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PROFILE AND
BIOGRAPHY PART 4: ENDEAVOUR TO PERSEVERE
The mood in the band was beginning to sour at this point. And then Sire dropped us. Warner made overtures that we should go with them but Cyril said no, he didn’t want anything to do with any of them. And I got married which put a huge strain on my relationship with Cyril because my wife and his girlfriend did not get on. I was about ready to quit the band at that point. We started playing in San Francisco quite regularly at that point and we’d got new management who were working on getting us another deal but in the meantime had landed us lots of work and we were making a lot of money, sometimes playing four or five nights a week. We went into Goldstar studio – bankrolled by Rolling Stones records – but they were horrified by what they saw, the wastage of time and money that was going on. Cyril had us singing into pressure zone microphones which was never going to work. And then he spent three hours slamming studio doors to get the boom at the end of River Deep Mountain High. In the end we used Dave’s drums, which was the sensible way. Cyril went a bit mad and the cash was withdrawn so Skydog picked up the financing but there were so many drugs that there wasn’t much sense coming out of it and the sessions just petered out. And then Dave left the band in early ’80 – he had health problems and had had enough of Cyril and the bad blood in the band. Cyril crashed his car on the way over to Dave’s house to try and talk him out of it – he was in shock. And I thought "nice one" as I’d said to myself I’d not be the first one to quit so then I had an excuse. We had a succession of drummers but things weren’t working although we were still playing a lot including a big gig in Berlin with The Police and Dave Edmunds. That was awful – we only played three or four numbers and we got pulled off because we were going down too well. The Police were a bit pissed off – didn’t like us for some reason. We then went back to the States and things got worse and worse. I was utterly fed up by then. Extinguishing
the flame We were living in Islington and I wasn’t doing very much but I’d met Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox and he said, "Great to see you – doing anything?" He asked me along to a rehearsal for a new band they were putting together but I never got on with female singers – Annie was a nice person but I thought she’d be a bit of a dragon at times so I didn’t think I could do that. So I was just knocking around, getting pissed with Ian Dury, and one night these friends of mine said we’re going to see this band, The Barracudas, at The Hope and Anchor, and I’d never heard of them. "They’re big fans of yours – they’re a bit folk rock." So we went down and saw them and I was introduced to them. They were "wow!" and they asked me up to do Shake Some Action. I was really drunk and said, "What you guys need is another guitar – I’ll do it." I woke up the next morning with a dreadful hangover thinking, "What have I said?" But Robin Wills phoned me later that day and asked if I was serious. "We’d love to have you in the band." So I joined The Barracudas. We got introduced to Pete Gage, who’d played guitar with Vinegar Joe, who also happened to be a friend of Ringo Starr. At the same time we had interest from France for an album and it turned out Ringo’s studio was free so we asked Pete if he’d produce us. He said yes and he was a joy to work with – he was great. Attacked
by Ringo's dogs That was a great period and the album, Mean Time, was a critical success. We toured France and Spain a lot and then went into Rockfield to record a second album, Endeavour to Persevere. But the band broke up New Year’s Eve 1984 because Jeremy Gluck wanted to be more punky while Robin and I wanted to be more 12-string harmony, so we parted company.
I went to Sweden and played with Neon Leon and did a few records out there – most of which never came out – and by that time my marriage had broken up so I stayed on out there until ’86. When I came back Robin had started The Fortunate Sons so I joined them and we toured quite a bit but I didn’t really get on with the bass player. It fell apart during a tour of Italy in 1988 so I ended up touring by myself playing folk music in Spain and France. It did that pretty solidly until ’96. In 1992 I recorded a solo album, Random Centuries, in Spain. It was critically acclaimed but didn’t sell so I went out to San Francisco in ’93 and did two sessions – one with The Sneetches and one with the ex-Groovies, Danny, James and Mike. We did a tour, which was quite good fun but when it was over I went back to the folk music. Rekindling
the flame
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The Barracudas The Barracudas, named after a Standells songs, were formed by Robin
Wills (guitar & vocals) and Jeremy Gluck (vocals) back in 1978 and the duo have
remained as the core of the band ever since. Groovin' Flames Set List - Paris '06
Yes I Am
Chris and The Groovin' Flames - 2006
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