Both Hands Free
1977
Both Hands Free
01. Space
02. Gettemoff
03. Shinohara
04. Solitude
05. Silver Sleeve
06. Phobos
07. City Slickers
08. Muff The Diver
09. Blue
10. Stop The Music
Allen Landau / mastering
Dave Hassel / drums
Rick Kemp / producer, liner notes
Keith Herd / engineer
Phil Chapman / saxophone
Pete Glennon / bass
Ritchie Close / keyboards
Privately pressed LP released on a label Rick Kemp set up solely for this release after seeing them play in the basement of a Manchester pub.
Rick Kemp from STEELEYE SPAN was on tour and in Manchester when an ex-musical colleague approached him about seeing this amazing Jazz Rock band, so off they went to the basement of a pub in Manchester where this four piece played every Sunday morning. Rick was so impressed that he asked the band if he could record an album for them. He would Produce it and this is the result from this band called BOTH HANDS FREE. The band had this philosophy about their music that it was simply made for the moment never to be heard again and totally dictated by mood. They even wondered if they should release it after it was finished but Rick convinced them.
There's so much variety on here and for me that's what keeps this at 3 stars and not 4 stars. Just a lot of hits and some misses. That striking cover art along with the opening track called "Space" must have confused a few Psychedelic fans out there. The song is sparse and experimental, unlike anything else on here really. Not very melodic. Some Funk on "City Slickers" and some traditional jazz bits too on this record. The sax player is nothing short of amazing with his different styles of playing and the sounds he produces. The electric piano is really good too
British Jazz Rock combo from Manchester, reputedly formed by session musicians of the area.They played every Sunday in a pub of the city and they were discovered at some point by Rick Kemp, who was touring with Steeleye Span.Pretty amazed by the style of the group, Kemp brough them to the Fairview Sound Studios in Willerby and apparently produced and financed the self-titled album of the band.This was the only album with the ''Kemp / Pegrum Music Ltd.'' stab on it, it was pressed in the limited number of 100 copies.Band was Dave Hassel on drums, Pete Glennon on bass, Phil Chapman on sax and Ritchie Close on keyboards.
I find this one to be a little llightweight of a Jazz/Jazz Rock affair for my tastes, although there some nice explosions of virtuosity and technique in here with very edgy organ parts and blistering electric piano.But most of it goes in a spacey Jazz mood with bits from IF and PASSPORT along with some certain Funk aesthetics, sometimes exploring the territories of WEATHER REPORT in a slow Avant Garde/Jazz vein with minimalistic endeavors and atmospheric qualities.The guys were far more into Jazz than Rock and this explains much of their stylistic behavior, which contains lots of free-form passages and loose executions.The most Fusion tracks are apparently the best ones with links to PASSPORT and PORK PIE, featuring dramatic, jazzy instrumental parts and efficient soloing, I wished this would go so all the way.Cool synths, organ and electric piano with evidence of a very rich instrumental background down the line, despite some very abstract and chaotic moves.The smoother pieces sound more like fillers to my ears, they are still well-played, but suck all the energy from a previous listened track, when so much was going on'.Plus the funkier parts remind me of the dull days when Gentle Giant went down.
Being sessions musicians, all members remained in the music industry, playing in several different-styled releases over the years.Ritchie Close appeared also as an additional keyboardist on Camel early-80's performance at Hammersmith Odeon and he can be heard in the band's DVD ''Total Pressure''.
Notice that there is another rare album by a band of the same name, released in 1978 and titled ''Use from the pocket'', this was a Jazz Improvisation trio of different members and it is said they came from Bristol, so there is a strong possibility we're talking about a totally different group.
''Both hands free'' circulates usually in triple-digit bucks, pretty reasonable considering it's a serious rarity.So, this goes most for fans of mellow Jazz Rock and Acid Jazz, it's a decent album, but be certain to like the style.Otherwise you should spend your money elsewhere.
Both Hands Free. This private pressing was released in 1976, and an original copy is worth £150 today. It’s a submarine gem, underwater and out of sight to many collectors’ eyes, but samples from the track Phobos have been used by artists such as Smoke DZA, Slowy, 12Vince and well-known rapper Young Thug. Musically, Both Hands Free can go toe-to-toe with the best of Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Weather Report and Miles Davis’ seminal 70s electric period. Our reissue is well worth £19.99 of your hard-earned money!
The genesis of the Both Hands Free LP was the 1976 gig sheet of the legendary folk-rock group, Steeleye Span. “I was staying with a friend in Didsbury on a Saturday night after playing at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester with Steeleye,” recalls their famed bass player, Rick Kemp. “He said to me, ‘In the morning we’ll go and see this lovely band that plays in the local pub.’” This watering hole was The Cavalcade, where progressive jazz-fusion quartet Both Hands Free had a long-standing residency. Such was their reputation, the place was packed. “They were really good,” recalls Kemp, “and after they had finished,
I spoke to them and said, ‘Would you like to make a record?’ They said, ‘No, not really. We don’t want to make a record.’ I had to talk them into it.”
The reason Both Hands Free didn’t chomp at the bit to go into a recording studio was because, during the week, the four players were in recording studios all the time. Ritchie Close (keyboards), Pete Glennon (bass), Phil Chapman (sax) and Dave Hassell (drums) were in-demand session players and working musicians in the Manchester area who did everything from record adverts, jingles and TV themes, to work with bands and singers. “We had no intention of going in the studio to make an album because it was just fun for us and we were never out of the studios doing other people’s things,” recalls sole surviving member of the band, Dave Hassell, who remains active as an educator, musician and as a session player and has worked with everyone from ABBA to (film soundtrack work for) Hans Zimmer.
Playing in Both Hands Free was a bit of musical fun for the band, who were also close friends, and they had wanted to keep it that way until Kemp came along. Thankfully, they agreed to make the LP and Hassel was happy to talk me through the untold story of Both Hands Free.
“The first one in the band I met was Pete, the bass player, who was two or three years older than me,” explains Hassell.“We met in a night club in Manchester in about 1965 and I just sat in and we started playing. I had only been playing for less than two years but we sat down, played and found out that something worked. I used to go around to his house and we would play. I still have some original tapes from the 60s – we sound fantastic.”
In 1966, Hassell jumped on the Queen Elizabeth liner and spent time studying in New York, checking out all of the great jazz bands performing in the Big Apple. Upon his return in 1967, he hooked up again with Glennon: “We would be working commercially together, going out and doing whatever – functions, the odd jazz gig… And then, around 1969, I got introduced to Richard the keyboard player, who was only 18 at the time, but he was already a fantastic player. We had a play together and got that musical connection.”
By this time, Hassell was working as a session player – it would keep him fully occupied for decades to come. “At that time in my life I was doing a lot of studio work here, as were the other three,” he says. “I was also on the road with Tony Christie. That’s probably another reason why I wanted to play some other music. I used to do all the Granada pop shows, either on drum kit or percussion, and that went on for 15 to 20 years. I was also doing a lot of work for a guy called Derek Hilton. He did Brideshead Revisited and Sherlock Holmes – there was so much of that work around. I used to go into the various BBC orchestras for certain sessions.
It was the days when you would get a call and someone would say, ‘Can you put 26 weeks in the diary? Can you block this out? Can you put the Thursdays in for the next 26 weeks?’ It was financially rewarding,
as there was an awful lot going on in Manchester at that time.”
The last member Hassell met was sax player Phil Chapman: “Phil was the eldest one in the band, but he was a fantastic arranger. He had been in the Air Force,
had all of the skills, and was also an absolutely fantastic writer.”
Despite being busy and well-paid musicians, the quartet decided to play together. “We needed that other outlet to maintain sanity rather than just playing a 30-second jingle or another pop thing.
Our musical tastes were very similar – we were mates musically and socially. We went round to Pete’s house to start with and we had no preconceived idea of what we were going to do, until we started playing. Whatever happened musically was where the songs came from. There were only a couple of things where people said: ‘I’ve written this, shall we try it?’ The rest of it was all based on improvisation in a practice room.” Initially, the band blew together once a week: “Eventually, we realised this could be good. We did a couple of little gigs and then we got a residency at a pub in Manchester called The ccalled The Cavalcade. iMinManchesterManchestercalled The Cavalcade and that was on a Sunday lunchtime. That went on for two or three years – possibly more – and that was it. It was quite unique. People used to ask when we rehearsed, but we didn’t really, we just got together and played. That is quite evident when you listen to the music, as it is quite riff-based on the album and that is kind of what happened.”
How did they arrive at the name of Both Hands Free? “I don’t even know where the name came from. It’s the kind of thing that Pete would say. He was into reading a lot of science fiction and stuff at that time.”
Both Hands Free built up a local reputation and even recorded some sessions for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. As the first commercial radio station in the city, part called The Cavalcade and that was on a Sunday lunchtime. That went on for two
or three years. “It was quite unique. People used to ask when we rehearsed, but we didn’t really, we just got together and played. That is quite evident when you listen to the music, as it is quite riff-based on the album.”
How did they arrive at the name of Both Hands Free? “It’s the kind of thing Pete would say. He was into reading a lot of science fiction at that time.”
Both Hands Free built up a local reputation and even recorded some sessions for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. As the first commercial radio station in Manchester, part of their remit was to broadcast live music and Both Hands Free benefitted from this. “The first session we did for them was done as a party! We went into Piccadilly Radio, and they had a studio there. There was a small audience with bottles of wine and
we recorded a session as Both Hands Free. Commercial radio was very supportive.”
Both Hands Free also benefitted from the strong local jazz scene in the city. “There were a couple of times when we invited other players into it, but that was just for experimentation.” Such was their reputation that they even featured in a local paper under the title of “Time Out For Session Men”, where Hassell told the reporter how the band allowed them to let off steam: “You get rid of a lot of musical frustration which builds up through the commercial stuff you do.” This small feature also contains the only known photograph of Both Hands Free playing together and shows Hassell’s amazing percussive array.
Once Kemp had dropped in that Sunday lunchtime and persuaded the band to go into the studio, things moved fast. “One of the daft things is that none of us ever signed anything with Rick at the time,” laughs Hassell, “but Rick was great because he was with Steeleye Span.” The actual recording of the album was straightforward. “We just went somewhere near Hull, a little studio,” recalls Hassell of their visit to Fairview Sound.
“We did a Sunday and a bit of a Monday morning. The album was made in a day.” Crucially, as a talented musician himself, Kemp didn’t try to interfere with the chemistry. “That’s how the band sounded live,” Kemp recalls. “It’s not a produced album, where the band take an artistic leap together.” Hassell furthers: “Rick was fantastic. He just said, ‘Come in and play’. And we played as if we were at a gig. There were only two tracks where I overdubbed a run of percussion.” The band played through their then-current set, which consisted of tracks like Space, Gettemoff, Phobos, Shinohara and Blue, “You can hear the connection to Weather Report,” notes Hassell. “We were influenced by Weather Report but we didn’t want to do a Weather Report. It was just a blow band, but it was an incredible collection of musicians.”
Kemp took care of everything relating to the pressing of the LP, though the name of the artist who did the arresting sleeve design remains forgotten. “After I delivered the tapes to Plant Life it kind of went through their machinery,” recalls Kemp. “The cover is
a mystery to me.” Plant Life was the label that Steeleye drummer, Nigel Pegrum, had just set up. Kemp funded everything, though Both Hands Free was pressed up and credited to Kemp/Pegrum Music on the labels.
The band were very happy with the results. “Anyone can make an album [now] but, in those days, to actually have something on vinyl and someone has gone out of their way to have it pressed and all that other stuff… I really liked it,” says Hassell.
No one recalls how many copies were pressed up. The LP was sold locally, though Both Hands Free marked the end of the journey, as market forces dictated the band couldn’t carry on. “By the time we got the album, we weren’t gigging much anymore
as everyone was too busy,” recalls Hassell.
We all went our own separate ways, doing other types of work.” Still, they kept in touch and played together now and then in other ad hoc bands in the Manchester area.
Hassel had already spent a lot of time doing sessions at the local Strawberry Studio that, in the 70s, was partly owned by 10cc’s Eric Stewart. The studio was used in 1979 to record Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, produced by Martin Hannett. “I worked with Martin before he became a producer, as he was a bass player and in the Spider Mike King Trio,” laughs Hassel. “I remember him playing this Rickenbacker bass with long dirty fingernails. It was bizarre.”
Of course, Hannett knew Hassell was a fantastic drummer, and this led to some Factory outings. “I was part of a team of musicians called The Invisible Girls, who were part of Factory,” he points out.
“I was one of them.” The Invisible Girls appeared on a number of recordings ranging from those made by Pauline Murray to the legendary Nico. Hassel even got involved in the early Madchester recordings. “I worked on things like the Bummed album [Happy Mondays’ 1988 LP]. I would get the call from Martin and he would say, ‘Can you get down here tomorrow?’ ‘What do you want?’ ‘I don’t know. Just bring some percussion and come and play.’ I did so many recording sessions with bands, you don’t know what you ended up on! I have even been in the studio with the Ramones. You forget what you worked on.”
As for the other members of Both Hands Free, Close, like Hassell, worked with Maddy Prior and Kemp from Steeleye Span, while remaining a busy session player. Close died tragically young in 1991, aged 39, having contracted Legionnaires Disease after a trip abroad. He was due to work with Pete Townshend, but this never came to pass.
The other members of the band were also in-demand session players and working musicians, until they, sadly, passed away.
And yet Both Hands Free is a powerful legacy. Opening track, Space, is like a tone poem, showcasing not only Hassel’s extensive percussion set-up, but Close’s mastery of keyboard effects. Even Chapman’s saxophone is treated and manages to condense the vibe of Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way into six minutes. This segues into the rhythmic Getemoff, comparable, perhaps, to Miles’ blistering What I Say, but shot through with a melodic compulsion that Weather Report made their trademark. Indeed, when it comes to that vibe, the swaggering City Slickers is Both Hands Free’s own Birdland.
Elsewhere, the ethereal Phobos is a delight and its hazy mood recalls one of the great British jazz LPs of all time, Azimuth’s The Touchstone (ECM 1130, Germany, 1978, £40). The entire LP is mesmerising and a lost gem, and Kemp was right to state in
his sleevenotes that, “The band were not sure that this record should be released – just one moment of their music – but I thought that all the moments I heard should be shared with as many people as possible and so here they are: the amazing Both Hands Free.”
Hassel is justifiably proud of the music. “Listening back to it now, we didn’t realise it was as good as it was,” he reflects. “It’s a common thing with musicians when you do something you go, ‘Yeah, that’s all right’ but when you listen to it again, you hear other things in the music. One of the places I teach is at the Royal Northern College Of Music that probably has the best pop course in the UK. Students who hear Both Hands Free are coming up to me and saying, ‘That stuff sounds fantastic’, and they’re asking if they can sample it!” I totally share this sentiment – this music really is fantastic. And not only has the legendary Tim Debney remastered the LP to perfection, but we have pressed it on 180g vinyl and re-created the original sleeves and labels.
