Something for Australia Day 2012...

This is an original song that was inspired of the folk song Moreton Bay (Brisbane Water) but from a different perspective. Sort of a response I guess.

This demo was recorded in my studio in Dunstable, with me playing all instruments and singing.



Fatal Shore

This is the first Rudyard Kipling poem I set to music sometime back in the 1980's. I think that this poem captures nicely the feelings of the restless soul. The traveller who can't settle down but still needs a center to come home to.

There is something about the lryic quality of late 19th century poets that makes them ideal for setting to music, though they usually have to be ferociously to make them suitable for the more concise format demanded by the song form. 

I wrote the setting for this poem in the early 80's but this demo must have been recorded in the late 80's in my studio in St Albans. Since then I've put more poems written by Kipling and Henry Lawson to music, some of which appeared on the WoodworX CD (Two Short PlanX - available from www.poke.ltd.uk/records/shop.htm). 

All instruments and vocals on this track by B Heywood

L'Envoi

I wrote this song in 1995 when 'Rogue Trader' Nick Leeson caused Barings Bank (aka  the Queen's bank ) to go bust when he lost over £800 million trading on the Singapore stock exchange - a figure that was more than twice the bank's trading capital.

It's still pretty topical as the recent banking 'crisis' has shown. 

It's interesting to point out that the two countries that didn't remove regulation from their banking systems - Australia and Canada - have ridden out the finnancial storms pretty well. Meanwhile in the UK the old adage of "punish the innocent and promote the guilty" still holds sway as the Guardian points out in...

 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/30/bankers-paid-too-much-says-rbs-chairman

So no lessons learned - no change there then.



Bankers' Blues

On February 11 1990, Nelson Mandela was released after spending almost 30 years in various South African prisons - mainly the high security facility at Robben Island - for fighting the Boer dominated Apartheid regime. At the end of his statement at the infamous Rivonia Trial in 1964, he said;

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

This song is a collaboration between Graham Goffee, who wrote the music and myself who wrote the words - apart from the chant section in the middle, which was Graham's suggestion (woza moya - come o' spirit) which has a reference to the ANC anthem (Nkosi sikelel) which was later incorporated into the South African national anthem.

This song is dedicated to one of the greatest human being on the planet, who helped bring South Africa out of the post colonial era without the customary blood bath...

The idea behind the lyric is that the spirit of Mandela would never be free until this rainbow revolution is seen around the world. As Syria, the riots in London, the Moscow demonstrations and the occupy Wall Street protests show, there is still a long way to go.

February11 (a man is freed)

Hiram Cater was a character out of the 1978 novel by James A Michener - Chesapeake. Like many of his novels it has a very broad brush of history - in this case based on the east coast of the USA in the bay of the same name. Set in a fictional town (Patamoke) on the border between the northern (free) states and the southern (slave) states, the novel explores the history, economics and personal ramifications of the post slavery era.

The song dips into Hiram's - and his sister Luta Mae's - story during the period of the Civil Right's Movement. Sort of a fictional 'true' story. This is not the first song on this subject I've recorded - check out "The Reverend Sharpton" on the Tear Down the Barriers album which is also inspired by this period - from a different perspective. 

Although the song was inspired by an American story, there are a number of resonances with the riots that shook South London in the summer of 2011.

Vocals and guitars are by me with backing vocals from Dawn Webb.

This song was a semi-finalist in "The Song of the Year" contest (http://tinyurl.com/Hiram-Cater)

The Ballad of Hiram Cater

This is a song from a project to recreate the Fairport Convention 'Folk Rock Opera' - Babbcombe Lee. the project never got off  the ground but I was quite pleased with this demo track.

You can find out more about the history John Lee (The man they couldn't hang) at;

 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Babbacombe_Lee

Drums and tambourine were performed by Sam McEvoy and everything else was by me.


John Lee

This is the title song for a show I have developed with Poet Bob Harding-Jones.

"Thinking about our world..." provides a setting for the poetry and music to give an insight into the world in which we live in at the start of the 21st century. It is not about threatening and frightening people, but rather helping to think about the way we live and the effect it has on the world around us. In short, it's about the choices we all have.

You can find out more from the website;

 - http://www.thinkingaboutourworld.co.uk



Thinking about our world...

This instrumental is based on a dance tune called "The Horses' Branle" from a collection called Orchésographie by Thionot Arbeau (pseudonym and anagram of 'Jehan Tabourot') dated 1588. A branle (pronounced  'brawl') is a French social dance. This tune is part of the English Country Dance repertoire and is often used for a variation on  the Montarde Branle (also from Arbeau), though played with a dotted, or bourrée rhythm .

This track was recorded while I was still living at St Albans so must be from the mid 1980s. The flute part is played by Sarah Hack, the electric guitar solo at the end is by Dave Good and the full on drums in the last section is performed by Graeme Harrison on a Simmons SDS-9 drum kit MIDI'd through a Roland PAD-8 to an Akai sample replay module. All the other instruments are played by me.

I later used the name for the Nightwatch album of the same name though this track didn't appear on it.


Dusk 'till Dawn

This song is my take on the first world war and was probably one of the ones originally recorded at the Great Western Radio studio in Wootton Bassett as part of a 'live' session by The Cluster of Nuts Band for broadcast by GWR sometime in the mid-1980s.

In WW1 approximately 5% of the population of the UK, Australia and New Zealand were killed or wounded in the fighting and the incompetent tactics of the British Army meant that junior officers had an average life expectancy of about a week on the front line (which is a line in the song).

The band is;

 Chris Nelson - lead vocals
 Dave Good - guitar, backing vocals
 Jim Shorter - keyboards
 Brian Heywood - bass guitar, backing vocals
 Graeme Harrison - drums

[words and music (c) Brian Heywood]

While the UK had a general call-up (i.e. conscription) for the British Army, all the Australians were volunteers. 



Casualty

This song was written by guitarist Graham Goffee and recorded as a demo for our band - Innocent Bystander, probably when I was based in St Albans. The drums are almost certainly MIDI, performed live using the Simmons SDS 9 plugged into a Roland PAD-8 controller using sounds from an Akai ROM based sample replay percussion module. Apart from Graham on vocals & guitar and myself on bass I'm not sure who the other players were, probably Graeme Harrison on drums.

Blues turn to Green

A guitarist, vocalist, bandleader, arranger, composer, producer and award winning song writer - Brian has a formidable array of skills and experience. He is just as at home on a big festival stage in outback Western Australia as an indie live music club in the heart of London. 

Specialising in edgy roots fusion music, previous work has received comments such as "... aggressive, top notch fiddling set off by periodic guitar explosions." - Tom Nelligan, Dirty Linen Magazine (USA), "Just when it seemed as if newer electric British roots bands were getting thinner on the ground - Very welcome and very good." - fROOTS Magazine (UK) and Steve Barnes Fairbridge Festival Artistic Director (Australia) - "... a rocking band - I was delighted with the audience response." 

Brian's original material draws on many sources from progressive, Latin and blues rock of the 70's to Celtic and traditional material. 

Brian is an Australian musician who relocated to the UK in the early 80's and is now based on the NSW mid-northcoast. As well as live performance, he also composes for live and video/film soundtracks, produce and engineer for recordings in a variety of styles.

Brian Heywood

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