Larry Page Interview

I met Larry Page around 1993. At that time he was living in Roehampton in London. We arranged to meet St the Kensington Hilton Hotel for coffee. The man was charm personified. He was casually dressed, easy going and friendly. It was a difficult interview because as the hotel was being renovated there was a lot of hammering. I attempted a ‘not funny’ joke “Ah my favourites The Carpenters.”  Ever the gentlemen, he politely laughed at this. We then we talked about the magazine I was writing for which was Brum Beat. Page fondly recalled the Brum Beat sound and then we talked through his career as detailed below.

A Career In Music

Larry Page started his career as a singer, under the name ‘Page the Teenage Rage’. The term was coined by a journalist and to magnify his reputation he wore large spectacles.

However, it was as manager and producer of the 60s bands, The Kinks and The Troggs that he became truly famous.

The Kinks included the singer/songwriting partnership of brothers Ray and Dave Davies and the band went on to become the most influential of all British rock bands.

Larry Page & The Kinks

In fact The Kinks influenced a lot of bands, including punk and new wave bands. You Really Got Me was a case in point. That song was a chart topper in the UK and reached number 10 in the American charts. There was also some cheeky ‘product placement’ of Cherry Cola which famously had to be amended for UK’s ‘Top Of The Pops” Show. Now, let’s move on to another great Kinks track, Tired of Waiting, a song which according to Ray Davies was written on a train during a 10 minute break in session recording.

Dead End Street by The Kinks featured a film which was regarded as the first true music video and was released in 1966.

Then in the 80s The Kinks made a chart comeback and were again managed by Page and this is a song I’ve played on my radio show, Come Dancing.

Larry Page & The Troggs

Larry Page also produced and managed The Troggs which featured Reg Presley as frontman, who allegedly took his surname from the king himself, Elvis Presley and did the gyrations on stage the same.

Wild Thing , a 1965 hit was written by an American songwriter called Chip Taylor, originally for the group The Wild Ones. It would become their best remembered track.

I interviewed Reg Presley in 1994 when The Troggs were recording Athens Andover with REM. He was a very interesting guy and spoke about his interest in crop circles and UFOs as well as the fact that the band never did drugs. Mentioning this this to Page, his reaction was “Yeah well Reg said a lot of things.”

Larry Page – What Happened Next?

So what happened to Larry Page in the 70s? Well he was the producer on Daniel Boone’s charting single “Beautiful Sunday”. In 1972, Page was also involved in producing a song for Chelsea F.C. The song, “Blue is the Colour”, still plays at the end of home matches.

He also re-formed the Larry Page Orchestra and performed a song called Erotic Soul

Larry is a colourful guy who has had a successful as of the 2000s has been happily living in Australia. You can read more about him Allmusic HERE and check out his Discogs entry HERE

Check out his career. It’s well worth a listen.

Supersonic Andy 

“Supersonic” Andy Harper presents ‘Supersonic Andy’s Disco Hour’ exclusively for Rocking Fox Radio – 7pm on Wednesdays and repeated at 6pm on Saturdays.