Tony Franklin: “Raiding The Rock Vault” Comes To London

Superstar music Fretless Monster, Tony Franklin has played with nearly every iconic musician on the planet including, The Firm, Whitesnake, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Scott Page, Roy Harper, Kate Bush, John Sykes’ Blue Murder and I could go on forever. Franklin is currently in Vegas finishing his award-winning, show-stopping gig, “Raiding The Rock Vault”, which will be featured in London.

Originally from Derby England, now based in the states Franklin is recognized for his work on the fretless bass guitar. In 2006 Fender introduced the Tony Franklin Fretless Precision Bass, a unique and distinctive instrument. Franklin also served as Artist Relationship Manager for the Fender Corporation.

I spoke with Tony direct from Las Vegas regarding “Raiding The Rock Vault”, a visit to his home town in England, his relationship with the famous Fender Corporation, his experience as a mentor at “Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp” with Cheap Trick, his new album that will be coming out, his writing a book and a musical, and anything  else going on in his life…..

Are you in California at the moment?

No, I’m actually in Las Vegas playing the, “Raiding The Rock Vault” for five more shows we have here. 

Then you’re off to England?

Yeah with this show. I do this all the way up to Thanksgiving, then home for a few days, and then I fly out to England on the 3rd of December. So, it’s a busy time. 

Where in England will you be taking “Raiding The Rock Vault?”

Its three shows in London on December 5th, 6th, and 7th at a place called Subterranea. They are bringing in a lot of people to the show and hopefully, it will expand it. 

Tell me what your fans can expect?

“Raiding The Rock Vault” is in its 6th year and each year it’s been an award winner of shows in Vegas. What it is, it’s going back in time and just “raiding the rock vault” with classics, playing them in a show that is well structured and put together. They have this whole flow of songs starting out with the 60s and going through the 70s and the 80s. They have the rock stars that come in and play it. Howard Leese from Heart is part of it, and we play a Heart song. There is Robin McAuley from McAuley Schenker who also appeared with Survivor. So, it touches all of those songs that people love and it sparks all the emotions and memories that go with that. It’s a pretty hard-hitting, fast-moving show. It’s pretty cool.

Do you play any Whitesnake?

We play a little snippet of “Here I Go Again.” We do the intro and the chorus and a verse. We don’t always do the full song because there are so many songs that you can cover, there are so many songs and we want to get them all in. We do a minute snippet of Kansas and they do a little bit of Whitesnake. I do a little bit of Led Zeppelin, not full versions, but we touch on a lot. 

I bet you know all of those songs, don’t you?

I know most of them. I had to brush up on the Kansas stuff. There’s a difference between hearing the song that you know for a long time and playing it. You have to do a bit of homework, but it wasn’t like I was learning a whole different style, it was definitely in the neighbourhood shall we say.

How do you feel about visiting England?

Oh, I’m very happy and excited about that. I’m actually staying an extra 10 or so days and I’m seeing my family during that time, I am looking forward to visiting my dad who is 85. So that part of it is going to be wonderful, and it’s always great to play London of course. I’m very interested to see what they make of it. It’s going to be fun. It’s probably going to be cold. My dad lives up in Derby which is my hometown, and he says they’ve had a lot of flooding in that area. England can be so changeable with the weather, you just don’t know. But it gives him something to talk about.

Where is Derby in comparison to London?

You have to remember that England is relatively small. Derby is in a section called the Midlands, and it really is right in the middle of England. Derby is about 120 miles from London. 

When you’re a kid growing up and going from Derby to London it literally feels like you’re going halfway across the country. Well, it is halfway across the country. Relatively 120 miles in the US feels like nothing. You go 120 miles to a show, it’s not that big of a deal. But over there relatively, it is a long way. I mean you can fit the whole of Great Britain from the very bottom of England to the top of Scotland in California lengthwise.

I go to the U.K. A lot so I’m familiar. 

Where do you typically go in England?

It depends where Adam Ant is playing.

Stuart Goddard, isn’t that his real name?

Yes, it is.

I don’t know how I remember that. I’m full of intriguing and useless information. Well, it’s not useless, it might come in handy in some rock trivia show one day. You never know.

True. We have spoken before but can you give me a brief bio of Tony Franklin?

The concise version: I was born into a musical family and I started playing on stage with them from the time I was five years old. Then I just worked my way up in other different ways, with big bands, and with my parent’s band. I just had different breaks here and there which led to doing a recording session, then ultimately a bunch of albums with Roy Harper. “Hats off to Harper” is on Led Zeppelin III. He sang on Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar.” He and Jimmy Page go way back. They did a bunch of albums together. In 1984 I met Jimmy Page through Roy. They were doing an album together and Roy brought me in. The vibe was happening, it was cool and that led into “The Firm.” From there I played with a bunch of different people. I did a one-off gig, very cool one, with David Gilmour and Kate Bush at the London Palladium, which is on YouTube. Then I did jimmy Page’s solo album, “Out Rider”, and then I went on to John Sykes and Carmine Appice. John Sykes was part of Whitesnake’s 87 albums. I was with them for four years. We toured extensively in the US and Japan. Then in the 90s, I did a whole bunch of different things from Gary Holt to Pat Travis, I worked with pop artist Donna Lewis,  I toured with Whitesnake in 1997, worked with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, I’ve toured in Japan and Italy with people unknown outside of their own country. I did a couple of my own solo albums. I did a base instructional course and just all sorts of different things. Literally hundreds of recording sessions with different artists, as well as writing, and just branching out to a whole bunch of different things. Recently I appeared at the “Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp”, as one of their rock star counsellors. It was with Cheap Trick, and we played Sgt. Peppers from start to finish. I was brought in not only to be a mentor but also to write all the charts for the strings and the horns for Sgt. Peppers, and I conducted it too. We did it at the Whisky with all the camp members and Cheap Trick, and the orchestra at the Whiskey. It was just phenomenal. I’m just keeping busy and creative. I have a bass album coming out with some instrumental stuff, and I’m always writing and looking for music publishing and licensing outlets. I’m just keeping very busy and creative, writing a book and writing a musical, just keeping it all going.

In between all of that you’ve invented a bass guitar? 

Well, I do have a signature fretless bass with Fender. It’s been in production since 2006. It was actually a replica of a base I created using a stock Fender precision…. I can’t say I created it from scratch. It was a Fender bass that I bought in the store, fretless, and I was trying to get a sound out of it with an extra bridge pick up, and I added a switch to it. Later we added the ebony fingerboard. The original ones are the ones I used in all The Firm recordings, and there are literally thousands of songs that I played on it. Fender wanted to do a replica of it with the ebony fingerboard and it’s been in production since 2006. So, we are now going on the 14th year of it. It was based on exactly the model I modified. So, there you go, it’s a huge honour and I’m still getting used to it. It’s surreal seeing my name on a Fender bass being part of the Fender roster all this time. I am part of the history which is so meaningful and special to me. I love Fender. I remember getting my first Fender bass and being involved at that level with them. I don’t take it for granted, it’s very humbling and I’m very grateful. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add regarding specifically any new projects?

There are all sorts of things bubbling up. I don’t like to shed too many things until I know that it’s solid, but I cover pretty much everything as you can tell. I’m a busy boy. I love to be creative and busy. People can find me on the Internet. I’m pretty much under everything as a fretless monster. 

That’s such a great name.

Oh yeah, I like it because it’s a fretless bass and I play rock on it so I tend to turn into a little monster when I play on bass. Also, fretless means worry-free, so I’m a worry-free monster, I like that kind of double meaning there. I’m pretty mellow in real life and then when it comes to stage time, out comes the monster.

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