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The Danny Steel Orchestra..... how it all came together The final impetus for attempting to put together this band came after seeing Steely Dan at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre on the European leg of their 1996 tour. Throughout my 25 years of playing with various musicians I have always held Steely Dan in great respect; their great melodies full of freshness and blending exotic jazz voicings into a rock medium are irresistible. Many people I had met during this time shared my love for the songs of Becker and Fagen but had never had the opportunity to play the music in a live band. A few hundred phone calls later, contacting old friends, a meeting was arranged. Some of those people also liked the Doobie Brothers so we thought perhaps we could incorporate both influences and call ourselves Doobie Dan! It was very soon obvious that the Steely Dan material shone above all else so, after choosing three or four songs, we began working at home on the individual instrumental and vocal parts. Studio time was booked straight after Christmas 1997 with the intention of putting the musical jigsaw together and seeing if it bore any resemblance to the real thing. Surprisingly enough it worked out rather well, and even when it came to reworking the frequent fade outs of the recorded pieces, the whole began to gel promisingly. Brass rehearsals soon followed, drum and bass got together to create the solid rhythmic foundations, and the vocalists met to dissect the various lines. With the complexity of the material we found that this method of working initially in isolation was more productive and led to greater accuracy than attempting to work en mass. Once all the parts were learnt it was very rewarding to come together to fine tune timing and balance, and finally hear the ensemble product. We were all amazed at the results, and felt that wonderful "tingle" as the big sound emerged. We stared in astonishment at one another as we all heard the result of weeks of hard work finally and so satisfyingly pay off! Trying to organize such a large group of people for rehearsals and gigs, getting them all together at one place at the same time was no easy task, but even so everyone turned up and enjoyed the compliments paid to us by even the hard-core Steely Dan fans who seemed to emerge from nowhere as time went on. We all soon realized that if you are attempting to recreate something as complex as Fagen and Becker's material then it has to be precise. You cannot fool the diehards out there because they are all minutely aware of every single note and nuance, and experts like that simply don't come back to a poor tribute band! Right from the start we agreed that we would only recruit band members on the strength of their dedication and musical ability. We weren't in the market for employing session people. After playing the circuit solidly for fifteen months, some members felt that they could not continue in the band because of personal commitments and decided to leave. This was obviously disastrous for the band leaving us with just two sax players, bass, and myself on drums, all keen to carry on but dreading the prospect of all that recruiting and rehearsing again with new people. But it had to be done, and so we went back to the phone lines once more, returning very definitely to square one! Slowly we sought out new 'Dan players starting with Iain White on guitar. His (future) wife Jayne, a very competent singer, joined too and so we were (coincidently) set on the same road as the present Steely Dan line-up with female vocalists! Another female sax player, flautist and singer Karen Thornton then came along to join the brass section and complement the backing vocal parts. The original line-up had two keyboard players so the next major job was to replace both of these. This was to prove the hardest task of all, but after a great deal of searching and communicating with old friends we found Jez Byers and then Paul Shotan who both joined immediately and started on the job of working out their parts. Finally our lead singer and guitarist Gavin was recruited to complete that particular incarnation of The Danny Steel Orchestra. At last we were ready for our first gig just before Christmas 1998. Nervous barely describes the trepidation we all felt on that night, but it turned out to be a huge success, and we knew straight away that we had done the impossible..........rebuilt the band .............and it was stronger than ever before! Everybody felt relieved and elated, and we came away confident and full of enthusiasm, all eager to add new material and build the set to what it is now, a stunning two hour show covering tracks from every Steely Dan album. Four years down the line, The DSO...clearly 'Dan is still together despite many changes of personnel and a string of hardships, and now boasts 12 members. Many past players have found it impossible to stay the distance, coping with little or no pay, meeting the 110% level of commitment the music demands and all the other spanners that can be encountered in works such as this! Those players have left, to be replaced by others, until the present time when we find ourselves with the 2002 line up that is at last stable, cohesive and of the "right stuff". It's been a long time coming but what a band we now have! Superb musicians all pulling together to achieve the goal of recreating this incomparable music LIVE on stage for British and European audiences. And, at long last, we are now receiving the response, recognition and rewards that we knew would arrive one day.
This gives me the opportunity to thank all involved for their patience and dedication in
recreating some of the coolest music on this earth.............. Martin Hopcroft (drums and Founder of The DSO) |