Mick Hutchinson | Interview | “A=MH²”

Clark Hutchinson was started by Mitch Hutchinson and Andy Clark in the late sixties after the break-up of the band Vamp, which featured Viv Prince.

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Improvised jams influenced by eastern composition. After their debut album, Clark-Hutchinson would expand with Stephen Amazing and Del Coverly.

“I love improvised music and improvising”

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Mick Hutchinson: I grew up in Tunbridge Wells in a couple of flats in a brewery. My childhood was completely nuts. My family had a castle in Ireland which they lost. Apparently my Great Grandad was tricked into signing it away on his death bed. The family spent most of the fortune on legal costs trying to get the castle back, but they failed. So I was sort of made to act upper class even though we lived in a flat in a brewery and had no money. One of my ancestors was Sheriff Of Nottingham. My parents decided that I was insane. They tried to have me “put away”. They put me on phenobarbitone which was horrible. I have no interest in castles or power or any of that class crap. Music seemed to me, when I was a kid, to be the only thing in life that I could hold onto! After the age of 11 I lived in Chislehurst.

Who were your major influences?

My influences are and were everything. Lots of jazz, blues, classical music, soul, gospel, funk, Indian, and country. Lots of film music as well. I still watch movies just for the music. A list of particular artists would fill an encyclopedia, haha. I always loved music. I had a wind up record player and a few records up to the age of 8. Mainly heard music on the radio. Then the family had a radiogram and we got a TV! The early records I had were Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ and ‘Polovtsian Dances’ by Borodin. I got into jazz early. I generally love most things on the Blue Note Records. Also most of Motown and Stax. I also love Chopin’s and Beethoven’s solo piano work. Oscar Peterson was a huge influence on me, as were Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery. Buck Clayton, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis. All the musicians on Miles Davis’s ‘Kind Of Blue’ which I still listen to in awe! Indian classical music is a big influence on my playing, particularly Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Professor V. G. Jog and Bismillah Khan. For fingerpicking guitar Manitas De Plata, Chet Atkins, and Big Bill Broonzy were influences. Blues; T-Bone Walker, Albert King, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and lots more! I’m also influenced by Irish music and some country music.

When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music?

I never really started, music was always part of my life. I spent a lot of my childhood wishing for a piano and a bicycle. I’ve got them both now, so it’s great, haha.

What bands were you a member of prior to the formation of Clark-Hutchinson? 

I was in The Sons Of Fred with Pete Sears. We had some singles out on EMI. We went on TV a few times. Pushed beaten broken down up Ford Thames vans up hills in the snow, haha. Also I was in the Sam Gopal’s Dream with Andy Clark and Pete Sears.

Tell us more about The Sons Of Fred and Sam Gopal’s Dream.

The first band I was in that made records was The Sons Of Fred. I met Pete Sears [Jefferson Starship, Rod Stewart et cetera] on the train, going to work. We hit it off immediately so when The Sons Of Fred needed a bass player I suggested Pete. We toured all round the UK went on TV a few times and released three singles. We got in the Radio London charts at one time!

After The Sons Of Fred split someone introduced me to Sam Gopal. He was an amazing tabla player. We played together at what I think was the opening day of The Speakeasy. Sam thought we needed a bass player so I introduced him to Sam. We all hit it off. We jammed using Indian raga, jazz and blues influences. There were some totally magic bits of improvisation with that band. Pete is such a great bass player. He’s the only one of us that got really famous.

During The Sons Of Fred band everyone that I loved died, including the dog. Then my father threw me out of home. I remember waling down Eltham High Street carrying the Gibson Stereo guitar that I had on the HP thinking: “Everyone’s dead where can I go?” My friend Pat let me sleep in his flat, so I didn’t sleep on the street! Over the years several famous bands asked me to join them, but my head was in the wrong place, so I said no.

Chas Chandler asked me if I wanted to try out for bass, I said no. I didn’t know it was Jimi Hendrix’s manager, also it was before Hendrix made it. I don’t want to mention the other bands because some of them are still around and there might be some anger.

Clark-Hutchinson supported one of them and there was nearly a fight about it!

“Hendrix came up on stage and played my Gibson upside down, the wrong way round, I played bass and Pete played organ.”

The Sam Gopal Dream played at the Speakeasy, a lot of music business people turned out to see us. I think we would have got a record deal, but Pete’s girlfriend had lots of speed that she was getting from the doctor for slimming, so… yeah. Funny she wasn’t fat! We took handfuls of the shitty stuff. We went from being band of serious musicians to a bunch of looneys talking crap into the microphone. A really awful comedy band. We blew it big time. Hendrix came up on stage and played my Gibson upside down, the wrong way round, I played bass and Pete played organ. Hendrix fell over and knocked an amp over when he came on stage!

Would love it if you can share the story behind Vamp, a band with legendary Viv Prince of The Pretty Things and Pete Sears. You released the single ‘Floatin”. What’s the story behind it?

Andy Clark joined on vocals and keyboards after that. We had a great prog band there but no amps. I didn’t have a place to live. We had a manager. He said that Viv Prince would like to join so he did, Sam left. He wasn’t happy with playing with a drummer. Andy Clark has the demo of the Vamp track ‘Floating’. The demo has Sam Gopal on it playing tabla drums. I prefer it to the released version. In the studio The Screen Gems, producer made me turn my amp down and kept telling Andy to “Camp it up!”. The demo with Sam has a much wilder solo!

How did you meet Andy Clark?

I met Andy at Sidcup Catholic youth club after I was thrown out of the Chislehurst Catholic Youth Club for being a “bad influence”. It was a bit of luck!

When and where did Clark-Hutchinson play their first gig?

One of the first gigs were jams at The Middle Earth and Electric Garden hippie clubs.

“Rhythm and rhythmic phrasing is my thing”

What influenced the band’s sound?

I love the cultural origins of music. From early western baroque through to jazz funk. Flamenco has been an influence as has Indian classical music. The greater part of my influences has come from African American and Jamaican music. Jazz, blues, funk, reggae et cetera. Rhythm and rhythmic phrasing is my thing.

Give us some insights on developing your playing technique.

I had some guitar lessons from Miss Vollers who gave Julian Bream his first lessons. She taught me music, not patterns of dots on a guitar neck with numbers on. I have never learnt a scale by that method. I navigate the neck by note names, not by shapes. Miss Vollers taught me E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E at the first position and from there I worked out all the note names all over the neck myself. I developed a method of moving up and down the neck using four fingers per string. The Indian scales I use come from altering the modes of the major scale by sharpening or flattening notes. I practice guitar and bass a couple of hours every day. I make up things and practice them, explore melodic and rhythmic possibilities.

I had an album by Charlie Byrd called ‘Blues For Night People’, which really influenced my playing. It made me see that you can play jazz on a nylon string guitar.

“We just went in and improvised and that’s how it came out!”

What’s the story behind A=MH² album? Where did you record it? What kind of equipment did you use?

Andy = Mick Hutchison squared! I was sleeping on the a pile of posters at the offices of Underground Records. I had one pair of trousers, four pairs of socks and nowhere to go. Just missed sleeping rough. We jammed. Nether of us owned an amplifier. I had a Gibson ES 345 which I couldn’t afford.

The equipment was hired by the record company. The amp was a Fender, not a Marshall as it says on the cover. We used the piano that was in the studio and some drums that were there. It is basically what we were doing in the Sam Gopal’s Dream. I love improvised music and improvising. We just went in and improvised and that’s how it came out!

A year later ‘Retribution’ was released. How would you compare it to ‘A=MH²’? Was it recorded in the same studio?

We got very stoned, went into the studio and played. Again it’s mostly improvisation except for the lyrics. Every gig was completely different. We once played in a reggae club and did all our songs as reggae. It was a great night. I love reggae!

How about ‘Gestalt’?

We sat down together and wrote that one. Andy and myself. Then we went in to the studio got stoned and improvised on what we had written, haha.

What are some bands you shared stages with? Any crazy stories from gigs?

We toured around a lot in our heads, but physically we played everywhere around England, Scotland and Wales. Just managing to pay for food and petrol et cetera.

One day the roadies drove us to Glasgow. In the dressing room of the club Andy was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off a small piece of roof tiles no more than 1 foot high. Obviously we were smashed beyond all hope! So I was trying to convince him not to do it by saying: “Andy, you can’t die now, what will I tell your Mum, we have a gig to do, you have so much to live for”. The promoter came in, he stood there, his mouth came open. He never said a word, and we carried on doing it. Then when we played, we put all the instruments completely out of tune and played “Monster Avante Garde Atonal Funk music” all night. I played laying in the middle of the audience. I wish it had been recorded. It went down a storm. Several encores. It was a great night. Then we drove back to London. Our agent said that the promoter said “Great band, but I can’t have them back because I’ve never seen a band so stoned”. That was a great gig! I wish we could have got some of that stuff on record. It was so wild and weird. Like some strange vibe had linked our minds and we all played as one crazed single creature.

What followed after the band?

I left the band. I moved to the country. I gave a few guitar lessons to pay the rent. I tried to drop out! Andy formed UPP, toured the States and worked as a session man in LA. I left the music business deliberately, walked out on two major label record deals because I do not like all the excess. I didn’t want to play in tobacco smoke and get drunk all the time and the whole thing that happened with heroin and cocaine in the music industry puts me off completely. After I left Clark-Hutchinson, Graham Bond and Pete Brown asked me to the Manor recording studio to do an album. I am on one track of ‘Two Heads Are Better Than One’. There was so much cigarette smoke in the studio that I went home and so I am only on one track. I’ve been a vegetarian, a whole fooder since 1972. I have cycled around half a million miles since then. I have cycled 3215 miles this year already. I did a little bit of bicycle time trialing in the 1970s with personal best of 57 minutes 2 seconds for 25 miles and 23 minutes and 15 seconds for 10 miles. Plus I won the Farnborough Pembury time trial, 45 miles! I practice guitar and bass about two hours a day and have taught lots of people to play and got them through their music exams.

What about the archive recording called ‘Blues’?

The ‘Blues’ album was done in the 1960s but only released in the ’90s. I have enough material for several albums.

Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? 

As far as the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle goes, it’s not for me. I’m quite happy being considered a nerd. Traveling around the country smashing things up might be fun in the short term but not for me! I walked out on two major label record deals, mainly because I didn’t want to play in cigarette smoke. Yes, LSD did influence me. I prefer the hippie era over all others because it was so free. “Do your own thing”. No boxes to be put in, no dress code! Mix any style of music. No racial or cultural barriers.

Tell us about your latest guitar. 

I have an Ibanez MTM2 guitar which I stringing up to play like a sitar. The MTM2 was designed by Mick Thompson of Slipknot. There is no other guitar quite like it. It has a double lock fixed bridge. No tremolo arm but locks at the nut and the bridge, big fat frets and a very slim neck. You can bend strings faster and easier than any other guitar. It’s fantastic. I’ve been using it in normal tuning but now I’m going to tune it to open E. I might put a Seymour Duncan P90 pickup in the neck position. The guitar itself is silky smooth to play. I have recently bought an Epiphone Casino Coupe which is almost the opposite of the Ibanez. It is a smaller version of the Epiphone Casino like John Lennon played. It has a much better high fret access than the old Casino, the bridge is fixed into the body like a solid or 335 and it has a tailpiece and a full hollow body, P90 pickups. Again, it is a dream guitar. The sweetest jazz tone that I’ve ever heard. A very nice acoustic tone, better than some round soundhole flat top guitars and a great rock blues tone. The only downside is the P90s hum on high gain and they can whistle too. But it’s such a lovely tone. I have always wanted a guitar that can get a sound like on Barney Kessel’s ‘Easy Like’ album and this casino does it. Also I have a Boss Katana amplifier, which to my ears is the first amp to beat valve amps for touch sensitivity and sound. Boss invented modeling. The Katana does jazz, blues, clean funk and death metal like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Plus it has a computer editor and 150 Boss effects that can be used. I also use a Marshall JMP1 valve preamp made in the 1980s which is fantastic. Only one sound, Marshall rock which you can have more or less of, but brilliant nonetheless. It works very well in the FX loop of a Boss GT 100 multi fx .Which is great. Then I am setting the Ibanez MTM2 up with a high action and a little bit more neck relief [curvature] than normal, combined with the jumbo frets it makes sitar type bend easier.

 

Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.

The word psychedelic means “mind revealing”. Lets hope that the doors of perception open soon!

Klemen Breznikar

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Mick Hutchinson Facebook / YouTube

Interview consist of several years old conversation I had with Mick Hutchinson.