PETE WATERS

PETE WATERS ALSO PERFORMS IN WILD WILLY BARRETTS BARNDANCE BAD BOYS... VISIT www.musiczoo.co.uk FOR DETAILS !!!!Journalist Mary Brosnan writes; The snakes and ladders game of life has softened up singer/songwiter Pete Waters. A rock and roll past usually includes some heavy duty drink and drugs but his journey from bad boy to softie also includes a spell in Borstal, a bit of boxing and a broken neck which laid him up in hospital for months. In his understated way he describes these experiences as "pivotal" Getting married, divorced and bringing up two sons has also gone into a life mix which finds its expression in his music, along with an honours degree in Irish Studies and working and busking his way around Australia and California. He comes from a long line of Irish singers and musicians with the main emphasis being on the singing. His voice perculiarly lends itself on this album to the Irish-style ballad, country music, rock and roll and disco funk. He is by turns mournful, bitter and funny. His songwriting "voice" is probably at its best on Everything I've Learned About You- an edgy reflection on a love affair gone wrong viewed with icy detachment from a safe distance. If there are any top name acts out there looking for a song to chart with, look no further. Bands he has played with over the years had a heavy Celtic influence. Most successful was The Plastic Paddys (a phrase which he claims he bought into being) So if you want to pin his music down.....forget it. He is equally at home in melancholy mode in No Fixed Abode or in the upbeat appeal to Do The Best You Can. Influences include Squeeze with an irreverant working-class "up against it" attitude doubtless honed by years of grafting on building sites. Some of the lyrics echo Elvis Costello's sardonic look at life with pithy lines as in the beautiful yet comical Bridgit Bardot, Steve McQeen"He used to wake her in the morning and feed her breakfast in the bed, Now she'd be lucky should he notice, if she had grown another head".A theme that occurs more than once in this album is the" old as time itself" heartache of love gone wrong, something that he has obviously experienced and expresses here. Take his thoughts on the not so sweet Oh Sugar;"Now he's giving you, something new and it hurts me to think what."But his humour always saves him from tipping over into mysogyny. he is backed by some superb musos, many of them friends for years. The superlative fiddle playing of Julianne Healy stands out as does the haunting Uileann pipes of John Devine...Jez Guest offers up a really sexy sax built on the solid but sympathetic drumming of Steve Rodford (The Zombies) With a follow up album already in the pipeline for 2008 it looks like Pete Waters is a name we will be hearing a lot more of in the years to come.PETE WATERS. Who is he? What is this album about?……………………………..................... ............................................................ .The Archway………………………………................. ............................................................ ........................................ Pete waters was born on the 18th June 1957 in The City of London Maternity Hospital in Hornsey, North London. The youngest of three boys born to Jim Waters of Fethard on Sea, Co. Wexford and Annie (Nan) Waters nee. Rocke of Kilimor Co. Galway……………………………….................. ............................................................ ...........................................................T he boys parents were great lovers of Irish traditional music and song. Jim was a talented accordion (box) player and singer and after a days work as a Hoffman presser in the West End rag trade he would often earn a few extra shillings playing the box in the 1950s and 60s around North London Irish pubs such as The Mother Redcap, The Shakespeare, The Black Lion, The Archway and The Favourite to name but a few………………………………..................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ...............................................The boys mother would also have to work to keep a leaking roof over their heads, and as a toddler Pete would be taken with his Mum as she would earn a few bob cleaning houses……………………………….................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ........ Jack the Ripper……………………………….................. ............................................................ ............................................................ .................................................... Home was a few rooms, rented in a shared house above a betting shop at 59 Elthorne Road, Upper Holloway, an area better known as The Archway. Chris, Peter’s middle brother recently typed in the old address into an internet search engine and was shocked to discover that the original suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders actually lived in the same house and was well known for carrying a large knife around with him at all times. He would describe himself as “the king of Elthorne Road” He was eventually sent to Hatch End Asylum. He was known locally as “the mad pork butcher”.There was no bathroom, no running hot water, lots of damp and lots of bed bugs. On a Friday night Nan would boil up hot water for the tin bath and that water would bathe whoever was in to use it. Miss that and that was it for another week. The Session………………………………................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ................. Nearby lived Jims brothers Jack and Mick and on a Sunday after Mass and a good session in the Shakespeare or The Redcap they would invariably be found with friends and family in the upstairs front room of No. 59 with bottles of beer and whisky with Jim playing tunes on the box and anyone who was able giving a song. All the boys were encouraged (and expected) to sing at these sessions. See You Next Year, Please God ………………………………........................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................. At this time Jim had the foresight to buy a small portable tape recorder. In the summer of 1963 the family went back to Ireland for the holidays. Jim recorded Mick and Jack sending messages and singing songs for friends and family at home. Jim then played these to the family in Galway who did the same. Then it was on to Wexford for more and then back to London. The result was a unique record of Irish migration and song. Bear in mind that none of the family possessed a phone at this time, so this was often the first time they had heard each others voices in years. Getting back to Ireland at that time was not as easy as it is now. A common comment on the tapes is “we’ll see you next year please God” Unfortunately many of them never saw each other again………………………………................... ............................................................ ............................................................ .........................................“Make no mistake, the “session” is an invention of the Irish in London during the 1950’s and 60’s, Jim Waters was at the vanguard of that movement”. Obituary to Jim Waters, The Irish Post 2005.……………………………...................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .........................................The good news is that Peter is in the process of digitally re-mastering the tapes and hopes to release an album “See You Next Year, Please God, The Waters Family and Friends” in the not too distant future.Growing up around this meant that music and song has always been a part of Pete’s life. The content of the songs, often being tales of isolation and exploitation, fuelled by a few drinks and the thoughts of loved either lost forever or far away, meant that young “Pedro” has always been a fan of a song sung with emotion, and with a story to tell. This is very obvious in his own writings.Irish music and song was not the only genre to influence the young Peter though. This was the era of The Beatles, The Stones and would be just as likely to hear peter singing The House of the Rising Sun or I Wanna Be Your Man as Gradh MaCree. Fighting and Theiving………………………………................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................... Another big influence on Peters life was his environment. Although the early sixties began to see a shift away from the post war hardships for some, there was still plenty of deprivation around the Holloway Road at that time. As well as growing up around beautiful music and song, he and many of his contemporaries would be involved in street gangs, fighting and thieving, around the old bomb sites of Islington, an activity which would cost him his liberty as a teenager. Living in, and being evicted from a Convent………………………………................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ........................... In 1965 one of Peters uncles moved to New York which threw up a vacancy for a caretaker at a girls convent school in St. Albans just north of London. Jim and Nan jumped at the chance to get away from No 59 which was earmarked for slum clearance anyway . So, aged eight, he and the family moved to a small bungalow in the grounds of Loreto College. It too was cold and damp but at least it had a bathroom and was set in its own pleasant grounds. Jim really enjoyed the work as it a lot of it was outside work keeping the grounds, and got on well with most of the Nuns “like a load of bloody magpies” as he would describe them. Nan found work in various local factories. The job was short-lived though as the school was sold off and the family had the perhaps unique experience of being served an eviction notice by a convent.The family managed to stay in St. Albans though and this has been a place where Pete has spent quite a bit of time over the years. When Pete’s brother Chris took up the guitar and started learning songs by the likes of Bob Dylan and local boy Donovan it wasn’t long before the eight year old Pete got hold of it and with a few chords Chris had shown him found that he had a love of the instrument. In the next few years he learned most of what was to form the foundation of his subsequent playing. Borstal Boy………………………………..................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................... At about thirteen years old though he began to lose interest and go off the rails a bit. This was a reaction to various institutions such as the catholic school he attended. Tired of incompetent and often violent teachers he found that he preferred to play truant often choosing instead to get a train into London and go up the West End shoplifting. By the time he had just turned seventeen, in 1974, and with what the magistrate described as “a bagful of offences” to his name, he was shipped off for a few months to Hollesley Bay in Suffolk, an institution perhaps best known as the inspiration for Brendan Behan’s “Borstal Boy.”…………………………....................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .... “There was a constant threat of violence, either from the other kids or the screws. In fact it was just like my old school, Nicholas Breakspear in St. Albans. “……………………………........................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................After his release he turned much of his energy into boxing. A lot of the trouble he had got himself into had been through fighting “I usually got the shit knocked out of me” Although it was obvious he was never going to make any great success as a fighter it nonetheless helped to keep him out of trouble and gave him a lot more respect for himself and others……………………………….................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ...... Punk Rock It was not until Pete was nineteen that he began to pick up the guitar again. The advent of Punk Rock fitted perfectly into his view of the world and with a few mates he formed the band “The Screws” . I wrote my first song called “Fleet Street” which was about the crap I could see that the English press was churning out. It wasn’t a bad song, but the trouble was that we were so out of our heads all the time on alcohol and amphetamine’s that we never got beyond rehearsing. We didn’t have a clue. After about a year the guitar went back in the cupboard and me and a mate bummed it down to Spain intent on getting some work for the summer. After a few adventures and a particularly good hiding by some of the locals one night we were repatriated by the British Consulate in Barcelona and had our passports confiscated ………………………………........................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ................................... Broken Heart In August 1980 my Mum and Dad retired and moved back to Ireland. As I saw them off I suddenly realised that nothing would be the same again. It was the whole emigration thing in reverse. I was engaged to a girl at the time and we bought a place (it was still possible for the working classes to do so in those days). And moved in together. Unfortunately for me she had been seeing someone else and after two weeks she left and moved in with him. To say I was heartbroken was an understatement. My Mum and Dad ended up coming back over to stay with me for a while as I was cracking up. It was a very humbling experience but it bought me back close to them in a way that I had forgotten………………………………............... ............................................................ ............................................................ ................................................ Broken Neck That Christmas my oldest brother, Leo, and his family were going over to Ireland to stay with Mum and Dad I wasn’t going to go but at the last minute I jumped in the car and they were delighted when I showed up with the others . I hadn’t been in Ireland for about eight years and it was great to see everyone. On Christmas Eve Dad, Uncle Paddy, Leo and myself set off in the car to visit relatives here and there, and of course there was “a drop” to be had in every house. I wasn’t driving but to cut a long story short we crashed the car . Dad and Uncle Paddy ended up in Wexford General with about fifty stitches between them and I ended being flown up to Dublin by helicopter on Christmas Day with a broken neck.I was been told that if I tried to move there a real risk of my spinal cord being damaged and I could be paralysed from the neck down for the rest of my life. I was told I would have to stay still for two or three months, I couldn’t even turn over in the bed. I would have to be turned by four or five orderlies every four hours. There I am lying on my side in Dublin where I don’t know a soul thinking I’m going to be in this bed for three months. Then a woman orderly, who looked as hard as nails comes up me and asks what has happened to me. She is stocious drunk and carrying a bottle of whisky (remember it is Christmas Day) when she starts putting her hand down the sheets and fiddling about with me. So I have been told move and you risk paralysis for the rest of your life, and this drunken lunatic is playing with my knob. I remember thinking “how the fuck did I get myself into this situation?” It was one of those moments you never forget.Thankfully I never saw the mad one again. But I had a steady stream of strange visitors. As I was isolated from friends and family, I had all sorts, from the well meaning St. Vincent de Paul Society to the totally mental Father Ciaron, who seemed obsessed with finding out about my sinful pre marital relations.A few of the orderlies who used to have to pick me up whilst they changed the sheets tried to give me a hard time. They would see my tattoo’s and hear the cockney accent and ask “were you in the British Army?” When I assured them that I was not they would reply “Yeah, well you wouldn’t fucking tell us if you were” This was 1980 at the time of the blanket protest’s and when mental Maggie was running the show, the fact that you had and English accent could put you under suspicion in some circles. They would sometimes joke about dropping me on the floor. It was an education to be so vulnerable.That time in hospital was a pivotal period for me. The majority of the patients in there were paralysed for life, I experienced some of the saddest and funniest moments of my life in there. Two months lying in a bed without being able to eat or shit without help is certainly a great experience for sorting the head out. I have to remind myself about it now and then. One good thing to come out of it though was there was little else for me to do but listen to a little transistor radio that I had. Sleeping was very intermittent so I would be listening all hours of the day and night to the Irish stations, they are very open to all genres of music in Ireland so for two months I was totally immersed in everything from traditional Irish to John Lennon. (this was just after he was shot so he was getting loads of airplay)……………………………................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ......................................... Having the Craic After coming out of hospital and making a full recovery, the next few years saw Pete embarking on a mission of “having the craic”. I was still in my twenties, I had always been able to duck and dive and I just lived off my wits, I was drunk and stoned every day, I don’t know how I did it. After about five years of this Pete was getting itchy feet. I had been living with a girl for a couple of years and when that broke up I decided to I had had enough of England. A mate of mine had moved to Los Angeles so I decided I would land on his doorstep and try my luck out there. I announced to everyone that I was off. The trouble is that when you are constantly off your head it t takes a bit of time to sort things out. It became a standing joke when I would talk about going . It took me a couple of years to get it together………………………………................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............. Singing for my Supper In the meantime a new Irish club was opening in St. Albans. A mate of mine, Tom Bagge, who is a musician was involved in putting on some music on the opening night. I had recently started playing guitar again after about eight years and he knew that I knew a few Irish songs and could play a bit so asked me to do a few songs. Not being one to back down from a dare I agreed. I was about twenty seven and had never performed in public before so I was a bit of a late starter and I was bloody terrified. It reminded me of getting in to the boxing ring for your first fight and I fully expected to get a humiliating hiding. Good news was though that it went down really well. I had never been applauded for anything in my life and I was totally hooked. I have the Waters family to thank for that. When we used to go back to Ireland in the summer as kids there would be a session in the house nearly every night. There was no electricity in the house, the water came from a well and if you wanted a shit you went into the field out back and pulled a dock leaf to wipe your arse. All Dads family were singers. When Granny died in 1976 she was 106 years old and reputed to be the oldest woman in Ireland. God only knows the songs she carried around in her head, and she was singing, smoking her pipe and having a bottle of stout right up to the last. I feel very privileged that I experienced that. She grew up in the 1800’s in the real hard times and that came out in her songs. that’s how I learned to sing and hopefully that comes across to people.I was offered a paid gig at the Irish club. I only had about ten songs but I managed to blag it. When I finally got it together to leave England I took a guitar with me. First stop was Sydney where another friend had emigrated. I managed to get a bit of work and a few gigs there. One night when the phone rang my mate said it was for me, I thought he was winding me up because I didn’t know anyone out there. When he told me it was someone called “Bruce” I definitely thought it was a wind up and refused to take the phone. It turned it was Bruce Fursman from Kilburn in North London. To cut a long story short we ended up busking together on the subways in Sydney and we have been playing together in various line ups ever since………………………………................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ................................... California A couple of months later I landed in L.A. (Had a great music session along the way in Tahiti) I was doing a bit of gigging there, a bit of building work and painting and decorating mainly around Beverly Hills. I loved it out there and I never intended to come back. However after six months Mum got ill and I came back to Ireland to help look after her. After two months she died. Exactly one month before that one of my best friends had died. He had been in a coma for months after a motorbike accident. He was only twenty three. This was my first experience of close bereavement and it changed me………………………………...................... ............................................................ ............................................................ .......................................... The Priest The night before Mum was buried I sat in the church for hours with her coffin. When people started coming in for confession I decided to go into confession. The priest knew me well as he had been coming round to Mum and even said mass in the house when she was to ill to get out. I cried to him about all the times I had broken my Mums heart getting nicked, drunk and fighting. It made me feel closer to Mum. The last time I had been at mass was when I was in the nick because it meant you got out of doing work and you were so bloody hungry that getting to eat the host at communion was a bonus. Being in a church bought me back to being a kid and being with Mum. The priest told me that I was a good son and that I was forgiven. The only problem with that is that a couple of years later it came to light that he was a paedophile and at that very time he was abusing young boys in his parish and I am very sorry to say that some of them subsequently took their own lives. He had been accused of abuse before and the response of the Catholic Church had been to move him to this Parish. And I was asking him for forgiveness!!??. Needless to say that was my last flirt with religion and the Catholic Church. The Priest ended up committing suicide before he was sentenced………………………………............... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .......... Back in The U.K. A girlfriend had joined me out in L.A. and had come back to Ireland to help me look after Mum. Six months later we were married and had a son Ray, who was named after my friend who had died. We ended up back in St. Albans and three years later another son , Joe, was born. We moved back to Ireland for a year, but I couldn’t hack it as there was no work then. This was long before the Celtic Tiger………………………………................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .......................................................... The Original Plastic Paddy I got back in touch with Bruce who was back in Kilburn and we started gigging as “The Coulin” After a couple of years that had run its course and I laid off of the music for a while. You can never get away from music though when its in your bones. Myself and Bruce were doing a one off at the Battersea Afro Carribbean Festival (not sure how we got that gig) I told Bruce I wanted to start Irish band and was going to call it “The Plastic Paddys” Bruce loved the name. We got a fair bit of coverage in “The Irish Post” and “The Irish World” The name got round London very quick., and the term “Pastic Paddy” soon passed into common usage in London and beyond. The band were really good too. As well as me and Bruce there was Pete Ridley on Bass and Sean Ryan on vocals and whistles. It was amazing how the name “Plastic Paddy” spread into everyday language. Some people really took offence at it which I thought was hilarious. I have always been a bit dubious about peoples ideas on nationalism. It certainly wasn’t meant as an insult to anyone, quite the contrary. It was me saying, look this is what I come from, this is my culture and I’m proud of it. So what am I? Am a Cockney because I was born in London. Or am I Irish because my parents were born in Ireland and I have an Irish passport ? To be honest I’ve got better things to do with my time than debate the point .We had a great time as the Plastic Paddy’s and a lot of people I meet still have good memories of those days .We had quite a reputation as a live band and did a few gigs in the U.S. After a few years though it all went a bit pear shaped and we split up. I have always been able to get by doing the solo stuff but I much prefer being in a band.In 1995 I was gigging a lot on my own and I had all the gigs I needed. Trouble was though I was really caning the drink and drugs. I had separated from my wife and I was living here and there, I might be living in a pub one week and some bed-sit another. I found myself walking round the streets one day and literally didn’t know if it was day or night I had reached breaking point and it frightened the life out of me. I suddenly realised that it is not good to be getting out of it from morning to night. To me it was normal and in the circles I moved in it was normal. I had been drinking in pubs since I was fourteen and sometimes when I was playing people would be sending up pints all the time. Anyway, I stopped completely for six months, I still like a pint now, but I keep an eye on it. My Dad was always warning me about the drink and the music as he had been there too. The point was that I realised that it was causing me problems………………………………................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................. Honours Degree in Irish Studies I saw an ad in The Evening Standard for a degree course in Irish Studies at The University of North London and decided to apply. I knew absolutely nothing about further education I stopped going to school when I was fourteen and started on the building’s when I was fifteen and at that time I thought anyone who decided to go onto college must be some sort of wanker. Well anyway I got onto the course as a mature student. I would love to say that it was my knowledge of Irish history and culture that swung it for me, but I suspect it was more a case of more students for the uni means more money for the uni. It certainly made me realise that some of my experiences and problems in life were not uncommon amongst the second generation Irish. That’s not to say they were typical, but I was certainly not on my own. It was a good move though and I did enjoy it. I ended up writing a dissertation on “National Identity in Irish Literature”. I only scraped through with a 2.2, but I got a lot out of it. There were a few musicians on the course, Ron Kavana, who was a big influence on The Pogues , and Sinead O’Connor was there for a while. I bumped into Julianne Healy who was also a student who I knew as a great fiddle player. I ended up joining the band she was in and we also did a lot of duo work together which was great.When the lead singer in the band went bankrupt and decided to fuck off to Germany to start a new life with our van, we formed a new band “The Cluricaunes” we were a five piece. There was me, Julianne, Leo Fitzgerald (who had joined The Plastic Paddys two weeks before it folded) Dave Dean, and Paul and Tony Coyle. It was a great band and a great bunch of people. At University in Spain As part of my degree I was studying Spanish and managed to get a years placement at The University of Malaga. At first I was flying back to England every week-end to do gigs with the band. I couldn’t keep this up though so I resigned. I started gigging on my own again in Spain. I missed my boys so much that I came home early. My wife had decided that she wanted to go back to full time work when the boys were young so I took the role of house-husband by day and was often out gigging at night. It wasn’t’ an easy arrangement but I’m glad I did it, it bought me very close to them……………………………….................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ....... Pete Waters, The Album My marriage broke up in 2004. I went into another relationship but I’m sorry to say that, that too came to an abrupt and painful end. In the meantime my Dad died quite suddenly in 2005. We were all heading back to Ireland for his 90th birthday. We had just pulled out of Rosslare on the boat when I got a phone call to say he had died, so instead of having a party on his birthday we buried him. We still had a session after though and I was leading the singing. Dad was always emphatic that he wanted that traditional send off, and that’s what he got.I don’t mind admitting that I have struggled to keep it together these last few years. I have continued to write songs over the years, but I only really played them to friends. I have always gone out and played the stuff that people know and I’m really comfortable doing that. People have been telling me to record my own stuff for years but the truth is I have always lacked confidence in myself. The truth is that it was knocked and beaten out of me (not by my parents I hasten to add, their patience with me was unbelievable) and its hard to shake off the things that happen to you as a child. Anyway I decided this was the time to put it on the line and record this album. The songs are all based on things that have happened to me or things that I have seen happen to others. I’m not trying to say that they are all biographical, because I have mixed ,and matched stuff here and there, but they are all real and they are all from the heart………………………………................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .....I have recorded the album with some great musicians and singers. I go back a long way with some of them, Julianne Healy (fiddle), Bruce Fursman (mandolin, harmonica) , Pete Ridley (guitar), Bernie Devine (guitar), Ray Waters , my son ,(guitar) John Devine (uileann pipes, whistles, flute, bodhran, keyboards) Barry Evans (bass), Bryan Smith (keyboards, guitar, production and engineering), I am fortunate to count them all as friends. A real bonus has been to work with some new faces who I hope I can now call good friends, such as Steve Rodford (drums, percussion) Helen Flanagan and Stacey Smith (backing vocal’s) and Jez Guest (sax). I know that everyone involved has given their all to this album , you can hear that in the quality of their performances. I would like to thank them all for helping to bring these songs alive. It has been a great, great pleasure and I’m looking forward to doing the next one………………………………..................... ............................................................ ............................................................ .......................................................“Pe te Waters” (the eponymous album) Is available on i tunes and should be on the airwaves Ireland this summer. Pete is currently living between Co. Wexford and Londons East End………………………………..................... ............................................................ .............................................A few Comments on the album (Pre release)……………………………................... .................................................“Sounding good Pete, keep it up” Elkie Brooks……………………………….................. ............................................................ .............................“Love your songs. Your writing reminds me of Ray Davies”. Jim Rodford (Bass Player with, The Kinks, Argent and The Zombies………………………………................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ...............................A few comments on the recent filmed album release concert ………………………………........................ ............................................................ ....................................................“The man himself did not disappoint……..judging by the audience reaction, I’d say it was a resounding success”. The Herts Advertiser……………………………….............. ............................................................ ............................................................ .........“I absolutely loved your show” Christiane Kubrick………………………………................. ............................................................ ............................................................ ................................ ………………………….Pete is currently promoting the album all over the 32 counties of Ireland and is in the process of arranging radio interviews for the same.Christiane Kubrick (Mrs Stanley Kubrick) has booked Pete and the band to play at her Childwickbury Arts Fair on the Stanley Kubrick Estate in Hertfordshire, England on July 5th 2008.What’s happening in the future ?…………………………….......................... ............................................................ ...................................................Concentra ting on promoting the album in the U.K. next and then taking band on the road touring/ festival’s………………………………............ ............................................................ .....................................................All enquiries/booking info to [email protected].