Eddie Holman Interview by Big Mick

Eddie Holman Interview by Big Mick

Eddie Holman Interview - Thanks go to Soul Essence Mag (see fanzine section for more details) for letting Soul Source use this great interview with the man who knocked Lowton dead!!

NORTHERN ESSENCE

"We don't compare our success with anyone else's success because no one else's success pays your bills"....

(EDDIE HOLMAN, Lowton, 270399)

27 March this year saw the highly talented and legendary EDDIE HOLMAN arrive in this country once again. Thanks to the dedication of STEVE FLETCHER, BERNIE O'BRIEN and KEV MURPHEY, we had the opportunity to set, hear and meet one of souls greatest icons.

The place was LOWTON CIVIC HALL, the time was dinnertime, everybody ate chips, I was left out. Undeterred, I carried on until the interview had finished. This is how it went ........... Immediately as the editorial team and I arrived at LOWTON we were, again, press-ganged into arranging the table and chairs for tonight's entertainment. The whole gaff was in the process of being re-decorated and the bar in the small modem room looked not unlike an MFI bedroom accessory. Once the management were satisfied with the arrangements we sat down and chilled out listening to Eddies session tape whilst the man himself was chauffeured from his 'digs' to begin rehearsals. BIG TONY (or so his wife JILL says) went to the chippy and on his return ate his no more than 3 feet away from me (his granny used to be in the GESTAPO, dead close her and TONY were). Soon, the moment came when EDDIE would stroll through the door and transform our very existence with his charismatic presence.

The band was the same as JERRY WILLIAMS was fortunate to have backed him. They were already practising, as EDDIE walked in the band were half way through 'hey them lonely girl. Not wasting any time, EDDIE was on the stage and after a couple of words to the band he broke into song. You had to be there, his magnificent falsetto voice hitting the first high notes of 'hey there lonely girl" sent an errie silence through the room. All who were lucky to witness this event were spellbound, the hairs on my neck and arms suddenly shot up and my goose bumps had goose bumps of their own. The air was electric, Eddie's voice had lost nothing over the years, rather, his voice was honed to perfection. The ultra soulful voice went through track after track drawing enthusiastic applause from the privileged few here including the band.

Eventually, I managed to steer EDDIE away from those who were left, but not until IAN LEVINE had filmed EDDIE for the documentary being made on northern soul. We found a room backstage, comfortable yet cold we began the interview. Soon the chill would disappear and nothing would matter but for the hypnotic persona of the man himself.

BIG MICK. Born in NORFOLK VIRGINIA, you moved over, with your family, to PRILIDELPRIA at the tender age of 3. A man of many talents, after leaving CHEYNEY STATE COLLEGE you attended the VICTORIA SCHOOL of ART and MUSIC in New York. You were in a number of musicals and in children’s TV for NBC. You certainly jumped into the world of entertainment with both feet, is this were you wanted to be at that time or were you still unsure in those early years in which direction you wanted to utilise your talents?

EDDIE HOLMAN I was sure at an early age that I wanted to be in the entertainment business. One of the greatest shows I had ever seen was at the APPOLO THEATRE in New York. When we moved to New York my mother and my aunt took me around the shows. Two of the acts we saw just blew me away, one was LITTLE RICHARD who I'd just worked with this past August at the FREE RIVER STADIUM in PITTSBERG and the other was THE FABULOUS FLAMINGOS. One of the original FLAMINGOS sings with the DELLS, JOHNNY (with the high voice). So here's a gentleman I worked with last January with the DELLS and he was the guy that inspired me with the high voice. I wasn't singing in the high voice then but just to hear him, I said, 'some where along the line I just gotta do it. (EDDIE starts laughing).

B.M. Not long after, success eluded you in NEW YORK with the LEOPARD label and then onto the ASCOT label were you worked with JOE RENE and the then JIVE 5 lead singer EUGENE PITT you possibly found the recording side of entertainment an uphill struggle around 1961/2. Looking back, could you say whether you found it hard to find the right music for you or were you still experimenting, not sure in which direction your artistic career lay?

E.H. Well at that point in my recording career you were in the hands of the producer so it was really up to the producer to come up with what they felt was good enough for you. You weren't doing the producing or the writing so you had to trust people like JOE RENE. The good part of the relationship with JOE RENE is that, my mother got me that record deal because it was a great 'outlet', it was a great opportunity. Even though I didn't have any hit records with JOE RENE, I did get what was called a 'turn table hit'. The first one I recorded for him was, ‘what you don’t know won't hurt you'. That got played like it was a hit record. What happened was, it introduced me to the record business, it got me to meet different people and kinda get a feel of what the record business is and how it works. So that was good and I would never forget JOE RENE for that.

B.M. In those early formative years, you got to work with many 'greats' amongst which was the tragic FRANKIE LYMON & THE CLEFTONES. What are your memories of what must have been a monumental time in your life and also, how long later was it that FRANKIE died?

LH. Well FRANKIE, if I'm not mistaken died in around 1965/66 so when I first met FRANKIE, I'd say he lived about another 10 years. He was a young man, I mean he was a young teenager. I have a son older than him, I have 3 sons, 2 are grown and 1 have one that's 16 going on 17. 1 know from raising grown men what phases you go through and 1 don't know if he had the opportunity to go through the normal phases that normal teenagers would go through. He was a world renown-recording artist from a very early age, he started from 12 or 13 years old. One of the most amazing things that happened in meeting him was, I won the amateur hour at the APPOLO THEATRE singing, 'why do fools fall in love while HERMAN SANTIAGO and FRANKIE LYMON and, forgive me, one of the other members -I can't remember his name right now was standing to the side of the stage. I won and they were all hugging me, FRANKIE LYMON gave his phone number and when he made his first trip to ENGLAND he called me before he left. I said, 'man, you're going to ENGLAND, wow' you know. I was excited for him and he was supportive, I mean, he really inspired me. At that time, you can't imagine all the pressures on him, I mean, he's a star with a number 1 record. He's wanted to do appearances all over the world so it must have been pretty strenuous and stressful for him so that's probably were all that tragedy came from I guess.

B.M. Do you feel at your young age this could have been your downfall if things had worked out differently?

E.H. Yeah, you know, nobody is better than anybody. The things you hear that have happened to recording artists, writers and record producers could happen to anybody. Nobody is above those things happening to them, so you just have to be thankful it hasn't happened to you or if you been through it and got out of it. B.M. When you eventually returned to PHILI Y, was it because you thought CAMEO-PARKWAY might have been more lenient towards your abilities to project your talents to an audience nearer to home? E.R. No, I would continue to go to CAMEO-PARKWAY for the auditioning because 1 felt it was a good label, a hot label and they had some hot acts and, you know, naturally you want to be a part of it. At that point I was writing material for myself. It just came to mind that the best thing to do was not to depend on some one else to give you a good song if you're capable of playing the piano and had some ideas, work on them and do it yourself. My mother bought me a piano and I started working out some songs for myself on that piano with a song writing partner at that time, we just kept compiling material, you know, song after song. If you had a repertoire of about 25 songs and you've worked hard on those songs, at least 5 or 6 of them have got to sound, you know, different and possibly good. So that's what we did.

B.M. CAMEO-PARKWAY were somewhat reluctant to take on a young EDDIE HOLMAN at the time whilst riding high in the billboard charts with CHUBBY CHECKER, DEE DEE SHARP and BOBBY RYDELL........

to be continued ok that's a short part one, as said before - times a wasting and I've gotta pack, part 2 and 3 will be up shortly if you can't wait goto fanzines and check out soul essence mag bit and order a copy tell them soul source sent ya.

site note author changed to current member 2008