Badger- Black Pearl's of Rock

"The Name of the group. I had wanted to call a band Badger for a long time. I was quite surprised that the others liked it. At the time we were
rehearsing - with no name- someone told the press that the new band featuring Tony Kaye would be called "Angel Dust". This was one name we
threw around and it lasted about one day. Badger stuck. From September to December 1972 we were rehearsing. I brought `The River` and `Wheel
of Fortune` to these rehearsals as finished songs, which I had intended to use for a solo project before being asked to join Badger. We did a couple
of radioshows (BBC) and one  British TV show called "Old Grey Whistle Test". I believe we did one show only before the Rainbow shows. I do not
remember the venue. David Foster ( David Foster ) is better at this. I think it was the South of England, with "Groundhogs" (11.11.1972,Farnborough
Technical College - P.Szymański).They were managed by the same company group as us, along  with"Yes" and "Black Sabbath". We rehearsed every
day for this first short  tour with "Yes". The Concerts with Yes was 3 days, including the 2 days at the Rainbow Theatre, London (15-16 December,
1972) (link: Forgottenyesterdays).I had been very ill in bed for the week before, and this was my first day up. I had a booster shot from my doctor,
and I was otherwise "pharmaceytically fortified". My main concern was that my energy and my voice would last out. The atmosphere in the theatre
was great. The audience loved us, which was a relief as we were a new band with all new songs they did not know-remember there was not yet a
record anyone could buy. The crowd knew the "Yes" songs already, so this was a victory for us. I was lead on "Wheel of Fortune", "River","On the
Way Home" and "Preacher". David was lead on "Fountain" and "Wind of Change". We each sang harmonies against the other`s lead vocals.The
atmosphere backstage was really good. Rick Wakeman is a lot of fun and we were drinking beer and joking. He had replaced Tony in Yes, and this
might have been uncomfortable, but there were no difficult moments.Badger were so different to Yes, and I think Tony felt happier to be taking a new
direction. Steve Howe was someone I had admired as a player, and I had seen him around for many years, so we were friendly. Jon Anderson was
around us a lot. David and Jon had been in a band together years before, so they were friends. All of this made for a good vibration, and anyone who
has spent time with Roy Dyke knows that he is the nicest man in the world, and there is always laughter around him. So backstage was a good place
to be, and I must say that for me I was relieved to get the first show done with some voice left, and a happy audience out front. The Third concert
with Yes was in Glasgow, Scotland at a venue called Greens Playhouse (note:www.forgottenyesterdays.com writes that concert was in Manchester).
The sound was fantastic, and we played better than we had at either of the Rainbow shows, but no-one recorded this I think. That s life. I remember
that we flew to Glasgow to be fresh for the show, and our limousine, which was to have met us at the airport, failed to arrive. It blew up on the drive
from London, and we never saw it again. No explanation. We never bought another one, but always hired our cars from then on. There were no more
gigs with Yes. We were rehearsing for a studio album, wethought. Nobody thought about recording us live at this stage. The "Yes" concerts were to be
recorded for thier live album, and the logic was that fora few reels of tape Badger could be recorded also, for possible release someday. In the end
everyone really liked it, and they decided to release it as a debut. This was unheard of, but what you hear is just about how it was. People thought it
was brave to release  live album as a first, but the truth is that it was an accident. We returned to Advision Studios in London to listen to the recordings.
We began to mix the tracks with Geoff Haslam, a producer from our label, Atlantic Records. Geoff had produced J. Giels Band, Bette Midler and
others. After a while Jon Anderson came in and had some production in put also.Most of the recordings were taken from the first night. The vocal
microphones (not the house ones, but the recording ones) malfunctioned on the second night. Although we played better, much of it was lost, unless
we were prepared to re-record some vocals. We did not really want to do this. We wanted to keep a `live` feel. However, "On the Way Home " is taken
half from each night and joined up. Very difficult technically back then. This was because of technical problems on the first night with the second half
of the song. We had to repair some small vocal parts which were "off mike", but otherwise everything you hear is how it was. Most of the post
production time was spent trying to retain the immediate quality of the sound whilst cleaning up any pops and squeaks (bass drum pedal) and amplifier
buzzing. Audience noise was another factor, and we mixed the crowd back a little. There was a little minor "repair" work, where for example,the track
was good but an unwanted noise occurred or someone sang a line off mike. Nothing much really, and actually we did not want to do ANYTHING at
all. Jon Anderson was much more of a production perfectionist, where as we wanted an honest "live" record. I do remember that Jon got us to layer
some voices at the very end of "On The Way  Home"  (Heaven, Heaven etc). I did not want to do it at the time, but after 30 years I am used to it now.
Overall the record is very faithfull to what we did, and how we sounded, I believe."Yes" were filmed, but I do not believe anyone thought to film us. If
they did, I never saw it. It might have been interesting. I would quite like to see it now. The 6 songs on the "One Live" album were the only songs we
knew at this time! Nothing was wasted ! The record issued in July 1973 by Atlantic Records."

"In February/ March 1973 Badger undertook a European tour with Black Sabbath. (link:  Black Sabbath's Gigs List). We became good friends with
Sabbath and Ozzie in particular thought we were great fun. The main reason may have been our mutual tendancy to over indulgence. It was a sign
of the times. Black Sabbath were such a loud band! They had a great male following. All "headbangers". There are many stories to tell. There were
many parties on the road, and they were all excessive. The entire tour party was banned for life from a hotel in Italy- not for noise, or damage to
furniture, or some such thing, but because of damage and "disrespect" to a statue of the Pope. I do not know exactly what happened, as I had gone
to bed and was barely asleep at 5.00 am when they began banging on the door to throw me, along with everyone else out of the hotel. One night also
during the Italian "leg" of  the tour we were playing our last song when I suddenly realized  I could not see the audience. I looked across the stage and
was surprised that I could also not see the others in the band. I began to cough a little, and realized  that there was smoke all around. I thought "ah,
smoke effects"... but then I  thought "we don't have smoke effect in the performance!". The song drew to a close, and I could hear the audience going
crazy, at which point I looked down to see the stage was on fire. There were flames licking up between the boards and everything was very hot! We
managed to run off, eyes watering and the crowd still making a huge noise. The concert was halted while the fire fighters dealt with it. There had been
paper, costumes and other things stored under the stage, which was maybe 1.5 meters above the ground. It was probably an electrical fault making
a spark and then a blazing fire. This was quite a finale to our performance. For the show in Rome there were thousands of people-mostly young men
trying to break in to the auditorium demanding a free show (a popular idea at the time, maybe a legacy of the hippy idealism,and political upheaval).
Vehicles and limousines were damaged. Our set was very well recieved- this was becoming usual- and there was a long  break before Sabbath were
ready to play. The crowd was restless, and some began to run at the stage, only to be repelled by our road crew, and the security people.Black Sabbath
came out and things began to settle. After the first song the heat had put Tony Iommi`s guitar out of tune. For 15 minutes he struggled to tune it with
the crowd getting more agitated each minute. Finally he threw the instrument down and walked off. After another minute the rest of the band left the
stage also. Then there was a riot. Our crew locked us in our dressing room , and opened it every few minutes to throw in an unconcious bloody body
from the crowd. This was getting very ugly and disturbing. Suddenly they hammered on the door and shouted "we are leaving-now!" We ran out and
there were people climbing all over the cars as we attempted to leave. This was scary stuff, and all we could do was keep driving and hope not to kill
anyone. The cars were battered, but we got out. Back at the hotel the usual fun began.The next day a new town, maybe a new country, I cannot
remember exactly. We took in Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia etc. but it was in Italy that the wheels really came off. There are
other stories involving gangsters and guns...maybe later. David Foster has some good and clearer accounts of this. In the middle of this we came back
to England. I think there were English concerts to play. Anyhow there were some days off and all of Badger stayed at Ozzies house. This was more
madness, and there are more stories here, and there are more concert stories, and the mysterious dissapearance of monies payed by our label Atlantic
Records, which never found its way in to the bank accounts of the Badger members. From April to October 1973 I believe we played some gigs in
England. Not many, I think. These would feature bands like the Groundhogs-who were with the same management company as Badger. Also Gentle
Giant. Our manager was Brian Lane, and he was in the USA with Yes (who he also managed). In his absence the other partners in the company
(Worldwide) tried to coerse us in to signing directly with them. There followed a series of very difficult business meetings. Also during this time we
were rehearsing every possible day for our upcoming debut tour of USA, to promote "One Live Badger", which had entered the American charts and
was currently at about number 80. Actually this was a good start for a first album, and before we had played a note in American soil. Also on the
agenda was to prepare songs for the second Badger album. For some reason, (business pressures? I do not know..) the band was slow to learn new
songs. I had one or two, and some in development- not yet enough for an album, and I found my style was changing .These songs would require a
different interplay between bass and drums, leaving different spaces for keyboards and guitar. No one else seemed to have any songs, and I was
becoming depressed with playing the same ones. Also, I had agreed to 3 of my songs on "One Live" being credited to "Badger" to prevent the former
publishers of Parrish & Gurvitz taking the money, and not paying me. The situation was not good, as the publishers for Badger were not paying me
either! Shortly before the US tour was to begin, I got especially depressed and announced I was leaving. This was a bad career move for me (I really
needed a higher profile in the USA) and it was a very inconsiderate thing for me to do to the other members of Badger, giving them big  problems just
as the album was starting to be successful. I am very sorry about this now. Thankfully Roy and David in particular remain very good friends of mine.
I recently played at a special birthday party for Roy, and it was wonderful. He is playing really well also.Badger were looking for a replacement for me.
The combination of my guitar style and my songs was hard to duplicate-also my singing, I think. The other key writer was David Foster. David did not
seem to have any new songs at the time I left, and this must have made  the problem more stressfull. You could talk to David about this, but my guess
is that they would have been glad to get Jackie Lomax initially, as he was a good singer, and had some new songs already. I knew of Jackie Lomax
from his time with the Apple label, under the Beatles care. Eventually David left, and I do not know the circumstances of David's departure, but Kim
Gardner who came in, I knew very well. He was formerly with Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. A great bass player, and particularly good with Roy. I
imagine there was bad feeling around all of this, and perhaps this is what Jackie Lomax referred to.The reviews for "One Live" had been excellent (for
example "Rolling Stone" at the time.) I never heard the "White Lady" album myself, and cannot really comment. Reviews were not so good, and it was
not compared favourably with "One Live", but as I say I don t know. I would be interested to hear it now. Music is so subjective- you just have to hear
it. At the time of making the record all I could hear was what (in my opinion) needed to be better. I was moving forward in my ideas and experimenting
with R&B textures, which was and is a great loveof mine. My next project was a solo record and, as you may know, took a very different direction. It
was certainly not as instant or exciting as the live album. After this many years I am perhaps more objective, and although some of the songs on the
solo record were good, I do not like the record very much. The Badger record, however, sounds still quite fresh and has a fntastic energy. We were
relentless! I think musicians, and maybe songwriters in particular are constantly  pushing forward and trying to make the next piece of work the best.
The "Holy Grail". For some years I was not so happy about "One Live".Today I am very comfortable with it. I would rewrite lyrics ifit was ahead of
me, and not behind, but ... I am pleased to stand up and say "Yes, I was part of this". So many people love it, and this gives me a good feeling. I think
the use of organ gives a very interesting texture. Yes, I like it.!

                               Piotr, maybe you or visitors to the site will have any questions. I will be pleased to answer them if I can"

                                                                                               Brian Parrish
                                                                                                      2005


In October/November 1973, Brian Parrish and Dave Foster left the band. Tony Kaye and Ron Dyke recruited new members: Jackie Lomax (vocal)
ex-Undertakers, Lomax Alliance, Heavy Jelly, Paul Pilnick (g)-ex-Steelers Wheel  and Kim Gardner (dr)-ex-Ashton, Gardner & Dyke. The group
recorded a new record in New Orleans at producer Allen Toussint's studio. J.Lomax wrote much of their second album, but he transformed the group
from the progressive band into soulful outfit. Epic Records  issued the stuff from the session in two records: SP "White Lady / Don't pull the trigger"
(EPC 2326; year:1974) and LP "White Lady" (No.EPC 80009; date: may 1974 / Reissue on CD: Epic 7077, year: 2002 and Sony 4547366008326,
year:2002) The band split following a gig at Croyden's Fairfields Hall supporting E.L.O with whom they'd had an argument over the use of the PA.
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