TOM WAITS AND ME

I went to a meeting yesterday regarding a new, exciting festival that will feature a wide range of artists that relate to the blues - called The Lead Belly Festival. It premiered last June at the Royal Albert Hall in London and starred Van Morrison, Tom Paley, Eric Burdon, Walter Trout. Jools Holland, Paul Jones and a host of others - the show was a wonderful success. The organisers, who are a group of great guys, deeply dedicated to their music are taking their festival to Carnegie Hall in New York in December 2015. Its not announced yet so I won't say any more at this stage - however, one of the artists we discussed was TOM WAITS. 

Tom Waits wonderfully wrote the introduction to the Lead Belly Festival Program and my mind went back to those halcyon days when I had the incredible honour or bringing Tom to the UK (and Europe) many moons ago. Back in 2013 I wrote a piece about some of my experiences with Tom and I thought you may enjoy reading this again. THANKS

I will never forget that gravelly voice emanating from the two Linn Isobarik speakers in my friend Jeff Rigby's front room. I had heard of Tom Waits but not really listen to him but that moment was a life changer - Jeff Rigby had been raving about Waits and he was so right. The album I was listening to "Small Change" released in 1976 knocked me out - I remember it so clearly - Tom Traubert's Blues based upon the Aussie traditional song "Waltzing Matilda" but turned into a Tom Waits classic was brilliant. "Bones Howe, the album's producer, recalls when Waits first came to him with the song:

"He (Tom Waits) said the most wonderful thing about writing that song. He went down and hung around on skid row in L.A. because he wanted to get stimulated for writing this material. He called me up and said, "I went down to skid row ... I bought a pint of rye. In a brown paper bag." I said, "Oh really?." "Yeah - hunkered down, drank the pint of rye, went home, threw up, and wrote 'Tom Traubert's Blues'"

Other songs on that album impressed me so much - "The piano has been drinking (not me)", "Pasties and a G-Sring (at the two o'clock club), "Bad liver and a broken heart" - wonderful, memorable music - The music for the most part consists of Waits' hoarse, rough voice, set against a backdrop of piano, upright bass, drums and saxophone. Some tracks have a string section, whose sweet timbre is starkly contrasted to Waits' voice. I was fascinated to learn that the great jazz drummer Shelly Manne was playing on the album (and previous Waits albums).

I rushed out to buy everything I could find that Tom Waits had recorded - great albums like "Blue Valentine" (1978) with "Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis", "Romeo is bleeding" - to the Heart of Saturday Night (1974) - "Nighthawks at the Diner" (1975) Waits first live album with "Warm beer and cold women", "Emotional weather report", Egg and Sausage (in a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)"and so forth - the music relentlessly reaches you - the ultimate street poet and troubadour - living in cheap hotels, eating in diners, seedy dark bars - Tom lived the life he portrayed in his lyrics - his distinctive voice growling through the speakers - sometimes gentle, sometimes raw, sometimes broken but always deeply compelling.

The question now was - how the hell could I track him down and bring him to the UK and put him on our stages? Well the answer came via significant research and finding Tom's manager at that time Herb Cohen - I flew to Los Angeles to meet Herb Cohen and spent some time trying to convince him I was the right person to bring Tom Waits to the UK.

Herb Cohen had moved to LA from New York in the mid 1950's and began putting on concerts by folk artists such as Pete Seeger and Odetta. He quickly became a manager of some renown looking after not only Tom Waits but Alice Cooper, Linda Rondstadt, Lenny Bruce, Tim Buckley, George Duke and probably most famous of all at that time Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

We became good friends and after some fairly difficult haggling and tough negotiations we agreed on a contract for March 1981. Three or four nights at the Victoria Apollo Theatre in London, one show at the Manchester Apollo Theatre, one at the Edinburgh Playhouse - in addition I had to set up dates in Spain and other parts of Europe.

I loved his music passionately (and still do) but I had never met Tom - I had read copiously about his life and of course his music. He had just married an American/Irish girl Kathleen Brennan and I was very much looking forward to meeting both of them. This tour was called the "Heart Attack and Vine Tour" to promote the album of the same name.

The tickets went on sale and sold out almost immediately - ticket prices £3, £4 and £5 (Ha I laughed when I saw the ticket stubs again after all these years - today his tickets sell for hundreds on Ebay - if you can even find one) - we added another date at the Victoria Apollo Theatre - sold out again in minutes. All the dates everywhere (Manchester, Edinburgh and throughout Europe) sold out same day - it was extraordinary for an artist that could never have been considered "main-stream".

The group of musicians arrived along with Herb Cohen and we all moved into the Victoria Apollo. The magnificent Teddy Edwards on tenor Saxophone, Greg Cohen (Double Bass), Ronnie Barron on Keyboards and Tom himself on guitar and keyboard - apparently the drummer had been left behind due to some kind of dispute (never did find out the reason)

David Corio who photographed the concert recalls: "The show opened with a specially designed set - the exterior of an old bar straight out of a Western, the “street” lit by a single street lamp. Tom walked on stage and leaned nonchalantly against the lamp post, a burning cigarette dangling between his fingers. After a few songs and cigarettes, he wandered over to the piano and began to play. Although the whole set looked beautiful, it was a nightmare to photograph. Darkness was obviously the design theme. There was just one light above Tom at the piano and the brim of his trilby kept his face in shadow. Fortunately Tom Waits makes some great dramatic gestures when he performs - in this photo the light off the back of his hand and the keyboard reflected onto his face and I was able to get this shot".

I personally found Waits to be charming and at times distant but thenI admit I was in awe of him - and instead of acting as the promoter/producer - I was a fan and acted like one. There seemed to be some tension between Kathy and Herb Cohen and I unwittingly got in the middle of this from time to time - but I never had any disputes of issues with Tom or Kathy - they were a delight to work with.

A couple of amusing incidents - one was when Tom wanted to use my umbrella on stage - I had a running joke from then on that the umbrella will never be able to go back to normal life having been in show business and on stage with Tom Waits! I recall Tom being very amused by this - he was eccentric, different, fascinating, reclusive but I loved him and his unique music.

The second amusing incident occurred when Tom asked me to find a gravestone for his show on a Friday afternoon! Where the hell was I going to find a gravestone on a wet Friday - a few hours before the show was due to start? Rob a graveyard - steal someone's tombstone? In a flash of inspiration I called a film company - I seem to recall after all this time that it was Hammer Horror Films but I may be wrong - what I do know was that I called and some guy answered and I said "look I know this request is a bit unusual but I urgently need a tombstone for a concert due to start in a few hours" - the guy said wait a minute...  and then like in the goons radio show - there was the patter of feet walking quickly and then the same guy answered "Tombstone department can I help" - I roared with laughter - I got Tom a tombstone and I had a great story to tell for life!

Tom's concerts were incredibly successful - everywhere we went audiences couldn't get enough - I reckon I could have sold two weeks of nights in London alone. Sadly I never worked with Tom Waits again - Tom and Kathy fell out with Herb Cohen and no matter how many times I tried to bring Tom back to London and Europe I was obviously tarred with the same brush as Herb Cohen by association alone. This was such a shame because of course, I had absolutely nothing to do with Herb or his disputes with Tom and the artists - but hey c'est la vie - that's life and we move on,

In an interview many years later Sean O'Hagan wrote: "For years, he was the booze-soaked bard of the barstool, the keeper of 'a bad liver and a broken heart'. But Tom Waits was saved by his wife, hasn't had a drink for more than a decade and, at 56, is making the music of his life".

"Waits talks like he sings, in a rasping drawl and with an old-timer's wealth of received wisdom. It's as if, in late middle-age, he has grown into the person he always wanted to be. His tales are often tall, and his metaphors and similes tend towards the surreal. 'Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them,' he quips. 'Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.'

Kathleen, once said there were two types of Tom Waits songs, 'the grim reapers and the grand weepers'.

All I know is that I have loved Tom Waits and his music since that revolutionary hearing of the Small Change Album all those years ago - his music captures, annoys, irritates and sublimely takes you into raptures and agony of emotional break down - as Kathy says "grand weepers"

Thank you Tom for the memories of a series of concerts that enraptured and captivated audiences in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and throughout Europe - and me too