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therecordconnection · 1 year

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Ranting and Raving: "Up the Junction" by Squeeze

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Squeeze are one of the great unsung bands of the second British Invasion. A band that has never gotten their well-earned praise.

Squeeze were never going to be huge megastars. Their discography is too varied, their humor too odd and too British, and their songwriting was of a kind that didn't really appeal to American sensibilities. Though the band managed to have a few hits here in the states ("Black Coffee in Bed," "Hourglass," and, most importantly, "Tempted") they never got much further than that. Part of me thinks they didn't really care about conquering America since they never bothered to try and appeal to us. Certainly songs like this were never going to do it. There's British slang all over this song that makes no sense unless you head on over to Genius and look at some annotations.

But it's songs like this one that I think made Squeeze a special band. A different band. These were guys that wrote songs with a subtle and understated magic to them.

Squeeze's songs were created through the songwriting partnership of dual guitarists/vocalists Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. Unlike Lennon/McCartney, it's very easy to figure out which one did what. Difford handled the lyrics, Tilbrook then took those lyrics and set them to music. "Up the Junction" is one of the best things they wrote together and it deserves some praise.

So, why don't we start with defining what the phrase "up the junction" means. It's simple. It means: Up shit creek without a paddle. Boned. In a mess of trouble. You're screwed, basically. The phrase doesn't appear until the end and it isn't until the end where it's revealed why the song is called that.

I said Squeeze's songwriting was of a kind that didn't really appeal to American sensibilities and that's clear right from the first listen. Americans love a chorus they can sing along to. Tom Petty's famous songwriting philosophy was, "Don't bore us, get to the chorus." Squeeze breaks that rule by virtue of not having one. The song has six verses and a bridge that all have the same melody and progression through the song's 3:05 runtime. Tilbrook settles on one core groove and while drummer Gilson Lavis and keyboardist Jools Holland add little flourishes and extra spices here and there, the song rarely changes. This would normally be detrimental and lead to the song being boring, but the lack of chorus makes it stronger. Difford explained that he and Tilbrook agreed that having repeated lyrics would break the flow of the song, to which he is absolutely right. This song never feels like it's overstaying its welcome. The story remains engaging the entire time and nothing derails it. Difford and Tilbrook cited Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" as an influence on "Up the Junction," which fits because that's another song that tells a full story without a chorus. Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" is structured the exact same way.

Lyrically, this is one of Difford's best and it's a masterclass on how to tell a well written, well focused, and well paced slice-of-life story in just three minutes. The verses tell the story of a guy who met a girl from Clapham (a district in London), fell in love with her, had a daughter with her, and proceeded to then lose his girl and daughter when he became an alcoholic and they left him.

Each verse contains eight lines a piece, with each one focusing on a different part of this couple's relationship. Verse 1 they meet. Verse 2 they move in together. Verse 3 the guy gets a job and his girl gets pregnant. The bridge has the guy work through the winter and the girl moving forward with her pregnancy. Verse 4 has their daughter be born. Verse 5 describes the guy's alcoholism and his family leaving him. The final verse details his current state of being alone without his girl and their child. Each of these verses are perfect. There is no extra fat or any needless detail. Difford could've published these words strictly as a poem and it wouldn't be diminished. This song is also a great example of how clever he could be with his words. Like here:

"She gave birth to a daughter Within a year a walker She looked just like her mother If there could be another"

It's stuff like this that's simple, but very very sweet. It helps paint a picture and while some of Difford's lines suffer from being written by a young songwriter early in his career ("We stayed in by the telly / Although the room was smelly" is a bit of a silly rhyme) it never detracts too much overall.

The only time the song goes through any significant change musically is during the final verse, where Tilbrook and Difford stop playing their guitars and let Holland fill the empty space with his keyboard taking over command. It creates a more somber mood compared to the rest of the song and allows the music to better reflect the final lyrics, which is about being left alone and having regret for how things fell apart and how he probably won't be able to fix it.

"Alone here in the kitchen I feel there's something missing I'd beg for some forgiveness But begging's not my business And she won't write a letter Although I always tell her And so it's my assumption I'm really up the junction"

Suddenly, the title's meaning becomes very clear and it's heartbreaking.

What Squeeze pulls off here is a fantastic tale of love and loss in a short amount of time. It's pop music at its absolute finest. It's a song that deserves more love. Hell, the band who made it also deserves more love. It saw success in its day, becoming one of Squeeze's highest charting U.K. hits, peaking at #2 in 1979. Now, all these years later, it remains one of the band's best songs. What you get with "Up the Junction" and others are works from two songwriters who sought to push the boundaries of the average song structure and were always trying to play with different sounds and ideas to see what might land and what might not. Squeeze were a band of underdogs and this song wonderfully shows what these guys had to offer.

Squeeze was always cool for cats and they'll remain cool for you, too.

#ranting and raving #squeeze band #uk squeeze #original post

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my-chaos-radio · 1 year

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Release: September 21, 1987

Lyrics:

Sick of leaving in the morning

With the night you gave away

So now I'm gonna take that all that I can get

With those angel eyes

You make saints do sins all the time

Say I'm gonna stay, home and away, well well

When I said I'd catch you when you're falling

I'd have my heart open wide

And you who's not naive I thought

Say I thought I'd mend my heart

People say I'm so automatic

People say I'm not so systematic

When I'm down I'm in manual, Lord

And time on time again I walk on by

With the look of love

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

You set me on fire baby

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

C'mon now baby

The saddest thing I've ever seen on my tv screen

Was a dying man who died for his dream

Toughest thing I've ever heard

Was that new-born scream in this naked world

People say I'm so automatic

People say I'm not so systematic

When I'm down I'm in manual, Lord

And time on time again I walk on by

With the look of love

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

You set me on fire baby

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

C'mon now baby

Say I'm gonna stay home and away

Show a little loving that'll make you shine girl

Say I'm gonna stay home and away

Set me on fire, baby

People say that I'm so automatic

People say I'm not so systematic

When I'm down I'm in manual, Lord

Been all around those edges

But ain't never been in love

Ain't never been in love before babe

Never been in love

Songwriter:

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

Set me on fire, fire

And with those angel eyes, woh woh

Set me on fire, fire

Willie Mitchell / Gary Clark / Marti Pellow / Christopher Difford / Tom Cunningham

SongFacts:

"Angel Eyes (Home and Away)" is the third single from Scottish band Wet Wet Wet's first album, Popped In Souled Out (1987). It was released in November 1987. The lyrics in the chorus make reference to two Hal David and Burt Bacharach compositions "Walk On By" and "The Look of Love", and quote an entire verse of the Squeeze single "Heartbreaking World". Some later issues of this single (including all of the US issues) accordingly credit the Squeeze lyricist Chris Difford as a co-author.

"Angel Eyes" reached number five in the UK Singles Chart in January 1988 and also peaked at number nine in Ireland. Later in the year, the song charted in other countries, becoming a top-five hit in Belgium, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Marti Pellow recorded his own version of the song for inclusion on his 2002 album Marti Pellow Sings the Hits of Wet Wet Wet & Smile. An earlier version of the song, entitled "Home and Away", was on the 1986 Glasgow band's compilation cassette Honey at the Core.

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northernrevive · 2 years

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OUT NOW: SQUEEZE ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’ EP

OUT NOW: SQUEEZE ‘FOOD FOR THOUGHT’ EP PROFITS TO INDEPENDENT UK FOOD BANKS The title track, a brand new song, is a social commentary on the cost of living crisis and the increasing reliance on food banks. ALSO ON THE ROAD WITH THE FOOD FOR THOUGHT UK TOUR FEATURING A VERY SPECIAL GUEST, DR JOHN COOPER CLARKE LISTEN / BUY HERE / squeezeofficial.com In the midst of their ‘Food For Thought’ 25 dates UK tour, British music legends Squeeze have released their new six-track EP featuring the title track, ‘Food For Thought’. The track is a brand new song written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook that is a pithy commentary on society, the cost of living crisis, and the increasing reliance on food banks. Robert waits for his turn no fuss The wage he earns is not enough ….. It’s simply a disgrace. Their needs cannot be met Food for thought we’re not done yet ‘Food For Thought’ lyrics here “It’s terrible and wrong that so many people have no choice other than the help that food banks provide to feed their family. That there are so many people who have to choose between food and heating is a disgrace,” said Glenn Tilbrook. Also included on the EP are new recordings of ‘The Very First Dance’ and ‘Electric Trains’ as well as live recordings of ‘In Quintessence’, ‘Slap and Tickle’ and ‘The Day I Get Home’ recorded at the Liverpool Philharmonic. Profits from the EP, which is released digitally and sold on CD at the shows, will go to Independent UK food banks. TOUR SUPPORTS ANTI-POVERTY CHARITY THE TRUSSELL TRUST In addition to the donations to independent foodbanks from the EP, Squeeze are also continuing their relationship with the anti-poverty charity The Trussell Trust. Throughout the tour Squeeze and their fans are once again be supporting the charity which provides emergency food and support to people locked in poverty while campaigning for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. “It’s so sad that in these times people have to lean on local food banks to feed their families, please support The Trussell Trust by offering as much as you can afford and enjoy the music we have created” said co-founder Chris Difford. Right now, millions of people across the country are facing a cost of living crisis as food and energy prices soar and families are feeling the biggest squeeze on incomes in a generation. That’s why attendees on the tour have been invited to bring along food donations to the shows, where there will be collection points across the venue each night. There is also be collection buckets for any cash donations. All donations are distributed to people in crisis across the 1,300 food bank centres in the Trussell Trust network. Here is a link to information on the items that are requested: www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/ways-to-give/donate-food/. Previous tours by Squeeze and Glenn Tilbrook have raised tonnes of food and thousands of pounds for the charity. Emma Revie, CEO of The Trussell Trust, said “The cost of living crisis is impacting all of us, but for people on the lowest incomes it means they cannot afford the essentials such as heating or food. We are extremely grateful to Squeeze and all of their fans for kindly donating to the Trussell Trust from their tour, their generosity will help us ensure that food banks across the UK are able to continue delivering vital support this winter.” The 25-date ‘Food For Thought’ tour, which includes a hometown show at Indigo At The O2, see Squeeze dip into their impressive list of hits and rare gems from throughout their extensive back catalogue. Joined by very special guest and original ‘people’s poet’ Dr John Cooper Clarke, tickets are on sale now via www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk. Squeeze first formed in 1973, shortly after Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook had begun their songwriting partnership. By 1977 they had made their recording debut and enjoyed a string of hits, establishing the band as not just a passing footnote in new-wave history, but as an important and vital part of quintessential British music. Following solo careers, the Ivor Novello Award-winning duo reunited in 2007 to relaunch Squeeze and have been touring, writing and recording together ever since, returning to the UK album charts and airwaves with 2015’s Cradle To The Grave and 2017’s The Knowledge. Over the last few years Squeeze have been touring extensively, most recently in the USA with Daryl Hall and John Oates and with Madness on their UK Arena tour. Joining Squeeze on their UK tour is one of Britain's most outstanding poets - Dr John Cooper Clarke. His anarchic punk poetry has thrilled people for decades and his no nonsense approach to his work has seen his career spanning cultures, audiences, art forms and continents. Dr John Cooper Clarke will take you on an incredible journey with pieces from the new book, poems (old and new) and his usual musings, off the wall chat, riffs, gags and wicked humour. This comes after the bard of Salford embarked on his ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ tour, based on his memoir, released by Picador. This explored his extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry; Bernard Manning to Linton Kwesi Johnson; Elvis Costello to Gregory Corso; Mark E. Smith to Gil Scott Heron and Joe Strummer and on to more recent fans and collaborators like Alex Turner, Plan B and Guy Garvey. Tickets for Squeeze are on sale now via www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk. Squeeze Food For Thought UK Tour Remaining ‘Food For Thought’ UK tour dates - Mon 07 Nov 22 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall - Tue 08 Nov 22 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall - Wed 09 Nov 22 Edinburgh Usher Hall - Fri 11 Nov 22 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall - Sat 12 Nov 22 Birmingham Symphony Hall - Sun 13 Nov 22 Birmingham Symphony Hall - Tue 15 Nov 22 Llandudno Venue Cymru Theatre (Beautiful Landing not John Cooper Clarke) - Thu 17 Nov 22 Swansea Arena - Fri 18 Nov 22 Cardiff St David’s Hall - Sat 19 Nov 22 London Eventim Apollo - Mon 21 Nov 22 Southampton O2 Guildhall - Tue 22 Nov 22 Bath Forum - Wed 23 Nov 22 Torquay Princess Theatre - Thu 24 Nov 22 London Indigo at The O2 - Sat 26 Nov 22 Brighton Centre - Sun 27 Nov 22 Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre - Tue 29 Nov 22 Guildford G Live - Wed 30 Nov 22 Southend Cliffs Pavilion EP tracklisting 1 Food For Thought 2 The Very First Dance 3 Electric Trains 4 In Quintessence (recorded at the Liverpool Philharmonic) 5 Slap and Tickle (recorded at the Liverpool Philharmonic) 6 The Day I Get Home (recorded at the Liverpool Philharmonic) Read the full article

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redsoapbox · 2 years

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Boo Hewerdine and Jodie Marie Are Added to the Have Yourself a Merry Christmas Line-up

Folk-pop singer/songwriter Boo Hewerdine first surfaced in 1983 in the Cambridge, England-based group The Great Divide: two years later, he founded cult favorites the Bible, releasing a pair of acclaimed albums (Walking the Ghost Back Home and Eureka) and scoring a minor hit single with "Honey Be Good" before disbanding the group in 1988. From there, Hewerdine teamed with Texas performer Darden Smith for 1989's well-regarded Evidence, followed in 1992 by his true solo debut, Ignorance. After briefly re-forming the Bible, he returned in 1996 with Baptist Hospital; Thanksgiving followed three years later. Hewerdine maintained a low-key presence in the 2000s and 2010s, but he recorded steadily on his own and also in collaboration with the Great Divide, State of the Union, Brooks Williams and Chris Difford. (All Music bio, Jason Ankeny).

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The Bible

Back in the 80s, I had an ongoing compulsion with compiling the ideal indie mixtape. New songs would be added here and there, while others would inevitably be dropped into the bargain bin of my memory banks in the quest for the perfect 90 mins of indie pop. There was consistency, though. Some songs are just classics, period! So, the ever-present songs included “Almost Prayed” by The Weather Prophets, “Word Around Town”, by Westlake and “'My Favourite Dress” by The Wedding Present. Also, un-droppable was “Graceland” by The Bible, so it’s an absolute honour to feature Boo Hewerdine on the album. In addition to the All Music bio above, there are some additional points worth noting: A re-released “Graceland” reached no 51 in the UK charts in May 1989. Boo Hewerdine’s solo albums feature guest appearances by the likes of Richard Thompson, Martha Wainwright and Eddi Reader (another contributor to this album). Reader's first hit single after Fairground Attraction had called it a day, was with Boo's “Patience of Angels”. The song was nominated for the Ivor Novello in 1995.

https://boohewerdine.net/

I’ve written about Jodie Marie a number of times for Wales Arts Review and New Sound Wales, and she remains one of my favourite musicians of the present day. Before I quote my own work (poor form, I know), here is All Music’s short introduction to her work: ‘Welsh singer/songwriter Jodie Marie (born Jodie Marie Warlow) makes yearning folk-pop with a bent toward soulful ballads and bluesy anthems. A native of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Jodie grew up listening to blues music, began performing locally at age seven, and by her teens was writing her own songs. An album of cover songs she recorded caught the ear of record execs at Transgressive Management, who quickly signed Marie -- then age 16. Soon thereafter, she began recording an album of original songs in London, working with guitarist/producer Bernard Butler (Suede). In 2012, Marie released her debut album, Mountain Echo, on Decca.

It was 2015′s Trouble in Mind that caught my ear, and I nominated it as the redsoapbox AOTY. I concluded my Wales Arts Review of the album with ‘Whilst Mountain Echo was an album of sunrises and sunsets, of moonlight and ocean mists, its campestral lyric reflecting an idyllic childhood lived along Pembrokeshire’s Landsker Borderlands, Trouble in Mind contains not a single reference to nature, or indeed, the outside world in any shape or form. It’s a claustrophobic, nocturnal record, set entirely within the haunted house of the human heart, an album of candlelight and ticking clocks, of straight-faced lies and sleepless nights. It’s worth getting acquainted with Jodie Marie and these marvellous songs, you’ll be glad to have heard them all, and one or two might just become travelling companions for life’.

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Jodie Marie “This House”

However, the best was still to come. The sublimely soulful The Answer (2021) was packed with dynamite tracks like “This House”, “Curse the Day” and You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Gone). It’s a thrill, a privilege and an honour to feature Jodie on Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas.

https://www.jodiemarie.co.uk/about

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monkberries · 4 years

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WAIT WAIT WAAAAAAAIT. WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS IS ABOUT JOHN AND PAUL? What are you serious? why have I never heard this before?????????? How is it about them though?

i mean, think about it. it’s all about the singer seeing people who love each other but don’t know how to express it and they keep making mistakes and keep getting manipulated and twisted by outside forces and keep pushing each other away and the singer feels as though there’s nothing he can do about it

i’m not about to say definitively that it’s about John And Paul Being In Love, but it was written at a time when the band was fracturing. wikipedia says “The song serves as a comment on the disharmony within the Beatles following their return from studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968.” Chris Difford said once, facetiously, that “Apparently, there was another verse to the song that was edited out which George poignantly wrote about Paul and John, and how he thought they should get their heads banged together!” (link) So it seems like it’s a universally accepted theory that the lyrics, while maybe not specifically about John And Paul Being In Love, are about how the band really did love each other but couldn’t express it or connect with each other anymore. And who in the band were the two having the most trouble connecting?

#geo #mclennon #think about it :)#Anonymous

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5-star-songs · 4 years

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“Up The Junction” -- SQUEEZE

Today’s Chris Difford’s 66th birthday, so here’s one of his all-time best lyrics, set to one of Glenn Tillbrook’s all-time best arrangements.

The story of young love in South London, from initial infatuation through pregnancy and dissolution, is filled with endearing couplets. You can choose your own favorite; mine is, “The devil came and took me / from bar to street to bookie.” The song has no chorus, because who needs one when listeners are already hanging on every word?

I should probably mention here that my friend Dave Newton, a gifted composer in his own right who used to be in The Mighty Lemon Drops and released an excellent solo album earlier this year, thinks this song is ruined by the nonsensical statement, “Took her to an incubator,” as an incubator is not a place to which a pregnant woman goes, but a device into which premature or sick newborns are placed, and Difford only uses it here because it rhymes with “30 minutes later,” whereas “hospital” or “maternity ward” do not.

Dave’s objection is a perfectly valid aesthetic viewpoint, but not one I happen to share. I admire the fuck out of any lyricist brave enough to risk obvious absurdities for the sake of a pleasing rhyme, especially in a song like this one in which the long rush of words has a momentum that pushes you past logic. Difford’s “incubator” rhyme reminds me of the bit in Dylan’s “Hurricane” when he wheezes, “They took him to the jailHOUSE / where they try to turn a man into a MOUSE!” That song, too, packs more verses than your average pop hit into a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, and the characters are compelling enough that we’re more interested in finding out what happens to them than worrying about how well-chosen a stray word might be.

Sorry, Dave, but I love “Up The Junction” BECAUSE of, not despite, the ludicrous incubator rhyme.

(While we’re on the topic of choosing a word for its rhyme rather than its meaning, any time I hear a pairing such as incubator/later or house/mouse, I remember this segment from an old documentary about Robert Frost we all had to watch one day in a high school English class. He’s discussing a brand-new poem of his with a group of college students, and he gets pretty indignant when someone suggests he selected the word “retreat” simply because it rhymed with “defeat.” He tries to act the grizzled sage as he insists the word has important resonances beyond the rhyme itself, but I thought at the time and still think today he protests too much -- it’s hard to escape the conclusion he’s being a defensive prick about the rhyme. I wish he’d just said, “Hell yeah! Rhymes are great, and that’s a GREAT rhyme.”)

#alternative #squeeze

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rocknutsvibe · 7 years

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Song Of The Day: Squeeze – “Cool For Cats” (1979)

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Happy 62nd Birthday to Chris Difford, who together with Glenn Tillbrook formed one of the best Pop/Rock songwriting teams of all time for the band Squeeze. Difford’s clever lyrical tales depicting British middle-class life blended beautifully with Tillbrook’s effervescent musical songcraft, and their catalogue of great songs runs deep and continues to this day. This was their first big hit, and one of the few Squeeze songs on which Difford took lead vocals. The lyrics weren’t much to write home about, but the amazing jazzy breakdown in the middle of the song showed that there was something very special about this band.

from Rocknuts http://ift.tt/2j1jKXl via IFTTT

#Rocknuts #rock #music

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shemakesmusic-uk · 5 years

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Getting to Know...

RISE.

R I S E (aka Jo Beth Young) is an English songwriter whose relentlessly authentic songs and mesmeric voice cut deep into the fabric of human frailty with a visionary sound swaying hypnotically between dream folk and progressive grit; at times dark but always beautiful.

Since the release of her debut album An Abandoned Orchid House in 2018 (under the longer moniker of Talitha Rise) she has been gathering international acclaim and support from BBC 6, BBC Introducing Devon, and the legendary ECHOES Radio in the USA who made her the number 1 album of the year.

Establishing her unique sound early on in Ireland cutting her teeth on the folk circuit, she returned to the UK and met her long-term collaborator Martyn Barker (Shriekback, Goldfrapp, Robert Plant) and caught the attention of Chris Difford (Squeeze) who sang on her debut EP Blue.

R I S E is currently in production of her second album Strangers due for release in October 2019 on the Thoroughbred Music label with upcoming tour dates in the UK and Ireland.

We had a quick chat with Jo Beth all about her new material and what she has planned next. Read the Q&A below.

You released your debut album An Abandoned Orchid House last year under the name Talitha Rise. What made you decide to change your moniker to just R I S E? How is your new material different to your previous work?

"It seemed a natural evolution. R I S E was the marker of my working, writing and producing entirely on my own, no co-writes or co-productions etc. So the material is different to Orchid House and Blue. It’s more raw and I think some of the most powerful work I’ve dared myself to do to date. People who enjoyed the previous album and EP will still ‘get’ it because I wrote most of Orchid House’s songs, but it is different. It’s an expansion. I’m feel I’m getting braver in my direction.

"I continue to work with the absolutely brilliant Kev Bolus on mixing and he has a signature sound that I feel carries over from AAOH to Strangers beautifully."

You recently released your new single and video 'Dark Cloud'. What was the inspiration behind the track and the visuals?

"The song was quite a catharsis of emerging from one of the most difficult periods of my adult life and liberating yourself from that literal feeling of a dark cloud hanging over you. Alex Thomas created this powerful video and nailed the idea of not being able to speak up or feeling somewhat suffocated by an experience. We worked with actress Anna Wraith who did an incredible job. The move from Talitha Rise to R I S E was somewhat a coming out from a dark cloud for me personally so we had some fun creating that idea with me revealing myself from under a net! It’s tricky with songs, you don’t want to give too much away about your own experience and leave it to other’s personal resonance with it, but I think the theme of coming out of a deeply suppressive or controlling situation is something many people can relate to at some time, wether that’s a relationship, a grief, a challenge or a depression of sorts."

'Dark Cloud' is taken from your upcoming new album Strangers. What can you tell us about the new LP?

"Strangers is a journeying record. Some of it was written and recorded during journeys across France, Spain, the UK, Wales and Ireland.

"I’m extremely lucky to work with an incredible live and recorded band, they become more like family all the time. I recorded the basic tracks of piano and voice or guitar and voice myself and sent it to them to the band individually to improvise on and then produced it at home. Some of the songs really felt like stories from the past or landscape, such as ‘The Old Woman’s Sewing Song’ which is a dialogue from an old woman reflecting on her life and the decisions she made of could have made. It has been an incredibly emotional experience to make and playing it live for the first time is even more so, it’s hard not to be moved whilst singing it, so this record has really got inside me!

"Overall I feel it’s an album about healing, emergence, triumph through owning our own part in our challenges. I can’t really do it justice in words! All I can say it it’s an album that came very easily and without any agenda or need to it. It was kind of my reward to myself after 4 years working on AAOH!

"Everyone involved has put their heart into it and you can hear that. I was also very lucky the brilliant Peter Yates (Fields of the Nephilim) wanted to work on the record too and his parts have been utterly sublime and pivotal on tracks like ‘Dark Cloud’ and ‘Radio Silence’ which will be the next single. Finger’s crossed we’ll get it out on vinyl too at some stage."

What do you hope listeners will take away from your new music?

"In a word, hope. But I will leave it to the listener to decide what it means to them."

Finally, what else is next for you? Musically and non-musically? Or is there anything else you would like to add?

"I’m still in the process of finishing this record so after the current warm up tour I’m on whilst writing this, I imagine I’ll be kept very busy with that, creating the album lyric book, the full tour starting in September, collaborations, remixes, singles the album launch later this year and working on the 2020 tour. There’s always something at the moment but I do love it and I look forward to some inspirational time off in nature when I can too!"

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‘Dark Cloud’ is out now.

#getting to know #r i s e #dark cloud

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lewishamledger · 5 years

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South-east side story

Chris Difford from rock band Squeeze spent his early career in and around Deptford, playing at venues like the Oxford Arms and the Albany Empire. The Cool for Cats hitmaker tells us more

PHOTO BY PAUL STAFFORD

Born in south-east London almost 65 years ago, Chris Difford was brought up on King George Street on the edge of Greenwich Park.

After attending the local primary school, he moved up to West Greenwich Secondary Boys’ School in Deptford.

“At school there was a woodwork wing and a metalwork wing so you went in one of the two,” Chris recalls. “You were kind of being groomed to get a job in a factory – either a biscuit factory or a metalwork factory. I didn’t really want to do either of those.

“My brothers – one of them became an accountant and the other one became a villain. I didn’t really know which way to swing.”

After leaving school, Chris put a card in a shop window in Blackheath advertising for a guitarist to join his band, although he didn’t actually have one at the time.

Luckily for him, a 15-year-old Glenn Tilbrook – who had also recently left school – spotted the ad and was the sole person to get in touch.

“It was really obvious to me as I was growing up, being a loner with my imagination, that what I really wanted to do was write,” Chris says.

“I didn’t know what I was writing until I became an adult. It wasn’t until 1973 that I formed a band with Glenn and then suddenly I was off and running.”

The pair began writing together and recruited Jools Holland on the keyboard and Paul Gunn, an old school-friend of Glenn’s, on the drums. The group performed under various monikers before eventually settling on Squeeze, as a humorous tribute to the Velvet Underground’s universally panned album of the same name.

They started playing gigs towards the end of 1975 and their early career was spent in and around Deptford, where they were part of a thriving music scene.

“When I was growing up, the biggest local band that I knew of was Status Quo,” Chris says. “Dire Straits were from the north-east but they lived in Deptford. Mark [Knopfler] used to live next door to me so I knew them.

“There were lots of bands around that time because the Albany Empire was a place where everybody wanted to play. We cut our teeth playing in local pubs really, like the Oxford Arms [now The Birds Nest] and the Bricklayers Arms.

“Catford Girls’ School was our first proper gig. What a wonderful thing – I wore makeup especially! We also played at St Dunstan’s [College, also in Catford] in the hall. Steve Nieve, Elvis Costello’s keyboard player was in the audience.”

Squeeze were originally signed up to Deptford Fun City, a label owned by Miles Copeland. Miles was manager of The Police and his brother Stewart played drums for the band.

Squeeze’s first EP – and most of their debut album – was produced by John Cale, of Velvet Underground fame, for A&M Records. But the album’s two hit singles, Take Me I’m Yours and Bang Bang, were produced by the band themselves, as the label found Cale’s recordings somewhat on the uncommercial side.

Squeeze’s second album, Cool for Cats, followed in 1979 and contained their two highest charting singles in the UK: Cool for Cats and Up The Junction, which both reached number two.

Despite the turbulent times, politics wasn’t part of the band’s lyrics, which Chris was mainly responsible for.

“I’m more of a kitchen sink songwriter,” he says. “I’ve tried putting my arm behind my back to write political songs but I don’t think I’ve ever been good at it and I’d like to leave it to the people who know what they’re talking about.

“I actually find politics extremely dull and full of egoistical people, rather like the music business was 20 years ago. It’s about ego rather than feeling. Maybe it’s the hippy in me, but if I was over in the Houses of Parliament I’d give everyone a hug and tell them to grow up.”

Squeeze separated for the first time in 1982 and Chris and Glenn hooked up with John Turner to create a musical, Labelled with Love, using the songs of Squeeze. It was performed at the Albany in Deptford in 1983.

“Glenn and I wrote the music,” Chris says. “It ran for three months and sold out all the time. Tim Rice came down to see it and he enjoyed it very much. It had legs and had the possibility of moving on, but I don’t think we had the oxygen for that at the time. It needed a bit more tweaking from a writing point of view.

“It was all set in a pub and was very south London. I don’t know whether it would be successful today but I’d like to see it work now.”

In 1985 Squeeze reunited and released a new album, Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti. Two years later came Hourglass, the first single from their seventh album, with a video directed by Ade Edmondson and an appearance from their old pal Jools Holland.

“Ade Edmondson directed it but Jools had quite a big role in it,” says Chris. “It featured a lot of his ideas. It got us an award on MTV – that’s what you needed in America in those days to get you from theatres into stadiums and that’s what it did.”

The video was regularly aired on MTV and the heavy promotion of one of their finest songs resulted in the highest charting single Squeeze ever had in the USA, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 16 back home in the UK.

In between stints with Squeeze, Chris continued writing songs with Glenn, and he also wrote lyrics for music composed by artists like Elton John and Elvis Costello.

“Elvis gave me a song to write the lyrics for,” he recalls. “I think it was one of the first times I’d been asked to write the lyrics for somebody other than Glenn. It was kind of weird.”

Chris spent a few years as a solo artist and then went into managing acts including Bryan Ferry and The Strypes. “I loved it,” he says. “It’s not really management; it’s more like mentoring, or just being a mate to somebody.

“When you’re managing you have to be there 24/7. Sunday morning you’d get a phone call because someone’s had a tree fall in their swimming pool and you’d have to be there to fix it.”

Surprisingly, he didn’t miss the buzz of performing. “I was still experiencing that through the person I was working with,” he explains. “I really like being on the side of the stage. I love being able to feel the electricity that an artist can give an audience. And to be a bit like the Wizard of Oz I suppose, behind the red curtain.”

In 2015, Chris and Glenn hooked up again to write songs for the BBC Two series Cradle to Grave.

“It gave Glenn and me a focus and a reason to write a record and we needed that after so many years,” Chris says. “We did an incredible job and it was beautifully produced. The songs were really great and I’m really proud of them.

“It was nice to know that Glenn and I could still write a decent song if we worked at it. It felt like a new relationship and I enjoyed that.”

Chris finally wrote his memoir, which was published in the summer of 2017.

“The book really helped me find a new lease of life. Very quickly I realised people aren’t interested in CDs anymore, but books they love. To stand up and do a show and at the end sign books, people love that.

“The year before last I did 98 shows and last year I did 102. I did two weeks in Edinburgh and that really changed things.

“I’m now in the position of having to write the second show and the next book. I’m taking time to figure out what that’s going to be.”

Although still a frequent visitor to London, Chris moved out of the capital some years ago and now lives in East Sussex with his wife, Louise.

“I’ve sold all my guitars and just built a writing room in my garden,” he says.

He currently manages a young artist called Honey, who is signed to Elton John’s record label Rocket. “She has her first record coming out this summer and she’s extraordinarily talented and I’m really excited about her,” Chris says.

“At the other end of the stick, there’s [tenor and musical theatre star] Alfie Boe, who I also work with. He’s genuinely a very funny man – he’s lovely.”

Chris also spends a fair amount of time running workshops, including a recent session at the Brit School in Croydon. And as for the future, he’s mulling a return to musicals.

“I’m investigating one as we speak,” he says. “Every other week I go and see a musical. I’ve been to see a couple of Stephen Sondheim ones, including Follies. The songs are terrific.

“To be able to write a musical and be in the wings most definitely has appeal. The reality is it probably won’t happen in my lifetime. It takes such a long time to develop these things. For the time being, it’s a hobby.”

I end by asking him if he could go back 50 years, what advice would he give to his teenage self?

“I’d fail to think of anything really,” he says. “The mistakes I’ve made have all been part of the jigsaw of who I am today.

“I feel it would have been nicer to have been more successful perhaps, and shrewder with whatever income I would have had as a younger man, instead of spending it all.”

Chris is currently touring the UK and Ireland. For full details, visit chrisdifford.com/tour

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redsoapbox · 6 years

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IN CONVERSATION WITH SANDRA’S WEDDING

Jonny, Joe, Luke and Tom

At the beginning of February, I embarked on an ambitious new music guide for this blog entitled 28 Bands in 28 Days. The idea was to scour the world (well, as best as you can from the couch potato position!) for new and exciting music. With two days of the project to run, all was going well - I had reviewed and recommended bands / singers from Canada, America, France, Sweden as well as the U.K. Having set aside the last two days of the month for New Zealand’s Marlon Williams and Finland’s Those Forgotten Tapes, I was feeling quite pleased with myself when my best laid plans were thrown into turmoil - I had chanced upon the stellar music of Sandra’s Wedding! I knew had to include them in the project, yet I wasn’t prepared to elbow out Marlon or TFT at the last minute. The solution that I came up with was simply to pretend that 2018 was a leap year (believe me, I’ve kidded myself about a lot worse that that down the years) and that there was, therefore, a 29th day and a 29th band. Sandra’s Wedding were in!

If you still haven’t heard the band’s remarkable debut album Northern Powerhouse and the brand new E.P. Good Morning, Bad Blood, then you’re in for one hell of a treat. Described, accurately, as a meeting of The Smiths and The Beautiful South (I know, I know, it can’t possibly be true, but it is, folks, it is!) and here is the evidence -

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“Death by Hanging” - Sandra’s Wedding

It was a tremendous thrill, then, to interview the band. My thanks for their cooperation.

Northern Powerhouse, your stand-out debut album, arrived like a bolt out of the blue in February of 2017. How long, though, has the band been together?

Luke: Since sometime in the early months of 2016. Joe and myself had done a couple of little gigs together previously, as had he and Jonny, but the band became official around then.

Joe: I’d stopped playing guitar for a while before then whilst I was living in Leeds. I’d gotten really into poetry and wanted to be the next Simon Armitage or Thom Gunn for a while. I wrote a lot and posted little bits and pieces online but was always frustrated with how ‘slow’ the poetry process is in the sense that you’d get people saying, “I enjoyed your poem” but you hadn’t been able to see their reaction as they read it, or you felt like they could just be fobbing you off a bit. That period was good because I really got into crafting lyrics and working on atmosphere through language – more so than if I’d just been writing songs as a whole. I did stand-up as well and went to Edinburgh Fringe… I had enough and left early, decided music was what I was probably best at and bought a new acoustic. That’s when I started putting the songs that would become the album together. I started writing like crazy and felt like a light had been switched on after having spent so long in a different headspace. If I weren’t shit at poetry or stand-up there wouldn’t be a band is the crux of this answer.

There is a real sense of time and place running through each of the songs that make up Northern Powerhouse. Where did you all grow up and which local musicians would you count amongst your earliest and most important influences?

Luke: We all grew up within a thirty-mile radius of each other in and around Goole, except Jonny who is from Castleford.

Joe: A lot of people have influenced me, but not necessarily ‘music’ people. I’m not someone who idolises artists, I feel like it’s more a grudging respect in a way. I listen to albums, songs, certain lyrics and get a bit mad wishing I’d written that. That’s not to say I don’t find inspiration from others, I do just like anyone else. Growing up, my parents always had Magic-FM or Neil Diamond cassettes on in the car so I suppose I was exposed to a lot of easy listening. I wish I had a cool answer; that my parents were into 20s Jazz records and Finnish folk music but my mum loves Elvis and my dad doesn’t own a single CD.

I once asked Peter Hook what he thought his music would have sounded like if he'd grown up in Skegness or Shrewsbury, rather than Salford, to which he succinctly replied 'shit'! Are northern bands any different to southern bands?

Luke: Of course, but only in the same way that American bands are different from German bands for example. You can’t help but be shaped by your upbringings, and that comes out in the music that we (as in northerners) make.

Joe: I’m always wary of tribalism. I don’t ever want to swing my dick around and make out I’m better than someone else just because they were born in a different postcode. It’s going to colour your outlook and how you express yourself, obviously, but that’s just human nature. I’m proud of being from a small place hardly anyone has heard of, I sometimes look at it as being a non-league club trying to gain a few promotions and have a taste of some success; a good cup run.

Northern Powerhouse is a snapshot of life in post-Brexit Britain. To what extent, if any, does the social commentary, expressed through songs such as "Death by Hanging" and "The Spark", reflect your own views, or is the record a character study of the great British public?

Joe: Everyone’s terrified. People are terrified of change, people are terrified of everything staying the same. I think most of the fuel for the songs comes from how everything gets served up to us. The press in this country are honestly pathetic. Not in a Trumpian “Fake-News” sense, but in a “Let’s tap into people’s anxiety about this topic” sense. The whole Brexit Referendum debate was embarrassing. Grown adults standing on national television arguing about the colour of passports and what Winston Churchill would say if he were still around. Remember when the Panama Papers came out and everyone just did an Alan Partridge shrug and carried on arguing about how we can dig our own vegetables after Brexit? You couldn’t make it up. Billions of pounds being withheld from public services and we’re all arguing about the most inane stuff. The songs are vignettes where all these feelings are present, I can understand why people feel the way they do for the most part. I suppose when I look back on that album I’ll remember that year where everyone went fucking apeshit.

Even though you're tackling some heavy themes on the album, from unemployment to spousal abuse to capital punishment, there is a humorous touch in evidence right throughout the record. You're following in the footsteps of Ray Davies, Chris Difford, Paul Heaton and just about every other leading British songwriter in that respect. What is it that makes you all take such a tragicomic approach to your craft?

Luke: If you didn’t laugh you’d cry! I think there’s a long tradition of finding humour in tragedy in this country, and it brings us all together in trying times. Jonny: Absolutely. I think finding beauty in the dark moments of life is a real art form - I like to think of Joe’s lyrics being in the same vein as Edward Hopper’s paintings – just capturing those little moments of sadness in life and creating a little vignette around it. Imagine the painting Nighthawks but set in a Working Men’s Club in a small mining town and you’re on the right lines.

Joe: Nobody cares about happiness. Imagine having a happy friend. Hell.

How do you approach the discipline of lyric writing? Do you spend a lot of time in cafes and pubs observing people, notebook at the ready?

Joe: I have done that in the past. I like to remember little scenes and turns of phrase. I think Alan Bennett is a bit of an influence in that respect. Bennett can take the most mundane exchange and turn it into something beautiful. I take a lot of artistic license, create little worlds and characters. The Day Before You Came by Abba is a song I think about a lot – it’s so dull it’s genius.

There's a definite air of nostalgia that hangs over the album, with Old Spice aftershave, The Yorkshire Ripper, Bernard Manning, Northern Soul and the Chelsea v Leeds 70's football rivalry all namechecked. It permeates the new EP, too, with "Saturday Night Television" guaranteed to remind us of a bygone era. Lou Reed said that "I don't like nostalgia, unless it's mine", but I get the sense that you're more interested in a form of communal nostalgia? Luke: I think the fact that we’re all just about the same age means we find it remarkably easy to fire off each other’s nostalgia glands. One mention of a shiny Charizard or finding a Tazo in your crisps sends all of us into a nice, warm, fuzzy place, and the fact that a lot of our fans and listeners are in the same sort of age bracket means that they all wear the same rose tinted, 90s flavoured goggles. I think Joe writes from an age older than his years though from time-to-time, and has a natural ability to relate to people of just about any generation.

Joe: That comes from being taken to the pub a lot as a kid. My dad played pub football and the pub was where people held events so pub-coke was something I spent a lot of time nursing. I often wonder about what pubs will look like in 20/30 years - young people don’t seem to go out anymore. I digress slightly but read “Church Going” by Philip Larkin and imagine it being about pubs instead. Depressing.

Which songwriters have had the biggest impact on your own work?

Joe: As I said earlier, I don’t have any HUGE idols. But in terms of wishing I could have produced anything as good as they have; Adam & The Ants, Beautiful South, Chumbawamba, Deacon Blue, Eels, Five, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Housemartins, Iris Dement, John Prine, Kool & The Gang, Lisa Stansfield, Mike & The Mechanics, Nick Lowe, Orbison (Roy), Paul Young, Queen, Richard Hawley, Super Furry Animals, Talking Heads, Uzbekistan National Choir, Val Doonican, Wham, X?, Yann Tiersen, Zombies.

Joe's lyrics rightly attract a lot of attention - they'd be on the National curriculum if it was up to me - but your tunes are incredibly infectious too. Do you all have a hand in writing the music?

Luke: It’s a very communal process.

Jonny: Yeah, Joe generally brings the song in as a chord structure and we work on and around it. I’m a strong believer in the idea that the song is all that matters, so if it needs a wall of guitars layering up to make it work then so be it, but I’m equally as happy playing something sparse or even nothing at all if the song needs space to breathe. We’re not averse to picking up other instruments like a mandolin or a keyboard if it fits the feel of what we’re looking for. Who inspired you to take up your particular instruments? Was it another musician, a parent, or a teacher, for instance? Luke: My dad plays drums, and so they’ve just been a part of my life since birth. I’ll never forget playing my first ‘1-2-3-4’ in a back room in the now sadly closed Electro Music in Doncaster, getting the bug and never turning back.

Jonny: I initially found it hard to connect to the guitar – or at least what I thought the guitar was - because I thought it had to be shredding and metal which was what everyone I knew was into playing – and that’s fine, but just not my cup of tea. For me to discover the playing of Johnny Marr, Peter Buck, Tom Verlaine, John Frusciante and Roger McGuinn was a game changer because suddenly I found people using a vocabulary on the instrument that I’d never heard before – a little like hearing French for the first time if you’d grown up only thinking the entire world spoke English I guess!

Tom: When I was fifteen all my friends where picking up an instrument and forming bands and naturally I wanted to be part of that. My parents bought me my own bass and after spending a somewhat wasted year at Goole Sixth form in which I mostly skipped lessons to jam in my parents garage, but I eventually started studying music at a college in Hull.

Who is Sandra? Does she exist, or is she a composite character?

Luke: Sandra is a wife, a mother, a daughter, a lover, a timid wallflower, a destroyer of worlds, a maneater, a vegan, a shoulder to cry on, a dinnerlady, a career-woman, a homemaker, a manager, a band-leader, a figurehead, a feather, a sledgehammer, a Friday night out, a Saturday night in, she’s whatever you want her to be, and she’s the best at it.

Joe: She gets on my wick.

It was Jericho Keys, of BBC Introducing North Yorks, who first piqued my interest in the band with his tantalising description of the group as 'a cross between The Smiths and The Beautiful South'. However, I've subsequently seen that quote amended to The Coral and The Housemartins. Which is the correct quote and which bands would you happily compare yourselves to?

Jonny: I think The Coral comparison was one he said when he played our first single, and then the other comparison was after we subsequently did a BBC Introducing session on his show. He’s a great guy and we’ve had fun on the show when we did a session with him. Luke: The Smiths and The Housemartins are the two that we tend to hear most often. Comparisons to The Housemartins aren’t too much of a surprise, being from the same (sort of) area their influence is bound to rub off, and I think it’s clear the influence Paul Heaton has had on Joe in particular. The Smiths isn’t a bad shout either, our Jonny is influenced in a big way by their Johnny and his mesmerising arpeggiated playing.

I have to put my cards on the table and say that Northern Powerhouse is one of the best debut albums of the past decade. As you look back on the studio experience, are there things that you would have done differently, other songs that you might have included for example? Tom: It was an unusual experience when it came to recording as at that time the four of us had never been in the same room before and had only ever rehearsed as a three piece band with Jonny writing the lead guitar parts to homemade demos and then dubbing them over in the studio. I don’t think any of us are really happy with the overall sound of Powerhouse but I think that’s because we’re by far our own worst critics. The positive response it has had since though has been beyond our expectations and helped us to be less self critical of it. Luke: I guess the first album is always a learning curve, so it’s hard to say if there’s anything we’d have done differently. I think the track list is solid, and although there are demos of other songs kicking around from the time I think the strongest ended up on there.

It's an album choc full of brilliant pop songs, but the bittersweet ballad "Hollywood" has taken on the form of an all-time classic. Do you know straight away when a song sounds like the real deal?

Luke: Personally, no. I can’t speak for the others but, although I always enjoy it when a song comes together, there’s no way of knowing if it’s going to be ‘the real deal’ without putting it out there and seeing what other people think of it. Hollywood is a case in point. We all, obviously, love the song as any parent loves their own child, but the reaction it got since we released it has been phenomenal and has surprised all of us. You know you’ve done something right when strangers stop you in town to tell you they ‘love that one about Goole!’

Jonny: When Joe sent me the acoustic demo for that track I was a little blown away by it. I sat with a twelve string guitar trying to encapsulate exactly what the lyrics made me feel, which is why I tried to find some weird chords that are heartbreakingly sad and also weirdly optimistic. It does seem to have connected with people from the area – someone made a fan made video to it with a bunch of nostalgic images of Goole in it, and it ended up with something like 30,000 views in a week on social media which was weird.

Does it give you pause for thought that even though a song of the stature of "Hollywood" or the album opener "This Heart" can mean an immense amount to a fan of the band, that around 99% of the British population are unlikely to ever hear the song? Is that discouraging for you as artists?

Luke: Not at all. Like any band, the main reason you do it is for the sheer love of it. I’d rather put out a song that means the world to one person than pump out generic pop that means nothing, but just makes for pleasant background noise in offices, hairdressers and building sites.

Tom: I’d agree with Luke, especially considering how people listen to and discover music now. There is an almost overwhelming amount of music that would be physically impossible to listen to in a human lifetime. We have a small but ever growing fan base that seem to love what we’re doing and as long as someone still enjoys it, well keep doing it. That said a few more monthly listeners on Spotify wouldn’t go a miss.

In a different era, punk, post-punk, and Britpop, perhaps, you would have been able to reach a far larger audience. Do you feel like a band out of step with the times?

Jonny: I don’t think many bands out there sound like us at this moment in time – for better or worse! I love lots of new music and there are great bands doing great things at the moment – but my initial influences were all older bands and I guess I gravitate to playing my instrument a certain way. We’re not trying to create a sound that is fashionable or trendy – you’ve only to look at our band photos to realise we are neither of those things – but we make music that is a genuine reflection of us and what we’re about. We’re fully aware that we’re not reinventing the wheel or coming up with a pioneering new sound, but hopefully people enjoy what we do. Luke: Although the music sometimes feels a bit of a throwback, I don’t think we feel out of step. It’s true that audiences are more disparate now, but that just means that people who seek you out are doing it because they REALLY want to listen to you. In times gone by we may have signed a little deal and got into some shops around the country, but now we’re available on the top of Mt. Everest via a device that everyone carries with them every day. The fact that we can be heard all over the world as a result of uploading some files from my front room is fascinating to me.

You have an excellent new EP, "Good Morning, Bad Blood", out now. There's some interesting additional instrumentation on tracks like "Titanic" and "Run, Rabbit Run", does that signpost something of a new direction for the band?

Luke: We’ve always wanted strings and brass, and if we could’ve afforded it I’m sure they’d have been there on Powerhouse too. It’s just nice to be in a place where we can bring in other excellent musicians to help us flesh out our sound.

Jonny: Yeah, we’re really lucky to know some talented people – David and Anthony who played are great. Anthony’s CV is amazing, he played for the Pope and on the last Gorillaz album, so it was a thrill that he agreed to play for us. But we’re all big fans of The Beatles and the whole “using the studio as an instrument” thing they did. So that could be a trumpet or cello part, but sometimes it’s just those little subtle additions on records that you really connect with and we try to do that. There is a really small dulcimer part I stuck on ‘Good Morning, Bad Blood’ to add that sort of 90s version of the 60s psychedelia that seemed prevalent back then, and hopefully it just adds something to the track even though we’ll never do it live. We see the recordings as being a separate entity to gigging.

What are your plans for the remainder of 2018? Is there any chance of an impromptu gig in my hometown of Pontypridd. After all, Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice rocked up here for a gig in the local Municipal Hall last year!

Luke: I’m a quarter Welsh and embarrassingly I’ve never been! We have spoken before about a tour of the nations, four gigs in four days, one in each country. I’d be well up for nipping to Pontypridd if I can convince the rest.

Following on from the release of the excellent "Spite Christmas" last year, can we expect another tilt at the highly prestigious Christmas No. 1 spot this year?

Luke: Watch this space…

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“Hollywood” - simply one of the best pop songs ever written!

https://www.facebook.com/sandraswedding/photos/p.1930575567000031/1930575567000031/?type=1&theater

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