Folk On Tap #84 – July/September 2000 – Geoff Wall – “Michael Chapman - more songs of trees and rivers”

Over the years, the restless creativity of Michael Chapman has found full expression in his extensive back-catalogue of album releases.  A canon of work in which he successfully finds a balance of ‘groove and emotion’.  Live Chapman was always a different experience to studio Chapman; and the recently released Growing Pains [Mooncrest CRESTCD 046], with it’s generous selection of archive recordings from his breathtaking wealth of original material, is a good balance of edgy live ambience with decent sound quality.  Magnificent, majestic, often poignant folk, this set serves as a ‘compendium’ to his first two studio albums – of which – 1970’s Fully Qualified Survivor remains a landmark album of the British acoustic guitar/songwriter movement.

   The Growing Pains collection concentrates upon Mike’s early years and 50% of these recordings originate from Mike’s then frequent visits to Southampton.  Last year I was asked by Marc Higgins, editor of Journeyman – the Michael Chapman Newsletter, to provide some background information to these local tapes.  It’s also a story that coincidentally chronicles my own discovery of, and immersion in, ‘Folk Music’.  In an effort to dispel some of the sleeve notes inaccuracies and misconceptions, what follows is an expanded account of those times and events....

   “Back in the 1960s, Michael Chapman was a real acoustic guitar hero to those who liked the instrument played with welly.  Quite often coming across like an acoustic Pete Townsend (I once remember Chapman demolishing most of a set of guitar strings, to his consternation, on the opening power chord of a set), the sound of his big, open-tuned Gibson J200 was an inspiration to many.  Oddly, when he later went mostly electric, he never quite captured the energy of the earlier acoustic work.”

In 1966 the Southampton Technical College was (and still is) housed in the town’s converted Victorian Workhouse, situated within the urban decayed area known as St Mary’s, a locality once described in the Municipal Corporation Boundaries Report of 1832 as “being principally inhabited by the lower orders.”  The Student’s Union was part of a Victorian terrace development, and was located adjacent to the College buildings.  Within this warren of damp rooms and passages, the squalid subterranean basement was home to the Cellar Folk Club.

After leaving Secondary School I slid into Further Education at Southampton’s Tech, where the more interesting activities centred upon the Student’s Union Audio Club.  It was this amalgam, or more precisely, three individuals who provided the impetus that drove the Cellar Folk Club.  The Club was ostensibly ‘run’ by Phil Tyler (who financed it), Jakob Davies (who ‘fronted’ it) and myself (who accosted people for their money on the door). The participants were “A” Level students and not “engineering students” as the sleeve notes state.  Usually whilst the artist and audience slummed it in the basement, Phil Tyler was three-stories upstairs in the Audio Clubroom manning the antique Ferrograph Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder, regularly capturing the weekly event.  It’s from this cache of fifteen or so reels that some of Michael’s performances on Growing Pains were taken.  Dates include 21st February 1968, 6th November 1969 and 11th December 1969.

   Our frugal student grants and a general lack of money meant that tape was at a premium – consequently the between-song banter and interminable tuning-up were ruthlessly edited – hence some of the harsh song intros and exits.  Many of these recordings were edited and played over the Student Union’s Coffee Bar PA.  Amongst the flotsam and jetsom, I recently found a short tape of Mike tuning-up – so even some of the edits were saved – such was the singular dedication of his fans!

   Jakob became the custodian of this priceless tape archive, and took them with him to Germany during the early 70s.  He later returned them on his way to travel down the Pan-American Highway to visit his parents in South America.  Surprisingly, nothing has been heard from him since – but I have no doubt that he will turn up again!  Jakob gave them to Phil Tyler, who in turn passed them to me.  Over Xmas 1998, I was loaned a CD-Writer and as a consequence, have transferred many of these vintage Chapman recordings onto four CDs.  Surprisingly, their condition belied their neglect.

   But returning to 1968....The Cellar Folk Club’s “management” were fanatically devoted Mike Chapman enthusiasts, thus he became a regular visitor to Southampton, for which he got paid the princely sum of £20 per engagement.  The audience were always treated to two sets, which inevitably culminated in one of his marathon medleys, where Mike would seemingly lose himself to his muse, thus giving the spellbound audience a glimpse of someone totally absorbed in their music.

   Somewhere along the line, the Student Union hierarchy became involved with the running of the Cellar Folk Club.  I’ve recently spoken to Phil on the subject and we collectively seem to remember that the Union Exec didn’t like an “outside” enterprise running a successful Club on their premises, and pressure was applied!!!  This coincided with Phil discovering jazz at the Great Harry, and thus he dropped out, effectively leaving the Student Union to underwrite the Club’s finances.  In a desperate effort to attract larger audience figures, the Union’s Event’s Committee decided to ‘re-brand’ the Cellar Folk Club.  Thus for a short while, and at the insistence of the Union Publicity Department, it became the incomprehensibly named “nyarlathotep”!!!

   Sadly the continued decline in audience attendance meant that Club nights were numbered.  Our one hope was that the Union’s Treasurer, (who held the purse strings), had been most impressed by John Martyn and was eager to hear him again – so Jakob deliberately re-booked Martyn to appear at the end of the year.  This canny political manoeuvre meant that the Student Union wouldn’t pull the plug – and ensured that we effectively continued for the rest of the year.  Artists booked during this period included Duffy Power, Sammy Mitchell, Ron Geesin, John Martyn and of course, Mike Chapman.

   The best of our vintage Chapman recordings was achieved when we recorded him at Southampton University’s Old Refectory on 27th November 1971.  Mike shared the bill with his old friend Bridget St John and performed both an acoustic and electric set.  For some unknown reason we only managed to record the acoustic segment.  It was recorded at 71⁄2 ips in stereo on Phil’s Revox Professional HS77 without any compression and as such, is simply the most dynamic live recording of Mike playing acoustic guitar that you will probably ever hear.  The University’s Events Stage-crew objected to our presence, saying that our extra two microphones “ruined their presentation!”  Fortunately Mike, who was an old friend of Phil’s, insisted that we be allowed to continue, and thus we have this outstanding Chapman set.  It was recorded by Phil Tyler, in the company of John Dobson and myself, and we all enjoyed a convivial post-gig curry with both Mike and Bridget, discussing life, love and Dandelion Records.

   Subsequent memorable Chapman local appearances included an almost cancelled gig at the Mountbatten Theatre, when Phil made a frantic dash up the M3 to rescue Mike, who had broken down en route.  Lack of car space meant that Rick Kemp and his bass equipment was abandoned, thus forcing Mike to make an unscheduled solo appearance.  We had planned to record this gig onto the Revox, but the emergency situation meant that it got pushed aside.  There was also the bizarre coupling of Mike supporting Peter Barden’s Camel at Southampton’s Gaumont Theatre in 1978 – an event where the local Chapman Fan Club walked out of the theatre after his memorable set.  Hindsight suggests that it was not such an odd billing, when you consider that Camel’s Andy Latimer played on Mike’s The Man Who Hated Mornings 1977 LP.

   That gig marked the end of Mike’s local appearances, and was the last time we saw him, until he played The Joiners pub, (just up the road from the Tech), as part of his Navigation album promotional tour in 1996.  It was at this gig, surrounded by many familiar faces from the old Cellar Club days, Phil finally presented Mike cassette copies of the aforementioned tapes, some twenty five years after we had recorded them.

   A friend subsequently passed me a copy of the aforementioned September 1997 Journeyman Newsletter, which contained the following intriguing titbit: “It looks like the next Journeyman release will be a Compact Disc of live recordings of Michael solo in Southampton and recorded in 1970 (yes you read correctly that last bit is not a typo)”.  Realising the origin of these recordings, curiosity got the better of me and I made contact with Marc, who requested further background information on the vintage recordings to include within Growing Pains sleeve notes.  These were duly supplied and have formed the basis of this ramble.

   The power of music to inadvertently evoke a place and a time is frightening, and sniffing this collection has rekindled so many long-forgotten allied memories: the Christmas ’69 gig where Mike performed surrounded by hundreds of lighted tiny candles of the kind used to decorate birthdays cakes; a melancholic Jakob repeatedly listening to ‘Kodak Ghosts’, and recognising that Mike could empathise with his “broken-hearted” situation, requested Mike perform the song, only to be told that he’d forgotten the words; Mike ‘winding up’ the Arran-sweater traditionalists at another local club by presenting a Buddy Holly medley; and the time that my “little” sister led the procession down to the basement, only to told by Jakob to “Hurry up.  Don’t keep Mike waiting”.  Her response to a horrified Jakob and a bemused Mike was: “So!  Who’s he anyway?”  It’s strange how listening to music can make the past thirty years just fall away.

   On a technical note - the Southampton portion of Growing Pains was produced from the cassette copy and not the original reel-to-reel master tape.  I know that Mike originally had plans to release the unabridged 1971 University set as a limited edition CD in America, but “technical problems” stopped the project.  Again the production master used for that aborted US project was taken from the aforementioned cassette.  For Growing Pains we did offer the reel-to-reel master, but the project was too far advanced at that point.

   According to Marc’s informative sleeve notes: “The circumstances surrounding these recordings are less familiar and have passed into mythology.”  You now know the full story.  Thankfully part of these legendary tapes are now featured on Growing Pains.  They remain a reflection of a golden age when music and events were staged with a more human feeling, that is sadly missing from today’s world of fashion TV.

Geoff Wall
May 2000

Geoff Walls Music Archive Website - Stick It In Your Ear Online Music Magazine