Beach Leech : July 2016

Inspired by the legendary Brighouse & Raistrick Surf Gala of 1991, which served as the location for the cult movie "Point Break", this is my homage to the White Rose White Horses.


Spring reverb set to maximum, out with the Strat & its board-buddy, the Precision Bass, add a few thinly-disguised Shadows moves and I could practically smell the sea.
Takes me back to my days of riding the big ones near the Mirfield Marina.
Whoa dude!
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Gear List

Fender Strat
Fender Precision Bass
Peavey Bravo all-tube 1x12 combo( w. spring reverb )
Boss RV-6 
Seagull 12 string acoustic ( I'm not making this up)

A Scanulf Studios Production.

Beach Leech

Same Time, Same Place : Bluebottles : December 2016

Hylda from Balham, our No. 1 fan, has set up a "Facebook page" devoted to the band. We'll be contributing new songs, archive photos and, of course, road-tales/philosophical musings from my autobiography.
https://www.facebook.com/Bluebottlesnewwave/

There's always a tendency at this time of year for people to focus on the things they think they need rather than being thankful for what they've already got. 

Swept along by the consumerist tide, it's so easy to lose perspective.
It reminds me of an opportunity which came our way in the late seventies when we'd relocated to the States and were gathering rave reviews from the style, culture and origami magazines. 
In fact, there's a chapter in my autobiography dealing specifically with our ahead-of-its-time TV series

{The book is available for a limited time in a collector's edition complete with genuine gas station receipts and an unused ticket for our 1980 "Tea with the Shah" concert. A must for all true fans}

"The network guy was confident the new serial could make us the next Charlie's Angels. 
A mystery-solving undercover rock band comprising an attorney from Brooklyn, a former Belgian racing driver turned playboy and a hard-bitten ex-cop from Boston, solving crimes in between sell-out stadium gigs. 

As he was fond of saying  : They're gonna love you, baby.

He wanted to get production underway before a rival network launched their new series about a crack commando unit, sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, still wanted by the government and surviving as soldiers as fortune. Judging by that synopsis their plan would never come together.

We cancelled the lucrative Jimmy Carter-Second-Term gig on the advice of the focus groups, all of whom were confident that Gold, Franconchamps & Murphy would be a ratings smash."

A sobering reminder that things don't always turn out how as planned....
Which is why the new Bluebottles personal organiser app makes an ideal present for 2017.
And why not make next year's brand new Bluebottles album your first event-reminder ?
{ Only compatible with MS-DOS ver 3.3 & later}

Guitars & Bass : ELT
Drums : Gary Reeves
Vocals : Gordon M
*****
Same Time, Same Place

Every TV show and every song I hear speaks to me
Every advert knows my name, every jingle rings a bell
A Christmas movie, two hours that I won't see again
Here's to Capra, Dickens, Crosby, to imaginary 
Friends, friends, friends. 
This silent night

Pass the parcel, rip the wrap, party spirit 1-2-3
Hear the music, when it stops, take a seat they're always free
Drain another glass, smile, a joke I've heard before
Lines are fumbled, not my key, wake me up when wassailing's
Done, done, done
Down, down, down
Have I ever been.... solo

All washed up, the tide rolls in
A kind of Crusoe for today
Empty bottle SOS
Have I missed the postage date?
Guess I've missed the postage date
Yes, I've missed the postage date

Was it one wise king who sang the Lonely Christmas thing?
Or just some other man trapped inside a tribute band

Same time, same place, next year

Same Time, Same Place - {ELT--Gary Reeves--gordon m}

3. The Doctor's Warning : May 2017
Special Guest : Nathan Jon Tillett as the malevolent medic.

Being the 3rd instalment of "The Fall of the House of Usher"
Splendid Music Video : https://youtu.be/6YY6hNQFVn4
Setting aside his doubts and fears the Narrator enters the eerie house-by-the-mere and encounters the recently dismissed family doctor on the stairs.
Well intentioned advice from the 'voice of experience' which is shot-through with scepticism, mockery and envy.

An ideal opportunity for a guest vocalist and who better than my good mate Nath?
He even helped out with the video production.

This is the last complete song I'll be posting for a while. The next trio are going to be tough going and I'm not 100% sure how they'll take shape. Final versions will be a long way off.
I'll switch to posting excerpts & snippets with video trailers for the appropriate sections.
----------

The Doctor's Warning 

It all had to be a strange kind of dream
Explanations fail me with everything I've seen
The servant met me and showed me through the hall
Faded former glories, old paintings on the wall

We walked in silence, stale musty air, then we met a man as he hurried down the stair
The family doctor, dismissed this very day, he looked relieved, paid in full, pleased to get away
He said : 

**  Dr Nathan **
Don't you see it? Tell me, can't you feel it?
Don't you feel this atmosphere, getting worse as you come in?
I can't discuss it but, I would not trust him, his state of mind disintegrates with each passing day

He was always like this, nothing's changed, troubled child, now a troubled man
A lifetime's doubts and fears, concealed, buried for years
Expensive schooling, extensive reading, could not prepare him for how he lives
How he lives today

The history of this house can't be denied!
The books you've read can't prepare you for what's inside
In this house Roderick lives but just in name
A broken man in a building much the same

** Twin Harmony Guitar Feature **

Such pessimistic words, such a lack of belief, professional detachment, cowardice to me
I've first hand experience of suffocating lows, the failures of medicine, its short-sighted goals

I knew myself and I knew my friend
I knew all that we'd been through we could do it again
Heartbeat was racing at the thought of seeing him
Outside his studio there's music within
**Epilogue**

3. The Doctor's Warning ( feat. Nathan Jon Tillett )

This Is What It Takes : June 2017

The curator of our Facebook fan page, the ever-lovely Hylda from Balham, has had to field a lot of questions concerning our erstwhile manager, Timmy Cagney.
Check out the page and see what you're missing : 
https://www.facebook.com/Bluebottlesnewwave/
After that unsavoury business with the sniffer dogs and the folk jamboree debacle, we parted company and opted for representation courtesy of Hylda - who chairs several important committees and is regarded as one of the movers and shakers of the Women's Institute ( Balham Branch )
She takes a different approach to Timmy, but her enthusiasm can't be faulted.
Why, she was only telling us yesterday of a high profile gig supporting The Jam down at the Arthur Mullard Memorial Hall.
We're really looking forward to seeing our old sparring partners Paul, Bruce and Rick in the city, and swapping tales of our lives in the modern world.
Wait for the pics on Hylda's fan page.
----------

This Is What It Takes

One more week and one more song, one more chance to write my wrongs
Find a different way, portray, all the things I've said before
I play this part, I act it out, get someone else to voice my doubt
I dress it up, all in plain view, I hide in songs 'bout me and you

Chances, chances, chances running out
Opportunities ungrasped, burning questions never asked

If this is what it takes, The play begins we can't rehearse
If this is what it takes, I cling to hope with broken verse
If this is what it takes, I miss my cue the curtains rise
If this is what it takes, Can I do it right this time?

The only, the only, the only way I know
An open book we read so well
How could it take this long to tell?

Avoid the subject, not tonight, the signs are there in black and white
Devising new ways not to say the same old things, truth gets away
Waiting for the gothic twist, like some book by old man Poe
See the house, the mere, the mist, briefly up then down I go

This is what it takes, left unsaid it says so much
This is what it takes, so near, so far, so out of touch
This is what it takes, I dance the dance, the smokescreen's mine
This is what it takes, song is over see you all next time

This Is What It Takes (ELT - Gary Reeves - Gordon M)

(8) The Storm - w. Gary Reeves - July 2017

https://gordonmidgley.bandcamp.com/album/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher

The 8th instalment and one of the few energetic, uptempo, passages of the album {Roderick's anguished exposition of weltanschauung in (4)being the other notable 'quick section' }
Poe refers on several occasions to life in the House of Usher as being akin to an opiated afterdream, suggesting a slow, inexorable slide into a semi-conscious state of being, incapable of distinguishing between dreams and actuality.
In keeping with the 'self fulfilling prophecy' I mentioned in the notes of (6) 'The Haunted Palace', it seems as if Roderick expects and welcomes the storm, pacing around in an agitated state of delirious hilarity
He regards it as a kind of punishment  - an Old Testament style day of atonement.
Viewing it as 'the beginning of the end' perhaps?

The tempo is exactly double that of the previous track's outro. 
What a strange coincidence.

I'm very familiar with Gary's energetic hard-new-wave drumming capabilities from Bluebottles and I was delighted when he agreed to take on "The Storm".
He drums up a storm in every sense of the phrase. Top job Gary.
I've aimed for a similar Bluebottles 80s gated-reverb, tape saturated sound, albeit in a different setting.

Gear List Notables : 

Tempestuous Drums - Gary Reeves

Fretless Jazz Bass 
Lead Guitar - 1995 US Fender Strat w. BKP Apache pickups
JRAD Archer Boost
Peavey Bravo 1x12 all-tube combo
Lead Synth - Korg MS-20 & Aqua Puss analog delay

--------
The tempest raged we were helpless, the groaning house about to yield
Then in half-light by the fireside, in a loud voice Usher cried :
"At last it's here"

"Can't you see how it surrounds us? Its fury brings us to our knees
Now I will go and let the storm in, the guilt of generations flooding out.
Here comes the flood"

(8) The Storm {w. Gary Reeves}

After a very long time in the quiet carriage....
'Long, Long Skies'


Cover image by NJT

Gordon M

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