Pickin’ Up the Pieces : AWB, Once So Out of Favor It Disbanded, Is Back in a Major Way

Not so very long ago, the Average White Band was dismissed by most of the in crowd as a meaningless relic of the ‘70s, some reeking harbinger of the disco era best left forgotten. Perhaps realizing this, the hit-makers from Scotland disbanded from 1983 through 1989, and its members concentrated on session work for other artists.

But this being rock ‘n’ roll and all, what’s considered trendy changes faster than one can say “cut the cake,” and now the reunited AWB--which plays Friday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana--is being appraised in some quarters as a great, pioneering R&B; group.

AWB material has been sampled by the likes of Janet Jackson, A Tribe Called Quest, Bobby Brown, TLC and others. The group appeared on HBO’s “Sinbad’s Soul Jam” and will be a house guest on the soon-to-be-aired “In the Dark,” a syndicated music television show aimed at the urban market. And AWB is being cited by virtually every young group in the acid jazz movement as an early inspiration--all the Rave.

“That’s especially true in Britain,” bassist-singer Alan Gorrie observed on the phone recently. “All the labels that are most interested in what the group is doing now are the ones that specialize in acid jazz. That also happens to be the audience that comes out to see us--the 19- to 25-year-old soulies and acid jazzies and trip hoppers.”

Small wonder: For all the praise its adherents heap on acid jazz, the music is little more than warmed-over ‘70s-style funk with fusion and hip-hop overtones. In any case, AWB--founding members Gorrie, sax and keyboard player Roger Ball and guitarist Onnie McIntyre buttressed by drummer Pete Abbot and keyboard-bass player Elliot Lewis--isn’t jumping on any bandwagons.

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Picking up the pieces, as it were, the group has eschewed dabbling itself in the acid jazz movement and instead is sticking to the clean, tight-as-a-bongo-skin funk sound that reaped a number of hits for AWB in the ‘70s.

“We still do what we do,” said Gorrie, 49. “It’s something that’s fairly unique, and it’s best to stick to our own sound. Everyone who comes to see us swears that if you close your eyes, nothing has changed. There’s new material there, more emphasis on vocals and a different sonic level because of advanced technology, but the integrity of the music is still the same.”

Acid jazz fans, he added, “can see and hear that stuff from groups like Brand New Heavies and Mr. Electric Triangle and those wacky type of groups that are out there.”

AWB was formed in 1972 and became an instant cult sensation in the U.K. In 1973, before its first album even was released, the band found itself backing Eric Clapton at his high-profile Rainbow Theater concert in London.

“That was Eric’s return after a two- or three-year layoff,” Gorrie recalled. “It was an all-star cast with [Steve] Winwood and [Peter] Townshend and gosh, I can’t even remember who all else, but it was a star-studded occasion . . . the house was packed with Beatles and Stones and all those kind of guys. It really helped us along.”

The following year, AWB’s second album yielded a massive hit single in the cookin’ R&B; instrumental “Pick Up the Pieces,” which garnered so much attention that an apparently miffed James Brown was moved to release a retaliatory single (“Pickin’ Up the Pieces One by One”) by the pseudonymous Above Average Black Band.

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AWB was omnipresent on the radio and television. Hype of an entirely different nature would rear its head soon enough.

The band’s drummer, Robbie McIntosh, died of a heroin overdose (he reportedly thought he was snorting cocaine) at a celebrity-rife party in Los Angeles in September of ’74. Gorrie partook as well, and his life was saved by Cher, who kept him awake and walking until he got medical attention. The incident was front page news around the world, and it served as a wake-up call for Gorrie.

“Cher and someone else walked me around until I sort of came to some semblance of recovery. Robby, the poor guy, didn’t make it. It rang our bells very, very loudly. We never touched any powders of any kind ever again. We hadn’t done much of that anyway--we were Scotch drinkers. But one night, well, we went, ‘OK,’ and it was the wrong stuff.

“We were naive, we were novices, and that’s what can happen. Kids should be educated about it--it’s not a fun drug, it’s not a clever drug.”

The group hired Steve Ferrone to replace McIntosh and rebounded with another huge hit, “Cut the Cake.” AWB went on to record a number of other hits throughout the ‘70s, but by the time the ‘80s hit, punk rock and new wave had pretty much decimated the careers of most ‘70s bands, and AWB was no exception.

When Gorrie put the group back together in 1989, it recorded an album called “Aftershock” for Track Records, which promptly went out of business. The band continued to tour, often with fellow funk groups/acid jazz inspirations War and Tower of Power, and has just finished recording a new album, “Soul Tattoo,” for release this summer.

“We’re first going to release it ourselves, which is certainly one of the smarter things you can do nowadays,” said the battle-scarred Gorrie. “Meanwhile, we’ll shop for a custom label with major distribution. I doubt that we’ll even knock on any doors of the major, major labels. I don’t like the pay scale with them. All you can ever do is wind up paying their phone bills. We like the idea of having control.

“Yeah, it’s more work, but what the hell. You get paid properly at the end of the day. We’ve learned a lot from these young bands. They’ve broken the mold and turned the business around. The big record company thing is not something I’d recommend to anybody unless they want to be instant zillionaires or completely flat broke. There’s no middle ground. It’s one way or the other, and I know too many guys who wind up on the flat broke side of it.”

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Gorrie said he already has had his taste of riches and superstardom and now is satisfied by the pure joy of performance. He is looking forward to the future.

“You get a sense that things are going in our favor right now. The ball is rolling for us, and our intention is to strike while the iron’s hot. I’d like to hope we’ve got five touring years in front of us, and maybe we can make three albums in that time, see how much good music we can write and have as good a time as we ever did. The best part is still playing to an audience that’s getting off on the stuff, and it would be nice to include a whole new audience.”

* The Average White Band plays Friday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. Red Wine and Night Train will open. 8 p.m. $18.50. (714) 957-0600.