There used to be a venue in Swindon called Area 51. It was kinda a dive; the carpets were stained and it stunk of stale beer, but it was great place to go and see bands and they served alcohol to anyone who looked over 14.

This was written when that was a thing. I'd been to see a band called pickled dick with my buddy Flash, and it was cold on the way home and I was driving a shitty white Volvo. This is about that.

Play Action

Filament

This is a new version of an old song that was written back in the autumn of 2005. Emo was all the rage, Green day had made a triumphant return with American Idiot, and Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco had burst onto the scene. Skinny jeans, battered converse and dramatic eyeliner (or soap-opera eyes) were the look of the day.

I was in crappy pop-punk band and I wrote this about a girl who I kinda knew, based on her MSN messenger screen names which was the facebook status before facebook was a thing.

I managed to reference Electric Stars in last months Filament, it being a more poetic and more importantly a multiple syllabic was of saying light, and so I thought I'd have a go at redoing this.

I've watched Stranger Things 2 recently, so may have gone overboard on retro synth sounds. And the Electric Star this references is the street light outside my old room at my parents house that kept me company when I was writing songs at 1am.

Electric Stars

I came up with the chords and the 1st verse of this song way back in my first year at Uni. I was living in halls, and it was dark and cold and permanently raining and I "borrowed" the best set of fairy lights I've ever seen from my parents to put up in my room. 

I used to sit in my room, reading Harry Potter and The Lord of Rings and whatever I got from the Waterstones on campus under the fairy lights, as well writing shitty songs like this one.

Fairy Lights

I sent this song to a friend last night when I finished it and his response was "Do you need a hug?"

So there's that.

The rest is silence

This song is very specifically about dusk, but there is still some light. The horizon is orange but the sky above is indigo. And you're outside and its starting to get cold, but you're not actually cold yet, and you're sat in a field watching this all happen.

So that's the only time you should listen to this song.

Or whenever you want, I don't mind.

Wait & Talk

Halfway home

Demos

The capable kids

This song was written after I went to Danish Scout Jamboree in 2004. I was still at uni, but I was on placement in my 3rd year, so I took 2 weeks holiday to go but  everyone else was on summer holidays.

And I realised that summers were no longer going to last from the first sunny day in May and roll through to the start of school. They were were going to be much shorter.

In those bursts of summer, and when you are young, then you can definitely feel pretty invincible, even if it doesn't last

Youth Cut Short Summer

A hot and sweaty recording sessions seemed pretty apt for this song. This was written just after Corbyn was elected the leader of the Labour Party, and it seemed like there might actually be a left in this country.

The outro lyrics are a corruption of a Terry Pratchett quote, which I include for completeness here:

"The dogged determination and patience of one person to do what is Right and Necessary may not always win the day or even be noticed, but it will tip the balance just a little in the direction of good."

Ben!Ben!Ben!