Of course you are right Rob. They recorded the track as seen situation but obviously step by step. Liam Gennoknie was in the drum room and the rest of the guys in the main studio area. I believe that the basic backing track was done fairly live with the drums in the booth but without sax and only a guide vocal where Gerry would hum along without words as he was always quite shy about his lyrics and singing voice. Raphael then added his beautiful alto lines later, double tracked by play not tech I believe. Then the guys would sod of to the pub and Gerry would spend many hours with the engineer layering his vocal tracks. No producer, Gerry produced his own records. Then the final mix with him and the engineer with Gerry in charge of every nuance.Miming. No way that sax is recordable that way, especially in the stabs where he clearly goes for it, and will be leaking into everything. AND that solo in the sax high register fights with the notion a mic pointing at the bell makes that sound. Lots of nice shadow makes details easy to fake. My vote? That was mimed to playback. Still a cracking recording, but not achievable with so many people playing at one time.
Its a very impressive modern vocal production and inovative use of reverbs...Very astute, thanks.
Liam Genockey, believe it or not, is a drummer I will always have bags of time for. He played with this avant-garde band, Amalgam, in the 70s and Trevor Watts' Moire music in the 80s. They were wild yet so accessible. Their rhythmic intensity was pushed to the limits by his playing and the way he combined with others. I actually saw him live a couple of times back in 1984. In the first of those gigs, at the Bracknell jazz festival, in the blazing sun in an overly hot marquee, that band knocked out one of the top 5 gigs I ever saw. They played for an hour or so and it was after about forty minutes without a break that I realized that this was one continuous piece !Liam Gennoknie was in the drum room
Thats why Gerry chose him to work withLiam Genockey, believe it or not, is a drummer I will always have bags of time for. He played with this avant-garde band, Amalgam, in the 70s and Trevor Watts' Moire music in the 80s. They were wild yet so accessible. Their rhythmic intensity was pushed to the limits by his playing and the way he combined with others. I actually saw him live a couple of times back in 1984. In the first of those gigs, at the Bracknell jazz festival, in the blazing sun in an overly hot marquee, that band knocked out one of the top 5 gigs I ever saw. They played for an hour or so and it was after about forty minutes without a break that I realized that this was one continuous piece !
They were insane ! But they won me over. I didn't want them to stop ! And Genockey's playing on the 8-sided live album "Wipe Out" is a masterclass in "keeping it going" with ream after ream of invention and power.
Liam Genockey, believe it or not, is a drummer I will always have bags of time for. He played with this avant-garde band, Amalgam, in the 70s and Trevor Watts' Moire music in the 80s. They were wild yet so accessible. Their rhythmic intensity was pushed to the limits by his playing and the way he combined with others. I actually saw him live a couple of times back in 1984. In the first of those gigs, at the Bracknell jazz festival, in the blazing sun in an overly hot marquee, that band knocked out one of the top 5 gigs I ever saw. They played for an hour or so and it was after about forty minutes without a break that I realized that this was one continuous piece !
They were insane ! But they won me over. I didn't want them to stop ! And Genockey's playing on the 8-sided live album "Wipe Out" is a masterclass in "keeping it going" with ream after ream of
I used to try to put a band together and got frustrated nobody was on my wavelenghth or ambition. Now I can do it all on my own... sequence... compose and write the songs .. write and record.. drums, bass, guitars, keyboards...do all of the backing vocals....and a decent lead guide vocal.. all I need is to find a young raw talented singer and manage them and make them a superstar and make me rich.I know a member of a long standing UK popular boy/girl band. She was doing 88 shows for me. Lots of extra instruments on track to suppliment the 6 piece band. She was concerned she would get a coold and have trouble singing, so we got together with my sound guy and recorded her live vocal next show. Sure enough, a few shows later she was croaky - so we quietly switched to the track. Her miming was so good, even her throat wobbled at the right moments - something Gerry's doesn't do. She told me that although often in her band they all had headset mics, there were no packs, just the IEM pack for her ears. She has a lovely voice, but they couldn't sing and dance at the same time - far too much lack of puff and deep breathing. If you mime well, that's a great skill.
British rock band Status Quo came out with a really silly song, lost their bass player, got asked to play it on BBC Top of the Pops, which at that time required everyone to mime. The song was not remotely typical of them, so they did it and had a laugh. They borrowed a bass player from British band Slade, and at the end the rhythm guitarist knocks the drums and drummer over. The mics are Beyer 201 dynamics, with a bit of wire in the mic socket, pretending to be antennas! Rather than mime badly, they just deliberately messed up the entire thing that went out live!
Great post, I will add another soon mate, Beatles double track PaulThere's a video of the Lovin Spoonful doing Do You Believe in Magic on the Ed Sullivan show. During the video the set changes back and forth. Then at the end, while Zal is doing his bit, he just screws around and it clearly doesn't fit. People point to that and say that they mimed to the record. I read that when they produced the bit, the band had to play the song multiple times, and then various sections were edited together to do the "magic". The band actually played the song live, which is the soundtrack that you hear, but had to "mime" to their recorded track multiple times.