I don't really remember a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n' roll, really.
Bill Bruford
So I have the classic amateur's technique; I know some very tricky bits and I have large gaping holes.
And we'd drink huge amounts of scotch and coke, which is a ghastly sweet drink... And now people don't drink nearly as much, for good reason. We're all a little wiser.
We all lived in the same house, or most of us did. And as far as I can make out we were confined to the property, because at twenty-four hours' notice we'd have to do a gig somewhere. So you couldn't leave the building for more than twelve hours in case a gig came through.
But what I think my emphasis is, is on the fact that I like music a lot.
I saw it as a challenge to play with Pat and we put hours and hours into it, usually on the bus. The trick was to find something that we both wanted to play within our different styles which would add up to being greater than the sum of its parts.
My harmony is passable but is usually made more eloquent at the hands of Steve Hamilton.
Plus I am being hounded by all the fabulous new drummers, Bill Stewart at the head of the pack.
This amateurism however, can sometimes be helpful in forging a style; you have to work around your weaknesses.
We were from totally different social backgrounds. This is what is very hard for an American to understand, but we could have been five guys from Mars.
If it's fast, no I don't have enough piano technique. In that case, it's probably been done on some kind of synthesizer or sequencer. Then the score can then be printed out and so forth.
Whatever I have come to offer, I have come to offer and it may or may not be connected to anything that has happened in the past.
We used to drink an awful lot of alcohol.
The piano is kind of my second instrument.
The best practice you can get is on the bandstand, but in between gigs I feel I have to stay in shape.
Sometimes I had to room with Tony Kaye and that was awful.
If I was hearing something I couldn't do, I would figure out how to do it.
I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter.
I practice at home, in between phone calls, and have much to do.
I mean, Chris is, I'm sure, a wonderful guy. But in those days he also very, very late. For all appointments and departures and arrivals and sound checks and anything.
I listen to Bill Stewart play the drums and when I have finished doing that, I listen to Bill Stewart.
I have been steadily exchanging a rock audience who were nervous about what they had just bought for a jazz audience who not only were happy with their purchase, but are increasingly coming again.
I do remember the whole thing as being very argumentative, hot blooded... a permanent state of friction between Jon and Chris, Chris and me, me and Jon.
I didn't write any music at all, and then, I remember Jon Anderson being very insistent saying that there were two kinds of musicians: the ones who wrote music and the ones who didn't.
Close to the Edge, Red, One of a kind, Discipline, Earthworks, The Sound of Surprise, all seem to me to be albums that captured the essence of the intention.
At the end of the whole day of working with people you want some privacy.
And I like messing around in the engine room of music. Seeing what happens in the rhythm section area.
