‘How I fell in love with the Red Guitars’: Music mogul Steve Homer
THEN AND NOW: Four of the five Red Guitars in front of themselves at a local bands’ mural in Princes Avenue, Hull, painted by Ed Ullyart. From left, Jeremy Kidd, Lou Duffy-Howard, Matt Higgins, and John Rowley. Picture by Doug Swallow
The much-anticipated reunion tour by iconic Hull band Red Guitars is just days away. Phil Ascough spoke to the man who made it happen, Steve Homer, long-term fan and CEO of live entertainment giants AEG Presents
When Morrissey was muted by a bout of bronchitis during The Smiths’ first major UK tour in 1984, the stage was set for the Red Guitars – Hull’s stars of the European Indie scene – to deliver a spellbinding show.
It was just a soundcheck ahead of a support slot at Leicester University but, nearly 40 years on, it was that memory that led to the band getting a social media message which teed-up the reunion tour starting next week.
Steve Homer was part of the crew getting the gear in and out as he took his first steps in a music industry career.
He recalled: “Morrissey had a problem with his voice so the band played the soundcheck without him and it finished very quickly. The Red Guitars came on and did a full sound check, and it was quite unusual for a support act to get a decent amount of time.
“They went down a storm at that show and that’s when I fell in love with them.”
‘SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM’: Steve Homer, CEO of AEG Presents
Fast forward to lockdown 2021 and Steve sitting at home in the room where he keeps the music he’s accumulated on his journey to becoming CEO of AEG Presents, the live events arm of global entertainment company AEG.
“I was just going through stuff and listening to a compilation and the Red Guitars were on it. I wondered what happened to them, Googled them and reached out to Jeremy and asked if they had thought about doing any shows.
“He said they had been talking about that just recently. We said when we got out of lockdown I could put together a proposal for them to look at, so when I wasn’t too busy cancelling tours and rescheduling them, that’s what I did.”
Jeremy is Jeremy Kidd, lead singer of the band which emerged from Hull’s buzzing Indie scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Steve’s proposal caught them in the right place at the right time and the tour kicks off on Monday April 19 at the Old Woollen in Leeds. It arrives at a sold-out New Adelphi Club in Hull on Saturday April 23, and takes in just seven dates. We want more!
For context, it’s worth noting that Steve plans to be at the London gig primarily because he can’t get to the Hull or Leeds shows – he’s committed to a first business trip to Los Angeles for two and a half years.
BACK TOGETHER: The Red Guitars at rehearsals in O’Rileys. From left, Hallam Lewis, Matt Higgins, Jeremy Kidd, Lou Duffy-Howard, Jos Allen, and John Rowley. Picture by Darren Bunting
He didn’t say what he’s doing there but current projects include the tour by Blondie and Johnny Marr which comes to the Bonus Arena on Friday April 29, and the First Direct Arena in Leeds on Wednesday May 4.
There’s also the Rolling Stones tour which takes in Anfield and Hyde Park in June.
But he explained why the Red Guitars are special: “They were one of many bands that I liked but they had something different about them. They were favourites of John Peel and they just sounded so different
“Then they split up and I went off and did various things in music. It’s nice to have a band back that has its original members. That doesn’t happen anymore.”
The Red Guitars were formed 40 years ago by a bunch of people who came to Hull to study. You won’t find them in the Top of the Pops roundups but you might see them on reruns of Old Grey Whistle Test, The Tube and equivalent shows throughout Europe.
The gig archive on the band’s website ends at December 1984. The version of the band which followed is barely acknowledged – it stood up against the contemporary sounds of the time but it just wasn’t the same and it didn’t last long.
ICONIC PICTURE: The Red Guitars at Notre Dame Hall, Leicester Square, London, in 1983. From left, Jeremy Kidd, Lou Duffy-Howard, Hallam Lewis, John Rowley, and Matt Higgins. Picture by Syd Shelton
The reunion tour, named Slow To Fade after the iconic debut album, focuses on its nine tracks and the early singles. Good Technology, still a signature track, reached number 11 in Peel’s festive 50 in 1983, with Elvis Costello, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure and The Fall among the big names trailing in its wake.
Forty years on the themes pose the question, that although the world is growing old, has civilisation ever really grown up?
Fact, also from 1983, carries an anti-war message. The following year brought Steeltown, inspired by the impact on the community of the closure of the steelworks at Consett, and Marimba Jive, anti-apartheid, single of the week in the New Musical Express and number one in the Indie charts.
It stars the chiming African highlife guitar which Paul Simon harnesses to great effect on his Graceland album, but the Red Guitars were two years ahead of him.
The African influence came from South African guitarist Hallam Lewis. One major challenge for the tour was how to get everybody together for discussions, rehearsals and even writing some new material when the five band members weren’t even in the same continent, never mind the same city.
Hallam was in Cape Town and Jeremy in Brighton. Drummer Matt Higgins lives in Leeds, rhythm guitarist John Rowley in Bridlington, and bass player Lou Duffy-Howard is in Hull.
PROPHETIC: The Good Technology single cover
Guest guitarist Jos Allen will join the tour, with the band initially connected by the good technology of the internet until they were able to get together in person earlier this month.
Lou said: “Some of us were in contact although not on a regular basis but we started off with a Zoom meeting and from the first moment it was absolutely fantastic. We just slipped straight back into the best times we ever had and the best people we ever were when we were all together back in the early 80s.
“I realised what a tight bunch we were because we had so many fun times and so many experiences together and everybody was just the same and it was such a lovely feeling.
“We had all done our practising before that and I re-learned the bass lines and I remembered them better than things I have only done recently. We got together and just played.
“We had to do a bit of work to build up some stamina but it was just there and it was a fantastic feeling.”
The band made their early demos at Ken Giles’s eight-track studio in Bridlington and moved to Fairview’s 24-track facilities to record Slow to Fade. Their local gigs were at Spring Street Theatre, former home of Hull Truck, Spring Bank Community Centre, the School of Architecture and the Trades and Labour Club – all now long gone.
PEEL FAVOURITES: The Red Guitars. from left, Jeremy Kidd, Matt Higgins, Hallam Lewis, Lou Duffy-Howard, and John Rowley
Even the Adelphi wasn’t on the circuit when the band were at their peak, never mind O’Riley’s; the Beverley Road venue somehow kept alive by Darren Bunting during the pandemic and now basecamp for the Red Guitars’ international rehearsals.
Steve’s approach came as a welcome surprise. He’s known to be well-liked in the music industry and he offered a few options from a headline tour of small venues to supporting big names at major arenas.
Lou said: “We like intimate venues and we didn’t hesitate to agree that was the best thing. We had a couple of conversations and it surprised us all because we never thought we would re-form, and with some of us not playing regular gigs people were understandably a bit unsure about how many they could do.
“There are people who have bought tickets for all the gigs and people travelling a long way, with some flying over from various European countries – a few from Germany where we played a lot. Through social media one guy asked if we were going to the UAE because if not he’s going to buy a ticket. We told him it’s unlikely, so he’s coming to the Birmingham gig.”
Whatever happens next, it’s clear there is already an appetite for another encore.
Steve revealed: “When we were putting the tour together quite a lot of people contacted me from venues and said they really fancied having a go at it, so there are some dates in abeyance for another tour.”