We caught up with Guitar & Vocalist Allan Crockford – <\/strong>to chat about his musical life…<\/p>\n I\u2019d been having organ lessons for a few years up to the age of 12 or 13, but with only minimal enthusiasm. It was a lovely Hammond X-5, but it was the era of playing easy listening versions of the hits at a home with a rhythm box – very cheesy. It would be a few years before I discovered all the really cool Hammond stuff (Deep Purple, The Nice, Small Faces, Jimmy Smith etc). I really wanted to play the guitar. I was into The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who and Led Zep, but could not imagine ever being good enough to play music like that. I became aware of punk rock at the end of \u201876, and the \u2018here\u2019s three chords, now form a band\u2019 mantra. I got a nylon-stringed classical guitar and a Tune a Day book\u2026 Then I saw The Jam doing \u2018In the City\u2019 on Top of the Pops around April \u201877 and that was the real turning point. The fire, intensity and simplicity of the performance spurred me on to practise every day, going through the sore fingers stage, learning barre and open chords and persuading my parents to buy me a cheap electric guitar and tiny 5 watt amp\u2026 leaving the Hammond to sit in the corner unused for a few years. But what I knew about music from playing the organ helped with the guitar, and it wouldn\u2019t be long before I realised what a cool instrument it was\u2026 if played the right way in a band. But that person wasn\u2019t to be me. After a couple of years, I swapped to bass, which is where I stayed for a long while.<\/p>\n It started with the obvious bands as mentioned in the previous answer, and I went through periods of liking heavy rock and prog before punk came along. For a couple of years that was the inspiration, the DIY attitude of just getting on with it being at least as important as the music. I think most of the great punk\/new wave stuff was finished by \u201879 (with the odd exception of course) and I gradually found myself going back to the 60\u2019s stuff that The Jam were referencing, and eventually the obscure garage and psych material that was starting to surface. Of course that stuff has been pretty much mined out now, and is so easy to find on the web, but back then it was so exciting to discover this \u2018new\u2019 old stuff lurking in second-hand record shops and charity shops. And it\u2019s so strange to think that stuff was only about 15 years old at the time! It seemed ancient to a 17 year old, from a magical long-forgotten era.<\/p>\n Apart from the Hammond, I had a couple of cheap electric guitars once I worked out that was what I wanted to play. I remember a Gibson SG copy that was practically unplayable, then a Satellite Les Paul copy, which was pretty good. Then there was a big leap to real Gibson SG on my 16th birthday. Not a bad guitar to get at that age\u2026 however being young and stupid, when I and Graham (Day) swapped roles and I became a bass player, we also swapped our gear. He got the SG and I got his Peavey T40 bass\u2026 I think I know who got the best deal.. Since then I\u2019ve owned, sold, lost (or had stolen) a lot of lovely old and new gear. A \u201867 Fender Telecaster bass, a 1964 Epiphone Rivoli bass, a couple of Rickenbacker 4001\u2019s (including one that supposedly belonged to Lemmy), a Gibson EB3, a Gibson 335, a 60\u2019s Selmer Thunderbird amp, an 70\u2019s AC30, a \u201879 Gretsch Country Gentleman, Marshal, Hiwatt, Orange, Vox and Fender bass amp\/cabs from the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s. That\u2019s just the ones I can remember\u2026 there were loads of others. I could have made a fortune on Ebay if I\u2019d hung on to everything, but generally, that old stuff was fairly easy to get hold of then. I\u2019d buy something, use it, hanker after something that someone else was using, then sell whatever I had to get the next object of desire.<\/p>\n With The Galileo 7, I use a Lazy J20 custom-built 1×12 combo, occasionally with an extension cabinet. The guitar will usually be either an 80\u2019s Epiphone Sheraton that I\u2019ve had upgraded with hand-wound PAF pickups and Gibson wiring, or a Gretsch G5422T. Sometimes a Telecaster. I\u2019ll generally use the same gear in the studio. If I\u2019m playing bass with Graham Day & the Forefathers, I use my 1976 Hagstrom Swede Bass going through whatever bass gear is in the venue. I don\u2019t own any bass amplification any more – there\u2019s not enough room in our house!<\/p>\n Sounds a bit technical\u2026! Plug in, turn the amp up and fiddle with the knobs until it sounds good in the particular environment we happen to be playing in. I have a ton of effects pedals that I\u2019ve bought over the years, but mostly they\u2019re just a distraction from the more important business of actually singing and playing. I\u2019ve got a compressor, a Lazy J drive\/boost pedal, a cheap wah-wah, an old analogue reverb pedal and a tuner on my board these days. Still too much I reckon! <\/p>\n As you might have gathered so far, I can play a bit of organ as well as guitar, bass, and very rudimentary drums. I would say the bass is the instrument I feel most confident playing, and gives me the most pleasure. Bass is the glue that sticks everything together and you feel like I\u2019m an important part of the team. Playing guitar is more like skating around on top of the foundations, not necessarily changing what the audience is feeling. I\u2019m never quite sure whether what I\u2019m doing on the guitar is actually that important! That\u2019s possibly years of playing bass clouding my perception, but there it is. I do the majority of lead vocals in the Galileo 7, but it\u2019s not for me to say how good or bad I am. I\u2019m definitely not the best singer in the band, that\u2019s for sure\u2026 I encourage everyone in the band to sing, and I like lots of backing vocals and harmonies to cover for my inadequacies. But if I\u2019m gonna write all the songs, I\u2019ve got to sing them!<\/p>\n The album is now finished and it\u2019s released on June 21st on Damaged Goods. It was made in pretty much the same way as the others, apart from a change of venue for the backing tracks. Previously we\u2019d recorded them in our friend\u2019s printing unit where we used to rehearse. This time around we recorded the basic tracks on 8-track at Mole\u2019s new analogue studio, North Down sound, then transferred them to the digital realm for overdubbing at our house. Technically we could have done everything at NDS, but we tend to use a LOT of tracks for vocals and overdubs and it would have been a nightmare trying to plan a way of bouncing it all down to eight tracks. Not impossible of course, but complicated. And of course, it\u2019s more difficult to book into a studio than nipping down into our cellar for a few hours to try a few things out\u2026 So we had perhaps a total of 3 working days in the studio for tracking, then months of dubbing and mixing at home. Of course, I go a bit mad doing it this way, but it seems to work in the end. We\u2019re really pleased with it – may be more so at this stage in the process than any of the previous ones. Usually, after spending months writing, recording and mixing an album, all I can hear is the bits that I might be dissatisfied with, or feel that could have been done better. You can\u2019t be really objective about your own stuff when you\u2019re still close to its creation. However, this time around I know this is a good album without having to take a year off from listening to it. Time will tell in the end, but we\u2019re confident it\u2019s our best so far. It\u2019s good to be able to say that for our sixth album!<\/p>\n There\u2019s no fixed method of writing a song. It could be an idea for a riff or chord sequence that floats around in my head for weeks, a chance line of lyrics, or a particular rhythm that I want to play with. Only rarely does the initial idea sound much like the finished song. I do a series of demos and develop the idea according to what I hear playing back. I\u2019ll usually play a half-finished demo to Viv and see what it sounds like with another person in the room\u2026 it changes your perception of a song and you might be able to hear things that need to be sorted out that are not apparent when you\u2019re immersed in it alone. I usually give the band a pretty detailed demo version with me playing everything, but then we\u2019ll thrash it around and bang it into a shape that suits our collective style. I\u2019m less precious about everyone following the parts I\u2019ve written than I used to be.<\/p>\n01. At what age did you first take up your chosen Instrument and why?<\/h3>\n
02. What are your earliest memories and influences for you that got you started?<\/h3>\n
03. What was your first Instrument, where did you get it and how have you faired since in upgrades?<\/h3>\n
04. What is your current set up for live shows and how does that differ from work in the studio?<\/h3>\n
05. Can you tell us how you technically shape your sound, what add-ons, bits of kit and tweaks do you make?<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n06. Can you play more than one instrument and if so how well? Can you sing too?<\/h3>\n
07. You are currently working on the new G7 LP, can you tell us about the process and an average day in the studio?<\/h3>\n
08. How do you go about developing the songs, the sound and ideas that end up being used? What about out-takes?<\/h3>\n