Stepping out of the shadows and into the limelight

Jul 18 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

HE’S spent 28 years touring with the greatest rock legends in the world.

But Andy Fairweather-Low has decided it’s time to step out of the shadows and into the limelight. And if venues like Southport Art Centre are a little smaller than those he played with Roger Waters and Eric Clapton, the satisfaction he’ll derive is stadium-sized.

It’s the first proper solo tour he’s done since the 70s.

"I had a desperate need to play," he explains. "I’ve spent 26 years playing what other people wanted and being paid very well, and staying in five-star places and making some very good friends and learned a bit, too.

"You can’t put anything of yourself in it at all. You’re a cog in the wheel at the back with a specific part to play and the job itself becomes easy. The challenge is to stay focused and stop your mind from wandering.

"It’s fantastic to realise when I’m doing this that you can play whatever you want. You think ‘Oh yes, this is coming next’ and get excited."

He found fame as a founder member of the pop group Amen Corner in the 60s, which had four successive top ten hits, including the number 1, (If Paradise Is) Half as Nice in 1969.

He has toured with Roger Waters since 1985, toured with Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings in 2005, with Clapton on his world tour in 2001 and with Pete Townsend in 1993, as well as playing as a session guitarist and vocalist on many of their biggest albums.

The secret to his job, he says, is knowing when to shut up.

"As a musician, if you weren’t good enough, you wouldn’t be there," says the 62-year-old. "Hundreds of thousands of people could do the job I was doing. But that’s not the point.

"You’re with someone 20 hours a day. You’re on the bus with them for eight hours, back stage with them, then on stage with them for two hours. You mustn’t be someone who needs looking after. The main act wants to think about the main act. The distance between the front and where you are at the side is enormous. He’s thinking about ticket sales and the album. He doesn’t want to be thinking ‘what’s he on about?’.

"I’m Welsh and I love to talk, but the trick is being positive and knowing when to shut up."

This was never truer than when he recorded Unplugged with Eric Clapton, a year after the tragic death of Clapton’s son, Connor.

"It was a tragic thing. You couldn’t imagine it. You didn’t even mention it, you just felt for the guy. But he went back out and played and you marvelled at how he could do it."

Clapton would fill long empty hours on tour on his beloved fussbol which travelled round the world with him. George Harrison would tinker on his ukulele and meditate. "If you went to speak to him, you’d be told ‘George is meditating’ and it could be for up to six hours."

Bill Wyman "spent 100 per cent" of his time on the coach playing cards with a cup of tea at his side, while Roger Waters would read. "He is a great raconteur and story teller. Great fun."

Almost a quarter of a century with Roger has given Fairweather- Low huge respect for the man. "There’s nobody who can put on a show like Roger. He’s completely mastered the art of stadium theatre." As a guitarist himself, Eric Clapton is the living talent he admires the most. But Jimi Hendrix was the ultimate.

"Jimi Hendrix’s talent was never equalled," he says. "There have been a lot of imitators, but none have come up to his position.

"I played with him a couple of times in London and saw him at his studio in New York recording Stone Free. He was very polite and quite quiet. He always took it beyond what had gone before."

Despite his proximity to the rock and roll excesses of the 70s, Andy himself managed to emerge relatively unscathed.

"I was never into hard drugs but I did drink a bit more from ‘74–’77. At that time I wrote Wide- Eyed and Legless. It wasn’t a conscious thing, but once I wrote a song about it I lived the life. It seemed to me it was expected and I got carried away with it."

Fairweather-Low’s two-hour show reflects the diversity of his skills and tastes, encompassing everything from blues and gospel to rockabilly and Amen Corner hits. He does admit to a certain amount of nerves, though.

"There’s a pressure there that’s not there when you are at the back," he says. "The first thing I will do when I get up in the morning is check whether I can sing. But I’m loving every minute of it."

* ANDY FAIRWEATHER- LOW performs at Southport Arts Centre tonight.