What is a Wommett? - The Autobiography of Mick Abrahams (Biography Series Book 8)

Mick Abrahams – Revived

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Mick Abrahams first rose to fame as a guitarist during the s and was a founder member of Jethro Tull, although his time with the band was to prove short lived owing to the vividly contrasting musical styles of himself and Ian Anderson. In his autobiography What is a Wommett Mick finally puts the record straight about this parting of the ways and the events that have shaped the man and his music since that time up to the present day.

Perhaps best known for his time with Blodwyn Pig, the band he formed after leaving Tull, Abrahams has continued to delight fans with his own brand of blues, jazz and rock on highly acclaimed albums spanning several decades. Read more Read less. Enabled Similar books to What is a Wommett? Browse a new selection of discounted Kindle Books each month. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Don't You Leave Me Here: Also check our best rated Biography reviews.

Kindle Edition File Size: Amazon Media EU S. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Mick is a strong character who I knew from his early days. I don't get a mention in the book, but some of my clothes appear on group photos! His book is amusing and reveals the upbringing and army years that made the man.

His tone is modest throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. One person found this helpful. Lovely little book, funny and informative. If you like Tull and Blodwyn Pig then buy this book, you won't be disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed this autobiography. Well written and an easy read by one of my favourite guitarists. His comments about his time in my favourite band Jethro Tull were especially enlightening and making this a must read for any other Tull fans. A very interesting read!

Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. As the introduction to the book says, the content isn't so much about the music, more the events of Mick's life. Having been honoured to meet Mick, the book is written in a conversational style, almost like he's chatting to you after a gig over a pint or several. Interesting, humourous, down to earth and with some strong language understandable when read in context! Stories are told with an emotional resonance, the dislike of any particular individuals is totally justified but any past vindictiveness is down to hurt more than anger. But this number could represent a reduced population as a direct result of the Norman Invasion.

The Domesday Book records the value of King Williams English possessions 20 years after his victory at Hastings, during which period, as the book would suggest, much destruction and death took place. Blues rock — Blues rock is a fusion genre combining elements of blues and rock. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with similar to electric blues. From its beginnings in the early- to mids, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way inspired hard rock, Southern rock, Blues rock continues to be an influence, with performances and recordings by several popular artists.

Blues rock started with rock musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States performing American blues songs. They typically recreated electric Chicago-style blues songs, such as those by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, and Albert King, at faster tempos and with a more aggressive sound common to rock. Although around this time, AllMusic commented, the lines between rock and hard rock were barely visible, there was a return to more blues-influenced styles.

It is also played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues. The core blues rock sound is created by the guitar, bass guitar. Often bands also included a harmonica, usually called a harp, the electric guitar is usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier or using an overdrive effect.

While s-era blues bands would still use the upright bass, the blues rock bands of the s used the electric bass. Keyboard instruments, such as the piano and Hammond organ, are occasionally used. As with the guitar, the sound of the Hammond organ is typically amplified with a tube amplifier. Vocals also typically play a key role, although the vocals may be equal in importance or even subordinate to the guitar playing. As well, a number of rock pieces are instrumental-only.

Blues-rock pieces often follow typical blues structures, such as blues, sixteen-bar blues. Its name was inspired by the Harry Belafonte song Island in the Sun. Suzette Newman has been a colleague of Chris Blackwells since working together in the early days of Island Records. The vast majority of the artists who had signed to Blackwells fledgling label while he was in Jamaica agreed to allow the entrepreneur to release their music in the UK. While in England, Blackwell travelled throughout the city carrying his stock with him and he did not provide any copies to radio stations, as they would not play any of the Island music, the music was also not reviewed by the press.

Mick Abrahams - WikiVisually

The group became popular and Island started their own independent series to spotlight UK rock talent. One day we were summoned to Chris house, and he says, Alright gentleman, I think its time. The name was both a reference to the stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders names, Chris Wright. Jethro Tull signed with Reprise Records in the United States, which led Chrysalis to an American distribution deal with Reprises parent company and this lasted from until U.

Chrysalis switched to independent distribution in PolyGram handled international distribution and Festival Records covered Australia and New Zealand, towards the end of the s, the label began to extend its range of music, incorporating acts from the Punk Rock scene such as Generation X. In Chrysalis bought and distributed U. Chrysalis made history in by creating the first music video album, in the s, Chrysalis was at the forefront of the British New Romantic movement with bands such as Gen X, Ultravox, and Spandau Ballet.

Mick Abrahams

The s proved to be the most successful time for the label, whose roster then included Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Blondie and Huey Lewis, Chrysalis also distributed Animal Records, the short-lived label founded by Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. Blue Raincoat founders Jeremy Lascelles and Robin Millar brought in Robert Devereux and this reunited founder Wright with the company he set up 47 years previously. Initially playing blues rock, the band developed its sound to incorporate elements of British folk music.

The group first achieved success in , with the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up, which reached No. Jethro Tull have sold over 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and they have been described by Rolling Stone as one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands. The last works as a group to new material were released in Evans had become a fan of the Beatles after seeing them play Love Me Do on Granada Televisions Scene at 6,30, though he was an accomplished pianist, he decided to take up the drums, as it was an instrument featured in the Beatles line-up.

Anderson had acquired a Spanish guitar and taught himself how to play it, the pair recruited Hammond on bass, who brought along his collection of blues records to listen to. By the band had recruited guitarist Chris Riley and developed into a six-piece blue-eyed soul band called the John Evan Band, evans had shortened his surname to Evan at the insistence of Hammond, who thought it sounded better and more unusual.

The group recruited Johnny Taylor as an agent and played gigs further afield around northwest England, playing a mixture of blues. Hammond subsequently quit the band to go to art school and he was briefly replaced by Derek Ward, then by Glenn Cornick. In November , the moved to the London area. Anderson, Abrahams and Cornick decided to stay together, recruiting Abrahams friend Clive Bunker on drums, Cornick recalled that although Evan left, the band said he was welcome to rejoin at a later date.

As the only member not having nearby family, Anderson lived in a bed-sit on the verge of starvation, Anderson recalled looking at a poster at a club and concluding that the band name he didnt recognise was his. Band names were supplied by their booking agents staff, one of whom.

The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to them to return. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and served as its leader from to and he holds the record for losing more than 40 elections in which he stood. His legal name remained David Edward Sutch, after his career as an early s rock and roll attraction, it became customary for the UK press to refer to him as Screaming Lord Sutch, or simply Lord Sutch.

Early works included recordings produced by audio pioneer Joe Meek, during the s, Screaming Lord Sutch was known for his horror-themed stage show, dressing as Jack the Ripper, pre-dating the shock rock antics of Alice Cooper. Accompanied by his band, the Savages, he started by coming out of a black coffin, other props included knives and daggers, skulls and bodies. Sutch tired of the station, and sold it to Calvert, after which it was renamed Radio City, in Calvert was shot dead by Oliver Smedley over a financial dispute. Smedley was acquitted on grounds of self-defence, about this time Ritchie Blackmore left the band.

In the s, Sutch stood in elections, often as representative of the National Teenage Party. His first was in , when he contested the by-election in Stratford-upon-Avon caused by the resignation of John Profumo and his next was at the General Election when he stood in Harold Wilsons Huyton constituency.

He founded the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in and fought the Bermondsey by-election, in his career he contested over 40 elections, rarely threatening the major candidates, but often getting a respectable number of votes. This did little to deter Sutch, who increased the number of concerts he performed to pay for campaigns and he achieved his highest poll and vote share at Rotherham in with 1, votes and a 4.

His most significant contribution to politics came at the Bootle by-election in May, and he secured more votes than the candidate of the Continuing Social Democratic Party, led by former Foreign Secretary David Owen. When the album was released the band was performing at the Marquee Club in London. While vocalist Ian Andersons creative vision largely shaped Jethro Tulls later albums, in part due to Abrahams influence, the album incorporates more rhythm and blues and jazz influences than the progressive rock the band later became known for.

Cats Squirrel was written by Doctor Ross and covered as an instrumental by numerous s British blues bands, Abrahams would later perform the song in his post-Jethro Tull blues band Blodwyn Pig. The album includes a version of Roland Kirks jazz standard Serenade to a Cuckoo. According to the notes, Cuckoo was one of the first tunes Ian Anderson learned to play on the flute. Mick Abrahams, the author, provided vocals on the track.

Abrahams left Jethro Tull following the completion in a dispute over musical differences. Thus, the albums title refers to Abrahams blues influence on the album. As said in the notes of the original record, This was how we were playing then —. This song featured the claghorn, an instrument invented by Jeffrey Hammond, Anderson also claims to have invented the instrument.

This Was received generally favourable reviews and sold well upon its release, american critic Robert Christgau, on the contrary, was appalled by the success of a band that combined the worst of Roland Kirk, Arthur Brown, and your nearest G. Recent reviews of the remastered edition underline the duality of Anderson and Abrahams songwriting and stage presence, an AllMusic reviewer remarked how Jethro Tull on their vinyl debut appeared vaguely reminiscent of the Graham Bond Organization only more cohesive, and with greater commercial sense. Ian Anderson — Anderson plays several other musical instruments, including keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles.

Anderson spent the first part of his childhood in Edinburgh and he was influenced by his fathers big band and jazz records and the emergence of rock music, but was disenchanted with the show biz style of early American rock and roll stars like Elvis Presley. His family moved to Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in , in a interview, Anderson stated that he was asked to leave Grammar School for refusing to submit to corporal punishment for some serious infraction.

He went on to study art at Blackpool College of Art from to while living in St. While a teenager, Anderson took a job as an assistant at Lewiss department store in Blackpool. This was a soul and blues band, with Anderson on vocals and they played their first show at the Holy Trinity Church Hall in North Shore. In late , Anderson was still holding down a day job, namely cleaning the Ritz Cinema in Luton, including the toilets, in the mornings and he took an old, chipped urinal from the cinema storeroom and had it for a time after leaving the job.

It was not, however, the urinal which was bolted to the side of John Evans Hammond organ on stage, at this time Anderson abandoned his ambition to play electric guitar, allegedly because he felt he would never be as good as Eric Clapton. According to the notes for the first Tull album, This Was. His guitar practice did not go to either, as he continued to play acoustic guitar. As his career progressed, he added soprano saxophone, mandolin, keyboards and his tendency to stand on one leg while playing the flute came about by accident, as he had been inclined to stand on one leg while playing the harmonica, holding the microphone stand for balance.

Anderson was known for his famous one-legged flute stance, and was referred to as a deranged flamingo. This stance is on album covers of Jethro Tull. During a long stint at the Marquee Club, a journalist described him, wrongly and he decided to live up to the reputation, albeit with some difficulty. His early attempts are visible in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus film appearance of Jethro Tull and this was referenced in the facetious liner notes for Thick as a Brick in a quote about the one-legged pop flautist, Ian Anderson.

Anderson already wished to start a career in , when Jethro Tull was going to take a hiatus. While working in a factory as a teenager, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his hand in an accident. Iommi briefly left Black Sabbaths forerunner, Earth, in to join Jethro Tull, after which he returned to Black Sabbath in , in , he released his first solo album Iommi, followed by s Fused, which featured his former bandmate Glenn Hughes.

His mothers family were owners in Italy.

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The family were Catholic but rarely attended mass, the family home in the Park Lane area of Aston also housed a shop which was a popular meeting place in the neighbourhood. The family living room doubled as the shops stockroom and his mother ran the shop while his father was a carpenter by trade. Born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, Iommi attended Birchfield Road School, at age 8 or 9, Iommi fell and badly cut his upper lip as another boy chased him.

As a result, he gained the nickname Scarface which caused him to become self-conscious of the scar, and he eventually grew his trademark mustache as a means of covering it. At about age ten, Iommi began working out and learned judo, karate and he became so good at boxing that he envisioned a future as a bouncer in a nightclub, thus avoiding a career in a boring factory job. Iommi initially wanted to play the drums, but due to the noise he chose the guitar instead as a teenager, after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin.

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He has always played guitar left-handed, after completing school, Iommi worked briefly as a plumber and later in a factory manufacturing rings. He states that at one point he worked in a music store, at the age of 17, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand in an industrial accident on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory. Was told youll never play again, I sat in the hospital with my hand in this bag and I thought thats it - Im finished.

But eventually I thought Im not going to accept that, there must be a way I can play. After the injury Iommi considered abandoning the guitar entirely, however, his factory foreman played him a recording of famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, which encouraged him to continue as a musician. As Iommi would later write, My friend said, Listen to this guy play, listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now.

Black Sabbath — The band experienced multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history. Originally formed as a rock band, the group soon adopted the Black Sabbath moniker and began incorporating occult themes with horror-inspired lyrics. They also composed songs about social instability, political corruption and drugs, Osbournes regular use of alcohol and other drugs led to his dismissal from the band in The original line-up reunited with Osbourne in and released a live album Reunion, Black Sabbaths final studio album and nineteenth overall,13, features all of the original members but Ward.

A year after embarking on a tour, the band played their final concert in their home city of Birmingham on 4 February Iommi has stated, however, that he has not ruled out the possibility of new material or one-off shows under the Black Sabbath name, Black Sabbath are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number 85 in their Greatest Artists of All Time and they have sold over 70 million records worldwide. Following the break-up of their previous band Mythology in , guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward sought to form a blues rock band in Aston.

After shortening the name to Polka Tulk, the band changed their name to Earth and continued as a four-piece without Phillips. Iommi became concerned that Phillips and Clarke lacked the dedication and were not taking the band seriously. Rather than asking them to leave, they decided to break up. Jim Simpson was a manager for the bands Bakerloo Blues Line, Simpson was also a trumpet player for the group Locomotive. Martin Barre — In the early s he initiated a solo career that now spawned four studio albums plus several guest appearances. He has also played the flute and other such as the mandolin.

Martin Barre was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands and his father was an engineer who had wanted to play clarinet professionally. In grammar school Barre played flute, when Barre bought his first guitar his father gave him albums by Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith and Wes Montgomery to broaden his musical perspectives. After designing a road junction in Birmingham, England, he decided that a career in architecture was too boring, in he moved to London with his friend, Chris Rodger, who had played saxophone in their previous band, The Moonrakers.

In London Barre and Rodger got an audition for a band called The Noblemen that was looking for two saxophonists, Barre bought a tenor saxophone and after two days of practice was able to bluff his way through the audition. Finally in mid they became a band called Gethsemane and played in pubs all over England with Barre playing guitar. The audition did not go well, Barre was so nervous that he barely played. On the first album that Barre recorded with Jethro Tull, Stand Up, he said that he was and it really showed a change in direction for the band and when it was accepted and became a successful album, we gained a lot of confidence.

We extended that confidence into the making of Benefit, in which we were a lot more at ease, on the next album, the world success Aqualung, Martin was more confident, stating that in the recording, Everybody had input into the making of the album. Curiously, his album in Jethro Tull is the most controversial of the bands career, Under Wraps. For his contribution to Jethro Tull music, Martin stated, Ive done bits, sometimes its a riff, sometimes its a little segment of music.

I dont mind taking a role in the writing. In liner notes for the re-issue of the album, songwriter and singer Mick Abrahams recalled, I think the tape operator was Robin Black, who later went on to produce Jethro Tull and other notable acts of the time. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills,30 miles north of London and these geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.

Dunstable is the largest settlement in Central Bedfordshire and third largest in Bedfordshire behind Luton, in Roman times its name was Durocobrivis. There was an assumption that the nominative form of the name had been Durocobrivae. But current thinking is that the form Durocobrivis, which occurs in the Antonine Itinerary, is a fossilised locative that was used all the time, there are several theories concerning its modern name, Legend tells that the lawlessness of the time was personified in a thief called Dun.

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Wishing to capture Dun, the King stapled his ring to a post daring the robber to steal it and it was, and was subsequently traced to the house of the widow Dun. Her son, the robber, was taken and hanged to the satisfaction that the new community bore his name. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon for the boundary post of Duna, derived from Dunum, or Dun, a hill, and Staple, a marketplace. Maidenbower has some of the ramparts showing through the edge of an old quarry at Sewell where there are Bronze Age remains of an older fort.

There are a lot of sites in this area and details can be found with the Manshead Archaeological Society who are based in Winfield Street. There was already some form of settlement by the AD 40s and 50s, when the Romans arrived and paved the road now known as Watling Street and its crossroad, the Icknield Way. Traces of Neolithic activity are not in doubt but much of their mystery may be lost under the surrounding Chiltern Hills, the Romans built a posting station and probably named the settlement Durocobrivae, but over time this may have shifted to Durocobrivis.

The area was occupied by Saxons around AD, until the 11th century this area of the county is known to have been uncultivated tract covered by woodlands. In Henry I started a period of activity by responding to this danger to travellers and he instructed areas to be cleared and encouraged settlers with offers of royal favour. In a royal residence was built at what is now called the Royal Palace Lodge Hotel on Church Street, the king used the residence as a base to hunt on nearby lands.

The same year the town granted a charter to the power of the priors. Marquee Club — The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was always a small and relatively cheap club, located in the heart of the industry in Londons West End.

It was a key venue for performances by bands who were to achieve worldwide fame in the s. It was the location of the live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July The club was established by Harold Pendleton, an accountant whose love of jazz had led him to become secretary of the National Jazz Federation.

Originally it was located in the Marquee Ballroom in the basement of the Academy Cinema in Oxford Street and its decor was designed by Angus McBean with a striped canopy to imitate a marquee. Pendleton took over management of the ballroom, and the first Jazz at the Marquee night was held on 19 April , johnny Dankworth, Chris Barber, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies were early resident performers, and Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott were also regular performers.

In March the club moved a distance to what became its most famous venue at 90 Wardour Street. Here, almost every major rock band of note played over the next 25 years on the tiny stage, to find out who was playing on any given night, you could just call in at the Ship pub a few doors away.

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