Pick up the Phone, America!

PICK UP THE PHONE, AMERICA!

Over a 25-year time span, as recounted on his website, www.andycolquhoun.com, Andy Colquhoun had been in numerous bands in addition to hanging out with Mick Farren and the Deviants. From this body of work, he pieced together his first solo album in 2001, Pick up the Phone, America!. The album came out on a Japanese label, Captain Trip Records.

As Andy Colquhoun said in the original promotional material for the CD, “I’ve put as much guitar on it as possible” – and did he ever. The title song, “Pick up the Phone, America” opens the album and features Andy – in the guise of a “scumbag telemarketer”, as the opening lyrics on the album put it – sparring with a young lady that he is trying to interest in his spiel. Another light-hearted track called “Creepy Beach” closes the CD, done in a surf-rock style. I found out later that this is part of a whole series of “creepy” songs that culminated in “Creepy Christmas”.

Over the years, the Pink Fairies had put most of their great early tracks on vinyl, but several rockcrits noticed one that had not yet made it: “Runnin’ Outta Road”. Andy Colquhoun includes the Flying Colours recording of this song on his solo CD, Pick up the Phone, America! – Andy is joined on the track by Pink Fairies core members Duncan (Sandy) Sanderson and Russell Hunter – and it is as raw and rowdy as any rock song you will ever hear.

As Andy put it, all of the real drumming on Pick up the Phone, America! (except for “Runnin’ Outta Road”) was handled by Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor, the long-time drummer for the hard rock band Motörhead.

Andy Colquhoun had also contributed a song – appropriately called “Lennon Song” – for a John Lennon tribute album several years earlier, and this song is also included. Many critics consider it the best song on the album, but it has a lot of company.

There are also some fine instrumental tracks on the CD, the Doors’ last hit song “Riders on the Storm” and the jazz standard “Harlem Nocturne” among them.

To my mind though, Andy Colquhoun is in a class apart from other rock guitarists; his guitar work, particularly on Pick up the Phone, America!, is absolutely thrilling to me. The only guitarist I can think of who comes close to embodying the joy and exuberance that Andy exudes throughout this album is Ted Nugent, back in his early days with Amboy Dukes.

I am not the only one who feels this way about Andy Colquhoun; as Ken Shimamoto expressed in an online review of his solo CD, Pick up the Phone, America! (I sure wish I knew enough about music to write like this): “Nobody on Earth plays guitar like Andy Colquhoun. Well, maybe Wayne Kramer [of Detroit’s MC5 and another running mate of Mick Farren’s for several decades now] and Tony Fate (ex-Bellrays, current Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) are in the same league, but Andy’s brand of over-the-top rock skronk and acid-blues is totally unique. As guitarists go, he’s got a deep trick bag: a huge sound, saturated with fuzz and Echoplex; a monstrous whammy bar attack that skews his snaky, vibrato-laden blues lines and monolithic octaves; ringing harmonics; a deft touch accompanied by a fine melodic sensibility . . . almost a bent-head Jeff Beck (always a name to conjure with in the gtr circles I run in).”

(August 2011)

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