Ahead of her second appearance at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, we take some shelter from the sun and have a quick natter with Rosalie Cunningham.
Déjà vu
Three years ago at the 2022 festival we sat in pretty much the same place at the same time-ish in Rosalie Cunningham’s backstage sanctuary just ahead of her Cropredy debut. In the backstage area, members of her band are buzzing about – Claudia Gonzalez Diaz is readying her striking flame mane and Rosco Wilson is busy fine tuning as we find a spot in which to grab a few minutes to chat. A chat that begins by recollecting the torrential rain she encountered as an attendee which was part and parcel of 2014 (and is usually accompanied by a Richard Thompson set). On the other hand, her own record at Cropredy is an enviable one with the sun blazing during her sets both this year and back in 2022.
She’s already provided a few pointers for our chat in the ATB pre-Crop Q&A and it’s where we start off with her attendance as a punter back in 2014 when she confessed to having her mind blown by Steve Hackett and his Genesis Revisited set. “I hadn’t seen him before,” she confesses, “and being a massive Genesis fan, it was amazing to see it done so faithfully, playing all the things you’d want to hear from him.”
Of course, the Revisited experience has continued to this day although Rosalie hasn’t had the chance to catch any of the more recent tours. “We’ve been on festival bills when he’s played somewhere like Oslo and he was just down the road and I would have loved to go and see him. It’s the trouble with being in a busy touring band that you don’t get to see any of the other touring bands who are going round.”
ROSALIE ON…BAND OR BRAND
However, it leads nicely into sounding her out for our very own (in prep) ‘Band Or Brand’ feature where we speculate about how bands still continue with a small proportion of original members and if it’s the brand and musical legacy which is more important than who plays it. A sort of succession planning for sustainability that works for the likes of Mozart and Beethoven and whether it could be applied to the Rock music field. Hackett’s Genesis project is a nice shoe in on which to explore the perspective of a respected musician.
“He’s the one that’s flying the flag and I think it’s absolutely fine him doing it,” she says with some conviction. ”Anybody else doing it like The Musical Box, then it becomes a tribute. They’re amazing and if you want to see what early Genesis looked like, they’re the ones to go and see, but it’s still a tribute.”
Having opened the discussion with a more black and white solution, we ask about a band such as Gong , who have no original members in their current line up but fronted by a musician who Rosalie has recently toured with, Kavus Torabi, they certainly honour ‘the brand.’ “That I have to disagree; that it isn’t a tribute as Gong always was a bit more of a collective led by Daevid Allen rather than four people like Black Sabbath. It was with his blessing that they continued after his death. I love their latest album and that’s not a tribute because they’re putting out great new music.”
GONGS AND…
There’s a link there as Rosalie played on the same HRH Prog bill with Gong – “the first time I’d seen the new Gong and heard their new material. I was so blown away. It was the best thing I’d seen in years. I just said to Kavus afterwards that we had to do something together. I got in touch with the sax player – Ian East – and he played on my last record. He was with us last week to play on some new stuff so we have that working relationship going. Kavus has also been touring with us with his solo stuff. Nothing’s set in stone yet but us and gong want to do a tour together which would be a great package.”
We then shift tack to Yes and Rosalie adds her thoughts: “they can pull it off as they’re constantly releasing new music.” They are pretty prolific as of late although she admits, like us as fans of the classic era, “I don’t like all of it. But they’re certainly a band.” And we admit that if a band is still being creative and putting new music out there, then they’re not just playing a legacy and the nostalgia circuit.
We also throw in the George Clinton / Funkadelic card which again is some sort of collective, and even including ‘the family’ – nieces, nephews, etc – who would be fully justified carrying on after George has gone. A bit like the question we posed to the Fairport five in their press conference at the festival as to whether (or not) the music would continue even if some of the ‘band’ were no longer able to do so.
…TEEPEES
From band or brand, we switch to delving into Rosalie’s Q&A where she mentioned hanging out in Ric Sander’s tepee back in 2022. “I think it’s still there! Not left over from last time…” she laughs “but I think I saw it in the same spot so I assume it’s his and I also heard some echoey fiddle earlier.” The image of colourful rugs and a chilled vibe is confirmed – “that’s exactly what it is. Tapestries and pillows … and some incense… and then we got lost afterwards trying to find the van. That’s how much of a good time we had in the tepee.”
Picking up on the plans for the too distant future promises “the next album. As I always will be.” Always working on whatever might come next “that’s not going to be something around the end of next year what with touring schedules and Rosco’s work coming first. But these things take ages. We could finish it now and it won’t come out till next April or something. It’s been a long time coming. He’s just been amassing all these ideas for the past few years. My stuff tends to get priority, but he has loads of ideas and I add things and it’s a strong collaborative songwriting partnership. There’s too much material for an album right now; we have to whittle it down and see what sticks.”
Rosco’s project is Rabbit Foot – the ‘title song’ has been in the set a while – and, like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn, as if by magic, Rosco appears and takes up the narrative.
RABBIT FOOT
“What she said,” he chortles!. “We’ve used a few of the things in Rosie’s music but now I feel confident enough to front something else and not a lot of people know this but her first instrument is the bass really although she’s known for being known as this singer and songwriter and guitarist. But her passion is bass, so I have this amazing bass player to add to the project which frees her up to explore new ideas.”
“We want it to be a three piece as well,” adds Rosalie, while Rosco describes his ‘non-pigeon-holing’ vision of being “between Cream and The Beatles – the violence and velocity and showmanship of Cream with the songwriting and studio pedigree of The Beatles.” They talk of looking to go with a hard jamming three piece but with a pop sensibility. “We don’t get to do that much with my band as it’s a lot of noise on stage with five big musical personalities on stage, so it would be nice to go back to basics.” As for who takes up the Ginger Baker role – “we don’t know yet but there are a few people in mind.” Watch this space.
MEXICO…
The upcoming Mexico trip – which was first mentioned publicly in our Q&A – is something very exciting and imminent. “We had some friends work with the same tour promoter and same tour package that’s been offered to us. They told us how they started with an immediate fanbase as they go crazy for any European Rock music over there and then the second time they arrived with people at the airport and then it was three days press and radio on their third visit. They were huge and there’s a real scene so we’re hoping that we can pick up on that. It’s exciting and not knowing what to expect – although I don’t want to be held up at gunpoint – but we can’t wait.”
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