GONZO WEEKLY #185: Jon meets Judge

Radio Gonzo

I have been interviewing people for a long time, and there are some who are better interviewees than others, but the rarest (and most valuable, to my way of thinking) interviewee is the one, with whom you immediately have a rapport, and find yourself talking with so naturally that you forget that you are doing an interview with them. One such interviewee is Judge Smith. He was actually the first person that I wrote about on the Gonzo Blog all those years ago, and was the first person that I contacted by email. And he was one of the first people that I interviewed. It turned out that we had quite a few interests in common. He is a reader of Fortean Times, a magazine that I have written for over the years, and even has a copy of On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans (he pronounced it correctly, “Hoy-vel-mans” rather than “Hugh-vel-mans”) which, as my day job is the Director of the world's largest cryptozoological organisation, is quite a coincidence, and over the past three or so years we have become friends. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard of Judge Smith. I was sitting in the car park behind what is now Chope's department store in Bideford High Street. I had just bought a copy of the Not the Nine O'Clock News album. Being somewhat inclined toward anal compulsiveness I was happily perusing the liner notes on the back, and I noted that my favourite song on the album had been written by a guy named Judge Smith. What a strange name, I thought. Over the years, I heard quite a lot about this guy. It turned out that he was a founder member of cerebral proggers Van der Graaf Generator, and had also composed a number of witty and erudite stage musicals. Roll on about 20 years. My first wife was working for a very dodgy concert promoter. Said concert promoter had a friend called Charlie Salt, and one day, after a meeting with this bloke, Alison came back and asked me if I'd heard of a composer called Judge Smith? I told her that I had, and recounted roughly what I have already told you SO FAR in this article. Roll on another few years; Alison and I are divorced. And I am living (but not in the Biblical sense) with a gothic cryptozoologist called Richard Freeman. Someone sends us a copy of a remarkable opera based around Edgar Allan Poe's novel 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. We both fell in love with it, and guess what? It was written by the two founding members of Van der Graaf Generator, with the lyrics being by… you've guessed it. Judge Smith. Roll on another 15 years and I start doing the daily blog for my old mate Rob's company, Gonzo Multimedia. And who is the first person I interview? And you've guessed it. Judge Smith. He is a charming man, and over the last four years we have become friends. My own company has published two of his books, and I have worked with him on a number of 'Gonzo related projects'. This rambling diatribe brings us up to the present day. A few months ago Judge told me about a project that he had started way back in the 1970's. This was his first major composition, and was nothing less than a Latin requiem for choir, rock band, and full brass section. He sent me an mp3 of a demo he'd had done. It was fantastic. I told him this and urged him to record it properly. I am not used to people taking my advice. In fact they usually don't, but on this occasion Judge did, and as this truly is a lost Prog Rock Masterpiece, we in the editorial team of Gonzo Weekly magazine are following the project through its various stages. The project has come on a long way. He writes: "Hi there. Well, I'm back, as of yesterday. Sorry I'm a bit 'en retard' in posting, but I can't get on with doing this writing stuff on a phone. I'm old, and in my mind a phone is a PHONE, for talking on, and is preferably made of black bakelite and sits on a small table in the hall... However this trip was a particularly good event. The cosmic Powers-that-be seem to have a soft spot for this project, and the crucial solo singer came to us by chance, and through the kind recommendation of Tim West. Nigel Richards http://nigelrichards.org/, who I had never met before, turned out to be a great guy; a complete professional who has sung with the like of Nick Cave and Tom Waites, and has voice like Calvados and honey. He is also a hoot, and we had a lot of laughs throughout the day. Photographer Seán Kelly kindly travelled a considerable distance to document the proceedings, and a few of his images (ones that are not destined for the CD/LP artwork) can be seen here in a hour or so. We were recording in Pat Collier's other studio, as the great man himself is in such demand, but Engineer Tucker Nelson (from Idaho) was brilliant. The best Recording Engineers seem to combine amazing technical skills with a sort of Zen calm, that this jumpy rabbit finds very therapeutic. The rabbit has been particularly jumpy on this project because it's PROPER music, written down in black dots which I can't read! The eight-hour day concluded with a couple of hours of 'comping', compiling sections of the different takes into the perfect performance, a process in which Tucker's advice and musical discernment was crucial. A good day". I couldn't wait to hear more so I gave him a ring..