Ben Waters

Chatterbox, when the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. Welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast and in this edition our special guest is Ben Walters This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh, yeah! Chatterbox! now on Chatterbox we're just lucky enough to welcome Ben Walters. Ben welcome to Chatterbox, how are you? Yeah very good thanks Nick, it's great to meet you. And you, and you. Right, interesting,

I like the press release a lot. Boogie for Stu, tribute to Ian Stewart. Deluxe edition, now this is something that came out some years ago but obviously the deluxe edition is something new. Let's start off, would you like to tell? I mean, the average music people would know who Ian Stewart was, but would you like to just say who Ian Stewart was and how you got to know him and how this came about? Yeah, well, I got into piano playing when I was 14 when Fat Stomino's 60th birthday

party came on TV. It was Fat Stomino, Ray Charles, Jerry D. Lewis. The second I heard of it, I heard it, it changed my life. Just really loved piano. And I tried to play it and I started learning

then. and then luckily Ian Stewart was a friend of my aunt and uncle's so I met him once years ago but he passed by this time but my uncle had his piano at their house and they had his sound system which used to be the sound system for the front of house of the Rolling Stones during the 60s so it's a pretty big system for a house and they also got loads of records and videos so I grew up in Weymouth in Dorset and we didn't have a we didn't have youtube or we didn't have

spotify and there wasn't many record shops where you could get blues i think you you had to get all ordered mail ordered blues records you know so and then i didn't know all the people then because i was quite young so i didn't know whether a john lee hooker record would be good or not you know because i of fresh into it so you know and we you didn't really want to spend 15 pound to find out that it wasn't you know so so anyway um there was this treasure trove of ian stewart's

and stuff that he all these records he collected through the 60s and 70s and 80s and also also lots of cine footage and video footage of people like muddy waters and cab calloway and albert hermans but the thing i love most it was several concerts of rocket 88 with Ian Stewart playing, but the good thing about them was the video camera was set up on his hands. So I learned to play by copying him for years. And I used to go and play in a place called Corsican with the Fox

and stay with my aunt and uncle. And I just spend all day copying Ian Stewart. And I loved his piano playing. It was a really unique way of playing. And so I copied and copied and copied. And then the bands that used to play with him, started asking me to play with them because they knew I was copying them. So I ended up playing with Chris Jagger, Mick's younger brother, and I ended up playing with Rocket 88 because of Ian Stewart. And it snowballed from there. But

then people would say, who are your heroes? And I'd say, Fat Stoneman. And they'd go, great. I'd say, Jerry Lewis. They said, great. And I'd say, Ian Stewart. And invariably, they'd say, who? And this man did so much. He did so much. I mean, it's ridiculous what he did. I mean without him there wouldn't be any Rolling Stones. I'm pretty sure Led Zeppelin recorded Boogie Boogie with Stu for him and he played on rock and roll.

I don't think they would have done it without him And he also made this recording studio Which recorded the stones mobile recorded exile on Main Street, but it also They also recorded on it Bob Marley, No Woman No Cry, which made Bob Marley really famous. He might not have been the global star he was if it wasn't for Ian Stewart. And then Smoke on the Water was recorded on it. And they even sing about it, went down to Montreux to record on a mobile studio and it caught fire.

That's why it was Smoke on the Water. And there was so many things that Ian Stewart has done, like Ian Rankin based Rebus, his biggest selling book on Ian Stewart. He's done so much, I'm only touching a tenth of what he's done. And it really upset me that people didn't know him. So that's why I did it. That's an entire book there as well as an album, isn't it, really? So yeah,

nice tribute. Yeah. Now we got a single, in fact, I must say, a lot of places you mentioned both off there and at the beginning, you mentioned Weymouth and places, Sherbourne and that. And yeah, we're going about 30 odd years ago now. We're back. Early mid -90s. By day and early evening, normal times, I was the managing projectionist at the Plaza Cinema, Dorchester, and at night, I was the resident DJ at Mariners Nightclub in Hyde Street, Dorchester. So I know a lot of the

places you're talking about. Wow, that's incredible. And hence why I have a soft spot for Nick Capaldi, who's very good anyway, but also... that the Specifically, why has that once been a sort of headline for the initial single, we'll say, perhaps? Well, it was a brand new tune that we did. Well, it's an old tune, but it's the first time that we did it as that line up. And we were doing some new tracks for the Deluxe version of the album. And so I spoke to Dave Kelly, who's singing

that. He's in the blues band. His sister was very famous, Joanne Kelly. He's my favorite.

guitar player singer from England he's just he's amazing that's incredible so um Keith was up for doing it Dave was doing it and then we had Ian Jennings and Paul Beavis on it as well who were the rhythm section for Andy Fairweather Low at the moment actually so it was a it was a it was a great band and then we decided what we were going to do and Dave said he'd like to do Comeback Baby so he told me so I went and googled it and found it. And I thought, oh, the

piano playing is really complicated. I found this Ray Charles doing it. I spent three weeks learning the piano parts before we got to the studio and I got to the studio. So I think I've just about learned the piano parts. Yes, what do you mean? There's no piano on it. We're doing the John Lee Hooker version. And so I spent three weeks learning the wrong parts for nothing. So it was quite a relief when I got there and we

did the tune and Keith loved it. we all loved it actually was it was in some ways it's very simple i mean it's really is simple but also it's quite complex because it did that old john lee hooker thing of changing where you at least expect it to change it's like there's only three chords but like suddenly it'll change halfway through a bar and things like that and i know charlie loved all that kind of stuff and uh i know as it as it always does um but um but it

made me think of him and you know it's just like um and the comeback baby. But you know, I spent a lot of time with Charlie, we did 100 gigs around the world. And the thing that struck me with him, when you talk to this humble man, sat next to him in the car for hours and hours and hours. You did realize that he knew Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon and presidents and prime ministers and of all sorts of different countries and film stars and BB King and all

those kind of people he knew. So he was a very humble man but it was just great to talk to him because you never know what was going to come

out next. This is Nick and Sue with Cheddar Box giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment Cheddar Box Cheddar Box Cheddar Box Cheddar Box I mean I must say all that going way back the Stones been you know the way it was all planned that rough sound and the rough look we say it still sounds great today I know Charlie Blessing's not with us anymore but and I'll tell you what angry that single when the first time I heard it I said that sounds like

a stone single that sounds like a good stone single you know yeah so he's still got it all these years on so Charlie's played obviously played his part it's almost like I dare say the ghost of Charlie and perhaps Brian Jones is still there. I wonder if they are sort of a bit aware when they do new stuff that well I think that's what Charlie would have wanted to have done and I think that's how they work things out. I do,

I generally do with them. I don't think it could be anything else but I'd be lucky enough to play with a few people for decades and it really does affect your playing. And you sort of go back to muscle memory of how it would have been. It made you play in a certain way. And so the band is still playing in a certain way, I'm sure, because of all the influence that Charlie had. I'm really confident of that. Totally different. But just an example, more for the listeners,

really. We have the real thing on. It was maybe on quite a few times. Chris and Eddie's past,

of course. when they did their first album in 50 years of course eddie had already passed unfortunately what um what chris did chris amu did the younger brother he recorded his part and they went back to the studio and recorded eddie you know so what it sounded like with the other guy it was a real thing record and it worked so yeah there you go it can be done yeah but there's a lot of efforts gone into this album of course and um we're talking about the likes of uh people

like um originally we got um mick jagger heath richards ronnie woods bill wyman they've all added their magic to the original album i guess so um yeah who else is on it did i see you done something at jules jules holland's studio as well free of charge yeah well what happened was um I said one of these conversations I was having with Charlie in the back of a car I just suddenly said I'm always wanted to do a tribute album to Ian Stewart because he was always talking

about Ian Stewart and I said well I'm definitely gonna do an album for him one day and I actually booked it in a studio in Weymouth actually and I told him I was gonna do it and he said well if you ever if you need some drums on it let me know and I thought well I can't I can't turn that down so So I thought, right, I'll do it. But I was recording in a tiny little studio away with Mars out of London and stuff. So I phoned up Jules Holland and said, look, you know, Charlie's

up for doing this album. I said, I haven't got a studio. We said, well, use mine. I said, well, you've got to come and play on it as well, because he knew Stu. So then I phoned the Stones office to say, we're recording on these dates. And Sherry Daly, this lovely lady that was helping me at the time, and it wouldn't have happened without

her, was having lunch with Ronnie Wood. and she told him what was happening and Ronnie said well if you need guitar on it and so he said he'd do it and then I had to phone Charlie to tell him Ronnie was there and he said oh my god if you've got guitar on there you can't have guitar and not have Keith on it because Keith was Stu's best mate so I had to phone back phone back Keith and then then I asked him and he was on it like a shot So then I phoned Sherry back and said,

look, that all three of them are doing it. And she said, well, you can't have three quarters of the stones as they currently are and leave one out without asking. So you've at least got to ask, otherwise it looks like he's snubbed you. And I'll tell you what, it was just amazing how it happened. And they were all so nice and all the thing that came across is that all their love of music, all of them, you know, they're just so knowledgeable and being around so long.

And they were influenced by people from the 40s and 50s. And it's incredible, really, all these decades, nearly a century later. I know they weren't playing in the 40s, but their influences were from then. And even earlier, really. So I think it was just fascinating talking to them because you could talk to them for hours and

hours and hours. And it's really funny because you don't really talk about what press want to talk about you just want to talk about like amos milburn or the or um you know um earl palmer the drummer you could have an hour conversation with charlie about earl palmer you know and it's uh and it's really fascinating wonderful so could we almost say uh ben waters became a member of the rolling stones perhaps all the rolling stones became ben waters's backing group no i couldn't

say that I was very, very honoured to do it. They have asked me to the studio a few other times. I went into the studio with them in 2011 for four days, which was an amazing thing. And then I went into Metropolis Studios about two, three years ago to do some recording, which might come out yet, actually, because I think there's a new album coming out sometime soon. And so you never know, I might be on one of those touchwood,

you never know. Yeah, the smoke signals are very strong about a new studio album, definitely. They're coming from reliable sources. They're normally right, so I'm expecting it as well. I think that's at 18 months, but yeah, it's going to follow. I'd say when I went to Metropolis a few years back, I played on four tracks, but I know they had lots of tracks to choose from, so I don't know if any of those will get used. It was great, you know, it was just an honour

to do it. Yeah, I believe that there's like three albums worth of strong tracks to do studio albums. Yeah, it's there, isn't it? Sat on the shelf, really. Yeah. Anyway, so we've obviously got a full album here as well. How many tracks have we got? We've got loads. Fifteen, I think. It's something like that. What stands out? I mean, okay, out of all of these, what might we have as another single? What else could be singles on there that in your mind you want to push?

Well, I always love watching the river flow, but for several reasons, because it's all of the Rolling Stones. In fact, not only was it all of the Rolling Stones, including Bill Wyman, it was the first time Bill Wyman had played with the Stones in 18 years, because he left in 92 and came back when we recorded that in 2010. And so that was the first time he did that. And

then Jules Hollands on organ, I'm on piano. Dave Swift, who's Jules Hollands' bass player, was playing tambourine because he wanted to play with the Rolling Stones. Don Weller was on saxophone. Willie Garnett was on saxophone. Alex Garnett. But I snuck my nine -year -old son on alto saxophone and he got to record with the Rolling Stones at the age of nine. So he's on this album as well. That's brilliant. That is brilliant. Yeah, do you have a single or just see how it goes?

Yeah, Room in House Boogie. That's another one. That's Keith Richards. I went over to New York to record that with him and it just reminds me of a really good time and stuff. And it's actually when Dylan Johns, who makes the album, recorded it. And quite rightly so, he said the album's about Ian Stewart, so the guitars are actually very quiet. And it sort of does sound like Rocket 88 in lots of ways. So he was quite wise to do

it, but I did love the guitar. Ronnie and Keith both played some beautiful parts that are almost inaudible in some places because it was about to do. You're listening to Nick Prince and Sue

Earl on Chatterbox UK. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox Chatterbox But one day I'd love to find the hard drive and turn them up because Ronnie did some beautiful slide playing on watching the Riverfly original Well, Ronnie is the epitome of a... the aging rock star he just looks so i just love him to bits i'm completely with the bloody head thing now i just love him to bits he's amazing

i did i did quite a few gigs with him we did the shepherds bush empire and we was the shepherds bush empire of birmingham symphony hall um we did two nights at runny scott's a few a few little theaters around you never knew what was going to happen with him one night you turn up with rod stewart and rod have got up and sing another night he turned up with Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp and they got up and played with us at Ronnie Scott's another night you turn up with a Mel

de May or um but the thing is I think that's his um uh you know he I think he lives on the um very creative and exciting life you know and I just think he He is never boring put it that way. You never know what it's gonna be and it could suddenly be right Let's jump on this plane

and go somewhere. Let's do some recording or or let's get I don't know He always had this drummer that on our geeks called Dexter Hercules And he just like he loved Dexter and thought he's brilliant and Dexter's got on to do he's Ed Sheeran's drummer I think now and yeah, and these he's just a nicest humblest Kindest man as he's running. I know he's actually a very kind humble thoughtful man and who just happens to be a rock and roll star as well. A surviving

one like that. No, he's great. You could tell I absolutely dwelled the stones anyway, but, you know, living and dead ones, you know. Yeah, me too, yeah. He's the person of a rock star, but what he should look like in the 60s, an aging

rock star, that's him. brilliant yeah i've never had any any any sort of doubt in my mind that he was anything but a really nice guy and what you see you know so okay so we got the single of course um which is baby come back featuring keith richards and dedicated to charlie uh what's uh now the album uh boogie for stew uh is uh is released on grinning dog records yeah hold his label from dorchester now Great record label. Now often I know Nick likes to release quite

a bit of vinyl. He's got a real soft spot of vinyl. Are we having a vinyl release of the album? Yes, we are. He's got a limited edition mustard coloured vinyl out. A normal vinyl and the CD as well. And you can get them all at grinningdogrecords .com. Nick and Grace have been absolutely amazing. great mates of mine, they only live down the road. And we could have put it, we've got several offers of putting it on larger labels. But I just I knew Nick and Grace are the nicest people

in the world. So I just knew they'd give it their all, you know. Yeah, in addition to that, you know, that's why I said all fair before we started about the vinyl, I know that Nick's got soft spot for the vinyl and yeah, I knew it. It's a good selling point and yellow vinyl about so yeah, brilliant. Yeah. Let's do some social media

for you. I've looked at your website Oh, no, actually, no, we would look at your tour before we do that So by the time this goes out, you will still have Something going on in Guernsey on the 27th of March. Yeah, we're playing in the There's a place that used to be called the Duke of Richmond. It's now called the Duke. So we're playing there on Friday 8 p .m. And then Saturday 3 p .m. And Sunday 3pm and hopefully the weather will be lovely in Guernsey that time

of year. Yes well it's got to be about three or four degrees hotter than here, it's supposed to be at the moment so let's hope it stays that way for you. So moving further down, 2nd of April Red Lion St Colum, 3rd of April the Hay Barn Dorset, 23rd of June, this is an interesting one, Winterfield Festival Hampshire, 26th of June Cafe Oasis Weymouth, not far for you to

go on that one then. No 17th of July Racing Spirit Festival Dorset great venue this one 23rd of July we love this like in fact I'm going there myself I've gone there several times here to Half Moon and Putney 23rd of July yeah great venue have some great stuff on 31st of July Sarisbury Green Community Centre Southampton and 25th of September Dominic Theatre Penzance with Tom Walters and I also see on some of these so you've got Tom Walters on some but i also did see that the

uh farthingate farm endorse it you're with mike darbo oh no he's already been actually there mike darbo oh that was snapchat oh yeah mike mike's an old friend and uh he's a fantastic really lovely man and a great singer great songwriter yeah i remember him coming on here it was sort of like the only time we could we could work it because he was doing so much uh stuff obviously he was doing his golden whatever tours with the Manfreds or whatever and he ended up talking

to us one Sunday night and we did the interview bearing in mind he's about 80 during the interview at 11 o 'clock at night with him on a Sunday bless him so there you go great guy yeah okay so website and social media we've got www .benwaters

.com and then links to your other social media is basically can all be found on there scroll down a bit you've got a link directly to your Facebook and if someone wants to email you they can click on that as well lots of press release stuff lots of photos yeah good stuff yeah oh thanks thanks for doing that Ben it's been great meeting you fantastically got all four of the stones at the time playing on that song and other stones other tracks i thought that's really good

so well done so thank you very much yeah i like that it's a pick we could just swing it say bed waters and the rolling stones but maybe that maybe that's contraction i was honored they did it and they were all so kind to me and they're all brilliant musicians and like playing playing with all of them i mean bill's just got such a good groove on the uh on the bass kind of thing and charlie um he's always good but every now and then he's sublime you know like we did like

say 100 gigs together and sometimes you just i've never played with any bond that plays drums like that it's suddenly like a steam train or something you're playing along you're like oh my god he's on fire tonight is that as the book goes charlie's good tonight isn't he when he is good he's like phenomenal Yeah, it's like

you mentioned bill wasn't it? I was thinking he did do that track or couple of tracks on on rough diamonds hackney diamonds, sorry Hackney diamonds and uh, it is it's very much the case that He was like, oh, is he 89 now? Was he 89 the other day something like that? Very late 80s. So he's been in 87 when he recorded that he's still got it. He's still definitely Yeah, he's got a very unusual way of playing but it sounds so cool. It's great And he's very nice

to me and my son. They're all a bit very nice to my son. He's a saxophone player and we've all been very encouraging to him, you know. In a way, he still looks the same as well. He does. Yeah, he doesn't change at all. Anyway, I do like the sound of it. I like the boogie bit and the patch. Almost. It's so fast. I think so. It's honky tonk. I quite like some of it, in my opinion. Yeah, thank you. I like the sound

of it. so i wish you every success with it and uh next time you do something uh drop us an email pop on by yeah so uh and if you're not sure how

to get hold well it's nickprintstudio gmail .com if not nick knows my contact details and i'm friends with him on facebook we chat every so often so you can always go through him if you need to so uh yeah fantastic it was a pleasure to meet you and thanks for having me on i really appreciate it it's a pleasure babe you take care thank you bye You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with me Nick and our guest this time was Ben Waters If you're interested in becoming

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Chatterbox Redux podcast. In the meantime, take care, we thank you for your company and we catch you then. Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh yeah! Chatterbox! The best news