<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the last few months I was still playing in a band with three airmen from KI Sawyer Air Force Base, our bass player loaned me an album by a band called Trapeze.\u00a0 Lee said, \u201cThere is a song called <\/span>Black Cloud<\/span><\/i> on it I really want us to learn.\u00a0 As was my custom, I made a cassette tape of the whole album to listen to in my vehicle as I motored around town (or back and forth to my summer job at the Huron Mountain Club).\u00a0 I found if I sang along with a song when traveling, it made it much easier to learn with the band.\u00a0 We never did get the chance to work it up, however.\u00a0 A couple of weeks later, our guitar player Ray \u2018The Human Jukebox\u2019 announced he was mustering out just before summer.\u00a0 Ray had an incredible backlog of songs he could recall on a moment’s notice, but he was also always on the lookout for new material.\u00a0 We were able to use his \u2018jukebox like\u2019 memory to play songs requested at gigs and to quickly work up new songs.\u00a0 I am sure he would not have had trouble doing an arrangement of <\/span>Black Cloud.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Knockdown disbanding worked out for the best as my summer employment changed the next\u00a0 summer.\u00a0 I would no longer be working at the HMC (which I had done in 1971, 1972 and 1973).\u00a0 My kitchen manager there had been gracious enough to let me off work early two or three evening shifts a week in \u201872 and \u201873 so I could keep playing band jobs during the lucrative wedding reception season.\u00a0 The summer of \u201874, I was hired to work at Northern Michigan University\u2019s Field Station located just south of Pictured Rocks National Shoreline, not quite halfway between Munising and Grand Marais.\u00a0 My job there included being the resident manager on the weekends.\u00a0 Someone had to be there to keep the electric generator running, mow the lawn, and cook for any students who stayed over the weekend.\u00a0 Playing band jobs would have been out of the question.\u00a0 None-the-less, I kept playing that album (<\/span>Medusa)<\/span><\/i> over and over again.\u00a0 I added their greatest hits album called <\/span>The Final Swing<\/span><\/i> (released in 1974) to my own collection and it also traveled well.\u00a0 As much as I loved Trapeze, none of my bands ever got around to learning one of their songs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, I got into Trapeze just as they were making a second big change in personnel.\u00a0 Bassist \/vocalist\/songwriter Glenn Hughes had been summoned to join Deep Purple upon the departure of their original members Roger Glover and Ian Gillan.\u00a0 Hughes and singer David Coverdale joined Purple in time to record the album <\/span>Burn<\/span><\/i> (1973), thus bringing an end to the classic version of Trapeze and Deep Purple at the same time.\u00a0 When Deep Purple broke up for the first time, Hughes returned to Trapeze a couple of times before heading out on his own.\u00a0 Trapeze eventually went the \u2018nine or ten new members\u2019 route before calling it a day.\u00a0 Perhaps it would be best to go back to the very beginning and ponder what might have been had Deep Purple not lured Glenn Hughes away just as Trapeze was gaining a solid footing across the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Glenn Hughes grew up in the West Midlands town of Cannock idolizing three guitarists:\u00a0 George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and a local lad from his school by the name of Mel Galley.\u00a0 Galley was a bit older but he influenced Hughes enough that Glenn ditched trombone in favor of playing guitar.\u00a0 At 17, he was offered a chance to join Galley in a local cover band called Finders Keepers as a bass player.\u00a0 Near the end of the 60s, their manager decided to put Galley, Hughes, and drummer Dave Holland in a new band with a couple of older members of another local band, The Montanas.\u00a0 With singer\/trumpeter John Jones and keyboardist Terry Rowley, this new group became the first incarnation of Trapeze..<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band recorded and released an eponymous album in 1970.\u00a0 One song, the ballad <\/span>Send Me No More Letters<\/span><\/i> caught the ear of two of the Beatles\u2019 inside guys, Neil Aspinall, the head of Apple Corps, and one time roadie Mal Evans.\u00a0 After seeing a couple of their early shows in London, the duo recruited them to record for the Fab Four\u2019s label, Apple.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t exactly work out as Hughes recalled, \u201cWe went down to the Apple studio at 3 Savile Row.\u00a0 They had just had this new sound board flown over from America, but the engineers were so stoned on pot they couldn\u2019t figure how to operate it.\u00a0 We were surrounded by greatness, all these drums and guitars that The Beatles had used, but no one was capable of recording us.\u00a0 After two days of hanging around the place we just left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They landed on The Moody Blues newly created label, Threshold Records, and Moody bassist John Lodge produced their first album.\u00a0 The band\u2019s manager concluded that the young\u00a0 Hughes was the better singer (news to Glenn who says he didn\u2019t even know he could sing, let alone play bass and sing ala Jack Bruce of Cream) so he was featured on the first album.\u00a0 Soon after the album was released, Jones and Rowley returned to The Montanas leaving the former quintet as a power trio.\u00a0 Power trios were very much in vogue at the time (think Cream, The Who, Blue Cheer, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience) so it was the right time for them to carry on with that lineup.\u00a0 In the five months after their first album came out, the band cranked out <\/span>Medusa<\/span><\/i> which hit the market in November of 1970 (a good two and a half years before I was introduced to them).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hughes was still adapting to the new situation. \u00a0 He told <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Paul Rees, \u201c[<\/span>Medusa<\/span><\/i>] is a beautiful piece of music.\u00a0 I was still getting used to coming out of a band that was four-part harmony based and my voice was a little thinner then, but I was very influenced by Steve Marriott (from Humble Pie) and the great soul-rock singers.\u00a0 When you cross rock and soul, that\u2019s what I am all about.\u00a0 I wrote the closing title track in two parts.\u00a0 The intro is very melodic and American West Coast-sounding, and the second part is riffy and heavy.\u00a0 Ever since, I\u2019ve carried that kind of crossover with me.\u201d\u00a0 Hughes certainly has continued on this track when one listens to his most recent work with both The Dead Daisies, The California Breed, and the supergroup Black Country Communion.\u00a0 His collaborations with BCC bandmates Joe Bonamassa (guitar), Derek Sherinian (keyboards), and drummer Jason Bonham contain signature moments that display both Hughes\u2019 melodic and heavy riffing styles.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Moody Blues took their new charges on tour in America even before the release of their sophomore album.\u00a0 Playing to tens of thousands of Moody Blues fans was certainly a good introduction to the States but for some reason, Texas really loved the band.\u00a0 Glenn told Rees, \u201cBy the time we got to Texas in December of 1970, they took to us like we were Texans.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the rocket ship lifted off.\u201d\u00a0 Trapeze would criss-cross the United States four times supporting <\/span>Medusa<\/span><\/i> and even though they didn\u2019t break big nationwide, they built solid pockets of support across the south and on both coasts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Spending so much time in the States also started to have an effect on Hughes and Galley as the songs they were writing began taking on a more \u2018American\u2019 sound.\u00a0 As an avid collector of vinyl records, Glenn explained, \u201cAt that time, Crosty, Stills and Nash, Stevie Wonder, and Sly and the Family Stone were all going through my head.\u00a0 The third album (<\/span>You Are the Music\u2026We\u2019re Just the Band (1972)<\/span><\/i>) was a very progressive record and entirely different to <\/span>Medusa<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I was still just nineteen, twenty and growing as a songwriter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore caught one of the four shows Trapeze played at LA\u2019s legendary Whisky a Go Go in the fall of 1972.\u00a0 Purple drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord caught another.\u00a0 Blackmore was at odds with Purple\u2019s singer Ian Gillan and was already contemplating booting him and bassist Roger Glover from the band.\u00a0 Blackmore kept in touch for nine months and finally flew Hughes to New York City to see DP at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 After that show, Purple popped the question:\u00a0 \u201cWould you like to play bass in our band?\u201d\u00a0 Glenn protested that he was also a singer and their reply, \u201cWe are going to ask Paul Rodger\u2019s to sing,\u201d was good enough for him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m in!\u201d Hughes told them, \u201cWhere do I sign?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It turned out Rodgers declined joining as he was in the process of forming Bad Company.\u00a0 When they commenced recording the <\/span>Burn <\/span><\/i>album (and later <\/span>Stormbringer<\/span><\/i>), Hughes found himself sharing the stage and some vocals with a young unknown singer named David Coverdale.\u00a0 If joining a mega band like Deep Purple wasn\u2019t enough pressure, they made their live debut in front of 400,000 people at California Jam in April of 1974.\u00a0 Things again went south and not long after, Blackmore himself quit the band.\u00a0 Purple ground to a halt, disbanding in March of 1976.\u00a0 Hughes tried to cope with the situation by binging on cocaine and booze.\u00a0 He was a mess and no doubt this dive toward the bottom was (eventually) instrumental in him becoming a tee-totalling advocate against those two rockstar killing substances.\u00a0 Luckily he survived, but it would take a while for him to right the ship.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hughes retreated to his beloved Black Country and began working on a solo record (<\/span>1977\u2019s Play Me Out<\/span><\/i>) with the help of his old bandmates, Galley and Holland.\u00a0 They felt good working together again and one thing led to another.\u00a0 Trapeze was reborn as a touring unit when Glenn called his American agent and asked him how it looked for them to tour there again.\u00a0 They rehearsed and started the tour but it didn\u2019t take long for the good vibes to disappear.\u00a0 Hughes had taken up with Linda Blair (yes, she of <\/span>Exorcist <\/span><\/i>fame) and she was on a self-destructive path that made them a mess, couple-wise.\u00a0 Hughes bailed out of the tour:\u00a0 \u201cIt was a difficult time for me,\u201c he recalled, \u201cI wasn\u2019t in the greatest head space and was doing what I was doing.\u00a0 You know the story.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just say I was over-serviced at the bar.\u00a0 It was the wrong time for me to do a tour.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mel Galley and Dave Holland would try to regroup Trapeze but they never regained their mojo.\u00a0 Galley eventually joined Coverdale\u2019s Whitesnake for a short spell and Holland went on to drum for Judas Priest.\u00a0 Hughes sobered up and pursued a solo career before he started band hopping between various superstar projects.\u00a0 Eighteen years after the first disastrous attempts at a reunion, they tried again.\u00a0 It lasted twenty dates but this time, the now sober Hughes bailed for another reason:\u00a0 \u201cThe shows were great, but I was a sober man now and other people weren\u2019t. \u00a0 I love my friends, but I couldn\u2019t be around people who were not.\u201d\u00a0 Those 1994 shows would be their last except for the occasional one-off reunion.\u00a0 There are a couple of albums out there from two of these reunion tours, one featuring former Yes (and future Asia) keyboardist Geoff Downes but they have been a little difficult to lay hands on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sadly, Mel Galley died from cancer in 2008 at the too young age of 60.\u00a0 Holland departed this mortal coil in January 2018 (one of the reasons for Rees\u2019s interview with Hughes) due to lung cancer.\u00a0 There was a darker chapter in Holland\u2019s story.\u00a0 The drummer was convicted of indecent assault of a 17-year old who had been taking drum lessons from Holland.\u00a0 He went to his grave still protesting his innocence but the courts didn\u2019t see it that way at the time.\u00a0 Holland spent eight years in prison.\u00a0 In 2006, while working on an autobiography, Holland wrote to author Neil Daniels, \u201cI was convicted of a crime that I didn\u2019t commit, and like so many others in similar situations to the one in which I find myself, [I paid for] an offense that never even existed in the first place.\u201d\u00a0 Holland\u2019s career was a dumpster fire from that point on.\u00a0 Before his conviction, he had been recording with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi but after his conviction, those tracks were scrubbed and re-recorded with a different drummer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In an interesting pop music twist, Holland had actually been the drummer for a\u00a0 group called Pinkerton’s Assorted Colors back in 1965.\u00a0 After he left to join Finders Keepers (where he met up with Glenn Hughes and Mel Galley, who would later take him along when they formed Trapeze), Pinkerton\u2019s morphed into a band called The Flying Machine.\u00a0 The Flying Machine\u00a0 scored a one-off pop hit with the song <\/span>Smile A Little Smile For Me <\/span><\/i>in 1969.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the time of Holland\u2019s death, Hughes mused about how things turned out in the end:\u00a0 \u201cAt one time, I couldn’t have put bets on me being the only one left.\u00a0 We were just kids in Trapeze and obviously there was all that stuff with Dave that happened afterwards, and that I wasn\u2019t privy to.\u00a0 But the memories of that band are ones that will stay with me forever.\u201d\u00a0 Rees concurs and cites their early album\u2019s as the band\u2019s true legacy.\u00a0 Had Deep Purple not knocked on Glenn Hughes\u2019 door, one can only speculate how far Trapeze could have gone up the ladder.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0\u00a0You Are The Music\u00a0<\/em>fr0m the reunion tour that would be aborted because Glenn Hughes was entangled with actress Linda Blair and they both were having substance abuse problems – a wreck of a couple that wrecked the reunion – good thing Hughes would get sober soon after!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the last few months I was still playing in a band with three airmen from KI Sawyer Air Force Base, our bass player loaned me an album by a band called Trapeze.\u00a0 Lee said, \u201cThere is a song called Black Cloud on it I really want us to learn.\u00a0 As was my custom, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3208,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions\/3208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}