| Krakatoa
by Roger Adams
Krakatoa
was originally a very funk-influenced band formed by me when I
quit a Brighton band called Rusty Butler, which was I suppose
a "heavy progressive rock" style band featuring myself,
Dave Poxon on bass, Dave Greenfield ( later of the Stranglers)
on keyboards, Neil Whittaker on drums and Tony Savva on vocals.
The original idea was to play it in by touring in Germany etc.
then to make a record or two.
The
inspiration to quit Rusty Butler was meeting a local art student
called Maggie Ryder, who not only had a beautiful jazz voice reminiscent
of Sarah Vaughan, but was also a highly talented pianist. She
had absolutely zero experience of being in a band, but I felt
it could work.
Together
with my best buddy Graeme Lamb, a songwriter who had been working
on the material for Rusty Butler, we began the usual process of
finding the right musicians. Funk was the keyword-our favourites
at the time were Rufus, Stevie Wonder and the Isley Brothers.
We eventually settled on the line-up of Maggie, myself, bassist
Dave Poxon who was available as Rusty Butler folded soon after
I quit, and drummer "Andy" Anderson, a black guy who
later went on to play with Steve Hillage and The Cure, and who
provided some genuine funk "feel" in the rhythm section.
Poxon was not much of a funk bass player at first, but was a very
tight and disciplined player and coped well with the new grooves
required. His business acumen was also very helpful in getting
the band working and noticed, although his reluctance to relinquish
control to much-needed external management later proved to be
a bit of an issue. Demos were duly recorded with producer and
publisher Donny Marchand, an American living in London, and a
deal with Polydor was proposed. Drummer Andy didn't like the deal
, threw a wobbler and quit. He was replaced by Neil Whittaker
,again from the old Rusty Butler line-up, who had even more trouble
with the funk grooves required, and he left after a short while.
Regrettably he took his own life shortly afterwards and was replaced
by a superb Welsh drummer called Pete Stroud, a pupil of the great
Henry Spinetti.
Meanwhile,
Donny Marchand, who had taken over as Krakatoa's manager by this
time, hatched a plot to take Maggie Ryder away from the perceived
problems of the band and a solo deal was negotiated with the record
company, who ,one presumes, were erroneously informed that all
the band's direction and sound were coming from the Girl Singer,
and a better result would be achieved in the USA using session
players. A quick comparison between Maggie's disastrous Polydor
solo album, and even very rough live recordings of the band Krakatoa
at the time, prove the foolishness of the move, but nevertheless
,Maggie took the irrevocable step and headed for Stardom and The
Movies. Not. Actually, she has achieved success as a session singer,
and has co-written songs , for some highly noteworthy people since
leaving Krakatoa, but fame and publicity have eluded her far more
than they did while she was in the band. Very odd!
Meanwhile,
Krakatoa looked for a new singer and keyboard player and, after
a lengthy search and a few false starts, came up with a Brighton-based
19 year old German keyboardist called Hans Zimmer, who, as luck
would have it, had just inherited a sizeable fortune and converted
his newly-purchased house in Withdean on the edge of Brighton
into a studio of sorts. Vocals were handled at first by a girl
called Elana Harris,who was introduced to the band by Dave Greenfield,
Rusty Butler's keyboard player now a member of some punk outfit
called The Stranglers.
Pete
Stroud had had his beloved Gretsch drums stolen while staying
in London, and had decided to go back to Wales to work so he could
buy a new kit. Thirty drummers were subsequently auditioned, and
the job went to another Brighton player, Nigel Glockler. After
a few gigs at home and abroad and a near-fatal motorway accident
which almost wiped out the whole band,( except Hans ,who was still
deciding whether to join, and had yet to start gigging with us,)
it was decided that a whole new direction was needed, and a male
singer was deemed more suitable. The job was offered to Terry
Bennett of Welsh band Sassafras, who were not functioning at the
time. Krakatoa had met Terry when the two bands had played the
Lyceum in London together, and he was also often to be found at
the house in Cardiff of Krakatoa's booking agent, Dave Betteridge
as Terry was going out with singer Zenda Jacks, who also had a
room there.

The
group shot shows (left to right) Nigel Glockler, Hans Zimmer,
Roger Adams, Dave Poxon and sound man Bill Brown
This,
then ,was the band that recorded their demo at Spaceward Studio
in Cambridge: Myself, Dave Poxon, Nigel Glockler, Terry Bennett
and Hans Zimmer. The demo secured a production deal with Robin
Black's company, Salamander ,which was based at Jethro Tull's
Maison Rouge studio where Robin was studio manager and Tull's
engineer. Most subsequent recording was done there. The thing
that stopped Krakatoa from hitting the Big Time was simple politics.
The obvious route for the band as proteges of the Tull organization
would have been an album for Chrysalis Records. Unfortunately,
Terry Bennett's previous band ,Sassafras, had been signed to Chrysalis
and had cost the company a lot of money. This, combined with Bennett's
larger than life persona, of which the record company powers-
that- be had apparently decided that enough was most definitely
enough, meant that ,with Bennett as front man, the Chrysalis option
was closed. Other deals were sought but punk was hitting big by
this time and bands incapable of playing a note were in demand.
Experienced bands with talent were being sidelined as record companies
sought younger acts they could control and manipulate.
Eventually,
after one final, glorious 30-date tour and a few abortive attempts
to write a Hit Single, Hans Zimmer, who to his credit had been
turning down offers from other bands, not least of which was Ritchie
Blackmore's Rainbow (because, as I heard him tell the staff at
Mountain Management when we were hawking our demos around, Krakatoa
was a better band) finally succumbed to his true love , studio
work. He announced he wanted to stop playing gigs with bands and
concentrate on his electronic music. Ironically, almost immediately
he was involved with a hit record, "Video Killed the Radio
Star" by The Buggles (Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes )and finally
got his face on Top of the Pops.
The
remaining members of Krakatoa called it a day. Poxon went into
PA hire and management, and signed an unknown band from the north
of England called Saxon. Glockler went freelance for a while before
joining Toyah- he co-wrote several of her best-known hits- and
eventually, when Saxon's drummer quit ,Poxon asked him to step
in on drums, and Nigel
Glockler became Saxon's best known drummer. Terry went back
to Sassafras, and still appears with them now and then. He lives
in Spain.
Hans
Zimmer went into film music working with Stanley Myers at Lillie
Yard studio. He is now almost certainly the richest and most successful
composer in Hollywood - see www.hans-zimmer.com
- and doesn't talk to the likes of us. I still play guitar wherever
and whenever I can. For several years I was the lead guitarist
of a London band called Amazon, and more recently I have been
in a blues band called Desperate Dan, and been fortunate enough
to have been featured on the Paul Jones radio show and played
with some great musicians, for example Dave Mattacks, who gigged
with us for a while before moving to the USA. Recently, Nigel
Glockler and I, who are still close friends, recorded some pieces
in his studio for TV broadcast purposes, and several are being
used.
I
still remember with affection our stay in Cambridge while recording
at Spaceward. I like to think things could easily have been different,
and that the pieces we recorded there are a true reflection of
what should have been a great band, Krakatoa.
Roger
Adams, 9/12/04

Roger Adams of Krakatoa
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