THE COCHRAN
CONNNECTION
COULD DARREL BE EDDIE’S BIGGEST FAN?If Darrel Higham is the Rockabilly Don, Eddie Cochran is his specialist subject. Alongside the
authoritative biography he co-wrote with Julie Mundy, Don’t Forget About Me: The Eddie
Cochran Story and his highly rated The Cochran Connection albums, Vols 1 & 2, as well as his
frequent tribute shows, last year he hooked up with Jerry Chatabox, organiser of successful
weekenders like the Rockabilly Rave to stage the inaugural running of The Cochran
Connection. It was such a success it’s back again this year.
“We’re only in the second year but we’ve already
established our template, which is to get in a band we
know will appeal to the dancers, while I handle the Eddie
Cochran tribute so there is no pressure on the other bands
to do his music. This year we open with Dylan Kirk & The
Killers. Dylan’s a very talented young artist who plays
piano and sings. Then I do my Cochran tribute, and we
finish with The Stargazers, a great Bill Haley-styled band
who always knock me out.” While Chippenham will always
be the rightful home of commemorations of Cochran’s life,
the Chatabox/Higham celebration takes place at the
Lakeside Country Club, Camberley, Surrey GU16 6PT on
Saturday 12 October. lakesidesurrey.co.ukimportant, but when it’s a three-piece it’s
even more vital all the cogs work together.”TYLER IS A veteran of the 80s neo-
rockabilly scene, having played with Dave
Phillips & The Hot Rod Gang and then
with Restless. Although he had a previous
stint with The Enforcers in 2003, there’s
something really satisfying about his
return, given that it was the leading British
guitarists from that early 80s period,
Micky Gee, who worked with Shakin’
Stevens, Mark Harman (Dave Phillips &
The Hot Rod Gang), Ray Neale (Shotgun),
plus the American Brian Setzer (Stray
Cats) who first found fame in the UK, who
convinced Higham it would be possible
to make a career out of being a rockabilly
guitarist. Hearing the band’s proficient
delivery on the album of a couple of tasty
50s obscurities, Hank LeGault’s I Knew and
Billy Smith’s Tell Me Baby, you could argue
that on Bop Machine The Enforcers have
never sounded better.
But Higham is practically a don of
rockabilly. He talks not just with affection
but such authority on the subject. When
he speaks, you listen. It’s a crying shame
the BBC – of which he currently has a low
opinion for their agenda of seeming to
attribute all developments in rock and
roll to black blues to the exclusion ofwhite country – don’t use him to present a
Mark Lamarr-style rockabilly show, or
even a BBC4 Friday night documentary
which properly charts the development
of the revival from the British point of
view. It would be opinionated, he stresses,
but fair.
In the meantime, the man who says all
he’s ever wanted to do was “make a living
playing the music I love” doesn’t disguise
the challenges currently facing artists in
the niche market that is rockabilly. “The
thing that’s hurt us most is how people
buy their music now. Streaming and
downloading does us no good at all, it’s
all about physical sales, that and gig, gig,
gigging and keeping going. I will continue
doing that until I drop and be very happy
to do so. And on Bop Machine we’ve gone
back to basics and created something really
exciting, something that’s in your face and
over in about 25 minutes. The lines have
become blurred among some of the younger
bands now about what rockabilly is.
I was like that myself when I was younger,
wanting to push the borders back and bring
in broader and bigger audiences. I forgot
that what got me into the music in the first
place was its raw, aggressive power. It’s
very basic music, but after all these years
of playing it, it’s dawned on me that that is
what is most important.”and afterwards she wants an ice cream.
She’ll be sitting there shovelling the ice
cream into her mouth and then, all of a
sudden, she’ll stop. I’ll say, laughing, ‘Is that
the brain freeze, then?’ I told her I was going
to write a song about it.” No surprise it’s
apparently Violet’s favourite track on the
album. It’s funny and entertaining, and still
rocks like hell.
With a more shuffling rhythm, A Game
For Fools is a gentler track, something
Higham has always done very well, via self-
penned songs like I’m Leaving It All Up To
Yo u on the Katmen album, and his take on
Colin Evans’ beautiful This Time It’s Real
on The Katmen Cometh, and the feelgood
When You Smile on Hell’s Hotel. In fact, he
admits that, “Left to my own devices I’d find
it easier to write those sort of songs than
Bop Machine because I feel that all the great
rockabilly songs have already been written.
But Bop Machine is the sort of audience I
play to.”
HE SAYS HE put two days aside to write
songs for the album. “I wrote five new
songs especially for it, as well as The Brain
Freeze and Bop Machine which I’d written
a bit earlier and, to be honest, not a lot of
thought went into them. That’s because I
find the best songs tend to be written very
quickly. I feel the songs you remember
are the ones that came together quickest.
Certainly the songs of mine that I like fall
into that category. Maybe it’s because,
psychologically, if you spend a lot of time on
a song trying to get it right, when it comes
out and you listen to it, what you remember
is, “God, that one was hard work,” whereas
with this one, it’s that ‘took me five minutes,
and I love it.’”
A Dark Sky, one of the most powerful
of the new songs, owes a lot to the work
of the band’s new drummer, Rob Tyler. “I
sent the demo of the song to the lads to
learn it,” explains Higham. “It was just me
singing and strumming an acoustic guitar.
Rob said it had a Johnny Cash vibe to it.
But when we started doing it in the studio,
Rob immediately came up with this really
heavy drum beat. I thought, ‘Well that’s
the Johnny Cash influence gone out the
window.’ But just as Adam Miles, who has
been with me 16 years, is the perfect bass
player for me in the way he can play electric
bass and double bass and constantly mix
and match things up, so Rob is bringing
an element of excitement to the band that
surprises me. He brings light and shade to
a track. The rhythm section in any band is
Darrel Higham