Manu Katche speaks about working with MK

[Eddie Fox]

I can’t be wrong, it’s an opinion on a subjective topic.

Won’t even answer your first comment, you’re so far off it seems pointless to try.

 

Of course you won't answer my first comment. It's far too factual and against your own personal narrative.

Best wishes.

You got me, mate. Guilty.

[mariosboss]

Cilla Black (big pop star in the 60s) was an awful person by multiple accounts.

Ed mentioned that Gerry Rafferty was difficult to work with but an alcoholic an undiagnosed bipolar.

I guess quite a ton of artists are difficult to work with, probably most of them, and that's actually to be expected. As many of you know, the average intelligence level of human beings is pretty low, so I wouldn't expect everybody to act as ladies and gentlemen, especially people with a lot of money and power. In fact, in most cases, money and fame will just show you what this person was all about, it doesn't change a person.

And in another act of defending Mark, you don't need to be Einstein to know it wasn't money or fame that turned Mark into a "bully", the guy just got haunted by bad luck.

Finally! A sense of humour emerges .
Yep. I think being “difficult” is almost a requirement but being a total dick is NOT, as always in the human condition, it’s a matter of degree.
Now. You have COMPLETELY lost me.
 “ Bad luck ”? What bad luck?
On life's scales his good luck outweighs the bad massively. 
Your knowledge of M’s personality is impressive given you’ve never met him as far as I know.
Don’t understand that comment at all.

I see nearly ALL "bad" things that Mark did as reasonable.

I guess English isn't your first language.
You claim not to be dismissing 'the victims', you claim not to be arguing with the facts.

I'm not claiming anything. I'm just having fun on a fan forum while enjoying some pineapple juice. There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who think words on a fan forum are set in stone and will reverberate for eternity. And those who think it's a platform for sharing opinions, digging for deeper meanings, finding hidden gems.

If you want to declare a 100% truth, no problem, write a book. But even so, it will only be like just your opinion, man. What is the truth, anyway? I've witnessed so many times people who WERE THERE straight up telling lies. Only because you were there doesn't mean your opinion is the only opinion in the world.

The human factor is still there. You can forget things, you can misinterpret things, you can dislike a person, but you can not stop people from having different opinions. And I never dismissed information from people who were there, I just expressed how I see the situation. My sincerest apologies for any errors in my speech and any misunderstandings that may arise as a result for I am no native English speaker.

Sometimes Pavel, you disappear up your own arse in your search for fun.…what Chris is saying, what I’m saying, is that we were there, in my case for the whole DS ride, and neither of us is in the habit of telling lies or making things up, we don't need to.
Opinions are fine but they need to be based on facts, on actualities , yours are based on nothing or am I missing something? .

And in another act of defending Mark, you don't need to be Einstein to know it wasn't money or fame that turned Mark into a "bully", the guy just got haunted by bad luck.

Eh? There's no doubt that MK had/has a huge amount of talent but I'm sure he would admit he had a huge amount of luck along the way as well.

EXACTLY!

In my (actual) experience, many artists are pretty nice and reasonable. Of course they have their off days.
One thing that turns artists from humble to egotistical is selling millions of records and winning lots of accolades, but it doesn't always damage them.

I agree. 90% of the artists I've worked with have been positive experiences….creative, great people , intelligent, kind, funny, really interesting, many verbally disgusting ( great ) , but some for sure have gone from all of that to being narcissistic wankers because of fame, money and celebrity, and THEN come out the other end when they realise…or someone they respect tells them….it’s all a load of crap.
I wonder if Roger Waters respects anyone ……

What is the point in dissing people decades after the event?
Manu didn't enjoy the session but got the job done,got paid and refused the tour.
Mark created a decent album and live show,continued to be unreasonable and didn't get what he wanted for dinner.
All the musicians got paid well and those he upset took that money and run.
Everyone "won."

Because somebody started this bloody thread and because John DeChristopher brought up Heavy Fuel to some French drummer who’s smile when he did said EVERYTHING.
I had to chuckle at that . 
I’m 100% sure that most musicians would rather not have been “ upset and run ”…..money alone is not compensation for being treated badly in any workplace let alone the creative arts.
So did they really “win”?

Dear Chris, I'm not arguing, and somehow, you always find ways to stab me with your umbrella. Years go by, and I'm still waiting for the moment when Chris will finally say at least a single nice word about me Who's bullying?

Mate. Chris has spent his life working as a pro musician, has a ton of insight about the workings of top-tier bands, and lived through an era of the band that we could otherwise only speculate about. Yet you're constantly contradicting his posts!

Chris, Manu, Ed, and MK's dentist have all made it clear that he could be a very difficult person to deal with. A lot of very ambitions, high-achieving people are. Having that information (and accepting it) is what makes forums like this valuable and entertaining, otherwise they just become deluded circle jerks.

LOVE IT!!!  M’s dentist or “ how to get a front cover on The Sun in one easy lesson”.
Someone who accepts that AMIT is 90% speculation and 10% inspiration.
You really do know all the chords don’t you?

What is the point in dissing people decades after the event?
Manu didn't enjoy the session but got the job done,got paid and refused the tour.
Mark created a decent album and live show,continued to be unreasonable and didn't get what he wanted for dinner.
All the musicians got paid well and those he upset took that money and run.
Everyone "won."

Deary deary me. What a laughable post.
First of all do you expect Chris or Manu to just lie?
Secondly - taking the money and run? So I suppose you would stop in the middle of a tour and stand your ground, leave, not get paid your full
payment leaving you in limbo yet nothing changes going forward with regards to the tour environment or worst still you leave forcing the tour to be cancelled? Blame falls on you and I bet as a fan you wouldn't have been happy with that last scenario.

Deal with the facts. MK is one of my top 4 guitarists of all time and 2 of DS albums in my top 10. It doesn't mean i'm deluded. It doesn't make him a hero or a saint. In fact it all makes sense with regards to the ins and outs and comings and goings regarding DS.

You have expressed so much better than I did a really valid point AND you “get it” ( your last para ….).
What Chris and I have been aiming at is for someone…anyone…to say “ it all makes sense ..re the comings and goings”.
Hally fucking loo yah.
AND a quiz. I love a quiz. 3 more guitarists for us to guess at….Erica Clapped Out? Jimi Hendrix? Stevie Ray Vaughan? Hank Marvin?  David Gilmour? Gary Clark Jnr. Susan Tedeschi?  Guitar George?  Steve Luthaker? Chet Atkins? Scotty Moore? The bloke who played “ Wipeout”?
Am I warm?

MESSAGE FOR ED REGARDING MY 4 TOP GUITARIST LIST....
You did well to mention one of them... and whilst Hendrix, Gilmour are both up there in the top 20 you were right with Lukather. What a talent, and a smashing session musician. Have you come across him btw?

The others i'm sure you'd have heard of...
1. Jimmy Page
2. Michael Schenker
3. Mark Knopfler
4. Steve Lukather

The beauty about all four... all play different guitars, sound completely different etc. Added bonus... my guitarists from 5-10:

5. Bruce John Dickinson (not the Iron Maiden singer, this guy played guitars for Little Angels, a 90's brit-rock band but he went onto form/open up various music schools including BIMM (In Brighton) and ACM (In Guildford) Top musician, in fact ex Little Angels members also went onto feature in Skunk Anansie/Feeder (Mark Richardson), Page/Plant (Michael Lee RIP - What a drummer and should have been the player at the Led Zep reunion gig imho), Mark Plunkettt (Boyzone/Ronan Keating manager.) The lead singer and main composure Toby Jepson has his own slot on Planet Rock. Top songwriter/producer.
6. Joe Satriani
7. Dean DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots)
8. Vernon Reid (Living Colour)
9. Paul Kossoff (Free)
10. Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)

[dustyvalentino]

Too Much Too Young by Little Angels is a fantastic record!

[mariosboss]

Too Much Too Young by Little Angels is a fantastic record!

Love the fact you've heard of them. That's a cracking track / single btw. Bryan Adams was on backing vocals. If you haven't already done so please listen to the album that track is from called "Jam." Really good production and musicianship. Superb. One of the last albums to have been partly recorded at Air Studios in Oxford Street. The album actually reached number 1 in the UK album charts back in 1993. Interestingly their drummer who had replaced Michael Lee - Mark Richardson - who'd go onto play with Feeder and Skunk Anansie, was deemed too green to play the whole album (he was about 22 at the time) so they brought in Elvis Costello's drummer Pete Thomas to play the majority of it. Mark could have thrown his toys of the pram but apparently he stuck with it and learnt from the master so to speak. In the long run it did him more good than harm. So there you go. Very on topic what with Chris Whitton having played on numerous tracks as a session musician replacing the drummer who may have even been credited yet didn't perform. Pete Thomas btw was thanked in the credits, but if it wasn't for Mark being honest about it in an interview around 10 years ago we'd have never known. It's something that happens more often than not. Obviously we have our own Terry Williams who was replaced on BIA. He was so humble about it as well.

Also I had a little Q and A with the Little Angels guitarist Bruce John Dickinson and he has similar guitar heroes like Page, Schenker and Knopfler! I remember hearing bits of Mk when Bruce swapped his Gibson for a fender for a lot of the Jam album. I love artists like that, not sticking to just one guitar or amp, but mixing it up. Mark was really good at that between the Making Movies/Love Over Gold/BIA and OES albums and the same with one of my other guitar heroes the Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean Deleo.

[dustyvalentino]

I actually bought Jam the week it came out so I contributed to the number 1 album, ha! It's sitting in my pile of CDs here in my office. Can't say I've listened for a while to be fair.

Interesting about Pete Thomas. I'm currently reading a Nick Lowe biography and PT is all over that but I wouldn't have associated him with Little Angels. Great drums on Too Much Too Young though.

There is a joint MK/ T Bone Burnett interview from about 1985, it used to be on Tomas Molin's site but I can't find it anywhere now. T Bone says he thinks there are only two or three drummers in the world who are good enough to play on record and MK says something like "I'm really pleased to hear someone else say that, I agree". And then I heard Steve Earle years later referring to the interview and saying how much that statement annoyed him, ha ha. Ironically T Bone produced a Steve Earle album in 2011 and brought in his own drummer

[Love Expresso]

Never understood how MK always played down his own guitar playing but was so harsh about drummers. Why would that be something he repeatetly cared to mention?

LE

[herlock]

"It takes a very good drummer to be better than no drummer at all", MK said in 2006. I actually like this one, funny. Same level as "Ringo is not even the best drummer in the Beatles, let alone in the world"...

[MagicElliott]

"It takes a very good drummer to be better than no drummer at all", MK said in 2006. I actually like this one, funny. Same level as "Ringo is not even the best drummer in the Beatles, let alone in the world"...

It’s a weird one this. I remember that quote and thought it was odd when I first heard it.
Does that mean every drummer who tours or records professionally is a “very good drummer?”
Or does this just highlight Mark’s perfectionist nature?

Hasn’t Guy played drums on a handful of recordings? (Neck and Neck?)
Does this mean Guy is a very good drummer? Probably is knowing Guy……

[dustyvalentino]

"It takes a very good drummer to be better than no drummer at all", MK said in 2006. I actually like this one, funny. Same level as "Ringo is not even the best drummer in the Beatles, let alone in the world"...

The Ringo quote was debunked long ago.

[herlock]

"It takes a very good drummer to be better than no drummer at all", MK said in 2006. I actually like this one, funny. Same level as "Ringo is not even the best drummer in the Beatles, let alone in the world"...

The Ringo quote was debunked long ago.

Yeah, but still funny.

[olazabalrok]

Hasn’t Guy played drums on a handful of recordings? (Neck and Neck?)
Does this mean Guy is a very good drummer? Probably is knowing Guy……

He’s programmed the drums, so no he doesn’t play drums on recordings.

[Chris W]

Yeah, but still funny.

Not at all. Ringo is widely regarded as a great drummer and a pioneer.

[ds1984]

Yeah, but still funny.

Not at all. Ringo is widely regarded as a great drummer and a pioneer.

To be fair on the subject, Ringo has also some detractors, on top of the list the late Quincy Jones and Buddy Rich, and the still alive Bernard Purdie.
And you can't say these are "nobodies". They have discredited him in interviews.

[Chris W]

To be fair on the subject, Ringo has also some detractors, on top of the list the late Quincy Jones and Buddy Rich, and the still alive Bernard Purdie.
And you can't say these are "nobodies". They have discredited him in interviews.

Some people didn't 'get' The Beatles, especially musicians from a traditional jazz background. Elvis felt threatened by The Beatles success and tried to discredit them at the time.
Purdie has been gone over a gazillion times. fact is, for some bizarre personal reason he made up a mad, bullshit story about playing with The Beatles and has had to double down, triple down on it ever since - which leads to having to discredit Ringo. Way MORE musicians appreciate Ringo than don't.

[Peter1981]

Haha, yeah, the discussion if Ringo is a bad drummer drummer is so hilarious. Just let any other drummer play "She Said, She Said"; it will never sound as cool as Ringo. Such a musical drummer, very creative parts.
Zoning out on the subject; what is 'good' or 'bad' in music anyway? You like it -> it's good. You don't like it, but someone else does like it-> so it's good.