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Tony Willé's message |
Intro:
I got in touch with Tony after visiting his site (here
and also here)
and I asked him to share his experiences with Felt.
This is what he generously likes to share.A big thanks to Tony.
Rui H.
Hi Rui
Thanks for getting in touch. I've known about your website for a
while and think it's excellent.
My work with Felt was as you say, playing on the two albums. I also
toured with them, but not as a member of the band, as a solo acoustic
support. Also on the bill was House of Love. I joined the tour in
Liverpool and the small entourage was booked into a hotel. The plan
was for me to sneak in and sleep on the floor of Martin Duffy's
room (there was no room booked for me...I did the tour for fun).
When we got to the hotel the owner was counting heads and I was
the last so I had to go and sleep in the van that night!
I only played once with Felt as a band member (I think it was Chelmsford
and I can't remember the year). I remember the Cocteau Twins coming
along...it was Liz's birthday (29th August). I only had a short
time to learn all of the songs and Lawrence told me I made a lot
of mistakes.
I was never an official member of the band, although Lawrence did
want me to join at one point. He and I lived in Moseley, Birmingham,
Lawrence in a pristine flat and me in a shared house. One of the
conditions of me joining was that Lawrence would come to my place,
sort through my wardrobe and pick out the clothes that were destined
for the charity shop (he didn't like my candy striped jacket). We
didn't get that far though (...) Marco and I later started up a
band together called The DAY. We played support to Felt's last ever
gig in Birmingham, Marco playing in both bands on the night.
When we recorded Forever Breathes I was having trouble with one
of the songs, 'Gather Up Your Wings and Fly'. I'd made the guitar
part too complicated and kept getting it wrong. John Rivers, the
producer took me off to a little room with a practice amp and told
me come back when I'd sorted out something simpler. He liked to
get all the guitar parts double tracked for a big sound but didn't
want to do it mechanically so I had to be able to play all the parts
note for note twice! The only track I failed on was the acoustic
on 'A Wave Crashed On Rocks' which was in an open tuning and too
difficult to play exactly the same twice. I worked like a trooper
on all those arrangements. When I first heard the songs they were
on cassette with just Lawrence on acoustic guitar. I worked out
the arrangements basically from that. While we were at Woodbine
Studios we had visitors one day. Alan McGee brought the Reid brothers
along. It was good to meet them.
You asked if I played the solo on 'Riding on the Equator'. Yes,
I did...the second, more fragile solo. Lawrence played the first
one. As for photos I don't have any I'm afraid. I used to have some
photos of Marco and me playing in The Day but I lost a lot of stuff
moving around.
Ah well, I hope some of this is interesting and if I think of anything
else I'll let you know. Feel free to keep in touch and keep up the
good work!
Cheers
Tony |
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