INTERVIEWS
JOHN HELLIWELL
INTERVIEW
(2 pages)
by Miguel Angel Candela
MANCHESTER 3rd April 2003
CLICK THIS ARROW 
TO SEE A PICTURE
This is an interview made to John Helliwell in his 30th anniversary
with Supertramp. John Helliwell is the sax player in the band, and also
the "showman", speaker or face of the group for most of the
fans, specially in the live gigs where he's the speaker, introducing
the other musicians and having fun together with the audience.
I would like to thank
Gonzalo Delgado, Abel Fuentes, Salvador Hernández and Roberta
Kahn for some of the questions and specially to Gonzalo Carrera ( the
keyboard player of the band Landmarq,
London ) for his unvaluable help during my trip and interview questions
translation and also thanks to Jordi Sabater helping us in this long
transcript. And of course thanks a lot to John for his kindness, sense
of humour and wonderful music.
Miguel Angel Candela
Interview: Miguel Angel Candela (MAC) &
Gonzalo Carrera (GC)
Transcript: Miguel Angel Candela, Gonzalo Carrera and Jordi Sabater
Final correction: John Helliwell
AT THE END OF THIS PAGE, you will find the
link to NEXT PAGE
FIRST SECTION : LAST
TOUR
MAC: Nice to meet you John.
Gonzalo Carrera: Hello John, thanks a lot for
giving us this great opportunity to share this great moments for Breakfast
in Spain website!!!
JOHN: It's a pleasure.
MAC: You are my favourite sax player within Supertramp.
GC: one of the best !!!
JOHN: the best sax player in Supertramp !!! (everybody laughing......)
MAC: What's your opinion about last tour? How
would it be your
review about it ?
JOHN: It's a really great band, all the musicians really gelled together
very well.
MAC: What do you think about the reception of
the crowd ? I think most of the venues were completely full up....
JOHN: Yes, it is. Most of them were sold out. Our best crowds , I think,
were in Spain, France and ... those are good countries for us.... And
I think they were curious to hear us, the new album? and we played so
well and the gigs they went done well.
GC: Great reception, them ?
JOHN: yeah!
MAC: I remember the Olympic (Sant Jordi Palace)
venue in Barcelona was full, around 17.000 people.
JOHN: yeah !!!, Tthat one was very special...
MAC: What has been your largest audience in the
last tour ?
JOHN: It was at the Paleo Festival in Geneva (Switzerland).... 35.000
people .... but that was because it's an open air festival and that
night there was a lot of people for us ...but 17.000 people in Barcelona
was good... and that was a very special night indeed because ... oh
how you call it ? I forgot now....., I can't remember...
GC: el abuelo !!! (grandfather in english)
JOHN: that is the one, abuelo !!!
MAC: hahaha !!! Yes, John was in the stage and
said to the audience: "hoy he sido abuelo !!!" ("today
I've been a grandfather" in english language) I remember John asked
it to us in the backstage before the concert, he was really happy !!!
I'm still remember his face and the big smile :o)
JOHN: I remember
the place, it was good night, good people...
MAC: Apart of London (Hyde Park), have you played
other outdoor gigs ?
JOHN: The Paleo Festival was outdoor. And Zurich as well, the day before...
that was a beatiful concert... It was next to a museum...very nice and
it look really good ... good crowd ... and we did some in North America
...some outdoor ones. Paleo it's a big open air festival similar to
Hyde Park, each night they have famous headliners like one night they
have for instance James Brown, next night Supertramp for instance.
MAC: Do you really know how to say " Buenas
noches, Señoras y Señores " (Good night Ladies and
Gentlemen) in all the languages ?
JOHN: ( Laughs ) Bonsoir tout le monde , bienvenue à une soirée
avec
Supertramp... !!! (perfect french pronunciation)
GC : Ah... that sounds familiar...
JOHN: Gutten aben Meine Damen und Herren (perfect german pronunciation)
GC: what about swedish ?
JOHN: That's a mistery to me....I need a translator... I can learn it
before I go on stage but then I might forget it like I forgot in portuguese...
MAC:... you take your time in everyplace to learn this..
JOHN: yeah, yeah... it's important , it is good to know something from
the city where you play ... just to make a nice reference to it ...
MAC: I was lucky to be in the backstage in some
of the gigs and it came to my attention how well organised is everything...
I remember the "schedule" in the walls: the time for lunch,
fiting up the stage, soundcheck, interviews, press, etc..
JOHN: Yes, it's very important for the crew , actually, to know when
things have to be done and finished . On a few ocasions I like to arrive
very early in the morning, about 9 or 10 , and watch the whole processes
setting up . I find it really interesting.
GC: I remember when you played in Vigo back in
97, you asked me the day of the concert where about was the venue, and
this was very early in the morning, I remember you were with Carl Verheyen.
JOHN: yeah that
is right !!!
MAC: It has to be very hard sometimes to be away
from home .... but it has positive things as well...
JOHN: The main thing is the playing. The other things are the traveling
and experiencing new places and it's hard to be away from the family
but that's the life of a musician for you !!
GC: tell me about it John. I know it haha...
MAC: Would you have preferred a longest tour or it was enough?
JOHN: eh.....I could do some more (Laughs )...
GC: I know that you love being on stage...
JOHN: I could have done more... but I think it was enough for the band
as a whole.
MAC: You performed more concerts in Canada than
in the States . What do you think is the reason ? Promoters? The audience
?
JOHN: I think it was ... getting together with a promoter .. they gave
us the best offer from the canadian ones .. and it seems like we are
still quite popular in Canada... but not as popular in the States
MAC:
Really ?
JOHN: Yeah, it is true.
GC: Do you reckon that it happened the same thing
in Europe, in Germany ,France , Spain or Italy you played at a lot of
different cities in each different country, and in UK you just did 5
major concerts, 2 in Scottland and 3 in England...
JOHN: yeah it's a similar situation, here in England we are consider
like an old band, because we dont get as much playing at the radio like
it happened at France, Spain, Italy, Germany or Holland ..., in England
they rather played some of the new bands on the radios...on the other
european countries we are still very popular.
MAC: Do you have special feeling when playing in your own country ?
JOHN: It's interesting ..... oh not. The thing that is different is
when I'm playing here or at Canada or in the States I'm speaking their
language and I can be more comfortable. I can feel much more fluent,
I think is much easier to talk to them.
MAC: The band did some little changes in the setlist
every night. What is the reason? Who decides the changes ?
JOHN: It's allways a discussion with usually Rick and ourselves, the
rest ... And we are allways trying to improve it .. but we make all
the set in a particular country if one particular tune or album is very,
very popular there... but really usually is in an effort to improve
MAC:
But in Spain you were changing one or two songs from the setlist every
night !!
JOHN: We keep trying... Spain was at the beginning of the tour so we
were... well, we were changing through all the 88 concerts of the tour.
GC: I think sometimes there were in some songs
a little bit more of freedom for the musicians for improvising and maybe
extending guitar, sax or keyboard solos...
JOHN: yeah that's right.
MAC: I remember in Spain ... one concert was..
24 songs... next one 23... next one 22... we were joking about thinking
on a concert in England at the end of the tour with only 5 songs !!
(Laughs)
JOHN: Yeah, probably we thought it was too long. Someone might say it
seems long, it seems too long. It's got a number out. A number in. That's
a change around. First of all, for example, it was Mark Hart singing
Give a little bit and then Jesse .
MAC: When ? In the rehearsals ?
JOHN: No, no...At the gigs !! Mark started singing it in Benidorm ...
I think so.
MAC:
Yeah, I understand it know, we were outside there during the soundcheck
and we did hear the song sung by Mark.... And then in the concert it
was Jessie
JOHN: What about
Granada ? Who was singing it ?
MAC: No, no, every night was Jessie.
JOHN: oh you are right !!! that was only at the rehearsals, what happened
Mark started with give a little bit but then eventually Jesse had a
go.... Ah... we were changing.
GC: I though Jesse's version was excellent !
MAC: Why you did not play Gold Rush ? I think
it's a good song to be played live, powerfull song, perhaps better than
"Little by little". I think Bob said somewhere that you were
thinking on including it in the tour...
JOHN: Yes, we rehearsed it quite a lot. We might have played somewhere
though... maybe we have played it in Canada ... . I think we did it...
It was one of the numbers people were waiting, you know ... one of the
numbers waiting on the wings.
MAC:
Yes, I remember you played it in the soundcheck of Malaga !!.
GC: Actually that was cowritten with Richard Palmer.
JOHN: Yeah that's right.
MAC: Well, I can tell you a funny story about
it. I was in San Diego two years ago and Roger Hodgson played "Gold
rush" for us, a small group of friends, one year before the album
"Slow Motion"...
JOHN: really ?
MAC: yeah!!! and then I told Roger "that's
Rick's !!!", as you know Roger just play his own songs, and Roger
was really surprised and told us "The lyrics are from R. Palmer
and the music is from Rick and me !!!"
JOHN: I didn't know it. I joined the band sometime after this song,
an old song.
GC: it's a great song !!!
MAC: Roger played for us some really beautiful
new songs !!!
JOHN: Lovely !!
GC: maybe they will be at the next Supertramp
album ????
JOHN: I'd love to play with Roger !
MAC:
Well, coming back to the tour, It was a big surprise to have "Asylum"
back, congratulations, it was a great idea and we enjoyed it a lot !!!
GC: another beautiful song !
JOHN: great dynamics isn't it...???
GC: yeah very strong !!!
MAC: beautiful contrast at the stage, Rick playing
seriously at the piano, screaming, almost crying.... and you, happy
man, with the phone, in the humorous side, great contrast.
JOHN: it was a great inspiration !!!
MAC: yeah, but in the opposite, most of us were
waiting for numbers like "Waiting so long", "Gone Hollywood"
or "Lover Boy"
JOHN: First of all, we can't play everything. "Gone Hollywood"
is the one we have never done it live...
GC: I love Gone Hollywood, is one of my favourites,
I love your solo !!!
JOHN: and we have not played "Lover Boy" neither. Maybe is
just we have not the right sounds for it ... maybe there was a lot of
overdubs at the studio... and it's the same with "Gone Hollywood"
. I allways say "We must play Gone Hollywood". In 1979 , for
the tour, we tried and rehearse it and it wasn't right. But every tour
that we do I allways say "Let's do Gone Hollywood"...
MAC:
Yeah, really ? Thanks John !!
JOHN: ...Maybe we tried it in 79, and again in the 83 tour but it wasn't
right for some reason.
GC: Wich sax did you use on your solo John? at
Gone Hollywood..
JOHN: well, it is a tenor sax...
GC: and there is like a keyboard sound underneath
the sax doubling up the solo...
JOHN: it's a synthesiser and there was a direct link between the sax
and the synth...
MAC: How did it come out the idea of inviting
four sax players at the Paris concert, during last tour ?
JOHN: Because of the track..."Over You". There are five different
harmonies for the sax parts on the studio, so it was just an idea .
Laurent knew some of the top sax players in Paris and I was just talking
to him and I just say "Can you find three other saxophone players
?... Laurent, can you organise it , get these people together ?"
and I wrote out the music for them in a letter to Laurent. I remember
I was in Bordeaux . I wrote the music there and I sent it to him...
MAC: During the tour ?
JOHN: Yeah... on tour...before
we arrive to Paris. We just did it for one night, very special night.
Good saxophone players they were.
GC: and Laurent was all over the moon about it
!!! What a nice guy. I had the pleasure meeting Laurent and Mac the
fist time in the backstage of London thanks to your invitation John.
MAC: it was a great week end, my first time in
London. The music is a really good way to meet good friends ...
GC: Laurent will be playing with my band Landmarq
at a special concert at london, the underworld-camden town and we will
have as very special guests Laurent Hunziker on the sax and Hugh Mcdowell
(cello for the Elo fame) !!!
JOHN: I know it and he will be playing the sax he bought from me, the
tenor one, the one I recorded some of the supertramp hits like Crime
of the century, Bloody well right or It's raining again, hopefully I
can make it myself too and I will play on the last number if I'am not
busy with the Gaia project with Alan Simon...!!!
GC: it would be fantastic !!!
MAC: I would like to make a comment or a criticism
about the last tour.
JOHN: that's alright...
MAC: When people attends a concert and pays, they
want to enjoy music but they also want to enjoy seeing musicians faces
and see how you play, specially in the big venues. Why don't you use
a video screen system or something similar like other artists do ? That's
because of video-piracy ? In some gigs you have joked about this, saying
you are getting older and you don't want people to see your faces...
JOHN: Yeah, it's true. We are not beautiful enough. It's not for security
reasons. It's something we have never really got into. Because when
we started it wasn't there really , we didn't have that facility and
we never really done it... maybe we just did it a few times...
MAC: But do you think it's a good idea for people
... to see the faces when you play it ?
JOHN: But I think it's a secondary consideration... we are not really
bothered about it...the music is more important than the image for us...
MAC:
A second criticism. The big video screen for some projections like the
ones in Rudy and Crime of the Century is excellent. Better than last
tour. Congratulations ! but why don't you use it more, with new videos
?
JOHN: Beucause originally those numbers were something really special
and we didn't want to do it with ... We just want to do it with few
of that numbers ... and now with the new numbers I think it might be
a question of economics... because it can be very expensive.
On the last tour although (97)....we had that situation where it was
me on the screen talking ... I was talking with me in Take the long
way home. We did that...
MAC: And what about this tour ?
JOHN: We did it once...we did not want to do it again. We have done
it already. yeah I know we could have done more movies, but maybe is
due to economics.
MAC: But you have a expensive big screen ... and
it's a pitty ! just two songs.
GC: well that is true otherwise people they pay
more attention to the screen than the music.
JOHN: I think that's not enough. But I think that's better than too
much. Your criticism is very valid, they are right. They are good criticisms...
It's good. We are not perfect. So, next time we come out we can be better
!!!.
MAC: Finally I want to let you know that everybody
enjoyed the tour and the band. Thanks for the fantastic tour.
JOHN: We worked hard. We don't mess about . We really tried hard. We
rehearsed a lot !
GO
TO NEXT PAGE
