The Solo Albums

During the years between 1980 and 1998 recordings continued but were often overtaken by the day job and of course my growing family.Well worth giving up a few sessions for. School recordings from cassettes to  CD's became the norm so the production of set albums declined into collections of one off's and loose ends. The Rise of The Labour Party  was inspired by my History notes from school and was written for Patch, but not ready by the time of the demise, so I ended up giving it a go myself. I was never really happy with this album but it does demonstrate a transition of writing styles towards songs for myself to record, not having the guitar qualities of Pete Lloyd to work with. One redeeming feature of this album was the opening song 'Industrial Birth' which became a feature of the Chorley Buskers and solo concerts and later appeared on you tube as a slide show using the Buskers version. Another Double was such a collection of one offs and included Old Wine in New Bottles,  a quote I picked up duriung Politics A level, which was a spontaneous keyboard recording with a preset time  approach. I think it included everything I could improvise at the time and was recorded using the School Technics keyboard which sadly was stolen in a school break in. This album also included the original Radiating Gods Love which was commisioned by Father Francis, the Singing Monk. I recorded another version later. This period also saw the development of songwriting lessons and Catherine Critchley's composition is included here. The Francis, Man of Love song is included here which is the demo sent to Ireland for the Francis of Assisi song competition where I got 10th place out of an original 80. The casio VL 1 features on many of these recordings along with the trusted EKO 6 and 12 the 4 string banjo and the Jedson Bass. Other songs went on to have a future life such as Comic Characters, Good Old Uncle Mac and Never Trust a Christian. Travelling on the train gave me plenty of songwriting opportunities and I remember a Wendy Craig lookalike who used to get on the train which inspired When Our Eyes Meet, a song about a stranger. I saw her every morning and smiled ocassionally but never spoke. She was on the station at Chorley one night but I didn't pluck up the courage to tell her she was the inspiration for a song. I was of course unitinterested in anything else as I was and am happily married, it was just an idea for a song. I suppose all writers have to put themselves in other shoes to get a song. That's all it was. Work Hard Play Hard was based on the Headteacher's assemblies (Mr.Hourahane,Chorley) which had the epitaph lines. I think he was quite flattered he had inspired a composition. I think it was performed at school once or twice. Other songs around this time were reflections of how I felt about faith and life generally and the majority of these songs remained in the vaults as one offs. During this period I also worked with Chris Bolton in the Chorley Buskers who worked Live and did a few recordings which will be preserved on a dedicated page in the future.  End of An Era was named belatedly to mark the end of the Pete Lloyd years and the reel to reel recordings as the new tascam and yamaha four track tape machines were a plenty. In fact at this time I usually set up a school machine and mixed down to cassette. This album had some poorly recorded tracks particularly in the hiss and tinny department but I decided to leave these on for posterity. Can't get back on the road again was really my attempt to recreate the Patch days using my new Kay les Paul electric. Dark as a Dungeon was getting into the folk scene a little more possibly parralleling the work with the 1982 founded Chorley Buskers. The God songs continued during this time especially as I was heavilly involved with the church through school with confirmations and youth masses. The Last Supper and Rock and Roll Praise came out from my first teaching post and the use of the Live backing track for the children was quite innovative in it's day. Even the Karaoke boom had not got underway at this time. They Never Came Back was interesting because it was the first of the older man's songs with family life starting in 1987. Ordinary Level was recorded around the time of my first O'Level music classes so seemed an appropriate title especially as some of the compositions crept onto the album notably by Catherine Critchley a stalwart of the music department. This album also features the Banjo which was originally purchased with Breeze Hill Leavers collection money.It was a 4 string banjo later to be part exchanged for a 6 string. Moscow Mule and Claremont reflected the move towards Country Dance Tunes following the work of the Chorley Buskers at this time.

In 1998 with the advent of Digital Compact cassette/mini disc and direct CD recording it became possible to produce CD's at home so that year saw the over haul of all the early tapes, especially as 4 track and reel tapes were rapidly in decline so preservation was important. The Patch years were uploaded directly from cassette and then overdubbed with drums or semi enhanced where possible. At the same time new recordings were made as bonus tracks for the new CD's. With the option of the Internet and the website these recordings were reshuffled to get as many of the original recordings into the same jukeboxes which allowed the 1998 bonus tracks to become their own album with the 1998 sessions being the obvious title. Many of these recordings were satisfactory but probably not as good as one hoped as the computer and digital technology was still a new art. The EKO Ranger 6  was the only half decent guitar available, the drums were computer driven and other available keyboards still had the flat feel of the 80's so these really just act as interesting rather than the tour de force that was anticipated. All the tracks in these sessions were both previously and subsequently recorded apart from The Love for You, Love for Me which was a classroom enhanced song by the daughter of the lady who sold us the house, which is the only exception. This has every Buddy Holly characteristic in I could think off at the time. Two lost songs from this period were 'Please Don't take our home away' which was written to support Whitefield against the Relief Road (WARR) and the Hollingworth High School song to promote a sixth form. The first was played outside parliament and the relief road was abolished. Hollingworth had no chance in the bid but at least I tried the best I could. These two songs may resurface one day as they were recorded but I may need a 4 track to find them anyway. 

           Aswell as The Solo Recordings, many cassettes and CD's were produced within Schools along with some Video recordings such as The Pollution Rap', 'Save our School'  and 'Into The 90's'. Primary Liaison Concerts also featured at this time and a few of these are on video. Live performance with the Buskers were plentiful as were the Live concerts through school which included many Music Festivals and shows. Holy Cross performed at The Guildhall Preston, St.Edmund Arrowsmith at The Free Trade Hall with The Halle,and St.James' played both The Bridgewater and The Royal Northern College of Music. Festival Venues included Southport Arts Centre,Burnley Mechanics, King Georges Blackburn, Victoria Theatre, Crewe, Town Hall Skipton and The Dome,Morecambe. The Buskers also played with the schools at many of the venues. After 1998 the move to St.James' (1999-2001) started a new era of digital recordings and with the purchase of the home studio in 2003 recordings took a new turn with CD capability, direct from the master and the purchase of new instruments etc and on body printing brought the home recording into a new era. 

           The Last album of this era was 'Songs From The Attic'. I was commissioned to write some songs for a childrens storybook but after I sent one of the songs to Rolf Harris the co writer became upset and while I have the complete set on CD it would not be fair to put this collection on the Internet. There was also a problem with me adding additional verses which was not acceptable to the originator. I always thought the concept had potential but sadly this work was aborted. Keeping The Old Songs alive, Comic Characters and Uncle Mac were included in the set as the characters had a 1950's feel, hence the album title but this was purely for my album and not the finished storybook which to my knowledge was never completed. I was flattered that someone, unknown to me, had recommended me to write the songs which was nice and I did receive a limited edition print of 'The Manchester Angel' as a thank you, ironically the title of the Green Wood Album which I was involved in in 2008 when I was in a short lived Folk Duo after the Highly Strung split. Green Wood was very succesful in a short space of time appearing at several Folk Clubs, North Pier Blackpool, Irish Centre and Guardian Angels along with Chorley Fm and Salford City Radio appearances. The album was produced but not released finally until 2011 when it was launched on Chorley FM and selected copyright free tracks on you tube. There is now a dedicated Green Wood page.