General Public

Mick Jones, Carbon/Silicon, BAD and cetera.
Kory
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General Public

Post by Kory »

I just read this on Allmusic...news to me. Is this true?
(Mick Jones, freshly booted from the Clash, was originally announced as General Public's lead guitarist; although he left the group very early on to start up Big Audio Dynamite and doesn't appear in the album photos, his guitar does appear on nearly all of the album's ten tracks.)
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Re: General Public

Post by BR16ADE_R055E »

MJ, Roger, Horace & Dave

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Re: General Public

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Both The Clash and The Beat broke up around the same time in mid-1983, with Strummer and Simonon 'firing' Jones from the The Clash and Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger leaving to start General Public. Wakeling and Ranking Roger joined up with keyboardist Mickey Billingham (Dexys Midnight Runners), bassist Horace Panter (The Specials) and drummer Stoker (Dexys Midnight Runners/The Bureau) to form the new band. Jones was originally announced as a band member, and based on his friendship with Ranking Roger agreed to come on-board. However, by the time the 'All The Rage' album was released in 1984, Jones had left to form Big Audio Dynamite, although he did play guitar on the majority of the album’s tracks.

Wakeling did an interview in 2009 speaking about the musical role and contributions that Jones played on the first General Public album:

Well, we did a bit of a barter deal. He had left the Clash and was starting Big Audio Dynamite, and he said to me that he had a load of lyrics, but he liked the way I played with the vocal melodies, and if he gave me a cassette of instrumentals, would I do some la-la-la and humming and ideas for melodies? And he would fit his lyrics around those, if they fit. So I did that for him, and in the process of doing that, I said where we were with General Public, and he was my favorite guitarist of all time, and would he be willing to play on some of the tunes? So we gave him the songs as they were demos and let him get a feel for them. And we asked about rehearsals and that, but he was a very intuitive player, and he said, “No, I’ve got an idea of the songs now. Wait ‘til you’ve got a finished song that’s begging for a lead guitar part, and I’ll just come down. I’m not precious about it. I’ll just play loads of things and you tell me what fits and throw away the rest.”

Although he had a very casual air about him, Mick was an incredibly hard-working musician. He would stay playing the guitar for hours and hours, searching as he played along with the track for what he thought resonated. And over the course of a few sessions, we got some of the most fantastic guitar parts for “Tenderness,” “Where’s the Line,” “Never You Done That, “Hot You’re Cool.” We got him mainly, I think, just to play on the songs that we thought might be potential singles or that had that smell of a hit about them. And then we let him pick some other songs that we played him, and he said, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a part for that.” And we let him play on “As a Matter of Fact,” I think that was one of the ones he picked out.

I had to control Ranking Roger a bit, though, because…I wouldn’t say he was a control freak, but he had a very particular opinion about everything. So Mick Jones would be starting to play something, and Roger would be on the intercom straight away, “Uh, Mick, could you try something like…” And I could see Mick Jones start to get frustrated, y’know? I let it go on about two or three times, and then I thought, “Oh, no, this could spoil stuff.” So, eventually, Roger went to push the intercom button, and I grabbed his hand, and I said, “Here’s an idea, Roger: why don’t you let the best guitarist in the world play what he wants? And if, at the end of the night, you still don’t think you’ve got what you need, then come up with a suggestion. But as you can’t actually play the guitar, why not shut up?” (Laughs) And there was a tense little moment, but he let Mick Jones do his thing, thank God!
Jones returned the favor to Ranking Roger in the mid-90's, inviting him to sing on the track B.A.D. track 'Harrow Road'. Ranking Roger joined Big Audio Dynamite full-time from 1996-98 and performed at several live shows with the band. Ranking Roger also joined the band in the studio to record the album 'Entering A New Ride.' However, the band broke up shortly after he joined when its last album was shelved by the record company and they refused to release it. In 1997, the band launched a new web site, primarily as a means to distribute songs from the Entering a New Ride album to the group's fans. The album is one of the earliest virtual albums ever and is available all over the Web.
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Re: General Public

Post by bazarboy75 »

Thanks for this Marky
Interesting to read

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Re: General Public

Post by Wolter »

That's a great story. Thanks, Marky.
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Re: General Public

Post by daredevil »

I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks for posting it Marky.

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Re: General Public

Post by Kory »

Very cool, thank you!
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Re: General Public

Post by Chuck Mangione »

What they said, MD!

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Re: General Public

Post by koabac »

But if this "barter" story is true, what songs did Dave Wakening work on melodies for Mick Jones? Are there any Jones/Wakeling co-writes floating out there?

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Re: General Public

Post by Marky Dread »

koabac wrote:But if this "barter" story is true, what songs did Dave Wakening work on melodies for Mick Jones? Are there any Jones/Wakeling co-writes floating out there?
There are the following demos available but other than what Dave Wakeling suggests above I don't know if Mick plays on them all.

01. General Public (Demo)
02. Tenderness (Demo)
03. Where's The Line? (Demo)
04. Never You Done That (Demo)
05. Hot You're Cool (Demo)
06. Anxious (Demo)
07. Hot You're Cool (Alt. Take)
08. Burning Bright (Unreleased)
09. Where's The Line? (Alt. Take)
10. Day To Day (Demo)
11. Never You Done That (Alt. Take)
12. Where's The Line? (Original Demo)
13. Anxious (Alt. Take)
14. Are You Leading Me On? (Demo)
15. Tenderness (12" Mix)
16. Limited Balance (Unreleased)
17. General Public (Remix)
18. David Jensen (Reprise)
19. General Public (Alt. Take #2)
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Forces have been looting
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Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

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Re: General Public

Post by dave202 »

Marky Dread wrote:
koabac wrote:But if this "barter" story is true, what songs did Dave Wakening work on melodies for Mick Jones? Are there any Jones/Wakeling co-writes floating out there?
There are the following demos available but other than what Dave Wakeling suggests above I don't know if Mick plays on them all.

01. General Public (Demo)
02. Tenderness (Demo)
03. Where's The Line? (Demo)
04. Never You Done That (Demo)
05. Hot You're Cool (Demo)
06. Anxious (Demo)
07. Hot You're Cool (Alt. Take)
08. Burning Bright (Unreleased)
09. Where's The Line? (Alt. Take)
10. Day To Day (Demo)
11. Never You Done That (Alt. Take)
12. Where's The Line? (Original Demo)
13. Anxious (Alt. Take)
14. Are You Leading Me On? (Demo)
15. Tenderness (12" Mix)
16. Limited Balance (Unreleased)
17. General Public (Remix)
18. David Jensen (Reprise)
19. General Public (Alt. Take #2)
Where would I look for those demos Marky? I'd like to give them a listen.
By the way, am I correct in thinking I saw Mick on tv with General Public, possibly for the GP single? TOTP?

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Re: General Public

Post by Marky Dread »

dave202 wrote:
Marky Dread wrote:
koabac wrote:But if this "barter" story is true, what songs did Dave Wakening work on melodies for Mick Jones? Are there any Jones/Wakeling co-writes floating out there?
There are the following demos available but other than what Dave Wakeling suggests above I don't know if Mick plays on them all.

01. General Public (Demo)
02. Tenderness (Demo)
03. Where's The Line? (Demo)
04. Never You Done That (Demo)
05. Hot You're Cool (Demo)
06. Anxious (Demo)
07. Hot You're Cool (Alt. Take)
08. Burning Bright (Unreleased)
09. Where's The Line? (Alt. Take)
10. Day To Day (Demo)
11. Never You Done That (Alt. Take)
12. Where's The Line? (Original Demo)
13. Anxious (Alt. Take)
14. Are You Leading Me On? (Demo)
15. Tenderness (12" Mix)
16. Limited Balance (Unreleased)
17. General Public (Remix)
18. David Jensen (Reprise)
19. General Public (Alt. Take #2)
Where would I look for those demos Marky? I'd like to give them a listen.
By the way, am I correct in thinking I saw Mick on tv with General Public, possibly for the GP single? TOTP?
Well I suppose their is always your friendly neighborhood Marky Dread.

https://mega.co.nz/#!KocywKJR!X5CHsbtZe ... 15MWtjgWH0

Mick's not in any of the tv clips I've seen. There are two tv appearances on Youtube.
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Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

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Nos Sumus Una Familia

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Re: General Public

Post by white man »

Dave is on tour later in the year.

Marky Dread
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Re: General Public

Post by Marky Dread »

white man wrote:Dave is on tour later in the year.
[youtube][/youtube]
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Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

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Re: General Public

Post by Heston »

Marky Dread wrote:
white man wrote:Dave is on tour later in the year.
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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