Batttttty
shares a waysted half hour with |
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One
of the most excitingly dysfunctional bands of the 80s was WAYSTED. Anyway,
amidst all the chaos, there is a small smidgeon of sanity. Chris
has probably spent a bit too much time already with Pete and
Fin to have escaped totally unscathed, but he can still pronounce
'small smidgeon of sanity' which is more than Pete and Fin can!
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Blimey darlin, you really have landed one of the scariest jobs in the whole damn rocknroll circus. So let me get this right, you saw an advert in your local jobcentre for someone to look after the tigers, and when you got there you found that not only had the tigers not been fed for a week, but they also had raging toothache, and on top of that you were expected to feed them from a platform which could only be reached by pedalling a unicyle with a dodgy saddle along a high-wire after completing a triple-somersault from a trapeze - and without a safety net. Or what? Tell the nice ladies and gentlemen how you actually got the Waysted gig. I couldn't have compared it to anything better myself! I've known Fin for a few years and have done some gigs with him in the past, then at the end of last year I met Pete when we all hooked up to do a kind of one-off show playing Waysted songs. Then this year, just before the summer I got a call from them asking me if I could go over to the studio in Buckingham 'cos they weren't all that happy with the guitar tracks Paul Chapman had recorded. There was only a very limited amount of stuff sent over from America - not even any fully-completed guitar solos. Pete and Fin had waited and waited for more to be sent, but it just wasn't forthcoming. At this point, time was getting on and there was a lot that needed doing, so I got on and did my thing. Then for the tour next year, I was more than happy to step aside as there was talk that Paul Chapman wanted to do it - but then he began slating the band on his website, so... here we are today. |
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To
many people you are a fresh face on the music scene, but I know
that you've already been round the block a bit, including playing
in arenas in front of 20,000 people. You've done a lot in a relatively
short time. What route has this journey taken? A
very awkward one! It's kind of hard to explain but it's just down
to the people I've met over the years that have had a relationship
to what I've done in my playing career. It's the same old thing,
not about what you know, it's who you know. I've worked with some
very cool people and have done some very cool gigs. I've played
in front of 1 person, and I've played in front of 50,000 people
and everything in between. |
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Who have been the main influences on your career, and why? All the guitarists that fall into the classic rock genre really. I'm not a real widdler and definitely not trying to be the next Paul Gilbert or Steve Vai - those guys are amazing but it's just not my thing. My complete idol is Slash. GnR were the band I grew up on, and he is everything about playing guitar that it should be. A close second is Zakk Wylde, who I've loved since the No More Tears album with Ozzy. I met him once too, fuckin' nice guy, I'd definitely have him on my team in a fight. Then after that, I guess Angus Young, Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, all those bluesy rock players. |
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You're a member of quite an exclusive club.... you old south-paw you. When you were first learning to play, did being left-handed give you any extra difficulty in learning the traditional way? Did you have to position the Bert Weedon Play In A Day book upside down on the music stand, or what? Did it follow that you were more interested in watching other left-handed players at work? No, in fact being left handed is so much easier in terms of learning. My first guitar teacher who taught me from when I was seven, was right-handed, so it was like a complete mirror image. So when you're jammin' with another guitarist whose right-handed it's the same thing, totally cool. It confuses me when I play with another left handed guitarist though, I'm like "Does that look strange or what!?!?!?!" I didn't really want to cover amps'n'valves this early (or at all, hahaha), but I know they're a huuuuuuge part of your life. If you were out on a date with a gorgeous skinny young redhead and you wanted to impress her with your knowledge of amps, and wanted to make sure that some of your excitement rubbed off on her to the point that she would secretly be thumbing through the Marshall catalogue before your next date in an effort to impress YOU, what would you tell her about amps? At the risk of boring everybody to death, try to keep it to less than 10,000 words... Ha Ha Ha!!!! I'm not that clued up on the ins and outs of an amp really, but it's amazing how those guys at Marshall do it, and how they can make sound from a pcb and a load of wires and stuff. All I do is play 'em on the road. But I would definitely like to say you can't beat a set of EL34's. Valves are amazing things....... Really? OK then, sometime you must tell me all about them in much greater detail. I believe I have the year 2016 free... |
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I see from your website that you've got quite a few guitars... what did you use on the Waysted album? What will you be using on the tour? That's the other thing about being left-handed... you can't just go into any music shop and pick up any guitar, so you're really limited on choice. But in a way that's cool 'cos lefties are made in small numbers. I've got around seventeen bats, (bats???) and my favourites are on my site. For the album I used my Les Paul Custom - it's an old one, made in '81 which was the year I was born, and I've had it for about 6 years. I usually leave a couple in Austria for the stuff I do out there but I just brought them home now most of the shows are finished. For the tour with Waysted I'll probably take my Les Paul, my PRS and my Fret-King Esprit. |
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also have your own band - the Chris George Band. Tell us all about
that, the band-members, and what kind of music you play.
The Chris George Band/Marshall Band is the band I use on
the shows for Marshall, in the UK, it's a couple of friends of mine,
Paul Haslin and Paul Gunn. On a more international thing I have
with me Farid Medjane on drums (ex-Trust) and Gwen Damman on bass
(ex-FFF, Dave Stewart). We do just instrumental stuff but kind of
different from the usual shredding. Rather than the guitar being
totally upfront, there's more dynamics from the rhythm section as
well. Last December you played a set with Pete and Fin, and also with Paul Haslin. You didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be Waysted's 'reunion gig' - before this line-up was even a twinkle in anyone's eye. How did it go? Did the chemistry feel right? Yeah, we just got together and did a brief set in Milton Keynes, again at the time I just thought I was filling in for Paul Chapman who lives in Florida, there was nothing long term happening as far as I knew. We didn't really rehearse or anything and when we got up there it was fuckin' great, it just exploded you know? I think that had something to do with why they called me back 'cos it just felt right. What was the setlist? We did some old stuff from a live recording they gave me, we did Won't Get Out Alive' and Too Hot To Handle plus some other Waysted tunes. |
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OK, now for the $64,000 question. Many Waysted fans were shocked when the proposed reunion of Pete, Fin and Paul didn't happen as planned. From where you were standing, what actually happened? Did you hear the tracks/files/whatever that were sent over from America? How come you got to hear them? What did those files consist of? Pete and Fin have both said that although there were layers of guitars there were no completed solos at all. Oh man, I knew this question was coming! Like I said before, they called me up to go over to the studio, I hadn't heard any of the stuff until I got there. They played me what Chapman had done in America and yeah there was plenty of layers of guitar, but it was all rhythm stuff and none of the solos were done. Their view was that he'd had a lot of time to do this stuff and it still wasn't finished. Originally, I was just going to put the solos on but they wanted to redo the rhythm stuff as well. It wasn't a matter of being thrown in at the deep end, more like thrown out of a plane into the Atlantic ocean. I was working out the rough layout of the song then running into the sound room to record it my own way. I did two ryhthm tracks and a lead track on each of the 8 songs in 3 days, and we're not talking being in the studio until 4am, it was 9-5 studio time. Plus there were other vocals, drums and bass that needed to be done so we were all under pressure to get it finished. I just heard Paul Chapman's version of Garden Of Eden, and it sounds cool, but none of that guitar was there originally, we wouldn't be having this conversation now if he had done it like that in the first place I guess. What are your favourite tracks from the album? Which were the most fulfilling to record? I think all the songs on the album are great. They were all fulfilling to record as well given the situation. My proudest moments are the riffs I came up with on the spot, like the beginning of The Alternativa and I'm Gonna Love Ya, they're my favourite. The solo in The Alternativa was all one take and completely improvised like most of the solos on the album, I thought the album version wouldn't be quite so long but they left it all in!!! Maybe it could have had more structure given more time but it gives it that edge the way it is. Also the melody on the outro of Garden of Eden, which turns into this three-part harmony came up on the spot. Which ones do you think will be the most exciting to play Live? To play live, definitely Garden Of Eden, Price Of Love and The Alternativa, but they'd all work. |
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Will
Waysted be sticking to a Waysted set, or is it likely that you'll
include UFO songs, for example. If so, which ones do you think
you'd enjoy playing on the tour? Or which songs by other artists?
I've seen a rough set list and without
saying too much, it's gonna be a good mix of new stuff and of
course the old favourites with maybe a UFO number or two thrown
in for good measure. How
do you think Waysted fans will react towards you? Have you received
encouraging messages from them? Were you surprised at the amount
of interest that this controversy over the line-up has caused
amongst Waysted fans? And on the internet generally? The
general vibe has been really cool towards me from the Waysted
fans who have an open mind. I think there are the fans of the
band, and there are fans of Paul Chapman, and obviously I can't
please both. I had no idea it would cause this much grief. We've
both said our stuff but I'm not in this for the pantomime factor.
I know the true Waysted fans won't be put off, the live tour
is gonna kick serious ass so come and decide for yourself. It's
not a competition between Chapman and me - it's not better,
not worse, just different.
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Seeing as the SITN site is mainly about UFO, tell us about your UFO experiences. What was your first UFO gig? What was the best UFO gig, and why? What are your feelings on the way Vinnie plays Schenker's signature songs such as Rock Bottom. What is your favourite UFO album and why? I saw UFO at Nottingham Rock City when I was 16. Schenker was great but amazed me how he could play in a coat all night, and I remember Pete being so full of energy on stage. Have you seen them with Vinnie Moore? I haven't seen the new line up, but really want to because of Jason Bonham and Viinie Moore, it must be great. I met Vinnie once in Marburg, Germany when I was there with Marshall and he was there with Ernie Ball Music Man, and he's a great player. My favourite UFO album has to be Strangers In The Night. Just a full-on live rock n' roll album. What about when you're not working - what do you like to do? In my spare time, I enjoy hanging out with friends and family doing normal stuff, I don't get to see some of my friends so much now, but we make up for it when we get together, it keeps your head level you know, come off tour and go to my local (pub) and it's like nothing's changed. I love movies and try and get to the cinema whenever I can, and I'm a huge Star Wars fan!!!!! I'm also a complete rollercoaster fanatic, I think it's to do with the fact I'm an adrenaline junkie! What is your own dream gig, dream line-up, to be part of? Keith Moon on drums, John Entwistle on bass, Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, yours truly on lead and Steve Perry from Journey or Dave Lee Roth on vocals, or both. Can you imagine that?! Blimey darlin, I'm already scouring the internet for tickets to it! Right then, me old mate, good luck with the album, and good luck with spending two weeks on a tourbus with Fin and Pete. Hah!
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This
interview © Batttttty |
All photos on this page are copyright of the people and places I've borrowed them from. Thanks!
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