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.