Streetwalkers

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Streetwalkers
General information
origin London
Genre (s) Rock , funk , jazz , blues
founding 1973 Chapman - Whitney
resolution 1978
Website Streetwalkers [1]
Last occupation
Roger Chapman
John "Charlie" Whitney
Bobby Tench
David Dowle
Michael Feat
Keyboard
 Brian Johnstone
Horn / saxophone
 Mel Collins
Strings arrangement
 Wilf Gibson

The Streetwalkers were an English rock & blues band formed by former Family members and songwriters Roger Chapman and John "Charley" Withney. After the band Family split up in 1973, they founded the Chapman-Whitney duo in the same year and released the album Streetwalkers in 1974 . The album title Streetwalkers eventually became the band name of their new music project. The Streetwalkers existed until 1978 and released three more studio albums until they were dissolved, with changing musicians who were an integral part of Roger Chapman (vocals), John "Charley" Withney (guitar) and Bob Tench (keyboard, guitar).

history

A few months after the band Family broke up, in the winter of 1973/1974, the album "Streetwalkers" by the duo Chapman and Whitney was completed. Various musicians who were friends helped out with the production as studio musicians. Among them were the former family members John Wetton (also King Crimson ), Ric Grech , Jim Cregan and Poli Palmer, as well as the King Crimson musicians Mike Giles, Boz Burrell , Ian Wallace and Mel Collins . The album Streetwalkers was released in May 1974 and the single "Roxianna" / "Crack" was released the following June. The music mixture of classical rock and ballads differed significantly from the typical family sound, according to music critic Patrick Little. Their songwriting has gained more depth and quality compared to Chapman's and Whitney's original band.

The subsequent tour band consisted of Bob Tench (guitar), Jonathan Plotel (bass) and Nicko McBrain (drums). With this line-up, they also performed prestigiously on March 25, 1975 at the Rockpalast, although the accompanying musicians, with the exception of Bob Tench, changed several times between performances, tours and the three following albums.

In October 1974 they released the album "Downtown Flyers" as Streetwalkers and toured the UK and continental Europe, which increased their popularity. "Raingame" / "Miller" was released as a single. The hoped-for success in the USA did not materialize, however, while in Europe there was moderate interest in their music.

The band released their next album, Red Card , in May 1976 . The tour "Who Put The Boot In" took them through the Netherlands and mainly through Great Britain, as Chapman and Whitney, as former family musicians, were well known there in the rock scene and wanted to use this tailwind for themselves. They had a highlight of this tour with their stadium appearance on May 31st in London at the Charlton Festival. There they appeared next to the Alex Harvey Band, the Little Feat and other artists as the penultimate act before The Who . For Chapman, Red Card is the Streetwalkers' best album. Since Chapman and Whitney wanted a tighter rhythm (“we wanted a tighter rhythm section”), the drummer Nicko McBrain was exchanged for David Bowle, and a new bassist (Michael Feat) and the keyboardist Brian Johnstone were hired. The Streetwalkers toured continuously, but on December 19, 1976, Roger Chapman broke his ankle when he fell off the stage. However, he brought the concert to an end.

In January 1977 the Streetwalkers released their last studio album: Vicious But Fair . With this album, according to Roger Chapman, the Streetwalkers sold their soul. Music styles from Stevie Wonder and Litte Feat were copied to more suit American musical tastes ("I told Charlie it was a serious mistake, trying to copy other people again."). In addition, her music label Vertigo no longer had any further interest in Streetwalker's classical rock music and, for commercial reasons, changed her release strategy towards the increasingly successful punk and new wave music. On April 19, 1977 they finally had their last appearance in Germany at the Rockpalast. The streetwalkers' initial euphoria to establish themselves as a rock band in Europe gradually disappeared, financial difficulties and mismanagement did the rest. At the end of 1977 the band broke up. It also finally broke up the eleven-year musical collaboration between Whitney and Chapman. They still remained friends. Music critic John Dougan called Streetwalkers a good but not a great band. They brought out an extraordinary album with Red Card , but they have an inconsistent musical style. Whitney's guitar playing also imitates Jeff Beck's way of playing too much, and Chapman's exaggerated sex poetry seems implausible, since as a middle-aged man he thinks he is among much younger women ("middle-aged man ... thinks ... he's still big with much younger chicks").

Roger Chapman started a successful solo career after the band broke up and has many fans in Germany to this day. Band members Johnson and Dowle joined Whitesnake , Tench and Feat went to Van Morrison . "Charlie" Whitney founded "Axis Point" with ex-family member Rob Townsend and Eddie Hardin .

Discography

Albums

Chapman-Whitney - Streetwalkers (1974) (Reprise Records)

The album "Streetwalkers" is a mixture of classic hard rock, blues, funk and jazz. The songs Roxianna and Showbiz Joe are strongly oriented towards New Orleans Jazz and carry on the "America feeling" of Family's last album. Systematic Stealth is a love ballad, and the rock- heavy Creature Feature demonstrates Roger Chapman's vocal range and unusual voice. For Patrick Little, the songs Parisienne High Heels and Hangman are the most energetic pieces with dark themes of prostitution and death. The fans gave Allmusic 4 out of 5 stars, while Allmusic only gave 3 out of 5 stars. All songs were composed by Chapman / Whitney.

01 Parisienne High Heals 4:04

02 Roxianna 3:46

03 Systematic Stealth 2:24

04 Call Ya 6:32

05 Creature Feature 4:14

06 Sue and Betty Jean 5:08

07 Showbiz Joe 4:07

08 Just Four Men 2:50

09 Tokyo Rose 2:26 1

0 Hangman 4:44

Musician:

Singing, percussion - Roger Chapman

Guitar, steel guitar - Charlie Whitney

Strings Arrangement - Del Newman

Backing vocals - Jim Cregan, John Wetton, Linda Lewis , Tim Hinkley

Bass - John Wetton, Ric Grech

Congas - Godfrey McLean

Drums - Ian Wallace, Mike Giles

Guitar - Neil Hubbard

Keyboards - Max Middleton, Tim Hinkley

Vibraphone [Electric Vibes] - Poli Palmer

Streetwalkers - Downtown Flyers (1975) (Vertigo)

"Downtown Flyers" is the first album by the duo Chapman / Whitney under the band name Streetwalkers. In the USA it appeared under the name "Streetwalkers" because their first publication was not noticed there. The first track “Downtown Flyers” is a funky piece of music in which a person from the working class is described. The piece is sung by Bob Tench and Roger Chapman. Toenail Draggin ' has a dense double guitar sound and also contains Whitney's slide guitar. Thematically, the song deals with the attitude towards death and the process of dying. The third stanza is a striking a cappella part. The piece of music Raingame is, similar to Led Zeppelin's guitar sound, played with a 12-string guitar in hard rock style. Miller is a calm ballad that is accompanied by Poli Palmer's synthesizer. Crawfish contains borrowings from progressive rock and New Orleans blues. Walking on Waters is a song that deals with pipe dreams. Gypsy Moon is a calm piece of music played with an acoustic guitar. Burn It Down is a mid-tempo piece of music that denounces meaningless dying. The last song, Ace O'Spades, is a classic acoustic blues song .

01 Downtown Flyers (Trench / Chapman) 3:57

02 Toenail Draggin '(Chapman / Whitney) 4:17

03 Raingame (Chapman / Whitney) 3:01

04 Miller (Chapman / Whitney) 3:54

05 Crawfish (Weisman / Wise) 4:31

06 Walking On Waters (Chapman / Whitney) 5:57

07 Gypsy Moon (Chapman / Whitney) 4:40

08 Burn It Down (Chapman / Whitney) 5:00

09 Ace O'Spades (Chapman / Whitney) 5:35

Musician:

Singing, percussion - Roger Chapman

Guitar, steel guitar - Charlie Whitney

Electric guitar / acoustic guitar vocals - Bob Tench

Bass, backing vocals - Jonathan Plotel

Drums, percussion - Nicko Keyboards - Max Middleton (tracks: 6, 7), Pete Wingfield (track: 8)

Synthesizer - Poli Palmer (tracks: 4, 5, 8)

Red Card (1976) (Vertigo)

The music critics hailed this album as their best. Allmusic's John Dougan noted that this album would have been considered one of the best family albums a few years earlier. Robert Christgau even thinks that this album teaches us better: Hard rock is still viable. On Allmusic, the critics and fans each gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. The eight tracks offer classic blues, hard rock and funk.

01 Run For Cover (Chapman / Whitney) 5:46

02 Me An 'Me Horse An' Me Rum (Chapman / Whitney) 4:03

03 Crazy Charade (Chapman / Whitney) 5:27

04 Daddy Rolling Stone (Blackwell) 3:11

05 Roll Up Roll Up (Chapman / Whitney) 3:27

06 Between Us (Chapman / Whitney) 3:47

07 Shotgun Messiah (Tench / Chapman / Whitney) 4:48

08 Decadence Code (Chapman / Whitney) 6:38

09 Hole In Your Pocket (US bonus track) 3:37

Musician:

Singing, percussion - Roger Chapman

Guitar, steel guitar - Charlie Whitney

Electric guitar / keyboard / percussion / vocals - Bob Tench

Bass, backing vocals - Jonathan Plotel

Drums, percussion - Nicko

String arrangement - Wilf Gibson

Choir - Uncle Al's Pals Choir

Vicious But Fair (1977) (Vertigo)

Vicious But Fair (German: Vicious, but fair) is the Streetwalkers' last album. It is generally considered to be the weakest release. Chapman even described this work as a loss of musical identity because other artists and styles were copied instead of trusting their own concepts (“The band lost their identity, which was a shame”). The album relied a little more on the keyboard support of Brian Johnstone, who was hired as a "full-time keyboardist". Musically, as with their previous albums, the Streetwalkers rely on funk, blues and rock with a wide range of instruments (sax, strings, keyboard, electric and acoustic guitar).

01 Can't Come In (Trench / Chapman) 3:59

02 But You're Beautiful (Chapman / Whitney) 3:53

03 Chilli-Con-Carne (Beginning) (Chapman / Whitney) 3:53

04 Cross Time Woman (Chapman / Whitney) 5:13

05 Belle Star (Whitney) (Chapman / Whitney) 3:12

06 Sam (Maybe He Can Come To Some Arrangement) (Tench / Chapman / Whitney) 5:44

07 Mama Was Mad (Chapman / Whitney) 4:11

08 Dice Man (Chapman / Whitney) 9:23

Musician:

Singing, percussion - Roger Chapman

Guitar, steel guitar - Charlie Whitney

Electric guitar / keyboard / percussion / vocals - Bob Tench

Strings arrangement - Wilf Gibson

Bass / vocals - Michael Feat

Drums / Percussion - David Dowle

Horn / Saxophone - Mel Collins

Keyboard / vocals - Brian Johnstone

Live albums

Streetwalkers - Live (Vertigo), 1977

Chapman-Whitney Streetwalkers - BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (Windsong International), 1994

Streetwalkers - Rip It Up At The DeMontfort (Mystic Records) Recorded on 25th February 1977, 2013

Streetwalkers - Streetwalkers Live At Rockpalast (Repertoire Records), 2013

Singles (selection)

  • "Roxianna" / "Crack", reprise K14357 (1974) from the Chapman-Whitney Streetwalkers album
  • "Raingame" / "Miller", Vertigo 6059 130 (1975) from the Downtown Flyers album
  • "Daddy Rolling Stone" / "Hole In Your Pocket", Vertigo 6059 144 (1976) from the Red Card album
  • "Chilli Con Carne" / "But You're Beautiful", Vertigo Europe (1977) from the Vicious But Fair album

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Streetwalkers. In: FamilyBandstand. December 29, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ Streetwalkers. Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Streetwalkers - Streetwalkers | Songs, reviews, credits. Accessed May 14, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Rockpalast Archives - Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers 1975. Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Streetwalkers. Accessed May 14, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Streetwalkers. In: FamilyBandstand. December 29, 2009, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Streetwalkers. In: FamilyBandstand. December 29, 2009, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Streetwalkers. Accessed May 14, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Jay Strange: ART INTO DUST: Family an interview with Roger Chapman spring 1994. In: ART INTO DUST. August 26, 2008, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Streetwalkers. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  11. ^ Streetwalkers Concert Setlists. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Streetwalkers. In: FamilyBandstand. December 29, 2009, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Jay Strange: ART INTO DUST: Family an interview with Roger Chapman spring 1994. In: ART INTO DUST. August 26, 2008, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Rockpalast Archive - DVD + CD Streetwalkers Live at Rockpalast. Retrieved May 17, 2019 .
  15. ↑ 10. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Streetwalkers | Biography & History. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Roger Chapman Streetwalkers. Retrieved May 14, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Streetwalkers. In: FamilyBandstand. December 29, 2009, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Chapman-Whitney - Streetwalkers. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Streetwalkers - Streetwalkers | Songs, reviews, credits. Accessed May 14, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Streetwalkers Featuring Roger Chapman - Downtown Flyers. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Downtown Flyers. In: FamilyBandstand. September 28, 2010, accessed May 15, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Streetwalkers - Red Card. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Red Card - Streetwalkers | Songs, reviews, credits. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Red Card - Streetwalkers | Songs, reviews, credits. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  26. ^ Robert Christgau: CG: Streetwalkers. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Streetwalkers - Vicious But Fair. Retrieved May 15, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Jay Strange: ART INTO DUST: Family an interview with Roger Chapman spring 1994. In: ART INTO DUST. August 26, 2008, accessed May 15, 2019 .