Mutual Energy has taken 40 years to come to fruition yet it always existed in some intangible form, because energy is an intangible commodity, yet, from the first time Alex & Tom met, got the guitars out and started to strum together, the energy was there and it was certainly mutual!
They met as students at Quorn Hall in September 1965 when Tom couldn't play very well and Alex could! They did the odd folk club together and strummed and became friends, and laid the foundation for a lifetime's friendship and music collaboration. It took 2 years of honing their individual guitar-playing skills, and believing that they could actually write music of thier own, when they bit the bullet! They decided to compose the music for their University's Drama Group's final production of Bertolt Brecht's 'The Good Woman Of Setzuan'. It was quite a challenge and it took all their combined, albeit limited, talents to create a suite of music that they would be happy with, and the cast would be enthusiastic enough about, to want to perform. And they did perform it with gusto and actually liked it too!
Student days ended, Alex moved to Leicester to teach and Tom went back home to Teesside to teach. They kept in touch and decided, in 1969, to form the duo 'Rhythm Of Life', and they gigged at a concert in 1970 which also included a performance by a future band member of Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, U.K. and Jethro Tull.
|
They decided to make a demo tape to send to the satirist John Wells, an old sparring partner with whom they had worked at Expo'67 in Montreal, Canada, where they appeared with him on a Canadian TV Special, singing a couple of folk songs.
Despite the miles between them, they still kept in contact and collaborated, and when Alex moved to Shrewsbury in 1976, they did a folk gig there and were well received once again. The Mutual Energy story, although up and running by now, actually became flesh in 1982 when Alex visited Tom and they wrote the song.
Alex and Tom, throughout the years, joined other bands and had other musical projects ongoing, yet always collaborated at a distance and when they got together, and they kept on improving their focus and adding to their songwriting catalogue.
By the 1990s they had both established their own independent recording studios and were then able to record demos of their own songs with total control at last. They formed the band 'GypsyKate' and performed at Alex's 50th birthday bash, and kept on writing and focussing until, in 2006,they finally, after 40 years of building towards it, decided to form the duo 'Mutual Energy'! This CD demo is the culmination of 40 years of friendship, guitaring, collaboration and focus.
We hope you enjoy its variety, profundity and appreciate the journey it took to get here!
By clicking on the link at the foot of the page for Band Space, you can hear the tracks and download them too for a small fee. If you like what you hear, become a fan and leave a message - we will really appreciate it!
|
