Q&A: Wally Waller reflects on Malcolm and Angus Young’s pre-AC/DC outfit, The Marcus Hook Roll Band
Ever heard of The Marcus Hook Roll Band? If not, it’s no real surprise: they only released a handful of singles and a lone studio album – 1973’s Tales of Old Grand-Daddy, produced by Alan “Wally” Waller – in their short lifespan. With that said, however, if you’re an AC/DC fan, you probably should be familiar with The Marcus Hook Roll Band, as the group’s lineup on the album featured Malcolm and Angus Young, who would, in short order (we’re talking before the end of ’73), start their own outfit. As for Tales of Old Grand-Daddy, it’s been pretty hard to come by for the past several decades, but your friends here at Rhino have finally remedied that problem.
We also hopped on the phone with the album’s producer to get his recollection about his experiences on the project, and Waller was nothing short of giddy to chat with us, having already enjoyed the opportunity to talk with several other journalists about his work with The Marcus Hill Roll Band. “I don’t think anybody from AC/DC can or actually wants to speak to anybody at the moment, because I think nobody really knows what’s happening with Malcolm’s health problems at the moment, so that’s why they’ve put me up for all this stuff,” he admitted. “But I’ve had the loveliest week speaking to you guys from all over the place, and…well, anyhow, here I am!”
Rhino: So how did you come to helm the sessions for The Marcus Hill Roll Band?
Wally Waller: Well, as you probably know, I was with The Pretty Things for awhile… Well, for quite a long while! [Laughs.] And when our EMI contract came to an end in 1971, Norman Smith, who… I was always very involved with our production, he was our producer, he knew I liked working in the studio, and he said, “Listen, would you like to come to EMI and work?” And I thought, “Why not? I’ll give it a shot.” So from ’71 through to about ’75, I was an in-house producer at EMI.
One day, somebody rang and made an appointment with me, asked to speak to me and said they wanted to play me a tape, and I thought, “Oh, dear, I’ve had a few of these...” [Laughs.] Because you knew that, when you’re working for EMI, people bring in all kinds of old crap, and you have to try and find a way to say “no” without hurting somebody, which is difficult sometimes. Anyway, this guy walked in like a million other guys who’d walked in, so I put the tape on, and – lo and behold – it was great. I loved it! So I said, “Who are these guys? What is this band?” And this guy said, “Well, this is basically George (Young) and Harry (Vanda) from the Easybeats, and these are just some demos they’ve made.” I said, “Well, I like ‘em. I want to book the studio straight away. Are they free to sign a contract?” I guess they must’ve signed something. [Laughs.] That wasn’t my remit to try and get contracts signed and stuff. But I told the people in the A&R department, “I want to make a record with these guys,” so they must’ve signed something.
So I booked the studio pretty much straight away, and we made a couple of singles in the UK, in Abbey Road, and…they didn’t kind of set the world alight. But they were well recorded, and they impressed somebody at Capitol in America, and they came back to EMI after and said, “Listen, we really like this band. Can you give us an album?” By this time, George and Harry, they’d gone back to Australia. Because they were signed to Albert Productions, the publishing and music company, they offered George and Harry to start a studio in Sydney and start producing stuff there, so they didn’t want to come back. So I said to EMI, “Well, if you want an album, I’ll have to go to Australia!” And I was standing there saying, “Oh, what a drag…” [Laughs.] So they sent me to Australia! Yeah, off I went…and I had a great time!
Rhino: Harry and George obviously had some experience by that point, but the younger Youngs had not. How were Malcolm and Angus in the studio?
WW: They were pretty good, but when I first got there… Well, first of all, the English singles we made in Abbey Road, those didn’t include any of the younger Youngs. They featured what I think George referred to as the Glasgow Mafia. [Laughs.] By which I mean his mates from Glasgow. So when I got to Australia, the lineup I got at the beginning was George on bass, Harry and Malcolm on guitar, and John Prior on drums. That was the basic combo.
After a couple of days, I said to George, “Jesus Christ, your kid brother Malcolm, he’s really something! I’m really impressed!” He said, “Well, there’s another one like him at home!” [Laughs.] “And he’s even younger! You won’t believe him!” So the next day when he turned up, he had Angus with him. And he was great. I mean, fantastic. They’re naturals, both Malcolm and Angus, completely. But so was George, really. I also knew his elder brother, Alex. I did some work years before in Hamburg and ran into Alex there, so I knew Alex before I knew George, Harry, and Angus! So when the two young guys, the two younger brothers, were around… I mean, that was a complete revelation, really. I wasn’t expecting it. They’re a very, very musical family, you have to say.
Rhino: From what I’ve read about the sessions, it sounds like your credits on the album should say, “Producer and Chief Alcohol Supplier.”
WW: [Laughs.] I think that’s slightly overplayed. I did manage to get a couple of bottle through Duty Free, but, you know, that’s not a month’s worth of booze! That’d probably have lasted one session! But that was my favorite tipple, Old Grand-Dad, and it was the same with George and Harris, so that’s what we sipped on most nights.
Rhino: It sounds like everyone was enjoying the bourbon except for Angus, who stuck to drinking milk.
WW: Yeah, I guess. I mean, I can’t remember. But they were very convivial. [Laughs.] All the sessions were…well, they were just great, very enjoyable. They never got incapable. They were great musicians and able to have a few drinks and still perform…so I felt I could drink a bit! I take my hat off to them. We used to go out together after. We’d go down to the hot spots in Sydney and get wrecked afterwards. I used to go to their house for barbeques and things on the weekends. We became mates, and I was sure that I’d be seeing them again and doing something with them in some capacity. But we didn’t. It didn’t happen. I never met them again, and I haven’t spoken to them, even! But…there you are.
Rhino: As you say, they were more than competent as musicians, but how were they as songwriters? Did you have to help shape the material considerably, or did it come in pretty much fully formed?
WW: Oh, you know, I had ideas, obviously. I think George and Harry, they’d been around a bit, they knew how to produce records, and they’d been making stuff since… Well, the Easybeats ended in about ’69, and they’d been making lots of demos and things, but…I guess they came looking for me! I think George liked The Pretty Things, and I guess he must’ve heard some of my work, because, I mean, they didn’t just ring up EMI, they rang up to speak to me! I don’t know who actually up – it wasn’t either George or Harry – but it was somebody who wanted to speak to me and wanted me to get involved. So, you know, I guess they thought, “Well, let’s try another pair of ears here!”
The songs were pretty shaped, but obviously as a producer you want to have some input, and they were very easy guys to work with. I’d make a suggestion, and unless it was a terrible no-no, they’d say, “Yeah, let’s give it a go!” So I had lots of input, and… George and Harry stayed in Sydney at the end of all the recording, and I mixed everything at Abbey Road, but on post-production, a few things needed sorting out. I took back too much material for a single album on vinyl, because you can’t get much more than about 20 minutes a side on vinyl before you start losing levels. That’s what we were told in those days, anyway. It might be slightly better now with computerized cutting and everything. But I had lot more than 40 minutes, so I had to decide what to put on the album and how to arrange it. So when I sent it to George and Harry, I didn’t know how it was gonna go, but they said, “That’s great, man! Fantastic!”
So they were very, very easy to work with, and I thought we were a good team. I thought we teamed quite well. The only thing was, when I finished everything at Abbey Road. Capitol in America then rang George and Harry in Sydney and said, “Listen, we want to get behind this album, we love it, so we want to get you to arrange a tour.” And George and Harry said, “No, no, no. We’re not. We’re here in Sydney, and this is where we’re staying. We’re not going to be touring America.” So then Capitol said, “Well, in that case, we’re gonna shelve it!” [Laughs.] EMI didn’t think it was any good in the first place, and then Capitol said, “We love it, we want an album,” so then EMI thinks, “Oh, it must be great!” ‘Cause they don’t know, do they? So then when Capitol then said to them, “Nah, we don’t want it now,” EMI thought, “It must be a load of rubbish!” So what happened in the end was that George and Harry were a part of Albert in Australia, and I think they signed a lease deal and released the album on license in Australia only.
Rhino: So how do you look back at the album? Do you see it as a lost classic or just an interesting piece of history?
WW: Well, I dunno. That’s for other people to say. I think it’s very good. When I say “good,” I’m talking technically. I was very surprised, because a lot of stuff that comes from that era hasn’t really survived that well in true fidelity. But when I went a few months ago… When Warner Brothers said they were thinking about re-releasing it, I went to Abbey Road, and we went through the archives and listened to the tapes, and I was very pleasantly surprised. You know, I think with one or two exceptions I wouldn’t want to make too many changes, mixing-wise, even now. One or two flat spots for me, but, look, you can’t help having that. And I’m my own worst critic, anyway! [Laughs.]
Generally, though, I think the songs are good, I think the performances are good, and I think the production is good. Whether it’s a classic… I mean, that’s for somebody else to say. But I think it’s got most of the stuff that you would expect to hear from a pre-AC/DC sort of kick-about. It’s quite substantial, and it deserves a bit of respect.
