Posted in: Rock by John Medd on August 20, 2008 | 0 Comments
Derwood Andrews played foil to Billy Idol in 70s new wave band Generation X. Now living in the California desert he looks back on the English punk scene of 30 years ago.
Explosive guitarist with Generation X who back in 1978 wasn’t afraid to put four minute guitar solos on the back of punk anthems.
Johnny Marr didn’t need prompting when asked who inspired him to pick up the guitar: Bob Derwood Andrews has been playing six string all his life. He was only seventeen when Billy Idol hired him in November 1976 to join Generation X.
‘It was a funny story of ignorant music fans and teenage drug abusers’ Derwood tells me from his home in the California desert east of Los Angeles, “we were getting a gig together for a laugh at the Fulham Arts Centre: 300 punks turned up due to a misconception that our band, Paradox, were the new Sex Pistols. We didn”t have a clue and ended up locked inside our dressing room to avoid instant violence. Billy was one of the punks and asked me to audition the following day. I went.’
A week later and they were headlining the infamous Roxy club in London’s Covent Garden. And while the new wave was still new they recorded their first John Peel session, released three back to back punk clarion calls: Your Generation, Wild Youth and Ready Steady Go and were ready to record their first album. Sweet’s old producer Phil Wainman was at the controls in the early days. I put it to him that Generation X were probably more glam than punk.
‘I think our sound was more punk than punk at the time; Phil did the first two singles but we weren’t happy with the sound, or atmosphere. So we sacked him’. It mattered not a jot – the album sold well and made Idol a household name. But it was Derwood’s sound that underpinned the band’s distinctive sound. Closing the album was punk/metal crossover Youth Youth Youth: for first two and a half minutes Idol does his job admirably before passing the baton to Derwood, who for the next four minutes thrashes his guitar to within an inch of it’s life.
‘Yep, we were labelled kind of falsely as heavy metal. Maybe because we were great players and punk was against all that. Personally, what is labelled as “heavy metal” leaves me cold. The bands that I studied, Free, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Hendrix and Robin Trower were all blues based rock bands’.
And then the difficult second album. Producer Ian Hunter’s heart wasn’t in it and left the band floundering. Though it gave them more appearances on Top Of The Pops with the eponymous Valley Of The Dolls and King Rocker, as a body of work it failed to ignite.
‘Mick Jones was a big fan of Mott The Hoople and told Tony James he should be our producer. I left shortly afterwards because I wasn’t allowed to be a useful member of the band’.
A third album had been recorded but Sweet Revenge wouldn’t see the light of day for another 25 years when it formed part of the 3 disc Anthology. Idol and James carried on with one engine under the banner Gen X with new hired hands but soon disbanded when Idol set sail for America.
Derwood and drummer Mark Laff wasted no time in getting a new band together.
‘Although Empire only recorded the one album, Expansive Sound, it had a massive influence on the DC punk scene in the mid-80s. I didn’t believe it until it came out on CD and the royalty cheques started coming in.’
A stint with bubblegum rockers Westworld came next. A couple of Top 10 hits: Sonic Boom Boy and, as any Steve Martin aficionado will tell you, Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo turned up on the soundtrack to Planes Trains and Automobiles.
He then hooked up with fellow Brit Gary Twinn (singer with 20 Flight Rockers) in Speedtwinn, a sort of Johnny Cash meets T Rex combo.
‘Too old to rock and roll but I can country with the best of them. It didn’t work out: I played hundreds off gigs in and around Hollywood but no one ever came. The final straw was watching the singer buy a round of drinks for the whole place and getting change from $10!’
More recently Moondogg have been taken up his time. “It”s my dream band’ he says. With Westworld vocalist Elizabeth Westwood, it’s where drum & bass and slide guitars meet Wild West culture. And it compliments Derwood’s high desert backdrop perfectly.
Chrysalis (Generation X’s old record company) got the band back together in 1993 for a one off reunion at London’s Astoria. I ask Derwood if it could happen again.
‘No. Not with me in it, anyway. Unless there was huge amounts of money placed in my wife’s handbag’.
He’s also publishing his memoirs in the New Year. Loud Guitarist contains words of wisdom for anyone thinking of earning their corn in rock and roll.
‘My book is a duty I have been given due to large amounts of documentation, photos, diaries and stuff that could easily be thrown. Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs. Worthington! Being not much more than a loud guitarist has been a fantastic life, but there really is no respectful escape. I must write about it and warn every young soul who has inkling to play guitar for a living. Beware, it’s not easy.’
