Clive Gregson

Another Change In The Weather

As he'd probably be the first to admit, English singer Clive Gregson isn't exactly a new face. He's spent more than 15 years as a professional musician, first with the rock band Any Trouble, next as part of Richard Thompson's backing group, then as half of a memorable duo with vocalist Christine Collister, often doing production and session work along the way. While major commercial success has eluded him, he's built a loyal following of fans who appreciate his rare combination of technical skills, lyrical perception, and droll humor, three talents he shares with former employer Thompson. These days his career is taking a new direction: he's living in the U.S. and recording and performing in what for him is a new format, solo singer/songwriter.

"It's my longstanding ambition to write the most depressing and miserable song ever written," he said with a characteristic grin. In fact, few have better explored the dark reaches of lost love, frustrated dreams, and tenuous hopes, all recurring themes in Gregson's music. There's a brighter side, too -- upbeat rockers that reflect his roots in English pop, not to mention the wry asides that get concert audiences breathing again after some of the bleaker songs. He talked about his musical past and present in a Cambridge, Massachusetts cafe one day last March, the morning after beginning his first-ever North American solo tour.

Gregson grew up in the city of Manchester, in England's industrial north, and as a teenager in the late 1960s he was close enough to the Liverpool scene in time and place to develop a lasting fondness for the Beatles and other classic English rockers. His musical career began with Any Trouble, a semi- obscure rock band he co-founded while in college. He described it with a smile as "an unpopular pop group," but that's perhaps a bit harsh -- the band had a devoted, if small, following, and people still show up at Gregson gigs with worn copies of AT vinyl for him to sign. The band released four British albums (plus assorted singles and promo disks) between 1980 and 1984 and toured extensively in the U.K. in the early 1980s with a changing lineup that eventually included Gregson on lead vocals and guitar, Phil Barnes on bass, Steve Gurl on keyboards, and Andy Ebsworth on drums, and a sound that blended bits of Springsteen and English pub rock with touches of R&B and Elvis Costello. "We had a lot of brass," he recalled, "made some good records, never sold any records, really. Never transcended a small cult following. I've pretty happy memories of it, most of the time." The band broke up in December, 1984, but some of the better songs from that period still lurk in Gregson's repertoire, and an eventual Any Trouble reunion tour (with a new album) is likely if commercial details can be worked out.

Any Trouble's 1980 debut album on Stiff Records was produced by John Wood, whose studio credits included Fairport Convention and Richard & Linda Thompson, as well as the very successful pop band Squeeze. That led to the next part of the story: "So I got to work with John, met him, and then about a month or two after we finished the Any Trouble record John got married, invited me to his wedding, and I met Richard and Linda there. I had always been a big fan of Richard's and knew his work, had seen him play. I got on with them -- they seemed like nice folks -- and we've been in touch ever since." Gregson was invited to sing backup vocals on the Thompsons' classic 1982 album Shoot Out the Lights, and a decade-long association began. He was regularly a part of Thompson's studio crew and touring band (playing second guitar and keyboards and singing harmonies) up through 1991's Rumor and Sigh.

The connection with Thompson was soon followed by the musical affiliation for which Gregson is probably best known, his partnership with singer Christine Collister. "I met Chris in 1984," he recalled, "just before Any Trouble broke up. I saw her singing in a folk club in Manchester and thought she was phenomenal." He introduced himself and "blathered away for hours on end," offering to do what he could to promote her career. "I thought I could help out by finding songs, or doing demos, or whatever. And then not long after that I got a call from Richard, who said he was doing a new record [Across a Crowded Room], and was I interested in working on it. I said yes.

"I had found in the past that Richard had a funny, kind of haphazard, way of finishing up records -- whoever was around was brought in to do backing vocals. Sometimes he would use the Watersons. And on Hand of Kindness, I felt it had gone a bit astray, because it was me and Pete Zorn singing together, and all three of us have the same register. If you do three parts, someone was always singing out of their range. It was usually me, squeaking away or groaning. I suggested to Richard that it might be interesting to use Chris to give us the extra notes. It was purely out of the blue. I think we were originally booked to do a couple songs and finished up doing virtually the entire record. It became obvious that Chris and I sang together pretty well."

Around the same time, Gregson recorded a solo album called Strange Persuasions, on which Collister sang some harmonies. It was a darkly moody, heavily produced work that marked a break from the Any Trouble sound. "Shortly thereafter Richard was planning on going out on the road, but most of his usual band weren't available. He asked me whether I was available. I said yes -- my band had split up. Literally a week before the tour started, Richard said, 'Do you think Chris would like to come as well?' I said, 'I'm sure she would, let's ask her.' So that's how that happened. And the rest is a mystery." The result was arguably Thompson's best live band ever, with Gregson's guitar and keyboards providing bracing instrumental backup and Collister's powerful vocals cutting through even the muddiest of house PAs. Six live cuts from various Gregson/Collister versions of the Thompson band can be found on the Watching the Dark compilation.

When they came off the road in late 1985, Gregson and Collister played a series of small folk club gigs, at Thompson's suggestion. "It was really just for something to do," he says. "I was thinking that I'd be in a band again, and we were going to push Chris as a solo artist to get her a record deal." But the combination of Collister's stunning vocals with Gregson's increasingly impressive acoustic guitar, some old and new songs, and his own earthy singing quickly attracted attention. There was also the contrast of stage personalities: Gregson wisecracking and animated, Collister seemingly quiet and shy. "It started very low key and within about six months it had become a really big deal. Everybody was screaming for a record, so we recorded about half-a- dozen shows with the thought we'd just make it a cassette to sell at gigs, no big deal. So that's what we did, and that just boomed as well. We made the whole thing for about 32 pounds -- 50 or 60 dollars -- no expense spent! It's a bit rough and ready in parts, but it had a real atmosphere to it." The cassette became Home and Away, a wonderful two voice/one guitar collection of sad love songs, some rock covers, and a couple old Any Trouble semi- hits.

Although they continued touring internationally as part of the Richard Thompson Band, Gregson and Collister had established themselves as one of the most popular acoustic acts in Britain, and made four more albums. Mischief was their first studio album, a mostly rocking set of hook-filled songs of troubled love. They added keyboards, drums, and electric guitars and bass, and Collister's versatility as a rock/blues/jazz/folk vocalist became even clearer. "We didn't want to do just another straightforward acoustic album; we felt it would be really hard to recapture that magic. Mischief panned out because those were the songs that we really wanted to do. It's far and away our best selling record."

The followup, A Change in the Weather, had a different theme -- "fairly long songs," says Gregson, "quite heavy subject material, some real out-and-out rock and roll." To support it the duo toured with the electric band heard on the album. In retrospect, Gregson still likes the album but thinks the concept may have been a commercial setback: "I wouldn't say it was a mistake, but it was a real left-of-center thing. We had spent a long time building up the duo, and I think people considered that to be special and very unique. To go out as a fairly mainstream rock band just baffled people. I think a lot of people found it a really difficult record to get a hold on. I think we failed to realize what was special about what we did. If you have two people singing, and the guitar, and it sounds bigger than it actually is, that's something really special. I guess we realized that, but it was that constant thing of trying to find something different."

The next album, Love is a Strange Hotel, marked a return to a quieter sound. It was a collection of covers of songs by writers as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Merle Haggard, and Stephen Fearing. "I kind of felt all the way down the line that one of the biggest challenges of working with Chris was writing material for her to sing -- it's always very hard to write for other people. I think it was Chris's idea to maybe take the pressure off me as a writer and do a record of covers. I think it was incredibly liberating because for one record, instead of having to worry about being the songwriter, producer, performer, the whole bit, I just became the performer. I was as proud of that album as anything."

Sadly, by 1992 the stresses of touring were pulling the duo apart. "We were doing OK, but without any real commercial success. I think it got to us, the whole thing of being on the road constantly, working constantly, together constantly. It just drove us nuts. I kind of felt really wiped out by it. It was a shame in many ways because I though that musically we had a lot more to offer. It was always hard to survive and keep going. Chris basically got to the point where she figured she wanted to stop. If 50 percent of the act doesn't want to do it, you've got no act. We did the honorable thing and told everybody we're going to make one more record, go on the road to promote it, and then stop."

The result was The Last Word, a powerful collection of songs largely about fading relationships and enduring dreams. "Commercially, it was suicide," Gregson mused, "because [the breakup announcement] gave everybody the chance not to get excited about it, but I actually felt it was probably the best record that we'd made." After an international tour in support of it, Gregson and Collister parted, much to the regret of their fans. She is currently performing as a solo act, and opened for Thompson on a recent U.K. tour. As for Gregson, he did some shows with his occasional songwriting collaborator Boo Hewardine and vocalist Eddi Reader (a trio that can be heard on The World is a Wonderful Place compilation) and then set about a solo career.

In mid-1994 Gregson recorded People & Places [Compass], intended as his first solo album of new material in nearly 10 years. (The 1990 release Welcome to the Workhouse was an archive of old demos and outtakes.) Joining Gregson's multiple instruments and overdubbed voice were Thompson Band bassist Ruari McFarlane, onetime Any Trouble drummer Martin Hughes, and guitarist Andy Whelan. But when transatlantic label negotiations delayed the release of People & Places until April 1995, Gregson wound up with not one but two new CDs. "While doing People & Places I'd done a few gigs in England and we'd recorded the shows. I had worked out so much material I had a whole record, basically live but with some studio stuff, of completely different songs. So we decided that we'd put out an own-label 'official bootleg' called Carousel of Noise [Flypaper], which came out last autumn. It's the show you see on stage with a few studio things thrown in as well -- a couple of covers, some old songs re-jigged. And then People & Places is the new studio record. It's pretty much the whole gamut of what I do."

Gregson now lives in Nashville, but not necessarily because he hopes to star on the Grand Ole Opry anytime soon. "I moved to the States in November, 1993," he explains, "I actually moved to get married." His wife, an American woman he had met while she was working in England, had been called home to Minneapolis by her employer. "I think as a musician, in many ways it doesn't matter where you live. You're on the road all the time. I actually arrived in Minneapolis with a completely empty diary -- no plans at all. I arrived at the start of the worst winter in about 16 years and I couldn't get out. I just stayed at home and wrote and wrote and wrote." His flexibility came in handy a few months later when, back in England recording People & Places, his wife called to say that her employer had offered her a job transfer to Nashville. Thus Gregson wound up in Music City USA. "Weather-wise, it was an improvement. Culture-wise, I'd describe it as a culture-free zone. It's a pleasant place, though. The really good thing about Nashville is that there's an awful lot of musicians and songwriters there, so it's easy to plug into that. The more interesting music out of Nashville, as everywhere, is from the people that don't fit the mold, the independent labels."

Gregson said that to date he has written about 400 songs. They range from relatively forgettable rock non-hits to powerful and lasting songs of lost love. "I don't have a philosophy of songwriting," he said. "I just write what pleases me, really. The few times I've been coerced into writing with a particular market in mind are usually the things I've liked least. In music, it's just whether it gets you, connects with you emotionally or not. If I could still write naive 20-year-old pop music I'd still do it, but I'm not a naive 20-year-old anymore."

Asked to describe his writing these days, he laughed and said, "Music for very sad people." More seriously, he continued, "I think an element that's starting to creep in is traditional British folk music, which I've never really plumbed before. I've never really understood it before, I guess. It's very hard to play it and be convincing, particularly if you're from a pop background. There's a couple songs that have that influence and hopefully I pulled it off OK." One of them is the delightfully cynical "Mary's Divorce," which Gregson described as "a kind of tongue-in-cheek update of the traditional song 'Mary's Wedding.' I wrote a new tune for it, used a bit of the original lyric." Another is "Camden Town," a driving traditional-style modal narrative that opens People & Places and is a highlight of current live shows. Like a lot of Gregson's songs, it's a vivid, wistful recollection of a lost love, this one a London Irish woman who was "English as the coal dust and Irish as the rain," sung to an open-tuned guitar drone. "I'm very proud of that song," he said. "That kind of came to me in a dream. The best songs come out really quickly, almost as though they jump out of the air fully-formed and you just write them down. That was one of those -- I woke up one morning and wrote the whole thing in about 10 minutes."

Alongside his songwriting and performing, Gregson has also worked as, he says, "a talented but despotic English record producer." Past credits, aside from his own work, include albums by the Oyster Band, Stephen Fearing, and the Panic Brothers, as well as a year as a studio producer for the BBC. "I used to do one or two records for other people a year. I did one just before I left England for Pat Shaw and Julie Matthews -- Julie is in the Albion Band. They have a duo -- really great. Then I did a record for a guy called Paul Metsa in Minneapolis -- he's a larger-than-life character, a really great songwriter. I tend to get pitched for fairly folky-rocky things. I enjoy that but I'd like to do some more mainstream stuff as well."

Live sets these days are a mix of new material, Any Trouble oldies, and a few songs from the Gregson & Collister days, frequently including the classic that Gregson unabashedly describes "my hit," the wistful "Home is Where the Heart Is." Although best known through Collister's winsome version, it actually dates from pre-duo days, and Gregson's current version returns to the gruffer original heard on Strange Persuasions. "That's another one that jumped out of the air," he recalled. "I was visiting my parents. They have an old upright piano in their front room and I was just banging about. I just thumped away for about 10 minutes and out came the whole song."

The solo format also showcases Gregson's guitar playing. Originally an electric specialist with Any Trouble and later with Thompson, he said he "started taking the acoustic guitar more seriously when Chris and I got together." Alternating intricate, percussive fingerpicking with quadruple-time power strums that would make Pete Townshend proud he gets as much sound out of a taped-up six-string as any of the people he lists as influences -- Thompson (not unexpectedly), John Martyn, Nick Drake, Martin Carthy, and David Bromberg.

The first stop on the March tour was an energetic two-hour show at Club Passim, a Cambridge folk club disguised at the time as a construction zone. The size of the audience that found its way through the bare beams and tarps -- about two dozen, most of whom seemed to be enthusiastic longtime fans -- didn't surprise Gregson. "I'm not really pulling big audiences at this point. There's always a period of readjustment when something changes. When Chris and I split up, there'd be a lot of people who thought the main attraction of the duo was Chris's singing, and that's understandable. They would not necessarily want to come out and see me. So you just have to start again and rebuild."

Gregson is optimistic about this next step in his career. "As long as people will book me, I'll play. I think these are some of the best shows I've ever done, and the small audiences will change. I'll be out on the road for the rest of the year, so come and see a show."

This is the complete text of the article appearing in Dirty Linen # 59

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