Graham Bonnet with Alcatrazz are on their way to Australia to play three select dates in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney from the 6th to the 8th of June. For fans of Hard Rock it’s a dream ticket with Graham and his band playing not only tracks from Alcatrazz, Micheal Schenker Group, solo and band tracks but also for the very first time ever anywhere in the world Rainbow’s classic album ‘Down to Earth’ in full. Now that’s something even Rainbow never did in their time. Always a man with his own inimitable style, and the most famous son of the seaside town of Skegness we caught up with Graham to find out all about it…
Graham: Hi, Mark how are you man?
Mark: I’m great thanks Graham. Well this is first for me, speaking to someone who made one of the first albums I ever bought and someone from the County I grew up in and the town my parents used to take me on holiday as a kid.
Graham: Yes I’m from Skeggy!! Skegness.
Mark: You and Ray Clemence (Liverpool FC goalkeeper from the 70’s and 80’s) were born there and must be Skegness’ most famous sons?
Graham: Yes, Ray was, I actually scored a goal against Ray Clemence; believe it or not, and I’m a lousy soccer player!! He was probably about 14 or 15, just before we left school basically, and then he went on to do better things, I was so proud of him, it was amazing to see him do so well, Ray Clemence from Skeggy!! It never happens to little town boys, but it happened to him.
Mark: As far as music goes, I can probably credit you with my love of rock music, the first time I heard “Since You’ve Been Gone”, that was a big moment for me! So it’s great for me to get a chance to talk to you, although there’s so much to talk about, it’s hard to know where to start! Alcatraz, Michael Schenker Group, but for me it was The Book that did it for me.
Graham: Oh, really? That’s fantastic, because I’m really proud of that album. We were looking to do something similar to Alcatrazz, but something a little bit more modern, and talking of Alcatrazz, we are now reforming, not all the original members, but there’s going to be me and Jimmy Waldo, the keyboard player from Alcatrazz, the drummer from the band has now retired, and the bass player, Gary Shea is not doing too much, he’s playing once in a while, but they don’t live in this country. But, we have a great band now, it’s going to be called Alcatrazz, and we’re in the process of making an album at this very moment. They’re out there rehearsing ready for our Japanese tour, but we’re writing and recording songs for the new Alcatrazz album.
Mark: That’s fantastic! You’re here in Australia from June 6th to the 8th, I guess it must be hard to pick a set list, although it has been made easier for you because you are playing the full album, “Down to Earth”, have you ever done that before, played the album all the way through?
Graham: No, when I was in Rainbow, we never did all the songs, we left out a load of songs, because at that time this was a new “Down to Earth’ album but we had to do a lot of the old Ronnie James Dio stuff, so we’d do about 4 Ronnie songs and then do 5 or 6 songs off the new album, so we didn’t do a hell of a lot, we didn’t do everything. When Alcatrazz is going to be playing there, we will be doing the whole album, which I’ve never sung before in my life!! There are songs on there I’ve never sung live. We’re rehearsing right now, and actually it sounds pretty good, I’m surprising myself, I don’t remember all the words, but I remember the melodies!
Mark: Well that’s good enough!! I love some of the songs on there, as well as the two huge hits!
Graham: I remember doing a song called “No Time to Lose” and “Danger Zone” that we never played live with Rainbow.
Mark: I think Ritchie Blackmore picked “No Time to Lose” as his favourite song on that album, if I remember correctly.
Graham: Really? After singing it for the first time in 8 million years the other day, well maybe a month ago before I went on tour with Michael Schenker, I was surprised how enjoyable it was, it reminds me very much of a Little Richard rock song, it’s old fashioned, straight forward, rock and roll. It should be a great live song.
Mark: Yes, I think it’ll be great. It was almost so very different, I guess, and one of the things I’ve always wanted to ask, is it could have been a different band instead of Rainbow, is the story about The Sweet true??
Graham: Oh, yes! In fact, my producer, Pip Williams who did my solo albums, was producing Sweet, in fact he played guitar on all of The Sweet’s singles. He is a great guitar player, he’s now Professor Pip Williams, and he’s going around the country doing his thing as a professor, so people pay him to listen to him speak. Anyway, one afternoon he said to me I’ve got some people I want you to meet, we had a break in recording and he said come over to the pub, as you always do, and the guys from Sweet came in and offered me the job!! I just wasn’t a Sweet fan at all; it’s just not my thing! I didn’t see myself in that band at all, so I turned it down, if I was wrong to do that, I don’t know, I just didn’t see it working out for me at all.
Mark: It certainly would have been interesting, but I can see what you mean! I always thought your voice was perfect for rhythm and blues, as they used to call it.
Graham: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, they were more pop, and a little bit comedy, “Little Willy, Willy won’t go home “and all those kind of songs, I can’t imagine me singing that without throwing up!
Mark: Yes, good point!!
Graham: I don’t mean they were bad, it just wasn’t my thing, I’m more in to bluesy songs, belting songs!
Mark: You were part of rock history, when you joined Rainbow, in that you were at the very first Castle Donnington rock festival. What was that like to be there at the start?
Graham: I was just saying to somebody a minute ago, that the people who put on that show, who were expecting probably 8,000 people, and thinking the farmers were going to moan about it, turned in to about 80- 90,000 people! It was the most incredible night I have ever experienced, I will never forget it, there was nothing like it! I had my family there, my mum and dad, my brother, it was incredible, I remember that night we had quadrophonic sound, so we had speakers way back where the audience kind of ended and we had this huge quad thing happen, it was just an amazing, amazing sound. And the people way out the back got the same sound as the people who were at the front if you know what I mean, the whole sound was incredible, my mum and dad said they had never heard anything like it, and they had never been to a rock concert in their lives! They were flabbergasted, they were so amazed and I was very proud at that moment.
Mark: It must have been wonderful. Of course so much has happened since then, but one thing that has been constant, is your voice, what’s the secret? How do you keep it so good?
Graham: Keep smoking, keep drinking!! No, No…. I quit drinking a while ago, well a long time ago, about fifteen years ago, something like that, I don’t smoke, don’t drink at all now, and I don’t eat foods that will necessarily poison my body, irritate my throat. I try as hard as I can to be careful with what I do, but it isn’t always there, some days it’s not always there, like today, I’ve just come off tour and I’m tired. I surprised myself in rehearsal yesterday, I thought I’d better go out and sing with the band, I’d just got off a plane, we’re all rehearsing at the house here, and so I decided to go in and sing some songs and I kept on singing, and I thought “Blimey!” my voice is still there after all this travelling and sleepless nights. But there is, I think, I’ve just been very lucky I think, there’s a lot of people at my age, lost the lung power, and that’s what it is, you really rely on your lungs to produce the notes, pretty obvious, but to hit the higher notes, to have the flexibility in the voice has to come through the air that goes through your body into the vocal chords, and if that’s gone you don’t have the control. I’ve been very lucky, in that I have my Grandad’s lungs!! He had a huge chest, like a greyhound, and that’s my build, pretty much! So, you just have to be careful not to stress, because sometimes stress can ruin the performances, we all know, and that’s why people drink, “Oh God, I can’t go on tonight, I can’t face it” but I’ve got past that and I say I think I can do this, and I do, usually.
Mark: That’s fantastic, and we haven’t even touched on Alcatrazz and MSG yet! Outside of those major projects though you’ve also played on a lot of other records and sung with a lot of other artists, what were some of the things that people might not be aware that you’ve done over the years?
Graham: Do you know a lot of those things were sessions that I was booked for over the years, but I do remember doing ‘The Police Songs’ with Gary Moore and Don Airey and Uncle Tom Cobley and all (laughs) with the London Philharmonic and that was very special, even though I didn’t know the song very well. They gave me a song called ‘Truth Hits Everyone’ and I’d never heard of it, I knew songs like Roxanne and all the hits but not that song. But I think that album outside of all the things I’ve done with what I’d call a real band was something that will stick in my mind because it was so ell produced and had some great players on it. Gary playing guitar and Don on keyboards and that was just part of the album, but that was enough for me to say “Yes, I’ll do that”. That’s one thing I really enjoyed, a lot of things I have done have been basically sessions, paid sessions, and I never meet the people in the band I do it all by phone, so to speak, or on my computer I should say. But I’ve forgotten a lot of the things I’ve done I’ll be honest with you, I’ve done so many sessions, and so many for projects that never happened. People have this idea that if you put people like Don Airey, a famous guitar player and a singer, maybe like me, and get them to do an album it’s going to be a success but it doesn’t work that way. The music has to be good in the first place.
Mark: Looks like our time is sadly almost up, just a few quick ones to close with, what was the last song you listened to?
Graham: No I don’t listen to anything. If there’s music on the radio on in the cab or whatever I always ask for it to be turned down, because when it’s your job you don’t want to get influenced by other records, or bands, or songs. I always wanted to do something that isn’t like other bands, so I don’t listen to anything like that, I’ll tell you who else is the same, Steve Vai is very much like that he never listens to records anymore, or older styles of music, because you’re influenced by it and if you try to be like, say Queen or something you’ll never recreate that sound because you’re not Queen! Or whoever it may be, and whether you like it or not you do get influenced by other people’s music, and I want to be as original as I can. It may sound a bit egotistical, but that’s just the way I am.
Mark: Not at all, I think a lot of the artists I love are the same.
Graham: I mean look at Brian Wilson, do you think he listens to The Beatles, well maybe he does a little bit, but you listen to ‘Pet Sounds’ or even The Beach Boys later stuff he was never influenced by anyone, you listen to a song and you think “What the hell was that” so you listen to it again, and his music I can listen to over and over again and still find new interesting parts I never heard first time around. Because the content is just brilliant, it’s amazing what he writes. I love the guy, I think he’s fantastic. Did you get to see ‘Smile’ when it was in Australia?
Mark: I did yes, amazing stuff.
Graham: I went to see that in Adelaide, I was blown away. I’d never seen anything like it, it was just incredible. The musicianship in that band, Jesus Christ!
Mark: A one of a kind, a true original.
Graham: Indeed.
Mark: And just to wrap it up with an easy one. What is the meaning of life?
Graham: (laughs) actually that was it – just laugh! I wish I knew! You go through so much crap in your life, you learn how to speak, you learn how to read, you learn how to breathe, whatever it may be. The meaning of life is that you’re going to die one day, and that sadly is too true and it seems such a waste of time sometimes. I think about it because now I’m older, I think God what is going to happen when I don’t exist anymore, and I can’t remember what it was like not to exist before I was born, so is it that? What was happening before I was born? I don’t know and it scares me. The meaning of life I don’t know what that is, so I’ll maybe watch the movie, Monty Python! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) The answer could well be in there. Thank you so much for your time today Graham, it’s been wonderful. I can’t wait to see you Down-under, I’ll hopefully get to that Melbourne date, it should be a night to remember.
Graham: We hope! Yes it will be one way or another I promise you.
Mark: And great news on Alcatrazz, I can’t wait for that one.
Graham: Yes, we’ll be out there and we have a great new guitar player in Joe Stump, he’s been around for a while and the perfect Alcatrazz replacement, he’s the fourth guitar player we’ve had in the band now, and this guy has got it down. He’s really something. You have a great day Mark and see you soon!
TOUR DATES:
THURS 6 JUNE – ADELAIDE – ENIGMA
FRI 7 JUNE – MELBOURNE – THE CORNER
SAT 8 JUNE – SYDNEY – MANNING
Tickets on sale now through usual outlets and hardlinemedia.net/tickets
Limited VIP Meet & Greet packages will be available. VIP punters will be graced with a special acoustic performance by Graham, along with a meet and greet/ photo opportunity, entry to the show and a couple of little extras.
