‘Midnight Daydream’ – The Biggest All-Star Recording You’ve Never Heard Of
Bruce Cameron was 44 years old in 1999 and like many other guitarists was extremely influenced by Jimi Hendrix. With his family wealth backing his vision, Cameron wanted to make a CD featuring original music with legendary rock icons as sidemen.
‘Midnight Daydream’ was that project and it featured Jack Bruce (Cream), Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience), Buddy Miles and Billy Cox (Band of Gypsies), Ken Hensley (Uriah Heap), Harvey Dalton Arnold (The Outlaws), Neal Smith and Michael Bruce (Alice Cooper), Bunk Gardner (Mothers of Invention) and the man who pulled it all together, Billy James (Ant Bee). Never heard of ‘Midnight Daydream’? Most people haven’t.
Recalls Billy James “I had moved to Wilmington, North Carolina from Los Angeles about a year before I met Bruce. He had evidently heard of my Ant-Bee albums. I was also working with and doing some gigs with Alice Cooper guitarist / songwriter Michael Bruce.” A friend named Wayne Langston brought Cameron to meet James one day. “He looked a bit like a bleached blond Keith Richards and seemed nice enough. He wanted to leave a demo tape for me to listen to and wanted to see if I would help him put together his debut solo album.” At the time James was snowed under by demo tapes and CDs from around the world asking him for help with their music in one way or another. “A few days later I decided to listen to Bruce’s demos and was very surprised – I was very impressed with the song writing and performances – particularly his guitar playing. What really struck me was how well he channeled the genres of music he was emulating in his songs – particularly Hendrix.” James decided to help him and after an agreement was struck, they went to work on his first album.
Once Cameron had made a “shopping list’ of musicians he wanted, James went to work assembling them. “Most of the artists involved had a fee and if we could pay the fee (session work, airfare, food, lodging, etc.) they were interested. Some of the artists like Ken Hensley, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith I had worked with previously. For Buddy Miles, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox I went through Buddy’s manager at the time, Robert Fitzpatrick. Cameron knew Harvey Dalton Arnold from many years previous. I solicited Jack Bruce through his management. There were some artists who outright passed but most were surprisingly not that difficult to obtain.” Two who did pass on the offer were John Kay of Steppenwolf and Rob Halford of Judas Priest.
This was Bruce’s project, having written all the songs, engineered all the songs, mixing and producing all the tracks (with Derrick Akker assisting on some of the tracks) Bruce absolutely had to go analog on the project. “Because the project had a retro vibe to it” James explained, “due to Bruce’s musical influences and the guest artists involved and the genres of music Bruce was channeling through his songwriting, it only made sense to record on an analog system.” Since there were no analog studios around Wilmington, North Carolina at the time, he decided to build his own studio plus it gave him the studio at his disposal anytime night or day.
To get his musical vision right for each song, Bruce made specific demos for each one. “Bruce was very proficient on several instruments. In the way Pete Townshend would demo songs for The Who to learn, Bruce demoed all the songs first and put down many of the guitar tracks and bass lines first. Bruce did all the guitar tracks plus some sitar, mellotron, sarod and pedal steel musings.” Did he ever get overwhelmed by all that he was taking on in this project? “No, on the contrary I believe he relished in the entire process. The guest artists fueled his tireless work ethic on the album. He really did a great job all around.”
Talking about the artists involved, Billy says that “Mitch Mitchell was one of the nicest people I have ever met. Not a shred of ego – just really nice and pleasant.” Being a drummer himself, James was honored that Mitch showed him how he set up his kit and tuned his drums. Mitchell also loved to check out old classic drums in pawn shops so James took him to Finklesteins in downtown Wilmington. A small crowd formed around them and Mitchell gladly answered questions” Finklesteins manager, David Summerlin (also a drummer) recalls spending a few hours talking to Mitch (“a really nice guy”). Later that evening, Mitch, Billy and Bruce watched the ‘Hendrix Plays Woodstock’ video with Mitch commenting on certain parts of the performance. For James, “it was a bit surreal at times.”
The ‘Raining The Blues’ recording is historic because Mitch Mitchell and Jack Bruce both play on it though they weren’t in the studio at the same time. It’s the only recording ever that features both of them. Jack Bruce would also add vocals and bass to ‘Doctor Please’ which featured James on drums. “It was a great honor to play drums on a track with the legendary Jack Bruce. Although in hindsight, it might have been better if Mitch had played on both of the Jack Bruce tracks, for historic value. We had plans to film a video for ‘Doctor Please’ – Jack Bruce, Bruce Cameron and I. We were going to rent out Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington to film the video.” James also found Bruce interesting for his comments. “He had never heard The Who’s ‘Tommy” and was proud of that fact.” Bruce was also invited to do a little jamming in the studio, but the former bass player for the Cream declined saying “I’m not all that much into jamming.”
Two Alice Cooper band originals, drummer Neal Smith and vocalist Michael Bruce, made guest appearances, together and separately. “The two songs Michael sings lead vocal on were slated for another vocalist. Something happened with Bruce and the other vocalist and I suggested having Michael do the vocals. He did his best “Alice Cooper” vocal, which the songs required and they came out great. Bruce was very happy with the results as was I.”
James points out other notables on the CD included “Harvey Dalton Arnold of The Outlaws being the bass backbone for most of the project, playing on 6 of the tracks. Uriah Heep organist Ken Hensley added Hammond to a couple of songs and Bunk Gardner of the Mothers of Invention putting woodwinds into one recording.” James also did some drum tracks and vocals, when Bruce need some “Beatlesque vocals” which James was quite good at.
However, the most interesting combination of “guest artists” was Bruce, Buddy Miles and Billy Cox. “They played really well together and there was a lot of potential for more studio recordings as well as live shows.” Bruce had plans for a second album and on his shopping list were Ginger Baker and Eric Burdon. “The idea was that Bruce, Buddy and Billy would do some shows around the U.S. to promote the album release.”
On September 15, 1999, the Hilton Hotel in Wilmington NC hosted a press conference regarding the release. Billy Cox, Buddy Miles, Bruce Cameron and Billy James were all present. Publicity material heralded the group of musicians as a reunion of the famous Jimi Hendrix trio, The Band of Gypsies. Full-page advertisements promoting ‘Midnight Daydream’ had been run in national music magazines. Things were ready to roll until Cameron died of a self-inflicted wound.
“Sadly, once Bruce passed the project went with him. I had hired a radio PR company and a publicity company which garnered a few reviews and some airplay but the album never took off due to the fact that Bruce was not able to perform live and promote the album.” Bruce had played some of the next album for James who said “it would have been stellar. I really feel that Bruce’s second album would have been picked up by a large label and his career would have really taken off. Unfortunately his first album has all but been forgotten, or a footnote in one of the guest artist biography / discography. Yet it deserves much more attention that it received.”
Coming up-to-date in 2021 Billy comments that “following in the footsteps of his father, Riley Cameron has taken up the musical torch for Bruce. A gifted musician in his own right and a guitarist like his dad, Riley has a new EP coming out late June and an album coming out in August with his band Midnight Daydream.”
Getting a CD copy of ‘Midnight Daydream’ is nearly impossible. However, every track on the recording is available for listening on YouTube.
Michael Raab
