They’ve become mainstays on the live circuit, but Peter Cox has no plans to return to the studio with his Go West bandmate Richard Drummie and work on new music.
With his first solo album in a decade due this month, the singer-songwriter sat down with RETROPOP to discuss ‘Seaglass’, which reunites him with the group’s old label Chrysalis and original producer Gary Stevenson, during which he opened up on the duo’s future.
“Making an album is a big investment and there’s an argument to say, ‘What would be the point of it?’,” he sighs in the June 2023 issue. “I don’t want to put words into Richard’s mouth, but he doesn’t seem motivated to make a new Go West album at the moment and I can kind of see why.”
While still together on stage, the pair see much less of each other than they did in the past. “We only see each other when we’re working and certainly our musical influences are very different,” Peter muses. “I suppose they were way back in 1982 when we started listening to music together. That was the basis of our friendship and what became our songwriting collaboration.
“I had quite a narrow horizon back then. I was into Free, Bad Company and bands that didn’t have keyboard players. Richard reintroduced me to Stevie Wonder and led me more towards West Coast music.”
Although Richard wasn’t involved in the creative process for Peter’s new LP, it often harks back to Go West’s classic sound – which will no doubt prove a crowd-pleaser. “The reactions I’ve had to my own efforts at recording have been either, ‘It doesn’t sound like Go West’, or, ‘Oh, it sounds just like Go West’,” he laughs.
“Obviously if I’m the featured voice then there is going to be some connection there but I’ve got a passionate if small fanbase and I guessed and hoped they’d like to hear some of the flavour of that production sound Gary contributes.”
Of their long standing relationship, Peter adds: “Gary and I go back more than 40 years and it was a comfort zone for me if you like. We can communicate with one another much more easily than I might with a complete stranger.”
To promote ‘Seaglass’, the musician is doing a string of solo shows with his own band: will he be doing some Go West songs too? “I will, yes,” is his somewhat reluctant answer. “I have to say, I would have preferred to have kept the two completely separate. The agent who has been booking these gigs, unknown to me, was telling the venues I would play Go West songs.
“I’ll be keeping them to a minimum and I hope the fans will embrace at least some of the material from the new record. It’s a hoary old industry gag that the last thing the audience wants to hear is your new album, but that is the purpose of the gigs – to promote it and hopefully sell some copies. But yes, I will be playing some old material too.”
Seaglass is out May 12 on Chrysalis Records. Peter Cox is touring the UK until May 26.
Read the full interview in the June 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
