|
Following last week’s release of the new deluxe edition of Derek Smalls' star-studded 2018 solo debut album Smalls Change (Meditations On Ageing), the bass force formerly of the fabled heavy metal band formerly known as Spinal Tap has taken the #1 heavy metal spot for new releases on two us radio charts.
Both NACC METAL and METAL CONTRABAND have announced that, although there were no other new heavy metal releases last week, the album, hailed by Variety as “the first long player devoted primarily to the physical indignities that come toward the end of the long game – dental, arthritic, follicular and erectile dysfunctions all included,” has taken the prime position in their album charts. Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) is available now via Bottomland Productions / Immortal Records.
Derek Smalls says – “One has always been my favorite number, but this seals it!”
Smalls Change (Meditations On Ageing) features two previously unheard tracks recorded live at Los Angeles, CA’s sold-out Palace Theatre in February 2019 accompanied by The Hungarian Studio Orchestra, including “She Puts the Bitch in Obituary” (featuring vocals from award-winning star of stage and screen, Jane Lynch) and the demonic “Hell Toupee,” the latter joined by an official live video streaming now on YouTube. An official music video for album track “MRI,” featuring guest guitar fireworks from Dweezil Zappa is also streaming on YouTube.
STREAM/PURCHASE SMALLS CHANGE (MEDITATIONS UPON AGEING) DELUXE EDITION
WATCH “MRI (FEAT. DWEEZIL ZAPPA)” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
WATCH “HELL TOUPEE” OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO
The deluxe edition of Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) follows hot on the heels of Smalls’ first track in five years, “Must Crush Barbie,” available everywhere now.
LISTEN TO “MUST CRUSH BARBIE”
Having spent a legendary lifetime in the rock ‘n’ roll limelight, Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) saw Derek Smalls making his full-length debut solo venture with a poignant and oft-times furious contemplation on the passing of time and all things loud.
Produced by longtime collaborator CJ Vanston, the album traverses a gamut of musical styles, all with the edgy rawness and Rock God sensibility that was always shared by Smalls and his fellow former band members, Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins. Smalls is joined by an all-star lineup of his closest friends and biggest fans, including Donald Fagen, Dweezil Zappa, Rick Wakeman, Richard Thompson, Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani, Waddy Wachtel, Michael League, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Paul Shaffer, Steve Vai, Larry Carlton, Judith Owen, Jane Lynch, and the late Taylor Hawkins, with accompaniment from The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
Smalls Change – which was made possible by a major grant from the British Fund for Ageing Rockers – was celebrated with a sold-out VIP event concert at Los Angeles, CA’s historic Palace Theatre featuring appearances from Vai, Lukather, Zappa, and Shaffer, live link-ups with Fagen and Lynch, and special surprise guests Tenacious D (Jack Black and Kyle Gass). A sold-out US tour, Lukewarm Water Live: An Adventure in Loud Music, followed, with unprecedented and unexpected visits at prestigious concert venues across the country.
ABOUT DEREK SMALLS:
The Road of Rock is a rocky road, and no one’s life exemplifies that more thoroughly than that of Derek Albion Smalls.
Derek was born 1 April “hundreds of years before the dawn of history,” having to endure growing up as an “April Fool’s Baby.” His father, Donald “Duff” Smalls, raised Derek after his mother, Dorothy, left home to join a traveling all-girls’ jazz band, The Hotten Totties.
While Derek had a quiet school career in his hometown of Nilford, on the River Null in the West Midlands, Duff carried on his work as a telephone handset sanitizer, working for the pioneering firm in the trade, Sani-Phone, until it was absorbed by the former British Telecom, primarily, according to reports at the time, for its “robust bill-collecting operation.”
At age 17, Derek enrolled in the London School of Design, primarily, as he later explained it, “because of the initials.” Like many art-school students of the period, he was more interested in music, and soon found himself a member of the all-white Jamaican band Skaface. “I never even tried to play the guitar, because it had too many strings and they were too small. Bass felt just right,” he told Ska News.
Walking one day in 1967 through the then-tatty Soho district of London, Derek spotted a Bass Player Wanted notice on one of the neighborhood’s lampposts. It turns out Ronnie Pudding had just left the band Spinal Tap for a solo career after their first single, “Gimme Some Money,” had failed to chart. Derek fit right in and made a notable contribution to the band’s jump on the Flower Power bandwagon, mouthing a silent “We love you” at the end of its performance of “(Listen To) The Flower People” on the short-lived TV music show, Bob’s Your Uncle.
Tap then went on to carve a reputation as one of England’s loudest bands. Its series of mishaps – breakups and reunions, drummers perishing in bizarre ways – was chronicled in a 1984 film. “A hatchet job,” Derek calls it dismissively. “There were plenty of nights when we found our way to the stage, but of course they didn’t show you that.”
In the late 1980s, as Tap’s fortunes waned, Derek joined a Christian heavy-metal band, Lambsblood. Their best-known song, “Whole Lotta Lord,” made a respectable showing on the Christian charts. To cement his relationship with the band members, all of whom were Americans, Smalls got a Christian “fish tattoo.” As luck would have it, Tap soon reunited for 1992’s Break Like the Wind album and toured across America. Concerned that he would have to cover up the tattoo, Derek hired an artist to fix it, and the piece now featured a devil eating the fish.
Following that tour, Tap broke up and reunited twice more, once in 2000 for an American tour that included a historic New York venue that Derek described onstage as “Carnegie Fuckin’ Hall,” and in 2009 for appearances at the Glastonbury Festival and Wembley Arena. In between, Derek cultivated a near-thriving career on camera, building upon his cameo role in the 1979 Spaghetti Eastern, Roma ‘79. He appeared in TV commercials for the Belgian snack food Floop, and served for a time as a judge (alongside the lead singer for the Europunk band Hot Garage) on the Dutch reality competition show RokStarz before the show was rebooted as Tomorrow’s HipHop Hero. Derek stepped forward as a composer during this time; his jingle for Floop, “I’m in the Floop Group”, was a regular earworm on European television until the publisher of “The In Crowd” threatened a plagiarism lawsuit.
Derek’s fortunes have fluctuated with his romantic entanglements. His long-time girlfriend Cindy Stang went through a good share of his back royalties to launch her ill-fated tech start-up, macrame.com. Of that project, Smalls now says ruefully, “It was ahead of its time. Or behind the curve. Or both.” He’s also had his share of personal struggles, having twice sought treatment for internet addiction.
In 2019, Smalls parlayed his celebrity in the Low Countries of Europe in a position as Brand Ambassador for BruegelCoin, a Dutch-based crypto coin. He made personal appearances outside branches of traditional banks and did TV and press interviews promoting the cryptocurrency. In 2022, BruegelCoin collapsed in a wave of lawsuits. Derek, who had been paid in the novel currency, was out of luck…
# # #
DEREK SMALLS
SMALLS CHANGE (MEDITATIONS UPON AGEING) DELUXE EDITION
(Bottomland Productions / Immortal Records)
TRACKLIST WITH NOTES BY DEREK SMALLS:
1. Openture (CJ Vanston) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
“The philosophy of this record, expressed in fewer words than I’ve taken to almost describe it.”
2. Rock ‘n’ Roll Transplant (Derek Smalls/CJ Vanston) – Derek with Steve Lukather (guitar) and drum legends Jim Keltner and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers).
“Whatever might be ailing you, rock ‘n’ roll is the cure. Ask Dr. Derek!”
3. Butt Call (Derek Smalls) – Derek with Phil X (guitar) and Taylor Hawkins (drums).
“In one lifetime, the telephone has gone from a miracle to a pain in the arse.”
4. Smalls Change (Derek Smalls) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra, Judith Owen (vocals) Danny Kortchmar (guitar), and Russ Kunkel (drums).
“Why Lukewarm Water is no longer bracketed by Fire and Ice. A nod to what’s past, and a wink to what’s next.”
5. Memo To Willie (Derek Smalls) – Derek with Donald Fagen (vocals), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Larry Carlton (guitars), and The Snarky Puppy Horns.
“An urgent missive to the Honourable Member: continued tumescence, if you please.”
6. It Don’t Get Old (Music: David St. Hubbins, Lyrics: Derek Smalls) – Derek with Waddy Wachtel (guitar).
“Life on the road, an endless series of pointless encounters. What could be better?”
7. Complete Faith (CJ Vanston) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
“A musical interruption.”
8. Faith No More (Derek Smalls) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra and Todd Sucherman (drums).
“As I get older, I look back more fondly on all the people I’ve known. Except for Ian.”
9. Gimme Some (More) Money (Derek Smalls) – Derek with Paul Shaffer (piano, organ), Waddy Wachtel (guitar), and David Crosby (vocals).
“Time and technology change everything, except the need for change.”
10. MRI (Derek Smalls, CJ Vanston) – Derek with Dweezil Zappa (guitars).
“Everybody’s going to have one, eventually. It’s just another ride. To hell, but still...”
11. Hell Toupee (Derek Smalls) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
“Think Satan doesn’t have dark thoughts about his appearance as he ages? Think again.”
12. Gummin the Gash (Derek Smalls, CJ Vanston) – Derek with Steve Vai (guitar), Gregg Bissonnette (drums), and Jane Lynch (vocals).
“Losing your teeth closes one door, and opens another. A celebration of the meeting of two toothless cavities.”
13. She Puts the Bitch in Obituary (Derek Smalls) – Derek with Richard Thompson (guitar) and Jane Lynch (vocals).
“A hymn to womanhood in all her splendour.”
14. When Men Did Rock (Derek Smalls) – Derek with Michael League (bass), Joe Satriani (guitar), Rick Wakeman (keyboards), and The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
BONUS TRACKS:
15. Hell Toupee (Live at the Palace Theatre) – Derek with The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
16. She Puts the Bitch in Obituary (Live at the Palace Theatre) – Derek with Jane Lynch and The Hungarian Studio Orchestra.
www.immortalmusic.com
| 
