Volume VII Side B

Volume VII Side B of the Band of Georges.

These are songs composed by George between May 1986 and September 1986. They were recorded in his bedroom at 31 Cowick Lane, Exeter, in 1986 and 1987. Some were recorded in his flat in Haldon Road, Exeter, in 1987.

We did not wish to fiddle with these recordings too much. The audio was lifted straight from cassette and simply normalised to 0 dB.

Having written these songs more than four decades ago, and having not heard these recordings for at least the last three, we asked George to make a comment on each of the songs.

Here is what he had to say regarding Volume VII Side B of the Band of Georges.

“We used to listen to a lot of music on vinyl albums at this time. A whole vinyl album would – nearly always – fit onto a single side of a 90-minute cassette. When you were recording it, you’d flip the record over at the end of Side 1 then carry on with Side 2. I always thought of these cassettes as being like one whole album per side, rather than being a double album. The first half or so of the tape would be Side 1 of the LP, so that would begin right here.”

To the World

This is one of the songs that has never been heard by anyone. It was never performed by any band. It’s a song of hope, as Robert Plant once said, or aspiration.

It was written over three days, apparently. I wonder why? No memory of writing this one.

At the time I was wanting to move away from exeter. It felt stifling and claustrophobic and had limited opportunities. I found the scene that I was a part of no longer satisfying and needed an escape to a place where there were more possibilities as a musician. In the 1980s, that was clearly London.

It seemed to be the case that there was always a job, a band or a girlfriend that stopped me doing that. As far as I remember, my girlfriend at that time was not prepared to move with me. And then I started getting involved with The Addled Eggs, which became The Subterraineans, and then became Rough Terrain.

One day I was able to finally move to London, but that’s another story…

The funky jam at the end is quite good and there’s something about this I like. It’s a bit easy listening, but it’s not terrible. It has potential.

Out of His Head

The music for Out of His Head was composed a few months before the lyrics were written. The guitar has that open G string and the power chord on the two high strings, which I quite like. It’s a bit King Crimson in that way. Out of His Head is a fairly heavy song, getting towards metal territory. The lyrics make it heavier still.

In the early days of The Addled Eggs, who I ended up playing bass for, I played this to Dean as a guitar piece. He wrote the words and I helped him.

He told me how he’d seen our friend Jack the Frag being brutally arrested and beaten up by police in the centre of town in the middle of the day. Dean was shocked by what he saw. He had recently been beaten by the police himself, as he tried to go to Stonehenge for the festival that never was.

So he wrote this, about police brutality. Thatcher’s gestappo were not to be trusted in the 1980s, especially if you looked a bit… alternative.

This is a recording of The Subterraineans, from their Demo. It ended up on the tape because Out of His Head had already been recorded – by The Subterraineans – and I wanted to reach the end of this project, rather than re-record the song on my own. Especially if it meant programming the drum machine, as that was a lengthy process.

Out of His Head became a staple of the live set of The Subterraineans, and afterwards, Rough Terrain.

Starlight Dream

I wrote this one shortly after sunrise on a beautiful summer morning having done an all-nighter with Dean in Union Road. I walked home to Cowick Lane, it’s probably about four miles, and the sun was coming up on the way. It was low and shone in my eyes, the reflections from the windows. “Obscured by light”, you see? There were still stars out as well.

So when I got home, I wrote this. It says on the lyric sheet that it was written from 04:05 to 04:48 am, but that must be wrong. The sun wouldn’t have risen by then and I remember that beautiful morning stroll.

We played this one live a lot in Rough Terrain. It surprised me as I felt it was a bit too disco somehow, but it worked and the people liked it.

Light Keep Shining

Who was this about I wonder? No idea now. Was it Anna D maybe? She wasn’t bruised though. Sarah B? She was still with Cam. A teenage housewife would imply it was someone younger than me as I was 20. It was before I knew Laney. No idea! How strange…

It’s fair to say I’d forgotten this one. It was never performed by any band and has probably never been heard. It’s a bit… meh. Not horrible, not great. A kinda ok song, I guess.

“This would end Side 1 of the vinyl LP Volume VII Side B of the Band of Georges, and Side 2 would begin from here.”

Scattered Memories

Aha! So this was the song that I ripped most of the music out of to make the song Traveller by Dark Company! I knew it was in here somewhere.

The guitar is rather good on the whole, which is probably why I stole it from myself, haha! Most of the lyrics are ok as well.

That bit – “With a smile as pretty as morning” – makes me think of Hawkwind and We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago.

What an odd collection of memories this describes. Being poorly aged when about eight, resting on the sofa in Honiton. My inner childhood world, full of created places and people. And a surprise meeting with an old… flame? I wonder who it was. And feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the times and places in my mind. A very odd song. Not horrible though.

White Light

This is a bit Doobie Brothers isn’t it. The vocal must have been first take as I clearly fluffed the melody at the very start. There’s not much content here really, it’s not very good. I quite like the bass and the Em7 chord in the second guitar. The rest, though, is a pile of abandoned pants.

This might have been about a massively freaky acid trip I did. The date is somewhere in that region. What grounded me in the end was seeing an episode of Sesame Street round at my girlfriend’s house the next morning. I never ever felt so happy to be with her as I was then.

LSD, by the stars and moon. It was the very last time I ever took the stuff. It was a struggle to hold on to sanity and it took quite some time for it to fully return. It might have been a tab of White Lightning. Superman was the stuff to get, apparently. Or so I once… read. On the back of a packet of breakfast cereal…

The Warning

Back in 1986, the possibility of the cold war suddenly heating up was an ever-present worry. Would there have been anywhere safe to go? I doubt it. The Scilly Isles perhaps?

I remember looking at the steeples of the churches in exeter, particularly St Michael’s on St Davids Hill, thinking that missiles were housed within and they would someday lift off into the air and fly towards Russia.

The first part of The Warning is melodic and proggy. It starts on a Bb maj 13, from Mickey Baker’s blue Jazz Guitar book. Lots of gnarly chords in there. Then it morphs to F major and finally to A, which is when the band kicks in.

We played this one live in Rough Terrain many, many times. I remember one time when we let Simon loose with the smoke machine and he really went wild with it. I couldn’t see my hands on the guitar at all as I was playing this song, and had to go entirely by feel! Fortunately it all worked out OK. Lots of delays on the guitar, and a strobe light was part of the atmospherics as well.

Jerry was a bit doubtful about the bassline when I taught it to him. He thought it was all a bit too guitary, which for him was a big no-no. Nonetheless, he played it in the end, largely the same way I did in this recording.

When we made the Rough Terrain version at Paul’s place in Howell Road, Freda had left this fantastic Roland synth there. It was a digital synth with analogue controls and it sounded awesome. It’s quite up front in the mix.

Although the lyrics for The Warning are pretty ordinary, I still like the music for this song.

Gotta Getaway

.

That ends Volume VII Side B of the Band of Georges.
Volume VIII Side A is next.