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Album Retrospectives
JUST TESTING
1980
Originally released in January 1980, "Just Testing" was Wishbone Ash's tenth studio album and coincided with the band's tenth anniversary celebrations. The title came from a phrase that Laurie Wisefield had made up in earlier recording sessions, when he would say "Just testing" if he made a mistake which brought the session to a standstill.
Sadly, this album marked the end of the highly prolific "Mark II" phase of Wishbone Ash; it was the final studio release to feature the line-up of Martin Turner (bass/vocals), Steve Upton (drums), and guitarists Andy Powell and Laurie Wisefield, which had been in place since 1974.
Recording for "Just Testing" got underway in March 1979, with most of the recording sessions taking place at Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherhead, Surrey. The band elected to produce it themselves (as they had "Wishbone IV"), with principal song writer Martin Turner and John Sherry firmly in control.
The sessions eventually took the best part of six months - the longest period the band had ever spent recording an album. Despite fatigue and low morale within the Ash ranks, the sessions proved highly productive. Armed with some of their finest material to date, the band made a conscious attempt to capture some of their live energy in the studio, at the same time enhancing the traditional Wishbone Ash style with a varied array of studio effects. For example, heavily processed guitar sounds were prominent throughout the album.
The album opener and initial single release, "Living Proof", was jointly composed by Laurie Wisefield and Claire Hamill, a then 25 year old singer/songwriter with a string of solo albums behind her. John Sherry was managing her as well as Wishbone, and it was he who suggested this collaboration. As Laurie Wisefield remembers: "I had a place in Essex and had a little studio set up there. Claire came up and I played her an idea I'd had and she wrote the lyric for it - it's basically about looking for proof in a relationship." Martin Turner adds: "Living Proof" is definitely Laurie's best song, although I put a lot into it and kind of made it my song too, to some extent. It fits like a glove, and was a really nice song to sing. Claire Hamill also contributed backing vocals to this song and "Pay The Price" and "Master of Disguise".
The next track, "Haunting Me", is a Martin Turner composition inspired by a chance meeting with an old flame. Martin: "I wanted to know if I'd been in her head the way she'd been in mine for the past ten years, and indeed I had! "You've haunted me all these years", is what she said."
"Insomnia" is perhaps the most obtuse composition on the album. "I thought Andy Powell's guitar playing on it was brave and unique", admits Turner. "Sometimes you've got to put yourself on the line and be prepared to do something original, and I think Andy really got into that spirit and played guitar which broke new barriers. Lyrically it's obviously about not being able to sleep at night - something I've always suffered from."
"Helpless", composed by the mysterious P. Kendrick, was recorded at Ian Gillan's Kingsway Recorders in London. MCA were looking for a song to put out as a single that was "radio friendly" and "Helpless" fit the bill, recalls Andy Powell. "John Sherry found us the song at Rondor Music in London. He brought us "Helpless", and a song by an unknown writer called Bryan Adams who was a also writer for Rondor Music at the time. The Bryan Adams song was great, but for some reason we went with "Helpless". It was heavier, I believe."
In contrast to the experimental nature of much of Martin Turner's written contributions to "Just Testing", "Pay The Price" had an altogether more conventional rock feel. "Lyrically", says Turner, "Pay The Price" is about the price you have to pay for being with a female, but I don't think the lyric needs to be taken too literally!"
"New Rising Star", another Martin Turner song, has a moodier feel, and again features some heavily processed guitar work. The lyrics of the song were inspired by a woman he and his first wife Maurn had met in the in the mid seventies, shortly before Wishbone Ash's decision to move to the States. "She ran a pine shop in Barnes", recalls Martin, "and when we first met her she was very shy and lacking in confidence. When we went off to America in 1975, we offered to let her and her partner stay in our house while we were away. The guy she was living with turned out to be a drunken bully, and we heard all these stories about how he used to beat her up. We encouraged her to get rid of him, which she eventually did. Over a period of time I saw her emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon - she changed from someone who was difficult to gain access to, to a really confident person with real beauty."
"Master Of Disguise" marked Andy Powell's debut solo songwriting for Wishbone Ash. "Like most songs that I write", says Andy, "It was composed on an acoustic guitar and we decided to keep it like that for the recording. The song starts off on the F# chord and moves down through E and D to A. The lyric comes from the feeling of alienation that I first had when the band had settled in America in 1975, and from the shock of living in a new culture.", Martin Turner adds: "It's a really nice song and Claire Hamill's contribution was really different for Wishbone Ash. Vocally, I really enjoyed having a member of the opposite sex to sing with." The song is complemented by the presence of Ian Kew on organ.
The epic number "Lifeline" was the final song to be written for "Just Testing", and the only track on the album to be jointly credited to all four band members, as the music evolved out of studio jamming. With the backing track finished, the band were stuck for a lyric. "I didn't feel that I had anything lyrically suitable", remembers Martin, "but Laurie said "Just get your little book out and sing anything". I opened the book, and there was some stuff I'd written about my gran dying. She'd always said that when she died she would "touch" everyone she cared about. I was asleep one night and woke up a 2:00 am, sat bolt upright in bed, and I could see her at the end of my bed. I could feel a kind of rushing wind, even though the air in the room was still, and I had a sickly taste in mouth. I felt a very powerful energy coming from her and I just knew she was going. The following morning I rang my parents and, sure enough, she'd died during the night - it was a really powerful psychic experience. I'd written this stuff down and that's what I sang over the music. It was quite spooky how it fitted together."
A massive 62-date tour of Britain and Europe was undertaken throughout much of 1980 to promote the album. However, internal conflicts over the future of the band led to Martin Turner quitting in October 1980, thus ending the longest period with the same line-up in the history of Wishbone Ash.
In addition to the "Just Testing" album in its entirety, the 1998 CD reissue also features four bonus tracks from the same period. There is a version of the Chuck Berry classic, "Come On" and a group composition, "Fast Johnny", both of which were recorded at Surrey Sound at the same sessions as the album. They were released as a single in July 1979. Also added to the CD are two live recordings which were released as a special 10th Anniversary single in April 1980, namely the stage favorite "Blowin' Free" and "Helpless".
GARY CARTER
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