Timsongs

One Big Bang

O Come All Ye People

A song that pays tribute to the iron miners who worked in Edgehills Iron Mine in the Forest of Dean. Title track on the CD: The Ballad of the Plump Hill Miners and Other Short Stories.

Ballad of the Plump Hill Miners

This song combines a reflection of the consequences of warfare for the people of Afghanistan and Ukraine with the titles of 50 or so songs and albums which form the lyrics. You might like to listen and guess which ones you recognize but here below are the lyrics:

Refugees in transit on the road of bones
Searching for an exodus from a game of thrones.
Exile on a main street, exit just in sight
The fearless must endure a hard day’s night.

Living in a glass house on the eve of wars
Human desperado, clutching at straws.
Night spent in absentia, too late for the sky;
Days of future passed, ready to die.

Too late registration, doomsday afternoon,
Living in the past upon the dark side of the moon.
So here come the warm jets, brothers in arms
Ranks of Eden louder than the bombs

The power and the glory, the end of innocence,
There’s a riot going on, things stop making sense,
In a downward spiral, lost in search of space,
Rock bottom where the hand cannot erase.

MPs talk of queues and cures with images and words,
Hot rats, midnight vultures – evil nightbirds.
We’ll talk about it later – you can dig me out
Meddle in a foxtrot roundabout

In a misplaced childhood, many nursery crimes,
Car wheels on a gravel road, sign of the times,
False romantic warrior stirs a bitches brew;
Violator turns a baby blue.

Pawn hearts of betrayal, each a talking head,
Blind faith that all things must pass when the queen is dead.
Once progressive forces see their passion play:
On the road to nowhere, in a silent way.

Window for the World

Progressive Forces

Close to Hadrian’s Wall once stood a sycamore tree that was probably about 200 years old and a prominent feature on the landscape. I first saw this when walking the Pennine Way in 1978 and became increasingly aware of how it became loved by so many – people communed there for feasts, sheltered under its branches and even made proposals of marriage. In 2016 it was voted “Britain’s Favourite Tree”. Sadly on 26th September 2023 it was chopped down by persons unknown; the incident is still being investigated. Many expressed outrage and sorrow but from its remains there derives some hope. The stump has been preserved and seeds taken from the tree’s remains have now germinated into small saplings in a secret Devonshire laboratory. It is thus hoped that some time in the future a new tree will grow in the same location, cultivated from the remains of the parent tree.
Living in the Forest of Dean one bears witness to the changing landscape with the planting, felling and regrowth of trees. 2023 marked the passing of the great Dick Brice, and a community of his friends, family and fellow musicians have endeavoured to preserve his legacy and keep alive his wonderful music. I felt that in one sense the story of The Sycamore symbolised something of this process: a community’s sadness for an untimely loss, creative preservation and hope for the future. A kind of family tree.

THE SYCAMORE

Priscilla Lydia McKenzie with Colin McEnroe

A New Life

Living Planet

Written in 2016 in the aftermath of the last General Election, and the scaremongering and xenophobic campaign run by the right in the referendum, but equally relevant now; our plea for a halt to the kneejerk lurch to the right in the public mood and politics.

Available on Irritant, released 9th June 2017 on Bad Elephant Music
schnauser.bandcamp.com

The Monday Club

Wiltons Green

Sum of Erda

Etsinta Harvest in the Thar Sands

Around 1979 I got together with a group of lads at The Vale of Ancholme School to play some rock music. We rehearsed in the school hall and played at first in one of the assemblies, introduced amusingly by headmaster Mr Price as “Mr Mann and the Mr Men”! The music evolved and the group’s name was christened Denim. (Not to be confused with another later more successful act which recorded music in the 1980s). The group comprised keyboard player Peter Jacklin, guitarist Dean Wattam, bass guitarist Neil Atkin, Pete Watson on drums and myself on rhythm guitar. I cannot recall how many performances we made live – there were not many – but we did play in a local pub or two and at Murray Basingthwaighte’s engagement party. Around the time that Tom Jones was performed in Brigg (in which I played the part of Mr Blifil) we rehearsed with a guest female singer. The cheapo cassette recorder that accompanied these rehearsals was put to use in those sessions and the end product was a collection of tapes of music recorded with poor sound quality but which reflects the nature of what we were playing, covers of well-known chart material, numbers such as Shaft and A Whiter Shade of Pale that showed off Pete Jacklin’s keyboard prowess, and a few self-penned numbers, of which Time Creeps (upon you) was probably the favourite, with two versions on this collection, and a different recording by Rizlahead fourteen years later. Most of the group still live in the Brigg area although Pete Watson sadly died from cancer at the young age of 51.

The Denim Tapes

I Need You

Clint Mann is a singer/songwriter who lives in the Forest of Dean. His music is grounded in Prog rock but is also inspired by the history of the local area and contemporary issues affecting our environment. Original compositions are driven by vibrant guitar playing with varied chords and complex time changes. Think 'Genesis' meets 'Roy Harper' meets 'Big Big Train' and you'll get the idea. Hear Clint at events and festivals around Gloucestershire or at Mitcheldean Folk Club on the 2nd Thursday each month. 150+ original composition are available online at Soundcloud. 
For direct contact, email to: mannclinton0@gmail.com

I Need You

Clint Mann

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