It was just after the split of Afrikan Star, a British
reggae band in the 80s, that Aswille Harley, better known as Azy,
had his first taste of sound mixing.
“I went on a course and learned the basics,” he said,
“and I realised straight away that that was what I really
wanted to do.”
It had been a long musical journey reaching that point though and
it was to be quite some time yet before he was able to really develop
his new found passion.
“I was having a great time playing percussion with Afrikan
Star,” he said. “We were relatively unknown at the time
and weren’t really going anywhere, when we were invited to
support UB40 on their Signing Off Tour. There was something about
their music that made people get up and dance (and there still is!)
and they had seen us playing and thought that we would go well touring
together.”
After travelling all over Europe with UB40, Afrikan Star were offered
a deal with some people who used to be with CBS, but it didn’t
work out, the band split and Azy found himself without work. Although
he had completed his course in sound mixing, he found that the quickest
route back into the music scene was as a crew member, working for
an agency, doing shows at places like Wembley for groups such as
Level 42 and Madonna.
“And how did the big stars treat their workers?” I asked,
“were they nice to you or were they too busy to even notice
you?”
“Were they too busy?” he laughed. “We were too
busy!” he went on, describing how there were between 50 and
a 100 crew members at gigs of that size and that they had to be
there three days in advance of the show.
“Good fun though?” I asked, having been having the time
of my life on the audience side of things at more shows in places
like Wembley than I can remember.
“Oh yeh,” he said, without any hesitation.
“And backstage, after the performances, did the stars invite
you to their parties?”
“Some did,” he laughed, “and some didn’t.”
Working as a crew member took Azy all over England and Europe. Life
on the road though was taking its toll and he was missing his wife
Mary, who he had met and married in Birmingham.
“Mary was working as a nurse,” he said, “in the
same hospital as my mother and sister.”
Sitting in their lounge in their idyllic country retreat near Abdalajis
in Andalucia, looking blissfully happy and very relaxed, Mary smiled.
“We met in a bar and that was that,” she laughed.
In the early 90s there was a very lively rock scene in Birmingham
and Azy started working with a local band, doing a lot of weddings
for the Asian community, with a mixture of rock and bangra. “It
was a good time,” he said, “but I really wanted to do
my own thing and I gradually started building up my own sound system.”
He bought a mixing desk, found a warehouse unit and was all set
to rock and roll when he and Mary made a snap decision to move to
Cornwall, where Mary had spent her childhood.
“I got regular work, doing 2 sets a night in a venue in Falmouth
called the Laughing Pirate,” he said.
“What’s it like mixing for so many bands?” I asked.
“Do you get difficult customers sometimes?”
He smiled. “You get all kinds,” he said, “some
people simply order you about, which isn’t very nice, but
others appreciate that you are there to get the right balance of
sound and they respect that. It’s all about trying to communicate
really. You need to be a people mixer as well as a sound mixer.”
Although it was an ideal situation, Azy felt the need to move on.
A band he had met at the venue, called the Crazy Gods of Endless
Noise, asked him to go on tour with them and they travelled all
over England, including festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading.
“But then the band split up and the management introduced
me to an indie-pop band called Mover, who were signed with EMI.”
A nine-day tour of Japan followed, where the group sold 60,000 copies
of their new album.
“Japan was a beautiful place,” he recalled, as we sipped
a cup of tea in his house in Abdalajis, “but it was also very
different. For example, I remember when the sound technician arranged
to meet me, it wasn’t at 8 or half past 8, it was at 8.03!
Then, minutes after the show had ended, the audience were cleared
out at lightning speed and the place was converted into a disco!”
Yet another band split (“It just happens,” said Azy
with a shrug) and so he returned to Cornwall, exhausted with his
life on the road and having to live out of a suitcase. Mary had
always wanted to write, but had had very little time to do so while
she was working as a nurse, circumstances seemed right and so they
rented out their home in Cornwall and headed off to Spain.
Four years on they have no regrets, Mary being halfway through writing
a novel and Azy supplementing his mixing work with occasional building
and decorating work in the area.
We first met Azy while he was playing bass at a jam session in Alora.
“Great bass,” we said after he had handed the guitar
over to another eager musician.
“I keep trying,” he said modestly.
I was given Azy’s phone number by a friend and was very pleased
when he invited us to his home to talk to him about his musical
career.
“When did you first start playing bass?” I asked him.
“Well, actually, I’m still only learning,” he
explained, pointing out that he had bought his treasured guitar
at an auction shortly before leaving England. “I had bought
a teach-yourself book at one of the festivals and I just started
practising.”
Azy showed me his studio where he plays bass and keyboards, sometimes
with a couple of friends, and where he mixes the sound with his
‘baby’, a digital 8-track recorder.
Clearly doing what he wants with his life, obviously happily married
with the charming and lovely Mary, evidently completely at home
in his delightful house and garden, where they grow tomatoes, grapes
and figs, never short of companionship now that they have been adopted
by a local campo dog, Bongo, life in Spain for the two of them is
perfection.
I could hardly believe my ears, therefore, when the next thing I
heard was that they are planning to move to St Kitts & Nevis,
in the Caribbean. “But you are so happy here!” I said.
“Well, we’ve always been on our way to the Caribbean,”
Mary laughed, right from the very beginning, “it’s where
Azy was born and he has always wanted to go back there.”
“I shouldn’t think it will be right away,” said
Azy, “although we definitely will get there one day.”
In the meantime though there are other things to see to, like a
planned extension to the house for example and, when not savouring
the beauty of the countryside from their cool, tree-fringed terraza,
known as ‘Camp David’, perhaps while Mary continues
to write her novel, Azy might be found in his studio, doing what
he loves to do, mixing it with his music and his friends.
Click here to read one of Mary's
stories
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