Flang Dang

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Low grew up in Ystrad Mynach, Glamorgan, in a council house with no heating and an outside loo: “So when it was cold you had to really need to go.” His life changed when he saw the Rolling Stones at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens in 1964, aged 15. “From that moment, my education was finished. I stopped revising, everything.” A job in a music shop gave him access to guitars and he formed the Taff Beats, the Firebrands and the Sect Maniacs before becoming a teenage idol with psychedelic era popsters Amen Corner. “Our house had the curtains closed because [the fans] were all outside camping on the lawn,” he says. It took three weeks, just myself and Beavis in there, and making the album for me, nobody else. And Kingsley was just so generous, it was a fabulous moment.” of February 1964 [Sophia Gardens Pavilion, Cardiff − part of the All Stars ’64 Tour organised by Robert Stigwood]. I know because Bill Wyman, the Rolling Stones coffee book that he wrote [ Rolling With The Stones] − fabulous book, because I like pictures. I don’t like to read too much. And it had the setlist from that gig in Cardiff and they started− They weren’t top of the bill. Mike Sarne and Billie Davis I think were top of the bill. [They ended the first half. John Leyton was the headline act.] Jet Harris was on the bill. Bern Elliott and the Fenmen, The Leroys were on that bill and the Stones. I think they started the second half and the first song they played was ‘Talkin’ ’Bout You’ and which was confirmed by Bill’s setlist which was in his book [cf p101]. It got me like a virus and it still got me, thankfully. My perspective on music since Sweet Soulful Music has not really changed. It’s always the same approach. It was my demos then, it’s my demos now. And I have days when I’m sort of spiritual and I have days when I’m not. Remember, the more sources you borrow from, the less you sound like, say, a Robert Johnson clone, and the more you’ll sound like a player who is steeped in the blues. So, take a deep dive into the styles of 12 all-time great guitarists with Play the Blues Like… by Pete Madsen, published by Acoustic Guitar.

There are a lot of soulful and gospel-tinged songs, there’s a bit of blues, there’s a bit of ska, there’s a bit of country, there’s a bit of everything,” he points out. “It’s everything I’ve ever listened to. So Fair Weather, a big hit with ‘Natural Sinner’ as an example. That was a way of casting away that Amen Corner? Without doubt, a terrific resource. Yes, good for beginners…splendid opportunity for us older journeymen to fine-tune skills and find new inspiration.” – Peter V. The turning point was the birth of his son. “I was on the baby shift, drinking vodka, watching the tennis and went: ‘Yeahhhh!’ Broken glass everywhere. I thought: ‘I can’t keep doing this.’” He had already stopped smoking in 1971 after coughing up blood. “You need the moment to be bad enough that you remember it.”Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. That’s great Andy. What a pleasure it is to speak with you and even greater pleasure to listen to your fantastic new album. I wish you all the best with that release and just to say thank you so much for your time today. FLANG DANG oozes with the kind of blues, country, and gospel that Andy has made his own; a style once described as a “prayer without pretension in every infectious song.” There are sort of a lot of soulful and gospel-tinged songs, mind you, there’s a bit of blues, there’s a bit of ska, there’s a bit of country, there’s a bit of everything. It’s everything I’ve ever listened to. My perspective on music since “Sweet Soulful Music” in 2007has not really changed. It’s always the same approach, it was my demos then, it’s my demos now. And I have days when I’m sort of spiritual and I have days when I’m not, It’s a constant conversation. So, I’m not tied down to anything.” In the 80s, Low turned up to audition at George Harrison’s mansion in a VW Polo. He puts on a dry Scouse accent. “He went: ‘Do you have to drive that?’ But we got on. After we toured Japan, George stood up and said: ‘Andy, you weren’t my first choice. You were my seventh choice.’ Then he went: ‘But you were the right choice.’” Low adored the late Beatle. “He made me feel really, really good.”

The stuff that he did. Even songs that arguably are slightly lesser known like ‘Old Brown Shoe’ are just classics. Jase, thank you. You know it’s been years since I’ve talked. Now, this album was done in 2019, and 2020 it was finished. So, yeah, I’m getting to talk and, like I say, I love it and thank you. Thank you for liking the album. I love it.

For me, it’s just a sound that will constantly keep coming around even if it’s not the flavour of the month or the minute. There’s a bit of a thread; reading about your early inspirations of one of them was when you saw the Rolling Stones in 1964.

I refuse to reignite the Amen Corner franchise. I get invited to be a guest on shows and they want me to be who I was, and I’m too old to be who I was. This is a period for me to bewho I am.” Release: 2023 Release date: April 8, 2023 ‘Flang Dang’ is Andy Fairweather Low’s first solo album since 2006 – After an interval of sixteen years, here he is again at his sweet and soulful musical best with the kind of record that will surely delight his fans. That actually was John David who was the bass player on La Booga Rooga [Andy’s second solo album, released in 1975] and [on] my stuff and in the band in the 70s when I worked on A&M. There you go. Funny old world. Having once performed The Wall in Berlin with Waters to 450,000 people, his first gig with his own band the Low Riders in 2007 was to 20 people in a 2,000-seater in Rhyl. Gradually, though, they built it up to “300 to 400 people every night, which is great at my age”. Lately, he has been off the road to become primary carer to Barbara, his wife of 50 years, who has terminal motor neurone disease. It is a task he is no doubt undertaking as gracefully and diligently as all the others.Andy Fairweather Low speaks to Jason Barnard about his new album Flang Dang, his first solo album in 17 years. He also covers his highlights from his time as lead singer of Amen Corner, solo hits and time playing with Roger Waters, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Johnson employed this style of bass-driven playing from time to time, but more often he would break up the sound. For instance, in Ex. 2, which is similar to a motif in his “Terraplane Blues,” the I chord sounds quite different. It still starts out with the low-bass sound courtesy of the fifth and fourth strings, but then jumps to the higher strings, hitting G-type chords.