Why did Paul build a studio in Lagos?
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I've been watching the documentary "Beware Mr. Baker" (Ginger) and in it he say's that he built a recording studio in Lagos. 1971. "Ginger Baker in Africa - Ginger Baker sets up shop in a recording studio he built in Nigeria's Lagos in 1971." If there was a studio already built, why did Paul have to build one in 1973? Maybe I'm missing something. I thought they were both with EMI.
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I seem to recall Paul ended up in Lagos because there were already EMI studio's there. If I'm right, Paul was browsing a list of EMI facilities world-wide and spotted Lagos and thought "why not? Let's go there" for no other reason than curiosity. Having turned to the internet that seems to fit the story posted in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_on_the_Run It, in part, led to the break-up of that current line-up as Jimmy McCullough and Denny Seiwell left the band before the trip. The entry also mentions Ginger Baker's invite to record at his ARC Studio where Picasso's Last Words was recorded. So Paul didn't build a studio in Lagos, he used an existing facility. Another aspect which caught my eye in that entry was that Paul was accused of coming to Africa to "steal" Afro-beat sounds and had to preview his tracks to satisfy a local musician that he hadn't. How times have changed, I'm sure that in this day and age he'd be criticised for going there and not engaging local musicians and connecting with the local sound. I suppose the most famous example of a mainstream artist doing exactly that is Paul Simon with his 1986 album Graceland. Martin
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Thank you. I didn't see that part.
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martinput:
I seem to recall Paul ended up in Lagos because there were already EMI studio's there. If I'm right, Paul was browsing a list of EMI facilities world-wide and spotted Lagos and thought "why not? Let's go there" for no other reason than curiosity. Having turned to the internet that seems to fit the story posted in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_on_the_Run It, in part, led to the break-up of that current line-up as Jimmy McCullough and Denny Seiwell left the band before the trip. The entry also mentions Ginger Baker's invite to record at his ARC Studio where Picasso's Last Words was recorded. So Paul didn't build a studio in Lagos, he used an existing facility. Another aspect which caught my eye in that entry was that Paul was accused of coming to Africa to "steal" Afro-beat sounds and had to preview his tracks to satisfy a local musician that he hadn't. How times have changed, I'm sure that in this day and age he'd be criticised for going there and not engaging local musicians and connecting with the local sound. I suppose the most famous example of a mainstream artist doing exactly that is Paul Simon with his 1986 album Graceland. Martin
Henry McCullough not Jimmy McCulloch by the way.
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BOYCIE:
Henry McCullough not Jimmy McCulloch by the way.
Old age setting in clearly
Stand corrected... Martin -
I would love to know what Paul McCartney thought of Ginger. THAT is the question I would ask him. Here's a trailer clip...
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And btw, Paul does mention in interviews that when they arrived, there was still construction going on at the EMI Lagos studio. This is on the "In His Own Words" CD.
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The same studio or different? It appears that Denny Laine was in a band with Ginger Baker called "Airforce" before Wings.
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Ginger had a studio. EMI had a studio. They had to put up windows & isolation booths & walls & stuff.
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In the documentary Ginger Baker said it took 3 years to build. So it was his own private studio? I think it was his private studio. I'm re-watching the doc.
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lindafan:
In the documentary Ginger Baker said it took 3 years to build. So it was his own private studio? I think it was his private studio. I'm re-watching the doc.
I don't know much about Ginger Baker but Lagos seems a strange place to build his own studio - I guess he lived there -but not exactly one of the worlds music hubs but EMI had one there - a very basic one by the sounds of it. I think Paul said they used to press records in a room out the back.
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Ginger Baker. Tool of the highest order! Oh, and if you're reading this Baker? GAGF! "Keith Moon as a drummer? Nah. He was good with The Who, I suppose, when he tried to play like me...Moonie was a wonderful guy, but if you're going to judge from minus two to 10 then I'm a golden 10. Mitch Mitchell [The Jimi Hendrix Experience] was a journeyman. He was hopeless. John Bonham [Led Zeppelin], Ringo Starr [The Beatles], Charlie Watts [The Rolling Stones]...they're all three or four" .... "But I hate the Stones and always have done. Mick Jagger is a musical moron. True, he is an economic genius. Most of 'em are *beep* morons...Paul McCartney boasts he can't read music! How can you call yourself a musician, then? John Lennon was the best musician in The Beatles by a country mile. He was a very talented guy. But George Martin was The Beatles. Without him they'd have been nowhere." - Classic Rock Magazine, Issue #142, March 2010
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moptops:
Ginger Baker. Tool of the highest order! Oh, and if you're reading this Baker? GAGF! "Keith Moon as a drummer? Nah. He was good with The Who, I suppose, when he tried to play like me...Moonie was a wonderful guy, but if you're going to judge from minus two to 10 then I'm a golden 10. Mitch Mitchell [The Jimi Hendrix Experience] was a journeyman. He was hopeless. John Bonham [Led Zeppelin], Ringo Starr [The Beatles], Charlie Watts [The Rolling Stones]...they're all three or four" .... "But I hate the Stones and always have done. Mick Jagger is a musical moron. True, he is an economic genius. Most of 'em are *beep* morons...Paul McCartney boasts he can't read music! How can you call yourself a musician, then? John Lennon was the best musician in The Beatles by a country mile. He was a very talented guy. But George Martin was The Beatles. Without him they'd have been nowhere." - Classic Rock Magazine, Issue #142, March 2010
Ginger Baker is a rather famously difficult personality (some use much stronger terms, lol).
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moptops:
Ginger Baker. Tool of the highest order! Oh, and if you're reading this Baker? GAGF! "Keith Moon as a drummer? Nah. He was good with The Who, I suppose, when he tried to play like me...Moonie was a wonderful guy, but if you're going to judge from minus two to 10 then I'm a golden 10. Mitch Mitchell [The Jimi Hendrix Experience] was a journeyman. He was hopeless. John Bonham [Led Zeppelin], Ringo Starr [The Beatles], Charlie Watts [The Rolling Stones]...they're all three or four" .... "But I hate the Stones and always have done. Mick Jagger is a musical moron. True, he is an economic genius. Most of 'em are *beep* morons...Paul McCartney boasts he can't read music! How can you call yourself a musician, then? John Lennon was the best musician in The Beatles by a country mile. He was a very talented guy. But George Martin was The Beatles. Without him they'd have been nowhere." - Classic Rock Magazine, Issue #142, March 2010
So many contradictions in that statement it's laughable.
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BOYCIE:
moptops:
Ginger Baker. Tool of the highest order! Oh, and if you're reading this Baker? GAGF! "Keith Moon as a drummer? Nah. He was good with The Who, I suppose, when he tried to play like me...Moonie was a wonderful guy, but if you're going to judge from minus two to 10 then I'm a golden 10. Mitch Mitchell [The Jimi Hendrix Experience] was a journeyman. He was hopeless. John Bonham [Led Zeppelin], Ringo Starr [The Beatles], Charlie Watts [The Rolling Stones]...they're all three or four" .... "But I hate the Stones and always have done. Mick Jagger is a musical moron. True, he is an economic genius. Most of 'em are *beep* morons...Paul McCartney boasts he can't read music! How can you call yourself a musician, then? John Lennon was the best musician in The Beatles by a country mile. He was a very talented guy. But George Martin was The Beatles. Without him they'd have been nowhere." - Classic Rock Magazine, Issue #142, March 2010
So many contradictions in that statement it's laughable.
His ego is bigger than....bigger than...I dunno....BIGGER THAN PAUL McCARTNEY'S!!!
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"Things began auspiciously when Paul McCartney arrived with Wings to record part of his Band on the Run album at Batakota, where due to the expertise of the project, the sound quality was far higher than any that EMI offered there at that time. However, it soon became apparent that all was not set to proceed without incident when at Wing's farewell party in Lagos, EMI's overseas managing director informed Ginger, ?we're going to screw you...this is EMI territory..'" So what they're saying, is that Ginger Baker built his own studio, recorded Wings (and whoever else) and EMI didn't like the fact that their artists weren't using the lesser EMI studio. So they "were going to screw" him. http://www.gingerbaker.com/archives/gingerbaker-archive72-6.htm
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lindafan:
"Things began auspiciously when Paul McCartney arrived with Wings to record part of his Band on the Run album at Batakota, where due to the expertise of the project, the sound quality was far higher than any that EMI offered there at that time. However, it soon became apparent that all was not set to proceed without incident when at Wing's farewell party in Lagos, EMI's overseas managing director informed Ginger, ?we're going to screw you...this is EMI territory..'" So what they're saying, is that Ginger Baker built his own studio, recorded Wings (and whoever else) and EMI didn't like the fact that their artists weren't using the lesser EMI studio. So they "were going to screw" him. http://www.gingerbaker.com/archives/gingerbaker-archive72-6.htm
This is not true Wings only spent one day recording at Baker's Studio.
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Apollo C. Vermouth:
lindafan:
"Things began auspiciously when Paul McCartney arrived with Wings to record part of his Band on the Run album at Batakota, where due to the expertise of the project, the sound quality was far higher than any that EMI offered there at that time. However, it soon became apparent that all was not set to proceed without incident when at Wing's farewell party in Lagos, EMI's overseas managing director informed Ginger, ?we're going to screw you...this is EMI territory..'" So what they're saying, is that Ginger Baker built his own studio, recorded Wings (and whoever else) and EMI didn't like the fact that their artists weren't using the lesser EMI studio. So they "were going to screw" him. http://www.gingerbaker.com/archives/gingerbaker-archive72-6.htm
This is not true Wings only spent one day recording at Baker's Studio.
Didn't Baker contribute to the recordings? Shakers on Vandebilt reprise or something?
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moptops:
Didn't Baker contribute to the recordings? Shakers on Vandebilt reprise or something?
I think so, along with several others who were in the studio at the time. I recall reading an interview with Ginger Baker (or possibly an extract from his autobiography?) that Ginger had helped Paul and Linda with visa's to gain entry into Nigeria and that Ginger had therefore assumed that Wings were going to record the wole album at Ginger's ARC studio. EMI had other ideas though.
