Off-season Scarborough Arcade at Closing Time (Fisher/Nankivell)

There’s a seagull on my head
He wants to get my bread
He gets it

His avian knavery
My cheese savoury
He gets it

But I have 50p in my pocket
And a late-afternoon stroll on the promenade [promen-aid]
No seagull shenanigans 
Will stop me from visiting 
The amusement arcade [arcard]

The change machine
Turns silver into copper

2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p


Scarborough is empty 
My pocket is full 

2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
And 
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p

Bring on the penny falls!

The pennies fall 

I lose
I lose 
I lose
I win
2p, 2p, 2p, 2p, 2p
I lose
I lose 
I lose
I lose 

It is closing time
Just 6pm
In an off-season Scarborough arcade

All that electricity 
All those machines 

But me and the seagull have won
Me and the seagull have won

Off Season Scarborough Arcade At Closing Time

Know How To Fall is a song about roller skating (and life) from Unsung Sports, a project celebrating non-mainstream sports in Leeds, UK, produced by Peter Spafford and Space 2, funded by Arts Council England. It was composed by Peter Spafford, arranged by David Evans and performed by Spafford, Lileth Chinn and Chapel FM Jazz Collective at The Irish Centre on May 12, 2022. Image: Lizzie Coombes.

KNOW HOW TO FALL

MICHELE DOTRICE (Fisher/Nankivell)

I wanna watch the telly
I wanna watch the telly
I’m nine years old
And I wanna watch the telly

But first I have to read this letter
From my future self

Dear Mark, it says
I know you’re well
So let us dwell
On things unknown

Still to come, still to come
Mr Woodward teaches you woodwork

Still to come, still to come
Mr Woodward makes a joke

Still to come, still to come
Mr Woodward promises 
Mr Woodward promises 
Mr Woodward promises 
Craig Duncan a job in a match factory

Still to come, still to come
You think Mr Woodward’s job is real

Why are you telling me this?

I wanna watch the telly
I wanna watch the telly
I’m nine years old
And I wanna watch the telly

But first I have to read this letter
From my future self

Dear Mark, it says
I know you’re well
So let us dwell
On things unknown

Still to come, still to come
Or is it round about now?

Still to come, still to come
Edward Woodward stars in The Wicker Man

Still to come, still to come
Edward Woodward leaves
Edward Woodward leaves
Edward Woodward leaves
Your father’s girlfriend’s boss’s wife’s sister

Still to come, still to come
Edward Woodward marries Michele Dotrice

I wanna watch the telly
I wanna watch the telly
I’m nine years old
And I wanna watch the telly

But first I have to read this letter
From my future self

Dear Mark, it says
I know you’re well
So let us dwell
On things unknown

Still to come, still to come
A thing called the internet

Still to come, still to come
A thing called Twitter

Still to come, still to come
You manage to please
You manage to please
You manage to please 
Betty from Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

Still to come, still to come
A happy day for Michele Dotrice

I wanna watch the telly
I wanna watch the telly
I’m nine years old
And I wanna watch the telly

Why are you telling me this?
Why are you telling me this?
Why are you telling me this?

Michele Dotrice

KIND REGARDS (Fisher/Nankivell)

Featuring Laurie Nankivell (trumpet)


What the listeners want
Are seabird songs
With pretty tunes
And slot machines

Oh for the chance of a win

What the universe wants
Are email songs
Apologies
And minor chords

Please put that mail in the bin

"A duplicate email was sent today,"
Says the theatre already disgraced

"It was originally sent in error yesterday to you,"
Compounding the anger it faced

"We are unsure why the email has been sent again,"
We get the confusion it felt

"We are currenlty looking into the issue with our service providers"
"Currenlty" strangely mispelt

What the listeners want
Are seabird songs
With pretty tunes
And slot machines

Oh for the chance of a win

What the universe wants
Are email songs
Apologies
And minor chords

Please put that mail in the bin

"Please disregard that email,"
Says the theatre now acting contrite

"And accept our deepest apologies,"
Accepting them only seems right

"Kind Regards"
"Kind Regards"
"Kind Regards"

"Kind Regards"
"Kind Regards"
"Kind Regards"

What the listeners want
Are seabird songs
With pretty tunes
And slot machines

Oh for the chance of a win

Kind Regards

The last summer session of the Aubergines involved us digging up some instruments that we had buried in St Lukes gardens 6 weeks earlier. The melodicas were filled with soil and to begin with only a few notes played, the traingle seemed unscathed by the whole event, but the real revelation was the gourd shaker, which had been included in the ritual because it sounded so quiet/odd anyhow, and then to discover that the shaking was made by paper!


A SHAKER FILLED WITH PAPER

A shaker filled with paper
Doesn’t make sense
And yet
It exists

Bury the shaker filled with paper 
That makes small sounds
In the ground
And wait

Unearth the shaker 
Six weeks later
The paper’s damper
And the sounds are quieter

The shaker breaks open
We will see what is written
Words or illustrations
And when it breaks open
Revealing in latin
Human anatomy

Thomasin takes it home
To dry it out
And then translate

A Shaker Filled With Paper

First song of 2024, thanks to coughing through Feb. How do you make a reliably ordinary song interesting? I tried a lot of counterpoints and instrument combinations that didn't really elevate this much - only the jet-engine flanging is unorthodox, but all else is pretty regular. Lyric-wise it's about my anticipation when literally approaching the lovely city of Leipzig last month - given its dark history, how is it coming to terms? And in doing so how would it feed my fixation with the GDR years?

Descending Over Leipzig

Somewhat ugly riff-based (no solo) Strokes-like guitar-band piece with distorted vocals, recounting a dream I had a month or so ago, wherein I was visiting a cousin in Philadelphia in the US and taking the bus to see the lights and fireworks celebrating Pennsylvania's founder, William Penn; on disembarking from the bus was held at gunpoint by a scared Philadelphian young man who went on to explain the social pressures on his poverty-stricken milieu, until the local cops were heard to approach and he disappeared. The dream insisted that the city was the masculine Philadelphius, not Philadelphia.

Jumped in Philadelphius

I wrote this piece for my Bachelor exam concert at the 21st of May 2019 in the White Hall of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. I want to thank my composition teachers Wim Henderickx, Bram Van Camp, Alain Craens and Luc Van Hove for their inspiration and feedback the past few years. 

Also thanks to Ensemble XXI conducted by Frank Agsteribbe for this opportunity:
Flute: Lola Salas de Rueda
Oboe: Anse Kuyl
Clarinet: Martijn Susla
Trumpet: Marc Belmonte
Cello: Julie Vanbeckevoort, Pieter-Jan De Smet
Harp: Marjolein Vernimmen
Piano: Babette Craens
Percussion: Jorge Rodriguez Morales, Astrid Espinosa Bordón, Aziz Akbarov

"Vesi" is the Estonian translation for "water". In this piece I tried to convert my impression of this element. When I was 13 years old, I wrote a piece called "L'étang de Monet", a musical translation of the water lily paintings of Monet. It was the first time that a piece of mine was performed. By writing a piece about water for my bachelor exam, I want to reflect on myself as a composer to compare where I am standing now.

The art cover is a painting called "Estuary" by Vanessa Mae.

Vesi (for ensemble, 2019)

Music happily written as part of my More Music job for Anna Daly's Duvet Dancing show with support from Arts Council England

LULLABY

CREATURE

Torbay Sorbet

hello I'm Hugh - musician - living in Torquay with a guinea pig a tortoise and humans. 
Mostly I play the piano, but sometimes veer off onto the harmonium, accordion, xylophone, guitar, viola, melodica, flip camera and others. 
Currently working on the following music projects: The Shared Inventions (a duet with Steve Sowden devising a project about Oliver Heaviside), Natural Causes (geographically awkward quartet playing live music with films and songs about animals and humans), Trio of Men, (a flexible unit currently playing alternative versions of the Becks' 'Song Reader'), Twoones (making improvised videos and songs about birds with poet Peter Oswald and clarinet man Pat Allison) and the English Riviera Global Geopark (interpreting geology, geography and history through song and music.)

A Shaker Filled With Paper

hugh nankivell

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