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Book Review: You’ll Never Walk Alone
by Lang Reid
 You’ll
Never Walk Alone (ISBN 1-905379-23-4, Maverick House, 2006) arrived direct
from the publishers. A powerful book, written by Debbie Singh, it is a
documentary chronicling her attempts to get her brother out of the notorious
Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, “ the Bangkok Hilton”. However, it is much
more than that, it is a factual look at real life and the real people in it
and their real emotions. It has not been written to shock, be an expose or
to seek help or pity. It goes much deeper than that.
Her own family background came from Liverpool, with her parents taking in a
troubled young lad called John, whom they adopted and raised as their own.
He was then the youngest, and would have been much loved, as is the youngest
in most families.
As a family they migrated to Australia, but as her brother grew up, he also
grew away from the rest of the family. Debbie however did not, or would not,
believe in the nature/nurture dichotomy, writing, “In my mind, the
distinction between blood and foster relations seems ludicrous – if you grow
up in the same house and share your lives together, the bonds are the same
as blood ties. For me, this was no different when it came to John.”
After leaving the family home, John drifted, eventually to Thailand, where
he was arrested and received a 10 year jail sentence, to be served out in
the Klong Prem prison. This is where Debbie Singh began to carry out and
demonstrate her belief in the bonds of the family. She made it her priority
to get her brother out of jail and back to Australia. In doing this she had
to come to terms with the priorities of brother’s needs versus the
requirements of her husband and her own children.
For six years she fought officialdom both in Thailand and Australia, coming
face to face with the conditions within the Thai jail system, saying,
“Families on the outside sometimes suffer as much as the prisoners.”
Debbie Singh’s family probably suffered more than most, and in many ways
even more than Debbie herself who threw her entire being into the welfare of
her brother and his infant son, often at the expense, both financial and
psychological, of her own family.
At B. 495 it is a gripping read of another person’s harrowing experiences in
life. However, it is not voyeuristic in any way, but leaves you with a sense
of wonder at the vagaries of the human animal, and also the resilience that
some others can display. Debbie Singh comes across as the exact opposite
from her adopted brother, which must have made even her wonder at the
lifelong influences of nature over nurture. Writing the book must have been
a cathartic experience, and Debbie Singh deserves the pleasure she now
undoubtedly receives in looking after her nephew, unfortunately rejected by
his natural father. It is no wonder that she and her struggles has been the
subject of a TV show in Australia. Debbie Singh (and her family) are true
Australian heroes.
Mott’s CD review: Nazareth
Rampant
 by Mott the Dog
5 Stars*****
Nazareth were formed in 1968, when Manny Charlton joined what was left
of a Dunfermline band called the Shadettes, a Scottish rock band that
was having to play Top Twenty hits locally to survive and venture down
to London occasionally to play their own material. Their world was to
change when multi millionaire / rock ‘n’ roll fan / all round good guy,
Bill Fehilly took the band under his wing, providing them with enough
financial backing to get them some decent equipment, a brand new transit
van, and most importantly enough money for the band to eat regularly.
Stardom did not come over night though.
It was not until 1971 and hundreds of gigs all over the British Isles
that they were picked up by a record company, the brand new Mooncrest
label. The first album, Nazareth (1971), in an attempt to capture the
band’s live sound, was released with very little production, and
therefore had a lot of rough edges. In fact, if truth be told it was all
rough edges, and although garnering critical acclaim was a commercial
disaster.
Realizing their mistake Nazareth went back into the studio and in 1972
released ‘Exercises’, which this time was so over produced that it
completely missed out on all of the excitement that was the live beast
that Nazareth had become. So that when a new convert to the band went to
go and buy a replica of the raucous Nazareth on stage what he got was
more like something that would be played on the BBC’s Radio 2 service.
It was obvious a re-think was necessary. Because of the previous two
albums, record company Mooncrest pulled out of any financial backing,
although agreeing to distribute any product the band could come up with.
Bill Fehilly stepped in and agreed to finance some more studio time, but
equally importantly Roger Glover, the famous bass player and arranger
from Deep Purple, who was on sabbatical from his Purple days, was keen
to produce the next album having witnessed the power of the mighty
Nazareth when they toured as support to Deep Purple.
The results of this collaboration were instantly successful. The single
that proceeded the album was ‘Broken Down Angel’, which rushed up the
British charts reaching Number 7. When the album ‘Razamanaz’ (1972) was
released it was an international hit, going top twenty nearly all over
the world. A world tour was organized starting at a pub in Lancaster to
150 people, but after appearances on influential British chart programme
‘Top Of The Pops’, by the time they finished the British leg of the tour
they were playing to packed houses everywhere. More singles were
released from the album and they rushed up the charts, too.
As soon as was humanly possible the boys were rushed back into the
studio for a follow up album with Roger Glover still on production
duties. ‘Loud ‘N’ Proud’ did not disappoint, with more hard rockin’,
including a hard rock version of Dylan’s ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’,
and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘This Flight Tonight’, which was released
as a single which turned them into household names, especially in
Canada. In 1973 they were Canada’s biggest selling band (Joni Mitchell
is Canadian, which helped). Loud ‘N’ Proud reached Number 11 in the
British charts.
Then in 1974 Nazareth went back into the studio again to record their
fifth studio album, ‘Rampant’ (1974), again with Roger Glover at the
production controls. This time the boys decided to do a full out hard
rock album, laying the template for all guitar driven rock bands for the
future.
‘Silver Dollar Forger’ is a perfect Nazareth opener. Manny Charlton
riffs at super speed into his guitar, leading the rest of the band to
charge in after him, before the distinctive Scottish vocals of Dan
McCafferty come in to tell his tale. The only way that Dan McCafferty
could have possessed vocal chords like that would have been if he had
gargled with sulphuric acid every night before he went on stage.
All successful bands have their trademark and with Nazareth it’s
McCafferty’s vocals, a wonder to the ears. ‘Silver Dollar Forger’ is an
excellent capsule of all that is good about Nazareth; a classic rockin’
song, a guitar solo that fair bristles with Scottish pride, dynamic lead
vocals, superb harmony vocals, a sense of humour, a heavy bass line, and
thunderous drumming. I can still picture them now on stage. Dan
McCafferty, the perfect front man leading the crowd with his arms aloft,
Manny Charlton stage right from the audience all concentration, his face
gurning to every note wrung out of his axe, whilst bassist Pete Agnew
was having the time of his life stomping up and down on the opposite
side of the stage. Then up on the drum riser was Darrell Sweet, cheeks
all puffed out as he propelled the band along to even greater heights,
never missing a beat, but at every opportunity lobbing drumsticks out
into the crowd for souvenirs.
The band carries on with the cheeky ‘Glad When Your Gone’ - not exactly
a love song! But certainly something to get everybody dancing in the
aisles. The ballad ‘Loved and Lost’ is not some lonesome tale of a
broken heart after some relationship, more the sort of thing where fate
has it in for you, and you get plenty of luck, all of it bad. You must
know one of those days when even the dog bites you for no apparent
reason. It also features a really gritty guitar solo from Manny
Charlton.
On any Nazareth album you would always get a couple of road songs from
the band’s exploits on tour. ‘Rampant’ is no different. The next two
songs are perfect examples: ‘Shanghai’d in Shanghai’ is a belting song
with amusing lyrics about life on the road, name dropping all over the
place, and when Dan McCafferty proudly announces that Nazareth will be
second billing to The Rolling Stones, the rest of the band breaks into
‘Satisfaction’ for thirty seconds. The other road song is ‘Jet Lag’,
which is a little self explanatory, but sung with the tongue firmly in
the cheek, as Dan McCafferty explains:
‘I got jet lag,
And livin’ out an overnight bag, Times changes every day, They do things
different, Back in the USA.
Tryin’ hard to make a phone call, “long distance over seas,” “yes Ma’am
I did say Scotland,” “Could you spell that again please”.’
‘Light My Way’ is a good heavyweight Nazareth song with effected vocals
and a custom built arena chorus which slowly builds to a nice climax
with some more excellent work from the band. ‘Sunshine’ is the only
acoustic song on the album, which shows that these hard men from
Dunfermline do have hearts after all.
The one cover song on this album is a version of ‘The Yardbirds’ classic
‘Shapes Of Things To Come’, which was probably recorded by the band due
to public demand as it was regularly used to close their live set. It is
not so much a cover version, more of a complete destruction, and then
re-building. Nazareth turned ‘Shapes’ into one of their own songs (which
over the years they had a habit of doing with other songs as well).
Whether in the recording studio or on the live stage, Nazareth obviously
had so much fun playing this song, so that while you marvel at the
dynamics of it all, you also cannot help but smile as the song rocks out
your speakers. In fact, not wanting to stop, the band adds on their own
instrumental verse called ‘Space Safari’, allowing them to do a little
early Seventies freak out to bring the album to a close.
After ‘Rampant’ Roger Glover relinquished the producer chair, handing it
back to Manny Charlton. Really, his job had been done and Roger had
other things to do, such as join ‘Rainbow’ and later re-form Deep
Purple. The first thing Manny Charlton did for Nazareth from the
production chair was deliver a version of Boudleaux Bryant’s ‘Love
Hurts’, a song that Nazareth now have to play everywhere they go.
Yes, Nazareth are still going strong today. Twenty studio albums have
been released plus umpteen compilations and live albums. Like any family
they have had the odd divorce, and a tragic bereavement; these stories
will be told another day. But still anything with the Nazareth badge on
it is a seal of quality.
Nazareth
Dan McCafferty: Vocals
Manny Charlton: Guitars
Pete Agnew: Bass
Darrell Sweet: Drums
Songs
Silver Dollar Forger (Parts One and Two)
Glad When Your Gone
Loved and Lost
Shanghai’d in Shanghai
Jet Lag
Light My Way
Sunshine
Shapes of Things to Come (Including Space Safari)
To contact Mott the
Dog email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mott-the-dog.com
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