The New Barbarians (band)
Encyclopedia
The New Barbarians were a rock
band that played two concerts in Canada and eighteen shows across the United States in April and May 1979; in August 1979, the band also supported Led Zeppelin
at the Knebworth Festival 1979
.
The group was formed and led by Rolling Stones and Faces
guitarist Ronnie Wood, primarily to promote his latest LP Gimme Some Neck
. The line-up included Rolling Stones member Keith Richards
, bassist Stanley Clarke
, former Faces
keyboardist Ian McLagan
, Rolling Stones confederate and saxophonist Bobby Keys
and drummer Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters
. For the Knebworth show Clarke was replaced on short notice by bassist Phillip Chen, who had to learn all the songs in one day.
The band played a mix of classic rock & roll, R&B, blues
and country music
, along with Ron Wood solo material and Jagger/Richards
songs. Wood sang lead on most numbers (with Richards, McLagan and Clarke providing back-up vocals), as well as playing guitar, pedal steel, harmonica and saxophone.
The New Barbarians debuted as the Rolling Stones' support act at two charity concerts to benefit the CNIB at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium
near Toronto, Ontario on 22 April 1979, fulfilling one of the conditions of Richards' 1978 sentence for possession of heroin. The band's eighteen-gig US tour followed. They made news in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
when fans rioted, apparently due to their expectation that the show would feature "special guests", who did not appear. Another line-up of the New Barbarians - with Andy Newmark
, Reggie McBride, MacKenzie Phillips
and Johnnie Lee Schell replacing Clarke, Modeliste and Richards - played a "make-up date" in Milwaukee in January 1980 to help the promoter recoup the cost of the damages caused by the riot.
In October 2006 Ronnie Wood's record label
, Wooden Records, released a two-disc CD (followed a few months later by a triple LP set) of a New Barbarians concert at the (now former) Capital Center Arena
in Largo, Maryland
, entitled Buried Alive: Live in Maryland
.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band that played two concerts in Canada and eighteen shows across the United States in April and May 1979; in August 1979, the band also supported Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
at the Knebworth Festival 1979
Knebworth Festival 1979
The Knebworth Festival 1979 consisted of two concerts performed by the English rock band Led Zeppelin and other artists at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, England, in August 1979.-History:...
.
The group was formed and led by Rolling Stones and Faces
Faces (band)
Faces are an English rock band formed in 1969 by members of the Small Faces after Steve Marriott left that group to form Humble Pie...
guitarist Ronnie Wood, primarily to promote his latest LP Gimme Some Neck
Gimme Some Neck
Gimme Some Neck is Ronnie Wood's third solo album, released in 1979. It was a minor hit and his best performance on the charts to date, peaking at #45 on Billboard with 13 weeks on the Top 200...
. The line-up included Rolling Stones member Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, bassist Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, former Faces
Faces (band)
Faces are an English rock band formed in 1969 by members of the Small Faces after Steve Marriott left that group to form Humble Pie...
keyboardist Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
, Rolling Stones confederate and saxophonist Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Harry Nilsson, Delaney Bramlett, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Eric Clapton and Joe...
and drummer Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters
The Meters
The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977...
. For the Knebworth show Clarke was replaced on short notice by bassist Phillip Chen, who had to learn all the songs in one day.
The band played a mix of classic rock & roll, R&B, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, along with Ron Wood solo material and Jagger/Richards
Jagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
songs. Wood sang lead on most numbers (with Richards, McLagan and Clarke providing back-up vocals), as well as playing guitar, pedal steel, harmonica and saxophone.
The New Barbarians debuted as the Rolling Stones' support act at two charity concerts to benefit the CNIB at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium
Oshawa Civic Auditorium
The Oshawa Civic Auditorium was a 3,625–seat multi-purpose arena in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The recreational complex was financed by donations from the community, including United Auto Workers members. It opened in 1964, and was home to the Oshawa Generals ice hockey team of the Ontario Hockey...
near Toronto, Ontario on 22 April 1979, fulfilling one of the conditions of Richards' 1978 sentence for possession of heroin. The band's eighteen-gig US tour followed. They made news in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
when fans rioted, apparently due to their expectation that the show would feature "special guests", who did not appear. Another line-up of the New Barbarians - with Andy Newmark
Andy Newmark
Andrew "Andy" Newmark is an American musician, best known as a popular session drummer, and for playing with the funk band Sly & the Family Stone from 1972 to 1973....
, Reggie McBride, MacKenzie Phillips
Mackenzie Phillips
Mackenzie Phillips is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in American Graffiti and as rebellious teenager Julie Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time...
and Johnnie Lee Schell replacing Clarke, Modeliste and Richards - played a "make-up date" in Milwaukee in January 1980 to help the promoter recoup the cost of the damages caused by the riot.
In October 2006 Ronnie Wood's record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Wooden Records, released a two-disc CD (followed a few months later by a triple LP set) of a New Barbarians concert at the (now former) Capital Center Arena
Capital Centre
The Capital Centre was an indoor arena located in Landover, Maryland, unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland; a suburb of Washington, D.C. Completed in 1973, the arena sat 18,756 for basketball and 18,130 for hockey....
in Largo, Maryland
Largo, Maryland
Largo is an unincorporated area and census designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, in the United States. The population was 8,408 at the 2000 census....
, entitled Buried Alive: Live in Maryland
Buried Alive: Live in Maryland
Buried Alive: Live in Maryland is a live album by The New Barbarians. It was recorded at the Capital Center Arena in Largo, Maryland on May 5, 1979 during the band's only concert tour.-Disc 1:# "Sweet Little Rock N Roller" – 4:20...
.
Typical set list
When The New Barbarians appeared as a support act (at the two Canadian shows and at Knebworth Fair) their performances featured shortened set lists, but most shows on their US tour included:- "Sweet Little Rock & Roller" (BerryChuck BerryCharles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
) - "Buried Alive" (Wood)
- "F.U.C. Her" (Wood)
- "Mystifies Me" (Wood)
- "Infekshun" (Wood)
- "Rock Me BabyRock Me Baby (song)"Rock Me Baby" is a blues standard that has become one of the most recorded blues songs of all time. When B.B. King released "Rock Me Baby" in 1964, it became a Top 40 hit reaching #34 in the Billboard Hot 100. The song is based on earlier blues songs and has been interpreted and recorded by a...
" (BroonzyBig Bill BroonzyBig Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
/CrudupArthur CrudupArthur "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as "That's All Right" , "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists.-Career:Arthur Crudup...
) - "Sure the One You Need" (Jagger/RichardsJagger/RichardsThe songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
) - Richards on lead vocals - "Lost and Lonely" (Wood)
- "Breathe On Me" (Wood)
- "Love in VainLove in Vain"Love in Vain" is a 1937 blues song written by Robert Johnson.The song is noted for its sad lyrics, tone, and style. In the 1991 documentary film The Search for Robert Johnson, John P. Hammond plays Robert's recording of "Love in Vain" for the elderly Willie Mae Powell, the woman for whom it was...
" (Johnson) - "Let's Go Steady Again" (AlexanderArthur AlexanderArthur Alexander was an American country soul singer. Jason Ankeny, music critic for Allmusic, said Alexander was a "country-soul pioneer" and though largely unknown, "his music is the stuff of genius, a poignant and deeply intimate body of work on par with the best of his...
) - Richards on lead vocals, Wood on saxophone - "Apartment Number 9" (PaycheckJohnny PaycheckJohnny Paycheck was the legal name of Donald Eugene Lytle , a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It"...
/Austin) - Richards on piano and lead vocals, Wood on pedal steel - "Honky Tonk WomenHonky Tonk Women"Honky Tonk Women" is a 1969 hit song by The Rolling Stones. Released as a single on 4 July 1969 in the UK and a week later in the US, it topped the charts in both nations.-Inspiration and Recording:...
" (Jagger/Richards) - "Worried Life BluesWorried Life Blues"Worried Life Blues" is a song that has become one of the most recorded blues songs of all time. Originally recorded by Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather in 1941, "Worried Life Blues" was an early blues hit and Maceo's most recognized song...
" (Merriwether) - Richards on lead vocals - "I Can Feel the Fire" (Wood)
- "Come to Realize" (Wood)
- "Am I Grooving You" (Russell/BarryJeff BarryJeff Barry is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer.-Early career:...
) - "Seven Days" (DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
) - "Before They Make Me RunBefore They Make Me Run"Before They Make Me Run" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1978 album Some Girls.Written by guitarist Keith Richards, the song is a response to his arrest for heroin possession in Toronto in February 1977...
" (Jagger/Richards) - Richards on lead vocals - "Jumpin' Jack FlashJumpin' Jack Flash"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released as a single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone, the song was perceived by some as the band's return to their blues roots after the psychedelia of their preceding...
" (Jagger/Richards)
Discography
- Buried Alive (recorded 1979, released 2006)Buried Alive: Live in MarylandBuried Alive: Live in Maryland is a live album by The New Barbarians. It was recorded at the Capital Center Arena in Largo, Maryland on May 5, 1979 during the band's only concert tour.-Disc 1:# "Sweet Little Rock N Roller" – 4:20...