Quiet John's hidden depths

Most people think of him as the quiet one. While the other members of the group break into an ur::e- hearsc' ballet of movement, he stands firm like an Ox, as he’s been nicknamed. It’s always been that way for John Entwistle, bass guitarist with The Who.

“It’s part of the act now,” admitted Entwistle at his West London home. “I don’t think I would want it any other way because it would detract from my playing.

“Ever since we started with the present line-up in 1963 I have always stood still while the rest of the band moved about.”

Off stage he doesn’t hog the limelight, either.

“Again it started in the early years. I couldn’t be bothered to talk to people because I didn’t have anything to say and I left the talking to the others.”

He’s more talkative now (“I’ve got something to say”). But he’s still the

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anchor man for the aggressive Who.

The group, which introduced the stage violence (breaking instruments) that was copied by many others, needed Entwistle’s calm presence and audiences have come to expect it.

“My lack of movement is part of the act now,” said Entwistle. “I move from the wrists downwards. People don’t expect any more. If we were all on the go we would look like a bunch of lunatics with our strings twisted.”

But true to the saying “silent waters run deep,” there is more to Entwistle than meets the eye.

First solo

We’ve had the release of Entwistle’s first solo album Smash Your Head Against The Wall. On it Entwistle plays all the brass (there’s plenty of it) and has written and produced all the material.

The album has been on his mind for two years, but he didn’t get down to it in earnest until last year.

“I’ve always written songs for the Who but I could never accumulate enough songs for an album. I wasn’t that much into writing and I didn’t make the time to write anything.”

When he started he wrote about two songs a year. He has always been a distinctive writer and a collection of his songs (Boris The Spider, Whisky Man and Silas Stingy are among them) were released earlier this year.

On the double album Tommy, which Pete Townshend talks most of the credit for and which really established the Who as an international act, Entwistle wrote Fiddle About and Cousin Kevin.

Now he writes on average about three songs every two weeks working on a piano at his home.

Harder

“At one time I composed my songs on the bass,” said Entwistle. “It’s much harder that way but I got out of practice. Since I have started using the piano again I’m more prolific.

“My father taught me the basics of valve instruments. I carried on learning to play after I left school and was working in a taxation office. I can now play any sort of brass instrument except a slide trombone, but I got round that by playing a valve trombone.”

Entwistle taught himself to master the bass guitar in his teens when he wanted to join a pop group.

He recalled: “I tried to play lead guitar but I couldn’t. It sounds rather awful but my finger tips were too big for the fretboard. I thought I would be better on bass which has only four strings."

Entwistle has plenty of musical ideas buzzing inside his head (“I want to get away from electric guitars and use more brass and blocks of the same instruments”).

But it does not interfere with what he is doing with the Who.

Bass guitarist John Entwistle with his two deerhounds in the garden of his West London home.