Flang Dang

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Andy Fairweather Low speaks to Jason Barnard about his new album Flang Dang, his first solo album in 17 years. He also covers his highlights from his time as lead singer of Amen Corner, solo hits and time playing with Roger Waters, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. The album’s got a real classic sound that doesn’t date. You’ve got elements of blues and country but it’s one of those albums that you could listen to in 20 years time and it will just be timeless. Is that something that you aim for?

Jase, thank you. You know it’s been years since I’ve talked. Now, this album was done in 2019, and 2020 it was finished. So, yeah, I’m getting to talk and, like I say, I love it and thank you. Thank you for liking the album. I love it.Oh God. Oh yes. They certainly− We’d gone in at a certain level and we were passed around at that level and then finally ended up we were sold to Andrew Oldham with Immediate and then he went into liquidation, put himself in as the biggest guy who’s owed the most money − and just a total mess. Split up Amen Corner and just got rid of it. Got rid of those people. Best thing we ever did. We never got the money but, had I got the money, I wouldn’t have done anything good with it. I wouldn’t have had anything sensible. I would have just had further to fall because I was definitely on my way down. The turning point was the birth of his son. “I was on the baby shift, drinking vodka, watching the tennis and went: ‘Yeahhhh!’ Broken glass everywhere. I thought: ‘I can’t keep doing this.’” He had already stopped smoking in 1971 after coughing up blood. “You need the moment to be bad enough that you remember it.” What else? Well, my friend Alan Rogan who’s not with us any more but a fabulous guy, always said, ‘Andy, you need a Telecaster,’ and I’m going, ‘I don’t.’ ATelecaster is a man’s guitar, y’know? You’ve got to know what you’re doing with a Tele. But Alan spoke to Bill Nash and said, ‘You need to make Andy a Telecaster,’ and he sent it to me and that’s on the album, too. Stars feel kindly towards him. When Low was on his uppers, Clapton sent a telegram of encouragement before a chance meeting in a studio led to a 30-plus year working relationship. Low played with Roger Waters for 23 years. “A lot of people don’t take to Roger for many reasons, but he treated me unbelievably well,” he says. You use some interesting effects on this latest album. The lead tone on Waiting For The Up , for example, sounds like a heavy fuzz sound…

Memphis Minnie was a masterful guitarist who played intricate fingerstyle arrangements that accompanied her strong voice.The guitar parts in these examples reflect the anguish and urgency of the vocals. If you play along with the original recording, use a capo at the sixth fret. Tone’s very important to me. If you’ve not got tone, then it’s just a waste of time – it’s just rambling notes with a scratchy sort of metallic sound. No, forget it. You know, your BB Kings, your Albert Kings, your Freddie Kings… The way it was, you plugged into an amp, whatever state the valves were in, whatever state the wood and the speakers were in, you plug the lead in and that’s what it sounded like. And another artist that you’ve worked with is George Harrison and he tried to get you involved in some of the solo work in the 70s, didn’t he? Johnson employed this style of bass-driven playing from time to time, but more often he would break up the sound. For instance, in Ex. 2, which is similar to a motif in his “Terraplane Blues,” the I chord sounds quite different. It still starts out with the low-bass sound courtesy of the fifth and fourth strings, but then jumps to the higher strings, hitting G-type chords.The stuff that he did. Even songs that arguably are slightly lesser known like ‘Old Brown Shoe’ are just classics. He played in Bob Dylan’s band for a charity gig at Madison Square Garden in 1999. “Bob was fabulous and talkative,” he remembers. “He wanted to know about a particular chord I played on Malted Milk, on Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album – a favourite song. He knew who I was.” On stage for the gig, Low says that Dylan would shout, “God – go,” at his band, leaving Low and the other musicians thinking: “Which one? He’s got three songs with God in the title!” My perspective on music since Sweet Soulful Music has not really changed. It’s always the same approach. It was my demos then, it’s my demos now. And I have days when I’m sort of spiritual and I have days when I’m not. In 1965 I was there, and the staircase that Iput my foot on is still there. And I put my foot on it again. It was a bizarre feeling, but it was also the perfect thing. Two years of Covid, didn’t know what to do. And then Kingsley (Ward), suggested that I come down. And I thought, you know what? I think I’ll take Kingsley up on his offer. And I did.

That’s great Andy. What a pleasure it is to speak with you and even greater pleasure to listen to your fantastic new album. I wish you all the best with that release and just to say thank you so much for your time today. Ahead of Flang Dang’s release, Fairweather Low has unveiled the groove-laden "Somebody Wants My Soul." A mix of styles with the Amen Corner. You’ve got things like ‘Gin House Blues’ [released in UK as ‘Gin House’ although the DJ/promo copies had the full title] and then you’ve got the more pop side like ‘Bend Me Shape Me’ where you were kind of pushed in a more commercial direction? I refuse to reignite the Amen Corner franchise. I get invited to be a guest on shows and they want me to be who I was, and I’m too old to be who I was. This is a period for me to bewho I am.” Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.There are sort of a lot of soulful and gospel-tinged songs, mind you, there’s a bit of blues, there’s a bit of ska, there’s a bit of country, there’s a bit of everything. It’s everything I’ve ever listened to. My perspective on music since “Sweet Soulful Music” in 2007has not really changed. It’s always the same approach, it was my demos then, it’s my demos now. And I have days when I’m sort of spiritual and I have days when I’m not, It’s a constant conversation. So, I’m not tied down to anything.” Yes. Joe got hold of that. The reason Joe got hold of that too was Ethan Johns, Glyn’s son, produced that album. There’s the connection for that. They like that song so much. His album was called Hymn For My Soul and his tour that he went out with was called the Hymn For My Soul Tour so, I mean, there you go. You know I should retire now and go, “Right that’s it. We’re done.” And I love Joe’s version of it too. There’s a couple of great songs on that album, but I would say that wouldn’t I?

FLANG DANG oozes with the kind of blues, country, and gospel that Andy has made his own; a style once described as a “prayer without pretension in every infectious song.” Oh yes. “I am waiting on for things to come my way.” Like I say, they don’t come easy, those things, but I do spend a lot of time− ‘Somebody Wants My Soul’. God. I mean the groove on that. And ‘Darker The Midnight’. I love that in fact, good grief, ‘Got Me a Party’. I made my demo of ‘Got Me a Party’− I filmed myself− A cousin of mine came in and in my front room I filmed a version of me with my demo. I played my guitar along with it. It’s hard writing a simple song and that’s a simple song. I like the lyric. I like the groove and I love the solo. The solo took me ages but it’s kind of got an op divider on it. Yeah, I’m proud of that album Flang Dang. And I like the title of the album. I love the album cover. I’m a happy budgie at the moment. Amen Corner, pictured in the 1960s in Australia: (from left) Alan Jones, Dennis Bryon, Clive Taylor (top), Neil Jones (below), Low, Blue Weaver and Mike Smith. Photograph: GAB Archive/Redferns The whole album has the patina of maturity that you would expect from someone with such a huge wealth of experience as a musician and a gentleman. It took three weeks, just myself and Beavis in there, and making the album for me, nobody else. And Kingsley was just so generous, it was a fabulous moment.”

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Low grew up in Ystrad Mynach, Glamorgan, in a council house with no heating and an outside loo: “So when it was cold you had to really need to go.” His life changed when he saw the Rolling Stones at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens in 1964, aged 15. “From that moment, my education was finished. I stopped revising, everything.” A job in a music shop gave him access to guitars and he formed the Taff Beats, the Firebrands and the Sect Maniacs before becoming a teenage idol with psychedelic era popsters Amen Corner. “Our house had the curtains closed because [the fans] were all outside camping on the lawn,” he says.