by Geoff Bailie
Every band that breaks up reunites at some point – right? The Eagles, Guns’N’Roses, Oasis… even The Beatles did it in a virtual sense. By my reckoning there are really only two significant rock bands that have never got back together: The Smiths and Gentle Giant. In case of the latter, there seem to be a variety of reasons why it never happened depending on who you talk to, and in his autobiography Giant Steps, Derek Shulman gives his perspective – but that’s just part of the story.
Typically in rock autobiographies, the musically successful years get the large page count, and everything less is fore/afterwords. However, in Derek’s case, if anyone has ever jumped the curve in their career, then he is a great example, which is what makes this such an engaging and overdue book.
Growing up in a family with musical brothers, the Shulmans found success as the band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. The fame was great but as the brothers developed musically it became clear that the existing structure was no longer fit for purpose. So bravely they made a shift, forming what would become Gentle Giant with Kerry Minnear and Gary Green in the band.
The book is split into 3 parts and the opening “Finding My Feet” section takes the story through to Malcolm Mortimore’s motorcycle accident. It’s a logical break point because in “Up and Running”, John Weathers joins Gentle Giant, and things start to accelerate. There are some great stories which show how close to the truth This Is Spinal Tap was, including tales of a tour where GG were the opening act to the showing of Hendrix’s Jimi Plays Berkeley movie… and the movie reels don’t arrive! The book sets out Shulman’s perspective on the price of fame – the trade off with the record label about how commercial the music should be, the building pressure and ongoing requirement to tour / record / tour, the desire to play new music when the fans wanted the old, etc. This section ends with Derek deciding to leave the band, and, because Kerry Minnear did the same, the Giant was laid to rest.
Of course, every ending is a beginning and as Part 3 of the book, Finding A New Path, sets out, there was much more to come! What I perhaps had not appreciated before reading this book was that Derek didn’t really have a master plan for what was next. Sticking to the world he knew, he became an A&R representative, signing Bon Jovi (the long history of that relationship and signing is a very interesting tale), Kingdom Come and Cinderella. Moving to the role of CEO at Atco, he signed a band familiar to readers of this website, Dream Theater, along with Pantera – two genre-defining bands, you might say – as well as helping Bad Company and AC/DC re-establish themselves.
Given the amount of activity in Derek’s career, the book is very readable as it shifts through all of these events and bands, and the story is told in a way that isn’t bragging or self-exalting – if anything, it reads, to me, like one music fan writing to another.
In summary, this is virtually a trip through the history of popular music from the 1960s to the present day, told from the perspective of a man who kept moving and made a massive impact both musically and in his business activities, who you may not actually know a whole lot about. It is definitely not a book limited to those who are fans of Gentle Giant, and I would say that any music fan will enjoy this book as much as a prog fan would.
(North America): https://tr.ee/GiantSteps
(UK/EU): https://tr.ee/GiantSteps-UK-EU
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