Gordon Banks
Influences
…london calling…
continued
Musicians move on and after a couple of years Davie and Gordon went their separate ways…Gordon playing solo gigs and Davie joining Spank the Monkey …who went on to be a fairly proficient outfit for a while.
It’s lonely playing gigs on your own and humping all your own gear into a van , into a venue, out of a venue and then out of a van, so Gordon answered an advert in The Stirling Observer for a guitarist for a Stirling based band.
Joining The Sovereigns playing a residency at The Rob Roy Motel in Aberfoyle worked for a while but it’s always difficult joining an already established outfit and after about 9-12 months, Gordon left the band and went solo…again! But not before being approached to join a blues band as the front man and having knickers thrown at him on stage!!!
All the time working in a day job in construction, eventually as Chief Buyer for Barratt in Scotland and getting married at the age of 26…performing began to take a back seat…especially when Victoria and Dominic came along.
But not before Gordon joined up with John Quinn, who Gordon knew well (bass, formerly of Lightwood) Titch Millar (guitar and vocals) and Animal (drums) with the 4 of them comprising a new pop / rock covers band. Playing quite a lot in Glasgow the band donned a real good Scottish name…Shuggie.
Gordon recalls, “I really enjoyed Shuggie…largely because we were really good .
Titch was outrageously good on guitar and kept getting poached or interested in other bands like the Elaine Simmonds Band and Pilot.
However he was a bit of a boomerang and kept coming back.”
Gordon continued to write dozens of songs in this period including ‘Paint Your Face’ for and about his daughter Victoria.
Once Dominic came along Gordon got loads of material from ‘a funny wee boy” including ‘First you will’ and ‘If I were you’.
After Shuggie broke up Gordon set about beginning to record his own material and his love of studio work was born, initially in Rocking Horse Studios in Bathgate with members of Shuggie, rubbing shoulders with the Bay City Rollers rehearsing for another come back tour of Japan , then Von’s in London, Ice Station Zebra in Edinburgh and then coming whole circle and teaming up with Davie Paterson (from earlier) who by now had opened his own studio in Tullibody called Opus 1, before Gordon moved on to Glenrothes Studios in Leslie and finally ended up at SubStation in Rosyth.
Gordon worked regularly with Davie on his compositions eventually leading to the album, ‘It Never Made the News’, released in 1996.
Tracks off the album were played on local radio in Scotland with the title track attracting reasonable interest from one or two publishers.
Gordon says, ” I recall one outfit saying we really, really like “news” but need another song just as strong for a deal…can you just go away and do it!
Now I thought I had other worthy songs at the time, but others didn’t and one time when it was being pointed out to me that the ask shouldn’t be too difficult. Which I guess now is a bit of a compliment. I had to say,” Have you listened to the lyrics of ‘It never made the news’ How many traumas like this do you think I have had in my life!”
However, during the recording of the album Gordon showcased his material at the Water Rats Theatre in London with a specially put together band (Kingdom) of Gordon on guitar, Gary Mitchell (ex Spank the Monkey) who played on some tracks on the album on drums, along with a new keyboard player and guitarist.
Laughing Gordon remembers,
“Our roadies for the gig got stoned out of their brain and never even made the show…not particularly helpful”.
During this period Gordon recalls “one of the publishers suggesting Steve Harley was looking for someone to collaborate with and maybe…what an idiot to not push this eh!”
Gordon was still playing live semi regularly at this point and even tried his hand with backing tracks which always made him feel a fraud, but undoubtedly gave a solo artist a “fuller” sound.
At the point of releasing, it never made the news, the Alloa Advertiser and Dunfermline Press ran articles and win an album competition which was to resurface maybe 20 years later in Gordon’s life.
Jumping ahead, by this time Gordon was the Member of Parliament in Westminster for Ochil and South Perthshire and amongst the hundreds of communications received daily was one from a man in Inverness asking if he was the same Gordon Banks who recorded ‘It never made the news.’
Upon replying he was indeed one and the same, the response came back that the person in Inverness used to live in Clackmannanshire and had won one of the album copies in the competition. It was great that someone remembered this but when Gordon was told, it was the guy from Inverness’ favourite album of all time, it made a lasting mark.
Writers and singers by the very nature of what they do, are searching for confirmation that their product is liked and enjoyed, and it doesn’t come better than this compliment.
Returning to the timeline, Gordon then teamed up as a writer and recording partner with Fife singer Elaine Green.
So Gordon took some of Elaine’s ideas worked them into a presentable format by usually adapting the lyrics and writing the music and the two set off to Opus 1 to record an EP.
Working with Davie who was very confident and knew what he wanted caused a bit of friction with Elaine and the pair moved to Glenrothes Studios in Leslie to preserve everyone’s sanity!
The 3 track EP No more to give was born with 1 track from Opus 1 and 2 from Glenrothes Studios making their way onto the disc.
Gordon recalls, “I have a lot of time for 2 of the tracks, ‘Same Girl’ and ‘No more to give’, they still stand up today I think, and it was a real experience writing with / for someone else.”
Gordon was still recording his own material with Davie at this time with a view to a follow up album which never really happened.
Quite a few tracks were completed such as ‘Thrown it all away’, ‘I wanna be with you’ and ‘She’s unkind’ at least to a high-quality demo state, but by this time Gordon had 2 young kids, had started a business (Cartmore Building Supply Co Ltd), and was studying for a BA Hons degree at Stirling University…so time was in short supply.
But the writing never really stopped, as Gordon says, “you don’t need to plan to write a song …. all you need sometimes is a guitar, a pen, a piece of paper and 10 minutes. You probably won’t get the finished article in this time…lucky guy if you do…. but you can often get the core of something that can be worked on when you have another 10 mins in a few weeks’ time.
By the mid 90’s Gordon who was still running his own business, still studying at Stirling University decided to officially get involved in politics and joined the Labour Party.
This started an intense period in Gordon’s life which within a few years saw him in charge of election campaigns for Holyrood, Westminster, Europe, and Clackmannanshire Council.
By the early noughties, it was widely believed that Gordon had a future in elected politics, and in 2005 , as mentioned earlier, Gordon was elected to Westminster, where he stayed for 10 years.
Gordon recalls, ” During this period I seldom touched any of my guitars, never had time to write much (not even the 10 minute option mentioned above) as I was running a business, being an MP, a Dad and husband, the last two suffering due to lack of time whilst working between Scotland and London each week, clocking up regular 80 plus hours a weeks.
It was a real experience but not hugely enjoyable for those closest to me and not a very creative time as far as song writing goes.