After Pipz, mentor, had press-ganged me into playing the harp and doing some backing singing at the Guitar cabin at the weekends it meant that on top of the 60-hour per weekday job as Area Manager running large modular engineering construction projects down at the port, I was also out until the early hours. After we’d finished playing, we often sat and Pipz or his wife Scarlet’s mum cooked, and we sat around playing tunes and chatting for our own amusement. Some nights we even went on to find another bar in town where we’d get the late customers singing. Pipz would take his ukulele and I always had some harps with me.
At one bar the girls even presented me with a miniature harmonica that they tied around my neck as if a good luck charm. I was quite chuffed about that. After losing a harp in a taxi one night, I ordered a good leather harmonica belt that would hold the 10 harps in various keys that by then I’d collected, as I took the playing more seriously.
My Lee Oskar brand harps had also been added to by a couple of Hohner’s in a spread of various keys. Once you get more into it and speak to other harp players you learn that many lead guitars get very picky about the use of the right key. Harp’s keys correspond differently to the actual key that the lead plays in and you have to get with that, or they get very touchy, especially those that are classically trained. Pipz was cool, he’d often shout a key change over his shoulder at me and I could grab the right alternative. Most of us harp players can’t hear the difference and once you have a microphone that can get that real ‘dirty’ blues sound that can make even more of a difference. Not all leads are as instructive as Pipz and some get really ‘precious’ about it.
I jammed in with a duo in a bar in Vietnam for a few numbers, but the classically trained guitarist got quite sneering as I stepped down, saying, “Next time bring the right key!” Yet when I joined the crowd in the audience I was congratulated, backslapped, and told that I really made them sound great, I laughed and said, “Tell him that.” They did and said they couldn’t hear anything wrong, but in fact, I’d made their sound for them. That went down like a lead balloon, and I made a point of staying away and never playing that bar again!
I had to check up on our other projects down in Qingdao on occasions and found 2 bars there where I could jam in for a few guest numbers. There is something about the harp when you are bending and wailing those notes, that gets people cheering.
I guess some egos in a band don’t take to that because you are getting short-term adulation when they’ve put years of the graft into their art. I get that entirely, I play from the heart, I embellish their sound, but for about 3 high-energy numbers only, then step down and get lauded by the audience, so I must be careful and treat them with reverence and make sure I thank the band properly.
In Qingdao, about 2 streets behind my hotel I found an area of small bars and restaurants and moved into the local ‘scene’ with ease. I always carried a few harps of the generally used keys in my pockets and would sit at the side or back of the bar and play quietly along with a couple of numbers until the bandleader would notice me and ask me up to play on a number with them and it would grow from there.
I did that at the biggest of the music, bar/restaurants in Qingdao, “Knuckles,” where they had a great Filipino resident band, and joined them on the old Doobie Brother’s hit, Long Train Running. It was a real coup to play with them, especially as their singer was a beautiful lady, who with her glamorous outfits certainly brought the punters in. (See pic at the head of this article.)That went down great with the audience and got me a reputation enough to get asked to play at a small nightclub about a half-mile along the road where they also had a small resident group of Filipinos.
The nightclub was smaller and smokier than Knuckles but the resident musician whose name was Noel, which coincidentally was the same first name as my mentor Pipz. Once I got speaking to him, I found out that he knew Pipz and had even played with my pal Stefan a few years before. It’s a small world. Noel was an accomplished musician, who could write music, play keyboards, and was also familiar with much of the new digital aids and therefore only needed him and 2 girls most of the time. When he wanted to inject a real party atmosphere, he’d call me up and beef up the tempo. One memorable night there was Noel, his 2 girls singing, one on a beatbox, me playing the harp and harmonizing with the girls when an Indian guy joined in, he grabbed a TomTom drum and with it under his arm played it as if it was an Indian Tabla, that number went on for a while, and most of the audience jumped up and started clapping in tune with us, and singing along.
Memorable nights and numbers like that make it all worthwhile. It’s wearing when you must work the day job also, but the vibes from the energy keep you alive and somehow, I also got respect from my staff for it. They followed me to many countries and projects, and I always felt their love and gave it back.
