Interview with Mick Rogers

Feb 2002 (Part One)

What do you think you brought to the Earth Band when it was first formed? How come you got involved in the first place?

I first met Manfred at his house when he was trying to steal the drummer who was in the same band as me (Procession) for his band (Chapter Three)!

This was probably 1969. The second time was when I went to Olympic Studios in Barnes, (near London) and played bass on a jingle session that Manfred and Mike Hugg was producing. I actually used Klaus Voorman's bass! (Quite an honour at the time).

After that I went back to Australia to form my own band (Bulldog) which was very successful in Australia, but all the time I knew that I wanted to return to England to play because that was my home and that was where I felt that I was going to be able to play the music I wanted to play.

I was at a record reception for Bulldog and I received a call from Manfred's manager (David Joseph) who happened to be a past manager of mine, asking me if I would like to come back to England to maybe work with Manfred on forming a new band, which of course I was delighted to do. I arrived back in England on 1st January 1970 bloody freezing, still wearing my shorts and shades because it was mid summer in Melbourne!

We just got together around the piano at Manfred's house and tried a few tunes and things worked out fine. After a couple of weeks, Chris and Colin joined us and after much rehearsing we went to Rome for two weeks and played in a club, and that was the first time that we realised that the four of us had something that was a bit special.

We all remember that at the time we had to break down the barrier of Manfred Manns music of the 60s in as much as a lot of the places we were booked into expected 'Doo Wah Diddy' and when we started to play rock music there was a lot of people who were very surprised. One of our first major tours was with Free and Deep Purple in Australia, which was a great success for us because we were able to show people what Earth Band could really do.

How would you describe your playing?

I always say my playing is based on a 50s sound brought up to date as the people who influenced me the most all come from the 50s. For example; Scotty Moore, (Elvis), Cliff Gallup, (Gene Vincent), Frannie Beecher (Bill Haley). I love to hear solos that have melodies and I find that the most creative thing about those guys is that they made more sense in sixteen bars than other guys can in sixteen minutes! I try my best to play something that the audience will remember rather than being a speed freak, although I do have my moments!!

My equipment has never been so simple in as much as all I'm using is a delay pedal and a Rat overdriver through a 50-watt Marshall. My main guitar is a 57 re issue Fender strat.

What next for Mick Rogers?

At the moment, I am improving my home studio and getting ready to start recording my own album for DMG – a small independent company who distribute through Sony. I have all the material together and it features my own songs plus songs that I have been interested in recording for a long time. The record company have asked me to do an up to date version of Father of Day, the popular Earth Band song which was originally written by Bob Dylan and so I shall be doing that, but this will be the only song that I also do with the EarthBand. I think most people will find it surprising that it's not going to be a totally guitar orientated album although of course there will be me doing my thing on it. I'm really interested in a lot of the modern dance music and I want to apply some of those grooves to the album, but knowing me there will also be some rock-a-billy on there plus some jazz tunes!

There is talk of me doing some gigs with my own band although EarthBand is really busy this summer so it will have to be planned very carefully and of course the record company will expect me to promote my own album. People will be able to buy it at the EarthBand gigs, so it will be nice to have some of my own stuff on the merchandising stand.

I am still in contact with my friend Steve Lukather and it has been suggested that there is a possibility of us doing something together gigwise which would be great if it all fits in with both of our schedules, because he is also busy with Toto.

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