Part 2: Andromeda
Why not listen to Andromeda clips while you read
FlyGuitars So in 1967, whilst John Cann was still with the Attack, the two of you teamed up with Jack Collins (Jack McCulloch) to form Andromeda. What was the plan, musically?
MH We definitely had the same idea; we liked attack and forcefulness in music: aggression, you know. I also liked the more melodic side and arrangements, but if there was a solo going on we could really cook it. And cook it hard as well. We were on the same train of thought in that respect. We didn't always go down well because a lot of the places wanted straight ahead rock music, which wasn't what we were doing. It was quite involved. We wanted to be the sort of band that you didn't particularly have to watch. You could shut your eyes and nod off almost and picture for yourself what was going on. We liked the complication of the music. Different sections that maybe illustrate the lyric a bit better. Flights of fancy.
FlyGuitars Some of the early demos are now available on the album, Andromeda, Beginnings 1967-68, recorded at Graham Clark Studios, in Walton-on-Thames. Presumably recorded with the Gibson EB0 before the bridge pickup had been added?
MH I'm sure it would be, yeah. It doesn't sound bad actually, and considering it was the EBO, which was never a very clear kind of sound, better than I thought it would be. I never had copies, or if I did they were lost.
FlyGuitars How did you get your sound for those early sessions with the EB0?
MH Undoubtedly the Vox amp I was using; 60 watt head, with an 18" cabinet. It was all done on a revox. The guy's studio was very basic.
FlyGuitars The band was soon picked-up-upon by John Peel, who got you to record a Top Gear session for the BBC in October 1968. Can you remember what bass you played for the top gear session?
MH Yeah that was the EB0. We were going to be the first band on Peels label (Dandelion), and then when we got ourselves together, and sort of became the band that was definitively us, he decided he didn't like it. That was a big disappointment actually, because that could have been great for the band I think. Ultimately we got signed up to RCA as a tax loss - which was the fate of loads of bands at the time - virtually everything single band i've been in I think (laughs).
FlyGuitars In March 1969 Ian McLane replaced Jack Collins, and straight away you recorded the Andromeda album, "Andromeda".
MH By the time we did the first album I had a Danelectro Longhorn bass; bought at Joe Macari's shop in Charing Cross Road for £45. Fabulous tool: two octave neck, low action, made from old packing crates and real hardboard! It even used lipstick containers for the pick-ups. For all this, it sounded fantastic, even with the tape wound strings I was still mistakenly using. Again, inspired by Jack Bruce using one, I couldn't resist. And that shape! Oh YESSS!
The EB0 had the Fender pickup on it, and I think it got used only on one track, and that's because I used to do a thing of fading the volume in on it. Return to Sanity [listen], the beginning of that. I'm fading in and hammering with the left hand.
FlyGuitars And you couldn't do that with the Danelectro?
MH No, I don't remember why. I think the volume was just not quite so easy to get to. Or maybe it wasn't so resonant. It served me well the old Gibson, but I wasn't sorry to see it go.
We used to invent things in the studio. One thing we did that I really liked - again, on the intro to Return to Sanity: we mixed the introduction onto 1/4" tape, put that on one machine, then ran the same mix into a second machine, also with 1/4" tape... and we had vari-speed, so we ran the mix we'd just done and the sixteen track together, both mono, in left and in right and just varying the speed slightly. If you listen in mono it just phases, but in stereo, like in headphones, it was really weird, it kind of sucks your ears out.
FlyGuitars Another unusual sound you used on Now the Sun Shines [listen] came from the 'nameless string instrument', or 'electric cello' as it was described at the time. You described it as producing a "hanging sound" or a "drone".
MH The cricket bat. I'd forgotten all about that. It's not really an instrument. An experiment really. If it had worked really well, I'd have made a reasonable mark II of it. It was just the top four strings of a guitar, which I bowed.
FlyGuitars How were you recording, still the Vox amp?
MH The Vox had long gone. I had a Sound City amp, with a Hiwatt cabinet. I wasn't very happy with that either.
FlyGuitars Whats the definitive track by Andromeda?
MH The definitive track is the very last track of the first album When to stop [listen]. That had everything. It had the gentle stuff and the full on aggression aswell.
FlyGuitars Did you write any of the songs?
MH I'm credited as writing the songs The Reason [listen], and Keep Out Cos I'm Dying [listen], though I wrote most of the instrumental passages. A lot of the arrangements are down to me. John and I used to sit around and kick out riffs between us, but I would think of whole sections of music, and those more often than not got included, though somehow, John Cann got the credit and the royalties... There was one song I did called Last Man Alive; I don't know if that ever got recorded.
Thanks to Mick Hawksworth for taking the time to talk. Additional thanks to Richard Barefoot (photography), Phil Little and Uwe Hornung
Further reading: more bassplayer interviews
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