- The following is a
transcript of the "Armageddon Radio
-
Interview" LP featuring
Keith Relf and Louis Cennamo. It
-
was originally sent to FM
radio stations by A&M Records in
-
1975 to help promote the
release of the "Armageddon" LP
-
(it is not known who conducted
this interview). Many thanks
-
to Victor Spano for the
transcription...
-
- Record begins with "Paths
And Planes And Future Gains" cut
-
- INT: We're talking to
Keith Relf and Louis Cennamo, from Armageddon...I think,
-
probably the
question that makes the most sense is: why are you here? What
-
brought you from
where you were to where you are?
-
- KR: I think that
things had stagnated quite considerably, there was a lot of worry
-
about depression
and vinyl shortage and record companies were cutting back on
-
who they were
signing, being a bit more choosy.
We didn't feel it was real what
-
they were telling us, you know,
compared to what we had to offer...so we felt we'd
-
just saddle up and come
over here where things appeared
to be happening more.
-
- LC: Yeah, there was
sort of a desire to a to a communicate to a larger audience...
-
we knew when we set out
basically, if we were to come to America and form the
-
band then it would be heard in
England, but rather to form it in England would
-
have been very difficult to do at
the time because of limiting factors in England.
-
- INT: Keith of course
being in The Yardbirds and Renaissance - now back into the
-
rock & roll.
What were the transitions in there?
-
- KR: From the beginning
of The Yardbirds, which was very much a people's band...
- a blues band, blues based
band, very gutsy, very sort of...a gut type of thing which
-
was happening at that period,
with Eric, going through then changing from that and
-
becoming a sort of pop type-image
band, you know, and then finally ending up in
-
the sort of futuristic soundings
of feedback and type of band that we ended up as,
-
you know, through the
psychedelic, "so called" psychedelic era of '67.
-
- INT: How did that lead
into Renaissance?
-
- KR: Um, I think that
just a conscious desire to bring about change. You know, at
-
that time I
considered a change to be important, an important factor...I felt
that I
-
had been doing
the heavy electric guitar type of orientated material and stuff with
-
me up front
screaming my guts out, kind of
thing, I thought that it was time from a
-
change from that
and why not try something new.
-
- INT: Renaissance was
the actual teaming of the two of you...
-
- KR: That's right
-
- INT: Louie, what
brought you to Renaissance?
-
- LC: A mutual friend, a
friend of mine, sort of knew Keith was looking for a new
-
band. I was
at that time sort of doing sessions, I was ready to do something
new,
-
you know and we
came together then like that
-
- INT: Alright, uh,
(sarcastic) "...how did the band come together?"
-
- KR: Just like this
(INT, KR and LC laugh)
-
- LC: Well, it's roots
obviously were with Keith and I meeting with Renaissance
- forming one bond there, then
Martin and I meeting with Steamhammer...
-
- KR: I was so impressed
by Martin's playing, and obviously always had been with
-
Louie's, and
knew that one day that one day there was going to be a real big band
-
formed from
this...we had no drummer at the
time, though, so we came over, just
-
the three of us on
faith, and not too much bread and
you know...
-
- LC: Be honest...very
little bread...
-
- KR: Very little bread,
and a great deal of faith, yeah, and we kind of knew that we
-
would meet
the drummer, the right kind drummer here in the states, that he
would
-
be American, you
know, 'cause we tried many drummers right?
-
- LC:....we tried a lot
of the drummers in England, and it just didn't seem quite right.
- KR: ...the drive and
the energy wasn't there.
-
- LC: It wasn't a matter
of England or America, it was just , it was just a sort of
-
intuitive thing again, I think.
-
- KR: I rung Ansley
Dunbar when we were over here, and he had suggested Bobby
-
Caldwell, one or two other people
had as well, you know, and I had met him the
-
second night after we arrived
here by accident, in the Rainbow, and he just started
-
rapping to me. He gave me his
phone number, so a couple of weeks later I phoned
-
him, and we arranged a blow, a
jam together - and there you go, it happened.
-
- LC: ...Just when the
clairvoyant prediction comes in now...
-
- KR:"there will be
a foreigner in the group" (all laugh), said our clairvoyant
once.
-
- LC: Martin and I were
off the road you know, we could have gone separate ways
-
very easily,
but something kept us together. Same with Keith, Keith was off in
-
many different
directions, searching for something...and suddenly there we were
-
with absolutely
nothing but the faith element that what we were doing was right.
-
- INT: But that was 18
months ago...what happened between then and today when
-
finally there
is an album out on the streets and a tour imminent?
-
- KR: Um, one morning I
had an appointment with one of the chaps here at A&M
-
(more laughter) at that point
we were incomplete and we haven't got the drummer
- together, he said "yeah,
well, it sounds good, why don't you come back when you
-
got your drummer and we'll listen
to it...". In the meantime, we met Bobby, and um,
-
had a short rehearsal, or just a
jam really, and the following day had a jam here at
-
A & M, and the people here
seemed to dig the energy that was going down and
-
said "yeah, we
want the band", so then we
embarked upon a series of lengthy
-
rehearsal periods.
-
- INT: I'm curious about
the name, where in this entire evolving process did the
-
name come
about and why?
-
- KR: Why?. To be really
honest with you I got it from the dictionary, I was looking
-
down through
the A's and there towards the end was Armageddon, but, it did stand
-
out to me really
strongly, and it did seem to be very very appropriate for the both
-
the personalities
involved in the band and at the
times we live in, you know, it s
-
eemed to be a potent, up
front kind of word....
- LC: It's a vibration,
it's a vibration, sort of behind it all, though it came about in a
-
very mundane way, as soon as we
come to realize just what the word was all about
-
it took on a completely different
feel, we started to identify with it in the true sense
-
of the word.
-
- "Last Stand Before"
cut plays
-
- INT: Let's talk about
the album a little bit. Talking before about "Last Stand
Before"
-
...I was
wondering if you cared to elaborate on that at all (a short
silence)? You can
-
say no if you don't want
to...it's perfectly all right with me....
-
- KR: Generally it's a
very obscurely written allegorical sort of statement opposing
-
heroin, I suppose. It came from
there really, but you can read whatever you like
-
into the lyrics...really, but I
mean, it's um...they're not...
-
- LC: It's perfect. I
mean if you compare "Last Stand Before" with "Silver
Tightrope"
-
you get another view of the dual
Armageddon feature. "Silver Tightrope" expresses
- one end of the scope and
"Last Stand Before" is basically the other pole
really...it's
-
a wide scope
of expression, you know, or experience rather...
-
- "Silver Tightrope"
cut plays
-
- KR: ...I happen to
like "Silver Tightrope" closely followed by "The
Buzzard"...
-
- INT: Why "The
Buzzard" ?
-
- KR: I don't
know...that's another allegorical thing really.
-
- LC: Also the riff from
"The Buzzard" dates back to the original Steamhammer
-
band, and Keith was associated
with it when we got that together, as it stands on
-
the album, it's sort of a
progression from an original idea, which was an old sort
-
of a riff of Martin's....
-
- KR: it was at one time
only an instrumental, wasn't it...?
-
- LC: Yeah...
-
- KR: "The Buzzard"
was just a reference title for it, too, wasn't it...?
- LC: Basically...yeah..
- KR: When it came to me
last year, I just took that reference title...
-
- LC: ...took the title
and made it into more than a title, more into an actual theme.
-
- KR: ...the forces of
good and evil, that is Armageddon.
-
- "The Buzzard"
cut plays
-
- INT: What about the
"Midnight Sun" cut?
-
- KR: There is nothing
greatly relevant there, I don't think...there was just a basic
-
rhythmic thing
worked out, wasn't there?
-
- LC: Basically the idea
for the lyrics started, stemmed from Bobby...and not from
-
Keith, so you
got a different viewpoint...
-
- KR: That was the one
number that Bobby had like a couple of verses for...and that
-
was the title
of it, so therefore, the first two verses are Bobby's, it goes into
-
"Brother Ego" which
is mine, then the last verse
which is mine as well, so it was
-
really a total collaboration...
-
- INT: What are we going
to see on the second Armageddon album?
-
- KR: I would hope
progress, you know...probably more of a marriage, now,
-
between the very
heavy and the lush.
-
- LC: The next album
should be in every way, will be a vast improvement,
-
by that time
the band will have been born as far as playing live is concerned .
-
- KR: There will be
maturity there. I would hope the next one would be much
-
more subtle.
-
- LC: We're going to try
and enlarge the scope of the sound of the band and make
-
it more than just a
bass-guitar-drums formula, just make the whole thing sound
-
more...huge.
- KR: ...and clean...
-
- LC: ...clean, yeah,
well...clean and dirty and heavy and light, and so on and so
-
forth....
-
- KR: It feels logical
and it feels like the right time and place to be in. It's simply
-
that, really.
-
- "Basking in the White
of the Midnight Sun (Reprise)" cut plays
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