It’s when something knocks the wind out of you. You feel a sudden emptiness; your insides replaced by a lonely empty hunger for what isn’t there; for what you wish you still had.
I’ll quote from “Casablanca,” and Rick’s recollection of being gutted by a Dear John letter:
“I remember the last one, the wild finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain, with a comical look on his face, because his insides have been kicked out.”
That’s gutted. Usually there’s no comical look.
A friend of mine mentioned he’d been working on a cover version of “Heartache Avenue.” It was a “one hit wonder” for a group punningly named The Maisonettes, with a nod to the lead singer, Lol Mason.
It had me thinking, how’s Lol Mason these days? He’d kept a pretty low profile in the 21st Century, but maybe doing a Google search I'll find something about what he's up to.
I found out he died a few weeks ago. July 30th.
This was like Houdini getting punched before he could prepare for it.
City Boy was one of my favorite groups when I was editing ROCKET, and I interviewed them, and took photos of them in performance. The band actually had a special connection to ROCKET, too. I'll get to that later.
Here's Lol in the City Boy video for "5-7-0-5" (lyrics by Lol Mason, music by Steve Broughton) and a recent picture of him and his wife, which was at birminghammail.co.uk.
It turns out Laurence Edward Mason’s aging involved a required kidney transplant. Only a few weeks after the successful surgery, he had a massive heart attack and died. He was 69.
The news didn’t make Rolling Stone, just a local Birmingham newspaper’s website. When I interviewed Lol and the other City Boy lead singer Steve Broughton, we talked about how lively the rock scene was in Birmingham. It’s where he thrived and where he died.
You might think my best memories of ROCKET involve meeting big stars like Billy Joel, Hall and Oates and Elton John, but I got more satisfaction doing articles and record reviews on newcomers who needed a pull quote and some recognition. City Boy, still without a hit, but with several albums on Mercury, were in the very first issue of ROCKET. When they finally had a hit single, and I met up with them again, Lol told me that the first time the band’s name was ever on the cover of a rock magazine, it was ROCKET. It was a sign they'd made it.
The article in that first issue included a few photos by me, but I’d assigned the piece to one of my freelancers, Ron Gott. He was primarily a photographer, with creds in Trouser Press and other magazines before we met. While he took pix of King Crimson and Robert Fripp and others, he had a fondness for City Boy, and unusual guys like Andy Bown. He was glad to find ROCKET willing to devote pages to individualistic (if not oddball) musicians. City Boy had "Oddball Dance" on the first album, and other unusual pieces such as "The Man Who Ate His Car."
Lol Mason was City Boy's main lyricist, and I really enjoyed talking to him about his unusual point of view. I was amused when he admitted that even he didn’t have a clue on some of his lines. “Deadly Delicious” mentions a girl who is “sharper than a telephone.” Lol gave a lol (laughing out loud) and said, “I’m still trying to figure that one out.”
The rock world never did figure out City Boy, and it didn't help when they eased from quirky and humorous songs to more and more serious fare, moving to Atlantic for the grimly named albums “The Day The Earth Caught Fire” and “Heads Are Rolling.” Steve Broughton left, and their last album, “It’s Personal” was not released in the USA or UK.
Soon Lol emerged as leader of “The Maisonettes,” writing lyrics with bandmate, Mark Tibenham. "Heartache Avenue" was a slick, jazz-tinged hit. I was a music editor for a well known men’s magazine around that time, and would’ve been glad to talk with Lol Mason again and promote their next album…but there wasn’t one. Thus, Lol Mason managed to be a “One Hit Wonder” in two different bands.
He had to be, at this point, tired of the touring, the frustration, and the royalty checks that deducted the costs of touring, studio time and promo videos. Mason began to find work as a songwriter (material on a pair of Sam Fox albums that went gold, the soundtrack for Oliver Stone’s film “Every Given Sunday,” a song on a Sarah Brightman album).
The lyricist also worked on radio scripts, as the UK still has BBC4 and a formidable tradition in that art form. They snapped up his 6 part script for “Richard Barton: General Practitioner,” starring Robert Bathurst, Moray Watson and Iain Cuthbertson. It’s an easy download over at archive.org. It has its origins in a show by Edward J. Mason (Lol’s father) called “Dick Barton: Special Agent,” a hit in the late 40’s. I wonder if John Cleese ever listened to “Richard Barton.” If he did, he would’ve gotten a kick out of some of the dialogue. A quickie:
Richard: "Don't be funny Professor.”
Professor: "I'm a German. Don't be stupid.”
And don’t mention the war!
The birminghammail.co.uk website interviewed Lol’s wife Kathryn (a professor at City University in Birmingham). She recalled his last days and his enduring achievements: ““We’d had the most fabulous two days, looking forward to life without dialysis. On Monday night, we had a wonderful meal together. On Saturday night, we were listening to his iPod and Still Waters Run Deep was playing (a song he planned to record with a local singer, Madeline Farmer). He said ‘You must think that’s terribly old-fashioned’.”
“He was the most intelligent, brilliant men I’ve ever met. His humour, wit and command of the English language... he was such a remarkable person. Everyone has rung up and said he was such a clever man. I was also struck by how many friends he had, and everyone adored him. He was just one of the most brilliant men I’ve known. I think he got two O Levels and an A Level which made me realise sense and intelligence has nothing to do with intellect. He was absolutely my rock.
“He never wanted the limelight back. It can really mess you up, and you’re left wondering ‘Why can’t I have it back?’ “Lol overcame that extraordinarily well. He was so strong and fascinated by so many things. His work ethic was extraordinary, he’d write every day.”
ROCKET gave big write-ups to some artists that were being ignored by Rolling Stone or Creem or Circus. These unique performers were special to me, and they included all types of styles. I loved spending time with Katy Moffatt, Amanda Lear, Andy Pratt, and Peppi Marchello of The Good Rats...and especially Steve and Lol from City Boy. Lol's work remains as fresh now as it did then. I’d like to think that he knew, living quietly in Manchester, that songs he’d written decades ago were still being played all over the world, still getting plenty of YouTube views, and reaching new fans every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment