Friday 7 May 2021
1981 - Adrian Baker Mailout: High Time (POLO)
Adrian Baker
Rush Release Limited
The Complete Promotion Co. ®
MAILOUT
“HIGH TIME” (POLO)
This is the one that was causing a big stir via white labels going around the specialist shops. The thing was no-one knew it was ADRIAN BAKER and everyone started raving about it, including, as James Hamilton said many "Hip" jocks (tee-hee!) needless to say when they found out about it there was no way they could slag it off so......here it is ...a great sound which works really well with anyone who likes dancing or listening to good disco music. TARGET on this one must be
TOP FlFTY......TOP FIFTY.....TOP FIFTY......so get spinnin'
Please ensure you return the special enclosed reaction report this is very important as they've got to be passed direct to the client. Make sure you use the one with ADRIAN BAKER written on it and get it back within 14 days......also initial reactions on the phone please.
Right that should be plenty for you to be getting on with,lots more excellent sounds on the way......thanks for all your help,
Best Wishes,
Ian Titchener.
Please note this is a limited mailout so your full support is essential.
1975-07-26 - Record Mirror - "Adrian Baker Does A Roy Wood: Do-it-yourself Sherry" Interview
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
1976-08 - Hit Songwriting And Recording - "Assembling A Home Studio" Interview
ASSEMBLING A HOME STUDIO
Adrian Baker explains how he did it!
AS every songwriter knows, the actual writing part of the songs is the easiest part of being a songwriter. It’s the selling of them which is so difficult. And the first stumbling block every writer who wishes to be professional comes up against is the necessity of making a demo tape in order to present his or her work to publishing companies.
Once you’ve spent a few pounds going into proper recording studios, you’re bound to find yourself heaving a sigh and wishing that you had all the recording equipment at home, so that you needn’t stir from your little songwriting den! Naturally recording equipment costs quite a lot of money but, sooner or later, most songwriters manage to equip themselves with something, even if it’s just one good tape recorder.
We recently visited a guy who, as well as being a successful singer and writer has, over the last two years, assembled his own home recording studio which is now good enough for him to use it to record actual backing tracks for single and album numbers. The man in question is Adrian Baker whose group, The Tonics, are currently enjoying success with the single All Summer Long.
CELLAR
Most people, when thinking of setting up a studio would look around their home and decide what room they can most afford to do without. Adrian didn’t want his mum to have to do without any, so he hit on the ingenious idea of converting a place that wasn’t used any longer — the coal cellar!
“I started on it about two and a half years ago,” Adrian explained, “I’ve always been keen on electronics and I built quite a lot of the equipment myself.”
Drummer Roy Morgan, who plays, writes and co-produces with Adrian, helped him with the conversion and wiring work and the result is an impressively professional 8-track studio in which they demo all their songs.
To reach the studio you go down the front hall of Adrian’s mother’s house, turn left and descend a ladder into the bowels of the earth where electronic gadgetry gleams up at you out of the darkness. “When the electricity man comes to read the meter he always gets a shock,” grinned Adrian. “They send a different guy every time and he comes down the ladder with a bored expression on his face then his jaw drops open in amazement as he looks round him and sees all the gear.”
CONFINED
The studio is housed in two tiny rooms which couldn’t accommodate more than two people. One room contains a drum kit and the other is just large enough to stand in and operate the controls. However, as Adrian is a multi-instrumentalist, he can manage perfectly easily in this confined space with the help of Roy.
“When I want to record a piano track, I just take a microphone upstairs to where the piano is and record it like that,” Adrian explained. He also has a drum machine, in case he wants to try out a number when Roy isn’t around to play.
Basically, the studio centres round a Brenell 8-track tape recorder, a Revox A77 and an Allen & Heath mixing desk, with Celestion studio speakers. All the extra studio effects, such as echo, fold-back and talkback, are supplied from one unit which Adrian designed and made himself, placing the works in an old GPO box.
“The difference between this and the system you find in a studio is that whereas in the studio you have to plug in for every effect you need, my system is all operated by simple switches,” said Adrian.
He’s also built his own guitar effects panel incorporating fuzz, wah wah etc. which is much handier than having a lot of different effects pedals scattered about your feet.
We asked Adrian how much setting up the studio had cost him in terms of equipment and conversion costs. “About £5,000 I suppose,” He replied, looking slightly startled at the thought. Of course, when you are doing it all yourself, you can split the cost over a long period of time, adding something new every time you’ve saved up for it. Adrian’s studio didn’t start off as splendidly equipped as it is now.
“The first things I had were a Teac 4-track tape recorder and a Revox,” he recalled. “That’s really all you need to make quite complicated demos, because, with two tape-recorders, you can do quite a bit of overdubbing. Two tape recorders and maybe a mini-mixer can give quite a nice little set up and it will cost under the £1000 mark.”
If you can’t afford to buy tape recorders, you’ll find reasonable secondhand models advertised in papers like Exchange & Mart. Two good quality tape recorders are sufficient to allow you to add extra instruments and harmonies to your songs by bouncing tracks from one machine to the others. But, for extra refinements like echo and pan, you’ll need some kind of small mixer and these start at around the £150 mark.
ACOUSTIC
Soundproofing is always an expensive problem as the acoustic tiles that studios use cost a lot of money. Here, Adrian was lucky.
“I heard of an office in town that was being dismantled and amongst the things being chucked out were a quantity of acoustic tiles which I got for next to nothing,” he explained.
Adrian’s single, Sherry, which was a hit last summer, gave him quite a bit of cash to put into the studio. But he’d never have had that hit — or his contract with Magnet Records — if he hadn’t in the first place been wise enough to realise that the quality of a demo is very important when it comes to impressive record companies and publishers.
“I decided to record Sherry, even though it wasn’t one of my songs because it had always got a good response when I played it with my group. I recorded it in Pye studios and then took it round. It was a master rather than a demo. I wanted to be with Magnet Records and I was lucky enough to get them interested in the tape and they offered me a deal.”
Now Adrian is recording both under his own name and under the name, The Tonics, a group made up of himself as singer, guitarist, keyboard player, ex-Stackridge member Paul Karas, Roy Morgan, who is also ex-Stackridge, and Roger Whatling who used to be in Adrian’s old band, Playground, on guitar. They haven’t done any touring yet, as they have been spending most of their time recording. In fact, Adrian reckons that maybe he spends too much time in the studio.
“My first album was recorded over a period of three months and I did everything with only two people to help me, Roy and a conga player. I spent prolonged periods of time in the studio and in the end I made myself ill. The album never made the charts, but in a way I wasn’t surprised because it was released too long after Sherry.”
Adrian is now looking forward to making his next album and also to moving into a new house which he’s bought from John Richardson of the Rubettes.
LUCKY
“It’s known as a lucky house, John’s had considerable success since he’s been in that house and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll do the same for me.” With the help of that marvellous demo studio, who knows?
by Lorne Read
1978-11-04 - Music Week - "Baker At Work In Cellar" Interview
Baker at work in cellar
DOWN IN the cellar something is stirring… From outside appearances, the Essex home of Adrian Baker is nothing out of the ordinary. But inside, Adrian has converted the large cellar into a fully-fledged 16-track recording studio (See picture, above).
The studio is no makeshift affair. A year in the making, it is approached down a steep flight of stairs from a small door in the kitchen and is split into two fully soundproofed sections — a bar and listening area complete with soft lights and the studio proper.
Adrian bought the house because of the cellar. It used to belong to John Richardson of the Rubettes who used the facility as a rehearsal room. He began conversion work in November 1976 and worked at it full-time through to December 1977.
“I modelled the studio completely for my own requirements,” explains Adrian, “And did all of the conversion work myself except for cutting a large hole in the hall to get the bulkier equipment in. The desk is a Cadac, eight-track which I converted to 16. It’s very old, but has a lot of modifications.”
And the total cost of the project? “Difficult to assess, but I should say around £25,000.”
Signed to MCA, Adrian has released his first single for the label, I’ll Keep You Satisfied, and is working on an album. He writes, arranges, engineers, produces and plays all the instruments on his songs.
Interested in music from an early age, Adrian enjoyed major chart success in July 1975 when his version of the Four Seasons’ classic, Sherry, reached number ten in the British charts. After this success, he became in demand as a writer of music for jingles — notably Radio One (Noel Edmonds’ breakfast show in particular) and ads for various products including Crown Paint.
He now divides his time between jingles and developing his own songwriting and recording career. The instruments he plays on his recordings are acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, cello, acoustic and electric pianos, organ and synthesizers. He could also play brass instruments and drums were it not for the fact that it would be impossible to monitor the sound at the same time.
Adrian Baker can boast that not only are his records all his own work, but his studio as well.
1975-08-09 - Melody Maker - "Baker's Sherry Trifle" Interview
Unfortunately slightly marred by sellotape (!) but still hopefully legible! ^_^
Baker’s Sherry trifle
DESPITE the roster of session men who have become recognised artists in their own right — Wakeman, Wingfield and Spedding spring immediately to mind — Adrian Baker doesn't like being tagged an ex-sessioneer.
“I've always classed my-self as an artist even when I was doing sessions. It's not something I really wanted to do anyway. I think that most session men who are artists now feel the same way.”
But surely, one contends, it's reasonable to call someone a session man if that's the job he's been doing for the last few years.
“Yes, I suppose it's a fair thing to say — but I still prefer to be thought of as an artist.”
Baker is the singer and multi-instrumentalist who recorded a lightweight reggae version of the old Four Seasons classic “Sherry” as his debut single and made it into the charts first time out.
Despite having forged a writing and producing relationship with ex-Stackridge man Roy Morgan, Baker chose a olden oldie for starters. Why?
“Well, I didn't do it simply because it was an old song. I did it because I used to sing it when I was on the road with bands a few years ago and because I enjoyed it. Anyway it sounded like a good commercial song and l wanted to get into the charts.
“I made it reggae to hit the discos and that was a good way to make it sound up-to-date.”
And is Baker an admirer of the Four Seasons, even perhaps to the extent of his professed respect for Brian Wilson?
“Hmmmmmmmm, yes I like Frankie Valli for his vocals really. Obviously I'm being classed as a Frankie Valli rip-off now for doing ‘Sherry.’
“But I've been doing falsetto voices ever since I started to sing so it's not so much a rip-off as just my natural voice.
“Still, I can't really complain about it when l am ripping him off in the charts right now, can I? People just have different opinions about things like this.”
Anyway, Franki Valli may have a high voice but he sure can't play the instruments Baker can, He started on piano at the tender age of seven and proceeded to earn himself three medals — bronze, silver and gold, naturally — from the London Institute of Music.
At the age of 13 his father followed the time-honoured tradition and bought young Adrian his first guitar. From then on there's been no stopping him, except when it comes to drums. That's where Roy Morgan steps in.
Baker and Morgan have a studio in the basement at Roy's home where they record jingles, library tapes and commercials.
Library tapes are used by TV and radio programmers for background music and so on. As far as their commercials go, the lads had their less than finest hour in an ad for Clarksons the holiday firm. “We were really pleased about it — and then the company went bust. We still haven't been paid yet.”
Actually their basement studio has had the shutters down for about a month. Seems the local council got wind of it and told them to desist. Something about running a business from home and not having a fire exit. “The bloody thing's as big as a sink unit and they want a fire exit,” complains Morgan.
Still, they've made good use of the place before the shut-down, laying down demos for a forthcoming Baker album.
“That should be coming some time in November. The bulk of the material will be our own, although there will be some oldies as well.”
In the future Baker wants to carve out a career for himself as a pop singer and a man who has a place along with the Rollers and Osmonds of this world in the hearts of Britain's teenage female population.
“I quite like pop. Anyway, being classed as a pop singer doesn't worry me much at all. This is going to be our aim, to make musically good pop records. And it isn't that easy.”
Baker is planning to project a careful image of himself as a clean-cut, good-looking lad. Image, he reckons, is highly important.
“Of course it's important — it's over fifty per cent of the battle, for the kids that is. It’s going to be an image the kids go for, the smart sort of thing.”
However, Baker has no intention of going on the road — not just yet anyway. “If I did I’d like to make that move once we could be sure of some substantial backing, like if l’d had about five or six hit singles. We've already recorded the follow-up to ‘Sherry’ and that will be coming out in September.
“It’s an original number, but it's a typical sort of follow-up to this record. In fact people when they hear it will probably be wondering where they'd heard it before. We should have recorded it ten years ago.
“But on the road? No, I'm not too keen to go gigging again.”
Apparently not, judging by the tale of Baker's last night with his last band less than a year ago. Apparently they'd all got so sick of doing their own roadying that, faced with carting a column down three storeys, they just put it down on the top flight and kicked it the rest of the way. “Well, it was our last night,” explained Baker. None of that when you're a teeny star, Mr B. — BRIAN HARRIGAN.
1975-09-04 - Top Of The Pops Magazine - "A Man Of Many Voices..." Interview
A MAN OF MANY VOICES…
He's a man of many parts — that‘s Adrian Baker. All the evidence is on his chart smash single Sherry. You see Adrian did almost everything on this disc. Well, he didn't write the song, nor did he play drums on the recorded disc but he did arrange the song, produce it, play all the other musical instruments, sang and even used his own name on the finished
product!
Sherry relies on vocal harmony and as Adrian says, “I know all about harmonies. I know arrangements, and I know about sound.” He formerly worked on other hit-makers' records, but this time he had decided the lime-light would be his. The choice he made has turned out for his good and already his next single is planned and presumably recorded. He was rather coy at giving its title though he did say there was some similarity with a famous Beach Boys disc.
Adrian, who comes from llford, once played in a local pop group. He gained considerable performing experience but success didn't come so he decided the recording studios offered more interesting employment. “So I stayed in music and one day playing around in the studio I started multi-tracking myself singing Sherry.
“l knew I’d found a hit”. And the future?
“I aim to be a recording studio artist and nothing would make me happier than to become someone like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.” Only time will tell!
1975-10-25 - Jackie - "Baker Uses His Loaf!" Interview
BAKER USERS HIS LOAF!
It's surprising how some of the great pop records are made purely by accident. But that's how Adrian Baker's first hit, the super “Sherry” came about.
“The song was really recorded on the spur of the moment,” Adrian told me. “We'd booked the studio for a certain period and after doing all the numbers I’d intended, we still had some spare time left over. So l said, “What shall we do now?” and after thinking it over for a while I decided that ‘Sherry’ should be the one.”
Another interesting fact about “Sherry” is that Adrian did all the various voices and played all the instruments, except drums, on the record!
“I can play drums as well (!!!)” Adrian confessed, “though not confident enough for a record. But I did play all the strings and keyboards on the song. As for the voices, my favourite groups have always been the harmony ones like the ‘Beach Boys’ and the ‘Four Seasons.’
“Eventually I started singing their tunes and then I got the craze of experimenting with my tape recorder and over-dubbing till I discovered I could harmonise with myself and sing all the different parts as well.”
1976-07-10 - Record Mirror - "Supertonics" Interview
Supertonics
THE TONICS' latest single, an old Beach-boys workout called ‘All Summer Long’ was definitely not made for the shade.
It's a Summertime scorcher, ideal listening when you're cruising in your T-Bird (if Daddy hasn't taken it away) or sipping your knickerbocker glory on the patio.
The Tonics are a group of seasoned musicians all of whom have pedigrees the length of Guy the Gorilla’s arm.
It all began when Adrian Baker, song-writer, jingle writer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and session man got together with his ol' pal Roy Morgan (drums) who between them co-produced Adrian's hit solo single, ‘Sherry’.
Prior to this Roy was in Stackridge. He was invited to play in the newly-formed Tonics along with another adroit musician, Roger Whatling (guitar).
Luckier
Their debut disc, a harmonised version of ‘White Christmas’, was released in November 1975, and it looks like second time round will be luckier for the band.
‘All Summer Long’ is already just a breath away from top fifty. Presently the Tonics are in the studios working on a debut album. That's where I jawed to them one sweltering morning.
Adrian took time off from tinkling the piano keys to explain why he chose that specific number: “The simple reason was we wanted to record the song because the Beach Boys had never released it as a single in this country.”
“One day when we were in the studios we decided that this Summer was gonna be a surfin' one so we did a quick Beach Boys’ number, the one we later recorded, and it worked out rather well.”
Adrian is an accomplished musician with various instruments and probably could make the grade as a solo per-former. Though there are one or two snags as a one man band. The obvious is what happens at live appearances?
But, before those snide remarks begin about him getting a band together purely for the abovesaid reason let's just get the record straight: The Tonics are all illustrious musicians / songwriters, who contribute equally to ideas and projects.
“We work well together,” Roy begins, “and it's a nice easy going set-up because I've known Adrian and Paul for ages, I've worked with them before, so we can feel each other musically.”
Obviously this ain't no manufactured job. Just watching them working in the studio, nice, easy and cool proves that the four guys all feel comfy together and more or less have the same musical ideas.
Harmony
Predominately the Tonics are a harmony orientated formation. A style of music that seems to be sadly ignored in this country - or if it is attempted by someone then the overall impression is, ‘wish they hadn't’. The Tonics, however, with the A1 harmony workouts are more than welcomed.
“I think there's a market ffor our type of thing,” says Paul. “There aren't that many vocal bands around in this country.”
Although they haven't yet got an album out they hope to be as musically diverse as possible, though still keeping the harmony aspect as one of the high sports.
“It's a natural thing,” interjects Roy, “there's four singers in the group. Just now we're compiling material that we think will be suitable for the Tonics style. We can only be hypothetical as we're a new band.”
Which is why touring would be tantamount to cutting their necks with a razor blade. Before they can even consider going on the road they must first have a hit single or preferably a charting album.
In order to crack the market, The Tonics realise that a hit single is fairly important.
Roy: “To be ultra-effective and to get on the play - list you have to be fairly simple, say whatever you want to say in three minutes. OK, there have been a few records eight minutes long, like the John Miles thing, but that's unusual.”
Paul: “We were lucky, ‘All Summer Long’ happens to be a very suitable record for this time of year” (he's right. It wouldn't have gotten airplay in mid-January). I mean I'm chuffed that it's got in thebreakers. Even if it doesn't get any higher I'll still be satisfied.”
For now they're at the teething stages. They're sticking out a few feelers here and there to see just what they pick up along the way.
They conclude: “For us the Tonics is a fairly new project and we'll be as adventurous as we like and see just what comes out of it.”
Good idea.
1975-11-08 - Look-in - "Three Cheers for Adrian!" Contest, Interview & Poster
"Sherry" was his launching-pad to stardom...
Three cheers for Adrian!
Adrian Baker is a new name in the pop music world. With a very distinctive voice. ln fact, many distinctive voices! For Adrian is a highly-talented harmony singer.
He did all the vocals on his first hit record “Sherry”, the old Four Seasons number, which went high up the charts a couple of months ago.
He told Look-in's Richard Tippett recently: “l’ve always been into music. You see. I was chained to a piano from the age of seven! My parents were both semi-professional musicians and they were a great inspiration.”
Why had Adrian decided to record “Sherry”? “Well, when I was in a local Ilford group we played “Sherry” often on the road, because we used to like Four Seasons’ songs, and that one always went down well.
“No-one actually decided before-hand that “Sherry” should be released as a single.
It was just that there was some spare time in the studio while I was recording my album, and someone came up with the idea of giving it a go. It was a spontaneous thing.”
Adrian is a skilled musician, too. Although he used a drummer, bass player and
keyboard player on the recorded single, he was required to play every instrument — bar
drums — when he appeared on “Top Of The Pops”. He taped the instrumental performance before the show — and from start to finish it was a three-hour job!
What about future plans for Adrian? His second single “Candy Baby” is on release
now, a worthy follow-up to “Sherry”.
“I’m trying to get a band together. I’ve got a couple of people in mind. and I hope to have it on the road by January.”
What Adrian has got together is his first album release. It’s due out this month, and
we’re offering it as a prize...
1978 - I'll Keep You Satisfied Advertisements
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| 1978-10-21 - Music Week |
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| 1978-10-28 - Music Week |
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| 1978-11-04 - Music Week |
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| 1978-11-11 - Record Mirror |
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| 1978-11-11 - Music Week |
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| 1975-11-25 - Music Week |
A collection of advertisements for I'll Keep You Satisfied (several of which have the wrong catalogue number!)
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