Does anyone besides myself miss Bruce Thomas' bass work ???

[HopeYou'reHappyNow]

Bit late to this discussion, but I've always found Bruce's bass-playing to be a little bit special. He's a creative, melodic bassist. The end of Riot Act is incredible, mainly thanks to the basswork. Other jaw-dropping bass grooves such as Chelsea and Pump It Up have been mentioned, but he added an extra dimension to The Attractions. Shame he and EC couldn't work together in the long term, but such is life.

[docinwestchester]

The end of Riot Act is incredible, mainly thanks to the basswork.

Good topic: Favorite Bruce riff.

How about the end of Pidgin English?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dldrqhTq7W0#t=3m30s

My fave.

Oh, and pretty much all of B Movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUztGfetetc

[sulky lad]

And the main part of Shabby Doll with an extraordinary ending !

[12stringbassist]

Bruce Thomas is one of the finest bassists I've ever heard.
Costello was so lucky to have had him.
Portraying Costello the way he did in his book was not a smart move.

[Kevin Davis]

I was just thinking about Bruce the other day, and wrote a little post on my blog about one of my favorite BT tunes:
http://kevinpauldavis.blogspot.com/2012 ... human.html

[Jack of All Parades]

I was just thinking about Bruce the other day, and wrote a little post on my blog about one of my favorite BT tunes:
http://kevinpauldavis.blogspot.com/2012 ... human.html

A very nice piece of writing and analysis. Thank you for sharing. Agree about the melodicisim. It is noticably missing and you had me laughing with the curtain rod analogy. I also enjoyed your comparison with the second classic Davis Quintet of the mid-sixties, particularly the notion that the Attractions ably salvaged some of the more 'rudimentary' guitar playing of their leader, time in and time out at many shows just as Shorter, Williams, Hancock, etc did for Miles when he would step forward and point the horn into the floor or turn his back on the audience. Most perceptive. And a book being launched to boot- enjoyed roaming through the blog, in particular the jazz writings-long strange trip it must have been from studying psychology? Nice to read a younger person writing about jazz- that made my day!

[johnfoyle]

http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk ... d-who.html




David Hepworth's Blog

Here's a bunch of thoughts that won't go anywhere else

Monday, September 10, 2012

At last I can name the mystery band who came to stand for ROCK

Sorting stuff out this weekend I came upon this copy of the NME Encyclopedia of Rock. This came out in 1976 and was edited by Nick Logan, who taught me to proof-read and Bob Woffinden, who gave me the invaluable advice "don't ever use the word 'feel' as a noun". (Amazing what you remember.)

Before the internet this was the place you went if you wanted to check how many records Paul Kossoff had made or Joni Mitchell's date of birth. I tweeted about it and I clearly wasn't the only one who remembered it with great affection. Some had committed whole sections to memory. David Quantick said he taught himself to write reviews by reading it. One person could only afford the unillustrated version and used to borrow the pictorial version from the library.

Looking at it I remembered the many hours we used to spend trying to work out the identity of the group on the front. Again I wasn't the only one. Even Nick Logan didn't know. It had been the publisher's choice. The guesses came in. Budgie? Mountain? Wishbone Ash? Mahogany Rush? Rush? Can? Steve Hillage and Gong? Iron Butterfly?

I have to thank Mark Blake for giving me the correct answer. It's Quiver, an excellent group who subsequently merged with the Sutherland Brothers and had Tim Renwick and Bruce Thomas among their number.

The person who took the photograph was Robert Ellis, who also supplied the picture of Pink Floyd on the back. "It was deliberately chosen to be obscure," he told me. "They were first band on at the first show at the newly opened Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park London, supporting the Who, in November 1971. The cover of the book deceives the eye. My original photo, which I still have, shows the four members of the band."

[johnfoyle]

Bruce seemed surprised at this news -

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=1830#comments

John Foyle says:
September 11, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Did you know you were on the cover of the NME Encyclopedia of Rock (1976)?

http://whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk ... d-who.html


Bruce says:
September 11, 2012 at 10:55 pm

Well, there’s a thing!

[johnfoyle]

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=1883




The Greatest Movie Never Made

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Bruce Thomas

The Attractions Story!

… featuring Nicholas Lyndhurst as the Drummer, Gabriel Byrne as the Keyboard Player, and Frank Carson as the Singer. I would demand to be played by Kiefer Sutherland — but most likely Donald would get the call.



Mike Miller asks who would play “the Manager”. Step forward Harry H Corbett of Steptoe fame. The Manager himself seems OK with the casting , but Harry H doesn’t look too sure.

Perhaps we should make the movie a musical; it offers abundant employment opportunities for other lookalikes.

[johnfoyle]

Bruce has been rather chatty on his site -

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=1883#comments

[Otis Westinghouse]

Jerry Lee Abbott and the Sticky Valentines! Like it. Not as catchy, though.

Can imagine Elvis reading those comments and thinking 'still thinks he's the funniest fucker in the world'.

[johnfoyle]

More chat from Bruce -

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=1911#comments

(extract)

January 22, 2013 at 4:04 pm

Bruce

The only time the Attractions ever played solo was at the Edinburgh Arts Festival where we accompanied a lecture by the photographer Brian Griffin about his book WORK. We played a completely improvised set about an hour long, which was only ever played once. A vinyl album of the set was incleded in the subsequent book. Now that would be a collector’s item — and probably a lot more indicative of what the Attractions were capable of as a band alone. Good luck trying to find that one!


David Witherington says:
January 22, 2013 at 9:11 pm

Bruce, I just found it available from Brian Griffin himself. It is at a collector’s price indeed at 150 pounds (I think that’s about 300 U.S. dollars, so I’ll have to save my pennies for awhile. ) And you’re spot on with the date…it’s from 1988. Here is the link: http://www.briangriffin.co.uk/shop.php?pg_id=72

Again, thanks for the heads up about this.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Good luck indeed! Would love to hear it. I wonder if it's findable anywhere... Have tried just now with no luck.

[johnfoyle]

Loads of fascinating stuff here !

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=1961

Ye Olde Gigge Liste
Posted on March 21, 2013 by Bruce Thomas

I was rummaging through some boxes in the loft when I came across some old gig lists for the first six months of my time as an Attraction. Back in the day, before the office provided us with printed schedules, I used to write it all out meticulously … as you can see.

[krm]

this is hot stuff!!!! I like a lot!

[FAVEHOUR]

I love this!

Dave

[Otis Westinghouse]

Great trivia, right down to the reunion/departure time for all UK gigs.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.therebelmagazine.blogspot.co ... homas.html

The Rebel Magazine

Sunday, 24 March 2013

Q & A with Bruce Thomas

Between the years 1977 and 1986 Elvis Costello & The Attractions knocked out more classic albums than any other British band I can think of. I loved pretty much everything they did from Pump It Up up to I Want You. The contribution Bruce Thomas brought to The Attractions is enormous. In my opinion his performances on songs such Beaten To The Punch, Chelsea, New Lace Sleeves, Shabby Doll, and Shipbuilding, put him up there with the best bass players of all time. He features on a few other Costello albums from more recent times (most notably Brutal Youth) and over the years he's done sessions with various other greats such as Paul McCartney, Billy Bragg, The Pretenders etc but these days his time seems to be taken up writing celebrated, best selling books about the legendary Bruce Lee. Anyone wanting to know about life on the road should get a copy of his very amusing book "The Big Wheel".

The Rebel:How well did you know Barney Bubbles? Do you like many of the sleeves he designed?

"I knew Barney very well and counted him as a friend. I’d already known Barney for many years before his involvement with Stiff Records. He designed an album cover for one of my earlier bands, Quiver — and modeled his cover for us after the style of a Grateful Dead album sleeve … think ‘inlaid wood, stained glass and floral motifs’. It was later, in the punk/new-wave period, that he began using references from the Constructivists and the likes of Miro and Picasso — as seen in his black, white and red sleeves for Ian Dury or the cover of Imperial Bedroom. I love every piece of work Barney did and he is rightly regarded as perhaps the pre-eminent record cover designer of his era and as both an icon and an inspiration to others. Barney was a lovely man, warm and open and with no side to him. Perhaps he was a bit too open and sensitive — as no-one realized until it was too late that he was subject to bad bouts of depression. He’d have been amused by this blog, though — The Rebel — “the Shapist school of art — all the shapes are different colours”.

The Rebel: Various name photographers like David Bailey took snaps of The Attractions - who impressed you the most or flattered you the most?

Bruce: "I got the impression at David Bailey’s session that it was very much “business as usual” for him. He sat each of us down in turn in front of the camera and made a snap assessment of us — he took one look at me and decided “mad professor”. I enjoyed our sessions with Keith Morris, more for him as a person than as a photographer — he was another friend who died early, an ironman triathlete and extreme-depth diver who never came up one day. My favourite photographer was Brian Griffin — I think of him and Barney as very much the graphic and photographic equivalents of each other. Brian is a very inventive photographer who did some pioneering shots of business executives for the broadsheets which were some of the best newspaper photographs of their day. His photographs of the Attractions that I really like were taken at a house in Los Angeles and are a pastiche of Hockney’s swimming pool paintings. Brian came up with one of the best comments about creativity I’ve ever heard. I can’t remember the exact figures involved, but you’ll get the idea. Somebody once remarked at a photo shoot: “A thousand pounds for a single photograph! How long did it take you to do that?” Without missing a beat, Brian replied, “Thirty-five years and one five-hundredth of a second.”

The Rebel: If the money was right would you reform The Attractions and do a tour in which you play an album in its entirety? (Both Suede and The Cure recently performed each of their albums back to back over different nights)

Bruce: "You should be aware that I’m the only one not in that line-up any more, and that Pete, Steve and EC are working happily together with a replacement bass player — presumably someone of a more malleable nature than his predecessor. So no reformation is ever going to come about under my initiative — or under any other circumstances I can foresee."

The Rebel: I thought Nick Lowe's last album was really charming do you hold him in high regard either as a person or producer or singer songwriter or bass player?

Bruce: "I hold Nick in very high regard as a person and all-round good bloke, as a producer, as a singer and as a songwriter — so four out of five isn’t bad! Nick himself once took Steve Nieve to one side and gently explained to him that his Rachmaninov-like flourishes might not be appropriate for the particular track we were recording. “There are two types of keyboard part,” said Nick, “there are creative keyboards, and there are functional keyboards. What we need is functional.” I think Nick himself would agree that his bass playing never ventured too far from the functional. He was a great catalyst that allowed the band to function in the studio — and came up with many good ideas. He was one of those blokes you could pass an hour or three with bantering about anything, in a very English way. We used to converse in mock Shakespearian — “We must get this bass part right, for even now York’s escutcheons are a-flutter over Richmond’s gates”. We used to say that when we were older one of us would end up wheeling the other along the seafront at Bognor Regis. It hasn’t happened yet, though."

The Rebel: How much fun were the sessions you did for The Madness album?

Bruce: "I did pretty much all of my stuff as overdubs to existing tracks in one or two days — rather than take part in the actual creative process. Madness themselves were going through something of a split at the time but despite that their sessions were very easy going and I got on well with them and even did a couple of TV shows with them. I think at the time they were trying to shake off their cheeky chappie image and make a more mature Roxy Music-type album. I should imagine that, like the Attractions, Madness was fun to be a part of in the glory days."

The Rebel: I always had a soft spot for the Steve Nieve song Sad about Girls. Did you have high hopes when The Attractions recorded the Mad about the Wrong Boy album?

Bruce: "To be honest, I had no hopes for it at all! In general I don’t think albums of this type have ever worked successfully — except maybe that lot who used to back Bob Dylan, who did quite well for themselves as I recall. All in all though, I’d rather we hadn’t done it — that’s how I felt at the time and I haven’t changed my mind since. Steve’s song is the one redeeming feature."

The Rebel:As a bass player would you consider working with cheeky young pups (with no money but lots of dreams and drive) or are you more holding out for legends and international stars?

Bruce: "Giving some thought to the possibilities of treading the boards in a manner that wouldn’t rid me of any last remnants of dignity, surprisingly there are a few possibilities. As you say, a band of talented young pups who might embrace me for my great wisdom is one. A chill-out band actually holds some real appeal — or a cool R-and-B band along the lines of Mitchell Froom’s Latin Playboys project of some years ago. A singer-songwriter. Something fun like Status Quo or an Abba tribute band? A band of arty Teutonic babes in nighties playing angle grinders and cement mixers? Though, as you rightly suspect, I wouldn’t refuse a call from Eric Clapton. But at the moment my “play-along with” music of choice isn’t the Cream Reunion DVD but Miles Davis. I think John Paul Jones hit it about right when he took the gig with Seasick Steve — I’d make a good job of something like that."

The Rebel: Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

Bruce: "Not wheeling Nick Lowe along the seafront at Bognor! Maybe on a beach lounger in the Seychelles — or doing something so interesting and rewarding it would appeal more — hopefully something that’s as much of a surprise to me as it is to everyone else. But whatever the case, it will be with my mental and physical faculties still relatively intact."

The Rebel:What's your fave Elvis Presley song and why?

Bruce: "My immediate reaction is All Shook Up — and having then looked through the list of all 758 songs that he recorded, I’m not going to change my mind — not even my “Suspicious Mind” or my “You Were Always On My Mind”. All Shook Up has got the best and most effortless groove of any track he ever recorded. But the clincher for me is the lyric — where the usual songs of the day would have said, “There’s only one cure for this heart of mine”, Presley sings, “There’s only one cure for this body of mine, that’s to have that girl and a love so fine.”

The Rebel: What's the best thing about being Bruce Thomas?

Bruce: "Once you come to any conclusion about yourself … you’re finished!"

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk

[johnfoyle]

The post above needs corrections - I'll do it when I get a chance later.

[johnfoyle]

Now there's a connection I should have noticed before !

From the Armed Forces inner sleeve -

http://www.elviscostello.info/disc/offi ... fo_a01.htm

My favourite photographer was Brian Griffin.....His photographs of the Attractions that I really like were taken at a house in Los Angeles and are a pastiche of Hockney’s swimming pool paintings.

David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures), 1972 acrylic on canvas




David Hockney's Picture of a Hollywood Swimming Pool, 1964 acrylic on canvas, 36x48 in

[krm]

More from same session! EC performing ye old "throwing cat in water" stunte! Interesting indeed.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I have an incredibly hazy memory from that time of an interview with Elvis in a Sunday paper mag, maybe the Times, which I think had some of the photos from that session, and the detail in the text that's stayed with me of how although it was boiling temperatures, Elvis remained resolutely buttoned up with jacket, shirt and tie. I loved the way it made him seem so uptight and angry in an English way in rampant contrast to the beautiful warmth of the weather. If those photos aren't ones from the same moment, then it was very close in time and he maintained the same dress code for all poolside appointments.

[johnfoyle]

Bruce writes about his early, 1960s band -

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=2022


In the comments many things are discussed , including -



Nick S. says:
June 4, 2013 at 6:55 pm

Your bass playing with EC & The Attractions seemed to fully embody both of those camps (and then some). This set you apart, I believe. To me, the musical core of EC and The Attractions was essentially an organ trio . . . or a bass trio . . . or a drum trio (call it what you like). A power trio with finesse. And I certainly like the whole that ALL 4 of you produced together.

Thanks again, Bruce and Dave! Cheers! (As you “blokes” say.) ;0)
Reply

Bruce says:
June 4, 2013 at 8:06 pm

I’d never thought of the Attractions as an keyboard trio — but you have a point.

Nick S. says:
June 4, 2013 at 8:40 pm

I do have a point . . . kept concealed by conical cap. <;0(

Actually . . . I think of The Attractions more as a bass trio. But I'm a bit biased. Could go all 3 ways. As musicians, all 3 of you were that good to lead.

Mike Miller says:
June 4, 2013 at 9:19 pm

I think he does have a point…EC was smart enough to not get in the way of the band. At least for a while.

Bruce says:
June 4, 2013 at 10:05 pm

He made up for it later!

[johnfoyle]

More jolly japes from Bruce -

http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=2043#comments


With more on the football song Bruce wrote -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvJex6ceEGQ


.... the singer is a guy called Clive Maldoon — who wrote the song (Sepheryn) that eventually became Ray of Light by Madonna. The guitarist and drummer were in a band called Vapour Trails — the drummer, Steve Holley, went on to play with Wings.

[johnfoyle]

Ten Great Bruce Thomas Basslines


http://psychobabble200.blogspot.ie/2013 ... lines.html


The latest from Bruce -


http://www.brucethomas.co.uk/?p=2068