Peter Goalby – Interview
R.V.B. – Hi Peter. How are you doing on the other side of the pond?
P.G. – I’m doing absolutely incredible Rob. There is all these wonderful things happening to me, at 70 years old.
R.V.B. – They say it’s never too late… right???
P.G. – “Never say never” is my catch phrase from now on.
R.V.B. – Congratulations that your collection songs on “Easy with the Heartaches” – that are very well written, I might add – is available now for everyone to enjoy. What’s on your mind right now with knowing that these songs have finally seen the light of day?
P.G. – I’m absolutely thrilled. Everybody has been fantastic. This is my 7th album. I did three with Heep… I did two with Trapeze. I did one when I was a young boy with Fable. I’ve never had the reaction that I’m getting. People stop me in the streets.
R.V.B. – You’re worthy of it because the songs are well written and well executed.
P.G. – Well I’ve had a long time to get it right, Rob… Hahaha
R.V.B. – In this time period, you were kind of in your prime. How did you go about writing the songs?
P.G. – I wrote songs with Trapeze and I wrote songs with Uriah Heep. I walked away because I was totally disillusioned and fed up with the music business. I loved the music… Rob, but I absolutely hated the music business. I love that two hours on stage but the rest of it, I didn’t really enjoy at all. When I left Heep, I was still writing songs. In all the time that I was with the band, I was always talking to Mick - "Mickey Box” - saying “Why don’t we work less live, and concentrate on making great records?” We couldn’t do that Rob - you know what it’s like - the rock and roll circus. You gotta keep playing to keep paying everybody. If you have the night off, you’ve got 15 people sitting around in a hotel… it costs money. It’s just a money making machine. I don’t mean we were making vast amounts of money. We were probably grossing a lot but we weren’t seeing any of it. It was all spent on the better lighting rig, the better PA, and the 10 people on the road crew. The final straw which made me decide to quit was after the third album. We did Abominog… which was great. It did amazingly well in America. We did Head First, which was the follow up, and was also great. We sort of changed horses and got a new record company… Bronze Records went Bumpidy Bump. We changed producers, which was a big mistake. The end result was Equator. I still believe in the songs but the actual sound of the album was difficult to people’s ears. That was probably the final straw. I was in Australia - a long way from home - when I decided that there’s got to be more to life than sitting in a hotel… sitting in an airport, or sitting in a van.
R.V.B. - I realize that being on the road can be tough but I’m sure you must have had some good times. Are there any shows in particular that stand out in your memory?
P.G. – How long have you got? There were so many. I loved being in the band. I loved the shows and the whole thing, but the business side I hated. We did so many incredible shows. About a year ago I discovered a channel on UK television called “Sky Arts.” It was just repeated this Sunday. This program is all about the arts. It could be sculptors… it could be paintings… but there’s a lot of music on there. It could be from the 60s or the 80s… 90s. I absolutely love it. I was watching The Eagles… they were live. It was absolutely fantastic. I said to my wife “Look at the size of that gig!” There must have been about 15 to 20,000 people there. When it came to the commercial break, it said “The Eagles – Live at LA Forum.” I said to my wife “Christ… I did that gig twice.”
R.V.B. – I’m sure you did a lot of arenas. What were some of the bands that you were teamed up with? Did you make some friends along the way?
P.G. – I was big friends with Def Leppard. I’ve lost touch now because I’ve been in denial for 32 years… I just walked away and lost contact with everybody. But yeah, Def Leppard… Tony Iommi was a good friend of mine. In fact, Tony asked me to do some recording with him. But I’ve shut the door… Rob. I don’t want to open the door. The only way I can walk away is walk away completely. But… we toured with the guys from Judas Priest. We toured with April Wine and got along with them really well. I met Brian May a few times. I wanted to talk to Joe Elliott at the LA Forum… because we were big pals. There was no knocking on doors or waiting to be introduced. We’d just walk into each other’s dressing rooms. So I walk into Def Leppard’s dressing room and there was Brian May! He was learning one of their songs because he was going to make an impromptu appearance… at the gig, at the LA Forum.
I ran into Brian a couple of times. Gary Moore... the last time I saw Gary Moore – I remember as it was yesterday – we were in the Hamburg Hilton. We were checking in at reception. There must have been some big TV show going on because there were bands everywhere. I think the program was being filmed just down the road. Phil Lynott was there. So I’m in reception because we were playing that night in Hamburg. I’ll always remember it because somebody came up from behind me and dead legged me, so I nearly fell on the floor. It was a joke as kids do. I turned around and it was Gary. He said “Hello Pete.” I said “Hello Gary… How are you?” We were talking for a couple of seconds and Gary said “Are you okay? Your voice sounds really bad.” I said “Well tonight will be our 16th show back to back. Sixteen shows in sixteen days.” He looked at me and said “Peter…. sack your manager!” Who was standing next to me but our manager Harry Maloney! I said “Harry… meet Gary.” It was just so funny.
R.V.B. – That’s a little much… that many shows in a row.
P.G. – Oh I can’t beat that.
R.V.B. – Now your first time to America… was that with Trapeze?
P.G. – Yes.
R.V.B. – How did you enjoy that experience?
P.G. – Incredible… I’d never seen anything like it. The reaction was just fantastic. Trapeze is a great band. We were very well supported in Texas. The culmination of the Texas dates is when we did the Texas Jam. We did it with Uriah Heep in 82 and 83. But Trapeze was just a great, great band.
R.V.B. – The Texas Jam was a huge event.
P.G. - Oh yeah. Uriah Heep did Dallas the first night and Houston the next. There were so many bands on the bill. I loved it. Trapeze was incredible. When you look at Trapeze… Glenn went to Deep Purple, Mel went to Whitesnake, I went to Uriah Heep and yet we just couldn’t make that massive breakthrough as a band. But it was a great launching pad for all of us.
R.V.B. – it was a creative breeding ground. There was a lot of talent there.
P.G. – Oh yeah. I was born and lived in the same town as Mel Galley. We worked for the same agency. I think it was just a matter of course and I climbed up the ladder, so to speak… and I was asked to join Trapeze.
R.V.B. – How did you get the call to join them… how did that come about? Did they see you somewhere?
P.G. – We worked at the same agency and had the same management. I had been in a band called Fable. As I said, we had done an album. The record company, that we were with, wanted to drop the band and keep me. They wanted me to be a solo artist, which didn’t really suit me, to tell you the truth. I always wanted to be in a band. I did a couple of singles but nothing really happened with them. Glenn had left to go with Deep Purple. Mel tried to do the singing himself. He did a great job with it, but Mel’s voice kept giving up. They’d do a night and Mel would get excited and he’d lose his voice. I was basically brought in so they didn’t have to cancel any gigs. Although, Mel was still doing quite a bit of the singing as well.
R.V.B. – Did you play any guitar with them?
P.G. – Only on a couple of things. I played guitar on “Living with Love.” That was a song that I wrote for the band. We did two albums. The first one was called Hold On. I got three tracks on that… that I had written. One of which was a song called Living with Love. What was stuck in the mind was when I got the acetate… the test pressing… I was absolutely over the moon. My three songs are on the first side of the album. I was really thrilled about that.
R.V.B. – That’s quite an honor.
P.G. – As I said, we did a lot of work in America. We also did quite a bit in the UK. We just couldn’t make that final hurdle. We call it the premier division, over here… like football… the top of the crop. I think ZZ top were in the same situation for a time. Then they just exploded.
R.V.B. – What caught your ears and eyes with music? Did you listen to it around the house? How did you get involved with music?
P.G. – I was never really interested in playing music. I was more interested in making my own music. I had a real cheap plastic guitar… that I got for a Christmas present. I must have been about 12 or 13 years old. I never looked back. I always managed to get a tune out of the thing... although it didn’t sound very good. It turned me on to music. My record collection was always very, very small. My favorite singer of all time was Dusty Springfield. Everybody always laughs at that but it’s true.
R.V.B. – She was a good singer.
P.G. – A fantastic singer!!! I wasn’t interested in learning guitar solos… I was more interested in making my own music. I loved melody. My strength is in my voice. I write commercial songs. I’m not a guitar player so I can’t write in a heavy fashion. I can come up with some nice chord sequences. That’s how it works. Most of the more well known songs that I’ve done were all written on my Telecaster or Eko 12 string guitar. So going full circle, and answering the question from 20 minutes ago… when I left Heep, I just wanted to concentrate on writing songs. I put a couple of singles out that didn’t really do anything. I was very lucky and offered a publishing contract with Rondo Music. They are not around anymore. They were bought out by a large company. Rondo music was great for me and great to me. They enabled me to go in the studio any time I liked… when I got a few songs. I used to write songs in three’s. I don’t know why but it would always be three songs, that I would be working on. When the songs were finished, I would go into the studio and do the demo’s. What you’re hearing now are actually the demo’s.
R.V.B. – They’re pretty good for demo’s.
P.G. – They are, aren’t they? (Hahaha) What people find hard to believe is that the only people involved with those recordings was me – obviously – I wrote all the songs apart from three songs. I co-wrote three songs with a guy called Robin George. The songs on the new album are songs that I wrote when I was signed with Rondo Music. I did quite a bit after I left Uriah Heep. Do you know the Wizard of Oz the movie?
R.V.B. – Sure
P.G. – You know in the beginning when it’s in Black and white and it suddenly goes to color?
R.V.B. – Yes
P.G. – I found myself in that situation – it came on very quickly - I suddenly walked through a door, and I was writing really good songs. I was thinking “Where was this coming from?” Not only the song Easy with the Heartaches… but all the songs on the album. I’d write them and it was almost as though somebody stepped inside my brain and said “Do this… do this and do this.” Suddenly I’ve got a formula. I do believe there’s a thread going through this album. I was certainly blessed. I could write really strong commercial songs. When the songs were ready to be recorded, I did all the guitars except for the solos. I played all the power chords… all the arpeggios and the theme guitars. The only other person involved was a very, very close friend of mine Paul Hudson. He’s retired now but he was a professor of music. He wasn’t a professor when I worked with him. He also pretty much quit the music business. So the only people involved with my new/old album, was me and Paul Hudson. He programmed the drums and did all the keyboards, and some of the engineering. There was only two people involved with it apart from Eddie Morton. When the songs were pretty much completed - Eddie would be in the studio next door – I would go in and say “Can you give us a hand for a minute, and bring your guitar?” I’d play him the song and give him 20 pounds to put a solo on the song. That’s how it all came about. A couple songs that are on the album, I actually wrote specifically for one other artist. If you listen to the title track and take my voice away, and put Tina Turner’s voice on it, it works fantastically well. I wrote that song with Tina Turner in mind. The last song on the album The Last Time, I also wrote, hoping that Tina Turner would record it. I got to release them now so everything’s fine.
R.V.B. - Looking back on your career with all the things that you accomplished, would you change anything? Number 2… what are you proud about of your musical endeavors?
P.G. – Good question! I don’t think I’d change anything. I don’t have any regrets. I don’t regret being in the bands that I was in. I don’t regret leaving the bands that I was in. It would be very interesting to be a fly on the wall and had I not left Uriah Heep. A lot of those songs that are on my album now, would have been the follow up to Equator. Mickey would of probably made them a lot heavier. I would have liked to have just a little peep to see what would of happened had I not left… where would we be today? Would it have gone bigger? Would it have stayed exactly where we were? I don’t know? What I didn’t know, that in those days, we didn’t have the internet. Now-a-days, if people want to reach out to other people, they do it through the internet. I sometimes go on Youtube and a few of the songs were bootlegged. I didn’t even know about that. This album was already bootlegged twice during the last 30 years. Sometimes I jump on to Youtube and I look at the comments that people make, and it brings a tear to my eye. It really does, Rob. I didn’t realize at the time that people were behind me. They really got what I was trying to do. Although I was in a band of five people, I often felt alone. If I had known how much people enjoyed my voice, I probably would still be in the music business today. I just felt that I couldn’t just keep on doing what I was doing. After I quit, there were a lot of rumours that my voice had given in. That was complete rubbish. The songs that are on this album were recorded after I left, so there was no difference in my voice. I always thought I was an “ok” singer. People told me otherwise. They say “We love your singing… we love your phasing.” That absolutely blew me away!!! I thank whoever above for my voice. I started off in a cover band. I suppose most singers do, and it just went from there.
R.V.B. – Do you remember your first gig? How did it go?
P.G. – The first gig we did was actually at a retirement home. We didn’t get paid. It was an acoustic gig. The first real gig was at a pub… a boozer. It was called Bushby Arms. I must have been around 15. We got 5 pounds as payment. The bass players brother had a van and he charged us 8 pounds to take the gear. (Hahaha) so we actually lost 3 pounds. My very last gig was in Australia. It was probably the wrong place to decide to quit the band. It was all just building up and building up. I just couldn’t keep doing what I was doing.
R.V.B. – Is there anything you can remember that may have gone wrong unexpectedly while performing… anything unusual happen?
P.G. – I remember one night we were somewhere in Europe…. We were always somewhere in Europe. We were going to do The Wizard. When the lights went down - the routine was – I would walk forward with my arms folded and one of the stage crew would slip the guitar around my neck and I would walk on and start to play the acoustic intro to The Wizard. Mick used to dedicate it to David Byron. I knew something was wrong before I actually played the guitar. Normally the acoustic guitar would be on the side of the stage with a towel wrapped around the neck to deaden the strings, because the bass vibrations affected the tuning. I put the guitar on and walked up to the microphone and three of the strings had broken.
R.V.B. – Oh boy!
P.G. – Not one… not two… but three. I walked over to Mick with panic in my eyes. He could see what was going on so, that night he played the intro on his Les Paul. I can also remember we were playing an indoor festival in Europe… that had been on for two days. As always, we were headlining. Gary Moore had been on… Lemmy - with Moterhead - had been on… Manfred Mann were on… Ian Gillan. We all seemed to do the same circuit. Every weekend we’d find ourselves seeing the same faces, but in a different country. I remember we got a new stage manager and we always got in the building one hour before we were due to walk on stage. We’d walk into the dressing room. Everything seemed to be ok. I remember Bob Daisley saying “What have you done to your guitar?” The guy looking after the guitars was new with the band. We walked on stage and I don’t know what he’d done??? He tuned the guitars to something but it wasn’t to concert pitch. (Hahaha) “What the Hell???” The intro music was on. We stood at the side of the stage and no one really understood what was going on. We walked on and plugged in and it was just horrendous. We couldn’t start the show… it was that bad. I had to stall why the guys tuned to the Hammond organ. The bass and Mick’s guitar weren’t in pitch to the Hammond organ. But as usual, we saved the day… we killed em’ and did absolutely great. That’s probably one of the worse things that went wrong. Things normally went quite smoothly.
R.V.B. – Did the girls hang around a lot? That’s one thing that usually goes with rock and roll.
P.G. – That was more for the road crew. They were there all day and they’ve got passes to give away. I won’t go into any details.
R.V.B. – Have you sang a note anytime recently?
P.G. – No! The last time I sang was with Uli Jon Roth. He was the guitar player with The Scorpions and he’s done some great things since then. That would be 92. I know it sounds crazy but that was the only way for me to walk away, was to just shut the door. I made a promise to myself that I would never sing again. I sold my Telecaster. If anybody knows where it is… I want it back!
R.V.B. - What color was it?
P.G. – It was a blonde/cream color with a black scratch plate. I thought it was a 1967 but when I took the scratch plate off the back, it was a 1966. I’ve still got my 12 string guitar. I gave that up around 10 years ago. My fingers had gotten so soft that I was quite a bit of pain trying to play… after about five or ten minutes. As I said, the songs on Easy with the Heartaches are my best work ever. I don’t think I could surpass it. I’ve got more songs that were written at the same time. It’s 32 years on and it’s never going to be as good. It’s never going to be as powerful. I’d rather just leave it and let it lie.
R.V.B. – You and a lot of other people have that same feeling. There comes a time where you have to step back and say “I’ve had my run.”
P.G. – Exactly!!! I loved it all. I feel as though I could have been taken away to another planet for 32 years. Now I’m back and I’ve got my album under my arm. The beauty of this is, I sang it 32 years ago and that was when I was at my best. I listen to those songs now and I think “Wow! Did I write that?” And I did!!! “Did I sing that?” I always found it uncomfortable listing to my vocals. I don’t know why? But because it has been such a long time, Rob, I can listen to as though it’s not me. The great thing is… I listen to it and think “Wow!!! He’s good.” Have other singers said the same thing to you?
R.V.B. – Well, you were under some pressure back then, because not only did you have to sing your own songs that you may have wrote, but you also had to sing songs that somebody else wrote and sang. The people in the audience were used to hearing the original singers. I can see that being a little awkward.
P.G. – You might be right there. I’m fine with it now. I’ll listen to two or three phases that I did and go “Ooohh that was good.” I remember when I worked with Uli Roth, we were playing and I stood by the piano in his house. He had written these songs, and he wanted me to do the Symphonic Rock for Europe. I had never met him before. I was singing and he started to give me a look with his head on the side. He said “Your phrasing is great. You don’t even know that you’re doing it.” I said “Doing what???” he said “You’ve just got a way of phrasing certain things… it’s just lovely.”
R.V.B. – I looked on Facebook and there is a very nice page dedicated to you. People were saying a lot of very nice things about your singing.
P.G. – I know. Can you imaging 30 years later and they are saying these nice things. I’m absolutely thrilled. If I known they were going to miss me so much, I wouldn’t of stopped.
R.V.B. – Like you said “You can’t look back. Things took its course.” It is what it is. Now you have this nice record that I making a whole lot of people happy.
P.G. – I didn’t know it was going to be released worldwide. I thought it was just going to be released in Europe. We did a lot of hard work from 82 to 85. We toured relentlessly Rob. We played every place in the world. Europe, Australia, Japan… people remember. I’m getting comments from all over the world. The great thing is people care.
R.V.B. – When you hear good music… you care!
P.G. – I’m beginning to get it now.
R.V.B. – Obviously Uriah Heep had a name for itself and that helps.
P.G. – They still do. I wrote Blood Red Roses for them. Mickey phoned me and asked if I had any songs.
R.V.B. – That’s a really good song.
P.G. – I love it! I was kind of jealous because I had never properly recorded the song. I never got to sing it full voice. The last time I sang that song was into a Walkman. The next time I heard that song – it was on the album – and it nearly blew my head off. I would of done it pretty much the same. What a song and what a version! Back to the Wizard of Oz, I think that was the first song I wrote when I walked through the door from black and white to color. All the songs on this new album came one by one after that. The thing is Rome can’t be built in a day. I’m lucky enough to have had the time. Those songs were written over a two to three year period. I wasn’t under any pressure. I became a writer.
R.V.B. – You also paid a lot of dues and gained a lot of experience. I’m sure that contributed to the process as well.
P.G. – Definitely… the university of life. When I was 17 years old, I was singing in Hamburg six hours a night… seven days a week… for a month. We’d go out there for a month… just singing covers, and it taught you a lot. I was working with a lot of different people. I’ve been very lucky, that I’ve worked with some great musicians. I have to mention Ashley Howe. He produced Abominog. He got me into Uriah Heep. I worked with him about a year and a half before I joined Uriah Heep. I’ll always remember when Ashley and Mickey asked me if I’d be interested in joining the band. I was still with Trapeze and I felt really guilty. “What should I do… what should I do???” I only did one tour of America with Trapeze. We went to America for six weeks. I said “When I come back from America and you haven’t filled the job, I’ll be very interested. In all honesty, I hadn’t forgotten about it but I pushed it to the back of my mind. When we came back from America six weeks later, Ashley Howe phoned me and said “Do you want this job or not???” I said “Are you kidding?” He said they auditioned 84 singers and still haven’t filled the job. Ashley was a very big part in me getting the job. When we started recording Abominog, I was singing out of my box. It was that door again. I was singing like I never sang before. Part of that… again… was Ashley. He was very much a taskmaster. We spent a lot of time doing the vocals on Abominog… and Head First as well. Ashley taught me a lot. I learned about phrasing… I learned about emotion. It’s not all about screaming at the top of your voice all the time. It’s good to do but you don’t have to do it in every song. You need to listen to the song and listen to the words and tell the story.
R.V.B. – It sounds like you surrounded yourself with some good people.
P.G. – Yeah… I was very lucky. I tell the negative side of the story because I couldn’t continue to do what I was doing. I was away from home. The longest I was away from home was 16 weeks.
R.V.B. – That’s a long time.
P.G. – That’s a lifetime. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – You see the same old hotel rooms and eat the same old hotel food.
P.G. – Corn beef and hash.
R.V.B. - Did you get to see some nice sites of the world?
P.G. – I did but I never brought my camera with me. I’ve been everywhere but not once did I take a picture. We did eight days in India. We did Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madras, and Goa. Wow… Goa!!! It was like going back to the 60s’. They were all hippies. Even today, it’s the same thing. They’re still wearing kaftans. I can remember the plane. We were on an internal flight and we landed in Goa. I could see the terminal as we got off the plane. I said to Mickey “Look at this… there’s so many people! They’re so busy.” We walked through the airport and there was all these people there to see us. They came to greet us.
R.V.B. – You guys had a lot of fans.
P.G. – It was incredible. I can remember us getting into a car and we had a procession of a hundred cars following us. It was absolutely out of this world. Yeah India… we did Australia twice. We played in Finland where it never went dark. We played in countries where it never got light. It was just absolutely amazing. We’ve traveled on private jets, with our own buffet. There’s a lot more to it than that. I was, and always have been, a bit of a loner. When we were on the tour bus, the guys would be sitting at the back of the bus having a laugh and I was probably sitting in the front talking to the bus driver. I don’t stand up against the bar saying “Do you know who I am and do you know who I used to be?” I’m quite insular.
R.V.B. – A lot of people are like that.
P.G. - There’s two Peters. There’s this Peter and the other Peter… put him to bed, he’s gone.
R.V.B. – Thank you for taking this time with me. I enjoyed the conversation. You’ve had an interesting time in music. People are already enjoying your album. It’s nice that it is now available for everyone to enjoy.
P.G. – Thank you Rob. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. It’s just incredible.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz on 12/14/2021
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