Times with John Helliwell...

Ever Open Door, Lord Stackhouse, Wine in a Breakdown Truck, 
La Grande Image, Brunch, Super Big Tramp Band
Times with John Helliwell…

​I’d saved up my paper round money….. it had been tough getting up early every day, in fact once I fell asleep whilst cycling delivering the papers and found myself on the boot of a car! With this hard-earned cash I went to a record shop and bought my first album.
 
The album was a work of art, precious and fragile, with photos, artwork and liner notes. As I carefully placed the vinyl record on the turntable and gently lowered the stylus it felt good that I was the owner of this masterwork. This was my favourite band, they were the biggest-selling band in the world at the time. I looked at the photos and saw the sax player reading the Manchester Evening News, he was called John Helliwell, the band was Supertramp and the album Breakfast in America.
 
Forty years on I’ve had the privilege of working on various projects with John, the most recent being a collaboration that resulted in the ‘Ever Open Door’ album, released in October 2020 with Challenge Records (Holland).

This is the beauty of music; it can be a lifelong journey full of twists and turns, with great experiences, opportunities, seeing the different countries and cultures in this world, and beyond all else, friendships.
 
In between tours and albums with Supertramp, John decided to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, returning from time spent living in California. This was the early 1990’s, all of a sudden one of my musical heroes was a student at the RNCM, where I had graduated from in 1989! John & I met in Manchester and began a friendship to this day. In 1994 I asked him if he would like to play in a new saxophone and rhythm section group that I had been asked to form by Ian Croal at the legendary Manchester music venue Band on the Wall. SaxAssault recorded its debut album over two nights live at BOTW in July 1995, the Sax of Gold album followed in 2007, and more recently, and with a new name, the Group S album ‘Ruby & All Things Purple’ was released in 2017 with Basho Records.
 
On the Sax of Gold album (named after the autobiography of Manchester sax player and businessman Johnny Roadhouse, who would kindly lend me his own bass sax for gigs!), I wrote a feature for John called Lord Stackhouse. I’ve subsequently arranged the piece for different projects, and it’s included on the Ever Open Door album.

Recording Group S album at Temple Studio (2017) Image by Gary Abbott

​On the final track of the Group S album I wanted to feature John, Barbara Thompson and Jon Hiseman. We were recording in London at Temple Studio (the home of Barbara & Jon). Jon guested on drums (with Elliott Henshaw being our regular drummer) with Gwilym Simcock (piano), James Pusey (guitar) and Laurence Cottle (bass guitar). John & Barbara weaved their magic over the soundscape, for me it’s like being a kid in a sweet shop, all these incredible musicians playing your music.
 
For that recording John drove to my house and then I drove the 200 miles to London. My car broke down and I limped into a service station and called the breakdown service. It turns out that this must be the only motorway services in the UK that has a pub! We had an hour to kill before the pick-up truck arrived, loaded the car and gave us a lift to the studio!
 
About ten years ago saxophonist Mike Hall came up with the idea of the RNCM Big Band (which he directed) asking different people to arrange some of Supertramp’s hits for big band. I remember that John, Clark Rundell, Mike & I met and discussed the project, and a team of six or seven of us started arranging. The problem was that I loved so many of those songs, and coupled with the indiscipline of following a brief, I arranged a medley of Supertramp tunes and called it Brunch (it seemed a good idea at the time). More recently my great friend and colleague Rob Buckland has put a huge amount of time and energy into ensure that these charts are played again with professional musicians, with John leading the Super Big Tramp Band.

The Super Big Tramp Band | Image source: bit.ly/3sWiKT2

Working with John on the Ever Open Door project was a real pleasure. It’s great to undertake a project that isn’t rushed. We spent a year discussing which songs to arrange, refining the concept of the album, spending time at each other’s houses, John playing sax and clarinet, and myself basic piano. During one of these sessions we co-composed ‘….It Seemed that Life was so Wonderful’.
​
From the initial idea, which was prompted when John asked me to arrange ‘Waly, Waly’ for himself with string quartet for a friend’s wedding, John had the idea to add our mutual friend John Ellis, playing Hammond organ. An unusual combination, which I hope you think works well, and which was great to compose and arrange for. Rehearsals followed and then the launch concert at The Storyhouse in July 2019 featuring John, John Ellis and the Singh String Quartet.
 
The album was recorded the day after the launch concert, in the same space, all of it live and all recorded in a single day. In fact two of the tracks on the album were taken from the concert the night before, the level of playing and vibe from all being so good!

Ever Open Door rehearsal, Manchester (2019)

Paul Allen did a fantastic job engineering the recording (assisted by Chris Rundell), myself producing, with John, Paul & I then spending a few days mixing. John then sent the album to Italy for mastering and arranged the deal with Challenge Records in Holland.
 
There’s something special about this album. John made the decision that it would be an album of ballads, to tie in with his 75th birthday. When you listen I find that there is an opportunity to enjoy and admire the stunning playing from all, the sheer control and soulfulness of it, and on top of that, an album of ballads allows us to truly relax, letting us empty our minds of day to day matters, and experience truly relaxing yet musically challenging sound worlds.

​John & I are discussing a follow up album and project, thirty years on from when our paths first crossed! The Super Big Tramp Band will be heading into the recording studio and touring when it is safe to do so (I’m writing in a Covid-19 lockdown in February 2021), the journey continues…..
 
Finally, here are a couple of links when I interviewed John at the RNCM Saxophone Day. You may hear, in his own words, about his life in music! - bit.ly/jhpartone bit.ly/jhparttwo 
Click here for John's website 

Thanks for reading.