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Marty Willson-Piper

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Feb 27 2020

TO WHERE I AM NOW

After yesterday’s journey from Germany we didn’t wake up till 12.30pm today and as we were having breakfast Biggles and Colleen were having lunch. Today was our Abbey Road day. I lived in London for years, I grew up around Liverpool as a teenager, I worked in Liverpool after school, I had an elder brother who had all The Beatles records, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, but I’d never been to Abbey Road. We walked out into a chilly sunny day (Colleen and Biggles told us that the morning had snow). We took the overground train from New Malden to Waterloo. When we got there we realized it was a big and beautiful Victorian station, originally opened in 1848 (rebuilt in 1922). This is the UK’s busiest station and was originally where the Eurostar was based until it moved to St Pancras in 2007. Apparently you can’t take pics here without permission, so I went to the station office and told them I had a blog. They asked me what it was called and gave me a visitor’s pass. All of a sudden, I felt like an insider.

The other reason I was hanging around here was because of one of the great sixties songs, The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset (the station is mentioned in the lyrics). What a lot of people don’t know is that the song was originally written about Liverpool and was originally called Liverpool Sunset (Waterloo is also a place in the North of Liverpool). Ray Davies was apparently in love with Liverpool and Merseybeat in 1967, who wouldn’t be? We were on the way to Abbey Road and Beatles land but Waterloo station and memories of The Kinks’ classic song was a nice distraction.

We took the underground (Jubilee line) to St John’s Wood and stood on one of those long, long, long escalators, where you can hardly see the top. It looked old and I imagined The Beatles must have ridden it, I wondered if they’d considered their album cover shoot here, photographer at the bottom as they sailed down? We walked out of the station onto Grove End Road that leads to Abbey Road and there it was…the zebra crossing, the studio building and tons of nerdy tourists taking pictures and stopping the traffic.

It’s just incredible how famous this spot is, Beatles nuts from all over the world, young and old, breathing it in and trying to find gaps in the traffic to get their pic. Of course the cars have to stop and there’s the occasional impatient driver, but it’s just fun, how can you deny the nerds their fun. We hung around there for a while, took some pics of people taking pics.

Olivia helped a girl from Buenos Aires get her dream pic. We got talking to Gal, an Israeli girl who’s writing a PhD, she was there to observe! Ha ha, studying the nerds, I love it.

We left, passed by Sir Thomas Beecham’s old house and I noted that there’s a lot of Bentleys and Maseratis around here, and got the train to Piccadilly Circus. So many people. People in the stations on the tube, in the streets. You shuffle rather than walk in Central London. We passed by the flashing billboards and the famous statue of Anteros (it’s not Eros, it’s his brother Anteros). A busker was drawing a crowd playing that horrible Ed Sheeran Body song. We hurried by into Charing Cross Rd and went up to Cambridge Circus where I had a look in Fopp (record store). A good selection of new and reissued vinyl, generally reasonably priced, but not today. Everything was too expensive and that David Axelrod album Seriously Deep that I wanted, stayed in the racks. I couldn’t bring myself to buy The Slow Rush (Tame Impala), they’ve gone somewhere I don’t want to go. The collector in me wanted to add it to the other 3 vinyl records I have by them. I did buy Mind Hive, the new Wire album and Tramp by Sharon Van Etten.

We headed out back to Leicester Square on the way to Wagamama for some tasty ramen, but we made a little detour. Just off Leicester Square there’s a small French Catholic Church called Notre Dame de France, I discovered it years and years ago. I like to go in there, one for the contrast of the outside versus the inside, but mainly because there is a mural in there, painted by Jean Cocteau in 1959/60. It’s religious themed (obviously) and if you are a fan, a real secret treasure. I’ve been there many times to see it and finally got to share it with Olivia.

Wagamama is always good, we talked to Michael who we’ve seen there before, he looked us up, asked how the tour in Germany went.

We decided to go to Soho for a coffee and dessert and walked up Charing Cross Road through China Town (ate some taiyaki on the way) and found our way across Shaftesbury Avenue to Soho and went to Bar Italia (opposite Ronnie Scott’s) for a decaf and a Portuguese pastel de nata. Great place, always football on (duh, it’s Italian). Commentary in Italian, Arsenal were playing Olympiacos from Greece (we’d run across some of the Greek fans on the tube), second half just starting, Arsenal lost after extra time. It’s a big loss for them. We waved goodbye to central London and found ourselves on the train from Waterloo to New Malden. Got talking to Carlin and Steve (his brother is in quarantine in a Tenerife hotel), she was from Jamaica. People are nice, you just gotta be nice to them and they’re nice back.

Last but not least I have to tell you about Chris and Sharon. Chris was sitting in his wheelchair in Waterloo. I noticed he had a front wheel. I asked him what it was? I’d never seen that before. He told me an American man had been in hospital and seen people out of the window struggling across the grass in their wheelchairs and he thought there must be a better solution than this struggle. So he invented this front wheel which takes the two smaller front wheels off the ground and creates more traction in the back wheels and that in turn means that the ride is no longer bumpy on difficult services. True genius! On that note Good Night.

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

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Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #m Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #moatband #poisonstream 🤘🏰

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Photo by @oliviaelektra 

#schoolkidsrecords #nikoröhlcke #wellscathedral
Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower disco 🕺🏻 #heyday
Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th Fe Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th February, 2001. All About Eve supporting Fairport Convention.

📷 by @derektimbrell
Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into their new New Mexico listening space 🌵 #nightjar #schoolkidsrecords
Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

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#danelectro #danelectrobass #redeyerecords #pleasantrylane #pleasantrylanestudio
You usually don’t spend the day in the studio an You usually don’t spend the day in the studio and the night at a gig but if you put the studio next to the gig then there’s a greater chance. So @salimnourallah did just that, he put the gig and the studio next to each other and made it possible for me to spend the day recording and the evening playing live 🎵

📷 @drewliophoto 

#galacticheadquarters #happinessarecordlabel #pleasantrylanestudio #salimnourallah #oliviawillsonpiper
TO WHERE I AM NOW A visit in the studio today fro TO WHERE I AM NOW

A visit in the studio today from old mate Mark Burgess from The Chameleons who has been hanging in Texas recently. I was thinking about the two of us growing up in the northwest of England and all these years later finding ourselves in such an unlikely spot together. We fixed a few issues in the universe and I carried on recording some guitars until Mark had to leave. Mark had played at the Galactic Headquarters next to the studio this year as Olivia and I had four years ago and this reminded me to remind myself to remind everyone to remind their friends that we will be playing there with Salim on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, for the ultimate in intimate performance. You can get tickets here (follow link below).

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1045

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📷 @salimnourallah 

#markburgess #thechameleons #chameleonsvox #pleasantrylanestudio #happinessarecordlabel #martywillsonpiper #oliviawillsonpiper #moatband
📷 @argirgirl 📷 @argirgirl
TO WHERE I AM NOW Sadness manifested in a buildin TO WHERE I AM NOW

Sadness manifested in a building, today we went to visit Paisley Park. Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen, about twenty minutes southwest of Minneapolis. It opened in 1987 and he recorded his later albums there. Apart from Prince, REM also recorded and mixed Out Of Time there, recording Kate Pearson’s vocal on Shiny Happy People vocal. Madonna had Prince play guitar on three songs from Like A Prayer and the two co-wrote Love Song, finishing it remotely due to Madonna not being able to stand the cold weather and the rather desolate location of the studio. Of course, there are things around but it’s not in the city and it’s not in the countryside, it’s in a suburb, no distractions, just what Prince wanted.

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1032

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📷 @argirgirl 

#paisleypark #prince
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In Deep Music Archive

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
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"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

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