Friends remember Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon

                                                 Peter and Gordon performing

                                                       "World Without Love"

Published 6/5/2011

 Gordon Waller would have been 66 years old on Saturday. His longtime musical partner, Peter Asher, and some of his friends, recalled Waller and his music in quotes we've gathered here.  

"All of us who played and sang used to stand in front of the mirror and pretend to be Elvis," Asher says about the early days. "But Gordon actually did a good job of it. He was incredibly handsome and could sing those songs with his big, Elvis-y voice…"

Asher said the original idea of Norman Newell, who discovered Peter and Gordon, and EMI about how to use them changed. "They were thinking of us as an English answer to Peter, Paul and Mary or the Kingston Trio," he says. "Of course, after 'World Without Love' came out, by far the best at the session, all this English equivalent of the U.S. folk boom went out the window. We were just going to be a pop group."

Denny Laine, who was in the Moody Blues around that time (and later Wings with Paul McCartney), said their influences had a lot in common: "We were into Elvis, and Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran, all those people. The down home rockers."

And he says even though they were competitors, "we were all friends in that era. There was a lot of friendly competition, let’s put it that way. But everybody was happy in their own skin. They were doing what they were doing. We kind of admired each other."

He got to know Peter and Gordon from the television work they did together. "It sort of branched from the fact that we were all doing television together. We actually went to New York with them to do the Murray the K show, and we spent that time being ‘the Brit Bands’, mixed with the American bands…that’s how we got a little bit closer."

Spencer Davis of the Spencer Davis group, recalled Waller's driving. "The vehicle of choice I used to use to drive around in Britain was a Mini Cooper S. And we all know that Gordon was a huge fan of Mini Coopers. In fact, years later, when Gordon came to stay with me in Avalon, on Catalina Island-He said, “Can I take the Mini out?” Now it’s a small island, like a mile across, the speed limit is 15 miles an hour…I said, knowing Gordon, 'Yeah, you can take it out, but DON’T GO OVER 15 MILES AN HOUR…' ”

Denny Laine says he was impressed by Peter & Gordon's reunion performance at BB King's in 2005. "I said to Peter, ‘You sound great. Why don’t you do some more shows?’ He said, 'I’ve got a day job.' I’d worked with Gordon as a solo artist -- I know he liked to do the solo stuff. But at the same time, I remembered them from the old days, and thought, it would be great if they went out and did a few shows."

Denny Laine: "I love anyone who’s got their own thing. "I know, of course, it’s a little bit based on the Everly Brothers, but Peter & Gordon had their own niche, their own sound, People loved them."

Keith Putney, manager of Peter & Gordon from 2006-2009, remembers a night when the conversation was about Waller. "Late one night, after a show in Stuart, Florida, Peter Asher, Jeff Ross and I were sitting at a little plastic table next to the tiki bar in our hotel. Everyone else had retired to their rooms; the bar had already closed down, but we were still talking, and as it so often did, the conversation turned to Gordon. Peter said that in the intervening years -- the 37 year break -- he had seen so many singers, so many people who wanted to perform, be it with a band, in a play, as a singer-songwriter-people who would do anything to make it.   People would give anything, do anything, to have what Gordon had, but what Gordon had was completely his own. It couldn't be taught, it couldn't be bought. He had an incomparable voice and a transfixing presence on stage, and an instinctive way of dealing with an audience. By then, they had known each other for over 45 years, but Peter still marveled at Gordon's gift."

Denny Laine recalled playing a show with Peter & Gordon in 2009.  "That night something happened . It just jelled. Gordon still sounded great. He had the voice. Something magical happens when you are doing a show with people you know. It’s more of an occasion, you’re not with strangers, and it was a great night. We talked after. We went to the restaurant and it was great to see Gordon all happy and jumping around. He’d had a good gig, you know.
"One of the last shows we did was the one on the Santa Monica Pier, which was one of the last times I got to sing with Gordon," Peter Asher recalls. “'500 Miles'" is one, in particular, that makes me miss him. That night on the Santa Monica Pier, Joan Baez, who is an old friend, got up and sang with us. We were practically back to being the Peter, Paul, and Mary thing all over again. It was Peter, Gordon and Joan”