So lets start with our traditional Friday treat, the Friday Joke. As is often the case, I am endebted to the rather wonderful Mr Robert Wilkinson for this weeks offering. This one made me chuckle
Got stopped by the police yesterday.
— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) May 31, 2023
They asked me where I was between 6 and 9.
I said 'Primary school '
So anyway, we got home from our recording session in Portugal yesterday. The plane got to Luton at 9.15pm and I was in the Coban's Kebabs, picking up my supper at 10.37. We flew out on Sunday and Monday thru to Weds were pretty full on. We'd start work in the studio around 11am and work through to midnight. Where Boz lives, up in the mountains is beautiful, but we did very little chilling. Maybe a tad too much alcohol was consumed in the process, but hey ho, we are a rock and roll band and we were off the leash. When you have a good creative working relationship, its is great to be relaxed.
Day 3 was all about getting the rough mixes down. We had five songs to do and although I'm biased, I think they are all excellent. For me (at the moment), the stand out song is a reworking of a song I co wrote with Pete Conway when the False Dots first started in 1979 called Not All She Seems. It has finally reached it's proper potential and Boz played some amazing guitar licks in the style of Johnny Thunders to round it off. Given that the song was written by two 16 year old Catholic schoolboys, at a homophobic boys school, about the trials and tribulations of a trasnvestite prostitute, in an age before anyone had a discussion about pronouns, it is remarkably fresh and current sounding. When we set out writing it, we wanted something that was outrageous and inflamattory. It is a song about not fitting in and living a transient lifestyle, trying to survive in the face of all manner of difficult challenges. We are on the side of streetwalker, not the people who abuse her.
I played the songs to my wife on my return. She reckoned the best one is Action Shock. A number I wrote in 1982 and one we've played many arrangements with many different line ups. I've never been 100% happy with any of them. I think we've nailed it this time. It has a good groove and moves.
The last three have been written over the last 9 months. Men and Motors is a bit of an Ian Dury/Chas & Dave mash up. I played it to Lee from Madness earlier and he got it. It is based on Norf London boys motor culture of the 70's and 80's. My family were all in the motor trade and these were the stories of my youth,
Oh No Sharon, is a musical soap opera. The story of the disaster of teenage pregnancy and nasty shocks. I love the song. It is quite a dark and intense. Some of it is autobiography, some of it is based on the experience of friends. It has a bit of a skanking ska feel that explodes into punk rock, then subsides just as quickly. One of the more ambitious songs we play.
And finally, a song whick we still have to name, it will most likely be "Alien under my bed" although it may not. It is pure 70's glam rock, Boz described it as "totally bonkers". Boz put the cherry on the cake playing a Theramin on it.
We finished the final mix at around midnight, adjourned to Boz's kitchen for cherry crumble, custard and a few shots of the local hooch, called Madronia, made from a still in the next door neighbours barn. A job well done.
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