CAN YOUR GRANDPA ROCK AND ROLL LIKE THIS - ELIO PACE (Live BBC Radio2 Weekend Wogan-Sun 11 Jul 2010)

Taken from Elio Pace's social media post:

WEEKEND WOGAN 10th ANNIVERSARY SERIES - Show 17/35

11.05am, live on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday, 11 July 2010. ‘Can Your Grandpa Rock And Roll Like This’, written by yours truly & Matt Daniel-Baker, for the great, Albert Lee.

So there I was on Monday, 23 April 2007, on stage with Albert Lee & Hogans Heroes at McGrory’s Of Culdaff in Co. Donagal, Ireland, only a month into my three-year tenure with the chaps, when at some point in the first half, during the few seconds of silence that it took Albert to check the tuning on his guitar, a man in the audience shouted out "What’s it like being a grandfather, Albert?”

I remember being a tad confused as to what the point/relevance of the heckler’s comment was and why Albert seemed slightly perturbed by it. I basically put Albert’s annoyance down to one of two things: a) the fact that the comment was a badly timed interruption of Albert’s concentration in the middle of him doing his show, or b) the comment made Albert feel uncomfortable having to address this ‘query’ in front of a packed audience. Either way, true to his professionalism, he proceeded to tell the man how great it was and how the only person on the stage who wasn’t a grandfather was “our new piano-player”. Me! That was that! No more was said.

Then halfway through the second half, having finished performing Rodney Crowell’s ‘One Way Rider’ which ends with a blistering solo by Albert, which in turn brought the house down and inspired a standing ovation, Albert said:

“Thank you. Thank you very much.”

(5-second pause)

“Can your Grandfather do that, I wonder?”

(Albert immediately laughs as everyone in the audience slowly starts to laugh realising the relevance of the comment relating to the first half)

“Just kidding, just kidding!”

(audience laughs and applauds)

(Albert laughs)

That was the lightbulb moment for me. I instantly came up with the title of a song, ‘Can Your Grandad Rock And Roll Like This’. I had been so inspired by that little flash of Albert’s charming and confident self-awareness, that even as the ‘grandfather' that he was, with all of the ignorant, ageist connotations that relate to that word, of growing old and being ‘passed it’, Albert knew he was nothing less than (most probably) the greatest guitar player in the world. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I could hardly wait for the gig to be over so that I could start getting my ideas down so that I wouldn’t forget it by the morning.

That next morning, I called my pal, Matt Daniel-Baker, and told him the story and the title of the song and asked him if he would like a stab at writing a lyric based on that title as I just wouldn’t have the brainpower for it whilst travelling around Ireland on the hectic 'one-nighters' tour we were on. I asked him to write a lyric that I could set music to at a later date. He took up the challenge. By the middle of the following day, Matt sent me a memo with the lyrics for what was obviously the chorus. It was perfect. It encapsulated precisely the message of the song and with such a great start to the collaboration, we decided to leave the rest of the writing, both music and words, to when we could be in the same room together in a few days time and get it done in one sitting, which is exactly what we did.

The next stage after having finished writing the song was to create a demo for Albert and the band to hear and for consideration for the upcoming new studio album we were making and that I was producing for the band. I sent the demo to Albert and thankfully for me and Matt, he loved the song and said he would enjoy recording it for the new album. Albert did though make one suggestion and that was that we change the word ‘Grandad’ to ‘Grandpa’ which Matt and I both instantly agreed was better.

'Can Your Grandpa Rock And Roll Like This' was recorded later that year, 2007, for the new album with Albert on lead vocals. It was the only original song on the album. Matt and I were obviously extremely thrilled and flattered by this happening and the icing on the cake was when the chaps in the band decided that the album should be called 'Like This'.

After the album was released in 2008, we went on tour again and I had the privilege of hearing Albert singing and playing the song live every night, and even though I’m a long way away from being a grandpa myself, it wasn’t going to stop me performing the song live when I toured the UK for the first time doing my own material in January/February 2010 and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of performing it live on ‘Weekend Wogan’. ❤️

P.S. Props to Darren Loveday for taking on Albert's guitar lines and solo with aplomb! 👍
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Terry's special guests this week were Bernard Cribbins, Gabriella Cilmi and Jon Allen.
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