Volume VIII Side B

Volume VIII Side B of the Band of Georges.

These are songs composed by George between December 1986 and May 1987. They were recorded in his bedroom at 31 Cowick Lane, Exeter, in 1986 and 1987. Some were recorded in his flat at 19 Haldon Road, Exeter, in 1987. Some were recorded in his next flat at 96 Union Road, Exeter in 1987 and 1988.

We did not wish to fiddle with these recordings too much. The audio was lifted straight from cassette and simply normalised to 0 dB. We even left the clicks at the beginning, where there were some.

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 VIII 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.”

Down at the Elephant Fayre

Yikes. Sounds dreadful! Ghastly production. Hastily and carelessly performed. This has been done very, very badly. Trying to improve it would be like polishing a turd. It’s just horrible!

We used to play this song in Rough Terrain. It was a fun thing to play and it’s on the Howell Road Demo, as well as the Exit Stage Deaf compilation.

The Elephant Fayre was indeed a fantastic festival. It was held down in Cornwall, near St Germans. 1986 was its final year. There was some sort of trouble with a group of travellers apparently, although I never saw any of it.

As for this song, I don’t like it! The lyrics are corny, the music is cliched and it just isn’t very good. The main riff is decent, but not much else is. It was a struggle to teach this to Jerry in Rough Terrain, he found the 12-ness of it very strange. We managed it in the end though.

The main riff is a tribute to a Cornish band called The Mechanics and their wonderful hit song The Power of Love. The Mechanics played the main stage at Elephant Fayre in ’86 and were completely fabulous.

Seven Stars

Seven Stars was the very first song I wrote for the concept album, when the concept itself was very vague and nebulous. A lot of the music was composed in the spring and summer of 1983 and some of the lyrics were written, with the help of my girlfriend of the time, in the summer of 1983.

This version had an update to the lyrics in 1987. I wonder how the story changed for me to do such a rewrite? Perhaps the original version still exists somewhere, in the brown folder. Which I haven’t found yet.

There are things about Seven Stars that I like. Some of the chord progressions and the groove and so on, but overall I find it a bit long and a touch underwhelming to be honest.

The concept album itself was based loosely upon a computer game we had at home in 1982. It was called Wizardry and ran on the Apple II. It was a groundbreaking and an amazing achievement for its day, and led to a lot of the sword and sorcery style games we have today.

Not too sure how good a story it makes for a concept album though, haha! I was only 17 when the idea came so I can be forgiven, right?

Aftermath

Oh. Yes, I like this! This is good! Two tracks of the EDP Wasp, a track of guitar and my old Panasonic portable radio tuned to short wave and the dial duly twiddled. The guitar is decent, I think it’s one of the original tunes from 1983. It has a bleak, empty kinda feel. It might sound good on a baritone guitar.

This is of course another concept album track. Spoiler alert – this one is after the first wave of heroes had died. Or after the second wave? I’m not sure now. It’s in the brown folder.

Yes, liking the guitar. Not a bad piece at all.

So Far Away

Another concept album song! I must have been quite into getting the writing for it done in 1987. This one probably goes after Walking Over That Same Old Stony Ground.

The music for this was written before the lyrics, as is nearly always the way with my songs. It may have existed for a year or more. Goodness knows when it was earmarked as a track for the concept album. The lyrics aren’t particularly wonderful, but they do move the story along.

I like the heavy riff and the chord progression is cool too. It’s a fun things to play. The riff is in G minor, then it goes to C minor, D minor, E flat major 7, and F. Then the key change comes and it goes to A minor, G major, E, F to G and then it turns around back to C, D, E flat, F and back to G minor again.

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

My Own Away

My Own Way was an afternoon song about a previous relationship that had ended. When I’d finished it, I just left the lyrics lying wherever they were. Later, my new girlfriend found and read them. She wasn’t happy!

She confronted me because she thought this was a song for her. But when I told her more about the song, that was bad as well. She said I should write nice songs for her, not horrible songs for an ex! I tried to keep my lyrics in a folder after that.

Lots of Electric Mistress flangey goodness in this. It’s not a very horrible song, just a bit insubstantial and touch cliched. I quite like the sounds of the instruments.

I’ve Got a Number

There’s something very peculiar about this. The dates on the lyric sheet! Apparently this song was written in December 1983 and then had a rewrite in February 1987. I don’t doubt the date of the rewrite, but I wonder how much of the 1983 date is guesswork? Was there an earlier lyric sheet that was dated? I’ll never know, a crazy nasty alcoholic ex destroyed all of my originals in a fit of pure evil.

It also says ‘Vostok’s Song’ on the lyric sheet – one of the characters no doubt. I don’t really remember the names of the characters or exactly how the story went.

I think much of the first part of the album has been recorded, although there are a few things missing, such as The Return and The Ceremony – working titles. I don’t think I recorded those, and there are a couple of pieces of music that I vaguely recollect that are also probably not recorded. Maybe I’ll get around to finishing this whole thing someday.

The chords come from Mickey Baker’s Jazz Guitar book. It was blue and the first lesson I remember was to learn the names and fingerings for about 30 chords, nearly all of which were new to me upon opening the book. It’s a great book, highly recommended!

The songs from the concept album were largely unheard and never performed by any band or anything. A few friends heard Seven Stars, but that was about it really.

I’ve Got a Number is a reasonable song. Not great, but ok, although the mix is horrible. The Ice Maiden is to the right and Nicodemus to the left and playing the lead solo. Which is very quirky. The bass is so quiet! The lyrics are a bit contrived. The guitars are my favourite part.

The Fight

The guitar part for this was great fun to play, but the lyrics are a bit… silly really. Don’t you think?

This was one of the later additions to the concept album. The music was only a few months old and the lyrics were no doubt written on the given date. I think that after this one I had a break from creating songs for the concept album again.

Red Lights

This is a challenging listen. It’s very honest. Let’s just say… I never had a very good relationship with my mother. She used all manner of devious and evil tactics to make life miserable and difficult, when it just wasn’t necessary. She did this from when I was in the womb until she died last year.

After so many years of dealing with her issues, I’m philosophical about it. After all, on the farm, a mother sheep will sometimes reject one of her lambs whilst accepting the others. It’s a long story. She was a difficult and troubled person, very manipulative, and not what she seemed to be.

Red Lights was recorded with the new drum machine, the Boss DR 220A. There’s no date either, but I reckon April 1987 was about right. Rough Terrain played this one occasionally, but most people didn’t like it very much. I can understand why!

What an odd song. Writing it was cathartic.

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