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Today was another studio day working on Ahad’s album so if you are waiting to hear from me, tomorrow is my proposed emailing day. It seems I have to plan the day I email and put it in my diary. How much time did I have in my twenties? I was obviously completely taken up with being in a band but apart from reading that’s all I did. I remember in those early days I lived on Bondi Beach and never went there, it didn’t occur to me that visiting the beach, going in the sea, might be a pleasurable thing to do. Coming from the north of England and playing guitar, the two activities seemed incongruous. Oh, the sweet and narrow focus of youth.

Today it was all Fender Stratocaster, fuzz and wah-wah, I can think of worse ways to spend the day. Although one of my pedals (echo) seems to be broken, maintaining equipment can be time-consuming and expensive. For example, having a few guitars sounds like fun, right? All those guitars need strings and have to be strung. I have actually done a video on how to string a Rickenbacker 12 string (not online yet). Guitars need to be intonated, a guitar has to be in tune, up and down the neck, they have to be serviced, the electrics can break down, the neck can twist and buckle, the action rises, the bridge saddles flip, the nut breaks, the machine heads lose their tension. Then there’s the guitar leads that break, power packs fail, amps die, valves stop working, speakers rattle. All this needs techs to fix the problems and that’s not me.

A trip into town had me meet two lovely people, Jasmine and Poppy. As I was walking up the street I passed by these two teenage girls and one of them said, “Cool T-shirt”. How nice of them to say. I told them that Olivia had drawn it after an idea I had for an In Deep T-shirt based on an angler fish (in the deep), instead of a light on the head there’s a record for musical enlightenment. So I chatted with Jasmine and Poppy for a bit, so nice to see two interested intelligent young women communicating with the older dudes.

It’s still raining here and clearing up as the day moves on. The rest of the country and Europe is hot and after a couple of days of studio I needed a walk to the sea. It had cleared up but the clouds were still strangling the blue patches and the ground was still wet. The construction on the prom is in full flight and the recycling bins are four days away from being removed. We went past the skate park and onto the stony beach. The sea was as high as I’d ever seen it and the waves were breaking fast. There seemed to be quite a few fishing boats out in the bay, two of them, both orange, looked like they were from the same fleet with others too distant to grasp their shapes and sizes. We left the beach for the supermarket and found our way back to the studio (via the giant sci-fi plant life in Morrab Gardens), ate there and watched an episode of Humans.

The news has been terrible. The explosion in Beirut and the doctored videos that are being circulated. Nobody knows what’s true anymore. It’s one thing to disagree it’s another to trick people into believing something that isn’t true in order to get them onto your side. What kind of hell beast does this? Then there’s the battle between all the sides over the children going back to school. Where will it end?

In sport, we have the match of the month with Real Madrid at Man City tomorrow in the second leg of the Champions League battle. City lead 2-1 and play at home. Don’t miss this one. This is what it’s all about beyond your team, other teams, great teams, entertaining fans of a sport they follow. I can’t imagine not wanting to see this if you are a football fan. There’s England vs Pakistan in the cricket where England are in big trouble and at one stage were 12 for 3. Sadly as I don’t get BBC I can’t watch the snooker, probably a good thing, as I’d be mesmerised by the slow beauty of the game and the levels of skill as well as the soothing commentary.

Music today is a slight look at the work of Kevin Coyne, slight because there’s a lot to say, a lot of material and it doesn’t end with music, there’s painting, poetry, writing and a unique approach to music as evidenced on his many thoughtful albums of hope, despair and humour. The first album came as part of the band Siren released on John Peel’s Dandelion label in 1969. It’s Blues-based written with bassist and co-producer Dave Clague and pianist guitarist Nick Cudworth. John Chichester played lead guitar and Tat Meager played drums (although there’s only four of them on the cover). You know someone is missing the point somewhere when there’s no Wikipedia page for Siren, thankfully there’s one for Kevin Coyne. For a band with barely a mention and despite Kevin Coyne’s presence, they have an impressive sound and vibe with songs like Wake Up My Children showcasing their folky Blues sixties angst, something like Eric Burdon meets Mick Jagger in a mixed Blues boom and Jug band. It’s actually easier to look back on this from the heights of Coyne’s later works, one might mistake this for just another late sixties British Blues band, it isn’t. They cover BB King’s Rock Me Baby but you have to remember that Rock Me Baby was controversial then. You have to judge things in the spirit of the times, like say, Beatles haircuts if it wasn’t for them, their songs, their look, their philosophical ideas – and their hair, the world would be a much different place today – Blumpo might be seen as moderate.

In his early years, Coyne worked in a psychiatric hospital in Preston and as a drugs councillor in London and the experiences of working with mental illness and addiction never left him when the arts took over. Asylum on Side 2 of the first Siren album becomes all the more clear. Let’s say he had a realistic take on the world and later became known as the ‘anti-star’. Before he began a long prolific solo career, Siren made Strange Locomotion (1971). Mick Gratton takes over on lead guitar which probably explains the four-piece photo on the first album and the five-piece photo on the inner sleeve of the second album. On this record, the direction is clearer. Coyne’s voice is distinctive (I’m All Aching) and the stories he tells, like on Some Dark Day, reveal a talented narrator of human insights. Before Dandelion ceased operating as a label Coyne made Case History (1972), I don’t have it – yet. Its title suggests that those experiences working in a mental institution are dealt with again on this record. It’s actually still the lads from Siren playing but it had become apparent that he was the magic and after this record, all Siren members were consigned to Coyne’s history.

When Coyne signed to Virgin as a solo artist, the second artist to be signed after Mike Oldfield, he made the amazing Marjory Razorblade (1973) with the opening title track a disturbing a capella – angst doesn’t really cover it. Marlene, the next track, showcases Coyne’s voice, sounding like a manic Van Morrison. It’s a double album in the UK, a single album in the US, Coyne sings and plays guitar, Gordon Smith plays guitar, Jean Roussel keys, Chili Charles drums and Tony Cousins bass. The fourth track, Eastbourne Ladies, is one of his best-known songs and this album is the place to start should you be interested in exploring him further. If you haven’t heard Good Boy on Side 4 and a cocktail of eccentricity, humour and pain is your thing, then look no further. (A nod here to my friend Jan in Stockholm who loves this track.)

His next album, Blame It On The Night (1974), seems to have some slight aspiration to accessibility to a bigger audience whilst making sure that it doesn’t happen with the more acoustic tracks. Lyrically strong, the consistently captivating voice and melodies, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone more direct than Kevin Coyne. You may never have heard anything like Witch or ever will again. Gordon Smith, Tony Cousins and Chili Charles follow him onto this album. It’s another forgotten album from the seventies by another forgotten artist of talent, sincerity and quality. Don’t let him disappear off the planet completely.

Kevin Coyne on The Old Grey Whistle Test 1973 with Gordon Smith on guitar and Chili Charles on percussion playing I Want My Crown and House On The Hill from Marjory Razorblade, Virgin Records (1973):

 
Kevin Coyne performing together with Zoot Money for a live audience in Köln, Germany (1979) – The World Is Full Of Fools and Having A Party from the 1979 album Millionaires and Teddy Bears.

I stepped out of the submarine, leaving the looming silhouette of the conning tower and slid down the chute to the blizzard’s mouth. I slipped between the teeth into the throat and slid down into the ice belly where a dilapidated sign hanging by a woven slither of rusty wire kept it clanging against the rib cage. Written on the sign in old Norse was “sommaren” and an arrow. I thought I heard a brass band playing and there under the heart was a bandstand that I recognised. It was Morrab Gardens in Penzance. I knew I was there because the wind was howling, sheets of rain were being blown sideways by strong gusts and the town was full of tourists who were trying their best to keep a brave face after choosing the dark mouth of the winter monster for their vacation and their desperate escape from the virus. Up in the sky, I could see the submarine resting on the clouds and thought about the fields of roses that lay inside. I climbed the ladder leaning against the back of the tongue, the steps were slippy and planted with wasp stings that were hard to avoid, I could see my fingers start to balloon as they were pierced which took me off the steps as I floated out of the gaping mouth and back to the waiting vessel. Inside everything was yellow and turquoise with splashes of vibrant red, I closed my eyes and awoke into a new spring.

Dare and I were in the studio today continuing our work on Ahad’s album. I was breaking out the guitars, all Fenders today, Strat, Tele and Jazz, and working on ideas and translating Ahad’s demos into reality. Listening to pre-written riffs adding intertwining new riffs to complement the ones already written, finding complementary parts, exploring dynamics and arriving at choruses with a bang. I used a Fuzz Box (G.B. Fuzz) that I found in my road case 30 years ago, I saw it on eBay for £500, how is that possible? It did sound really good but it’s hard to sell the idea of the importance of real equipment against the digital choices available for a fraction of the price but with a fraction of the meaning. McDonald’s should release a multi-effects rack, there would definitely be a market for it. As far as computer recording, we’re stuck with it and every brilliant thing about it, but what makes it better is at least keeping the equipment authentic around it and using the digital as a compliment not as a given.

I also got to clean some more records today, the record cleaning machine hoovering 50 years of dirt out of the grooves. I was fantasising today about who actually owned these records originally. Who owned Aretha Now on Atlantic from 1968? Who bought it brand new somewhere in America, played it to death, loved it but eventually sold it or gave it away or threw it away. Imagine if you could trace the owners through the grooves. I’d like to give some of them a talking to about the condition that the records are in. I wonder why people could never look after their records when they ended up jumping and clicking and became a competition of noise between the music and the bottle of orange juice someone spilt on them or the dirt from the carpet, or the banging into the stereo or the careless lifting the needle off the player and scratching it across the record, gouging a ditch across a beautiful song.

On the subject of destruction can you imagine the art objects destroyed over the centuries? Paintings burned, manuscripts lost, statues, buildings and what about Pete Townshend’s Rickenbackers? Destruction of art and science, destruction of nature, it seems easier to see this planet as a place of anger and destruction than of development and understanding or the appreciation of beauty and respect for humanity itself. The aliens are so sad but they just can’t risk moving here because they know there will be a faction that will persecute them and their alien families, their alien children and their alien pets. If black people have to suffer so much because of the colour of their skin or gay people because of who they fall in love with can you imagine what a tri-sexual four-armed oversensitive black and yellow striped alien would have to endure? They are staying away on the happy planets where the twin moons send out songs and the multi-race society isn’t seen as a Utopia but as the obvious normal way to live.

Music today has seen Lucinda Williams reappear in the CD player with her new album Good Souls Better Angels. Another great record from her with her perceptive lyrics that always seem to expose raw truth. Bad News Blues is great as she notes that bad news are everywhere you look and follows it with a scathing attack on Blimpo on Man Without A Soul, although nowhere does she mention his name. Her songs always sound like she is going through something, has been through something or is recognising that someone is going through something. She straddles an odd ground between Rock, Country and Blues but is none of the above. Whoever is playing guitar with her always has a fantastic sound, this time it’s Stuart Mathis, great tone, great parts. Then there’s her voice, she sounds like she’s been up drinking all night but is still seeing things clearly as she slurs out reality. I have all of her albums and I’m never disappointed. Good Souls Better Angels is another classic from her, essential.

Always a fan of Alice In Chains and the late Layne Staley’s brilliant voice, next to the red couch is A-B in the archive’s CDs and I saw their Unplugged album, live from The Majestic Theater in Brooklyn 1996. Not a band that is generally associated with acoustic performance, they made this and two amazing EPs, Sap and Jar Of Flies that showed another side, not acoustic exactly but mostly and not the sound they are associated with either. I love a band that’s slow, slow like Dave Gilmour, slow like Paul Kossoff, slow like Alice In Chains. They seemed to be unhip beyond the realms of reason but I suppose the sensitive soul never liked a growl and saw them as dirgy metal, the grunge that you were allowed to hate when you couldn’t hate Nirvana. But to me, they had incredible dark melodies and even more incredible dark harmonies shared with guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Staley could conjure up the devil and for those of you that know about him, he did, dying of a heroin and cocaine overdose at the age of 34. They entwine the tangled roots of ancient trees with fresh leaves, they are melodic and find those melodies in unlikely chord progressions. If you are scared of them or doubt their talent, their songwriting skills or their schtick, perhaps start here and see if you can gravitate towards their electric material.

Songs Of The Daze:

Lucinda Williams – Tiny Desk Concert July 2020, songs from the new album Good Souls Better Angels:

“Fools and thieves and clowns and hypocrites,
Gluttony and greed, and that ain’t the worst of it.”

Set List:
Bad News Blues
Big Black train
You Can’t Rule Me
Man Without A Soul

You’re a man without truth
A man of greed, a man of hate
A man of envy and doubt
You’re a man without a soul
All the money in the world
Will never fill that hole
You’re a man bought and sold
You’re a man without a soul
You bring nothing good to this world
Beyond a web of cheating and stealing
You hide behind your wall of lies
But it’s coming down
Yeah, it’s coming down
You’re a man without shame
Without dignity and grace
No way to save face
You’re a man without a soul
How do you think this story ends?
It’s not a matter of how
It’s just a matter of when
‘Cause it’s coming down
Yeah, it’s coming down
There’s a darkness all around you
To cover all you’re hiding
There’s no light in your eyes
You’re a man without a soul
Now the exits will be closing
A sad life will be…

MUSICIANS
Lucinda Williams – vocals, guitar
Stuart Mathis – guitar

Lucinda Williams – Live On KEXP Seattle 2015 supporting her then latest album Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Set List:
East Side Of Town
West Memphis
Protection
It’s Gonna Rain

Alice in Chains from Unplugged – Live at the Majestic Theater in Brooklyn 1996 with the late Layne Staley on vocals, Jerry Cantrell on guitar and vocals, Mike Inez on bass and Sean Kinney on drums with Scott Olson on guitar.

Listen to the whole concert here.

My short exposure to the outside today had me go to the pasty shop and try and pay for the week in advance when I’d already done that yesterday. Yes, I was convinced today was Monday and it took me till 3PM to realise it was Tuesday. I went to the grocery store to buy cauliflower and there was a girl in there who looked quite out of place because she didn’t have a mask. The woman at the till didn’t say anything to her and it was hard to know from her demeanour whether she was demonstrating against the mask, forgot the mask or didn’t know about the mask. I suppose she might have been a tourist and it’s not obvious to be wearing a mask as most people in the street don’t. But if she’d come with me to buy a pasty, they wouldn’t have served her and when I think about Olivia’s trip up and down to the supermarket yesterday after forgetting her mask, it was just so odd to see her so seemingly unaware or flaunting the rules or whatever it was. She seemed to be disregarding the consequences of at least a £100 fine, I’m not sure who would come and slap the fine on her, this is Penzance after all. But this is the thing about the pandemic, some people don’t believe it exists and others are scared to death, literally. I’ll do anything to help, including erring on the side of caution just “Gimme Some Truth”.

Dare was in the studio today trying out some organ on a track we had been working on for Ahad’s album and sending him some rough mixes of the works in progress. I had two sessions, one with Kadeem in London and another with Chris in New Jersey. I just can’t believe how quickly the days fly by, was last week really a week ago? Talking of the studio, we got a letter back from the Council about the noise complaint in response to our response. It seems that the man across the road has to keep a diary of his complaints before the council can advise us on the law, including installing some equipment in his flat to monitor the levels and the frequency (sonic and temporal). We’ll see what happens.

The most lucrative prize in football, the rise to the Premiership, was tonight. Fulham beat Brentford 2-1 in extra time, it’s so sad for the losers, so great for the winners. It’s almost as if the aftermath, the consequences of the result, are where the drama is, more than the actual game. Of course, there are great games and this one wasn’t too bad, it was something of a stalemate and one mistake by the goalkeeper was responsible for Fulham’s opening goal. The two later goals were both worthy on either side but it was the mistake that gave Fulham the prize. Where the goalkeeper was standing and the ingenuity of the free-kick taker led to the goal. Oddly, the two Fulham goals were scored by a defender. Apparently winning or losing this game means the loss or gain of £160,000,000 – lost because of a player’s momentary miscalculation.

French today was interesting because with Duolingo there’s practice lessons where you go over what you’ve learned and today I did all three tests with no mistakes, so it’s sinking in. So that’s two months of every day, I just wish I could do Italian and Spanish too but I suppose my brain can only hold so much, or is it the opposite? If you fill your brain with information does it make it bigger, better, more efficient? Is it the exercising a muscle theory? Of course, you can overdo anything but should we be worried about overdoing knowledge?

I’ve just remembered that last night I had a dream that I can’t remember. I think I remembered it earlier in the day but now it’s gone. It might be interesting to try and make a point of remembering dreams just because they are often such bizarre stories. Whether your dreams have a profound meaning is up for discussion. But there are truly strange pictures and dialogues, happenings and dramas in your head. To think it’s all going on when you are asleep might suggest that your brain does actually need to be active all the time – it doesn’t want rest. Which might be the opposite of the theories that promote meditation, the clearing of the mind. I’m not sure I can clear my mind of music or want to.

Music today has been inspired by birthdays and Earth exits. Today in 2007 the great Lee Hazlewood left for the stars aged 78. What he left behind is a vast catalogue of original material, collaborations, cover versions, productions, and that memorable baritone. He might be most famous for writing Nancy Sinatra’s No. 1 hit from 1966, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, but in the fifties his successes began as the producer for Duane Eddy, hit after hit ensued. Involvement with Dean Martin, collaborations with Nancy and Frank (he produced Something Stupid) exposed a prolific artist who his wife Jeane Kelly was quoted as saying

He was rude and sweet, innocent and depraved, proud and bitter. He absorbed everything he heard, saw, and read – from Port Neches (Texas) to L.A. to Stockholm – and then made his own music in his own defiant way.

He wrote This Town recorded by Frank Sinatra, had his own record label LHI (Lee Hazelwood Industries) and lived in Sweden for 10 years. It’s hard to know what to recommend with him because there is so much, but I like the solo album Love And Other Crimes from 1968. Of course, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Some Velvet Morning 100 times or perhaps Summer Wine and a whole list of other tracks that he either duetted with Nancy or wrote for her.

It’s Paul Reynolds’ birthday (58)! Who is that? Well, he was the guitarist in that band from Liverpool that were known as A Flock Of Haircuts but had the equally silly name A Flock Of Seagulls perhaps inspired by equally silly named Liverpool legends Echo And The Bunnymen. Nobody really seemed to take them seriously mainly because of how they looked and their hair but they had hits and Paul Reynolds had some ideas. I listened to the debut album released in 1982 with its equally silly cover of a combined TV and toaster sitting in a fantasy lake in a fantasy house with seagulls flying overhead. It is so eighties, consciously modern and on the coattails of Punk, and then New Wave helped wipe out Prog for years to come. What was unique about it was Paul Reynolds’ guitar, which separated it from the Synth bands, gave it a different sound to compliment Mike Score’s keyboard pads and the sound of his hair. Lots of delay and effects and lyrics about being abducted by aliens (I Ran), what’s not to like? The synth thing and biscuit tin snare sound leave a lot to be desired and when you compare this release to The Blurred Crusade you might wonder at how The Blurred Crusade didn’t get a US release until way later and made little impact outside Australia, must have been the haircuts. Anyway – Happy Birthday, Paul Reynolds.

Today is Moya Brennan from Clannad’s birthday (68) so I thought I’d listen to their debut album from 1973. The album is mostly sung in Gaelic but includes two English language songs plus absolutely coincidentally a cover of Bonnie Dobson’s Morning Dew which also appears on the Lee Hazlewood album. So it’s traditional Folk music and it’s a family affair. They were formed in County Donegal by siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Moya Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan (Pádraig died in 2016). Sister and niece Enya was in the band from 1980-1982 until she embarked on a solo career that has seen her sell 75 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful artists of all time. Clannad have continued humbly on breaking ground in their genre as they investigated a jazzier side and New Age. This album is a worthy beautiful traditional and organic slice of Irish authenticity, not to be missed, highly recommended.

Ending the night with the great German Electronic legend that is Klaus Schulze. Earlier in Tangerine Dream’s history, he was their drummer and apart from flirtations with The Cosmic Jokers and Ash Ra Tempel and an alias Richard Wahnfried, he has made 60 albums to date. Good luck collecting them all. If you were a fan of Klaus Schulze, Peter Hammill and Frank Zappa and had everything they’d released you’d have one very full room of records. Again it’s hard to know which album to play and perhaps the best way to categorise them is to separate them into eras. Sticking to the seventies and one of the first albums I ever listened to by Schulze was Blackdance from 1973 and coincidently he was 73 today and more profoundly coincidental, the second track is called Some Velvet Phasing. He didn’t always just stick to electronic instruments and for example, on this album, some acoustic guitars come into the picture quite early on. It isn’t long before the rhythm machines and the squiggly electronic noises, drones and themes and operatic voice. Investigate!

Song Of The Day is Some Velvet Morning which I have posted before but it never gets old.

I awoke this morning to the sound of someone getting out of the car singing Gene Pitney’s 24 Hours From Tulsa along to the radio (I suppose it could have been a tape, a CD, an MP3). I heard the car door open and close and then it was gone but it was a song that is branded on my brain. In the sixties, everyone knew this song and even for me the song always felt like it was from another era, probably because it was. It was a hit in the UK in 1963 when I was 5 but somehow the song had longevity and reappeared often, probably because it was a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, their songs have a habit of doing that. There was also Gene Pitney’s unusual voice, totally unique. In 2006 Pitney was touring the UK, he had just played at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff to a standing ovation. That was the last he was seen alive, he was found dead in his hotel room by his manager apparently dying of a heart attack.

I didn’t really mean to start off talking about music today, it was just that waking moment but on the subject of vehicles, beware of low flying motorbikes! On the way to the studio, pasty in hand, a big black and chrome motorbike came roaring by and parked just ahead of me. The rider was wearing a leather jacket with Red Chiefs Cornwall emblazoned on the back. So I thought I’d ask him about his bike. It was a Harley although it didn’t have Harley written on it anywhere, he told me that he had built it out of two other Harleys. It was interesting, he was really quietly spoken, all the roar was in the bike.

It was warm today and up on the rec, three old small dogs were casually following their owner in a line. She was talking to a friend just knowing that they would be there behind her. It’s really lovely how faithful dogs are and how many different shapes and sizes they come in. The jackdaws were also out today, one sitting on a roof with two pigeons, birds hanging out together, not judging the colour of each other’s feathers.

I had a sesh today with Stefan in Germany and Olivia went down to the recycling and the supermarket but when she got there she realised she’d forgotten her mask and had to come all the way back to the studio to go all the way back down again, good for the legs, good for the body, good for the soul, the sea, the park, the fresh air, the sunlight and the last week before they take the recycling away. I’m going to miss the recycling, has anybody ever said that before?

I made a point of doing French early today and came to a tricky part – Ce, Cet, Cette, Ces, Ce sont, C’est. You just have to learn it and it is actually slowly sinking in, I wish I’d done this when I was 22 instead of 62 but I must have been doing something else important, haha, I wonder.

I also made a point of getting the record cleaning machine out today so I can get sorted in the archive. I’ve been pulling records out like there’s no tomorrow, there’s been new records arriving and they are piling up because I don’t want to put the old records back into the shelves until they’ve been cleaned and it takes some time and the machine is really loud, thank Lorde for noise cancellation headphones. The new Furs album arrived today, then there’s the new Dylan, Laura Marling, the unreleased Neil Young and lots more to catch up on.

I spoke to Salim today and I spoke to Jerome today, two projects that are works in progress where there’s forward movement – exciting. Everything takes time but it’s not like we need to rush to get these records out with MOAT, Space Summit and Nightjar in the wings, Ahad’s album in construction and Noctorum 5 started. People keep on telling me I should make an album in my name too, as well as MOAT and Noctorum where I mainly sing. Apparently there’s something about having a record out in my name? Hm, ok then.

Music today is Northern Irish Psychedelic band Andwellas Dream who released one album, Love And Poetry, in 1969. All the songs were written by Belfast lad David Lewis before he was 18 years old. Although the album descended into obscurity, it’s a classic of the era. Lewis was joined by Nigel Smith on bass and Gordon Barton on drums. (Rory Gallagher’s first drummer Wilgar Campbell played one track.) Lewis not only wrote the songs, but he also played piano and organ, played all the guitars and was the lead singer. Jazzer Bob Downes played all kinds of esoteric percussive instruments and flute. It’s a mellow and dramatic album (not melodramatic), the songs are strong and moody and one wonders how they failed to make an impression with this album except that it might not be Psychedelic enough to be a true Psychedelic classic and not catchy sixties Pop enough to grab that crowd either. Cocaine is somewhere between The Zombies and Fleetwood Mac. It reminded me of the time when The Hollies went Psychedelic, the times were dictating the vibe but the songwriter remained the same, he was just adapting. There’s some great guitar tones and it has that sixties production that puts the drums in one side of the speakers in my stereo which begs the question was this album supposed to be listened to in mono? The reissue doesn’t mention mono or stereo anywhere, so who knows? On my last stereo amp, I had a mono button so I could listen with the music in the middle of the speakers if I wished, in case the idea of the drums in the left speaker was too strange.

By 1970 they had shortened their name to Andwella and released World’s End, only David Lewis remained, joined by Jack McCulloch on drums, Dave Struthers on bass, and Dave McDougall as a permanent piano and organ player. The album sails nicely into the seventies but again one wonders who was buying it. I like it a lot, it’s a grower but it suffers from a lack of direction, one foot in the sixties, one foot in the seventies and times were changing fast, you didn’t want to end up like The Tremeloes who despite sixties hits and good seventies records couldn’t get arrested in that decade. Lewis had also written the music for poet David Baxter’s album Goodbye Dave (1970) who was on the same label (Reflection). Super hard to find and expensive. Lewis seemed to have all the skills but not the successes and the variation on World’s End seemed to hinder him rather than help him. World’s End Part 1 theme, the only piece not written by Lewis but by American Bobby Scott, seems completely out of place on this album which is exactly why I like it. It’s supposed to set up World’s End Part 2 written by Lewis as if suddenly we are in the middle of a concept album, are we?

Andwella’s last album, People’s People was released in 1971. Lewis again wrote all the songs and again there’s different styles, The World Of Angelique might be a Glen Campbell or Gordon Lightfoot song whereas other songs might be a less Pop Badfinger, if Pete Ham was singing and Joey Molland was playing guitar you’d be cartwheeling around the room to Mississippi Water and probably to She Taught Me To Love as well. It’s as if Lewis is again following some kind of sound of the day, the first album one foot in sixties Pop and one foot in Psychedelia, the second album one foot in late sixties and one foot in the seventies and this last album has one foot in seventies Pop and another in singer-songwriter land. It’s as if Lewis the songwriter shouldn’t be Lewis the band leader even though he is, he should be writing for all kinds of different people. He made two more solo albums in the seventies but hit pay dirt when he wrote Happy To Be On An Island In The Sun for Demis Roussos, a UK No. 5. Roussos also recorded a German version (Komm in den Garten der tausend Melodien).

Song Of The Day is Demis does David and one has to ask what is he wearing? And what is that escaping from his chest on its way to devour the audience? The song itself doesn’t seem to have come out of David Lewis but then Lewis was nothing if not versatile plus Demis’ voice does things to anybody’s song. Don’t let this put you off listening to Andwellas Dream and Andwella and remember before this Roussos was in Greek Progressive Rock monsters Aphrodite’s Child! I’ll leave you with one quote from Wikipedia: “Roussos sold over 60 million albums worldwide and became an unlikely kaftan-wearing sex symbol”.

I didn’t get up till 3PM today but then I didn’t get to bed till 6AM. I’m usually awake earlier than that but it was a tiring long day in the studio yesterday and I’d got to bed at 6AM the day before too and had been up for the studio at 11AM so I was catching up. Still, and I’ve talked about it before, I like staying up all night and sleeping into the early afternoon and so does Olivia. That’s one compatible feature that couples need, keeping the same hours. I had a sesh with Brian in Orlando at 5PM so I had a little time to wake up and get to the shops to buy some lunch before they closed. Sunday is a tragic non-pasty day because the bakers are closed so I have to get to the Co-op to get a pre-packed one which just isn’t the same despite it being a trendy healthy brand, you just can’t beat something that was made that day on the premises. Which brings me to my old fast food problem, why would you want worse tasting food faster?

I talk about the still of the night, the silence, everyone’s asleep, but I don’t use it to contemplate the universe, it’s then that I get active. Turn the stereo up, write, as soon as the clock strikes 12 I feel myself coming alive. I start fixing things in the archive, spreading out, start projects and any writing I do is mostly after midnight. On the road, it’s trickier because you have to get out of hotels, get on journeys and often you don’t get to bed till late as well. In fact in the future when I have more events to write about I’ll have less time to do it. I won’t be able to ponder the universe with the stereo blasting from the comfort of the red couch knowing I don’t have to wake up early. Also, Olivia needs more sleep than me and she has to drive (I don’t drive) so she needs to be alert behind the wheel. On that subject, I can let you know that we are booking dates for Europe and the UK between February and May, pandemic permitting.

I was looking at the photo that Olivia took yesterday of me and my Strat contemplating my pedalboard and I couldn’t believe how grey I have become. When does it happen? I still seem to have my hair but what happened to that lovely dark brown mane? My father used to say, “Don’t get old Mart, it’s not good for you”. He lived till he was 93 (my Mum till she was 80) so if the virus doesn’t get me, a mad dog, a runaway bus or a fascist moron I could still have some time left. I have two death fears, one is being caught possibly by my belt (haha, not much chance of that), the other is to be murdered by a moron. Can you imagine the number of amazing people, activists, intellectuals and crusaders for good that have been taken out by ignorant despots, racist pigs, fascists and their goon squads? Theoretically, democracy tries to stop this, can you imagine being subject to the whim of Kim Jong Un?

Talking of mad dogs, Kate and Jack were down at the prom today continuing their work on Kate’s van renovation. Their chihuahua was guarding everything. There were vampires, robot assassins, ninjas, de Pfeffel clones, samurai, wild cabbages, fluorescent aliens, escaped toys, conga eels, old socks, meat, Nigel Farage, and a small whistle attacking the vans but Isabella held them all off. It seems attractive, the idea of living in a renovated van and travelling around Europe playing shows forever with my wife. In my case, I would have the In Deep Music Archive as a base too and on my travels would be collecting more records and fascinating memorabilia.

A sesh with Doug later so on that quick trip to the prom we also made a point of getting onto the beach for five minutes to breathe in the sea. All the young seagulls were gathered around the adults squeaking for food by the freshwater stream. They seem to know which are their children and if you’ve ever seen March Of The Penguins you will wonder at a bird’s ability to raise, feed and protect its young. When I was a kid I wanted to be a zoologist but nobody took me seriously, perhaps it was because I couldn’t spell zoologist and I discovered that today I still couldn’t (I can now).

Music today has been the opposite of yesterday, of course it has. Although I do binge listen, I crave different takes on the musical climate. Even if something different doesn’t make me as happy as something else, I need distance to my favourites and I need to hear other worlds. For example today I was reading about a 20-year-old Rap girl called Flo Milli. I watched 4 videos, yikes, what a different world. The music I chose today wasn’t in response to that, I’ve been meaning to listen to some seventies guitarist music for a while and Robin Trower is always a delight. When Robin Trower reinvented himself as a guitar hero it was shocking to everyone. No one really had any idea based on his work with Procol Harum (1967-71), sure you could hear that he was a ‘seventies’ guitarist but this was Hendrix land. I always thought that he was compared to Hendrix unfairly, it’s like comparing a Jensen to a Porsche (sorry, someone will understand).

He formed a band called Jude with the gravel-voiced Frankie Miller, ex Tull drummer Clive Bunker and James Dewar but they didn’t record and soon broke up. He released his first album Twice Removed From Yesterday in 1973 and it was an outstanding debut – if you like guitars. What a great tone he had and it wasn’t just all about him, he framed his sound into a three-piece band with the talented James Dewar on bass and vocals and Reg Isidore on drums. Dewar had been in Stone The Crows and was a proper British Blues Rock singer like Paul Rogers from Free. So it wasn’t just all about the guitar (incidentally, both Dewar and Isidore died of strokes at the age of 59). The album made little impression on the US chart reaching No. 106 and made no impression at all in the UK. It’s that same old story, you have to be popular to be popular and Trower had to build his reputation before he started having any success and that would come in the US with the release of his second album.

Bridge Of Sighs was released in 1974 and like the first album was produced by ex Procol Harum bandmate Matthew Fisher with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick twiddling the knobs. Again, the album made no impression on the UK chart but in America, it reached the Top Ten (No. 7) and went gold. It’s a great guitar-heavy Blues Rock album. The opening track Day Of The Eagle sets the tone and with all of Trower’s songs fast or slow the guitar playing is so expressive. Apparently Robert Fripp was so impressed with how he bent strings that he got lessons. A guitarist lives or dies by his ability to express himself with the instrument and it doesn’t matter if you are Johnny Ramone or Eddie Van Halen it is essential that your personality comes through. It starts in your heart, travels to your head and reveals itself in your fingers. Trower was brilliant at this.

He released For Earth Below in 1975 with new drummer Bill Lordan. After three sixties bands, The Amazers, The Esquires, and The Mystics, Lordan joined Gypsy, a band from Minnesota, for three albums (I have one album by them, In The Garden, 1971). He played on Sly And The Family Stone’s album Small Talk in 1974 and later that year joined Robin Trower after Reg Isidore had left the band. It was around this time that I saw this lineup live at Liverpool Stadium. I remember it was sold out, I guess Britain had finally woken up to Trower’s prowess. The album reached No. 26 in the UK and No. 5 in the US, like the previous two albums picking up a gold disc. Trower was playing some classic Wah-Wah solos live and on this album especially on Confessin’ Midnight which certainly had hints of the ghost of Hendrix.

In the same year, Trower released a live album recorded in Stockholm, apparently they didn’t know they were being recorded and consequently played one of their best shows and captured it on tape. It featured seven tracks from the first three albums and is only 41 minutes long and one wonders if this was the whole concert and if not, where’s the rest of it? There’s lots of great live solos and these elongated tracks are pure delight for guitar fans. Listen to Daydream, no really, listen to Daydream. If you are into words, this album is not for you.

This is just four albums, there are so many more and his latest album Coming Closer To The Day (2019) is a great return to form. Then there’s the albums with Jack Bruce. We need to live forever.

Song Of The Day is Robin Trower live at the University Of London in 1980 coaxing Daydream out of his guitar, originally from Twice Removed From Yesterday, released in 1973.