Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with a UK artist from the 1970s Hard Rock/Heavy Prog scene. We welcome Luigi’s front-man/guitarist/lead vocalist and composer, Duncan McFarlane.
Hi how are you?
“I’m doing just fine thank you, Jacopo. I hope you are too.“
What is the significance of the name of the band Luigi Ana Da Boys?
“No real significance. We had a meal in a local Italian restaurant after a rehearsal and were kicking various possible names around. We had originally rehearsed in the Physics Lab of the school we originated from. We were just toying with the idea of calling it L.A.B. at that point, when we suddenly heard the chef shouting in the restaurant kitchen, something about ‘Luigi ana da boys’ …and that sort of ‘stuck’. That was deemed ‘OK’ in 1976, but there’s no way we’d have run with it in these more politically correct days!“
The band plays a mixture of Hard Rock and Heavy Prog, where did your passion for these sounds come from?
“I basically was well into a few choice bands back then… Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash, Camel and Gentle Giant. But I was quite definite that I wanted to have a twin-lead, harmony-guitar band that played exclusively my material. Everything I wrote was definitely defined by those influences. I’m pretty sure you can hear elements of all of them in my writing.“
The project was born in 1977, what memories do you have of that magical period for Rock music?
“Well, I had grown up in the 60s, my pre-teen years, heavily into melody and harmony thanks to The Beatles, but as I reached the late teens I began to discover Folk music and more Progressive music such as those previously mentioned. I’d started buying albums by then, and began to learn lead guitar by playing
along to the likes of the very first Wishbone Ash album. I was also attending as many live gigs as possible, particularly at Cambridge Corn Exchange – which seemed to put on all the major touring bands in the 70s. The atmosphere was always brilliant – and somewhat infused with the heady smell of weed! It was a brilliant time for a young person to be overcome by such great music. A very ‘freeing’ time.“
Luigi’s only album, ‘Feeling The Ceiling’, was released in 1978. How would you describe this work?
“We were four very young lads making our very first journey into a recording studio. We hadn’t a clue about how to set about it and, to be honest, didn’t get any real help or advice from the engineer. He just set us up and let us get on with the process, letting us make many basic errors as we recorded the backing tracks, mostly in ‘live’ first takes! Just me on rhythm guitar, the bassist and drummer ploughed through with no guide click or guide vocal. I basically ‘mouthed’ the vocals ‘silently’ at them. And when it came to breaks (of one, sometimes two bars or more!) in the tracks, I’d ‘mouth’ the count at the two of them. We were green as grass! That all proved tricky later, when we came to fit the guitar parts or vocals into those (somewhat) variable gaps! Fortunately, we had been gigging a great deal over the previous eighteen months and knew our material inside out! The whole album, from carrying the gear in, setting up the drums and through to the last bit of mixing was a total of just sixteen hours! Quite remarkable really. We emerged with some long instrumental pieces that feature our harmony guitars to the fore – very riff-based in parts, but with the accent on the melodies played over the top. Then there were the songs – with me learning to double-track vocals, on the spot, for the very first time ever! I hadn’t known about this before and think (hope) I did okay.“
Both the music and the vocals are very intense, what themes do the lyrics deal with?
“I reckon that I wrote a lot of very personal thoughts and stories from deep within me, but always with an eye on the fact that the listener could (and would) be able to interpret them any way they chose to. Lyrics have always been the hard part for me, but most folks seem to give me good raps for them. As for the music… that just falls out of me quite naturally. I have no idea where from, but I’m never short of producing melodies. My way of working, back then in 1976/77, was to play my initial idea into a small, cheap cassette recorder – then play that back recording a guitar harmony onto a second such machine – then back again to the first while recording a bass line. I’d then present the band with a more or less complete arrangement to
learn – and these lads were always really quick at picking it all up, thank goodness! We had about three albums worth of material to go at when we came to do the album – and it was a really difficult task when we came to decide what went on the album and what was to be left off. Faced with the same choice today, I can honestly say there were some we shouldn’t have missed off it!“
Today your album is regarded as ‘mega rare’, as it was released as a limited edition. Why did you make that choice?
“It was our only option really. We were unsigned and had never made any attempt to secure a recording deal. We were semi-pro musicians, holding down our first ever ‘day jobs’ and really enjoying going out a fair
few nights every week gigging in pubs, clubs, small venues and some University gigs. To us it was great fun. And we’d made a conscious decision to save all our hard-earned gig money to finance our own record – with not a thought of approaching any ‘companies’ or agents. We just liked playing music – on our terms! Most local bands, at that time, were self-financing singles, or even an EP! We wanted to go that step further and self-finance an actual vinyl LP. I don’t think anyone else did that (that we know of) at that time. Luckily for us the late, great Jon Peel picked up a copy from somewhere (not from us!) and played us on his late night BBC radio programme, bless him! In reference to our ‘strange’ name he’s refer to it as making us ‘sound like a bunch of itinerate waiters from Leeds’. Next thing I knew I was offered a deal from the major music publishers of the day ‘Chappell Music’.“
At that time bands were very active live, what relationship did you have with your audience and what memories do you have of your performances?
“Yes, Luigi played loads of gigs and we had a tremendous following, primarily in the North of England. They were very loud, very vocal, very enthusiastic indeed! Sadly, the Publishing deal I’d been offered quickly led to the band’s demise. It outlined the fact that a composer/author would get 50% of any profits, the ‘players’ would only get 1% (in those days). It was clear that I’d likely reap 51% to their 1% – there was some ill-feeling and resentment. Rot set in. Suddenly everyone wanted to be a writer. I approached Chappell about
this, but it was my output they were interested in. Besides which, this was all too much for me (they wanted two albums a year for two years – reserving the right to not release anything! I turned it down, kept my day job, and carried on making music on my terms. It’s what I do. It’s what I love doing, making music for me, primarily. The band dissolved shortly after I made that call. One member in particular didn’t want to stay in a band that wasn’t ‘seriously trying to make it in the music business’. Luigi was over and done with in all too short a period.“
Guerssen Records is about to reissue your album as a vinyl LP, tell us about this new edition?
“Well, Guerssen approached me about the reissue idea almost two years ago. I wasn’t keen on the idea at first. We’d made (and sold) a limited edition run of 1,000 of the original 1978 LP. They seemed to be quite
something on the ‘collectors of rare vinyl’ sites, selling for quite some money! Our album even features in Han’s Pakora’s book ‘6001 Record Collectors Dreams’ – with a four star rating for rarity and value. I wasn’t sure if a new release would affect that status. I was also wary of ‘contracts’, given my experience of one back in 1978. Eventually I caved in and asked Guerssen to send me their contract. On receiving it, I promptly sent it to Andy Powell, main man of Wishbone Ash, We had become acquainted during lockdown and finally met when he asked specifically for me to play, to ‘open’ for them at their UK Ashcon 2022 I know nothing about such legal music matters and I knew he’d had dealings with such things and would know way better than me. He looked it over for me and gave me some much appreciated advice. I subsequently accepted the deal.
The original self-funded album didn’t have a proper sleeve, just plain white cardboard with no writing on it and an insert sheet (printed on one side only) slipped inside it. That’s basically because we ran out ot money doing the recording and had no funds left to complete the work properly! Guerssen were offering to produce a fully finished article – a proper printed sleeve, a four page colour insert booklet and a download card for good measure. Basically, a real and proper album! I was elated to receive an advance copy only last week and I have to say I’m totally elated at just how magnificent their production of this album has been. It looks and feels a million dollars to me – and having waited since 1978 to see the album finally be properly finished means so very much to me. They’ve produced a great package!“
Music is constantly evolving, how do you see the scene in terms of Hard Rock and Prog sounds?
“I guess I evolved too in the passing decades since Luigi burned brightly then extinguished. I kept playing through them all – always in local bands – always playing my compositions – always on my terms – and always with my good friends aboard …never interested in agents, managers, the ‘music industry’ – as I said before, I play primarily to please me – and if anyone else catches that wave – all the better!“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music with more sophisticated sounds like yours?
“Practice loads! Write loads (though be strong enough to exercise quality control on it all!) Know what you want. Know what you want to play, know what you want to achieve with it. Most of all, enjoy what you’re doing …And just keep on playing.“
You were very young at the time, how did your artistic career evolve after your experience with Luigi?
“Well, besides continuing to play ‘live’ in many bands over the decades that followed, I ended up developing my own small home studio. Instead of those two very small cassette tape recorders and a cheap plastic
microphone, I now revel in a proper studio set up that has seen me produce some twenty five albums and much, much more music than that! One of the highlights has been teaming up with Geoff Taylor (my main
guitar partner in Luigi) in my studio where we set about recording ALL Luigi’s music from scratch! Not only did we record the original album all over again, we took great pleasure in restoring some of those tracks to their original length (as we used to play them ‘live). Some tracks had been edited to a shorted length for the album (in order to stick below 20 minutes per side of the LP). We also recorded all the songs that we’d left off at the time of the 1978 recording. Then we recorded all the songs that I wrote for Luigi in the period that followed the original album. That resulted in us producing TWO Luigi albums in 2014 – each one is 64 minutes in length. These are available as CDs or downloads from www.duncanmcfarlane.com“
Do you have any other artistic activities or passions both inside and outside music?
“Music is, most definitely, still my main occupation. More than ever in fact. I currently gig regularly in four different formats… playing bass guitar for a local Blues-Rock band ‘HowDoo’, playing acoustic guitar in a duo at Festivals and Folk Clubs with fiddle-player Anne Brivonese, playing lead guitar in a pub-rock band called ‘Max Band (which plays well known Rock n Roll) …and lastly, my main band ‘The Duncan McFarlane Band’. That’s a six-piece Folk-Rock band that’s been playing UK Festivals and venues since 2001 and we’ve made five studio and two ‘live’ albums in that time period. Find those albums and some videos at ww.duncanmcfarlane.com During ‘lockdown’ 2020 I started (on March 20th) posting a ‘song a day’ on my Facebook page …ending that series after 365 consecutive days of song posts! I continued from that point posting one song a week as a ‘Song for your Sunday’ series/I posted all of those (and a whole lot more of my music) on my YouTube channel …which is free to subscribe to. My Facebook page and YouTube channel are easy to find, just seek out ‘Duncan McFarlane’. Outside of music I am definitely a ‘family man’. My wife and I will have been together 51 years as of Feb 17 this year! …and I am now a devoted grandfather. I love reading biographies, history books, and I’m a keen birdwatcher (and watcher of wildlife generally). To relax I also love to go fishing, and I’m a big film buff; I watch as many films as I can access. But I must confess, there’s hardly a moment in the day when I don’t have music running through my brain. I live for it. Long may it last!“
I thank Duncan McFarlane for the interview and wish him all the best for his artistic career.
Purchase the new remaster of the album via Guerssen Records here: https://guerssen.com/product/feeling-the-ceiling
