March 2009

Dear Mulletocracy:

Half of the Beatles. The entire Jimi Hendrix Experience. A Bee Gee. It's getting tough out there for reunion shows, isn't it? Whatever Bowie meant by Oh look out, you rock and rollers...I know now what it means to me. The elephant in the Living room: mortality. With Kelly Groucutt's passing, ELO is now one of those bands with a late member. I was gonna say "dead guy", but, well, there, I said it. Damn.

Of course, this time it's personal. Lennon and Harrison and Hendrix were idols but Kelly was a band mate and friend. We shared the stage hundreds of times, and everyone who’s toured a bit knows what that means. It means we shared flights, meals, dressing rooms, airport lounges, courtesy vans, busses, breakfast bars, arguments, laughs, drinks, wives (kidding) and so on. Band mates get to know one another really well.

We drove each other nuts sometimes, but that doesn’t matter now. I loved Kelly.

I went to England for Kelly’s funeral a couple weekends ago. Everyone present knew the last thing Kelly Groucutt would want is a bunch of whingers (did I spell that right, anglophiles?) sobbing about the poor old bass player. Kelly was a lover of life, an insufferable smiler, a raconteur of the ridiculous. Still, it was rough. Kelly died suddenly. No warning. No goodbyes. No send-off. It’s hard to get to the funny bits when you’re still in shock.

Family, band mates and fans came from far and wide to pay their respects to this most outgoing member of ELO. His good cheer had come back to cheer him on to another life. I'm guessing three hundred people attended the service. It was a packed house--fitting for a guy who routinely performed for thousands.

Kelly’s son Chris delivered the eulogy on behalf of Kel’s four grown kids. His take on his father's life was funny, warm and heartbreaking. I was amazed Chris could get through it, talking about his Dad in the past tense, when only weeks before Kelly’d flown off to Berlin for his last show with The Orchestra.

Chris wove a theme into his talk, which was Kelly’s lifelong insistence on “making it work.” Whether it was piecing together music, fixing the family car or leading the family sing-along Kelly wanted it done right. It was the same with the band. Kelly routinely busted anyone who played a wrong note. The wicked grin and the accusing digit would shoot toward the offender. (Naturally, the favor was returned by the rest of us when Kel fell off the tracks.)

My favorite line in Chris’s eulogy was “Dad was, of course, the first in the county to have a Wii.” Perfect. No nine-year-old could ever match Kelly’s enthusiasm for the latest gadget.

After the service the lot of us packed a wonderful pub that sits alone in the woods outside the town of Dudley, West Midlands. Crooked House had hosted Kelly’s wedding reception only a few years ago. It was a perfectly Kelly sort of place, a pub so tilted on its foundations that when you roll a marble on the window ledge the marble goes "up." Snippets of conversation I heard over the course of the afternoon revealed Kel was well remembered by the staff. Not surprising.

I was pleased to catch up with many of the British road crew from over the years. They’re great guys and most are still hard at work on tours. Good as it was to meet up again, we all agreed it was a lousy reason for a reunion. As for the band mates Kelly left behind, I don't think we've ever been so muted. The chatty bloke had left us and he took more than his singing voice with him. I honestly think the band, including this former member, is in a mild state of shock. Kelly's memory won't go quietly.

When I first joined ELO Part II in 1998 Kelly picked up on my Move-influenced musical taste and was thoughtful enough to invite Roy Wood to join us for dinner in Birmingham. I’d been super excited to meet him, Roy being a musical hero and one of the reasons I was so proud to have a small stake in the ELO/Move legacy. Unfortunately, Roy was late to rendezvous with us at our rehearsal room and I missed meeting him. I never got the chance again until, sigh, Kelly’s wake, eleven years later. Inside a packed Crooked House, Roy and I chatted about music for a few minutes, but it was just too strange and sober a day and I couldn’t muster up much of a conversation. It felt like Kelly had finally managed to get the two of us together, but the only musical hero I really wanted to talk to in 2009...was Kelly Groucutt.

I’ve posted a eulogy on my site, http://www.p-hux.com. It’s reprinted below. Please take a second to read it. And dig out some ELO while you’re at it. The bass parts are really good.

I will miss you, Kel! You were the heart and soul of The Orchestra. Rest in Peace my friend.

In late 1998 I walked into a large, well worn rehearsal room in Birmingham, England for my audition with ELO Part II. I wasn't sure who everyone was, but immediately Kelly Groucutt positioned himself directly in front of me, tilted his head upwards and said, "You're TOO TALL!" We laughed. Leave it to Kelly to be the icebreaker. Of course, Kelly needn't have worried about the new guy's height. Kelly was a giant. He's rarely mentioned when rock media list Greatest Bass Players or Greatest Front Men, but he was among the best I've ever seen, much less had the privelege to work with. Kelly's voice was always front and center in our sound (he was louder than everyone else!) and the bass parts he commandeered while singing on every song were astounding. Try singing "Hey there Mister Blue/We're so pleased to be with you" whilst nailing the bass part of Mr. Blue Sky and you'll get an idea...

Kelly never had an off night. Sure, he'd throw a clam on the pile--we were all guilty of that--but he never phoned in a performance. No matter how sick, tired or jet-lagged, he always gave everything he had. "Never punish the ones who show up" was his mantra. He loved the fans and respected them. It didn't matter who they were or how many of them were in the seats. Fans of ELO Part II and now The Orchestra will attest that Kelly was always available after a gig for an autograph, a photo, a cigarette, a drink, whatever was happening at the moment. Hours after a performance the last thing fans heard in the parking lot was usually a tour manager shouting, "Kelly! The bus is leaving!" He gave the fans every spare minute he had...

Kelly was a tinkerer, a gadgets freak, a student of puns, an expert Country & Western singer, a walking encyclopedia of music history (song title, artist, year released), a loving Dad, a smoker, a drinker, a traveller (China, Cuba, Chile...hmmm...never noticed how much he liked "C" countries), a joke teller, a tireless chatterbug, a generous friend, a lyrics freak, a willing accomplice.  I saw Kelly in planes, trains and automobiles but my cherished memories will always be our time onstage. I don't know how many shows we did together, but it's many hundreds. Over the years, Kelly and I developed several moments in the set that were "ours"--just dumb little things that we acknowledged with a covert grin or an overt laugh. When I'd join him on his mic for the "George and Paul" vocals in the chorus of Twist and Shout, he'd move his bass neck out of my way in an exaggerated "showbiz" sweep; in Xanadu we'd mouth the words "people are wanking" during the four beats between the title in the chorus; in Shine A Little Love I knew he'd be looking over at me during the third verse, the lyrics of which I was prone to botch. Kelly would jump in singing if I missed one syllable...

It seems absurd that Kelly's gone. His spirit is that of a giant's. I wouldn't be surprised if, at Heaven's Gate, he has to duck to get in. Too tall, indeed.

Purgatory Falls
Deluxe Edition
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The P. Hux tour de force Purgatory Falls is now available in a deluxe edition with a bonus track remix of "I Loved Everything" and an expanded 16-page jewel case booklet.  Included are all the lyrics, never before seen photos and detailed notes about each song from this 2001 classic album. The new Purgatory Falls cd is still at the old reasonable price of 13.99 and all copies ordered from parthenonhuxley.com are signed by P. Hux.  Shipping is immediate.  Please order Purgatory Falls here:

http://www.parthenonhuxley.com/phuxstore.html#Purgatory

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