Ralph's fantastic journey

The 'electric band' in question were no heavy-handed pick-up group, but like-minded friends and musicians tuned into Ralph's sensitive acoustic-based material; Mike Piggott on violin and Rod Clements on bass, backing vocalists Joy Askew and Sian Daniels (with the possible addition of Steeleye's Maddy Prior) and Texan drummer Danny Lane who had previously worked with Bob Mills, Mike Nesmith, Bert Jansch and Iain Matthews. While working on the Streets album, Ralph was encouraged by Danny Lane to record the basic tracks live and the successful results provided the extra incentive needed to take a band on the road. In a contemporary interview with the Melody Maker's Karl Dallas, Ralph reasoned:

'I thought that a lot of my songs weren't exploited properly and as a result I was neglecting songs on albums that I would like to have played, but couldn't do without a band. And, apart from the performing part of it, I got bored with travelling on my own!'

In response to the heckling, Ralph admitted 'in all fairness, we were having mixing problems and the band was coming over far too loud...', but even though they improved the sound, the rest of the tour was beset with problems. As Ralph recalls on his website:

'The band, who were fabulous, never got an even break and I was reduced to a performance whereby I played half acoustic and half with the band. It was a heartbreaking nightmare. Before the end of the tour Danny Lane had returned to the US, battered and bewildered. The backing group had been let go and I finished the last few dates with Rod Clements and Mike Piggott. I had a huge world-wide hit on my hands, but felt like I had failed.'

The friendship between Ralph and Rod Clements dates back to the gigs at the Rex Folk Club in Whitley Bay, in the days of Alan Hull and Brethren. When I interviewed Mr McTell prior to a tour earlier this year, and asked about his part in the Lindisfarne story, he told me:

'Well, it's one of the things I can take some credit for, and it happened after a gig I did with them when they were still called Brethren. I was dreading going on stage after them, because I thought they were one of the best live bands I had ever heard, certainly they were playing good original material, and not just covering blues or jazz, I was very au fait with those sort of outfits. At the end of the evening we were sitting around chatting, having only just met, and they told me "that's our last gig" and I said "What?!! You must be joking, how can you possibly split up now?" They looked at me and said, "well, we've given it a good shot!" So I told them in no uncertain terms that they hadn't even started yet and they had to keep the band going... and now they call me "Uncle Ralph", despite the fact that they're all much the same age as me, they laughingly say "oh, you’re the bloody cause of it all, really". As you know, they only recently split up, some thirty-odd years after that conversation, they stayed together, changed the name and had fantastic success.'

During his 1974 interview with Ralph, Karl Dallas also asked Rod how he felt about playing as backing musician having been part of a successful regular band. Rod's reply is fascinating in light of the direction his career has taken in the last few years:

'Oh, it’s great, it's the way I feel I function best at the moment, in a supporting role. I've become very disenchanted with the creative possibilities of being in a full-time group, not to mention the business hassles. I want to carry on writing and I like performing and some day I'm going to get something together to perform my own songs, but I'm not ready for that yet. I'm just sort of running my own business as a bass player, playing with anyone who wants me.'

Although Ralph's band didn't stay together for long, he has teamed up with most of the musicians again at various times. Fortunately, the compilation of archive material for the forthcoming 4-CD box set has uncovered a rarity from the electric band days. As Ralph told me:

'It's provisionally titled The Journey and there's a fair amount of obscure stuff on there. We even found a version of Streets of London from about 1973, that was never released in this country but went on to be a hit in Holland and a turntable hit in America. There are some odd things with John Renbourn and one completely forgotten track that I did with my band, when I had a band. It's a little song from the Easy album called Would I Lie To You and they did a lovely version of it - I was very surprised to find that we had anything studio-wise from those days.'

The previously unreleased band track is (Hey Babe), Would I Lie To You, recorded somewhere in London in March 1975, featuring Ralph, Rod, Danny, Sian and Joy. In fact, Rod appears twice on the box set, turning up on a version of Kenny the Kangaroo from the 1983 album Alphabet Zoo, on which Rod plays bass, alongside Mike Piggott on violin.

Talking further about the Lindisfarne connection, when I proposed that the way Rod plays his solo acoustic version of Meet Me On The Corner these days, bears more than a passing resemblance to Streets, Ralph laughed... 'Ahh, well I think Rod and I have a little private joke together about that... as you know, I got Rod to come and play bass on the hit single version of Streets of London, that was my revenge! He said "OK Ralph, what do you want me to do?" and I said "well, basically what you did on Meet Me On The Corner"... and Alan Hull thought that was very funny, he loved it! Rod and I still have a smile and a nod of acknowledgement about it, he's fine.' The box set is a lavish production, well-researched and beautifully presented. Few artists are honoured with such a welcome addition to their recorded catalogue, but of all the acoustic performers from the past 40 years, I can’t think of a more deserving recipient than Ralph McTell. The Journey - Recordings 1965 to 2006 is released by Leola Music Limited, catalogue: OLABOX60 on October 2nd 2006.

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