The Mad, the Bad & the Dangerous
Encyclopedia
The Mad, The Bad & The Dangerous Tour was a national UK tour by The Hamsters
, The Wilko Johnson Band
, and John Otway
with his guitarist Richard Holgarth
. It is also the name of the DVD recording of the tour.
The format of the show would be that Otway started the show and would do a few numbers, then share the stage for a number or two with the Wilko Johnson Band. Wilko would then do his set, after which Otway would come on to do another short set. This would be followed by an intermission after which Otway would do another small set and then introduce The Hamsters on to the stage. Before they played their set they would do a song with Otway and Holgarth (The Hamsters acting as a backing band to an Otway original song).
As Otway has a reputation for boisterous frivolity as part of his act and The Hamsters are well-known for humour as part of their performances it was a given that there would be some laughter involved. This section of the show featured The Hamsters playing Otway's disco #9 chart hit "Bunsen Burner" with Otway supplying the theremin
accompaniment.
The Hamsters would then play an hour-long set which was followed by all three bands coming on stage together to take part in a chaotic finale with them all performing a three song encore
. This involved three senior acts of the British band circuit performing an Osmonds
cover followed by Wilko's band having an ace up their sleeve in the form of Norman Watt-Roy
who, in the late 70s played bass
on the original version of Ian Dury's
"Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
". He repeated his frenetic performance of 16 notes to the bar
. Otway announced, to his chagrin, that his #9 hit had been well and truly beaten by Norman's million seller.
Wilko Johnson
Otway
The Hamsters
Encores: Omnes
The Wilko Johnson Band
Otway
The Hamsters
The Hamsters are a band from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.They performed their first live show at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, on 1 April 1987. They initially played in local pubs with no ambitions to take themselves seriously or to turn professional...
, The Wilko Johnson Band
Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...
, and John Otway
John Otway
John Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:...
with his guitarist Richard Holgarth
Richard Holgarth
Richard Holgarth is a guitar player with Eddie and the Hot Rods and John Otway.Co-owner of - The Square music venue in Harlow.-Instruments & Performance:*Let The Pressure Start - Matchless Recordings 1983...
. It is also the name of the DVD recording of the tour.
The tour
All three bands are long-standing friends. Their musical styles were sufficiently diverse to give variety, but sufficiently alike to appeal to roughly similar audiences. It started off as a few gigs, then grew into a national tour with dozens of shows.The format of the show would be that Otway started the show and would do a few numbers, then share the stage for a number or two with the Wilko Johnson Band. Wilko would then do his set, after which Otway would come on to do another short set. This would be followed by an intermission after which Otway would do another small set and then introduce The Hamsters on to the stage. Before they played their set they would do a song with Otway and Holgarth (The Hamsters acting as a backing band to an Otway original song).
As Otway has a reputation for boisterous frivolity as part of his act and The Hamsters are well-known for humour as part of their performances it was a given that there would be some laughter involved. This section of the show featured The Hamsters playing Otway's disco #9 chart hit "Bunsen Burner" with Otway supplying the theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
accompaniment.
The Hamsters would then play an hour-long set which was followed by all three bands coming on stage together to take part in a chaotic finale with them all performing a three song encore
Encore (concert)
An encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...
. This involved three senior acts of the British band circuit performing an Osmonds
The Osmonds
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers...
cover followed by Wilko's band having an ace up their sleeve in the form of Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy is the bassist for The Blockheads, previously known as Ian Dury & the Blockheads.In November 1954 the Watt-Roy family, including Norman, his older brother Garth and his sister, moved to England...
who, in the late 70s played bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
on the original version of Ian Dury's
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
"Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song and single by Ian Dury & The Blockheads, first released 23 November 1978 and was first released on the 7" single BUY 38 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick / There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Stiff Records. It went to number one on the UK Singles...
". He repeated his frenetic performance of 16 notes to the bar
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
. Otway announced, to his chagrin, that his #9 hit had been well and truly beaten by Norman's million seller.
The DVD
Although it was never planned to do any recordings of the show (either audio or video) the shows were sufficiently popular that the bands received numerous requests for a DVD. Wilko's drummer, Steve Monti and several friends shot the concert with MiniDV cameras so that multiple viewpoints were recorded. Richard Holgarth helped in post-production with some of the sound engineering, whilst Monti did the bulk of the sound editing, mixing etc. He also did all of the video editing, DVD mastering, cover design and organised the replication. The artwork on the cover was created and supplied by Kurt Adkins. Photography by Andy Billups. The tour was devised, administered and managed by Snail's-Pace Slim.Track listing
Otway- "Intro Banter"
- "Really Free"
- "Beware of the Flowers"
- "Blockbuster"
- "Louise on a Horse"
- "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"
Wilko Johnson
- "All Right"
- "Barbed Wire Blues"
- "Dr Dupree"
- "She's Good Like That"
- "Sneakin' Suspicion"
- "When I'm Gone"
- "Cairo Blues"
- "Don't Let Your Daddy Know"
- "Back In The Night"
- "She Does It Right"
Otway
- "Otway Banter"
- "Rumplestiltskin"
- "Body Talk"
- "Josephine"
- "Bunsen Burner" (With The Hamsters)
The Hamsters
- "Chevrolet"
- "Lucky In Love"
- "Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down"
- "Hard Ridin' Papa"
- "Ooh Baby"
- "2 a.m."
- "Rocket In My Pocket"
- "Star-Spangled Banner"
- "All Along the WatchtowerAll Along the Watchtower"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song, which has been included on most of Dylan's greatest hits compilations, initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Over the past 35 years, he has performed it in concert more...
" - "The Walk"
- "Sweet Little Lisa"
- "Sharp-Dressed ManSharp Dressed Man"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song performed by ZZ Top from their album Eliminator released in 1983. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning....
"
Encores: Omnes
- "Crazy Horses"
- "Born to Be WildBorn to Be Wild"Born to Be Wild" is a rock song written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by the Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf. It is often used in popular culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude...
" - "Hit Me With Your Rhythm StickHit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song and single by Ian Dury & The Blockheads, first released 23 November 1978 and was first released on the 7" single BUY 38 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick / There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Stiff Records. It went to number one on the UK Singles...
"
Personnel
The HamstersThe Hamsters
The Hamsters are a band from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.They performed their first live show at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, on 1 April 1987. They initially played in local pubs with no ambitions to take themselves seriously or to turn professional...
- Snail's-Pace Slim – lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarsElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
. - Rev Otis Elevator – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
. - Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
.
The Wilko Johnson Band
Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...
- Wilko JohnsonWilko JohnsonWilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...
– lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarsElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
. - Norman Watt-RoyNorman Watt-RoyNorman Watt-Roy is the bassist for The Blockheads, previously known as Ian Dury & the Blockheads.In November 1954 the Watt-Roy family, including Norman, his older brother Garth and his sister, moved to England...
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Monti - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
Otway
John Otway
John Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:...
- John OtwayJohn OtwayJohn Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:...
– lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device... - Richard Holgarth – lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
Production
- Tour Manager and administrator - Snails-Pace Slim.
- Sound editing - Monti, Richard Holgarth.
- MasteringMastering engineerA mastering engineer is one skilled in the practice of taking audio that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distribution, whether by physical media such as a CD, vinyl record, or as some method of...
, mixingMix engineerA mix engineer, also referred to as "mixing engineer", is a person who, once all instruments, voices, and sounds, etc., have been recorded, creates what is called the final version of a song, hence the term "mix engineer"...
– Monti. - Concert Sound - Nigel Thurston.
- Video editingVideo editingThe term video editing can refer to:* Linear video editing, using video tape* Non-linear editing system , using computers with video editing software* Offline editing* Online editing...
– Monti. - CamerasVideo cameraA video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in...
– David Painter, Steve Acton, Paul, Dan, Alan Ireland, Monti. - DVD authoringDVD authoringDVD authoring is the process of creating a DVD video capable of playing on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum group in 1995...
– Monti. - Cover layoutGraphic designGraphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
– Monti. - ArtworkAdobe PhotoshopAdobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
– Kurt Adkins. - PhotographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
- Andy Billups. - Roadies – Doug Stocker, Paul, Dan.