Cocaine with Elton, a joint with Macca... and topless sunbathing with Kate Bush: by the quiet man of rock!
The 1970s band Pilot put David Paton in the rock ’n’ roll limelight but he was happiest taking a back seat where he could see what was going on...
WHETHER it’s snorting cocaine on tour with Elton John, smoking dope with Paul McCartney or sunbathing with a topless Kate Bush, David Paton can boast a stock of rock ’n’ roll anecdotes as impressive as his back-catalogue of hits.
As a songwriter and frontman with the band Pilot, he penned and performed some of the most successful and enduringly popular songs of the 1970s, while as a backing musician he has played on a string of chart-topping singles and at sell-out gigs around the world.
And with the approach of the 40th anniversary of his first hit Janu- ary, which ironically topped the UK charts in February 1975, the 65-year-old can now look back on an extraordinary career, crossing paths with Stevie Wonder, Freddie Mercury, the Bay City Rollers, Princess Diana and George Michael. Sitting in his large, semi- detached home in Edinburgh, he credits Mary, his wife of 43 years, with helping him survive the drink and drugs that have damaged or destroyed so many in the music business.
And he gives a unique insight into life on tour with Sir Elton, a selfconfessed former addict who claimed he took so much cocaine at the peak of his career it was a miracle he didn’t die.
‘I did indulge through the 70s and 80s, though thankfully I’m clean now,’ says Paton. ‘There were many temptations – but in the end I found a glass of wine was better for me than cocaine.
‘I look at where I am now and think, “I’m in a very happy place here.”’
After a brief spell as a Bay City Roller – before the band got famous – Paton made his name in Seventies bands Pilot, the Alan Parsons Project and Camel. His fame and good looks once made him so popular he needed a police guard to protect him from hordes of screaming girl fans.
In the Eighties, the bassist and guitarist was pursued for his musical talents by Sir Elton and Sir Paul, as well as Kate Bush. He credits McCartney for his switch from lead guitar to bass: ‘I modelled my playing on his. He was my hero. I remember he liked to talk about his farm on Kintyre and even showed me how to play Blackbird on the guitar. We also shared a joint!’
Paton played bass on Kate Bush’s first two albums, as well as 12-string guitar on her 1977 hit Wuthering Heights: ‘Kate was very quiet and unassuming – always the first to volunteer to make tea for the boys – but when it came to music, she was a genius. She’d play a song from start to finish without a flaw.’
With a cheeky laugh, he adds: ‘When we did her second album in France, we sunbathed by the pool a lot with Kate taking her top off, which was a nice perk!’
THESE days, since suffering a heart attack, Paton has been content to gig locally with a few fellow musicians in a covers band – but now Pilot have reformed after patching up their differences. With a new album called A Pilot Project, they are in talks with a US promoter about a possible tour and some dates in Japan, where they also have a big following.
Going back into the recording studio brought back memories of his first meeting with Sir Elton in 1985. Summoned to meet the pop legend, he found him sitting at a piano, playing some chords, and was invited to join in.
‘We played chords together for about 20 minutes until I’d got the hang of it, then Elton said, “Right, that’s it, let’s record”. The whole thing was surreal but it was the birth of one of his biggest hits, Nikita.
‘One day he asked me to bring my wife in to see him. We sat in the studio with others, including two members of Queen, and he played his album Ice On Fire. After the track Nikita, he said, “I’m so delighted with the bass part on that – let’s give a big hand to David”.
‘Brian May looked at me and said, “You played bass on that?” Then Elton took Mary and I into a room, and he said to her, “I want to go on tour for a year. I want David to be on it, but I need to know if you are happy about that”. I thought, “What a considerate thing to do”.’
It was the beginning of a beautiful – and wild – friendship as one year led to three. Paton recalls: ‘It was a time of excess, when there was an aftershow party every night and liberal amounts of cocaine and marijuana were taken.
‘When you come off stage after playing to tens of thousands of people, it can be difficult to come down from the buzz. The majority of band members were smokers and took hash and coke. ‘When I worked with Elton, I had the opportunity to live in California. If I’d gone, I could have been a drug addict by now. I think I’ve a certain sensibility when it comes to how I lead my life and what I see ahead of me.
‘I think Elton is a wonderful person but he could be unpredictable. He had the odd tantrum or two but it was never
with the band. One night he stormed off stage in Germany in a bad mood, leaving us playing Rocket Man, and told his chauffeur: “Take me back to the hotel!”
‘We were trying to string it out as much as possible without the audience knowing. It turned out Elton couldn’t get out of the car park anyway, because it was full. So he suddenly wandered back on stage as if it was all part of the act, and sat back down at the piano!’
At Bob Geldof’s Live Aid event, Paton played with Sir Elton and another Eighties superstar, George Michael. He bumped into the former Wham singer for the first time during rehearsals: ‘George said, “I like your January”. And I replied, “I like your Careless Whisper”.’
By 1988, Paton had made a conscious decision ‘not to become known as Elton John’s bass guitarist’ and they went their separate ways.
But in 1996 he received a call, asking if he would do some Wembley stadium dates with the superstar, now off drugs and drinking bottles of water or cups of tea after each show. It led to a meeting one night with Diana, Princess of Wales, who had become a close friend of Sir Elton’s. Paton remembers: ‘We were ushered through to Elton’s dressing room, after a brief runthrough on Royal protocol, and there she was. Elton was very proud that she should meet his band. It was amazing to meet her.’ Yet Paton himself shunned the limelight: ‘I was always a very reluctant pop star. I never truly liked being in the front seat. I found I really enjoyed being in the back seat and observing everything that was going on.
‘I’ve always preferred credibility as a musician to having my face on the cover of a magazine.’
His big taste of fame came when Pilot’s song Magic reached No11 in the charts in November 1974, followed by January going to No1 two months later: ‘I remember arriving by limousine at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh to find police and screaming girls outside.
‘A policeman’s helmet flew off and the car drove over it. I couldn’t com- prehend it and thought, “This is nonsense!” We could have taken advantage easily, but we were a studio-based band and, honestly, for us all the pop star stuff was a pain in the neck.’
PILOT and Queen were both on the EMI label but Pilot topped the charts first. Paton recalls: ‘I went over to chat to Freddie Mercury in the Top Of The Pops bar, and he said, “I don’t know why you’re bothering to talk to me. When I’m No1, I won’t talk to anyone!”’
Royalties from Pilot’s two big hits still pour in, thanks to the use of Magic in various movies. The song is also played at Hearts games and Scotland rugby matches. So does he ever get tired of people singing ‘Oh, ho, ho, it’s magic…’ when they see him?
He laughs: ‘Even in the hospital, after I had my heart attack seven years ago, the doctor and nurses burst into a rendition of it. I love the fact it’s lasted down the generations.’
Last year, Paton patched up past differences to re-form Pilot with Ian Bairnson and Stuart Tosh. Their keyboard player Billy Lyall died of Aids-related causes in 1989, aged 36. Paton also does local gigs in Edinburgh with The Flavours covers band: ‘Some people say, “How can you go from playing with Elton John to doing this?” But I’ve been playing with them since I came back to living in Edinburgh and if I wasn’t doing that, I might not be doing anything else.’
Clearly a loving, family man, he credits Mary, 64, and their two daughters, Sarah, 41, and Katy, 32, for keeping him on the straight and narrow.
The couple met while still at school and he claims Mary helped him write Magic, after she said to him early one morning, ‘I’ve never been awake to see the day break’, inspiring the lines: ‘Never been awake, never seen a daybreak.’
Likewise January, he says, was named after the heroine of a book that Mary was reading at the time.
Nowadays, he spends a lot of his time in a tiny music studio in his garden, its walls decorated with platinum and gold discs.
He reflects: ‘I could have achieved a lot more if I’d wanted to, but I’m happy with what I’ve achieved and where I am in my life.
‘I chose not to tour for 40 years, singing Magic, and it’s been great. And I still get a Christmas card from Elton!’