Never Surrender; inspired by the courage of the soldiers fighting Russian troops in Ukraine, and leaders that lead, rather than relying on bluster and hyperbole.

Thursday 16th June, 2022. When your hobby goes up a notch.

Thank you to Stratas for inviting me along.

Those awkward discos before you didn’t care that you couldn’t dance.

A remixed, remastered and in part re-recorded version of Not Selling Newspapers.

This is the latest playlist featuring Everybody Boogaloo and The Booksellers’ road to Apprehension. There’s a couple of other tunes on there – a lot of use of sampling and manipulating beats and brass parts – hopefully quite a fun and funky collection of tunes.

You might notice:

Amen Brother- The Winstons (in Everybody Boogaloo)

Funky Drummer – James Brown (in The Booksellers’ road to Apprehension)

Bobby Byrd – Hot Pants (The Beat)

Built on a 10 second drum break from James Brown’s Funky Drummer, this is a song about a carefree night in Soho, with a couple of bright young things stumbling into a dive bar jazz club where we meet the band, and a fabulous woman playing double bass.

Lyrics:

It’s a quarter to ten on a warm summer night and the pavements shine with the orange glow of street lights
And the car head-lamps shining into the doorways and foyers where playful couples take their cover – – under makeshift umbrellas, arty girls and good fellas laughing at the sight they must seem, a chaotic street scene

They find a dive bar, out of the rain,
down the stairs, The smoke hangs in the air,
Just beyond the bar, there’s the light on the stage, the horns race,
the Bookseller’s Road to Apprehension Big Band

The barman sets out two drinks at the bar, looks up, it’s just night like any other,
And the heart is beating, with Lucky Tom on the drums and the sweet notes of Two Hat Tony floating out, he’s my brother
On bass, Miss Forella, and the party girl wants to tell her, she’s the coolest one on the stage, she writes her own page

They find a dive bar, out of the rain,
down the stairs, The smoke hangs in the air,
Just beyond the bar, there’s the guys on the stage, the horns race,
the Bookseller’s Road to Apprehension Big Band

Funky disco tune to get your feet moving and your ass shaking.

New Record.

11 new songs.

Give it a listen!

A new version of a song I wrote last year, but this time with the vocal cleaned up and layered, the addition of some Oos in the chorus, a flute, and some guitar loops thrown in for good measure.

I’m hoping for a song that kind of floats along nicely, with hints of The Cardigans and Jens Lekman.