The making of “Stick Insect” a solo record by Nick Beggs

Out of respect to you, (the reader, god blessya!) I should probably give a brief outline of what a Midi Chapman Stick is and what it can do.

It’s an instrument, which employs the technique of double-handed tapping. E.g. rather than fretting and plucking the strings, both hands are free to tap directly onto the fret board enabling the player to cover bass and guitar parts simultaneously. With the added midi pickup you can also trigger as many synths as you wish. Put simply you can do the work of three players and hopefully get paid three times as much. (Good luck!)

I wouldn't be the first musso in the history of recording to have the phrase, "what took you so long?" leveled at me, and in all truth it has taken 18 years to complete my first solo record, “Stick Insect”. However apart from being a lazy git, my choice of instrument (The midi Chapman Stick) made it more demanding and time consuming than most other projects I’ve been involved in………( Excuses.)

It’s true to say that some of the pieces were conceived 18 years ago but the bulk of work was written for a solo recital performed in Tampere, Finland during the Autumn of 1999…… (Oh I’m so cosmopolitan man.) The show was to accompany an exhibition of my paintings and drawings, which were commissioned, by the cultural office of Tampere. (What a bloody show off!) Therefore it was a natural step to then record the material as a solo record.

Earlier in 1999 I had been touring with John Paul Jones as part of his trio, promoting his first solo CD since Lead Zeppelin (Oh….it’s name dropping time now) and had amassed a large collection of backline and FX for the job, (penis substitute.) Naturally this made the idea of a one-man stick show easier as there were more toys to play with.

The Chapman stick I use is a ten-string midi version, which triggers four synthesizes:
A Korg 05RW, a Korg TR rack synth, a Roland VG8 and a Roland GR30.
The melody strings also pass through a Lexicon MPX G2 and the bass strings through a Korg Toneworks. The whole ensemble gives the impression of bass guitar, lead guitar and any other
instrument you want (e.g. an orchestra, brass section or Hammond organ) all playing together at
the same time. (You’ve lost um Nick, they’ve all turned to another page now.)

When it came to the recording of the pieces for “Stick Insect” I decided to do it all at home on the incredibly versatile Roland VS16/80 work station. This machine is worth it’s weight in gold and brings affordable digital hard disk recording together with a logical user-friendly front-end.
( I should have been an estate agent, I would’ve made more money by now.)

For me the advantage of working at home was clear from the quality of the performances. A relaxed unpreasured environment made it easy to find the newence I’d looked for within the instrumental pieces and enabled me to pull out something extra from work I’d had on the back burner for years. (Also I didn’t have to get out of bed till past mid-day.)

With over thirty titles amassed I set about the formidable task of committing them all to hard disc.
It wasn’t until after I had them recorded I was able to decide which should go on the final CD. For this I had to put on my A&R head and it’s probably time to let you know there is nothing pop sensitive or radio friendly about this record. Infact it’s totally instrumental and has nothing to do with easy listening or chart oriented music, thank God………….. And no, I’m not going to put a little labile to it so you can file it neatly under “NEW AGE” or “ACID JAZZ CLASSICAL”, that’s for others to do and I hope they all die tragically for even trying!!!…………………Sorry about that, I don’t know what happened. Maybe I’ve been working at home on my own too long?

If you’re familiar with working on your own at home you’ll know just how disciplined you have to be about time and focus. ( In fact I learnt new ways of swearing and created expletives thus far unknown to the English language during the project. )This was largely due to the fact I was engineering as well as performing. It was such a steep learning curve but one which has put me in good stead for future projects.

Once the material was down I took the masters over to a 48-track studio which gave me opportunity to add samples and additional FX. The installation is owned by a friend of mine who also had a good library of hardcore porn….. I mean sample CDs. It was a lot of fun searching for that elusive sound or loop that would bring colour to the pieces.

Since the record was finished I’ve continued to perform solo shows and hope to do more in the coming months. Naturally I’m available for garden parties and Ann Summers evenings.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of this dazzling record please
just send an email to information@nickbeggs.co.uk

“Stick Insect” track titles
Science fiction
The reggae mans’ hair do
Tonto’s return
Tava
Look at us
Down stream
Glass slippers
Lula
Celtic Yardies
The last bitch in Hellville
Pothead
Kumara
Death by cleavage
For all that’s lost
In memory of you

Live set up
Live I run three separate back lines.
A Roland KC-500 stereo keyboard amp for the three synthesisers triggered by
the "STICK".
A Fender 4x12 cab and Fender Tone Master valve head for the guitar side of
the "STICK".
And a SWR Goliath head running a 1x 18 cab and 4x10 cab for the bass side of
the "STICK".
I have a rack of synths and processors for added FX.

TOURING AS A STICK PLAYER WITH JOHN PAUL JONES

BY NICK BEGGS

Well I can’t say it was the easiest job I’ve ever taken on! Actually it was the most demanding both emotionally, psychologically and sexually. (I made that last bit up.)
But when Robert Fripp of King Crimson recommends you to John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin you can’t be caught cat napping, though I did have my trousers down at the time. I think I may have ended it all if I’d let either one of them down. (Yes I put myself under inordinate pressure over this one.)
When I first met up with John in the spring of 99 I realised I was still a big fan of the musicians who influenced my formative years. After working in the pop idiom since 1982
I’d almost forgotten that it was players like John Paul Jones who had given me a musical vocabulary in the first place.
He talked about his new LP “ZOOMA” and played me a few tracks. The grooves were overpoweringly seductive and I felt akin to the record strait away.
“Of course you’ll be covering 50% of the solos, swapping to bass when I’m soloing and playing the viola, violin, cello and contra bass parts from the London Symphony Orchestra score all on the Stick.” He stated with a wry smile. “You’ll have to have a new instrument made and no one’s ever done anything like this before, do you think you’re up to it?” He asked.
I nearly said “ I think I left something on the stove.” But thought better of it.

OK we’re all big grown up children aren’t we? I mean a 37 year old man isn’t supposed to cry! But can you imagine how it feels to be listening to the BBC (radio) on a Saturday afternoon and hear John Paul Jones talk about his new LP, when you are at home learning the score for that same LP and the very same piece of music you’re learning comes over the airwaves? Then John Paul Jones says,
“ I’ve got Nick Beggs in my band because He’s’ a fine musician.”
I remember thinking to myself ,
“I’m going to wake up soon and this will all have been a dream.”
When I got round to asking John why he chose me for the gig he said,
“It was because Stick players think in different ways to other musicians.”………..”and you’ve got a huge cock.” (No ……….he didn’t say the second part.)
It’s true that the instrument demands a lot of the player but it actually offers more than any instrument I’ve come across. With the right kind of back line you can sound like any player you want. (Disregarding technique.) Therefore emulating the variety of bass sounds John generated was not an insurmountable task.
In one tune I had to play synth patches and guitar sounds to start and then change to emulate Johns’ 10 string bass during his swap to solo on lap steal bass, all on the one Chapman Stick. It ment doing the job of 3 people…………… literally.
The midi stick is versatile enough to sound like three instruments playing simultaneously and this is an enormous advantage to small set ups like a trio.
During another tune it was necessary to play the bass line and a brass section together, then when John took his solo on keyboards I swapped the brass section for a very authentic Hammond organ sound. I know a lot of the audience didn’t know who was playing what most of the time.

In a set up like a power trio the communication is paramount. Solos can always go
on longer than anticipated, so unless you’re keeping a watchful eye on proceedings
It’s easy to get left behind. In a trio there’s very little margin for error and I had to be on my toes every night.
The one area where I felt the stick liberated me most was in solos.
The instrument is a blank canvas, it’s what you put on it that makes the difference. Heavy distortion sounds love the Chapman Stick, it’s as if they were made for each other. Strangely I feel this is still a relatively unexplored avenue with stick players.

-

With a midi’d stick you can play any instrument you want….even drums and percussion. Certain synth presets respond better than others but the triggering is very fast.
Now that I’ve been putting my own solo work together, I’m using the sounds of piano, as well as brass and other synth presets. In many ways the midi’d stick enables you to think like any other instrument player to.

The first couple of shows were hard to navigate, specially the orchestrated sections. I forgot my place during a complex 7/16 part in Galway and John ended up singing my part down the microphone to help me find my way back in. It sounds hilarious thinking on it now, but at the time I wanted to kill myself. …………any offers?
Once I had the measure of the entire set I felt like I was sky diving every night.
It was totally exhilarating. My soloing became more fluid and I found the confidence to push the envelope a little further once I was into freefall.

-

The live performance has always been my driving force. Since I was 15 all I wanted to be was a performing musician. The studio is not such a fun place. There’s very little reaction from any one so it’s hard to know when you’re blowing some ones’ skirt up. Hhhhhmmmmmmmm………maybe I should have Scotts Guards in the studio next time I record…..Female ones! ( I’ll stop there.)
Other than that, the trio is a very nice number of musicians. I enjoyed being one of only 3. The comerardry was always wonderful as was the chemistry on stage. John had asked for my input in finding the right drummer for the project, so I recommended Terl Bryant, a musician of great stature with a jaw bone that would intimidate any super hero. We had played together in IONA for 4 years and many other sessions.
It’s rare in the career of a musician to be able to play with such a legend as JPJ and unusual to find yourself refured to as his “wayward daughter.” This must have had something to do with the black kilt he gave me as we began our tour. (Another unique event.)

ON THE ROAD WITH THE ‘HERE AND NOW TOUR’

Whilst on tour last December I got talking with me old mate Bobby Fripp about the forth-coming “80’s Here and Now" tour, which his wife, Toyah Wilcox, had been invited to join. (We’re like that me and Bobby F, thick as thieves.)
"That would be fun to do,” I mentioned as we chatted about gardening and the cosmological constant.
Little did I know that only two weeks before the commencement of the first date (Cardiff Arena) I’d be contacted to fill the bass, backing vocals and mincing chair for the tour.
I like to be well prepared for such events and therefore an all over body rub with hot buttered wenches got me in the touring spirit. However, I was more than a little surprised to learn that we would only have 3 hours rehearsal with each of the five bands / artists that we were to play for, leaving only a small margin for schmoozing and drug abuse.
The billing was to run: China Crisis, Toyah, Go West, Howard Jones, (who had his own band - so stuff him!) Belinda Carlisle, ABC and Hadley, Norman & Keeble (of Spandau Ballet who also had their own band – so stuff them as well!!).
Receiving the recorded material to learn two days before the first rehearsal didn’t help much. Considering I’d heard of this tour five months earlier (while hanging with my mate Bobby F…remember?) I was dumbfounded by this eventuality and resigned myself to swearing a lot. But after burning the midnight oil (and plucking my eyebrows) I managed to write out the most complicated pieces in an attempt to learn them properly. Ha!
It was the GO WEST set that proved to be the most complicated by a long chalk. These are very dense arrangements written like orchestrated pieces with little margin for variation. Although Peter Cox and Richard Drummie were very helpful in rehearsals they surprised me with their detailed memory of every note and their ability to make me feel like a complete beginner. Peter was able to sing the entire bass line of each of the tunes showing me where I’d wondered (like a meandering fool) away from the original parts. I decided to write out the bassline to help matters and if you sucked lightly on the corner of the page you could taste my blood, sweat and tears. Anything else I could taste must have been where I…(Tut tut Mr Beggs second warning. Ed.)
As it was to be an Arena tour I felt it would be un-rock n roll to be seen reading on stage so I started out trying to memories as much of the stuff as possible. It’s very important to "Project Darling" when on such a big stage, something that’s next to impossible when your nose is in a pad of music. Naturally all the songs had to be rearranged for live so once the CDs had been learnt I had to relearn the songs’ new format. (Yes, there was no end to my torture…but what exquisite pain.)
To add to my degradation I learned that Louis Theroux, the investigative journalist, would be joining us on this celebration of 80’s iconography, probing into our dressing rooms, hotel rooms and makeup bags, in search of a tragic has-been moment. But if my theory was correct he wouldn’t stay the course owing to the fact his real quarry, Adam Ant, had pulled out of the tour for health reasons. Plenty of tabloid news papers have covered Adam’s public fall from grace therefore this was exactly the kind of high-profile celebrity Louis would offer a length of rope to on British television. Apart from the fact that this kind of program-making elevates cynicism to a national past time, I wagered once Louis found out just how normal and nice every one was, there would be no story and he would skulk away to the Hamilton’s for another program. I was right! After only a couple of nights he abandoned the whole thing. Lucky for him as Belinda Carlisle and I were planning on surprising him with a tequila enema after the Birmingham NEC gig!
I guess I’ll have to get off the subject of on-the-road perversions and do the gear speak section of this article sooner or later, so here goes. My backline consisted of an SWR SM900 bass head and SWR 4x10 speaker cabinet. I used a Korg Toneworks bass processor with a T.C. Electronic Phaser built onto a custom pedal board with an A/B/C switching box to accommodate my fretless Fender Jazz, my 5 string Wal and my Chapman Stick, which I used exclusively on the China Crisis set. Finally, I strung up my basses with the excellent Bass Master strings because, "They stay crisp to the last bite!"
Regarding the Go West piece. On reflection it seemed quite easy, not much more than a bunch of eighth notes tied together across alternate bars. There’s a few anomalous turn around bars leading into different sections with the emphasis always being on the eighth beat. However things are never quite as they seem when trying to identify a line from a tape or CD a few hours before rehearsals. I used a right hand positioning by the bridge where the string is most taught and biting. I love taught and biting, but that’s another article…probably in a different magazine.

All in all the tour was a great success and there are more planned for later in the year, with Visage, Altered Images, The Belle Stars, Kim Wild, 5 Star and The Human League having all confirmed. For me it was like the old boy’s network, mates on the road together having a laugh and a beer. I wonder how many of today’s bands will be doing that in 20 years time? I’ll always make room in my diary for Oasis.

Nick & Tracy giving it large with ABC.

FOR ALL THAT'S LOST

Click on thumb nail to enlarge.

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