230 Hello Gary Glitter - Rock And Roll ( Parts 1 and 2)

Chart  entered : 10  June 1972

Chart  peak : 2

Number  of  hits : 20

Whenever  glam  rock  gets  discussed  now  there's  an  elephant  in  the  room  and  here  it  is. For  now  we  can  leave  discussion  of  this  man's  transgressions  to  the  goodbye  post  ( and  in  his  case  one  can be  certain  it  really  is  goodbye - there'll  be  no  surprise  comeback  to  mess  things  up  here ).

Paul  Gadd  provides  the  textbook  example  of  glam  rock  giving  a  second  rate  act  another chance  to  make  good. He  had  a  troubled  childhood  being  illegitimate  and  taken  into  care  at  10; the  possible  implications  of  the  latter  fact  hardly  need  stating. He  frequently  absconded  to  London, looking  for  work  in  the  clubs. He  was  a  club  performer  at  15  despite  not  being blessed  with  a  great  voice. He  concealed  his  real  age  to  sign  a  deal  with  Decca  and  released  his  first  single  as  Paul  Raven, "Alone  In  The  Night"  in  January  1960. Although  he  doesn't  mention  suicide  it  does  have  the  feel  of  a  death  disc  and  with  a  half-decent  vocal  might  have  done  something.

When  that  failed  he  switched  to  Parlophone  and  worked  with  George  Martin. Their  first  single  together  was  the  Frankie  Laine-ish  "Walk  On  Boy"  in  August  1961  where  his  weedy  vocal  makes  it  sound  like  a  pisstake  of  the  style.  In  November  he  recorded  a  version  of  "Tower  Of  Strength"  which  is  so  bad  it's  brilliant ; Martin  was  better  known  for  producing  comedy  albums  at  this  point  and  he  must  surely  have  regarded  working  with  Paul  in  the  same  light.  It  was  his  last  chance  to  record  for  nearly  seven  years.

During  that  time  he  existed  on  the  fringe  of  the  music  business , best  remembered  for  his  stint  as  a  warm-up  man  for  Ready  Steady  Go. He  tried  auditioning  for  film  parts  and  may  be  an  extra  in  one  or  two  pictures  but  isn't  credited  for  anything. In  1965  he  met  the  man  who  would  eventually  transform  his  fortunes, producer//songwriter  Mike  Leander  and  joined  his  showband. Leander  delegated  the  odd  production  job  ( no  one  famous )  to  him. When  Leander  dissolved  the  band  Paul  kept  gigging  with  sax  player  John  Rossall  in  the  Boston  International  Showband  who  mainly  performed  contemporary  covers  in  Germany.

In  1968  Leander  felt  he'd  earned  another  crack  at  fame  and  wrote  and  produced  "Musical  Man"  for  him  on  MCA  in  June. It's  got  some  interesting  early  synth  sounds  and  a  good  beat  but  his  singing  hadn't  improved. In  August  they  came  out  with  "Soul  Thing"   with  Paul  writing  lyrics  to  go  over  Keith  Mansfield's   Hammond  instrumental  Funky  Fanfare  .It  gets  as  as  close  to  soul  music  as  say  Judas  Priest  or  Kraftwerk.

In  October  1969  he  put  two  singles  under  different  guises. There  was  another  comically  bad  cover  in  "Here  Comes  The  Sun" given  a  Northern  Soul  makeover  with  Our  Man  trying  to  sing  far  too  high  for  his  range  and  sounding  like  a  strangled  cat. Then  he  did  a  would-be  squatter's  anthem  "We're  All  Living  In  One  Place"  under  the  pseudonym  Rubber  Bucket  which  puts  some  universalist  lyrics  to  the  tune  of  Amazing  Grace  with  more  excruciating  attempts  at  falsetto. Quite  why  MCA  were  bankrolling  such  shit  is  a  mystery.

March  1970  saw  another  pseudonym, this  time  Friendly  Persuasion  for  "Make  A  Wish  Amanda" a  jolly  bubblegum  tune  with  gimmicky  glissandoes  that's  comparatively  bearable  and  gave  them  some  encouragement  when  it  was  a  hit  in  New  Zealand  for  the  In-betweens. Then  it  was  back  to  Paul  Raven  in  July  for  "Stand"  which  I  haven't  heard.

After  that  he  returned  to  toiling  round  Germany's  club  circuit  until  Leander  called  him  with  a  new  idea. He  would  take  on  a  new  identity  as  "Gary  Glitter", a  caricature  of  a  rock  star  with  licence  to  exaggerate  every  tenet  of  his  natural  showmanship while  keeping  the  music  as  simple  and  primal  as  possible. The  initial   vehicle  for  this  emerged  from  a  15  minute  jam. Leander  re-recorded  the  bits  he  liked  with  Rossall,  emphasising  the  primitive  beat  with  two  sets  of  drums, keeping  the  bass  low  in  the  mix  and  compressing  the  guitar and  sax  till  they  sounded  like  kazoos.  They  came  up  with  some  nostalgic  words  for  "Part  One"  but  "Part  Two"  whose  lyric  consists  of  nothing  but  the  title  and  the  sort  of  incoherent  noise  produced  by  well-oiled  football  fans  exiting  a  pub  at  2.45pm , seems  to  have  been  preferred.  It's  as  valid  a  riposte  to  ELP   and  their  ilk  as  Anarchy  In  The  UK -   though  that  of  course  had  the  advantage  of  not  being  the  work  of  two  sixties  survivors -  and  we'll  meet  the  song  again  by  some  other  iconoclasts  at  the  start  of  the  next  decade.

Here's  Lena's  take  on  it  Glitter , brief  on  the  song  itself  I  suspect,  because  her  abhorrence  of  it  puts  her  at  odds  with  her  other  half.