In Cahoots – Vienna, Szene – 27 November 1987
In the Eighties, In Cahoots European were, for a while, extensive affairs which took in such distant lands as, in this case, Austria. This is from a cassette I found in Pip’s archives back in the day and which he kindly let me borrow and transfer. It was, I discovered, fairly well preserved, and the recording is evidently a soundboard, which is a plus for this comparatively less documented period where Steve Franklin had just joined and Hugh Hopper was still in the band, making this one of the last times his “Wanglo-Saxon” was performed by In Cahoots. Along with Steve’s unreleased “Small Creatures”, there is also a version of Elton’s “Small Strides” (for some reason translated as “Petit Pantalon” on Equip’Out’s second album in 1991), so named as a respectful homage to John Coltrane’s standard “Giant Steps”.
Phil Miller – guitar, guitar synth
Elton Dean – saxello, alto sax
Steve Franklin – keyboards
Hugh Hopper – bass
Pip Pyle – drums
Aymeric – I think you will find that Elton’s piece Small Strides has nothing to do with Cockney rhyming slang but was written as a respectful homage to the late great John Coltrane’s masterpiece Giant Steps, recorded in 1959 and released on his 1960 album Giant Steps. Everybody around Elton at the time, especially the people actually living with him in Walford Road: Keith Tippet, Marc Charig and Nick Evans knew this. Giant steps was a big thing and was still a big influence. I’m not surprised Pip got this wrong. He was not a real ‘Jazzer’ which was was the reason Elton never asked Pip to join any of his bands. ‘Strides’ was common slang for trousers around that time and I guess that’s why Pip misinterpreted it on the Equipe Out CD
Knowing Pip Pyle’s sense of humour, I am quite sure he knew exactly what he was doing when he “misinterpreted” the title!