Ophelia

Born To Play

Santa Cruze was written on a hotel roof top in Santa Cruze, Spain. 

After walking laps of this Spanish and non-tourist town we failed to find a bar with any atmosphere and couldn’t for the life of us find any live music. 

All we found where empty bars and restaurants with people eating. It seemed everywhere we turned people where just eating and then heading home. 

Restaurant after restaurant we finally gave up and went back to our hotel and took one guitar up to the rooftop. We began to sing about our experience and about how this town had let us down. 

We had no idea where the party was…. 

We finished the whole song and then decided to go out one more time in search of a party. 

This time, purely by chance, we did find a small little bar with some life going on. 

We got chatting to some lovely Australians who invited us to a boat party the very next evening.  

The next evening we went to the boat party and had a wonderful time partying with the Starlight crew.

Santa Cruz

He Holds On

This song takes the form of a conversation between two people and also discusses the issues of loneliness and a yearning to break free from the trappings of a small town. 

The conversation is between two friends or acquaintances in a bar, one looks sad and is drinking alone so the songs narrative opens with lines directed at this character. ‘I see you there drinking by yourself, do you need a friend’ 

As the verse begins the role of the songs narrator switches to the lonely character at the bar who begins to describe how he is feeling, at a loss at this stage of his life. 

The Next chorus is sung solely by the female singer who continues to sing the next verse alone. In this verse she describes her own feelings of loneliness within a crowd.  This is followed by the final chorus sung initially by the male character asking the female if in fact she needs a friend. As if happy to find one another the two voices sing out the song in harmony repeating the last line ‘do you need a friend’ one final time.

I See You

This Song is about forbidden love. The girl, Melody, spots the love of her life when she is young but finds out that he is taken so she cannot pursue him.  

Over the years she watches him and admires him and eventually builds up the courage to ask him to play sweet solos on her songs.  

Time passes and they play songs together and they begin to sing in harmony. She waits and doesn’t tell him how she feels until one day, after a decade has passed, they both find themselves single and she wonders if he can see the truth in her eyes.  

It becomes harder and harder for her to hide her feelings for him and there bond gets stronger. She wonders if he feels the same and she hopes that one day she will be able to tell him how she feels.  

And until that day she continues to play with her heart on her sleeve but dares to dream of a time when they might be together at last.

Melody's Eyes

This is our African township inspired song about a friend who went traveling around Europe on his push bike. with its feel good vibes it talks of adventure, wisdom and collecting stories to come back and tell to your loved ones.

It's about creating memories and travelling, as far as you are able, to find yourself. Its about being the best you can be and reaching your full potential so that you can offer stories and wisdom to others.

Angel Shoes

Heartbreaker is our tribute song to country/rock legend Tom Petty. Written after he died to let him know how he will be missed.

Heartbreaker

This Song is about the end of a party and not wanting it to be the end, it could also be perceived as the end of a relationship or anything that was good. Trying to recreate the good times only to realize that life goes on and all things must come to an end,  even if we hang on for dear life, we must make way for the new day.

Good Morning (is It Over)

Strange is a song dedicated to the unusual types of people in this world. The ones you would call characters, with individual views and ways of dealing with the world around them.  

They stand out because they are eccentric but at the same time they are the most intriguing and the brightest light in the room for those who are drawn to them.  

They make life interesting and they make you feel like they have plucked a star right out of the sky and handed it to you whenever they talk to you. 

You can chat to these types of people for hours and never get bored and we wrote this song to let those strange but beautiful people know that they are in our tribe and the world would be a lot less colorful without them in it.

Strange

Female fronted twenty first century Folk/Rock with haunting harmonies and distinctive rhythm. The Purple shoes talk to their audiences through song presenting a quirky blend of English infused Americana with a Folk/Pop twist. The Purple Shoes share thoughts, dreams and small town fairy tales. 
Marie Dance returned to the UK from Thailand, having spent three years touring and recording, clutching a handful of dreams and a bunch of unfinished songs. She ran into singer and guitarist Michael Bickers who was walking around the south coast waving a blank canvas.
Discovering a mutual love for the 60s counter culture and the traditional values of Rock and Roll, the pair headed for the quaint seaside town of Shoreham-by-sea to surround themselves with likeminded misfits and immerse themselves in the flourishing scene. 
Teaming up with seasoned function player Richard Dadson on double bass and acclaimed STOMP chorographer Theseus Gerard on assorted household percussion, Marie and Michael began performing regular shows and steadily started to build a following across the South Coast of England under the name The Purple Shoes.    
In 2016 the band headed up to the celebrated KSI Studios in rural West Sussex to record Marie’s solo album ‘Things Have Changed’. After a successful launch Marie and Mike spent the second half of 2017 promoting the album on an extensive tour of the UK and Southern Ireland.
With their onstage rapport and quirky stage show, interest in The Purple Shoes band began to develop. Despite the success of Marie’s solo album, Marie and Mike decided to turn the attention to the band as a whole and began writing and recording demos for The Purple Shoes debut album upon returning from their tour.

Marie Dance Projects