9 - Two new albums and a trip to the land of rising sun…

Back In Orbit hit the shelves in 1991 to great acclaim. It proved that, nearly ten years after their first album, they hadn’t lost their energy. As said earlier, the band decided to focus mostly on Rock’n’Roll/Jive stuff. And this album was loaded with hotter than dynamite songs, some sounding like Haley’s unissued songs from the vault of Decca. One can find in Crazy But True elements of Haley’s Dim Dim The Light (the mambo passage) and Birth Of The Boogie (the sax riff). It’s Only A Paper Moon is a good opportunity to hear the new rhythm section formed by Chris, Ricky and Tim in action and it confirms that Tim was the right choice to replace Anders. The instrumental version of Sweet Georgia Brown shows their jazzy side and leaves plenty of room for Peter and John to express their skills. All in all, a killer album though Tim has some regrets about the sound “Looking back, I think we played well, but I do feel the songs may be lacking slightly in dynamic range and consequently come across as being rather thin - especially the Summertime Studios tracks.”

That same year, Ricky also started a side project with Marshall Lytle under the moniker of Marshall and the Shooting Stars “I got on really well with Marshall and asked him if he wanted to form a Western Swing band with me , he said yes and we started Marshall and the Shooting Stars”. Lytle explains “Ricky Brawn of the Stargazers became a real close friend of mine (…) and in about 1990 he came to visit me in Florida. He had the idea that on my next visit to England we could do a country and western album with me doing the singing. So he and I became partners and created this album as Marshall and the Shooting Stars. We put up the money and created a pretty darn good cd out of it, and we sold it to a record company in Tokyo (Vinyl Japan). We got our money back out of it and even though nothing more happened with the recording, it was something I was proud to have done.” The Shooting Stars were Patrice Chevalier (ex Chevalier Brothers and later Tricky) on guitar, Paul Diffen (Sugar Ray Ford) on bass, John Wallace on sax, James Compton (Darts) on piano and BJ Cole on steel guitar.

In 1992, after a gig, the Stargazers were approached by Boz Boorer of the Polecats. He knew a label called Vinyl Japan that would be interested in recording a new album and taking them to Japan for a tour. Vinyl Japan was, during a short time one of the most important labels in “revival” rock, especially on their sub-label “Jappin’ & Rockin”” releasing stuff by the Polecats, Levi Dexter, the Nitros, Colbert Hamilton, Restless, Guana Batz, the Space Cadets and the Big Six. It wasn’t long before the five Gazers invested a retired church on the campus of the Open University in Milton Keynes to record the follow-up to Back in Orbit called The Speaking Clock Says Rock.
From its title to the songs, this album is more Haley-esque than ever. Out of the ten covers, seven had been played by Bill Haley and one by the Jodimars. The only two originals were two instrumentals written by Peter and John.
Asked about the presence of so many covers on this album, Danny explains: “We just didn’t have many new songs in reserve and writing Back in Orbit had knackered us out - previously we had been playing with Clive Osborne on sax so obviously we were too drunk to write much then. Plus Tim Purkess had joined us and he is a bad influence on the band - in that everyone was now too busy having fun...” Chris adds “We recorded that very quickly to coincide with a tour of Japan and didn’t have any new material ready.”
Despite this lack of original material it’s a good and very enjoyable album. The musicianship is top notch, especially on the two instrumentals that announce the jazz direction that the band would take in the future. Their cover of Just Go Wild over Rock’nRoll is also an occasion to hear more of Chris Gardner’s playing.
“I used to model (my style) on Johnny Grande’s style because I felt that was what was needed. I was basically very lazy and also a bit retiring so didn’t push for solos. On gigs I would do numbers like Rock Shuffle Boogie, Honky Tonk Train Blues, St Louis Blues Boogie Woogie, Bumble Boogie, Swanee River Boogie and so on. But as we were very much in a Haley groove I played in that groove.”
Marshall Lytle, now a friend of the band, even made a guest appearance and sung Eat Your Heart Out Annie, a song he recorded for the first time in 1956 with the Jodimars.
The band then embarked for their first tour of Japan and soon discovered that they were hugely popular there. “Japan was a big smile. What a funny place and lovely people. Lots of laughs, noodles and everything in between” remembers Danny. Ricky also has good memories of that tour “We were very popular in Japan (…) These were very enjoyable occasions and again these were full of fun! For example when we played at the Antinock club in Tokyo, Danny finished our last number in a life size Godzilla mask and white tuxedo, much to the delight of the audience!!!”