{"id":2581,"date":"2015-06-05T19:17:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T18:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=2581"},"modified":"2011-08-17T10:20:11","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T10:20:11","slug":"tony-morrison-%e2%80%93-the-long-and-the-short-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/tony-morrison-%e2%80%93-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Morrison \u2013 The Long and the Short of It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Setting aside his poorly-rewarded role as EYEPLUG\u2019s guitar maven, Tony Morrison is perhaps best known for his tenures with Long Tall Shorty and the Angelic Upstarts. Having wearied of throwing televisions from hotel room windows, Tony subsequently became an in-demand \u2018guitar for hire\u2019, before reforming LTS to much critical acclaim in 2001.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now in his fourth decade as a professional musician, Tony\u2019s enthusiasm for rock\u2019n\u2019roll runs as deep as his knowledge. With this in mind, we despatched our man Boo out into the summer drizzle and told him not to come back unless he\u2019d tapped some of the aforementioned experience. Here\u2019s what he came back with: <\/strong><\/p>\n

What are your earliest memories of getting bitten by the music bug? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That would be when I was a young kid – Our family weren\u2019t really into pop music and we didn\u2019t have a telly until about 1973, but as long as I can remember, I was always fascinated by electric guitars. When we finally got a TV, I was about 12 or 13 and I used to watch Top of the Pops<\/em> religiously every week. My dad would be sitting there going, \u2018Look at that bloody poof\u2019, or \u2018what\u2019s he wearing, he looks like a bird\u2019.\u00a0This, of course, was the glam rock era, with all those fantastic bands like Slade, T Rex, Sweet and so on.\u00a0Whenever a group used to come on with either a piano or acoustic guitars, I\u2019d be bored so it was definitely something about the electric guitar that made me want to be in a band.<\/p>\n

Was your family background musical in any way?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No way whatsoever. The only stuff I used to hear in the house was things like Family Favourites<\/em> on the radio, although my mum was always singing. I had the ungrooviest family in the world, but they were good people who worked hard to try and keep everything together. We were incredibly poor, and I don\u2019t think they ever could have afforded to go to restaurants and concerts … but I think that\u2019s just the way it was then.\u00a0You got married, the wife stayed home to look after the kids and the man of the house went out and slogged his guts out for 10-12 hours a day doing a manual job and after that, I don\u2019t suppose you could be too bothered about what John, Paul, George and Ringo were up to.<\/p>\n

How did you find your way to the guitar as your main instrument?
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nJust seeing bands and then I finally saw one in a shop for \u00a36.00 in about 1974, which is when I saw my first ever live group \u2013 the Glitter Band on my 14th birthday.\u00a0After that, I used to go every week and I\u2019d always get in free \u2018cos I used to help the roadies unload all the equipment. There was always something about a guitar that was like the key to a different life. We were never expected to go out of the box in terms of a career or anything in fact my grandfather used to say, \u2018Get a job at Dagenham Ford, you\u2019ll have a job for life\u2019. He\u2019d be turning in his grave now after they shut that place down and made everyone redundant.<\/p>\n

What were you original influences, and how have they changed over time?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally it was anything. As I said, I used to go and see every band I could, regardless of what sort of music it was because you can always take something away from anything. That first year of watching bands, I saw the Glitter Band, T Rex, Status Quo, Curved Air, Showaddywaddy, Suzi Quatro, Principal Edwards and the Magic Theatre, Medicine Head and they\u2019re just a few I can recall. Then punk rock came along and it was the Jam, Clash, Gen X, Buzzcocks, et cetera. A lot of those bands had quite strong 1960\u2019s imagery so you\u2019d sort of look at who they were citing and check that out. Jimi Hendrix was one of the first musicians I was really into because I read a book about him that I bought for about ten pence in a WH Smith bargain bin. I didn\u2019t hear his music until about 1976, but I was just absolutely in love with what he stood for so the music was kind of secondary. I then got to hear a lot of old blues music, rock\u2019n\u2019roll, early sixties beat groups and just absorb it all. When I was about 18, I knew everyone in every band by name, I was like a sponge. When I meet kids in their 20\u2019s now and they\u2019ve heard of the Yardbirds (for instance), I\u2019m always surprised but I knew all those bands when I was 16. I could tell you who played the solo on a Chuck Berry song or who wrote this or that Elvis song, what Howling Wolf did before he became a singer, you name it, I was there! I still love most of what I ever did, I don\u2019t go by genres, I go by songs, so I would happily have Buddy Holly next to the UK Subs next to The Stooges in my CDs.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your first band…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first band I had was just a little group we had at school in 1977 called Ben E Dorme and the Tourists. We\u2019d moved to a rich area in Buckinghamshire after my mother got remarried and the others were all rich kids from my school that I attended from about 15. We were all playing at being rebellious and even had a song called \u2018Fuck You\u2019 which we played at the end of term in the local hall. All our friends thought we were twats but one teacher, Pat Jackson was married to a guy who produced Dr Feelgood and Mot\u00f6rhead and she thought we were \u2018jolly exciting\u2019, so she got us a day in her husband\u2019s studio. We recorded a very early version of my first 45, \u20181970\u2019s Boy\u2019, plus \u2018Watcha Gonna Do About It\u2019 and a couple of other songs. One day I turned up dressed like Paul Weller after buying a pair of those Jam shoes and borrowing a load of clothes from my parents; roll neck sweater, suit jacket et cetera, and said, \u2018Lads \u2013 Let\u2019s dress like the Jam\u2019. Two of the band left immediately but me and the drummer formed Long Tall Shorty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At what stage did it get serious and start to happen for you?
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nGod, it was immediate. I always had this notion that if you were gonna do the pools, if you hadn\u2019t won within six weeks, you were never going to. The same with success \u2013 I thought it would either come quick or not at all. The drummer, whose mother worked for Sham 69\u2019s manager, got us a gig supporting Sham about six or seven weeks after we\u2019d formed and then shortly after that, Jimmy Pursey signed the Angelic Upstarts to his label and we ended up getting the last five gigs as the tour support. Jimmy saw us at about the third gig and said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna sign you boys up!\u2019 We were in Polydor Studios after about six gigs recording with a real pop star as our manager\/producer\/mentor \u2013 and he even gave me a guitar. We recorded our first single, then the mod revival suddenly happened (which didn\u2019t really exist before all this) and everything looked very rosy. But having a pop star as your manager is a double edged sword, because as he got more and more famous, we kept getting delayed and eventually our record took about nine months before it was released and by then, every fucker in the world had overtaken us. We did have some laughs though. We were always borrowing Sham\u2019s equipment for gigs and then of course there was the grooming by Warner Bros; photos, press releases, all that sort of shit, because we were just supposed to be a pop group according to the label, not just another mod band. I dunno where it all went kaput but these things happen and you hopefully move on, although I\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware, a lot of my contemporaries never did and they\u2019re now still doing what they did when they were 17. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your guitar collection?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

OK, you asked so this isn\u2019t boasting \u2013 it\u2019s my personal dream come true. I\u2019ve currently got two 1959 Gibson Les Paul Juniors, a 1969 Les Paul Custom, a Gibson Les Paul special, two Fender Stratocasters, a 1966 Vox Teardrop, and at the luthiers being restored, a bastardised 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which I bought as a few pieces of wood a few months ago. An original one is worth about \u00a3200,000, but this was all wrecked and I\u2019ve bought all the other pieces from eBay and other places. The restoration has taken four months so far, and should be finished in another three to four months. In the past, I\u2019ve owned loads of guitars and just traded my way up. I always like to buy two of each because I play with loads of different people and if you\u2019re doing a gig with a Les Paul and then break a string, you need another one exactly the same so your sound doesn\u2019t change. The best overall guitars in my opinion are Stratocasters, but I generally play the Les Paul Juniors for live gigs as that\u2019s the sort of sound I want at the minute.<\/p>\n

What about amps and effects?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I use loads of different amps, but that\u2019s only for practical reasons. The one I\u2019d like to use all the time in a 1971 Marshall Super Lead, but it\u2019s 100 Watts and doesn\u2019t have a master volume \u2013 so it\u2019s generally too loud for the places I play, because you have to turn it right up to get any sort of distortion. If the club is fairly easy to access, I take a 1975 Marshall Mark II Master Volume amp, with a Marshall 4×12 speaker. If the club is tiny and there\u2019s loads of stairs, I\u2019ve got a Fender combo which is easy to lug around. I also have another old Fender 1966 amp with reverb which I use for recording certain songs, a Peavey Classic and finally a 1978 Marshall 50 watt master volume combo, which is like the bigger Marshall\u2019s I own but a lot more compact. The only effect pedal I use is a Distortion +, which gives more sustain and boost for choruses and guitar solos. I\u2019ve seen some players who have shit loads of stuff in front of them on a pedal board, trying to recreate every sound that\u2019s going, but ultimately it\u2019s your ability that counts, not what wah wah pedal or phaser you\u2019re using.<\/p>\n

How has your sound changed over the years?
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nI never knew about sounds at all, so when I started I used to play everything really bassy because it always sounded like it had more oomph, but when we finally got recording that switched to quite a trebly sound, because I figured out how to get distortion. Nowadays if I\u2019m playing my own stuff, I go for a classic Marshall\/Gibson sound, slightly distorted for rhythm and then I jump on my pedal to boost the signal for guitar solos. If I\u2019m recording with one of my other artists like Kiria, I\u2019ll use a bit of a cleaner sound for rhythm because you don\u2019t want to overdo the guitar when you\u2019re recording with a proper singer!<\/p>\n

What have been the highpoints of your career?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

All of it, I only play because I enjoy it. Obviously, you get a few knocks along the way or a setback here and there, but I know as well as the next man that success is what you judge it to be, not what other people perceive. Kylie and Take That are among the biggest artists in the world, as The Sun<\/em> is the biggest paper in this country but being big doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re the best, it just means it\u2019s more accessible to more people. As long as I can continue making the music I want to without having to resort to playing in a tribute band to earn a crust, I\u2019ll consider what I do a success.<\/p>\n

And the low points?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

None, the minute I stop enjoying playing music is the day I\u2019ll give up. I\u2019ve read people saying, \u2018We\u2019d have been really big if this happened or that happened\u2019, but that\u2019s nonsense \u2013 Plus, look at the casualties along the way; Jimi, Amy, Janis, Kurt Cobain and so on. None of them were exactly living the life they\u2019d have chosen by the time they died. I\u2019m glad I\u2019m still here, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What about the present day set up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, our band is still Jim on drums and John on bass, but I\u2019m also playing with a fabulous girl called Kiria, occasionally with Spizz in a band called Wild Mutation and a couple of weeks ago, I was asked to play guitar for the final gig of the present line up of Sham 69. They\u2019ve called it a day because the original line up is back together and it would create loads of legal problems, apparently. I spoke to Dave Parsons, the original guitarist, who I have utmost respect for and said \u2018I\u2019ve been asked to do this and wanted to tell you personally\u2019 because he was very kind to me in the past. Unfortunately, I can\u2019t advertise this gig because I don\u2019t want to create friction anywhere, but I\u2019m delighted to have been asked as they are one of my top five bands ever<\/em> and it\u2019ll be a real honour to do it. I\u2019m totally excited.<\/p>\n

Thoughts on today\u2019s music scene?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ha ha, I don\u2019t have any. I listen occasionally to Radio 2 in the car, and once in a while I hear a nice song but artists are too patchy for me to want to go and buy their records. There was a great song out recently, \u2018I Need A Dollar\u2019 or something but I don\u2019t have a clue who sung it. I bet the rest of his LP was a bit of this and a bit of that, so why would I want to buy that?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in the pipeline?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The new Les Paul, the Sham gig, possible recording with Kiria, the Wild Mutations gig on 18 September at the 100 Club, Long Tall Shorty gigs \u2013 and something else, which could be interesting involving a famous drummer \u2013 but I\u2019ve been sworn to secrecy about that for now, but it could be quite exciting. I\u2019ll just keep on going until I drop.<\/p>\n

Heroes and zeroes? Passions and fashions?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

None, none, none and none. I never thought it pays to have heroes, they only let you down and ultimately they aren\u2019t any different to you or I. I\u2019d love to meet Jimmy Pursey again, after all these years and say \u2018Thank you\u2019 for what he did, as I thought it was a God-given right at the time and until the time I get to speak to him, he\u2019ll never know the gratitude and esteem I have for what he did for us. As for fashions, I\u2019m old, wrinkly, a bit podgy, so I lie low on that, black t-shirts or turtle necks, Levis and a decent pair of loafers, same as always, really.<\/p>\n

Pick one band that you would loved to have been in?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m gonna pick two: Sham 69 and Slade. If I could pick more it\u2019d be Generation X, Ramones, Jimi Hendrix Experience.<\/p>\n

Any regrets?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely none, not in music, not in business, not personally either. Failures; yes \u2013 but I always learn by my mistakes and you can only be a better husband, businessman, father, musician, whatever, by cocking up a few times and then rectifying it. Only an arrogant idiot blames other people for their failings and we\u2019re only human after all. Perhaps I shouldn\u2019t have taught my son to swear when he was three but he seems pretty grounded nowadays, so maybe that\u2019d be good advice for all parents.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell us a funny tale of being on the road…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was on tour when I was playing bass for the Angelic Upstarts in 1981\/82 in the USA. We were staying in a hotel called the Iroquois in New York City, having a drink in the bar with The Clash who were on tour with The Who but staying in the same hotel. It was just after Joe Strummer had re-appeared and everyone in The Clash camp were really sensitive about it \u2013 \u2018don\u2019t mention Joe\u2019s disappearance\u2019 and stuff like that. There was a lot of banter going on but being a fan, I couldn\u2019t resist so I went up to Joe and said, \u2018Why did you disappear then\u2019. The bar went silent and he just laughed and started telling me all about the pressure he\u2019d been under and so on. I could visibly see the relief on everyone\u2019s faces. Shortly after this conversation, we saw our car, which was parked directly outside the hotel, being hoisted up onto a police tow truck. \u00a0We all ran out going \u2018Stop! We\u2019re English, you can\u2019t do this!\u2019 Turns out our driver had parked by a fire hydrant which is a big no-no in the USA, so the cops were gonna tow it to the car pound. We were remonstrating and a little old man in the sharpest mohair suit comes up, stands there listening and then goes to the cop, \u2018Hey Joe, what\u2019s the problem, give these guys a break\u2019. The cop replies, \u2018They can\u2019t park here Mister Gotti, we gotta tow the car away\u2019. The old man takes the cop across the pavement, gesticulates a bit and then the cop, looking rather crestfallen, turns back, lowers the car back down and drives off. \u2018Amazing\u2019 we all say, \u2018come and have a drink\u2019. The old man comes in and we\u2019re all thanking him, buying drinks, shaking his hand, introducing him to The Clash and Iggy Pop who by now had joined us. He got to telling us about his career as Frank Sinatra\u2019s lawyer and all these other stories about Sammy Davis, Vegas in the old days, Peter Lawford and the Kennedys. It then dawned on us, he\u2019s a mafia don! We never had any trouble with the NYC Police from that moment on.<\/p>\n

Switch us on to a good movie, a good book and a great new band…
\n<\/em><\/strong>
\nSaturday Night, Sunday Morning<\/em> (1961), is the best<\/em> film ever. A great book is Jungle West 11<\/em>, written in 1964 by a woman who arrived in this country in 1958, ended up in the slums in Notting Hill and then became a prostitute working all the hours to pay her pimp who also happened to be her husband. It\u2019s the story of her descent into crime and her eventual escape from that. A tale of poverty and gritty realism. As for bands, there\u2019s a group in London called Krakatoa who recently supported us and they\u2019ve been snapped up by Adam Ant\u2019s manager. They are mid 20\u2019s, good looking and they rock, so watch out for them.<\/p>\n

Long Tall Shorty on MySpace<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Long Tall Shorty website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Setting aside his poorly-rewarded role as EYEPLUG\u2019s guitar maven, Tony Morrison is perhaps best known for his tenures with Long Tall Shorty and the Angelic Upstarts. Having wearied of throwing televisions from hotel room windows, Tony subsequently became an in-demand \u2018guitar for hire\u2019, before reforming LTS to much critical acclaim in 2001. Now in his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":2582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,6,128,73],"tags":[513,121,512,514,511,515],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eyeplugs","category-features","category-hot-plugs","category-interviews","tag-angelic-upstarts","tag-eyeplug","tag-long-tall-shorty","tag-sham-69","tag-tony-morrison","tag-wild-mutations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2581"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}