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   CLUB SANDWICH 42

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CLUB SANDWICH

            We're back this time with an issue devoted almost exclusively to Paul's great new album 'Press to Play'. There's an interview with co-producer Hugh Padgham, a behind-the-scenes report on the making of the super "Press" video, and a track by track analysis of the album itself. Our postbag tells us just how much you like the new album, which breaks new ground in many ways whilst remaining firmly in the best McCartney style.
            Coinciding with the album's release, Paul has kept quite a high profile lately. It was hard to pass a newstand during August and September without seeing his face - a big interview in Rolling Stone and another in Q, to cite only a couple. Fans were also treated to an extensive interview with Paul by Richard Skinner on BBC-1, screened on August 29th. In the U.S. there were major interviews on "Entertainment Tonight" and NBC-TV's "Today" show.
            Next from the McCartney stable will be the second single lifted from the album. Released in the U.K. on October 27th is the 7" single "Pretty Little Head" B/W "Write Away" (from the compact disc album). The 12" single will be "Pretty Little Head" B/W "Angry" (re-mixed by Larry Alexander at the Power Station, New York), whilst in America you'll get "Stranglehold" B/W "Angry" on a 7" single.
            Good news at last for American funsters. The Rupert & The Frog Song video (plus Seaside Woman and Oriental Nightfish) are available on H FE video. It was screened last September on the Disney channel.
            Paul's latest effort has been to do a track for inclusion in the mega-star compilation album for the Anti-Heroin Campaign. Look out for it during November.
            Club members will find many new items linked to 'Press to Play' on their club offer sheets, as well as Linda's lovely CPRE Country Calendar for 1987. Order now while stocks last. Some terrific presents there.

            'til next time,
            Sue


Meet HUGH PADGHAM Club Sandwich 42

            Following George Martin would be a ticklish task for most producers, but then Hugh Padgham's list of clients is also pretty impressive. Best known for his work with The Police, Phil Collins and Genesis, Hugh had been giving Paul's music some thought before he was approached to co-produce Press to Play.
            "I had recently heard a McCartney song on the radio and thought 'Paul should rock out more'. Then a few days later I got a call from Stephen Shrimpton. I had several meetings at MPL early last year, which was quite hard work at the time as I was working on Phil's No Jacket Required, going to bed at four, getting up at nine for the meeting and then in the studio at eleven again.
            "Paul had some songs ready and they were more rocky anyway. The new studio was great-the equipment is 'state of the art'. There are windows so you can
see outside while you're working, which is unusual, and not many studios overlook the sea. I was down there Monday to Friday, working from eleven till eight, through the middle of 1985. Then, since I was contracted to do a Genesis album late in the year, Paul put his album on ice and worked on other things." ,
            A lad of 30-odd summers, Hugh obviously did not rush out of the school gates and hail a taxi straight to a Phil Collins session. In fact, he found the going distinctly slow at first. Born in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, he lived in nearby Amersham and went to boarding school in Oxford.
            "Then I had a short stint as a gardener, working for friends, and drove a van for the local hardware shop. All the time I was applying for jobs in the music business
my first was at Advision Studios off Great Portland Street, where I was a trainee assistant/tea boy. I can remember a mad session with Mott the Hoople early on - this was in '73 or '74.
            "Martin Rushent was the most notable producer there, but after six months I was 'made redundant' at the time of the miners' strike and the three-day week. In fact, I think the studio manager just didn't like me: I was replaced soon afterwards. From there I went to Lansdowne Studios in Holland Park as an assistant. There weren't many studios then
- only about twelve had 24 tracks."
            Hugh stayed at Lansdowne for three and a half years and was engineering sessions by the time he left.
            "There was a wide variety of music, from jazz to rock to pop to jingles, so it was a good place to learn. The studio
was run by Dennis Preston - he's since died - who was one of the first independent producers; he'd done Acker Bilk's 'Stranger On The Shore'. I left because there was less and less rock."
            Through friends at Virgin's Manor studio, he heard the company was looking for people and was taken on as engineer at what became the Town House.
            "I had a say in the equipment and helped wire it up, which was great fun. This was "1977/78, the time of punk, and the Town House became the place to be, so it was very exciting. I met Steve Lillywhite and we became friends and collaborated on XTC's
Drums And Wires. He was producer, but we mucked in together and swapped roles."
            Steve was asked to do Peter Gabriel's third album {1980), which included the hit 'Jeux Sans Frontieres' and featured Phil Collins drumming on several tracks.
            "We were getting into big drum sounds on songs like 'The Intruder'. Phil asked me to co-produce
Face Value six months later. Then I was asked to produce Abacab for Genesis and I've done all their stuff since and all Phil's albums. The group are democratic... with the solo stuff it's just me and Phil in the control room in charge of the musicians - it's all overdubs."
            XTC were less successful, but remain one of Hugh Padgham's fondest memories: "I did
Black Sea with Steve and co-produced English Settlement with the group, which I really enjoyed. They're probably my favourite group."
            As so often in Hugh's career,
one job led to another. XTC's Andy Partridge recommended him to The Police when the two groups were touring America together, so that he produced Ghost In The Machine and Synchronicity, the last two Police albums to date. Among the big names have been dotted lesser lights such as Split Enz and New York cult band The Waitresses. Then there was the solo album by Frida of Abba, not to mention David Bowie's Tonight, recorded in splendid isolation at Le Studio north of Montreal, and Howard Jones' most successful single, 'No One Is To Blame' — oh, and the mixing of Hall and Oates' H2O three years ago."
            What does Mr Padgham enjoy doing when he's not overseeing the knobs and dials?
            "I'm usually in bed asleep. I drive around in cars ...I like Porsches, any German cars."
            Future plans?
            "There are rough plans for the next Phil Collins album in a year's time, unless we fall out. Steve Winwood is great, I'd like to produce him."
            Final thoughts
on Press?
            " 'Stranglehold' and 'Footprints' are probably my favourites. The session for 'Angry' with Phil and Pete Townshend was memorable: done on a Saturday afternoon, very quick. 'Stranglehold' and 'Move Over Busker' were also done pretty live."
            The results on
Press To Play represent a milestone in even Hugh Padgham's career.


CUFF-LINK

            'Alvin Stardust at Buddy Holly lunch'... Well, why shouldn't he be? Pillar of British pop etc. Actually, there was more to it than that. One of the surprise hits of 1985 was 'I Feel Like Buddy Holly' ('Cause it's raining in my heart'), which also included the lines 'Just like Paul McCartney said/I wish it was yesterday'. I wonder if writer Mike Batt realised the connection between the two men?... One blast from the past you might've heard singing on Press To Play was Rick Nelson, whom Paul was actively considering for backing vocals when he was killed in an air crash on New Year's Eve. Oddly enough, Rick had featured the early Lennon-McCartney composition "One After 909" at the Albert Hall in November... Which US hit of the '60's was inspired by the young Linda Eastman? Stuart Col-man revealed on his BBC Radio London Echoes programme that this was indeed the origin of 'Linda', a hit for Jan & Dean when they revived it in 1963... Back when Paul was not adverse to the odd hamburger (1967, to be precise) he was "hanging out" ('60's term: ask aged relative for translation) with The Beach Boys in the studio while they recorded... 'Vegetables'. (There's a divinity that shapes our end's - W. Shakespeare)... When Walt Disney's Jungle Book came around again recently, it contained a reminder of just how far The Beatles' tentacles (that's right, lady: 'tentacles') extended when up popped four vultures named John, Paul, George and Ringo...Proof that these tentacles are still uncoiling came with the announcement in July of a course in Beatles-ology at Newcastle-under-Lyne College, Staffordshire. Organiser Garry Marsh stated: "It is important because The Beatles had a profound impact on our society..." Two recent album reissues boast a McCartney connection. Edsel have revived The Bonzo Dog Band's Tadpoles, featuring 'I'm The Urban Spaceman', the hit single produced by Paul under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth (shaken, not stirred). Little did Paul know that nine years later singer Neil Innes would write the music for the 'Rutles' parody of The Beatles career. The other rave from the grave is Professor Longhair's Live On The Queen Mary (Stateside), with the New Orleans pianist performing at Paul's 1975 party on the famous ship...Tyne Tees Television, the independent British network, had the brainwave of celebrating their 20th anniversary next year by producing a video version of Sgt. Pepper, each song to be tackled by a different director. Paul, George, Ringo and Yoko agreed, as did top directors like Ken Russell and Nicholas Roeg, but a major snag is that EMI reckon the video rights belong to them and not Tyne Tees, threatening the viability of the whole project. Don't expect this to be resolved in a hurry... Now, will Soily please move over and let Helen have some road?