Music My Musical History | Brief Musical History | Iganda - Band History | Live for Hire | Download Music | Back to my Room My Musical History Like most kids in the middle 60s, I was intensely interested in the Beatles and the Stones, but after I had left school, I was soon including the Kinks, Yardbirds and Donovan in my record collection. One day a group of ex school chums paid “me” a visit. I soon realised that they had merely come to “inspect” my sister. However, because of this visit, one of the lads and I became friends. We had little musically in common except Donovan. At sixteen, Bill Watkins, could already play guitar and harmonica very well, and we spent a lot of time up at his place on the seventh floor of a block of flats in Northfield, Birmingham, reading “Beat Poetry” and listening to Bob Dylan and Donovan as well as other folk artists – like: Alex Campbell, Bert Jansch, Matt McGinn, Davy Graham, Mick Softly, Ian Campbell and others. I found it impossible to learn the guitar but was able to get some reasonable squeaking out of the harmonica to accompany Bill. After a couple of weeks living in the caves of Stourport, we would often be found playing to bus queues at the Lickey Hills terminus near Birmingham; or to the sound of water at Chamberlain Square’s fountain and the young people who were attracted there. We even played at the 1966 annual meeting of the CND, which was held in the Birmingham Town Hall. Alternatively, we would hitchhike to various nearby towns to play on the streets. All this was done mainly at weekends because, after I left school, I became an electrical apprentice for a firm contracted to the BMC at Longbridge. I bought myself an autoharp and Billy and I went to Ireland to spend a holiday with his grandmother. Some of these and subsequent adventures are covered in his book: ‘A Celtic Childhood’. It was in Ireland that I felt I belonged and after things became impossible at home, I ran away to to the ‘Emerald Isle’. After a brief and adventurous time in Dublin, I returned to Limerick where I would play my autoharp and sing in O’Connell Street under ‘Todd’s Stores’. I learned how to play blues on the harmonica from Limerick musician Mickey Fraser, and when I returned to Birmingham, I was noted for my “remarkable” style. In truth, I wasn’t very good but by then I was very unorthodox. Bill Watkins and I formed “The Moseley Guerilla Street Musicians’ Society”, which became banned; Watkins was arrested – the police invested a lot of time in preventing us from the “crime” of playing and singing on Moseley Village Green. Once I was married and settled down in a high-rise flat and a job; music continued as a hobby. With my newly purchased (£74) Gibson Epiphone acoustic, I learned all the Beatles catalogue – Stones (1960’s only), too. But I would still go to Ireland each year to meet musicians to play on the streets of the various Fleadh Cheolls. Eventually, through busking in Union Street, Birmingham with Pete Hartley, I met underground reggae group ‘Steel Pulse’s’ engineer, and as a result met them, became a guest musician at their gigs, and harmonica teacher to their singer Michael. All this time spent playing music was not good for my marriage. My wife and I broke up and I went back to Ireland for a few months. I returned to find that ‘Steel Pulse’ had made head roads – soon to be in the charts – and that their project had no active place for me. But by then, I had met ex-members of an earlier formation that had lead to “Pulse”, and I joined them to add my unorthodox musicianship to their already unorthodox reggae style. The band was called ‘Iganda’ and we had a good run, leading the way for others, and helping to build an active “Black & White” music scene in the Midlands and in Britain generally. We reached number 7 in the “Indies” charts with our original ‘Mark Of Slavery’ / ‘Slow Down’ on ‘021 Records’ – formed for us by Andy Burchel and Martin Coverdale. However, we remained fairly underground, later being better known, perhaps, for our support bands who went on to more commercial success; bands like: ‘The Beat’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Suburban Studs’, ‘Duran Duran’ and ‘UB40’. While working with ‘Birmingham Broadside Magazine’ and the ‘Arts Lab’ at Gosta Green, I formed a band with alternative poet ‘Dr. Paul Lester’, and my brother Adrian. This evolved into ‘Escha’, which went on to be a popular support band and a favourite at universities around the country. By 1983, I became more involved in other things, (Philosophy, Buddhism, History and science). June 1986, I landed – at the invitation of Irish poet and photographer, Seán Hannon – at Berlin’s Tegel Airport, to be met by the beautiful Almut Brückner. With the aid of a demo, which I had made with Jan Steel at Birmingham’s ‘Arts Lab’, I searched for opportunities within the walls of West Berlin. ‘The Johnny Carr Band’ was the first project which, with support from alternative DJ and artist Armin Engel, played an active part in the island city’s rock culture. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, I formed a “duo” with Wilfried Borchert from the GDR band ‘Scirocco’. I say “duo” because we spent a year of weekends learning to use an ‘Atari’ computer, synthesisers, midi-controls; I wrote songs especially and we practiced our singing and guitar playing to front our synthesiser robot band – we could even play the Beatles’ ‘I am the Walrus’. Unfortunately, after all that work was completed, and one unpaid test gig, we realised that we didn’t get on! Since then, I have been working with Irish and African musicians on various projects and have recently formed a unit with Georg Berger on lead guitar, Koffi Rocco on percussion and Bro. nMangru on electric bass. We have called it ‘yoh4’. We play our own songs. We can also incorporate African percussion and Cora (African harp) into our set. I recently produced, engineered and mixed my own CD: ‘Where Will You Be Home’. I wrote and sang the songs, playing acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, Irish bouzouki, banjo, harmonica, percussion, bass guitar, keyboards. I programmed the drums and keyboards using an ‘Atari’ and a synthesiser. Georg Berger played some important guitar. My daughter Elisabeth, as well as her mother plus Elke; Suzi Linnehan-Winters and Kim Sweet brought just the right backing vocals to it. I have only been able to reach the standard I have arrived at through learning from many friends. Back to Top Brief Musical History •1963-1965: Beatles fan •1964-1966: + Kinks, Yardbirds, Donovan fan •1965-1966: Learned to play harmonica from Bill Watkins when playing music on the streets of England and Ireland together. •1966: Learned “blues-harp” from Mickey Spencer in Limerick, Ireland. •1967: Busking in Birmingham. Formation, with Bill Watkins, of ‘Moseley Village Guerrilla Musicians Society’. •1972-1977: Learned guitar. Busking on the streets of Birmingham with Pete Hartley and Nicksax. And sojourns to the music festivals of Ireland. •1976-1977: Jamming with ‘Steel Pulse’. Formation of alternative reggae band ‘Iganda’: Springy-guitar, vocals; Alan ‘Wally’ Watson – guitar, vocals; Oscar Thompson – bass; Freddy Thompson – keyboards; Keith Lion – Drums; Jah Lips – percussion, guitar. Working with ‘Birmingham Broadside Magazine; ‘Birmingham Arts Lab’; ‘Rock Against Racism’. Suzi took over on keyboards. •1979: ‘Lester and the Festers’, with Dr. Paul Lester – words, vocals, Adrian Carr – bass; Bob James – guitar; Maid Marion – keybords; Trevor – percussion, Nicksax – soprano sax, Jimbo – Tenor Sax, Trevor Bailey – Tenor sax; Johnny O’Caerr – music, guitar. •1980: ‘Escha’ with Adrian Carr – bass; Nixlos – sax; Caroline Cook – vocals, Sammy – drums; Cowboy – keyboards; Johnny O’Caerr guitar, harmonica, songs. •1982: Escha Christmas Tour with ‘The Beat’ (with Pat Riordon – as lead singer). •1986: Berlin •1987: ‘JCB’ (Johnny Carr) Band, with Volker Retmann-keyboards, Oloh Roberts-drums, Adrian Carr-Bass. •1990: ‘JCB2’, Oloh Roberts – drums; Cristoph Hansert – bass; Volker Rettmann – Keyboards; Wilfried Borchert – lead guitar. •1994: ‘yoh2’, Willie Borchert and Johnny Carr – guitars, vocals and midi controlled synths. Own compositions. •1995-1996: ‘The Boyos’ and the ‘Wires’: Country music and Irish traditional. With Walter Bracht – lead guitar; Andreas von Klewitz – doublebass, drums, vocals; Matthias Kulmbacher – double bass; Patrick Delaney – guitar, vocals; Adrian Carr – bass; Johnny O’Caerr – harmonica acc. Guitar, percussion, backing vocals. •1996-2006: Various African and Irish projects, sessions, recordings – as spoon-player, guitarist, harmonica player, composer, designer. •2006: Composed, played, sung produced and arranged CD: ‘Johnny, Where Will You Be Home?’ •2007: ‘Yoh4’, Koffi Rocco – percussion; Georg Berger – lead guitar; Bro. nMangru – bass; Johnny O’Caerr – harmonica, acc. guitar, percussion, vocals. Irish-Session music project with Oliver Nowak, Andreas von Klewitz Downloads Back to Top Iganda Old Band-Poster - Iganda playing at the LSD-Club I was playing with in the Band Iganda, longside with famous bands like Aswad and at infamous place like the LSD-Club. Have a look at the colorful collection of old band posters at the picture-gallery. More about Iganda-History coming soon... Back to Top Live for Hire Sketch of Johnny Ó Caerr playing Guitar, by Sandy Cheyne Are you looking for a band for a special occasion; a festival; a wedding; family or business occasions? I actually play in two different Bands, you can hire one - or both. For Booking just write an E-Mail to: ocaerr (at) gmx (dot) de Bandname: Yoh Plays: Own songs; English 60s to African and Reggae Music. Members: We are basically three musicians, Johnny Ó Caerr – guitar, harmonica, percussion, vocals; Georg Berger – lead electric and acoustic guitars; Bro. nMangru – bass guitars; Rocco – congas, percussion, Cajon. Our line-up can be complimented by additional drummers and African traditional musicians (e.g. Cora). Bandname: na Liathróidí Plays: Irish and Scottish traditional music together with our own songs and compositions. Members: As a basis, we are three musicians, Johnny Ó Caerr – guitar, harmonica, percussion, vocals; Oliver Burns – Banjo, mandolin; Andrew Lompox esq. – guitar, bass, percussion, bazouki, vocals. Our line-up can be complimented by additional Irish traditional musicians: flute, bodhrán, uilleann pipes, mandolin and violin. Watch & Listen - Live: >> na Liathróidí > na Liathróidí
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:23:27 +0000
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