The Circle of Trust - Hastings Friendship Group’s second CD launched at Relax

“Will the Circle be Unbroken?” was the song of solidarity that folkies from another time and another place used to sing. This Hastings musical circle remains tight, thanks to the efforts of Councillors Trevor Webb and Nigel Sinden and many supporting performers. 

“The Circle of Trust” is the name of Hastings Friendship Group’s second CD. (The first, "One Hastings Many Voices", was released earlier this year, and was reviewed on this blog). Showcasing a lot of local talent, "The Circle of Trust" has just been released and is dedicated to Maria Grazia, a sadly departed singer and songwriter who performed at HFG events. The new CD is raising money for Sudanese charities under “The Circle of Trust” moniker. Maria gets a heartfelt tribute at the close of the CD: “Goodnight Maria” is one of the best things I have heard Paul Crimin do. It’s his own song too.

The launch event was at the excellent (if a little pricey) "Relax" restaurant and bar at Marine Parade, on St Leonard's seafront on Sunday October 23. Listening to the CD, and reflecting on the live performances of many of those featuring on the album, there are some whose star inevitably shines brighter than others. There are also those who came across much better at the launch gig than on the CD, and vice versa. The most important thing about the CD though, aside from the good cause and giving a different platform to local artists, is that all the performers are playing original material that was either written by, or for them.

The CD’s producer (and writer of several of its songs) Nelson King (who also produced the first HFG CD) closed the evening. (I had to make my excuses before Nelson hit the stage, sadly). He and Wendy White’s number, “Follow Me” is a good cut on the CD, well produced by Nelson, albeit ending abruptly. His entirely self-penned song, “I Don’t Believe a Thing,” is also a strong feature on the disc.

Preceding him was a young woman who is fairly new to HFG events, Georgia Faye Steele. Georgia played electric piano and belted, and I mean belted, out some classics. Note to the organisers: this woman can sing…loud. Turn down the PA (a bit), or get her on earlier to wake up the bar (and the neighbourhood).

Her own song “Something New Just For Now” came across much more authentically than covering the folk (and very male) song, “House of the Rising Sun” (best known by The Animals), or, even more bizarrely, singing the Eagles’ “Hotel California”. Georgia is probably going places though.

Nick Warren is no stranger to HFG gigs. Unfortunately for him he had the graveyard slot as the closing acts beckoned. Nick had to make it fairly snappy at the end and barely got time for a well- deserved round of applause. Nick sings his own songs (as far as I can tell) and plays acoustic guitar with feeling. “Riptide” especially stood out. “Be My Baby One More Time” is the self-penned song he plays on the CD.

Tania Pieri was accompanied by Juliette on electric piano and backing vocals. Juliette told me afterwards that she hadn’t performed in public for 30 years. This gig was one of Tania’s first too. They did an excellent gospel cover, and another number had some tantalising lyrics including one that went along the lines of “it’s a good day, put away the pills” (unless my hearing problem is worse than I realise).

Tania’s own composition “Fire and Light” come across well live. On the CD Tania’s strength, like some other HFG performers, doesn’t register in the same way. However, live on a Sunday afternoon at Relax she and Juliette were probably the best act.

Katie Wren is just 16. She performed confidently and her own song, “Fairy Tales”, comes over well on CD too. (She also covered Train’s “Hey Soul Sister”, which has a riff that to my ears sounds a lot like Tracey Chapman’s song “Fast Car”.

It was a shame that Craig Devlin wasn’t there on the Sunday. His “Carry You Home” opens the CD and is one of its strongest cuts. Trevor told me before I had had a chance to check the CD out that Craig is the most authentically rock artist HFG currently have on their roster. He has an earthy, lived in voice to be sure. Yet another HFG person who either is or should be destined for greater things.

Mike Guy’s “Little Town Blues” is sadly under-produced on the CD, or just recorded at a lower volume than the rest of the tracks. It’s a shame because it grows on you, well it has on me. I had originally taken the lyrics for a non-ironic channeling of John Major appropriating George Orwell’s famous misty-eyed vision of England. "Little Town Blues" is in fact based on the lyrics of the "Dorset Gypsy Poet", Raymond A Wills. The clever and evocative lyrics work well with Mike's gently affecting tune. Mike also sung "Mr Bobby" by Manu Chao (a Bob Marley tribute) and his own, localised, take on Route 66, "A259".

Dave Williams’ “Dare I Believe” CD contribution is both professionally performed and produced. Live, Dave (see pic below) has matured as a performer. No longer, on this showing at least, tackling the rock behemoths. Aside from the above song given to him by Payen Bingley, he covered lower key numbers that suited his range and style.

Pete Williams (no relative, see pic below) performed a blinding version of the Nelson King song "The River". This was great live and is equally great on CD. No small feat. It has that feel of an old folk/acoustic rock classic, as if it was a huge hit back in the day. Pete teamed up with his old musical sparring partner in Harry's Brother, Steve Avery, for a version of "The Weight" that (for me) was the best performance of the night. It was also the third best version of the song that I have ever heard (after The Band and the Staple Singers, naturally).

Sadly, Tom Cole was finishing his self-penned, and very catchy, CD contribution, “Long Way Home”, when I arrived. His voice is sounding more mid-Atlantic these days (as almost every English singer invariably does).

Tom Cole with Flashboy in the foreground (and Trevor and Nigel in the background)

John Busbridge’s “Summer of 67” is certainly a whole lot better than the better known “Summer of 69”, and evokes that fabled time nicely. After the first summer we had Devaluation and, during the second, British troops went into Northern Ireland. “Sgt Pepper” versus “The Ballad of John n’ Yoko”. False dichotomy I know, and I digress. John’s tune is reminiscent of Robin Sarstead's “Where Do You Go to My Lovely” fused with Dylan's “My Back Pages”. Musically appropriate I guess. He also covered "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan". I hadn't realised it was originally performed by Dr Hook. To my mind it shall forever be Marianne Faithful's song. "At the age of 37, she realised she would never drive through Paris, in an open car, with the warm wind in her hair.." Oh yes.

On the CD, Maman Jay performs a number under the “Kids from 7 Streets” title. The 7 Streets project was launched by Trevor to bring help to homeless children. The song has a moving intro by one of Maman Jay’s grandchilden. It was written and, unlike all the other tracks, was produced by Abye Abdullah. Trevor tells me that Abye, like Maman Jay, originates from one of the French Indian Ocean islands.

Exclusive to the CD, Indian Dave is no Indian but he does a nice line in ethereal flute playing. Jazzi B (Jasmine Bollen) makes a solid contribution with  “Life”, a song written by Nelson King. Dan Wahnon tells us of trying to make it up in the smoke ("Hard Road Home") in a surprising foray into new wave circa 1977 (with Dan Duke providing electric guitar accompaniment). Oksana Kirjuskina is an HFG regular. Her impressive larynx does a nice turn on “Your Smile”, a song familiar to HFG regulars.

A word for the performers who didn’t make it to the CD this time and who played early on at the gig. Flashboy, otherwise known as Andy Ives, had the difficult task of singing while Kevin Sloan held his Tablet aloft as a lyric sheet. Flashboy's numbers included a cover of "Wasteland" (which I think is the song originally performed by 10 Years).

Kevin then sung good covers of a couple of Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, "Fortunate Son" and "Bad Moon Rising".

The Circle remains unbroken. Here’s to Trevor, Nigel and all the HFG crew. Buy the CD at Relax, Gecko’s and other reputable outlets.

Al Riach live and dangerous in Crowhurst

from October 2016 edition of "Crowhurst News", published in East Sussex, England

Click on image above to read a larger and, hopefully, more legible version of this reprint from what is a hard-copy only monthly publication produced in the village of Crowhurst, located near Battle, East Sussex, UK.

Labour leadership ballot: A victory for common sense

I have just mailed my Labour Leadership ballot. It was a tough decision to bring myself to vote for “none of the two sad saps whose old hard left and neo-right wing cabals, respectively, have done so much damage to the Party since the 2015 leadership election”. But it had to be done. It is only sad that a spoilt virtual ballot isn’t possible too, given that the greater majority of members have and will vote online.

I don’t like being an abstainer, but Militant-reborn (Momentum) versus Mr Smith’s cynical little “retail offer” of left-sounding bargains for the undiscerning shopper in the Labour leader market place is absolutely no choice at all. The UK isn’t a presidential system. The morons at Labour HQ who invited me to vote for “Labour’s candidate to be the next Prime Minister” should consider improving their knowledge of our hard-won democratic political system rather than taking courses in law, computer studies or perpetual revolution. Our last wholly inadequate Labour leader didn’t understand our political system either, and bequeathed us Labour (would-be) prime minister primaries. Consequently, votes to determine Labour’s parliamentary leader have been bought by a ragtag bunch of leftist discontents who’ve rarely sullied their hands with campaign material in a general or local election, let alone knocked on doors outside of red rosette donkey territory and tried to persuade a member of the working class of the joys of socialism and unrestricted immigration.

Four of the only six Labour prime ministers in British history - MacDonald, Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan - were elected by the votes of Labour MPs only. The other two were for the most part supported by the Parliamentary Party but either defined themselves against Labour (Blair) or were wholly incapable of talking to the country (Brown).


Once Jeremy has taken us to our worst general election defeat since 1918 and, please God, resigns, can we take the parliamentary leadership vote away from party members, registered supporters and affiliated members, and place it where it belongs? I mean with those who are Labour parliamentary representatives, and who know what it’s like to talk to voters and do not see parliament as merely a platform for mobilising the masses toward some imagined socialist nirvana. Then perhaps plausible Labour parliamentary leaders (and thus plausible British prime ministers) can throw their hat into the ring, such as Hilary Benn and …eh…..eh…Yvette Cooper…eh…

Buckets of love from buckets of blood

Doug MacLeod is a preacher, a self-help therapist. He treats depression with CBT. Specifically his chosen behavioural remedy is the Blues. Not wallowing in it, but singing about it and hopefully therefore finding a way through it. Doug was abused as a young man. The Blues was his redemption it seems. He isn’t saying it’s easy, but when he sings he finds a way to lift himself beyond his problems and, between songs, advises his listeners as to how they might do the same, other than by the therapy of listening to him that is. 

A mature white American originally from St Louis, Doug has been living in Baton Rouge for many years. He has had at least a couple of his songs covered by some bigger names in the blues field and been regularly honoured himself, yet he remains fairly obscure beyond his musical fraternity. Accompanying himself on a Resonator acoustic guitar, he sings with conviction. 

One award winning number, the “Entitled Ones”, told the story of those who feel deserving of a better life than the rest of us, a song spawned by his own disillusion with an able-bodied friend who bought himself a blue disabled badge because he was too lazy to find a less convenient parking spot.

A less “correct” message was “Home Cooking” whose essential idea is that a man well-fed at home doesn’t go sniffing around for dinner elsewhere. Doug introduced it by admitting that this attitude doesn’t necessarily make for a good relationship but it sure as hell works as a blues song. He’s right. 

My particular favourite on the night was “Long Black Train”. He introduced it with a carefully worded homily about our relatively brief duration on this earth. When the ticket collector tells you this is your stop, he warned, it’s no good saying, “Well, I’d like to ride on a little longer.” So before you get to the end of the line, make sure your journey was worthwhile. The song itself was big on atmosphere, subtly working its charm on you. Like many songs he performed on the night I am sure his material repays more listening, which I intend to do via his latest CD, “Live in Europe”.

“The Devil’s Road” was one of several that gave a hint of the trouble he’s known. It told the story of a woman seeking redemption whose search for guidance from a priest takes on a dark turn. It was unclear in his musical telling of this story which of the two people the devil was supposed to be influencing, or whether desperation and unpredictability can take any of us into unwanted places. God and the Devil are always pretty close at hand in the blues world, a close cousin of Gospel in any case. 

Doug MacLeod live at Mrs Yarrington's Music Club - with thanks to the latter's Facebook page

It would be something to see him play this song in some of the “Buckets of Blood” that, as he explained, the hard-core, down-home blues joints are known as in the US. Mrs Yarrington’s Music Club, held monthly at the back of the Senlac Inn in Battle, is no bucket of blood, but, appropriately perhaps, the pub room has doubled as a temporary Methodist Meeting House, and the evening we were there was almost as hot and humid as a Mississippi summer night.

Toward the end of the gig, Doug told us that we may have a hole in our bucket that our experiences growing up have given us, but despite this those who care about us do their best to keep our buckets filled with love. Remember this, he said. Amen to that. 

Careful what you wish for: Brexit will feed popular anger, UK breakup and Labour irrelevance

This morning’s news confirmed the dread I felt going to bed last light. The Brexiteers have won. Just as disturbing are the domestic party political consequences. People who campaigned for the UK to Remain in the EU feared a Leave vote would parachute a more right wing Tory into No 10, in addition to unravelling employment protection legislation for British workers, and reducing living standards for all. 

Two of these three elements are already happening, although Boris and Gove may have to wait until October to see which of them claims the prize. A run on the pound, if sustained, will not only push up prices but put off badly needed foreign investors whose wealth we need to finance the growing deficit in trade and services. When it is freed from the “shackles” of the EU, an even more rightward Conservative Government will also be free to reduce British workers’ rights at work.

The new UK leadership will be under enormous pressure to confirm that a Leave vote will produce a major change in the one issue that sadly dominated the campaign: European immigration. Goodwill among remaining EU member states will be necessary for the UK to retain access to the European Single Market. It will be very hard to generate, whatever the claimed influence of domestic car makers over German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Why make secession from the EU seem relatively painless when you are desperately trying to keep the union together amidst bail outs and migration crises and the possibility of other member states, or at least their emboldened far right parties, seeking a similar vote? If the UK is not allowed to stay in the European Single Market then the common standards that the EU enforces – the right to holidays, and maternity and paternity pay, even for temporary workers – can be swept away by the new Tory administration.

Perhaps a change at the top of British politics in the context of UK negotiations with the EU over the terms of its exit will create a public clamour among a newly empowered British electorate for a UK General Election in the Autumn. After all, can the angry British public continue to say “What’s the point in voting, they’re all the same?” However, even a divided Tory Party would trash a Labour Party that firmly, and conservatively, sided with the status quo – remaining in the EU – especially one that may still be led by Jeremy Corbyn. The man who told white working class Labour voters angry about deindustrialisation and public spending cuts that unlimited migration was a good thing sounded even more out of touch with Labour’s traditional values than the Blair acolytes he so roundly trounced in last year’s leadership election.

The last time the Labour Party faced a working class revolt over immigration it used the pragmatism of office to swiftly reduce it, specifically targeting Commonwealth immigration in hurried legislation issued in the wake of the mass appeal nationalism of Enoch Powell. Blair in government was disinterested in the contemporary version of these concerns, which is less about colour but is partly about culture and religion. Being a believer in neo-liberal economics he didn’t consider using the option of a five year delay to mass Polish immigration.

Middle class metropolitan liberals like to shop around in the multicultural store. Britain for them is about values, imperfect and contradictory as they may be, not culture or identity. Mr Brown famously said of a voter who was the epitome of traditional Labour support that she was “some bigoted old woman.” The EU referendum debate did not mention culture, the “c” word that still doesn’t get mentioned in polite political company, yet it was there all the time, just below the surface, and Remain had nothing to say about it. In fact the Remain campaign’s leading figures had precious little to say about immigration at all, other than it was simply a “good thing”, until the final stages when a few relatively centrist Labour figures mused unconvincingly about trying to restrict it from the rest of Europe.

We do need migrants, skilled and unskilled, but we also need to properly train our own workforce, enforce a genuine Living wage, clamp down on illegal migrants, and punish hard those who sidestep our workers in favour of cheaper workers, wherever they come from. (The UK would actually have had the EU on its side if it got tough with UK-based companies who import cheaper European labour in preference to indigenous workers). We also need to keep out multi-millionaires who add nothing to our economy than increased property prices, and the plethora of servants that travel here (from outside the EU) to ease their indolence.

Labour is now officially a sideshow. Following Brexit and Scotland’s almost inevitable second stab at an independence vote at a time more or less of the SNP’s choosing, it will struggle to ever get into office again. The EU referendum result will now take second place to a three month Tory leadership campaign in which 150,000 party members will choose the British Prime Minister. Parliament is plainly not sovereign. The last two British PMs to resign in office were at least replaced in a vote of their party’s MPs. Cameron says the will of the British people cannot be ignored, but he has this morning used the powers vested in him by the royal sovereign to put exit negotiations on ice until his party’s latest little local difficulty is resolved.

The British people exercised their version of sovereignty in yesterday’s “advisory” referendum. They will (eventually) get their way. I do not think they will like the outcome. Overall migration will not go down that much, unemployment will rise - chiefly because of the decline in our EU-related trade and investment, rights for those in work will be weakened, tax revenues will fall and public services will very definitely be cut. British, or rather English, politics will be a debate conducted pretty far to the right, and the disaffection among those dispossessed by the impersonal economic forces unleashed by successive governments since the 1980s will grow. Perhaps into this void a reasonable sounding English nationalist will emerge. Nigel? Maybe this is genuinely what a majority of (English) voters would wish for.

Careful what you wish for: Brexit will feed popular anger, UK breakup and Labour irrelevance

This morning’s news confirmed the dread I felt going to bed last light. The Brexiteers have won. Just as disturbing are the domestic party political consequences. People who campaigned for the UK to Remain in the EU feared a Leave vote would parachute a more right wing Tory into No 10, in addition to unravelling employment protection legislation for British workers, and reducing living standards for all. 

Two of these three elements are already happening, although Boris and Gove may have to wait until October to see which of them claims the prize. A run on the pound, if sustained, will not only push up prices but put off badly needed foreign investors whose wealth we need to finance the growing deficit in trade and services. When it is freed from the “shackles” of the EU, an even more rightward Conservative Government will also be free to reduce British workers’ rights at work.

The new UK leadership will be under enormous pressure to confirm that a Leave vote will produce a major change in the one issue that sadly dominated the campaign: European immigration. Goodwill among remaining EU member states will be necessary for the UK to retain access to the European Single Market. It will be very hard to generate, whatever the claimed influence of domestic car makers over German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Why make secession from the EU seem relatively painless when you are desperately trying to keep the union together amidst bail outs and migration crises and the possibility of other member states, or at least their emboldened far right parties, seeking a similar vote? If the UK is not allowed to stay in the European Single Market then the common standards that the EU enforces – the right to holidays, and maternity and paternity pay, even for temporary workers – can be swept away by the new Tory administration.

Perhaps a change at the top of British politics in the context of UK negotiations with the EU over the terms of its exit will create a public clamour among a newly empowered British electorate for a UK General Election in the Autumn. After all, can the angry British public continue to say “What’s the point in voting, they’re all the same?” However, even a divided Tory Party would trash a Labour Party that firmly, and conservatively, sided with the status quo – remaining in the EU – especially one that may still be led by Jeremy Corbyn. The man who told working class Labour voters angry about deindustrialisation and welfare cuts that unlimited migration was a good thing sounded even more out of touch with Labour’s traditional values than the Blair acolytes he so roundly trounced in last year’s leadership election.

The last time the Labour Party faced a working class revolt over immigration it used the pragmatism of office to swiftly reduce it, specifically targeting Commonwealth immigration in hurried legislation issued in the wake of the mass appeal nationalism of Enoch Powell. Blair in government was disinterested in the contemporary version of these concerns, which is less about colour but is partly about culture and religion. Being a believer in neo-liberal economics he didn’t consider using the option of a five year delay to mass Polish immigration.

Middle class metropolitan liberals like to shop around in the multicultural store. Britain for them is about values, imperfect and contradictory as they may be, not culture or identity. Mr Brown famously said of a voter who was the epitome of traditional Labour support that she was “some bigoted old woman.” The EU referendum debate did not mention culture, the “c” word that still doesn’t get mentioned in polite political company, yet it was there all the time, just below the surface, and Remain had nothing to say about it. In fact the Remain campaign’s leading figures had precious little to say about immigration at all, other than it was simply a “good thing”, until the final stages when a few relatively centrist Labour figures mused unconvincingly about trying to restrict it from the rest of Europe.

We do need migrants, skilled and unskilled, but we also need to properly train our own workforce, enforce a genuine Living wage, clamp down on illegal immigrants, and punish hard those who sidestep our workers in favour of cheaper workers, wherever they come from. (The UK would actually have had the EU on its side if it got tough with UK-based companies who import cheaper European labour in preference to indigenous workers). We also need to keep out multi-millionaires who add nothing to our economy than increased property prices, and the plethora of servants that travel here (from outside the EU) to ease their indolence.

Labour is now officially a sideshow. Following Brexit and Scotland’s almost inevitable second stab at an independence vote at a time more or less of the SNP’s choosing, it will struggle to ever get into office again. The EU referendum result will now take second place to a three month Tory leadership campaign in which 150,000 party members will choose the British Prime Minister. Parliament is plainly not sovereign. The last two British PMs to resign in office were at least replaced in a vote of their party’s MPs. Cameron says the will of the British people cannot be ignored, but he has this morning used the powers vested in him by the royal sovereign to put exit negotiations on ice until his party’s latest little local difficulty is resolved.

The British people exercised their version of sovereignty in yesterday’s “advisory” referendum. They will (eventually) get their way. I do not think they will like the outcome. Overall migration will not go down that much, unemployment will rise - chiefly because of the decline in our EU-related trade and investment, rights for those in work will be weakened, tax revenues will fall and public services will very definitely be cut. British, or rather English, politics will be a debate conducted pretty far to the right, and the disaffection among those dispossessed by the impersonal economic forces unleashed by successive governments since the 1980s will grow. Perhaps into this void a reasonable sounding English nationalist will emerge. Nigel? Maybe this is genuinely what a majority of (English) voters would wish for.

Folk and blues at The Six Bells Chiddingly

I hadn’t been to the Six Bells pub in Chiddingly for more than 20 years. That occasion was a meal when we met my brother’s wife to be (and my brother). The last time I heard live music there was 30 years ago. Jazz on a Sunday lunchtime with Mad Andy, as he was affectionately known. Andy, whose surname I don’t think I ever knew, was a Glaswegian tenor sax player, renowned drinker and tractor driver, none of which appeared to be an impediment to his ability to do the others (although he didn’t, to my knowledge, drive his tractor into the pub). In fact we were so dedicated to hearing the man that we would also check him out at the Wednesday night jazz slot held in the, less appealing, basement of a Tunbridge Wells wine bar.

To return to “The Bells”, as we aficionados used to refer to it, after all this time and to attend a folk and blues open mic night (held on alternate Tuesday evenings) was as unexpected as it was a treat. Our main reason for being there was to witness the first public gig by our 14 year old nephew Neil Grove. In fact I never gave a moment’s thought to the idea that anything else would be of interest, but a high standard was pretty much maintained throughout the evening. As we arrived Ella Moonbridge was playing solo penny whistle, which was nice. Her next number was a paean to her father. “South London Irish” would probably move you if the word “father” doesn’t remotely make you uneasy and if you like your sentiment served up in overly generous portions.

Clive Woodman gave us a romanticisation of the Green Belt, and, a more poignant, ‘Burning in My Heart’.  Next up in what we learnt had been planned as an evening of original numbers was another singer/acoustic guitarist, Chris Mansell. He introduced himself by saying that he found it quite nerve-racking to be in front of us playing his own songs, rather than other people’s. He needn’t have worried. His first, the cleverly titled ‘Too Hot for Horses’, reminded me of Lou Reed/the Velvets as he thrashed out the rhythm and, lyrically speaking, took us to a fairly dark place. Well, darker than I expected at an open mic folk and blues night. ‘Platinum Blonde’ was sadly not in the same league, more serviceable than substantial.

To the delight of the regular audience, and especially of their populous and mobile fan base, two young performers then took to the stage. Pete and Roxy (so 1970s) performed a couple of Pete’s murder ballads. “I didn’t do it,” Pete mysteriously twice exclaimed. Roxy has a good voice, although more dramatic effect would have been maintained if she had sung the words from memory.  

We were then back to the oldies in the form of Martin and Mike. Martin is an undoubted wit. His opener, with Mike in guitar accompaniment mode, was a tongue in cheek appreciation of the devices with which you can offset the tiresome onset of physical decrepitude. ‘So Much to Look Forward To’ indeed. His second song was a comic take on the bourgeois blues, but less Leadbelly than a very anglo Randy Newman (minus piano). Sung as a twelve bar, ‘I’ve Got The No Reason to Sing the Blues, Blues’ bemoaned the comfortable cash and asset-rich life than many a middle-aged, middle class white blues man has to endure. Mike then quit to leave Martin to display his compositional talents. The first, a ‘Song for a Friend’ (if I have that right) was strong but left me baffled. The person in question, a man whose opinions, he sung, provoked you and who, we were told afterwards, made a pot of money, was, I think, supposed to be known to us all (among the string of recent entertainer deaths). However I am still none the wiser (it’s probably my age). The second was a more general song about friendship. We all need it. It’s true.

Chris Liddiard is a self-styled irascible old rock ‘n roll cove. Roughly calculating from his between song recollection of first playing live in 1955, he must be well over 70. If anything that gave his comically jaundiced ‘The Price of Fame’ even more of an edge. ‘Long in the Tooth’ followed – the clue’s in the title. Excellent.

Simon Watt, another singer and acoustic guitarist, followed. I think he found playing a couple of his own numbers a relief from having to take photos all night (for the 6 Bells Folk and Blues Club website). His first, ‘This House Will Surely Last’ has, he said in introducing it, something wrong with it, and he invited us to work out what it might be. I didn’t have the heart to say that the answer might be that it sounds like Neil Young’s ‘Sugar Mountain’. But hey, that’s no bad thing. His second was, he said, put together from lyrics of his wife’s that he had thrown in the bin almost as soon as she had proffered them. ‘Lifetime Blues’ (the clue is in the title?) turned out to be a romantic number (apparently). Either way, it was very good.

At last, after what must surely have seemed to him like an eternity of waiting, Neil Grove was next up, accompanied by the slightly older John Oddy (see pics below). The legend goes that they had been jamming the weekend before when the idea of doing this gig suddenly came up. 

Neil insisted afterwards that he wasn’t nervous about not only doing his first gig, but having to both play lead guitar and sing at the same time. Singing is though something he rarely does, even in front of his (renowned folk singing) Mum. He and John covered Elmore James’ ‘My Baby’s Gone’ and Muddy Waters’ ‘Long Distance Call’. Neil made playing guitar seem effortless, which, as he’s barely been playing it for more than a year, is quite something. If there were times when his singing seemed like a fill in between his slide guitar solos, that is something that more live experience will take care of. As, no doubt, will time resolve the disconnect between his youth and the worldly-wise sentiments he was expressing. John wasn’t bad either.

Folk went country in the form of Terry and Mel Martin (see pic below). They kicked off with the famous (infamous?) ‘Duelling Banjos’ (as in the film ‘Deliverance’), but played it on acoustic guitars. No mean feat. They followed this up with Norman Blake’s ‘Bill Gray’. While not original, this song was not known to me, even if the writer was. Mel’s convincingly country vocals and Terry’s accomplished playing made me want to check out some more Norman, and some more of them.

Blues standards were proving infectious. Next up was what I took to be the traditional closing, all-star, line up. Penny Payne is a bit of a blues shouter in the Etta James vein. She brought many of the older musical hands of the evening up there with her to help out on Ma Rainey’s ‘CC Rider’ and on the song popularised by Muddy Waters, ‘I Got My Mojo Working’ (whose sexually charged inferences are normally, and undeservedly, a male preserve).

As this point we made our excuses, rude perhaps as Ian was doing a decent cover of ‘Walking in Memphis’. As a consequence we missed entirely the singer, Rachel, accompanied by, once again, John Oddie. The evening was apparently closed by Corin and his band Cobretti. 

A great night out at The Bells. Well worth checking out again.

One Hastings Many Voices - new CD of original songs by local musicians

‘One Hastings Many Voices’ is the first release by Hastings Friendship Group (HFG), a charity that provides a platform for musicians whilst raising money for local and international causes. In that same spirit, the album, due to be totally done and dusted by end-April, brings together a diverse range of HFG regulars with the strict remit of only singing original songs, all but two of which has been written by the artists themselves. The cost of performing copy-writed songs would be prohibitive for HFG. However this has provided a welcome discipline that some of the performers have benefitted from. The tracks have been recorded by musician Nelson King at his Empty Space Studio (located in a spare room in his Bexhill home, I am told – see pic below). 

Executive producer (i.e. part funder) and HFG mastermind Trevor Webb sees the disc as a welcome opportunity to promote local talent. “Helping those who have helped HFG,” as he puts it. He is also grateful to Nelson, who also plays on many of the tracks and wrote two of them, for providing his professional services at a very generous rate.

Inevitably, on what is an 18-track compilation, some songs make a stronger impression than others. However there are no duds, and some will undoubtedly repay further listening – “growers” or “slow burners”, as DJs used to call them. In the latter category I would definitely place Kate Maunsell’s ‘Deeper The Wheel’. 

Kate (see pic below from a recent HFG gig) is probably better known locally for having been the lead singer in various heavy rock bands, the most recent of which is Hastings metal outfit, Warhawk. Trevor says that when performing at HFG gigs and on this disc, Kate has a “different persona”. My impression is that this is a welcome transformation. Her style here is more laid-back, mid-tempo acoustic rock but performed with conviction. This particular song documents romantic troubles in a clever, not clichéd, fashion. Kate sings it well, and the song benefits from some fine guitar accompaniment by Nelson.

A man with far less experience but a whole lot of enthusiasm is Andy Ives (whose musical persona is Flashboy). Very new to HFG and to live performance generally, Flashboy benefits from singing Nelson’s ‘I’ll Fall for You’. Not having the baggage of the ambitious pop and rock classics he normally tackles, the number allows Andy to establish a comfortable MOR groove, aided by Nelson on synth “strings”.

Among the older hands performing on “Many Voices” are Nick Warren. His ‘Community’ is a humorous celebration of HFG’s shtick and should in my opinion open the album when the running order is finalised. Mike Guy, another HFG stalwart, performs an equally fun tribute, unsurprisingly entitled ‘HFG’, when performing live at their gigs. Nelson tells me that Mike now has the difficult talk of choosing one of the four different versions they have recorded for the CD. 

Saspirilla Sam (otherwise known as Peter Garofalo) is a HFG favourite. His song, ‘Hastings Town’, is a tribute to his adopted home. It makes you want to spend a lot more time there. In fact he ought to be paid by the local tourist board.  

Completing the old stagers’ contributions is Pete Williams (see pic below from an HFG gig). His country-flavoured ‘But How’ has the feel of a standard. It combines musical warmth, aided by Nelson on slide and bass guitars and percussion, with a performance rich in vocal and lyrical feeling.

Tony Peake (see pic below) is a Hastings poet and singer-songwriter. On ‘Vampires’ he is half deadly serious, half humorous in his verbal assault on the powers that be. 

Paul Crimin’s comments on Facebook ahead of his recording session this week showed how excited he was about making a contribution to the album. His track ‘Who's Gonna Hold Me Now’ is now done and in the bag, but was not available for me to review at the time of writing. Many of the tracks are though freely available via the performers' Facebook pages. However HFG are obviously very keen for people to buy the CD, not least given the effort involved and the cause, at the very reasonable price of £5. It will be sold at HFG gigs of course, and perhaps, until stocks last, at some supporting local venues.

Nelson King's contribution to the CD is 'Lost in You'. Both his vocals and the song's style are reminiscent of Dylan or Mark Knopfler in the 1980s (without the production bombast). I loved the line “last man standing on a lonely street.” 

Among the young guns present on the CD is the ever impressive Tom Cole. His self-penned ‘Push Me Out To Sea’ has a lyrical maturity that belies his years and sounds authentically, if a tad self-consciously, in the folk tradition. 

Irina sings in her native Russian in a polished (perhaps a little overly so) synth-accompanied track, ‘I Had A Dream’. Andrey (see pic below) is, Trevor tells me, half-Latvian, half-Russian, but sounds very English when singing Nelson’s song ‘Celebrate’, a jazzy arrangement enhanced by the latter’s acoustic accompaniment. 

The vocal style of Jerri-Leigh (Brody) is more urban. Her number ‘Runaway’ is a moving love song that doesn’t actually need its synthesised strings to create atmosphere. Nelson’s sensitive acoustic guitar alone would have provided a suitably pared back accompaniment to her affecting vocals. Suddenly it’s over, a little too abruptly. Remember the name though, this woman could get somewhere.

Singer and acoustic guitarist Dan Wahnon teams up with electric guitarist Dan Duke for ‘Reload’. Dan W has a cool, transatlantic, vocal style, and performs here a radio friendly number that would also work well live. Joanna Turner (see her Facebook pic below) performs ‘Right Time’. Like Dan Wahnon, she has become a HFG regular, performing with a pop and RnB ballad sensibility. To her credit Joanna normally plays several of her own songs, solely accompanied, as she is on this track, by herself on acoustic guitar.

Steve Avery sings and plays guitar on his up-tempo song ‘Someday’, with Nelson on drums and bass. Jazzi B (see pic below), otherwise known as Jasmin Bollen, is due to record her number this week, which will be the final track to be included on the disc.

The CD is dedicated to the much missed Jeremy Birch, a man whose popularity was born of being more than the leader of the local council. Jeremy was driven by his commitment to the development of Hastings for all who live in the area. ‘Song for Jeremy’ should in my view close the CD. Nelson had to squeeze its performers, the seven-piece folk ensemble, the Wobblies, into his home studio. The result is one of the strongest contributions to the disc. The Wobblies take their name from the nickname of the Industrial Workers of the World, the internationally organised trade union. With more than a nod to renowned local writer Robert Tressell, the main refrain goes, “No more ragged trousers in this philanthropy, justice and freedom is the song for Jeremy.” The Wobblies have been performing this moving tribute since Jeremy died on May 6^th last year. Appropriately, the CD will be officially launched at an HFG gig at the Hastings restaurant, NUR, on May 6^th this year. 

This is the provisional CD cover artwork, as designed by Nelson.

It is in tribute to the spirit that Jeremy represented, as well as to the man, that these musicians came together to record this, the first volume, in a planned series of HFG albums. A fundraising gig for Vol 1 was held at NUR in mid-February. In fact a few HFG gigs have already taken place to raise money to record the second, for which Sudanese charities, including ‘Children of Sudan’, will be the beneficiaries. An international cast of performers are planned for inclusion, including perhaps the renowned classical composer and pianist Polo Piatti. Polo movingly played at Jeremy’s memorial gig at St Mary in The Castle in Hastings last year. Let's hope that some Sudanese musicians will be on the Vol. 2 set list too.

Here’s to a lot more HFG albums and gigs, incorporating as wide a range of local musical artists as possible. You can keep up to date with progress on Vol. 1 via these links to the HFG, Trevor Webb or Nelson King Facebook pages.

    

HFG: Playing live for Hastings and Sudan

Hastings Friendship Group’s 61^st gig for charitable causes was the usual semi-chaotic mix of highs and occasional lows. Held, as is often the case, at the friendly Gecko Bar in St Leonard’s, it showcased local musicians of varying abilities but who all share one overriding passion: to perform to their best for those much less fortunate than themselves.

To get the gripe over with early: the best performer of the night, saved ‘til last, was Eddy Odel. A man who over 20 years ago had his sax playing career cut short by not one but two car crashes within 12 months, plays acoustic guitar and sings country-style ballads in an exquisite manner. The trouble was I couldn’t hear Eddy’s delicate song style for the sound of two people sitting just a few feet away from him jabbering loudly. I or someone even closer to them should have politely intervened. We didn’t and eventually Eddy lost his rag. He instantly regretted it, but miraculously managed to carry on unaffected, barely missing a beat (as it were).

A performer who was perhaps better suited to the bar vibe, Oksana from Latvia, has her own way of drowning out the revelers. She belts out power ballads aided by a synthesised backing track care of a plug-in laptop. Cllr Trevor Webb, principal HFG organiser, was keen to explain to me that Oksana can play keyboards and that they are trying to hook her up with local musicians. Perhaps she should bring a portable keyboard next time. 

Oksana (pictured right) told me that she had written the song she performed in English, “When You Go Home”. While she is a better singer in her native Latvian, this was a well-crafted ballad that showed off her undoubted vocal skills and comfortable use of English. The second number, performed in Latvian and roughly translating as “After the Rain”, was, paradoxically, less interesting. It sounded a lot like 1980s EuroVision (which, if that’s your bag, may be a very good thing). 

Mike, ‘Taffman’, Guy often plays in the Ghostfinger duo with Patrick McGerr. Tonight he was performing solo, but was no less appealing for it. Beginning with an excellent cover of the wonderful “Angel from Montgomery”, by one of the world’s finest song writers and performers, John Prine, Mike is no slouch at writing and performing his own material either. “Sussex Hoedown” is a lively referencing of county life, as is “A259”, a touching reinterpretation of the more familiar "Route 66". Mike is available for hire. Check him out via http://fandalism.com/taffmanmike

He is also one of the performers due to be included on the forthcoming CD, “One Hastings Many Voices – Volume 1”, dedicated to the memory of the much-missed Hastings Council leader, Jeremy Birch. Hastings Friendship Group (HFG) is currently recording a number of its regular musicians for the release of the CD this April. In fact Volume 2 is already being planned, conceived as a fundraiser for two Sudanese charities, Together for Sudan and Children of Sudan. Tonight’s gig raised money to kick-start a recording that will draw on a more international cast of performers but who, like those on Vol 1, are mostly based in and around Hastings and St Leonard's.

Another contributor to Vol 1 will be Dan Wahnon (pictured below right). Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Dan worked hard, alternating between reinterpretations of old and newer covers, including Skunk Anansie’s “Weak (As I Am)”. 

Andy Ives (AKA Flashboy), also included on the CD, was playing only his third ever gig, Trevor told me. With his laptop in tow this was akin to karaoke, but with a difference. Who else in the world would juxtapose Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” (sung ala Johnny Cash) with Neil Diamond’s “Love On The Rocks”? “Hurt” was the more rehearsed and is the easier of the two to sing, though no walk in the park. It came across well, even though the backing tape threatened to overwhelm the performance at one point.

Jim and Eric (see pic below, centre), so named for the evening only, were more like old stagers. Jim Westlake (from local band 'Bad Whisky') played blues harp accompaniment to Eric Harmer's vocals and acoustic guitar. Their covers were mostly of blues/rock classics and they performed them well. Surprisingly, he and Jim chose to end their set with an affecting cover of “Clocks”. Eric freely admitted afterwards that this is the only Coldplay song he can stand.

Paul Crimin is an unpredictable musician. Some covers he performs, as he would probably admit, fall flat. However his take on the Passengers’ “Let Her Go” was heartfelt and it showed. He closed with Chris Isaak’s "Wicked Game". It is not easy to sing in Isaak's distinctive style, but Paul succeeded.

Another good HFG gig. It was (mostly) live, and helps both local musicians and those in need beyond these shores. Credit to local councillors Trevor Webb and Nigel Sinden for all the good work that HFG does.

Fear and Self-Loathing in East Sussex

Do you lean towards the tragic? Do you like reading obituaries of those whose careers faded or didn’t quite reach their assumed trajectory? Are the stories that get you the ones of missed chances, also-rans, noble failures? Those who died face down in the dirt having crawled on their belly toward an imagined light and expired in the effort.

Do you admire handsome heroes who ooze sex appeal and gym locker swagger? Or do you want to celebrate the less easy on the eye, the awkward, the strange, those for whom emotion isn’t a contrivance as calculated as a push-up bra or another media revelation of an apparently tough childhood.

Do you want to turn the radio off every morning when you move the dial to a serious channel and hear news of football transfers, sports corruption, film award politics, and the unquestioned truth that marriage is an international human right?

Do you long for a new song, a new cause to believe in; the march of those righteous in deed, not the self-righteous in word?

In literature and in song tragi-heroes have had their place: an inspiration that sometimes shined light into darkness. Tales of those who failed the conventional tests of belonging, or whose mortal flesh gave out. A quiet dignity amidst a world of indifference, integrity amidst bravado and bullshit.

There are those who leave little legacy, save what others strive to create for them. Remembering them is surely important. Not to celebrate the mundane for its own sake. Why mark a life of no consequence for others? But those whose efforts helped their fellow man yet lack recognition, they surely need to be noted. Were they happy in their apparently selfless acts? Perhaps that should be reward enough. But we all want to leave a mark, don’t we? Reproduction isn’t enough. It can be cruel in its indifference, violent in its self-interest.

Give something back, they say. What though have we taken? Our health does not last long, our loved ones may depart sooner than expected, our life chances might be hard won and yet slender. We have food in our bellies and a warm bed at night. We have no fear of losing that, perhaps. Yet inside the fears may multiply, the doubts about what we do, think, and feel. Trust can be betrayed, making us fearful of others.

I have been told to embrace fear, assess its origins and to catalogue its manifestations. Physical fear can be exciting – in part as a distraction from the mind’s absurdities. Exertion brings its emotional reward. Yet we have to live inside ourselves a lot of the time. Ultimately, we are alone. One day that may become a physical reality too. Now that is truly scary.