We demoed this song about six times. We chose this one not because it was the most pitch-perfect but because of Reuben's enthusiastic drumming, his joining in with the singing and his lovely laughter.

Written on a Sunday afternoon (4 May 2014) by Reuben J M Saunders (aged 5) and Gareth J M Saunders (aged 42). Lyrical ideas from Reuben, musical ideas from Gareth. 

Recorded on Google Nexus 4 using J4T Multitracker for Android.

Chords: D | Cadd9 | G | D

OH I AM A SPACEMAN
by Reuben J M Saunders (5)

Oh I am a spaceman
Standing on the moon
Looking down at planet Earth
I'm glad I've brought my spoon

Cos back there in the spaceship
Is my best friend Bert 
He's guarding the fridge from aliens
He's protecting my yoghurt

My favourite flavour's strawberry
And Bert's favourite is lime
But when I bounced back to HQ
I discovered he'd eaten mine

So I opened up the space hatch
And pulled with all my might
Bert's floating out in space now
He's a yoghurt-y satellite

Oh I am a spaceman
Standing on the moon
Looking down at planet Earth 
I'm now sad I brought my spoon

(Photo credit: Mike Stimpson)

Oh I am a spaceman (by Reuben J M Saunders, aged 5)

Demo of a song written by Gareth Saunders and Mike Jeremiah, sometime during 1997. The vocals were just a rough guide track that we had intended to go back to and re-record but it never happened. (The vocals were very high for this bass 2 to sing!)

We decided one day to write a song together. But what about? Mike reached up to his bookcase and pulled down a children's encyclopedia, opened it at a random page and pointed his finger at the word "wig". That was the subject matter settled on. Now to write the song.

Wigs (demo 1997)

Morse code for "You must not go outside".

You must not go outside!

This was an improvised piece of nonsense that I recorded with Danny Curtis in the summer of 1994 in the front room of his parents' house in Manchester. We recorded it while compiling a cassette called "NYC Radio '94" for a journey from Manchester to London.

I was mixing up some Metallica and Queen riffs on a cheap nylon-string acoustic guitar, while Danny was... well, he was singing the London A-Z. It was originally called "Ralph McTell's A-Z of London".

I hope you enjoy it.

Danny Curtis sings the A-Z of London

When I was at university my very good friend Ian and I wrote this song together for a talent night / cabaret at St Mary's College. 

Now, we had a bit of a reputation for larking about so we thought that people would expect us to write a really silly song. Wanting to surprise them we sat down to write a love song. 

About three hours into writing we decided that the song needed a twist at the end. Which ended up making the song really rather sinister. But it made people laugh, which was the point really.

garethjms

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