Exclusive interview with Paul Gray!

On your website you talk about the Sun and Moon approach to playing. Can you elaborate on that? You talk about using the pentatonics, but I also have noticed you use a lot of triads.

well y' kno I had no idea what the fuck triads or pentatonics were for donkeys years, I just went where my fingers, ears and heart led me (and the latter into all sorts of trouble but thats another story!).

sun & moon is pretty simple really - the sun is your keynote that stays the same, you always know where it is on the fingerboard, and the moon is one of the planets that revolves around it - that's all the other scale notes that fit. So if you fuck up, you always know where the nearest planet (or sun) is to get to. So in a pentatonic there are 5 principle notes that revolve around the root note. Makes sense to me anyway!

The Damned are known for their lack of rehearsals. Was it the same when you were in the band? How did the Damned's approach to rehearsals and recording differ from Eddie and the Hotrods and UFO?

The Damned never rehearsed with all members at the same time as far as I can recall. Probably the same today, bless 'em! The infamous barge trip is well documented on my website so no point in reiterating here. We sent each other 4 track portastudio demos and took it from there.

The Rods rehearsed, in the early days anyway, between the class A's being scored and the pubs opening. Often by the time we all arrived the pubs had already opened so rehearsals were somewhat adjourned and really most songs were made up and knocked out in the recording studio. Kept it fresh!

UFO was somewhat different in that the best part of a year was spent in Birmingham UK getting songs togetehr. Drove me crazy! Mainly becuase the management were paying for a nice house for the band to stay in as none of them had there own gaff, apart from me. But the songs were rehearsed to death, amid mounting piles of beer cans and the wiping of mirrors, so by the time we hit the road we were already a bit fed up with ‘em.

I'm more familiar with you playing a Rickenbacker, but you've also played a Gibson amongst others. What has been your all time favourite bass & why? What combination of equipment provides what you consider to be the ultimate bass sound?

aha, as a bassist yerself you should knoe that you should never ask that question  - the ultimate bass sound is always just one step away! But I think I came pretty close to my own personal aural nirvana on the Black Album - lovely old '74 Rick thru' a little amp - Ampeg portaflex as I recall -  cranked right up and compressed to buggery with an old dbx 160. The right Rickenbacker was heavenly, but the necks went quite quickly so tuning always became problematic. The T-bird I discovered whilst in UFO. Lovely earthy tone. I bought it in Stockholm ­ it was one of those Spinal Tap moments - I knew it was the right one without even plugging it in. I still have that bass, I wouldn't sell it for a million bucks. Well, maybe i would, any offers?

Equipment - difficult - Sunn stuff was great. Hiwatt I liked, but never loud enuff for me. I used Laney for the last 10 years and that was fab. They bought a truckload up to UFO rehearsals and told us to take what we wanted.Trace Elliot etc ­ vile piss. Forget it!

What Damned songs contain your favourite bass lines and what songs did you consider the trickiest to play?

Favourite was Jeckyll, no contest, Fabulous song, still love it to death today. The bassline was pretty much improvised on the spot, as were most of ‘em, and everything fell into place. Smash it up parts 1 & 2 were glorious to play too. I loved playing pretty much anything Captain wrote, there were so many great melodies to bounce off I was spoiled for choice as a bassist. He's a brilliant songwriter, vastly underrated, as he is as a guitarist too. Stranger on the Town I enjoyed playing live a lot as well, Blackout too, nice riffs in that.

Trickiest? hmm...wossit called...Ignite. I could never quite get to grips with the changes, just never felt natural to me!

What do you think is the most important thing for bassist to remember?

to not drink below the bottom of the label on the whisky bottle before the gig, always buy the best beakfood you can afford, and try and get at least an hour's sleep a nightÉ

Any advice for someone just starting out or looking to improve? Do you think it's important to learn theory or just wing it? If you had to provide one piece of advice about improving playing the bass, what is the one trick or technique that you would recommend?

I’ve really only one piece of advice for any bassist. Use your ears, listen to your heart, and use your imagination. Simple as that. Theory ­ in my humble opinion ­ makes you think too much and can destroy your gut reaction of what to play, and when.

Who do you play off most in a band? Do you lock in with the drummer or guitarist?

I play off everyone, depending on what my ears and heart tell me. My imagination kicks in and then it’s chocks away. I don’t analyse it ­ I just DO it. Impossible to answer because every song is different, but it could be a vocal harmony I hear in my head and transpose to the bass, a drum pattern, picking out a note in the way a particular guitar chord is played, a keyboard riff, or all of them jumbled togetherÉget the picture?

Do you recall your first rehearsal/ recording session with the Damned (early 1980?) and what songs did you work on?

Wessex Studios in north London was the first recording session. Don’t think we ever rehearsed before it. We did an all nighter with Roger Armstrong producing ­ “White Rabbit” and a couple of others ­ a Rat song nicknamed Time to Cry that was great too, but don’t think ever got to the lyric stage. It was immense fun, and I’ll leave it up to your collective imaginations as to what we got up to. It was such a fantastic band to play in at that time, nothing was impossible and everything was possible.

On your website, you say that the very first gig you ever played with The Damned was also recorded for the Shepperton album in July of 1980.That would then imply that you never played bass for the Damned when they went on the European tour in April 1980?

As far as I can recall the first gig was at Shepprton. If you know better please let me know!

Did you ever consider being a member of The Damned to be a poison chalice given there record with bass players? Also how did you get the job?

Eh? They had Captain, then Algy ­ hardly a poisoned chalice. I got the job ‘cos they kept asking me to join and sending me telegrams ­ “join our band you bastard, we’ll double you’re wages” ­ that sort of thing. They never did, of course.

What a typical sound check was like w/ the Damned? For example, what songs were typically played? - how long were they? What were the factors that made it a good one and what type of mix on stage do you go for?

No such thing as a typical soundcheck. Sometimes we’d play something from the set but most we’re just jams, Rat and I we’re fond of knocking out bits from The Who’s Live at Leeds . Someone would start playing something and we’d all join in. Or not. Good stage mix? Whisky and coke. I seem to remember it was everything louder than everything elseÉ

I have always wondered what other tracks from the Black Album (a masterpiece by the way!) were slated/ or chosen by you and the band for release after "History"? Dr Jekyll had was released in the U.S on IRS, but that was it. Were there problems with Chiswick at that point?

Pass. Sorry, no idea.

What were your thoughts and memories of the "Sanity Clause" sessions?

I don’t have much recollection to be frank. Can’t even remember where they were recorded. Loved the song tho’.

Any songs you recall that didn't make it onto the "Black Album" and were maybe used on Friday 13th or Strawberries It just seems that the Damned at that time with you in the band were arguably at their most creative,and had many songs between 1980-83 could there have been enough material to do an Album in 1981 or after you left in 1983?

Yeah it was a very creative time, and as I said before nothing was impossible, there were no boundaries. I can’t think of many bands that have ever had that luxury. There were shedloads of song written by us all towards the end of my tenure in the band that never saw the light of day. Offers on a postcard, please. In fact, some of the stuff I’d written for the Damned was used by UFO when I joined them ­ Phil Mogg, the singer, used to say “’ere play us some of that old punk stuff” and off he’d go with a completely different vocal approach to the one I’d imaginedÉ

Oh, and lastly may I humbly thank all those who voted me best Damned bassist on their website poll ­ gawd bless ya!

Continue to Part 2

Thank you to Paul for taking the time to answer the questions. For information on his new band, visit Wiked Gravity. For Paul's website which has great stories, bass questions and answers, and a comprehensive gear list visit Paul Gray Bass Website.