Dublin-born guitarist Gerry Leonard returns to Edinburgh for a special performance with Suzanne Vega at the city’s Usher Hall later this month.
He also features heavily on a new box set release by David Bowie, ‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’ that encompasses studio and live work between 2002 – 2016. The previously unreleased material includes a 2002 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Among the 31 tracks is a full live set of songs (except one) from one of Bowie’s most loved albums Low. Leonard’s atmospheric guitar work stands on the likes of Be My Wife and Subterraneans.
“It was my first outing with David that year” explained Gerry. “I joined his live band and did the rehearsals for the Meltdown festival in London and we picked up dates in the summer. That was the honeymoon period for me, it was my heyday. Mark Plati was the MD at the time and Mark ran a great ship, it was very exiting when we got to Montreux, the late Claude Nobs (founder and manager of the festival) threw a very nice dinner for David and David Sanborn (saxophonist on Young Americans) was there. Claude showed us around the screening room and the archives, the whole thing was a great experience”.
Bowie’s previously released performance at the Point Theatre in Dublin has been re-sequenced to give a stronger reflection of the set-list. “He loved Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland because they were lively and engaging and he deliberately picked Dublin for the live recording of the Reality tour (which turned out to be Bowie’s last). David loved the participatory element and he got that especially during the performance of Life On Mars when the whole of the Point is singing with just him and the piano”.
The guitarist would receive a co-writing credit on Bowie’s penultimate album The Next Day with I’ll Take You There and Boss Of Me. His 25th long-player arrived after a long period of silence from Bowie who had disappeared from public view for almost a decade. Love Is Lost, one of the album’s most arresting tracks, found Bowie looking for inspiration from his late Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson. “He had pictures of the house (Haddon Hall) where he lived and rehearsed during the early 1970s.
In one photograph, Mick’s guitar was set up with a 100-watt Marshal amp and eight-by-ten cabinet. Someone had come across a new version of the Tone Bender pedal that Ronson used and we brought that in. It was so loud I had to hide behind a chair! At the time I was listening to a lot of Peter Green and we came up with this part based on all of that. Someone had one idea and that would lead to another. I loved that song and the guitar parts David came up with on the demo, he told me just to make it my own. He called me up and said: ‘Just bring your favourite guitar.’ It was a special track; very powerful.”
Leonard moved to New York in late 1993 reinventing himself with the solo project Spooky Ghost.”There are so many amazing players and musicians of a high pedigree, Spooky Ghost was my way of figuring out my own identity in a much stronger way and asking ‘How do I express myself…what am I good at?”
It became a distillation of my style when playing live shows and releasing some records. At that time it was more unusual for people to make records on an independent basis, it was more of a niche thing but it served me well. David came to a solo show and saw me play and that was one of his auditions for me if you like. It turned out to be a really important thing in my career.” Leonard’s guitar work on the live version of Loving The Alien is also featured on the box set, he explains his treatment of both Bowie and Suzanne Vega’s work involves playing a custom made PRS electro-acoustic Hollow Body guitar.
“When I moved to New York, with the Spooky Ghost thing, it was like a one-man-band, that’s a light hearted way of putting it. I’m interested in creating soundscapes and atmospheres to enhance the work. Every artist is different, my relationship changes because the needs are different. With David, he was more firmly rooted in rock n’ roll. Suzanne’s work has more to do with urban New York with a Greenwich Village kind of vibe. We have some fun in this show with tracks like Blood Makes Noise (1992 single) and Rats (from her current album Flying With Angels, also produced by Gerry) which is a nod to The Ramones and the punk aesthetic with a lot more delicate and thoughtful lyrics.
With something like Tom’s Diner I’ll play an ambient thing, I’ve brought that to a lot of her songs and it works well, people seem to like it and it showcases Suzanne, she’s a delicate singer. It’s not about the sound of a full band with bass and drums, it’s a botanical garden of different styles and textures”. Completing the trio that will perform in Edinburgh is cello player Stephanie Winters, “We share and expand the arrangements”, adds Gerry, “the cello brings an emotional quality and something different from the bass, I have that covered”. Almost a decade on since Bowie’s death in January 2016, the Dublin guitarist admits he still thinks of his former boss often. “I miss David and I think of him a lot, he is still an inspiration to me.
I have a little photo of him on my (guitar) pedal board. I still think of his immortal words to me early on ‘Don’t f**k it up! What I take from David is that you shouldn’t get stuck on a mistake, the overall performance is what’s important. Sometimes you play a great overall performance, other times we play live and things happen.
Sometimes it all goes to plan, other times nothing does”. Let’s hope it’s the former when Gerry return to Edinburgh with Suzanne Vega later this month.
David Bowie I Can’t Give Everything Away 2002-2016 is out now
Gerry will appear with Suzanne Vega at the Usher Hall on 23 October
