Rick Wright and Secret Affair

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PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Obituary News : Rick Wright
Rick Wright a.k.a. Richard Wright was the delicately spoken keyboard player with The Pink Floyd Sound. In 1978 the first keyboard I ever bought was the Farfisa Compact Duo and it was a source of great pride for me that it was the same model that fellow Old Haberdasher Wright had created his ground breaking psychedelic meanderings on in 1967. I'm very sorry he's gone to the Great Gig In The Sky.

Incidentally, that song caused me some mirth when watching a programme about the making of the album Dark Side Of The Moon. Wright said he invited this girl singer into the studio and he knew exactly what he wanted her to do - improvise. I couldn't help feeling that this was slightly akin to 'not' knowing exactly what he wanted her to do. She came in after the first take, apologising and saying how sorry she was and she'd do better on the next take, to which the Floyd replied 'that was great!' They kept it and the rest is history.

Another piece of history that seems to be more airbrushed out these days is Wright's penning of the Floyd single 'It Would Be So Nice'. This classic piece of English psychedelic twee-ness is oft forgotten. They were obviously ashamed of their blatant failed attempt to write a hit single, and it probably influenced them to avoid singles for most of the rest of their career.

More repeatable psychedelic classics are provided by Wright's 'Remember a Day' and 'See Saw' from the 'Saucerful of Secrets' album (Floyd's second), and the excellent B-side 'Paintbox'. These are all excellent. The early Floyd compilation 'Relics' was at pains to point out in the sleeve notes that 'Remember a Day' was recorded before 'See Emily Play', the much more often remembered psychedelic classic by Syd Barrett.

Wright plays some memorable organ on Barrett, Syd's second solo album, including the classic 'Gigolo Aunt'. Without knowing the facts my intuition paints a picture of a genuine attempt to make the Barrett project get up and fly, despite the state of its leading protagonist.

Wright allegedly felt the lash of Roger Waters' displeasure in later years, being forced out by his egotistical irritation. Subsequently Gilmour re-formed Pink Floyd leaving Waters the outsider. A veritable soap opera of rock history from which I can't help feeling Wright has had a sadly premature escape at the age of 65.

Concert Review : Secret Affair, Astoria 13/09/08
Popped in to see the headline act (8:30!) at this ridiculously early gig. Sean Kelly (a.k.a. Sage and the one who wears the Scott Tracy Thunderbirds outfit in the Adventures of Parsley) has taken on the mantle of bass playing duties for these guys via his role with the Fay Hallam Trinity.

It was indeed a mod-mungous event, and I was a little shocked to hear 'The New Avengers theme' get played a couple of songs before they came on. This is a new addition to the Adventures of Parsley TV Themes set, and I wondered if that had anything to do with its appearance tonight.

Sean has starred in a succession of comedy photos, pulling faces next to the heroes of mod. Him and his all time hero Bruce Foxton has been his myspace photo for a while. So it was fun to see him looking 'normal' and 'cool' alongside Ian Page of Secret Affair without pulling a face.

I played in Motherwell with the Solarflares, and we were supposed to be supporting 'The Affair' as they were known at that stage. However, at some point they must have tumbled that a fair chunk of the crowd were going to have trouble staying late enough to see the headline act and so they suddenly swapped with us.

At the appointed time we were ready to go on stage only to find that their set was running over and we were getting squeezed into no man's land. One of my proudest memories was wheeling my Hammond with Graham Day onto the stage whilst they were still on, to indicate that it was our turn now. Page was gracious enough to join in the comedy moment. A sound engineer helpfully interjected that I was pushing the heavy organ over a super dangerous cable that if I went through would cause my own death.

Roll on 6 or 7 years and here I am witnessing a highly professional set. In the mod revival days I couldn't help feeling that the studio production on mod singles left it sounding rather weedy. Here though, with a proper brass section, it was sounding great.

I was wishing they would add the New Hearts new wave songs that Page had first released as singles on CBS into the set, but I wasn't holding my breath. Ultimately it was the Secret Affair singles that got played and the crowd, who looked like they'd grown up with them, loved them.

At this point a screen descended to show pictures of the band as they were. Well you couldn't expect people to look the same after the best part of thirty years, but I felt they were sounding better than ever. I look forward to their event in December, when I believe they will be supporting From The Jam…

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]