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1985 - JOHN WAITE SOLO - MASK OF SMILES
„This was a hard to make album“, John Waite reveals. „I was on tour for about a year and a half. Then I fell in love with that woman. I was crazy for her... But she married another man. I was in deep trouble and I wrote songs that were based on that. I was at risk of committing suicide for a while. Totally lost. A dark period. Retrospectively I´m surprised that I survived all that. It was a life on the edge. Self destruction.“
According to John „Mask of Smiles“ includes the „ultimate down song“ that reflects his frame of mind at that time.
Welcome to Paradise... „In that song ‚paradise’ is a relative term”, John elucidates. „Especially being at the
top of the ladder and finding out that you´re nowhere else but on the bottom again. It´s like you´ve gone all this way
to become successful, you arrive and there´s nothing there. And it´s just as lonely as it was at the bottom.
If not more lonely.“
Further on one might be surprised to find a song on that record that´s called „No Brakes“. „Actually it was written while
I lived in Manhattan, directly after 'Ignition'. At that time EMI had this we-refuse-each-John-Waite-song-phase.
In September 1985 John went on a lengthy tour to push the album. In October 1985 he expands the promotion tour and
performs on Dutch TV, but he´s not allowed to sing live. In January 1986 he plays London finally. He and his Alas „Mask of Smiles“ doesn´t make it, although this album is dealt as one of his best works, not commercially though („Listening to ‚Mask of Smiles’ is like reading in a diary.“) but that is not the point. „It´s not important being Number One“, John assures. „I was Number One already, thank you. All I want is to cross the street for a hamburger without making a splash.“
One can imagine who´s to blame for the failure of this meanwhile highly traded album...
„The record company had some difficulties with the promotion because there have been major changes
in the A&R section“,
says John. „Even the director has been replaced.“ |
