Siedah Garrett: Renaissance Woman
The award-winning singer and songwriter launches a luxe accessory line of handbags

June 2008

By Kenya N. Byrd

Even thousands of miles away talking via phone, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Siedah Garrett’s kinetic energy surges through the wire. She is a woman on fire, making lyrical magic that has garnered her a Grammy Award and an Oscar nod for The Dream Girls hit “I Love You I Do”. Although her credits read like an iTunes “Greatest Hits” library, Garrett is humble about her accomplishments. Her Midas Touch has blessed artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Korrs, Al Jarreau, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and Jennifer Hudson, just to namedrop a few. But it’s her sultry vocals on the seductive 1998 duet “Don’t Look Any Further” with former Temptations frontman Dennis Edwards that still resonates in many of our hearts and spirits. Essence.com caught up with the rock star to discuss her fashion sense, working with Michael Jackson and what it means to have Oprah’s stamp of approval.

Essence.com: Long time no hear! What have you been up to besides winning Grammys and writing stellar songs?

Siedah Garrett: (Laughs) I know right? Currently, I am in the studio putting together an album, but I'm taking my time. Right now my focus has been on my accessory line.

Essence.com: You're busy. So tell me what goodies can a girl get from the Siedah Garrett accessory line?

S.G.: I have croc and crochet handbags, which will be featured in upcoming issues of In Style and O magazines. They've been pretty well received. Right now, I'm just looking to marry and brand all the creative parts of me because I am a songwriter, singer, artist and designer. Branding myself will make the artists and fans who love me aware of all the other things I do.

Essence.com: Sounds like a master plan. So did you launch your line because you have a handbag fetish?

S.G.: Oh, I am a bag whore! Honestly, I started sewing these bags for myself because I collect clothing labels and not necessarily designers. At one point, I started sewing all these labels I created on some luggage and all these women kept asking me where I got the bag. Once everyone caught on I could do this bag thing I became the pocketbook pimp—sewing bags for my friends and neighbors.

Essence.com: Good things happen when you tap into your innate talents. So how'd Oprah get wind of your bags?

S.G.: Well, it started at a Christmas party Quincy Jones had at his home a year ago. I reached for the purse I'd carried that night and Patti Austin saw it and asked me where I'd gotten it from. When I told her I'd done them she couldn't believe it. The next thing I know I had sold 15 out of 32 pocketbooks that were all in my trunk. I was slinging handbags at Qunicy's house and thanked him for allowing me to do it. He told me to leave the rest of the bags because Oprah was flying in the next day and he had a meeting with Mariah Carey and Benny Medina. Each of them took two bags from Quincy but I never heard from Mariah or Oprah. This year, my publicist received a call from O magazine expressing their interest in featuring my bags.

Essence.com: Wow an entire year later! That's why you can never give up hope.

S.G: You're right. I happened to run into Oprah at another Quincy party and I told her that someone from O called to say they were doing a spread on me and she said, “And who do you think told them to do that?” After I picked my mouth up off the floor I thanked her and kept it rolling to preprare for it all.

Essence.com: Yes, one endorsement from Oprah and your business is booming!

S.G.: Yes, I have to be ready because I remember what happened to that sister on her show who did those beautiful ceramic dishes. Once the orders came in, the demand for her supply was too much. I’ve tried looking for her site and she has no web presence. No one has heard or seen from her since. Now, the woman with the spanx, she was ready and I will be too. I don’t want to be the sister with the dishes. I’m going to be ready—not surprised.

Essence.com: Yes, sometimes we only get one chance and it’s sink or swim. I understand you also make beautiful masks.

S.G.: I started doing ceramics when I was flipping through some catalog that had these hand painted Italian dishes. I looked at those dishes, the cost per set and said, “I can make this!” So I started because I had the audacity to think I can do any darn thang. I started making all these different masks and hanging them in my house and would give them as birthday gifts to friends who expressed interest in them, but I don’t sell them. Who knows maybe one day I will.

Essence.com: And a birdie tells me that your voice helps sell cars?

S.G.: (Laughs) Yes, I am the official voice for Toyota for Southern California. I used to be one of the singers for their commercials and one day their voiceover person was sick and they asked if I could do it and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Essence.com: Who knew about all your hidden talents? Back to your music, the duet with Dennis Edwards “Don’t Look Any Further” is a classic and so is the video. Do you two stay in touch?

S.G.: We did that video in the basement of the Motown building. I think it cost $12.39! No, we don’t keep in touch. At the time, Dennis was very sick and he was acting strangely. Somehow we managed not to capture his behavior on video. Years later he called me from a rehab program and apologized. He told me he was really sick at the time.

Essence.com: What happened?

S.G.: Well without getting into specifics, I’ll just say he became very evil and ugly when I toured with him briefly. I didn’t speak to him for a long time. He knew he was wronk--that’s right I said, “wrong with a ‘k’!” (Laughs)

Essence.com: (Laughs) Hilarious, well that’s very wrong. At least, he thought enough of you to offer an apology. What inspired you to go from soul to rock?

S.G.: I don’t know if I had a particular genre I perform because I do pop, jazz, R&B, funk, show tunes—you name it, I do it. From a marketing standpoint, I’m not easily categorized and it’s an A&R’s worst nightmare. As a songwriter and artist I don’t have to be in one arena to be accepted. It’s like when Michael Jordan wanted to play baseball and they told him he needed to stick with basketball. I’m a true renaissance woman because I paint, design and so much more.

Essence.com: Too often artists are stifled and they never reach their fullest potential. Speaking of artists, will you be working with Jennifer Hudson on her new album since you received a Grammy for her soulful hit “I Love You I Do”?

S.G.: It’s been a really rude awakening dealing with her A & R guy. After meeting him through Jennifer who told me to call him I still haven't managed to connect with her. For three weeks, I called him everyday and his assistant always said he was unavailable. I’m like, I just want to work with Jennifer. If I haven’t spoken to him in three weeks, then we’re headed anywhere.

Essence.com: Sorry to hear that you were put through the ringer. You also wrote "The Man in the Mirror" for Michael Jackson and recorded the duet "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" with him. How is he doing and have you spoken to him?

S.G.: I don’t know and no, I haven’t spoken to him since I toured with him. I spent more time with him when we recorded the duet. I spent more time when we recorded the duet because we did it in French, English and Spanish in all these different languages and saw him every night for two hours.

Essence.com: So you two never spoke the entire time you toured together?

S.G.: No, not really because it was about rehearsals. You know, he is the most talented artist on the Planet. I’ve toured with Madonna and there is no one--aside from Quincy [Jones]--who’d I tour with again except Michael. It was so much fun. He was so amazing. We saw him every night there were some nights we were on stage clapping like we’d never seen him before and we worked with him every night and the man is just incredible. His shows take two days to have the set built and he needs about that much time to regroup and rest so Michael only performs twice a week. Madonna? I was on the road for three months and practiced everyday, all day.

Essence.com: Did you two get to hang out at all?

S.G.: No, we’d go to different cities and the next day we’d read the newspaper and learn what Michael did in that city. Other than that I saw him in rehearsals. I’m hearing rumblings that he might be back on the road so I just put my lil’ name in the ring to join him.

Essence.com: That’s great to hear everyone gets so caught up in celebrities' public personas because that’s all we’re given. How was it to work with him?

S.G.: Awesome, truly. Michael has a really acute sense of humor. He’s very funny, but he’s also a perfectionist. And serious about his art. When I did the duet with him I didn’t know him. I just happened to be in the studio for the second day working on "Man in the Mirror" and Quincy asked me what I thought about the song. I told him it was cool and then he asked me to lay down some vocals in the booth. So I go in and the next thing I know he tells Michael to join me so he does and starts facing me at the other music stand and begings singing. I’m trying to be all serious and Michael starts throwing peanuts at me, but Quincy doesn’t see him so everytime I’d start cracking up Quincy would be like, "Siedah you’re wasting studio time!" And Michael is over there just cracking up. He has a great sense of humor and is like a big kid.

Essence.com: That's hilarious! You also worked with the Brand New Heavies. How was that experience?

S.G.: (Feigning a British accent) Dahling, I lived in London for two years. The Brand New Heavies are really different. The group has been together since they were in grade school and they’ve always had an American lead female singer yet they hate her because she is the focus of the group. I started with the group as a writer and wrote an equal number of songs for each of the band members. For a year and a half, they had several auditions to look for a lead female vocalist they couldn’t find anyone who could sing the demos I done for them and they asked if I wanted to be in the band so I said sure. It was a combination that didn’t work out because of personality clashes. It was fine when I was writing from afar but touring and recording with them was a different animal. I lasted for one record because it was all I could stand.

Essence.com: Making music isn’t always harmonious. The Heavies and N’dea Davenport have reunited.

S.G.: N’dea Davenport and the group, they fall out all the time and she comes back and that’s their deal but evidently it’s beneficial for both.

Essence.com: What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next. What's the one thing you learned about yourself?

S.G.: I discovered that I have value because as a kid I was not taught that. I was taught that I was a burden and problem. Perhaps, if my mother had really thought about it she would never have had children. My sister and I were raised by my grandmother.

Essence.com: Our upbringing makes us who we are but not who folks will remember us as. We create our own history and legacy. What do you hope yours will be?

S.G.: I am reminded of my legacy daily whenever I meet someone and they tell me how my music has changed their lives like one woman in Germany told me that “Man in the Mirror” stopped her from committing suicide and we cried together. That’s legacy enough for me.

Stevie Wonder Remembers John Lennon, Paul McCartney Jam Session In VMan Magazine

Movin’ Up With The Eagles

Cameron Crowe - November 4, 1972 – November 18, 1972

Courtesy of the Door (aka San Diego Door)

(L-R) Frey, Meisner, Henley & Leadon. Photo Courtesy of Gary Elam

The legendary fertility of the Los Angeles folk-rock scene, ever since its 1966 inception, seemed to have in actuality spawned twice as many heartbreak stories for every one of success. Matching every Byrds or Buffalo Springfield, there was a multitude of struggling talents whose short-lived careers peaked with a a 15-minute third bill set at the Whisky.

Eagles is the result of four spirited singer-songwriter-musicians who have all been down the road of minor success and major frustration and have finally found a band that clicked.

Don Henley, Eagles’ drummer, initially played in a high school band for six years. The group, Shiloh, actually cut a record on Epic that no one at Epic seems to know anything about except the members themselves.

Bernie Leadon, rhythm-lead guitarist, first became involved in the business through a group by the name of Hearts and Flowers. From there, he secured a position as guitarist and vocalist for Dillard and Clark and later went on to be the same for The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Randy Meisner is the band’s bassist. A very quiet person, Meisner made the rounds in a handful of Midwestern bands before helping Richie Furay and Jim Messina form Pogo. After Meisner left, the band changed its name to Poco and released Pickin’ Up The Pieces. According to Furay, most of the bass and background vocal parts on that album were the un-accredited Meisner.

Glen Frey may well be the dominating musical personality of Eagles. His rhythm-lead guitar work and vocals present an image conspicuously present on “Take It Easy” and “Peaceful Easy Feelin’”. Before joining/forming Eagles, Frey was one half of the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with John David Souther.

On stage, Eagles play a clean, uncluttered set with a euphoric touch of joy. The aura surrounding them is one of impending super-stardom, much like the presence of Yes, Jethro Tull, Carole King and Procul Harum in their earlier days.

Meisner kept silent throughout the following conversation, choosing to remain quietly attentive. Later he responded with a “I like to listen”. Hopefully, it was sincere.

How did Eagles form?

Henley: We formed through friendships with Linda Ronstadt. We had all done gigs with her at one time or another, sitting in on sessions and so forth. That’s how we all met and decided to form the band. Bernie came one night and sat in on a gig at Disneyland.

How have you found the crowd’s reaction to your change with the success of “Take It Easy”?

Henley: We went on a tour with Joe Cocker and Jethro Tull even before the single was released. With Tull, it wasn’t so hot because the band’s a supergroup. Everybody wanted to hear them and no one else. After the single and the album came out, we did a tour with Procul Harum which was great. We were getting familiar reactions and the people were willing to listen.

What do you think of stage theatrics?

Leadon: They’re kind of an English tradition.

Henley: Yeah, Glyn Johns, our producer, seems to think so too. American groups just like to stand up there and play the songs. Try to get by on just the music. It really depends on the age your audience is. Younger kids dig to see all that shit, but older kids just come to listen more or less.

Do you have a favorite audience. One that’s easier to play to than others?

Frey: Yeah, an audience that can get up and dance when they feel like it. An audience that isn’t confined by chairs.

Is the group past its growing pains yet?

Henley. Not really.

Leadon: I think we’re past the first batch at least.

Henley: Yeah, we passed the first set, now we’re into the second set. The adolescent growing pains. That’s good, though . . . when you’re not having growing pains, you’re stale.

Do you feel yourself evolving in any particular direction?

Frey: We just want to do more songs. There’s only four of us . . .

Leadon: There’s only four of us, but then there’s just four of us. Everybody’s pretty strong in their own right, and everybody’s got a lot of background. We’ve all got different music in our background. So . . . the first album was maybe . . . in those ten tunes we were able to squeeze . . .

Frey: More of a statement of our background than anything else.

Leadon: Yeah. One song from each area of our roots. We could do another album of just songs out of our backgrounds. Easy. There’s so much in our backgrounds . . . there’s country music . . . there’s blues . . . rock ‘n roll, gospel, bluegrass, gospel bluegrass, gospel rock . . .

Why don’t you add a steel guitar to your stage act?

Frey: Bernie’s the steel guitar.

Henley: Yeah, he’s pretty well covers that. He has one of those things that bends your guitar strings to make it sound like a steel guitar.

Leadon: Sneeky Pete from the Burritos isn’t working. We could have gotten him. But the reason we didn’t was because the two of us (Frey and himself), when we started this band, could just barely hold it together. We want to get really strong by forcing ourselves to do it.

Frey: When you’ve got five guys in a band, someone can always be lazy on a song. They’ll always be four other guys working. We have to play harder, and it’s alot leaner, but there’s a little more air . . . there’s alot more open spaces.

Leadon: We thought about all that, but we just decided that four guys is enough. Everybody’s pushing harder. That’s the whole thing.

What were you trying to accomplish with Eagles?

Leadon: The hardest thing for any musician to do is to be doing what music they think they should be doing . . . doing the music you dig, and having it still be commercially accessible enough to have it sell and make enough money so tht you can keep on doing it. That’s what we were trying to accomplish . . . I think we did.

Frey: We’ve got four voices to sell our records, so instrumentally we’re free to get better playing the music we want. It’s like the yearly modifying of a V-8 engine. You make basic modifications on it every year or analogically, every album. So we’ll just keep changing the stage . . . the music . . . with the vocals being the main entity.

Will you ever get into solo albums?

Frey: Not me.

Leadon: I don’t think so. I must say, though, that all four of us could have easily done a solo album.

Frey: If Eagles broke up, you’d find us looking for bands. I don’t think you’d find us doing solo albums.

Leadon: Alot of four piece groups are pretty weak because of being locked into one vocalist and a certain type of instrumental treatment. But, because we’ve got so many singers, we can shape a song whichever way we want to.

Do you have a certain eagerness to get into the studio to do your second album?

Leadon: Oh yea.

Henley: Sure.

When are you gonna do it?

Henley: Looks like November.

How do you think that second album will differ from the first?

Leadon: It won’t be more complicated. I would hope looser. I would hope more free.

Frey: We might try a couple of longer numbers.

Do you have any particular policy to go into the studio with? For instance, no song should be overdubbed on . . . ?

Leadon: There’s two ways to record. You can prepare and go in to the studio, trying to get the record done as soon as possible, with the feeling that a song tends to deteriorate with age. Or you can go in with a tune not really formed, and let it develop in the studio. You let it evolve on tape, more or less. That way you’ve captured the initial idea on tape, whereas the other way you try and get the best performance. Sometimes the spontaneous shit is better.

Henley: With the first album, our songs were really rehearsed. We rehearsed them for months. This time we’re gonna go in . . .

Frey: A little bit looser.

Henley: . . . with less rehearsal.

Frey: The basic structures this time, more or less. We’re comfortable with our producer and everything now. We’ll be more loose. A little more natural.

Were you under a certain amount of pressure for the first album?

Frey: Why, of course, it’s your first album. It’s something that you can never be happy with. It’s like the New York Mets’ first baseball season. It’s got all the heartwarming ingredients and all the disappointments. I’ve forgotten about our first album already.

Your first album has done great for a first album. What do you attribute that to?

Henley: We have a very good manager and a very good record company and a very good producer.

Leadon: We were all part of the L.A. scene. We’d all been studio musicians to some extent.

Did you have trouble getting signed?

Frey: Naw.

Leadon: No. In other words, we were all known, not only with other L.A. musicians, but among different record companies as well. So far I’ve been on Capitol, A & M and Asylum. Everybody else has been on a different record company also. Everybody knew us. So, when it was known that we were together, and that Glyn Johns was going to be producing us we got signed . . . Just on paper it sounds like a good combination.

Was there a situation in recording the first album where some of L.A. musician friends were dropping in on the sessions?

Leadon: No.

Frey: We were completely alone in England. We worked everyday for seventeen days. Just Glyn and us.

Leadon: It was wintertime. There was nothing to do.

Frey: It was ugly weather, real cold.

Leadon: We worked twelve hours a day.

Are you gonna get into that scene where “famous” friends’ll drop in on your sessions?

Frey: Oh, you can do it after a while, but you gotta be tough in front and show everybody who you are before you get into that. We could have got Nicky Hopkins to come and play keyboards for us, but . . .

Leadon: We want to record ourselves.

Frey: It’s too easy to make records with eight people playing on them. It’s just too easy to have a conga drummer and a tambourine player, and . . .

Leadon: Everything we recorded we did four piece, so we could do it live. Most of the people with eight-nine guys in their band can’t play their LP stuff live.

So there wasn’t alot of overdubbing?

Leadon: No. I didn’t go in and put two different guitar parts on the album that I wouldn’t be able to play in person.

Right. The only part that’s noticeably overdubbed is the banjo in “Take It Easy”.

Leadon: Right.

Frey: He recreates that on stage to a certain extent, by picking his guitar like a banjo.

At what point does performing become a chore for you?

Leadon: When circumstances are fucked. When you have to fight it all the way. When technical problems are harming you and the crowd doesn’t want to hear you.

When you work out your tunes, do you write lyrics to fit the mood of a particular riff, or do you . . .

Frey: That’s usually what I do. I usually sing nonsense lyrics, whatever comes into my head, just trying to establish some kind of melody with the chords . . . then I sit down and write lyrics.

Leadon: I don’t even do that. I make a guitar instrumental up.

When you went in to do “Take It Easy” did you know it was going to be a single?

Frey: We sorta tried to make a single out of it, that was one of the songs we treated with special care.

Were you under pressure to cut a single?

Frey: No. They (Asylum) heard the album and they picked the single.

Do you plan on becoming a singles band?

Henley: We don’t necessarily want to become a hit singles group.

Leadon: That means you’re a pop group and you get to play Vegas.

Frey: We’ll probably always do albums. I don’t know if we’ll ever cut a forty-five.

Henley: We chose to do it that way in the beginning ’cause it’s faster and easier than coming up without a single. If it wasn’t for “Take It Easy”, we probably would have had to cut three albums before reaching the point we’re at now. There’s two schools of thought on that.

How much of your success do you attribute to “Take It Easy”?

Frey: We’ve sold a couple of albums thanks to “Take It Easy”.

The Eagles 1972

UGA 5-star football recruit Ray Drew and The Charlie Daniels Band

6:00 am April 25, 2011, by Michael Carvell

UGA-bound football recruit Ray Drew (far right, yellow shirt) and his younger brother with country music legend Charlie Daniels (Photo courtesy of Drew family)

Ray Drew, UGA’s 5-star football recruit, recently had the opportunity to meet one of his all-time favorite country music singers.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end from Thomas County Central and his younger brother went to go see The Charlie Daniels Band at a Valdosta concert earlier this month. Before the show, Drew stood in line to meet the 74-year-old Daniels.

That’s when the fun began.

“There were other people in line that found out that I was going to play football at the University of Georgia,” Drew recalled with a laugh, “and they started asking me for autographs while I was waiting for Mr. Daniels.”

The singer’s handlers noticed the small crowd gathered around Drew, and learned about his background as an ordained minister and future college football player by the time Drew got to the front. Daniels signed an autograph and posed for a picture with the Drew brothers, then invited them to stand on the side of the stage while he played his set, which — of course — included “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Toward to end of the performance, Daniels leaned into the microphone and said, “It’s too often you hear about young men doing the wrong things — doing drugs, going to jail and all that kind of stuff. Well tonight, I want to introduce you to a young man who is doing it the right way.

“Ray Drew, where are you?”

The spotlight quickly flashed on Drew, who was motioned on stage by Daniels. Drew greeted his new friend with a big hug to rousing applause from the crowd. The singer told a little bit of Drew’s story, but not without some fun. “Mr. Daniels is a huge Tennessee fan, so he teased me about going to the University of Georgia,” Drew said.

After the show, Daniels invited Drew on his tour bus for a quick conversation. They talked about faith, sports, and life. The singer has recorded a handful of gospel albums. “Mr. Daniels said he was proud of the fact I was a minister,” Drew said. “He said if I was ever down and needed someone to pray with, just to give him a call.

“[Daniels] asked if he could say a prayer for me. He did, and then I said a prayer for him and his band ‘for safe travels.’ Then we left. It was a good time and lots of fun.”

Drew said Daniels is one of his country favorites, along with Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks. “I know a good bit of country; it’s some of my favorite music to listen to,” he said. “I listen to all kinds of music, except for that hardcore heavy metal where they scream into the microphone.”

1967 Mahalia Jackson interview

May 28, 1961

Jet July 17, 1969

August 6, 1956 Elvis Presley interview

Hey, you changed your Avatar.

Herbie Hancock early 1970's interview. (Audio only, the video is footage of Herbie with Quincy Jones.)

Jet - July 22, 1985

1980

This is a COOL ASS THREAD

Thanks for the awesome articles, I always learn something with your threads. I can tell you're a music lover - keep it up !

LAKESIDE 1979 Interview

HAVING the strength and belief to stay together as a unit in the face of adversity is surely one of the tests that determines exactly who survives in the already-cluttered record business. Jerry Butler once put it pretty succinctly when he said "only the strong survive" and that maxim certainly applies to an aggregation known as Lakeside who have dealt with numerous encounters designed to test their faith — like having guns pulled at them, being ditched and having to scrape up money to go to California, dealing with the 'politics' of the record industry and all the things that are generally lumped together as paying dues.

Surviving all the ups and downs, Lakeside have finally emerged with a hit record "All The Way Live" and what looks like a very bright future.

But back to the beginning: all but two members of the aggregation hail from Dayton, Ohio, with the one member from Dallas and another from Los Angeles, Together, Mark wood, Oliver Shelby, Teymeyer McCain, Otis Stokes (all lead/background vocals), Norman Beavers (keyboards), Steve Shockley (guitar), Fred Lewis (percussion), Fred Alexander (drums and percussion) and Marvin Craig (bass), got together originally in 1969 under the name of Ohio Lakeside Express.

"We basically played in Ohio and the surrounding states — Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky and so forth" and apparently built up an enviable reputation for themselves. It was during a two-week sting in Oklahoma City in 1972 that the turning point came that brought Lakeside out to California.

They recall: "The first week was pretty cool — no real problems. But then the second week, the manager of the club we were playing at didn't want to pay us! He actually pulled a gun on us and things got pretty funky! We'd already packed because we were refusing to go on — so we just took our van and the $70 we had and headed out to California — it was all about "Los Angeles — here we come!" "

Fortunately, when the group lead guitarist Steve (who had actually lived in L.A.) was able to establish some immediate contacts for the group and before long, Lakeside (as they subsequently became) were a fixture on the music scene in L.A.

"Sure, there were times when it was hard," they relate, and times when we wanted to go back home. But somehow we managed to stick through it all. Plus we weren't totally confined to Los Angeles — , we did some gigs in Canada, up in Seattle, Oregon, San Francisco, we got to travel a little."

Through mutual acquaintances, the group met producer Frank Wilson, at the time still a staff producer at Motown, where he was working with acts like Eddie Kendricks and The Supremes. The result was two sides cut in 1974 for the label, neither of which were released.

"We left before Frank did, but when he left Motown, we hooked up with him again when he joined A.B.C. Records." With Frank producing, the group did one album for ABC "but we didn't even have a single released from the album! In fact, the company was going through all kinds of political turmoil at the time so the album just got lost.''

Reflecting on the album itself, the group agrees "it wasn't really representative of Lakeside — we didn't have any of our own material on it and although we were glad to have the album out there, we didn't feel it represented us as we were."

Needless to say, Lakeside felt the need to move on when the album didn't really happen. "Our split with Frank was amicable — we just knew we had to go on to something else. Fortunately, Dick Griffey (the president of Solar Records) had been managing us since 1975 and he knew that our situation at ABC was over. We'd been talking to several record companies but luckily for us, Solar was just beginning and Dick made us the kind of offer we simply couldn't refuse."

The result was Lakeside's first Solar album, which has given them their first hit in "All The Way Live". "We wrote all the material ourselves and it was co-produced by us with Leon Sylvers. We found it was a lot of fun working with Leon and, creatively, we gelled. We already had some songs ready and then there were others we wrote specifically for the album but we didn't have any problem with coming up with material because we're all consistently writing."

Talking about the hit, the team notes "we didn't really expect it to be big nationally because the expression, 'all the way live' is basically a west Coast phrase. But fortunately, folks everywhere picked up on the record and we're not complaining!"

The group have been on the road consistently but have found time to put together some of the material for their second album.

"We're continuing on the road but we expect to be in the studios in April. We know that Dick is going to be working on the album with us (he was executive producer on the last set) and hopefully we'll be working with Leon again too. "We're pretty sure that this next album is gonna be even better than the last one — one thing's for sure: we're satisfied that, at last, the real sound of Lakeside is being captured and people can see us and our originality — and that makes us very happy."

Future plans for the group include "eventually maybe some solo albums by different members" and "going to Europe now that we've got records out" (the group performed there before they ever recorded) as well as "crossing over to the pop market" and "one day, producing and working with other acts."

The positive sentiments that Lakeside express only reflect the fact that the strong do indeed survive and that's what this group of talented guys intend to do.

Soul Music

De-pe-shay Mode interview 1981

Howard Jones, Phil Collins, & Sting: 1985 interview at Live Aid

I always read your threads. Brings back so many memories. Amazing... I used to buy Circus with my allowance. Looking at that 'survive the 70s' cover made me sad.