Unsung heroes...?

September 21, 2012 4:27 PM

This is a lovely interview with the disarmingly gentle, self-effacing Bill Nelson - erstwhile helmsman of Be Bob Deluxe, Red Noise et al. A terrific guitarist and gifted songwriter, I feel that Bill has been a bit underappreciated and is perhaps now almost forgotten. But he was a key inspiration for me as a budding guitarist (the tattooed imprint is still clearly there along with Ronno's) and this quiet Yorkshireman is one of my unsung heroes. Who is/are yours....?
posted by MajorDundee (23 comments total)

I had two main guitar heroes growing up. One was Hendrix, the other was Rory Gallagher.

One of these days I'll actually nail the solo on 'Follow Me'...
posted by TwoWordReview at 4:54 PM on September 21, 2012


Lawrence from Felt was a huge, massive influence on me. More than anyone else really.

Magazine-era John McGeoch.

John Perry of The Only Ones.

Glen Tillbrook (The Only Ones original guitar player, believe it or not). The guitar solo here at 1'45 is one of my faves of all time.

Steve Earle, vastly underrated guitar player. Just fingerstyle rhythm here but the understated syncopation is fantastic.

Lloyd Cole.

Wow, lots of others, but must go eat dinner.
posted by unSane at 5:42 PM on September 21, 2012


If nothing else, Be "Bob" Deluxe is no joke my new favorite band.
posted by grog at 8:05 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ooh I forgot about Felt.
I have Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty and probably haven't listened to it in a few decades.

My heroes are pretty sung for the most part.
I've always sort of slavishly loved Neil Young, and was really into George Harrison as a specific favourite Beatle, which no one really got when I was young but people seem to have caught up to now.

As far as underrated goes, however, there are many people or bands that get me wondering why they never broke huge.
Kirsty MacColl, for example. Such awesome pop songs, and never big outside the UK.

Or the band Flyer, who put out an awesome album in '95 or so called Reveille, which I can't even find on YouTube or anywhere. I remember Michael Stipe saying they were his favourite band at some point and now there's not even a Wikipedia page for them. But I have the CD and it's got some great songs on it.

I always thought the Handsome Family should be bigger but I guess they've found their niche and are doing pretty well.
posted by chococat at 10:11 PM on September 21, 2012


I just had to post another version of that Glenn Tillbrook guitar solo, which is massively endearing. Starts at about 1'00, but watch from the start. In all the live versions of it, he plays it EXACTLY like it is on the record, which gives me a bit of hope as I'm completely incapable of improvising one of the damn things and have to compose them.
posted by unSane at 10:33 PM on September 21, 2012


Yeah but that's pretty much the song he's been playing over and over for like 30 years so I think he's had some time to work with it. It is a nice solo.
That clip made me a bit sad. He looks so lonely and it sounds like there's about 10 people there.
Also it looks like he's playing in front of a big draped coffin with flowers on it.
posted by chococat at 10:42 PM on September 21, 2012


If nothing else, Be "Bob" Deluxe is no joke my new favorite band

Ahh, ok, .....let's see..... When I wrote this I'd taken on board:
1 pint of St Peter's Wheat beer
1 pint of Sambrooks "Pumphouse Pale Ale"
1 pint of Skinners "Betty Stoggs"
1 pint of Wold Top "Scarborough Fair IPA"
2 shots of Jamesons.

So you're lucky grog (how apt) it washnt a whole lot fuckin' worsh..
posted by MajorDundee at 2:16 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't think Glenn's too sad. By all accounts his solo gigs are a hoot. I remember one story about him leading everyone out of the club and into the street, where he lay down in front of a cop car and continued playing.

While I was digging around on YT for clips I came across this lovely clip of Roddy Frame, Edwyn Collins and Tim Burgess doing an acoustic set in a pub earlier this year. Edwyn is in pretty great voice given that he suffered a massive stroke a few years back.

Back in the day, Edwyn and Roddy were enormous rivals -- Roddy was very sneery about Edwyn Collins' guitar playing, but Orange Juice were much more commercially successful, at least for a while. So there's something great about seeing them play together like this.

Another bonus from YT -- GT playing a solo acoustic version of Voodoo Chile, which is great even if you're not into that kind of thing, like me.
posted by unSane at 4:30 AM on September 22, 2012


By all accounts his solo gigs are a hoot.

Oh yeah. Worth seeing even if you're not a huge fan of his music.

him leading everyone out of the club and into the street

yup.
posted by soundguy99 at 11:10 AM on September 22, 2012


1 pint of St Peter's Wheat beer

Mmmmm.
posted by chococat at 5:23 PM on September 22, 2012


I haven't tried the wheat, but the regular St Peter's is like the Platonic Ideal of how beer should taste. A couple of firiends and I were speculating about starting a microbrewery (still are, really) and when we were thinking of the kind of beer we wanted to make, we could not get past St Pete's.
posted by unSane at 5:35 PM on September 22, 2012


Haven't tried the wheat either, don't think I've seen it here. But I bet it's delicious because the Organic Ale is so great. I think I've tried a stout as well.
posted by chococat at 5:39 PM on September 22, 2012


You won't perhaps have seen the St P wheat because, so far as I'm aware, they only brew this for Sainsbury's (a UK supermarket chain) Taste The Difference range where it's called "Suffolk Blonde". I actually wrote a song semi-inspired by it. It is, as you rightly imagine, delicious.

Another recommendation is Fuller's Bengal Lancer IPA - a bottle-conditioned bobby dazzler (great name for a band that...)

You know, we should start a "beer of the month" tag on here. We'd probably get more interest in that than we do in the fucking music!
posted by MajorDundee at 10:03 AM on September 23, 2012


Major, we are pretty restricted with beer here in Ontario. Pretty much all beer sales are handled either by the Beer Store or the Liquor Store (LCBO). So we're restricted to what they will bring in. Luckily the LCBO seems to have opened its eyes about beer recently so we can get some good British beer finally -- St Peter's, London Pride, Abbot, Marston's, that Duchy stuff, London Porter and quite a few others. I haven't seen the Bengal Lancer yet but I will ask about it next time I'm in there. The LCBO's are very good about ordering in stuff for you if they can get it.
posted by unSane at 10:09 AM on September 23, 2012


Well, when you do your ordering see if you can get them to get a case or two of the following for starters:

St Austell Brewery "Tribute"
St Austell Brewery "Proper Job" (a particular fave of mine - delicious bottle-con IPA)
Skinners "Betty Stoggs"
Bath Ales "Gem"
Wickwar Brewery "Station Porter"
Wye Valley Brewery "HPA" (citrus to die for)
Fullers ESP
Fullers 1845
Ridgeway "Ivanhoe IPA"
Marston's "Oyster Stout"
and a couple of kick-assers to finish off:
Morland "Old Crafty Hen"
Greene King "Abbot Reserve".

slainte mhor!!
posted by MajorDundee at 11:18 AM on September 24, 2012


Correction - Fullers ESB
posted by MajorDundee at 11:21 AM on September 24, 2012


I see at least one of these at the LCBO.
They have one of the Fullers (including the London Pride and Porter, which I've had many a time.)
Something called Marston's Pedigree, but no Oyster Stout.
And I've had Old Speckled Hen, but not a Crafty Hen.
posted by chococat at 1:43 PM on September 24, 2012


I kind of doubt that he's truly unsung but Keith Jarret changed my life. True story. I still remember, with utter crystal clarity, the first time I heard a recording of La Scala. I will never be the same again.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:49 PM on September 24, 2012


Marston's Pedigree is a good, reliable if rather mid-table India Pale Ale, chocco. Worth a pop if nothing else takes your fancy. I've sunk many pints of Pedigree in my time.

Old Crafty Hen isn't that easy to find even in the UK - it's a sort of turbo-charged Old Speckled Hen. It weighs in at a heafty 6.5%. More or less the same abv as the Abbot Reserve.

I spotted something else only today that I'll probably take a shot at. Lees' "Manchester Star". It's an eye-watering 7.9% - which, to my taste, is just a bit too strong for an ale and is verging on Barley Wine. Headache material...
posted by MajorDundee at 7:38 AM on September 25, 2012


Pedantic beardy beer-swiller's point: India Pale Ale, for those not familiar with English beer, was specially brewed for export abroad when the sun never set on the empire etc. To survive the long voyages it was brewed a lot stronger than beer for the home market, and was more hoppy and lighter so that its thirst-quenching properties were amplified. Some might argue that IPA is the halfway house between lager and ale. I'd take issue with that, but in descriptive terms it's a point of reference I suppose. It's maybe also a good starting place for those who are more used to lager beers if you want to get into the real stuff ;-)
posted by MajorDundee at 7:46 AM on September 25, 2012


King Curtis. The guy lead Aretha's backing band on at least one tour, and Memphis Soul Stew is one of the coolest songs out there.

And this is going to sound odd, but I'm of the opinion that Mingus is actually under appreciated. People SAY they listen to him, but their copy of Mingus Ah Um usually has a layer of dust 1/4 of an inch thick on it.

"Well, when you do your ordering see if you can get them to get a case or two of the following for starters..."

I haven't had Ivanhoe, but I love Ridgeway.
Isn't Old Crafty Hen bottled in clear glass? I can't make myself buy that just because I don't like buying pre-skunked beer. I had to stop drinking Wee Heavy for the same reason. St. Peter's green bottles are as much of a gamble as I'm willing to take, and that's mainly because I trust one of the stores nearby that sells it, and they do make good beer.

The big one that I see that's missing is J.W. Lee's vintage Harvest Ale, it is Art. I had a bottle (the stuff aged in port casks) I kept around for 5 years for a nice round B-day number, went out and bought myself a chunk of REALLY good blue cheese, and just about cried when I tried the two. Sublime.
posted by Gygesringtone at 8:08 AM on September 25, 2012


"pre-skunked beer" - wahthefuck??

Traditionally ale* comes in brown bottles - so this side of the pond we're not uptight about that. Clear glass is still not all that common. I can't think of another brewer that uses green bottles other than St Pete's.

* and, being pedantic again, we are really talking about ale when discussing English beer. It's a very different thing from other beers being, for a start, hot-brewed. In times gone by it was the only really safe thing to drink (because it had been boiled) - the water quality being pretty risky, especially in towns/cities. The day-to-day stuff people drank then (like tea and coffee now) was called "small beer" because it was very low in alcohol - maybe only 1 or 2 percent. So this is the derivation of the term sometimes used today to describe something trifling. I'm currently reading "A Confederacy Of Dunces" and am very aware that I'm beginning to sound like Ignatius Reilly...
posted by MajorDundee at 8:25 AM on September 25, 2012


"pre-skunked beer" - wahthefuck??

Light struck. When certain wavelengths of light hit the beer they react with chemicals in the hops, and change them into something that is chemically VERY similar to the stuff skunks spray. Traditional brown bottles block enough of that wavelength to slow the process way down. Green bottles, do some to block it, but not much, so if I know the shop takes care to keep their beer out of direct sunlight, chances are decent that St. Peter's should be o.k. Clear bottles do nothing, and the reaction in question is pretty fast. So since Old Crafty Hen comes in clear bottles, it's very likely that it's going to be light struck, even if the shop takes good care of the beer (unless they use the same hop extract as Miller, which doesn't have the chemical that light reacts with).

Green bottles are pretty common from big German brewers (even some that don't just churn out American Style lagers) and in some Belgian\French styles (those with very little hopping).
posted by Gygesringtone at 9:24 AM on September 25, 2012


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