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New single; ‘Get a little life’

Liner Notes

I’ve got a new single coming out on 5^th July. Yes, just a day after the election! It’s called ‘Get a little life’ and as with all my recent releases, was recorded at Mustard Seed studios in Stratford, East London. The song was recorded and mixed by Dom Clark. He also plays trumpet on the song. The drums were whacked by Ian Pakes.

The song features the wonderful guitar work of Adam Philips who doesn’t have any truck with that social media nonsense but can be heard around the clubs of London playing with the likes of Hamish Stuart and Dave Lewis’ One Up.

This will probably be my last release for a while as I seem to have hit a blank spot when it comes to writing new tunes. To spur on some creativity, I’m currently learning to play piano which, and I think this has been recognised before, is bloody impossible. So, I’m grinding the nerves of my family, neighbours and the dog playing the keyboard.

When the song comes out, please give it a listen and perhaps add it to one of your playlists. It’s on all the usual streaming services.

Here are the lyrics, time signature and chords

Get a little life

6/8 95 BPM

F Dm B/G Bflat 7

Get a little house in the centre of town

F Dm B/G Bflat 7

Get a little dog straight from the pound

Am G

Get a little money, get a little strife

Bflat 7 C7

Get a little love into your life

Get a little joy in your soul

Go find someone make you feel whole

Get a little thrill, hand in glove

Get a little life get a little love

In the heart of the city, in the heart of town

Find somewhere to lay your head down

All that noise there’s comfort to be found

Your head in the clouds, your feet on the ground

Get a little wisdom, get a little sense

Go find someone, come to your defence

Get a little peace in troubled times

Gonna be heart break somewhere down the line

Love came in

Liner Notes

My new single ‘Love came in’ is out now. It’s on all the streaming services.

The recording process was a bit haphazard. I was in the studio tracking backing vocals with Sannie Fox for ‘The Hard Crowd’. The night before I’d written the chorus for this song. So before Sannie came into the studio I put down rough guitar and drum machine so she could sing the chorus vocals for this otherwise unwritten song.

Thereafter I completed the rest of the song which tries to sum up a peaceful, loving, house on a midsummer morning.

‘It’s early morning, warm and still

Two cats asleep on the windowsill

A bee buzzes at a windowpane

A spider’s web on the window frame’

As ever the song was recorded by Dom Clark at Mustard Seed studios in East London. I played guitars and bass, while Dom played the trumpet and he and I wrestled with the keyboards. Celine Robertson, remember her from Mobylette, added harmonies on the verses. The Guiro was bought specially!

‘Love came in and filled up the house.’

A song to give you hope that the summer may arrive one day.

(written on a cold, rainy day in March)

Fred & Ava 1961

I’m releasing a new single on 24^th November, called Fred & Ava 1961. There’s a story attached which we’ll get to in a moment.

The single also has a B side, if such things still exist, called Mobylette. These days I generally release one song at a time but as both have a strong French theme it made sense to release them together. They both feature the wonderful voice of Céline Robertson, whose first name rather gives her nationality away, though she now lives in the UK.

Fred and Ava was inspired by the surreal picture painted by Marc Chagall, called Bataille de Fleurs or Battle of the Flowers (see above). This is a carnival of floats and flowers that takes place every year at the end of February in Nice on the Côte d’Azur. You can see the two faces of Fred and Ava hanging in the sky above the beach. I got the names from a photograph of Fred Astaire and his daughter Ava which was dated 1961.

When I was 7 years old, in 1961, my parents took me Nice to see the Battle of the Flowers, an event that has always remained with me, so in some rather convoluted way that’s how the song was put together.

Listen here to Fred & Ava 1961

At the same time as the battle of the flowers was going on my 7-year-old self was nosing around Nice and Villefranche and spotted what my mum told me were Mobylettes. The meaning has changed a little since then but in those days, they were essentially push bikes with a two-stroke motor attached. They stank of petrol and were not pretty, but I always thought the word Mobylette had a romantic appeal so in the song I relocated the story to Paris and if you take a listen, you can hear what it’s all about.

Listen here to Mobylette

I never had any intention to write one French song (some of the lyrics are in French but not all) let alone two but song writing is a weird not to say impossible task. You take inspiration where you find it.

I played most of the instruments and had great help from Céline with the vocals.

The songs were recorded at Mustard Seed Studio by the owner and operator Dom Clark who recorded it all, helped with production, and played trumpet.

Vive la France!

Lockdown Eases: 4th July

It’s Super Saturday or Independence Day for drinkers. Pubs reopen at 6am.
Recently a major incident was declared by police following mobs of crowds going to beaches. Not sure why the government chose a Saturday to throw open the doors to the UK’s thirsty drinkers. Seems at best unwise.

But then again as my friend James O’Brien just tweeted: ‘No air bridges, no app, the third highest death toll *in the world* & no end in sight… No wonder they’ve opened the pubs’.

Took the bike through the West End and up to Regents Park this morning.
I’d say about 60% of shops were open but almost no customers except for barbers and hairdressers. Short line outside the Apple Store. Lots of shop workers chatting on the pavement.

Like everybody else I made sourdough. Friend and neighbour Richard dropped off the ‘starter’ and this is the result. Upside: tastes good. Downside: takes about a week to produce. Sourdough need to call in the time and motion consultants.

Zoom has taken over the world. All my business meetings and chats with friends are now Zoomers. They need to re-release the Aretha Franklin song ‘Who’s zooming who?’

Last night we watched a play broadcast from the Old Vic. It came delivered by, you guessed it, Zoom.

The play Lungs by Duncan MacMillan stars Claire Foy (the Queen) and Matt Smith (Dr Who). An amazing, socially distanced two hander which I urge you to watch. It’s a torrent of dialogue; you are drenched in words. Claire Foy’s character is incredibly irritating, has no self-awareness, is deeply moving and hilarious all mixed up in the space of ninety minutes. Matt’s character has no emotional intelligence, but great hair. So strange to watch live theatre on a computer.