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No Parole
From Rock n’ Roll – An exclusive interview with Graham Bonnet |
By
Ryan Sparks
Over the past
thirty years vocalist Graham Bonnet has had the dubious honor of sharing
stages all over the world with some of the most influential guitarists
of our time. He had his first hit single in the late 60’s as part of a
duo called The Marbles, an outfit he formed with his cousin Trevor
Gordon. When The Marbles folded up shop at the end of that decade Graham
eventually moved on to a solo career, but it wasn’t until guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore enlisted him to replace Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow
that the music world at large began to take notice.
While his short
blonde hair, aviator sunglasses and James Dean appearance didn’t exactly
go over that well with the man in black or the bands diehard fans for
that matter, all it took was one listen to his impressive vocal range to
realize that that looks can certainly be deceiving. Bonnet’s work on
Rainbows Down To Earth album in 1979 proved to be one of the main
catalysts towards steering the band in a more commercial direction as
they notched two top ten singles in the U.K. with ”All Night Long” and
the Russ Ballard penned “Since You’ve Been Gone”. All was not well
internally though as shortly after the bands successful headlining
appearance at the inaugural Monsters Of Rock Festival the following
year, both Bonnet and drummer Cozy Powell turned in their resignation
papers.
After leaving
Rainbow Graham briefly went back to his solo career before the call came
in to join Michael Schenker’s band. He signed on just time to begin
writing and recording what would become the Assault Attack album.
This record is arguably one of the finest cannons in Schenker’s hit or
miss back catalogue of work. However, their union would also be a short
one, as Graham was sacked after an absolutely disastrous drunken warm up
gig in advance of their appearance at that year’s Reading Festival.
Once again Graham
picked himself up but this time it would be to start a band of his own.
After relocating to California he began to assemble what would become
known as Alcatrazz. Formed with ex-members of the East Coast group New
England this new outfit also boasted a young guitarist named Yngwie
Malmsteen who was quickly making a name for himself. While they released
two very strong albums that remain influential stamps on the early 80’s
hard rock / metal scene the group was unable to keep the momentum going
for very long. Malmsteen came and went, replaced by another relatively
unknown diamond in the rough at the time, Steve Vai. After one album
with Vai, Steve opted for greener pastures when David Lee Roth was
assembling his all star solo band. Alcatrazz soldiered on for one final
and rather forgettable album before disbanding in 1987.
The subsequent
years found Graham involved in many short lived projects, neither of
them coming close to the artistic or commercial success of his time with
Rainbow, Schenker or Alcatrazz. In the past few years Bonnet has put
together a completely new version of Alcatrazz, one which he hopes will
enter the studio in the very near future to create what will be the
first new music to be heard from them in over twenty years. I recently
caught up with Graham to get the lowdown on this new lineup, as well as
his personal reflections on his short lived tenures with Rainbow and
MSG.
Ryan: You’re
working on material right now for the first new Alcatrazz album since
1986. It’s been quite a long time.
Graham: [laughing]
Yeah. The story so far is I’ve been in touch with a few different
outside writers and at the moment there’s one song that we’re definitely
going to do. I got in touch with Russ Ballard who wrote “Since You’ve
Been Gone” for Rainbow and I told him that we wanted to do something
different, something a little more progressive. We talked on the phone
quite a bit so he could understand what I was looking for, which is
something that sounds more 2010 as opposed to 1980, because I want to
get away from that you know?
There will be
elements of the original Alcatrazz sound but we’ve got to do something
new otherwise it will sound like the same old stuff again. So he’s
written a song for us called “My Kingdom Come” which is a very grand
title [laughing]. It’s quite epic and it’s got all of these elements in
it that are heavy, light and in between and whatever you want to call
it, but it’s a really good song. We’ve already started putting the drums
down and we’re going to take it from there. We’re just starting now, I’m
going through songs and I think we’ve got about ten ready to go. We’ve
all been doing different things and it’s not like it used to be where
we’d all go to rehearsal together and stand in the same room. Everything
is done by mail now as you know, so you mail your parts in and do all
the overdubs [laughing]. That’s where we are up to at this point; we
have a lot of choices of what to put on this album, a lot of different
kinds of things. We all want it to be different and I don’t think we
should be scarred of being different, even though it has been a long
while as well. I think the people that liked what we did before always
want to hear something new; they don’t want to hear the same old thing
again.
Ryan: Not to
mention with the exception of yourself you’re doing this with an
altogether different lineup so it should sound fresh in that sense as
well.
Graham: Exactly.
Howie Simon is our guitar player and at the moment our drummer has just
left believe it or not [laughing]. Tim Luce is the bass player. It was
basically the four of us, guitar, bass and drums, so we’re looking for a
drummer eventually for any live gigs that come around, but so far it’s
been pretty bad because of the economy thing. I’ve been off the road now
for about four months which is a bit scary. I’ve been offered gigs but
it’s without the band so I have to go to other countries and play gigs
with pick up bands. Even over in England, we’re working on doing some
stuff over there but they’re coming back to us with these really low
guarantees. You have to pay for your own flight, what the hell is that
all about? We’re trying to get some stuff together as we speak but it’s
been pretty bad.
Ryan: Just to
clarify there are two versions of Alcatrazz currently in circulation.
There’s your band and then there is the version with the other original
members Gary Shea, Jimmy Waldo and Jan Uvena. Who has the rights to the
name at this point?
Graham: You could
have it if you wanted [laughing]. Are they actually going out? As far as
I know they’ve done nothing. They don’t even live in California, one of
them does but how they intend to go out and do gigs I’m not really sure
because as far as I know they all kind of quit the music business. There
was obviously a confrontation between us when they heard that I was
going out and using the name Alcatrazz featuring me the wonderful Graham
[laughing]. There was a whole thing about that and they tried to get the
trademark for the name themselves. There are about six bands called
Alcatraz I can tell you right now there’s two in Germany, one here and
one in England. It’s not just them and I. Apart from everything else all
the songs on the Alcatrazz albums were written by myself and whichever
guitarist was in the band at the time. So if they’re going out as
Alcatrazz they’re obviously doing my songs, but as far as I know I
haven’t seen or heard anything from them over here or in any of the
other countries that I’ve been to at all. I think they’re just doing
this because I didn’t call them up and say “Do you want to be in the
band, should we get the band back together?” I knew that they didn’t
live here anymore so I didn’t see the point.
Ryan: On that note
have you ever had any discussions with them over the years about the
possibility of working together again and how would you classify your
relationship with them today?
Graham: It’s
nonexistent. The only person that I had been in contact with was Jimmy
Waldo. This was when we had a band with Bob Kulick for a short period
called Blackthorne, which died an inevitable death I think [laughing].
It wasn’t meant to be and I wasn’t very happy doing that, it just didn’t
work. We gave it a shot but it didn’t work out. The only phone call I
had was from Gary Shea about a year or so ago saying “You can’t use the
name” and all that kind of stuff. Then there was some angry stuff on
YouTube or one of the websites or whatever putting up all this shit
about me saying that I couldn’t do it on my own and I’m half the man I
used to be yesterday. I’m a shadow of my old self or something you know;
just really putting me down and I thought what are they talking about?
It was really bitter but he called me up three or four times a year or
two ago, really angry and I just said “Gary I don’t want to talk about
this anymore”. I did a little T.V. show out here and I said to the
camera “Now if you’re out there watching this interview guys you’re
welcome to go out there as Alcatrazz and go with my blessing”. They can
be Alcatrazz 1 and we’ll be Alcatrazz 2 and we’ll see who wins the
competition so to speak. They’re going to go out singing my songs so
shit it’s like I’m there anyway.
They’ve also
reissued an album that I’ve received no money from. I think it’s the
second album, the one with Steve Vai but I’m not really sure. They’ve
titled it something else but I forget what it’s called. They’re doing
this behind my back and trying to make money off of mine and Steve’s
songs and mine and Yngwie’s songs, also Danny Johnson who was on the
third album. They’re being a bit sneaky so I’ve got somebody looking
into that for me to see exactly what’s going on.
Ryan: Why did you
decide that now was the right time to give Alcatrazz another kick at the
can?
Graham: The reason
that I use the name, like they want to use it, is for the people that
have a little bit of interest in hard rock, the die hard metal fans or
whatever they want to call it. It means nothing to most people because
we were never a band, we were almost getting there and then things would
fall apart. We lost two of our guitar players to some other guy or
another deal. Steve went with David Lee Roth and Yngwie became a guitar
virtuoso on his own. Danny Johnson went on to work with Steppenwolf.
They all have their own things going on so they don’t care if I use the
name Alcatrazz, they couldn’t give a shit. I think for the other guys it
was a bitter pill for them to take and like “Oh he can’t you do it on
his own kind of thing”. Back to your question though, it was Graham
Bonnet and Don Airy at one point, we had the Bonnet / Airy Band until
Don went with Deep Purple. After that it became The Graham Bonnet Band
with my Alcatrazz guys and it was them who said “Why don’t you use the
name Alcatrazz?” Because it would draw some attention, so it’s a bit of
a sneaky way for someone to take notice that we’re still around I guess
[laughing].
Ryan: The band had
a tumultuous history with as you said three different guitarists on as
many albums. Do you think this instability was detrimental to the music
at all and how do you think those albums hold up today?
Graham: I think it
definitely had a negative effect because I remember the last album we
did with Danny Johnson – we were managed by Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s wife and
she was like “Ok boys you’ve got to change your stuff”. We did those
cover songs and it wasn’t fun. To be honest with you it was the worst
album that I made with the band. I think the first two albums with
Yngwie and Steve were great. The second album we did with Steve is my
favorite and I think it stands up very well today. Whereas the first one
sounds kind of dated because we were doing the big hair metal kind of
thing with two hundred mile an hour guitar solos and all the rest of it.
The second record sounds to me like something you could hear today in a
way because Steve was a little more inventive. He wasn’t quite sure he
was the right guy for the band because he had a different approach to
the music as I did. I got on perfectly with him and that one is my
favorite album.
Ryan: So you were
convinced that Steve was the right man for the job?
Graham: Oh yeah but
he wasn’t [laughing]. I remember the first gig we did he was shitting
himself because he figured they wouldn’t like him and the fans would be
shouting out for Yngwie. I told him that he was a completely different
player and that “You are what you are. You’re Steve Vai and you’re
fucking great”.
Ryan: You figure
anybody that can play in Frank Zappa’s band can hold his own.
Graham: Exactly. As
I said writing songs with him was just a breeze and so much fun to do
because he gave me lots to do. When I played him my arrangements or I
would play him something on my guitar he would turn it around his way
and vice versa. He would give me his ideas and the two of us would work
very closely together. When we did the vocals and stuff in the studio it
would be just him and I doing the vocals while the other guys were doing
their parts in their other studio.
Ryan: You’ve had
the unique opportunity to work with some of the most talented guitarists
in the hard rock arena. People like Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen,
Michael Schenker and Steve Vai. Give me some of your own personal
insight into the character and talents of each of these individuals.
Graham: Well with
Ritchie obviously I have to thank him very much for giving me the job.
He is one of the originals and that’s who Yngwie was influenced by which
I think is pretty obvious. I will always look upon the time that I was
with Rainbow, even though it was a very short time- Ritchie was the guy
who turned my musical tastes around because I was more into R&B and pop
stuff or whatever. He will always be close to my heart because as I said
he was an original and the best guitar player that I had ever heard in
my life when I played with the band. It was just such an exciting thing
to do and to be accepted by the other side of music which I didn’t think
I would be because I had short hair and was into doo-wop and whatever
else. I had nothing to do with metal [laughing].
When Yngwie came
along what I wanted to do was sort of put a Rainbow band together so
when he came along he was the perfect guy for the job. He was very young
and very eager so it was just a magical thing. Yngwie went on to become
something that he very much wanted to be and that was a star, it was
inevitable and I could see it happening. He wasn’t very happy with the
players in the band, he was ok with me but he just didn’t think the
others were good enough to be one of the front men so to speak. So he
left and became successful and the band went down the shitter
[laughing]. Then Steve came along and we were rescued once again. We
made what I think is a great album, we did some gigs and then David Lee
Roth came along and stole him away. Steve was as I said a very easy
person to work with and very humble about everything. There was “No it
has to be done this way”, he always listened to other people.
Michael was – a lot
of his songwriting kind of rambled, we had to edit things down a lot,
but again he’s a different player altogether. I saw Michael play a
couple of years ago and I did a track on his MSG anniversary album. He
asked me to write a tune for that so I did and it was really great to do
that again. Unfortunately Michael and I are very much alike, well we
were. We used to drink a lot which was one thing that screwed up my time
with him because I got totally drunk and made an idiot of myself. I was
fired from the band because of it. We used to drink from morning until
night. Michael and I would be drinking champagne in the morning,
whenever we had the money for champagne that is, and beers throughout
the rest of the day. Michael is a great talent and I’m probably going to
ask him if he can maybe do a track for me possibly for Alcatrazz or for
something else. He told me “I’ll do anything for you anytime Graham”.
We’ve got lots of ideas so Michael might contribute to this new
Alcatrazz album like a couple of other outside writers have, Russ
Ballard being the one people know most.
Ryan: Considering
the revolving door of guitar players and what the band went through I
think those first two albums still stand out as hard rock classics.
Graham: Yeah I just
wish we could convince people throughout the world of that because at
the moment no one wants to see Alcatrazz over here. I do gigs throughout
the world without the band and when I go up onstage what songs am I
singing? I’m singing Alcatrazz songs so what’s up with that picture?
Ryan: For someone
with non hard rock or metal roots as you mentioned how then do you
explain being involved in some of finest recording in the genre?
Graham: Well I
don’t know about that but it’s just another kind of music isn’t it?
That’s all it is. Ritchie was the person who chose me out of the seventy
or so people that auditioned, so it’s his fault that I got into this
little draw here being the so called heavy rock singer or whatever the
hell you want to call it these days. That really wasn’t my thing because
I liked to do all sorts of different things, like The Beatles did. They
did “Helter Skelter” and also “When I’m Sixty-Four” and that’s the kind
of thing I was into, doing everything different and not necessarily in
one way. I liked jazzy things and R&B stuff and loved to play old
fashioned rock ‘n roll and even pop stuff. What happened was when they
were beginning the Down To Earth album they were playing a game
called spot the tune. Cozy Powell would have his tapes of different
tunes from different eras and he happened to play my first record from
back in 1968 which the Bee-Gees wrote called “Only One Woman”.
Ryan: With The
Marbles.
Graham: Right.
After they had auditioned seventy odd singers Ritchie said “Where is he,
didn’t he lose his voice or something?” To make a long story even
longer, it goes on this one doesn’t it? [laughing] He eventually got in
touch with me through Micky Moody who I was working with at the time.
Roger Glover happened to speak to him because he was doing something
with Roger as well, I don’t remember what it was, but Roger called me up
and asked me if I wanted to come over and meet the band and learn one of
our songs. So I had to go out and find Rainbow albums which I didn’t
possess, and learn a song called “Mistreated”. That was my audition
piece and they gave me the job.
Ryan: Looking back
in retrospect when you were asked to join Rainbow it could be said that
on the surface you didn’t appear to be the right guy for the job with
your image and musical background. You and Ritchie seemed diametrically
opposed. A few years prior you were on T.V. shows singing Dylan covers
and here you were entering the hard rock arena and stepping into some
pretty big shoes at the same time.
Graham: Yeah and I
wasn’t sure about it as well. I did the audition and did my party piece
and they told me the job was mine. I said “‘Ok thanks” and went back to
London where I was living at the time. I told my manager that I didn’t
think I was right for the job and that it wasn’t real music [laughing].
I thought it was just loud stuff with some screaming here and there
which was totally wrong. I just had the wrong idea about the whole thing
because it was new to me. He said to me “Now Graham you should do this
because it will be a great challenge for you and you have the voice for
it” and blah, blah blah. What he was really thinking was that he was
going to make some money out of it which of course he did [laughing]. I
wasn’t sure because I didn’t look right and I didn’t particularly like
the albums they’d made before because at that time I loved The Beatles,
Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and all that kind of stuff. I was never into
that so called heavy metal stuff.
Ryan: You were more
into singer / songwriters.
Graham: Yeah. The
so called heavy metal at the time revolved basically around the guitar
player, the guitar solo and the semi practical arrangements and all the
rest of it. That didn’t seem to be a comfortable place for me to be in.
Ryan: The band was
looking to shift gears at the time and go in a more commercial direction
so in that respect you seemed to be an ideal choice.
Graham: Yeah and I
hate to admit it but I think the way that I looked was more appealing to
the female side of the fan base. I mean now when you play it’s all guys
with long hair and beards basically, and they’re all guitar players,
singers and drummers. I had a cleaner cut image and I think that kind of
appealed to a wider audience. Of course we did Russ Ballard’s song
“Since You’ve Been Gone” which was a song that nobody wanted to do
honestly because it was totally pop. Ritchie changed it around as much
as he could to make it a little harder sounding. We kind of left it
until the last because then we could get away with it, but it was our
manager’s idea for us to have a so-called hit record. It worked because
the band became better known after that.
Ryan: The band
turned in a very strong record. That song and “All Night Long” were
definitely more commercial sounding material. This sound actually became
the template for Rainbow’s future records after you left.
Graham: That’s
right.
Ryan: Ritchie was
known for his practical jokes. What was the worst or best joke he ever
played on you? I understand he took exception to one of your shirts on
at least one occasion.
Graham: Oh
everything [laughing]. He would have ripped everything off me I think.
I’d have my aviator Ray Ban’s disappear mysteriously and some of my
Hawaiian shirts, which I was getting fed up with anyway, they would
disappear as well. Some nights I would just go onstage in a white
t-shirt and Levis. I’d just say to hell with it [laughing]. It was a
little silly and the band was kind of annoyed at him for doing such
childish things.
Ryan: Was there any
kind of initiation for you?
Graham: No for some
reason he told everybody to lay off me. There was none of those stupid
jokes that they’d done to each other like piling all the hotel room
furniture into the bathroom and all that sort of thing. Nothing happened
to me. I said to one of the guys one day “How come I haven’t been the
brunt of the jokes?” and he said “We’ve been told not to do that because
he (Ritchie) has great respect for you”. He wasn’t really sure how to
handle me I think, or how I would take it. I don’t know.
Ryan: Your time in
Rainbow was albeit a short one yet it really opened some doors for you.
You were exposed to a much larger audience.
Graham: Yeah
because at that point I was only getting things happening overseas, in
Germany, Australia and all that. I was living in England at the time and
it was nice to turn on the radio and suddenly hear one of my songs
instead of hearing it overseas. But yeah I thank Rainbow for all of
these years that I’ve kept on going.
Ryan: Immediately
after you decided to leave Rainbow you resumed your solo career.
Graham: I did a
solo album called Line Up, which was getting around to that
police, Alcatrazz kind of thing. Cozy was on it, Jon Lord, Micky Moody,
Gary Twig was the bass player, he used to play for a girl called Barbara
Dixon. She had a few hits a long time ago. Do you remember her?
Ryan: No that
might have been before my time.
Graham: Shit I’m
sure it was before anyone’s time [laughing]. So I did that solo album
and after that was when I decided that I should probably put a band
together. The Alcatrazz thing started in my garage in Calabasas
California.
Ryan: Did you have
to audition for Michael’s band?
Graham: No I was
just sent a tape with some arrangements on it. I was just asked to write
some songs around them and come in and be ready to record.
Ryan: You only did
the one album with MSG Assault Attack but that was another
classic album. Two of my all time favorites on are that record,
“Samurai” and “Desert Song”. Do you remember that experience as being a
fond one?
Graham: Umm… it was
a little difficult. Everyone was getting drunk. I have been sober now
for six years. It was pretty much a party every damned day. The producer
Martin Birch would say to me some mornings when I’d go in to the studio
“Graham could you stop?” and I would say “Why what’s up?” He’d say
“You’ve been drinking haven’t you?” and I’d reply “No”. Of course I had,
and when you drink you think you’re doing fine when you’re actually not
[laughing]. So Martin would say “I tell you what we’re going to record
Michael today” and I told him “Well he’s still in bed”. Martin said, “Oh
fuck has he been drinking too?”
Ryan: Sounds like
you guys were a producer’s nightmare.
Graham: Yeah he’d
have to go and have a drink himself [laughing]. It was a weird
experience being out in the middle of nowhere in France, it was very
boring.
Ryan: There was
nothing else to do but drink.
Graham: Exactly.
We’d go out to the winery or the small café’s in the region and all
that. In the end it turned out to be pretty cool because it was a good
album and I was happy with what I’d done on it. That was the first time
that I had written any kind of melodies and lyrics all by myself so it
was good practice for me.
Ryan: I understand
that the words to “Desert Song” were kind of just off the top your head.
Graham: [laughing]
Yeah in fact I was in the rehearsal room just sitting there one evening,
I had a melody and Michael said “Don’t you have any words?” and I said
“No not really” [laughing]. So I just sat there for a while, it was
pretty late and I just started putting down words that came into my
head.
Ryan: There’s some
great imagery in that song.
Graham: Yeah and we
play that song now with Alcatrazz. We’ll play that one and sometimes
“Assault Attack” as well.
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