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    Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
    Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
    Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    Supertramp - Crime Of The Century

    By Steve Pilkington

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    About this ebook

    Some albums are simply undeniable watersheds in an artist’s career. These can be artistic, or commercial triumphs (or both), but are seen by both the fanbase and even the wider world, as defining statements. Such was undoubtedly the case when Supertramp released Crime Of The Century in 1974. The band’s two previous albums had searched for a direction almost as much as Supertramp themselves searched for a stable line-up. But so few copies were sold that the band were almost entirely unknown as they embarked on their third.
    Like some serendipitous alchemy, the perfect five-piece line-up coalesced around the creative hub of Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, and there was a tangible belief and confidence that had not been present before. They took time away from playing live and meticulously crafted Crime Of The Century, which immediately put them both into theatres and into the charts.
    With the album celebrating its 50th anniversary and aided by the author’s interview with Roger Hodgson, this book examines the making of the album, while looking into the music and lyrical content with some depth. It also examines the wider story of the band and the lasting legacy of the masterpiece that became Crime Of The Century.


    The author
    Steve Pilkington is a writer and broadcaster based in the North West of England. He has published books on artists as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Van Der Graaf Generator, Iron Maiden and The Rolling Stones, and is a regular Sonicbond author. He has also written the official biography of guitarist Gordon Giltrap. Steve also presents a weekly internet radio show entitled A Saucerful Of Prog for Rock Radio UK, as well as writing CD booklet essays and regular content on the Velvet Thunder rock website. Crime Of The Century Rock Classics is his tenth published book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSonicbond Publishing
    Release dateOct 25, 2024
    ISBN9781789521085
    Supertramp - Crime Of The Century

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      Book preview

      Supertramp - Crime Of The Century - Steve Pilkington

      Supertramp - Crime Of The Century

      Supertramp - Crime Of The Century

      Rock Classic

      Steve Pilkington

      Sonicbond Publishing

      Sonicbond Publishing Limited www.sonicbondpublishing.co.uk Email: [email protected]

      First Published in the United Kingdom 2024 First Published in the United States 2024

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

      A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright Steve Pilkington 2024

      ISBN 978-1-78952-327-0

      The right of Steve Pilkington to be identified

      as the author of this work has been asserted by him

      in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

      stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Sonicbond Publishing Limited

      Contents

      Social Media

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      1. The Road To ‘Crime’

      2. Preparing The Crime

      3. The Album And The Songs

      4. The Impact Of The Crime – Release, Reception And Touring

      5. The Fallout – The Highs And Lows Of Following Up The Album

      6. Breakfast Of Champions – The World Awakens To Supertramp

      7. And Then There Were Four – Supertramp Post-Hodgson

      Bibliography

      Social Media

      Follow us on social media:

      Twitter: https://twitter.com/SonicbondP

      Instagram: www.instagram.com/sonicbondpublishing_/

      Facebook: www.facebook.com/SonicbondPublishing/

      Linktree QR code:

      Acknowledgments

      Thanks as always to Stephen Lambe and the whole of the Sonicbond organisation for continuing to have faith in my work – the cheque is, metaphorically, in the post!

      Thanks to Janet for being a hugely supportive help and sounding board as always, acting in a ‘quality control’ capacity and pointing out the gremlin-introduced typos which always appear…

      Thanks to the person at school in 1974 who first lent me a copy of Crime Of The Century. His identity has escaped my memory, but the initial reaction I had to hearing the album has never left me.

      Huge thanks, in particular, to Roger Hodgson, who was generous enough to give me a substantial amount of his time when speaking with me in 2012 and 2014 for features which appeared in the magazine Rock Society, published at the time by the Classic Rock Society. He was patient, good-humoured and enormously easy to get along with.

      Naturally, thanks also must go to the other members of the band down the years, but particularly, the ‘classic five’, who recorded the albums from Crime Of The Century through to ... Famous Last Words....

      Finally, thanks to you, whoever you may be, for reading this book. I hope it brings you enjoyment and interest!

      Introduction

      Crime Of The Century. Is it Supertramp’s finest album? Ask a hundred Supertramp fans that question, and while you will get plenty of votes for, say, Even In The Quietest Moments or the commercial landmark Breakfast In America, it’s probably safe to put your mortgage on there being a large swathe of that hundred who would certainly reply in the affirmative. No album, no matter how revered, will ever move the whole of a fanbase in the same way. Who’s Next? Well, what about Quadrophenia? Abbey Road? Come on now, there’s Revolver or Sgt Pepper. Exile On Main Street? Well, it’s no Sticky Fingers. Led Zeppelin 4? Let me counter that with Physical Graffiti … and the discussions will go on ad infinitum. And so they should because music, even great music, is always a subjective matter.

      What cannot be refuted, however, is the sheer historical or career significance of certain albums. Dark Side Of The Moon put Pink Floyd forever into a new, rarefied level of success. Deep Purple In Rock took a middlingly successful band via a lineup tweak to a whole new stylistic focus, from which they never looked back. Led Zep 4 gave the world ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and launched a million radio plays. All of those albums, and many more which are probably jumping to your mind at this moment, impacted the career trajectories of the bands involved in such a way that they would never be the same again. So it was with Crime Of The Century.

      In an even more dramatic way than some of those above examples, the Crime album redefined Supertramp completely in the consciousness of a public who were either unaware or largely apathetic to their previous releases. Having put out two albums searching for not only a direction but also a stable lineup, the stars aligned and the universally known ‘classic’ Supertramp lineup came together to record this 1974 milestone release and would remain together for almost a decade. The album saw them move instantly up several rungs on the ladder, and while they may have inched up commercially on subsequent releases, culminating with Breakfast In America, there was never again an ascent so rapid or so marked.

      Put simply, Crime Of The Century ‘made’ Supertramp. It put them on the musical map and wrote the name in permanent marker. It opened up new global audiences for them and gave them mainstream media exposure, ranging from appearing on The Old Grey Whistle Test to getting a mention on the ubiquitous UK soap opera Coronation Street! Several tracks from the album have gone on to become genuine rock classics, while the cover itself remains utterly iconic. This book will explore what led up to the album’s creation, how it was put together, the legacy it left behind and the shadow it has cast over the years. Rip off the mask, and let’s see …

      Chapter 1

      The Road To ‘Crime’

      A look at the back cover of Crime Of The Century reveals the expected credits and informative text, but also two words printed unobtrusively and without further explanation in the top left: ‘To Sam’. This small yet significant note is a respectful nod In the direction of Dutch millionaire and early Supertramp philanthropist of sorts Stanley August Miesegaes. Known affectionately as Sam, owing to his initials, it is no stretch that he was as instrumental and as vital a cog in the early Supertramp machine as any of the musicians involved in its coming together. From the moment he first saw Rick Davies playing with a band named The Joint, in Germany in the late 1960s, it was his belief and financial support which allowed the fledgling band to keep on the road and making music.

      Rick Davies was born in 1944 in Swindon, Wiltshire, with a hairdresser mother and a father in the Merchant Navy. Oddly enough, for someone who would become synonymous with playing keyboards, the first instrument which fascinated him was the drums when he was given an old radiogram at the age of seven which included a few records. One of these was a song called ‘Drummin’ Man’ by the remarkable Gene Krupa and his orchestra, and it fired the young Davies’ imagination like nothing else he had ever heard. ‘It hit me like a thunderbolt’, he said later. ‘I must have played it 2,000 times’. Galvanised by this moment, he set out to learn to play the drums, which was his first instrument.

      By 1959, he had become entranced by rock ‘n’ roll and, by now, was also playing the keyboards, though surprisingly, he was self- taught on that instrument as opposed to the lessons he had taken to learn the drums. The first band he joined went by the typically unimaginative name (of the time) Vince and the Vigilantes. By 1962, he was emboldened enough to start his own band for the first time, and although ‘Rick’s Blues’ wasn’t much of an improvement in terms of a band name, it was a significant landmark in his early career. Having, by now, switched to the electric piano himself, the drum stool in Rick’s Blues was occupied by a young man named Ray O’Sullivan, who would go on to his own success a decade later following his own switch to piano and a change of name to Gilbert O’Sullivan. Rick had, in fact, taught Ray the drums and also the piano, and they remained friends. O’Sullivan later became the best man at Rick’s wedding. Rick’s Blues disbanded when Rick’s father became ill, and he took a job as a welder, which he later confessed to absolutely loathing.

      His musical ambitions would not be stifled, however, and in 1966, he managed to secure a place as organist in a band called The Lonely Ones.

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