MISC TRACKS FROM '80S, '90S & '00S
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After being in Prolog from 1983 to 1985, I recorded demos in various studios when I could afford it (I couldn't share the cost with my bandmates because there were none).
These sessions were usually just a couple of hours at a time so getting everything recorded and mixed was pretty tight. This included all the mixing, mastering. Something I now spend hours or even days on just for one track. Many of these studio songs were mastered on to reel to reel tape. Time has not been kind to them, they don't sound brilliant and there is some corrosion and deterioration thanks to the tape corroding (after all, they are over 30 years old and not quite as important as the old Beatles master recordings) but huge thanks to Chris Stevenson at Manchester Audio Renovation for transferring them into the digital world. |
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80s
IT'S ALL OVER
Recorded at Sound Lab Studio, Westhoughton, 1986, Engineered by Pete Makin.
This tape is pretty shot at and the sound quality reflects that.
I managed to find a cheap recording studio in Westhoughton, which offered an hour of 16 track recording time for something like £10. My dad drove myself and my girlfriend there. It was bit gloomy inside and looked a little unfinished...but it had 16 lovely tracks to play with! I borrowed the guitar and effects pedal from friends.
The studio owner, Pete Makin, was a nice chap and reminded me of a hippyish Jimmy Hill. The studio had a Roland Juno 6 so I ended up using that instead of my prehistoric, monophonic Jen SX1000. I didn’t have a sequencer at the time so I had to play each part in turn, track by track. Jane spoke a little line and did some handclaps.
Recorded at Sound Lab Studio, Westhoughton, 1986, Engineered by Pete Makin.
This tape is pretty shot at and the sound quality reflects that.
I managed to find a cheap recording studio in Westhoughton, which offered an hour of 16 track recording time for something like £10. My dad drove myself and my girlfriend there. It was bit gloomy inside and looked a little unfinished...but it had 16 lovely tracks to play with! I borrowed the guitar and effects pedal from friends.
The studio owner, Pete Makin, was a nice chap and reminded me of a hippyish Jimmy Hill. The studio had a Roland Juno 6 so I ended up using that instead of my prehistoric, monophonic Jen SX1000. I didn’t have a sequencer at the time so I had to play each part in turn, track by track. Jane spoke a little line and did some handclaps.
Paul: Vocals, guitar, synths
Jane Berry: voice, handclaps
Jane Berry: voice, handclaps
WE'LL BE THERE
Recorded at CRS Records, St Annes, 1988. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
This recording is actually taken from a copy that Dave Holt had on cassette. It was in better condition than the reel of tape.
I’ve always had a soft spot for this song. It was about escaping the humdrum of normal life and was no doubt a reflection of how I felt about my day job at the time. I even had an idea in my head for the video to accompany it! It was around this time that Siren Records were showing ‘some’ interest in me and I thought that I might just have found a way out of the nine to five...but nothing came of it.
Paul: Vocals, synths
Michael Ratcliff: guitar
Recorded at CRS Records, St Annes, 1988. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
This recording is actually taken from a copy that Dave Holt had on cassette. It was in better condition than the reel of tape.
I’ve always had a soft spot for this song. It was about escaping the humdrum of normal life and was no doubt a reflection of how I felt about my day job at the time. I even had an idea in my head for the video to accompany it! It was around this time that Siren Records were showing ‘some’ interest in me and I thought that I might just have found a way out of the nine to five...but nothing came of it.
Paul: Vocals, synths
Michael Ratcliff: guitar
SHE'S GONE TO LONDON TOWN
Recorded at IBR studios in Blackpool, 1988. Engineered and produced by Mark Lalgee.
The reel of tape was so poor that I've used a recording from when it was played on Red Rose Radio (thanks Andrew Walmsley for digging this out).
Girl bored with small town life. Wants to see the bright lights. Boy wants to bring her back. Cheesy lyric, yes...but I was desperate to get a record deal. This studio - above a pram shop on Queen Street - was owned by a very talented chap called Mark Lalgee. He had lots of great gear including many of the latest synths and samplers (he had a Roland D50, Prophet 2000, TX802 and loads of other state of the art gear). I remember playing him my rough demo of the song a week or two before the session and he was very polite about it, even though he probably thought it was naff.
On the recording day, he basically suggested I ditch my own gear (bar a few bits) and use his collection of expensive gear. I was of course absolutely fine with that. Halfway through the session, he picked up his guitar and started effortlessly adding these wonderful licks and slides. As far as I was concerned, he was a genius, and if he’d suggested adding a bagpipes section, I’d have gone with it.
I released this song together with 'We'll be there' as a cassette single called City Lights which was available through a local record shop, Sinfonia.
Paul: Vocals, synths
Mark Lalgee: guitar
Recorded at IBR studios in Blackpool, 1988. Engineered and produced by Mark Lalgee.
The reel of tape was so poor that I've used a recording from when it was played on Red Rose Radio (thanks Andrew Walmsley for digging this out).
Girl bored with small town life. Wants to see the bright lights. Boy wants to bring her back. Cheesy lyric, yes...but I was desperate to get a record deal. This studio - above a pram shop on Queen Street - was owned by a very talented chap called Mark Lalgee. He had lots of great gear including many of the latest synths and samplers (he had a Roland D50, Prophet 2000, TX802 and loads of other state of the art gear). I remember playing him my rough demo of the song a week or two before the session and he was very polite about it, even though he probably thought it was naff.
On the recording day, he basically suggested I ditch my own gear (bar a few bits) and use his collection of expensive gear. I was of course absolutely fine with that. Halfway through the session, he picked up his guitar and started effortlessly adding these wonderful licks and slides. As far as I was concerned, he was a genius, and if he’d suggested adding a bagpipes section, I’d have gone with it.
I released this song together with 'We'll be there' as a cassette single called City Lights which was available through a local record shop, Sinfonia.
Paul: Vocals, synths
Mark Lalgee: guitar
DRIVE IT FAST ('89 VERSION)
This version was recorded at CRS Records in St Annes. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
Originally recorded in 1985 at Sunset Sound near Blackpool and it was terrible (the song, not the studio). I’m glad I can’t find a copy of the ‘85 version. And while the revamped version sounded 100 times better, that really isn't saying very much. The slap bass sound, the orchestral stabs, the not-so thinly veiled innuendo of the lyrics and the poppy chorus designed to grab A&R people’s interest (it didn’t) were all just a terrible idea and a reminder of everything that was terrible about some 80s music. God, what was I thinking?
Sadly, I've only recently learnt that Michael Ratcliff (the co-owner of CRS Records) who played a bit of guitar on this track (and on 'We'll be there') passed away in December 2021. Michael was a lovely man and we spent many hours chatting over a beer or two. I know that his business partner, Phil, and indeed many other people will miss him greatly.
Paul: vocals, synths
Michael Ratcliff: guitar
This version was recorded at CRS Records in St Annes. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
Originally recorded in 1985 at Sunset Sound near Blackpool and it was terrible (the song, not the studio). I’m glad I can’t find a copy of the ‘85 version. And while the revamped version sounded 100 times better, that really isn't saying very much. The slap bass sound, the orchestral stabs, the not-so thinly veiled innuendo of the lyrics and the poppy chorus designed to grab A&R people’s interest (it didn’t) were all just a terrible idea and a reminder of everything that was terrible about some 80s music. God, what was I thinking?
Sadly, I've only recently learnt that Michael Ratcliff (the co-owner of CRS Records) who played a bit of guitar on this track (and on 'We'll be there') passed away in December 2021. Michael was a lovely man and we spent many hours chatting over a beer or two. I know that his business partner, Phil, and indeed many other people will miss him greatly.
Paul: vocals, synths
Michael Ratcliff: guitar
RADIO AMERICA
Recorded at CRS Records, St Annes, 1989. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
Overdubbed 'missing bits' recorded June 2020.
The song was about young people in eastern Europe/Soviet Union listening to illegal recordings of radio stations in the west as a means of emotional escape, or at least I think that’s what I had in mind when I wrote it. It was around the time the Berlin Wall fell so maybe that had an influence. I ran out of time when I was recording this. I was hoping to add a synth lead to the middle eight and some other fancy stuff, so I've overdubbed the original and added the 80s style bits I had intended back then.
This was 'released' as a cassette single with 'Drive it fast' '89 and called 'The Throwback' which I named after the Tom Sharpe book I was reading at the time. It had a cartoon of me on the front by Roy Lewis (see the 'Images page).
Paul: vocals, synths (plus additional synths added in 2020)
Dave Kilshaw: guitar
Recorded at CRS Records, St Annes, 1989. Engineered and mixed by Phil Waddington.
Overdubbed 'missing bits' recorded June 2020.
The song was about young people in eastern Europe/Soviet Union listening to illegal recordings of radio stations in the west as a means of emotional escape, or at least I think that’s what I had in mind when I wrote it. It was around the time the Berlin Wall fell so maybe that had an influence. I ran out of time when I was recording this. I was hoping to add a synth lead to the middle eight and some other fancy stuff, so I've overdubbed the original and added the 80s style bits I had intended back then.
This was 'released' as a cassette single with 'Drive it fast' '89 and called 'The Throwback' which I named after the Tom Sharpe book I was reading at the time. It had a cartoon of me on the front by Roy Lewis (see the 'Images page).
Paul: vocals, synths (plus additional synths added in 2020)
Dave Kilshaw: guitar
90s
FOREVER
Music recorded at home studio, 1998. Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool (engineer Kelvin Futers).
This was the first time I’d been to a studio in a while (I’d long since given up hope of getting signed and was now a dad). I only needed a studio to add the vocals as all the music had been sequenced on an Atari ST and then recorded at home on to DCC (a poor man’s alternative to DAT tape). I also had two decent synths now: Korg Wavestation and Yamaha SY55.
This song was one of the first I wrote after my mum died so the lyrics are pretty reflective and philosophical in tone. I also think I’d been listening to Seal quite a bit around this time. I loved Seal's vocals and thought the production (by Trevor Horn, I think) on songs like ‘Crazy’ and ‘Future Love Paradise’ was great, so that probably influenced the slightly trippy style of the track.
Paul: vocals, synths
Music recorded at home studio, 1998. Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool (engineer Kelvin Futers).
This was the first time I’d been to a studio in a while (I’d long since given up hope of getting signed and was now a dad). I only needed a studio to add the vocals as all the music had been sequenced on an Atari ST and then recorded at home on to DCC (a poor man’s alternative to DAT tape). I also had two decent synths now: Korg Wavestation and Yamaha SY55.
This song was one of the first I wrote after my mum died so the lyrics are pretty reflective and philosophical in tone. I also think I’d been listening to Seal quite a bit around this time. I loved Seal's vocals and thought the production (by Trevor Horn, I think) on songs like ‘Crazy’ and ‘Future Love Paradise’ was great, so that probably influenced the slightly trippy style of the track.
Paul: vocals, synths
SMALL WORLD
Music recorded at home studio, March 1998.
Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool
The second of three songs that I recorded the vocals for at the Music Factory. Further proof I had given up hope of a record deal as this track had no drums or percussion and was nearly six minutes long. The vocals are a bit low in the mix and those high notes are, well...a bit flaky. Lyrically, I think it was semi-autobiographical about not achieving what I wanted to in music and coming to terms with it. Deep stuff, and I was only 31.
Paul: vocals, synths
Music recorded at home studio, March 1998.
Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool
The second of three songs that I recorded the vocals for at the Music Factory. Further proof I had given up hope of a record deal as this track had no drums or percussion and was nearly six minutes long. The vocals are a bit low in the mix and those high notes are, well...a bit flaky. Lyrically, I think it was semi-autobiographical about not achieving what I wanted to in music and coming to terms with it. Deep stuff, and I was only 31.
Paul: vocals, synths
FALLING DOWN
Music recorded at home studio, March 1998.
Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool
Thanks to Kelvin Futers who somehow managed to unearth both this and 'Small World' from his archives after 22 years.
The third song from the Music Factory session. Musically, it's an odd one with a sort of semi-funky synth guitar riff against a dark synth backdrop. This was written from the perspective of someone in A&E whose heart has stopped. Not dead or alive but at that moment of 'in-between'. Cheery stuff...and pretty much setting the general tone for much of what I'd write moving forward.
Paul: vocals, synths
Music recorded at home studio, March 1998.
Vocals recorded at the Music Factory, Blackpool
Thanks to Kelvin Futers who somehow managed to unearth both this and 'Small World' from his archives after 22 years.
The third song from the Music Factory session. Musically, it's an odd one with a sort of semi-funky synth guitar riff against a dark synth backdrop. This was written from the perspective of someone in A&E whose heart has stopped. Not dead or alive but at that moment of 'in-between'. Cheery stuff...and pretty much setting the general tone for much of what I'd write moving forward.
Paul: vocals, synths
00s
Early demo of 'I WILL BE WITH YOU'
Music recorded at home studio, 2003.
Initially called 'Requiem', this is actually a very rough demo recording that for some reason I'd kept rather than erasing (I hardly ever keep demos of tracks, so in that respect it's a rarity). I recall writing it not long after the terrible Soham murders and is about a parent who refuses to accept that they would never see their missing child again and how basic everyday things would make them more certain that everything would be okay, even though it almost certainly wouldn't.
I guess I forgot about the track soon after, only to rediscover it five years later in 2008 when looking through old unused lyrics. I reworked it from the grungy guitar track of this demo into something a bit faster and more synth based - and called it 'I will be with you', the opening track from the album 'Slow Motion pictures'.
Paul: vocals, guitar, synths
Music recorded at home studio, 2003.
Initially called 'Requiem', this is actually a very rough demo recording that for some reason I'd kept rather than erasing (I hardly ever keep demos of tracks, so in that respect it's a rarity). I recall writing it not long after the terrible Soham murders and is about a parent who refuses to accept that they would never see their missing child again and how basic everyday things would make them more certain that everything would be okay, even though it almost certainly wouldn't.
I guess I forgot about the track soon after, only to rediscover it five years later in 2008 when looking through old unused lyrics. I reworked it from the grungy guitar track of this demo into something a bit faster and more synth based - and called it 'I will be with you', the opening track from the album 'Slow Motion pictures'.
Paul: vocals, guitar, synths
BROKEN WINGS THAT FLY
Recorded at home, circa 2008.
Features the voice of Late Lounge presenter Claire Anderson near the end.
This track is based on the melody from the 'Parallel' track 'This is how you feel' and the title 'Broken wings that fly' is one of the lines from the track. I wrote this half thinking that I may use it as a moody and atmospheric live intro track, if I ever got the chance to play a gig again.
So, when I found out I was playing live late in 2009, I did briefly think 'yes, that might sound cool,' but then it dawned on me that I was playing the Tower Lounge in Blackpool in front of a hundred people (most of whom probably there to see the other bands), and not Wembley in front of 80,000 fans, so I promptly ditched the idea.
Paul: synths
Claire Anderson: voice
Recorded at home, circa 2008.
Features the voice of Late Lounge presenter Claire Anderson near the end.
This track is based on the melody from the 'Parallel' track 'This is how you feel' and the title 'Broken wings that fly' is one of the lines from the track. I wrote this half thinking that I may use it as a moody and atmospheric live intro track, if I ever got the chance to play a gig again.
So, when I found out I was playing live late in 2009, I did briefly think 'yes, that might sound cool,' but then it dawned on me that I was playing the Tower Lounge in Blackpool in front of a hundred people (most of whom probably there to see the other bands), and not Wembley in front of 80,000 fans, so I promptly ditched the idea.
Paul: synths
Claire Anderson: voice
CAN YOU HEAR THE WAVES?
Recorded at home studio, 2009.
This came about after the local council ran a competition of sorts to give a few local bands and musicians the chance to have their tracks played as part of the ‘Glam Rocks’ artwork on south promenade in Blackpool (essentially some large concrete rocks with LEDs). The rule was that it had to be 90 seconds in length, so I came up with this track and it got used.
I had a bass guitar at the time (I had grand plans of learning to play like the late, great and super-talented Japan bassist Mick Karn), so this is one of the few tracks I ever played bass on.
Paul: vocals, bass, synths
Recorded at home studio, 2009.
This came about after the local council ran a competition of sorts to give a few local bands and musicians the chance to have their tracks played as part of the ‘Glam Rocks’ artwork on south promenade in Blackpool (essentially some large concrete rocks with LEDs). The rule was that it had to be 90 seconds in length, so I came up with this track and it got used.
I had a bass guitar at the time (I had grand plans of learning to play like the late, great and super-talented Japan bassist Mick Karn), so this is one of the few tracks I ever played bass on.
Paul: vocals, bass, synths
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LIVE 2009
Recorded live at the Tower Lounge, Blackpool, December 2009. If you want to hear a truly 'warts and all' quality live recording then this is it. This was at the Tower Lounge, Blackpool in December 2009 as part of the Gazette Rock Quest, which explains the short set. It was my first live gig for 20 years. There's a Spinal Tap-esque sub-story behind the laser that I hired for this gig. The hire company did warn me that - when the laser fires up - it may project a few images of dinosaurs into the venue for a few seconds before kicking in to its proper 'serious' settings - not really ideal when you are singing songs about mental health, death and addiction. Luckily, I don't think anyone noticed...or maybe they did and just didn't have the heart to tell me! The sound quality of this recording is pretty poor so it's more novelty value than anything else. The tracks played were 'Lost and found', 'Broken', 'We fall in love', 'Kaleidoscope life' and 'The place to cry'. Tony Bell: synths Connor Langfield: guitar Me: vocals, guitar, synth |
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