‘A BLOODLINK WITH
ROCK’N’ROLL!’
| It won't happen too often that a couple of Dutch guys are asked to travel the world with an American guitar hero, pioneer and living legend - being this man's band on tour and in the studio. The name of this legendary guitarist is Link Wray, 'the father of the power chord', who according to most people was the first one to record a deliberately distorted guitar. Back then, record producers and recording engineers agreed that if a guitar sound was distorted, the guitarist should turn down his volume. Link was the first to say 'fuck that, it has to be loud, mean and distorted', and he punched holes in the tweeter of his amp to create a sound that is now a standard guitar effect. At the end of this particular song Link also switched on the tremolo, introducing this relatively new sound to lots of people as well, but more importantly, thanks to mr. Link Wray fuzz and distortion were here to stay! |
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LINK WRAY, father of the fuzz-tone. 7" on Epic, Link with a cool Danelectro: |
This song that introduced the Link Wray sound to the world was "Rumble", recorded in 1957 by Link Wray and his Raymen. The song was banned from numerous radio stations 'because of the unmistakeable sexual content' - an instrumental song, mind you! It was also associated with gang violence, but sold a cool couple of million copies nevertheless and it made Link Wray the godfather of everything loud and noisy - from The Who to The Sex Pistols and from Ramones to Motörhead to Tool (and it don't stop there). After the success of Rumble he scored another handful of hits like Rawhide, Slinky, The Ace Of Spades... In the seventies, Link was rediscovered by the punks; mid-seventies he also recorded two albums with former Tuff Darts singer Robert Gordon, including the song 'Fire' that Springsteen wrote especially for this duo -- and of course their hit version of 'Red Hot' ("My gal is red hot, your gal ain't doodle a squat!"). Undoubtedly, Link Wray is the celebrated hero of garage heads worldwide. Lux Interior & Poison Ivy of The Cramps are Link Wray fans, The Fuzztones are, so is Billy Childish of course, but among the Link fans we also find even bigger names like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Lemmy, Sid Vicious, Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend of The Who ("I wouldn't have picked up the guitar if it wasn't for Link Wray"), Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour… and film directors like Quentin Tarantino who used Link Wrays menacing instrumentals to good effect, like in Pulp Fiction. |
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His music being used for films like Pulp Fiction, Desperado and Independence Day, there was a whole new audience ready for Link Wray and his music. He wanted to go on tour and give the world his earthshaking sound at least one more time (being 68 years old!), and when looking for a band he heard about the Dutch garage band the Ace-Tones, of which band some members already had toured Europe with Rudi Protrudi of the Fuzztones (USA) as the 3rd line-up of Link Protrudi and the Jaymen. This hobby-sideband of mr Protrudi plays mainly Link Wray and Link wray influenced material (along with cool sleazy strip tunes and oriental surfsongs), and quite successfully too, so therefore it's not so strange that after one-and-a-half rehearsal Link Wray takes these Ace-Tones/ex-Jaymen, Eric Geevers (bass) and Rob Louwers (drums) on tour - his band being not even half his age! Link Wray and his Ace-Men is how the band is referred to... Together they form a tight band, 'the best band Link has played with in years and years' as fans and reviewers agree. Link is happy with this line up as well, and Eric and Rob are flown to England to record a new CD (‘Shadowman’, Ace Records UK, 1997) that is also hailed worldwide as Links best album in years; the first tour is followed by more touring, the release of a video (‘The Rumble Man’) and a live-CD (‘Walking Down A Street Called Love’, both Visionary UK, 1998), there are a couple of BBC appearances, and touring brings Link Wray and his Ace-Men as far as Australia – doing some TV-performances down under, too. Everywhere they go Link Wray tells rock journalists that this line-up dis the best since ‘the original Raymen’ that consisted of his two now deceased brothers plus Shorty Horton. ‘Pure rock’n’roll hoodoo’, also when for some tour dates in Finland ans England Rick Finck has to replace Eric (and quits his job to do so!). |
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The X-Ray Men, first line-up: Rick, Eric, Rob |
Although Link has toured the USA backed by local bands, on his last CD (‘Barbed Wire’, Ace Records UK, september 2000), once more Link Wray is accompanied by his Dutch band members Rob and Eric (mistakenly called ‘a Danish band’ on the inner sleeve!). Quite impressive, even for a couple of down-to-earth Dutch guys. Later on, Link teamed up with a steady line-up of American musicians for his shows in the US and Canada until his death, November 5th, 2005. However, his European band will always be proud of having played with Link Wray.... And that's why they started playing the hi-octane, 90% instrumental instrumental Link Wray songs for themselves: as a tribute to the man who taught them! |
| Rick handed over the bass to Sjoerd de Geus for a while, but now Rick is back in the saddle and it's a matter of no holds barred, steaming rock'n'roll with the guitar growling and screaming, with pure energy radiating from stage... They make it crystal clear why this music was considered 'dangerous' when Link Wray invented it! THE X-RAY MEN don't need conservatoire skills nor well-directed 'stage acts' either, they don't have twenty spare guitars lined up, nor is there stupid small talk: the music is raw, loud, pure, tough - and the fanatical enthousiasm they play it with makes it all work.
A new CD will be recorded in due time, but playing live is what this band is about.
GO TO OUR U.S. MIRRORSITE
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"Demonstrational Recordings": 5 tracks plus 1 'additional track', fold-out sleeve, a good review in the Music Maker 'zine (read it here!) in spite of the uncompromisingly raw 3-track recording...
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"They don’t play like the real thing – they were part of it!"
THE X-RAY MEN:
ERIC GEEVERS – guitar
SJOERD DE GEUS – bass
ROB LOUWERS – drums
INFORMATION & BOOKINGS: spod@xs4all.nl
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