Adrian Baker does a Roy Wood
Do-it-yourself SHERRY
ADRIAN BAKER, a new name. Sherry, an old song. Put the two together and hey presto, you’ve got a chart hit with your first ever single. That’s very satisfying, especially when you’ve done something of a Roy Wood on it and sung all the vocals and played all the instruments — except the drums that is.
So who is this Adrian Baker? Well he’s a guy who writes his own songs with ex-Stackridge man Roy Morgan, co-produces his own songs with Morgan, and up until stardom overtook him, was a much respected session singer who’d worked with Barry Blue and Paul Da Vinci.
His musical interest began at the age of seven when he started playing the piano, and by the age of 13 he’d graduated onto guitar. He joined his first band, a local outfit from Ilford, about a year later and turned professional at 17.
Through all this time Adrian was writing songs but such was the pop nature of the bands in which he played that nothing ever really came of those early melodic creations.
But he pressed on and was still playing with bands up until six months ago. That’s when things really started happening.
“We had some spare studio time one day,” explained Adrian, “so on the spur of the moment we decided to record Sherry. And those spur of the moment things always seem to work out best.”
There have been lots of Four Seasons’ numbers like Sherry in the charts of late, but their popularity didn’t have any bearing on the choice of song.
“No, we were going to do The Proud One at first,” went on Adrian, “but we couldn’t get hold of the lyrics. So we looked through some old songs and picked out Sherry. It’s a good job we didn’t do The Proud One actually because we didn’t know the Osmonds were doing it and they would have wiped us away.”
Vehicle
Despite the bulk of songs Adrian has penned over the years — most are in the files of his publishing company — as yet he has only three ready for a debut album due out in November. So the single choice of Sherry reflects neither the singer / songwriter goal he is aiming at, nor the totally the distinctive harmony sound which will feature on the album.
“Sherry was purely a vehicle for getting into the charts,” Adrian added.
“Of course we are very pleased that it has reached the charts, though it was a bit nerve racking watching it stay in the breakers for two weeks.
“But being my first solo effort, any success would have been pleasing.”
It was also a bit unnerving for Adrian at Top Of The Pops. Not only did he have to overdub all his vocals for the backing tape, but he’s only appeared on TV once before. — On Crackerjack about two years ago in a pick-up outfit called Buster.
He made it in the end though, laying down all the vocals and all the instruments, except the drums, for the TV backing tape just as he did for the single itself.
“There are four vocal parts on the single,” Adrian explained, “the lead and a three-part backing harmony. It took about one-and-a- half hours to put those down, and including all the instruments and mixing four hours in all.
Lessons
“I enjoy doing everything myself, because I want to get into harmony vocals, like the Beach Boys. And I want to concentrate on my own songs as well.”
All Adrian needs now to become a self-contained star is a few drumming lessons. Meanwhile he can rely on Roy Morgan to lay down the beat while he lays down six backing vocals before tea.
by Martin Thorpe
Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteWill do Mr Eli! :)
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