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It was a real coup when the
almost legendary trombonist Nick Richards joined Urban Dub.
Louise spoke to him about life on road and blowing away the
cobwebs in the brass section… What's so great
about the music of the sixties? Why do swans glow in the dark?
What's the difference between a cornet and a flugelhorn? How
to sell your soul to the devil? Everything you've always wanted
to know about Tai Chi? Read on...
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Louise: What first attracted you to the trombone?
Nick: Don Drummond, the ska trombonist with the Skatalites was my
greatest influence. They recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One,
and Duke Reid's Treasure Island in Jamaica in the Sixties. They also played at
parties where the people danced and drank Red Stripe. “Silver
Dollar” is one of his best tunes, “Don-De-Lion”
is another, he wrote dozens of fabulous tunes. He was a tragic figure
though, because he was mentally disturbed. He was a very quiet guy
who didn’t talk very much, and only really spoke through his
trombone. Unfortunately, he murdered his girlfriend. He stabbed
her and got put away for it in an asylum. The story goes that the
band used to bust him out for a recording session. They used to
smuggle him out! But he died a few years after that. He was a lovely
trombone player, though – wonderful, lyrical, magical, totally
unskilled in music theory – he just expressed his soul through
his playing.
Louise: So is it just Sixties music you like?
Nick: I like music from the 1960s, 1860s or the 1760s. Its GOTTA
be the sixties but not necessarily the 1960s. It could be the 1660s,
around the time of the great plague and the Great Fire of London
sort of era. Or maybe Italy in the 1460s, the Renaissance.
Louise: How many trombones have you got?
Nick: Two, but I don’t own them. They’re leant to me
by a guy called Monzur, who had the idea of having a heavy metal
band with a big brass section. But he’s never got it off the
ground, you know. We only had one rehearsal at which there was a
flute player and a viola player. I was playing the trombone. Yeah,
Monzur’s got a wild scheme, but he can never get off the ground.
He was inspired by Metallica and the London Symphony Orchestra.
One of the trombones has got an F attachment which means you can
play it down low, if you use the trigger. A bit like Spinal Tap.
It goes one lower instead of one louder. It’s a bigger bore
which means it’s wider. So it’s really hard work. I
just look at it, I don’t actually touch it.
Lousie: What groups have you played with?
Nick: I’ve played guitar in a few bands, inluding a hiphop
group called August and I played trumpet in a band called Delta
Shave. I’ve played in a few Jazz duos. I used to play jazz
guitar and duo with a saxophone player. I played in jam sessions
– like jazz jam sessions mainly with trumpet and sometimes
with guitar. Then I met up with Marjorie and Roop. It seemed like
a really nice thing to get involved in. The music was nice and it
seemed like a great opportunity to play and perform with nice people
– have some fun and do some interesting things. DO SOME GREAT
THINGS! We’re gonna convert the entire world to Urban Dub…..
Oh, and also… it was the only band that would have me.
Louise: Do you enjoy sailing?
Nick: Hmmm, I would be slightly nervous to do that, because I can’t
swim. I’d be quite scared of falling overboard. The idea attracts
me, though. I love the sea and the ships. I’d love to go on
a long sea voyage, perhaps as far as the Caribbean. But back to
here and now, I also play the trumpet and flugelhorn – it’s
similar to a trumpet but it’s got a bigger bell. It makes
a more mellow sound. I play cornet as well, which is an earlier
version of a trumpet. Oh, and I also play the ukulele! I didn’t get in to music until quite
late. Music teaching at my school was rubbish. It was very boring.
We were supposed to be playing recorders, but they didn’t
have any recorders! We used to use rulers – you know, wooden
rulers – and position our hands on them. Of course, they didn’t
make a sound at all so it was completely useless. Later on I went
to art college. Lots of people had guitars and I kind of ended up
with an acoustic guitar. I was about 20 or 21 when I started playing.
I gradually learned to play the guitar. Then I started play jazz
guitar. I used to listen to Django Reinhart all the time. He’s
a very famous Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist from the 1930s and 40s.
His left hand only really had two usable fingers that he used to
fret the notes with. I was kind of inspired by him to learn jazz
guitar. My friend John got me into him and we sat for a few years listening
to secondhand Django’s records. Then gradually I got in to
other styles of jazz. I started to go to jam sessions, and thought
“The horn players are having more fun than the guitar player!”
At the time I was into Miles Davis & Chet Baker. They played
the trumpet in quite a simple way, not like Dizzy Gillespie who
played lots of notes very high, but just simple lyrical melodies.
I thought that I might have a go myself. I bought a cornet from
a mad Italian guy called Maurizio for £20, he was happy because
somebody gave it to him for nothing! It was a little brass band
instrument and I cleaned it upand gradually learned to play it a
bit. Then I was addicted. I got a trumpet and a flugel horn. I quite
like playing the flugel. It’s got a fatter mellower sound.
The trumpet I can sometimes find too piercing and thin and it’s
too small to get my lips inside! I can’t control it very easily.
It feels like a tiny little thimble – the mouth piece –
whereas the trombone mouthpiece is like a bucket! I used to get
a lot of trouble from the neighbours when I played the trumpet every
day, but now I’ve switched to trombone and they don’t
mention it.
Louise: Where do you live?
Nick: I live in Hackney just near the Marshes. It’s a bit
run down, piles of rubbish everywhere. The best thing is walking
down to the River Lea and looking at the swans on the river. But
I don’t go in swimming because, like I already told you, I
can’t swim, and anyway people dump all kinds of stuff in there!
I think there are factories pumping out chemicals, that's why the
swans glow in the dark!
Louise: Have you played other styles of music?
Well, there was a time when I used to play free jazz, which is like
when you just play totally off the top of your head. You just make
noises and stuff – I was playing cornet then. It was a lot
easier to do if you were totally stoned, so I used to get stoned
before doing that! It was in a pub called the Betsey Trotwood in
Farringdon Road, with the legendary singer Maggie Nichols. Mad Maurizio
was there then as well, and I haven't seen him since. I find that
type of playing helps with subliminal rage and anxiety and is quite
therapeutic. You can express things that get hidden with no other
outlet. You can express them through music and take away your frustration.
I’d love to reach a level where what I was playing was pure
expression. That’s my ultimate goal in life, I think. But
then again, if you had no demons to exorcise ...
Louise: What do you mean, demons to exercise?
Nick: No, EXORCISE. Demons to exercise would mean you’re just
training them to run round in circles to keep them fit. You could
teach them to do Pilates. Hey, this is the best bit of the interview
so far. Definitely keep this bit in! Keep Fit Classes for Demons!
Louise: Have you ever danced with the devil
in the pale moon light?
Nick: Who was it who said that?
Louise: Wasn’t it Jack Nicholson in “Batman”?
Nick: Oh, yeah. Oh, no, I’m thinking of “The Devil Went
Down To Georgia” which was a country hit in the 1980s for
Blake Blackwing. It was a bit like “Convoy” by Bill
Fries & Chip Davis. Those guys were like redneck rappers. In
that song the guy sells his soul to the devil a bit like the crossroads
myth. Have you heard it? Robert Johnson the blues guitarist was
supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. Do you know, if you
go to the crossroads at midnight, you can meet the devil there.
He’s waiting there, and if you like sell your soul, in exchange
for your soul you can learn to play the guitar. I don’t know
if it’s a good deal. In exchange for eternal damnation to
learn to play the guitar? I don’t know. You’d probably
end up like Spinal Tap, so maybe not. You might burn your fingers
if you played too fast or if you were like Jimi Hendrix and you
set your guitar alight in a satanic ritual. I think eternal damnation
is too big a price to pay for guitar wizardry.
Louise: Talking of exercise though, how do yo
keep fit?
I practise Tai Chi which is an ancient form of Chinese martial arts.
It’s kind of a sequence of movements, that correspond to certain
philosophical ideas about nature and animals and stuff like that.
It’s about grounding yourself, and becoming part of nature.
It’s about a connection with the ground, a connection with
the earth. A lot of your power is taken from the ground and goes
back in to the ground. You sink your mind down into your tantien,
which is a place just below the belly button where the essence of
your being resides. You feel at one with the universe and with your
own body. It’s kind of like a meditation as well. It’s
about breathing. Some of the postures have wonderful names like
“The White Crane Spreads It’s Wings” and “Carry
Tiger and Return to Mountain”. It originated when the ancient
Chinese philosophers used to observe animals and emulate those movements.
This got passed down by word of mouth. I practise the Yang style
but there’s the Wu style, as well. Whe you see them doing
it on the telly, that's Scottish Wu style. They do the Deer pose.
Chi means energy, chi is the energy that you have in your body.
Tai Chi masters can focus all their Chi in the tip of their finger.
If they very lightly touch someone, they will fly across the room!
Louise: That would be great in bar room brawls.
Nick: Yes, but it’s not a contact sport. The only thing you're
supposed to be in touch with is the ground. I’ve got my ear
to the ground! I try not to think about the future. I try to live
in the present and enjoy what’s happening right now. The thing
about the future is that it can create anxiety which is inevitable,
but you shouldn’t really dwell on it. It’s like the
past as well. You can’t really do anything about the past
and you can’t do anything about the future, but when it actually
happens, then it becomes the present which is more interesting.
Check
out the Nick Richards Website by clicking here.
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