NEWS

Special report by Martin Popoff

The John Entwistle Foundation is a charitable organization formed by Steve Luongo, drummer in the legendary WHO bassist’s solo band for well on 15 years, before Entwistle's death on June 27, 2002. Having put together benefit concerts for hurricane relief, his latest mission to help provide music education and instruments to be accessed through the library system, primarily in lower income areas.

Currently, there are two high profile streams to raise funds for this worthy venture, one being the “Classic Rock Cares” concert series with some heavy duty names behind it, namely JOE LYNN TURNER (RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE), MARK FARNER (GRAND FUNK) and both Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams, singer and bassist, respectively, for a little pop combo known as AC/DC. Secondly, in conjunction with the shows, there are meet ‘n’ greets (with choice seats for the shows) being auctioned off through eBay. See www.johnentwistle.org/crc/meet_greet.html to get started on the bidding process, and www.johnentwistle.org/crc/pr.html for general info on the upcoming shows.

“I was out here in southwest Florida, and I’m sure you’ve heard, we’ve had some storms that were pretty bad here for a couple of years running,” begins Cliff Williams, Florida resident, with respect to getting on board. “And there were some charity events that were put on, that Brian and I got involved with. That’s really the introduction to this particular group, the John Entwistle Foundation. Steve Luongo, so who was John’s drummer for 15 years, he heads up the foundation and he put the show together. And that’s how we got to meet Steve as well.”

And the main thrust of this charity is placing instruments into the libraries?
“Yes, that’s right, just like you would take a book out of the library, the idea was to have the music angle on that, where you could go use some instruments, or musicians give their time to go give lessons and so on - that’s the general idea. Steve is doing that; he heads up the foundation. And it’s really quite small at the moment. They’ve got their main one in Atlanta, and they are looking to do more. Basically, they have to amass some money to be able to do that, as part of the whole push.”

“I got the opportunity to hang out with Joe Lynn Turner a little while, and he’s a lot of fun, good guy,” says Cliff, with respect to the upcoming shows, only a handful really, through late June and July. “Mark Farner, although we played a show together, it was one of the original shows; I didn’t get an opportunity to meet him, but I will in this next bit. In terms of songs, it will probably be something like ‘Back In Black’, ‘Shook Me’, ‘Highway To Hell’, that kind of stuff. We’re still working in Florida right now rehearsing this week, so it’s taking shape as we go day to day.”

If you haven’t heard it already, head to the site right now to experience an absolutely fantastic new song featuring Cliff, Brian, Steve and guitarist Mark Hit. It’s called ‘Chain Gang On The Road’, and man, it’s basically a top-shelf AC/DC classic, although of course it’s… er, not. They’ll be playing it live, and it’s sure to be a highlight of the set (notwithstanding the planned all-in encore of ‘Highway To Hell’ of course).

Turns out, says Williams, the plan is to have more of these rockin’ originals ready for the gig. “There are tracks that we’re kicking around, again, here in rehearsal, and we are fine-tuning those and finishing them up. And Brian is finishing up some lyrics and so on. So that will be the other material we’re doing.”

Would you actually put out an album?
“At this point, this is just for fun. All we’re trying to do here is to have a bit of fun, play music, and keep the chops up, as they say (laughs), so the rust doesn’t grow too thickly. We’re going to enjoy this charity event and get out and play. We’ve got four or five more songs that we’re trying to wrap up for this tour. At least five. If we can get them all out, great. But an album? I haven’t even thought about that, really. We’ve not even really gotten into the prospect of that. I hate to be vague, but at this point we’re enjoying what we’re doing and having a bit of fun, but that’s about it.”

And how about an album from that other band you’re in?
“Whenever the guys are ready, I guess. Whenever the brothers have got the material that they’re happy with. Then we’ll get together and do it. And it’s very hard to predict that. Brian and I have been working on some stuff, but it’s been this material; he’s been writing those lyrics, but not AC/DC.”

But it does seem like Malcolm and Angus are actually working on music down under?
“Oh yeah, it’s in the works. But it’s been a few years now, hasn’t it? (laughs). That they’ve been working on material. It’s just taking long. We’ve done this before in the ‘80s, I think, where we took about four years, until we got around to doing something, it’s the same situation.”

Asked for a bit of a critique of the last AC/DC album, Cliff says that “Stiff Upper Lip, we did in Vancouver, and I guess every studio has its slightly different nuances, sound-wise and so on. But I don’t know if it shifted to the point where we can say we did this because of this reason. We tried to keep it pretty consistent, actually. Maybe even a bit better. It was a lot of fun to do. You know, we did that in three months, which… we hadn’t done an album in three months for a long time. And it’s just that that studio worked extremely well for us. A very comfortable vibe in there, and the sound was coming back at us like we were trying to put it down - which might sound strange, but some rooms don’t do that. It was a good rock ‘n’ roll room, and it went by very smoothly.”

In closing, Cliff offers a note about the logistics of this novel concert series. “The way it will run is that Steve and Mark will play with Joe on his stuff, and then Mark Farner will work with Steve and Mark and a bass player, Jeff (Farner will also be playing guitar, and of course, be the singer for his set). And then Brian and I will get up and we’ll do our little bit. But yeah, we’re having a lot of fun with it and we’ll see where it takes us, you know? It’s a good time we’re having right now, and it’s great to be playing.”

See www.johnentwistle.org for more.