The Breeding Ground Of Vile

Chorley Live and Cakes

Posted on 8th October 2018 by bsa_mar

On Friday evening I enjoyed a peaceful hour sat in my car in a car park minding all the gear between #ChorleyLive gigs, with accompanying potato cakes, and listening to Jennie Abrahamson’s ‘Gemini Gemini’ album (stunning by the way, and highly recommended) while #MattSteady played his third gig of the night. I’d not heard of Jennie Abrahamson before she and Linnea Olsson opened Peter Gabriel’s ‘Back To Front’ Manchester gig a few years back with ‘Snowstorm’. Nor had I heard silence like that in a large auditorium for many, many years as her spellbinding voice took us all to a different place. “How do you get support gigs like that?” I pondered!

The act who me and Matt Steady followed that night at Chorley Central Library was ‘Solo Floyd’, one man with a fabulous voice, a guitar and effects pedals doing Pink Floyd covers. Like me, David plays music that requires listening to, and to a large degree the packed audience were a listening audience. As I stood with my instruments at the back of the hall I became irritated by just a few people who seemed incapable of understanding that in some circumstances you have to shut your mouth: a couple of blokes who had exceeded their beer quota before 9pm that evening; one of the stewards wasn’t exactly being quiet and respectful; and there was a pre-teen boy being a bit of a nuisance, but I was once that boy so it was more easy to understand his position!

Matt and I came through our gig feeling like we’d done well enough but there was no foldback monitor, so we had little idea how we sounded. Matt could barely hear his violin, and while I could hear my voice the bass strings of my cittern seemed to overpower the treble and I was unable to enjoy that feeling of certainty that performers need in order to give of their best. In fairness, the sound guy Daniel had never worked with a cittern before so he was on a steep learning curve, and by the end of the 45 minute set he’d cracked it. Then I changed from cittern to guitar for the final song and screwed it all up for him again!

So we had the foldback conversation and the following evening they had two whopping great monitors for us. Unsurprisingly the difference was staggering, and all Matt and I needed to do was concentrate on the music. It was of course hugely helpful to the sound guy as well because I didn’t need to press ‘boost’ on my preamp to occasionally hear my cittern as I had done the previous evening. Then came the moment of the night, and probably the festival for me.

This was the first time I had used the new preamp at a gig. No amount of practise can mimic a live show, but I was well rehearsed and knew the sounds I wanted from it during the set. I had a slight delay on the cittern but hadn’t been able to hear exactly how it would sound in this larger venue. We played ‘The Smile’ at about the mid-set point. As we got half way through the first chorus I thought “Wow! That preamp is giving me a pretty spectacular sound!” (Matt by the way had exactly the same thought), but then I looked round and saw Daniel on his keyboard!

The spontaneity and spirit of collaboration that you get with other independent musicians is something special, and his unexpected intervention worked stunningly well. I spent part of the drive home wishing that had been one of the tracks that Gary filmed for us, but in the cold light of a working Monday morning I’m just glad to have the special memory. There are many great things about mobile technology and social media, and I’m forever hearing marketing types talking about the ‘experience’. But this wonderful moment in a set that we absolutely nailed is now the domain only of those in the room on the night, at Chorley Live 2018. Now that’s what I call an ‘experience’. Thank you Chorley Live 2018 – see you again next year if you’ll have us!

So Here It Is….

Posted on 22nd September 2018 by bsa_mar

For me, there is something incomplete about producing an EP or album until I finally receive the physical CDs. So first, here is #TheBreedingGroundOfVile in its physical form. It looks great. It sounds great. It takes time and a big effort from a whole bunch of people to get a CD to look right, and to reflect the mood of the music it delivers, and I am very pleased with the results.

I now have three physical CDs: #Moorscape, #DryTheLife, and #TheBreedingGroundOfVile. There is one more work #TheMadnessEP which you can find at https://johnreed.bandcamp.com/album/the-madness-ep that happened due to one of the increasing number of happy accidents that has accompanied me on my music journey since I bought my first #cittern in July 2014. The Madness was released in January 2017 when we were in the early stages of recording The Breeding Ground – more of that later.

Before #Moorscape I had not experienced the process of putting together an album, so everything was new to me. At that time I had done some work with a young marketing company in Leigh, Greater Manchester – https://www.thinkcre8.co.uk– who had produced a couple of roll up banners and promotional leaflets for my business. Their work was so good that I asked them if they would like the challenge of creating a CD cover. I don’t think they were ever going to say no!

So I sent them a bunch of photographs and my mock up ideas without really considering how superior their efforts would be. What they came back with was simple, eye catching, and properly dimensioned, yet missed none of the detail I had included in the brief either in the CD sleeve or the face of the actual disc. They quickly became my ‘Go To’ accomplices for any kind of promotion for my music, and they raised the standard with the follow up #DryTheLife EP cover … because that’s what they do, and it generally takes a couple of weeks for them to perform their magic.

CR8 don’t print the actual CDs. They get the design to a point where you know anything sent to a CD printer will be exactly as you want it. The process involves proofs being sent back and forth a few times before the design is signed off and sent to their CD printing partner – https://www.showcasecreative.com– who organise the glass master from which the final physicals are printed. Showcase’s process takes between 7 and 10 working days.

Everything is still a learning process for this collaboration, and one day when I was harvesting stuff on my allotment I had a call from Lauren at CR8 to say that both they and Showcase had realised their quotations had not taken into account the fact that The Breeding Ground was a double CD. Nor had I!! So an accommodation was reached and 10 days later a couple of boxes arrived at my front door.

Meanwhile #TheMadnessEP still has no physical CD…or does it? There are plans afoot to do something a little different for 2019.

The buzz you get from seeing something you have created finally arrives with you beats any temporary excitement that an online release might give. It’s partly because you have something physical that feels less transient, that feels like more of a gift to those who choose to buy it, but it’s also the result of a process that involves a lot of good people, from the musicians and the producer to the people that help with the design process. Thank you all for making this possible.

You can buy #TheBreedingGroundOfVile and all of my music at https://johnreed.bandcamp.com

Road to Chelmsford

Posted on 8th September 2018 by bsa_mar

There is something about the number 2. It took 2 years and 2 months to complete The Breeding Ground of Vile. The physical CDs will be with me next week (ish) and because it’s a double album there are 2 CDs. Then yesterday, had I driven direct down the M6 and M1 on my journey to Chelmsford from Sale the distance would have been 222 miles, but instead I collected Matt from his home in Leicester, where we both rehearsed our evening set and did a spot of recording for his new album, so the 2 of us could drive on from there. My long day trip saw me returning home 22 hours after I left the previous morning. Well that’s the contrived stats out of the way.

So why Chelmsford? The only time I can recall spending time in (or maybe near) Chelmsford previously was a) when I was trying to sell a woodworking machine to a manufacturer of cricket bats, and b) when a bunch of us went to a party, of which all I can remember is Graham Fisher eating a daffodil. I was much younger then, so last night’s experience was a significantly more sober and very much more fulfilling visit to Moulsham Mill to play a set of our songs for Folk Union on Chelmsford Community Radio, hosted by Carl Spaul.

I made an early start to try and get as close as possible to Leicester before the M1 motorway suffered its usual morning congestion, stopping at Leicester Forest East service station exactly 2 hours after setting off because I could see a massive queue ahead. My car was packed to the gunnels with instruments and P.A. equipment so I couldn’t leave it unattended, and sat in the car park listening the radio and answering a few work emails to minimise the chance of disturbance to my day. That half hour gave me a rest from driving and the traffic cleared enough for me to resume my journey to Matt’s house.

Matt wasn’t originally on the ticket for this adventure. I’d been talking for a while to Carl about playing an acoustic set and doing an interview with him about the new album. Our first effort was scuppered due to ongoing refurbishment of the studio. Chelmsford Community Radio is run by volunteers, so whether it’s presenting a show or maintaining the studio, it’s done in whatever spare time the good people of Chelmsford can spare. You feel the atmosphere at Moulsham Mill. There’s something very warming and positive about the place. I’m good on atmospheres!

I was talking to Matt about the new date and it occurred to us that we could share the journey and play some songs together, so Carl got ‘two for the price of one’. The original intention was for me/us to play a few songs acoustically, but I had been itching to try out a few new gismos and a discussion about how we were going to do everything, the number of inputs on Carl’s equipment etc. led to me taking my P.A. It felt like overkill but it was probably the right thing to have done!

The large cup of coffee that greeted me at Matt’s was very welcome as I arrived, and we quickly set to work on a rehearsal of some of my songs we have played together, some of my songs we have never played together, and some of his that I have never previously played on. Ironing out some (but not all) of the gremlins, we then recorded a few of my contributions to Matt’s next album “Here be Dragons”, then more rehearsing between lunch and collecting his 2 daughters from school.

The journey to Chelmsford on a Friday mid-late afternoon was likely to provide additional traffic challenges, so we set off around 3:30pm and took the route suggested by Matt’s phone, down the M1 and clockwise round the M25. We had a really good run down the M1, listening through his excellent new album, and the M25 was running free. Yes, that was too good to be true. It ground to a halt due to an accident and put back our original ETA by 40 minutes or so. We arrived more or less on time, set up the P.A. between sips of tea, and were ready to roll just after 7:40pm.

The resulting live performance and interviews will be aired next Friday 14^thSeptember at 11pm and will be available on Mixcloud thereafterwards. So we will leave you to decide how well (or not) we did after our epic journey. The long day flew by, and our chat with Carl could easily have lasted a very long time. He is a really good guy, affable, professional, knowledgeable, and passionate about playing his part in highlighting the music of independent musicians like us. We very much appreciate the level of effort and support shown by from Carl and other non-profit and community radio stations, and we urge you to support them in return with your music, your time, or your money. Every little helps!

Challenge the Creeping Fascism

Posted on 30th July 2018 by bsa_mar

“How old are you son?” “Seventeen and a half Sir!” “Well come back tomorrow when you are nineteen”*. That was taken from one of many books on the First World War, and I started with it because it illustrates the fact that war wastes young life. Many of the ‘pals’ who lost their lives on the killing fields of that war were unmarried, and many had not had any relationship to speak of. They were kids.

Now think about that. All you fathers with children. All you men with girlfriends. Look what you would have missed had you suffered the same fate as those young, innocent men. Most thought they were going on a big adventure. My Great Uncle Frank survived four years on the battlefields of the ironically named ‘Great War’. His manuscript from that time is entitled ‘The Great Adventure’, but the reality of those four years is that it was spent picking up shattered bodies and parts of bodies during the slaughter of the Somme, Paschendaele, and Ypres.

In comparison what was I doing between the ages of seventeen and twenty one? Well I had two girlfriends during that time, one at University and one before. I witnessed the transformation of popular music from progressive rock to punk rock. I had a number of jobs to supplement my student life. I went to rock festivals at Knebworth, Reading and elsewhere seeing some of the world’s most iconic and enduring bands. I wrote unrepeatable songs. I drank myself silly. I rented my own home. I travelled around the country in safety with my friends and family.

Frank witnessed things that stayed with him until he died. He suffered shell shock and lived in a basement room in my grandparents’ house until he died. He never married, but he did occasionally venture out to the pub in Blackpool with my Uncles and Aunts. He considered himself lucky. He didn’t die a horrific death after all, but as a stretcher bearer he saw suffering like we can only ever imagine. His was the ‘war to end all wars’, yet our politicians continue to incite conflict in our fragile world.

Sadly it wasn’t the last world war. The privations in Europe following the ‘Great War’ fostered the growth of fascism, which grew because people wanted to hear about better times ahead. Fascism promised a lot but delivered hell, by which time it was so entrenched around the world that it took a world war to stop it. Peace in Europe was something my parents’ generation fought for between 1939 and 1945, yet sometime in the 1990s I found a British National Party leaflet on their coffee table, which had been delivered by ‘a nice young man who seemed to think like us’. I became slightly unhinged for a few minutes to remind them they had spent their early lives fighting against bastards like that.

Mum and Dad felt a bit stupid when they realised they had been so duped, but they were in their ‘70s, having spent a lifetime bringing up their nine children with Dad working two jobs and Mum chained to the stove or kitchen sink (metaphorically speaking of course). They were compassionate, loving people who never really stopped working even after Dad retired. They doted on each other, their children, their grandchildren and great grandchildren and had little spare time for thought.

In June 2016, huge numbers of people were cajoled into voting for something they believed would improve their busy lives. The information they were given was disingenuous, and given by people with a right wing political agenda, not too far removed from the fascism that caused the war my parents’ generation lived through. After the severity of the 2008 recession and its prolonged aftermath, those who still had jobs worked endless hours to keep rooves over their heads and food on their dinner tables. The climate was again ripe for unprincipled politicians to exploit both the fears and dreams of people who yearned for a better life. It was a perfect breeding ground.

Brexit empowered right wing movements across the world. Trump was elected in the USA. Right Wing governments have emerged in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy…oh, and the United Kingdom, where the paucity of true Opposition has allowed the weakest Prime Minister and the two worst governments in my 60 years to preside over our exit from the European Union, which was in part put together in the 1950s to bring peace in Europe.

Fight fascism with all your heart, at every level. Give your children the right future.

*They Called It Paschendaele – Lynn MacDonald 1978

“Come Along & Join Us…”…again!

Posted on 7th July 2018 by bsa_mar

Our first gigs following the release of #TheBreedingGroundOfVile are next weekend at #LongtonLive next weekend, where me and The Folded Arms play four gigs in two nights, 13^thand 14^thJuly. So we will be playing some new live songs. Getting people together for summer gigs can be tough due to holidays, school holidays, and all kinds of other commitments, but the core of the band are all set and ready to go.

Emma & Kate are doing an additional four gigs over those same two nights, so we arranged that the venues were right next to each other and for them to play the hour before the band plays. Those two probably sing in their sleep anyway, but I’m hoping they will get through without (too much) insanity setting in!

We are joined on percussion for the Friday gigs by Kev Plows, drummer in The Cracked and Contraband and countless others over the years. So we have gone for a lively set so that he won’t need to stand around twiddling his thumbs. Kev added a new dimension to our sound in the rehearsal so we are all looking forward to a vibrant couple of nights.

Duncan is doing solo gigs while Emma and Kate are doing their acoustic sets, so I will actually get to see him play in at least one of the venues this time around, and the only World Cup football will be the third place play-off on the afternoon of 14^th, so unless England are involved in that we should have a sober audience to start!

So if you like village festivals, Longton Live costs £5 for a wristband for the whole weekend, and you will see multiple talents both in and out doors, in pubs, bars, shops, community halls, libraries, supermarkets, and more. Here is where you can find us:

Friday 13th (it’s okay, that gag has already been made)

7pm Secret Bar – Chique Acoustic (Emma Perry & Kate Ferris)

8pm Blundells Hardware – John Reed & the Folded Arms

9pm Ram’s Head – Chique Acoustic

10pm St Andrews Church Hall – John Reed & the Folded Arms

Saturday 14th

7pm Black Bull – Chique Acoustic

7pm Orchid – Duncan Reed

8pm Orchid – John Reed & the Folded Arms

9pm Golden Ball – Chique Acoustic

9pm Secret Bar – Duncan Reed

10pm Rams Head – John Reed & the Folded Arms

CDs for sale in each venue, so please support independent musicians and buy one if you like what you hear!

Posted on 29th June 2018 by bsa_mar

Release day has finally arrived. 90 minutes of progressive folk music, folk songs, songs to make people think in this world where few people actually seem to, two online volumes eventually to be released on a double CD, and 2 years and 2 months in the recording. And while it is now for others to judge, the fact that I would buy it if someone else had produced it gives me a great feeling.

This is where it is convention – a bit like an Oscars speech – to profusely thank everyone who has contributed to the album in the most sickly and sycophantic, flesh-crawling and nauseating way, but I honestly can’t find superlatives that would be adequate enough. So I thought the best way was to give you all a taste of what they all do when they aren’t working with me.

KIERAN HEANEY (ELECTRIC GUITAR & SLIDE BASS) playing with The Cathouse Ragtime Blues Band:

EMMA PERRY & KATE FERRIS (VOCALS & PERCUSSION) with a single produced by @HeyGamal:

MATT STEADY (VIOLIN, UILLEANN PIPES, FRETLESS BASS) released Echoes of Albion just a couple of months ago:

THE LEWINSKIES – KRISTEN HATT-LEWIS VOCALS & ACCORDION, MATTHEW LEWIS ACOUSTIC GUITAR) whose album ‘Yesterday We Had Everything’ is due for release in the autumn:

DUNCAN REED (DUAL VOCALS ON OUTNUMBERED) whose album ‘Hypnotise’ is one of my favourite albums of all time. No, not just because he’s my son:

HEYGAMAL (BASS GUITAR, KEYBOARDS & ASTONISHING PRODUCTION) I actually have no words.

PETER ROBINSON played percussion on half a dozen tracks, JAD was with us in spirit, and my mate STEVE STAVRINOU loaned me his ngoni. Then there is the cast of The ‘Around the World in 80 Films’ Film Club who added audience vocals for ‘Twisted Mind’.

A fabulous effort. Now to concentrate on this year’s live stuff and new recordings some time next year.

Thank you. Bloody fabulous.

“Define Busy…”

Posted on 14th June 2018 by bsa_mar

Well, it’s been an exhausting but exhilarating few months. I’ve had a lot of people tell me recently that they are busy, too busy to do something they are required to do, have said they would do, or wanted to do. In only a few cases did their assertion stack up. A recurring conversation between me and HeyGamal recently has been that truly busy people always seem to have the capacity to be busier, but those who have never hit the heights of being ‘truly busy’ find just ‘busy’ a challenge. If you aren’t accustomed to running at speed you rarely get up to speed.

I don’t think we’ve seen each other since we mixed #TheBreedingGroundOfVile double album at the end of May. I’ve been headlong into my day job, cramming in projects and tasks both for my own business and for clients before next week’s well earned break to celebrate my 60^thbirthday, and HeyGamal’s schedule has been divided between work here in Manchester and down in London. A week ago we set up our own Whatsapp group just to keep the album promotion on track, but have rarely had chance to use it, and if I’m honest I keep forgetting anyway.

So how does it feel to be on the verge of being 60? Actually not much different to when I was on the verge of being 30. If you keep your mind active it’s half the battle. I am also just over half way through a 12 week food intolerance programme. I am apparently intolerant to both yeast and dairy, and egg yoke. I am also to avoid anything with citric acid (vinegars, processed food) and am not to drink alcohol. Take a look at food labelling next time you go shopping and you will get an idea for the challenges the test has created.

In November 2016 I went on a business trip to Mongolia. I was training export consultants there for three days, one day shorter than the combined journeys there and back! For five months after that I was acutely short of energy. I would do a relatively straightforward task and it would floor me for a week. I was concerned because I had co-organised the first Viva Musica at The Fuse in Manchester for May 2017 and Matthew and Kristen (The Lewinskies) had trusted in me enough to fly over to be with us for the first time. Before then I had further business trips to Ukraine and Moldova, between which I was floored again. I was getting increasingly stressed about it, but somehow by the time they arrived in Manchester I was largely recovered.

My incapacity at the time wasn’t a stress thing, although I think I probably need a fairly high element of stress to live my life the way I do. The doctors mused that I must have picked something up on one of the long flights to or from Ulaanbaatar, but we never really got to the bottom of it. Fast forward to today and I am looking back with some satisfaction on the Lewinskies second trip over here to gig with us in May, the completion of the album which has been more than two years in the making, and an intensely busy period of work during which I also managed to squeeze in music rehearsals.

The food intolerance thing wasn’t planned. I started work with a new client whose business it is to test food intolerance. So I took the decision that if I was going to be involved in helping the company to promote their product into more export markets, I should take the test. The results have been astounding, both physically and mentally. Physically I have lost a stone in weight and my energy levels are much improved. In the past week I have spontaneously started running and chasing Ozzy on his walks on the field, in the woods, or in the park. I haven’t broken into a jog for about ten years. Mentally I feel more clear headed, more positive and forward looking, and I am dealing with stressful situations so much better: things that would previously either have made me upset, angry or put me under extreme stress. I can be a very emotional person at times. It has been a game changer, and has increased my capacity to be busy. I am now contentedly looking forward to my first birthday without alcohol since childhood.

So whether you’re 16 or you’re 60, you can still be busy and live life to the full. “Some people do. Some people don’t. But we just did!” pretty well sums up my and HeyGamal’s lives right now. We plan to get together again soon, to make a video, drive out, or just jam in his studio. It feels strange to not have a specific music project to be involved in, but I feel achieved and positive about the way the new album will be received. That is out of my hands now, but I do have somewhere around 50 unrecorded songs to start working on, and an idea is afoot to co-write new material with other musicians in The Folded Arms, with plenty of live shows to look forward to.

Someone once asked me “What is the secret of your success”. It made me laugh, because I don’t really believe I’ve ever been too successful, but I thought about it and replied “Define success.” So when someone tells me they are too busy to do something, I should probably use a similar retort. “Define busy”.

Enjoy the album. It is available now for pre-order at https://johnreed.bandcamp.com/album/the-breeding-ground-of-vile-vol-1-calling-out-vol-2-the-reckoning There are 24 tracks over two volumes, and it’s a 90 minute listen in total, but if you don’t listen through each song, you will miss the twists or the special instrumental or vocal moments that have been contributed by the various members of The Folded Arms. If you love folk music and like to hear it taken up to and beyond the limits of the genre, then please make time, however busy you may be!

New Album Very Soon…

Posted on 24th May 2018 by bsa_mar

“I can’t believe you played The Burning Gates of Hell in a church!” will be one of the moments that lives on with me from our north west England tour last week. The truth is that the song is much more about politics than religion, but it was a nice observation anyway, and it summed up the spirit of a week that was full of ‘firsts’.

If I cast my mind back to the weeks and months after last year’s visit of The Lewinskies, I can remember being determined to populate this year’s visit with more gigs, and better gigs, and to spread our wings a little more geographically. The number of gigs was significantly up on last year, the performance quality was better all round. We also took our merry band of performers into the Cheshire countryside for the first time, and into Lancashire where we played in some amazing venues. I also recall a sadness at Kristen and Matthew from The Lewinskies returning home to Nova Scotia last May, and writing the song Ocean for them.

This year the aftermath is different. The collaborative spirit is much stronger. We finished the tour with more confident performances, a stronger cohesiveness and friendship, and a determination to do even better in 2019. Me, Emma, and Kate played on some of Duncan’s songs. They also sang with The Lewinskies, with Matt playing a supporting role for just about everybody, and The Lewinskies played on a few of my songs. Emma and Kate did a couple of short notice gigs of their own at Penwortham Live, and Matt and I played my songs as a duo for the first time. Sam played on a couple of songs with me at Levenshulme Library, and was joined by Matt on a couple of his own songs. I’ve probably missed some collaborations because so much happened in a short space of time, but I haven’t forgotten Kieran’s fabulous guitar effects for The Folded Arms or Gary’s multi-tasking as a roadie, merchandiser, camera man and standby driver.

I went to drop off some tomato and courgette (zucchini) plants with Matt en route to London yesterday – I part reward people in seasonal allotment vegetables! We agreed that one of the things that makes our group of musicians so special is that there are no egos. Sure, I have taken on the organising, but that’s something I’ve always done so it’s second nature and something I’m happy doing. Everything else is on a level, even though we have different music skills and levels of experience, and everyone is looking forward to being part of the next adventures, whenever and wherever they may be.

The Breeding Ground Of Vile double album will be released in mid-June. I am being interviewed on Music For Grown Ups (Meridian 107FM) on Thursday 5th July from 8pm, so tune in that evening for stories and live music. The next gigs for The Folded Arms are on consecutive weekends in July: 8^th& 9^that the Summer of Lev open air festival at Levenshulme’s Klondyke Club (Manchester); 13^th& 14^thJuly at Longton Live near Preston. The personnel may change in the band over those two weekends because of holidays, but that means we can play different songs to suit both the venues and the lineups. Changing personnel keeps our music fresh, and means we can introduce new songs and one or two different musicians. “Come Along & Join Us…”

#NotInMyName

Posted on 14th April 2018 by bsa_mar

Just as we close in on the completion of #TheBreedingGroundOfVile, with just two more recording sessions left before the mix, the USA, the UK, and France make the incredulous decision to bomb Syria, on the pretext that they are targeting chemical weapons facilities and storage and on the pretence that they really care. The bombing that took place in the early hours of this morning was not sanctioned by our Parliament, and the last time we targeted chemical weapons facilities it failed. So the lyrics to #NotInMyName were written by 8am and the tune followed this afternoon.

We live in a world where people spend their waking hours shouting at each other, which means that nobody listens. We don’t need appeasement but neither do we need aggression. We employ diplomats on fat salaries to steer a safe course, to advise politicians, and for the politicians to heed that advice. Anyone with half a brain knows that the events of last night will have resulted from Donald Trump giving the UK little choice but to follow on his coat tails into a conflict that is far more likely to have repercussions on our shores than on his. You reap what you sow.

Our Prime Minister is weak. She runs a minority government and is only leading the Conservative Party because the alternatives are even more awful. To call her ‘a safe pair of hands’ is only a comparative. The blundering Bullingdon bully Boris Johnson seems to have the delusion that he is Churchill (who by the way was an alcoholic and not a very nice man, and while seemingly a brilliant leader in times of war was hopeless in peacetime), transforming quickly from being a joke journalist to being the most dangerously undiplomatic Foreign Secretary in my lifetime.

I always swore I wouldn’t swear in any of my recorded songs, but I needed #NotInMyName properly to convey my disgust at my country being taken yet again to the brink of conflict. Today’s bombing of Syria seemed to act as a metaphor for the reversal of all the good things that have happened in the last 50 years. Almost a year ago the Manchester arena was bombed essentially because this country interfered in a conflict that it could do little about. If one person dies on our home soil as a result of this latest military aggression, then the blood will be on Theresa May’s hands.

#TheBreedingGroundOfVile will be released on 17^thJune, my 60^thbirthday. But I am still 18 inside.

MAGNIFICENT MATT!!

Posted on 19th March 2018 by bsa_mar

I am lucky to work with people who are prepared to go the extra mile to support my music. Many miles in fact! Jad is an extreme case because I seem to remember him driving up from Exeter to rehearse with us in Poulton then back to do a talk in Bristol the same evening. It was something like that anyway. And just last weekend Matt performed the Steady Triangle, starting from home in Leicester via a rehearsal in Loughborough on Friday evening, to arrive with me for a midnight curry ahead of our day’s recording for #TheBreedingGroundOfVile then leaving around 4pm for his gig with Cruel Sister in the evening….in the snow! At that point my knowledge of his whereabouts is somewhat sketchy. I know he got home to Leicester, but I don’t know on what day, or whether or not he had to bunk down in the pub in Lincoln for the night!

The previous weekend Pete had driven over from Hull. A few weeks before, Kieran, Emma, and Kate had made the trip over from Blackpool for their first of two recording sessions for the album, the second being on the last weekend of April. That will shortly be followed by a final session with The Lewinskies by way of a break from gigging in mid May. They are over here again from Milton, Nova Scotia to present their unique music to the north west of England. So extra miles sometimes become thousands of miles, but every mile that anyone travels to help out is hugely appreciated. Air miles, road miles, every one of them.

Fortified by a breakfast of Taylor’s pork and leek (thin) sausages, eggs, mushrooms, beans and a couple of slices of bread, a couple of fine cups of tea in the company of a spectating spaniel, we arrived at the studio around 10am and were at work within 30 minutes. Four hours and six songs later, combining three of Matt’s instruments, we set off back to mine for even more food before he intrepidly set off over the moors in the snow and ice, bound for the historic city of Lincoln. The results of the recording were amazing, partly because of Matt’s incredible versatility as a musician but also because I could really feel the final pieces of the jigsaw falling into place.

All we need now is to find a way of parachuting Jad in from wherever in the world he may be, to record on five or six tracks and enrich my work with his classical tabla skills. The good news is that this two year project for # TheBreedingGroundOfVile is reaching its conclusion and that the double album will be released online on time in the middle of June. There are always mixed emotions when you reach the end of a project like this. It’s something you live and breathe, and when it’s done you feel a bit like a spare part. I need some space though to focus on developing the live performances – I prefer to do all that myself – but also to rest! I have about 30 unrecorded songs and a number of ideas to chew over for the years to come.

Look out for our gigs in May with The Lewinskies, Duncan Reed, and Sam Jefferson, and ‘book early to avoid disappointment’ (Fred Pontin 1975):