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Drew & Dy
An Apple Story
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(cont.)
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"Then we went to Apple in Savile Row. They had only just moved in there and we met their publicist. I can't remember his name, not Tony Barrow, the other one. He's very famous, a bit snobbish, Derek Taylor, we met him. I can't remember why we went to Apple but I remember being in a big office with Paul and a photo on the wall, taken from the crowd, black and white, just a hand reaching up from the stalls.
"We did the session next. We walked in at two in the afternoon. There was a big crowd outside the studio which got bigger through the night. Paul impressed me mainly by his energy. He was up and down those stairs, into the control room, we'd do a take, then back out onto the studio floor to
harmonize with us. He played 'Lady Madonna' on the piano just for us, and he was terrific.
"The studio staff weren't so nice, Malcolm Toft and others. I remember them saying, 'We'll have to clean the studio out when you've gone', which I didn't understand. We were clean and no more messy than most bands would be. The drummer was overwhelmed by the whole thing and was drinking constantly. I think the bass player was Hawaiian.
"I remember Paul saying to the drummer, 'That isn't going to help' (the drink). We worked hard and at the end of the session Paul said, 'Well, I don't think we have a record, but that's not our fault, we'll do it again.'
"A drunk got into the lobby of the studio and Drew and I were quite alarmed (we were only kids, seventeen) and Paul said, 'It's okay, just a drunk,' and the staff hustled him out.
"Some record company executives came to the session. I don't know who they were, middle-aged Americans. Paul said, 'Those were really big fish', so they must have been from Capitol or somewhere. They didn't speak to us, just watched for a while from the control room. Mal Evans just said that he had come to the session because he liked our songs. Francie Schwartz was small and dark, American, she didn't speak to us but at the end of the session Paul produced a bottle of champagne and she rounded up cups and mugs and we all had a sip of champagne.
"While they were clearing away they put on 'Hey Jude'. Paul said to the staff, 'Slip on 'Hey jude'' and even though the staff had been hearing our three songs all afternoon and night (it was now about 2a.m.) they were whistling 'Hey Jude' after it had finished, and I don't blame them! We worked so hard on the session that Drew's fingers were all blistered and Paul said, 'We're making an album at the moment and we'll put something on there, a message for you' - and I suppose it was 'I've got blisters on my fingers' on 'Helter Skelter'.
"Paul sent us another letter (which I also don't have anymore) and he promised to set up another session with musicians. But then the Beatles started to break up and we were impatient to get a record out, so we went up to Apple and met a lovely lady, I don't know who she was, and she tried to talk us into staying with Apple (how I wish we had), but we were adamant, we wanted desperately to get a record out. Finally they called Paul on the phone and he said, 'Don't you want me?' and I said, 'It's not that, but how many records have you had out in the last year, 'cause we've had none.' Then he said 'Put (I can't remember the name) on the phone' and they released us from the contract and gave us the songs back. A letter came about a week later.
"That's about it, really. Drew and Dy did keep going. We had a record out on Philips, two of the songs we'd done with Apple - 'Dedicated To Love' and 'Taurus the Bull.' The record didn't do anything, then we had an album track as writers for Stardust, a Swedish group, plus a single for them, We also had a David Essex single and album track 'Goodbye First Love'. We signed to A.I.R. as writers, we signed to Mickie Most and Tony Hatch as writers, but nothing went quite right for us. We recorded three songs with President Records just as the payola scandal hit. Roy Castle was going to record one of our songs but his wife went into labour the day of the session. John Kongas did one of our songs in between two number one hits, but the producer, Graham Churchill, felt that he hadn't done a good enough job on producing it, so they didn't release it. Jose Feliciano was going to do one of our songs but his publishing company wanted to impose a terrible deal on A.I.R. for the use of our songs, so they wouldn't agree...
"The list goes on and on!
"Drew gave up music in 1973. I carried on and have a small studio in Bristol. We do songwriter's demos, local bands, I also gig with a lady partner as a Country Rock duo called Deuce. I do TV extra work now and then and Drew and I got back together in the summer of 1998 to do some tracks with a local 18-year-old singer Mike King, on some of our old songs, updated.
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