An Interview With Andy Dalby Of Kingdom Come, Arthur Brown & Camel

Feature Photo courtesy of Andy Dalby

The late-60s and early-70s prog-meets-psych-rock scene featured many heroes of all shapes and sizes. Most know Arthur Brown, whose hair-brained, yet utterly brilliant music was perhaps only matched by Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

But alongside Brown, specifically in his now-classic outfit Kingdom Come, was Andy Dalby, a guitarist who bought into Brown’s eclecticism wholesale. The result was beloved, highly influential, yet still somewhat cult records, Galactic Zoo Dossier (1971), Kingdom Come (1972), Journey (1973), and Jam (recorded in 1970, released in 1995).

As for which Dalby likes most, he tells ClassicRockHistory.com: “Everyone cites Journey as groundbreaking and the best. I like it a lot; it was fairly guitar-based, and I was responsible for much of the music. I also claim it was my idea to get a drum machine after we’d had trouble getting a replacement for Slim [Martin Steer].”

“For me, though,” he says. Galactic Zoo is the best, musically it’s complex, and lyrically it has a theme running through most of it. It was very keyboard-based, so my role was to have fun on top of things. It’s got “Sunrise” as well, everybody loves that. It was the show we did excerpts from at Glastonbury in ‘71.

Elsewhere, Dalby has been a member of Camel, played on many of Brown’s solo efforts, and has a cache of solo records, too. As for what’s on tape, he says: “I love writing and recording music. Every day’s a bonus; a lot of my peers—and most of Kingdom Come—aren’t around anymore.”

What inspired you to pick up the guitar? Can you recall your first guitar?

First of all, I’d like to say that these are just my memories, fickle things that they are. From when I was very young, my Taid (Welsh for Grandfather) lived with us. His wife, my Nain, had died before I was born. He had a fabulous HMV gramophone, all walnut and mahogany. It played 78s. His record collection was mostly classical, but my dad’s was big band swing; Glenn Miller, Bert Ambrose, Tommy Dorsey, Sid Phillips, etc.

He also had several Quintet of the Hot Club (Django Reinhardt) records and ‘How High the Moon’ by Les Paul and Mary Ford! I loved listening to Django, but Les Paul was insane. I could not believe the sound that record made, and the B side, “What is This Thing Called Love,” was out of this world.

I listened to “How High the Moon” over and over, and even learned to air-guitar the solo with a cardboard cutout my Mum made for me. I asked my dad what made the noises on the record, and he said it was an electric guitar and lots of trickery. I immediately wanted one, but what I got was a “rock ‘n’ roll” guitar, a plastic ukulele!

I started picking out tunes that I heard on the radio. I got my first “real” guitar when I was 11, but it was a very cheap acoustic with an action so high it was virtually unplayable. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time. Somehow, I eventually graduated to a Rossetti Lucky Squire (left-handed), and a Selmer Little Giant amp (four terrifying watts).

What was the scene around you like as you were coming up? How did it impact you as a player?

I grew up in rural Lincolnshire, and we had a dance on a Saturday night in the village hall. There was one noticeable local group called Dale Young and the Seminoles, guitar, bass, drums, and singer. They were pretty good and did all the current hits, etc.

Every week was a different band, the only ones I remember were Frankenstein and the Monsters (exactly what you’d imagine, coffins and horror) and The Rats. The Rats were from Hull so a big deal, I believe some or all of them became the Spiders from Mar’.

We started my first group, The Outer Limits (we loved that show), while at school. Our set (we did one gig at the church hall) started with “Wipeout,” but that’s all I can remember. We rehearsed all the time, lots of Stones, Beatles, Shadows, all the usual stuff. I was very proud that I could play the solo to “It’s All Over Now.”

Later, when I went to Derby Art College, we started my next group, Charge, which included Paul Brown and Martin (Slim) Steer, both of whom had been in Kingdom Come for a while. We made one single, which we had pressed ourselves, “Whiplash.” Fifty copies were sold around the college.

When did you find your sound, and what did that revelation look and sound like?

In the beginning, there was Chuck Berry, but like most guitarists around then, it was Keith Richards, Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, and, of course, the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck. Later, Hendrix arrived, but I was also getting into blues in a big way.

Albert King, Otis Rush, Lonnie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin and acoustic stuff, Lighnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker. Sonny Boy Williamson was always a favorite, and when Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds came out, I was hooked on Eric Clapton. The big revelation was when the Beano album came out; we’d not heard anything like it, and we all wanted to sound like that.

How did you meet Arthur Brown, leading to your joining Kingdom Come?

Charge had come to London to make it big, it’s what you did then! We found a manager, and he decided we needed to sack the bass player to become famous. So like idiots we did. We got a few gigs around London, but nothing was happening. We were sharing a house in Wandsworth, but Slim (drummer) was staying in a flat in Ladbroke Grove with his girlfriend.

The flat upstairs from them had some fairly famous musos living there. He heard from them that Arthur’s guitarist had left and put me forward. I went for an audition in Covent Garden, where they were rehearsing, and somehow got the gig.

What was your rig like at that point? Was it hard to afford gear as a young musician?

It was very hard for us to afford gear. We were starving art students. I was using a homemade guitar in Charge, but once I got the gig with Arthur, they took me to Sound City on Shaftesbury Avenue, and I got a secondhand ‘59 Les Paul Junior, which was strung upside down because I’m a left-handed player.

I had a Carlsboro valve 65-watt PA amp for my guitar with a 4×12 cabinet I’d made myself while at college. At the start of Kingdom Come, we had a PA with two massive horn speakers, each one had four 15-inch drivers working as pairs opposite each other, and top-end tweeter drivers sitting on top.

Everything went through the PA, which meant the stage levels were fairly reasonable. We did some warm-up gigs and then toured Italy with that setup. It was very hard/impossible for the roadies to get it into some of the venues.

Arthur was a bit off the rails there, but came up with some genius music. What was it like working with him?

Arthur was very concerned that it was a group, not him, with a backing band. Most of Galactic Zoo Dossier was written by the time I joined but after that it was mostly collaborative. People came up with ideas, and they were worked on together. We always had a section of the set where we jammed, and later on, a lot of the material came through that.

We would also hire a studio somewhere on days off and record everything we did for ideas. Sometimes we’d rotate instruments to see what would happen; usually, it was a mess, but occasionally, it was genius. Or so we thought.

Did Arthur have a lot of input into your guitar sound and licks, or was he pretty bands off?

He pretty much left me to do what I liked. Goodge (keyboardist) had most influence on me as regards my musical development; he was properly trained, and I was making it up as I went along. Like most bands we spent months rehearsing the first album and then had to do the next two while gigging.

What sort of modifications did you make to your amp and guitar to create those sounds? Did you use many foot pedals?

After the big PA period, we got a deal with Marshall, so everything was Marshall, including the PA. Consequently, stage levels went up, and we all went deaf! I had a 50- or 100-watt head and two cabs, Phil had the same, and Goodge used a Leslie mic’d up.

The only pedal I used consistently was a Schaller volume pedal. I liked doing the violin-type stuff. When we played the Rainbow, I think I had a Leslie as well. I loved the swirly sound. This was pre-chorus pedals, I think. Then we lost the deal with Marshall, so it was basically back on your heads!

One of our roadies found a beat-up [Vox] AC30 being used as an organ stool; we bought it and got it fixed up by Pete Cornish, and I used it forevermore. I stupidly sold it in the ‘80s.

Were you at all put off by Arthur’s antics or persona? Or were you able to buy in?

All of our shows included theatrics, and we all took part (art students). In the Galactic Zoo tours, I was a clown, but I also played the part of the telephone. Even the roadies took part inside the Brain and Business Man’s Head. I often wonder where the props ended up.

You later joined a reformed Camel in 1982. What led to that, and what was your rig like?

Kingdom Come crossed paths with Camel, and the management and promoter situations overlapped. I’d previously done a short European tour with Camel as soundman, roadie, and guitar tech. That was fun. Sometime after, KC finished and Phill had done his stint with the Kiki Dee Band we got together with Bias Boshell, John McBurnie and some others and formed Vapour Trails.

We became Kiki Dee’s backing band for an album and tour in ‘76/77. It’s all on YouTube. Record deals and line-ups came and went, but we ended up in LA with a deal with Warner Bros and an album produced by Larry Carlton. Our manager was Max Hole, who also managed Camel.

When Andy Latimer decided to do the 10th anniversary Camel tour, he wanted a backup guitar onstage with him for rhythm parts and harmonies, etc. We did the UK and Europe, and it was a great band. I was using my trusty AC30 and a HiWatt 50 combo.

Later, you got into session work. What was that like, and was it as fulfilling as working with Arthur?

I enjoyed doing sessions; they mostly came through word of mouth, and some were more enjoyable than others. You have to take every bit of equipment you can think of because if you forget, say the Green Ringer ring modulator, that will be the only thing they want. Other times, people love everything you play. It was nice turning up not knowing what was in store.

Once I was making an album with Brian Chatton, and before we started one morning, his manager rushed in and told us to stop what we were doing because we had to do a B-side for “Bucks Fizz.” However, most of the tracks I worked on seemed to disappear without a trace.

You reunited with Arthur in 2005. What was that like, and do you think you’d do it again?

It was great; Phill and Goodge were there. Paul Brown couldn’t make it, but his son, Ollie, filled in the VCS3 parts on his iPad, and my son, Laurence, played drums (very well). The gig was a celebration of all of Arthur’s career, so Kingdom Come only did about five numbers, a mixture from the three albums.

It did remind me, however, about the perils of gigging. We had to drop one song in the set because by the time we came on, it was overrunning, but Phil didn’t get the message, so he started a different song. We had to clear all the gear out quickly for the legendary Astoria disco that was about to start.

The van was loaded, and they couldn’t find the keys; they were under all the gear, so they had to unload/load again. Happy days.

Catch us up on where you’re at now, what your rig is like, and what’s next for you.

After the Camel tour, I got involved with a small studio in Croydon. I was engineering there for most of the ‘80s while also doing sessions, etc. I then veered into video production and ended up as an Avid Editor for the next 25 years or so, still taking breaks for sessions but also writing music for the corporate videos.

As well as playing on the Kiki Dee album, other things I did included an album with Brian Chatton, three albums and one tour with Jack Green, I engineered and played on an album for Stan Campbell, and I’ve recently played on a few albums with Spirits Burning.

I’ve released two albums myself, one of instrumentals, It’s About Time, and one of songs, One for the Road. I’m currently finishing another instrumental one, More of the Same. I’ve tried pretty much every DAW since they began and never really got on with any of the big names.

I’ve been using Mixcraft Pro on a PC since it started, and I find it excellent and intuitive. I use a Scarlett 2i2 interface, a random power amp, and some old Tannoy monitors. I toyed with several virtual guitar rigs and (all that nonsense) and even the all-singing, all-dancing digital amps.

I now use a simple Blackstar Debut 50 with a small pedal board, an overdrive (Klon clone) that I built from a kit, an echo/reverb pedal, and a modulation pedal. I have a looper for fun. I play a PRS SE Custom 24 most of the time. I’ve used Ernie Ball 9-46 strings since we lost our free strings deal with Rotosound way back when.

I’ve got a Hofner Beatle bass with flat wound strings (fab) and a Harley Benton Fretless. I haven’t had my LP Junior since the mid-80s, but I still have my much-customized Tele. These days, I get the sound that I want and put a mic in front of the amp, old school! I use a Behringer B906 dynamic for the amp, and a Marantz MPM1000 for acoustics and vox.

I amuse myself by making things, two electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, a ukulele (from kits), and I’m just finishing a lap steel. Oh, and a model Spitfire. I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it.