In Their Own Words: The Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers Story
Here’s Malcolm Mills with another podcast from The Last Music Company. This one is a stumble down memory lane to London in the early 1970s. It’s the story of those pub-rock pilgrims Chilli Willi and the Red-Hot Peppers and how they emerged from the remains of Mighty Baby after the first Glastonbury Fayre in 1971.
Fifty years after the actual event, we start with a telephone interview Malcolm did with John Coleman who was the co-founder of Revelation Enterprises. This is a vital piece of oral history which finally dispels many of the legends on the subject because Revelation was the label that released the fantastic triple LP set of that festival. The reason the interview is included here is because Revelation followed up the Glastonbury Fayre release with Kings of the Robot Rhythm - the debut album from Chilli Willi and the Red-Hot Peppers, which he also co-produced.
John’s is a genuinely marvellous tale of those times recalled here in great detail. His company defied all the laws of economic gravity to release a couple of records that are of museum-piece quality because of the “no-expense-spared” design of the packaging by Barney Bubbles. Coleman had taken over the responsibility for the performing schedule from Jeff Dexter and was stage manager for that first Fayre putting him at the heart of the event. So this is absolutely essential listening for Glastonbury historians and all music fans…straight from the horse’s mouth!
The next telephone interview you’ll hear after John Coleman is with a guy named Colin Hansford. Chilli Willi was formed very soon after that first Glastonbury when Phil Lithman hooked up again with Martin Stone after returning from San Francisco. Lithman had been in The Residents while he was out there, which is where he earned the nickname of “Snakefinger.” Martin and Phil had originally known each other in various bands where they were close neighbours in the south London blues delta of the early 1960s. That period before Phil went to America and Martin joined Savoy Brown Blues Band is recounted by former bandmate Colin from when they were all in groups like Smiley, Junior’s Blues and Junko Partners.
Stay tuned after that--and for the first and probably only time--you’ll cop the story of the group from three band members in the 2021 zoom interview Malcolm did with them.
Pete Thomas, Paul Riley and Paul Bailey spin a yarn or two about the cast of characters caught up in the vortex of their admirable enterprise and put the story straight (at great length) of how the group transitioned from acoustic duo to a five-piece touring band. They also explain how they had to make a couple of different attempts to produce the material that wound up on Bongos Over Balham.
If a band like the Willis existed today, they would almost certainly be a success, but back then things were different for these guys as you’ll be hearing.
In the space of a couple of years despite playing over four hundred gigs, appearing on radio and TV and releasing two albums, it was all over by 1975.
Some of the sound quality of the interviews isn’t great because nobody was ever in the same room and there was a variety of microphones and telephones used. Nevertheless…it’s an illuminating trip.
The anthology of Chilli Willi and t he Red Hot Peppers recordings - REAL SHARP - released by The Last Music Company is a two CD set with a twenty-four page booklet that’s filled with great photos and images plus Barney Bubbles’ artwork. It covers the recordings the band made for Kings of the Robot Rhythm and Bongos Over Balham plus a few live tracks. The whole set is still available from the usual retailers and if you just want to hear the music all the tracks available digitally.
