He sprawls in a decidedly ragged
armchair, giving me a decidedly ragged smile. The sun shines through the
half-drawn curtains, illuminating a decidedly ordinary face. Indeed, there’s nothing spectacular about the
guy at all. Nothing to indicate that I’m
sitting opposite the rhythm guitarist\song-writer\driving force of one of the
most influential rock bands of the Seventies, The Haize.
Dave Levett peers at me from
behind that smile. “Come on, ask me a
question.”
It’s difficult. What do you ask a legend? I glance at my notes.
How about the recent split from
Private Plastic?
Dave scratches his nose, looking
thoughtful. “I think all I could say
about that...is...it was inevitable...”
There is a long pause as Dave frowns, staring at a large purple patch on
the left knee of his jeans. I begin to
wonder if he’s forgotten the question, when suddenly he glances up and,
grinning jovially, continues (I have since learned that he does this a lot when
being interviewed, seemingly without realising it!).
“Yeah, inevitable. Like, in the early days, it wasn’t a record
company, it was just a couple of guys we knew who had the right equipment to
press up a few hundred copies. I mean,
we didn’t have licences, we didn’t have anything. Christ, most of the money went on bribing
people, like the printers!”
But you got your first licence in
1976?
“Yeah. January the seventh! We were legal at last! The General Election was June the previous
year, and we waved bye-bye to the right honourable Sir Hamilton Wallace...in
more ways than one!
He was assassinated.
“He was, and before you ask, it
wasn’t me! Anyway, they scrapped DM in
November, but it still took till the next year to get the licence thing sorted
out properly. And then we became a
limited company. And I was f----ing
chairman!
“That was when it started, the
trouble. I mean, it was great at first,
having total control over our own product.
But we just couldn’t devote enough time to the company. The band would have suffered, and suddenly we
had all these gigs! Legit ones! So over the next couple of years it got
handed over, till we had less and less control.
Eventually I think I had two percent of the voting shares! Anyway, it’s not as if Private Plastic needed
us anymore, they’ve got some good acts on the label - Sigma-Z, Nouveux Riche,
and they’ve got some of the Gene Hawkins Band back catalogue. They’re doing okay.”
Have you seen Gene recently?
Dave laughs. “That wanker?
He’s out on bail. Been round to
see us, but I told him we didn’t want
to see him! We made it plain there was to be no drugs
involvement else you’re out on your ear.
Let’s face it, the drug scene was almost non-existent over here up till
‘76. Then the Americans came back over,
all the big US
bands, and the hard stuff just seemed to follow. A lot of people thought they could take it,
and couldn’t.” He pauses. “Pete couldn’t.” [Pete Story, Haize's bass player from 1973 until 1977]
Your third single, “SMACK”, was
written after Pete Story’s death at the first Knebworth Festival in June 1977,
dedicated to him, I believe?
“Yeah, I felt so sick after
that. Just plain sick. He was a good mate, but I never knew. None of us knew. Though, to be fair, it could’ve been his
first time on heroin. Christ knows. Anyway, prats like Gene deserve all they
get.”
Sounds like you don’t think much
of him.
“Christ, no, he’s a brilliant
vocalist! I mean, we really peaked when
he joined, although there was a lot of bad feeling from the fans at the
time.” Dave laughs, “ I think everyone
reckoned we were gonna emigrate to Florida
after the US
tour went so well, and then popping up with an American vocalist! Nar, I respect him as an artist, sure, I just
don’t want to see him. That’s it. Mind you, he sure left his mark on the band
when we collaborated on the Techronomicon thing. I was really pleased with that.”
Critics have said that the
Techronomicon Road show was a particularly “overblown” period for The Haize.
“Oh yeah! Amazingly so!
But it was great! And yet I’m
glad we can still play the smaller venues...both ends of the scale, y’know? Like the Stonehenge
thing this year. I haven’t enjoyed a gig
so much in years. We had Johnny Balso on
guitar, and did mostly old stuff. After
all, a bit of nostalgia never hurt anyone!”
Johnny Balso used to be with The
Mutual, didn’t he?
“Yeah, they all got busted back
in ‘74, after the French film came out.
Johnny’s got folks over in Australia though. I didn’t know he’d got out until around
Christmas the same year, when he came back for a few months and did some gigs
with us. In fact he’s on the Traffic Jamming single - not a lot of
people know that. Good guitarist,
Johnny. Wrote most of The Mutual’s
stuff.
Is the new line-up permanent?
“Ha! Is it ever?
I dunno. We’re in a bit of a flux
at present, what with Barry buggering off again, so no drummer [Barry Bueno, intermittent Haize drummer since 1972]. But Marc says he knows a bloke who knows
someone. We’ve got a couple of gigs
lined up next month, if we can get a f-----ing band together!”
Do you think you’ll ever regain
the stability of the 1978 to 1980 period?
“I don’t believe in
stability. You have to have a little bit
of uncertainty to make everything spark.
Sort of dynamic tension, if you like!
Hopefully we’re getting back to a less polished, more basic
approach. Alright, so we were a success
on the foreign market after Techronomicon,
we were slick, we were professional...but so what? I personally wasn’t happier. Nar, it’s the end of another era. Let the past bury itself.”
Speaking of the past...
“Oho, I know what you’re going to
say...the RCA thing, right?”
Why did you bring out the injunction?
Surely the tapes are still valid, even after three years?
“The injunction was an attempt to
stop the release as quickly as possible, to give us time to negotiate some kind
of licensing deal. Sure, the recordings
are valid. They’re very good quality,
and the gigs were good too. But what
we’re against is where the money’s going.
You see, pre-’76 we weren’t legal, we had no licence. So, effectively, anything recorded before ‘76
is sole property of whoever eventually releases it.
In this case, RCA. What’s the
price of the album? Three, four
quid? Most of that money is going
straight back into RCA wallets! That
money could be put to better use.”
Some people might say...in Dave
Levett’s pocket?
“Bollocks. Most of what we grossed from the Techronomicon live album went straight
back into the music business. I mean,
Christ, this country’s poor! There’s a bit of money available from local
Government, entertainment grants and such, but it’s not enough to just lift all
the restrictions and say “Okay, the law’s not against you, go ahead and play”,
because like everything else in this world, it costs! Christ, we could be
millionaires if we’d stayed in the States!
RCA is solely US-owned now, anyway, and all the money from that album, a
British group, recorded live in Britain, is just sailing out of this
country!” He pauses, smiling
resignedly. “Anyway, it’s water under
the bridge now. The injunction failed,
and they released it. Come on, I’ve had
my gripe, change the subject!”
Any news of a record deal?
“Well, Jeff's been nosing
around [Jeff Hoffman - The Haize's long-suffering agent/manager/fall guy]. There’s some London-based Indie
labels who’d jump at the chance, but we’ve got to choose the right one because
I don’t want loads of distribution hassles.
It’s got to be British too, there’s no question of signing to EMI or
Polydor. Actually, we’ve got some good
demo material in the can - mainly me, Taylor [Taylor Sindon, keyboards/synth since 1974], and Barry - so as soon as we get
some kind of deal worked out there’ll probably be an album on the way. Need a drummer first though. Can I put an ad in your paper?”
Be my guest. Male or female?
“Ho ho, a leading question! I
like girls in the band. I’m not
on this big male ego trip that women can’t play rock music. I mean, Donna McKenzie was a f----ing good
guitarist, and Maxine was one of the best drummers we’ve ever had. Her old man played bass with us for a while
too. The only difficulty with women in the band though, is that they gotta habit of getting pregnant and leaving, at the worst possible time...like two months before a
world tour!”
What about Judi Delaney [The Haize's original bass-player]?
“Ah, shit, Judi couldn’t play
worth a damn! But that was back in
‘71...and I don’t think I was that great myself!”
Wasn’t she arrested?
“We thought so. But she wrote to me about six months
back. She’s living in Switzerland
now. Seems she had to split really fast
towards the end of ‘71, and couldn’t even let us know without putting the rest
of the band at risk. She got hold of a
copy of War Zone last year, you know,
one of the re-pressings, and there’s a song on there we wrote for her ["Song For Judi"]. She’s married now. Cheered me up no end, you know, hearing from
Judi. Like, events from the past
suddenly turning up rosy like that. Sort
of makes the future brighter, don’t you think?”
I did indeed. And then the phone went, and it was Jeff
Hoffman. The interview was over and I left. Dave’s last words behind me...”Hi Jeff...a
drummer? Great...what’s she like?”
- Sue Markham
(originally published in New Musical Express 31st May 1980)
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