You saxy thing

CALL it serendipity. Or fate. But some things are just meant to be. York College music teacher Chris Euesden was in his local one night doing a pub quiz when this question came up: Who played the sax solo on Baker Street?

Chris takes up the story: "I didn't know, but my brother did. Raphael Ravenscroft, he said. The next day, we had been advertising for a post in the department, and I took a call about it... from Raphael Ravenscroft."

At first, Chris wondered if it was his brother winding him up. But no. It was for real. Raphael Ravenscroft, who not only played that unforgettable solo on the Gerry Rafferty hit but had also worked with some of the biggest names in music over the past 30 years, wanted to come and work at York College.

Needless to say Chris didn't think twice. "He's just done so many great things," says Chris. "Somebody with that sort of experience is just priceless."

Some of those 'great things' included touring with Pink Floyd; playing with Tina Turner in front of 180,000 in Rio; working with Joni Mitchell and managing Marvin Gaye's band.

Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Oasis, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams and Aretha Franklin are just some of the other giants who make it on to Raphael's CV, which also includes a music credit for Ridley Scott's movie Bladerunner.

Over three decades, Raphael has made 720 records. And Baker Street wasn't his first top ten hit.

"The first record I ever played on went to number one," said Raphael, 49. It was Maxine Nightingale's Right Back To Where We Started From, which topped the US charts in 1975 and reached number eight here. Raphael was just 19 and a cello student at the Royal College of Music in London. To make ends meet, he would busk outside Tottenham Court Road tube station, where he was 'discovered' by Maxine Nightingale's producer.

"This guy just came up and said: 'I'm a producer, give me a call'. I didn't really think anything about it. People came up and said all sorts of things when you were busking. But this guy came back the following week and said: 'you should really give me a call, I'm making a record next week'. I did, and that was it," recalled Raphael.

It was his first time in a recording studio and the last thing he expected was to have a huge hit on his hands and face the prospect of a world tour with the Maxine Nightingale Band.

Luckily, it was the summer holidays, so Raphael was free from his scholarly obligations to travel the world and live the life he had only ever dreamed of. "I just knew I wanted to play music for a living," he said.

But he had to take the hard decision to drop out of college when he was offered a world tour with Ray Charles. "I asked if I could have a year off, but it wasn't allowed," said Raphael.

After the success of Baker Street, Raphael was in demand even more. But, as Raphael recalls, it could have been a very different story.

"Baker Street wasn't even going to be on the album. It was a song with lyrics, but lots of big holes which had to be filled. I had a blow on it with my sax and played something and Gerry said: 'why not just repeat that and make it a signature rather than a free-form thing?'

"I was totally surprised when it went into the charts. It was five minutes long and no other songs had sax on them."

Raphael said he loved every minute of his rock and roll lifestyle. "I was always on tour, I was like a gypsy. I'd book for the next tour before I finished the one I was on. It was fantastic, like a drug. I didn't really have a base. I had a flat in London and New York and shared a house in LA.

"Whenever I came off the road, it was just unbearable. Playing in a big stadium was so exciting. You'd arrive in New York, Rio, or wherever and every manager and club owner would want you to come to their clubs for free - and you got paid ten grand a week.

"Coming back to make dinner and be normal, well, I found it impossible. So I learned never to do that and took one tour after another.

"I don't understand people who complain about how hard it is on the road. Not one minute of it was punishing."

Often, artists who were all playing in one city at the same time would end up playing together on stage.

"We were in London with Marvin Gaye. Stevie Wonder was playing at the Hammersmith Odeon, George Benson at the Albert Hall and Aretha Franklin was doing some TV - and we ended up all playing at each other's gigs. One night, there was Stevie Wonder, Smokie Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and George Benson all at the Victoria Apollo together."

Raphael likens life on the road to being in the circus. "It was just fantastic. When we toured with Tina Turner, there were 85 people going around. With Pink Floyd's The Wall, there were 130 in the show. It was very exciting."

A career highlight was working as the musical director for Marvin Gaye for six years, during a spell when the artist was touring extensively in Europe.

"Marvin Gaye was the nearest I ever got to meeting someone in a sort of religious way. He was like Jesus Christ. He was pretty much a perfect human being. Nothing was done for effect, he was incredibly generous, talented and showed great empathy. He'd stop the tour bus to bury a fox. And the music was just amazing. It just flowed."

Another career highlight was returning to his classical roots and playing sax solo with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Albert Hall in London at a Rock Classics gig. "It was a fantastic feeling," says Raphael. "The bad boy made good."

One person he'd love to work with is David Bowie. "He's my absolute idol. He has managed to keep reinventing himself - and always with style - but still has a life."

However his rock 'n' roll lifestyle eventually took its toll. His marriage ended in divorce, although he still has a great relationship with his daughter Scarlett, now 18. And at the age of 45, Raphael was confined to bed for a year following a serious illness.

"I had viral pneumonia, my lung collapsed and I had a heart attack," he reveals. "The culmination of 30 years of excess."

Raphael spent seven months in hospital, then moved to Cornwall to recuperate. He was told he would never play sax again. "I was in bed for a whole year. I was semi paralysed and it was a pretty frightening time," he says.

Determined to get better, Raphael began to pay more attention to his health, diet and nutrition and practised the Alexander Technique to help with his breathing.

"My lungs could not take in any oxygen. Breathing was my living, but it hurt to breathe. Playing my sax was painful. But now, I'm playing better than ever. Doctors say I have defied them!"

Raphael had always harboured a desire to teach and had told himself that he would do this by the time he was 50.

So when he saw an advert for a teaching post at York College, he send off his CV. Which brings us back to where we started.

But what is it like, living in York, teaching at the college?

"I really like York. I feel at home here," says Raphael, who lives in South Bank and enjoys running on Knavesmire. "I still go off to Paris or London for work, but it is nice to come back to York. I love my life. It's cool."

Raphael is just one of several professional musicians who make up York College's music staff. Raphael, who is also studying for a teaching qualification at the college, specialises in putting music to film and instructing students on various aspects of the music industry: from how to write an invoice to how to promote yourself.

He teaches on the HND two-year music technology course, which is a practical course geared towards getting a job in the industry, and is already hugely impressed by his students.

"I have a really talented guitar player and another who is really good at writing and singing. And there are a couple of kids who are going to be huge DJs in the next two years."

Besides teaching and studying, Raphael is still working, not least with French act St Germain but also on an intriguing-sounding project where he is putting sound to images of DNA. He's also involved with a young Cornish band, Wired Daisies, which he is tipping for great things.

"I'm still really active and I find that is quite useful as far as the job goes," he says. "I am concerned that the students still see me as actively earning a living."

As for teaching, it's not so different from his old job, says Raphael. "It is similar to playing live. You are still performing in front of a group of people who are really tuned into what you are doing. It's a great buzz."

For more details about music courses at York College, contact Chris Euesden on 01904 770280.

Updated: 09:23 Friday, May 07, 2004