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Vinyl Relics: Hollywood Dream by Thunderclap Newman
Vinyl Relics: Hollywood Dream by Thunderclap Newman
How does that old saying go? “If you can’t beat ‘em, have them join you as a guest on your podcast.” That may be slightly off…
I’ve been wanting to feature Thunderclap Newman’s sole album, Hollywood Dream, on the show since day one. The problem? All three members have passed.
So I had this theory…
Since Pete Townshend produced it and was the catalyst behind bringing the three musicians together, perhaps he would be interested in discussing it? I figured, after all the countless Who and solo interviews he’s given, surely it would be refreshing to talk about a little-known and tiny part of his career.
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who came up with that bright idea. Unbeknownst to me at the time, as I was trying to figure out how to connect with Pete, Mark Wilkerson was already one step ahead of me. He was already interviewing him for his wonderful book Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story.
Mark posted his interview with Pete online and, sure enough, Pete was indeed thrilled to talk about his days with this band. And thanks to Mark’s relentless research, he is THE expert voice on this topic. Even Pete said so: “You know more about the band than I do”. So, it only made sense to bring Mark on to my show to help tell this wild tale.
While the band Thunderclap Newman may be a footnote in history, it’s a fascinating one. If you’ve never heard of them, I’m betting you’re aware of their signature tune “Something in the Air”. As soon as the first chords and lyrics hit, you know you’re in for a good time. Call out the instigators….
The story behind the band is as fascinating as the music they created. Mark astutely started his book by devoting a chapter to each of the band members, or perhaps more accurately, “characters”, as that is exactly what each of them is. The crazy thing about this whole story is how these three have nothing in common, not from a societal or musical background. Their only link was Townshend himself. Yet when brought together, magic ensued.
Andy Newman was as unlikely a rock star as you’ll ever find. A large man, rather rotund and very tall. He dressed in a suit and hat and smoked pipes, like a throwback from the past. His musical influences were steeped in American 1920s and 30s jazz. Bix Beiderbecke and Jelly Roll Morton were among his favorites. And he would be quick to whip out obscure facts about recording sessions and other bizarre information to anyone who would listen. Andy was a self-taught pianist who shaped those early jazz influences into his own unique style, banging away on the Edwardian family piano so hard that he broke it. Thus, the nickname “Thunderclap” was born.
But Andy “Thunderclap” Newman and the band Thunderclap Newman are two different things. The band name was chosen without his input, and he was not overly thrilled by it. Long before the band existed, Pete Townshend and some friends went to see him play and were enamored by him. Pete thought his idiosyncratic style was simply genius.
And there was another side to Andy, too – he was very technically minded. Back in those days, telephone lines in England were operated by the post office, and it was Andy’s job to climb telephone poles, replacing relay switches, etc. He was known as a “post office engineer.”
When The Who were attacking the charts consistently, Pete was at home in his little makeshift studio, laying down fully arranged demos. As any fan of The Who knows, Pete’s demos were complete songs, almost note-for-note, exactly how The Who would later record them. Examples of these songs would later appear on Townshend’s albums Scoop and Another Scoop, among others, to the delight of Who fans around the world. Pete said it was through Andy that he became interested in recording demos, as Andy had done a similar thing.
At a chance recording session where Pete was producing a little-known band that went nowhere, he met drummer John “Speedy” Keene. For a few years, Keene would become an important figure in Pete’s life. Pete hired him as his driver, and Keene laid down some drums on some of Pete’s demos. It’s reported that when Keith Moon left The Who during a short spat, Speedy filled in for a couple of gigs. Keene was even the best man at Pete’s wedding.
You may also know the name Speedy Keene, as it was he who wrote “Armenia City in the Sky”, the only original song ever recorded by The Who outside of the band members. It was the opening track to their ’68 release, The Who Sell Out.
Jimmy McCulloch was a young, hot-shot guitarist. And by young, I mean really young. When he was just 13, his band The Jaygars opened for The Who, and Pete was knocked out by how well the kid could play, even though the guitar was “bigger than he was.”
By 1966, The Who’s then-managers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert had started Track Records, initially intended as a vehicle to release Who material. But eventually, they signed other acts like Golden Earring, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Pete personally had a hand in signing Arthur Brown, whose song “Fire” is a ’60s psychedelic rock staple.
Fast forward to 1968, and Pete’s heavily involved in writing the material for what would become the masterpiece Tommy. He was also interested in production and had thought about recording and producing an individual album for each of the three musicians he was so keen on. But, being so occupied by the Tommy project, recently married with a newborn at home, he simply didn’t have the time necessary to devote to each of the three musicians.
Managers Stamp and Lambert came up with a wild idea: why not put them together into a band?
And with that, the Thunderclap Newman story starts to take shape. Speedy and Jimmy instantly agreed, but Andy had reservations. Andy had a steady gig with the post office and, more importantly, a pension. He agreed to leave his job on one condition: that Track Records would match his retirement plan.
Now it was up to Speedy to write some songs. Pete came around to Speedy’s flat to see what he was working on.
“Got any new songs?” Pete asked.
“No”, said Speedy.
“Nothing?”
“Yeah, nothing.”
“Well, you must have something…”
“Nah, nothing”.
“Well, how about a chord then, I see you have a guitar over there”.
Speedy picked up the guitar and played a chord.
“Ah, I see it’s in open E tuning, that sounds like it could be something”, Pete said.
“Well, yeah, I have that, I guess”, Speedy said.
Pete recounted how “on and on it went for hours”, how Speedy was “loath to let it out”, but that the full song was there, fully arranged. He described it as him having to “extract it out of him.” That song was “Something in the Air”.
Call out the instigators…
The three band members all met for the first time at Pete’s house, in the tiny recording studio that he had converted partially from a bathroom. There, they recorded “Something in the Air”, which Pete described as “magic”. In addition to production, he also added bass.
The single was intended to be titled “Revolution”, but with the Beatles’ White Album just released, the title was quickly changed.
In an interesting coincidence, “Something in the Air” was released on the same day as the Tommy album, in May 1969. By this time, Pete had gone on tour to promote the band’s new album.
In his absence, the unexpected happened – or as Andy Newman described it, “something terrible happened”: the single started climbing up the charts. It took a few weeks, but it eventually landed at #1 in nine countries. Suddenly, Thunderclap Newman appeared on the BBC, and Track Records, wanting to cash in on the unexpected success, pushed them on the road. This turned out to be an ill-thought-out idea, as the band suffered live. They didn’t have enough material. Speedy also realized very quickly that he couldn’t sing and play drums at the same time, and Andy’s “boogie” style of 1920s jazz piano didn’t go over well in a live setting.
The short tour was a disaster.
When Pete arrived back from the US tour, he made his way to the English countryside, where the band was living together, a quaint spot dubbed “The Old Cornmill”. He had heard the news about their shoddy live gigs and read them the riot act.
Eventually, Speedy had enough new songs to get into the studio to flesh out an album. It took a while, and Pete had his other commitments, so by the time Hollywood Dream was finished, it had been over a year since “Something in the Air” had been released. And as Mark put it, “the air in the balloon was gone.”
Hollywood Dream never bothered the charts at all, and the band sank into obscurity. Andy never got that pension from Track Records, as they folded too.
Speedy went on to record a couple of mildly interesting solo albums and, in a strange twist, also produced the first Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers album as well as the debut Motorhead album. After that, however, he dropped out of the music scene, spending most of his days living as a relative recluse on a houseboat. He passed away in 2002.
Andy released one solo album titled Rainbow that received terrible reviews, but Pete thought it was brilliant. He dabbled in music here and there, sometimes in comedic settings, but for the most part was never heard from again. He was essentially penniless, living for years squatting in abandoned houses, working as an electrician, and passing away in 2016.
Jimmy McCulloch went on to bigger and better things. After Thunderclap, he joined Stone the Crows for an album and then got his big break: joining McCartney in Wings. During his tenure, they released three huge albums, Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, and Wings over America. He can be heard singing on the tunes “Wino Junko” and “Medicine Jar”, both of which he co-wrote.
Jimmy, however, had a bit of a wild side. After all, he was still only in his early twenties. McCartney unceremoniously dismissed him from the band, and Jimmy went on to other projects. When he didn’t show up for a couple of days in a row for scheduled recordings, his brother Jack went to his flat. In his book, Mark vividly describes the sad situation and the controversy surrounding the skilled guitarist’s death at the tender age of 26.
Thunderclap Newman is but a footnote in musical history. But while they are known as a “one-hit wonder”, their album is SO much more than that. Sure, “Something in the Air” is the best song on the album–hell, it’s one of the best songs of the decade. But there are other fascinating tunes on there as well. If you’re a fan of The Who, check out “The Reason”, as it sounds like a track Townshend could have written. “Accidents” is a monster tune, clocking in at close to 10 minutes. “Wild Country”, “The Old Cornmill”, “I Don’t Know,” and the title track are all standouts too.
There is nothing that sounds like this album. Speedy’s songwriting is strong, and his drumming throughout is impressive. Andy’s barroom-style, boogie piano interludes take the songs into unexpected heights, while Jimmy’s guitar playing is outstanding. To think he recorded these songs between the ages of 15 and 16 is hard to comprehend.
Famously, Pete never had a #1 hit with his own band but managed the feat as a producer for “Something In The Air”. He looked back at his days with the band warmly, and he told Mark that these were his favorite recording sessions ever. Mark said, “I knew he was fond of his days with Thunderclap Newman, but I didn’t realize HOW fond”.
Mark’s book Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story is as good as a rock ‘n’ roll book gets. He not only tells one of the most fascinating rock ‘n’ roll stories you’ll ever hear, but also gets across the engaging human element to all of this. These three guys, four, including Pete, were all so unique. On paper, there was no way this band could work. In reality, it was exceptional…as is Mark’s book, which was published by Third Man Books (Jack White), and is available everywhere. As I said in my podcast, if they ever start a university course titled “Thunderclap Newman 101”, this will be the textbook. There will never be another book written about the subject because there is nothing left to say. Mark interviewed over 50 people connected with the band and uncovered every morsel of interesting information.
If this record were simply mediocre, the story would be an interesting one. But because the album is so strong, it makes this story much more compelling. AllMusic Guide ended their glowing review with this, and I can’t think of a better way to summarize it: “So many bands have been hauled out of obscurity to be tagged the greatest secret you’ve never been told. Thunderclap Newman are one of the few who actually deserve that epithet.”
Farmer John hosts the Vinyl Relics podcast, a weekly show that features stories about the unknown and overlooked albums that time has forgotten, and often includes commentary from artists involved in each project. Part of Pantheon Media, the show streams on all podcast platforms. Vinyl Relics is a podcast for groovy people who like music…
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