Morto Art Wood

Ho trovato questo su internet proprio ora… confesso che mi spiace moltissimo, adoro il disco “Art Gallery” degli Artwoods e ho sempre stimato un sacco lui come musicista.

Ciao Art! :frowning:

[i]The Legendary leader of the Artwoods, Mr Art Wood, has passed away…

Arthur Wood, singer and graphic artist: born London 7 July 1937;
twice married (one son); died London 3 November 2006.

In the mid-Sixties, the mod favourites the Artwoods were tipped as
the next big thing to follow the Yardbirds and the Animals. Formed
by the vocalist Art Wood, the five-piece group regularly played on
Eel Pie Island and at the 100 Club in London. They covered some
great rhythm’n’blues material, released five singles, an EP and
an album on Decca and even appeared on Ready, Steady, Go! However, they are better remembered now as the band for which Jon Lord played
keyboards before launching Deep Purple.

Art Wood and his brother Ted also had an important influence on the
career of Ronnie, the youngest Wood brother, who was also in a mod
group, the Birds, and went on to join the Creation, the Jeff Beck
Group and the Faces, and has been the Rolling Stones guitarist since
1975. In fact, the Faces evolved from a short-lived group called
Quiet Melon which Art Wood formed in 1969. “Ron and the members of
the Small Faces were between jobs at the time and completely
skint,” he recalled.

“I had some studio time so we rounded up Rod Stewart, Kenny Jones,
Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane and Kim Gardner and recorded the
songs “Engine 4444” and “Diamond Joe”. We played a
few Quiet Melon gigs afterwards. But then Rod and Ronnie blew me off, the little bastards, and went on to become hugely famous as the Faces. Oh
well.”

Born in 1937, Art was the first child of Arthur Wood, a tugboat
skipper who also led a 24-piece harmonica big band, and his wife
Lizzie, a polisher who later gave up her job at the HMV plant in
Hayes to look after Art and Ted. Both boys came down with whooping
cough during the Second World War and their father moved the
Anderson air-raid shelter from the garden into the house and gave
the boys crayons and drawing books to take their minds off the
bombings.

In 1950, Art Wood enrolled at Ealing School of Art, and took a keen
interest in typography, graphic design and fine art. He was the
first from the college in a long line of wannabe musicians which
would include both his brothers, Pete Townshend of the Who, Freddie
Mercury of Queen and David Bowie. “Ealing was very unusual,”
Wood remembered.

"It was a straight art school when I first went there in 1950. But
it soon started to get this very musical feel to it. Everyone was
getting very experimental. It was the beatnik era, the beginnings of
what would become skiffle, it was all happening! Anyone who had even
the remotest artistic or musical bent was just carried away! "

In 1955 Art Wood received his National Service papers and spent the
next two years posted in Devizes, Wiltshire, where he formed a
skiffle group. When he returned to London, he began playing interval
gigs at the Regal in Uxbridge with the Art Wood Combo. While Ted
became a jazzer, Art was the blues and rock’n’roll fan,
covering the songs of Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and occasionally teaching them to Ronnie, who acted as the peacemaker when his older brothers argued about music.

By 1962, Art was one of several singers with Blues Incorporated, the
ensemble led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies which featured
Charlie Watts on drums and also gave guest spots to Mick Jagger,
Paul Jones and Long John Baldry. They took over the Marquee Club and
inspired the British rhythm’n’blues boom which followed.

In 1964, the Art Wood Combo became the Artwoods, with a line-up
comprising Wood, Lord, the guitarist Derek Griffiths, drummer Keef
Hartley and bassist Malcolm Pool. They turned professional, secured
a residency at the 100 Club in Oxford Street and signed to Decca
Records. The group developed a formidable reputation as a live
attraction and issued five singles, including dynamic versions of
Leadbelly’s “Sweet Mary” and Sam and Dave’s “I Take What I Want”, an
EP called Jazz In Jeans and an album entitled Art Gallery - all now
very collectable - between November 1964 and November 1966.

While none of their Decca 45s charted in the UK, they developed a
following in continental Europe generally, and France in particular,
thanks to appearances at La Locomotive in Paris, although a paucity
of original material did for them. In 1967, they had a one-off
single - “What Shall I Do?” - on Parlophone before changing
their name to St Valentine’s Day Massacre and posing as gangsters to try
and cash in on the popularity of the film Bonnie and Clyde. “We
released a single of the old Bing Crosby hit ‘Brother Can You Spare
Dime?’”, Wood said. “It was an ill-fated venture, which I
would prefer not to dwell on, virtually signalling the end of the band
apart from a few heavy-hearted gigs with a changed line-up.”

Art Wood attempted to form the ArtBirds and then Quiet Melon with
Ronnie, but eventually joined his brother Ted in setting up West
Four, a graphic design business. “They used to interweave, the art
and the music,” Art said. “West Four did commercial art:
brochures, leaflets, book jackets, classical album sleeves for the Phillips
label, as well as the bands Ted and myself were in.”

He also played with the Downliners Sect, another British beat group,
and occasionally performed at mod conventions with a revised line-up
of the Artwoods. In 1998, the three Woods recorded two tracks for
Money Due, an album credited to Art Wood’s Quiet Melon, and appeared
together at the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham. “Me and Ted were always
happy that at least one of us made it,” Art told Terry Rawlings,
author of Rock on Wood (1999), “and Ronnie made it big enough for
all three.”

Pierre Perrone[/i]