Category: The Madness EP

I first wrote The Madness in May 2016 shortly after reading an article about a Palestinian family whose lives were spent beneath windowsill level to avoid one of them taking a sniper’s bullet. Living your life like that is something we in the safety of Europe, whose continent has been largely free from war for 72 years, can never comprehend.

In writing the song, I knew from history that humankind would continue to find conflict and that a return to The Madness is actually never far away. One of the purposes of the European Union was to hold the peace in Europe, and whatever its failings that is something in which it has been singularly successful. Conflicts continued within Europe after 1945: The Greek Civil War 1946-49; the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968; the Northern Ireland Conflict 1968-98 (at least they are the official dates); the Balkan War 1991-2001, and there are continuing murmurings in countries on the fringes of Europe where longstanding conflicts seem destined not to go away.

The list of wars and conflicts in the world outside Europe since 1945 shows that assertions by politicians like David Cameron “why our children must learn the lessons of the First World War” are words only, and that the will of humankind does not extend to ending conflicts altogether. Maybe it is naïve of me to think that can be achieved? So The Madness could be about any of those conflicts, or the extraordinary mess that countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan have been left in as the world battles to secure the vast wealth that has resulted from the exploitation of natural resources in those regions.

I was one of the two million who marched through London on a cold February day in 2003 to tell Tony Blair not to take our country on the coat tails of George Bush into an unnecessary war in Iraq. We were ignored, as peace movements continue to be ignored or dismissed by politicians throughout the world. And look at the legacy they left us. International terrorism is now a fact of life and was perpetrated on the city where I live on 22^nd May this year, killing 22 concert goers at the City’s arena.

Two songs on the Madness EP feature The Lewinskies, a man and wife folk duo from Milton Nova Scotia. We got to know each other on Twitter and after several months of conversation it became clear to me that their music would put the icing on the cake of a day long music event I was co-organising. They arrived in Manchester on Friday 19^th May, and we rehearsed near Blackpool with the rest of The Folded Arms during that weekend. It was their first visit to the UK so when the bomb struck on 22^nd, it added an extra determination to our collaboration together. Our planned recording day on 23^rd went ahead as scheduled, and that is where they added their magic to my songs. The great news is that they are back with us in May 2018 for two weeks of gigs, recording and hanging out. So watch this space!

Rewind back to 20^th January, and HeyGamal and I had just reached the end of a recording session. These sessions are special because we take our time to get into our day, listening to music, chatting, being stupid, and drinking tea. HeyGamal is a hugely talented producer but also a great friend. We do the same once the track(s) for the day are done, and on this occasion I had picked up his newly purchased £100 electric guitar and started messing about with a few riffs. He spontaneously turned on a his keyboard and began to accompany me, and after no more than a minute he suggested we should record what we were doing, in the same way we have taken footage of each of these sessions.

And so we got into this live jam, which had movement and mood, so we continued until I realised its tempo fitted The Madness, and I just whispered to him “It’s The Madness”, following which we went seamlessly into the song. I added the vocals immediately afterwards, and the result is what you now hear backing the time lapse video that follows. I decided that because the song is stark, so too should the video be, and drew it all out and photographed it frame by frame in about 3 hours on my dining room table.

“The Madness may go but it will come back again” because we humans are fundamentally greedy and stupid. The juxtaposition of the collaboration and warmth of our recording day just 24 hours after the atrocity carried out on those innocents in the centre of Manchester, and the incredible reaction from the people of the city in the days and weeks that followed, demonstrates that no matter where our politicians and corporate business leaders try to drive us, and no matter what those with warped and deranged ideologies of hate try to do to incite and intimidate, hope and friendship will always triumph.  

We spent one of the days during The Lewinskies’ first UK visit last May recording at HeyGamal’s Crib studio. We wanted to give them a day with us between gig days and went in without any specific plan. By the end of that day we had recorded four songs: one of theirs to which I made a poetic contribution, and three of mine where they contributed accordion, guitar, and vocals. For my part, it was the first stage in putting together The Madness EP which is due for release online later this month or in early January.

Fast forward to last week, and we had received bed tracks for two Lewinskies songs: one to add my poetry and another to add harmonies from Emma and Kate. Matt has separately received other tracks on which to sprinkle his magic. The original idea to finish off a full day’s recording of this and more of my material was scuppered during the week when Emma (neck) and John (food poisoning & asthma) had to pull out. We had all been looking forward to a celebratory meal that evening, but it was not to be.

Instead we used last Saturday to add my poetry to Rip It Away, then to focus on adding my cittern to some of Duncan’s new songs. It was a spectacular day, with some great songs coming through. I left early so they could all finish the job, but was glad to be able to transfer that first collaboration for The Lewinskies new album.

Their work has been delayed this year so it felt important to pull out the stops and arrange a time and day when Emma and Kate could finish Birds Fly, so that’s what we did. I booked HeyGamal for an evening and took him to Kieran’s house in Blackpool where we set up for a vocal recording session amid a sea of chocolate oranges, some very nice salted caramel biscuits, and cheese and chilli jam crisps, while keeping half an eye on the evening’s football on a muted television.

Last night before I turned in for the night I was able to transfer audio files to The Lewinskies so they could forward them to their producer in good time for him to be able to put together the release of their much awaited new album this side of the New Year. So look out for that, and look out for The Madness. Two records released on either side of the Atlantic using common musicians and singers in a wonderful collaboration that came out of last year’s visit by Kristen and Matthew.

It gets better because we have already organised four collaborative gigs for May 2018, full details of which will be announced in the coming months.

This morning I woke up feeling somewhat broken. It’s what happens when an old person who thinks he’s still a teenager has several consecutive days of activity and late nights…and some whisky. As I sat in recovery mode in the living room looking out at the sunny day, a pair of sparrows began to fly frantically between the hawthorn hedge and the bird feeder, carrying seed to their greedy offspring in a nest that should have been obliterated by Friday’s hedge cutting activity. Each time the feeder was free of sparrows a coal tit sped in and out, probably on a similar mission, and after about twenty minutes everything went quiet, and calm was restored to the front garden.

It has been a manic week, with a lot of day job work to clear ahead of Wednesday’s film night and Thursday’s full day recording session over at The Crib. It feels like it has been a busy few weeks since our ten days with #TheLewinskies because Ali and I have not had a studio session for a while, so I went armed with two songs, Ocean and The Judge. Ocean is my thank you to Matthew and Kristen for flying across from Nova Scotia on a wing and a prayer to be part of a week of music collaboration, and has now been released on Bandcamp as a single. The Judge is a track I wrote the lyrics for last September for next year’s The Breeding Ground Of Vile album and finally put a tune to last weekend. It’s about a refugee dreaming revenge on their trafficker.

A morning of work on Friday was followed by a lunch meeting at a local Thai restaurant with Miguel F.A. to set our thought processes in train for next year’s music showcase at The Fuse, and to nail down a date. So May 9^th 2018 needs to be blocked in your diaries. Not everyone gets what we are trying to do, but it really is very simple. We are providing a showcase for musicians and singers to perform, be photographed professionally, and to have both video and sound recordings made of their performances. This isn’t a normal gig experience, and will always be for invited guests. It is collaborative between the musicians, provides opportunities for jamming, or for those who have no music experience to pick up an instrument and have a try. More another day, but Viva Musica 2017 was a roaring success.

I had hoped to go to Stanley Park in Blackpool today to watch both Kieran’s band the Cracked and Emma and Kate in their new acoustic guise perform in the beautiful sunshine at the bandstand. However, a mix of my birthday yesterday, the annual Reed family walk (this year at Condor Green), and the visit for a couple of nights by some friends over from New Zealand meant a change of plan.

Instead, I finished my Friday tasks by 4:30pm and promptly sat in my first traffic queue in a journey to Fleetwood to watch the girls perform there. Kieran and I joined these two incredibly talented chameleons for The Sun Goes Round The Moon at the end of their acoustic set, following which they changed into the glittery disco personas to deliver a fabulous set of ‘80s and disco music to a backing track.

And now I have a sunny day to sit around doing not very much at all, which is highly unusual. That wonderful feeling of the calm after the storm. I am playing a few solo songs at Sale Folk Club on Tuesday evening but please keep your eyes on our gigs page because it gives all the latest gigs from each of The Folded Arms and of course when we play together in one of our formats. You can find Ocean on Bandcamp at:

https://johnreed.bandcamp.com/track/ocean