[Slowhand] Eric Clapton 1965

[John Mills]

Kevin,

Thanks for the link to the article, here is Part-1:

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/109806_eric-clapton-an-odd-trip-during-1965-part-1

Eric Clapton: "An Odd Trip During 1965" Part 1

It, was August 1965, Eric Clapton had joined the legendary John Mayall's
"Blues brakers" 5 months ago. Resided with the blues composer Charlie
Radcliffe at his home, but spent most of his time at the apartment of the
poet Ted Milton, in Long Acre 74, Covent Garden. He shared the space with an
old friend from the "Roosters", the pianist Ben Palmer, the trumpeter Bob
Ray, the doctor and saxophonist Bernie "Tunes" Greenwood (Chris Farlowe's
"Thunderbirds"), and John Baily, a singer and student of psychology who met
Bernie in Oxford.

[John and I had a band in Oxford the "King Cobra And The Rattlesnakes" and
always had a dream to travel around the world.] explains Bernie. They set up
the project at poet's home and as they were unemployed, thought that was an
opportunity to gain experiences. The original plan was to travel to
Australia by a double-decker bus. To implement the plan, first act Bernie
buying a 9-seated Ford Fairlane from 1953 but ... [just bought it and drove
3 miles, it broke...wreck!] After that Bernie and Ben had no other money,
John Baily went to Athens to find a job through a friend there. Around the
end of September were ready, but the last minute Ted Milton intended to be
their drummer left. They asked then Hughie Flint to join, but his family
refused. So Ted telephoned his brother Jake who was on vacation. [I had not
the slightest idea of what it was all about. I was a rising be-bop drummer,
and they had in their minds a blues band.] [The journey was full of
unpredictable events] Jake says, [finally got too much time to get to
Greece, had consistently unfortunate incidents as, many times taking the
wrong way or when we stopped at a gas station where Bernie attempted to
caress an Alsatian dog and "lost" two fingers! He could have avoided this if
he knew to read the German letters written on the collar of the dog ... We
had to face such events constantly.]This was not the only casualty. [I was
very young and innocent then,] Jake remembers [and scared with our
disagreements, and the pitfalls of the journey was the absolute madness of
some people on the road for a trip, with very faint idea of the destination
and what was going to happen.]

Bernie says: [Ben and Bob were teasing me because I was a person stuck in
Oxford and they -older than me- was more on things.]

When they arrived in Munich, the conditions were so bad that Jake and Eric
went to the train station. Bernie and Bob went to the Beer Festival, an
event which Jake described as completely crazy. [There were bands playing
completely different rhythms and notes at the same time. Also there were
huge rows of tables where everyone drank incredible quantities of beer.
Every few moments tables thrown down and  endless fights
occurred....Germans.. ] [Clapton and I didn't participate in such mesh]
According to Bernie, Eric was very thrifty, didn't drink much, didn't smoke
and he was generally very calm.

Eventually, they left Germany, went to Yugoslavia and arrived in Athens, but
for Jake was already too late. He was already two weeks overdue in college
and panicked by the expenses. He went back to England and never played with
the band. (Later, Jake joined "Quintessence"). In Greece he was replaced by
a local drummer named Makis Saliaris. Meanwhile, during truce moments with
Bernie, Bob Ray learned to play the basics in bass.

As "Glands" were "fighting" in south-eastern Europe, John Baily preparing
his vocal chords in Athens at the club "Igloo" and as Bernie remember, he
did the arrangements for Glands (already renamed to Faces) to play as
support to a Greek group called "Juniors". The first thing the British
musicians noticed, was that Greek rock musicians treated with the worst way
and their wages at clubs do not exceed those of the waiters. The fact that
they were British musicians -when the Beatles convulsed the world- made no
difference for the clubs owners. Nobody knew Clapton, and much more "Blues
Breakers". The name of   "The Yardbirds" remembered only when someone
happened to blow the tune of their hit "For Your Love".

Everyone was unaware of r'n'b, fact that greatly hurt Clapton and Greenwood,
when they understood how underestimated was their favourite type of music.
Thus, although "Glands" were planning to play r'n'b, Clapton thought it
would be better to perform adaptations of classic rock'n'roll songs. They
passed the audition by playing "Johnny Be Good" and the agreement was signed
in exchange for room and meals at a nearby hotel paid (not in cash) by the
club. They were playing "Rolling Stones", "Chuck Berry", "Everly Brothers"
and r'n'b classic tracks. Ben Palmer recalls: [The waiters felt that they
understood the Greek audience and suddenly in the middle of a song we were
told to speed up or slow down. Can you imagine this? We made tricks with
"You Really Got Me": A break by drums and the band repeating the same phrase
again and again to show that we were stuck, like a needle on a record. The
audience assumed it was part of the song. Clapton loved it! We had to do
such tricks to stay there.]
Then, a tragedy...

Eric Clapton: "An odd trip during 1965" Part 2