4.52am Issue: 008 13th November 2016

what he does. I think Andy had the same
problem with Free and the Andy Fraser
Band and that was why he left them too.
But he got there in the end so maybe it
was the right thing for him.”
It did leave you with an album out and the
band light – how do you go about replacing
Andy Fraser?
“Andy was a brilliant player so it was a real
problem, but we started auditioning and
had some good people – Boz Borrell from
King Crimson and later Bad Company and
then there was Tom Robinson. Tom was
really funny, he came along for an audition
and from the start you could see that he
wasn’t on the same level, and at the end
he said that he knew he wouldn’t get the
gig, but he couldn’t miss the chance to play
with us guys. You just had to laugh at that.
In the end Mick Jagger recommended
Busta Cherry Jones, who was a serious
player and we knew from his time with
Albert King and Ike Turner and he joined
along with Nick Judd on keyboards.”
Listening to the Sharks now, you didn’t
sound like the usual Supergroup,
“Sharks were definitely more of a groove
band rather than the long guitar solos and
huge arrangements of Led Zeppelin say.
We weren’t into rock at all, although we
loved the Doors and the Velvet
Underground – that whole garage thing. It
surprised Busta as deep down I think he
wanted to join Deep Purple!”
From there you were off and touring again,
until you stopped to record Jab It in Yore
Eye – how did the new line-up work out?
“Busta we knew what we were getting, but
I was never sure how Nick came to join the
band. It’s odd, but he just seemed to arrive
and be playing with us. Its only now that
I’m realising how much a part of the sound
Nick brought with him.”
What about the album, how did you feel
about that?
“Chris produced it and to be honest I like it
rather than love it. It was a very plain
production, which was fine but like I say, I
like it rather than love it.”
After the album you went to the U.S on tour
again, how did that go?
“By this time, we were a total failure. We
had been sold as another Led Zeppelin,
you’ve got to remember, when Led Zepp
went massive over there, everybody was
looking for the next big supergroup who
were going to go and do the same thing,
and then it was meant to be us and it just
didn’t happen. I think the record companies
didn’t look at what Jimmy (Page) had done,
how special it was, they just saw it as
pushing buttons, which showed what they
knew. But the U.S tour kept the band alive
for four months before it finally just clicked.
Everything came together. I think a lot of
the problems were with Busta, he just
wasn’t quick enough, but it wasn’t going to
last there was too much strife.”
Returning to the UK after the tour which
saw them heralded by Cream magazine as
‘The funkiest Supergroup on the planet’ the
band started to work on their third album
Music Breakdown . Drummer Marty Simon
wasn’t pleased with the album so he left to
be replaced by Stuart Francis, and Busta
stole one of Chris’ guitars to pay for a flight
back to the U.S.
What was it like at this point?