Fact #196084
When:
Short story:
The world is introduced to the talents of 18 year old vocalist Steve Winwood when Keep On Running, the fourth single by Birmingham's Spencer Davis Group, gives them their first UK No1, knocking The Beatles Day Tripper off the top.
Full article:
Muff Winwood (bass, Spencer Davis Group) : In 1961, when Millie had a hit with My Boy LoIlipop, we met her manager, Chris BlackweIl, who became our manager. In 1962 we started making records.
Steve Winwood : We got our recording deal because Chris Blackwell of Island Records had come up to see us at a club in Birmingham. In fact, he was brought by another fella, Paul Finch, who was a friend of Spencer Davis's at the university and he persuaded Chris to come and listen to us.
Then Blackwell came back another day and we set up above a hairdressing salon and moved all the big driers to one side, set up the amps and drumkit and played a few songs just for him sitting there in a chair. I think we did Dimples. We'd had a recording session before that, at an extraordinary direct to disc place in Birmingham, where we did a few demos. One of those places where the recording engineers wore white coats.
Then Blackwell signed us, I've no idea to this day for how much or any of the details. Muff might know. Blackwell became our manager, agent, a whole shedful of things.
The first time we recorded for Fontana in London too, the engineers wore white coats and they had a bell in the studio. When they were ready to do a take, they'd ring the bell and say, 'Silence in the studio please. Take one.'
Chris Blackwell : I produced some of their records. My involvement in the actual production varied from time to time. The B-3 sound came from Winwood himself. My production was trying to catch the essence of their energy onstage. We set them up as an ensemble in the studio-Olympic again-and just baffled them off a bit. There were no real overdubs except for the occasional solo. I never did things like pick microphones or place them. We weren't breaking any rules at that time when it came to maKing Records; they were quite straightforward. But there was a new generation of engineers coming up then, people like Glyn Johns and his brother and Eddie Kramer. They started as straight engineers, but they learned to listen differently.
Steve Winwood : We cut side A of the album in the morning, went out for a bite of lunch, then cut side B in the afternoon. It was a studio off Baker Street, but I'm not too good on details.
Spencer Davis : Jackie Edwards was a Jamaican songwriter – he wore a pork pie hat – who was signed to Chris Blackwell. And Chris played me a little demo of Keep On Running over the phone. It was a little blue-beat thing, just his voice and a piano. We needed to boot it upstairs somewhat with the fuzz riff from the Stones' Satisfaction. He also wrote Somebody Help Me and he co-wrote When I Come Home with Steve.
Jackie Edwards : I originally wrote Keep On Running for myself, then someone suggested it would be good for Spencer. When he recorded it the arrangement was obviously different, but it suited him.
Muff Winwood : Chris introduced us to a guy he'd brought over from Jamaica, Jackie Edwards. We were in one of Blackwell's offices in Neasden. Jackie had written this song, Keep On Running. There was a piano in the corner so he sat down and played it, quite differently to the way we recorded it. It had more of a Ska sound. We quickly wrote down the chords so we wouldn't forget it, and Steve picked up how Jackie played it on the piano. We had our acoustic guitars with us so we learnt the song on the spot and then went away to work it out for ourselves. We liked the song, made all the arrangements and cut it. In those days, you needed a riff to get a hit so we came up with an interesting riff and, sure enough, the single became a massive hit.
Steve Winwood : We recorded Keep On Running, I think, at Landsdowne Studios, at the back of Holland Park. It was written by Jackie Edwards. He was a great man. We got to Jackie because Chris Blackwell had that Jamaican connection. He'd bought up a lot of Jamaican labels and put them out on Sue Records through his Island label I think.
I think Blackwell felt that all we were doing was renditions of r'n'b songs and it wasn't quite pop enough, so he looked around for original material, and Jackie was a good songwriter so he put us together. He met us, played it on the piano for us and we kind of arranged it a bit differently.
What happened is that there was a constant interaction on stage. We'd got this song and played it live in a few clubs and immediately it was getting the reaction from people, so I think we knew it was a potential hit.
Right away, people said I had a soulful voice, but I can't say that I'd suffered, so, yes, I was absolutely impersonating Ray Charles. That's the way everybody learns to do something. We were just emulating these songs that we'd heard by John Lee Hooker or Ray Charles, just trying to re-create the music that we thought we could bring to the world.
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Steve Winwood : We got our recording deal because Chris Blackwell of Island Records had come up to see us at a club in Birmingham. In fact, he was brought by another fella, Paul Finch, who was a friend of Spencer Davis's at the university and he persuaded Chris to come and listen to us.
Then Blackwell came back another day and we set up above a hairdressing salon and moved all the big driers to one side, set up the amps and drumkit and played a few songs just for him sitting there in a chair. I think we did Dimples. We'd had a recording session before that, at an extraordinary direct to disc place in Birmingham, where we did a few demos. One of those places where the recording engineers wore white coats.
Then Blackwell signed us, I've no idea to this day for how much or any of the details. Muff might know. Blackwell became our manager, agent, a whole shedful of things.
The first time we recorded for Fontana in London too, the engineers wore white coats and they had a bell in the studio. When they were ready to do a take, they'd ring the bell and say, 'Silence in the studio please. Take one.'
Chris Blackwell : I produced some of their records. My involvement in the actual production varied from time to time. The B-3 sound came from Winwood himself. My production was trying to catch the essence of their energy onstage. We set them up as an ensemble in the studio-Olympic again-and just baffled them off a bit. There were no real overdubs except for the occasional solo. I never did things like pick microphones or place them. We weren't breaking any rules at that time when it came to maKing Records; they were quite straightforward. But there was a new generation of engineers coming up then, people like Glyn Johns and his brother and Eddie Kramer. They started as straight engineers, but they learned to listen differently.
Steve Winwood : We cut side A of the album in the morning, went out for a bite of lunch, then cut side B in the afternoon. It was a studio off Baker Street, but I'm not too good on details.
Spencer Davis : Jackie Edwards was a Jamaican songwriter – he wore a pork pie hat – who was signed to Chris Blackwell. And Chris played me a little demo of Keep On Running over the phone. It was a little blue-beat thing, just his voice and a piano. We needed to boot it upstairs somewhat with the fuzz riff from the Stones' Satisfaction. He also wrote Somebody Help Me and he co-wrote When I Come Home with Steve.
Jackie Edwards : I originally wrote Keep On Running for myself, then someone suggested it would be good for Spencer. When he recorded it the arrangement was obviously different, but it suited him.
Muff Winwood : Chris introduced us to a guy he'd brought over from Jamaica, Jackie Edwards. We were in one of Blackwell's offices in Neasden. Jackie had written this song, Keep On Running. There was a piano in the corner so he sat down and played it, quite differently to the way we recorded it. It had more of a Ska sound. We quickly wrote down the chords so we wouldn't forget it, and Steve picked up how Jackie played it on the piano. We had our acoustic guitars with us so we learnt the song on the spot and then went away to work it out for ourselves. We liked the song, made all the arrangements and cut it. In those days, you needed a riff to get a hit so we came up with an interesting riff and, sure enough, the single became a massive hit.
Steve Winwood : We recorded Keep On Running, I think, at Landsdowne Studios, at the back of Holland Park. It was written by Jackie Edwards. He was a great man. We got to Jackie because Chris Blackwell had that Jamaican connection. He'd bought up a lot of Jamaican labels and put them out on Sue Records through his Island label I think.
I think Blackwell felt that all we were doing was renditions of r'n'b songs and it wasn't quite pop enough, so he looked around for original material, and Jackie was a good songwriter so he put us together. He met us, played it on the piano for us and we kind of arranged it a bit differently.
What happened is that there was a constant interaction on stage. We'd got this song and played it live in a few clubs and immediately it was getting the reaction from people, so I think we knew it was a potential hit.
Right away, people said I had a soulful voice, but I can't say that I'd suffered, so, yes, I was absolutely impersonating Ray Charles. That's the way everybody learns to do something. We were just emulating these songs that we'd heard by John Lee Hooker or Ray Charles, just trying to re-create the music that we thought we could bring to the world.