Gary "Gazza" Johnson
- jamesgeraghty
- Aug 17
- 6 min read
As I wrote about last week after his sad death, Gary Johnson, highly skilled master of the fretless bass and integral member of China Crisis through their terrific 80s run of albums - Working With Fire & Steel, Flaunt The Imperfection, What Price Paradise, Diary Of A Hollow Horse - is the man who also once bought sixteen year old me a beverage prior to their gig at Surrey University.
They were, without doubt, one of the most important bands for me through that mid to late 80s period, so it feels only right to follow up my obituary for him, by celebrating him as the starting point for our occasional wander through music, that we call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shield; as ever we will look for six(ish) random musically connections to get from Gary to king of shoegaze, Kevin Shields...
Gary Johnson was born in Liverpool and somewhere around the tail end of 1982, he joined the fledgling China Crisis, as they were riding a wave on the back of early success, with African & White making number 45, and Christian reaching 12. They were touring supporting Simple Minds on their New Gold Dream tour, with founders Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon needing new recruits to help fill out their sound when playing live.
China Crisis: Wishful Thinking (miming live on Spanish TV, 1985)
Daly and Lundon were from the Kirkby district of Liverpool, and had formed China Crisis after playing in a number of local post-punk bands. Unlike the more guitar-heavy indie sound many of that era followed, they started to take their nod from their 70s influences, namely Brian Eno, Steely Dan and David Bowie. By the end of the decade the band had managed three UK Top 40 albums and five Top 40 singles, but called it a day in 1989. When they made more music in 1995, Johnson was involved again, but this time working as a session musician. Daly and Lundon have toured consistently over the last decade or so.
The Steely Dan influence on China Crisis was huge, and things came full circle in 1985, when main man, Walter Becker, ended up producing Flaunt The Imperfection. It seems he had heard a track or two from Working With Fire & Steel, which piqued his interest - it seems the song Papua in particular caught his attention, which is nice for this story, as Gary Johnson's bass lines are such a big part of that tune - and he stated an interest in working with the band. The story goes that Eno was first choice to produce Flaunt, but was unavailable, and so Becker ended up with them at Parkgate Studio in Sussex. His influence is instantly apparent, with the band tighter than ever, yet with a more relaxed feel. Ian Cranna, writing in Smash Hits, was impressed, saying it was "their most consistent and stylish set yet." He would also produce fifth record, Diary Of A Hollow Horse.
Steely Dan: Reelin In The Years (live on Midnight Special, 1973)
Becker had met Donald Fagen at Bard College in upstate New York, and they both ended up moving to Los Angeles in 1971, where they formed Steely Dan. They had a good run through the 70s, with some notable success, including six US Top 20 singles, before splitting in 1981. They would reunite in 1993 and play on, right up until Becker's death in 2017. In that twelve year hiatus, Becker did production work, not only for China Crisis, but also for acts like jazz pianist John Beasley and singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones.
Active since 1979 and her self-titled debut album, Rickie Lee Jones was distinctive because, "few singer-songwriters are as individual as Rickie Lee Jones, a vocalist with an expressive and smoky instrument" (AllMusic).
Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker, was Rickie Lee Jones critically acclaimed fourth album. She had sought him out to work with her as she had really liked Steely Dan's The Royal Scam. She wrote most of the songs for the record by herself, but did co-write a few with her husband Pascal Nabet-Meyer and Becker - and there was one cover version, Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying.
Rickie Lee Jones: The Horses (audio only)
Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying was written by the members of Gerry & The Pacemakers, but it was first recorded by Louise Cordet. She was already known by the band, having toured with them before, and her version came out in February 1964. No sooner was her record out than they also decided to record it, with the Pacemakers version hitting the stores in April 1964, of course produced by George Martin. It would make number 6 in the UK and in reaching 4 in the US, would give them their breakthrough there.
Gerry & The Pacemakers: Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying (live on Ed Sullivan, 1964)
Dating all the way back to 1956, they had initially been called Gerry Marsden & The Mars Bars, before the threat of legal repercussions from a well known chocolate manufacturer. The band consisted of Gerry Marsden and his brother Fred, along with Les Chadwick and Arthur McMahon, who was replaced by Les Maguire in 1961. They were signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein to Columbia Records. Their initial success almost dwarfed that of the Beatles too - they became the first act in the UK to have the first three singles all hit top spot - How Do You Do It?, I Like It and You'll Never Walk Alone.
It would be twenty years before this feat was repeated.
Interestingly (to me), the name Frankie Goes To Hollywood comes from a movie advert for a Frank Sinatra film. The line-up settled down with Holly Johnson, Mark O'Toole, Brian Nash and Peter Gill, playing their first gig at Pickwick's pub in Liverpool, where they recruited Paul Rutherford. They wanted to be provocative and modern, fusing punk and disco - and boy did they achieve that!
FGTH: Two Tribes (on Dutch show Countdown, 1984)
Producer Trevor Horn was a fan and recruited them to his new label, ZTT. The furore and subsequent BBC ban for debut single Relax is now a thing of legend, but it was enough to ensure they made number one. Follow up, and no less controversial (because of its music video), Two Tribes also made it to the top spot. So, when third single The Power Of Love powered to number one in December 1984, they completed their total dominance of that year and equalled that Gerry & The Pacemakers achievement of two decades before. Fourth single, and title track of their debut album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, managed a paltry number two placing the following March... It would be more than ten years before this achievement was equalled again, and then beaten, by the Spice Girls, who had a run of six number ones across 1996-97.
Trevor Horn is perhaps one of the most noted pop influencers of the whole 1980s decade. His father had played double bass in the Joe Clarke Band, and he himself also started with that instrument. He taught himself to sight read music, before moving onto electric guitar. He had set the scene just prior to that, when his band The Buggles had a perhaps surprising hit with Video Killed The Radio Star in 1979 (it would be the first video aired on MTV a few years later). He even had a brief stint in prog rock band Yes as the 80s dawned!
The Buggles: Video Killed The Radio Star (official music video)
But from 1981 he concentrated on production, working with pop acts like Pet Shop Boys, Dollar and ABC, but also exploring new avenues with the likes of Grace Jones and former Pistols' svengali Malcolm McLaren. He would earn himself three Brit Awards for Best British Producer, a Grammy for the Seal song Kiss From A Rose, and an Ivor Novello Award in 2010 for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
While intimidating Jamaican legend Grace Jones' biggest commercial album, Slave To The Rhythm (1985) was produced by Trevor Horn, more than twenty years later, her tenth record, Hurricane, included assistance by another legend of production - Brian Eno.
Grace Jones: Corporate Cannibal (official music video)
It was her first album of new material in nineteen years (since 1989s Bulletproof Heart), although the title track dated back to a 1997 collaboration with Tricky (then called Cradle To The Grave). She was also reunited with the Compass Point Allstars, the band put together by Chris Blackwell for his legendary Island Records studio in the Bahamas - Sly & Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah Thompson. It was not recorded in those studios, but they ensured some of that reggae flavour was added.
Brian Eno was credited as a 'production consultant' on the Hurricane album, although the main production was handled by Ivor Guest (who is probably best known for his work with Beyonce). Eno also provided keyboards and backing vocals to the record.
He is probably best known for his early stint as keyboard twiddler in art-glam legends Roxy Music and for his experimental ambient solo work. In terms of production, he made his name producing work by U2 (Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree etc) and David Bowie (and sadly, also Coldplay). However, for Record Store Day 2018, he worked on a double-A 12" single - The Weight Of History / Only Once Away My Son - a pair of ambient noise tracks for which he collaborated with none other than KEVIN SHIELDS.
Eno & Shields: The Weight Of History (audio only)
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