Backing For Harry Potter by Dave Nicholls

Harry Potter

My slant on Open Arms by Journey, harmonies courtesy of some electronic wizardry, jiggery, pokery!!!   Feel The Journey Love! ;-) x

Open Arms - Journey - Cover

A little something I threw together, with the help of Michael Heath,  to start the ball rolling with a bit of collaboration.  Feel The Working Together Love!  ;-) x

One Day  - Dave Nicholls/Michael Heath

Songs inspired by my cycle ride from York to Amsterdam and back in 2009.  All proceeds go to the charity I did the ride for, Jessie's Fund.  www.jessiesfund.org.uk. You might find them a bit strange, so welcome to my world!!!!  DV8 is born!  ;-) x

03- Georgia - Short & Sweet - Dave Nicholls

Hi My Lovely Friends,

I have just made Days Gone By - 1986 available as MP3s and have started the process of making them available as high quality downloads from all major online music sites. This process takes some weeks and I'll let you know when they appear.

Days Gone By and Spider Murphy were written by myself and Steve Madden and Sugar Icicle Way by Kev Currie.  Steve and I wrote most of the Murphy’s Law songs, with a few gems thrown in by Kevo but everyone had an input in all of the songs.  We bounced ideas off each other and got a big thrill when it all came together and we got to perform them live.  I had been writing with Steve since we were both 15, so we knew each other’s idiosyncrasies very well.  It was a very sad day for me when we went our separate ways.  Spider Murphy came together as my tribute to John Lennon, who died shortly before I wrote the song in 1981.  I knew I had heard the name Spider Murphy but could not remember where.  Turns out, I realised some time later, that he was the tenor saxophone player in Jailhouse Rock, Elvis having died only three years earlier, so I got to tribute both of them in one song!  Lovely!

These songs were recorded in 1986 at Rhythm Recording Studio, in Leamington Spa, and engineered by Paul Johnson. We had a great time doing the recording and I know it was a big learning curve for Paul, as he had little experience of recording guitars, at that time. Remember Paul, never record dual lead guitars using a Chorus effect, because if you do, they will sound out of tune, or like bagpipes, as has been mentioned on more than one occasion! I bet he never did that again!

The drums were programmed by Paul Civil and Dave Smith, as Dave had an argument with a wall, and lost, and had a broken hand at the time of recording! They spend hours and hours, working through the night, until early morning and daylight, getting the drums ready to take into the studio, so well done boys!

My experience of mastering is almost none existent and as the only copy of these tracks were on cassette tape, it has taken me a lot longer to master than it did to record ..... almost!!!

I am now going to revamp these three songs, initially, and the plan is to produce a new album of Murphy's Law songs, called Days Gone By .... are you getting a feeling of Deja Vu? Well actually, they used to rehearse in the barn next door but that is another story!

I hope you enjoy this initial blast from the past and you will almost certainly be hearing more from this band in old and new format!

This is going to be a big adventure for me, so I hope you'll join me along the way! Oh, and bear with me when I make all the mistakes, with this online experience, that I am predicting I will be making in the future!

Feel The Love!

Dave ;-) x

01 Sugar Icicle Way - 1986 - Murphy's Law

Hi $first_name,

I have just made Days Gone By - 1986 available as MP3s and have started the process of making them available as high quality downloads from all major online music sites. This process takes some weeks and I'll let you know when they appear.

Days Gone By and Spider Murphy were written by myself and Steve Madden and Sugar Icicle Way by Kev Currie.  Steve and I wrote most of the Murphy’s Law songs, with a few gems thrown in by Kevo but everyone had an input in all of the songs.  We bounced ideas off each other and got a big thrill when it all came together and we got to perform them live.  I had been writing with Steve since we were both 15, so we knew each other’s idiosyncrasies very well.  It was a very sad day for me when we went our separate ways.  Spider Murphy came together as my tribute to John Lennon, who died shortly before I wrote the song in 1981.  I knew I had heard the name Spider Murphy but could not remember where.  Turns out, I realised some time later, that he was the tenor saxophone player in Jailhouse Rock, Elvis having died only three years earlier, so I got to tribute both of them in one song!  Lovely!

These songs were recorded in 1986 at Rhythm Recording Studio, in Leamington Spa, and engineered by Paul Johnson. We had a great time doing the recording and I know it was a big learning curve for Paul, as he had little experience of recording guitars, at that time. Remember Paul, never record dual lead guitars using a Chorus effect, because if you do, they will sound out of tune, or like bagpipes, as has been mentioned on more than one occasion! I bet he never did that again!

The drums were programmed by Paul Civil and Dave Smith, as Dave had an argument with a wall, and lost, and had a broken hand at the time of recording! They spend hours and hours, working through the night, until early morning and daylight, getting the drums ready to take into the studio, so well done boys!

My experience of mastering is almost none existent and as the only copy of these tracks were on cassette tape, it has taken me a lot longer to master than it did to record ..... almost!!!

I am now going to revamp these three songs, initially, and the plan is to produce a new album of Murphy's Law songs, called Days Gone By .... are you getting a feeling of Deja Vu? Well actually, they used to rehearse in the barn next door but that is another story!

I hope you enjoy this initial blast from the past and you will almost certainly be hearing more from this band in old and new format!

This is going to be a big adventure for me, so I hope you'll join me along the way! Oh, and bear with me when I make all the mistakes, with this online experience, that I am predicting I will be making in the future!

Feel The Love!

Dave ;-) x

02 Spider Murphy - 1986 - Murphy's Law

03 Days Gone By - 1986 - Murphy's Law

Weeping Willow by Kevin Currie - Produced and Arranged By Dave Nicholls

Weeping Willow - Kev Currie - Featuring Dave Nicholls on Vocals & Production

This was the song I wrote for my Nan's funeral.  You can see the story of her life here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjBYF17K6j8


Living It All Again (Remember When?)

This is Murphy's Law c1986.  We haven't changed a bit!

DV8 Coventry

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