Rhino's Revenge

When did you first start working on material which ultimately featured on ‘Rhino’s Revenge’?
RHINO:"The 3^rd of January, 1996. I wrote a song which was obviously unsuitable for the band, and,ding, I thought, why don’t you record it for yourself anyway, and make a 4 track CD for anyone who’d be interested. I asked Mike Paxman to produce it as a favour – I don’t think he knew what he was getting himself into! It could have taken six weeks, but it’s taken four-and-a-half-years! The problems have been finding the time, writing the songs, the availability of Big Ocean studios, (incidentally the best in the world) and Mr. Paxman, getting the right players, playing guitars in tune, checking my biorhythms (yeah right), staying sober and learning how to record with different players again. I was so used to playing with Quo, it was like going back 15 years, I must admit to being a little nervous at first, but it soon came back We’d done about 5 tracks, and I just couldn’t stop writing. One day Kathy my wife said," Why don’t you carry on and do an album, you know you love it" Poor girl!

This is not your first solo venture though, is it?

RHINO:"No. I had a deal with Phonogram in the ‘80s, although nothing ever got released. That was called Rhino Express. That was a slightly different concept and, I have to say, it was slightly ahead of its time. It was like that record that Run DMC did with Aerosmith – ‘Walk This Way’. It was pretty ballsy. There was a lot of rap going on, but a lot of serious rock and a horn section. It was a real hybrid, but it worked really well. Kathy, was working at Phonogram at the time, and I’d done this rap – called ‘The Rhino Rap’, funnily enough – and the head of A&R walked in one day when she was playing it in the office He said ‘What’s that?’ And she said ‘That’s my boyfriend.’ He said ‘Oh, give me a copy…’ He called me up and said ‘Let’s take it on from here, and see how it goes. They gave me the money to get a band together, which I did, we did loads of recording and, in the end, he said ‘Bollocks.’ He didn’t like it. Actually, it wasn’t that he didn’t like it, it was more that he had liked that one original song and thought I hadn’t come up with anything else as good. And he was right. He wondered whether that first song might just have been a one-off, in which case he wasn’t really that keen. I’m glad he did, ‘cos it’s sooooo frustrating when your record company isn’t behind what you’re doing. I did some gigs with it, though, and had a great time. We did a month in Bermuda, playing in a funky little club out there, which was great. But we came back and…the keyboard player was in Queen, the sax player was in Duran Duran, the guitar player was in Kim Wilde’s band and the drummer – who was Matthew incidentally – was playing in the Judie Tzuke band with me, and I was just about to join Quo .…the whole thing just disintegrated, really."

Since then, I assume that any solo projects would have been pretty much on the backburner – although I would imagine you never really stopped thinking about doing your own stuff, when the time was right…

RHINO: "Oh, I just used to write songs when I could. Since I’ve joined Quo, I’ve been lucky enough to have a few songs on the records – although I don’t think they were the right songs, looking back; I think it might possibly have been people being nice to me – and every time I’d write, I’d get these looming spectres of Francis or Rick before me, making me ask myself ‘Is this song Quo?’ In the end, as I said before, I just cracked on. I mean, a song’s a song, innit… I don’t think about who it’s for now. If it becomes a Quo song, then so be it.. If it don’t, it’s a Rhinotoon. That’s effectively starting to happen now. I’m starting to write with Rick a lot more, and I think we’re getting quite a good angle on what we should be doing as far as Rick’s style is concerned. "Driving to glory" and Obstruction day" I really like. I’m also hoping to do something with Francis quite soon, as it goes. Anyway, I just started writing songs. Some of them took me 20 minutes to write, and some of them took me three or four days to write – or 20 hours, total – which isn’t actually a very long time. David Byrne from Talking Heads once said ‘The idea is, you might spend three weeks working on a lyric, but what you’ve got to make it sound like is that you wrote it on the back of a napkin in 20 minutes.’ That’s the mark of how a song becomes a pop song; it sounds really spontaneous. Well mine are – which doesn’t mean to say they’re fantastic, but all of them are very to the point, I think. I really mean it. I really mean every last word…’

You’re signed to Eagle Records – do you feel that this is a good place for you to be as a solo artist?

RHINO:"Fantastic. I’m really knocked out to be with a record company like that. I mean, I was going to release the record myself, and then a certain bloke with a Greek-sounding name (Czechoslovakian, actually) said ‘No. You shouldn’t do that. You should give it to Eagle, and see what they think.’ And then this certain bloke with a Greek-sounding name (your FTMO organiser, if you must know) gave it to Knocker Knowles, the Managing Director of Eagle Records, and he said ‘Yeah – we’ll have that.’ And it’s perfect in that I’ve got a little bit of clout with it – I’m getting a good shot with the album – and it doesn’t interfere with Quo."

The album cover shot is a very striking visual – how did you come up with that image?

RHINO:"We had a guy called Monty Strikes doing the photography. We did a studio session all day up in London, and Paxo (Mike Paxman) and myself had sussed out during the day that Monty was really…quite mad. He was talking all day about this idea he’d had, which involved using smoke. He said he had this location up in Finsbury Park – and was I man enough to try it? Being as I can’t refuse a challenge, I said ‘Yeah – absolutely I’m up for this. He explained that he’d have a smoke flare behind me and that the location was a tunnel on a disused railway line. Which was all fine, except that it was absolutely pissing with rain, and I was actually standing OUTSIDE the tunnel! It was about a mile and a half from the road, so there’s Monty, Paxman and myself with my guitar, the camera and all these flares in a box, walking along this old disused railway line. All dressed in black. There was a couple of people walked passed us and, I have to say, I was surprised people walked down there at night – they were with their dogs and stuff – but they must have shat themselves. It really did look like three axe murderers walking down there, all dressed in black and you couldn’t see our faces. Anyway, we set up the shot and Monty said ‘Don’t worry about the flares.’ He had two distress flares and two smoke flares, which Paxo lit. I stood in the middle of the tunnel with my guitar and Monty said ‘You’ve got 40 seconds to do your stuff.’ Paxo lit the flares and Monty took 39 shots in the 40 seconds – and I was posing like there was no tomorrow! In the pouring rain, thinking ‘What a twat! This had better be good.’ When we finished, all of a sudden there was a round of applause from these kids who had been watching the whole thing from the next bridge up the track, which really cracked us up. We were just packing up the stuff when we heard this ttt-ttt-ttt-ttt (makes the sound of a helicopter) – and there’s a bloody police helicopter overhead, with the old spotlight and everything going on. So we ran like bugger, and I found out afterwards that if you set off distress flares anywhere it’s a big, big deal. First of all, you do set off the emergency services and, secondly, it’s, er, not very legal. So I was quite pleased that we got away with it. Not only that, it was a stupid thing to do – but I love the picture. And what you see is what was seen through the lens; there’s been no twiddling with colours or effects on a computer."

Are you planning any live performances to promote the album?

RHINO:"I am doing a one-off album launch party type thing at the 100 Club in London on September 5 but, beyond that, I think it depends on the reaction, really, and if anybody wants me to do other gigs. I’d like to, yeah, but I’m just going to play it by ear. At the moment, I’ve got enough stuff to do with Quo to keep me going for ages."

That’s an important comment, isn’t it? – because people will surely wish to know what now has priority in your career; Rhino’s Revenge or Status Quo?

RHINO:"Quo. Nothing else. Sorry to the people that would like me to leave, but it’s Quo."

How do you feel about the album overall, from the material on it to the artwork and the way it will be presented to the record-buying public?

RHINO:"Oh, fantastic. I’ve had a couple of magic moments in the last few weeks. The first was looking at rhinosrevenge.com, my own website, just seeing the site and seeing the guestlist filling up with messages saying ‘Good luck’, ‘At last’, ‘Well done’ and all that. That was brilliant. Secondly, actually getting hold of a copy of the finished, ready-for-release album. Eagle Records sent me copies of the album and holding the finished CD in my hand, with the cover and all the rest of it…it was a bit like Spinal Tap, you know; ‘Smell The Glove’ is here. Ahhh, it was a brilliant. It was absolutely brilliant I’m 47 and just to do my first own record is such a buzz. Not only that – I’m really proud of it. If someone doesn’t like it, well, then…tough! If you like it, then I’m more than happy. Here’s to the next one."

What future plans do you have in your solo scheme of things?

RHINO:"Hopefully, I’ll get to do another album. Well, I will anyway, even if it means I’m just putting it out through the Web. So many people are doing that now, and that’s one of the advantages of the Internet, I think, and the Independent Music Distribution Network; if you really do want to do it enough, you can. You just put it out, suck it and see. But I’ve definitely got a taste for doing this now because it’s good for you. Just because I’m in Status Quo, it doesn’t mean to say that I can’t write a song. I immerse myself in the band totally, but there are still other facets of my musical abilities that remain unfulfilled, that sounds a bit Radio 4 doesn’t it?"

Finally, if people who haven’t heard your album are expecting a Quo record, a Quo-sounding record or a take on a Quo record, what would you say to them – and what are they actually going to hear?

RHINO:"I’d say it’s different and the same really. It’s straight-ahead rock – all of it, basically. I don’t think that I’m pretentious and I like things simple. I like things played with a lot of ‘hey-ho – let’s go’ And I think I’ve got that on my record. That’s one connection between what I have done and what Quo do. Also, there are a couple of songs that, obviously, will have a resemblance to the band, but hey, I’ve been doing it for 15 years and it’s in my blood. Having said that, I just knew that most of the songs I’ve written for this, Quo would not want to do. But ‘Rhino’s Revenge’…it rocks. Definitely. So if you like rock music, but don’t like my album, well, there’s other albums out there."

Great. That just about wraps things up, does it not…?

RHINO:"The only other thing I want to say is to everyone who played on the record, contributed to it or helped me out. Thank you so much for your support, I’ll always wear it! (HO HO) Especially Francis, Rick, Andrew, and Matthew And of course the Quo Army, wherever you are… Isn’t it weird; I’ve got all of Quo on my album."

Interview by Mike Hrano for FTMO magazine - September 2000