Slim Chance

First published in fRoots magazine No. 372, June 2014 

It’s easy, in an already post-Mumford & Sons British musical landscape, to forget that once-upon-a-time, back in the 1970s, the sight of young men with accordions and mandolins entertaining the nation’s pop kids with roots-informed toe-tappers on Saturday morning TV shows really wasn’t all that unusual. Although never the most commercially successful, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance remain, for me, the pick of the bunch. Presaging Mike Scott’s similarly romantically and spiritually-inspired Fisherman’s Blues adventures in Ireland by more than a decade, the much-missed Lane (who died from multiple sclerosis  in 1997, aged 51) eschewed the era’s trappings of rock star excess in favour of touring his now- legendary Passing Show rock ’n’ roll circus, and joyous, naturalistic communal music-making at Fishpool - the farm he shared with his wife Kate, their kids and various musicians near the village of Hyssington on the Welsh-English border.

Ronnie and Kate at Fishpool

Multi-instrumentalist Charlie Hart (whose musical history includes studying classical violin from the age of 6, playing double bass in jazz clubs, organ in the psychedelic band 117 at Middle Earth & UFO, decamping to Ghana for a year to play highlife and study marimba, and a stint with Ian Dury in Kilburn & The High Roads) spoke to me about life down on the farm.

“I went there for a weekend to do a bit of recording and stayed for two or three years! Ronnie was a very sociable man, really. Not only with his musical mates but all the local people. That’s what amazed me when I went there the first time. A lot of people from London move to the country and never really get accepted by the local people but Ronnie and Kate were just part of the local community, it was fantastic. We did the Slim Chance album up there and toured it quite a bit. When that line-up disintegrated I stayed on. I played on the Rough Mix record with Pete Townshend, See Me  in 1979 and then did the 1980 Rockpalast TV show in Cologne, which is now on DVD".

"Ronnie attracted a particular type of musician, because you weren’t going to get rich on his music, but it was very interesting and fulfilling in many ways. The musicians involved at different times included Bruce Rowland, Ian Stuart, Benny Gallagher & Graham Lyle, Henry McCulloch and George and Ray Carless. Then we had Eric Clapton knocking about from time to time - it was all interesting! The band moved through the 70s from Anymore For Anymore which was acoustic, country music to playing much more R&B by the end of the decade.”

After Slim Chance, Charlie started playing bass with Geraint Watkins, Ed Deane, Diz Watson and Ron Kavana in Juice On The Loose on London’s blossoming pub rock circuit, working with the likes of  Alexis Korner and Mose Allison. “When I left Fishpool in the 70s, that’s where it seemed to be happening. There were some great bands at that time, just out there, playing. It was a fantastic scene - great musicianship, great vibes and, like Ronnie, very under-appreciated. Pub rock is a bit of a crap term, really!”

Following more African travel and working extensively with Chris Jagger, Charlie was engaged as musical director for a Ronnie Lane memorial concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2004, an event that eventually led to him and guitarist Steve Simpson reforming Slim Chance in 2010.

“We’ve been back for a few years now. We’ve got a good hardcore following and yes, probably about 70% are “old geezers,” but they’re increasingly bringing their children and even their grandchildren along and they enjoy it. It’s been brilliant to do in terms of revisiting the music a bit differently, but in the same spirit as Ronnie. The vibe’s not that different, I’d say, and Ronnie’s songs are fantastic. they’re deceptively simple and very well constructed. He didn’t just write about anything - each one’s very centred and really well composed. Some of the songs came to him in dreams, they’re deeply rooted. The spiritual element comes through because he was in touch with 'something,' and that shows in his music".

"Ronnie’s complaint about the rock ‘n’ roll industry in general was that the genuineness had disappeared. At the time he didn’t get much recognition for it, but now people are realising that what he did has stood the test of time. He broadened the idea of what rock ‘n’ roll was about at the time, and that’s what we’re still trying to do now, using acoustic instruments but playing them with the rock attitude. You don’t have to be a reconstituted folkie to play a mandolin or a fiddle"!

Slim Chance

"Slim Chance is a cottage industry really, we manage ourselves. It’s a really great line-up which includes violinist Steve Simpson, who was the other half of “the Fishpools Philharmonic” with me, and Steve Bingham on bass, who was with Ronnie in The Passing Show. We’re actually hoping to re-stage The Passing Show at some point. The idea remains absolutely captivating and people still love it. If we can find a circus operator to work with for a night or two then we’ll get in a bunch of guests and do it!”

Charlie Hart

http://www.slim-chance.co.uk