Best Seat In The House

HOW I FOUNDED BAD COMPANY WHILE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BAND

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:50

Story: Corky Laing

It is an amazing thing to have been in this business for over 30 years and still be a major player. With so many stories from the world of rock n roll, I find it a great opportunity to share with Cashbox Canada readers some of these moments in time with some rock music greats.

A perfect example of the more obscure English Band is Mott the Hoople. The boys in Mott involved in the recording session I’m about to address were Mick Ralphs (guitar), Overend Watts (bass), and Leslie West and I (Mountain) were looking to start a new rock ensemble in 1972. This was at the time Felix Pappalardi, Mountain’s Bass player and producer, had decided to retire.

Photo at right: Bad Company looking the part.

Les and I both loved the UK so we began our search at ISLAND Studios in LONDON. Incidentally, Island Studios is the home office of Island Records, which was a very hot label at that time. Their stable of acts included, Bob Marley, Traffic, (Stevie Winwood), Free and Mott the Hoople. These bands were all going through personal changes.

YOU ARE THE ONE YOU ARE WITH (A Moment in Time With Eric Clapton)

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 12:10

by Corky Laing

It was one of those blustery winter nights in Montreal in the mid 60s, when I received an urgent distress call from Felix Pappalardi in New York City. He was terribly anxious about Jack Bruce’s medical condition. Apparently after the Cream performance that evening at the Maurice Richard Arena, Jack had purposely swallowed an abundance of pain pills. He had just finished reading The Rolling Stone Magazine’s nasty review of Cream’s release of Disraeli Gears and sank into a depressed state. So while Jack was recovering in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Felix wanted me to, among other things, hang out with Eric Clapton who was alone at the Windsor Hotel. Eric was just sitting around and could use some company. It was during that fall, while Felix was producing our local band Energy, that he got a last minute call from Atlantic Records to produce Cream’s album within a 10-day window. Energy was put on hold while Felix produced Disraeli Gears.

So I gathered up a few female friends with the appropriate concert kit and headed over with the babes to babysit Eric that night. It was one of those nights I will never forget because Eric was yet to be a guitar god and our conversation ran the gamut from drugs to sex, including an in-depth conversation late into the night about rock bands and their music. Apart from being a perfect gentleman, at that time in his career he was very accessible, open and receptive. During his musical exchanges he was able to capture the essence of the best musicians and distill it into his own identity.

Corky Laing meets Keith Moon’s Coat of Many Colors

Submitted by cashbox on Sat, 08/28/2010 - 07:53

Best Seat In The House

During the UK rock and roll 60”s invasion most of the chart topping groups (The Who, Hendrix, and Cream) would be routed through Canada (Quebec) so that all immigration visa paper work could be finalized before heading into the “big time” USA.

My band at the time was called ENERGY. We were fortunate to have Steve Cooper as our manager who was also the major rock promoter in Montreal. Naturally Steve would add us on all these rock concerts including The Who show at the Forum. This not only got ENERGY amazing exposure but we also got the opportunity to hang out with all the rock celebs.. Ultimately we would invite them to get their Ya Ya’s out and jam with us at our 24/7 rehearsal space.

This was a great outlet for these stars in the making who were always anxious about the upcoming tour. This was all about their future. Rock was young. Rock was refreshing with new sounds and refreshingly new looks. A good part of the English Rock image was visual and nobody exploited that aspect more than The Who.

They were young, they were volatile, unpredictable, and they looked FAB! While breaking big on the Cashbox charts that year, The Who already had the reputation for breaking up hotel rooms, and of course trashing the equipment at the end of the show. And boy did they rip it up that evening at the Forum in Montreal. Not only did Keith Moon devastate the entire drum kit, he seemed to disrobe as the guitars came crashing down on the amps. It was rock’n’roll chaos.

Corky Laing – Best Seat in the House

Submitted by cashbox on Sat, 08/07/2010 - 16:55

Corky Meets Salvador Dali as Alice Cooper

At 28, I was very aware and thrilled about exactly how lucky I was in life, although the experience of living through the 60s and 70s could leave anyone scared and jaded. I felt it was just plain luck - right place, right time.

In the summer of 1978, I was residing at the very posh St Regis Hotel, at 55th and 5th Avenue in the Big Apple. (New York) I was instructed by my record label president at Warner Brothers, to stay and enjoy all the amenities while a summit meeting would be scheduled that week with Warner Brothers president Steve Wax, manager Irving Azoff, and my celebrity lawyer, John Eastman. This was all very new to me and like I said I was totally impressed with my situation.

LOVE AND PEACE COMES TO MONTREAL

Submitted by cashbox on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 08:22

Corky-Best Seat In The House:photo credit Taffi Rosen

BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE WITH CORKY LAING
“LOVE AND PEACE COMES TO MONTREAL”

“To be a teenager in the 50s was to be a nobody, but to be a teenager in the 60s was to be an everybody”.

Back in ‘69, I was just a kid in NDG (Montreal, Quebec) and the world was my oyster (or some kind of shellfish). The future was wide open and in my mind I could do anything I dreamed of.

I was out of my teens growing up in a beautiful city. Montreal had the most beautiful vibes and if you asked Leonard Cohen, beautiful women. It was a paradise and… who shows up with Love and Peace in Paradise, none other than John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I could only imagine meeting John Lennon, but after a few tokes I became proactive and fearless. I was a drummer in a local band called ENERGY, and staying true to the name I energized and devised a plan to get next to John Lennon; at a time when I told my Dad I wanted to grow up and be a drummer. He said, “son, you have to pick one or the other.” So growing up was out of the question. I was naïve and immature (not to mention an opportunist) and I was proud so I decided to impersonate a Journalist with a fake ID and line up with other journalists at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. John & Yoko were calling in all PR Reps to promote LOVE AND PEACE from their Hotel Bedside.

BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE - CASHBOX WELCOMES CORKY LAING!

Submitted by cashbox on Sat, 06/26/2010 - 19:48

Cashbox Canada is proud to now announce that this music icon will be joining our ranks to share his stories of the road, the music and memories he has experienced while touring with Mountain, West Bruce and Laing, Cork and many others. One legacy meets another on a weekly basis, so please watch for his stories and his ‘Best Seat in The House’ column here on Cashbox Canada.

Rock and Road Stories

By Corky Laing

It’s been 40 years to the month since I had the honour to show up on the Cashbox charts. Along with a bullet, “Mississippi Queen” worked its way up that chart into the Top 40 and jettisoned my music career to where I am today. So it’s all Cashbox’s FAULT.

I could be selling shoes at Giant Tiger but no, Cashbox made me believe that there was a brilliant career (including the ups and downs) to be had in the music industry. Along with appearing on the music charts MOUNTAIN was reviewed for a live performance at the Fillmore East by one of today’s renowned contemporary writers, Eric Von Laustveder (author of the NINJA series). It was an eloquent review and read more like a romantic Dickenson poem than a rock article.