John Goodsall on Brand X, Fire Merchants, Giraffe, Kevin Gilbert, Marscape and more

[Innerviews]

Hi Everyone,

My new interview with guitarist and composer John Goodsall of Brand X is now out on Innerviews. I've wanted to speak to John about his incredibly deep and diverse career for a long time, and am thrilled we got to do it. We cover the Brand X reunion (now in full flight and on tour on the US West Coast now); his session work for the likes of Toni Basil, Billy Idol, Peter Tosh, and countless others; his other great jazz-rock group Fire Merchants (a story rarely told), his days in Atomic Rooster, Marscape, Peter and the Wolf, and much more.

And... details of an unreleased Giraffe project he was part of.

You can find the piece here: http://www.innerviews.org/inner/john-goodsall

If you missed the Percy Jones interview, it is here: http://www.innerviews.org/inner/percy-jones

[calyx]

Great stuff, thanks ! At one point I did a series of interviews with many past members of Brand X, and John G was the one I never managed to get an interview out of ((along with Collins of course, and Robinson), despite a brief conversation at NEARfest '03. Great to know more from the man himself !

Just a minor typo - at one point he mentions producer "David Herschel". Of course it's "Hentschel", famous for his work with Genesis among others !

EDIT: Thanks Robert ! ;-)

[gpeccary]

Excellent interview, as always. Im still slack jawed they never got paid for their work!

[Dave (in MA)]

Nice interview.

I think Goodsall's stated reason for Bruford not sticking with the 'X was not quite right. I recall that he was getting UK going, not going out on tour with King Crimson.

[rcarlberg]

Why does Pete Bonas usually spell his name Pete Bonus? Or are they different people?

[Dave (in MA)]

Maybe he wanted to be in a band with Keith Richard and John Evan.

[Innerviews]

Pete Bonas seemed to changed his name to Pete Bonus for album usage after a few years. I have no idea why.

As for David Herschel... Fixed. Odd as it was spelled correctly in the original piece. Sometimes one hits "okay" too liberally in spell check...

[interbellum]

Great read! Nice to read some more about a possible third Giraffe-album.

As an extra I would have liked his view on his participation in Cymbalic Encounters, the band from Mark Murdock, his early work with Eddie Howell (I believe also pre-Brand and the recordings with Sarah Pillow.

[Finch Platte]

I saw them (Brand X ) last night in Sacramento, killer show! (My review towards the end of this thread: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thread...#post-17525659 )

I was just reading your 'innerview' with Goodsall, thanks to a member of the Hoffman board. Nicely done- you got a hell of a lot of info from John!

Funny, if you put Brand X in parentheses without a space, you get this (Brand

[strawberrybrick]

And Atomic Rooster!

[Paulrus]

Nice of JG to wear an Innerviews t-shirt at last night's Yoshi's show.

[Polypet]

Thanks, Anil! Excellent and insightful, as always

[FrippWire]

Thank you for sharing! Goodsall is one of those guys who isn't written about much. Thanks for fixing that!

[syncopatico]

Curious if there are any live recordings of Brand X in circulation from their short English two-month tour in 1980?
With the release of the recent Bruford boxset we know that the Venue, London show (albeit as an audience tape) exists for at least Brand X's opening act that April-May 1980.