Annie Haslam (photo credit - Richard Barnes)
Annie Haslam speaks to Jason Barnard about her memories of, and collaborations with, John Wetton. Annie also delves into her own journey with Renaissance, shedding light on the defining songs that shaped their sound, including ‘Mother Russia’ and ‘Northern Lights’, as well as current projects. This is a written version of her Strange Brew Podcast.
It’s fantastic to see you. It’d be great to talk about the John Wetton box set. Listening to it must bring back memories of some of the times that you had with John.
It’s interesting because, it’s almost like there’s been many omens through my life, of different things happening and coming full circle. Really unbelievable stuff. Like one of them was the first album that I bought was the King Crimson one with John on it. That kind of thing. But when I joined the band in 1971, we needed a bass player for some shows, including the Reading Festival and Ed Bicknell, who I’m not quite sure if he was our agent at that point, knew John and recommended him to our actual agent John Sherry. Ed knew that John Wetton would fit the bill well. John only did 4 shows with us, but it was memorable. He had everything. He had everything that you need for success. He had a lovely personality, was good looking, and a great singer. The biggest thing that I loved about John was his voice. Great bass player, and obviously he became a great songwriter as well.
But he was certainly destined for bigger things. No, I wouldn’t say bigger things because we were all starting out, but it was obvious that he needed to front a band, and so it wasn’t for him. It was like a stepping stone. But that’s when we first met. The years went by. We were kind of pioneers in a way we’d record, rehearse, record, tour constantly, non-stop. And so you didn’t get a chance to get into other bands. So much so that I had no idea that over the years John had become such a prolific and brilliant songwriter. So, the next time we were in touch I was in Tokyo. Virgin Records in Japan had just released my self-titled album ‘Annie Haslam’, which had been on Epic Records. I was in the A&R department. Asia came up in conversation, and the A&R person said, “Oh, they’re in Nagoya tonight”. I said, “I wonder if we could get John on the phone?” We did get him on the phone, and we spent quite a while talking. It was lovely to catch up with him. And so different, because the years had gone by, and we were older, that kind of thing. We felt like we were kids before. That was wonderful. Then the next time was a few years later. Do you remember a magazine called the Classic Rock Society?
Yes!
Yeah, wasn’t that fantastic? They asked me if I wanted to do a column, or I might have asked them if I could do a column. I think I was living over here then, so that must have been the early 90’s. It was called ‘Egg and chips, bread and butter and a cup of tea’, which is what everybody had at the Blue Boar on the M1 in the middle of the night, in the seventies and onwards. I remember going there, the band Queen were in there and Slade, and all these groups. It was sausages and chips. Eggs and chips. Giant mugs of tea. 3 o’clock in the morning. It was amazing. We were all Knackered from the shows and the travel, but it was a wonderful feeling in that place bursting with talent !!! so anyway, that’s why I gave the column its name. I said to the people that I interviewed; I want you to tell me something that you’ve never told anybody else. It a lot of fun was, and John did one of the interviews. Then the next time wasn’t until years later, when he contacted me about singing on his Downes/Wetton ‘Icon’ album on a song called ‘In the End’.
A beautiful record.
Oh, isn’t it a beautiful song. I think the word is angst. It’s a good word for John’s voice at that time because he was going through a very rough time, and to me you can hear it in his voice. Because his singing, that was one of my favourite things about him, I could tell that there was something not quite right. But I did the recording of my vocals in the USA with Larry Fast. He’s a synthesiser player, composer and producer and was also in Peter Gabriel’s band for several years, both John and I knew him. I did my vocals over here.
So then one day I called John up in the studio in England. Before he came on the phone, I was speaking to somebody who worked there who told me “I think I should tell you that John’s not very well.” I had no idea what was happening and what he was talking about, except that I felt that there was something not right. I was told that John had a drinking problem and was in a bad way. He needed help! At that moment I knew I had to go over and do what I could to get him into rehab, there was no hesitation I knew what I had to do. Sometimes when you need help it can work best with someone who is outside of the circle of family and friends and that person turned out to be me, and I was ready for it. I was able to look at the situation in a different way and do what had to be done with a different level of emotion involved. So, I packed my bags, and I went out to England. It took me two trips to finally get him into rehab.
It was very difficult but then wonderful at the same time, as one day he said, “Why don’t we sing ‘Jerusalem’ together?” we went into the dining room, and he had a beautiful Steinway piano. We started singing ‘Jerusalem’, our voices together were magic! and it was just like the roof came off the house, and all the angels from heaven came down on us. It was the most amazing feeling, and I think that was what we needed to forge forward no matter what happened. After that there were up and down days, but fortunately Martin Darvill, John’s manager, was there for moral support and if I needed any extra help, and things like that. He was my support system. while I was there, otherwise I I would have been completely on my own, I stayed at John’s house. I felt I had got him to the point where he would go into rehab! and so came back home to the US. He didn’t, so I went back and stayed until the day came when he was ready.
After the gruelling physical pain that he endured during those early weeks in rehab had subsided, he regained his strength and purpose and he never looked back. This was a part of my life I will never forget; we had a true friendship that was deeply rooted and so together we were able to turn his life around. The music began to flow once more…
You mentioned ‘Jerusalem’ because when I’m listening to that box set, whether it’s ‘Arkangel’, or maybe ‘Mighty Rivers’. There are either Biblical references or choral, church music elements that I can hear strongly.
Yeah. Well, when I got back from England, I went to see a friend of mine who was a clairvoyant, a very gifted lady I’ve known for many years. I couldn’t paint for a while after being with John. I was a bit of a mess and needed some guidance. I felt drained. I said to Sheila “I wonder why it all happened? What was it that brought us together after so many years?” She said that we were in the Angels choir together, and we were both Seraphim’s, and that was why the urge to help John was so strong, we were connected. That made all the sense to me because it felt like there was a lot of Angelic help around us. In 2012 we recorded a new Renaissance studio album called ‘Grandine il vento’. Without any intention I wrote a poem called ‘Blood Silver Like Moonlight’ and gave it to Michael Dunford to write the music. He came up with a very beautiful melody. which obviously when I had finished writing the words, I realised it was about John and I.
I called John and said, “I would love you to sing this song with me. You are the other Angel on this”. It’s just a piano and our voices. It’s beautiful. Rave Tesar our MD and keyboardist with Renaissance arranged the music for the piano… Asia reformed and it was just wonderful to see what happened after that. Then, sadly, of course, he died in 2017. That was very sad, but he had adapted and stayed true to his new life, which was wonderful.
You came over for the memorial concert.
I did, that was wonderful. Except I did still had jet lag the day of the concert… and wasn’t due on stage until 10.30 pm or thereabouts! The day before was wonderful, the rehearsals and meeting up with everybody that I hadn’t seen for years, and some people in the prog world that I had never met. It was fantastic and the younger kids from the School of Rock did a fine job not only performing with themselves but also playing alongside other musicians…. How wonderful was that! When it came to my turn in the show I was with Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood, Jay Schellen, Martin Orford and Harry Whitley – what a magnificent voice he had. Harry sang the Asia songs, he was phenomenal, he also sang with Steve Hackett, Jay Schellen from YES, John Young and Martin Orford.
The evening was beautiful and emotional, with everyone talking about John, he absolutely WAS THERE! I My song was called ‘In the End’, I only sang 3 chorus’s, but it was very emotional. A lot of us got all these different signs (from John) leading up to the event. The night before I left America, I was getting myself together, and was in my kitchen clearing up and had the TV on in my den, there was a movie on, it was The Matador with Pierce Brosnan. I had it on low volume. It was just in the background, and all of a sudden, ‘Heat of the Moment’ came on, it’s in the movie, but it was so loud, the volume had turned right up! It was extremely loud. I knew that was John saying, “I know you’re coming over”. He was here, obviously. When you die, I don’t think that’s it. Martin Darvill and Lisa Wetton, and others had some kind of message from him. Other people that knew him, who were close to him, had experiences before and after the show as well. It’s still happening. Amazing.
And then the box set came out. Magnificent. It’s beautifully done. Mike Inns did a fabulous, boxed set. I opened it up and I just hugged it and started crying. It was amazing to see it. I think there’s going to be another box set with the song ‘In the End’ on it plus a song that Geoff and I wrote during the pandemic as a tribute to John will be on it as well.
You played briefly with John at the very start when you were in Renaissance. It was interesting because before the pandemic, you played some of the Renaissance material, or at least ‘Island’, which was on ‘Kings and Queens’, that you didn’t originally feature on. So what was it like playing some of that Renaissance material?
Island was my audition song. I was in a cabaret group in London in the late 60s. David Gardner was the guitarist and he said, “I just found this ad in the Melody Maker. You’re wasted here, your voice needs to be somewhere else on its own, not in the cabaret group.” So, I called the number up. They were on tour in Germany, I believe it was, and the band was called Renaissance. I went out and bought the album, ‘Kings and Queens’ and learned everything on it. When they came back, I went over to either Weybridge or Addelstone. It was a church hall. I was wearing my Biba coat, my long hair parted in the middle and the long dress and everything that was 1970. I was dressed for the part. But I knew even before I sang a note, the moment I walked in, that I belonged, I could feel particularly the energy coming from Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. Michael Dunford and John Tout were there as well. It was really exciting, and I sang ‘Island’ and I knew it so well. Next day January 1st, 1971, I got the call and the job! I was overwhelmed, my life would never be the same.
When we recorded the Symphonic Journey DVD in 2017 with our own 10-piece orchestra that we formed ourselves (actually Rave Tesar our MD did that), we added ‘Island’ into the set. It was a showstopper. And then when we did the 50th anniversary, it was obvious to me that I needed to bring Jim McCarty over for the show that was being filmed and recorded! I flew Jim over from France where he lives. It was magic. To have him on stage with an orchestra as well. We were talking about how we first met and then we were together again, full circle. It was wonderful to perform that with Jim plus orchestra! In fact, I just started painting songs as well, so for the whole tour I created a painting for each song that was displayed behind the orchestra 12’x24’…because you know, I’m a painter. I’ve painted two versions of ‘Island’. What I do is I tune into people’s feelings about the song, and then I paint their feelings. I don’t have to listen to it because it’s inside me. But yeah, that album, ‘Kings and Queens’. ‘Kings and Queens’, the first track. Fantastic. I feel blessed and very fortunate that, that happened to me. I was having singing lessons with an opera singer up until 1969. Then I did the cabaret gig with The Gentle People at the Showboat in the Strand, which I have to say was a very interesting experience. It was real show business with dancers and different acts, loved it and the people I worked alongside. Then one day the guitarist David Gardner showed me an ad in the melody maker that would change my life! The band was Renaissance, New Year’s Eve 1970 was the audition. New Year’s Day 1971 was when I got the phone call.
Was it Miles Copeland who reconstituted Renaissance, which led to ‘Ashes Are Burning?’
Yeah, when I first joined, John Michelle was the guy who was managing the band. I’m not sure if John Sherry Agency were working with him or not then. It’s such a long time ago, but John Michelle was with us for a short time. Then Miles came along. Miles joined the John Sherry Agency as a manager, not as a booker. He brought Wishbone Ash into John Sherry’s ‘stable’ of bands. He came and saw us play. It was a six-piece band then. I was basically doing backing vocals. I think I only sang two songs of my own, ‘Island’ and ‘Face of Yesterday’. That is another song I want to do one day and is gorgeous.
He said, “We need to change this, we need to change this up.” He let go the male lead singer, Terry Crowe, the bass player Neil Korner and the drummer Terry Slade. We toured a little bit before that happened. We played in Germany and performed at the Paris Olympia. We did some amazing shows. That’s when Miles came into the picture, and everything changed. It was just down to me and John Tout. Everybody was let go except the two of us and Michael Dunford was kept on as a songwriter with Betty Thatcher as lyricist. Jon Camp was the first one to join. Perfect bass player for the music with his Rickenbacker, bass, great sound for the band. We had a couple of drummers, but in the end, Terry Sullivan was the one that fitted perfectly. A perfect combination really. We had found a good match of personalities and gifted musicians!
The lyrics for Renaissance. ‘Mother Russia’ is an amazing case in point. Is that Betty Thatcher?
Betty Thatcher wrote the words for all our major successful songs, particularly Mother Russia, Carpet of the Sun, Ashes are Burning, she was very gifted! Jon Camp did write some dramatic and beautiful songs as well, also Terry wrote and do did John Tout! but Betty was the main lyricist right from the start. She was fantastic. Terry was very close to Betty, and he asked her once “Well, how’d you do it? What is your process for writing the words?” She said she had a special chair that she sat in at her home in Cornwall, in a corner of a room. She said, “I just plug in.” That’s what I do when I paint. It’s like a kind of a synesthesia situation, like, some people can smell colour and when they write down music, it comes out in colour and all different things like that. I believe she had a form of synesthesia. That’s what I believe. I have the same think that happens when I paint so I can relate to her working process…. And thank the Lord for it because her words were very special!
But I know that for a fact with that song, she’d read the book ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. What a song. Oh, and with orchestra added the song was enormous and one of our most popular. I remember in the studio, it was riveting. I think we were all crying. Very, very emotional. Everybody was so affected by it. A lot of our songs are like that.
But that song is a masterpiece.
Did you ever have to ask what the lyrics meant or were they explained to you? How did that work?
She did explain that she had written several about me, in particular ‘Ocean Gypsy’ and also ‘Trip to the Fair’.
‘Trip to the Fair’, was that about you meeting Roy Wood for the first time?
Yes, it was, I think we were recording at the time, ‘Scheherazade and Other Stories’. We had a few days off. A lot of the recording was done at De Lane Lea Studios, and I think that we did some at Abbey Road as well. Dick Plant our recording engineer said to me, “Annie said, why don’t you come down on your day off and meet Roy Wood? I know you’ll get on like a house on fire because he’s a nutcase like you! And that’s what happened. Oh my gosh, so many stories. We immediately were attracted to each other in so many ways, lots in common, wonderful, and I learned a lot musically from him.
But the first date was with Dick Plant and his wife, Annie. We went to Trader Vic’s in the Grosvenor Hotel in London. It was in the lower level, and it was like being in the Polynesian Islands with Polynesian food. It was magical. We were drinking these huge glass bowls full of white rum etc etc, called a Scorpion. I think I had three. I’m amazed we were still alive after that, to be honest we were quite ‘pickled’! We had an amazing meal, and we even ate the gardenias that were floating on the top of the Scorpions. When it was time to leave the restaurant, someone said there was a fair on Hampstead Heath. I think it was Easter time. We were the last to leave the restaurant, so God knows what time it was and so when we got to the fair there was nobody there. Betty had said to me, “Call me, let me know what happened”, that’s what I did. And that’s the song. Brilliant song, one of our best!
Cherry Red has done some fine work of reissuing and expanding a number of those amazing Renaissance albums. The expanded version of ‘Novella’ has the Royal Albert Hall concert from late 1977.
Thank you.
On that you’ve got live versions of songs like ‘Midas Man’. What was it like? You did quite a number of huge, huge shows.
I know and it’s funny. You don’t forget about it, but you’ve still got to live your life, and then suddenly, an interview sparks it all up again… and its quite amazing! ‘Oh my God’ we played three sold out nights at Carnegie Hall with the NY Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. We’ve done everything that any musician could ever dream of.
And then we did the Albert Hall, my mum and dad came, everybody’s parents came. All the parents had a box each. Harry Rabinowitz, a well-known conductor, was conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was just unreal. I’d like to do it again. Then I think, I’m here now. It was just surreal. The same as Carnegie Hall was. It was like, where are we? What are we doing here? It’s incredible to think back, I joined the band in 1971 and by 1975 we were in Carnegie Hall.
That’s quite quick, isn’t it? Unbelievable. I wish though that they had filmed those three concerts, but they didn’t. I’m not quite sure why that didn’t happen. Because everybody was filming at that time, Moody Blues filmed everything. I’m speechless really because we did Nassau Coliseum too. We did spend a lot of time in America, but we should have really gone further afield at that time. We probably could have gone to Australia and places like Japan too. But we didn’t do that until I got my own solo band together. I feel blessed to still be in Renaissance. I think it’s the kind of music that is timeless and unique, the albums that we did, just got stronger and stronger.
Some people do one or two good albums and then half of the albums as good. But we were strong with our albums. Each one got better than the other until we got to ‘Azure d’Or’, which is not really my favourite album to be honest, a couple of songs, but our music was starting to change then. With ‘Northern Lights’ being a hit, we had the pressure of, come on, you can write hit singles, let’s have some more. Then all of a sudden, I’m wearing a denim jacket on the ‘Time-Line’ album. What happened there? It was a very odd time. I had a gut feeling that we should have stayed with what we had. Because there was nothing like it, nothing like us at all.
Was Roy Wood’s advice one of the contributing factors in making ‘Northern Lights’ a hit?
‘Northern Lights’, yes absolutely. When I was with Roy, I got a call from our manager asking if I would like to do a solo album!!! YES!!!!! So, we recorded my first solo album ‘Annie in Wonderland’ and I had the perfect producer. I’ve got a strong personality and so does Roy as well. One day he said, “I’d like you to do some double and treble vocal tracking on this.” Roy knows how to make hit singles, hit singles, I said “I don’t want to because people want to hear my voice”.
When we did Northern Lights and when we thought we had finished it there was something missing, then I remembered about the treble tracking on AIW, so I suggested treble tracking my lead vocal, and it changed everything! and there it was, our very own hit single! And yeah! thanks Roy.
I talked to the band, I said, “I think that we need to treble track my voice and we did and there it was, our very own hit single! And yeah, thanks Roy.
Are you aware of the people that critique music and videos? There’s a lot about Renaissance. You must be gaining a huge following because they’re very positive.
Yeah, the first one I saw was a couple of years ago with an American guy called Doug Helvering, who’s a choir master and is a classical composer himself. Wonderful guy. He’s got this channel on YouTube called The Daily Doug. A fan wrote to me and said, you’ve got to look at this. He was critiquing music and voices he’d never heard before. He was critiquing ‘Things I Don’t Understand’.
What he did was he didn’t just talk about the music. He had a piano in front of him. So, he’d be saying, “John Tout’s playing this. He’s going down to F-sharp. What’s going on?” He was very visually going, “Wow” at every turn . But it was very interesting, particularly, for young musicians, to give them all these ideas and everything. Then when my voice came in, he lifted his hands in the air, it was because he’d never heard my voice before. He said things about the music that I’d never heard before, put them in such a does it come from?
But one thing he said brought a tear to my eye. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but I think it was a beautiful thing to say. He said, “That my voice is a beacon for the planet”. I thought, “Oh my God!” Because I always feel, sometimes when I sing at my best, I feel like it’s just going so far out there. Sometimes I don’t think it’s all about the music either. Whatever it is that we have, the energy is projecting it out and if it’s good, it’s going to last. It’s a shame that we did what we did and changed our direction to satisfy the commercial music scene. I think otherwise we would have been as big as YES, Genesis etc. We had the talent, and we were unique. But then again, I wouldn’t want to change anything because I wouldn’t be painting now probably. I might be a housewife or who knows where I’d be. You don’t know. This is where I’m meant to be. I believe this is it. I may have never moved to America either. That’s another thing, I said, “I’ll never move there”, and I was the one that did. Never say never.
You mentioned painting and there’s a link to one of the great songs in your back catalogue from more recent years. That’s ‘Symphony of Light’ which is about Leonardo da Vinci. Can you tell me about the background behind that?
Yeah, it gives me the shivers when I think about that. I’ve always loved Leonardo da Vinci. A friend of mine, Kay, went to France and went to visit the chapel where he’s buried and saw the apartment where he lived, that kind of thing really got into my system like I was with her on her trip. She brought back a beautiful book for me and a couple of other related Leonardo bits and bobs.
Then we went to see the Da Vinci Code. I just fell in love with that movie. I didn’t paint anything straight away, but a couple of weeks later, I had some paint left over and the light was going in my studio. I had an oval canvas. I had black, brown, I had red, yellow and white. I wasn’t thinking about anything when I started Leonardo’s painting. I’m generally full of art. I don’t plan paintings unless they are commissions, I don’t plan the colours, except if there’s any left, I’ll use all those colours. So I did this painting, and then I did a little white bit on the top left thinking it may be a star. But it was like somebody had got hold of my hand and made it into a dragonfly. That’s when it clicked who the painting was. Leonardo drew/painted quite a few dragonflies during his life, apart from all the wonderful masterpieces that grace the walls of galleries and homes worldwide!
Then in 2012 we recorded our first studio album in 13 years ‘Grandine il vento’ which came out in 2013. Michael Dunford wrote the music, and I wrote the words. I said to him, “I would really love to write a piece about Leonardo da Vinci.” He said, “No, it’s too literal”. I said, “Okay, ‘starry, starry night’ alalalalala…. Do you know who that song is about?” He said, “No”, I said, “Vincent van Gogh”. He still wasn’t having it…kind of poo pooed it in a way, but I didn’t give up!
I had a big book on Leonardo full of his paintings. I took it into the studio, and I laid it on top of Raves piano. I asked him if I could leave it there if it wouldn’t be in the way. I left it there for it to kind of soak into everybody, including Michael of course. Then he came up with this beautiful slow piece of music and asked me to take it home and see what lyrics I could come up with. On the way home, I don’t know how many times I had to stop my car, the words were pouring out of me! In the end the whole song turned out to be a showstopper at our ‘live’ shows and a big favourite of Michael’s!
Every time we’ve played it live, especially with the orchestra, I just come more alive! My voice seems to soar like no other song. I have this connection with Leonardo and painted several pieces of my interpretation of him. We are similar in some ways, he was a vegetarian, like me, he was a singer, and he played a musical instrument and was an inventor too. There is a part in the song where it’s frantic during an instrumental part, that was when he was working on his inventions, and when he strayed away from his painting. But he needed the money to pay for his paints and to live. It’s a wonderful song my favourite!
There’s one final song from your solo career but you did it with Renaissance relatively recently and that’s ‘Ananda’.
Oh, yes.
Can you tell me about that? Is that an Indian influence?
Yes, well, my brother Keith, bless his heart, he lives in England now. And he’s been a Krishna devotee for over 50 years. He’d always go on to me about Krsna and that I should be a devotee like him. I told him I believed in Krsna but had my own belief system and wasn’t ready to go into something like that. We’re all connected. It’s all coming out now with all the changes on the planet and humanity.
Back to the song. I always loved Indian food from the late 60’s to today. I had my first Indian meal in 1968 when I was part of cabaret act The Gentle People. That’s when I was introduced to Indian curry. I loved it. Then I started to love Indian clothes. In the 70s, it was Indian paisley fabrics and kaftans I loved it all! Then my very first band, we only did 3 shows, called Indian Silk were like a wedding band, I guess. I can’t even remember if we got paid. But I remember buying a long silk kaftan in beige silk with pale blue embroidery on it. I wish I’d got that now. My name is Haslam. Aslam is an Indian name. Maybe in a previous lifetime, I do feel connected to India even though I haven’t been there ‘yet’. When Rave and I were writing the songs for ‘The Dawn of Ananda’ CD, all songs Angel related, I just wanted to write a song with an Indian feel and the words came easily because Rave’s music was just perfect!
You’ve got the Spirit of the Holidays show imminent as well.
That’s coming up on December 16th at Sellersville Theatre in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. We have so much fun. It’s more of a comedy show, to be honest, more than anything. The same people come every year, I’m sure. We have such a great time. Because when I was with Renaissance, I was kind of held back. They said, you’re talking too much and to stop laughing on the stage. So, when I got my solo band, the floodgates opened for me. I could be myself as well. That’s fine because it fitted the image as well, to be honest. The music in the 70s, I guess that’s probably what they were worried about. But the audience used to love it. But I got my way in the end.
But ‘Ananda’ actually, funnily enough, on this last tour, it’s only the second time we’ve ever done it ‘live’, we performed it in Japan 2001. It really is an uplifting piece. It’s short, and it shocked everybody, because they didn’t know that they were going to be getting something like that. But they liked it. Yeah, it’s up-tempo, it makes you feel good, the audiences really got into it!
Before we go, can you tell me about your forthcoming album?
Yes. Well, it was recorded last fall, 2022, in the US. It’s called the Legacy Tour 2022 with The Renaissance Chamber Orchestra (our own ten-piece orchestra) and we decided to add in some of my solo work, it felt like a good time, and who knew if there would be another tour, so we went for it! We did five of my solo pieces along with classic Renaissance pieces, and it all fit together well. I was very excited to hear my solo work with orchestra. The double CD set is available on our band website at renaissancetouring.com. It’s a good mixture of songs.
We are looking forward to next year because we couldn’t tour this fall as all the shows, we usually do were booked a year before. We’re in the stages now of planning a farewell tour in 2024.
Will that be just in the US?
Yes, at this point, in the US. It’s too expensive taking the band anywhere else. Unfortunately, it’s always been a problem for us during these later years without record label backing. BUT who knows, never say never!
We’ll have to come over instead.
Yeah, you’ll have to come over for it. I’m sure there’s other things that are going to happen. I think it’s best to just carry on, and not expect too much. Keep smiling and be careful and good to everybody. That’s how we’re all going to survive this crazy world.
Well, thanks so much, Annie, for sharing your memories of John, the fantastic box set and the amazing music that you’ve made and continue to make. It’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you.
Well, thank you. It was very nice to speak to you.
Further information
Annie Haslam – Strange Brew Podcast (audio version)
John Wetton – An Extraordinary Life box set
