Probably from 15 years ago when The Various Assortments was a post-punk/ska/whatever band, song written and performed by Paul Program with me on tenor saxophone and Steve Ayers on Trumpet -- plus drums and bass.

Martin Baxter's Only

Going to the Shops (The Various Assortments)

This is a studio version of a one-off rehearsal of A Very Busy Man by The Various Assortments. The band has moved on as have I but this was probably one of the best versions of this song by Paul Program. Keyboards and bass Keiron Standfield, vocals Paul Program, drums Tim Young and Martin Baxter on sax. The last member of the then band, Steve Ayers was not present on this version. My sax embouchure was failing towards the end of the long sax solo and tuning was tending to drop out.

A Very Busy Man by The Various Assortments

With permission, a sax overdub to a track by my friend Tomhunteruk; a first attempt that I think I could improve on but we'll see.

Springtime

I am old and I don't give a fuck anymore so here I am singing. Yah boo sucks!

In The Vicinity

I had a go a couple of years ago with a baritone sax; this is all I could achieve before I had to give it back.

Baricello

Knocked up in five minutes by fiddling with Finale Printmusic.

Strange

An original tune by Adam Gallagher on guitar bass and drums with additional sax, harp and keyboard work added by Martin Baxter.

Tassology

Something I knocked up years ago. I like the beginning a lot especially the bass bits but it gets a little tedious towards  the end. I might use the piano stuff for another go sometime.

Dreamscape

So long as my dust ends up in the garden with my old dogs, the Sun will always shine on me.

Sun Is Shining

This song is about COVID 19, but then what isn't these days?

Started from the line 'no one listens to my music' because no one does really, then turned into another COVID song.

Darkest Days

Played sax for the last seventeen years (as at February 2023) or so after visiting the Bude jazz festival with a good (but now sadly deceased) friend. I like watching and playing live music of all sorts. Don't play it so much now as prefer guitar.

Don't have any known influences, I just like good chords, mostly minor ones and play ballad-type music (for want of a better term), some jazz, some blues.

I did music lessons for seven years but found my limit so decided to give up; I really wanted to be able to pick up a grade 8 piece of music and play it right off but  realised that was never going to happen. I can improvise over someone else's work usually in two takes, one to listen, one to play...unless it's Latin music then I can't do it at all.

I played in a band called The Various Assortments which had varying degrees of success at a local level and whilst I no longer play with the band it gave me a great experience playing live in front of an audience and I rather liked it.

For the moment, I compose music and play tunes in my spare room. I don't practice anywhere near as much as I should because I've gone back to taking photographs. I still make tracks though and I'm always thinking of new ideas that will never come to fruition.

Might try to learn piano formally one day, might not, actually probably won't, ever, too many fingers to be used at the same time.

Had a track (Tassology) played on the radio in collaboration with Adam Gallacher; neat. The Various Assortments have also had tracks played on the radio so I'm quite famous in my own head.

Now learning guitar and have started writing a lot more songs. I'm not much of a musician but it keeps me amused and dreaming and we all need to dream.

Martin Baxter

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