Highgate You may think the new songs on this new album feel a little, well, old In truth this album is a collection of lost songs from the 60s & early 70s. Sadly the 19 year old singer songwriter you hear on these tracks is not available for a guest appearance or live gig, although alive and well, I am now over 70! Though originally recorded in a professional 4 track studio at Regent Sound in Denmark Street (Tin Pan Alley) in London, (where the Tremelos recorded Silence is Golden) the quality of the sound is rather poor. I will explain why. On the evening of Monday 4th May 1970 between 7pm & 11pm the recording was made with just myself, Ed Parry and his girl friend Pam, and the sound engineer Jim Spencely. After the session only 3 demo discs were cut (at a cost of £32.18s.00p pre decimalisation), and sent out to different recording companies for rejection. At some stage one of these vinyl discs was copied via the tape recorder microphone to a Sony TC252W reel to reel recorder so a lot of quality was lost, and much background noise picked up. I recently rediscovered this rather damaged audio-tape (bits of some songs completely missing) and once the tape recorder was repaired, I have copied the tracks to a PC and used Magix Audio Cleaning Lab software to clear as much of the hiss etc as I could. Initially I have only uploaded 2 songs but I hope to be able to add 2 or three more tracks from this original session shortly. One other professional recording was made in my singing career, this time at the Pye studios in Bryanston St, W1. I think this session which was devoted to just one song has been lost. Actually as I recall it the session was bit of a mess, it was paid for by Island Records, but a lot of musicians were bought in, (piano drums extra guitars) and by the time they got to know the song we were almost out of time, and the result sounded awful. Needless to say Island dropped the project! The first two songs I have uploaded both had their origins in Somerset where my family lived in the late 60s. Karen (Look Out) just seemed a really natural use of the G,C, and D chords and a nice summer song. The song called Wendy (My Friend) has a more complex history and is the reason that we were in the studio at all. When I arrived in London, England, I only knew 2 people in the city and I did not wish to impose on them. After my first London night being spent in Trafalgar Square (sleeping on a bench), I could not believe my eyes when in a tobacconist in Piccadilly I bumped into a guy I had met a few weeks before in Somerset (at friends of friends) this was Jim Spencely and he was studio engineer at Regent Sound in Denmark Street. Once he understood my accommodation situation he invited me to stay for 2 nights at his flat in Kilburn. One day whilst he was out, I borrowed his cassette recorder and practised a couple of songs. Months later he contacted me to say he had heard these songs and thought one was well worth recording. These were less enlightened days regarding the gay community, and the song Jim had was Randy - my friend. In fact (and slightly to Jim’s disappointment) the name in the song Jim misheard was Wendy and the song was written for a friend of mine in Somerset. However as the recording would never have been made had not this odd series of events happened, I leave it to anyone who wishes to sing the song to choose whichever version they please. I lost touch with Jim a long time ago and sadly also with Ed and Pam, but I expect they will still be together. It would be great to hear from any of these old friends should they happen to come across this text. Ed I met when I was living in Chiswick, but I later moved to Highgate, North London and he lived a short distance away in a flat above the Lloyds bank at Highbury corner. It was in that flat that practised and rehearsed our songs. We were never a group in the real sense, we both had a few self composed songs and he has a musical gift playing a number of instruments so we accompanied each other. I was always on acoustic and Ed on electric guitar. I am hoping to salvage one of his songs from the tape I have and will upload it shortly. At the time I played my guitar and harmonica at Les Cousins, and Bunjies Folk club in Litchfield St off Charing Cross Road. A US guy called Amery Kane was the main act at that time at Bunjies and we shared accommodation at a hostel for a while, I have no idea what became of him, but he was a great performer. Now perhaps this raises an issue about the new internet based services. These were not of course available back then. Is it OK to issue this sort of material? I hope so, and I hope other will search their attics and cellars for lost but original material.
