I am happy to announce that we will have the second Noctorum album, Offer The Light (2006) available on vinyl for the first time through Schoolkids Records as part of Record Store Day 2023 (April 22nd). It will a limited edition of 750 albums and will be on glorious orange vinyl. We are slowly going through the back catalogue of CD-only releases until we get a vinyl version of all the relevant titles. Looking through the RSD releases, there’s not too much I’ll be after but probably, Groundhogs – Crosscut Saw, Ian McCulloch – Slideling, to start with. Maybe a copy of Offer The Light while I’m at it.

From Schoolkids Records:

“Offer the Light is Noctorum’s second release. Following up the success of the band’s most successful album to date, 2019’s The Afterlife (Billboard Album Chart #89) and the 2021’s Record Store Day release of the debut Sparks Lane, Offer The Light will be an eagerly awaited pressing. Both The Afterlife and Sparks Lane sold out immediately and are currently out of print, making Offer The Light a sought-after collector’s item. It will available for the first time ever on Orange Vinyl with a download code, exclusively for Record Store Day 2023.”

Only at participating stores as part of Record Store Day. Get more information and find stores at www.recordstoreday.com

Dare has decided to write sleeve notes for the Noctorum albums, reminisces of the how, why, when, and where of the four albums we made together under the Noctorum moniker. You can find the story of the first album Sparks Lane on the Noctorum website, see link below. Having known each other since when we were kids it was about time that Dare and I had a band together. He had worked on most of my solo projects and the ex-band’s Sometime Anywhere (1994). We figure we might have known each other for nearly sixty years and that’s because our parents knew each other through work. We never went to the same primary school or secondary modern (or grammar school in Dare’s case) but the music connection kept us together as it often does. Check out Sparks Lane and there will be more sleeve notes coming. (By the way, there is no apostrophe in ‘Sparks’.)

This from Dare:

“In 2022 I received a test pressing of our first album, Sparks Lane, first released in 2002. It was due to come out on vinyl and my job was to check that the pressing was up to scratch. As I was listening through, it brought back fond memories of the time Marty and I spent recording those songs. That’s when the idea came to me – perhaps people would be interested in hearing the story of how we recorded these albums? After all, back in the old days, every LP would have sleeve notes on the back cover and part of the pleasure of listening to a new record would be to read them. I suppose they became outdated and unfashionable when pop and rock arrived in the 60s.

So now is your chance to sit back, relax and listen again while you read the sleeve notes. We hope it will give you a deeper insight into the world of Marty and myself as the entity known as Noctorum – how we wrote the songs, our recording methods and along the way, I will introduce you to the supporting cast of friends, musicians, artists, technicians and business people that helped us to realise our musical ambitions.”

Read the Missing Sleeve Notes: SPARKS LANE here

I’m happy to announce today that the album I made with Ahad Afridi is now available for your listening experience on all your favourite streaming services. It is released under the name Afridi/Willson-Piper and the album is called In The End, The Birds Will Sing. At this point the album is only available to stream, we will keep you posted if Ahad decides that he wants to make a CD or vinyl. There have been three singles, Sisyphus, Hand In Hand and Plastik but now you can hear the whole record and its ten tracks. We made it in Penzance, co-produced by Dare and myself, engineered and mixed by Dare, I play all the guitars and bass, Ahad wrote all the songs and sings them. Olivia, Dare and me are on backing vocals, Olivia on violin, Ed on drums, Dare on extra bits and the locals on other instruments.

www.songwritingandguitarguidance.com