TEMPEST
In 1973, Ollie left Patto to join Jon Hiseman's Tempest. After less than a year Ollie quit and did numerous sessions, including one track for Kevin Ayers. This led to a permanent position in Kevin's band The Soporifics. In 1975,
Jon Hiseman drums vocals
Mark Clarke bass vocals
Ollie Halsall guitar synth vocals
Allan Holdsworth guitar
AUDIOLiving in Fear
1973
Funeral Empire
Paperback Writer Star Gazer
Dance To My Tune
Living In Fear
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Turn Around
One of the finest 'heavy-rock' albums ever made. Utterly magnificent guitar set in some excellent songs
Jon Hiseman drums
Ollie Halsall guitar synth vocals
Mark Clarke bass vocals
Under the Blossom
The Anthology 2005
Tempest compilation including all of Living in Fear plus the following peviously unreleased tracks:
from aborted second album:
Jon Hiseman drums
Ollie Halsall guitar vocals
Mark Clarke bass vocals
Grey And Black
Roundabout Golders Green [Drum solo]
Strangeher
Live at the BBC
[Golders Green Hippodrome] 2 June 1973
Jon Hiseman drums
Alan Holdsworth guitar
Paul Williams vocal
Mark Clarke bass vocals
Ollie Halsall guitar
This is essentially a guitar duel between Halsall & Holdsworth
Live in Frankfurt
21/22 July 1973
Summer Rock Festival at the Radstadion in Frankfurt, Germany.
Interesting early trio performance still including a couple of the incredibly complex old Tempest numbers
Reading Festival UK
August 73
Poor quality, but thanks to Satoru Yonemoto for finding this
Live at the Marquee
2 October 73
Roundabout The Marquee [drum solo]
A magnificent complete show. Halsall is on fire on this one. The balance is not perfect, but Ollie's guitar is something else. Qne of the best examples of how to blow every other guitar player of the stage in 2009 - let alone 1973. Quite simply, this performance rewrites the accepted development of rock guitar virtuosity. Thanks to Satoru Yonemoto for contributing this
Live at The Teatre Nuova
Torino, Italy 1974
Living In Fear
Funeral Empire
Dream Train
Strangeher
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Live at the Beeb
Paris Theatre, London 26 Feb 1974
A splendidly drunken affair featuring Ollie on lunatic monophonic synthesiser!
Live at The Alcione Theatre
Genoa, Italy March 1974
Superb quality audience recording courtesy of Joerg Reinicke
Jon Hiseman drums
Ollie Halsall guitar synth vocals
Mark Clarke bass vocals
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TEMPEST Paperback Writer
Italian TV 1973
TEMPEST Paperback Writer
'Point Chard'
French TV 1973
TEMPEST Stargazer
'Point Chard'
French TV 1973
TEMPEST Interview
'Point Chard'
French TV 1973
Now, this is what you call a guitar solo
A compilation of Ollie Halsall's guitar solos from his composition Living in Fear. Recorded live in concert at Torino, Italy, 1974
Playing The Band
Playing the Band' - The Musical Life of Jon Hiseman (and lots more besides!) by Martyn Hanson. Published by Temple Music.
Over 450 pages with over 100 colour and B&W photos from J&B's private collection.
Unparalleled Lines
Excerpt from an interview with Matt Resnicoff by Steven Ward in Musician magazine's 1993 Whole Guitar Book
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH: "Oh, did you know that Ollie Halsall died?"
JOE SATRIANI: "Oh man. About a month ago, yeah."
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH: " Yep. He was living in Spain or something. At age 43."
JOE SATRIANI: "You played with him a long time ago."
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH: "Yeah, he was a fantastic guitar player. When I played with this Top 40 band, we'd play upstairs on the weekend and the big bands would play downstairs, and then the rest of the week we'd be downstairs, and usually the band would come up and check out the other band. And I remember these guys sayin', 'Hey, you sound like that guy Ollie Halsall,' and I'd never ever seen him before; I didn't know who he was until we played in Tempest.
He played totally legato, but I'd never heard him. But he was an influence on me because he was an extremely creative individual. When I first moved to London, he was the popular guy; everybody was saying, 'Hey, check out Ollie.' I don't know what happened---he was there, and he was gone. When I saw him he had an SG and the old Gibson Vibrola, the little spring steel tailpiece they had on SG's after the Sidewinder. They worked. I mean, those days, nothing would stay in tune, it was something everybody put up with. I remember in New York when I started playing with Tony [Williams], I used to go around to all the music stores looking for tremolo bars. Everybody would look at me like I was NUTS: "Whaddya want THAT thing for, man? Whaddya gonna do with THAT?" It's crazy how it turns around: now no guitar is made WITHOUT one, you know? [joe laughs] But I saw the whammy bar, which I don't use much anymore, as just something that happens in a space of time. It's like when those MXR phasers came out and everybody had one, and even on that Tony Williams record, you can [stamps foot] stomp on that and know right away what year it was made! [laughter]"
Thanks to George Rodrigues and Jorge Souto Bartolomé for finding this.
I saw Allan Holdsworth play quite a few times, and talked with him on three occasions. At the Backstage in Ballard 1995, I approached him when I saw him sitting alone at the bar- before showtime. We shared a pint and I asked him about guitarist Ollie Hallsall, whom he had played with in Tempest. Allan became a bit emotional, as my girlfriend approached him for an autograph (for me of course). As he signed it he said 'the bumblebee is dead.'. I didn’t know it at the time but this was a reference to Ollie- Who would sometimes appear on stage dressed as a bumblebee."
Freddy Krumins
Lyrics
LIVING IN FEAR
Well, Well, I thought I was headed for the Hebrides Islands
Look at me now, here I am two miles from the Panama canal*
Oh, baby you let me down
Oh, you let me down, yeah
Well, I thought I was healthy and free from temptation
I'm a long away from home and you were so
So full of confidence that I let you take over
Oh, how I let you take over
And I left it up to you, babe
But you left it up to me
I don't believe in no authority
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in a fool's paradise
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in fear, living in fear
Well, I left it up to you, baby
But you left it up to me
I can't believe in your authority
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in a fool's paradise, fool's paradise
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in fear, living in fear
And I thought I was looking for someone to lean on
Now I'm leaning on a lamp post at the corner of the street
But I'm goin' home
Yeah, I'm goin' home
Well, I thought I was headed for the Hebrides islands
Here I am two minutes from the Panama canal
Oh, baby, it's the last time, it's the last time
It's the last time I do, it's the last time I do
'Cause I left it up to you, baby
But you left it up to me
I don't believe in your
authority
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in a fool's paradise
I'm just living in a false sense of security
I'm just living in fear, living in fear, living in fear
Oh, baby, you let me down, yeah
Ollie Halsall 1973
Transcribed by George De Albuquerque
This is cllearly a reference to the monologue Jonah and the Whale by 1950s hip comedian Lord Buckley, (of whom Ollie was a big fan) which includes the clasic line, "Jonah, what in the world is you smoking in there? I thought I was off the Flibberty Islands. Here I is, two minutes from the Panama Canal! This jazz’s got to go!"
WAITING FOR A MIRACLE
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer them a miracle
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer them a miracle
She's half crazy
She lives her lazy life in her private, private memory
She's like the calm before the storm
Before the night, she's alright, she's alright
It's so late and how I hate to
See her this way, see her this way
All alone in the world with her Rolling Stone on the table
Waiting for somebody
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer her a miracle
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer her a miracle
He's so humble and he would crumble
If she ever raised her, raised her voice to him
He's like the calm before the storm
Before the night, he's alright, he's alright
It's so painful, he's crying softly
Oh, why should he be, why should he be
All alone in the world and his balls are in the pawn shop
Waiting for somebody?
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer him a miracle
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer him a miracle
It's a bad dream and the has been
Nothing to while the, while the time away
She doesn't know that she is driving him insane
It's a game, such a shame
Separated, so frustrated
Beyond the wildest streams
All alone in the world and nothing to live or lie for
Waiting for somebody
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer them a miracle
Waiting for somebody to walk in and offer them a miracle
Ollie Halsall 1973
Transcribed by George De Albuquerque
Further reading