Post by manho on May 31, 2008 21:26:38 GMT -5
There was a spate of singer/songwriters in late 60s Britain. Each city or town had their own. Straight Outta Bournmouth came Al Stewart. Roy Harper grew up in Salford. Nick Drake sounded like he was from down south somewhere. None of them made any real impression nationally. Most of them emerged from the folk club scene. The Liverpool guy - being from Liverpool, I guess - was different. His name was Mike Hart. Hart didn't come from the folk scene. He had a group. And a good one, too. It was called the Roadrunners.
Like many groups the Roadrunners were case-hardened and surface ground into slick shape in the demanding Hamburg club scene of the early 60s. But they were a bit different from the majority of Liverpool groups at the time. A little jazzy, more R&B than Brill building. Purists. Hart was the lead singer and played rhythm guitar and sax. Mainly he was the voice, though. Starting out on Bo Diddley like everybody else he was quick to sense the changes and introduced more sophisticated material into the act: James Brown, Bobby Bland. He just about had the voice to get away with it.
While all the folkie guys were trying to get away from the lone guitarist model and struggling to get a decent group together, Hart was going in the opposite direction. Just at the point when the Roadrunners had signed a major record contract he jacked in the group and went solo. Just him and a guitar. Performing his own songs. This is a guy who the phrase "own worst enemy" was invented for.
I used to watch him perform around this period. My first regular pub crawl in Liverpool was the Phil, O'Conner's and the Cracke. Three pints was about my limit then. But I was only 18. Others were drinking more. Alcohol is a good friend to many in Liverpool. Upstairs at O'Conner's was just about the coolest music scene around for a few years. It was cabaret, really. You'd get impromptu sessions with the Liverpool Scene and the Scaffold: a heady mixture of music, comedy and poetry. And then Hart would stand up in the middle of it all to give you a few of his songs. Sometimes just him and the guitar. Sometimes guys would back him. It wasn't important, the songs were the thing.
If you were listening to Dylan at the time you weren't going to be impressed by Hart's lyrics. "Rough" is a Liverpool word. Usually it's used to describe how you feel the morning after you've drunk too much ale. But it also has a less negative meaning: not elegant, not fancy. I can't remember ever seeing floral trousers or kaftans during the hippie years, for example. Guys were wearing donkey jackets, Fleming's jeans and Tuff boots. Reverse snobbery. Hart was a reverse snob. He was rough. A rough diamond.
Mike Hart didn't have a real gift for language but what he did have was a solid idea of what a good melody sounds like. And his vocal style was powerful and direct. And that's probably why listening to his songs today doesn't make you want to reach out and switch the record player off.
If only he'd stuck it out with the Roadrunners and, instead of writing "poetry", written some original songs for the group with James Brownesque lyrics he could have become something special. And if only he'd said no to that 14th pint every night he wouldn't have lost his memory and be banged up in an Edinburgh nursing home today. Own worst enemy? Maybe he just did it his way.
Roadrunners site:
www.liverpool-roadrunners.org.uk/
The Roadrunners (live in Hamburg), Cry Cry Cry, 1963:
www.sendspace.com/file/wq2k5k
Mike Hart, Aberfan, 1969:
www.sendspace.com/file/w85kc5
Mike Hart, Almost Liverpool 8, 1969:
www.sendspace.com/file/e00uiz
Mike Hart, Nita Nicholson, 1980:
www.sendspace.com/file/oew66d
BBC Radio Merseyside documentary about Hart:
www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/10/02/music_mikehart_feature.shtml
Like many groups the Roadrunners were case-hardened and surface ground into slick shape in the demanding Hamburg club scene of the early 60s. But they were a bit different from the majority of Liverpool groups at the time. A little jazzy, more R&B than Brill building. Purists. Hart was the lead singer and played rhythm guitar and sax. Mainly he was the voice, though. Starting out on Bo Diddley like everybody else he was quick to sense the changes and introduced more sophisticated material into the act: James Brown, Bobby Bland. He just about had the voice to get away with it.
While all the folkie guys were trying to get away from the lone guitarist model and struggling to get a decent group together, Hart was going in the opposite direction. Just at the point when the Roadrunners had signed a major record contract he jacked in the group and went solo. Just him and a guitar. Performing his own songs. This is a guy who the phrase "own worst enemy" was invented for.
I used to watch him perform around this period. My first regular pub crawl in Liverpool was the Phil, O'Conner's and the Cracke. Three pints was about my limit then. But I was only 18. Others were drinking more. Alcohol is a good friend to many in Liverpool. Upstairs at O'Conner's was just about the coolest music scene around for a few years. It was cabaret, really. You'd get impromptu sessions with the Liverpool Scene and the Scaffold: a heady mixture of music, comedy and poetry. And then Hart would stand up in the middle of it all to give you a few of his songs. Sometimes just him and the guitar. Sometimes guys would back him. It wasn't important, the songs were the thing.
If you were listening to Dylan at the time you weren't going to be impressed by Hart's lyrics. "Rough" is a Liverpool word. Usually it's used to describe how you feel the morning after you've drunk too much ale. But it also has a less negative meaning: not elegant, not fancy. I can't remember ever seeing floral trousers or kaftans during the hippie years, for example. Guys were wearing donkey jackets, Fleming's jeans and Tuff boots. Reverse snobbery. Hart was a reverse snob. He was rough. A rough diamond.
Mike Hart didn't have a real gift for language but what he did have was a solid idea of what a good melody sounds like. And his vocal style was powerful and direct. And that's probably why listening to his songs today doesn't make you want to reach out and switch the record player off.
If only he'd stuck it out with the Roadrunners and, instead of writing "poetry", written some original songs for the group with James Brownesque lyrics he could have become something special. And if only he'd said no to that 14th pint every night he wouldn't have lost his memory and be banged up in an Edinburgh nursing home today. Own worst enemy? Maybe he just did it his way.
Roadrunners site:
www.liverpool-roadrunners.org.uk/
The Roadrunners (live in Hamburg), Cry Cry Cry, 1963:
www.sendspace.com/file/wq2k5k
Mike Hart, Aberfan, 1969:
www.sendspace.com/file/w85kc5
Mike Hart, Almost Liverpool 8, 1969:
www.sendspace.com/file/e00uiz
Mike Hart, Nita Nicholson, 1980:
www.sendspace.com/file/oew66d
BBC Radio Merseyside documentary about Hart:
www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/10/02/music_mikehart_feature.shtml
