<< from a letter I wrote last year when Cliff Davies, my old friend, was found dead from an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound...I still miss this guy and I wish he was still with us>>
Cliff
Davies (RIP brother…)
I first met
Cliff back in the 70’s when Mose Jones (our band) opened a show and IF (Cliff’s band from England) was the
headline group. We opened a few shows for them that year, and the band members
hit it off right away - we quickly became fast friends and we all respected the
musicianship immensely, it was mutual and obvious. We had a great time hanging
out together off the stage as well - it was a lot of fun for both bands.
During that
year or early the next, IF’s manager, Lew Futterman, called to offer me the
keyboard/vocal position with IF - they were preparing to go in the studio and
record their album “Tea breaks over, back on your ‘eads” …they wanted to fly me
out right away and add me to their band and record their album. I was flattered
to say the least.
Side
note: IF was a Rock/Jazz/Blues band from London England - they started out as
England’s answer to BLOOD, SWEAT, & TEARS (an 7 piece horn driven jazz/rock
band created in the 60’s by Dick Morrissey - one of London’s top and popular
Jazz sax players). The band had 8 or 9 albums to it’s credit (CBS and CAPITTAL
Records)
I turned
down the IF offer, not because I wasn’t interested, I was - but our band Mose
Jones had recently added our good friend guitar player Davis Causey to our band
and we wanted to give Mose one more big opportunity to make it or break it…well,
it took about 6 months to realize we weren’t going anywhere playing every small
club in every small town throughout the southeast, so we broke up. Soon after I
received a call again asking if I wanted to join up with the IF band for their
series of tours in support of their new album - so I joined IF and immediately
flew to London for rehearsal. At this point the band consist of:
Ÿ
Dick Morrissey (sax, flute)
Ÿ
Cliff Davies (drums, vocals)
Ÿ
Geoff Whitehorn (guitar, vocals)
Ÿ
Walt Monahan (bass, vocals)
Ÿ
Steve McRay (keys, vocals)
The band
toured around England and Wales, recorded a few live broadcast, one for the
BBC, and then came to the US for an extended tour over here - I think the whole
thing took about 7 months - It was a great experience and the music was fun -
we played some great shows, some headlining and others co-billed with artist
like Kiss, Ted Nugent, and others, and then it was over …the IF band broke up
for good.
I came back
home, and soon received a call from Cliff - he wanted me come back over and
help write some new songs and try to get a record deal based on my voice and
style…so I went back to London, and lived with Cliff and his wife while we
wrote songs and rehearsed and eventually recorded 4 songs at Manfred Mann’s
studio. The songs turned out fine, but we were unable to secure a record deal
at that time. In the meantime, I was getting back involved with our old band
Mose Jones - we decided to just play some gigs under another name to make some
money.
While this
was going on, Lew Futterman, who was IF’s manager, became Ted Nugent’s manager
and subsequently hired Cliff to come help produce and play drums for Ted’s new
album project, which was being recorded at the Sound Pit in Atlanta. I was
called in to play keyboards and do some background vocals for Ted’s album.
Cliff did an excellent job of sussing out the songs and combining the strength of Ted’s sound and ability with
that of Derick’s vocals, Rob’s bass, and Cliff’s polished drum sound - it was
what the record buying public wanted to hear - and it was a great match
producing 2 successful solo albums for Ted Nugent and launching an even greater
carrier for Ted.
Through all
of this, Cliff worked hard and was easily accessible to all his friends. He and
his wife eventually moved to Atlanta and set up a residence…
<<more later, on my association with my old friend Cliff Davis....>>
