HALL & OATESthey’re stiff and it’s like pulling teeth to get them to
play. But then I’ve also had on singers I hardly know
anything about, like Allen Stone, who turn out to be my
absolute favourites.”
Around the start of the new millennium, Daryl and
John’s music began to be noticed again. Arcade Fire
and The Killers proclaimed themselves fans while Kanye
West sampled Grounds For Separation. “It was when
boybands started up that we thought we could come
back,” notes John. “We thought, ‘Hey, people are
making pop music again!’”
Although the touring is back on in earnest, it’s been
13 years since their last album together, Home For
Christmas. Their opinions differ slightly as to whether
album 19 is on the cards. “I think we’ve said everything
we’ve wanted to say,” admits John. “Our passions lie in
our individual projects now. We’ve accepted we should
go out and represent this great body of work we’ve
made already. We’re proud of what we’ve done, and
our shows are ongoing. I think that’s OK.”
As for Daryl? “We don’t need to make a 19th record.
But we could make the occasional one-off song and
release that. We’ll maybe do as much of that as we
can.” Does Daryl ever fi nd himself writing a song and
thinking it’d work even better with John on? “No. I can
think of a few of our songs that I should have saved
for myself!”
Outside of touring, the pair rarely see each other.
But they do keep in touch – partly through their own little
book club. “We trade around books a lot,” says Daryl.
“We both read police procedural novels and history.
Books are what we usually give each other for Christmas- what else are we going to give? We’ve kinda got most
stuff we want...” John went one further, publishing his
autobiography Change Of Seasons in 2017 and plans
to write a book about his love of Nashville after moving
there a decade ago. “I admired John’s book and I’m a
bookworm,” says Daryl. “But I won’t do my own book.
I’d rather be personal in my songs.”
The touring will go on indefi nitely – and it’ll stick to the
hits. “I have suggested the idea a few times of doing a
Daryl & John deep cuts tour of our favourite songs that
weren’t hits,” says Daryl. “I always get shot down and
told, ‘No, they want to hear the big songs.’ We’re out
there to give people what they want. Daryl Hall & John
Oates? We’re there for a reason.”
●Daryl Hall And John Oates tour from
24 April 24 to 1 May. See hallandoates.com
for tickets.I don’t know how I’d ever write
another one like it.”
It’s that baffl ement at how to
recreate You Make My Dreams that
points to how varied Hall & Oates’
hits are. “All our hits are distinctly
different,” reasons John. “You don’t
hear Sara Smile 2 or Maneater 2.
None of them sound anything like
each other, yet we always sound
like ourselves.
“We obviously had a lot of
pressure from everyone to keep the
ball rolling, but we didn’t know how,
other than to give each song on an
album the same amount of attention.
The songs that rose to the top and
became hits weren’t because of
what we did to them.”
The hits continued to roll in
until, in 1985, Daryl Hall & John
Oates were the headline act of
the US leg of Live Aid, at their
hometown venue John F Kennedy
Stadium in Philadelphia. Two months
earlier, they’d been joined by
David Ruffi n and Eddie Kendricks of
childhood heroes The Temptations to
reopen classic soul venue the Apollo
Theater in New York. “We had to
take a step back after that,” says
John. “Once you’ve done that
and you’ve had platinum album
after platinum album, the only
thing that can happen is to start
going downhill.”DON’T CHANGE
Having made at least one album
a year since 1972, from 1986
the release and touring schedule
slowed right down. By the grunge
era of the early 90s, Daryl Hall
& John Oates were roughly as
fashionable as smallpox. “That
time was anti-melodic and anti-
chordal and we didn’t fi t into it,”
shrugs John. “Neither of us wanted
to try to conform our sound into
what was going on. It was time for
me to dip out of the music scene
anyway. I got divorced, moved to
Colorado, got remarried, had a
kid, bought a house, went hiking
up mountains and skiing... all those
things I’d never had time for.” Daryl,
meanwhile, got into architecture
and restoring old houses. He also
became the Jools Holland of the US,
hosting his own music TV show Live
From Daryl’s House, which began
online before graduating to MTV.
“When artists like Smokey Robinson
or The Blind Boys Of Alabama are
on, I become a total fanboy,” he
says. “I never know what’s going to
happen, and I love that spontaneity.
I might be really excited to have
a favourite artist on, only to fi ndSHE’S
GONE
WILD
A couple of years ago, a
video of Daryl Hall & John
Oates’ fi rst hit She’s Gone
surfaced on YouTube.
It went viral, as an example
of a duo known for being
smooth seemingly losing
their minds. Shot for cheesy
pop show Summertime On
The Pier, it features John in
a vest and bow tie, Daryl
in a bathrobe, a kazoo and
their co-writer Sara Allen –
immortalised in Sara Smile
- walking past chased by a
lurex devil.
John takes up the story:
“The show was hosted by
Ed Hurst, a real dweeb who
used to be an insurance
salesman. We said we just
couldn’t lip-sync on it, but
got told that we had to do
the show.
“My sister Diane was
in fi lm school, so we
wrote a script. We took
all the furniture from
our apartment – the big
armchair that Daryl sits in - and drove to this square,
straight TV station. They
expected us to lip-sync
and as Diane was a young
college girl, they didn’t want
to listen to her at all.”
Reluctantly, the duo got
their way. “And once they
saw that wacky video, that
TV station got real pissed.
They went to our record
company and said, ‘These
guys will never perform in
Philadelphia again! We’ll
blackball them on the radio!
Their career is over!’ I think
it might be the best video we
ever did.”
It also kickstarted Diane’s
career – she’s a producer for
ABC TV, won an Emmy and
overseen TV coverage of
three Olympic Games.
Hall & Oates kick off their UK tour in Birmingham on
24 April and end it at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on 1 MayHOW A 40-YEAR-OLD
HALL & OATES VIDEO
WENT VIRAL...
© Stuart Berg