“Jeff would sound like Jeff no matter what you put him through. That was his test for me, too. I was 23. I was so scared, but I passed the test”: Carmen Vandenberg and Rosie Bones explain the joy and challenge of playing with the late, great Jeff Beck
In 2019, Jeff Beck broke with tradition and looked for a vocal record to complement his peerless playing, and he looked to Bones UK for collaborators. Here, Vandenberg and Bones look back on a life-changing collab
(Image credit: Erika Goldring/FilmMagic; R. Diamond/Getty Images)
For much of his long career, Jeff Beck dedicated himself to instrumentals, working only with occasional guest vocalists. All that changed with 2016’s Loud Hailer, when he grabbed the fledgling Bones UK for a triumphant return to song-based rock.
Asked about working with Beck, Rosie Bones doesn’t hesitate. “I can’t put into words how honoured that I am to be part of his journey and his legacy in some way. It was a small way but to be part of that in any way.”
But calling it a “small way” is too modest. After meeting Carmen Vandenberg at Roger Taylor’s birthday party, Beck attended a Bones UK gig with his wife and immediately recruited the duo to make an album.
The list of vocalists to have recorded with Jeff Beck is short, and not since 1972’s final and self-titled Jeff Beck Group album had one singer delivered an entire album. For Carmen, the claim is even more impressive: she is one of only five guitarists, besides Jeff himself, to have played on a Beck solo album.
Loud Hailer was a clear statement that Beck was not content to stay in the past. A return to driving funk rock, it retained elements of the electronic experimentation he had begun on 1999’s Who Else and 2003’s Jeff. In his TG tribute to Jeff Beck, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry singled out Loud Hailer as a career highlight. “Yeah, Joe’s told us that before,” Carmen smiles modestly. “He said it was one of his favourite records. It’s beyond flattering.”
When we ask about Beck directly, Carmen pauses. “First of all, I miss him so much. Jeff and I would make our morning coffee with our guitars on. That man never stopped playing all day, and listening and trying to be inspired, whether it was from classical music, or Rosie and me. Anything that he heard or saw, he would try and incorporate it in his playing.”
“What did we learn? I mean, everything is learned from that the time,” Rosie adds. “Jeff influenced us in more ways than you can even possibly imagine. It was very apparent that we were kindred spirits.
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“We definitely all had the same sensibilities and the same sensitivities. So I think that maybe is one of the reasons why we were all drawn together, in some cosmic way. He really respected vocalists, and obviously, he was incredible to work with.”
“Within this record, we decided to allow space,” Rosie continues. “There’s a lot of pressure to do radio singles and to cut things short. You know, you’ve got two bars for the solo, and then you get out of it and we’re back to a chorus.
“And a big decision, which is definitely influenced by Jeff, is just letting it breathe. Like, the outro needs to be as long as it needs to be, and Carmen needs to be able to express herself freely without feeling like she’s got two bars to whack in as many things as possible. There’s a song called Blood which has a really long outro. There’s quite a few of them. We just let her dictate how long that should be.”
He would put me through each one of the amps, and he wanted to see if I could get my tone no matter what he put me through
Carmen Vandenberg
Carmen recalls: “The first time I went to his house, he sat me in front of a ton of amps, no pedals or anything, and gave me a guitar. The test was, he would put me through each one of the amps, and he wanted to see if I could get my tone no matter what he put me through or how he set it. Because technically, your tone is all on your fingers and the way you play, and you’ve got some control with the guitar itself.
“But, you know, Jeff would always sound like Jeff no matter what you put him through. That was his test. I was 23, so I was intimidated. I was so scared, but I passed the test. Pedals and gear, it’s all fun and games, and it’s interesting to find unique styles that haven’t been done, but you need to be able to play with nothing in my opinion, and that’s something I learned from Jeff.”
Jeff Beck - Live In The Dark (feat. Rosie Bones) (Live At The Hollywood Bowl) - YouTube
Rosie adds: “Another thing that we wanted to do on this record was really allow Carmen to have the space to feel like she can express herself on guitar. That’s definitely from Jeff. And a lot of the solos, the way that she played, you know, those real long, sustained notes – it’s that simplicity that he had.
“His simplicity, I think, was his key. He wasn’t a big showy player. He could do it, but his simplicity to just hold a note and be confident for that to be it. I definitely hear that in Carmen all the time. When he played the guitar, it would sing. He would sing his melodies, his light and shade. I think it’s influenced Carmen so much.”
Summing up Jeff’s impact on them both, Carmen concludes: “It’s just his curiosity. His never-ending curiosity to want to do something that hasn’t been done before. That’s beyond inspiring.”
Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to publications including Guitar World, MusicRadar and Total Guitar. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
