Barry Leighton turns... A Whiter shade of Dave

Now The White Album has been lavishly recreated for a prestigious one-off performance in Los Angeles… with a little help from Swindon guitarist Dave Gregory.

Released in November 1968, The Beatles ninth LP – called simply The Beatles but more commonly referred to by the colour of its minimalist sleeve – saw the band stretching out over four sides of vinyl, creating an immense and varied musical tapestry.

Having already performed Beatles LPs including Sgt Pepper’s, Revolver and Abbey Road in their entirety to raise money for an autism charity, a conglomerate of crack LA musicians decided it was time to tackle the Big One… the most complex work in the band’s canon.

Named after a 1967 Beach Boys album, The Wild Honey Orchestra numbered around 80 musicians who offered their time and talent for a project which, after an intense bout of rehearsing, would culminate in a show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.

So how come the shout went out to Swindon 5,500 miles away? Despite a wealth of talented LA-based musicians only too happy to help, the organisers were keen to add a sprinkle of authentic, Beatlesque English pop. They were thinking XTC.

Now back in Swindon after a week in California, Dave says: “LA is populated with fantastic musicians, and guitar players in particular.

“But they were very keen to have someone from XTC.”

The band’s other guitarist Andy Partridge having long since quit stage work, Dave – who left the group 17 years ago – was the last man standing: or “the only vertical ambassador,” as he put it.

“This was the surprising bit for me. When I got there most of the people involved were huge XTC and Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC’s psychedelic alter-egos) fans. They were overjoyed to see me,” he says, still a trifle mystified.

“I couldn’t believe the love and respect they had for the music. XTC was one of their favourite bands. The Beatles, The Beach Boys and XTC were the three names which kept coming up all the time.”

These were musicians who grew up with XTC albums such as Drums and Wires, The Black Sea and English Settlement, just as Dave did with LPs by the likes of Free, Led Zeppelin and Spooky Tooth. Dave feels the defunct Swindon band has now attained “semi-legendary” status. He continues. “On one occasion, during rehearsals, everyone suddenly broke into Respectable Street (from The Black Sea.) They knew all the words…”

He adds: “On one hand it was very touching. On the other, it’s a bit disarming.”

So chuffed was organiser Paul Rock at acquiring the guitarist’s services that he bugled on the internet: “Dave Gregory of XTC will be an auxiliary guest member of the Wild Honey Orchestra. Believe it or not, he's coming to LA just for this very rare appearance.”

Dave’s fellow musicians included members of The Bangles, Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s band, Iain Matthews (of Fairport Convention/Matthews Southern Comfort), Pugwash, Gary Wright, The Muffs, Fountains of Wayne and The Cowsills among others.

“It’s the indie side of American rock. No household names, but great players.”

Three weeks before the organisers flew him over and put him up – “they treated me very well” – Dave, 62, had been diligently swatting up on tracks from The White Album.

Ironically, it was a record he couldn’t afford when it came out. “Seventy three bloody shillings, if you please.” (Years later he acquired a secondhand copy for £1.50.) Each song was only rehearsed two or three times, with players fired into action “by the musical equivalent of a chief whip.” He says: “This guy was going round yelling at us all ‘c’mon, c’mon, Dear Prudence – now.’”

A multitude of technical problems had to be overcome to duplicate on-stage “an awful lot of music” originally multi-tracked and layered by band, producer (Sir George Martin, of nearby Coleshill) and the wizard engineers at Abbey Road 47 years ago.

Julia – John Lennon’s poignant message to his dead mother – particularly caused Dave a few problems. “But we just about got away with it.” He goes on: “They were all great musicians on stage. If you messed up someone would pick up the slack. You wouldn’t be exposed.”

On electric and acoustic guitars, Dave played well over half the set including a rousing While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with himself and “guitar slinger extraordinaire” Lyle Workman trading solos while striving to recreate Eric Clapton’s weeping effect from the record.

“It was a joy to play,” he says. Further “rocking out” was enjoyed by Dave and bandmates on the rollicking Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey.

The outrageous thrash of Paul McCartney’s Helter Skelter proved “very difficult to replicate.” Macca’s guitar solo – possibly because he’s a left handed bass player – broke the rules, says Dave, and was unlike “anything I’ve had to learn before.” He applied the “wobbly slide guitar bit” on the mischievous Wild Honey Pie while perhaps surprisingly, McCartney’s 1920s pastiche, Honey Pie, was “one of the evening’s standouts” with Dave and Co seeking to show that they knew “a bit about jazz”.

Several non album tracks recorded during the White Album sessions were also aired, culminating in a hearty Hey Jude with all 80 musicians on-stage. “It was a huge stage, a gorgeous theatre.”

Dave, who strummed along on acoustic for the finale, added: “We couldn’t top that. Where do you go after Hey Jude?”

• IT was the track you invariably skipped over. Revolution 9 is a bewildering montage of sound effects, tape loops, echoes, distortions and backward sequences.

  Surely, you cannot replicate John Lennon’s eight minute-plus exercise in the avant-garde with any degree of accuracy on-stage?

  Of course not… unless you happen to be a “one-man musical tour de force” called Jim Mills. It was Mills’ mission in life, recalls Dave with a shake of the head, to track down every sample Lennon used on the track.

  “You’d have to be nuts,” he says. “It’s taken him years and years – and he’s found most of them.” For those who didn’t pop to the bar, Mills’ performance – created on computer – was “a stunning display,” says Dave, who watched from the wings. “It’s probably the only time you’ll ever hear Revolution 9 performed live.”

• THERE is a filthy old man on the stage. He is wearing a grubby cap, a disgusting mac, a dodgy pair of National Health specs and some frayed woolly gloves with the fingers missing.

  He is leering, quite suggestively, at some girls in the audience and making horrible faces too.

  But hey, he can sing… and his band are crashing through pop and r’n’b classics at 100mph, just like The Pirates and Dr Feelgood.

  “We couldn’t get away with it today,” says Dave Gregory, referring to the dirty old man image of a former band, Dean Gabber and His Gaberdines.

  Fronted by Pete Goss – aka Dean – they were a sight and sound to behold on the Swindon live scene, circa 1978.

  Says Dave: “We were all in love with The Ramones who had great songs which they hammered into the wall – bang, bang, bang. That inspired us.”

  He goes on: “They were silly times but great fun. I am stunned at how much energy and how much speed we were able to generate in those days. It was all alcohol fuelled.

  “I couldn’t play that fast today.” The band split when Dave was invited to join XTC.

•  Dean Gabber and His Gaberdines can be seen performing Friday On My Mind on YouTube.

• Featuring “outstanding Swindon musicians,” Tin Spirits have released two albums, Wired To Earth and Scorch.

• Big Big Train also have a couple of albums, English Electric Parts One and Two and have been described in one rock magazine as “an act of rare, often indescribable, brilliance.”

  Says Dave: “I’m getting to live out my prog fantasies.”