You’re In Bad Company With Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke & Boz

NAME: Boz

PREVIOUS OFFENSE: King Crimson

WEAPON: Bass Guitar

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: With a name like that, what else do you need?

NAME: Paul Rodgers

PREVIOUS OFFENSE: Free

WEAPON: Vocal & Mike Stand

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: Listed as favorite singer of such as Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Al Kooper ad infinitum.

NAME: Mick Ralphs

PREVIOUS OFFENSE: Mott The Hoople

WEAPON: Guitar

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: Beloved of American audiences for his "Rock & Roll Queen" and "Ready To Love" capers.

NAME: Simon Kirke

PREVIOUS OFFENSE: Free

WEAPON: Drums

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: Second runner-up in the Neal Smith look-alike contest, European division.

LONDON — Imagine this, if you can; a group called the Buddys who played Buddy Holly songs — and who would have called themselves the Hollies except that someone beat them to it.

The Buddys" rivals were the Maniacs. They played the same clubs, got involved with the same local hards, and doubtless knew the same girls.

The Buddys and the Maniacs split a long time ago — as did the Wildflowers. Now the Wildflowers came from Middlesbrough, where they were quite famous. They wore suits and long hair and played soul music — Sam and Dave songs, you know the stuff.

The Wildflowers" singer used to make deck-chairs and work in a paint factory But didn't want to stay in out-of-theway Middlesbrough so he came south to the Big City and played Chicago-style blues with a group called Brown Sugar.

The singer was more into it than the others and he wanted to be professional. So he joined up with the old Maniacs" drummer who had a mate whose father was a famous actor. They joined together with an ex-John Mayall bass player and became Free — who for a time were a very important group.

That is, until they broke up.

Meantime, the guitarist from the Buddys had got pretty famous himself. His name was Mick Ralphs, and his group was Mott The Hoople.

In the late summer of last year Ralphs joined together with Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, the singer and drummer from Free. They needed a bassist to complete their group, and after two months of auditions they found Boz, a young fella who's been in lots of groups % the most famous of which was King Crimson.

Together they're Bad Company.

"We just thought it was apt," savs Mick Ralphs. Kirke agrees: "We're pretty bad company. We don't wash for weeks," he grins.

Bad Company have just finished rehearsing at London's Strand Lyceum Ballroom. When I went there they were bashing out a shambling 12-bar with Ralphs on drums and Kirke on piano, Boz sticking to bass —: his own instrument. Rodgers was patting a balloon around the empty ballroom.

All four look and act like archtypal British rock musicians. Rodgers is the same as he always was, mean, moody and in need of a shave. And a little bit older than when, he used to swing the mike-stand with Free.

Kirke has lost the fringe that used to hang within inches of his drumkit, and his hair is now swept back. He looks older too.

All are scruffy, 1968-style, with no concessions to glam-rock. They're what they are, take it or leave it — blunt one minute, friendly the next, a little worried about their first interview as a new band. All have broad regional accents — Northern, Midland or Lincolnshire. In a more light-hearted moment they say they're four country bumpkins.

Rodgers and Ralphs are the nucleus of the group: "We'd known each other for about three years. Paul's band, Peace, did a tour with Mott and we really got to know each other that way although we'd sort of known each other before that," explains Ralphs.

He and Rodgers started writing together last August, when both were in similar positions career-wise.

Ralphs had just left Mott: "I decided to leave during the Mott album, though I'd felt the need to do something else before then. I was torn between my loyalty to the band and what I wanted to do. I was in a successful band but it wasn't satisfying," he says.

Writing with Rodgers was an outlet.

Says Rodgers: "We both needed something like that. It was easy writing together. Natural. We had lots of things in common."

While Ralphs and Rodgers were getting some material down, Kirke was globe-trotting in South America, "just to have a look around after the last American tour (Free's)."

"When Simon returned, he just rolled up," says Rodgers. "There was no riff between us. We'd been together in all the Frees. Again it was natural."

Boz completed the line-up in October. He'd been recommended by Free's manager Johnny Glover. And McCartney wouldn't do the gig, says Kirke, dead-pan.

Their material was in such an advanced state tha.t it only took a week before the four started recording. The album was put down on Ronnie Lane's 16-track mobile, and was completed by Christmas.

One of the songs on the album is "Bad Company," which Rodgers wrote with Kirke — "I wrote the first line," he says. It was the title that gave the band their name: "It has no particular connotations," Kirke continues. "It doesn't pin us down to any one thing."

How does the music compare with Free?

"Very well," Rodgers replies. "It's a lot more satisfying. There are no traumas. It's looser, happier. What with the personnel changes and various people going ill on tour, Free got a bit much. But this is fresh. I believe a band should have four solid members contributing equal amounts — ;and that's what we've got here."

He grins apd adds: . "Four healthy, strapping lads all set and ready."

. "There are certain similarities with Free," puts in Ralphs. "Since Paul and Simon were half of Free, it's inevitable."

Over to Kirke: "In this band there are three good harmonies. Harmonies were never exploited to any extent with Free. So now the music is a lot more expansive. There are also two piano players. Paul and I play piano."

Ralphs says he left Mott because he felt restricted. There wasn't enough room for all the material he was writing.

I asked what he thought of his replacement in Mott, Ariel Bender.

"I think he fits in all right. I've known him a long time."

The formation of Bad Company and gradual demise of Free was kept very much a secret. Of Free, Kirke says things came to a grinding halt — but understandably neither he nor Rodgers is too keen to talk about the old band.

Bad Company is what is important to them now. But they did make it clear that the second Free reunion, after Highway, wasn't down to material motivations. "If we were doing it for the bread we'd still be in Free now," Rodgers explains. "The main thing was the friendship. Everybody had done their own separate things — Koss had done his album with Simon and I'd had Peace and Andy had Toby, so we thought we'd give it another try. It didn't work, though, and the same differences came out again."

The main reason for keeping quiet about Bad Company was in case anything went wrong. The Free reunions were publicised and look what happened to them. . . There were also some hassles with Island and Chris Blackwell, and Rodgers and Kirke have now split from Blackwell, albeit on good terms.

The group's new manager is Peter Grant, the man behind Led Zeppelin and Maggie Bell. Rodgers says they're with Grant because he's the best: "Chris didn't really have the time to deal with us. He has all his other things. And he's glad we're in good hands."

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Did Boz or Mick Ralphs feel any obligation to play like Free — since they were now playing with half of the old. Free?

"Not at . all," says Ralphs politely, while Boz puts it a little more%bluntly: "I've never heard them."

You get the picture; neither musician feels any obligation to play like Koss or Fraser. Says Ralphs: "This is a new band with a new identity to establish. Free's in the past."

Why have the group recorded an, album so early in their career, without doing any major tours?

Rodgers replies: "It helped us to listen to ourselves and to get it tight for on-stage work. A lot of the songs didn't work, and that gave us an opportunity to sort out which ones that did."

"Legal difficulties made it difficult for us to tour — contract hassles and all that," adds Ralphs.

The group have, however, done several warm-up gigs on the Continent — four days at the Zoom club in Frank-, furt, and a couple of gigs in Switzerland.

The bulk of the act is made up of original material, and the group emphasize there's no shortage of that, although they do a version of Freddy King's "Palace Of The King." They feel the latter song has their own identity, says Kirke. And it's possible they may do some old rock "n" roll tunes, and Steve Miller's "The Joker."

During Free and the gap between Free and Bad Company, Rodgers has always been praised for his vocal ability. Even Rod Stewart thinks he'sthe best singer of his kind in the world. Did this have any affect on him?,

"I think it's very flattering in one sense, but it's not a thing I think about. I'm really into music and I have my own idols. There are a lot of people that I really like — Otis Redding and Bob Dylan. And I think Dylan's a great singer — he's so expressive. I like the guy with Steely Dan as Well, and Steve Miller's good."1"

Do Bad Company feel their music and image are right for the current climate? Says Rodgers: "We're not \really a sparkling type band. We're not into all that." And Ralphs continues: "It all seems a bit desperate now. You know, grab it and run. We're not a fad band. We're going to put all those types of bands out of action."

In 1968 Bad Company would have been called a supergroup but we all know what happened to supergroups don't we? But it doesn't take a fortune teller to see why Bad Company should be a very fine band, indeed. Here's to them, and long may they last.

(courtesy of the New Musical Express)