Schon and Entwistle?

[STORY_TELLER]

Neal posted a picture of himself, Ed Van Halen and John Entwistle. Says he was recording with Entwistle when they went to see Ed play at a music festival in England (back in the 80's).

Never knew they worked together. Does anyone know if the stuff Neal and Entwistle did was put out?

[SF-Dano]

Found this but it doesn't mention anything about recording. Just pics.

http://www.vhnd.com/2014/07/03/photos-v ... tage-1984/

[Journey/Survivor]

Neal posted a picture of himself, Ed Van Halen and John Entwistle. Says he was recording with Entwistle when they went to see Ed play at a music festival in England (back in the 80's).

Never knew they worked together. Does anyone know if the stuff Neal and Entwistle did was put out?

From what I recall, the band that became known as HSAS was originally supposed to have John Entwistle on bass, and Denny Carmassi on drums.

[tj]

Neal posted a picture of himself, Ed Van Halen and John Entwistle. Says he was recording with Entwistle when they went to see Ed play at a music festival in England (back in the 80's).

Never knew they worked together. Does anyone know if the stuff Neal and Entwistle did was put out?

From what I recall, the band that became known as HSAS was originally supposed to have John Entwistle on bass, and Denny Carmassi on drums.

Not disputing the story, but that's a hard one for me to get my mind around. Entwistle seems like a really strange fit for that group, to me.

[STORY_TELLER]

Neal didn't specify anything about the recording stuff in his post, just stated he was recording with John elsewhere in England at the time of this picture being taken. (yes that is the same picture he posted, the 3 of them together).

I don't know much about HSAS. Is their history that it started as a band of different players than the ones who put out the record?

Something else to consider:
Neal is in that documentary about session players. Go-to studio musicians who are tapped to come in an nail down what's needed for other artist's albums. Could Neal have been working on one of Entwhistle's solo projects?

[tj]

Neal didn't specify anything about the recording stuff in his post, just stated he was recording with John elsewhere in England at the time of this picture being taken. (yes that is the same picture he posted, the 3 of them together).

I don't know much about HSAS. Is their history that it started as a band of different players than the ones who put out the record?

Something else to consider:
Neal is in that documentary about session players. Go-to studio musicians who are tapped to come in an nail down what's needed for other artist's albums. Could Neal have been working on one of Entwhistle's solo projects?

I could see Neal as a session player on something involving Entwhistle more than being in a band with him.

[SF-Dano]

Don't recall this Schon/Entwistle tour of Japan ever being mentioned before???? Anyone????

http://i94bar-dev.info/sixteen/ox.html
Like no one else in the Who, he lived for the stage, and perhaps that was part of his problem...he squandered loads of his treasure touring his own bands (Rigor Mortis, Ox, and the John Entwistle Band), playing in dumps for chump change. Not only did he join Daltrey on the demeaning "English Rock Orchestra" tour, he even did things like touring Japan with Neal Schon and a couple of other seventies arena-rock leftovers. After the first one, "Smash Your Head Against the Wall," his solo albums were really nothing special; in fact, they got progressively worse.

[STORY_TELLER]

Don't recall this Schon/Entwistle tour of Japan ever being mentioned before???? Anyone????

http://i94bar-dev.info/sixteen/ox.html
Like no one else in the Who, he lived for the stage, and perhaps that was part of his problem...he squandered loads of his treasure touring his own bands (Rigor Mortis, Ox, and the John Entwistle Band), playing in dumps for chump change. Not only did he join Daltrey on the demeaning "English Rock Orchestra" tour, he even did things like touring Japan with Neal Schon and a couple of other seventies arena-rock leftovers. After the first one, "Smash Your Head Against the Wall," his solo albums were really nothing special; in fact, they got progressively worse.

News to me, but I think you figured out a big part of the mystery. I take issue with the way this writer portrays Entwistle here. He didn't "squander" anything. What was he going to do, take it with him? He was an artist. He used his money to further the passions he lived and breathed. We should all be so lucky.

[Journey/Survivor]

At one point in the early 1990's there was a band project that would have involved........
Jimi Jamison Lead Vocals
Joe Walsh Lead Guitar
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Lead Guitar
John Entwistle Bass
I don't recall who the drummer was supposed to be.

For some odd reason they weren't getting very much interest in the project from record labels.
I think that that band-lineup could have been extremely successful.

[Journey/Survivor]

It's been many years since I read it, so it's possible that I'm confusing it with another project. But I'm fairly sure that I did read that John Entwistle was supposed to be the bass player in the band that later became HSAS. And like I mentioned, Denny Carmassi was supposed to be the drummer in the band.

Sammy Hagar has recently mentioned that Michael Shrieve was not the original drummer that they had planned on recording with.
I'm not a fan of "The Who" and therefore am far from an expert about them. So my facts could easily be off on this one. But I seem to recall hearing that it was some sort of "The Who" reunion tour that made Entwistle have to back out of recording with Hagar and Schon.

[Journey/Survivor]

Well, I just went to the Wikipedia page for HSAS, and it confirms that Denny Carmassi was originally the drummer that they were planning on using. It also mentions that they were at the time still looking for a bass player.

[STORY_TELLER]

At one point in the early 1990's there was a band project that would have involved........
Jimi Jamison Lead Vocals
Joe Walsh Lead Guitar
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Lead Guitar
John Entwistle Bass
I don't recall who the drummer was supposed to be.

For some odd reason they weren't getting very much interest in the project from record labels.
I think that that band-lineup could have been extremely successful.

Can you say Grunge?

[STORY_TELLER]

It's been many years since I read it, so it's possible that I'm confusing it with another project. But I'm fairly sure that I did read that John Entwistle was supposed to be the bass player in the band that later became HSAS. And like I mentioned, Denny Carmassi was supposed to be the drummer in the band.

Sammy Hagar has recently mentioned that Michael Shrieve was not the original drummer that they had planned on recording with.
I'm not a fan of "The Who" and therefore am far from an expert about them. So my facts could easily be off on this one. But I seem to recall hearing that it was some sort of "The Who" reunion tour that made Entwistle have to back out of recording with Hagar and Schon.

Hagar is a big WHO fan, so I could see him being a driving force to get Entwistle involved. I read a more recent interview where Hagar politely criticized the "rhythm" section of HSAS for why the band wasn't as good as it could be. Don't remember the exact wording, but Hagar made it sound like he wasn't thrilled with Aaronson and Shrieve from the outset, but he was talked into it. He didn't specify who convinced him but I think it's safe to say it was Neal.

[tater1977]

I think Sammy talked about HSAS in his book 'The Red Rocker'.
Was supposed to be him and Neal to start off and if I remember
correctly Sammy said something about it was Neal who brought
in Shrieve and Aaronson and he wasn't too happy about it.
Will have to go back and check and make sure now.

[tater1977]

The whole time we were in Africa, I’d been writing songs, because I knew I was coming back to do this thing with Neal Schon of Journey, my first idea for a super-group, HSAS— Hagar, Schon, Aaronson, Shrieve. Neal and I had it all planned.

When I turned my focus back to HSAS, I had all these songs like “Giza” and “Valley of the Kings” that I had written in Africa and Egypt, these vibey kind of lyrics, and I had “I Can’t Drive 55,” because I’d written it on the way home. But I didn’t give it to the band. I didn’t even tell Neal. I just kept it in my pocket. I wrote the whole song anyway, and Neal and I were supposed to be cowriting everything on the new project. I don’t think I was being cheesy or cagey, just that was my song and I saved it for myself. Good thinking, it turned out. The HSAS thing didn’t really work. Neal and I had wanted to do something together, but I don’t know why we got bassist Kenny Aronson and drummer Michael Shrieve. They were good and everything, but it was more a matter of who was available. Aaronson had played with Billy Squier and Neal knew Shrieve from when they played in Santana together. Shrieve, who’s a great rhythmical guy, wasn’t a rock drummer at all, and we were a rock band.

But he made the band kind of cool and fusion-y. We did twelve shows in November 1983 around the Bay Area, all sold out for a band nobody ever heard before, and gave all the money to arts and music programs in public schools. We cut the album live, which I thought was sort of adventurous, but it never sold more than 150,000, even though I was selling more than a million as a solo artist and Journey was selling more than a million with Neal. It never caught on. “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” which was the single, didn’t really work, never hit. We played an MTV show called The Concert. Neal and I went to New York and did press for days. But it just never took off. It might have been better if we’d gone in the recording studio, made the record, and then done the shows, but the way we did it was unique. We never toured again.

Hagar, Sammy. Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

[scarab]

Amazed it sold less than 150K copies.
I bought the cassette of all placed Flin Flon Manitoba, Thought it was cool the cassettes were black.
Top of the Rock and Missing you were in good rotation in MN (Still think Missing you is one of the most underrated AOR songs)
Whiter Shade of Pale should not have been the first single. While good it is far removed from the rest of the album.
He will understand is another good standout.

The good old days, HSAS was released in May 1984, VOA July 1984.

[STORY_TELLER]

Thanks Tater. Your post sheds some light on the Entwistle question regarding HSAS. I think Hagar would have mentioned him in the history of HSAS if he were involved, or even a consideration.

I think the most reasonable scenario is that Neal played on Entwistle's solo outing. Question is, did it see the light of day.

[tater1977]

... look, I went to England back in the '80s with Neal and me and Neal and John Entwistle and we did a demo at where The Who did Quadrophenia. We made this demo and back in Los Angeles, kind of a divey hangout for rock stars, you know, old and new rock stars and me and Billy walk in together and Billy says, "Look, there's John Entwistle." Didn't you play on a demo with him, and I said, "Yeah," so we walk over and I go, "Hey John!" and he goes, "Hello" and Billy goes, "Hey it's Eric Martin, remember?" and he goes, "I've never seen you in my life."

http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/ericmartin.html

[tater1977]

EM: I gotta tell you something. I was just thinking about this the other day. When I was younger, (switching to the Southern twang) and I don’t know how old I was, something like in my 20s – (Laughs) – I went with Neal Schon from Journey to meet up with John Entwistle.

HRH: Really?

EM: This is not like a new Wizard of Oz twist, trust me. This really happened.

HRH: OK.

EM: Me, and Neal, and John went into this house, a castle kind of thing, and we were thinking about starting a band, doing demos and stuff. So on a break we went to Donnington Festival, the original Monsters of Rock. And it was an amazing day. A hotel like a Holiday Inn was really close to the place, and all the bands – Van Halen, AC / CD, everybody was hanging around and drinking in the bar.

HRH: Incredible.

EM: Fist time in England I had to have something. I’ve had something, I don’t remember exactly what, but it was something. It was an amazing day – hanging at the festival and then being on stage watching Van Halen do their thing. And in the back of my head I’m thinking, “God, I want to be doing this!” And it’s a cliché, everybody wants that big prize, like, “I’m gonna be here one day, this is what I want! I want to be David Lee Roth talking to the audience!” I didn’t want to be David Lee Roth, but… And it only took 27 years, but I’m back! (Laughs).

http://hardrockhaven.net/archives/2011/ ... of-mr-big/

[STORY_TELLER]

Boom goes the dynamite! Thank you Tater. Mystery solved! Wow, Eric Martin, Neal and Entwistle? I wonder what that sounded like.