Track from our upcoming 'Ladies of Soul' album
Music made in 2025 that sounds like 1965

Soul Money - 60's sound

A love that's for real

My guest this week was Alfie Davis. Alfie is the Student Engagement & Employment Coordinator at UCC Library, a role he has been shaping and developing for just over a year as part of the Library’s ongoing focus on supporting student success and future-ready skills. 

A UCC graduate with a BA in Philosophy and Sociology, Alfie returned to the university in later years to complete a HDip in Social Policy and an MA in Philosophy. Before moving into higher education, he spent sixteen years working as an oddsmaker and running betting shops — a career path that might not be the obvious route to UCC Library, but one that brings a unique perspective on decision-making, people, and community. 

Alfie has worked across Access UCC in several student-support roles, including with Disability Support and UCC Plus, before joining the Library’s Client Services team in 2021–22. Where he lft to go back to Access UCC before rejoining us last year. His current role focuses on building meaningful student engagement, supporting employability, and creating opportunities for students to grow, connect, and thrive at UCC. 

Outside of work, Alfie is a lover of sport — running, cycling, football, and a particular fondness for T20 cricket — and has a strong interest in fitness and wellbeing. He’s also an avid reader, especially drawn to crime fiction, history, and philosophy. 

During the course of the hour we spoke his great music selection, we spoke about his role at UCC Library, we spoke libraries in general and about the role that libraries play in student well being and development.

Shush 307 - Alfie Davis Takeover

I make no apologies! My kind of music, music of my early teens which has stayed a favourite genre all my life. Guitars, bass an drums, real music.
Oh yes, crafted by Tunee AI to my specifications.

Nightwaves (instrumental)

Original composition by Neno J.
Electric guitar Gibson Les Paul Studio, recorded directly using multi effect Hotone Ampero 100, Guitar Rig 5, November 2025.
This nostalgic blues came to me these days as a reminder of the early sixties, the guitars of Chet Atkins, Peter Green and others without whom I would never play guitar. Thank them!

Retro blues

Bienvenidos

Quiero saber

Primavera

Ni contigo ni sin ti

Lejos de tus demonios

El rey de Jaipur

Alma perdida

My Own Private Juke Box

(lyrics)
They say it’s magic
Making me frantic
I can’t 
Imagine why

If my enchantment 
Is too pedantic     
I’ll try 
To simplify 

I raise my voice
In rhyme trying to reverse 
Time
Searching for a
Sign 

From your eternal    
Resting 
(Is it peaceful resting?)

Will candles burning down
Lift you from the ground?
Hands in circles going 
Round
 
I keep on trying
No use in crying
Mourning 
Is bourgeoisie

I will stay in darkness
Till my power, harnessed
Brings you back to me
(To me)

séance

Girl Beatles

Il “Mark IV” dei Factory riparte da The Weight e lo fa nel modo più naturale possibile: chiudendosi in sala prove, alzando i volumi e trattando un classico come se fosse un pezzo nuovo. La novità più evidente è il ritorno alla chitarra di Davide Spanu, che riporta nel suono della band quel misto di gusto southern e ruvidità rock che è sempre stato nel DNA dei Factory. Al suo fianco, l’ingresso di Claudio Sanna alla batteria porta un drumming solido, rotondo, molto “americano”: meno fronzoli, più groove, con un feel che richiama apertamente il mondo di Woodstock e del country-rock anni ’70.
Silvio Vinci tiene insieme tutto dalla sua postazione, alternando piano e organo: un’intro d’organo che apre il brano come un sipario di velluto e un solo centrale che firma il pezzo con il suo classico tocco soulful. Chris Pain al basso costruisce fondamenta elastiche e melodiche, sempre al servizio del brano, mentre Antonio Miscali alla voce solista e alla chitarra acustica porta la dimensione narrativa: il timbro caldo, leggermente graffiato, si appoggia perfettamente sul tappeto sonoro della band, con la chitarra acustica che dona quella patina roots indispensabile.
Queste sessioni di prove non suonano come un semplice “ripasso di repertorio”, ma come una vera ripartenza: i Factory Mark IV sembrano ritrovare se stessi tornando a uno dei loro cavalli di battaglia, ma con la maturità di una band che ha storia sulle spalle e ancora voglia di rimettersi in gioco. The Weight diventa così il manifesto di una nuova fase: stessa anima, ma energia rinnovata.

The Weight  (Factory Mark IV) - studio session 26 nov 2025

Con Tin Soldier i Factory Mark IV dimostrano di avere ancora benzina ad alto numero di ottani nelle vene. La cover dello storico brano degli Small Faces, da anni presenza fissa nelle playlist live della band, in questa sessione acquista un tiro ancora più deciso, come se il gruppo avesse voluto misurare la nuova line up su uno dei pezzi più “pericolosi” del proprio repertorio.

Claudio Sanna imposta subito il passo: batteria asciutta, aggressiva, con rullante che taglia il mix e un feel marcatamente sixties ma con l’impatto di una band moderna. Su questo tappeto ritmico, Chris Pain al basso lavora di incastri e controtempi, mantenendo sempre quel mix di solidità e fantasia che è uno dei marchi di fabbrica dei Factory.

Davide Spanu alla chitarra si muove tra riff nervosi e piccoli ricami melodici, pescando tanto dal linguaggio brit-beat quanto dal rock più sanguigno: niente imitazione pedissequa, ma un omaggio filtrato attraverso il suono personale della band. Silvio Vinci, al piano e all’organo, colora ogni spazio disponibile: accordi pieni, stacchi precisi, piccole frasi che incalzano la voce e spingono il brano verso l’alto, come ci si aspetta in una vera rilettura “Factory style”.

Al centro di tutto c’è la performance di Antonio Miscali: la voce è intensa, tirata il giusto, capace di riprendere l’urgenza del pezzo originale senza scadere nella copia; la chitarra acustica aggiunge corpo e ritmo, rafforzando quell’effetto “band che suona stretta e compatta” che si respira per tutta la traccia.

Questa versione di Tin Soldier suona come una dichiarazione di intenti: i Factory Mark IV non si limitano a riproporre un classico, lo usano come campo di prova per un suono più duro, più coeso, più consapevole. È la conferma che la nuova formazione non solo funziona, ma è pronta a spingere il repertorio storico della band verso un nuovo livello di intensità.

Tin Soldier -studio session - 26 nov.2025

London based duo making all types of music for all kinds of people about all sorts of things.
For info , collaborations and all questions - dm
xl viewable/audible sync catalogue available
Thank you to every one for taking the time to listen and hope you heard something you like. 

🤗Sending peace love and happiness to all 😊

Guitarist, multi-genre composer, keyboard & bass player (mostly self-taught). Music librarian and philosopher (I am retired now).
Music is new dimension of life.
“That is an artist as I love artists, modest in his needs: he really wants only two things, his bread and his art - panem et Circen.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

tastierista 
1988-92- HIGHWAY 69
1993-96- MEDICINE MEN
1995-96- AMANITA 
1999-2000- MONEDA
2001-2002- KOSMEN
2006-2012- RAILROAD BLUES BAND
2012- COSMICK CHARLIE
dal 2013- FACTORY

Welcome to UCC Library’s very own radio show -  Shush! Sounds from UCC Library - a twice weekly show on UCC Campus Radio (UCC 98.3FM)
On my Monday morning show I have guests from around University College Cork who pick the music and then we chat about those songs and also chat about their work and the role  libraries  play in their lives.

My Thursday evening show is called the Quiet Shush and the music is of a more mellow kind.

I am Sandbird, a composer living in the south of France. My music is born between sea and sky, carried by Mediterranean winds and waking dreams.

Among the musicians who walk beside me and guide my steps are J.S. Bach, John Williams, Paul Simon, Carlos Jobim, and many others. Their presence is like a hand reaching out, leading me toward melodies yet to be found.

I discover themes on my daughter’s piano, through my guitar, or simply while dreaming. Each note is a meeting, each harmony a breath.

I do not use artificial intelligence to compose — only, at times, to find beautiful images that accompany my music.

On a beach, with eyes wide open to the sky, I take flight like a sandbird. It is there that my music rises: intimate, free, and always searching for light.

Vine por los temas y me quedé por las sesiones.
Pincho techno y bailo en mi cocina.
También toco el bajo en Los Veletas, que no tiene nada que ver con el techno, pero es que soy muy veleta. Podéis encontrar las canciones en mi perfil.

En la sección "Me gusta" se me ha ido la olla y hay cantidad de listas de podcast y sesiones. Para una vida entera y más.

All my own AI assisted tracks, are free to download.

I have been writing songs since1959 until the present. As a songwriter, I am more than happy with the wide range of songs I have written over the years. But my musical skills are quite limited and the early demos on Soundcloud are of me singing  and accompanying myself on guitar or latterly ukulele. I can strum the strings well enough, but there my skills end.

Recently I discovered Suno AI and the results astounded me. I could finally produce demos of my songs to be proud of. I am currently going thru my catalogue of songs and producing AI assisted demos. I know many musicians turn away from AI but it has a place for me. There is no other way I could have obtained some 300 demos to this level. I do not and do not intend to look for any reward except the satisfaction that hearing my own songs gives me.

I am still writing and hope to have many more years of songs left in me, Enjoy if you can and I would love to hear your comments on the tracks, if the music moves you at all.

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@shadfan66

New tracks tagged #sixties