Nazareth Politics

[Suf22ism]

Firstly, thanks very much Billy for all the new info that has been uploaded on the site: it was both interesting and entertaining to read. I have a couple of questions relating to some of the points that you discussed in the NAZ sections. You mentioned that after Darrell was fired from the Band they received a fax from their agent Neil Warnock, stating, “I will no longer represent Nazareth if Darrell Sweet isn’t in the band’. Why would it have been such a big deal if Neil Warnock was no longer involved with them? Could’nt they have simply got a new agent instead of taking Darrell back again? It must have pretty hard for them to keep working with Darrell after what had happened…..
I was also wondering what you think about the last 4 Nazareth albums ( the Newz, Big Dogs, ROR telephone and tattooed on my Brain), all of which were produced by Yann Rouiller.Personally I think there are pretty good sounds there….certainly better than Snakes and Ladders!

[billyboy1]

Interesting questions. Let’s start with the latter: I personally found Newz, Dogs and Telephone difficult listens. After having put so much into No Jive and Move Me and ultimately losing my job I was curious (to say the least) as to what the new line up would come up with. Boogaloo included some old songs by Dan, Pete (and myself) which we’d rejected a decade before. (How bad could a song be to be rejected from Sound Elixir?)
The next 3 albums were obviously more involved by Jimmy and Lee’s influence cos, bottom line: Dan and Pete, in my opinion were lazy. They had been since Snakes and Ladders….
As for Tattooed, I honestly can’t bring myself to listen to it. When I met Pete at Ted McKenna’s funeral, he assured me I’d like it, but Naz without Dan doesn’t make any sense to me. (No disrespect to Carl Sentance, I’m sure he can sing like fuck.)
As for the Neil Warnock fax, I’m only able to go with what Pete told me at the time from a meeting we had in a Rosyth pub. As I think I explain in the website, Pete really wanted to keep the band together, but Darrell’s influence via Neil was a tipping point. Big D handled all our travel/bookings/hotels etc and Nazareth depended on The Agency for most of our European work. Interesting case in point: Years later, Tony Rocker (a guy I’d been working with, see website) was thrown out of Neil Warnock’s office for mentioning my name.
Politics exist, even in Rock and Roll.

[SeemeNaz]

Hello billy very nice to know that you contributed some tracks that are album the news. Could you tell me how and which songs on the news album?

[billyboy1]

It was actually the Boogaloo album to which I felt connected. As I said previously, many of the songs were originally written by Pete and/or Dan which I remember working on with them during the Sound Elixir era. Songs such as Light Comes Down, Open Up Woman, Robber & the Roadie and May Heaven Keep You in particular were rejects from this time. In fact, a version of the latter exists which Pete and I recorded with his local primary school kids.

[SeemeNaz]

Hello Billy, thanks for the reply.
My google translator informed album The news kkk
Yes correcting the question would be on the album Boogaloo

Very important for us fan information about cancellations.

may heaven keep you is a very nice sound to hear when traveling.
I read in some articles that Mccafferty’s favorite song is Light Comes Down

[Suf22ism]

Thanks for the answers Billy. As regards the royalties situation you alluded to the fact that Zal was in a similar situation to yourself; that is, not an official member of Nazareth Dumf but rather ‘a hired hand’. Given that he wrote ‘Hearts Grown Cold’ Big Boy, ‘Simple Solution etc all of which were recorded by Nazareth and remained in their live set for decades, this state of affairs must have struck him as a bit ironic. Fair enough, none of those were hits the way ‘Dream on’ was a hit….but still, it must have been a few pennies.
I found it interesting how you said that Pete was very much the leader of the band; I had always assumed it was Manny, given that he produced the albums, wrote most of the songs and was the lead guitarist…just goes to show.
I agree with you about the production of ‘Move Me’…Tony Taverner did a stonkin’ job on that album; Keith Richards once said that one of the problems with a lot of contemporary so-called Rock&Roll bands is that they can do the ‘rock’ but ignore the ‘roll’…that certainly can’t be said of that album.
One final question (if I may). Did you write ‘Thinking Man’s Nightmare’ from NO JIve? That’s a f….great rock(and Roll) song!!

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