Interview with Shirlie Roden from 2001

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Trevor Raggatt
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Interview with Shirlie Roden from 2001

Postby Trevor Raggatt » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:08 pm

Clearing out the old folder on my increasingly dodgy laptop so that I could save them on my nice shiny new laptop I came across two articles I wrote for the Airwaves fanzine way back in 2001. I had thought them long lost so it was a delight to happen across them again. I thought I would post them here as they both seem timely now - what with Gordon revisiting his prog preiod and the Triumvirate trilogy just having been reissues. Hope you enjoy them. The first is an interivew with singer/musician Shirlie Roden about her time in the GG band. CHeck out Fear Of The Dark and Live In Oxford to check out her singing...


“I was the singer in an instrumental band!”
Shirlie Roden’s Gordon Giltrap Band Memories



In the late 1970’s Shirlie Roden had possibly one of the oddest jobs in rock ‘n’ roll – she was the vocalist in a rock band that (bar one song) only recorded instrumental music. Hmm, very strange! Between 1975 and 1979 Gordon Giltrap released four albums with his own band which were produced by a three man team, aptly named “Triumvirate”. The first three formed a loose trilogy which were released on “Electric Records” while the last, “Peacock Party” was based on a book of the same name by the illustrator, Alan Aldridge, and was released on PVK. Triumvirate Productions comprised Jon Miller, Rod Edwards and Roger Hand. As the Gordon Giltrap Band albums, Visionary, Perilous Journey, Fear of the Dark and Peacock Party were re–released on CD in 2000 Shirlie shared a few memories of her time in the band.

“I met Jon Miller of Triumvirate in 1975 just before the recording of Gordon’s first album [with the band], Visionary, and was Jon’s partner during the whole of the Giltrap project and the Electric Records years. I remember that there was always a certain feeling of awe about a pending Gordon Giltrap recording. Hushed voices and deadly serious discussions amongst Edwards, Miller and Hand whose brilliance and vision as the three producing partners of Triumvirate helped create those amazing albums. When Jon went into the studio with Gordon he literally disappeared from my life for a month. So deep was the creative concentration that no phone calls were allowed and I entered the hallowed portals of Redan Recorders [Triumvirate’s own recording studio] on those occasions only to do my cameo vocal pieces and then leave.

“There was an air of something different, ground breaking and unusual being born. And in the middle of it all was Gordon with long, flowing locks, shy grin, ready sense of humour and that individual style of playing that was breathtaking.

“It was highly unusual to have three record producers on one project but Triumvirate were an unusual trio. Rod Edwards was a keyboardsman and Roger Hand a guitarist. Together they both wrote and arranged, assisting Gordon to expand his licks and riffs into something excitingly different. Gordon’s constant comment, which became a catch phrase was ‘That was just the way I heard it in my head!’ when they’d worked on something with him. Jon Miller had no technical musical skills, but was brilliant with ideas, at focussing everything and coming up with unusual concepts. I remember that the ‘Perilous Journey’ album gained much of its structure and some of its song titles from Jon and I reading Herman Hesse’s ‘Journey to the East’ and tying it in conceptually with the ‘journey’ on the album.

“Electric Records, with the eccentric Jeremy Thomas at the helm, was 100% behind the albums so it was not long before the Gordon Giltrap Band was formed to promote them. My only contribution to the first band was that I sewed a huge black backdrop with the band logo in vast silver lettering to hang above the stage. It was a real work of art and took me days. My brother–in–law, Eddy Spence (who played the brilliantly fast keyboard solo on the recording of ‘Heartsong’) became a member of the band and I joined some time later. It was an unusual job. Although I had written lyrics to some of the pieces on ‘Perilous Journey’ (and later ‘Fear of the Dark’, which I believe still exist on the Gordon Giltrap Band Live album) Gordon initially preferred to remain instrumental. So I learned to use my voice as an instrument and I well remember the effect of those high notes vibrating through me because that was what caused me to understand the effects on vibration on the body – something which I now use in my work as a sound healer with voice.” Shirlie used this approach to even greater effect on the track ‘Golgotha’ on the Adrian Snell album ‘The Passion’ which also featured Gordon and the band.” The album ‘Gordon Giltrap – Live at Oxford’ has vocal versions of ‘The Deserter’ and ‘Fear of the Dark’ with lyrics written by Shirlie.

“The days of the band on the road were great fun. Gordon (who was usually referred to as ‘Lenny Giltit’ – due to a billing mistake years ago at a working men’s club) had a great sense of humour. Whenever the tour bus got lost he would give directions saying ‘You can’t miss it. It’s got a great big rabbit on top!’ – something which also came from his working men’s club days. John Gustafson on bass was darkly handsome and completely off the wall – he much enjoyed setting fire to the flower arrangements in hotel rooms as a matter of course when we arrived – but he was rock solid on stage. Ian Mosley had an entire wardrobe of black T–shirts to match the black everything–else he wore and really appreciated playing the music which was technically quite challenging for a drummer. Rod Edwards was terrific, with his own individual style on keyboards (but always deafeningly loud!) and Eddy Spence spent hours working out all the intricate little bits and pieces and playing them to perfection. Roger Hand wasn’t with the band all the time but doubled on acoustic guitar while I added third keyboards plus percussion and my unusual vocal/instrumental passages. And Gordon was just Gordon. There was no–one else like him.

“I remember that we were reviewed in Melody Maker once as being ‘like a spaceship taking off’. The stage set was designed with a circle of white lights above Gordon which picked up the circle of guitars around him – all individually tuned – and when the lights came up at those crowded university gigs and the first notes of the Visionary album began, the atmosphere was supercharged. No–one else was doing anything like it at the time – and I think no–one has done so since. The movements from the classic, orchestrated heavy rock right down to the simple acoustic guitar seemed to pull the audience in, and I believe that Gordon and the band should have been huge internationally.

“Fondest memories are of the dressing room at the Glasgow Apollo when Forbes Cameron, our publicist, came to visit. Sadly, he is now dead, but Forbes was a very large Scotsman – to say the least. He sat on a metal–framed chair and the assembled band watched, stifling laughter as the frame began to sink beneath the unaware Forbes’ vast bulk. The most unusual memory was the TV show shot for Westward Television down in Plymouth with Stuart Orme directing. It was based on the ‘Fear of the Dark’ album and at one point Stuart had Gordon buried up to his neck in sand while I walked past in a long, white night–dress with a red velvet cloak, picking roses planted in the sand. It was midwinter and freezing cold but the final TV show was very unusual. It must exist somewhere in ‘videospace’ and would be a great collector’s item. Other fond memories were of appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Producer, Michael Appleton really liked Gordon and the band and we were frequent visitors (and I remember my mum kept knitting Gordon brightly coloured waistcoats – which he loved wearing on TV!).”

Support for the band didn’t only come from the TV establishment. At least one great figure of the radio was also an admirer of Gordon’s music. Whilst attending the 2000 Sony Radio Awards Shirlie bumped into Alan “Fluff” Freeman – for many year’s the voice of quality rock music on BBC Radio 1 (“Not ‘arff”). Shirlie recalled what a great fan of Gordon he had been, coming down to Redan Recorders Studio for a pre-release preview of ‘Fear of the Dark’. She mentioned this to him. “His face lit up. He said ‘The good old days! Whatever happened to good music? Tell Gordon, Fluff says hello!’ ”

“We were in the middle of recording the original ‘Peacock Party’ album with vocals when Electric Records folded. That album was never finished (although some tracks still exist today unreleased) so it was almost inevitable that the band came to an end. [The instrumental version of the album was released on PVK Records in 1981 and has now also been re–released on Voiceprint]. Gordon, by this time, had mastered playing electric guitar on stage – which he played in his own unique way – but by that time I think he just wanted to go back to being just Gordon with his acoustic guitars.

“I still keep in touch with some members of the band. Eddy Spence is my brother–in–law and played on my first solo album, ‘Skydancer’, and Rod Edwards has just played keyboards on my last CD ‘The Vanishing Lake’. Jon Miller is no longer my partner but has produced nearly everything I have recorded since those days and we co–wrote a West–End musical on the life of Roy Orbison.

“And Gordon? Well, I called in to see him backstage at the Cliff Richard ‘Heathcliffe’ show and I told him he was the best thing in it. Which, of course, he was! I also said that when I first heard the ‘Riverdance’ music I thought it was the Gordon Giltrap Band in places, and that with Jon Miller and my expertise in the theatre, there must surely be a stage show with Gordon’s music... Who knows? It was a great time of my life. I loved being a part of it.”

So what were Shirlie’s final thoughts on her time singing and playing with Gordon? She summed it up by saying, “The Gordon Giltrap Band still takes off like a spaceship from the stage of my memories. Thank you, Gordon, for the music and allowing me to be part of it.”




Trevor Raggatt © 2001
Special thanks to Shirlie Roden for her help in preparing her article.

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