought was going to be the trio to end all trios.
Anton knew this drummer Gary, from Cape Town. He moved up to Johannesburg three months before the "Carlton" gig was finishing. We made this arrangement with the "Top of The Carlton" manager that we could rehearse after the band's performance.
So what would happen was we'd play our cheesy repertoire, back whatever "cabaret" act was booked, play more cheesy stuff and finish at more or less 1:00 am. (The gig was from 9 till 1).
The others in the band would then go home and Anton, myself and Gary would rehearse from around 2:00am till about 4:00am, sometimes 5:00am. 
Gary had a car - so no taxis for us in the wee hours Jim!
And more importantly no 4:00am arguments - she was asleep.

The hotel manager and the 'band leader' decided in their infinite wisdom that they needed me back to finish the last month of the contract. Not being in a financial situation to tell them to shove it, plus we were quite pleased with the "free" rehearsal room, I agreed.
The remainder of the contract was without incident except after the one late rehearsal.
It must have been about 4:00 am, and we were finished, (in more ways than one), when one of the night cleaning staff asked us if we could please give him a lift home.
We said as long as Gary doesn't mind - Gary's cool, so we all pile into the car and take this guy to Soweto!
In 1977 in South Africa, you did not go to Soweto at 4:30 in the morning unless your were up to something nefarious.
We, in our non political innocence, go sailing into Soweto, following the cleaners directions, only to discover a set of serious headlights following us.
When we'd dropped our friend at his house, these huge cops got out the police van that had been following us and demanded that they escort us to the police station.
We were interrogated for possibly an hour! What are you doing here?, How do you know where this man lives etc. etc. Plus we all had long hair and were musicians - obviously part of the uprising!
After a lot of talking we were allowed to leave, but not without a police escort to make sure we really did leave.
My one and only time in Soweto.

A long gig in 1976

In 1976 I played at the Top of The Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg, at that time one of the most prestigious hotels in South Africa.
I'll never forget walking through the foyer and approaching the lifts and before your finger was even near the button you would receive the most painful static electric shock! So much for expensive hotel carpets.
And this was before you were to start playing the piano - with shocked fingers. After this had happened a few times I would hang around the elevator until someone else pressed the button and they could get zapped.
Amazingly I was never late for the gig even if it meant waiting a while for some poor unsuspecting guest. I sometimes wandered what the receptionists thought of this long haired musician lurking around the foyer.
In those days my hair was half way down to my waist and of course being the Carlton, they wanted the "correct image" and told me to cut my hair - wrong thing to "tell" a 20 year old up and coming Rock Star what to do with his hair. I needed the money and the work so I cut it a little bit.
Not enough! boomed the General Manager and also the Band Leader who was so far up the G.M.'s you know what, that he never saw daylight.
So I agreed to wear my hair in a ponytail, with a velvet band to tie it up in.
Post 1990, lawyers etc. wore their hair in ponytails, but in 1976 if you wore your hair in a ponytail there would be a few raised eyebrows and you were regarded as having questionable sexual preferences.
Apart from having the most cheesy repertoire one could imagine, the band also backed cabaret.
Now as in all fields of the arts there is good and there is bad. With the cabaret artists that came over from England and the U.S. there were also two categories - bad and absolute rubbish.
These were the acts that were working the B circuit overseas, coming out here, earning big money and thinking they were Sinatra or Bassey!
One of the first acts that I encountered was this woman who had a voice that could stop an army at five thousand paces. Her finale number was a piece called Jerusalem - not the Emerson, Lake and Palmer version needless to say.
She presents everyone with the music, I look at the chart and the introduction chords are the most complicated I'd ever seen. I didn't know you could fit that many dots on a page.

I can read music, but this was something else. There are players who'll take one look and play the piece straight away. Not me - I was more interested in learning the intro to Jon Lord's Lazy.
So I took my pencil and started to write guidelines next to the chords so I could figure out what they were. 
This voice, that would make fingernails on a chalk board desirable says, what do you think you're doing?
I'm just putting some guidelines in, I say.
You are defacing my music she screams, and demands that the General Manager is called immediately.
Giving the word humility a different meaning, I am told by the G.M., the Band Leader and this Sow, that my Hammond Organ playing is good, but my Piano playing needs a lot of practice.

I hated it and stuck it out for 8 months.
New Year's Eve 1976 and we are backstage and Anton, my dear friend and also the Bass Player (with longer hair than mine) says, it's New Year's Eve, why don't you scrap the ponytail and "let your hair down"?
So I did.
I get on stage and the Band Leader (how I detest that expression) says, where's your ponytail?
I say, come on it's New Year's Eve.
He says, either you put your hair in a pony tail right now or else you can F... Off out of my band!
I say, are you serious?
He says, either you put your hair in a pony tail right now or else you can F... Off out of my band!

I switch off the Hammond, pack up my Violin etc. and left, with threats of 'you'll never work in this city again' echoing in my ears.
Down in the foyer the cabaret artist had just arrived (one of the better ones).
A: Hello Gordon, where are you going?
Me: I've just been fired!
A: What about my act?
Me: Speak to the Band Leader!
Took a taxi back to my flat in Hillbrow and spent a very quiet New Year's Eve.

To be continued ...