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David Carradine <\/em><\/strong>was best known as an actor although he did dabble with a music career it would always be dwarfed by his acting abilities, his most famous role being Kwai Caine in the 1970s hit TV series, Kung Fu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although he worked constantly in television and movies nothing ever came close to his success as Kwai Caine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was no stranger to being arrested and was prosecuted for an assortment of offences, often related to substance abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2003 and 2004 a new generation discovered Carradine through Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Kill Bill movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2009 whilst in Bangkok working on the movie Stretch, Carradine was found dead in his hotel room, hanging by a rope in the room\u2019s closet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1974 I was only aware of Carradine through his big hit television show Kung Fu,<\/em> certainly not as a singer songwriter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So naturally I was very surprised when Jet Records booked the studio to record an album with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having been a big fan of the TV show, to me he had star quality before I had even met him but this would soon erode, bit by bit as each session passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually after the first day or so of a recording session you would gain a rapport with the artist, this was not the case with David, even his producer was having difficulty conversing with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes you might ask him a question and get no response at all or he may answer with a completely unrelated assortment of words spoken in an uninterested monotone voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember him replying to a completely normal question with,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s three degrees<\/em>\u201d To this day I still have no idea what he was talking about but it certainly was Sheila Ferguson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the sessions had an air of peculiarity, the most extreme was when David had asked the producer to book five session musicians comprising of a flute, violin, oboe, trumpet, and a saxophone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the musicians arrived, David sat at the piano and told everyone there would be no usual run through or rehearsal with this song, there would be one take and one take only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we started recording, each instrument would be listened to individually to determine a correct recording level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no written music for the session players to refer too and furthermore he refused to tell them what key it was in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea was that once the multi-track was in record he would start to perform and the musicians should play whatever they felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The look of fear on the musician\u2019s faces was a real picture to behold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The red light went on and the producer announced,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTake one, the tape is running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David started playing and singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was the only one in the studio that knew the song and the key, you could not imagine the cacophony that these instruments managed to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next four minutes was excruciating, at one point the producer turned and said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s completely lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After what seemed like an eternity the last notes rang out from the piano and David turned to the producer and asked,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow was it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the politest voice he could muster he replied,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome in and have a listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David and the musicians came into the control room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Listening to the playback of the song was more agonising than when we were recording it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the track finished and<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please go to Stories for how this madness ends <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Was a music festival held between 26 and 31 August 1970 at Afton Down, an area on the western side of the Isle of Wight in England Where an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 <\/strong>people attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more I O W 1970 go to Bands<\/a>, Pye Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n By Saturday the 29th of August the festival was well on its way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There were many uncertainties of which bands were going to actually to appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tension back stage between the organisers and artist about payments was growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This caused major unpredictability to running order of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Who should have appeared on the Saturday evening but it was early on the Sunday morning before they started their set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within three or four minutes of the opening song Vic shouted to me that Keith Moon had hit the large tom drum mic and busted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He told me to get up on stage and get a mic on the drum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ran to the backstage entrance to find it guarded by several Hells Angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of them, a six-foot longhaired neanderthal type character covered in leather and tattoos said to me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one goes on stage while the band\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I explained the problem but unfortunately it was not negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rushed back to tell Vic that I couldn\u2019t get to the stage due to the primate situation,<\/p>\n\n\n\n he yelled, \u201cI don\u2019t give a shit, get on the stage and get a mic on the tom\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rushed to the back of the stage again to be greeted by the same mandrill who gave me the same grunts as before, enhanced with a<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow Fuck Off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ran back to explain to Vic there was no way I could get on the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was to become close friends with Vic over the next nineteen years and this would be one of the only times I would ever see him really angry or hear him raise his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He screamed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGo back and tell that stupid ape bastard the recording is going to be fucked, he will be personally responsible and the band will be furious with him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n I rushed back to the stage once more now armed with Vic\u2019s instructions I repeated them, verbatim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just left out the bit about his heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This seemed to do the trick I was immediately allowed through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Who were now in full flow, thundering out a mass of noise, it was hard to distinguish what song they were performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally I reached the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stage was vibrating as if a small earthquake was taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could see the band\u2019s silhouettes lit from the front by tremendously bright white lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although you couldn\u2019t see the audience you could feel the presence of over a half a million people hidden in the darkness beyond the blinding glow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is when paralysis started to set into my whole body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I realised there was no way I could casually walk onto the stage in front of so many people to find a spare mic and replace the broken mic whilst Moon was in full flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing Moon\u2019s reputation, he was quite likely to stop playing in the middle of a song and ask what the fuck I was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I had only one option, get someone else to do it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking around I spotted Neville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made my way over to my prime candidate and screamed into his ear that Vic had sent me to tell him to replace the mic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nev\u2019s faced dropped, he was also aware of Moon\u2019s<\/em> reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could see in his facial expression that he was experiencing the same terror that had spread throughout my body, it\u2019s possible he may have even touched cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nev tried to come up with several excuses, but I made it clear that Vic had insisted he had to do it immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We could now see clearly that Moon<\/em> had smashed the head off the Neuman U67 tom mic, which was lying on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stood and watched while Neville nervously crawled around the drum kit on his hands and knees, bravely picking up the head of the broken mic and then screwing on a replacement new head onto the remaining body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mission was complete, so I swiftly reported back to Vic, not really mentioning Neville\u2019s input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did tell Neville the real story a few years ago and his reaction was one of laughter as I thought it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to thank Neville Crozier <\/em><\/strong>for his help with these Isle of Wight posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please see In Pye Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isle of Wight \u2013 a Beautiful Dream That Became a Monster<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Bands<\/a>, Pye Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Doors \u2013 In the Dark About the Bass Player<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pye Mobile<\/a>, Singers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jimi Hendrix \u2013 Arrogance and a Death Threat<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pye Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jimi Hendrix \u2013 The prophecy fulfils?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pye Mobile<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chicago \u2013 The First And Only Time<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Young Child I spent most of my time living within my imagination, believing that no dream was out of reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was born in the early fifties, the last decade in which the world appeared to exist in black and white. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the summer of 56, I was four years old when I heard the most amazing sound coming from my brothers bedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sound would transform my life forever. I discovered he had a strange box that he would turn with a handle on the side to wind it up, and then lift up this heavy arm onto a black circular object. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When he went out, I would sneak into his room and copy the process and listen to the sounds repeatedly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t read the label but I could easily remember the words \u2018Well since my baby left me I found a new place to dwell it\u2019s down at the end of lonely street at Heartbreak hotel.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I then discovered my first addiction in life had begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday nights my friends and I with our teenage hormones raging would visit Soho <\/em>in the West End, where we could see photographs of almost naked girls around the doorways of the strip clubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On one occasion we decided to chance our luck and asked the doorman how much it was to go in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He first asked our age, well the oldest was a kid called Mickey O\u2019Grady who was almost sixteen but looked twelve; the rest of us were fifteen but looked fourteen, so we all replied almost in unison eighteen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To our complete surprise he told us the price and let us in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We paid at the little kiosk and eagerly rushed down the staircase into a small dark room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were about twenty people facing a brightly lit stage, where we just caught a glimpse of a naked girls bum as the curtains closed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like a group of mad Bulls charging at a matador we pushed our way to the very front of the stage just as the music started playing Shirley Bassey\u2019s, Big Spender. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The curtains opened to reveal not the greatest looking girl I had ever seen, in fact, if ugly was a crime she would have been sentenced to life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was scantily dressed as a cave girl, carrying a polystyrene club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After strutting up and down this small stage a couple of times, flashing her breast, she stopped right in front of Mickey, tapped him on his head with her club, and said in a loud voice,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dDoes your mother know you\u2019re here?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience roared, as the laughter died down Mickey shouted,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dDoes your mother know you\u2019re here?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The place erupted with cheers and laughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her act finished with us seeing very little of what we came for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the curtains closed we were all escorted out of the premises. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGetting to know the artist or maybe not<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A session as strange as the artist <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Four minutes of agony<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Isle of Wight Festival 1970<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Who \u2013 Hells Angels and a Broken Drum Mic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Who begin and the problem starts.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The primate situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Paralysis sets in<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Passing the buck.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Job done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Stripper & The Choir Boy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
For more stories from The Stripper & The Choir Boy go to Stories<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
My First Addiction in Life.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Teenage Hormones Raging.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The kids and the cave girl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kinky Friedman: Too Much Just Ain\u2019t Enough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n