Once upon a time...

I'd had spells with various bands back in my teens, some of which got as far as demos and live performances, some that never left the bedroom. I remember such names as Imperius Rex (early 1972, 13 years old and a big T. Rex fan), Crystal Leazant (I was at school, Weydon in Wrecclesham, Surrey), Mystic Love (I was pretentious), The Infernal Legions Of Lucifer And The Music Of Hell (I warned you), Ankh (I think I'd got expelled for the third and final time by then), The Sound Machine (several spells, but there were issues), Wispy Cross and Tron (seem to recall I was working at Boosey & Hawkes in Aldershot whilst inhabiting those plummeting heights). And there ended the dreams. In retrospect, things could have gone better. Let's move on eight years I'd rather not talk about...

Wednesday 2nd July 1986

Now 28 years old, on my second marriage (Shona, you know who she is), neat haircut and suit for work (team leader in sales at Blacknell Buildings in Farnborough), doing a bit of cabaret work (with the guy who sang Rock And Roll Lifestyle on Creavolution), writing comedy songs and ballads. Not what you expected, huh? I don't recall why I at home on this particular Wednesday afternoon, this was still four months before they sacked me for punching a colleague whilst on an action based management training course. He'd shot an animal, fuck him. Anyway, we had this nice Nicam stereo VHS machine (ask your dad), a fairly new system at the time whereby the soundtrack was incorporated into the picture. But it still had the normal stereo tracks for older tapes too. The sound was excellent on the Nicam tracks, but you only had auto level on the normal ones. Nevertheless, it occurred to me it should be possible to demo some of my songs on it with a bit of fiddling. So, on this day, after watching Dallas (yes, we already had daytime TV, but only four channels), I picked up my acoustic 12 string and did a tester recording of one verse and a chorus, a simply bit of double tracking on the guitar. And thus the adventure began. Obviously, that tester recording has never seen the light of day (aside from you can hear some of it in the background of W20 Advance Guard), but you seem nice, so here ya go. I'm trusting you not to snigger and take the piss, okay? Appreciated...

   Gotta Get Me Back In Your Heart (Test Recording - 1:48)

Wednesday 16th July 1986

The day I tried my first full home recording in over a decade, DA-DA! I have no pictures from the session;

i) I was on my own.

ii) People just didn't take as many photos in those days.

Nearest I could find to the time was this one, taken by Shona, in Paris when we were there on honeymoon three months earlier. I don't remember a lot about the session either; 12 string acoustic, same one I still have, recorded via a pick up and a microphone, one track finger picked, then additionals strummed with phase. Afterwards, I wanted the effect of running water at the beginning, like a river. Sadly, it just sounds like someone filling a sink. Which is what it was. That would pass for a track if it was Magic Bullet! This one has actually seen the light of day before, it was the opener on Flashbax Omicron 13, the freebie album created for the Creavolution Reborn promo in 2018. No indication of all that was yet to come, but it's quite interesting as a curio...

   A House With A Haunted View (6:50)

Paris - April 1986 - I am NOT 'picking up a bit of trade', shame on you...

*And yes, I realised some years later that the intro was... how can I put this...  somewhat 'inspired' by the Yes track, Roundabout.

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